How do we choose a spouse? What is our perception of marriage and how much significance do we attribute to intimacy in couplehood? The course, “Love, intimacy and compromise” explores the place of intimacy in the Jewish sources. The two corpora studied are: the legal corpus of family law and the aggadic corpus of the sages in the Talmudic literature and in Jewish thought throughout the ages. In the first corpus, we will learn about the significance of conjugal relations in Jewish law. In the second, we will reveal their place in Ethos.

In the legal sphere, we will examine the place of intimacy in the framework of the couple’s mutual commitment. We will highlight the weight of claims regarding damage to conjugal relations as grounds for divorce. We will discuss the legal proceedings that can be implemented to end a marriage when this is a viable possibility. We will address tort claims in cases of abuse and examine whether the right to marital relations is dependent on a couple's fertility. The legal issues of marital relations will be explored from a diachronic perspective—beginning with the ancient written sources, continuing on to the Talmudic literature, the pesika, the responsa literature, and up to modern rabbinic rulings. The course will analyze cases brought before the rabbinic and civil courts, and their resolutions. It will analyze the litigants’ arguments, their legal weight, evaluate the main aspects of the negotiations and decision-making process, and present the rabbinic court’s rulings. It will also present decisions made by the civil courts as well as psychological and sociological studies relating to marriage.

Conceptually, we will examine maxims, and stances that are interspersed throughout the Jewish sources. We will consider different perceptions of marriage and how marital relations were seen within the framework of marriage. We will look at love and compromise and   try to draw a picture of marital intimacy in Judaism.