Incest in Judaism

 

Incest in Judaism is denounced and its interdiction is harsh. The Hebrew Bible describes numerous prohibited sexual relationships, among which are incestuous relationships. “None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover her nakedness “(Leviticus 18:6); “it is foulness” (Leviticus 18:17). The biblical reference to “near of kin to him” includes not only immediate blood relations, but extends to family members by marriage and even blood relatives of those with whom one has a sexual relationship. Severe punishments against incest include “burnt with fire,” “cut off in the sight of their people,” and “die childless” for this “wickedness” (Leviticus 20:11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21). Rabbinic literature judges the transgression of incest so immoral that it classifies it as one of the three capital sins, along with idolatry and murder, that may be punishable by death.

A variety of explanations for the rationale of this interdiction are found in medieval Jewish literatures. In the philosophical ones, the assumption is—according to Maimonides and his followers—that the restriction of this type of sexual relations was intended to diminish the number of women with whom someone may have such a relationship. According to another philosopher from Provence, Levi Ben Abraham, the assumption is that the interdiction strives to create exogenous marriage and thus social cohesion.

In Jewish esotericism, incest has been conceived of as one of the three secret topics, along with the account of Creation and the account of the Chariot.

Medieval kabbalistic literature reveals several explanations regarding incest. A problem inherent in the literal interpretation of the lineages of Adam is that the initial relationships of the Divine family must have been incestuous. One of the early kabbalists, Isaac the Blind of early thirteenth-century Provence, explained that the relationships of Adam, Eve, and their descendants represented the divine powers of the sefirot, or worlds of emanation. These relationships were licit, as they reflected a state of union in the Divine world. After the unfolding of the sefirot, the ontological ramification was such that the nature of existence was defined as the world of separation, in which interdiction is intended to ensure diversity. According to other kabbalistic views, in mid-thirteenth century, the interdiction of incest is related to the mixture of good and evil that is characteristic of the situation in the unredeemed world, and implicitly the interdiction will be abrogated in the messianic time. In the ecstatic Kabbalah of Abraham Abulafia, incest is an allegory for the linkage between form and prime matter.

In the late thirteenth century, the topic of the Zohar describes Jacob’s marriage with two sisters as an act that is perceived in Jewish tradition as incestuous. Jacob’s marriage was a unique act of unification between feminine divine manifestations. This pre-Sinaitic event was described as related to Jacob’s perfection, and his incestuous marriage viewed as a positive act. In the same period, another kabbalist known as Rabbi Joseph of Hamadan repeatedly discusses Jacob’s marriage in a manner that reflects a tension between the prohibition related to the human behavior and the prerogative of the divine powers, which are connected to each other in such a manner.

In the kabbalistic thought of the Safedian kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria, the view of the topic of the Zohar regarding Jacob is interpreted as the reparation of the incest of Adam. Although orgiastic rituals are known in Sabba-tianism, it seems that only in its later metamorphosis—known as Frankism in the second half of the eighteenth century—was an incestuous relationship elevated to the status of a religious ritual, and practiced by Jacob Frank with his daughter Eve (Rachel).

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