Torah Study Blog

According to a 2016 article in The Atlantic magazine, in 1936 6% of the American population had one or more tattoos, and by 2012 that number had increased to 21%. Empirical evidence may lead us to believe that that number has increased during the last four years. Rabbi Roberts led us in an exploration of biblical and rabbinic writings about Jews and tattoos, and what that means for Jews who have been told they cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery if they are tattooed.

Leviticus 19:28 states, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” Although this is read as one sentence, keep in mind that punctuation was added later and there is no reason to think that these are two prohibitions are co- dependent. They can just as easily be two unattached prohibitions. 1)You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, and 2) you shall not incise any marks on yourself.

Let’s consider the first prohibition that you shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead. Psychologists believe that “cutting” can be used as a form of mourning. Your loss makes you feel psychologically not whole, so the gashing shows the outside world that you are not whole. Another school of thought is that people feel sorrow pent up inside themselves and the “cutting” will help to let the sorrow out.

However, today we focused our discussion on tattooing, not gashing due to sorrow, so we focused on the second prohibition against incising any marks. Rabbi Roberts interprets the Hebrew word translated as “incise” as “write.” Our scholar-in-residence, Dr. David Sperling, has found nothing conclusive to elucidate the original meaning of the word.

Archaeologists have unearthed tattooing tools in China from at least 10,000 BCE, and evidence of Egyptian tattooing from as long ago as 2000 BCE. The art of tattooing was certainly known to the Israelites. Additionally, whenever there is a prohibition in the Bible, we know that people were

doing it. In this case, the writers felt the need to clarify that Jews should not tattoo – specifically because it was being done!

It is also worth noting that the word “ink” appears elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Tattooing requires the use of inks, so the writers could have clarified that ink should not be put into the incisions – but the writers did not do that.

A passage from Mishnah Makkot states that people can write on their skin without incising and that is okay. Or incise their skin without adding ink, and that is okay. But if anyone inks the name of another god on their skin, they should be flogged. Good to know!

The Shulcan Aruch, which was written much later than the Mishnah, is clear that writing on the skin and inking it is prohibited. One Egyptian practice in ancient times was the tattooing of slaves, so that they could be identified as their owner’s property. The Shulcan Aruch goes on to say that it is acceptable to tattoo a slave.

Maybe the ancient rabbis knew about the practice of tattooing slaves and did not want the Israelites to be associated with that. Isaiah 44:5 says, when describing the utopian life for the Israelites that will come, that an Israelite will “mark his arm ‘of the Lord’” meaning that he is no longer a slave and now he belongs to God. Clearly, Isaiah was accepting of tattoos.

The Shulcan Aruch says nothing about tattooing images on the skin. Some people have stated that your body is borrowed from God and it is not yours to mar, and that is why tattooing is prohibited. However, what about the very common practice of ear-piercing? Or how about circumcision, which is not only allowed, it is commanded!

In sum, we don’t really know why there is a concept in modern Jewry that people should not tattoo themselves. In fact, there is no prohibition in the Torah regarding tattooing, and it is a myth that a Jew cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery if they are tattooed (unless a section of the cemetery is owned by a group that particularly forbids it – but that is a rule of the group, not of the Torah).

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misquotes or misunderstandings in what Rabbi Roberts taught us are the responsibility of Tara Keiter