Thursday, October 27, 2011
Why so harsh?
While reading through the perek, as it discussed forbidden relationships, I understood why they were all forbidden. In today's society most of them are obviously wrong, so nobody would even think about marrying a relative that is forbidden in these examples. However, at the end I was upset by the fact that the punishment is karet. This is obviously one of the stricter rules in the Torah, but why should the punishment be this harsh? Why can't we just bring a korban for it and learn our lesson? I was also curious about why there are so many examples of who you can and can't marry? Couldn't it just say that you cannot marry immediate family members? And why can't a man marry his mother's sister if he is allowed to marry his niece? It's the same idea!
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Well, if you bring a korban you might still continue. A gay men won't stop being gay. But I agree. Karet is harsh. well, actually I believe that if you sleep with your mother or sister you need karet, but some things are not so terrible, like being with a step sister. Because she is not at all related to you.
ReplyDeleteIt cannot say that you can't marry immediate family members, because there is more to it. It talks about not being gay, and not marrying a woman and marrying that woman's daughter.
aviva i completely agree with you. i think the torah chose this topic to be very specific about because it really is so important. if everyone is off marrying their family members, not only is it grooooss (jamie and racheli, hope you're reading this) but it ruins society and causes it to fall apart. the harsh punishment emphasizes how destructive illicit sexual relationships can be.
ReplyDeleteThis is all very true. I guess we need this structure also to separate us from other nations, even though it is wrong for them also, but their punishments would not be harsh like ours. (they probably woundnt get punished at all)
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