Why Scripture Must Spell Out the Fine for the Seduced Maiden

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 346:25

"And if a man seduce a virgin" (Exodus 22:15-16). Scripture comes to teach about the seduced woman, that he pays a fine on her account. And reason would support this on its own: since the woman who was seized is in her father's domain, and the seduced woman is in her father's domain, if you have learned about the seized woman that he pays a fine on her account, so too for the seduced woman he should pay a fine on her account. No. If you have said this about the seized woman, where the offender acted against her will and against her father's will, and therefore he pays a fine on her account, would you say the same about the seduced woman, where he acted only against her father's will, and therefore he should not pay a fine on her account? Thus, because I could not derive it from reasoning, Scripture had to come and state it explicitly.

Themes