כ ויעבד יעקב ברחל, שבע שנים; ויהיו בעיניו כימים אחדים, באהבתו אתה
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. (Gen. 29:20)
It's pretty rare for the Torah to talk about love this way, but this verse has a timelessness to it that resonates even today. I'm lucky enough to have a Rachel of my own, but I'm in a long distance relationship and my parents oppose the union. Whoever wrote this verse had the right attitude: you've got to focus on the love, because it's bigger than any obstacle. Focus on the love, and everything else will fall into place.
Jacob, meet Akon.
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18 comments:
אֹתָהּ
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Must be gematriah something holy ;)
I'm always amazed by "scholars" who claim that romantic love is a recent invention...
"my parents oppose the union"
By the way, God does too.
But you are skipping the part that Jacobs parents told him to go to Lavan and seek a wife and not pick from the "others"
@BHB,
אֹתָהּ
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Must be gematriah something holy ;)
Fixed it now, bam!
@mOOm,
I'm always amazed by "scholars" who claim that romantic love is a recent invention..
This proves it isn't! Although it might have been rarer.
@JP,
"my parents oppose the union"
By the way, God does too.
No, God is on my side on this one. He doesn't like discrimination, and he's happy when his different race and religion children find peace together.
@HH,
But you are skipping the part that Jacobs parents told him to go to Lavan and seek a wife and not pick from the "others"
Yeah, that worked out really well for Jacob. His parents were wrong to discriminate, and so are mine.
>Yeah, that worked out really well for Jacob. His parents were wrong to discriminate, and so are mine.
Another classic example of you cherry picking from the Torah.
@HH,
Yeah, that worked out really well for Jacob. His parents were wrong to discriminate, and so are mine.
Another classic example of you cherry picking from the Torah.
First off, one of the Torah's great themes is arguing with God when he's wrong.
Second off, the Torah never forbids intermarriage between Jew and gentile.
Third off, even Rebecca only rejects the local girls because she doesn't like the way they behave.
>First off, one of the Torah's great themes is arguing with God when he's wrong.
True, but how does this help you out here. That perhaps his parents were wrong? Come on. Weren't YOU the one, I believe on OP's blog that was critical of people interpreted passages from the author intended.
>Second off, the Torah never forbids intermarriage between Jew and gentile.
But the Torah does specifically say to stone a rebellious son, so are you saying that your parents should stone you? Once again, you cherry pick when to look at the text, and when to fall back on rabbinic judaism. (not that I think intermarriage is solely a rabbinic construct)
>Third off, even Rebecca only rejects the local girls because she doesn't like the way they behave.
Source???
Also, the only reason you are bringing up the idea of his parents may be wrong and thus allowing you to disagree with them (as Abaham did with God) is because you're own Mommy and Daddy have rejected your bride to be. Nothing objective about your understand. It's all coming from a feeling of bitterness.
>It's all coming from a feeling of bitterness.
Mind you, I can understand your bitterness, but don't make Judaism into what it is not.
@HH,
>Third off, even Rebecca only rejects the local girls because she doesn't like the way they behave.
Source???
(sigh)
Gen 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac: 'I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?'
But the Torah does specifically say to stone a rebellious son, so are you saying that your parents should stone you?
The Torah is wrong there, just as it's wrong when it condones the rape of the gentile female captive or the genocide of Amalek.
Once again, you cherry pick when to look at the text, and when to fall back on rabbinic judaism.
It's not cherry picking, it's seeing the forest for the trees. We can get into it more in the ensuing discussion on midrash, I think that's a good place to start.
Speaking of the forest for the trees, the point of the post was not to spark yet another referendum on OT morality. It was to *celebrate* love, old and new. Perhaps we can keep the conversation on that track.
>Gen 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac: 'I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?'
I knew you were thinking of this source, but where in here does it exactly talk about behaivor?
>It's not cherry picking, it's seeing the forest for the trees
Couldn't say it better myself. The point of everything is for the maintaining of the covenant and the monotheistic idea between the family and society at large and then passed down to further generations.
Anyways, yes, love is important.
>By the way, God does too.
>>No, God is on my side on this one. He doesn't like discrimination, and he's happy when his different race and religion children find peace together.
This is the problem with people claiming to know the will of the Divine.
Nobody knows jack diddly. Everyone hopes that God is on their side (even most agnostics/atheists, think of Betrand Russel) but of course their seems to be little or no justification/reasoning/authority that is universally convincing, or even logically or morally appealing to others.
Hey CM-
Thanks for sharing, that is a beautiful passage. Sorry to read about the difficult state of your relationship. Double whammy of long distance and parental opposition. Hang in there, and don't listen to harsh naysayers like Jewish Philosopher and Holy Hyrax (and you clearly aren't, given your responses). Love is potent stuff, and will give you what you need to carry the flame for her while you're in the middle of this tough period.
E-mail me at unkosherjesus@gmail.com, re: interblog dialogue. I'm getting the hang of posting regularly again, and have cleared the deck of other topics I had wanted to address, and can now focus on our discussion. Have a good one!
Doug
>naysayers like Jewish Philosopher and Holy Hyrax
Oh
And kindly point to somewhere specific where I have been a naysayer to his relationship
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