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TEXTS REGARDING RELATIONSHIPS AND MARRIAGE A Roman lady asked a Rabbi, "In how many days did the Holy One, blessed be He,
create the Universe?" "In six days," he answered. "What has He
been doing since then up to the present?" "He has been arranging
marriages." "Is that His occupation? I, too, could do it. I possess many
male and female slaves, and in a very short while I can pair them together. " He said
to her, "If it is a simple thing in your eyes, it is as difficult to the Holy One,
blessed be He, as dividing the Red Sea." He then took his departure. What did
she do? She summoned a thousand male slaves and a thousand female slaves, set them in rows
and announced who should marry whom. In a single night she arranged marriages for
them all. The next day they appeared before her, one with a cracked forehead,
another with an eye knocked out, and another with a broken leg. She asked them,
"What is the matter with you?" One female said, "I don't want
him." Another male said, "I don't want her." She forthwith sent
for the Rabbi and said to him, "There is no god like your God and your Torah is true.
What you told me is quite correct." If one married a woman and waited with her ten years without her bearing a child, he is
not permitted to remain except (from the duty of procreation). When he divorced her
she may remarry, and the second husband waits with her ten years. If she miscarry,
the period of ten years is reckoned from the time of the miscarriage. Should blemishes appear in a man, the Cort does not compel him to divorce his wife.
Rabbi Simeon Ben Gamaliel said, "This is true for minor blemishes, but in the
case of serious blemishes he is compelled to give a divorce. " Rabbi Meir
declares... that even if the husband made an agreement with her, she is entitled to plead,
"I thought I could endure it (sexual relations), but now I see I cannot." Talmudic law declares: "the court may bring strong pressure to bear upon the
husband until he says, "I am willing to divorce my wife." The first purpose of marriage (according to the Arba'ah Turim)...is no formulate
companionship since "He knew that it is good for a man to be alone and therefore made
a helpmate for him." The Sages said that a man should love his wife like himself and honor her more than
himself. |