Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 Foundations 8
1.1 The Bible 8
1.2 The Talmudic/Rabbinic Literature 12
2 Rationalists, Philosophers, and Codifiers 46
2.1 Abraham ben David’s Gate of Holiness 47
2.2 Maimonides’s Never-Written Guide to Sexuality 61
2.3 Jacob ben Asher’s Arba’ah Turim 85
2.4 Isaac Aboab’s Menorat ha-Ma’or 90
2.5 Joseph Karo’s Shulkhan Arukh 91
3 Kabbalists and Hasids 95
3.1 Sexuality According to the Zoharic Literature 97
3.2 Iggeret ha-Kodesh 103
3.3 Sexuality in Safedian Kabbalah 116
3.3.1 Joseph Karo 117
3.3.2 Moshe Cordovero and His Commentary on the Prayer Book 120
3.3.3 Isaac Luria and Hayyim Vital 126
3.4 Popularized Kabbalah 133
3.4.1 Elijah ben Moshe de Vidas’s Reshit Hokhmah 133
3.4.2 Moshe ben Makhir’s Sefer Seder Ha-Yom 135
3.4.3 Isaiah ben Abraham ha-Levi Horowitz’s Shnei Luhot ha-Brit 139
3.4.4 Hemdat Yamim 141
3.5 Marital Relations in Hasidic Texts 147
4 Orthodoxies in Recent Decades 154
4.1 Contemporary Modern Orthodox Marital Guidance 154
4.1.1 Shlomo Aviner 160
4.1.2 Yechiel Faust’s Et Dodim 172
4.1.3 Elyashiv Knohl’s Ish ve-Ishah and Et Dodim 173
4.1.4 Neomi Wolfson and Tzofia Shkoury 180
4.1.5 Jennie Rosenfeld’s and David S. Ribner’s Et Le’Ehov 180
4.1.6 Dan Seter’s Dvar Seter 184
4.1.7 La-Da’at le-Ehov 189
4.1.8 Eliezer Melamed’s The Happiness of the Home and Its Blessing 192
4.2 Haredi Guides to Marital Sexuality 195
4.2.1 Shmuel ben Mordechai Hominer’s Sefer Kedushah 197
4.2.2 Vi-Hiyitem Kedoshim 200
4.2.3 Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky’s Letter 202
4.2.4 Isaiah Asher Zelig Margaliyot’s Da’at ha-Kedushah 206
4.2.5 Daniel Frisch’s Kedushah u-Tsniut 210
4.2.6 Tsvi Dov Travis’s Controversial Pirkey Hanhagat Ha-Bayit 213
4.2.7 Sefer Kadshenu be-Mitzvoteikha 218
4.2.8 Dov ha-Kohen Fink’s Kuntres u-Fakadeta Navekha 219
4.2.9 Binyan ha-Bayit, Sheyekadesh Atzmo, and Halachic Positions 221
5 Conclusion 225
5.1 Asceticism and Enjoyment 226
5.2 Sex on Friday Night 229
5.3 Sex in the Middle of the Night 235
5.4 The Night of the Ritual Bath 238
5.5 Holes in Sheets 242
5.6 Overturning the Table, Not in Her Way, and Anal Sex 244
5.7 Censorship 249
5.8 The Need for Manuals 254
5.9 Religious Zionist Sexuality 257
5.10 Haredi Sexuality 262
Bibliography 265
Index 283