Women and the Law

Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens, Chapter 51

Upon the disclosure that Mrs. Bumble had taken from Oliver's dead mother and pawned the locket and ring, which would have revealed Oliver Twist's identity as the legitimate child or a wealthy man, Mr. Bumble has this to say:

"I hope," said Mr. Bumble, looking about him with great ruefulness, as Mr. Grimwig disappeared with the two old women: "I hope that this unfortunate little
circumstance will not deprive me of my parochial office?"

"Indeed it will," replied Mr. Brownlow. "You may make up your mind to that, and think yourself well off besides."

"It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it," urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round to ascertain that his partner had left the room.

"That is no excuse," replied Mr. Brownlow. "You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and indeed are the more guilty of the two, in the
eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction."

"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass ­ a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a
bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience ­ by experience."

Laying great stress on the repetition of these two words, Mr. Bumble fixed his hat on very tight, and putting his hands in his pockets, followed his helpmate down
stairs.

I begin out discussion of the Old Testament law with this passage from English literature, not because I wish to suggest that the law is an ass, but because the legal material about women presupposes a patriarchal structure that holds men accountable for the deeds and welfare of members of their family. If we simply read the laws as an oppressive force designed to shut women out of a system of power and privilege, we miss the point.

The laws are directed to men who have come to the age of majority, 13, and of mental capacity.

Role Playing: Borders and Boundaries

Objectives:
Know the content of the law
See how it shaped the community
Imagine its impact upon the experience of the individual.
Determine what the law is saying about men as well as women.

Most of us have a statutory view of the law. We read it as the Pharisees did. And, consequently, we overlook some of the contextualization of the legal material in scenarios. We may be surprised by what we find.

Purity Laws

Content:
Lev 12 purification after childbirth ­ 7 days, male /14 days, female
Lev 15:19 impurity period during menstruation = 7 days
Impurity transmitted to man for 7 days.
15:25ff perpetual menstruant ­ perpetually impure

Center circle ­ holiness

What do men have to think about?
What do women have to think about?
To what degree does your gender identity effect the way that you think about approaching holiness?

In the outer circle, what do women have to think about?
What do men have to think about?

Have a woman sit in a chair, get up, man comes into room. Can he sit in the chair?

What about eating?

What does this mean for women in reality? What does this mean for men?
What would it take for a modern family to be able to function this way?

Family Law

Accusations about women's sexual behavior

Lev 5:11 ff Adultery The Bitter Waters

One husband: Begin with the husband and his accusation?
Two wives: the one who did not commit adultery and the one who did.
What does each wife say?
What do the neighbors ask?

What is the woman thinking?
What would you be thinking if you were a neighbor?

Take her to the priest: with one-ephah of barley flour.

Priest brings her near and sets her before the Lord
Take holy water in earthen vessel
Dust on the floor of the tabernacle put in water
Dishevel hair of won
Place grain offering of remembrance in hands
Priest makes her take the oath: "If no man has lain with you, if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while under your husband's authority, be immune to this water of bitterness that brings the curse. But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has had intercourse with you, the Lord make you an execration and an oath among your people, when the Lord makes your uterus drop, your womb discharge; now may this water that brings the curses enter your bowels and make your womb discharge, your uterus drop."

Woman, Amen, Amen,

Puts the curses in writing and washes them off into the water of bitterness.
Woman drinks the waiter

Priest takes grain offering out of her hands and elevates the grain before the Lord and the altar.
Take handful of grain and turn it into smoke on the altar
Make the woman drink the water.

If she is guilty her uterus with drop. If no she will be able to conceive children.

Who saves face?
What is this really about?

Tell the story of my grandfather Basil.

Deut 22:13 the Accused Bride

The day after the wedding night:
Bridegroom comes out and says to himself

Goes to the community and says: "I married this woman; but when I lay with her, I did not find evidence of her virginity>'

Have two sets of parents:
The father and mother take the evidence to the elders of the city at the gate. What evidence?
The bed sheets from the wedding night.
How many different scenarios might we play out? If they got them and there was no blood, what might they do?
What might we conclude about the quality of the evidence?

Get students to recognize that both scenarios recognize men's propensity to doubt the fidelity of their wives without just cause. That women need protection from unfounded suspicion.

Deut 22:22 those caught in adultery ­ stoned
In town out of town distinction.
Having to marry your rapist.

Deut 24:1ff remarriage

Other Gender related stuff

Deut 22:5 men and women's apparel

Deut 25:11 touching man's genitals.

Property

Num 30 women's vows.

Woman: I dedicate this particularly lovely vegetable to God
Father: I disapprove

Woman: I promise God to abstain from drinking wine
Father: silence

Woman: I dedicate this piece of work from my loom to the Lord
Husband: I disapprove

Woman: I promise to dedicate this child to God
Husband: silence

Besides questions of power and property what does it say about a woman's spirituality?

Numbers 27 and 36 Daughters of Zelophehad.

Deut 25 :5 levirate marriage.

Two brother reside with each other
One dies

But brother does not desire to go into his brother's widow.
Widow goes to the elders at the gate and says: "My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me."

Summon him

Brother: "I have no desire to marry her."
Widow pulls his sandal off his foot spits in his face and says: "This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house."

Crowd: there is "the house of him show sandal was pulled off."

Property rights ­ patrilineal succession
What is at issue here?
Inheritance patterns should not allow for property to be transferred out of families or tribes so that an imbalance develops.

Start with four couples Three have sons and one has a daughter. Role play with candy?

Protection for women under the law
Deut 24: 17-22 widow orphan stranger laws.

Deut 21:10 treatment of female captives

21:15 primogeniture

Limitations
Deut

21:18 the incorrigible son
24:16 Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents; only for their own crimes may persons be put to death.