For the source text click/tap here: Moed Katan 7
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There is a dispute between tanna’im in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi.
One Sage, holds that the company of the world at large is preferable to the leper. than being secluded with his wife...
Consequently, the priest may examine a confirmed leper during the Festival because the priest will either decide that the leper’s symptoms are still present, in which case the leper’s situation will be no worse than before,
or the priest will declare that his symptoms have subsided, in which case the leper may re-enter the community, which will bring him joy.
This braisa holds man’s main concern is to be allowed back into society even at the cost of not being with his wife,
And the other Sage, holds that the company of his wife is preferable to the leper.
Consequently, the priest may not examine a confirmed leper on the Festival, because if he declares that his symptoms have subsided, the leper will begin his seven day purification process,
during which time he is prohibited from engaging in conjugal relations with his wife.
Due to the distress that this causes him, it is preferable that the priest not examine him at all during the Festival.
This braisa holds that a man prefers to be with his wife even at the expense of entering into a community, preferring to remain sequestered outside the camp alone with his wife.
This debate opens us to the difference between eros and agape and whether recent studies confirm men’s preference of one over the other.
How does these to archetypes fit into Erich Fromm’s theory of love and how does chassidus extrapolate these two types of love in the service of the Divine?