[Avodah] A Question About Yitzchok Taking a Canaanite Wife

[T613K at aol.com]

From: Micha Berger _micha at aishdas.org_ (mailto:micha at aishdas.org) 

: Of course I was  mistaken.  Aner, Eshkol and Mamre were Amorites --  
: descendants  of Canaan.  If Eliezer had not found a suitable wife for  
Yitzchak in  
: Aram, or she wasn't willing to come to E'Y, then Yitzchak would   indeed 
have 
: married a Canaanite woman. [--TK]

Perhaps mibenos  Kenaan didn't refer to Canaanite women but to women from
the land of  Canaan?

I wanted to say that Aneir, Eshkol and Mamrei were "nefesh asher  asu
becharan", freed from their genetic and cultural origins. But then,  so
was Eliezer. So then the thought crossed my mind that maybe  Eliezer's
living in Eretz Kenaan exposed his daughter to influences that  the
converts in Trans-Jordan were not subject to.

And who other than  the avos attended the yeshivos of Sheim vaEiver?
Wouldn't any of them have  daughters? But again, they too would be
living in Kenaan.

-- 
Micha  Berger              
micha at aishdas.org        




>>>>>
 
Avraham to Eliezer:  "Do not take a wife for my son from the daughters  of 
the Canaanites." (Ber 24:3)
 
Eliezer:  "Maybe the woman won't want to come with me to this  land."
 
Avraham:  "If the woman doesn't want to come here you will be absolved  of 
this oath." (Ber 24:8)
 
Rashi:  "You will be absolved of this oath....and take a wife for my  son 
from the daughters of Aner, Eshkol and Mamre."
 
Art/Scroll footnote:  "Although Aner, Eshkol and Mamre were Amorites  (SEE 
BER 14:13), descendants of Canaan (SEE BER 10:15-16), and Abraham had  
Eliezer swear not to take a wife for Isaac from among the daughters of the  
Canaanites, Abraham absolved Eliezer of this oath if he could not find a wife  
from within the family, and instructed him to take a wife for Isaac from among 
 the best of the descendants of Canaan (Mizrachi)."
 
BER 14:13: "And the fugitive came and told Abram, the Ivri, who dwelt in  
the plains of *Mamre the Amorite* (Mamre the Emori), brother of Eshkol and of 
 Aner...."
 
BER 10:15-16: "Canaan begot Zidon and....the Jebusites and the Amorites  
(the Emori)..."
 
 
So if Rivka had not come to E'Y, Yitzchak would most likely have  married a 
Canaanite (Amorite) woman -- not just a woman who happened to be  living in 
Canaan.
 
HOWEVER, there were also other possibilities.  Eliezer said to Besuel  and 
Lavan, "If you won't send Rivka with me, I will turn to the right or the  
left" (Ber 24:49)
 
Rashi there says, "To the right -- from the daughters of Yishmael.  To  the 
left -- from the daughters of Lot."
 
--Toby Katz
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