Noam Sachs Zion

Sanctified Sex

The Two-Thousand-Year Jewish Debate on Marital Intimacy

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Sanctified Sex draws on two thousand years of rabbinic debates to address competing aspirations for loving intimacy, passionate sexual union, and sanctity in marriage.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Jewish Publication Society
• Seitenzahl: 656
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. August 2021
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 226mm x 201mm x 38mm
• Gewicht: 816g
• ISBN-13: 9780827614666
• ISBN-10: 0827614667
• Artikelnr.: 60583333

Autorenporträt

Noam Sachs Zion has been a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem since 1978 and taught on the faculty of the Rabbinic Enrichment Center. His popular publications include the best seller A Different Night: The Family Participation Haggadah.

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgments    
Introduction    
The Two-Thousand-Year Debate    
Functions of Halakhah in Guiding Marital Relationships    
This Volume: Inclusions and Exclusions    
Part One. Marital Duties and Scheduled Sex: Torah and Mishnah
1. Legislating Marital Sexuality: Biblical and Rabbinic Mandates    
Introduction    
Torah’s Two Foundational Narratives of Human Sexuality     
Talmudic Interpretations of Adam and Eve’s Relationship    
Marital Duties in Torah, Mishnah, and Talmud    
The Revolutionary Rabbinic Marriage Contract    
Rules for Onah’s Frequency    
Romantic and Liberal Critiques of the Mishnah’s Obligatory Sex    
Two Ultra-Orthodox Rejoinders to the Romantic Critique of Onah    
Modern Applications: Perel’s Scheduling of Intimacy and the Youngs’
Sexperiment    
Conclusion    
Part Two. Talmudic Disputes: Kama Sutra versus Ascetic Modesty in Three
Rabbis’ Bedrooms
2. Talmudic Proprieties of Pillow Talk: Invading the Privacy of Rav’s
Bedroom    
Introduction    
Kahana’s Espionage in Rav’s Bedroom     
Rabbinic Views on Privacy    
Akiba: Torah over Privacy    
Kahana’s True Character?     
Halakhic Debate on Pillow Talk    
Rav’s Worldview: Love and Pleasure    
Maimonides, Elazar Hasid, and Hirsch     
Conclusion: Takeaways for a Modern Marriage    
3. Modesty or License in the Marital Bed: Talmudic Debates about Imma
Shalom and Rabbi Eliezer’s Midnight Sex     
Introduction    
Eliezer’s Bedroom Etiquette    
The Angelic Code of Modesty    
Contesting Ascetic Traditions    
Birth Defects and Emotionally Defective Relationships    
The Medieval Legal Debate    
Modern Applications: Ben-Shimon, Soloveitchik, and Calderon    
4. Talmudic Techniques of Arousal: Rav Hisda’s Sex Education Tutorial for
His Daughters    
Introduction    
Hisda’s Erotic Pedagogy    
Modern Applications for Orthodox Couples: Aviner and Shuchatowitz’s Marital
Guidelines and Sigala’s Sensual Portraiture    
Conclusion    
Part Three. Medieval Mysticism and Law: Sacred Love and Legal Limits
5. A Mirror of the Divine Union: Kabbalists’ Sacred Eros of Marriage    
Introduction    
Midrash on the Cherubs’ Erotic Embrace    
Ra’avad’s Kabbalist Manual for Sexual Union    
Aristotelian Jewish Philosophers versus Kabbalist Platonists    
Zohar: Reconceiving Erotic Pleasure    
Marital Intimacy: Zohar versus Lurianic Kabbalah    
Marital Intimacy: Talmud versus Zohar    
New Age Applications: Kabbalah Centre, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and Dennis
on Spiritualized Sexuality    
Conclusion    
6. Freestyle Eroticism? Permissive versus Ascetic Medieval Codes of Law    
Introduction    
Permissive School: Maimonides and Isaac the Tosafist    
Ascetic School: Karo on Sanctity against Desire    
Permissive School: Reply to Karo    
Dissemination of Karo’s Ideology    
Conclusion: Medieval Legacies and Modern Predicaments    
Addendum: Maimonides’ Prescriptions for Medieval Viagra    
Part Four. Contemporary Haredim: Hasidim versus Litvaks on Marital Intimacy
7. Ascetic Bedrooms: Hasidic Sects Set Stringent Boundaries on Marital
Intimacy    
Introduction    
The Besht versus the Maggid on “Worship through Physicality”     
Historic Origins: Sanctity through Stringency    
Gur’s Ordinances Police the Bedroom    
Slonimer Rebbe’s Pep Talk    
Arranged Marriages and the Women of Gur    
A Disenchanted Disciple of Skver Hasidism    
Conclusion: Takeaways for a Modern Marriage    
8. “Break Their Evil Nature”: Litvak Yeshivot and Salanter’s Mussar
Suppress Desire and Familial Affection    
Introduction    
Litvak Beginnings and the First Modern Yeshiva    
The Legacy of Premodern Ascetic Piety    
Salanter’s Mussar Movement: Yeshiva Education Curbs Natural Inclinations  
 
Salanter’s Legacy: The Kelm, Navaredok, and Slabodka Schools    
Mussar’s Apathy to Wife and Family    
Shifting Sands of Mussar: Wolbe’s Yoke of Marriage and North America’s
Revival of Mussar    
Conclusion: Paradigm Shift from Mussar’s Apathy to Litvak Intimacy    
9. Devotion and Desire: Litvak Revolution Equates Marital Intimacy with
True Piety    
Introduction    
Hazon Ish’s Holy Letter: Championing Marital Conversation    
Kanievsky’s Holy Letter: Marital Passion and Compassion    
Sher’s Letter, The Holiness of Israel: Reviving Haredi Desire    
Conclusion    
10. Higher Purposes of Marriage: Education for Love, Peace, and Sanctity  
 
Introduction    
Shuchatowitz: The Grave Sin of Rushed Sexual Performance    
The Scholar’s Onah: Shuchatowitz versus Aviner    
Marital Sexuality as the Synthesis of Nature and Spirituality    
Covenantal Marriage    
Loveless Sex Desecrates Sacred Matrimony    
The Higher Purposes of Onah: Love and Unity, Humanity and Sanctity    
Conclusion    
11. Couple Communication as a Mitzvah: New Litvak Marriage Manuals Teach
the Art of Loving Conversation    
Introduction    
Flashback to Talmudic Pillow Talk    
Permitted Spousal Communication: Removing Acrimony and Arousing Desire    
Aviner’s Advice: Making a Study of One’s New Spouse    
Shuchatowitz’s Advice: Acknowledging Gender Differences in Marriage    
Haredi Educators Combine Sanctity and Intimacy    
Litvak Revolution or Haredi Crisis Management?    
Conclusion    
Part Five. Modern North American Rabbis: Confronting the Sexual Revolution
12. Redeeming Sexuality through Halakhah: Modern Orthodox Philosophers of
Jewish Law Sanctify Pleasure within Marriage    
Introduction: Comparing Haredim and North American Liberal Rabbis    
Toward a Modern Orthodox Philosophy and Practice of Sanctified Sex    
Greenberg’s Proposal to Modernize American Orthodoxy’s Sexual Ethics    
Linzer and Marcus’s Podcast, The Joy of Text     
Berkovits: Humanizing Sexual Relationships    
Soloveitchik: Redeeming Natural Sexuality    
Lamm’s The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage     
Lichtenstein’s “Of Marriage” and Ostroff’s To Know How to Love    
Orthodox Women’s Internet Responsa    
Conclusion    
13. Struggling with Sexual Liberation: Liberal Judaism’s Rabbis Tackle
Ominous and Liberating Dimensions of the Sexual Revolution    
Introduction    
Problems Raised by Sexual Liberation    
Formulating Liberal Rabbinic Responses    
Borowitz: Covenantal Sexual Ethics    
Green: New Halakhah and New Kabbalah    
Strassfeld: Sexual Togetherness as Tikkun Olam    
Waskow: A Life-Cycle Approach to Sex Ethics    
Conclusion    
14. Sliding-Scale Sex Ethics: Liberal Halakhah Balances Marital Sanctity
and the Realities of Nonmarital Sex    
Introduction    
Sexual Ethics through Jewish Values Clarification    
Conservative and Reform Responsa    
Three Tiers of Liberal Sexual Ethics    
Traditional Halakhah and Contemporary Conservative Jews    
Realistic Halakhah Condones Lesser Sins to Avoid Greater Sins    
Test Case 1: Adultery Revisited    
Test Case 2: Open Marriage and Polyamory    
Conclusion    
15. Legalizing Living Together? Competing Rabbinic Policies    
Introduction    
Historical Background: The Pilegesh    
Emden’s Pathbreaking Halakhah: Enhancing Marital Lovemaking and Legalizing
a Paramour    
On Living Together: Contemporary Halakhic Debate    
Test Case 3: Caring for the Caretaker Whose Spouse Is Incapacitated    
Conclusion    
16. A Feminist Alternative to Halakhic Marriage: Jewish Theologians Rethink
the Marriage Contract and Gender Biases    
Introduction    
Radical Jewish Feminism versus Liberal Judaism: Revolution or Reform?    
Radical Jewish Feminism versus Secular Feminism: Sacred or Private
Relationships?    
Plaskow’s Approach: Women Returning to Sinai    
Adler’s Approach: Redeeming Tradition for Egalitarian Holiness    
A New and Renewed Aggadah for Covenantal Love    
A New Halakhah: B’rit Ahuvim    
Multiform Sexuality, Gender Fluidity, and Hybridity as Divinely Blessed    
Conclusion    
Conclusion: Aggadah and Halakhah of Marriage    
Aggadah of Gender Justice versus Gender Equality    
Aggadah of Sexual Playfulness versus Spiritualized Sanctity    
Aggadah of Negative versus Positive Sanctity in the Institution of
Marriage 
Aggadah of Negative versus Positive Sanctity in Sexual Relations    
Halakhah of Onah: Male Prerogative versus Female Right    
Halakhah of Caring Communication    
Halakhah’s Labors of Love    
Notes    
Bibliography    
Index