# question about jews **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 1, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596 "2003-04-01T01:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/1 "2003-04-01T01:00:30Z")
Why are tattoos forbidden? Is this the same kind of stuff that makes the orthodox break up the blood stained asphalt of a street after one of their own is run over so the person is ensured to have all their pieces when they enter the afterlife? ---
**Author:** ![Fang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fang)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/2 "2003-04-01T01:11:19Z")
I don’t know about the second custom. The ban on tattoos arises from the idea that we are made in God’s image, and to deface one’s body is to, by extension, deface God. Also, since you did not create your body, rather it is a gift from God, you have no right to permanently alter it. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/3 "2003-04-01T01:11:46Z")
I believe tattoos are forbidden because it involves piercing the skin, and this can threaten the health. Anything that put the health at risk for the sake of fashion is not allowed. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/4 "2003-04-01T01:12:29Z")
_You shall not scrape your flesh for a (dead) soul, and tattoos do not put upon you, I am the Lord_. — Leviticus 19:28 ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/5 "2003-04-01T01:17:22Z")
Hmm, three slightly differing answers… I’ve probably got my facts mixed up on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/6 "2003-04-01T01:50:55Z")
“scrape your flesh for a soul”?? Does this mean don’t gouge your skin with your fingernails as a sign of grief? If not, I have no idea what it might mean. ---
**Author:** ![samarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@samarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samarm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/7 "2003-04-01T01:58:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > **…soul, and tattoos do not put upon you…** I think this is the part Walloon was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![teleute12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@teleute12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teleute12)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/8 "2003-04-01T03:54:50Z")
I think I heard somewhere (probably in my comparitive mythologies class last semester) that tattooing, and scraping one’s flesh for a soul, were common practices of other religions of the area at the time? I don’t know for sure, though, and I don’t have any cite. ---
**Author:** ![GilaB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8e7dd6/32.png) [@GilaB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GilaB)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/9 "2003-04-01T05:19:45Z")
Not tattooing is straight out of Leviticus, as **walloon** cited above. I’m always leery of putting reasons on commandments, but what **Fang** and **samarm** said are both reasons given in the rabbinic literature. The _chevra kadisha_, the guys you see in the news collecting every last bit of flesh and blood after a bombing in Israel, aren’t doing anything having to do with the afterlife. (I think preserving all of the parts of the body so that it passes whole into the afterlife is more of an Eastern thing.) It has to do with an intense respect for the bodies of the dead, which is also the reason for other practices such as no autopsies, burial ASAP (within 24 hours), making sure that someone is always with the body before burial (after Sept. 11, there were round-the-clock watches at ground zero and by the mortuary trucks, with people taking shifts to stay with the dead), and no cremation. There’s more, but that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. “Scrape your flesh for a soul”, IIRC, refers to the practice of cutting oneself as a sign of mourning, which was a common practice in the region at the time. ---
**Author:** ![CelraySoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CelraySoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelraySoda)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/10 "2003-04-01T05:31:52Z")
I beleive all the above are correct, but in a book listing the 613 Mitzvot or laws. It says; 1. Not to cut oneself or make incisions in one’s flesh in grief, like the idolaters (Lev 19:28). 2. Not to tattoo the body like the idolaters (Lev 19:28). The Idolaters are the Pagans, they also shaved their beards and ate pork and drank blood (I.e. improperly killed / uncooked food). That was the way we would separate ourselves from them. Beard shaving, casting spells, snake charming, burning people, worhipping trees and idols and the proper wearing of clothes among other things is in there, too. -M ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/11 "2003-04-01T08:17:03Z")
The copper age Ice Man known as Otzi from the Italian Alps, although not very close to ancient Israel, had tattoos 5,300 years ago, as did some Egyptian mummies… so this was a very ancient and widespread practice which the ancieant Hebrewswould have been familiar with. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/12 "2003-04-01T10:42:55Z")
In my student days we had an “Ask the Jew” day at the local synagogue, and this question was asked. His response was that tattooing is forbidden since it resembles the markings Nazis put on concentration camp victims. It didn’t make sense to me either. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/13 "2003-04-01T12:27:36Z")
> [@](#): > > In my student days we had an “Ask the Jew” day at the local synagogue, and this question was asked. His response was that tattooing is forbidden since it resembles the markings Nazis put on concentration camp victims. I get it. The Nazi’s forced people to have number tatoos quite often. That’s very disturbing to some people. Bad memories, I guess. > [@](#): > > You shall not scrape your flesh for a (dead) soul Wow, God anticipated the Darwin Awards! I can just see it now: Honorable Mention Bob liked his beer and he liked his God. Sadly, he indulged too much of the former and decided that tonight was a good night to meet the latter. Trying to find out where his soul was, he proceded to carve out several organs. Sadly, Bob is not eligable for a Darwin, as he has already had two sons. Fortunately for the human race, however, both of them swore off alchohol. ---
**Author:** ![Scarf-Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Scarf-Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarf-Ace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/14 "2003-04-01T12:44:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Also, since you did not create your body, rather it is a gift from God, you have no right to permanently alter it. Does this mean Jewish transsexuals are denied the op? ---
**Author:** ![KellyM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/57b2e6/32.png) [@KellyM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KellyM)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/15 "2003-04-01T13:05:18Z")
**Meta-Gumble** : Strictly speaking, yes. Anyone who has been “emasculated by crushing or cutting” may not enter the kingdom of the Lord. This would include penile inversion, generally. Christ explicitly dismissed this doctrine, so it has no place in Christian teaching. ---
**Author:** ![RedNaxela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ad7895/32.png) [@RedNaxela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedNaxela)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/16 "2003-04-01T14:50:34Z")
**KellyM** , from a Jewish POV, that’s not exactly correct. The Bible does indeed refer to “the assembly of the L-rd” and prohibits various classes of people, including a man whose genitals are mutilated, from entering it (Deut. 23:2). Jewish tradition, though, understands “entering the assembly of the L-rd” to mean “marrying into the group of Jews who are all allowed to intermarry among themselves” - which includes anyone who was born to a Jewish mother and who is not a _mamzer_ (the product of an adulterous or incestuous union, or the descendant of such a person). Thus, such a person’s marital choices are restricted - he may marry a woman who converted to Judaism or a _mamzer_ - but otherwise he is a full-fledged member (sorry!) of the Jewish community. (I don’t know, though, what the Jewish legal status of a transsexual would be - i.e., whether Jewish law would consider them to be defined by their gender at birth or by their current state.) **Meta-Gumble** : According to Jewish law, it is indeed forbidden to damage a person’s or animal’s reproductive system, or to actively assist someone to do so; this prohibition is derived from Lev. 22:24. Incidentally, this raises an issue - I’m not really up on the details, though - for Orthodox Jewish pet owners who want to get their pets spayed or neutered. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/17 "2003-04-01T15:19:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samarm \* > \*\*Hmm, three slightly differing answers… I’ve probably got my facts mixed up on this one. \*\* Not necessarily. There is an old saying: “Two Jews, three opinions.” ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-jews/165596/18 "2003-04-01T15:34:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \* > **I get it. The Nazi’s forced people to have number tatoos quite often. That’s very disturbing to some people. Bad memories, I guess…** This logic makes no sense at all when the restriction of tattoos came from Leviticus (as cited previously in this thread). Now, if you were to ask why many Jews today will still not buy German cars and other products, well then you might be on to something! See the difference here? - Jinx