Q&A: The Prohibition of a Gentile’s Wife and a Minor’s Wife
The Prohibition of a Gentile’s Wife and a Minor’s Wife
Question
I understood that from a halakhic standpoint, a minor’s wife and a gentile’s wife are permitted. Would it be correct to say that, similar to stealing from a gentile, although there is no halakhic prohibition, there is still a moral prohibition here?
Answer
With regard to a gentile’s wife, there is a full halakhic prohibition. Their marital bond is valid for them, and for us too there is a universal Noahide plane in which we share (which is why some have suggested Noahide marriage even for Jews, but that is not the place to go into it).
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Questioner:
In Sanhedrin 52b it says: “The Rabbis taught: ‘A man’—excluding a minor; ‘who commits adultery with a married woman’—excluding the wife of a minor; ‘the wife of his fellow’—excluding the wife of others.” It also seems from the commentators there that a gentile’s wife is permitted, and the same appears from the biblical commentators on Leviticus 20:10. Even if you still say there is an additional Noahide dimension, how would you explain the exclusion in Sanhedrin (“the wife of his fellow”)?
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Rabbi:
This is referring to the prohibition of adultery that incurs the death penalty, and that applies only where there is kiddushin. No one claims there is a death penalty for relations with a woman who was not betrothed by kiddushin (that is, who was married in the Noahide form of marriage). That is unlike gentiles themselves, but they are liable to death for every offense.
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Questioner:
If I understood you correctly, you mean that the exclusion in Sanhedrin comes to exclude the death penalty, but does not come to permit relations with a gentile’s wife altogether? If so, what is the source for the prohibition of a gentile’s wife?
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Rabbi:
The source is the law of a married woman, which applies to a gentile as well. After all, it is forbidden for the gentile, and the rule is that there is nothing that is forbidden to a Noahide while permitted to us (see Sanhedrin 59a). The only difference is with regard to punishment: for a gentile every transgression makes them liable to death, whereas for a Jew it does not.
Discussion on Answer
Well said.
Regarding a minor’s wife, the Talmud in Kiddushin 19 learns that this is speaking about levirate marriage, where a minor from age nine, whose intercourse is legally considered intercourse, can have a marital bond: “Rav Ashi said: Here we are dealing with a yavam who is nine years and one day old and had relations with his yevamah, for by Torah law she is fit for him. You might have said that since by Torah law she is fit for him and his intercourse is legally considered intercourse, one who has relations with her should be liable for adultery with a married woman. Therefore it teaches us otherwise.”