Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Olam Chesed Yibaneh for Yaakov to Populate Klal Yisrael

We have discussed the Maharal's explanation of how Shimon could marry Dina.  One aspect of that explanation was that there simply was no one else to marry.  Just as Adam haRishon was the beginning of humanity -- ie, B'nei Adam, so too Yaakov was the beginning of klal yisrael -- ie, B'nei Yisrael.  Just as Adam haRishon's children married siblings by necessity, so to Yaakov's children married siblings by the same necessity.  At first glance, this seems to contradict the first explanation (that they were all geirim), because a ger can marry Jew he wants.  (I know, I know... "Jews" as a label really comes from Yehuda and after the destruction of the northern kingdom.  However, you all know what I mean and it is needlessly tedious to avoid the term.)  If, on the other hand, they married each other out of necessity and "olam chesed yibaneh" (at times forbidden relations are permitted for populating the world), then why do I need the geirus explanation at all?
But I think these explanations are really complementary.  Geirus does not make a person homeless, it makes him part of klal yisrael.  In doing so, the ger loses his original relatives and can marry any other Jew.  However, klal yisrael lives at a higher level of k'dusha than the umos ha'olam.  Using a loophole (brothers and sisters are no longer halachically related) simply to permit a previously forbidden marriage is, well, just not done.  You need a very strong reason to push you in that direction.  Having no other candidates together with "olam chesed yibaneh" is that push.  The Maharal points out that Yaakov would not have married another two sisters; he married the two sisters he was supposed to marry.  Shimon would not have married another sister; he married the sister he was supposed to marry.

How did they know when they were permitted/required to do something that the Torah would later forbid?  How does that go along with the fact that the avos kept kol haTorah kulo?  Great questions.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aru...
Post a Comment
Read more