A friend of mine is very bothered about the question when a commitment between man and woman starts. She had a relationship with a guy some time ago and they also had sexual relation but later split up. The girl now wonders if that sexual relation effected some kind of commitment to that man, so that she actually can’t have any other man anymore. I personally think that – while we agree that it was a big mistake – she is not condemned to stay single for all her life now. Everybody can do Teshuvah and start again. Can you help what is the Torah perspective? Thanks a lot for your advice.
n.b.: She comes up that in the Torah it’s written that if a man takes a girl and sleeps with her, he has to marry her. So she thinks that it’s not marriage that binds people together, but the sexual action. Does that law apply to non-jews at all ? And how do we have to understand it?
