Posted by Ginny Tosken [GinnyT] on April 08, 1999 at 21:29:42 {vxsc0.TBNk7fLSrSG9icFbqv3I7Em.}:
Mary's question about in-law marriages got me thinking.
A Jewish woman is forbidden from marrying her brother-in-law unless her husband has died and left her childless. When Herod Antipas married his half-brother's wife, the Jews were outraged.
I assumed this law was made to protect the feelings of the first brother.
Yet, Jacob married sisters, Leah and Rachel. Where was the protection for the feelings of these sisters?
The story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel always tormented me. How awful to be Leah, to know that one's sister was the first choice, and that you were foisted off on a man by trickery. How awful to be Rachel, to wait for seven years, knowing your sister was having sex with the man you loved. I have never been able to comprehend how women cope with polygamous marriages.
The Biblical stance on what constitutes incest seems rather inconsistent to me, to say the least.
[Lev 18:16] You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife; she is your brother's nakedness.
[Lev 18:18] And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is yet alive.
Ginny