Taz (Bereishis 2:24):And
therefore a man leaves…… The Holy spirit said this because if you say that
Adam said it together with “This time …” .That can’t be since it serves no
purpose to finish off his statement in that manner. .In contrast if it were
said by the Holy spirit and then it is understood as a warning as Rashi
explains. And they become one flesh – the Rambam asks “even animals
become one flesh in their offspring?”And
in truth this is not really a problem at all because this verse is
stated only to prohibit certain sexual relations such as bestiality as is
stated in Sanhedrin 58a),”Rabbi Akiva said and cleave to his wife and not
another male or the wife of another man and they shall become one flesh means
only those sexual relations that result in one flesh through the offspring
which excludes with animals because intercourse with them does not produce
offspring. And this is what Rashi meant when he was explain the phrase “one
flesh” teaches that intercourse with animals is prohibited But we rely on the
gemora that “cleave” excludes homosexual relations because the recipient gets no pleasure as
Rashi notes. But why not learn this from “one flesh”because it cant produce
offspring but then why is the word
cleave (davak) needed if everything is learned from “one flesh”? it appears to
me that without the word “cleave” I would have explained the prohibition of
bestiality as because it is lacking in unity. In other words with an animal there
is a lack of constant togetherness and that is the reason that they are not one
flesh being together today but tomorrow
the animal is with someone else. The Ramban says something a little bit similar
concerning cleaving. Therefore I would have mistakenly thought that homosexual
relation would be permitted because exclusive loyalty is possible between two
males. Something similar is alluded to in the gemora noting that the Persians
don’t write a Kesubah for a homosexual couple. Therefore the Torah states and
cleaves to exclude homosexuality since the recipient does not get pleasure. But
I might mistakenly think that if the prohibition is because of the lack of
pleasue and the animal does get pleasure it is therefore permitted! Therefore
we learn from “one flesh” that it is prohibited. And this appears to me to be
correct
No heter. He's saying he might have been led to think, but not. He lived in the time of shabbetai zvi, there was a lot of licentiousness then
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed potentially dangerous. Given their poor Hebrew and comprehension skills, I can think of a couple of Open Orthodox scholars who will conclude that if the recipient of anal intercourse does enjoy the act and if it's a monogamous relationship then the Taz does indeed permit homosexual acts and therefore homosexual marriage.
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