Tainted Lineage, Lost Wealth, and Divine Judgment: The Consequences of Unsuitable Marriages (Kiddushin 70a)
This passage discusses various rabbinic teachings about the consequences of marrying improperly, focusing on lineage and motivations such as monetary gain.1
The overall message stresses the importance of marrying appropriately to preserve family lineage and the integrity of future generations. It also warns against marrying for superficial reasons and against hastily accusing others of flaws, as these actions bring social and divine repercussions.
Outline
Rabba bar bar Ḥana on Improper Marriages and Their Cosmic Consequences: A Homiletic Interpretation of Tel Melaḥ and Tel Ḥarsha in Nehemiah 7:61
Consequences of Marrying for Financial Gain: Rabba bar Rav Adda’s Teaching and a Homiletic Reading of Hosea 5:7
Consequences of Marrying an Unsuitable Woman: Elijah’s Role in Binding and Documenting, God’s Role in Whipping and Signing a Declaration of Condemnation Re the Consequences for Offspring and Lineage
Projection of Deficiencies: Accusations of Flawed Lineage as Self-Revelation
The Passage
Rabba bar bar Ḥana on Improper Marriages and Their Cosmic Consequences: A Homiletic Interpretation of Tel Melaḥ and Tel Ḥarsha in Nehemiah 7:61
Marrying a woman who “is not suited (הוגנת) for him” (i.e. of inappropriate lineage) is likened to destroying the world, symbolically represented as plowing it and sowing it with salt.2
This is derived from the verse in Nehemiah.7.61, which mention towns called “Tel Melaḥ (=salt), Tel Ḥarsha”3 in the context of lineage (see the end of the verse there; thus the place names themselves are homiletically interpreted to allude to the harm caused by flawed unions).
אמר רבה בר בר חנה:
כל הנושא אשה שאינה הוגנת לו,
מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו חרשו לכל העולם כולו, וזרעו מלח,
שנאמר: ״ואלה העולים מתל מלח, תל חרשא״.
Explicating the same verse, Rabba bar bar Ḥana says:
In the case of anyone who marries a woman who is not suited for him to marry due to her lineage,
the verse ascribes him blame as though he plowed [ḥarash] all of the entire world and sowed it with salt [melaḥ],
as it is stated with regard to those of flawed lineage who ascended from Babylonia: “And these were they that ascended from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha.”
Consequences of Marrying for Financial Gain: Rabba bar Rav Adda’s Teaching and a Homiletic Reading of Hosea 5:7
Rabba bar Rav Adda cites Rav, teaching that one who marries a woman for her money (ממון - cf. mammon) will suffer consequences: The offspring from such a union will be “unfitting”.4
This is homiletically understood from Hosea 5:7 as a commentary on the consequences of marrying for financial gain. The verse implies that those who have dealt “treacherously” (בגדו) against God and have "begotten strange (זרים) children" will have their property consumed quickly. Specifically:
The money (gained through such marriages) will not be spared (פלט).
The punishment applies to both the husband and wife, as indicated by the plural term "their portions" (חלקיהם).
The loss of wealth happens quickly, occurring within a month.
אמר רבה בר רב אדא, אמר רב:
כל הנושא אשה לשום ממון –
הויין לו בנים שאינן מהוגנים,
שנאמר: ״בה׳ בגדו, כי בנים זרים ילדו״.
ושמא תאמר ממון פלט? תלמוד לומר: ״עתה יאכלם חדש את חלקיהם״.
ושמא תאמר: ״חלקו״ – ולא חלקה? תלמוד לומר: ״חלקיהם״.
ושמא תאמר לזמן מרובה? תלמוד לומר: ״חדש״.
מאי משמע?
אמר רב נחמן בר יצחק: חדש נכנס, וחדש יצא, וממונם אבד.
Rabba bar Rav Adda says that Rav says:
In the case of anyone who marries a woman of flawed lineage only for the sake of money,
he will have offspring who will act inappropriately,
as it is stated: “They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children; now shall the new moon devour them with their portions” (Hosea 5:7).
Rabba bar Rav Adda explains the verse:
And lest you say that at least the money that they received as dowry was spared, although they suffer from the acts of their offspring, the verse states: “Now shall the new moon devour them with their portions,” meaning their property shall be consumed in a single month.
And lest you say his portion will be lost but not the portion of his wife, the verse states “their portions” in the plural.
And lest you say this will occur after a long time, but in the interim he will benefit from the money, the verse states: “The new moon.”
The Gemara asks: From where may it be inferred that their money will be lost immediately?
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: A month comes and a month goes, and their money is already lost. In any event, the fact that the punishment they receive is the loss of their portions indicates that the sin in this case was marrying for the sake of money.
Consequences of Marrying an Unsuitable Woman: Elijah’s Role in Binding and Documenting, God’s Role in Whipping and Signing a Declaration of Condemnation Re the Consequences for Offspring and Lineage
This section continues to discuss the consequences of marrying an unsuitable (אינה הוגנת) woman. Rabba bar Rav Adda--or: R' Salla citing Rav Hamnuna--states that Elijah binds (כופתו) them (to receive lashes), and God personally whips (רוצעו) them.
The Tamud cites a tradition that Elijah records (כותב) and God signs (חותם) the following declaration of condemnation for such actions: “Woe to he” for the harm caused by disqualifying (פוסל) one's offspring, tainting (פוגם) his future family’s lineage, and for marrying an unfitting woman.
ואמר רבה בר רב אדא
ואמרי לה: אמר רבי סלא, אמר רב המנונא:
כל הנושא אשה שאינה הוגנת לו
אליהו כופתו, והקדוש ברוך הוא רוצעו.
ותנא:
על כולם,
אליהו כותב, והקדוש ברוך הוא חותם:
אוי לו
לפוסל את זרעו,
ולפוגם את משפחתו,
ולנושא אשה שאינה הוגנת לו,
אליהו כופתו, והקדוש ברוך הוא רוצעו.
And Rabba bar Rav Adda says, and some say R' Salla says that Rav Hamnuna says:
In the case of anyone who marries a woman who is not suited for him to marry due to her lineage,
Elijah binds him in the manner that those liable to receive lashes are bound, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, straps him.
And a Sage taught:
Concerning all of them,
Elijah writes and the Holy One, Blessed be He, signs the following:
Woe to he
who disqualifies his offspring,
and who brings a flaw to his family lineage,
and who marries a woman who is not halakhically suited for him to marry.
Elijah binds him and the Holy One, Blessed be He, straps him.
Projection of Deficiencies: Accusations of Flawed Lineage as Self-Revelation
Those who accuse others of flawed lineage (פוסל) reveal their own deficienct lineage (פסול).5
Another indication that one’s lineage is flawed is that “he never speaks praise”.6
Shmuel adds that the specific accusation reflect the accuser’s own specific flaw (מומו).
וכל הפוסל – פסול.
ואינו מדבר בשבחא לעולם,
ואמר שמואל: במומו פוסל.
He further said: And anyone who disqualifies others by stating that their lineage is flawed, that is a sign that he himself is of flawed lineage.
Another indication that one’s lineage is flawed is that he never speaks in praise of others.
And Shmuel says: If one habitually claims that others are flawed, he disqualifies himself with his own flaw. The flaw he accuses them of having is in fact the one that he has.
This sugya directly precedes the one discussed in my recent series: “Pt2 Rav Yehuda vs. Rav Naḥman: A Talmudic Clash Over Speech, Social Status, and Slavery (Kiddushin 70a-b)“, final part here.
Regarding the concept of “plowing it and sowing it with salt” (חרשו וזרעו מלח), see Judges 9:45, where Abimelech, the son of Gideon, is described as performing this act upon Shechem in the aftermath of the Second Battle of Shechem:
ואבימלך נלחם בעיר כל היום ההוא
וילכד את־העיר, ואת־העם אשר־בה הרג
ויתץ את־העיר, ויזרעה מלח
Abimelech fought against the city [=Shechem] all that day.
He captured the city, and massacred the people in it;
he razed the town, and sowed it with salt (ויזרעה מלח)
And see Wikipedia, “Salting the earth“:
Salting the earth, or sowing with salt, is the ritual of spreading salt on the sites of cities razed by conquerors.
It originated as a curse on re-inhabitation in the ancient Near East and became a well-established folkloric motif in the Middle Ages.
The best-known example is the salting of Shechem as narrated in the Biblical Book of Judges 9:45.
The supposed salting of Carthage is not supported by historical evidence.
The full afore-mentioned verse in
חרשא, interpreting it to mean “plowing”.
For another example of Talmudic wordplay on the Hebrew root ḥ-r-sh (חרש), which has a wide range of possible meanings—“plough” (חָרַשׁ), “quiet, mute” (חָרַשׁ), or “craftsman” (חָרָשׁ)—see my piece here, section “The meaning of the 'east wind' (חרישית) in the Book of Jonah“, where I summarize the passage as follows:
Rav Yehuda interprets ḥarishit as a wind that “plows furrows” in the sea, while Rabba argues that it “silences” all other winds, leading to extreme heat, which is why Jonah fainted.
מהוגנים - the same somewhat unusual verb used to describe the “unfitting” marriage partner. Steinsaltz: i.e. will behave inappropriately.
Compare the concept of psychological projection.
שבחא; i.e. of others.