ויברא אלוקים את-האדם בצלמו, בצלם אלוקים ברא אותו, זכר ונקבה, ברא אותם
“And God created the human being in His image. In the image of God he created him/it. Male and female He created them. ” Genesis 1:27
Yesterday we explained the first part of this verse, “the image of God” in human beings. Today we will continue with the second part of this verse, where the Tora narrates the creation of man and woman. Before analyzing the most relevant part of this pasuq, the masculine and feminine identity, we will see two points.
ANDROGYNY? How were Adam and Hava (Eve) created? In one and the same act of Creation or in two separate acts of Creation? This question arises because there is an apparent contradiction between Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis chapter 2. In chapter 1, it seems that it is a single act. This led the Rabbis of the Midrash to suppose that Adam and Eve were initially created as an androgynous being, man and woman simultaneously, until the Creator separated them according to their sexes, as it says in chapter 2.
However, the most famous Biblical commentator, Rashi (1040-1105) mentions this Midrash, but immediately clarifies that the literal meaning of the text peshat is different. That Midrash, according to Rashi, should not be taken as the literal interpretation of the text. The literal reading is that in chapter 1, the Tora describes “when” man and woman were created, in the Sixth Day, and in chapter 2 the Tora describes “how” they were created. Namely, what was the order of the creation of man and woman, the state of Adam before the creation of Hava, whether or not they were created from the same source, etc.
POLYGAMY. I would like to pay attention now, as one should do when reading the Tora, to what the text does NOT say. The Creator could have created the first man with several women. After all, polygamy was not the exception in many civilizations of antiquity, but the rule. We see, however, that the Tora indicates in this way that HaShem conceived man and woman in a monogamous relationship: one man and one woman.
Polygamy is mentioned in the Torah and the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). But hardly as the ideal situation, and mainly as the exception. In the case of Abraham, for example, Abraham takes a second wife Hagar, because Sara could not have children.
In Biblical times, polygamy was accepted in the Jewish people as a rule only in the case of the Monarchs (albeit in a limited way, וֹלֹא יְרֶּבֶּה לֹו נָשִׁים, Debarim 17:17). Kings had to make sure that their offspring were as numerous as possible, and thus ensure the continuity of their dynasty. Infant mortality was more common in the past and it was also expected that rival peoples or enemies would try to kill the king’s sons.
In the rabbinical period, polygamy was not commonly practiced beyond cases related to fertility; the death of the husband before having children (levirate) or other special situations.
Around the year 1000 of the common era Rabbi Gershon Meor haGola (960 -1040) from Metz, France, near Germany, established a HEREM, excommunication, for those who practiced polygamy. From that time, polygamy was definitively excluded among Ashkenazi Jews. Sephardic Jews —who lived predominantly among Muslims, and for whom polygamy is common to this day—were not technically subject to the law established by Rabenu Gershon. However, in virtually all Sephardic communities the Ketuba, marriage contract, included a clause prohibiting the husband from marrying a second wife without the consent of the first. This made the practice of polygamy practically fall into disuse, also between Sephardic, and thus it was only allowed in exceptional cases (infertility, illness, etc.).
In summary, we see that for the Tora the Divine ideal is monogamy, one woman for one man. Polygamy, although allowed, was the exception.
NES MOUSSAN
I received this week the following text (which I slightly edited ) from my friend, Mr. Morris Arking, an expert on the history and traditions of the Jews of Syria, explaining why Aleppo Jews observe the 13th of Sivan, today, as NES MOUSSAN.
“Abraham Ades (Antebi) of Bene Beraq, Israel, has a manuscript from Rabbi Moshe Sittehon’s collection (Aleppo 1797-1878) telling the story of Nes Moussan.
In Aleppo, Jews lived among Muslims and Christians. On the 12th of Sivan 1853, Shabbat afternoon, a Christian woman came with two men to the house of a Jewish man named Moshe Moussan. The woman shouted at this man: “Where is my son? Yesterday he was playing with your son Yitshaq and now my son has disappeared!”
The woman accused the Jews of murdering her son, claiming that Jews had done the same to other children in the past, in Damascus and elsewhere. [These “blood libels” were obviously false, superstitious and malicious accusations against the Jews, claiming that they sacrificed Christian children near Pesah to knead their blood with the matsot. YB]
Then, the woman called the local Muslim authorities and the boy Yitshaq Moussan was put in jail. The incident was reported to the Turkish authorities, stating that it was impossible to live in the same city with the Jews, because of their common practice of killing Christian children (sic!). Moshe Moussan was summoned to appear in court. But because he was afraid, he hid. The Jews were very frightened by was about to happen, that could endanger their lives.
But on the following morning (the 13th of Sivan) a Protestant man, reported that that woman was hiding the child to vilify the Jews. Some members of the Jewish community were sent to that woman’s house. They took a hidden key, opened the door of an inner courtyard, and looked there. In a room inside a room they found dirty clothes. Under the clothes they saw what appeared to be hair. They removed the clothes and found the “missing” child. The boy was taken to the Muslim authorities and a confession was obtained on the planned plot against the Jews.
The rabbis of Aleppo declared that the 13th of Sivan should be remembered each year as a day of gratitude to HaShem, and in memory of this salvation the Tahanunim, confessional prayers should not be said.
[There is another explanation why Tahanunim are not said on this day: in the Diaspora, the days of tashlumim for Shabu’ot are finished the 13th of Sivan, not the 12th.]
