Monday, December 15, 2008

A Beloved and a Hated Wife

Deuteronomy 21 verse 15:
כי-תהיינה לאיש שתי נשים, האחת אהובה והאחת שנואה, וילדו-לו בנים, האהובה והשנואה; והיה הבן הבכור, לשניאה

This is translated, incorrectly, as
If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love (New International Version);
Fortunately, the King James version has it right, with:
If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:

The Gemara asks how is it possible that a husband's feelings towards his wife might be of such interest to God, that he needs to rely on it to rule, one way or the other, about the status of the sons? Rather, the meaning of the verse must be that the wife is beloved or hated to God - and that is measured by the type of marriage. If it's a marriage condoned by the rules, it is blessed and the wife is loved; if it's a forbidden marriage (e.g incestuous or other) it is not, and the wife is unloved (though the status of the son, in this matter, is unaffected).

Kiddushin 78a

This thread began, and is explained, here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

FROM CAROL HERMAN

For me, Martin Buber is the philosopher who makes the most sense.

He shifts religion "out of the mind" and into the heart.

And, he does this by showing that first a man has to be capable of actually loving his wife! (There's way too much dysfunction allowed when the woman gets browbeaten. And, used as property.)

But Buber goes on to say "when Moses heard the words" at the burning Bush, he was not told "I am who I am." Leave that for Doctor Suess.

What Buber says is that if you were to ask God "where he is in this universe," you'd be told "he's in your heart, when you're ready to find him, there. It's not an intellectual argument. Because your heart is irrational. (Just like the universe of irrational numbers.) Doesn't intersect with ideas you have in your head. Which is more than likely to fill you with fake arguments.

Since Buber speaks of LOVE, and he uses as his model "how the first man actually fell in love with his wife" ... he shows how love changes the pre-conditions men expect to get when women are terrorized to "obey."

As to Talmudic arguments, ahead, it's rather funny and sad that the Yeshiva organization in New York, fell for the gonif's lies. And, got taken to the cleaners in a ponzi scheme. Now, what happens when you don't give your own students access to a stream of revenue by doing hard work, I have no idea.

But something just went "bust."

And, without the billions? Hardly likely the charity needs will get supported, ahead. Everyone's gonna be working with less.

It's a good lesson to stay away from charlatans, though. In the world of ideas, AND the world of money, it seems there are more "geniuses" who can bilk you, than ought'a be allowed.