Dear fellow Lactnuts,
        I recently received  a request from Kathleen Huggins to cite the source of a
Jewish law which gives grounds for divorce to a man whose wife has breasts that are
unusually far apart. I had theorized that even in ancient times it was recognised
that some women simply didn't have enough sufficiently developed breast tissue to
enable them to nourish their babies, and that widely spaced tubular breasts might be
such an indication. I think that others here may be interested in the reply I
received from an online service called *Ask the Rabbi*, and so I am sharing the
results of my research with you all. Speaking personally, I find this fascinating
stuff...


>Dear Norma,

The Shulchan Aruch in volume Even HaEzer, chapter 39, Halacha 3-4, brings
that if a man married a woman on the condition that she did not have any
bodily disfigurements, and it turned out that she did have, then it could be
that the marriage was invalid.  Of the list of disfigurements mentioned
there in halacha 4, is if the breasts are much bigger than normal, or
smaller, such that there is a "tefach", a handbreath, between one and the
other.  A tefach is either 8 cm, or 9.6 cm.  However a reference to the
inability to lactate I didn't see there.

Wishing you much success,

                                        Sincerely,


                                        Rabbi Baruch Rappaport

 ==========================================================================
 The above answer was researched by the Rabbis at
   Ohr Somayach Institutions, Jerusalem


-------------------------------------
Norma Ritter IBCLC
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"If not now, when? If not us, who?" R. Hillel