22 Moshe Zemer of the Universe! Your people call You the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. When will they call You the God of David?” Said God to him:“These I have tested. You I have not tested.” Said David:“Then test me, I pray.” Said God :“I will indeed test you. Moreover, I will even give you the advantage over the others by revealing to you the matter about which you shall be tested, and I will even reveal to you the time when you will be tested: I will test you regarding your sexual urge, and I will test you during this night.” When David heard this, he said to himself:“I will ready myself for this test by subduing my sexual urge.” All during that day he made love with all his wives. in order to satiate and subdue his sexual urge. Afterward, the King tossed in his bed all night because he forgot the halakhah of R. Johanan:“Man has a small organ— if he satiates it, it is starved; if he starves it, it is sated.”'' When the time of evening arrived, David rose from his bed and strolled along the roof of the royal palace, and from the roof he beheld a woman bathing and she was very beautiful in appearance”(2 Sam. 11:2). He immediately lusted for her and took Batsheva, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to his bed."? This therefore proves the halakhah of R. Johanan that there is a small organ upon the man. If he hungers for it, it becomes satisfied; if he satisfies it, it becomes hungry.

YETZER HARA AND PIKUAH NEFESH

The halakhah established that pikuah nefesh takes precedence over all the other mitzvot of the Torah with three exceptions: bloodshed, idolatry and sexual offenses. The Talmud illustrates possible variations in the severity of sexual offense. We find a polemical dialogue between rabbinic sages and the physicians of a man dying of a fatal love sickness.

Rav Judah" said in the name of R4v: A_man once conceived a burning passion for a certain woman and became dangerously ill. Doctors who were consulted proclaimed:“His only