The Kvetcher picks up on a topic being discussed on several blogs, the chareidi principal who purportedly disallowed Sefardi kids in his school, as being "damaged goods," in this particular case a kid who was 1/4 Sefardi. (This might not be genealogical issue, but rather a
hashkafic issue for him.) He links it to the issue of Ben Niddah-ism, which is problematic for allowing
baalei teshuva to marry.
It strikes me that non-halachic "
pegam" has a long history in that we can even read it into the story of Ruth the Moabitess. As the
pasuk states in Ruth 4:
| ה וַיֹּאמֶר בֹּעַז, בְּיוֹם-קְנוֹתְךָ הַשָּׂדֶה מִיַּד נָעֳמִי; וּמֵאֵת רוּת הַמּוֹאֲבִיָּה אֵשֶׁת-הַמֵּת, קניתי (קָנִיתָ)--לְהָקִים שֵׁם-הַמֵּת, עַל-נַחֲלָתוֹ. | 5 Then said Boaz: 'What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi--hast thou also bought of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance?' |
| ו וַיֹּאמֶר הַגֹּאֵל, לֹא אוּכַל לגאול- (לִגְאָל-) לִי--פֶּן-אַשְׁחִית, אֶת-נַחֲלָתִי; גְּאַל-לְךָ אַתָּה אֶת-גְּאֻלָּתִי, כִּי לֹא-אוּכַל לִגְאֹל. | 6 And the near kinsman said: 'I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance; take thou my right of redemption on thee; for I cannot redeem it.'-- |
What is this marring of inheritance, or marring of heritage?
Rashi explains:
lest I mar my heritage my offspring, like (Ps. 127:3): “Behold the heritage of the Lord is sons,” to give my offspring a stigma, as it is said (Deut. 23: 4): “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord,” but he erred by [not interpreting it as] “an Ammonite but not an Ammonitess.”
Rashi thus interprets this as a assuming that this is an
halachic error. We may further interpret this as knowledge of this
halachic conclusion but adopting the stringent non-halachic position anyway because, when it comes to
pegam, people do that.
Update: Just to clarify, I know many people who have absolutely no problem dating and marrying
baalei teshuva because of a problem of "
ben-nidda-ism." But just as surely, I have heard of/encountered people who will not.
1 comment:
it might also be significant to look at what experiences Beney Yisra’eil had with Mo’av and especially Moabite women already in Israelite history... they didn't have such a good reputation, it seems (which would explain the common stress on Rut's tzeni‘us)
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