Ki Tavo Deuteronomy Chapter 26: v. 1-Chapter 29: v. 8
The Torah clearly forbids bestiality
LA JOLLA, California — This parasha deals heavily with mandates for proper behavior, plus mandates against improper behavior upon occupying the promised land. Chapter 27 elaborates causes for curses i.e. from failure to observe designated laws of behavior. Chapter 28 elaborates blessings and rewards (14 verses), followed by curses with frightening punishments (55 verses), this latter obviously being the longer list.
I have chosen today to elaborate on a sexual verse which is not for polite company. However, since the Torah writers were not reluctant to list it, and it has relevance to this day, here goes. Chapter 27, v. 21 states “Cursed be he who lies with any beast…” i.e. sex with animals.
I have easily found material on this from the Internet. To mention these times’ most dramatic assertion on the matter, I reference a Newsweek article by a ‘Zoophile’ on November 24, 2014. He proudly concludes that what he does with his horse is not a perversion.
He accurately argues that “…as long as man has domesticated animals, he’s also been having sex with them.” He further argues that “zoos,” as they refer to themselves, “form long-term, loving, and monogamous relationships with their animal partners.”
Further details tell his readers that he has been married to a woman for 19 years, in an open, polygamous relationship, and adds he has relationships with his mare horse partner once a week.
In 1948, Scientific American reported that half of all “farm-bred males” claimed to have had sexual contact with other species. Though most reported their activity as “substitutes for human females,” some persons preferred the company of the animals!
The most recent psychiatric manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013), classifies Zoophilia as a paraphilia. In view of an acknowledged wide variety of sexual ‘normative’ practices, the DSM considers a paraphilia such as this as non-pathological unless there is clear distress experienced by the person.
Nevertheless, sexual assault of an animal is directly prohibited in 36 U.S states, as well as most of Europe. For US states that have not directly prohibited such practices, there is usually some reference to bestiality in other sexual laws. Not surprisingly, such prohibitions have led to an underground animal sex tourism industry.
Pre-historic cave drawings and rock art 40,000 years ago include images of bestiality practices, and bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore and art throughout the classical period and into the Middle Ages.
Several ancient authors purported to document it as a regular, accepted practice. Emperor Hammurabi (1950 BCE) of Babylon allegedly declared the Death Penalty for such practices, yet ambiguously in his spring fertility rites, there were orgies described for seven days and nights with dogs, etc. A number of Greek mythical figures were said to have resulted from sex with the gods, e.g. the Minotaur (man-bull) and Satyr (man-goat). Several myths have Zeus taking the form of animals to seduce humans, e.g. Lyda with a Swan.
The ancient Hebrews in the Bible seem to be the first to absolutely condemn bestiality, declaring the death penalty for both the human and animal participants (Leviticus Ch. 20: vv. 15-16). It charged the Canaanites with widespread bestiality. Emeritus Professor Jeffrey Tigay (U. of Pennsylvania), who wrote the Jewish Publication Society’s Commentary on Deuteronomy (1996), indicated that the early ancient Hebrews likely also practiced bestiality, which led to the prohibition indicated above.
Christianity from the early 4th Century CE declared “penance for bestiality” (Synod of Ancyra, 316 CE).
There are recorded instances of punished cases throughout the Middle Ages, e.g. in 1468 a man was hanged and burned for having sex with a cow and a goat., etc. There is a fictitious account in the 11th Century of a Count whose pet ape was his wife’s lover. The ape, jealous of the Count, killed him.
Into the 20th Century, as late as the 1950’s, zoophilia was exempt from punishment in more than 80% of Europe. Finally, into the 21st Century, most countries have banned Zoophilia, though as of today, Hungary, Finland, and Romania continue legal bestiality. Notably, when German law banned it in 2015, its zoophile community sued on the basis that the law violated their rights!
Such practices don’t easily die.
*
Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who delights in Torah analysis. He often delivers a drosh at Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, and at his chavurah.