If a
man comes upon a virgin who is not engaged and he seizes her and lies with her,
and they are discovered, the man who lay with her shall pay the girl’s father
fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he has violated her he can never
divorce her. – Deuteronomy 22
Note
the Torah indicates that all willful actions have consequences. While circumstances have changed the basic
premise of rape is inviolate: the act will never go away. As the scars remain with the woman so the
perpetrator can never walk away or erase his actions.
Maimonides
in his Code refines this notion by explaining that the rapist acts out of a
moment of control and enjoyment. Even if
the man is technically not a rapist but one who seduced the woman he is obliged
to pay the fine to teach the lesson that no act goes unrecorded, unnoticed,
without consequences. Where rape is
involved, the perpetrator must not only pay fifty shekels of silver for his
crime but in addition the woman’s suffering, pain and embarrassment are then figured
into the punishment.
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