This study deals with the public declaration by the Tosaphist R. Yitzhak ben Abraham (Riẓba) about his inability to consummate his marriage during its first few years. Ephraim Urbach, the great mid-twentieth century Jewish historian, considered this confession to be an expression of holiness and purity and to the ability to dissociate sexuality from feelings of guilt and shame. This assessment reflects the pretensions of Judaic studies of the era to understand the characters and predilections of rabbinic figures at a remove of hundreds of years. This paper rejects Urbach’s conclusions, maintaining that the compunctions associated with nudity and sexuality are modern phenomena. In medieval Europe, men and women bathed together, and this practice was considered perfectly acceptable in both Jewish and non-Jewish circles. Likewise, the intimate lives of married couples were not private. Consequently, Riẓba’s disclosure does not attest to his being holy or pure to an unusual degree.

中文翻译：

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里巴的圣洁：拉比史学研究

本研究涉及 Tosaphist R. Yitzhak ben Abraham (Riẓba) 的公开声明，即他在婚姻最初几年无法圆房。二十世纪中叶伟大的犹太历史学家以法莲·乌尔巴赫 (Ephraim Urbach) 认为，这一忏悔是圣洁和纯洁的表达，也是将性与内疚和羞耻感分开的能力的表达。这一评估反映了当时犹太学研究试图了解数百年前拉比人物的性格和偏好的自命不凡。本文反驳了乌尔巴赫的结论，认为与裸体和性相关的愧疚是现代现象。在中世纪的欧洲，男人和女人一起洗澡，这种做法在犹太人和非犹太人圈子里都被认为是完全可以接受的。同样，已婚夫妇的亲密生活也不是私人的。因此，里巴的揭露并不能证明他的圣洁或纯洁达到了不寻常的程度。