[Avodah] Would Ruth's conversion be rejected today?

Zev Sero zev at sero.name
Fri Jun 1 10:39:45 PDT 2012


On 1/06/2012 1:27 PM, Micha Berger wrote:
> It's not hypothetical, since we have Tamar and the people in Rus
> performing a non-halachic quasi-yibum.

No, we don't.  In the case of Tamar we have actual halachic yibum,
and *nothing else*.  In the case of Rus there's no need to suppose
yibum at all.


>> Yehudah cared about it when he encouraged Onan to marry Tamar.  But
>> there's no indication that Tamar cared about it at all.  What she
>> cared about was becoming part of Yaacov's family.

> Do you know he encouraged Onan?

Um, yes.  "Bo el eshet achicha veyabem otah, vehakem zera le'achicha".
It wasn't Onan's idea.


> Do you know what Tamar was thinking?
> We know Chazal say Tamar considered it an honor to stay in Yaaqov's
> family. We do not know that she didn't also have other motivations.

Nor do we know that she did, and there's nothing in the story that
requires us to suppose any such other motivations.


> BTW, does anyone know if real yibum requires lishmah, the way
> qiddushin via bi'ah would?

No, it definitely doesn't.  Even if he fell off a roof and somehow
landed in her, it's a valid yibum.

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon



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