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JUDAISM AND SEXUALITY Ernest I. Jacob*
udaism— and we may well say— its daughter religion ,
Islam , have never glorified sex in their classical form; neither have they condemned or fought it. Both made conscious efforts to keep it out of their theology and to control the sexual life of their adherents. The extent of their success is the subject of this chapter. Jews and Moslems are, of course, no more or less sexual than any other human beings, not withstanding popular misconceptions.
ANCIENT ISRAEL- THE IDEAL
Even a superficial reading of the Hebrew Bible shows that we must distinguish between the ideal and the reality of life in ancient Israel . We will not concern ourselves with the question whether those ideals were the results of a slow evolution as expressed by modern biblical criticism,or whether they can be dated to the time of Abraham or Moses . The ideal certainly represents an enormous contrast to all other ancient religions. Judaism taught One God , who is not to be worshiped in any form of an image. It knew no mythology that described events in the life of God . God causes things to happen, but nothing happens to God , who is regarded as unchangeable. No sexual mythology as in all other ancient religions exists. Monotheism specifically excludes female deities. This may have contributed to the prohibition against images or caused it, as it is impossible to make an image of a deity who is neither male nor female. On the other hand the Bible could not avoid speaking of God as a male being as the Hebrew language demands that any noun, including names, be treated