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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Daniel Eidensohn <A
href="mailto:yadmoshe@012.net.il">yadmoshe@012.net.il</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>R' Yitzchok Levine wrote:<BR>> *Love and marriage, love and
marriage<BR>> Go together like a horse and carriage<BR>> This I tell you
brother<BR>> You can't have one without the other<BR>> *<BR>> From a
Torah standpoint, there is something very wrong with the <BR>> lyrics. See
RSRH's commentary on Bereishis 24:67 <BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><BR>>>It is not helpful to present a statement out of context or even
give an <BR>interpretation which is not supported by the text. While there are
<BR>marriages that follow the Yitzchok Rivka model there are others that are
<BR>successful because they are the Yaakov - Rochel model. <<</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>>>>>><BR>My neighbor, R' Yakov Homnick, said in a shiur that
pretty much every way a marriage can come about is covered in the Torah.
You can marry "the girl next door" -- somebody you grew up with and have
known for a long time -- like Avraham and Sarah. You can have an arranged
marriage, like Yitzchak and Rivka. You can meet a girl and fall in love,
like Yakov and Rochel. All these marriages can be very happy and loving
marriages, Torah marriages. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I will add only that, from a modern perspective (and I am including
Hirsch's 19th century Germany as "modern"), it is the second of those three
marriages -- the arranged marriage -- that most needs defending and explaining,
as Hirsch set out to do in his commentary. Another generation might have
been appalled by Yakov's courtship of Rochel and might have taken
Yitzchak's marriage in stride, but moderns are appalled by the idea of marrying
a girl you don't know, chosen for you by your parents. So that was the one
that needed defending, and as Hirsch correctly says, such an arranged marriage,
made with the wisdom and experience of your elders, can indeed be a very happy
and loving marriage. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Let me add that the Novominsker rebetzen A'H once told me, when I was a
single girl, "When goyim get married they put a hot pot on a cold stove, but we
Jews put a cold pot on a hot stove." At the time I didn't really
understand what she meant (and I didn't take her advice, which was to "settle"
and marry a suitable person without worrying about "being in love"), but I
now perceive that there was wisdom in her words, because of the way that a
Torah life provides structure and support to a good marriage, regardless of
whether the marriage started off on the Avraham, Yitzchak, or Yakov model.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>PS I am not comfortable with this subject line because it seems to put
Hirsch and Sinatra on the same level, as two Torah commentators who have a
disagreement. Don't know how to change it but do want to register at least
a mild protest.<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby Katz<BR>=============<BR></B>"If you don't read the
newspaper you are uninformed; <BR>if you do read the newspaper you are
misinformed."<BR>--Mark Twain<BR>Read *Jewish World Review* at <A
href="http://jewishworldreview.com/">http://jewishworldreview.com/</A></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV CLASS="aol_ad_footer" ID="1b634cd68d3eec7ed7142b40bf2f47d3"><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px"><b>One site has it all.</b> Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. <b>Try the new <a href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212962939x1200825291/aol?redir=http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp%26icid=aolcom40vanity%26ncid=emlcntaolcom00000001">AOL.com</a> today!</b></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>