[B-Greek] (no subject)

Tory Thorpe torythrp at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 4 12:08:36 EST 2007


--- "Donald R. Vance, Ph.D." <donaldrvance at mac.com>
wrote:

> The point is, Samuel claimed that he could have
> sexual intercourse  
> without rupturing the hymen thus preserving the
> betulah status of the  
> girl.

So then intercourse does not effect Jewish virginity.
Chag 14b-15a shows that, in Judaism, sexual
intercourse does not terminate a girl's status as
btwlh. She remains a btwlh until she suffers a flow,
and in the Talmudic period 'a flow' included even the
rupturing of the hymen. Frankly, I cannot see how this
can be construed any other way without forensic
pleading. You only need to read the pre-Talmudic
definition of btwlh in the Mishnah: "Who is accounted
a betulah, she that has never suffered a flow, even if
she were married" (Niddah 1:4). This is stated
matter-of-fact and without any dissenting voices.
Hence it is clear that a married woman who is
presumably having a normal sex life may still be
counted a 'virgin' in the Jewish sense.

Tory Thorpe



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