[Avodah] Yaakov kissing Rachel

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck]

> David Eisen wrote:
> 
> > BTW - according to Bereshit Raba, Yaaqov's kiss was indeed of an
> > intimate nature, and it explains that Yaaqov cried after he noticed that
> > the locals started to gossip among each other that this strange man from
> > the west brought with him his licentious practices as these people from
> > the east (the residents of Haran) have refrained from such wanton
> > behaviour (gidru atzman min haerva) ever since Dor Hamabul!
R' Zev Sero: 
> This is inconsistent with Rashi's pshat on "betulah ve'ish lo yeda'ah".

This is also inconsistent with what (IMHO) the Bereishis Rabbah (70:11-12)
says. In 70:11 it says that it was not a kiss of "tiflus" either because it
was a kiss of Perakim or a kiss of K'reivus (Ayin Eitz Yosef). Either way,
it wasn't the kiss of a man to a woman. In 70:12 the Medrash does indeed say
what R' Dovid Eisen quoted, but in light of 70:11 I think that it is more
appropriate to say that Ya'akov's kiss was NOT of an intimate nature, and it
was misinterpreted by the onlookers (who were, as R' ZS points out, not
unschooled in the ways of the world).  

KT,
MYG