[Avodah] Yakov kissing Rachel
Mark Levin
mlevinmd at verizon.net
Fri Dec 1 08:34:13 PST 2006
When Yaakov first meets Rachel the first thing he does is kiss
: her and then he cries. What is the significance of this kiss? How was
: Yaakov allowed to do that?
Of course, in today's Charedi society this could never happen, men and
women
mingling and talking at the well??? There would be a mehadrin well with
different times for men and women or 2 separate mehadrin wells 1 for
men and
1 for women so that they chas v'shalom shouldn't mingle.
Comment: I think this is addressed by Ibn Ezra who points out the language "Yakov kissed to Rachel", meaning he kissed her on her hand. Note AZ 17a: "'Ulla on returning from college used tokiss his sister on the hand; some say, on the (upper) chest. He, then, contradicts himself. For 'Ulla said: Even mere approach is forbidden because we say to a Nazarite, 'Go, go round about; but do not approach 'the vineyard
Robert ALter points out in his Art of Biblical Narrative that the situaton of the well repeats in the Torah because the well would be tehhonly place where men adn women could meet. Othewise they were always separate.
M. Levin
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