1,961. Who Receives the Fine

Naarah Besulah 1:8

Neither a rapist nor a seducer is obligated to pay the fine unless he engaged in “normal” (i.e., vaginal) relations and there were witnesses; a warning is not necessary. The fine is paid for violating a girl from the age of three until the age of pubescence (i.e., 12½). Relations with a girl under the age of three [while clearly prohibited] are not relations in the legal sense. A girl over the age of pubescence is excluded because Deuteronomy 22:28 specifies “a virgin minor (naarah),” which excludes a girl past the age of a minor.

Naarah Besulah 1:9

The fine must be paid regardless of whether or not the girl’s father is still alive. A fine is not paid for having relations with: a girl who has reached maturity, one who dissolved a marriage through refusal (miun), a woman with congenital infertility (who never develops sexually), a girl lacking mental incompetence or who has congenital deafness, one who is believed to have acted promiscuously in her youth and about whom two witnesses testify that she approached them for sex, and a girl who was married and divorced but who is still a minor virgin. However, if a girl is divorced after betrothal, then the fine must be paid and she receives it herself in the case of rape (because the Torah specifies that it goes to the father in the case of a girl who was not betrothed). If such a girl is seduced, she is not entitled to be paid the fine (because she gave her consent).