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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: "M Cohen" <A
href="mailto:mcohen@touchlogic.com">mcohen@touchlogic.com</A><BR><BR>>>I
get the impression from the general tone of the
gemoras<BR>(kesuvos/yevamos/sotah/etc) that<BR>the nature of the husband/wife
relationship (in those days) was more<BR>'business-like'...<BR><BR><BR>...I
don't see a tone of the modern vision of marriage of<BR>..love forever no matter
what / until death do us part /etc<BR><BR>Mordechai
Cohen<BR><BR></FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>Marriage has always had, and still has, a definite aspect of being a
business contract, where two people agree to exchange goods and services in ways
that benefit each of them. However love also has always been part of
marriage. There's the famous story (I'm pretty sure in the
Talmud) of the couple who decided to divorce because they had been married
for ten years without children, and the husband told the wife to take anything
she wanted from his home and take it back to her father's home. She
got her husband drunk and had her servants carry /him/ to her father's
home. After that the rabbis ruled that they did not have to get
divorced. A very poignant story. Also very reassuring to people who
suffer from infertility (as I did for eleven years) and do not want to get
divorced. The reason that the couple did not have to get
divorced IIUC was precisely that they loved each other, which made
their marriage a positive good in G-d's eyes even without children.
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
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PTSIZE="10"></B>President Reagan talked with the Soviets while pushing ahead
with the deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe. He spoke softly —
after getting himself a bigger stick. --Mark Steyn</FONT><FONT lang=0
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