December 4, 2012

Was the Mharsha a Gerer Chosid?

"And Amnon hated Tamar with a huge hate" (After he raped her). Now why did he hate her? Because she tied a big hair, and Amnon cut himself, and he became a Crus Shifcha. So the Talmud asks "didn't the Jewish girls keep themselves pretty, and not have underarms or pubic hair? So the Talmud answers that she was a Bas Yefas Toyar. (Sanhedrin 21a)


The same thing is in Gittin 6b by Pilegesh Begivha, that she should have cut her pubic hair so he shouldn't cut himself. And Tosfos says that here also she was a Bas Yefas Toyar. 

So the Marshal asks "what does it mean "they didn't have hair?" If it means they didn't have hair at all, how can you say in Nazir 59a that it's forbidden to cut your underarms or pubic hair because it's a woman's thing to do (It's part of their "outfit" to get rid of disgusting hair, Rashi). And it's a dochek to say that the Torah is talking after the churbon, when the women were punished, and their pubic hair started looking like a forest, (which is disgusting for sex) (Shabbos, end of 62). 

And also, the main proof that a boy or girl brings to be a full adult (Halachikly) is two pubic hairs. And you can't say that they had hair but they cut it, because if so then what do you want from Tamar? She was an unmarried girl, so she probably didn't cut.

So you must say that they did have hair but very little, not enough to be scared of getting cut. And after the churbon it got big and disgusting like a forest. This is the Marshal, Sanhedrin 21a.

Comes along the Mharsha and he says No! The real reason why they didn't have hair is because they all cut their hair for beauty purposes. And what you ask "why should Tamar have cut her hair, she was single?", who told you that  they cut their hair for the beauty of sex? Maybe they did it for general beauty, and the single girls also did it? And the proof is that shaving the pubic hair makes sense for sex, but what in the world does shaving the underarms have to do with the beauty of sex? So you see that this had nothing to do with the beauty of sex, but rather with general beauty, and the girls in the freezer also did it. 

And even though Tamar grew up in King David's palace, and she probably would have copied the other girls in the palace (To shave), maybe the Yefas Toyars had their own gang, like King David's 400 boys, who were all generals, and who ran around in golden chariot's. (Sanhedrin ibid)

Now let's go back to the Mharsha. The Mharsha said as a matter of fact that shaving the underarms has nothing to do with being pretty for sex. So obviously he held that the couple wears pajamas during sex. You can see the same thing in the first Tosfos of Needa 17, where Tosfos mentions Nedarim 20 a/b, and the Mharsha explains it as Rabbe Eliezer, who exposed a tefoch, and covered a tefoch.

It is not really clear exactly what this means, but one thing is for sure. Putting something between you and your wife robs intimacy (Ritva), and it is definitely against the Torah, like I showed you in July 31,11.

I have one question. Why are you allowed to sit in the mikvah for hours, rubbing against boys, but you can't even be naked with your wife? The truth is that in Ger they teach high speed mikvah.

P. S. After I wrote this post I found out that Daf Hayomi was up to Shabbos 62. Cool!