Think about this for a moment: Which would you rather discuss with your parents, sex or Jewish texts?

If you are like me, the answer is a resounding "NEITHER!"

Fortunately, I have not had much opportunity to discuss sex with my parents since college when there was an awkward, but in retrospect thoughtful, conversation about "being safe." No one was comfortable with that one and it took me ten years and two degrees before I figured out that the conversation was not about using seatbelts.

The other forbidden subject has been coming up more and more with my parents lately. After years of terror at entering a synagogue, my parents have started to attend adult education courses at their synagogues and I have been teaching religious school, making me the perfect go-to-guy for all their Jewish questions. Actually I am thrilled that they are finding a renewed interest in Jewish learning and more than happy to talk to them and hear about the things they learn-even if it is mostly centered around the quality of the coffee cake served at certain synagogues in the Midwest.

In all of these conversations about Judaism, one thing has always struck me. My parents struggle to feel comfortable with the texts. They grew up at a time when the idea of becoming a Bar or Bat Mitzvah was not considered in Reform Judaism. They grew up at a time when most Reform congregations did not have hakafot (processionals before reading the Torah that allow congregants to touch and feel close to the Torah). In many ways, they grew up at a time when the Torah was not all that accessible.

Kids growing up today have a much better relationship with Jewish texts, although theirs is still one marked by formality. Teenagers today are also captive to the fact that their parents and educators want them to be comfortable with themselves and with their sexuality. Life is complex and often difficult and the "Be safe" conversations of fifteen years ago are probably not enough. Real conversations with kids are necessary every time adults can get their attention, but one also wants to avoid what a friend of mine calls "Health Class Religious School;" Confirmation classes that are filled with important information about the complexities of life, including drugs and sex, but which have too little Jewish content.

Thankfully, there is a way to combine these two issues: Paul Yedwab's Sex in the Texts published last year by the UAHC Press.

Rabbi Yedwab completes a remarkable feat with this book. He has written a guide that will allow adults and teens to become immersed in Jewish texts from Torah to contemporary Responsa and everything in between, while also opening the door to frank discussions about love and sexuality from a Jewish perspective.

The book does not shy away from controversy. While Rabbi Yedwab is struck by the fact that in many ways our traditional texts seem almost modern in their view of sexuality, he is careful to point out that they are also imperfect. They contain sexism, homophobia and are fraught with pseudo-science. The book is interesting enough to read alone and can also be used for formal or informal education programs.

Sex in the Texts is successful because it brings Judaism to an aspect of life that is important to… well, everyone if you ask Freud. It also allows the reader to bring that aspect of life into Judaism without being judged. It allows us to take the good and the not-so good within our tradition and make them relevant because it allows us to make these traditions our own.

And if my parents can explore their Judaism, anyone can.