(כא) הוּא הָיָה אוֹמֵר, בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים לַמִּקְרָא, בֶּן עֶשֶׂר לַמִּשְׁנָה, בֶּן שְׁלשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַמִּצְוֹת, בֶּן חֲמֵשׁ עֶשְׂרֵה לַתַּלְמוּד, בֶּן שְׁמֹנֶה עֶשְׂרֵה לַחֻפָּה, בֶּן עֶשְׂרִים לִרְדֹּף, בֶּן שְׁלשִׁים לַכֹּחַ, בֶּן אַרְבָּעִים לַבִּינָה, בֶּן חֲמִשִּׁים לָעֵצָה, בֶּן שִׁשִּׁים לַזִּקְנָה, בֶּן שִׁבְעִים לַשֵּׂיבָה, בֶּן שְׁמֹנִים לַגְּבוּרָה, בֶּן תִּשְׁעִים לָשׁוּחַ, בֶּן מֵאָה כְּאִלּוּ מֵת וְעָבַר וּבָטֵל מִן הָעוֹלָם:
(21) He [Yehudah ben Teima] used to say: At five years old, to Scripture; at ten years old, to the Mishnah; at thirteen, to the commandments; at fifteen, to the Talmud; at eighteen, to the chuppah; at twenty, for pursuit; at thirty, for strength; at forty, for insight; at fifty, for counsel; at sixty, for old age; at seventy, for a hoary head; at eighty, for valour; at ninety, to bend down; at 100, as if dead, passed away, and ceased from the world.
(א) מצות מילה - לך לך יש בה מצות עשה אחת, והיא מצות מילה, שנאמר (בראשית יז י) זאת בריתי אשר תשמרו ביני וביניכם ובין זרעך אחריך המול לכם כל זכר. ונכפלה בסדר אשה כי תזריע, דכתיב (ויקרא יב ג), וביום השמיני ימול בשר ערלתו. והרבה מצות נכפלו במקומות הרבה בתורה, וכלן לצרך כמו שפרשום חכמינו ז''ל (שבת קלב, א קלה, א). וענין מצוה זו, הוא שחותכין הערלה המחפה ראש הגויה ופורעין קרום רך שלמטה ממנה, כדי שתתגלה ראש העטרה שבאותו איבר, כידוע למבינים שתשלום צורת האדם בהסיר ממנו אותה ערלה, שהיא תוספת בו.
(1) The commandment to circumcise: [Parshat] Lekh Lekha [has] one commandment, and that is the commandment to circumcise, as it is stated (Genesis 17:10) "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between you and I, and with your descendants after you, circumcise all males." And [the commandment] is repeated in the [Parshah]of Tazria, as it is stated (Leviticus 12:3), "And on the eighth day circumcise the flesh of his foreskin." There are many commandments which are repeated in many places in the Torah, and all of them are necessary as the sages interpreted (Shabbat 132a and Shabbat 135a). And the practice of this commandment [involves] cutting the foreskin that covers the head of the member and then tearing the soft skin which is below it so that the crowning head of the member will be exposed. As is known to those that understand, the completion of the form of man comes with the removal of this foreskin which is extraneous.
(יב) דָּבָר אַחֵר, אָז יָשִׁיר משֶׁה,...: וַיִּתֵּן בְּפִי שִׁיר חָדָשׁ, מָשָׁל לְאִשָּׁה שֶׁהָיְתָה נִדָּה, הִשְׁלִימָה יְמֵי נִדָּתָהּ וְטָהֵרָה, בָּאתָה אֵצֶל אִישָׁהּ אָמַר לָהּ מִי מֵעִיד עָלַיִךְ שֶׁטָּהַרְתְּ, אָמְרָה לוֹ הֲרֵי שִׁפְחָתִי מְעִידָה שֶׁטָּהַרְתִּי לְפָנֶיהָ וְטָבַלְתִּי, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר: אֶת הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹאת, נָאִים אָנוּ לוֹמַר שִׁירָה לְפָנֶיךָ, שֶׁאֵין בָּנוּ טֻמְאָה, וַהֲרֵי הַמִּילָה מְעִידָה עָלֵינוּ שֶׁאָנוּ טְהוֹרִים, לְכָךְ נֶאֱמַר: אֶת הַשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת, וְאֵין זֹאת אֶלָּא מִילָה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (בראשית יז, י): זֹאת בְּרִיתִי אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְרוּ. וַיֹּאמְרוּ לֵאמֹר, נִהְיֶה אוֹמְרִים לְבָנֵינוּ, וּבָנֵינוּ לִבְנֵיהֶן, שֶׁיִּהְיוּ אוֹמְרִים לְפָנֶיךָ כַּשִּׁירָה הַזֹּאת בְּעֵת שֶׁתַּעֲשֶׂה לָהֶם נִסִּים.
...Another explanation: Then Moshe sang...And He placed within my mouth a new song. A parable: This is like a woman who was in flux, the days of her flux were completed and she made herself tahor. She came to her husband. He said to her: Who can testify for you that you have made yourself tahor? She said to him: My maidservant testifies that I have made myself tahor before her and have immersed. Therefore it says: this song. It is pleasant for us to sing before you, for there is no tumah in us. For, see, the milah testifies for us that we are tahor, therefore it says this song, for there is no "this" except the milah, as it is said: This is my covenant which you shall keep [Breishit 17:10]. and they said thus: Let us speak to our sons, and our sons to their sons, so that they will speak before You like the song of this at the time when You do miracles for them.
(ז) (ז) שפטרני מענשו וכו' - פי' דעד עכשיו נענש האב כשחטא הבן בשביל שלא חנכו למצות התורה ועכשיו שנעשה איש מחוייב הוא להתחזק בעצמו למצות הש"י. ודע דאע"פ ששוב אין עליו ענין חינוך מ"מ יש על האב מצות הוכחה כשרואה שאינו מתנהג כשורה וכשאינו מוחה בידו נענש עליו וכו':
...Who has released me from this one's punishment...This means that until now, the father was punished when the son sinned, because he hadn't educated him for the Torah's commandments. But now, since he has become a man, he is obliged to strengthen the mitzvot of God (may He be blessed) within himself. And know that, even though [the father] no longer has any matter of education upon him, nevertheless the mitzvah of rebuke is still upon the father when he sees that he is not conducting himself properly [lit., by the line]. And if then he does not stay his hand, he is punished over him...
(י) וַיִּגְדְּלוּ הַנְּעָרִים (בראשית כה, כז), רַבִּי לֵוִי אָמַר מָשָׁל לַהֲדַס וְעִצְבוֹנִית שֶׁהָיוּ גְּדֵלִים זֶה עַל גַּבֵּי זֶה, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁהִגְדִּילוּ וְהִפְרִיחוּ זֶה נוֹתֵן רֵיחוֹ וְזֶה חוֹחוֹ, כָּךְ כָּל י"ג שָׁנָה שְׁנֵיהֶם הוֹלְכִים לְבֵית הַסֵּפֶר וּשְׁנֵיהֶם בָּאִים מִבֵּית הַסֵּפֶר, לְאַחַר י"ג שָׁנָה זֶה הָיָה הוֹלֵךְ לְבָתֵּי מִדְרָשׁוֹת וְזֶה הָיָה הוֹלֵךְ לְבָתֵּי עֲבוֹדַת כּוֹכָבִים. אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר צָרִיךְ אָדָם לְהִטָּפֵל בִּבְנוֹ עַד י"ג שָׁנָה, מִיכָּן וָאֵילָךְ צָרִיךְ שֶׁיֹּאמַר בָּרוּךְ שֶׁפְּטָרַנִּי מֵעָנְשׁוֹ שֶׁל זֶה...
(10) And the boys grew up (Genesis 25:27): Rabbi Levi said, "There is a [relevant] parable about a myrtle and a wild rose bush growing one on top of the other. And once they grew and blossomed, this one gives its fragrance, and this one its thorn. So [too,] all of the thirteen years they would both walk to the school and they would both come [back] from the school. After thirteen years, this one would walk to the study halls, and this one would walk to the house of idolatry." Rabbi Elazar said, "A man must concern himself with his son until thirteen years. From then on, he needs to say, 'Blessed is the One who exempted me from the punishment of this one.'...
There are two facets to marriage in Judaism: the relationship between a man and a woman, and the attitude of others toward them. Where the couple is concerned, the act of marriage almost totally lacks sanctity and is essentially a mutual agreement between two people to live together as a family and undertake to respect the obligations of a marriage contract. Since the act is not a sacrament, there is no need for priestly or rabbinical sanction. Talmudic law establishes that when a man and woman decide to wed, the man need only say to the woman, in the presence of two witnesses (who establish the legality of the occasion not through testimony but as part of the essence of the ceremony), that she has now become his wife through one of the accepted forms of marriage--symbolic handing over of money, written guarantee, or sexual intercourse. When the act takes place with the concurrence of both parties, a marriage has occurred...The Jewish custom of inviting a rabbi to conduct the marriage ceremony dates from the late Middle Ages and is partly an imitation of the Christian ceremony, with no religious significance.
Rabbi Goldie Milgram:
"The context of the Bible’s knowledge of homosexual acts is clarified by examining the two occasions where these acts are threatened. In the first case, the men of Sodom demand that Lot send out his guests so they could rape them. It should be noted that these would-be rapists are all heterosexual. Similarly, in the second case the Benjaminites of Gibeah demand "bring out the man who has come into your house, so that we can be intimate with him." Rabbi Robert Gordis notes: ‘Actually the two episodes highlight the heinous sin involved in violating the ancient practice of hospitality to strangers ; they are not primarily concerned with homosexuality.’"
Biblical texts which deal with homosexuality and in some cases heterosexuality most often do so in the context of violence or as in the case of Romans l: 24-27 and others, deal with idolatry and lust, not loving relationships. These are called "to-ey-vah" in Hebrew and are prohibited. Reconstructionism affirms committed relationships which are non-violent and which model living together in the context of loving commitment, i.e., marital holiness. I join in decrying the violent and non-relationship-based use of sexuality which the Torah and Talmud highlight in a great number of texts.
(ב) ... ומפני זה צוה לעשות מעשה אחד שייחדה אליו בו והוא ה'ארוסין' ושיפרסם הדבר והוא - ה'נישואין' "ויקח בועז עשרה אנשים וגו'": ופעמים שלא יהיה ביניהם הסכמת אהבה ושלום ולא יסודר ענין ביתם. והותר לו לגרשה. ואילו היתה מתגרשת בדיבור לבד או בהוציאה מביתו היתה האשה מחזרת אחר פשיעה ויוצאת ואומרת כי גרושה היא; או כשתזנה עם אדם תאמר היא והנואף שכבר נתגרשה - ולזה נצטוינו שלא יתכן לגרש רק בספר שיעיד עליו "וכתב לה ספר כריתות וגו'":
(2) ...Therefore it is commanded to perform the act of engagement by which he declares that he has chosen her to take her for his wife, and then to go through the public ceremony of marriage. Comp. "And Boaz took ten men," etc. (Ruth 4:2). Sometimes husband and wife do not have loving and peaceful agreement, and do not set their home in order; in that case he is permitted to send her away. If he had been allowed to divorce her by a mere word, or by turning her out of his house, the wife would wait for some wrongdoing [on the part of the husband], and then come out and say that she was divorced; or having strayed with a man, she and the adulterer would say that she had already been divorced. Therefore we are commanded that divorce can only take place by means of a document which can serve as evidence, "He shall write her a bill of divorcement" (Deut. 24:1)....