ABSTRACT
Biblical law specifies the procedure for divorce. According to the Book of Deuteronomy, ‘When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house’ (Deut. 24:1). This verse stipulates that the power of divorce rests with the husband, and the act of divorce must be in the form of a legal document. Among early rabbinic scholars there was disagreement as to the meaning of the term ‘indecency’: the School of Shammai interpreted it as referring to unchastity, whereas the School of Hillel understood the term more widely. Nonetheless, in two instances it was not permitted for divorce to take place: (l) if a man claimed that his wife was not a virgin at the time of marriage and his charge was disproved (Deut. 22:13-19); or (2) if he raped a virgin whom he later married (Deut. 22:28-29). Conversely, a man
was not allowed to remarry his divorced wife if she had married another person and had been divorced or widowed (Deut. 24:2-4). Nor could a priest marry a divorced woman (Lev. 21:7).
