Fear Factor: Lesbian Sex and Gay Men
Fear Factor: Lesbian Sex and Gay Men
Parashat Emor (Leviticus 21:1–24:23)
This chapter discusses lesbian sex in the readings of Parashat Emor of Leviticus. The text state that a priest “shall not marry a woman defiled by harlotry, nor shall they marry one divorced from her husband for they are holy to God.” In the Talmud, there is a connection drawn between the word “harlotry” (liznot or zonah) and the term mesolelot, which in contemporary translations is also rendered as “sexual lewdness.” In a 12th-century commentary, mesolelot was defined as women rubbing their vaginas together. This lesbian sexuality is seen as a “minor infraction,” since such sexual act was foreign or inconsequential to the Biblical authors and that historically Jewish sexuality is a heterosexual man's world.
Keywords: lesbian sex, lesbian sexuality, harlotry, Parashat Emor, Leviticus
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
