Marriage to Sadducean Women

m. Niddah 4:2

70–220

The daughters of the Sadducees, so long as they are accustomed to walking in the paths of their fathers, are to be regarded as Samaritan women [i.e., as nonpracticing Jews]. If they left those paths to walk in the paths of Israel, they are to be regarded as Israelite women. R. Yosi says: They are always regarded as Israelite women unless they leave the paths of Israel to walk in the paths of their fathers.

Adapted from the translation of Joshua Kulp.

Credits

m. Niddah 4:2, adapted from Mishnah Yomit, trans. Joshua Kulp, www.sefaria.org. Originally from https://learn.conservativeyeshiva.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) License.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

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This mishnah addresses the question of whether it is permissible to marry Sadducean women. The two opinions expressed both permit marriage to a Sadducean woman as long as she does not cling to her father’s Sadducean beliefs. The difference of opinion preserved in this mishnah is whether, in order to be marriageable, a woman of Sadducean descent must affirmatively disavow the beliefs of the Sadducees or whether she merely must not affirmatively adopt them. In either case, there is a strong hesitation to classify Sadducees categorically as forbidden “Others” (see REAL AND IMAGINED “OTHERS”).

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Legal Tension between Pharisees and Sadducees

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