אמרו לו לבן עזאי יש נאה דורש ונאה מקיים נאה מקיים ואין נאה דורש ואתה נאה דורש ואין נאה מקיים אמר להן בן עזאי ומה אעשה שנפשי חשקה בתורה אפשר לעולם שיתקיים על ידי אחרים
A bad wife is a plague to her husband. What remedy has he? — Let him give her a letter of divorce and be healed of his plague. A beautiful wife is a joy to her husband;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'happy is her husband'. Cf. Ps. I, 1.
');"><sup>59</sup></span> the number of his days shall be double.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. Ecclesiasticus XXVI, 1. Every happy day is as good as two (v. Rashi).
');"><sup>60</sup></span> Turn away thy eyes from [thy neighbour's] charming wife lest thou be caught in her net. Do not turn in to her husband to mingle with him wine and strong drink; for, through the form of a beautiful woman, many were destroyed and a mighty host are all her slain.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Cf. Ben Sira (Ben Zeeb ed.) IX, 8, 10, 11.
');"><sup>61</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
The reason that Moses separated from his wife, i.e. from family life and the fulfilment of the commandment to be be fruitful and multiply, is that משה עלה אל האלוקים, "Moses ascended to G–d" (Exodus 19,3). Having reached such a stage, further "upward" motion was not necessary. This is the deeper significance of someone becoming איש האלוקים, as described in the ZoharAuthor's commentIf Ben Azzai refused to marry and procreate because "his heart cleaved to the Torah," this may have been due to his being descended from a root such as that of Moses (cf Yevamot 63)..
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Shenei Luchot HaBerit
Let us return to my earlier statement that ההולך בלא בנים מת הוא בעולם הזה ולא יחיה בעולם הבא, "anyone who is childless is considered dead in this word and will not live in the World to Come." There is a way to overcome this handicap posthumously by means of the levirate marriage. The first thing one has to bear in mind is that every husband deposits part of his רוח, spirit, during marital relations with his wife. This is so because he has only acquired the seventh part of his צורה or דמות by union with her. The spirit he has deposited within her remains within his wife even after he has died, especially during the first twelve months after his death. All this has been explained by the Zohar on פרשת משפטים where the subject is discussed. This residual spirit of her deceased husband is at war with the second husband whose spirit is also deposited within her by their union in marriage. During the struggle between these two spirits either one may emerge victorious on different occasions.
