Pedophilia

Question

Hi, I was just wondering if you might be able to tell me if there are any inaccuracies in the following quotation:

While many modern Jews hold more modern views, certain ancient Jewish rabbis apparently regarded sex with young boys as technically permissible:

Rav [Rab] [the Jewish scholar Abba Arikha (175–247 CE)?] says…if a child who is less than nine years old engages in homosexual intercourse passively, the one who engages in intercourse with him is not liable.

Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 54b, translated at Sefaria.org, http://www.sefaria.org

…Rab makes nine years the minimum; but if one committed sodomy with a child of lesser age, no guilt is incurred…

Footnotes in Soncino Babylonian Talmud, edited by Rabbi Ezekiel Isidore Epstein et al., Come and Hear™ hypertext version, Halakhah.com, http://halakhah.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_54.html

While some ancient Jewish leaders believed a man should not marry off his daughter as a child (Kiddushin 41a), others rabbis seem to have thought it is technically acceptable to have sex with a betrothed three-year-old girl:

The Sages taught in a baraita: A girl who is three years old is betrothed through intercourse…And the Rabbis say: She must be three years and one day old…Rav Ḥisda said…If the girl is less than that age of three years and one day, intercourse with her is like placing a finger into the eye…If she is less than that age, intercourse with her is nothing…[A certain woman said to Rabbi Akiva]…[“This matter] is comparable to a baby whose finger one forcibly dipped in honey. On the first time and the second time, he moans at his mother for doing so, but on the third occasion, once he is used to the taste of honey, he willingly sucks the finger dipped in honey. She was insinuating to Rabbi Akiva that she engaged in intercourse several times, and although the first couple of times were against her will, the third incident was with her consent.

Babylonian Talmud, Niddah 44b–45a, translated at Sefaria.org, http://www.sefaria.org

 

 

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Answers

  1. The sources that you cite have nothing whatsoever to do with pedophilia. Both pedophilia and homosexuality acts are completely and absolutely forbidden according to Jewish Law. The Talmud is simply ascertaining at what age the child has to be so that the perpetrator can be held legally accountable for their despicable actions.

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