[Avodah] Yakov kissing Rachel

[Mark Levin]

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
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20061201/e8e6cb6a/attachment-0001.htm>