the Rabbi sez: But I strongly agree with the advice of the ancient rabbis that husbands should not be staring at the actual delivery. That is just too erotic a part of a wife's anatomy for it to become a mere birth canal.

However, if the midwife runs late, a husband must steel himself against the awful sight. In this context the word "awful" is not meant in the common sense of "very bad" but in the opposite etymological sense of "awe-full." That's what catching the baby is, for sure; I know, my wife's midwife was late twice.

Any father who, out of consideration for his future potential boners, deliberately misses out on this greatest-experience-ever, well...

To take his very well-researched and truthful article to the next level, his theory on the links between shallow objectification and eroticism in marriage clearly explains why women tend to want less sex as relationships progress... their husbands bodies are de-eroticized by seeing their flacid member.

Therefore, as all women should cover up their breasts when not being grabbed by their husbands, men ought to make sure they are in a state of arousal whenever naked in front of their wives.

Then, finally, the institution of marriage will return to normal and people will live in marital bliss so poor Rabbi Boteach won't have to suffer the immense hearbrokeness from his parents' divorce, which seems to plague him to this day.

Thank G-D for Rabbi Boteach. So many patriarchal religious leaders are so preoccupied with deciding what to do with a woman uterus they have completely overlooked breasts. But thanks to Rabbi Boteach that base is now covered (second or first is it?)

You delievered your children... how beautiful.

My husband has told me over and over again that seeing our children born was the most amazing experience of his life - and he had the joy of watching the whole thing while holding my hand. It has been six years after our first and one year after our second and we have one hell of a sex life.

My sympathies to Rabbi Shmuley.

Laughed until I cried. Thank you, frabjabulous. :D

I started disliking Shmuley Boteach when he hung around with Michael Jackson and Uri Geller.

I started disliking Shmuley Boteach even more when he publicly disavowed Michael Jackson as soon as Jackson became unpopular.

The man's a creep. As far as I know, the only people who take him seriously are right-wing Christians--he certainly has very little credibility in the Jewish community.

Cheers,

TH

"a mere birth canal"

A mere birth canal? A mere birth canal? Right. The capacity to actually advance a human being from the fetal in utero stage to the outside world and the beginnings of "independent" life is as nothing compared to giving a guy a hard-on.

Doofus. Really. I don't think this guy merits anything more vituperative, even. He's just a doofus.

EG,

Didn't you know it's *harder* to create a human being than to sexually arouse a guy? Male arousal is very fragile - just look at the poor rabbi here. He's got anecdotal evidence that seeing a woman breastfeed makes it difficult to maintain an erection. Anecdotal! How can you argue with that?

I love the way he uses the adultery analogy - he says that a baby clamped onto a woman's breast is a sinful trespass on the husband's property. What a lovely homelife he must lead.

Does he sound like the older child that's upset that the new baby gets more attention from mommy?

How strange--I was always under the impression that my breasts were my property. That's the kind of crazy notion that being brought up without any religious guidance can put in a girl's head...

You're right, EJ. He is a big fat baby himself. No wonder he's jealous.

LOL.

Your breasts are YOURS?!? Silly girl! Everyone KNOWS that when you marry, your body becomes the property of your husband.

Although don't expect that he'll want ALL the bits. Your brain isn't too useful to him, and neither are your navigating skills and opinions on his driving. Those he can do without. The biggies that he WILL want to keep, of course, are your breasts and vagina. But keep in mind that your husband will get squeamish if he finds out what the breasts and vagina are "for", evolutionarily speaking.

Such is the world according to the good rabbi. ;)

I find it hard to believe that the article isn't satire. Are you sure it's not?

Well, I looked again at the article, and I guess it probably is not satire. The guy is totally nuts! Is he unaware of the passages which refer to God as a breastfeeding mother or one who gave birth to her people?

Not satire, but apparently this is par for course with this guy. Several bloggers said his stuff sounded like ti came straight from The Onion.

And apparently he used to be a spiritual advisor for Michael Jackson. The weirdness continues.

"When a husband ceases to see his wife as a woman, and begins to see her as "the mother of his children," a negative trend has begun in his mind that can only subvert his erotic interest."
Um...because you are only a woman if you can be looked at as a sex object? Yeah, I guess being a nurturing mother and bringing a human life into this world in pretty unwomanly....

The one thing that concerned me was that in a lot of the blogs I read on the article, a lot of otherwise-intelligent posters felt compelled to say something like,

"In the interests of fairness, probably SOME women DO use their new baby as an excuse not to have sex, but..."

That concerns me. At no point in his article did I see him say that the woman was (consciously or otherwise) refusing sex. His whole point was that the man's fragile grip on arousal would be shattered by seeing another person gripped onto his wife's breast - the main reasons being adultery and "eww! gross!".

Why would people feel compelled to say that? In fact, why should women be blamed AT ALL for not wanting to have sex? I mean, she just pushed a human being out of her vagina. A bowling bal through a straw would be a good analogy. Is it really so awful if she doesn't want to use that area for awhile? She's sore, tired, and raw.

And these men who act like it's their entitlement to fuck make me very angry. Your wife's body is HER body. If you really need to get off, use your goddamned hand. She just went through hell to make a baby so forgive her if she isn't sympathetic to YOUR demands on HER body.

Nyah.

This post at SA Moms just makes me want to throw my head back and laugh at that pompous rabbi: http://samoms.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/womens-role-in-sexual-selection/

I can't air my feelings better than by simply cut n' pasting the comment I left on Blogging Baby onto here:

" "That's like committing adultery, because those breasts your using? They belong to your husband."

Well, that made me sputter the sip of water I'd just taken across the desk.

...I'm sorry, EXCUSE ME? So these boobs I have are actually the property of my boyfriend? Gee, I never knew, you know, seeing as they were attached to ME and not HIM and all, but now you mention it, of course! It's obvious!

NOT.

Now, anyone reading who agrees with this "Rabbi", I want you to listen up, because I am about to bless you with some mightily important info:

These breasts that you see before you (or could see if this wasn't online. Although maybe a webcam...), they do NOT belong to my boyfriend. They do not belong to any other man, woman or child on earth, in fact, and you know why? Because they're MINE.
That's right. MINE. MY boobs, MY Jugs, MY Titties. My boyfriend may enjoy them, men may gawp at them from time to time, and ultimately they were designed for the sole purpose of feeding any children I might have in the future, but the solid fact remains that they are MINE to do as I wish with. As is my vagina.

And should I wish to throw in the towel and succumm to nature and drop a kid or two out into the world to nurture and love, and then choose, after making my boyfriend stay with me and let me scream and rant and rave and insult him throughout the labour, to feed those afore mentioned infants with MY breasts, then you, Mr. Rabbi, and all your ignorant, chauvinistic, closed minded chums will have to suck it up, grit your teeth, and keep those ridiculously insulting, degrading and outdated opinions to yourself.

Because if you don't? I may well feel tempted to kick you hard in YOUR crotch.

Understood?

Good."

And that, my friends, I believe says it all.

:-)