Word: talmudic
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...this week that has garnered the unofficial moniker of the Jewish “get-drunk-off-your-ass” day. To properly commemorate Purim, a day-long celebration of the Jews’ escape from destruction by the hands of a wicked vizier in ancient Persia, the Talmud decrees that one must so wasted that “he cannot distinguish between ‘cursed is Haman [the villain]’ and ‘blessed is Mordechai [the hero].’” Because a literal reading of this passage would essentially mean...
...repression of sensual desire, Judaism humanizes sexuality by framing its pleasure as a mitzvah if it is experienced in the proper context. Although procreation is paramount and pre-marital sex is strictly forbidden in Orthodox Judaism, physical gratification itself is viewed as anything but corrosive. On the contrary, the Talmud records that it was common practice for Torah scholars to have sex their wives on the eve of the Sabbath since, as one prominent commentator notes, the Sabbath is meant for “delights” and “bodily pleasures...
...Ruttenberg summarized some of the issues in her book at yesterday’s talk, working her way easily from the presence of homoeroticism in sexually segregated communities to the role of female masturbation in Jewish sacred texts. “Sex toys are mentioned in the Talmud, but female masturbation is not,” she said. After reading a steamy passage from the thirteenth century about the sexual effects of circumcision, Ruttenberg looked up from her notes, asking the audience, “See how great it is to be a Jew?” Michael Simon, associate...
...Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace...
...Manischewitz's popularity grew, so did the general perception of matzo. Gone were the lumps and bumps of homemade mazo; machine-made mazo was uniform in size, shape, taste and texture. Manischewitz endured some controversy for his use of machines, but after he spent 13 years studying the Talmud in Jerusalem, even the most hardened traditionalists eventually considered him an acceptable authority on matzo. The Manischewitz family sold the company in 1990 for $42.5 million; the brand is still the most popular type of matzo in the world...