SEPARATING THE ADULT FROM ADULTERY
11. There are those who maintain that classic adultery is not so much a betrayal as a symptom of a marriage that, even though the parties may not be fully aware of the fact, is already in trouble. Although this may be true, it hardly lessens the transgression involved in classic adultery. After all, stealing might be viewed as a symptom of unabated poverty, but it is a crime nevertheless.
12. The context of Lev. 20:10, for example, substantiates this point.
13. Louis M. Epstein, Sex Laws and Customs in Judaism(New York , 1967), pp. 194-96.
14. See infra. at p. 10.
16. The foundation of this idea is in Gen. 2:24. Indeed, the Tur comments on this verse,“Let him cling to his wife and to none other, because man and wife are in reality one flesh, as they were at the beginning of Creation.”
17. This notion is made most explicit within the institution of levirate marriage. Deut. 25:5ff. requires that the wife bear children by her deceased husband’s brother“so that his name not be blotted out from Israel .”
19. Yevamot 95a.
20. Ibid.
22. Gen. 39:9.
23. Gen. 20:6.
24. See, for example, Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer , 12. 25. Lev. 20:10 and Deut. 22:22.
26. Ibid.
27. Prov. 6:27-29.
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