[Avodah] RYBS's Talk on Hafkaas Kiddushin, Talmud Torah and Kabal as Ol Malchus Shamayim

[Kenneth Miller via Avodah]

Rav YB Soloveitchik zt"l was quoted:

> ... Let us take for example the chazaka that I was told
> about: the chazaka tav l'meisiv tan du mil'meisiv armalo
> [20] has absolutely nothing to do with the social and
> political status of women in antiquity. This chazaka is
> based not upon sociological factors, but upon a verse in
> breishis -- harba arbeh itz'voneich v'heironeich b'etzev
> teildi vanim v'el isheich t'shukaseich v'hu yimshal bach
> -- "I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail; in
> pain thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall
> be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" [21]. It
> is a metaphysical curse rooted in the feminine personality
> -- she suffers incomparably more that the male who is in
> solitude. Solitude to the male is not as terrible an
> experience, as horrifying an experience, as is solitude to
> the woman. And this will never change, mayid shamayim
> vaaretz [22]. This is not a psychological fact; it is an
> existential fact, ...

In our discussions of this idea, that the chazaka is "an existential fact" and "based not upon sociological factors", there seems to be a general assumption that the Rav was speaking of ALL chazakos. However, it seems possible to me, or perhaps even likely, that he was singling this chazaka out as different from others.

Note that he does not merely assert this chazaka to be existential, but he cites a pasuk as proof. To me, this is significant, because we would then be allowed to treat any NON-pasuk-based chazaka as sociological.

I don't know what implications this might have for the chazaka of extramarital relations that R"n Chana Luntz mentioned, or for any other chazakos, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone else wants to comment.

Akiva Miller
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