(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).)