According to the Torah
Caspar Birckenholtz
Judah Alkaletz
Early 17th Century
According to the Torah, a man can acquire a woman in one of three ways:
Through a document, through silver, or through intercourse. God is the one that gives a prudent wife.1
In truth, one must begin with engagement,2 before one’s betrothal through silver or through document.
Once she is acquired, call her a married woman. If a man other than her husband sleeps with her, he is to be put to death.
But she is forbidden, indeed, also to her husband, until she enter the shadow of the beautiful canopy,3
And there be a precious, lovely benediction,4 with bridesmen, and she be honored like a princess.
And if he wants her to become permitted to other men, she needs a divorce document—not mere [spoken] words.
Translated by .
Gabriel
Wasserman
This Hanukkah lamp from Frankfurt am Main, like the earliest known silver Hanukkah lamps made in Germany, is shaped like a chest and resembles inkwells of the period. This one is relatively unornamented, perhaps reflecting a style popular at the time. It has spouts for the wicks in the shape of fish heads, for reasons unknown. (One theory is that it was commissioned by a fish seller.)
Notes
[See Proverbs 19:14.—Trans.]
[Shiddukhin, a somewhat informal act of declaration, which precedes the formal betrothal (kiddushin).—Trans.]
[The ḥuppa, which marks the final stage of formalizing the marriage: nissu’in.—Trans.]
[The sheva‘ berakhot, the seven benedictions recited at the time of nissu’in.—Trans.]
Credits
Judah Alkaletz, “According to the Torah (Hebrew)” (Poem, Algiers, early 17th century). Republished in: Ephraim Hazan, ha-Shirah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Tsefon Afrikah (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003), 230–231.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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