Understanding the place of blood in Judaism is key to understanding Judaism itself. Judaism considers blood to represent life and values human blood, and hence human life, above all other things, where any one person’s blood is not more or less valuable than any other’s.
Blood Features Prominently in the Hebrew Scriptures and Commentary
Many Jewish Biblical (and other) texts refer to blood in ways that help us to understand the meaning of blood in Jewish tradition and law. Texts refer variously to the blood of living creatures and to the blood of humans. The Babylonian Talmud (a central text of Rabbinic Judaism) notes that the descendants of Noah were commanded to observe seven precepts, two of which prohibited (i) the shedding of human blood and (ii) eating the blood of a living animal.[1]
Turning to the Hebrew Bible itself, Genesis 9:6 says that anyone who sheds human blood will suffer their own blood being shed, on account of humankind having been made in the image of G‑d.[2] And in Leviticus 19:26, the Israelites are forbidden to eat “anything with its blood [intact].”[3]
Blood also figures into rituals and events wherein G‑d is honored, feared, or otherwise recognized. Before the last plague of the Exodus (the smiting of Egypt’s firstborn), the Israelites are commanded to honor G‑d by applying the blood of a lamb offering to their doorposts so that G‑d would “pass over” their houses and not destroy them (Exodus 12:21-23). In making G‑d’s Covenant with the Israelites at Mount Sinai, Moses takes the blood of a bull offering and dashes it upon the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that G‑d now makes with you concerning all these commands” (Exodus 24:5-8). Finally, in the ritual of making a sin offering to G‑d in the Temple, the High Priest is commanded to sprinkle the blood of the bull and goat offerings over the cover of the Holy Ark (Leviticus 16:14-18) to motivate a return to G‑d.
Untangling the Meaning of Blood in Judaism
The significance of blood can be understood in three ways. First, blood is deemed equivalent to life itself. The Israelites believed that the blood of any creature is its life and its spirit, and that life is a gift from G‑d. Secondly, they believed that the blood of humans is exceptional because human lives and souls are exceptional. Human life is sacred in ways that animal life is not. Finally, blood can be seen as an indicator of inheritance and lineage. While Judaism recognizes this third notion, it doesn’t count for much in Jewish moral and ethical tradition. Thus, Judaism elevates the first two and ignores the third, making lineage about something other than blood.
Judaism eschews the recognition of bloodlines as worthy of recognition and value. Jewish teachings reject the idea that lineage or bloodline can confer status within the Jewish community. Spiritual and moral qualities, as well as commitment to the community, are valued more than ancestry.
We see the first principle in the laws concerning the consumption of blood and in the offering of blood to G‑d in worship. The commandment not to consume blood and the ancient practice of spilling animal blood as a ritual offering to G‑d both recognize and respect G‑d as the source of life itself. Humans are permitted to shed the blood of an animal and eat the flesh of that animal to survive, but they must return the life itself to the one who gave it. A hunter was commanded to drain the blood of an animal into the earth before consuming it. The priests of the Temple spilled the blood of a bull or goat offering onto the altar, thereby bringing themselves and the congregation closer to G‑d by acknowledging him as the source of life and sustenance. Even today, Kosher meat must be drained of its blood before it can be sold.
Human blood is another matter entirely. While killing (Hebrew: hereg [הֶרֶג]) is sanctioned in self-defense, shedding human blood for any other reason is forbidden. The commandment instructs that a person who commits murder (Hebrew: retzach [רֶצַח]) forfeits his own blood in so doing. Human sacrifice was thus absolutely forbidden to the Israelites (in stark contrast to the common practices of other peoples around them in those ancient times[4]). This prohibition is illustrated in the story from Genesis 22, The Binding of Isaac (Hebrew: ha‘akedah [הָעֲקֵידָה]).
In this narrative, Abraham is commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac as the ultimate test of faith precisely because it is antithetical to all of Judaism. G‑d rescinds the command at the last possible moment, emphasizing the sanctity of human life. Commandments regarding abstaining from consuming the blood of animals and the prohibition on the shedding of human blood are, in Jewish tradition, incumbent upon all humanity. These commandments are understood both as Levitical commandments (part of the Covenant of Mount Sinai with the Israelites) and as Noahide commandments (imposed upon Noah and all those who survived the Flood).
As noted above, Judaism eschews the recognition of bloodlines as worthy of recognition and value. Jewish teachings reject the idea that lineage or bloodline can confer status within the Jewish community. Spiritual and moral qualities, as well as commitment to the community, are valued more than ancestry. In a mystical example, the Talmud teaches that the souls of all Jews, whether born Jewish or converted, stood together at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, symbolizing the equal spiritual status of all Jews. In the Hebrew Bible, those who accept the Covenant are part of the people, and those who reject it are cut off from the people.
The object lesson in this regard is contained in the Book of Ruth. There, we read about Elimelech, an Israelite man who moves with his wife Naomi and two sons to Moab. One of the sons, Mahlon, takes a Moabite wife, Ruth. Tragically, Naomi’s husband and sons die, and she decides to return to her people in Bethlehem. She urges her widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth, to return to her Moabite family. Ruth famously refuses, saying, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your G‑d my G‑d” (Ruth 1:16).
The moral point of this story is that Ruth is a Moabite woman who accepts the Covenant and is the first Biblical convert of conscience. Ruth goes on to marry and have a child with Boaz, a relative of Naomi. Their son, Obed, is the father of Jesse and the grandfather of King David. The Biblical lesson here is that lineage by choice trumps lineage by birth and teaches the people never to scorn a convert. Israel’s greatest king is the great-grandson of the convert Ruth. And if that were not enough, prophetic texts claim that Israel’s Messiah (Hebrew: mashiach [מָשִׁיחַ]) will be a descendant of David, and hence a descendant of a convert.
The “Lineage of the Covenant” figures prominently in Judaism to this day, wherein every convert is given a Hebrew name that includes “son of Abraham and Sarah” (Hebrew: ben Avraham ve’Sarah [אַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה בֵּן]) or “daughter of Abraham and Sarah” (Hebrew: bat Avraham ve’Sarah [אַבְרָהָם וְשָׂרָה בַּת]). Accordingly, if two people named Jonathan and Susan convert, they might be given the names Yonatan ben Avraham ve’Sarah and Shoshanah bat Avraham ve’Sarah. It is by the Covenant that they acquire lineage.
The Elevation of “Lineage of Conscience” Over “Lineage of Blood”
It is by virtue of not having blood as the determinant of lineage that Judaism can reject the characterization of any one person’s or family’s blood (or lineage) as being superior or inferior to anyone else’s. And it is a consequence of this that the guiding principle of Judaism is the equality of all humans under the law. And so, it is not an accident that lineage in Judaism is founded on the adoption of the Word and texts of the Covenant – a lineage of conscience and justice rather than one of blood.
The idea that Jews are bound by conscience rather than bloodlines is not understood by many and leads to common and unfortunate misunderstandings of “chosenness” when Jews are referred to as “The chosen people.” Contrary to what many outsiders presume, being “chosen” is not indicative of superiority or “pure bloodlines” or any of the tribal and familial notions ascribed to it. Instead, being “chosen” (“you chose us out of all the peoples” [Hebrew: bachartanu mikol ha’amim בְחַרְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים]) is for the expressed purpose of preserving and transmitting the language of the texts (“you raised us up out of all the languages” [Hebrew: veromamtanu mikol haleshonot וְרומַמְתָּנוּ מִכָּל הַלְּשׁונות]). Being chosen is a burden and a responsibility to the entire world, to be the guardians of G‑d’s Covenant, and to the keepers of conscience.
The importance of the Word and texts of the Covenant, and of the conscience that arises out of them, is apparent in the transition from Temple Judaism, which featured blood offerings to G‑d as managed by the Temple priests, to congregational Judaism, which features the offering of prayer. This is prefigured during the First Temple Period when the Prophet Hosea suggested that those who had sinned might replace the sacrificial payment of bulls with words and prayers (Hosea 14:3).[5]
Following the Babylonian Exile and the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the use of prayer offerings in the place of blood became more central, allowing each person (through the words of prayer) to make their own offering (korban [קָּרְבָּן]) without ritual use of blood and the intercession of priests [n.b., with the destruction of the Second Temple, prayer came to formally and completely replace Temple sacrifice]. This tradition of prayer offerings, in place of blood offerings, continues to this day and is incorporated into the Abrahamic faiths.
The Civilizational Struggle between “Moral Conscience” and “Bloodlines”
The Jewish perspective on lineage and its eschewing of “bloodline” lineage stands in stark contrast to racialized rhetoric and commonly held folk beliefs about pure blood, blood defilement, and any version of tribal and ethnic blood (such as Aryan blood). The laws of the Covenant apply to everyone equally. No one is “above the law.” No one is born into a class, a caste, a race, or a tribe such that they should be treated better or worse than others.
The lineage of moral conscience and the sanctity of all human blood, equally, is what makes Judaism so dangerous and threatening to those who would foment racial and tribal division. Adolf Hitler, perhaps the most notorious racist of the last century, knew this about the Jews and understood the Jews better, perhaps, than they understood themselves. Hermann Rauschning, who had personal conversations with Hitler, described the German Fuhrer as having said that “Conscience is a Jewish invention. It is a blemish, like circumcision.”[6] Hitler understood the strength and power of conscience and the Jewish Covenant and knew the danger that it presented to his plan for the world, saying that:
“Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or the Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning, and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it.”[7]
Hitler believed that he was “freeing men from… the dirty and degrading modification of a chimera called conscience and morality.”[8]
Looking about us today, although Hitler is dead and his Reich is vanquished, we know that the amoral stance of blood loyalty and tribal racism still afflicts our societies and our world. It is the lineage of moral conscience that stands in opposition, as a foil to it. Understanding the enduring importance of human equality through the medium of conscience is and will continue to be our defense.
Endnotes:
[1] “The descendants of Noah were commanded with seven precepts: to establish laws, (and the prohibitions of) blasphemy, idolatry, adultery, bloodshed, theft, and eating the blood of a living animal.” – Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 56a.
[2] “Whoever sheds human blood, by human [hands] shall that one’s blood be shed; For in the image of G‑d was humankind made.” (שֹׁפֵךְ֙ דַּ֣ם הָֽאָדָ֔ם בָּֽאָדָ֖ם דָּמ֣וֹ יִשָּׁפֵ֑ךְ כִּ֚י בְּצֶ֣לֶם אֱלֹהִ֔ים עָשָׂ֖ה אֶת־הָאָדָֽם׃) – Genesis 9:6
[3] “You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice divination or soothsaying.”
(לֹ֥א תֹאכְל֖וּ עַל־הַדָּ֑ם לֹ֥א תְנַחֲשׁ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א תְעוֹנֵֽנוּ׃) – Leviticus 19:26
[4] Jason Tatlock. Child Sacrifice in the Ancient Near and Middle East. Last modified 2023.
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199791231/obo-9780199791231-0272.xml
[5] “instead of bulls we will pay [the offering of] our lips.” (uneshalmah farim, sefataynu [וּנְשַׁלְּמָה פָרִים, שְׂפָתֵינוּ]) – Hosea 14:3.
[6] Rauschning, Hermann. 1939. Hitler speaks. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode. [p. 220]
[7] Wistrich, Robert S. 1985. Hitler’s apocalypse: Jews and the Nazi legacy. New York: St. Martin’s Press. [p. 144]
[8] Waite, Robert G. L. 1971. Adolf Hitler’s guilt feelings: A problem in history and psychology. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 1(2): 229-249.
