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Attractive presentation family Bible given to a Jewish Bride as an accompaniment for the wedding. Bound in a yellow faux gold clasped cover the title page has a Hebrew heading and states, in English, that it has been translated in accordance with Jewish tradition. The volume is comprised of the complete text of the Jewish Bible in two columns in English. At the end of the volume are several pages pertinent to the bride and her new family. The first page has the heading family records, followed by a second page with the same header but this to be completed with information about the husband and the wife. Next are pages with the headings births, confirmations, weddings, deaths, and pages for photographs and autographs. The volume concludes with facing Hebrew and English text of a ketubah and marriage certificate and facing Hebrew and English pages with the benedictions for lighting Sabbath and Festival lights.
Marriage is vitally important in Judaism. Refraining from marriage is not considered holy, as it is in some other religions. On the contrary, it is considered unnatural. The Talmud says that an unmarried man is constantly thinking of sin. The Talmud tells of a rabbi who was introduced to a young unmarried rabbi. The older rabbi told the younger one not to come into his presence again until he was married. Marriage is not solely, or even primarily, for the purpose of procreation. Traditional sources recognize that companionship, love and intimacy are the primary purposes of marriage, noting that woman was created in Gen. 2:18 because "it is not good for man to be alone," rather than because she was necessary for procreation. According to the Torah and the Talmud, a man was permitted to marry more than one wife, but a woman could not marry more than one man. Although polygyny was permitted, it was never common. The Talmud never mentions any rabbi with more than one wife. Around 1000 C.E., Ashkenazic Jewry banned polygyny because of pressure from the predominant Christian culture. It continued to be permitted for Sephardic Jews in Islamic lands for many years. To the present day, Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews continue to practice polygamy; however, the modern state of Israel allows only one wife, unless you come to Israel with more than one wife, in which case you can keep the wives you have but you cannot marry new ones.
A husband is responsible for providing his wife with food, clothing and sexual relations (Ex. 21:10), as well as anything else specified in the ketubah. Marital sexual relations are the woman's right, not the man's. A man cannot force his wife to engage in sexual relations with him, nor is he permitted to abuse his wife in any way (a practice routinely permitted in Christian countries until quite recently). A married woman retains ownership of any property she brought to the marriage, but the husband has the right to manage the property and to enjoy profits from the property.
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