21 Jul VE’ESCHANAN- INTERMARRIAGE

In one possuk
at the end of parshas Va’eschanan
(7:3) the Torah
prohibits both
forms of intermarriage: a Jewish man may not
take a non-Jewish
woman, nor may a Jewish woman marry
a non-Jewish man. In Shulchan Aruch
(Yoreh Deah 157:61) the opinion of the
Ramban (Milchamos, Sanhedrin 74) has
been adopted, that there is a big difference
between the two aforementioned cases. Because in the case of a Jewish man taking
a non-Jewish wife the children will not be
Jewish, this prohibition is considered more
serious; it is considered as if the man had
become a “mechuttan” with the avodah
zarah. This is the end of the line! The tradition of Jewishness transmitted from Mt.
Sinai from generation to generation will
not be able to continue. But when a Jewish woman marries a non-Jewish man, the
children will be Jewish; the transmission of
Jewishness will continue. The woman has
violated a serious aveira, but this is not a
case of yehoreig ve’al ya’avor.
In Europe the common practice was that
when a Jewish man would marry a nonJewish woman, this was considered equivalent to his converting to another religion
(shmad). However when a Jewish woman
married a non-Jewish man, the custom was
not necessarily so. This aveira was not considered the equivalent of shmad.
Whenever there is a “mixed” marriage
between two Jews, for example when a
Kohein or a Levi marries a girl who is not a
Kohenes or a Leviah, the status of the children is determined by the father. The same
is true when there is a “mixed” marriage
between two non-Jews. Amaleki, Edomi,
Mitzri, and Canaani each have a special
status according to the halacha. When there
is a mingling between two nationalities, the
halacha declares that all the children follow
the nationality of the father. This halacha is
based on the possuk in Parshas Bamidbar
(1:2) “l’mishpechosom l’beis avosom”,
which implies that in cases of a conflict, the
mishpacha of the father is to be followed.
The only exception is where there is a
mixed marriage between Jew and non-Jew.
In Talmudic times none of the rabbis felt
that in these cases the status of the children
should be determined solely by the father.
One opinion felt that in order to be Jewish
one must have both a father and a mother
who are Jewish. A second opinion held
that with either parent being Jewish, all the
children would be considered Jewish. And
the accepted opinion is that the issue is determined solely by the mother[1]. This position was arrived at based on the Rabbi’s
careful reading of the pesukim (7:3-4) at
the end of our parsha. The Reform movement’s renunciation of this position was a
rejection of a tradition that has been accepted for over 1,500 years.
It is interesting to note that in a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew none
of the rabbis felt that the status of the children should be determined by the father. If
in the other two types of mixed marriages
(where both parents are Jewish or where
the parents come from two different nonJewish nations) the halacha established
that everything is determined by the father,
what motivated the rabbis to assume that
the same should not be the case when a Jew
and non-Jew marry?
The answer lies in the wording of the
possuk in Bamidbar (ibid). The status of
the children is determined solely by the father when we’re dealing with an issue of
“mishpacha”. Being a Kohein or Levi is an
issue of mishpachas kehuna or mishpachas
leviah. The same is true regarding Amaleki, Edomi, etc. we colloquially refer to
these groups as “nationalities”, but strictly
speaking (halachically) they are merely
“mishapchos”. In order to be a member of
a certain mishpacha, you must have yichus
(genealogical lineage) of ben achar ben
through your father. Being Jewish, however, is not a function of which mishpacha
one belongs to. This is illustrated by the institution of geirus (conversion). After conversion, a ger belongs to no mishpacha, but
nonetheless is just as Jewish as all the other
Jews. Being Jewish is a function of belonging to the Jewish people (Am Yisroel). The
Jewish people are the only ones called a nation as such! “Umi ke’amcha Yisroel goy
echad ba’aretz” (Shmuel II 7:27)[2].
The rabbis apparently assumed that
since “mishapacha” and “am” are fundamentally different, it must be that inclusion
in each one will be determined by different factors in the case of a mixed marriage.
A major difference between a mishpacha
and a nation is that a mishpacha consists
of a collection of individuals who relate to
each other in a special way, while the term
“goy” (nation) comes from the word “geviah” (body). Klal Yisroel is considered “one
body”. We must adopt this attitude and act
accordingly