[Avodah] Yasis Alayikh

[Akiva Miller]

.

R' Zev Sero wrote:

> AFAIK the verb "liv'ol" in Tanach means "to marry", "to become
> the husband of", and is never used in the anatomic sense that
> it takes in the gemara.

"Never"? A good example of where it clearly *does* have that meaning would
be Devarim 24:1 - "Ki yikach ish ishah uv'alah", which Kiddushin 4b
understands as "a woman can be acquired via biah."

Most other examples are quite debatable, subject to the mindset or
sociology involved. For example, does the common phrase "beulas baal" mean
"the wife of a husband" as a legal status, or does it mean "the subject of
a master" in a sexual sense? I suspect that this question makes sense only
to modern minds who have differentiated those two concepts, but in older
days they wouldn't even understand the question. This is similar
(identical?) to asking whether "besulah" means "biological virgin" or
"unmarried girl". The basic literal meaning could easily be one while the
actual colloquial usage refers to the other.

[Disclaimer: I am quite the amateur at this stuff, and would happily listen
to anyone who wants to explain a different view.]

Akiva Miller
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