A Strong Taboo (Aharey Mot 5767)

One of the strongest taboos still in operation in most societies is expressed in the revulsion that most people feel for incest. Apart from the obvious possible abuse that it may entail, most even non-religious people will support retaining its criminal status on the grounds that even consensual incestuous relations may lead to deformities. The Torah strictly prohibits an entire list of consanguineous relationships, as detailed in this week’s readings. Of particular interest is the Torah’s attitude to brother-sister incest:

If a man should take his sister - his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is chessed. They shall be cut off before the eyes of the children of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister - he shall bear his sin. (VaYikra 20:17)

These verses speak in euphemisms, but the perplexing part is the use of the word ‘chessed’, which normally refers to kind, altruistic acts, to a heinous crime. There are various classic attempts to resolve this difficulty. Rashi claims:

It is chessed - In Aramaic – disgusting. (Rashi ad. loc.)

This involves a certain degree of textual manipulation and is not the only solution. Noting the tradition that Cain and Abel were born with twin sisters (if not who did they marry?), the Midrash states:

Said Rebbi Shimon to him - does it not say, ‘If a man should take his sister - his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness?’ Rather by investigation, one can derive that they did not have other women to marry, so they were permitted to them, as the verse says, ‘the world is built on chessed’. The world was built on chessed until the Torah was given. Rebbi Yosef said - Kayin and Hevel had twin sisters as the verse says, ‘And she conceived and bore Kayin.’ (Pirkey D’Rebbi Eli’ezer 21)

This is based on the verse in Psalms that the ‘world is built on chessed’ (89:3), the simple meaning of which is that the world is built on acts of kindness. It is reinterpreted by this Midrash to mean that the world was founded on the incestuous relationship between Cain and his sister! This is reflected in the Aramaic translation of our verse:

If a man should take his sister - his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness - it is disgusting. For He acted kindly with the early generations in order to populate the world from them when there was no future for the world.... (Targum Yonatan ben Uziel ad. loc.)

A remaining question is obvious. What changed? Why did God wish to found the world on this type of relationship, which later became forbidden in the strongest of terms? After all, He could have created a number of families, which would have avoided the need for incest. The Ishbitzer Rebbe (1800-1854, Poland) offers a unique perspective:

This subject indicates to us that one should not say that since God loves me at my core I can do whatever I like. Rather, this love is similar to the love of siblings which is rooted in love which comes with no effort. For God wants Man, through his efforts and actions that God should love him. But should one say - but the beginning of creation was not through the actions of Man or impulse from him… For God wanted in His kindness without the input of Man as it was at the creation of the world. But after the creation of the world, God wanted that Yisrael should be chosen, but only through work and clarification.... Therefore it writes, ‘it is chessed. They shall be cut off before the eyes of the children of their people’ for if one does not make an effort with his actions and his Mitzvah activities, then God will remove His love from him and show before all that he is distanced from God. (May HaShiloach 2, ad. loc.)

This text is difficult, but in essence tells us that the brother-sister relationship is ‘too easy’. It’s not simply because there are no in-laws! No effort is required to form the relationship: godliness is brought into the world through the struggle and dynamic of relationship. In short, such a relationship strips away the purpose of existence. In the early stage of the world, humanity needed this ease to ‘get things going’, but once it matured, it became an anathema to the very purpose set by God for the world.