Matot: Chapter 1

The world is maintained by two colors only

Synopsis

Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Yitzchak talk about the wise-hearted women that spin and work with their hands, and from this they derive that those women combine Judgment and Mercy. We hear that Rabbi Elazar said that every woman is considered Judgment until she marries a man of Yisrael, who is compassion, and thus Judgment and Mercy are joined together. The rabbis explain why it is forbidden for men to have intercourse with women from the other nations. We hear that God called the souls of Yisrael Chesed so that the world would never be without love. From this it is clear that anyone who destroys Chesed will not exist in the World to Come. Matot ends with a reference to levirate marriage, where the childless man's brother restores Chesed to the world.