Advice to sons
The gemara in Brachos 8b quotes different opinions about the advice that Rava gave to his sons. According to one opinion the advice was that he shouldn't marry a giyores. Rava was a kohein so of course his son couldn't marry a giyores (it's a machlokes Rishonim what the mekor is either because she's considered like a zona or because of a pasuk in navi which says that he must marry someone from Yisrael). Most of the other advice that we've seen in the gemara was derech eretz or things that could lead to long lives but not issurei d'oraysa! Just seems like strange advice to give a son to keep something that everyone is obligated to keep.
The Artscroll quotes this question in a footnote and quotes two possible answers but I'm really not crazy about either one. The first answer from the Iyun Yaakov was that he wanted to stress this isur to his sons. Why this halacha? The second answer is from the Hagahos Yavetz in Horayos who understancds this as a general halacha for everyone that in general you should be careful about marrying a giyores because it could cause problem. He mentions that not all geirim are the same as there were many great geirim and many tzadikim married giyoros. This answer though seems strange. Why is Rava giving his sons advice for everyone else if it doesn't even apply to them?
UPDATE: My father kept challenging me to prove to him that Rava was a kohein. I always remembered that Rava and Abaye were from beis Eli and that's why I had the question so I googled that and found the gemara in Rosh Hashana. I did look up the gemara and the original girsa was Rabbah but the Bach changed it to Rava. I assumed that was the accepted position. However, I just did some more googling and that's not the accepted position at all. See this answer from the Kollel Iyun Hadaf to answer a different question from a gemara in Bava Basra 12a:
It seems that the consensus among the Mefarshim is that Rava was not a Kohen (see Seder ha'Doros, "Resh") and that actually it was Rabah who was a descendent of Eli.
That would answer my question.
posted by David @ 7:55 AM
8 Comments:
Here's a thought: perhaps Rava felt that in addition to the moral advice that he gave his sons, he also wanted to show them the (obvious) importance of keeping all the d'orayta laws. Even those that might seem "problematic." Because, after all, the issur of marrying a giyoret, no matter what the rationale that one tries to apply to it, is difficult.
Why don't you go with the more politically correct explanation that what he meant was that his sons shouldn't behave like the goyim; i.e., that they should never forget shma.
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Someone asked me how I knew Rava was a Kohein. The gemara in Rosh Hashana 18a says that Rava and Abaye both came from Beis Eli (who was obviously a kohein.
I do not have a Gemara RH handy. Rava may have been from Beis Eli and still not be Kohanim. There may have been a non-Kohen father in the lineage. What was the context in RH?
I suppose that's possible but the gemara says that people from Beis Eli died young but Rava lived extra because of zchusim. I added the following to the original post:
My father kept challenging me to prove to him that Rava was a kohein. I always remembered that Rava and Abaye were from beis Eli and that's why I had the question so I googled that and found the gemara in Rosh Hashana. I did look up the gemara and the original girsa was Rabbah but the Bach changed it to Rava. I assumed that was the accepted position. However, I just did some more googling and that's not the accepted position at all. See this answer from the Kollel Iyun Hadaf to answer a different question from a gemara in Bava Basra 12a:
It seems that the consensus among the Mefarshim is that Rava was not a Kohen (see Seder ha'Doros, "Resh") and that actually it was Rabah who was a descendent of Eli.
That would answer my question.
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