Torah Edgeplay: Risk, Community, and Ethics from the Beit Midrash to BDSM

Much mainstream discourse on sexual ethics—religious and secular alike—treats “deviant” sexual activities as the height of individualism, pitting them against “traditional” communities in which chaotic, risky individual desires and appetites are subordinate to the collective good. But what if “deviant” sexualities offer models for communal ethics that account for collective wellbeing and identity as well as individual variation, risk-taking, and pleasure? What if it is precisely those communities’ engagement with risk that helps them develop social and moral virtue? And what if classical rabbinic text has within it narratives and resources that not only mirror and elucidate those communities’ virtues, but also mirror, illuminate, and help to mend their vices?

This talk is sponsored by the Department of Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies.