Kedushah: The Sexual Abstinence of Married Men in Gur, Slonim and Toldos Ahron
Kedushah
Gur: The Ordinances of R. Israel Alter, the Beys Yisroel
Gur Hasidism is a historical offspring of the hasidic groups of Pshiskhe[Przysucha] and Kotsk. Even though Kotsk had its own ideal of abstinence,
there is no indication that this was fostered by Gur until after the Holocaust and certainly not as a norm for the entire community. It was the fourth Gerer Rebbe, Israel Alter (1895–1977), known in Ashkenazi Hebrew as the BeysYisroel (after the title of his collection of homilies, the Beit Yisra’el who brought about the change when he re-established Gur Hasidism in the newly founded state of Israel. Shortly after his nomination as Rebbe in 1948, he inaugurated the Ordinances on Holiness, known in short as the takanot
, and commonly pronounced takunes
They have never been published nor, in all probability, ever formulated systematically. He communicated them to some of his senior hasidim , who later became the community’s first marriage guides (madrikhim ), and they passed them on to the community as “oral law.”The ordinances are known to many, even outside Gur, and, as I was able to verify in conversation with a number of Gerer hasidim , they consist of the following:
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The couple shall have sexual intercourse only once a month, on leil tevilah (the night after the wife’s immersion in the mikveh at the end of her halakhically prescribed menstrual period).
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The couple shall refrain from sexual intercourse from as early as the seventh month of pregnancy.
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After the wife has given birth, the couple shall refrain from sexual inter-course for a further period of six months.
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During intercourse, the couple shall aim to minimize physical contact. The husband shall wear some of his clothes, including his tsitsit (considered a segulah
—supernatural remedy—against the sexual drive) and will not hug or kiss his wife or engage in any behavior that is not required for the performance of the act of intercourse itself.
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The husband shall direct his thoughts as far away as possible from the sexual act.
Seems like a good way to keep down Ger population numbers
ReplyDeleteSick feigeles
ReplyDeleteMondrowitz! Mondrowitz! Mondrowitz!
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a Halacha requiring that clothing be removed and that there be nothing between the couple during intimacy?
ReplyDeleteWhat was Kotsk's ideal of abstinence?
ReplyDeleteNot all Gerrer Chasidim practice this the same way. Some are very machmir, some less and some probably not at all. It an depends on what each person's mora d'asra thinks is right for him.
ReplyDelete