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Leviticus 15: Is Sex Unclean?
By Justin Jenkins | April 11, 2008
Note: You might not want read this if you are a “sensitive” sexual talk …
The JTS has an interesting commentary this week by Rabbi David Ackerman, based on Leviticus 14:1-15:33 in which he discusses the apparent Levitical notion of sex equating “uncleanliness,” even within “traditional” marriage.
If a man lies with a woman and has an emission of semen, both of them shall bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.1
Leviticus 15:18
Rabbi David Ackerman:
What’s startling and troubling about Leviticus 15, however, is its conclusion that normal sexual activity breeds impurity. Verse 16 spells it out clearly: “when a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and remain unclean until evening.” As Jacob Milgrom emphasizes in his monumental Anchor Bible Commentary, Leviticus 1-16, “even if the act is involuntary . . . any discharge of semen, regardless of the circumstances, generates impurity.”
Milgrom goes on to cite a series of authorities who note that the practice of ritual immersion after sexual activity for both husband and wife occurred well into the Middle Ages, all a logical outcome of verse 18, which legislates that “if a man has carnal relations with a woman, they shall bathe in water and remain impure until evening.” It’s not a big stretch to move from that idea to the thought that sexual activity itself is always impure, at best a necessary evil.
He concludes with what I think is a very true and profound thought:
The challenge, then, of human sexuality involves the channeling of that which is potentially impure and directing it toward holiness.
[1] Or “And if a man has carnal relations with a woman, they shall bathe in water and remain unclean until evening.” See JPS Tanakh.
April 30th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
[…] Justin Jenkins does the unthinkable and unconscionable and discusses the ’s’ word in connection with Leviticus 15. It’s not for the faint of heart (which of course means that by now everyone has clicked on the link to see what it’s about. Oh you filthy lot…) John Hobbins had some interesting observations on Deut. 32:8-9 and shows what careful and meticulous attention to textual detail when applied to the Hebrew Bible can do. […]