[675] Vid. Thisbit. in חתן
[676] Augustin. quæst. super Genes. 88.
[677] בעל משתה
[678] Αρχιτρίκλινος.
[679] מזל טוב i. Stukius. de conviv. l. 2. c. 3.
[680] Munster. Gen. 30.
[681] Non est tibi ulla herba inferius cui non sit Mazal in firmamento, & ferit ipsam τὸ Mazal, & dicit ei, Cresce.
At the time of the marriage also, the man gave his wife a dowery bill, which the Scrivener wrote, and the Bride-groom paid for, whereby he endowed his spouse, if she were a Virgin, with 300 Deniers, (that is fifty shekels) and if she had been married before with an hundred Deniers, that is twenty five shekels and this was called the root or principal of the dowry: the dowry might not be less, but more, so much as he would, though it were to a talent of gold. There is mention of a contract between Tobias and Sarah, and that was performed, not by a Scrivener, but by Raguel, the womans father; where we may observe, that before the writing of this bill there was a giving of the woman unto her husband. The form of words there used is, Behold, take her after the Law of Moses, Tobit. 7. 14. A copy of this Dowry-bill is taken by Bertram out of the Babylon Talmud. The words thereof are thus:[682] Upon the sixth day of the week, the fourth of the month Sivan, in the year five thousand two hundred fifty four of the creation of the world, according to the computation which we use here at Massilia, a City which is scituate near the Seashore, the Bridegroom Rabbi Moses, the son of Rabbi Jehuda, said unto the Bridewife Clarona, the daughter of Rabbi David, the son of Rabbi Moses, a Citizen of Lisbon; Be unto me a wife according to the law of Moses and Israel: and I according to the word of God, will worship, honour, maintain, and govern thee according to the manner of the husbands among the Jews, which do worship, honour, maintain, and govern their wives faithfully, I also do bestow upon thee the dowry of thy Virginity, 200 Deniers in silver, which belong unto thee by the law: and moreover, thy food, thy apparel, and sufficient necessaries; as likewise the knowledge of thee, according to the custom of all the earth. Thus Clarona the Virgin rested and became a wife to Rabbi Moses the son of Jehuda, the Bridegroom.
[682] Talmud. Bab. vid. Buxtorf. Grammatic. Chald. p. 38. 9.
After the marriage was finished, then the wife might challenge from her Husband three things as debt. 1. Food. 2. Apparel. 3. Cohabitation, or the right of the bed; which they note from Exod. 21. 10. where it is said, If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. And unto this the Apostle alludeth, calling it Due benevolence, 1 Cor. 7. 3.