Q&A: Sexual Prohibitions — Revealed Decrees or Things Reason Inclines Toward
Sexual Prohibitions — Revealed Decrees or Things Reason Inclines Toward
Question
A question about Maimonides.
In the Eight Chapters (chapter 6), Maimonides writes that sexual prohibitions belong to the category of “revealed decrees.” In contrast, in the Mishneh Torah he wrote that sexual prohibitions are a commandment that reason inclines toward (Laws of Kings and Wars, chapter 9, halakha 1).
I have not seen anyone address this contradiction. What do you think about it?
But they brought all these as “revealed” matters: meat cooked with milk, wearing shaatnez, and sexual prohibitions.
Answer
Indeed, this bothered me too in the past (just last Sunday I commented in a lecture on this very contradiction). It is somewhat similar to parallel contradictions regarding the “accepted conventions” in his writings (there was a column here about this, and the contradictions came up in the talkbacks there).
It seems to me that there are two possible ways to understand it: A. Perhaps one should distinguish between the prohibition of a married woman, which is rational and logical, and the other sexual prohibitions, which are revealed decrees. B. Perhaps there are rational prohibitions that are not based on moral principles (what I previously called aesthetic or human values, as distinct from moral ones).