Zemah ben Paltoi, Gaon of Pumbedita (872–890), “calls upon a man to flog his wife if she is guilty of assault.” Rabbi Yehudai b. Nahman (Yehudai Gaon, 757–761) writes that: “…when her husband enters the house, she must rise and cannot sit down until he sits, and she should never raise her voice against her husband. Even if he hits her she has to remain silent, because that is how chaste women behave” (Ozar ha-Ge’onim, Ketubbot 169–170). The ninth-century Gaon of Sura bridge of love reviews, Sar Shalom b. Boaz (d. c. 859 or 864), distinguishes between an assault on a woman by her husband and an assault on her by a stranger. The Gaon of Sura’s opinion was that the husband’s assault on his wife was less severe, since the husband has authority over his wife (Ozar ha-Ge’onim, Bava Kamma, ).

A typical example of good rabbi just who understood that Maimonides’s terms and conditions rationalized beating your partner to have a great “good” cause try Roentgen

Within the Muslim Spain, Roentgen. Their feelings to your the domineering woman is the fact she will be able to end up being hit in order to teach their particular. He produces inside the publication Ben Mishlei: “Strike your wife without doubt in the event the she attempts to dominate you such as for instance a guy and you can raises their unique head [too high]. Dont, my young buck, right end up being your wife’s partner, if you’re your wife might possibly be her husband’s spouse!” Underlying his terms is that the best woman is just one exactly who are complementary; the latest crappy woman is the one who is disputatious.

In the following period, known as that of the “ Rabbinic authorities/halakhic decisors/ biblical commentators of the mid-11 th to mid-15 th c.. The period of the rishonim followed that of the geonim and preceded that of the a h aronim. Rishonim ,” Moses ben Maimon (Rambam), b. Spain, 1138 Maimonides (1135–1204) recommends in his Code, the Mishneh Torah she-bi-khetav : Lit. “the written Torah.” The Bible; the Pentateuch; Tanakh (the Pentateuch, Prophets and Hagiographia) Torah , that beating a bad wife is an acceptable form of discipline: “A wife who refuses to perform any kind of work that she is obligated to do, may be compelled to perform it, even by scourging her with a rod” (Isshut ). Some rabbis, such as Shem Tov b. Abraham ibn Gaon (d. Safed, 1312), in his commentary Migdal Oz on Maimonides, understand the referent to be the rabbinic court (beit din), since the word “force” (kofin) is in the plural, rather than the singular. However, most commentators concur that Maimonides means that it is the “husband” who can force her. R. Vidal Yom Tov of Tolosa, the well-known fourteenth-century interpreter of Maimonides’s Mishneh Torah, writes in the Maggid Mishneh that “Nahmanides wrote that we force her with a stick and it is also the view of Rabbenu (i.e., Maimonides) and the major rabbis.” It should be noted that Maimonides was most liberal in grounds for divorce, allowing sexual incompatibility, “me’is alai” (lit. “He is repulsive to me”) as grounds (cf. also Ket. 63b).

Samuel ha-Nagid (936–1056) is one of the first sages so you’re able to recommend the latest husband in order to overcome his controling partner so that she stay in her set

Jonah ben Abraham Gerondi (c. 1200–1263), just who acknowledged the theory you to a husband may overcome his spouse if the she transgresses: “A man shouldn’t beat his neighbors. . The man who sounds his next-door neighbor transgresses two bad precepts. And therefore it is to your guy who sounds his partner. He transgresses a couple of bad precepts, in the event that the guy failed to strike their in order to reprove their particular for many transgression” [focus exploit] (Iggeret Teshuvah, Constantinople, 1548). Hence R. Jonah differentiates between wife assault and you may complete stranger violence. One can only physical violence one’s partner in the event that rationalized, but one could never ever violence a person’s women neighbors.