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Sh'lah on the Torah |
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Parshat VaYeitzei The following translation by Mr. Eliyahu Munk is an excerpt from the book Shney Luchot HaBrit -- the Sh'lah Jacob’s
choice of words, when he asked Laban to give him his wife at the end of seven
years of service, is truly puzzling. Even the most boorish person would not use
such crass language. Genesis 29,21
sounds as if Jacob said: “Hand over my
wife for I have completed my years.” We
must also wonder at Leah’s choice of words in 30,16: “To me you must
come this night, for I have hired you for the mandrakes of my son.” Nachmanides, in his book Igeret Hakodesh,
has already written about the significance of the terms joining and knowing
when used to describe sexual unions.
Before man sinned and became polluted with the zuhama, the filth
of the evil urge, the act of copulation was considered the fulfillment of a
mitzvah, similar to all other mitzvoth. Just as one employs one’s hands to
fulfill the commandment of building a sukkah, hut, or one takes a lulav, palm
frond, in one’s hands, so one uses a different organ to fulfill the commandment
of being fruitful. The genitals were created to enable man to perform this
commandment, and there was no feeling of shame or embarrassment attached to the
act. Only
after the serpent had made man aware that he was nude, and that the very
condition of nudity was something to be embarrassed about, did the act of sexual
union become associated with feelings of shame and embarrassment. In the
future, when G-d will remove the evil urge from us, and we shall again be as
free from sin as Adam was before his sin, the act of physical union between man
and wife will again be the performance of a mitzvah like al other mitzvoth. The
patriarchs and matriarchs were on a spiritual level approaching that which in
the future will exist amongst ordinary people. This enabled them to express
themselves in a totally unrestrained manner.
Whereas ordinary people, in order not to appear gross, must describe
every reference to sexual activity by something the sages call lashon nikiya,
euphemistic language, the patriarchs and matriarchs had no need to resort to
this; their holiness was natural, the result of child-like innocence. This also
explains why Jacob is reported as kissing Rachel the moment they met, and why
such conduct is not considered suggestive.
his is why Rashi explains that Jacob’s meaning was simply: “When can I begin to sire the twelve
tribes?” Just as sexual union before
the sin was an act which did not need to be performed in private, so the
provision of food and clothing at that time was also something that did not
involve man in preparation or hard labor.
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Ascent of Safed
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