The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
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The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22152700
The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Sex is a touchy subject - not least among Israel's highly conservative ultra-Orthodox Jews. But a therapist in Jerusalem has written a sex guide aimed specifically at this community.
There used to be a sex shop on the way to Dr David Ribner's office in central Jerusalem.
The sign is still there - with big red letters spelling out "Sex Shop, Sex, Love" - but you can barely read it because it's been scratched out.
The shop went out of business. Now there's just one sex shop left in Jerusalem. No surprise for a city brimming with the pious.
Things are quite different in Ribner's discreet office. Here, there is a row of boxes packed with lubricants, vibrators and massage oils, and an unusual collection of books on the wall - The Joy of Sex and The Guide to Getting It On sit side-by-side with volumes of Jewish religious texts.
I tell Ribner I've never seen a bookshelf quite like it. "There probably aren't any," he says.
Ribner was born in the US. In New York, he received both rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in social work. Then he moved to Israel, where he has been counselling devout Jewish patients for the last 30 years. He also founded a sex therapy training programme at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
He says publication of a sex manual for Orthodox Jews was long overdue.
Ultra-Orthodox boys and girls are educated separately, and have little interaction with the opposite sex until their marriage night, when they are expected to consummate their union.
Physical touch with the opposite sex - even something like a handshake - is only permitted with one's spouse and close family members. Access to films and the internet is often restricted.
"We wanted there to be a place where people could say, 'I know nothing and I want to know something,'" says Ribner.
The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy, which Ribner co-wrote with Orthodox researcher Jennie Rosenfeld, starts with the very basics - explaining, for example, how the body shape of men and women differs.
Ribner says Judaism regards sex as something positive, but it has become taboo to discuss it openly.
"Sex is only appropriate within a marital context," he says. "Beyond that it's not talked about. Because of that, it's become very difficult for people to have any kind of dialogue about it."
So this book enters uncharted territory.
Flip through it, and you see no illustrations.
But there is a sealed envelope on the back flap. It warns readers there are sexual diagrams inside. If you don't want to look at them, you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.
Ribner opens it up to show me what's inside.
There are three diagrams of basic sexual positions.
(continued, only three?)
The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Sex is a touchy subject - not least among Israel's highly conservative ultra-Orthodox Jews. But a therapist in Jerusalem has written a sex guide aimed specifically at this community.
There used to be a sex shop on the way to Dr David Ribner's office in central Jerusalem.
The sign is still there - with big red letters spelling out "Sex Shop, Sex, Love" - but you can barely read it because it's been scratched out.
The shop went out of business. Now there's just one sex shop left in Jerusalem. No surprise for a city brimming with the pious.
Things are quite different in Ribner's discreet office. Here, there is a row of boxes packed with lubricants, vibrators and massage oils, and an unusual collection of books on the wall - The Joy of Sex and The Guide to Getting It On sit side-by-side with volumes of Jewish religious texts.
I tell Ribner I've never seen a bookshelf quite like it. "There probably aren't any," he says.
Ribner was born in the US. In New York, he received both rabbinic ordination and a doctorate in social work. Then he moved to Israel, where he has been counselling devout Jewish patients for the last 30 years. He also founded a sex therapy training programme at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv.
He says publication of a sex manual for Orthodox Jews was long overdue.
Ultra-Orthodox boys and girls are educated separately, and have little interaction with the opposite sex until their marriage night, when they are expected to consummate their union.
Physical touch with the opposite sex - even something like a handshake - is only permitted with one's spouse and close family members. Access to films and the internet is often restricted.
"We wanted there to be a place where people could say, 'I know nothing and I want to know something,'" says Ribner.
The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy, which Ribner co-wrote with Orthodox researcher Jennie Rosenfeld, starts with the very basics - explaining, for example, how the body shape of men and women differs.
Ribner says Judaism regards sex as something positive, but it has become taboo to discuss it openly.
"Sex is only appropriate within a marital context," he says. "Beyond that it's not talked about. Because of that, it's become very difficult for people to have any kind of dialogue about it."
So this book enters uncharted territory.
Flip through it, and you see no illustrations.
But there is a sealed envelope on the back flap. It warns readers there are sexual diagrams inside. If you don't want to look at them, you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.
Ribner opens it up to show me what's inside.
There are three diagrams of basic sexual positions.
(continued, only three?)
What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
You can't get into many positions when you are using the sheet with a hole in
Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.
Code: Select all
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- Thinking Aloud
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Religion: ripping out and throwing away what it is to be human since 20,000 BCE!you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
No peeking. They all will though...only human afterall.Thinking Aloud wrote:Religion: ripping out and throwing away what it is to be human since 20,000 BCE!you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.

What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
They're allowed to have anal sex right?
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Only spouses, and preferably the 'safe' times, since potentially fertile periods ought to be devoted to reproduction friendly practices.
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
So the spouses meet and....Svartalf wrote:Only spouses, and preferably the 'safe' times, since potentially fertile periods ought to be devoted to reproduction friendly practices.

What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Except the sheet with the hole thing is complete bollox and the Hitch was an arse to print it without checking 

Libertarianism: The belief that out of all the terrible things governments can do, helping people is the absolute worst.
Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Why would I let silly things like the truth get in the way of taking the piss.
Outside the ordered universe is that amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the center of all infinity—the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time and space amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin monotonous whine of accursed flutes.
Code: Select all
// Replaces with spaces the braces in cases where braces in places cause stasis
$str = str_replace(array("\{","\}")," ",$str);
- cronus
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Indeed.Azathoth wrote:Why would I let silly things like the truth get in the way of taking the piss.

What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Wow what a broad brush especially considering more or less 1 out of 2 people on earth subscribe to some religious belief.Thinking Aloud wrote:Religion: ripping out and throwing away what it is to be human since 20,000 BCE!you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.
Also assumes that all people subscribe to religion/god of laws not of mercy forgiveness and grace of which almost all the world religious have a version thereof.
Aaaand there you go folks it has sweet FA to with judaism or religion itself. Its all about being as pious and as strict as possible so you get a cushier spot in heaven or usually more important look good in front of your family and peers who in many cases will go to the same synagogue.Sad really because the ability to have sex for procreation and enjoyment is indeed a gift from god that should not be taboo ever.Scrumple wrote: Ribner says Judaism regards sex as something positive, but it has become taboo to discuss it openly.
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A favourite verse of mine from the bible when i encounter this stuff in my own church about being all pious etc.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come;(A) the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility(B) and the worship of angels disqualify you.(C) Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head,(D) from whom the whole body,(E) supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.(F)
20 Since you died with Christ(G) to the elemental spiritual forces of this world,(H) why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules:(I) 21 “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? 22 These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish(J) with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.(K) 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility(L) and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Colossians 2:17-23
The Pope was today knocked down at the start of Christmas mass by a woman who hopped over the barriers. The woman was said to be, "Mentally unstable."Trolldor wrote:Ahh cardinal Pell. He's like a monkey after a lobotomy and three lines of cocaine.
Which is probably why she went unnoticed among a crowd of Christians.
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Re: The sex manual for ultra-Orthodox Jews
Yep. It's a soundbite response. I subscribed to that crap for long enough that it stole a part of my life I won't get back. I couldn't care less whether 99.999999% of the planet subscribe to it - it doesn't make it any more real, or any more correct in its proscriptions.redunderthebed wrote:Wow what a broad brush especially considering more or less 1 out of 2 people on earth subscribe to some religious belief.Thinking Aloud wrote:Religion: ripping out and throwing away what it is to be human since 20,000 BCE!you can rip off the envelope and throw it away.
Except I'm talking about attitudes to sex as defined by the holy writings of the global religions, and saying nothing (in this instance) about which mythical entity any particular group panders to.Also assumes that all people subscribe to religion/god of laws not of mercy forgiveness and grace of which almost all the world religious have a version thereof.
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