Yerushalmi Ketubot 5:7 ירושלמי כתובות ה׳:ז׳

MISHNAH: If somebody by a vow bars his wife from sexual intercourse, the House of Shammai say two weeks, the House of Hillel say one week¹⁶⁵If he does not have his vow dissolved by that time, the wife can go to court and force a divorce with full payment of the ketubah.. Students can go to study Torah for thirty days without permission¹⁶⁶Without asking his wife’s permission if she married him knowing he was a student.; journeymen one week¹⁶⁷They can hire themselves out to work at another place where they cannot return to their homes every night.. The period mentioned in the Torah¹⁶⁸Ex. 21:10, where it is spelled out that a man can take a second wife only if he does not reduce the amount of sexual activity with his first wife.: People who do not have to work every day¹⁶⁹If a man marries a woman telling her that he is rich enough not to have to work, he is obligated to sleep with her every night and cannot later reduce this amount without the wife’s consent. Similarly, a donkey driver engaged in local traffic, who is home every week, cannot change his profession to camel driver engaged in long distance caravan traffic without his wife’s consent., journeymen twice a week, donkey drivers once a week, camel drivers once in thirty days, sailors once in three months, the words of Rebbi Eliezer.

HALAKHAH: “If somebody by a vow bars his wife from sexual intercourse,” etc. ¹⁷⁰Tosephta 5:6. The House of Shammai say, two weeks as after the birth of a girl¹⁷¹After the birth of a girl, the mother is forbidden intercourse for two weeks, Lev. 12:5. Since this is a normal occurrence in a marriage, the wife can be assumed to be able to live for two weeks without intercourse.. But the House of Hillel say one¹⁷²The masculine אֶחָד refers to שָׁבוּעַ “week”, the intended meaning of שַׁבָּת in this context. week, as after the birth of a boy¹⁷³Lev. 12:2. or the days of her menstruation¹⁷⁴Lev. 12:2, 15:19. Since a forced abstinence of seven days is routine in the marriage, it is reasonable to ask the wife to wait for 7 days before giving her the right to sue in court (the Babli’s interpretation of the House of Hillel, 61b)..

“Students can go to study Torah for thirty days without their wives’¹⁷⁵Addition to the Mishnah text. permission.” Therefore, with permission even longer¹⁷⁶The Babli agrees, 61b/62a.. Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: “He sent them to the Libanon, ten thousand per month.¹⁷⁷1K. 5:28.” Rebbi Abin said, the Holy One, praise to Him, preferred being fruitful and multiplying over the Temple. What is the reason? “One month they would be in Libanon, two months each in his house.”¹⁷⁸The Babli, 62a, is explicit that R. Joḥanan requires a student who leaves his house for study to make up for it and spend double the time with his wife. Rav said, “the one entering and the one leaving, month for month for all months of the year.¹⁷⁹1Chr. 27:1, speaking of all watches in the service of the king. The interpretation is that each watch served for six months each year, one month at a time. Rav will require a student to spend only one month with his wife for every month away. In the Babli, R. Joḥanan rejects this argument since the king’s servants were well paid and absences for money-making purposes follow different rules.”

Here you say, one week. But there, you say, twice a week¹⁸⁰The Mishnah permits journeymen to absent themselves for one week but requires them to sleep with their wives twice a week. How can the two statements be reconciled?. Bar Qappara stated: “Journeymen can hire themselves out without their wives’ permission for one week.”¹⁸¹The agreement of the wife is taken for granted since she also lives off her husband’s earnings. But if he is at home, she has the right to expect that he sleep with her twice a week.

”The period mentioned in the Torah.” ¹⁸²In Mekhilta dR.Ismael (ed. Horovitz-Rabin p. 259), the first opinion is attributed to Rebbi, the second to R. Joshia; the explanation attributed here to R. Eliezer ben Jacob is there in the name of R. Jonathan. In the Babli, 47b, the first opinion is attributed to R. Eleazar or R. Eliezer, the second is anonymous; the midrash of R. Eliezer ben Jacob is given in his name, 48a. Mekhilta dR.Simeon ben Ioḥai follows the attributions of the Yerushalmi (pp. 167–168). Some Tannaïm state¹⁸³The problem is Ex. 21:9 which states that a man who takes an additional wife may not diminish שְׁאֵר, כְּסוּת, and עֹנָה of his first wife. The meaning of כְּסוּת “garment, covering” is clear but the meaning of the other two words is a matter of controversy. שְׁאֵר means “flesh” but, as the verses quoted in support of different meanings show, it means both “meat” and “relative, one’s flesh and blood.” Note also in Accadic šērum “flesh”, š’r (of a different etymology) “to go towards; to have sexual relations”. The root שאר II has no connection with the usual שאר “to remain, be a remainder” (Arabic سار.).
The problem with עֹנָה is that the verb ענה “to humiliate, inflict pain” in sexual context always means “to rape, to have forced intercourse” but in the verse here it has a positive meaning, the intercourse to which the wife is entitled. [Note that in Arabic, عنا means both “produce plants” (said of the earth) and “to be humiliated, captive” (from this العَوَانِي “Moslem women”).] From the positive meaning of עֹנָה in the verse comes the rabbinic-modern Hebrew עוֹנָה “season”, used in the midrash of R. Eliezer ben Jacob.: שְׁאֵר that is intercourse; עוֹנָה that is food. Some Tannaïm state: עוֹנָה that is intercourse; שְׁאֵר that is food. He who said שְׁאֵר is intercourse: “No person to the שְׁאֵר of his flesh;¹⁸⁴Lev. 18:6: “No person to the שְׁאֵר of his flesh should come close, to uncover nakedness.”” עוֹנָה is food: “He fed you and made you hunger¹⁸⁵Deut. 8:3, usually translated as: “He chastised you and made you hunger before He fed you with the manna that neither you nor your fathers knew.””. He who said שְׁאֵר is food: “He let rain on them שְׁאֵר like dust¹⁸⁶Ps. 78:27.”; עוֹנָה that is intercourse, “that you should not deprive my daughters,¹⁸⁷Gen. 31:50. “That you should not deprive my daughters nor take wives in addition to my daughters.” In Gen. rabba 74(12), this verse is explained that (a) Bilha and Silpa also were Laban’s daughters from slave women and (b) that Laban made Jacob swear that he would not deprive his daughters of intercourse during their lifetime nor take additional wives after their deaths.” that refers to intercourse. Rebbi Eliezer ben Jacob explains the verse¹⁸⁸He denies that there is a biblical command which fixes minimal amounts of sexual attention due wives. He explains Ex. 21:9 as exhortation rather than prescription, reading “her flesh, her garment, and her season he should not diminish”., “her flesh her garment”, that her garment should fit her flesh, that he should not give a young woman clothes of an old woman nor an old woman clothes of a young one. “Her garment her season”, that he should not give summer clothing for the rainy season nor that for the rainy season in summer. From where does he get food¹⁸⁹How can he establish an obligation of the husband to feed his wife?? Since he is not permitted to withhold from her things that are not necessities of life¹⁹⁰A new garment at least twice a year., not so much more things that are necessities of life! From where does he get the obligation of periodic intercourse? Since he may not withhold from her things which do not constitute the main reason for marriage¹⁹⁰A new garment at least twice a year., so certainly he may not withhold the things which constitute the main reason for marriage!

Rebbi Eliezer¹⁹¹His list of prescribed minimal frequencies of intercourse is based on the occupation of the male. The same argument is given in Gen. rabba 76(6); it is reproduced in Rashi’s Commentary to Gen. 32:15–16. inferred from the gift which Jacob had sent to his brother Esaw, for he sent him according to copulations. “200 she-goats and 20 he-goats,” one for ten; “200 ewes and 20 rams,” one for ten¹⁹²One male can satisfy 10 females since it has nothing to do except grazing and copulating.. “Nursing camels and their sons 30.” Rebbi Berekhiah said, because it is decent in his sexual behavior did the verse not publicize¹⁹³In Gen.rabba 76(6), R. Berekhiah in the name of Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel implies that 30 males (בנאים “builders”) accompanied the 30 females.. “40 cows and ten bulls,” one for four since they are tired¹⁹⁴Cattle was used extensively for ploughing and drawing agricultural implements.; “20 she-donkeys and ten he-donkeys,” one for two since they are tired.

Rebbi Jeremiah asked: Is it reasonable to consider scholars like those who do not work? Rebbi Mana said, would it not be more reasonable to compare them to sailors¹⁹⁶Who have to sleep with their wives only once every six months. since they exert themselves harder? Rav said, “she eats with him every Friday night”¹⁹⁷Mishnah 5:13. A man who does not live with his wife but supports her financially through an intermediary nevertheless has to sleep with her every Friday night (unless he actually is away as in the cases enumerated in the Mishnah). Therefore, the scholar has to sleep with his wife at least every Friday night., in clean language¹⁹⁸“Eating” is a common metaphor for sexual relations; cf. Gen. 39:6, Prov.30:20..