For the source text click/tap here: Ketubot 13
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Our daf introduces two Mishnayot with describing three distinct cases. In each of these cases, the wife is being accused of something; she claims her innocence. Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Eliezer agree that she is credible. However, Rabbi Yahoshua says that we do not conduct our lives based upon her mouth. Rather, she retains her presumptive status until she can provide proof of her claim.
According to Zeiri, the case of our Mishnah is where an unmarried woman was witnessed speaking to a man.
It is clear from the rishonim that even according to Rabban Gamiel, we do not fully accept her testimony, and we are not convinced that the specific person who she points to is the father. Thus, even though she claims that the father was a kohen, we will not allow her child to eat teruma (which is permitted only to kohanim), nor will we allow the child to perform the sacrificial service in the Temple.
The Talmud Yerushalmi explains that the argument between Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabban Gamliel is based on the particular concern that Rabbi Yehoshua has with people who engage in sexual relations outside the framework of marriage. (Steinsaltz).
We review Michael Rosenberg’s work:
Unlike the authors of earlier Rabbinic and Christian texts, who modified but fundamentally maintained and even extended the Deuteronomic ideal, the Babylonian Talmud and Augustine both construct alternative models of female virginity that, if taken seriously, would utterly reverse cultural ideals of masculinity, encouraging men to be gentle, rather that brutal, in their sexual behavior.
and Julia Lilli’s work on Configuring Female Virginity in Early Christianity and Gail Labowitz’s work on female labor, gender and family economy in rabbinic culture.