Page "Jewish ethics" Paragraph 43

Marriage is called kiddushin, or ' making holy '.

To set up a family home is to take part in an institution imbued with holiness.

Monogamy is the ideal ( Gen. ii.

24 ).

Celibacy is regarded as contrary to the injunction to be fruitful and multiply ( Genesis 2: 18 and Isaiah 45: 18 ).

According to the Talmud and midrash, man is enjoined to take a wife and obtain posterity ( Yeb.

63b ; Mek., Yitro, 8 ).

" He who lives without a wife lives without joy and blessing, without protection and peace "; he is " not a complete man " ( Yeb.

62a, 63a ), and for it he has to give reckoning at the great Judgement Day ( Shab.

31a ).