Why Does Man Acquire Woman?

Let’s talk about the Jewish view of marriage. Did you know that when the Torah talks about marriage in Bereishit, it says that a man “acquires” his wife? What is with that? Can you get any less romantic? But more than that, to our modern ears, it seems so primitive and backwards.

Does the Torah think that married women are just the property of their husbands? If this is the Jewish view of marriage, it’s positively cringe-worthy. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? What if “acquisition” isn’t about ownership at all?

Join Rabbi Fohrman as he confronts the Bible's strange formulation of marriage through a look at the very first married couple: Adam and Eve -- and along the way explore some of the most fundamental questions there are about love, marriage, and why relationships play such a crucial role in our lives.