[Avodah] Ma'aseh eretz Mitzrayim

[T613K at aol.com]

RMB writes:
>>How is this defined? Rashi speaks of people marrying each other,  but
how does one define marriage without invoking the concepts of  eirusin
and niru'in? Are we talking about common law, just living  together
monogamously?

What's the ma'aseh aveirah of KMEM aside from  that of actual MZ or
nashim hamesolelot?<<


.
>>>>>
My husband, R' Michael Katz, did a lot of research into this when he used  to 
teach Noahide classes.  Goyim are not allowed to commit adultery, but  what 
constitutes marriage for them?  Roughly, there are two opinions:   one is that 
if they live together as man and wife they are married, and the  other is that 
if they make any kind of public declaration (like a church wedding  or 
getting married before a justice of the peace) then they are married.  A  subset of 
the first opinion is that if they just sleep together once they are  married.
 
The next question is, how do they get divorced?  Again there are  different 
opinions.  One opinion is that indeed goyim cannot get divorced,  once married 
is forever married.  You might call this the Catholic opinion.  :- )  The 
other opinion is that if they publicly separate and live in  different houses and 
declare that they are divorced, then they are  divorced.  (The Protestant 
option.)  A subset of this is that  they can get divorced by just saying, "I 
divorce you."  (The Moslem  option.)
 
In the specific case of Mitzrayim -- changing the subject a bit -- I  think 
from what happened with Avraham and Sarah we can deduce  that Egyptians would 
not sleep with a married woman, but WOULD kill her  husband in order to make 
her "not a married woman." That kind of "morality" is  not, needless to say, 
Torah morality.




--Toby  Katz
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