Jewish Views Of Incest
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Jewish views on incest deal with the
sexual relationship An intimate relationship is an interpersonal relationship that involves emotional or physical closeness between people and may include sexual intimacy and feelings of Romance (love), romance or love. Intimate relationships are Interdependence ...
s which are prohibited by
Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...
and rabbinic authorities on account of a close family relationship that exists between persons. Such prohibited relationships are commonly referred to as
incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
or incestuous, though that term does not appear in the biblical and rabbinic sources. The term mostly used by rabbinic sources is "
forbidden relationships in Judaism Forbidden relationships in Judaism ( ') are intimate relationships which are forbidden by prohibitions in the Torah or rabbinical injunctions. Some of these prohibitions—those listed in Leviticus 18, known as ' ()—are considered such a serio ...
".


Relationships forbidden in the Hebrew Bible

The
Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Book of Leviticus The Book of Leviticus (, from , ; , , 'And He called'; ) is the third book of the Torah (the Pentateuch) and of the Old Testament, also known as the Third Book of Moses. Many hypotheses presented by scholars as to its origins agree that it de ...
and one list appears in the
Book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...
. The lists only mention relationships with female relatives; excluding
lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...
, this implies that the list is addressed to men. In the Hebrew Bible, sexual relationships between siblings are forbidden to Jews but permissible to
Gentile ''Gentile'' () is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish. Other groups that claim Israelite heritage, notably Mormons, have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders. More rarely, the term is used as a synony ...
s (non-Jews). Since the lists would then describe women with whom it is forbidden for a man to have a relationship, they also indirectly imply a list of men with whom it is forbidden for a woman to have a relationship. The lists are as follows: ''(Note that the below table does not contain color blocks on the Wikipedia app and must be viewed on a browser for accuracy.)'' One of the most notable features of each list is that sexual relations between a man and his own daughter are not explicitly forbidden, although the first relation mentioned after the Levitical prohibition of sex with "near kin" is that of "thy father". (This assumes that the Torah is only speaking to men. If it is speaking to everyone, then a woman is not allowed to have sex with her father. It also explicitly prohibits having sex with a woman and her daughter. A man's daughter is obviously also the daughter of a woman with whom he had sexual relations.) The Talmud argues that this absence is because the prohibition was ''obvious'', especially given the proscription against a relationship with a granddaughter. As with the case of a man's own daughter, the shortness of the list in Leviticus 20, and especially of that in Deuteronomy, are explained by classical Jewish scholarship as being due to the ''obviousness'' of the missing prohibitions. Apart from the case of a man marrying his daughter, the list in
Leviticus 18 Leviticus 18 (the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Leviticus) deals with a number of sexual activities considered abominable, including incest and bestiality. The chapter also condemns Moloch worship. It is part of the Holiness Code (Leviti ...
roughly produces the same rules as were followed in early (pre-Islamic) Arabic culture. However, most tribal nations also disliked exogamous marriage – marriage to completely unrelated people. Judaism's view is that prior to the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, some of the prohibitions only applied voluntarily. Thus in several prominent cases in the Torah, the incest rules are ignored in favour of marriage to a close relative;
Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...
is described as having married his first wife's sister.


Secular views

Some secular
Biblical scholars Biblical studies is the academic application of a set of diverse academic discipline, disciplines to the study of the Bible, with ''Bible'' referring to the books of the Biblical canon#Jewish canons, canonical Hebrew Bible in mainstream Judais ...
have instead proposed that forbidding incest with a daughter ''was'' originally in the list, but was then accidentally left out from the copy on which modern versions of the text ultimately depend, due to a mistake by the scribe.


Rabbinic views

In the 4th century BCE, the
Soferim A sofer, sopher, sofer SeTaM, or sofer ST"M (, "scribe"; plural , ) is a Jewish scribe who can transcribe Sifrei Kodesh (holy scrolls), tefillin (phylacteries), mezuzot (ST"M, , is an abbreviation of these three terms) and other religious writi ...
(''scribes'') declared that there were relationships within which marriage is prohibited, in addition to those forbidden by the Bible. These additional relationships were termed ''seconds'' (Hebrew: ), and included the wives of a man's:
Yebamot Yevamot (, "Brother's Widow", also pronounced Yevamos, or Yavmus) is a tractate of the Talmud that deals with, among other concepts, the laws of Yibbum (, loosely translated in English as levirate marriage), and, briefly, with conversion to Judais ...
(
Tosefta The Tosefta ( "supplement, addition") is a compilation of Jewish Oral Law from the late second century, the period of the Mishnah and the Jewish sages known as the '' Tannaim''. Background Jewish teachings of the Tannaitic period were cha ...
) 2:3
* father's half-brother on their mother's side * mother's half-brother on their father's side * grandfather * grandson. The classical rabbis prohibited marriage between a man and any of his ''seconds'', on the basis that doing so would act as a ''safeguard'' against infringing the Biblical prohibitions;Yebamot 21a one
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
ic opinion even arguing that the inclusion of the grandfather's wife and of the grandson's wife, among the ''seconds'', is based onYebamot (
Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
only) 2:4
the Biblical rule against a wife's granddaughter. There was however some debate as to which relationships, other than the four listed above, counted as ''seconds''; the Talmudic scholars and Rabbinic scholars of the middle age, the ''
Rishonim ''Rishonim'' (; ; sing. , ''Rishon'') were the leading rabbis and ''posek, poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (, "Set Table", a common printed code of Jewis ...
'', variously included or excluded the following relationships from the ''seconds'' of a man: * grandmother's sister
Israel Lipschitz Yisrael Lifschitz (; 1782–1860) was a leading 19th-century Ashkenazi rabbi, first in Dessau and then in the Jewish Community of Danzig. He was the author of the commentary "Tiferes Yisrael" on the Mishnah. Biography Lipshitz's father's nam ...
, '' Tif'ret Yisrael'' on Yebamot 2:1
* paternal grandfather's sisterYebamot 21b * paternal grandfather's brother's wife * grandfather's mother * wife's great-grandmotherYebamot 22a * wife's great-granddaughter (including great-granddaughter) * an uncle's grandson's wife The extent to which the forbidden relationships extend beyond the ''seconds'' is a matter of dispute, but all the Talmudic scholars agree that marriage to the wife of any male descendant, in the direct male line, was forbidden; some classical rabbis also included the wife of any male ancestor, in the direct male line, in this prohibition, as did all of the Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages. In the
Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...
, some of the opinions even include all blood descendants and ancestors of the ''seconds'' in the prohibition. In relation to ''seconds'' related only by marriage, some proposed the general principle that it would be acceptable to marry anyone only related to a "second" by a further marriage; for example, a wife of a father-in-law (apart from the mother-in-law), or the stepson's daughter-in-law. However,
Israel Lipschitz Yisrael Lifschitz (; 1782–1860) was a leading 19th-century Ashkenazi rabbi, first in Dessau and then in the Jewish Community of Danzig. He was the author of the commentary "Tiferes Yisrael" on the Mishnah. Biography Lipshitz's father's nam ...
interpreted this as forbidding even marriage to a wife's former husband's wife. At least all Talmudic opinions agree that it was theoretically permitted to marry a stepfather's wife (excepting the mother), and to marry a stepsibling (a man marrying his stepsister, etc.). Nevertheless, some of the opinions expressed in the Jerusalem Talmud argue that to avoid observers jumping to the wrong conclusions, marriage between stepsiblings, or between a man and his wife's stepmother, should be forbidden, or at least carried out somewhere that observers would not already know that the participants are step-relations. What is clear, is that no opinion in the Talmud forbids marriage to a cousin or a sister's daughter (a class of niece), and it even commends marriage to the latter – the closer relation of the two. Historically, there are a few examples of marriage between cousins; in 19th century England, the proportion of Jewish marriages occurring between cousins was 3.5 times higher than for the marriages of other religions; in the 19th century
Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...
the proportion was twice as high as that for Roman Catholics, and 12 times higher than that for Protestants.


In practice

Marriages forbidden in the Bible were regarded by the rabbis of the Middle Ages, the ''
Rishonim ''Rishonim'' (; ; sing. , ''Rishon'') were the leading rabbis and ''posek, poskim'' who lived approximately during the 11th to 15th centuries, in the era before the writing of the ''Shulchan Aruch'' (, "Set Table", a common printed code of Jewis ...
'' as invalid – as if they had never occurred;''
Shulkhan Arukh The ''Shulhan Arukh'' ( ),, often called "the Code of Jewish Law", is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Rabbinic Judaism. It was authored in the city of Safed in what is now Israel by Joseph Karo in 1563 and published in V ...
'', ''
Even Ha'ezer ( "The Stone of Help" or "The Rock of the ") is a section of Rabbi Jacob ben Asher's compilation of halakha (Jewish law), ''Arba'ah Turim''. This section treats aspects of Jewish law related to marriage, divorce, and sexual conduct. Later, Rabb ...
'', 16, 1
any children born to such a couple were regarded as
mamzer In the Hebrew Bible and Jewish religious law, a ''mamzer'' (, , "estranged person"; plural ''mamzerim'') is a person who is born as the result of certain forbidden relationships or incest (as it is defined by the Bible), or the descendant of s ...
rim "bastards", and the relatives of the spouse were not regarded as forbidden relations for a further marriage. On the other hand, those relationships which were prohibited due to qualifying as ''seconds'', and so forth, were regarded as wicked, but still valid; while they might have pressured such a couple to divorce, any children of the union were still seen as legitimate. In general, the Jerusalem Talmud is more restrictive in regard to incest than the
Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...
;
Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. They traditionally speak Yiddish, a language ...
, following
Joseph Karo Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its ...
, generally follow the incest regulations of the Jerusalem Talmud, while
Sephardi Jews Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
, exemplified by
Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...
, tend to follow the Babylonian Talmud.
Joseph Caro Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, also spelled Yosef Caro, or Qaro (; 1488 – March 24, 1575, 13 Nisan 5335 A.M.), was a prominent Sephardic Jewish rabbi renowned as the author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the ''Beit Yosef'', and its ...
, " Beth Yosef" on '' Eben ha-'Ezer'', 15:kl39a
Thus
Jacob ben Meir Jacob ben Meir (1100 – 9 June 1171 (4 Tammuz)), best known as Rabbeinu Tam (), was one of the most renowned Ashkenazi Jewish rabbis and leading French Tosafists, a leading ''halakhic'' authority in his generation, and a grandson of Rashi. Know ...
deliberately wrecked a wedding, stopping the marriage and spoiling the banquet and celebrations, because the man would have married his father-in-law's wife. The classical rabbis regarded the incest regulations as being too important and too open to misinterpretation to be taught in public, instead requiring that, when it is taught, it must be taught to each student individually. They also argued that on occasions when the Bible was read in public, and the reading happened to involve some of the Biblical rules against incest, then the reading must be stopped, if the reader interprets the regulations in a different way to the Talmudic opinions.'' Megillah'' 6:9


Karaite views

The Karaites, who reject the authority of Talmudic opinions, interpret the biblical prohibitions differently. The early Karaites adopted the principle that marriage was a true and full union – each spouse was to be considered legally as the same person, and hence someone related to one spouse was seen as having exactly the same relation to the other. Applied to the Biblical regulations, this produced drastically simple rules, prohibiting marriage between almost all relations and spousal relations, except that a man could still marry his niece (or step-niece) and his grandmother (or grandfather's wife, or spouse's grandmother, or spouse's grandfather's wife). However, it also prohibited marriage to the relatives of every subsequent husband of a divorced wife. In the 11th century, two Karaite reformists rejected the principle that a marriage was a true and full union, instead arguing that the only relationships that should be forbidden were those analogous to those in the biblical prohibitions. Dividing the principle relatives into two groups: * First-degree relatives – parent, stepparent, sibling, sibling-in-law, child, and child-in-law * Second-degree relatives – aunt (including uncle's wife), uncle (including aunt's husband), grandchild, grandchild's wife They organised the forbidden relationships into five or six categories: * First-degree relatives, their direct ancestors, and their direct descendants * Second-degree relatives, their direct ancestors, and their direct descendants * First-degree relatives of the spouse (e.g. a man marrying two sisters, or a woman and her daughter), and their ''rivals'' (the wives of their husbands) * Second-degree relatives of the spouse (e.g. a man marrying a woman and her granddaughter) * The relative (by blood or marriage) of a relative's spouse, if such a marriage would create a ''parallel'' relation (e.g. a man marrying his brother's wife's sister, his grandfather's wife's granddaughter, or his uncle's niece); near-parallels are regarded as ''parallel'' relations (e.g. a man marrying his father's wife's sister, or his brother's wife's mother) for this purpose; stepsiblings are regarded as siblings for this purpose * Second-degree relative's spouse's first-degree relatives (e.g. a sister-in-law's aunt); stepsiblings are regarded as first-degree relatives for this purpose. This last category is included by only one of the two reformists. This reformed list of prohibited relations was subsequently adopted by almost all Karaites.


See also

*
Arayot Forbidden relationships in Judaism ( ') are intimate relationships which are forbidden by prohibitions in the Torah or Rabbinic Judaism, rabbinical injunctions. Some of these prohibitions—those listed in Leviticus 18, known as ' ()—are consid ...
*
Incest in the Bible Narratives featuring incest can be found in the Hebrew Bible, which contains mentions of various types of sexual relationships. It also lays out rules and regulations with regard to prohibited degree of kinship. These prohibitions are found predo ...


References

{{Incest Incest
Incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
Incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
Incest Incest ( ) is sexual intercourse, sex between kinship, close relatives, for example a brother, sister, or parent. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by lineag ...
Point of view