从离婚权的演变透视中世纪欧洲犹太妇女的婚姻地位

On the Change of Jewish Women's Right to Ask for Divorce and Their Matrimonial Status in Medieval Europe

犹太教允许离婚。在《圣经》时代,犹太男子可以随心所欲地休妻,犹太妇女没有任何话语权。到了《塔木德》时代,犹太社会尽管对男子的单方面休妻权利有所限制,但是并没有从根本上改变婚姻的男权制结构,犹太妇女在离婚问题上依然处于完全被动的地位。这种局面在中世纪的欧洲有了质的改变,而且,这种改变通过犹太社团最具权威的"市集大会"颁布的法规条例而不断地强化,从而使得犹太妇女的婚姻地位在附属中有了改善。

Both Biblical law and postbiblical Halakhah permit divorce. During the Biblical time, man had right to divorce his wife at will. During the Talmudic period, Jewish women still played purely passive role in divorce, though there had been some limited control on men, which did not change the patriarchal structure in marriage fundamentally. There was not radical change in the nature of divorce until the medieval time, when new divorce laws were issued by the Jewish communities of Germany and France, which improved partly the status of Jewish women in marriage.