[Avodah] Ma'aseh eretz Mitzrayim

[Zev Sero]

T613K at aol.com wrote:

> 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.

I don't think this is tenable, because it would seem to eliminate
the position of kedesha.  The pasuk says "lo tihyeh kedesha bivnot
yisrael", which implies that there is no such prohibition for BN.
And Yehudah seems to have had no more than mild embarrassment at
admitting to having been with one, so long as that admission was
limited to his partner, and to discreet enquiries of people in the
immediate vicinity.  It was only when it seemed that more extensive
enquiries would be necessary, making it a matter of public gossip,
that he felt too embarrassed to continue.

Even according to the first opinion, that no public ceremony is
necessary, it seems to me that they would have to make themselves
publicly known as a married couple, and not simply as lovers.
Otherwise you've eliminated the position of pilegesh, which it is
clear from many pesukim existed among BN.

It seems to me that each society defines for itself its own marriage
customs, but most societies have *some* such set of customs, and a
definite idea of who is married and who isn't, and attach importance
to that distinction.  And that the laws of adultery and Maaseh Eretz
Mitzrayim adapt themselves to the local definition of marriage.  And
that in the rare society which has no such institution (e.g. the
Scandinavian Gypsies), those dinim have no application.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas