The idea that sex is not solely for birth control is not just due to modern feminism (“Birth Control, Halacha Collide At Stern,” Feb. 20). It is an idea held by many rabbinic authorities through the ages, and is even the prominent idea in the Talmud and Rabbinic Judaism.
Though Nahmanides thought sex was really only for procreation, other rabbis disagreed with him. Philo, for example, thought it forbidden for an older man and woman, past childbearing age, to marry, yet the rabbis of the Talmud permit this, and today I doubt if any rabbinic authority, no matter how charedi, would prohibit older people from getting married because they were not fertile.
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