Reply To: Marriage

mw13-

It cannot be, in my opinion, that the purpose of marriage is in order to fulfill the mitzva of pru u’rvu. I say that because it is clear from the fact that one can fulfill the mitzva of pru u’rvu without marriage that the purpose of marriage is not simply in order to procreate. And that isn’t to say that its purpose is a specific mitzva. In fact there is absolutely no reason to assume that. Since when does the purpose of one mitzva have to be another? So perhaps it is as Oomis and Fabie said, that one is somehow incomplete without a spouse and there is something special about a bayis ne’eman, or maybe it has something to do with family life being more conducive to a healthy society, or some other purpose, but to say that the primary purpose is in order to be mekayem pru u’rvu is incorrect, in my opinion, simply because we don’t need marriage for that.

And btw, see the Rosh I mentioned before who uses this argument specifically to prove that the bracha of eirusin is not a birchas hamitzva.