LOVE AND MARRIAGE

4, A central thesis of my argument is that kiddushin is understood as a legal process in which a partnership is sealed using symbolism drawn from property law. The meaning of the transaction is understood through the medium of the Sheva Berachot. Rachel Adler in Engendering Judaism, pp. 169-207, makes an important proposal to change the ceremony using partnership law not property law. This will be discussed in detail below. Central to my argument is that we have created a new legal institution that has similarities to the old and uses a ceremony to effectuate it that is drawn from the old paradigm. The similarity of name and ceremony has prevented us from recognizing the changes that Reform Judaism has made.

8. It is clear that the Rabbinic tradition and Orthodox authorities such as Maurice Lamm in The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage(San Francisco, 1980) are uncomfortable with the concept of a woman as property, but they have largely failed to change the halakhah to redress the unequal distribution of power and to permit women to initiate divorce so that they do not have to remain married against their will. In addition, during the wedding ceremony the woman is a passive rather than an active participant, making it clear she is a“second class citizen.”

6. This does not mean that our understanding of marriage is merely spiritual, not halakhic. Although a considerable amount of current liturgical creativity is in relation to marriage, it only reflects the fact that the marriage paradigm is undergoing a significant shift. The ceremony is a legal act whose language is performative. Its speech acts to create a new reality, i.e., two unrelated individuals become a married couple. These acts have legal and economic consequences and must be terminated by a legal process. Our spiritualization of kiddushin reflects a changed halakhic, not merely aggadic, understanding.

7. It is for others to judge whether I have been successful in using the language of tradition and texts.

8. Gen. 1:27, 5:1-2.

9. Societal change constitutes shinnui haittim, change in the times. New information justifies a change in the halakhah.

10, say“in theory” because women who work still carry a disproportionate share of family esponsibilities. Marriage as an institution is still in a state of flux.

11. Peter S. Knobel,“Suicide Assisted Suicide, Active Euthanasia: An Halachic Inquiry,” in

Ae aud Euthanasia in Jewish Law, edited by Walter Jacob and Moshe Zemer(Pittsburgh, 1995), . 28-34,

12. Adler, Engendering Judaism, pp. 25-26.

13.5 ev, 20:7-8.

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