Our Gemara on Amud Aleph discusses the anatomy of various sages, in bizarre detail,:

When Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei, and Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, would meet each other, it was possible for a pair of oxen to enter and fit between them, under their bellies, without touching them, due to their excessive obesity.

A certain Roman noblewoman [matronisa] once said to them: Your children are not really your own, as due to your obesity it is impossible that you engaged in intercourse with your wives. They said to her: Theirs, i.e., our wives’ bellies, are larger than ours. She said to them: All the more so you could not have had intercourse. There are those who say that this is what they said to her: “For as the man is, so is his strength” (Judges 8:21), i.e., our sexual organs are proportionate to our bellies. There are those who say that this is what they said to her: Love compresses the flesh.

The Gemara asks: And why did they respond to her audacious and foolish question? After all, it is written: “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him” (Proverbs 26:4). The Gemara answers: They answered her in order not to cast aspersions on the lineage of their children.

The Gemara continues discussing the bodies of these Sages: Rabbi Yoḥanan said: The organ of Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei, was the size of a jug of nine kav. Rav Pappa said: The organ of Rabbi Yoḥanan was the size of a jug of five kav, and some say it was the size of a jug of three kav. Rav Pappa himself had a belly like the baskets [dikurei] made in Harpanya.

The Maharal Be’er Hagolah (Well 5, Mishnah 4) explains that of course the Gemara is not referring to physical body parts alone. The dispute with the Roman matron was a theological one. Her point was to suggest that any physical aspects of their lives were contradictory to the spiritual. She saw procreation and its lustful aspects as inimical to what she believed was a way to achieve communion with the Gods. To her, the rabbis were obese, that is their embracing of physicality was unseemly. However, Maharal says, Jewish philosophy is not merely to concede to physical lust as a necessary evil for the furtherance of the species, but as a spiritual act itself. The physical organs and their various capacities, are only the physical manifestation of a spiritual facility for generation, which comes from love. Love itself is a physical manifestation of the greater spiritual force of creation. This is why conception occurs from this act. Maharal points out the description of size gets notably smaller with each rabbinic generation, as related in our Gemara, indicating the size is a virtue. This means their ability to utilize their physicality to its full extent and power in service of Godly aims.) 

Indeed the rabbis could not ignore the Roman Matron’s challenge because they had to defend their children and lineage. This too is a metaphor, their children and lineage are the value and product of their strivings in this world. I often quote this powerful assertion from Rav Soloveitchik (Halachic Man, p. 41);

There is nothing so physically and spiritually destructive as diverting one’s attention from this world. And, by contrast, how courageous is halakhic man who does not flee from this world, who does not seek to escape to some pure, supernal realm.

Judaism is not distinct from other religions just because we have a few more commandments and a stricter definition of monotheism. The Jewish way is not merely to give in to human nature and lust as a concession, nor does it encourage an extreme rejection of the physical pleasures and experiences of this world. We rejoice in the physical encounters as gateways to a deeper realm. (This itself has psychological similarities to monotheism in that there is no splitting of intentions.  All comes from God and therefore all is potentially good.) The Gemara resorted to extreme anatomical imagery to specifically shock and grab our attention. Acknowledging the absurd degree by which these body parts can dominate our thinking and behavior only tells us how important it must be. Something that generates such powerful feelings and reactions must contain a Godly force which is to be harnessed carefully. It is not to be rejected, underestimated, nor allowed to become our master.

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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