of view (similar to that of the Stoics, Philo, and Clement, among others) that sex is legitimate, but only for procreation, and when procreation is the sole rationale for sex, then the reward is beautiful children.
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Rabbi Eliezer is strongly attracted to asceticism as a religious modelthe same asceticism that characterized the life of the Hellenistic philosophical schoolsbut as a Rabbi he could not choose celibacy. The fact that he was married, despite such an ascetic personality, only strengthens this argument.
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Rabbi Eliezer's point of view, however, is only one pole of the dialectic of the discourse of sexuality in marriage in rabbinic literature. If it is possible to interpret the represented views of this Rabbi as David Biale has done"The goal . . . was a marriage in which a man could fulfill his procreative duties while remaining loyal to an ascetic sexual ideal" (Biale 1989, 26)it is certainly not possible to follow Biale and regard this asceticism in general as the "goal of the Rabbis," for even in Palestinian stories Rabbi Eliezer is presented as an extreme figure, and in Babylonian talmudic texts his practice is sharply rejected. As Biale himself points out, the story's implied prescription to wear clothes while having intercourse is vigorously contested by a Babylonian talmudic statement:
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 | | Rav Yosef cited a tannaitic tradition, "
Flesh:
This means the intimacy of the flesh, namely that he should not behave with her in the manner of the Persians, who make love while dressed." This supports the view of Rav Huna, for Rav Huna said, "One who says, I do not desire it unless she is in her clothing and I in mine, must divorce his wife and pay her the marriage settlement."
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| | (Ketubbot 48a)
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| | 28. The continuation of the story, however, renders this interpretation problematic:
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| | I asked him, "What is the reason [for this strange behavior]?" And he said to me, "In order that I not imagine another woman, and the children will come to be bastards."
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| | Reading this text carefully, we see that it is not at all an unambiguous representation of a negative attitude toward sexuality. While Rabbi Eliezer's behavior certainly would have had the effect of reducing dramatically the pleasure of sex, it is not presented as having that intention, but rather as being the expression in practice of a severe rabbinic prohibition on having sex with a woman that one does not fully desire or of fantasizing about another partner during sex. My student, Dr. Dalia Hoshen, first made me aware of this dimension of interpretation of this story in her doctoral dissertation on the religious personality of Rabbi Eliezer. For a fuller exposition of this reading of the text, see Chapter 4 below.
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| | 29. It is relevant to note that the Babylonian Talmud Berakhot 8b has Rabban Gamaliel, the first-century Palestinian Pharisee, citing the Persians as appropriate models for sexual behavior. If that tradition be authentically Palestinian in origin
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