Isn it True that Women are Chattel in Jewish Law, and a Man Buys His Wife at the Wedding Ceremony?
A. No, not at all. During the wedding ceremony the man is acquiring various responsibilities. Among those are: to feed his wife, to clothe his wife, and not to deny her conjugal relations. One beautiful thing about Judaism is that we attain holiness by fulfilling our legal and religious responsibilities. And thus, all things holy are legal and religious responsibilities. Therefore, when a man gets betrothed to a woman, he must make a legal acquisition of his future marriage responsibilities. One of the ways that the man does this is by giving the bride something of value. Actually, the exact Law is that the groom must give the bride either a coin (meaning something of value) or a betrothal document (Mishnayos Kiddushin 1:1). The betrothal document is not done these days. However, many Sefardic Jews today use an actual coin, and do not use a ring. (Though the groom later gives the bride a ring, I guess because brides want that.) I have no idea where or when the Custom began of using a r
