Dower Pay: A Pre-Jewish Religion

The history of Jews in host cities often depict a story of success or of failure when it comes to relations between the Jews and the Christians in Europe. Historian Jonathan Elukin, author of Living Together, Living Apart, presents the integration as a success process with rare, and special cases, of failure. On the other side of the spectrum is historian Raymond P. Scheindlin. Scheindlin’s novel, A Short History of the Jewish People, presents many cases of integration between the Christians and Jews that led to massacres and brutal endings for the Jewish community. There are many monumental events that take place during the long span of time that oversees European Jewish history, and both historians study and evaluate the events, however, they do so through different lenses.

Dowries are extremely important to consider when it comes to arranged marriages. A dowry is a gift that could be goods, money, or land that a bride’s family will give to the groom to marry the bride. Dowries could be used to bring two powerful families together by having their children marry, for example, royal arranged marriages. In the Biblical sense, a girl who is still a virgin is more of prize than one who is not. In a way dowries make the daughter or son feel as property as told by Sara Smolinsky, “to [my father] I was nothing but his last unmarried daughter to be bought and sold” (205). Mr. Smolinsky stated, “It’s not enough to take my Bessie without a dowry. You must pay me yet” (47). Mr. Smolinsky, being the stubborn man he is, decided when Berel Bernstein asked for Bessie’s hand in marriage without the need of a dowry, that Mr. Smolinsky should get a bride price as well. A bride price

In certain communities in South Asia, the low status of girls has to be compensated for by the payment of a dowry by the parents of the girl to the husband at the time of marriage. This has resulted in a number of dowry crimes, including mental and physical torture, starvation, rape, and even the burning alive of women by their husbands and/or in-laws in cases where dowry payments are not met.

This left women with a clear disadvantage. The system worked well in happy marriages, but if a situation such as a husband's death, desertion from his family, or divorce were to arise, it was usually the woman who suffered as a result. According to the Code, a contract was necessary for marriage. Also, when a man and woman were getting married, the most important item to be negotiated was the bride price. This, again, shows that men were superior to women when it came to the ownership of property. Regardless of the amount of this bride price, it was managed by the husband and it was used to support the wife and her children: "If a woman who lived in a man's house made an agreement with her husband, that no creditor can arrest her, and has given a document therefore; if that man, before he married that woman, had a debt, the creditor can not hold the woman for it" (Pritchard 155). The bride's father had the right to change his mind about the marriage, in which case he would have been required to refund the purchase price in full showing again how women were nothing more than a piece of property: "If a man bring chattels into the house of his father-in-law and pay the price; if then the father of the girl say "I will not give you my daughter," he shall give back all that he brought with him" (Pritchard 156). Another horrific example of how women were regarded as nothing more than mere possessions was that if a wife died before giving birth to

What is Judaism? Who are Jews? Judaism is considered one of the oldest and most popular monotheistic religions today. Judaism’s followers are called Jews and they have been through many tough challenges and trials but are still able to proudly identify themselves as Jews. Jewish beliefs, customs, history, holidays, symbols, and the holocaust are just a few of the things that make Jews who they are.

5. Dower : It's a tradition form Europe which provides the widow one third of her spouses family land and goods until her death. It's important because it ensures the bride livelihood.

"Upon marriage, woman became the legal wards of their husbands, as they previously had been of their fathers while still unmarried" (Martin, 68). It was common for a father to sell his young daughter into marriage and the young women had no say in her preference of her suitors (Mahaffy, 48). This was done while the girl was in her young teens while the groom was ten to fifteen years older (Martin, WEB2). As the father, or guardian, gave the young girl away he would repeat the phrase that expressed the primary aim of marriage: "I give you this women for the plowing [procreation] of legitimate children" (Martin, WEB2). The woman’s role was primarily in the home. "Households thus depended on women, whose wok permitted the family to economically self-reliant and the male citizens to participate in the public life of the polis" (Martin, WEB2).

In the essay “Judaism and Economic Reform”, Norman Solomon, a Jewish-American journalist, presents a compelling argument on the basis of the need for economic reform while providing simple religious base solutions. While discussing two major economic problems that plague the world’s current economy, Solomon introduces the Jewish view of the global economy and their general view on economics as a whole. With this introduction to the Jewish worldview of economics we as readers are able to transition into understanding Solomon’s solutions of education & using Jewish law to improve the current state of the global economy. Although Solomon’s ideas of education and relying on Jewish law to improve the global economy seem logical, Sallie McFague,

Marriage in the early eighteen hundreds rarely put into account of the husband and bride’s feelings. It exercised an agreement between two people that showed how wealthy their family would become. Women conditioned themselves to be submissive towards their husbands and live in the puritan roots of their past society. Many women maintained purity on their wedding days, with this ideal in mind they had to have restrictions during their wedding. In this society, Puritan views held many standards towards women and men. These Puritan views towards many southern societies affected how the women would act, how she dresses and many more. These restrictions towards weddings started to die our near the late eighteen hundreds but, many traditions started to form based off of these certain restrictions. For example, brides started

Under this strict system, Renaissance marriage became a "system of fair market exchange" (Matchinske 156). The husband was expected to provide economically for his wife. In turn, the wife was obligated to render herself, her chastity, her silence, and her obedience unto her husband. Because of this system of exchange, "marriages of interest became the target of severe censure at the beginning of the century as a form of legalized prostitution" (Massai 71). Fathers exchanged their daughter's virginity for family connections, sons promised security in order to win a wife, and women were transferred from one lord to another.

The economics of marriage was not the only pressure on children to marry where their parents directed. Sixteenth-century children, and girls in particular, were very much brought up to obey, and to believe that it was their duty to their parents… to marry the person chosen for them. It would have taken a very strong-minded girl indeed to have refused to follow her parents’ wishes. Girls who did refuse the partner offered could find themselves bullied by their parents. (3)

God and Moses taught the Hebrews different practices around food and work that would help them live a better and more equal lifestyle. A new food economy was created that taught Hebrews to share with others so that everyone has just enough. This made it so that “no one has too much, and no one goes hungry” (McCormick). A new labor economy was commanded so that everyone knew they were working as free people, not as oppressed slaves like in the typical agrarian life. Each person was entitled to Sabbath rest and were responsible for their own public work. Gleaning was another practice that ensured everyone was being fed, including the poor and landless, by allowing them to collect leftovers and missed food. This reflects a more just society because

The Jewish hierarchy system consists of 7 levels. The highest one being a Rabbi then Chazan, Gabbal, Kohein, Levi, Rebbe and Tzaddik. Each of these people provides different roles to the Jewish community.

As children most parents have likely pounded the golden rule, treat others as you want to be treated, in our head so much that sometimes that the phrase loses meaning. The golden rule goes past sharing toys or just being nice because you were scolded too. It is the key to having a peaceful life and ,this may seem farfetched, but peace on earth. In fact the way of life does not just show up in philosophy and ethics, but even most of the world's religions from buddhism to judaism. If Jesus and Aristotle are saying the same thing; then there has to be some truth in it.

The Elizabethan age regarded women’s sexuality as a form of currency. In England’s social structure currency was a means to power. A woman’s virginity was something to be bargained for, and when the time was right, sold to the highest bidder. In modern day, this slightly resembles prostitution, but during Elizabethan times selling a daughter’s virginity was the quickest way up the social ladder. During this time, the sacrifice of virginity implies marriage. Young women rarely married on the idea of love alone, due to the father’s interests in finding an ideal husband that will strengthen the family’s position within the community. Author of Shakespeare’s Women, Angela Pitt states “if for some reason it was impractical for a girl to marry she was encouraged to enter a nunnery,” (15). English women were predominantly ignored outside of the matrimonial and spiritual world.