SEPARATING THE ADULT FROM ADULTERY

of traditional halakhah.® Another instance of technical adultery that used to be encountered regularly within Jewish law would arise when a ger received by a woman from her first husband and assumed to be valid, turned out—through some imperfection—to be invalid. Although the parties’ adultery was produced by an unfortunate technicality, not infrequently a mistake on the part of the beit din—the halakhic consequences were just as serious as if the adultery had been fully intentional.

Second is what might be described as“circumstantial” adultery. Circumstantial adultery takes place under extraordinary conditions, most often in cases of the serious physical or mental impairment of a spouse. In such situations the married partner committing the adultery will usually be very conscious of it, but the other partner will often be incapable of such awareness. A spouse in a long-term coma, for instance, is no longer sexually available, may live for many years, and, for a variety of reasons, divorce may be undesirable. If the spouse of the comatose patient finds a committed partner with whom a sexual relationship is shared, adultery will be the result, though it is an adultery that arguably might warrant a moral response different from that given to other categories.

Third is what might be referred to as“unknowing” adultery. Unknowing adultery can result from a deliberate intent to mislead, such as when a single individual has sex with a person that claims to be single but is, in fact, married. Whereas the married individual’s adultery is clear, the single person has been deceitfully induced into an act of unwitting adultery. The law, however, also considers cases of unknowing adultery that are entirely accidental. This situation might arise when an individual(X) has sexual

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