Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Would you like some horseradish with that?

Today, in honor of Passover

Whilst I was in college debates would rage rampant across living rooms and dinning halls about about how kashrut applied to sex, specifically of course, oral sex.
My conclusions on the matter are as follows:
1) As strictly speaking, one is not eating the person on whom one is going down*, even though we commonly refer to it as such, the point may be moot to begin with. However, given that there is a high likely hood of swallowing at least some fluid if one is not using a condom or dental dam I can understand the concern.
2) The laws about what makes one clean or unclean, ie) fit to enter the House of the Lord acknowledge that some things are out of one's control*. Even if you've done all the washing and followed all the rules in order to make yourself clean to enter the Temple, there's still a pretty high possibility that wandering through the bustling streets of Jerusalem one will bump into someone who is not clean. This run-in does not negate one's cleanliness. I posit then, that sexual running into someone who doesn't keep a kosher diet, or has been gene spliced with shellfish, does not violate kosher law.

* I would therefore venture to guess that they have not been slaughtered in any manor, kosher or otherwise unless we're talking about oral necrophilia, in which case I have no idea where to begin.

*I feel the deep seeded need to mention that 'unclean' in this sense is not a moral judgment the way that it might sound to us now, but often has more to do looking out for one's own health and state to be out - and - about. My favorite example of this is of women during menstruation. They were considered 'unclean' at this time, which meant no heavy lifting, cooking, cleaning, or other Biblical Hebrew wifery they might otherwise be required to do. I firmly argue that this was all about not having to do house work with cramps as opposed to not contaminating anyone else.

No comments: