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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Professor L. Levine, quoting R' Hirsch:<BR><BR>>> This,
too, is a characteristic that, thank God, has not vanished from<BR>among the
descendants of Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivkah.<BR>The more she became
his wife, the more he loved her! Like this marriage<BR>of the first Jewish son,
Jewish marriages, most Jewish marriages, are<BR>contracted not on the basis of
passion, but on the strength of reason<BR>and judgment. Parents and relatives
consider whether the two young<BR>people are suited to each other; therefore,
their love increases as they<BR>come to know each other better.<BR><BR><BR>Most
non-Jewish marriages are made on the basis of what they call<BR>"love." But we
need only glance at novelistic depictions taken from life,<BR>and we immediately
see the vast gulf -- in the non-Jewish world --<BR>between the "love" of the
partners before marriage and what happens<BR>afterward; how dull and empty
everything seems after marriage, how<BR>different from what the two partners had
imagined beforehand. This<BR>sort of "love" is blind; each step into the future
brings new disillusionment. <<<BR><BR><BR></FONT></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>>>>>></DIV>
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<DIV>When I was a single girl (and getting a little long in the tooth, having
dated dozens of Mr. Wrongs), the Novominsker Rebbetzen a'h once said to me, "The
goyim put a hot pot on a cold stove. We put a cold pot on a hot
stove."</DIV>
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<DIV>At the time I didn't fully appreciate her words because I thought she was
telling me to go eeny, meeny, miny, mo and just pick somebody already, any
random guy. But now I perceive the wisdom in her words, and I often quote
her. (I add the caveat that you shouldn't go into a marriage without some
level of mutual attraction.) Her words wisely echo R' Hirsch's insight
into the nature of Jewish marriage.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff></FONT><BR><FONT color=#0000ff><STRONG>--Toby
Katz<BR>t613k@aol.com</STRONG></FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff size=2
face=Arial FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>..</STRONG></FONT><FONT
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PTSIZE="10"><BR><STRONG>=============</STRONG><BR><BR><BR>-------------------------------------------------------------------</FONT></DIV>
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