Thought
Parashat Ki Tavo column in Times of Israel: hearts, eyes, and ears opened anew—between collective trauma and a search for light and hope as Deuteronomy and the Hebrew year draw to a close.
How do we find words when words are kidnapped? Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz on yearning for clarity amid fog, choosing to let light grow from within
The Gemara in Tractate Nedarim presents what appear to be two contradictory messages about desired and appropriate sexual behavior. The rabbis discuss, in this sugya, what is permitted, desired and pleasurable between partners during sexual intercourse.
How do we learn how to behave in our sex lives, which are caught between the hidden and the revealed? A look at a Talmudic Aggadah illuminates the question of the delicate boundaries of “knowing.”
The nature of eros is to arise not necessarily when we want or plan it to. It can appear in a variety of unideal moments; the following is a suggestion to feel the internal commitment to the commandment of onah, when it reveals itself and seeks to quench its thirst and know its place.
People enter marital life with expectations, fears, assumptions, and other matters that should be openly discussed both before and during marriage.
People have always turned to experts to answer their questions and relieve their pain. What is the role of autonomy in intimate matters, and where do we draw the line between healthy consultation and over-consultation?
Single people, even those who wish to marry but have not yet found a spouse, can still lead rich and meaningful lives. Bachelorhood does not entail solitude and loneliness. Rather, unmarried people can experience all the characteristics, emotions, and desires of independent individuals.
The religious public has begun to put the conversation about sexuality on the table. How did this happen, where can we see change, and what are the costs of this new discourse?
In recent decades, many men and women who have grown up in the religious world aspire to study together as couples. Many couples enjoy studying in a havruta, where learning Torah together becomes a meaningful and formative experience. In this article, I make several suggestions to help fulfill the yearning for a study partner and overcome existing obstacles. The experience of Torah study, which, thank God, has flourished in recent years without gender distinctions, is a significant and formative experience for many men and women. This gave rise to the dream of a relationship that includes shared learning time, a harmonious and pleasant time where the couple sits together in an embrace or close proximity, engaging in learning where they complement each other, in an environment of appreciation and love. He interprets and she adds, she deciphers and he finds another contextual connection. The tranquility, pleasantness, and ideal atmosphere paint this fantasy in soft and romantic hues.
On the desire to eradicate the Rabbinical authority to harm the ethical responsibility that must be engaged when taking on a Rabbinical position.
One thinks that a vacuum is formed. They say that you’ll live with the understanding that bachelorhood is a corridor to the next stage, to marriage. Then you find yourself there for a long time.
Since our first conversation we weaved a dream: to give our future children and ourselves natural births, at home.
Revelation, for Rosenzweig, does not merely enable a person exposure to that which was hitherto concealed from him.