“My body is as white as the full moon.”
“And my body is as rosy as the rising sun.”
“In my embrace you will lie as softly as in warm down.”
“And in my arms you will feel the tender warmth of newly-shorn lambs’ wool.”
“The kiss of my lips is like the wine of Damascus.”
“And my lips are like the round grapes in which the sunbeams have chosen their home.”
And thus they continued,—the firmness of their breasts, the velvety softness of their skin, the ravishing delight of their legs, and the intoxication of their tenderness. One wrapped him about with her dark hair; the blonde tresses of the other likewise enmeshed him. And with the passing of the hours their lust increased; their naked bodies turned and writhed, wracked and tortured by rising desire.
“Come, take me!” implored the one.
“Come, take me!” panted the other.
But Rabbi Akiba sat between them and—spat. For a whole night he sat between them and spat, looking neither upon one nor the other. He did not try to distract his mind with Torah thoughts, for he did not wish to bring the Torah into the company of two naked women. He simply tried to work himself into a feeling of repulsion, to rouse within him a powerful resistance.