The Punishment of an Adult Betrothed Woman Who Committed Adultery

Opening post by the rabbi

The Punishment of an Adult Betrothed Woman Who Committed Adultery

Posted on 23/6/2013

| |

The Punishment of an Adult Betrothed Woman Who Committed Adultery

Does anyone know of a clear source for the punishment of an adult betrothed woman who committed adultery? The accepted view is that she is executed by strangulation, like an ordinary married woman, and only a betrothed maiden is executed by stoning. But Rambam’s wording is ambiguous on this point, and here it is before you.

Rambam writes in Sefer HaMitzvot, negative commandment 347, as follows: Negative commandment 347 is the prohibition by which we were warned not to uncover the nakedness of a married woman, and that is what He, exalted, said (Leviticus 18:20): ‘And you shall not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife.’ And there is a distinction regarding the punishment of one who violates this prohibition. Thus, if the married woman was a betrothed maiden, both are liable to stoning, as Scripture explains (Deuteronomy 22:24). (If she was a priest’s daughter, she is punished by burning and he by strangulation, that is, the man who had intercourse with her.) And if she was an Israelite woman who had already had intercourse, both are liable to strangulation. [And if she was a priest’s daughter, her law is burning (Leviticus 21:9), and he is punished by strangulation, that is, the man who had intercourse with her.] We see here that a married woman who committed adultery is punished by strangulation and the man who had intercourse with her is punished by strangulation, whereas if she is a betrothed maiden, both are punished by stoning. The law of an adult betrothed woman (who is not a maiden) who committed adultery is not explained here. The same is true in Laws of Forbidden Sexual Relations 1:6: No forbidden sexual relation incurs strangulation except only a married woman, as it is said, ‘The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death,’ and an unspecified death penalty in the Torah is strangulation. If she was a priest’s daughter, she is punished by burning and the man who had intercourse with her by strangulation, as it is said, ‘And the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by harlotry, she shall be burned with fire.’ And if she was a betrothed maiden, both are punished by stoning, as it is said, ‘If there is a maiden who is a virgin, etc.’ and ‘you shall stone them with stones.’ And every place in the Torah where it says, ‘They shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them,’ the penalty is stoning. As stated above, the accepted view is that the law of an adult betrothed woman is like that of an ordinary married woman, namely strangulation. But from Rambam’s wording here one can infer that her penalty is stoning, for he writes in Sefer HaMitzvot that in the case of an Israelite woman the penalty is strangulation if she had already had intercourse, implying that if she had not, then it is stoning (although in the law cited above the wording is somewhat different). To be sure, when he speaks here of the penalty of a betrothed woman, which is stoning, he speaks only of a maiden. But it is possible that he holds that a betrothed woman is termed a maiden, since their practice was to betroth maidens. And perhaps there is some proof for this from the passage in Sanhedrin 50a, where the Talmud discusses which punishment is more severe, and it says as follows: ‘From the fact that the Merciful One removed a betrothed Israelite woman from the category of a married Israelite woman, changing her penalty from strangulation to stoning, infer from this that stoning is more severe.’ A married Israelite woman is punished by strangulation and a betrothed woman by stoning; we see that stoning is more severe. The discussion there is not about a betrothed maiden but about a betrothed woman as opposed to a married woman. Still, it can be argued that the reference is to a betrothed maiden, for only she was excluded from the general rule; they simply did not go into the details, since that was not the place for it.

Source (forum ‘Stop Here, We Think’): http://www.bhol.co.il/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=3014076&forum_id=1364