Michael J. Broyde - Marriage, Sex and Family in Judaism

While the majority of the Hebrew Bible, known as Tanakh, recounts the period of Israelite settlement in the land of Canaan, most scholars insist that the majority of canonical texts reached their current form in the Persian period (sixth to fourth century B.C.E.), when Jews lived as a minority population both in the province of Yehud in the Land of Israel, and elsewhere in Mesopotamia and Egypt. From this minority perspective, this collection of texts came to be the main scripture of the Jewish people because virtually all its books are about the Jewish peopleor, more specifically, its covenant with God.

Given the portrayal of the Jewish people as an extended family, one might think such a parochial story would begin with, or would quickly reach, the story of the nations progenitor, Abraham. However, the first eleven chapters of Genesis speak of Gods relationship with the world, beginning with the creation of a highly ordered and differentiated world. Each creature is part of a species, a group that is meant to know its place in the world and maintain its boundaries and functions. Man and woman are both informed and blessed to procreate, to be fruitful and multiply and assert stewardship over the created order. This state, termed as very good in divine eyes (Gen. 1:31), is presented somewhat differently in chapter 2, which offers the creation of woman as a response to the first mans loneliness: Therefore a man leaves his father and mother, clings to his wife, and becomes one flesh (Gen. 2:24). Thus, between the first two chapters, there emerges a sense that the union of man and woman was inherently good, intended since creation for the purposes of procreation and companionship (whether practical or emotional). But this idyllic state collapses as the first couple eats from forbidden fruit, with the consequence that they sense, for the first time, sexual shame (Gen. 3:7). Painful childbirth, female sexual passion, and male domination of the female are all presented as punishment for the womans submission to temptation and her insistence that her husband join her in the sin.

Humanitys decline continues until God chooses Abraham, promising him that his descendants will become abundant, great, and will receive the land of Canaan as an inheritance (Gen. 12:13). This divine blessing, later symbolized through circumcision (Gen. 17), comes to be the reward of a covenant whereby Abrahams descendants must obey Gods law as it was revealed to Moses at Sinai and during the wilderness wanderings. The peoples status as Gods special treasure among all the nations... a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Exod. 19:56) is predicated on their living according to demanding standards, including a host of sexual norms (Lev. 18). These are deemed the idolatrous and abominable practices of the local tribes, and the Jews must maintain their purity and holinessor suffer a similar fate of displacement and exile.

The Tanakhs presentation of the history of the Jewish people as that of an extended familytwelve tribes, the descendants of the sons of Jacob, settling on ancestrally allotted landhighlights the texts assumption that the covenant is meant to be lived out in the context of large, agrarian patriarchal families, with a specific division of labor among men, women, and children and traditions passed from parents to children. The consequences of this orientation for our subjects cannot be overstated, yet virtually all have a covenantal overlay as well. Strict rules of endogamy and exogamy, including the prohibitions against incest mentioned above, controlled marriage with the aim of producing legitimate heirs; yet the text often adds the importance of these rules in maintaining allegiance to God: alien, non-Israelite women will lead men astray (Deut. 7:15, 23:29), unless, like Ruth, they accept the God of Israel. Polygamy is allowed (concubinage seemed to be the preserve of the aristocracy) so long as primogeniture is not disrupted; yet grave spiritual dangers accompany the pursuit of women other than ones wife, and monogamous marriage becomes the metaphor of the GodIsrael covenant (Deut. 21:1517, Ezek. 16:118, Prov. 5). The ideal woman, extolled in the famous poem in Proverbs 31, is both a competent manager of the household, overseeing food and cloth production, as well as a God fearer. To maintain order and preserve tradition in these agrarian hierarchies, respect of parents is demanded in the Decalogue (Exod. 20:12); incorrigibly disobedient children are to be publicly executed (Deut. 21:1821). At the same time, parents must educate children and pass on the tale of the nations birth and Sinaitic covenant with God, so that they may fear the Lord as well (Deut. 4:910, 6:47).