Passover – Sex is Everybody’s Business
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin
The five books of Moses are divided up into fifty-four portions. Every Sabbath a different portion is read so that, taking into account leap years and various other considerations of the calendar, the entire Torah is completed every year. We are currently in the beginning of the book of Exodus, the portions dealing with the Children of Israel leaving Egypt and the holiday of Passover. This portion teaches us valuable lessons about family and society.
For centuries America has recognized that sex is everybody’s business. The community does care about what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms. First Roman law, then English law, and finally American law prohibited polygamy, incest, and, until recently, adultery. These cultures all drew heavily on the Torah which was the first inkling mankind received that regulation of these seemingly private matters helped preserve society. These laws reflected our conviction that we all have a say in what two of our fellow citizens might be doing in the privacy of their bedroom. Even today, on some deep level, we still suspect that sex is everybody’s business. That may be why most of us notify our friends of our intention to mate by announcing our engagements well in advance of the wedding night.
Yet during the past four decades or so, we have uncritically embraced the revolutionary idea that sex is nobody else’s business. Fortunately, the holiday of Passover reminds us that sex is indeed everybody’s business. Read More…
