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218 "

Adultery JEmilius

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.JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Roman invasion of Palesof the (dinnionwcaUh, the under tlii' jiresiik'nt v of

Joiianan ben Zakkai. abolished tlic ordeal entirely: as the Mishuah states, " when adulterers becjune numerous, the 'ordeal of the bitter waters' ceased, and it was R. .lohanan ben Zakkai who abolished it as it is will not ]iunish your written (llosea. iv. 14), 1 (laughters, when they eomniit whoredom, nor your spouses, when they eommit adultery for themselves are separated with whores, and they saeritiee with For itapjiears that under harlots'" (Sotah. ix, 9). the Roman rejiime. immorality sjiread amoni; the people, the judires became eorrujit, the sprinirs of justice were defiled, and j;eneral demoralization resulted (Graet/, "History of the .Tews," ii. -';!T, 2:i8). Probably for this very reason CJu<'en Helena of Adiabene, the illustrious and niunitieent proselyte to. Judaism, favored the ordeal; for she presented a golden tablet to the Tiinple with the chapter from the Jjaw engraved on it, to be used for the rite of the ordeal (To,sef.,Voma, ii. 3; Mishnali Yoma, iii. 10; Gem. Hi. But even if it had not been abolished, the rite 376). would have simk into abeyance with the fall of the Temple, because, according to the Law, the ceremony could not be |ierformed el.sewhere. In the patriarchal days the Adidtery of the wife rcfiuired no proof, for whenever the head of the family suspected her. he could kill The in her, "Thus.Judah ordered his daugli-

Ordeal Annulled,



'



Law

Patriarter-in-law, Tamar, to be burned bechal Days, cause of her supposed Adultery (Gen. .x.viii. 24). Her crime consisted in unlawful intcrcotirse with a man other than the brother of her deceased husband. For at first it was the custom, and afterward it became the law, for the widow of a man who had died without leaving issue, to

marry

his brother, so that the child of this

union might be of the blood of the deceased and bear his

name

(Deut. .xv.

.5.

6; sec Levikati;).

In

such cases the widow was really considered the betrothed of her Ijrother-in-law, and her intercourse with another than himself was pinishable as Adul tery. When the |iunishnient of the adulteress and her paramour was taken out of the hands of the

husband and assumed by the civil law, this, like every other crime, had to be proved by two or more witnesses, before a conviction and sentence coidd follow (Deut. xix. 1.5; Maimonidcs. " Hilkot Isliut." xxiv. 18). L'ndcr the theory of the Talmudists, which still further mitigated the severity of the law, the woman could not be convicted of Adulteiy until it was proved that she had been previously cautioned, in the presence of two witnesses, not to have any communication with the suspected man, and that, in spite of such caution, she had met him secretly under circumstances that would make the commission of the crime possible (Mishnah .Sotali. i. 1, 2 Gem. This caution was given to her because of the 24). general tendency of the rabbinical law toward mercy, based in this ca.se on a technical interpretation of the

(Num. v. 13). Practically, it worked in nearly every case. If, however, the husband was not satisfied with the result, the right of divorce was left open to him, although, when Biblical text

an acquittal

divorced under such circumstances, the wife did not lose her property rights under the ketubah. If rumors of the wife's Adultery werc^ circulated during the absence of the husband', the court had the riglit to summon and caution her with the same ell'ect as though it had been done by her husband (Maimonidcs, "Hilkot Sotah." i. 11)."

218

The paramour was technically the adulterer (nnef), and under the Riblical law sutfered death together with the adidteress (umfit). His Status of crime was held in the .greatest nbAdulterer, horrcnce, and RjUia and l{jib voiced the genend opinion when tln^y said that nothing wotdd excuse the wilfid adulterer, nor wouhl all his virtues save him from Gehenna (Sotah, ill). Even a lustful desin' was deemed a moral crime, and the echo of "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" rings throughout the Talmud and rabbinical writings, and is reechoed in the New Testament (Ex. xx. 17; Eben ha-'E/.er. 21; Matt, V. 27. 2S). The adulterer's folly is condemned and makes him liable to the jealous wrath of the outraged husband (Prov, vi, 32-34; .Job, xxxi, 9, 10). In Talmudic days, long after the abolition of the

theathdterer was punished by llageland was forliidilen to marry the faithless wife after she had been divorced. Even the mere susdealli jienally, lation,

crime was sutlicient to i>revent their case, however, is suggested in the Talin whi<h this restriction .seems to have been

picion of marriage.

mud

th('

A

Here the woman having been sus|iected of Adulti'ry wasdivorced, and liaving remarried was again divorced, and then married the man who had originally been susjiecled of havingcomniittecl Adidtery witii her; the marriage was declared lawful, because it seems that the intervening marriage was considered in some degree a refutation of that suspicion, and acted as a limitation ujion the original interdict (Veb. 24/-). The child of an incestuous or adulterous connection was known as a .Ma.mzkii. It was not permitted (o become a member of the .Jewish body politic (Deut. xxiii. 3 [A. V. 2]), and could not intermarry with a .lew or .lewcss (Kid. iii. 12), although it did not lose its right to inherit from the husband of its mother, who, while not the legitimate father, was for this pur])o.sethe putative falher(Yeb. ii. .5; JIaimonides, removed.

"Nahalut,"

7).

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("The Red"): Steep road leading

of .Jericho to the hilly country arouncl was a part of the boundary between .Tudah and Benjamin (.Tosh. xv. 7, xviii. 17). The name refers to the redness of the material of which the road is made. It is now called Tala'at cd-Dam. the ]ilain

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ADXJMMIM. See Corxs. ADVENT OF MESSIAH. See Messiah. ADVENTISTS: A Christian sect. Among the chief tenets of the Adventist faith are: (l)Thc restoration of the .Jews to the Holy Land (see Bengcl, "Gnomon on the New Testament"), and their conversion, based on Rom, xi. 2."), 2(5 (liitsehl, "Gesch. des Pietisnius. " i. .')6.')-.')K4). Hence the interest shown by the Advcntists in the Zionist movement, though many believe that the return will not take place till after the Resurrection, basin.g their views on the passage of Ezekiel. "Behold, my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel