The Land of Truth by Jeffrey L. Rubenstein

Author:Jeffrey L. Rubenstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL064000 Religion / Judaism / Talmud, REL040040 Religion / Judaism / Sacred Writings, HIS022000 History / Jewish
Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society

Law, Ethics, and Disgust

Disgust has gained recognition as a factor in contemporary law and engendered a copious amount of legal literature debating the parameters of its legitimate function. Some state jurisdictions, for example, accept claims based on disgust as considerations either for stringency or leniency in murder cases. A killer who professes that he was moved to act out of disgust at the victim may receive a lesser penalty. For example, in 1988 a Texas judge accepted a murderer’s plea that he had killed two men due to his revulsion at their homosexuality and sentenced him not to life imprisonment but according to the guidelines for voluntary manslaughter.12 On the other hand, some state laws impose harsher penalties on the perpetrator of a murder that is “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman,” that is, that we find particularly disgusting. Thus a murderer who kills by dismembering the body with an electric saw and not with a “conventional” shotgun may receive the death penalty rather than life imprisonment.13

Jewish law recognizes disgust as a factor in a number of legal realms. The Mishnah rules that women are entitled to receive a divorce from husbands afflicted with boils or with an oral lesion causing bad breath, and also from those who work as tanners, gatherers of excrement, and copper refiners (Mishnah Ketubot 7:10). Tanners used excrement and other such substances in the process of treating leather and, like copper miners, exuded foul odors. If these conditions and professions are sufficiently disgusting to the women that they cannot tolerate their husbands’ presence (or perhaps cannot tolerate engaging in sexual relations with them), they therefore have a right to a divorce.

Sabbath law, too, includes a category of things “set aside on account of disgustingness [muqtzeh maḥamat mi’us],” which generally may not be touched or moved, including vomit and animal and human excrement. This touching does not violate any prohibition, as no work is done, but it is said to detract from the holiness of the day. The precept recognizes the general incompatibility of sanctity—in this case the holiness of Sabbath time—with items that elicit disgust. Similarly, Jewish law prohibits prayer and Torah study if feces and urine are nearby and can be seen or smelled.

Disgust in the story of Pelimo presents a challenge to overcome. And yet the emotion can also function constructively in helping us to lead lives of piety. This positive use of disgust results from our ability to feel revulsion not only through direct sensory experience but by imagining disgusting substances, recalling revolting smells, and other cognitive processes. Thus the Mishnah advises, “Be very, very humble, for the end of humans is worms,” that is, the worms that will infest our bodies after our death (Mishnah Avot 4:4). By picturing a rotting human corpse infested by worms, an image typically eliciting disgust, and then understanding that no human can avoid this fate, that even the most beautiful, powerful, and rich ultimately wind up as a disgusting mass of decaying flesh, we appreciate the lowly stature of all human beings, especially ourselves.

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