Mishneh Torah, Forbidden Intercourse 12-14

Sugya Map: The Status of Intermarriage

• Core Issue: Does the Torah prohibition of lo titchaten bam (Deut. 7:3) extend to all non-Jews, or only the seven Canaanite nations?
• Nafka Mina: The legal status of a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew; whether such an act is an issur d’oraita (Scriptural) punishable by lashes.
• Primary Sources: Kiddushin 68b (Rabbi Shimon’s exegesis of ki yasir), Avodah Zarah 36b (Hasmonean decree), Rambam Hilchot Issurei Biah 12:1–3.

Text Snapshot

Rambam (12:1): "When a Jew engages in relations with a woman from other nations... they are punished by lashes, according to Scriptural Law... As [Deuteronomy 7:3] states: 'You shall not intermarry with them.'"

• Leshon Nuance: The Rambam adopts the expansive view of R. Shimon that the rationale (ki yasir—"for he shall sway your son") creates a universal lav applicable to all nations, rejecting the Tur’s limitation of the prohibition to the seven nations.

Readings

• Rambam: The prohibition is fundamentally about the swaying of the heart away from God. Because all idolaters pose this risk, the lav is universal.
• Tur (Even HaEzer 16): Argues that the verse is contextually limited to the seven nations. He maintains there is no concept of "marriage" (kiddushin) between a Jew and a non-Jew at all; the Rambam’s classification of it as "marriage" is a legal fiction or a categorization of the status of the relationship.

Friction

Kushya: If there is no kiddushin with a non-Jew, how can the Rambam categorize this as a violation of a marital prohibition? Terutz: As the Maggid Mishneh notes, the Rambam defines this not as valid kiddushin (which requires da'at and halachic capacity), but as a illicit relationship that functions as a marriage in the eyes of the actors, thus triggering the lav of lo titchaten.

Psak/Practice

The Rambam’s heuristic is clear: even in the absence of valid kiddushin, the act is an issur d'oraita. Practically, this reinforces the gezeirah of the Hasmoneans (Avodah Zarah 36b) that even licentious relations (without "marriage") are forbidden as a fence around the Torah, to prevent the erosion of Jewish lineage.

Takeaway

The Rambam’s rigor transforms a specific Canaanite prohibition into a universal safeguard for the Jewish soul, grounding the sanctity of lineage in the prevention of spiritual "swaying" (hasarah).