And to LFL: I am so glad, that the fates being what they were, prevented a rendevous with soldier boy. LFL, I have to share with you a story ( and no, it doesn't have to do with chocolate). I was at this shabbat dinner in Israel on the first Friday I was there, and it was lead by an Israeli. At this dinner, the Israeli men included a special prayer, A Woman Of Valor ( from Proverbs 31), which I have never seen done here. I can't look it up right now, but it is just a kind thing. And.... waaaay sexy. They turn to their wives and recite it. It's like a gentle dominance, these modern Israeli men have ( I have noticed this in other occasions)and the women seem savvy enough to accept it. Makes the hair pulling stuff seem like child's play. The following Friday, we Americans were on our own, and somebody suggested we do a Shabbat dinner, and the women were kind of joking they wanted that prayer, and the men, well, they couldn't pull it off! And that is what is missing!
Glad you had a nice trip RJ. That sounds very romantic. No wonder foreign men can be such a turn on to American women. It's the intensity or something. Of course, I still think I'd like the poem followed by the hair pulling. Why not have it all?
WELCOME BACK, IHJ!!! So glad you had a great trip!
Judaism is a very sexy religion. Remember back when I was trying to get Honeypot to read Kosher Sex?
I took a course a couple of years ago called "Men, Women, and Kabbalah" at the local Chabad House (very orthodox). We learned in there that it is a Jewish belief that the place you get the closest experience of the face of God and God's presence is in physical union with your beloved. In the ketubah (the marriage contract, which BTW is for the WOMAN'S benefit and protection) it states that it is grounds for the woman to divorce the man if he refuses to have sex with her.
I read an article recently, maybe it was in Reform Judaism magazine (but maybe not)... the reporter went to visit one of her friends who had moved to Israel and observed the Jewish laws, one of which is that married women keep their hair covered. The reporter said that the friend and her husband had several children (the Jewish "laws of family purity" are structured such that pregnancy is practically inevitable, with abstention from IC during the period and seven days after.... hel-LO! you wind up having sex during the most fertile time), but the children were not allowed in the couple's bedroom. The bedroom, she said, was this sanctuary of intimacy and... well, SEX. It was clearly where the husband and wife went to BE together. The reporter asked if she could see her friend's hair, which had always been long, blonde, and beautiful, but the wife said, modestly but seriously, "My hair is only for my husband." The reporter was shaken by the blatant sensuality veiled by the rules, orthodoxy, and family life. But I think that is part of the Jewish way of looking at it. Sex is so powerful that you put a protective fence around it, but within that fence, explosions, fireworks, and volcanoes are not only permitted but encouraged.
(Of course, this is THEORY... in practice, hangups, etc., get in the way...)
Seems like eroticizing the cow to me which I am ,of course, always in favor of. Reminds me of "Bleak House".
You think so? It doesn't feel erotic at all to me. Not even cow-erotic. I may be missing an essential antenna.
Lil, the hair covering thing is interesting. Wouldn't want to do it myself, but it's a fascinating idea. What's also fascinating is that the Christian religion lost this custom and the orthodox Jews didn't, although the Biblical basis is much stronger in the New Testament (Paul) than in the Hebrew Bible.
You guys crack me up. On paper ( well, on this board) the verse does sound like an Ode To The Cow, but in person, hearing these men chant this to their wives, I am telling you, it was downright sexy.
