Judaism and sexuality

Jewish traditions across different eras and regions devote considerable attention to sexuality. Sexuality is the subject of many narratives and laws in the Tanakh.

In Judaism, sexuality is viewed as having both positive and negative potential, depending on the context in which it is expressed. Many sources express a positive attitude towards sex between a married couple. On the other hand, sexual activity is also viewed as a grave sin if it is outside of the bounds of permissible behavior.

Attitudes towards sexuality within marriage

Laws and Biblical sources

According to medieval Rabbinical enumerations of the 613 commandments, the commandment to procreate () is the first mitzvah in the Torah.See Sefer haChinuch (Jerusalem: Rav Kook Institute, 1990), p. 55. This commandment was understood by the rabbis to be only binding on men; women are exempt. One of the common explanation for this was because childbirth puts them in physical danger, therefore they cannot be ordered to accomplish an act that put them at risk. According to many thinkers, the central nature of this mitzvah is due to the fact that God desires for the world to be populated.

There is another Torah commandment known as '' onah'' which obligates a man to provide pleasurable sexual intercourse to his wife on a regular basis (if she desires it), even if they have already had children, or are incapable of having children.

requires a man who has been married within the last year to "gladden" his wife at home, rather than joining the army to fight in a war which is ongoing. In later Jewish tradition, this is understood as a general requirement for every husband to stay at home with his wife for the first year of marriage, and for them to "rejoice" together.

Maimonides permits a married couple to engage in nearly any form of sexual activity:

In many sources, it is recommended that husband and wife have sex on Shabbat. Often, this is said to be related to the obligation to delight in the Sabbath. There are also though other reasons that contributed to this tradition, including saying that this is the only day of the week when Torah scholars have time, or that this is in order to imitate cosmic unions that happens on Friday night between God and the Shekihnah, as imagined by the Kabbalists.

Any emission of semen by a man makes him ritually impure, and if this occurs during sex with a woman, she too becomes ritually impure. However, there is no prohibition on becoming ritually impure, and no consequence to ritual impurity except the inability to visit the Temple in Jerusalem or touch certain sanctified objects. Since the Temple has been destroyed in the 1st c. CE, these are practically not a concern anymore.

Acceptance of the value of sex in a marriage

Some might say that in the Talmud and other classical rabbinic texts, "there is no revulsion from ustfulpleasure nor recoil from romantic passion." Others might disagree and find there texts that do reject lust, for example. One passage suggests that sexual relations are one of three activities which are "a taste of the world to come". Elsewhere, the Talmud criticizes one who sleeps in the same room as a husband and wife, preventing them from having sex that night. Another example of seemingly positive attitude to marital sexuality is Rabbi Meir's statement that the purpose of niddah laws is so that, upon the couple's resumption of sexual activity, "she should be as desirable to her husband as when she entered the marriage canopy."

In one story in the Talmud, while Rav was having sex with his wife, his student Rav Kahana hid underneath the bed. Rav scolded Kahana for this behavior, but Kahana countered that sex is part of the Torah, and therefore he must learn about it from his teacher.

While sexual lust is categorized as a form of "evil inclination" (yetzer hara), the rabbis recognized its necessity as a motivator of procreation, and thus described it as "very good" in one source.

Other talmudic texts show less enthusiasm regarding sexual activity. Thus, for example, some texts say that the above mentioned impurity created by ejaculation exists "in order that Torah scholars would not be with their wives like roosters" (B. Berakhot 22a): in other words, to reduce their sexual activity.

According to ''Iggeret HaKodesh'' ("The Holy Letter", a 12th-century work sometimes mistakenly attributed to Nahmanides), a man should arouse his wife during sex, and even that he should ensure that she achieves orgasm before he does. He also says: "But we who have the Torah and believe that God created all in His wisdom o not believe Godcreated anything inherently ugly or unseemly. If we were to say that intercourse is repulsive, then we blaspheme God who made the genitals". One should remember though that the goal of sexual activity according to the author of the ''ggeret HaKodesh'' is the procreation of smart and pious male children that will engage in studying the Torah. It is not for recreation.

Some medieval rabbis even allowed forms of contraception (which otherwise might be forbidden) so that couples could engage in sex for pleasure.

Ascetic views

Despite the general acceptance of sexuality in marriage as described above, some sources advocate that especially pious people should minimize their engagement in sex.

According to rabbinic sources, Moses was physically separate from his wife Tzipporah while he fulfilled his role as prophet and leader of the Jewish people. This has been understood in various ways. According to one view, ritual purity is a precondition for prophecy, and Moses avoided sex to ensure he was ritually pure and able to receive prophecy at any moment. According to Maimonides, though, sexual pleasure is a distraction which is incompatible with the intellectual focus needed for high-level prophecy. No other prophet separated from his wife; only Moses had this high level of prophecy. This is not actually an ascetic view towards sexuality; rather it was a one-off exception.

Maimonides permits a married couple to engage in nearly any form of sexual activity, but praises one who limits sexual activity to the minimum necessary:

Nahmanides went further, writing that "sexual relations are remote and disgusting according to the Torah, except for the perpetuation of the human species".

According to Raabad, there are four permitted "kavvanot" (intentions) for a man's sexual relations which receive Divine reward: for procreation, for welfare of the fetus, to fulfill a wife's desire, and that he relieves his lust through intercourse with his wife rather than in a forbidden manner. Yet the last one is a lesser reward, since the man should have had the strength to resist. If he does not show any strength, and has sex anytime he wants, this would not be rewarded. (Although sex would not be rewarded by Heaven in this last case, it is not forbidden either, and is its own ...)

Forbidden sexual acts in Judaism

Isurei bi'ah

The term ''isurei bi'ah'' (Hebrew איסורי ביאה) refers to those one may not have intercourse with. The most serious of these form a subset known as ''arayot'' (Hebrew: ), based on the word ''erva'' ("nakedness") in . Intercourse with arayot is one of the few acts in Judaism which one may not perform even to save one's life. The term ''erva'' is also used to describe parts of a female considered to be immodest and sexually provocative including a woman's hair, thighs, and singing voice.

Arayot include:

* Incestuous relations
* Male-male anal intercourse
* Bestiality
* Sex with a Jewish woman during her menstrual period (known as niddah)

Other isurei bi'ah include:

* Sexual intercourse between Jews and Gentiles
* Divorcees or female converts with Kohanim (priests)
* Mamzerim (offspring of adulterous unions) with regular Jews

When two people are forbidden from having sex together, the laws of ''negiah'' prohibit them from engaging in lesser sexual touch (including hugging and kissing), while the laws of ''yichud'' prohibit them from spending time together in private in a manner that would allow them to have sex undetected. These prohibitions do not apply in certain situations where sexual relationships are unlikely, for example among close family members.

Homosexuality

The traditional view is that the Torah forbids anal intercourse between two males (i.e. sodomy), and this is the view of Orthodox Judaism, based on : "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination."Rabbinic sources extend this prohibition to all other sexual acts between two men, which are prohibited similar to how they would be prohibited between an unmarried man and woman.

There is no explicit ban on female-female intercourse in the Hebrew Bible

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