Culture, Religion, Sex & Gender

Let's Talk About Sex, Baby!

Jewschool’s own Danya Ruttenberg was interviewed by Haaretz. It’s a great read, and not only for her not-so-subtle dig at Shmuley Boteach:

There are plenty of people who find Shmuley Boteach’s simplistic approach [to “kosher sex”] to be insultingly dumbed-down Judaism. He’ll say, “This is what the Bible says,” and then give a one-sentence answer to a complicated question that cuts out 2,000 years of serious discussion and debate. Certainly, the Bible didn’t say that, whatever “that” is, and it’s not certain that rabbinic texts said it either. We can give ourselves and our children the opportunity to see the dynamism in Jewish thought, and to see that faith and engagement don’t have to come at the expense of our intelligence. There are plenty of people who are looking for something more nuanced. There’s definitely a class of educated, sophisticated lay Jews in America who want to have a serious conversation, and one that takes them seriously.

The rest of the interview touches on feminism (is it ruining Judaism?), Israel (not just a false dichotomy?), sex (you can salt your meat?), and topics that I would like to see in a sequel to her book, “The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism” (pornography, anal sex, and sex toys – oh my!). Full Haartez article is here.

3 thoughts on “Let's Talk About Sex, Baby!

  1. Danya has Jews conversing on topics previously considered taboo by Jews and rabbis alike. Kol HaKavod

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.