GEN157 The Jewish tradition sees two primary purposes for sex within marriage, as evidenced by the two commands in the Torah to engage in sex. One appears in Exodus 21[p:10], where the Torah says, at least as the Talmud understood it, that a man taking a woman in marriage must not deprive her of “her food, clothing, or conjugal rights.”  The other appears in the very first chapter of Genesis, in which God tells the first man and woman to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” [this verse].  Thus companionship and procreation are the two divinely ordained purposes of sex within marriage. Moreover, these are independent commandments. Thus before, during, and after the years that a couple plans to have children, the duty to have conjugal relations for the sake of companionship continues. God’s desire, according to the Torah and Talmud, is that people should, if at all possible, live in marital partnership, regardless of their ability to procreate. B. Yevamot 61b, where Rabbi Nahman, quoting Genesis 2:18, asserts that “although a man may have many children, he must not remain without a wife, for the Torah says, ‘It is not good that a man should be alone.’” Later Jewish law codes take this as authoritative law; see M.T. Laws of Marriage 15:16; Laws of Forbidden Intercourse 21:26; and S.A. Even Ha’ezer 1:8. DORFFLOV 82