Intercourse, by: Andrea Dworkin - Feminish

deviations from Jewish law, justified by the imminence of theMessiah’s arrival. For those who thought that Chmelnicki’spogroms were but an indication that the Messiah was on hisway, no twist or turn of thought could prove illogical. Therewere two theories: one group became austere, did penances,and had no intercourse to prepare for the coming of the Messiah;another group noted that holy texts declared that the generationright at the time of the coming of the Messiah would bedegenerate; and so they strove to break every law and commitevery outrage, so as to hasten the coming of the Messiah:T h ey were secretly adulterous, ate the flesh o f the pig andother unclean foods, and performed those labors expressly forbiddenon the Sabbath as most to be avoided.. . . Other believersdefiled the bathhouses, so that the women could notclean themselves properly, and their husbands had to lie withthem in their unclean state. 12Throughout the city, sensuality and transgression were rampant.Men and women did ecstatic dancing together; womenlistened to men when they were not supposed to, for instance,reading presumably holy messages from distant sages. Menand women drank together; and the sexual meanings of cabalistictexts were publicly declaimed. Charms were used, magicamulets and ointments; men and women uncovered theirheads and kissed and embraced, and the rules that created barriersbetween men and women were ignored or even flouted.Men even invaded, for fun, the bathing place of the women,raiding it: “Those who were large and slow-moving were soconfused that they remained transfixed. Uncovered before theeyes of the men, they were publicly shamed. There was much