Good Evening Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.”
Gamaliel, the great Jewish teacher that the Apostle Paul studied under was addressed by an emperor with the comment, “Your God is a thief, because he caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and then stoled one of his ribs.” Gamaliel’s daughter stepped up and said to her father: “I will answer him.” She then demanded that the emperor give her an officer to investigate a complaint. A thief broke into her house and stoled a silver ewer, but he left a gold one behind.” The emperor laughed and said: “Would such a thief visit me every day.” Gamaliel’s daughter replied: “Was it not a greater thing for the first man to have a portion of his body taken from him to be replaced with something more splendid?”
The Talmud clearly teaches that a woman is in no way inferior to man. Her sphere of activity is different from man’s but of no less significance to the welfare of the community.
Hostile critics have often pointed to the dictum: “A man is obliged to offer three benedictions daily: “I am thankful that you have not made me a heathen, a slave and a woman.” (Men. 43b). Yet, what man is being thankful for is that he does not have the obligations and duties of a woman and he is thus able to devote more time to the study of the Torah. A woman is to use her influence such that her husband and sons are free to apply themselves to the acquisition of the more advance knowledge of Torah from which her fully occupied life precluded her. (Ber. 17a)
Does this mean a woman has less opportunity to know God? Not when you look at Genesis 2:18 where God created woman to be a “helper” to man. The word in the Hebrew is “ ‘ashah” which literally means a worker, but one who works to bring his master into wealth and riches both in a material and spiritual sense. In it’s prime state it carries the idea of bringing one into personal understanding that will lead to the peace and presence (wealth and riches) of God. A woman was created to be a helper to man to enter into a deeper understanding of God.
The Talmud further teaches that if a pious man marries a pious woman he will have a pious household. If a wicked man marries a pious woman, the household will still be a pious household. But if a pious man marries a wicked woman, he will have a wicked household and will become wicked himself. The sages draw this teaching from Exodus 22:18 which says that thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. The word witch is in a feminine form and the Talmud teaches women are more inclined to the spiritual and thus would be more incline to witchcraft and to lead a righteous man away from God. (Sanh. 67a). Even today we talk about a woman casting a “spell” upon a man.
So back to Genesis 2:24 where we learn that a man is to leave his mother and father and “cleave” to his wife. So what does it mean to “leave” his mother and father and to “cleave?” Note it is the man who leaves his mother and father, not the man and woman. That is our remez. Why does only the man leave? Note the word leave “ ‘azav” does mean to leave or forsake but in it’s prime state this is leaving the home where you received your spiritual insight into a relationship with God. In other words your parents instructed you in the ways of God and now you are to move on to someone who can take you deeper into your relationship with God, but you must cleave “davak” to her. Davak means to follow close, to pursue. In it’s prime state “davak” carries the idea of a gateway to a sanctified heart. A man follows his wife closely through a gateway into a sanctified heart and together they stand before God in purity as one flesh.
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