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Study and Marriage

Our rabbis taught, “If one has to study and marry a woe, he should first study and then marry.  But if he cannot (live) without a wife, he should first marry and then study.  “Rav Yehudah said in Samuel’s name, “The Halakha is: (A man) first marries and then studies.”  Rabbi Yohanan said, “(With) a millstone around his neck shall one study Torah??” Yet, they do not differ: The one refers to ourselves (Rashi: Babylonians); the other refers to them (Rashi: in Israel). –Kiddushin 29b

Note: Rashi explains that Babylonian traveled to Israel to study, leaving their wives in Babylonia and were therefore free form worry.  In Israel, students had wives, and all their worries, were therefore with them.  Rabbenu Tam, in Tosafot, reverses the positioning.

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