Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer · Siman 16

Shulchan Arukh Even HaEzer 16 — English translation

Translation: Sefaria Community Translation. Section numbers match the Hebrew text above.

1. 1If a Jew engages in sexual relations with a female idolater, derech ishut (that is, for the purpose of marriage), or a Jewess engages in sexual relations with a male idolater, that Jew or Jewess is given lashes on a Biblical level. As it is written (Deuteronomy 7:3): "You shall not marry them." (There are those who disagree with this ruling). However, if he engages in sexual relations derech zenut (that is, for licentiousness), casually, he is culpable only on a Rabbinic level for idolatry and for engaging in relations with a prostitute and he is given makat mardut (that is, lashes on a Rabbinic level). And, if he sets her aside for licentious activity, he is culpable on a Rabbinic level for having sexual relations with a nida (that is, menstruant), having sexual relations with a shifcha, (that is, slavewoman), idolatry, and having sexual relations with a prostitute. And, if he is a Kohen (that is, a priest), even if he engages in sexual relations casually, he receives lashes on a Biblical level, as it is written (Leviticus 21:7) ["(A kohen) may not marry a prostitute..."]
2. 2A man who has sexual relations with an idol worshiper, if zealots have not killed him and he has not received lashes at the hands of the court, his punishment is explicit in the words of tradition (Prophets), that he receives excision, as is written, “…For Judah has profaned the holiness of God which He loves, and has married the daughter of his strange god. May God cut off the man that does this, he that calls and he that answers…” (Malachi 2:11-12). He shall not have a caller among the wise nor a responder among the students. Note: This sin has a deficit which is not present among all the other sexual proscriptions, for the son derived from a (Canaanite) female slave or from a Kuthite (non-Jewish) female is not considered his son, as opposed to descendents from other sexually proscribed women (Tur in the name of Rambam). One who has sexual relations with an idol worshiper in public, whose law is that zealots kill him, as will be explained Choshen Mishpat chapter 425, is included in the classification of sexual proscriptions, and the law is that he should permit himself to be killed rather than transgress (Beit Yosef in the name of Orchot Chaim in the name of Rambam) as is the case with other sexual proscriptions and as explained in Yoreh Deah chapter 157.
3. 3A maidservant who immersed for the name of slavery, is forbidden to a freed-man, whether it was his or his friend's slave. One who sleeps with her, is liable for Mardut lashes (lashes from the rabbis).
4. 4One who is caught with his maidservant, they take her from him, sell her and scatter the money among the poor people and give his lashes, and shave his hair and seclude him for thirty days.
5. 5If the child of a Jewish woman was mixed up with the child of a maidservant both of them are questionable and both are possibly slaves and they force the master of the maidservant to free both of them. If one of the babies was the son of the master of the slave, when they get older, they free each other and they are permitted to marry regular Jews.
6. 6If the mixture was [of] girls, they are both slavewomen-in-doubt; [if] someone has intercourse with [either] one of them, the [child] born [of that union] is in doubt. Likewise, if the [child] born of an idolator became mixed with the [child] born of an Israelite, we immerse both of them for the sake of conversion, and each one of them is a convert-in-doubt.

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