According to the Torah

Early 17th Century

About This Entry

This poem is a versification of the laws of marriage, beginning with the principle from m. Kiddushin 1:1 that a woman is acquired as a wife with three legal instruments: a document, money, and sexual intercourse.

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.

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.