Avoda Zara 22a – No, We Don’t Believe That Non-Jews Prefer Sex With Cows

Avoda Zara 22a – No, We Don’t Believe That Non-Jews Prefer Sex With Cows

The Quote

Gentiles “Goys” perfer sex with cows.

— Avoda Zara 22a-22b

The Reality

This quote does not represent what the page says.  In addition, the law cited here no longer applies, as explained below.

There is a commandment in Jewish law, from Leviticus 19:14 not to put a stumbling block before the blind.  This commandment is not meant just hyper-literally (i.e. that the only thing forbidden is putting a stumbling block in front of a blind person), but also includes anything where you might cause someone else to sin.  For example, if you give a Jew non-kosher food to eat and tell him it’s kosher, that’s a violation of this commandment.  

The Talmud here discusses whether or not a Jew can leave his animal for safekeeping with a non-Jew.  The Mishna there states that it is forbidden, because they might be suspected of engaging in acts of bestiality, which, under Jewish law, is forbidden to both Jews and non-Jews.   Thus, leaving an animal with a non-Jew may be creating a “stumbling block before the blind” situation.

But it should be noted that this only applies in times and places (as it did then), when bestiality was common, as it was at different times and places throughout history.  However, it no longer applies, nor has it for quite a while.

The Meiri (Rabbi Menachem ben Solomon, Catalonia, 1249-1315) wrote that this law does not apply in places where there are just laws and such acts are punished (as is the case across the world today).  He writes in his commentary on Avoda Zara 22a:

When Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575, Spain/Israel) compiled the Shulchan Aruch, the standard halachic text used today, these laws were not included.  Indeed, he has sections regarding laws governing renting animals to non-Jews (such as whether or not they are permitted to be worked on the Sabbath and so on), clearly indicating that such concerns were no longer prevalent in his time, as they are today.

The Talmud discusses the situation as it existed in those times and places.  It does not reflect the current reality, which has not existed for quite a long time.  

Summary:

This quote describes a prohibition against leaving one’s animal with a non-Jew in a time and place where bestiality was common and not punished.  The Meiri, a thirteenth-century sage, has ruled that it does not apply in times when such acts are viewed as aberrant and are punished by society, which is the case worldwide today.