Kol isha: a shocking revelation

[yoel <yoel...>]

I have been following this discussion only peripherally, so I might be
saying something that has already been said, or that is so outrageous that
no one has dared say it.

In my youth, a hormone-exploding teenager, I remember sitting in synagogue
on Yom Kippur, and, while all the old men droned away, mentally undressing
all the women.  What delicious perversion! My friends' mothers, classmates,
all dolled up in those conservative, gray suits buttoned modestly up to the
neck, and those ridiculous hats - and there I was, grabbing them in deserted
rooms of the Sunday school building, pulling off their this and their that,
and they and me, desperate with passion and the total evil of it!

Of course, these daydreams made the thinking of holy thoughts somewhat
difficult.  In fact, the best part of it was that I was supposed to be
thinking all these holy thoughts.  And instead here I was in this libidinous
swamp.

Am I just a pervert? I don't think so.  In fact, I think that every male is
struggling with, and succumbing, to terrible temptations when he is supposed
to be training his thoughts on the divine.

William Butler Yeats:

"Fair and foul are near of kin,
And fair needs foul," I cried.
"My friends are gone, but that's a truth
Nor grave nor bed denied,
Learned in bodily lowliness
And in the heart's pride.
"A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent."



Joel Epstein
Moshav Magshimim, Israel
tel: 972-3-9333316
     972-52-333316
fax: 972-9338751
yoel (at) netvision(dot)net(dot)il

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