The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism - Hardcover

Danya Ruttenberg is a rabbi and author of Surprised By God and editor of the anthology Yentl’s Revenge. She serves as contributing editor to both Lilith and Women in Judaism. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

“Ruttenberg, a dynamic young rabbi and memoirist, takes a different tack than her predecessors, including not only academics but also activists like Jewish Renewal stalwart Arthur Waskow and Orthodox feminist Haviva Ner-David. Ruttenberg groups the essays under rubrics of ‘I-It,’ ‘I-Thou,’ and ‘We-Thou’ relationships, which might sound a little kinky, but is really just her way of echoing Martin Buber and of suggesting how variously Jews in different times and places relate to their sexuality.”
-Tablet Magazine

“The vitality and, yes, passion in this assemblage of thought-provoking essays go beyond the ‘everything you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask’ mindset. The Passionate Torah is a vivid reminder that sexuality has had a long and distinguished, albeit controversial, place in the Jewish law.”

“The Passionate Torah is not a guidebook to ‘kosher sex,’ as Chabad emissary turned high-profile media figure Shmuley Boteach called one of his best-selling books, but rather an assemblage of eighteen essays that apply cutting-edge scholarship to the way the Jewish sources deal with subjects like birth control, homosexuality, premarital sex, niddah (the laws that separate a woman from her husband while she is menstruating), masturbation, and more.”

“Jewish thinkers explore the intersection of Torah and sexuality in modern Jewish culture.”
-The Jewish Advocate

“The Passionate Torah contains an interesting and curious mix of articles.”

“A compendium of essays from leading Jewish and non-Jewish academics on topics ranging from masturbation to modesty . . . Yet despite the academic credentials of the authors who penned most of the book’s essays, Ruttenberg said that she designed The Passionate Torah with ‘the intelligent lay reader in mind.’ ”

“These essays were chosen to expand the reader’s sense of what Judaism has to say on the subject of sex. Our understanding of Jewish sexuality needs to become as complex as the realities are.”
-Foward.com