The concept of marriage is understandably as varied as the number of religions that approach it. Yet, one similarity found among all the major world religions is that marriage is held “as a vital and valuable institution and practice that lies at the heart of the family and at the foundation of a broader society.” Marriage as an institution holds great weight within religions, upon which devotees can construct families in the image of their given deity/deities. How the institution does that, and what it means within the context of the social structure, varies considerably from one religion to another.
Judaism first establishes ideas of marriage in the Torah, the original text of Jewish religious practice. Different sections of the Torah provide …show more content…
What does marriage mean for Jewish life that requires such restrictions? Flavius Josephus wrote on Jewish society during the first century CE and provides substantial insight into what marriage means historically for Jewish people. “The law,” he writes, “enjoins us to bring up all our offspring. [Marriage shall] be used only for the procreation of children.” Josephus reveals that marriage’s sacredness, as far as Judaism is concerned, sprouts from the production of children. The Mishnah, Rabbinic Judaism’s first text, echoes this same sentiment by saying “The man is commanded to procreate…of both [men and women] it says ‘God blessed them, and He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’.” Procreation is viewed here as a commandment of God himself to man. Thus, marriage, the site through which valid procreation takes place, becomes a divinely ordained institution in the Jewish faith. Procreation holds significant importance among Jews because of the history of attempts at Jewish extermination; time and time again the Jews have been targets of violence by various other nations, clans, tribes, and religious groups. Therefore, immense pressure exists upon Judaism to structure families such that it continues to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds. Procreation is, for Judaism, both a divine action and historic means of …show more content…
She is never idle, never lazy, and always makes time to be good to her husband. Essentially, women in ideal Jewish marriages are little more than house servants who produce children. Prior to the bolstered patriarchy of the rabbinic period of Judaism, there were certain structures that afforded women some agency, such as divorce. The Elephantine Marriage Contract, for example, was written during the Persian period (ca. 536-332 BCE) when Jews lived in a garrison in Southern Egypt called Elephantine. The document states that, “should Miptahiah [the wife in this scenario] stand up in assembly and say: “I hated Eshor my husband,”…she shall place upon the balance-scale and weigh out to Eshor silver…and go away wherever she desires, without suit or without process.” Though this tradition ultimately does not last, the ability for a woman to buy her way out of a marriage in the same way as her husband is telling of a Judaic history in which women were not as inferior as one might
Judaism first establishes ideas of marriage in the Torah, the original text of Jewish religious practice. Different sections of the Torah provide …show more content…
What does marriage mean for Jewish life that requires such restrictions? Flavius Josephus wrote on Jewish society during the first century CE and provides substantial insight into what marriage means historically for Jewish people. “The law,” he writes, “enjoins us to bring up all our offspring. [Marriage shall] be used only for the procreation of children.” Josephus reveals that marriage’s sacredness, as far as Judaism is concerned, sprouts from the production of children. The Mishnah, Rabbinic Judaism’s first text, echoes this same sentiment by saying “The man is commanded to procreate…of both [men and women] it says ‘God blessed them, and He said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’.” Procreation is viewed here as a commandment of God himself to man. Thus, marriage, the site through which valid procreation takes place, becomes a divinely ordained institution in the Jewish faith. Procreation holds significant importance among Jews because of the history of attempts at Jewish extermination; time and time again the Jews have been targets of violence by various other nations, clans, tribes, and religious groups. Therefore, immense pressure exists upon Judaism to structure families such that it continues to persevere in the face of overwhelming odds. Procreation is, for Judaism, both a divine action and historic means of …show more content…
She is never idle, never lazy, and always makes time to be good to her husband. Essentially, women in ideal Jewish marriages are little more than house servants who produce children. Prior to the bolstered patriarchy of the rabbinic period of Judaism, there were certain structures that afforded women some agency, such as divorce. The Elephantine Marriage Contract, for example, was written during the Persian period (ca. 536-332 BCE) when Jews lived in a garrison in Southern Egypt called Elephantine. The document states that, “should Miptahiah [the wife in this scenario] stand up in assembly and say: “I hated Eshor my husband,”…she shall place upon the balance-scale and weigh out to Eshor silver…and go away wherever she desires, without suit or without process.” Though this tradition ultimately does not last, the ability for a woman to buy her way out of a marriage in the same way as her husband is telling of a Judaic history in which women were not as inferior as one might