[Avodah] Halacha vs. Policy - Poll re: Who To Marry

[Michael Makovi]

> A person has the
> choice of marrying a Jewish woman who doesn't observe the laws of family
> purity or a non-Jewish woman. Which is preferable? A student who has not
> properly served an apprenticeship with an experienced posek will say
> that it is obvious that the person should chose to marry the non-Jewish
> woman.
>
> Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky, quoted by R' Daniel Eidensohn

I've seen this before, and I've never understood where Rabbi Kaminetsky
gets his prima facie from. I haven't served as an apprentice to a poseq,
but nevertheless, it was still my gut reaction that marrying the Jewish
woman who violates niddah is preferable to marrying the non-Jew. This is
obvious, and you don't need to serve under a poseq to know it. I don't see
why serving under a poseq would make this any more or less obvious. Why on
earth would someone think that it is better to marry the non-Jew??!! Just
read all the Tanakhic narratives and midrashim about marrying gentiles,
versus the narratives and midrashim about niddah, and see which one says
worse things. I believe Ezra compares intermarriage to worshiping other
gods, but I don't recall seeing anything like this about niddah. Rabbi
Kaminetsky's opinion, that the unexperienced unlearned will say that it
is better to marry a non-Jew, is simply false in my experience.

I just asked a random non-gadol friend of mine to answer this question,
and he answered (without missing a beat) that to him it was obvious,
a no-brainer, that one marries the Jewish woman who violates niddah,
and not the gentile.

So I'm not sure why Rabbi Kaminetsky thinks it is obvious that the
non-scholar will answer that a non-Jew is preferable. It appears to me
that no, the non-scholar will answer that the Jewish woman who violates
niddah is preferable.

So I'm confused. Why does Rabbi Kaminetsky believe (wrongly, IMHO)
that the non-scholar will answer that a non-Jew is preferable?

If Rabbi Kaminetsky is basing himself on which has the more severe
punishment, then this is obviously a false analysis, and it take no
talmid hakham to realize it. By that logic, it is preferable for me
to kill someone by grama (which is patur from all earthly punishment),
instead of stealing a penny (which is punished by my having to pay two
pennies). But what kind of idiot would say that it is preferable to
murder rather than steal one cent, simply because the punishment for
the theft is more severe? Since when we do pasqen by punishment!!! It
says right in Pirqei Avot that we serve G-d not because of reward and
punishment!! Anyone who answers based on the more severe punishment, is
simply an imbecile who knows nothing about Torah. So maybe an imbecile
will answer that it is preferable to marry a non-Jew rather than a Jew
who violates niddah, but the frum Jew of average intelligence (but still
NOT a talmid hakham) will answer differently than the imbecile.

[EMail #2. -micha]

One little aside: the fact that according to Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetsky's
litmus test, I've (almost?) a poseq, is good evidence for why I distrust
authority so much, and for why I'm so ready to disagree with those far
greater than me. Rabbi Kaminetsky offers a litmus test to distinguish
between those who have apprenticed under a poseq, and those who haven't,
and according to his test, I have in fact so apprenticed!! It is only due
to my own knowledge of myself that I know I'm nowhere near the stature
of a poseq, but if I were to rely on Rabbi Kaminetsky's test, I'd have
to say I am in fact a poseq. Anyone who's standards are so low as his,
I don't want to be a part of his group. If Rabbi Kaminetsky's litmus
test for poseqim is indicative of his own personal stature as a poseq,
then I don't want him as my poseq. He says I'm of the stature of a poseq,
but I disagree and I say I'm not of that stature.

That is why I'm so ready to disagree with those greater than me.

Michael Makovi