According to the Torah

Judah Alkaletz

Early 17th Century

According to the Torah, a man can acquire a woman in one of three ways:
Through a document, through silver, or through intercourse. God is the one that gives a prudent wife.1
In truth, one must begin with engagement,2 before one’s betrothal through silver or through document.
Once she is acquired, call her a married woman. If a man other than her husband sleeps with her, he is to be put to death.
But she is forbidden, indeed, also to her husband, until she enter the shadow of the beautiful canopy,3
And there be a precious, lovely benediction,4 with bridesmen, and she be honored like a princess.
And if he wants her to become permitted to other men, she needs a divorce document—not mere [spoken] words.

Translated by
Gabriel
Wasserman
.

Notes

[See Proverbs 19:14.—Trans.]

[Shiddukhin, a somewhat informal act of declaration, which precedes the formal betrothal (kiddushin).—Trans.]

[The ḥuppa, which marks the final stage of formalizing the marriage: nissu’in.—Trans.]

[The sheva‘ berakhot, the seven benedictions recited at the time of nissu’in.—Trans.]

Credits

Judah Alkaletz, “According to the Torah (Hebrew)” (Poem, Algiers, early 17th century). Republished in: Ephraim Hazan, ha-Shirah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Tsefon Afrikah (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 2003), 230–231.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

Judah Alkaletz

1570–1620

Descended from a line of scholars (his ancestor, also named Judah, was forced to leave Granada when Jews were exiled from the Iberian Peninsula), Judah (the third in his line) Alkaletz was born in Algiers. A teacher, preacher, commentator, and scholar—he is praised for his skills in all these capacities in a poem lamenting his death—Judah composed skilled and beautiful poetry. Many of his poems concern halakhic topics and testify to his great erudition and his poetic skill. One manuscript contains rhymed verses on the laws found in the tractates of Nashim and Nezikin, accompanied by a commentary. He also wrote poems on divorce laws, the laws of ritual slaughter, and other various nonlegal topics. The two extracts in this volume demonstrate the range of his poetry. One is of a halakhic nature, and the other depicts a woman searching for her beloved among the other nations of the world, mirroring Israel’s search for redemption.

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