By April 8, 2008 Read More →

Mishnah Niddah 4:2: The Pharisaic Ruling on Sadducee Women

Greco-Roman Period
Lawrence H. Schiffman, Texts and Traditions, Ktav, Hoboken 1998, p.273-274.

The Mishnah rules that if Sadducee women do not fulfill the laws of menstrual impurity as understood by the Pharisaic-Rabbinic tradition, it is forbidden to marry them, as it is with Samaritan women. Rabbi Yose rules that it can be generally assumed that they do follow Pharisaic practice, further evidence that the Rabbis believed that the Sadducees accepted their authority.

The daughters of the Sadducees, when they are accustomed to follow the ways of their
fathers, are like Samaritan women. 101 If they separated themselves to follow the paths of
Israel, they are like Israelites. Rabbi Yose says- “They are always considered like Israel
unless they separate themselves so as to follow the paths of their fathers.”

100. Trans. S. Berrin.

101. For purposes of marriage. Cf. the parallel in Ant. XIII, 288-96 (Text 6.1.4 in this volume). They are
always considered to be menstrually impure.

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