[Avodah] Rape of a Woman

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 08:03:47AM -0400, Cantor Wolberg wrote:
: This is even more troublesome to me than the y'fas to'ar.  First of  
: all it makes rape a civil matter..

That is in addition to the usual laws for violent attack.

IOW, it sets the *additional* punishment to a fine equal to the loss
of kesuvah and (presumably in a case like date rape where the couple
otherwise get along) being unable to ever divorce her against her will.

In general, the laws of testimony, and the requirements we demand of
eidus and hasra'ah, I find it impossible to believe that "uviarta hara'ah
miqirbekha" was primarily filled by the Torah mandated punishment. Many
murderers can be identified by evidence, by invalid testimony (say if
Moshe Rabbeinu and Aharon haKohein were the eidim), by eidim who got the
onesh wrong when giving hasra'ah, etc... Is it fathomable that under
the 7MBN the courts would be required to protect society from them,
but BY are not to be protected?

My instinct is therefore that most of what was legislated to fulfill
"uviarta hara'ah" wasn't codified as a halakhah ledoros. What would be
"civil law" if our weltenschaung actually had such abominations as a
distinction between civil and religious.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When faced, with a decision, ask yourself,
micha at aishdas.org        "How would I decide if it were Ne'ilah now,
http://www.aishdas.org   at the closing moments of Yom Kippur?"
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter