"With the birth of her first-born Leah felt that her affliction had been lifted. For this reason she named the child Reuben. But my friend called this sense of relief a delusion that rests on sensuality and corporeality instead of on a foundation in universal principle. This assessment seems to be correct, because Leah became evermore deeply trapped by this mentality. My friend said that instead of rejoicing in the fullness of God's creation Leah stood in denial of it. As if gripped by some form of ecclesiastical despotism, she called her next child Levi, the meaning of being attached, having a possession. It appears that Leah woke up some time after that, because she called her fourth child, Judah, 'object of praise.' My friend commented that Leah gave up a lot of her corporal attachments in her awakening and was gaining a profound sense of value in herself in standing in unity with God as an expression of divine Principle and divine Love.

      "Of course Rachel envied Leah. In desperation Rachel gave her closest helper, Bilhah to Jacob to have children through her. As this process worked out, Rachel suggested that God had judged her worthy. So she called the child correspondingly, Dan, which is related to 'judge.' But my friend suggested that this is not a foundation for building a civilization on, but is animal magnetism, a tearing down that status of man to such a low level where one mind preys on another, one belief on another, so that the whole scene collapses into a convolution of errors.

      "When Leah became barren after her fourth child," Helen continued, "she followed Rachel's lead and gave her own closest friend, Zilpah, to Jacob to have children with her. However, Leah did this from a much higher standpoint than Rachel had done. Leah offered Zilpah to Jacob on the same high-level platform of detachment on which she had gained her freedom from Jacob with the birth of Judah, while still being able to contribute to the welfare of the whole family or tribe. When Zilpah's child was born Leah rejoiced and named the child, Gad, which means, 'a troop is coming.' My American friend suggests that Leah's position was a position of science, of spiritual being understood, of hastening towards harmony."

      Helen paused. "Can you imagine that, Peter?" she said quietly moments later. "Most women today would go into a rage if they saw their husband having sex with another woman, and more so if the other woman was her own closest friend, and even more so if they were aiming to have children together. Against this background it is unimaginable that a wife would ever condone such a process, much less suggest it, and even less suggest it out of her love of family. According to our modern perceptions Leah had done everything wrong that a wife could possibly do wrong, but my friend gave her high praise for it. Evidently that praise was due to her love of family, and her love of Jacob, and also her own love of herself as a human being, seeing her highest interest in promoting the common good, the general welfare, the development of the family. That, Peter was love. Love begins when it doesn't end at the tip of one's nose, so to speak. My friend calls it, science. Which means that the two are really one, and both are expressed in the general welfare."

      "Is this why you have asked me here tonight?" I asked. "Did you invite me for the sake of the general welfare?"

      "Maybe I did," she said with a grin. "In the modern world the general welfare is no longer dependent on adding children. Our physical security and welfare is more secure now than ever, as the result of efficient industries and infrastructures and advanced processes in farming. Still we have deep-seated needs that are critical for the whole. We have different needs than in the early ages that are just as profoundly important for the general welfare. One is the need to cut out the crap of our mutual isolation in society, the divisions, and the smallness in thinking. We need to bring the Principle of Universal Love onto all of these now critical problem areas. Sex plays a role in this, Peter, because the whole of mankind is no deeply sexually divided, instead of being sexually united. Society says that sex is dirty and must be avoided, but we all know that this makes us hypocrites. None of us would exist on this planet if it weren't for people getting together for sex. We should celebrate it as something extraordinary, instead of hiding it in the secrecy of ever-smaller spheres of engagement. Sex was invented by the universe as a principle that assures the greatest possible genetic diversity in procreation. It also seems to serve as a model for breaking down barriers in social isolation. And so, Peter, sex serves very much the general welfare of society. Of course, there are also biological needs attached in the sexual sphere that assure the widest possible genetic proliferation. Self-isolation is not accommodating those needs, even the psychological needs. Would you wish to live in a world of self-starvation? To rebel against the long train of self-isolation is a step of science. Leah took a step out of the confinement of human isolation from one other, towards meeting the human need, graciously opening the door to Jacob to fulfill his own needs in that respect."

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Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche