From: etzhadat@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Hydro Man)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Serious question about a Cohen getting married
Date: 6 Nov 92 04:57:30 GMT
Organization: Institute Chaotique for Galactic Sewage Treatment
								BS"D

>wb: You're right, this makes it even stranger.  Since what I saw on the
>wb: net (sorry, didn't save the article) said "marry a virgin" not "marry
>wb: a twelve year old virgin", I'm now skeptical that such a practice
>wb: really exists, and it may be that what I read about is either a Jewish
>wb: Urban Legend, or a case of "broken telephone".

This is not completely an Urban Legend.
Its merely that the reason you gave is faulty.
I know something about this because I have a friend who is at the same
time marriageable, a cohen, and a serious BT. I am sorry I don't have
more definitive sources at present. Anyway, for your own practice
CYL(O)R.

Who a cohen may marry among non-divorced, non-converted Jewish women is
determined by the same the criteria as it always was--namely who is
not a zonah--not that he may be a potential CG. (Well here, I know the
pasuk is in Leviticus--probably parshat Kodashim)

Now the problem is that
not all groups agree on what a zonah is. There is one (lenient)
interpretation that it is any woman who has had any of the relations
which would produce a mamzer. These are all the relations which have
penalties as or more severe than karet. In the case of producing
a mamzer, the Oral Law exempts the case of niddah. This may not be
so in the case of a zonah. . .

The more stringent opinion includes all d'Oraitha prohibited relations.
(perhaps also relations forbidden only d'Rabbanan e.g. lesbianism)
Thus this certainly includes under a zonah
	1. a woman who has had relations with a Jewish man while niddah
	2. a woman who has had relations with a nonJew
In most but *NOT ALL* cases today, if one takes the stringent opinion,
because of safek, it is recommended that a cohen not marry a woman that
has gone to college in the US because of (1) & (2) or a woman who has been
in TZaHa"L because of (1). Certainly if the woman is trustworthy this
does not apply. The safek (usually) applies to women coming from extreme
secular backgrounds.

Clearly even the stringent definition does not exclude all non-virgins.
E.g. a widow or a single woman who has had only relations with Jewish
men after going to the mikveh (of course the last is frowned upon . .)
are permitted. But it is recommended (execpt for the widow) for the
above reasons--namely safek about (1) and (2). There are also problems
with a woman who has had lived with the man she has been having relationS
with, even if tahara, because it is *like* they are married, but this is
getting far afield.

My guess in the case of the CG is that it is to insure the woman's virginity--
note that this is very important for otherwise the CG and hence
the YK ceremony is invalid--
he must marry someone who has just matured. And of course the Oral Law
takes the average--this is 12 to 12 1/2 years.

Shabbat Shalom
Paul Kornreich etzhadat@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

wh
>-- 
>/|/-\/-\          Adif tzav pinui metzav shmoneh.
> |__/__/_/    
> |warren@     
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