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Judaism and Sex

Many people today perceive such symbols, concepts and practices as odd if not deviant, because they have been taught that the polytheistic cultures who overtly practiced them were "bad" and "sinful." The common folk have also been taught to believe that the Jews and Christians have been very moral and have had little to do with sex. For example, it is erroneously perceived that the Old Testament heroes and patriarchs were impeccably moral individuals who never engaged in anything remotely smacking of sexual deviation and perversion. First of all, during the time of biblical peoples, humans were as obsessed with sex as they are now, particularly where they were repressed. Secondly, what is considered deviation or perversion has from the very beginning of humankind been dependent on cultural perspective, varying with different ages and places. Furthermore, often what has been approved by general consensus has also been considered to be "right in the eyes of God/dess." As noted, prior to the monopolizing patriarchy there were widespread matriarchal cultures, every bit as "godly," but with different interpretations of sexuality.

Peering between the biblical covers, we find that many of the book's characters are in reality depicted as engaging in behaviors that would be considered by current standards to be sexual deviation. From early on in the biblical drama we encounter incest, with even Moses himself being a product of it. Later, the righteous Lot is made drunk and then seduced by both his daughters, who bear sons from their incestuous trysts. Rape is another prominent biblical theme, engaged in frequently by the Yahwists, whose history according to the OT is based on the slaughter of other cultures and the kidnapping and rape of their young girls. In fact, a number of the "great" patriarchs and heroes have sex with "concubines," a fancy name for these young girls kidnapped and made into prostitutes. Of course, Solomon was the most conspicuous consumer, with 1,000 wives and concubines, not a true story but used to demonstrate the manliness of his purported progeny. But, if having so many wives and concubines is not adultery, we wonder what is and just what one would call Abraham's relationship with Hagar, his wife's handmaiden, by whom he has a child, or Jacob's various dalliances with Rachel, her sister Leah and their maids, by whom he has children. In the story of Jacob and Rachel, in fact, are found not only sexual deviation, by Christian standards, but also drug use, in that Rachel's "son's mandrakes" are "sex plants" or "fertility fruits."3 In addition, adultery is practiced even by the great king David, as in the second book of Samuel. Like Noah, who got drunk and let it all hang out, we also find David exposing himself in front of a crowd. And, at Number 25:1-5, the Israelites even participate in an orgy.

Furthermore, although apologists have attempted to explain away its eroticism as having something to do with "the Church" and its "bridegroom," the Song of Solomon is indeed a sexual poem, with references to female genitalia, including as a "pomegranate":

Solomon himself impersonated the phallic god Baal-Rimmon, "Lord of the Pomegranate," when he was united with his divine bride, the mysterious Shulamite, and drank the juice of her pomegranate.4

Of the Song of Solomon, Walker further remarks:

We now understand that the whole poem is a work of sexual mysticism, modeled on traditional Sumero-Babylonian wedding songs that combined the erotic with metaphors of vegetable fertility-for this was the ultimate aim of the king's marriage to the priestess-queen who represented the earth and its fruit. The Song of Solomon was retained in the biblical canon only by a convoluted exegesis claiming that its lascivious double entendres represented the love of Christ for his church.... In the Song of Solomon it is no patriarchal deity that makes the decision to open the enclosure, but the priestess-queen herself who says, "Let my beloved come into his garden,