לְ֭הַצִּ֣ילְךָ מֵאִשָּׁ֣ה זָרָ֑ה מִ֝נָּכְרִיָּ֗ה אֲמָרֶ֥יהָ הֶחֱלִֽיקָה׃
כּדי דיך מציל צו זײַן פֿון דער פֿרעמדער פֿרױ, פֿון דער אומבאַקענטער װאָס מאַכט גלאַט אירע רײד;
Rabbeinu Bahya
This kind of mental anguish and sickness is far more serious than a bodily dysfunction as it is likely to result in a broken spirit. Proverbs 18,14 states: “a man’s spirit can sustain him during sickness, but who can lift up a dejected spirit?” The meaning of this verse is that the spirit, i.e. the soul, is able to relieve the sickness of the body to an extent as it sustains the sick body by itself going without food or drink for many days and offering solace to the body. When the mind is sick however, who can sustain it? Who will offer it solace or comfort?
Furthermore, just as there are physical afflictions so there are mental diseases. The latter are more serious and harder to combat than diseases of the body. Most people suffering mental disease are victims of sins committed or are the result of such a person (mind) having believed in the wrong values. This is what Solomon referred to when he said in Proverbs 2,16: “to deliver you from the alien woman, from the strange woman whose talk is smooth.” He continues about this “strange woman” in Proverbs 5,3 “for the lips of an immoral woman drip honey;” Solomon compares beliefs in the wrong values as equivalent to an alien woman who destroys her victim in the end.” This is why Solomon said: “but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Proverbs 5,4). Another verse dealing with the same subject is Proverbs 5,5: “her feet go down to death, her steps support she'ol.” By having provided man with the ability to speak and to communicate his thoughts to others, G’d has also given man a decisive advantage over all other creatures. He enabled us to heal people whose minds are sick and to bring them close to the protective wings of G’d’s presence, the Shechinah (compare Ruth 2,12). Being under these protective wings of the Shechinah means to enjoy true and everlasting life. Avraham possessed this attribute of being able to heal spirits and this enabled him to attract so many people to the one and only G’d (compare Sotah 10). All of this he achieved by healing people through judicious use of his tongue. When the sages describe that he had a pearl around his neck which conferred a cure upon people they meant the power of speech (compare Baba Batra 16). We are told that the single pearl which hung around Avraham’s neck had the effect that any sick person who looked at it would be cured instantly. When Avraham died G’d took this pearl and made it part of the planet sun. The Midrash obviously needs elucidation as it is a euphemism expressing a certain idea. The author compared Avraham’s attribute which enabled him to gain converts to monotheism to the sun and its ability to illuminate matters that were previously concealed. The mention of Avraham’s neck in this connection is to be understood as the source of the “pearl” being in his throat, the source of verbalising one’s thoughts. What the author of the Midrash meant was that anyone suffering from spiritual dejection who listened to Avraham’s words would be cured.
When Avraham died he did not leave behind him any person or creature capable of teaching the Divinity of G’d and His uniqueness other than the planet sun; this is why G’d removed this “pearl” and hung it around the “sun in its orbit.” This is confirmed by Psalms 19,2: “the heavens proclaim G’d’s glory,” and this is also the meaning of the words מרפא לשון עץ חיים which we quoted from Proverbs as the introduction to this essay. The healing power demonstrated by the judicious use Avraham made of his tongue was the reason that so many of the people with whom he came into contact adopted his belief in monotheism. These were the people referred to in Genesis 12,5 as ואת הנפש אשר עשו בחרן, “and the people whom they had converted to monotheism while in Charan.”
The healing power of Moses’ tongue was demonstrated in verse 8 of our chapter when the Torah reports Moses as telling his father-in-law about all the miracles G’d had performed on behalf of the Jewish people. Yitro converted to Judaism after hearing his son-in-law describe what had transpired since he had left him. He abandoned his prestigious position in Midian as the High Priest, wealth, and his many children, and went into the desert in order to place himself under the protective wings of G’d’s Shechinah as soon as he hard Moses tell him what had happened since he had returned to Egypt at the time.
Furthermore, just as there are physical afflictions so there are mental diseases. The latter are more serious and harder to combat than diseases of the body. Most people suffering mental disease are victims of sins committed or are the result of such a person (mind) having believed in the wrong values. This is what Solomon referred to when he said in Proverbs 2,16: “to deliver you from the alien woman, from the strange woman whose talk is smooth.” He continues about this “strange woman” in Proverbs 5,3 “for the lips of an immoral woman drip honey;” Solomon compares beliefs in the wrong values as equivalent to an alien woman who destroys her victim in the end.” This is why Solomon said: “but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword” (Proverbs 5,4). Another verse dealing with the same subject is Proverbs 5,5: “her feet go down to death, her steps support she'ol.” By having provided man with the ability to speak and to communicate his thoughts to others, G’d has also given man a decisive advantage over all other creatures. He enabled us to heal people whose minds are sick and to bring them close to the protective wings of G’d’s presence, the Shechinah (compare Ruth 2,12). Being under these protective wings of the Shechinah means to enjoy true and everlasting life. Avraham possessed this attribute of being able to heal spirits and this enabled him to attract so many people to the one and only G’d (compare Sotah 10). All of this he achieved by healing people through judicious use of his tongue. When the sages describe that he had a pearl around his neck which conferred a cure upon people they meant the power of speech (compare Baba Batra 16). We are told that the single pearl which hung around Avraham’s neck had the effect that any sick person who looked at it would be cured instantly. When Avraham died G’d took this pearl and made it part of the planet sun. The Midrash obviously needs elucidation as it is a euphemism expressing a certain idea. The author compared Avraham’s attribute which enabled him to gain converts to monotheism to the sun and its ability to illuminate matters that were previously concealed. The mention of Avraham’s neck in this connection is to be understood as the source of the “pearl” being in his throat, the source of verbalising one’s thoughts. What the author of the Midrash meant was that anyone suffering from spiritual dejection who listened to Avraham’s words would be cured.
When Avraham died he did not leave behind him any person or creature capable of teaching the Divinity of G’d and His uniqueness other than the planet sun; this is why G’d removed this “pearl” and hung it around the “sun in its orbit.” This is confirmed by Psalms 19,2: “the heavens proclaim G’d’s glory,” and this is also the meaning of the words מרפא לשון עץ חיים which we quoted from Proverbs as the introduction to this essay. The healing power demonstrated by the judicious use Avraham made of his tongue was the reason that so many of the people with whom he came into contact adopted his belief in monotheism. These were the people referred to in Genesis 12,5 as ואת הנפש אשר עשו בחרן, “and the people whom they had converted to monotheism while in Charan.”
The healing power of Moses’ tongue was demonstrated in verse 8 of our chapter when the Torah reports Moses as telling his father-in-law about all the miracles G’d had performed on behalf of the Jewish people. Yitro converted to Judaism after hearing his son-in-law describe what had transpired since he had left him. He abandoned his prestigious position in Midian as the High Priest, wealth, and his many children, and went into the desert in order to place himself under the protective wings of G’d’s Shechinah as soon as he hard Moses tell him what had happened since he had returned to Egypt at the time.
Rashi
to understand an allegory and a figure That they should direct their attention to understand the verses through two methods: the allegory and the figure. They should understand what he compares to the figure, but they should not neglect the figure itself, for that, too, requires understanding. When he states, “To save you from a strange woman and a foreign one” (2:16), idolatry is meant; this is the allegory, and also the figure—for he expressed his allegory in terms of a woman—should be understood by it, [meaning that] you shall beware of a strange woman (other editions: a harlot).
Ramban
L’AM NOCHRI’ HE SHALL HAVE NO POWER TO SELL HER. “Neither her master nor her father has the right to sell her to another [Hebrew man].73Rashi thus interprets l’am nochri [literally: “unto a foreign people”] as signifying “unto a strange man,” i.e., to another Israelite. Thus the verse is stating that neither the father nor the master has a right to resell her. Ramban will question this interpretation. Seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her — if he [i.e. the master] intends to act deceitfully towards her and not to fulfill the commandment of designating her as his wife [or his son’s]. So also did her father act deceitfully towards her, by selling her to this master.” Thus far Rashi’s language. And if so, l’am nochri would be like l’ish nochri (to a strange man), but we find in all Scripture no parallel to such a usage [that am (people) should be understood in the sense of “man”]. Perhaps the letter lamed in the word l’am draws along with it a similar letter in the next word, thus making it: ‘l’am l’nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, and the explanation thereof would be similar to the verse, Thou gavest him to be food ‘l’am l’tziyim’ (to the folk inhabiting the wilderness)74Psalms 74:14. where the second word l’tziyim explains: who is the folk? — the men who inhabit the wilderness; so here too He says, he shall have no power to sell her ‘l’am’, and He explains: who is l’am? — l’nochri, that is to say, to any stranger from the whole people [i.e., to another Israelite]. The term nochri here will then be similar in usage to the expressions: and thy labors in the house of a ‘nochri’ (stranger),75Proverbs 5:10. which means in the house of another man; even from the ‘nochriyah’ (the strange woman) that maketh smooth her words,76Ibid., 2:16. meaning the woman who is not his wife. All this I have written in order to uphold the words of the Sages77Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon — in Kiddushin 18a. who say that a man is not permitted to sell his daughter twice into the status of a handmaid, thus holding to the explanation: since he has once dealt deceitfully with her [by selling her to such a status of a handmaid], he has no more the right to sell her.
But I have seen in the Mechilta:60Mechilta here on the Verse. “‘L’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, — this is a warning to the court that he [i.e., the father] should not sell her to an alien [i.e., a non-Israelite].” It would thus appear from their language that this verse is not meant as an admonition against the father reselling her to this Israelite master or to another one, but is a prohibition against her being sold altogether [even the first time] to a non-Israelite, so that a man may not sell his minor daughter to an idolator as a handmaid. [It was necessary for this to be stated] because in the case of a Hebrew servant He said, and he sell himself unto the stranger who is a settler with thee, or to the offshoot of a stranger’s family,78Leviticus 25:47. therefore it had to say that this should not be done to a woman. The reason for it is obvious.79“That she not be exposed to the dangers of immorality.” (Bachya). This surely is the plain meaning of Scripture, that after the father — the vendor — redeemed her from her first master, he cannot sell her to an idolator, and the same law applies to the original sale. Scripture, however, [had to state this prohibition in the case of a re-sale], because sometimes a man may very much want to redeem his daughter from a master who did not take her as his wife, and will want to sell her to an idolator for a year or two with the intention of then taking her out from him; therefore Scripture warned him against doing this. Or it may be that this expression [i.e., ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her] refers back to the beginning of this subject: And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant80Verse 7. — he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign man. If so, then the Rabbis’ interpretation in the Talmud77Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon — in Kiddushin 18a. that a man may not resell his daughter into the status of a handmaid, [even to an Israelite], is derived [not from ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, but] from the [apparently] superfluous expression: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. For to a non-Israelite he never has power to sell her; so why did G-d say: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her, [since he cannot sell her even once to a foreign man], and the meaning of that expression is that since he acted once deceitfully with her by selling her into a status of a handmaid, he cannot do so another time? Therefore the Rabbis interpreted the verse thus: “to a foreign people he shall have no power to sell her [altogether], and when he hath dealt deceitfully with her [he also has no power to sell her];” that is to say, he shall have no power to sell her if he dealt deceitfully with her, for after he sold her once [to an Israelite], he cannot sell her again. There are many instances where the Rabbis interpreted the verses in such a manner. [Thus we find: Unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner81Deuteronomy 14:21. — which Rabbi Meir interpreted]:82Pesachim 21b. “Read the verse thus: unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it; thou shalt give it that he may eat it or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner.” Similarly they interpreted here83Kiddushin 4a. then shall she go out for nothing, without money,84Verse 11. which, on account of the redundant language, [“for nothing,” “without money”] they made the basis for two additional ways of the Hebrew maidservant regaining her freedom: “she shall go out for nothing, and she shall go out without money;” thus establishing that she goes out to freedom when she produces signs of puberty, or signs of fuller development if she had no signs of puberty — this being that maturity of the barren woman, [who is incapable of conception], as is stated in the beginning of Tractate Kiddushin.83Kiddushin 4a.
The plain meaning of Scripture in this section is as follows: If a man sell his minor daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as these menservants, [i.e., the Hebrew menservants] mentioned [above in Verses 2-6,] who go out to freedom in the seventh year and in the jubilee year: for the master85In the Tur who quotes Ramban: “the father.” That is to say, if the maiden pleased the master and he wishes to marry her, the father cannot take her out from his house. can never send her away from his house if the maiden pleases him and she obtains kindness of him,86See Esther 2:9. but he is to take her for a wife as is his will. But if she pleaseth not her master, who has not espoused her to be his wife — for he who buys an Israelite’s daughter does so with the intention of taking her as his wife, thus she is under ordinary conditions designated for him; but now if her master does not desire her, then shall the father mentioned redeem her, for as soon as the master says: “I do not want to marry her,” it is forbidden for the father to leave her any longer under his authority, nor may he sell her to a foreign people in case he comes to deal deceitfully with her, for it is deceit for a man to sell his daughter except to someone who can marry her. Or the meaning thereof may be that anyone who sells his daughter [even to an Israelite], deals deceitfully with her.
But I have seen in the Mechilta:60Mechilta here on the Verse. “‘L’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, — this is a warning to the court that he [i.e., the father] should not sell her to an alien [i.e., a non-Israelite].” It would thus appear from their language that this verse is not meant as an admonition against the father reselling her to this Israelite master or to another one, but is a prohibition against her being sold altogether [even the first time] to a non-Israelite, so that a man may not sell his minor daughter to an idolator as a handmaid. [It was necessary for this to be stated] because in the case of a Hebrew servant He said, and he sell himself unto the stranger who is a settler with thee, or to the offshoot of a stranger’s family,78Leviticus 25:47. therefore it had to say that this should not be done to a woman. The reason for it is obvious.79“That she not be exposed to the dangers of immorality.” (Bachya). This surely is the plain meaning of Scripture, that after the father — the vendor — redeemed her from her first master, he cannot sell her to an idolator, and the same law applies to the original sale. Scripture, however, [had to state this prohibition in the case of a re-sale], because sometimes a man may very much want to redeem his daughter from a master who did not take her as his wife, and will want to sell her to an idolator for a year or two with the intention of then taking her out from him; therefore Scripture warned him against doing this. Or it may be that this expression [i.e., ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her] refers back to the beginning of this subject: And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant80Verse 7. — he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign man. If so, then the Rabbis’ interpretation in the Talmud77Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon — in Kiddushin 18a. that a man may not resell his daughter into the status of a handmaid, [even to an Israelite], is derived [not from ‘l’am nochri’ he shall have no power to sell her, but] from the [apparently] superfluous expression: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. For to a non-Israelite he never has power to sell her; so why did G-d say: seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her, [since he cannot sell her even once to a foreign man], and the meaning of that expression is that since he acted once deceitfully with her by selling her into a status of a handmaid, he cannot do so another time? Therefore the Rabbis interpreted the verse thus: “to a foreign people he shall have no power to sell her [altogether], and when he hath dealt deceitfully with her [he also has no power to sell her];” that is to say, he shall have no power to sell her if he dealt deceitfully with her, for after he sold her once [to an Israelite], he cannot sell her again. There are many instances where the Rabbis interpreted the verses in such a manner. [Thus we find: Unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner81Deuteronomy 14:21. — which Rabbi Meir interpreted]:82Pesachim 21b. “Read the verse thus: unto the stranger that is within thy gates thou shalt give it that he may eat it, or thou mayest sell it; thou shalt give it that he may eat it or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner.” Similarly they interpreted here83Kiddushin 4a. then shall she go out for nothing, without money,84Verse 11. which, on account of the redundant language, [“for nothing,” “without money”] they made the basis for two additional ways of the Hebrew maidservant regaining her freedom: “she shall go out for nothing, and she shall go out without money;” thus establishing that she goes out to freedom when she produces signs of puberty, or signs of fuller development if she had no signs of puberty — this being that maturity of the barren woman, [who is incapable of conception], as is stated in the beginning of Tractate Kiddushin.83Kiddushin 4a.
The plain meaning of Scripture in this section is as follows: If a man sell his minor daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as these menservants, [i.e., the Hebrew menservants] mentioned [above in Verses 2-6,] who go out to freedom in the seventh year and in the jubilee year: for the master85In the Tur who quotes Ramban: “the father.” That is to say, if the maiden pleased the master and he wishes to marry her, the father cannot take her out from his house. can never send her away from his house if the maiden pleases him and she obtains kindness of him,86See Esther 2:9. but he is to take her for a wife as is his will. But if she pleaseth not her master, who has not espoused her to be his wife — for he who buys an Israelite’s daughter does so with the intention of taking her as his wife, thus she is under ordinary conditions designated for him; but now if her master does not desire her, then shall the father mentioned redeem her, for as soon as the master says: “I do not want to marry her,” it is forbidden for the father to leave her any longer under his authority, nor may he sell her to a foreign people in case he comes to deal deceitfully with her, for it is deceit for a man to sell his daughter except to someone who can marry her. Or the meaning thereof may be that anyone who sells his daughter [even to an Israelite], deals deceitfully with her.