Why must a cohen divorce his wife if she was forced to have relations with another?

Question

Deut. 22:29. The rapist must marry his victim if she is unwed. If I understand this commandment correctly, the woman is allowed to refuse said marriage. Furthermore, Jewish law does not forbid another Jew from marrying a woman who's been raped (excluding Cohens).

Therefore, it's possible for a rape victim to find another husband (other than her rapist), although it would have been exceedingly difficult considering most men would have shunned such a union during biblical times. Given that men were also the primary providers back then, forcing the rapist to take on the responsibility of marriage (if the woman agreed) can be viewed as helping her.

With that said, even though a Cohen can't marry a divorcee or a raped woman, I still don't understand why he must divorce his wife if she was raped. Is this halacha found in the Torah or Talmud? Even if it's rarely enforced, I still find it morally reprehensible.

Can anyone help me understand this halacha? I will not accept an answer that attributes the rape to anything the woman did (e.g. going to the wrong part of town).

Answer 1

What you describe is an explicit Mishna in Ketuboth 2:9 that says that a Cohen has to divorce his wife if there's fair ground to assume that she was raped.

The reason being, that rape victims are forbidden under the classified of זֹנָה - one of the women forbidden to a Cohen, as per Vayikra 21:7.

^{Why?
In a nutshell: Technically they are only suspected of possibly being a זֹנָה, but since it's a Torah law we are required to be stringent. But it's more intricate than that.}

Point being, it's a Biblical law hinted to in the Written Law and explicit in the Oral Law - and thus we don't have to understand the reasoning behind it. I.e. Gcd said so, so we do it.

Your question then becomes: who is going to support this unfortunate victim?

The answer is in the Mishna: her ex-husband should support her! Sources:

• Be'er heitev in Yoreh De'ah 247:1
• Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 152:16 which says:

מֻתָּר לְאָדָם לָזוּן גְרוּשָׁתוֹ, וּמִצְוָה הִיא יוֹתֵר מִבִּשְׁאָר עָנִי, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, (ישעיה נ"ח:ז') וּמִבְּשָׂרְךָ לֹא תִתְעַלָּם. וּבִלְבַד שֶׁלֹּא יְהֵא לוֹ עֵסֶק עִמָּהּ, רַק יְזוּנָהּ עַל יְדֵי שְּׁלִיחַ.‏

A man is permitted to support his divorcee, and it is a greater mitzvah to do so more than to support any other poor person, for it is said, "Do not hide from your own flesh." But he may have no personal contact with her, and should send her support through an agent.