4819 —מקורות הקוראן באיסור חתנות ובצום רמדן

B"H, 9 Cheshvan, 5717

Brooklyn, N.Y.

To Professor Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen, may he live

Shalom u'Vrachah!

I received your letter before your journey, and did not answer it since I did not know when you would return; thus the reply has been delayed until now. Since we will soon see each other face to face, I will be brief here, following the order of your letter:

As to your remark on what I wrote about the prohibition of marriage with the Nesinim^[1], that there are opinions that it is included in the prohibition "You shall not intermarry with them" for the reason "for he will turn your son away," etc.:

In the case at hand, the discussion concerns the source of what is written in the Koran, that is, what was written by someone who was ignorant in Jewish matters and received his knowledge in fragments from others, as is evident from the contradictions in the Koran. It follows that, almost certainly, the sources of his knowledge and of his conclusions must be simple and easy to find. Therefore, where one can say that it is based on an explicit passage in Devarim^[2], and similarly in Malachi^[3], as I noted in my letter, I do not understand why we should strain to say that he debated the opinions of the Rishonim, or even the opinions of Amoraim, and decided in favor of one side, and the like.

As to what you write about the fast of Ramadan^[4], I will admit without shame that it is news to me that it lasts forty days, for until now I said that just as the month has thirty days, so does the fast.

In a separate envelope some of what we have recently published is being sent to you, and you will surely be interested in them as well.

With respect and with blessing.

Notes

[1] The Nesinim (נתינים): the descendants of the Givonites, whom Yehoshua made "hewers of wood and drawers of water" (Yehoshua 9:27) and who were barred from marrying into the congregation (see Yevamos 78b–79a). Some hold that the prohibition of marrying them is Biblical, included in "You shall not intermarry with them" (Devarim 7:3), whose reason is "for he will turn your son away from Me" (ibid. 7:4). The professor was commenting on an earlier letter of the Rebbe, which traced the Koran's prohibition to the explicit verses, and suggested that it might come from these opinions.

[2] An explicit passage in Devarim (פרשה מפורשת בדברים): "You shall not intermarry with them: you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor take his daughter for your son; for he will turn your son away from Me" (Devarim 7:3–4).

[3] In Malachi (במלאכי): "For Yehudah has profaned the holiness of G‑d which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god" (Malachi 2:11). The argument: since the author of the Koran was not learned in Judaism and received his knowledge piecemeal from others, his source is most likely these plain verses, and not a debate among the Rishonim or Amoraim.

[4] Ramadan (רמדן): the month in which Muslims fast each day from dawn until sunset.