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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>RMB writes:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>How is this defined? Rashi speaks of people marrying each other,
but<BR>how does one define marriage without invoking the concepts of
eirusin<BR>and niru'in? Are we talking about common law, just living
together<BR>monogamously?<BR><BR>What's the ma'aseh aveirah of KMEM aside from
that of actual MZ or<BR>nashim hamesolelot?<<<BR></FONT></DIV><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>My husband, R' Michael Katz, did a lot of research into this when he used
to teach Noahide classes. Goyim are not allowed to commit adultery, but
what constitutes marriage for them? Roughly, there are two opinions:
one is that if they live together as man and wife they are married, and the
other is that if they make any kind of public declaration (like a church wedding
or getting married before a justice of the peace) then they are married. A
subset of the first opinion is that if they just sleep together once they are
married.</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>The next question is, how do they get divorced? Again there are
different opinions. One opinion is that indeed goyim cannot get divorced,
once married is forever married. You might call this the Catholic opinion.
:- ) The other opinion is that if they publicly separate and live in
different houses and declare that they are divorced, then they are
divorced. (The Protestant option.) A subset of this is that
they can get divorced by just saying, "I divorce you." (The Moslem
option.)</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>In the specific case of Mitzrayim -- changing the subject a bit -- I
think from what happened with Avraham and Sarah we can deduce
that Egyptians would not sleep with a married woman, but WOULD kill her
husband in order to make her "not a married woman." That kind of "morality" is
not, needless to say, Torah morality.</DIV>
<DIV></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><B><BR></B><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>