Adult Education Blog

This month, we are studying Jewish sexual ethics through a Reform Lens. Using the book Sacred Encounter: Jewish Perspectives on Sexuality by the CCAR Press, and it's study guide (though in an abbreviated form), we are looking at the issues of Marriage, LGBTQIA inclusion, Healthy Relationships, Modesty in the Modern World, and Sexual Desire.

While folks are certainly welcomed to try to read along with me, Sacred Encounter is a bit dry non-fiction. Other recommended reading on the topic would be A Bride for One Night by Ruth Calderon, a series of vignettes based on Talmudic tales, or Fifty Shades of Talmud by Maggie Anton, a series of quips about Talmudic conversations about sex.

Beyond these books, I do not anticipate having source sheets or the other usual updates to post here for people's preparation for the class. However, here is a list of some of the absurd conversations about sex, relationships, and body parts, that the rabbis felt needed to be extrapolated from the Torah and made part of Jewish law. The links will take you to the full passage, in English and Aramaic, on Sefaria.

• Berakhot 62a-b - bathroom habits, and other habits, of the rabbis
• Sotah 36b - craziest orgasm ever
• Bava Kama 27a - man falls off a ladder and...
• Menachot 44a - tzitzit stop a man from sleeping with a prostitute
• Megillah 12a-b - Vashti grew a tail, and maybe not a tail
• Kiddushin 81b - Rabbi Hiyya's wife dresses like a prostitute to get his attention
• Niddah 13a-b - masturbation
• Mishnah Ketubot 5:6 and Ketubot 61b-62b - how long a man can leave his wife to study Torah
• Bava Metzia 84a - rabbis compare sizes