(no subject)

[lethargic_man]

I've discovered by chance why I never heard when I grew up the view that cohanim are required to marry a virgin. Having dug out my exercise book from cheder (I attended Newcastle Cheder from the ages of fourteen to eighteen), I was flipping through it and discovered a page entitled "אמר: Prohitions on כהנים". Under "Marriage", it reads:

In addition to those women a normal Jew cannot marry, a כֹּהֵן may not marry:–
(a) a divorcee
(b) a זוֹנָה, that is, a woman who has been involved in a forbidden marriage.
(c) a חַלָלָה, that is, a woman born from a marriage forbidden to a כֹּהֵן.

So there you have it—leniency from the mouth of a charedi Gateshead rabbi.

Either that, or avoidance of the mention of sex, which is quite possible. (My teacher evidently felt it was suitable to teach teenage boys about the precise details of בְּרִית מִלָה (circumcision) and that homosexuality and bestiality were forbidden, but there was absolutely no mention in my cheder education of even the existence of the laws of טְהָרַת מִשְׁפָּחָה (menstrual purity laws for women).)

Comments

[zsero.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't have heard the view that cohanim are required to marry a virgin, because there isn't such a view. If you look at the beginning of Emor, you'll see that only the Cohen Gadol must marry a virgin, while ordinary cohanim are only forbidden divorcees, zonot, and halalot.

Your cheder-teacher's definition of zonah has been cleaned up to make it suitable for children, for whom it isn't yet a practical issue, but it's along the correct lines. A zonah is a woman who's had sex with any man with whom she could not contract a valid marriage (i.e. any purported marriage they contracted would be legally void and not require a divorce), or a woman who was not born Jewish. An actual prostitute, who has sex with strange men for money, but has been careful not to accept any customers who could not have married her, is not a zonah and may marry a cohen.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't have heard the view that cohanim are required to marry a virgin, because there isn't such a view.

There may not halachically be such a view, but it seems nevertheless to be widespread amongst the less-well educated laity. I only heard it in the last few years, and am aware (http://lethargic-man.livejournal.com/123785.html) that it is not halachically correct.

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

As I properly said before women were living with their parents until they married. They were not allowed like nowadays going out alone and fool around. Boy-friends or any other sort of out-married relationship was prevented. Women were usually virgins when they married the first time. They had no experience at all. Nowadays I would find that rather scary. You suddenly get married to a man and go to bed with him without having any idea what he is going to do with you. Aargh!