Jews and the Practice of Cannibalism in the Torah

As part of my ongoing series on the subject of morality and/or immorality in the Torah and its extension (of which it itself is part): the Tanakh. It is important to cover as many different angles and charges as possible to give us a complete - or at least as complete as may be possible - picture of the practices and ideas that are enunciated on the pages of the Torah and the Tanakh.

Accordingly we need to cover the disgusting and disreputable practice of cannibalism as unfortunately both the Torah and Tanakh contain a significant number of mentions of the practice, which we need to highlight and understand in order to judge the charge of whether the jews are a moral or an immoral people as a rule.

To begin with lets consider the (Written) Torah: the most holy work in Judaism being the principle foundation of that religion and also in many respects of the jewish people themselves.

So let us begin by noting the admonition in the book of Genesis on this general subject:

'Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning; of every beast will I require it and of man; of every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.' (1)

Now the above seems fairly straightforward in its commandment for jews not to eat fellow jews. Now note what I said: jews not to eat fellow jews. The point is very simple that this commandment is not sent for the world, but rather for the jews for it is to them that this prohibition is being delivered: it does not actually reference gentiles at all.

Further we should note the wording of the last part of the passage, which states the requirement that jews not consume blood of either animal or man as well as that no man may spill the blood of another man. This once again clearly must apply only to the jews as if this was not the case then: it begs the question as to why Yahweh would state this and then order the mass killings of gentiles that form a staple part of the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Even if this were not the case then we need but note that the prohibition is very specific in that it doesn't actually forbid cannibalism at all, but rather states that the jews have been gifted to eat 'every moving thing that lives' and that the spilling of the blood of men while they are alive is forbidden.

This interpretation is confirmed when we turn to the book of Leviticus, which informs us as follows:

'And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and chastise you myself sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols and my soul will abhor you.' (2)

Now in the above text it is evident that Yahweh is seeking to chastise the jews for breaking the terms of their covenant with him: specifically for the worship of other gods (contrary to the decalogue). For his chastisement Yahweh chooses to have the jews die in large numbers and then for the living jews to eat the flesh of those who have died in order to feed themselves.

This clearly is meant to be an allegory for famine where the jews cannot find food and die in large numbers until they start eat the bodies of those who have died. In doing so they do not break the commandment in the book of Genesis as they are not spilling the blood of those who are living, but rather can eat the bodies of the dead jews by (presumably) draining their blood in order to make them permissible.

A similar comment is made in the book of Deuteronomy when we are told:

'They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. And you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.' (3)

This passage then continues:

'The most tender and delicately bred woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will grudge to the husband of her bosom, to her son and to her daughter, her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because she will eat them secretly for want of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns.' (4)

Clearly both these passages are referring to Yahweh's vengeance upon the jews (5) and part of this vengeance is to lay the jews low by starvation. (6) In doing so Yahweh's plan is to force the jews into such a state that they resort to cannibalism. In doing so once again we find jews not breaking the commandment of Genesis in relation to the consumption of flesh in so far as with mass starvation and a siege there will be numerous dead before such time as people will consider eating the bodies of their comrades-in-arms.

Therefore it would - as before stated - be relatively easy to make the bodies permissible for consumption according to the commandment of Genesis precisely because they are dead and jews haven't spilled their blood while they were alive. Further we cannot discern how the mother of children described in the second passage is to kill her children that she might eat them secretly, but we have no reason to suppose that she would kill them in such as a way as to break the commandment of Genesis.

So summary then we can see that according to the Torah: the practice of cannibalism is quite acceptable as long as jews are not shedding the blood of jews while those jews are alive and - in order to follow the rule of Yahweh - the bodies of the dead can be easily made permissible by simply draining their blood. Further we have seen that Yahweh himself uses cannibalism as a way to punish the jews and more importantly: doesn't disapprove of the practice in spite of having a wide breadth to do so in the Torah.

References

(1) Gen. 9:3-6 (RSV)

(2) Lev. 26:27-30 (RSV)

(3) Deut. 28:52-53 (RSV)

(4) Ibid. 28:56-57

(5) See Ibid. 28:49-50 for confirmation.

(6) See Ibid. 28:51 for confirmation.