Written by Layla’s Lover. Layla’s Lover is a first-time Jewrotica writer.
Her lips are hungry. She is giggling. And she wants me.
Every first kiss is its own mystery. Wariness overcome by want. Lips taking over for arching shoulders, pressing fingers, and a look in our eyes that says, yes…maybe…finally…more. Eyelashes, noses and then you are holding your breath for what should always feel like forever, a first dive into the deep.
It took me a while to understand how girls in Arabia eat with a niqab masking everything save their eyes. My introduction to how they kiss was much less forgiving. Slowly, at first, with the veil slipping down and away, swept aside as the sands before a swirling khamsin; the lips exposed, an oasis amid all that endless black cloth. A treasure this desert explorer had not sought but could not resist once discovered.
Every first kiss is a leap into the unknown. A headfirst dive through mores and regulations designed to wall everyone up in their own private castle. Sometimes the castle walls are especially formidable, covered with fearsome taboos like race, religion, social status. Sometimes those walls are established by others, though the sheerest walls are surely those built from within. Legs intertwined, eyes locked, breath short, my conscious mind was mostly thinking, “yes!” “must get that top off” and “don’t mess this up.” But somewhere inside, I was stuck before those castle walls. The ones I had established over a lifetime of a closely observed and dearly appreciated religious heritage. The promises my religion asks of me and I have made in return, about not finding myself in the arms of a mocha colored, Arabian princess, veil cast aside, soon to be followed by any lingering sense of religious doubt.
Shiksas are supposed to be blond and blue eyed. Not descendants of the prophet. Not a black eyed beauty born to a family of oil sheikhs and Islamic scholars, with fingers and a tongue that were more than capable of reassuring me that exploring each other’s bodies was the least we could do in bridging the gulf between our two communities.
Hidden amid the ivory sheets that writhed beneath us were scurrying figures from our past. A bearded figure, wrapped in a black bekishe, struggling through the snows of my grandparents’ shtetl. A murky shadow, swallowed up in black abaya, peering through the desert haze of her native Arabia. Could they have ever imagined their descendants locked in erotic combat, giggling, panting and fumbling with buttons and bra clasps in a sea of bed sheets not so removed from the snow and sand storms that blanketed their fragile lives?
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Celebrating 10 Years & Marking the End of An Amazing Project
Jewrotica is a great way to ask interesting questions about the interplay between sensuality and Jewish wisdom. Check it out.
I’m Heshy Fried from Frum Satire and I am very, very frum. And I completely support Jewrotica – it’s doing a service to the frum community. We need some sort of kosher sexual education. Jewrotica even has a system that allows frum filters to filter out certain things to make it PG for us. It’s mamish Torah. It’s like The Little Midrash Says for sex.
Learning about sex and what’s right and wrong when it comes to sex from a Biblical standpoint was an eye opening experience. I completely enjoyed it and think something like this could be a very cool thing to bring to even high school aged Jewish youth groups.
Jewrotica is awesome. It expands the mind and for people who were raised with narrow views on sexuality. Whether you are Jewish or not, or in different sects of Judaism like Orthodox, Conservative or Reform, no matter what your background or where you’re from, Jewrotica gets you to see Judaism and how it relates to sexuality in new ways. I really appreciate Ayo being here and helping us learn different ways to connect with our sexuality.
At Jewrotica’s Evening of Bedside Readings, students declaimed monologues on sexual encounters that had a Jewish twist. At Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the speakers pushed their own boundaries by performing a range of explicit narratives that challenged how the audience thought of the relationship to Judaism and sex. During the speakers’ preparation, the arguments about which narratives would be appropriate forced students to take a stand and voice their opinion on their own beliefs about Judaism an… Read more
I stepped out of my comfort zone to be a part of this. I was glad to open up the topic of sexuality in my community. We are trying to build a safe space to talk about sex. The result I am most happy about coming from this event is that hopefully now my friends know they can come and talk to me, that I can be their ‘safe space’.
You may not tell your mom that you’re going to a live Jewrotica reading (or whatever clever name you will dub these events) but you will tell your friends. However, both would be jealous if they find out that they missed it. I think it will only be a matter of time before Jewrotica helps us reclaim the term “Dirty Jew” the way rap music has done for “The ‘N’ Word.” I know I am now proud to be a Dirty Jew!
I attended and participated in last month’s Jewrotica event. The engaging performers and Ayo, our inviting host, inspired the audience to feel like one big community. What a great way to inspire our community to embrace sex as a beautiful thing that can be fun, exciting, sacred, sensual, ridiculous, scary and everything in between!
I’m so glad that Jewrotica is represented here at Jewlicious! It’s bringing voices that need to be heard in the Jewish discussion and Jewish climate environment.
I love the inclusiveness – there is something for everyone, in and out of the Jewish community.
Copyright © 2014 Jewrotica.org. All Rights Reserved.
Built with Love and Mischief.
Designed by Ayo Oppenheimer and
David Abitbol
0 comments