[Avodah] Yasis Alayikh

[Zev Sero]

On 23/09/18 00:40, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> .
> 
> 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."

I would suggest that that is drush, not pshat.


> 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. 

The distinction between "husband" and "master" would indeed have been 
blurry, but I don't think there's any sexual sense there.  It would of 
course be assumed that there *is* normal married life going on, but it's 
not implied in the word.


> 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.

An unmarried girl would be assumed to be a besulah, unless she was known 
not to be.   But I think the opposite, in leshon Tanach, would not be 
"beulah" but "naarah lo besulah" or something like that.

cf the first part of the very pasuk whose second part we're discussing; 
"ki yiv`al bachur besulah yiv`aluch banayich".  I don't think it's 
possible that there could be a sexual undertone in the nimshal, and 
therefore it seems to me there can't be one in the mashal either.

-- 
Zev Sero            A prosperous and healthy 5779 to all
zev at sero.name       Seek Jerusalem's peace; may all who love you prosper