Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Kiddushin 4: Ayloniyot as Perpetual Girls?

The rabbis explain some of the unwritten rules of girls being sold into service.  How could this be a sale if no money exchanges hands?  When a Jewish girl becomes a maidservant, she marries the father or the father's son in that new family.  Thus we understand why when a girl is released from maidservice, she might return to her father without payment.
To explain why girls might be released at age twelve, as naarot, or at age 12 and a half, as bogerot, the rabbis consider cases of ayloniyot.  Girls who do not advance through all stages of sexual development are in a category of their own.  Usually we are to wait until a young woman turns twenty or older before classifying her as an aylonit.  So are these people considered to be perpetual girls?  Or do the laws of women apply to them eventually?  
The value of a woman is again at hand.  How much money are women worth based on lineage, beauty, virginity, or social status?  When and to whom might that value be paid?  Our modern culture is so far removed from the notion of monetizing people that we can't quite get our heads around the many guidelines surrounding this practice.

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