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Date Posted: 21:22:06 12/21/02 Sat
Author: schwabra
Author Host/IP: dialup-67.29.192.186.Dial1.Cincinnati1.Level3.net / 67.29.192.186
Subject: Is Viagra Kosher ?(I could not resist the cut and paste)

Is Viagra Kosher?
And other questions you've been meaning to ask about sex.


- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Benyamin Cohen




Jewsweek.com | In the beginning, there was sex. One man, one woman, no pills, porn or prophylactics. No sexual dysfunction, we’re told, despite lifetimes that spanned hundreds of years. Man’s primary obligation was to populate the world, a task, given the six billion humans now walking the earth, he fulfilled with vigor and great dispatch. As Genesis [2:24] put it, “... a man [shall] leave his father and leave his mother. He shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
More on this story

Jewsweek.com

• INTIMATE ADVICE FOR MEN: A rabbi reveals how to find intimacy in marriage.









In Jewish tradition, the idea that it is not good for man to be alone, is as significant as the command to be fruitful. The Torah uses the term “yada—to know,” to talk about sexual relationships. Sex is always elevated beyond the merely biological or pleasurable. It involves intimate knowledge shared by two.

We’ve come, some say tumbled, a long way from that ideal. The Garden of Eden is overgrown with weeds and bitter fruit (divorce, promiscuity, sexually transmitted disease), its pristine paths trampled by celebrated sex addicts. The shagadelic Austin Powers, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, and Wilt Chamberlain come immediately to mind. Jews, like the rest of humankind, are grappling with sexual dilemma — abortion, birth control, premarital sex, divorce, dysfunction, commitment — and the deep-rooted moral, religious and social concerns these issues mirror. A fraction of Jews embrace ancient ritual — family purity laws — and biblical decree as divinely-sanctioned answers to today’s sexual morass.

SOUL-DEEP LONLINESS

Some prefer Dr. Ruth, therapy, celibacy, or the desperate conviviality of the singles’ scene; others are opting for pharmaceuticals as if loneliness, soul-deep, is a function of brain chemistry. Many are drifting, our sexual lives a patchwork of experience, bad history and eternal hope, pieced together as we go along. In this context, the question — “Is Viagra Kosher?” — must be viewed both literally and allegorically. Kosher sex is a fascinating concept, but any discussion of it must carry us beyond the realm of the physical. It’s naïve to believe Priapus (mythic god of procreation) in a test tube can resolve questions that have plagued humanity since time immemorial.

Similarly, issues as charged as family purity laws, kosher versus treife sex, birth control, abortion, in-vitro fertilization, and homosexuality, must be explored in the context of the humanity, charity and tolerance that have always been the fabric of our faith.

LIKE TOOTHPASTE

So, is Viagra kosher? For starters, kashruth authorities generally do not take issue with prescription drugs. Since they are not taken derech achilah (by way of eating), there is basically no kashruth concern. Viagra, like other prescription drugs, falls into the same category as mouthwash and toothpaste.

When Viagra, developed by Pfizer Inc., was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the spring of 1998, no one could have imagined the maelstrom the drug would create. The day Viagra became available, Atlanta urologist Dr. John Stripling churned out 300 prescriptions with a rubber stamp.

“…There has always been throughout history a search for a perfect aphrodisiac. It’s pathetic...”

—Jackie Boles



Ian Greenberg, a 70-year-old Jewish philanthropist, got into the act, donating $1 million to provide Viagra to the poor. “I guess you could say I’m kind of into basics,” said Greenberg, the chairman of Bear Stearns Companies.

This was no small gift from a man so frugal, he once posted a memo saying that envelopes for in-house mail could be reused several times if the sender only partly licked the flaps.

CIRCUS ATMOSPHERE

Away from the circus atmosphere, the questions remained: Would the use of Viagra be allowed under the rubric of Jewish law? The answer is a resounding ‘yes.’ “Not only is Viagra not antithetical to Judaism, it’s definitely in keeping with the Jewish concept that the physical relationship between man and wife is a holy one,” said Rabbi Marcus Sanders. “Anything which can enhance or bring a couple back to normal physical interaction is a positive and a wonderful thing.”

In fact, when Viagra hit the market, Rabbi Shar Yashuv Cohen, chief rabbi of Haifa, issued a ruling that anyone using the compound for the purposes of having children is fulfilling a positive commandment. Rhoda Frankel, a Jewish social worker, concurs.

“Our religion does not only exist in the realm of the ancient,” she says. “Judaism welcomes new technologies and advancements in medical science which foster better physical and mental health.”

SACRED SEX

The foundation for all this discussion is the idea that sexuality in a Jewish marriage is holy. “According to some commentators, the mitzvah ‘to love thy neighbor as oneself ‘ actually refers to your spouse,” points out Rabbi Sanders.

In his book “One Plus One Equals One,” Rabbi Emanuel Feldman writes, “Holiness means utilizing the physical in the service of God. Judaism views the power of sex as a reflection of God’s power — in its expression of love, in its potential to reproduce and create, and in its overwhelming intensity and absorption.”

The joy of sex is that it can take us from the cutting edge of science to Jewish ritual and romance as it existed in previous millennia. The problem, of course, is that there is no dialectical middle ground to facilitate the exploration of seemingly antithetical issues as far-ranging as homosexuality and the laws of family purity.

FAMILY PURITY

Frankel, who does marital and pre-marital counseling, says the laws of family purity, which demand periods of sexual abstinence and the mikvah, or ritual bath, for women, are meaningful today.

“Marital relationships can get stale very quickly,” Frankel says. “The period of abstinence that they honor serves to heighten their desire for each other and enhance anticipation of the period when they will be sexually intimate,” she says. “Too much of a good thing is not always good”

HOMOSEXUALITY

Mark Abramson, a gay rabbi and activist, says the struggle to define homosexuality within a Jewish framework is not as difficult as one might think.

“I see the Torah laws regarding homosexuality as human-written ones that once served certain purposes,” he explains. “But, today, in 2001, they don’t serve any purpose. For me, the core of Judaism comes from the Hillel story — treating people how we would want to be treated ourselves.

“Being gay today goes way beyond your sexual orientation. It’s more of how people see themselves and who they are. As human beings, we are created in the image of God. A spark of the divine resides in all of us. Gays and lesbians are a reflection of the divine.”

ABORTION

Abortion is another seemingly irreconcilable issue. Clearly many Jewish women, like women everywhere, consider it a viable option when a pregnancy is deemed unwanted. Traditional Jewish law discourages abortion.

Nonetheless, Rabbi Nathaniel Friedlander asserts that in strict circumstances, abortion is allowed under Jewish law. “Forget what you’ve heard,” Firedlander, booms. “Judaism is not completely opposed to abortion. I can think of many examples where abortion could be entirely appropriate. For example, there are certain illnesses which are so debilitating that abortion may be a halachically acceptable option. It’s to be avoided, but not completely prohibited.”

PREMARITAL SEX

Rabbi Barbara Schnarfman offered some insight on Judaism’s view of premarital sex. “Essentially, a Jewish dictionary does not have the term ‘premarital sex’ in it since, in reality, there is no such thing,” says Schnarfman. “Once a woman and a man consummate their relationship with a sexual act, the Torah considers them as if they are married. Sexual intercourse is the same as entering a committed, sanctified, wedding relationship with another person. In modern day terms, it simply reminds us that there is no such thing as casual sex.”

SEX, KOSHER VS. TREIFE

Rabbi Sanders tried to define the difference between “kosher sex” and “treife sex.” “Kosher sex is sex which elevates a person, dignifies one’s partner, and which is governed by a sense of dignity and the significance of mankind,” the rabbi said. “Treife sex demeans a person or the other being and is done purely and exclusively for pursuing one’s own personal pleasure.”

Try remembering all that the next time you or your partner takes a hit of Viagra.

“Most of sex is in the head,” says sexologist Jackie Boles, a professor at Georgia State University. What Boles leaves unsaid is that sex would best flow from the heart.

DEEPER ISSUES

In the end, if our self-esteem is low, and our ability to make a commitment — physically, emotionally, spiritually — to another human being is low, Viagra, or any other wonder drug, is not going to change us. “There has always been throughout history,” says Boles, “a search for a perfect aphrodisiac. It’s pathetic.” The deeper issue is not whether Viagra is kosher, but whether our actions and motivations, as human beings, as Jews, as God’s children, are kosher.

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