 | | said, "The mouth of Abba [Rav's name] appears as if he has never tasted this dish."
15
He [Rav] said to him, "Kahana, get out; this is not proper behavior!" He [Kahana] said to him, "It is Torah, and I must learn it."
|
This is a fascinating, complex, and rich text. It almost explicitly raises the issue of the "panopticon," the surveillance of private sexual behavior on the part of a culture. Although it does so in a surprising directionfrom below to above, from student to teacherthis fact does not materially change its operations, for if the teacher is to be observed having sex by the student, then sex is being controlled, just as effectively as if the students were to be observed by their teachers. The surveillance is, however, vigorously rejected. There is no evidence whatsoever that Rav or the Talmud itself accepted Rav Kahana's declaration here that "it" is Torah that he must learn, but in the meantime the text has managed to reveal precisely that which it ostensibly seeks to conceal, namely, that Rav "was talking and laughing" intimately with his wife as they had intercourse, thus further supporting the thought presented by the Nedarim text that such verbal behavior as enhances the intimacy and pleasure of sex is permitted and praiseworthy.
|
We have, indeed, explicit evidence that it was Rav's behavior here that was considered normative. In the Babylonian Talmud Hagiga 5b, we read:
|
| | Rabbi Ila was going up the staircase of the house of Rabba the son of Shila and he heard a child reciting: For behold, He creates the mountains and creates the wind, and tells a man about his conversation [Amos 4:13]. He said: A slave whose master tells him about his conversations, has he any remedy?
|
| | What does "about his conversation" mean?
Rav said: Even the superfluous speech between husband and wife is reported to the man at the time of his death.
|
| | Can that be? But Rav Kahana was lying under the bed of Rav, and he heard him conversing and laughing and having intercourse. He said, "The mouth of Rav appears as if he has never tasted this dish." He [Rav] said to him, "Kahana, get out; this is not proper behavior!"
|
| | There is no difficulty. This is a case where he has to arouse her, and this is a case where he does not have to arouse her.
|
| | 15. This also serves as an argument for the conclusion reached above, namely, that in the figurative usage of eating for sexual intercourse, the food is the sex and not the wife. Certainly, Rav Kahana was referring to Rav's ebullience and enthusiasm for sex and not implying that he was behaving as if this were the first time with her.
|
|
|