Talmud Tidbit: Accidental Consummation of A Relationship
Posted by Nathan in Ramblings, tags: Talmud, Travel, Work, YevamotIt has been a while since I posted a Talmud tidbit. This is partly because I have been traveling and because work has been killing me. Not since a certain South African took over my company have I battled such usurpers. On top of all this, I am in the midst of Yevamot which is a deafeningly boring romp through a matrix of relationship charts. In general this mesechet deals with levirate marriage, which is now defunct, I think. The prior mesechet was chagigah, in which the 4 sages travel to the gates of heaven, aka pardes, aka paradise. It was an absolutely spectacular mind bending esoteric tale. Shavuot also occurred near the end of the tractate, where a colleague presented a redux of the tale and I presented on demons and angels in the Talmud.
But in the midst of redaction of the laws governing how long after a man dies childless his brother can take the widow in yibum appeared a debate on the finer points of consummation. The gist here is the consummation must occur and the thought behind the word consummation was very present in the Talmud definition of marriage to the point were marriage was broken down to many steps and kinds depending upon the level of consummation.
If it occurred while the man was sleeping, it isn’t legal
If a man fell off the roof in such a way that he penetrates his potential wife it is questionable if this is valid consummation
If an idolator pressed him against her and he penetrated her, this is coercions and therefore not consummation
If it happened while he was dozing, does it count?
If he intended to “press against” an animal and missed, instead pressing against his wife-to-be it counts.
Then it proceeds to talk about how much of the penis has to go inside the woman before it counts
This goes on and on (as the Bavli Talmud does) and the whole time, as I read this, I was giggling. Yes, I know this is very adult! But you have to admit it is interesting to come across this level of graphic detail in a holy text.
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Does it count if SHE is asleep.