Menachem Mendel

There was recently a meeting of the Knesset Subcommittee on Trafficking of Women, a serious problem in Israel. Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev had another gem of ignorance leave his lips. Here is the report from Yisrael HaYom (Dec. 24, 2009, p. 17).

The committee was discussing a law which would call for a six-month sentence for those who use the services of prostitutes. MK Ze’ev said that the women must also be held responsible since the woman is the seductress and the man is the victim. He added that

In the Torah there is the law of the rapist and the seducer, if the woman seduces she must be held responsible. Why should we punish just the man and not the woman?

MK Ze’ev is referring to Exodus 22:15 and Deut. 22:28-29. The thing is that in neither of these instances is the female doing the seducing! I am not familiar with every statement in rabbinic literature about these laws, so there may be some Talmudic rabbi who claims that the female may have seduced the male, but it seems as if here Shas may not know Torah.

Posted on December 25th, 2009 under Bible Studies, Israel • RSS 2.0 feed • Both comments and pings are currently closed