[Avodah] Clear Thinking about Male Homosexuals

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 12:17:03PM -0500, T613K at aol.com wrote:
: As I was re-reading this, I remembered that Avraham marrying a half-sister  
: IS stated in the text--he told Avimelech that Sarah was his half-sister.  

"Achosi hi", nothing about halves (21:2). Similarly Avraham in Mitzrayim
(12:12,19) and Yitzchaq in Gerar (27:7).

I like R' Hertz's explanation.

There is a law in the Hammurabi code by which a father in law can "adopt"
a child for the sake of inheritence. I presume it was a kind of dowry,
or a means of showing the machateinim a vote of confidence.

In this way, Avraham could have been giving a misimpression by telling
something that is strictly true, leshanos es ha'emes, which is mutar in
more contexts than actual sheqer is. Although both are mutar in a case
of safeiq piquach nefesh anyway.

In order to apply this idea to Yitzchaq and Avimelekh, we would have to
say that Avraham followed this practice as well. That's more of a chiddush
than saying Terach followed the norms for rich Mesopotamians. But not
terribly so.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Despair is the worst of ailments. No worries
micha at aishdas.org        are justified except: "Why am I so worried?"
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