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<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
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size=2><BR><BR>> That is exactly what my father said about women
being witnesses, that the <BR>> halacha protects their dignity.
He added that their ne'emanus is not in <BR>> question, as a woman's
word is trusted in matters of critical halachic <BR>>
importance like taharas hamishpacha and kashrus. [--TK]</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>RYG wrote:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><BR><BR>"she'ain ha'nashim be'toras edus, she'ha'edus zarich kivun
ve'yishuv<BR>ha'da'as harbeh" (Hinuch #37). </FONT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>That is only the Chinuch's opinion -- his personal understanding of the
reason for the halacha that women can't be witnesses in court. His
understanding fits with the common beliefs (or prejudices) of his time and place
-- 13th century Spain -- but I don't know if the Gemara's own words suggest
any reason. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>HOWEVER, having said that, I also remember another reason my father gave, a
reason that might be a bit more in consonance with the Chinuch (and I think
I wrote about this once before, a long time ago in Avodah years): </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>He said that men will tend to testify to "just the facts" while women in
their testimony are more likely to include things like the person's
emotions, motives, background and so on. My father said that in a
certain way women see things more the way Hashem Himself does -- the whole
picture, the background story, the shades of meaning and motivation -- and that
when Hashem judges, He takes all this into account and judges in a "womanly"
way, with compassion, but that a human court is not allowed to take all these
"extraneous" things into account. I know that some people will find my
father's words warm and wise while others will think they're just apologetics
and far-fetched. Naturally I myself tend to the former view but
anyway. I must also say that I am not transcribing my father's words very
accurately because I can't remember them exactly, and without his particular
eloquence his ideas definitely lose in the translation. So if you like
what he said, good, and if not, blame me.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>==========<BR><BR><BR><BR>_____________________</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="d642348595240c433a2ad933cfdf01e"><br/><font style="color:black;font:normal 10pt arial,san-serif;"> <hr style="margin-top:10px"/><B>An Excellent Credit Score is 750. <A HREF=http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221323041x1201367261/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=JulyExcfooterNO62>See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!</A></B></font></DIV></BODY></HTML>