Great Laws (Halakhot gedolot): On the Blessing over the Signs of Virginity

Simeon Qayyāra

Before the Mid-9th Century

When he brings out the sheet [stained with the blood of virginity], we require him to recite a blessing. If wine and spices are available, he recites over them, “who creates the fruit of the vine” and “who creates fragrant trees.” Then he recites the benediction, “who placed the walnut in the Garden of Eden, the lily of the valley, so that no stranger shall have dominion over the sealed spring; therefore, the loving doe preserved her [holy seed in]1 purity and did not break the law. Blessed are You, Eternal One, who chooses the descendants of Abraham.”

Translated by Ruth Langer.

Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

These two words do not appear in any version of Halakhot Gedolot or in any text citing it, but they do appear consistently in almost every liturgical manuscript of the prayer from every period.

Credits

Simeon Qayyāra, Halakhot gedolot (Great Laws): On the Blessing over the Signs of Virginity, trans. Ruth Langer, from Ruth Langer, To Worship God Properly: Tensions Between Liturgical Custom and Halakhah in Judaism (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1998), 60. Copyright © 1998. Republished with permission of Hebrew Union College Press.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

This passage, found in the mid-ninth-century legal code Great Laws (Halakhot gedolot) by Simeon Qayyâra, gives the text of the blessing over the signs of virginity (birkat betulim) and the customs surrounding its recitation. It appears that the early medieval practice was that, following the wedding ceremony and when the bride and groom were first alone together, the groom would present evidence of his new wife’s virginity in the form of a bloodstained cloth and pronounce a blessing. This practice first appears in geonic-era literature. For Maimonides’ opinion on it, see his “Responsum: On the Blessing over the Signs of Virginity.”

Read more

Related Guide

Early Medieval Prose Liturgy

5th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Simeon Qayyāra

9th Century

Simeon Qayyāra, probably of Basra, Iraq, wrote a widely used halakhic work known as Great Laws (Halakhot gedolot). Nothing else is known about him.

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