While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them. The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor."According to Rabbinic tradition (Sifrei as explained by also by Rashi) the way that the Israelites and the Moabite women worshiped this God was that they defecated in front of his idol. The hebrew the word pa'ar means gap or gaping hole. Using this as their inspiration, the Rabbi's developed a mythology that said that the Moabite's diety (Baal Peor) was named such because the Israelites used would open up (פוערין לפניו פי הטבעת) their anus and defecate before him.
At first glance it look like the Rabbis were simply trying to paint the Moabite women in a very disgusting light by describing this ritual. However, I wonder if there is something more to this.
I've always been stuck by Dane Cook's sketch called "Someone Shit on the Coats." The plot of this sketch is simple. Cook advises his audience that the next time they go to a party, they should walk into the room with all the coats and defecate on the coats. Then later, when some comes out and exclaims "Someone shit on the coats" you'll sit back and laugh to yourself.
As I explain it now, I can see how disgusting, immature, and borderline insane this sketch is. Nevertheless, listen to the audience. People LOVE it. It's one of Cook's most popular sketches (check out the number of hits this one video got, and it's not the only artistic representation of the sketch on You Tube). For this reason, I would argue that there must be something more to the Rabbi's description of Baal Peor worship.
There is nothing more id than thinking that you might be the one to defecate on the coats, just as there is nothing more id than thinking that you have the freedom to worship a God by defecating in front of his idol. I wonder if in the end, the Rabbis chose this act of worship to explain why so many of the Israelites might have been led to apostasy by the Moabite women. When faced with the choice between a God who has rules (like Shabbat and Kashrut) and a God who allows such freedom that one's wildest depravity is their means of worship, it is easy to see why one would choose the later God. Perhaps, the Rabbis chose the most extreme id-influenced behavior, defecation, to remind their readers that freedom and debauchery, while sexy, are not the be all and end all of living.
More to come on Baal Peor (we revisit him on 64a).
Marc: This is gross. but not quite as gross as mocking idols and "likening them to one who is unable to control the movement of his bowels, as it is written, Bael squats, Nevo splashes... together they splash and squat, they could not deliver the burden (as they squat to defecate, the feces come splashing out uncontrollably)" (63b2 footnote 23).
ReplyDeleteew. yuck. gross.