I find the overarching question for this text fantastic as it truly provides a broad but specific dimension for readers – “How can we make sex holy as feminist Jews while grappling with the gender injustices that emerge through the male-centered textual tradition?” I found the story about the rabbi and the prostitute very interesting, as it details the change from the objectifying relationship to subject; both had figuratively and literally been stripped of the roles they were playing. From this story, it shows how at the end of the day, their gender roles resumed as husband and wife, but in their moment of nakedness, it represented how gender roles can be disassembled after all. I also found the topic of intermarriage interesting in this story as well; the gentile prostitute converts to Judaism and becomes the Jewish wife of a scholar. The story embodies “bad sex” becoming “good sex,” where depersonalized sex turns into a deep recognition of humanity.
In the text, I find it interesting how men have an obligation to provide their wife with sexual pleasure and not the other way around. I am a bit conflicted as to whether I view this as empowering to women where they are not expected to please their husbands or if it creates a submissiveness for them in a culture where men sexually dominate women.
