Moreh Nevuchim (3:08): Some consider all wants of the
body as shame, disgrace, and defect to which they are compelled to attend: This
is chiefly the case with the sense of touch, which is a disgrace to us
according to Aristotle, and which is the cause of our desire for eating,
drinking, and sensuality. Intelligent persons must, as much as possible, reduce
these wants, guard against them, feel grieved when satisfying them, abstain
from speaking of them, discussing them, and attending to them in company with
others. Man must have control over all these desires, reduce them as much as
possible, and only retain of them as much as is indispensable. His aim must be
the aim of man as man i.e. the formation of ideas, and nothing else. The best
and sublimest among them is the idea which man forms of G-d, angels, and the
rest of the creation according to his capacity. Such men are always with G-d
and of them it is said, "You are princes, and all of you are children of
the Most High" (Tehillim 92:6). This is man's task and purpose. Others,
however, that are separated from G-d, form the multitude of fools, and do just
the opposite. They neglect all thought and all reflection on ideas, and
consider as their task the cultivation of the sense of touch,--that sense which
is the greatest disgrace: they only think and reason about eating and love.
Thus it is said of the wicked who are drowned in eating, drinking, and love,
When man possesses a good sound body that does not overpower him nor disturb
the equilibrium in him, he possesses a divine gift. In short, a good
constitution facilitates the rule of the soul over the body, but it is not
impossible to conquer a bad constitution by training. For this reason King
Solomon and others wrote the moral lessons; also all the commandments and
exhortations in the Pentateuch aim at conquering the desires of the body. Those
who desire to be men in truth, and not brutes, having only the appearance and
shape of men, must constantly endeavor to reduce the wants of the body, such as
eating, love, drinking, anger, and all vices originating in lust and passion;
they must feel ashamed of them and set limits to them for themselves. As for eating
and drinking in so far as it is indispensable, they will eat and drink only as
much as is useful and necessary as food, and not for the purpose of pleasure.
They will also speak little of these things, and rarely congregate for such
purposes. Thus our Sages, as is well known, kept aloof from a banquet that was
not part of a religious act. Wine may be treated as food, if taken as such, but
to form parties for the purpose of drinking wine together must be considered
more disgraceful than the unrestrained conduct of persons who in daylight meet
in the same house undressed and naked. For the natural action of the digestive
organ is indispensable to man, he cannot do without it; whilst drunkenness
depends on the free will of an evil man. To appear naked in the presence of
other people is misconduct only according to public opinion, not according to
the dictates of reason, whilst drunkenness, which ruins the mind and the body
of man, reason stamps as a vice. You, therefore, who desire to act as human
beings must keep away from it, and even from speaking of it. On sexual
intercourse, I need not add anything after I have pointed out in the commentary
on Avos(1: 17) how it is treated by our Law, which is the teaching of pure
wisdom--no excuse whatever should induce us to mention it or to speak of it.
Thus our Sages said, that Elisha the prophet is called holy, because he did not
think of it, and consequently never found himself polluted with semen. In a
similar manner they say that Jacob had the first issue of semen for the
conception of Reuben. All these traditional stories have the object of teaching
the nation humane conduct.
Rambam (Issurei Bi’ah 21:11): Our Sages were not pleased
with someone who has a lot of sexual intercourse and he is constantly with his
wife like a rooster. He is very defective and this is an act of coarse people.
Rather whoever minimalizes the amount of intercourse is praiseworthy. However
that is only if he doesn’t nullify his obligation to his wife – unless it is
with her consent. The only reason that the Sages introduced a decree that a
person cannot read the Torah - after a seminal emission until he went to mikve
– is in order to minimize intercourse.
Moreh Nevuchim (3:33) It is also the object of the perfect Law
to make man reject, despise, and reduce his desires as much as is in his power.
He should only give way to them when absolutely necessary. It is well known
that it is intemperance in eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse that people
mostly rave and indulge in; and these very things counteract the ulterior
perfection of man, impede at the same time the development of his first
perfection, and generally disturb the social order of the country and the
economy of the family. For by following entirely the guidance of lust, in the
manner of fools, man loses his intellectual energy, injures his body, and
perishes before his natural time; sighs and cares multiply; there is an
increase of envy, hatred, and warfare for the purpose of taking what another
possesses. The cause of all this is the circumstance that the ignorant
considers physical enjoyment as an object to be sought for its own sake. God in
His wisdom has therefore given us such commandments as would counteract that
object, and prevent us altogether from directing our attention to it, and has
debarred us from everything that leads only to excessive desire and lust. This
is an important thing included in the objects of our Law. See how the Law
commanded to slay a person from whose conduct it is evident that he will go too
far in seeking the enjoyment of eating and drinking. I mean "the
rebellious and stubborn son"; he is described as "a glutton and a
drunkard" (Devarim 21:20). The Law commands to stone him and to
remove him from society lest he grow up in this character, and kill many, and
injure the condition of good men by his great lust.
Maharal (Be’er HaGolah 05:04): Unfortunately there are
many scholars [e.g., Rambam More Nevuchim 3:49] - i.e., those who investigate
the world with the power of their intellect – who claim that sexual relations
are inherently disgraceful, shameful and an embarrassment to man. In fact these
scholars unequivocally believe that the sense of touch is inherently shameful
to us. The purpose of this gemora is to reject their claim. In fact it is
totally incomprehensible that the foundation of all, the basis for sustaining
the world i.e., propagating mankind – is built on something which is inherently
disgusting and shameful. Even more problematic is that it is not respectful for
G‑d that the foundation of the world is a shameful and degrading matter. As is
well known if the foundation is rotten then the structure built on it will
collapse. Therefore it is important to reject this view because there is
nothing in the sexual relations of a man with his wife that is the slightest
degrading. This positive view of sexuality is in fact Daas Torah – the view of
the Torah. Bereishis (2: 25) says, And both were naked… and but they weren’t
ashamed. Thus we see that there is nothing degrading about this at all because
if it were degrading why shouldn’t they be ashamed? If you want to answer that
they weren’t intelligent at that time –such an assertion is simply incomprehensible.
We know that Adam was incredibly intelligent because he was able to profoundly
understand the nature of each creature and give each creature its correct name
(Bereishis 2:20) – so how can it be claimed that he was lacking in
intelligence? This assertion about Adam was refuted by the Rambam (Moreh
Nevuchimn 1:2)… One cannot say that before Adam sinned he lacked intelligence
and after he sinned he acquired intelligence and wisdom! So obviously the
matters is as we have said – there is inherently absolutely no degradation is
this matter at all. Whatever is degrading is the result of man focusing on his
lusts and animals desires – from that aspect it is shameful. Therefore before
the sin of Adam, man merely had some inclination toward lust and desire - and
there was no absolutely nothing shameful. It was only shameful when desire was
no longer external but fully entered him and lust became part of his physical
nature. But even then it was only shameful because of the aspect of his lust.
Rav Yitzchok Issac Sher( Kedushas Yisroel #1 page 5-6) You need
to understand that the Ramban is well aware of this problematic understanding
of the nature of intercourse, that the pious have erred in their understanding
in this matter.because they are relying on the apparent meaning of the Rambam
who seems to disparage lust. He strongly warns to distance oneself from such an
understanding which results from following the view of the Greek philosopher
which contains heresy.The truth is that the Rambam agrees with the view of the Ramban
which is the genuine view of the Torah. The Rambam’s disparaging of lust is
only used to explain the reason for certain of the mitzvos in which the
Torah wants to distance Jews from lust
in general and certain sexual lusts to an extreme degree. For example Rambam
writes about the mitzva of circumcision that it’s purpose is to weaken sexual
lust in Jews. He also writes in Moreh Nevuchim ( 3:33) that the reason for many
of the mitzvos is to avoid lust and degrade certain acts and to minimize their
occurrence to avoid them as much as possible. Look at Rambam (De’os 5:4) where
he says to learn to conduct oneself with holiness. In Rambam (De’os 5:5)) says
All who conduct themselves with holiness not only sanctify their souls and
purify themselves and correct their thoughts but when they have children they
will be beautiful and shy and open to wisdom and piety. These words are very
similar to those of the Ramban in Igros Kodesh and there are simply no differences
between them. In sum everyone agrees that concerning the mitva of sexual
intercourse that when done with the appropriate sanctity, sanctifies a man’s
soul and purifies him and causes him to merit children who are wise and pious.
And if he does it not for the sake of Heaven but for the sake of pleasure from
lust then the Ramban also rejects it absolutely and totally as he states explicitly
at the end of this chapter. The words of
the Greek philosopher that the Rambam cites are also regarding lust which is lowly
and animalistic because he also denigrates the desire to eat in that essay. In
fact if you examine the Ramban carefully you will see clearly that he is
talking about lust itself and says it is not spiritually impure as the lust for
eating is not spiritually impure. Lust is simply a natural energy as are all
the limbs and powers that are in man and it is like all mundane matters man has
the ability to sanctify or defile them.
