The Value of a Woman

[onionsoupmix]

Here's a topic I am completely ignorant about : Valuations. Arachin.

There is apparently a whole section of halacha that deals with donation vows made based on a person's worth. I guess it would be like this:  "In honor of our anniversary, I hereby promise to donate my wife's value to the Temple." Or something like that.  One type of valuation vow

Comments

sara maimon

[anonymous]

seems to me like those were simply the going average slave market rates during biblical times. where is the verse that claims there are two separate categories?

Re: sara maimon

[onionsoupmix]

the mishna on this and the rambam. I linked to the rambam in the post, read that chapter and you will see it.

hmm

[lucretia_borgia]

Instead of poking at HaShem here, can we stop for a second to contemplate what kind of person, in what kind of society, decides to use the monetary value of a person as his yardstick for how much he'll give the Temple

Re: hmm

[onionsoupmix]

I thought about this and the best I could come up with was what I said in the post: in honor of my anniversary, I pledge the value of my spouse or his weight in gold or whatever :)

Other than that, it does seem kind of weird. Why not just say : 500 dollars and that's it. It's almost like a high school bet or something. If you win, you have to...um... I don't know, pay the value of that guy in the corner to the mikdash!

Re: hmm

[lucretia_borgia]

If I recall the Mishnah correctly, you'll love the discussion of how "I pledge the value of his arm" is handled!

===

About the only situation I can think of, seriously, for pledging a person's value (leaving us having to figure out what that might be) is one in which e.g. one's child, or spouse (or self) is at risk of death but is saved: so you pledge the value of his/her life to the Temple. Pledging the value of some random dude on the street is just plain weird.

Rationalization

[ext_421098]

My rationalization used to be that a woman is only worth less because she is of less use as a slave since she is weaker than a man. However, I do recall being slightly uncomfortable about that answer. Of course, now I know that this is perfectly in line with Judaism's ancient conception of this world.

Re: Rationalization

[onionsoupmix]

But you can't even use that one here since there is a different valuation system according to market value of a slave ( dinim)

Value of a Woman

[ext_229051]

There are all kinds of explanations pro and con regarding for what purpose this shekel valuation applies. I shall let the yeshiva bochurim fight this one out among themselves, and take no sided

Re: Value of a Woman

[glowing_flower]

i will say that when we took out our life insurance I (a mostly SAHM who works part-time) was advised to take out the same amount of life insurance as my husband, who works full time. We of course followed that advice. This was the standard advice of a very large insurance company, so it would seem that is the conventional wisdom.

Rambam on the relative holiness of women

[anonymous]

Apologetics of contemporary Outreachers aside, arguably women don't have fewer mitzvot because they are inherently holier than men and therefore don't need the extra mitzvot.
Rather, according the Rambam, because women have fewer mitzvot, men are holier.

See here:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ASx6sZjO1KzmZDhwbW5jal8yM2czcnB4NTd4&hl=en

as the Rambam says,
והרי הוא מקודש ממנה

Melech