In the complex nature of human decisions, where does one draw the line between choice and consequence, between moral clarity and ambiguity? Deuteronomy 21 offers a profound exploration into this very quandary. As we journey through tales of warriors, captive beauties, complexities of love and hate in marriage, and the…
Category: Marriage
Beauty is vital, for women
In an article that recently appeared in an Orthodox Jewish newspaper, the writer, Yitta Halberstam, herself an Orthodox Jewish woman and mother, suggested that girls of marriageable age do whatever they can to augment their physical appearances. She made it clear that, if necessary young Orthodox Jewish women should undergo…
The Wedding Guidelines Fallacy
Weddings are often very extravagant affairs. It is an opportunity for people to share a joyous occasion with friends and family. If the parents of the bride and groom are wealthy, they will want to invite as many friends and acquaintances to join them in a high-end event, with top…
Can we truly love?
The Torah commands us to love our fellow man with the same intensity that we love ourselves. A commandment to love another person seems unrealistic. Love is something you either feel or you don’t. So to be commanded to love another just as we love ourselves is bordering on asking…
A guide to a good marriage
Sheindy (my wife) has a simple philosophy for increased productivity: “People should first do the necessary and essential chores they do not enjoy and only then go on to do the more pleasurable jobs.” She maintains that having something to look forward to when one is done infuses the chores…
Kabbalistic Wives
Marriage is portrayed by our culture as boring and monotonous but the Kabbalists hold the wife in very high esteem Not long ago I decided to stop off at one of London’s major shopping malls to buy a gift for my wife. I was not looking for anything fancy, just…
Bigamy and discrimination
Should bigamy remain illegal just because we don’t like it? While many family advocacy groups in the United States have been working over time to fight against the legal institutionalization of same sex marriage another issue has slowly crept up. The US Supreme Court is currently deciding whether the ban…
The Wisdom of Arranged Marriages
Most modern people frown on the concept of arranged marriages and see it as a primitive and unfair practice. However, based on the current divorce rate in Western countries, the secular method of finding a mate seems to be even less successful. Both systems seem to have failed. There is,…
The Festival of Marriage & Family Values
This Shabbat is the fifteenth day of the month of Av. Some in Israel markthis day with a “Festival of Love” and commemorate it with all night rock concerts, most noticeably on the shores of Lake Kineret. There are also those who celebrate it by attending "Love, Sexuality and Art…