Aligned sentence by sentence
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If we condensed the prohibition of sexual intercourse on the Sabbath by virtue of our preceding statement regarding the obligation of “holiness” on the Sabbath, that would be sufficient, but we will not be satisfied until we have discussed everything relevant to this. And additionally if it was correct that purification and sanctification on the Sabbath are applicable to people and not time, it is obligatory to sanctify themselves and keep clean and pure from all impurity. This is in addition to what the Torah explicitly says regarding sanctification (qiddush) that it refers to distancing oneself from approaching a woman as it says (Exodus 19:10) “And the LORD said unto Moses: 'Go unto the people, and sanctify them (v’kidashtam) to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their garments” and then explains this verse by saying (Exodus 19:15) “And he said unto the people: 'Be ready against the third day; come not near a woman'” and this too is very clear.
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And additionally what confirms this prohibition is the verse (Isaiah 58:13) “If thou turn away thy foot (raglecha) because of the sabbath, from pursuing thy business on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of the LORD honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thy wonted ways, nor pursuing thy business, nor speaking thereof” and this means the genitalia since genitalia is called foot (regel) as in the verse (2 Kings 18:27) “But Rab-shakeh said unto them: 'Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men that sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water (meimei regleihem) with you?'” and additionally (2 Samuel 19:25) “And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither dressed his feet (‘asah raglav), nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace” meaning he did not shave his pubic hair and like this are many more examples. Next, this is confirmed in his verse (Isaiah 58:13) “If thou turn away thy foot because of the sabbath, from pursuing thy business on My holy day...” and similarly the verse “nor pursuing thy business (drakhekha)” refers to sexual intercourse. And this is parallel to the words of Lot’s daughters (Genesis 19:31) “And the first-born said unto the younger: 'Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner (derekh) of all the earth” and this verse (Isaiah 58:13) confirms the prohibition of sexual intercourse with three ideas.
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And moreover what proves this is that [sexual intercourse] is spilling seed (zer’a), and there is no difference between this and sowing seeds (zeri’ah) on the Sabbath day. This is witnessed by the senses and all the more so by the intellect. And what is even clearer than all this is that [intercourse] is tiring with lots of motion and all tiresome activity and movement that is not essential, or required for the Sabbath itself, is forbidden according to all. And the Rabbanites argue (b.Shabbat 73a) regarding the "39 forms of work" (avot melakhah) that one of them is “extinguishing” and what is worse: one who blows out a flame and extinguishes it, or one who has intercourse which has the three notions mentioned of impurity, intense movement, and sowing seed? And is this not against their view regarding a fortiori (qal v’homer)? And what is more surprising than this and confirms their contradiction is that they permit intercourse with a virgin on the Sabbath that releases the “blood of virginity” even while they argue that one who strikes his friend and draws blood from his nose or ear that this is a melakhah! And additionally, they forbid clapping and dancing and what is worse, these or sexual intercourse?
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And they may ask and say “does the Torah not forbid us from allowing the stranger to perform melakhah on the Sabbath in our places and villages?” And if you say “yes,” they say “thus if sexual intercourse was forbidden on the Sabbath, it would be incumbent upon us to separate between our neighbours and their wives on the Sabbath to prevent them from having intercourse on the Sabbath and this is impossible.” Say to them “If what you say is obligatory, we cannot leave them alone but they must be jailed with us and guard them and their wives and children and animals to prevent them from desecrating the Sabbath! And moreover, it would be obligated to seal their mouths from saying anything that is forbidden to speak about on the Sabbath.” And all of these are more severe than what they obligate us regarding sexual intercourse, and if they obligate all of this, we obligate that also. But if they make a distinction, we also make a distinction regarding sexual intercourse.
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And regarding what we believe answers their question is that the prohibition of melakhah for the stranger is professional and occupational activities, which are explicit and pronounced, and not labour that is unskilled. And sexual intercourse is not occupational labor, but rather an action, and therefore it is not required for us to separate between the stranger and his wife in order to prevent them from having intercourse. And subsequently we will clarify what we said regarding “skilled labor” and “actions” and the distinction between them.
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And they have another challenge of the same kind and this is their view that if sexual intercourse was forbidden on the Sabbath, it would be obligated to separate between the male and female animals so that they do not have relations, given that animals are included with us in the prohibition of melakhah on the Sabbath. Say to them “if we are obligated in this, you are also obligated to seal the mouths of cats on the Sabbath to prevent them from hunting mice since hunting and killing are prohibited on the Sabbath.” And our answer with this issue is like our answer in the previous issue. And if they say “if we concede that sexual intercourse is not skilled labour according to your view but merely an action, is not hunting the skilled labor of a hunter? Thus why do you compare hunting which is a skilled labor with intercourse which is an action?” We say that the skilled labor of hunting is not hunting of a mouse, but the labour of hunting beasts and birds and fish as the skilled labour of “washing” is not washing a cup or dishes but rather the labour of washing clothes. Therefore, it is permitted to wash a cup but not permitted to wash clothes and this is something that we will discuss subsequently.
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And amongst the discourse of the Rabbanites is a statement that generates a prohibition on sexual intercourse on the Sabbath and even more so proves it is a very strict prohibition. They say the intention of the Torah’s verse regarding the Israelite slave (Deuteronomy 15:18) “It shall not seem hard unto thee, when thou lettest him go free from thee; for to the double of the hire of a hireling hath he served thee six years; and the LORD thy God will bless thee in all that thou doest” refers to a slave whose master gave him a wife and they had children born as slaves to the master and the children are not freed together with him since the verse says (Exodus 21:4) “If his master give him a wife, and she bear him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.” They say the verse (Deuteronomy 15:18) “for to the double of the hire of a hireling” means a slave who has already been enslaved and worked for him double the labor of a hireling, since the hireling works by day but not night and the slave works with you night and day. Therefore, if the slave has intercourse with his wife at night and she gives birth, the children were labored upon during the night and thus belong to the master. It must be from this view of theirs that sexual intercourse is labor without a doubt, and labor is above any “action” and stricter than all melakha. And if melakha is forbidden on the Sabbath, thus labor which is above and more strict than melakha is even more appropriate to be forbidden.
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And it is wondrous what al-Fayyumi brings as proof for permitting sexual intercourse on the Sabbath with the verse (Isaiah 58:13) “If thou turn away thy foot because of the sabbath, from pursuing thy business on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight (‘oneg), and the holy of the LORD honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thy wonted ways, nor pursuing thy business, nor speaking thereof” and the verse from Solomon (Ecclesiastes 2:8) “I gathered me also silver and gold, and treasure such as kings and the provinces have as their own; I got me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights (ta’anugot) of the sons of men, women (shidah) very many (ve-shidot)” and that this is derived from breast (shadi) whose meaning is a woman’s breast. He says that this is “delight” and according to him obligates sexual intercourse, for the verse regarding ‘oneg on the Sabbath thus not only permits sexual intercourse on the Sabbath but obligates it.