Glossary
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Agunah (sing.), agunot (plural)—a woman/ women held in marriage against their will; literally, “chained,” “anchored” (from the Hebrew for anchor: oggen).
Baal-- lit., master, owner; the term for “husband” in biblical and rabbinic writing (and regrettably, in modern Hebrew, as well, though many now use alternatives: ben zug, ish).
Beit din (Hebrew); besdin (Yiddish)—rabbinic court.
Birkat erusin: the blessing recited under the huppa which sanctifies kinyan and kiddushin, publicly declaring the groom’s legitimate access, attained through marriage by kinyan and kiddushin, to his wife’s body and sexuality, as an act of the Jewish male public as a whole. This claim is unilateral: there is no such claim by the bride on her husband.
Conditional marriage: enacted with specified conditions for its continuation or dissolution. Historically, very widely used in Jewish practice in all communities and customs.
Erusin: literally, "engagement." Not to be confused with lay use of this term, in halakha (rabbinic law), this term has legal meaning and consequences. It is the first part of the two-part rabbinic enactment of marriage, done under the huppa (marriage canopy, which signifies the groom's paternal house, which the bride is entering in marriage), to a blessing over wine (done at all important rabbinic ritual events), and to birkat erusin.
Get (sing.; gittin, pl.)—rabbinic divorce document. Rabbinic divorce, like rabbinic marriage, is the unilateral act and prerogative of the husband to give or to withhold; the wife merely receives the get document into her cupped hands in a prescribed procedure and remains silent throughout, as she had done in receiving a ring in kiddushin.
Get zikui—a get given by a beit din in order to confer a halakhic benefit on a spouse who is either refusing a get or is incapable of giving one. If the beit din has ordered that a get be given, defying the beit din is a serious offense under halakha, which the get zikui eliminates, hence, rendering a benefit to the offender. This can be done without the offender’s knowledge or consent.
Hafkaat kiddushin—retroactive annulment of a marriage. If the marriage was halakhically valid to begin with (e.g., the partners were not siblings), annulment has no effect on the status of children born during the marriage.
Halakha—rabbinic law.
Halitsa—release a widow from a childless marriage must receive from a levir/ yabam in order to be free to marry someone other than him. Historically and currently, used as a means of extortion, no different from get extortion.
Huppa—wedding canopy, symbolizing the groom’s home or domain, which the wife enters through rabbinic marriage.
Iggun—marital captivity; from the Hebrew word for “anchor” (oggen).
Ketubbah—unilateral prenuptial agreement given by the groom to the bride under the huppa, detailing his minimum physical obligations to her during the marriage and minimum alimony in case of divorce.
Kiddushin—the second act of enacting rabbinic marriage: the groom’s “sanctification” of his having acquired exclusive sexual access to his bride/ wife. This act is unilateral, by the husband upon the wife, who has no corresponding claim on the husband.
Kinyan—lit., “acquisition.” The first phase of enacting rabbinic marriage, in which the groom acquires exclusive right of access to his wife’s body—her sexuality and reproductivity. This acquisition is unilateral: the bride/ wife acquires and exercises no such right over her husband’s body and sexual and reproductive behavior outside of the marriage. Her own, however, is strictly limited to her husband, on penalty of a charge of adultery, which is punishable by severe sanctions. A married Jewish man who has extra-marital sex is guilty of adultery only if his partner is the wife of another Jewish man; it is against that man’s exclusive rights that the offense lies.
Levirate marriage—yibum: marriage of the widow in a childless marriage to a brother of her deceased husband (levir; yabam), to which the widow is obligated, not free to marry someone else, unless the levir gives her formal release (halitsa). Levirate marriage serves to perpetuate a man’s name and property within his family of origin (See Deut. 25:5-10; Book of Ruth), giving that family and the levir financial incentive to seek levirate marriage—or just to claim to wish it, in order to force the widow to pay for release; in either case, receiving financial benefit. If a wife dies in a childless marriage, there is no similar requirement on the surviving widower to perpetuate her name or return her means to her family of origin. A widow who receives halitsa gets her widow’s entitlements and any other payments the groom’s family had made at the time of the marriage (e.g., tosefet ketubbah, payment in addition to that routinely stated in the ketubbah)—a financial boon to the widow in seeking an advantageous new marriage match-- and reason for the deceased husband's family to seek to retain for themselves through levirate marriage.
Mesorevet get—“denied a get.” This is a description of one circumstance in which women become agunot; it is not a difference in the halakhic (legal) status of such women: they are agunot. The difference that some imply with this term is that, unlike women who become agunot in other circumstances, women extorted for a get can pay the extortion to free themselves. Such implication is collusion with get extortion.
Nesu’in—halakhic marriage.
Nisu’in al t’nai—conditional marriage; a means used to terminate a marriage if the condition is not met or is violated. The condition can be a stated period of time or other contingencies.
Posek (sing.), poskim (pl.), rabbinic decisors, authorities who rule about specific cases or larger circumstances.
Takkanah (sing.), takkanot (pl.) rabbinic ordinances; these do not merely interpret halakha but change halakha. E.g.s: Rabbenu Gershom Me’or Hagolah’s takkanah against polygyny; Rabbenu Tam’s takkanah, contradicting Talmudic law, to require a husband to return a woman’s dowry to her father if she died shortly after the wedding (nissu’in).