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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 13, 2023

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I alluded to all of your Hebrew Bible references when I said:

There are certainly Old Testament references forbidding the use of castrated animals in sacrifices, preventing castrated sons of Aaron from serving as priests, and castrated Jews from entering the temple

but while all of those frame castration as ritually unclean, none of that outright comes out and says that castration is forbidden. I understand that Jewish commentary and oral tradition have interpreted these as a prohibition on castration, but none of that matters in a Christian context, which is where /u/sliders1234 was coming from. Castration also doesn't feature in the 7 Noahide Laws, as far as I can tell, Jewish law has nothing at all to say about Gentiles castrating other Gentiles.

none of that outright comes out and says that castration is forbidden

Well, the way Jewish religious law works, a lot of things are derived and not spelled out specifically and explicitly, that's just how the system works. Of course, for non-Jew there are much smaller number of requirements (and they probably care much less about what Jewish law says about them anyway). There's also a significant disagreement about this question in the Talmud: https://shulchanaruchharav.com/halacha/castration-sterilization-to-humans-and-animals/ and the resolution for non-Jews seems to be along the lines of "unclear, but better to think it's prohibited just in case" (which is a common case in Jewish law in general to go this way if there's a possibility something might be prohibited but no clear resolution either way). For Jews, of course, it's a strong definite "no". Would be interesting to see what Christian religious law says about it, but I have to idea even where to look. But I imagine they didn't stop at the literal text of the Bible either and have their own thoughts on the matter.

Well, the way Jewish religious law works, a lot of things are derived and not spelled out specifically and explicitly, that's just how the system works.

Yes, we all know how the system works - first profess to follow absurd and nonsensical law, and then find a smart reason why the law does not mean what it says. This is the reason why God gave Jews their stratospheric IQ.

There's also a significant disagreement about this question in the Talmud: https://shulchanaruchharav.com/halacha/castration-sterilization-to-humans-and-animals/ and the resolution for non-Jews seems to be along the lines of "unclear, but better to think it's prohibited just in case" (which is a common case in Jewish law in general to go this way if there's a possibility something might be prohibited but no clear resolution either way). For Jews, of course, it's a strong definite "no".

So, oxen are not kosher and Jewish peasants in old times before tractors were supposed to use bulls to plough their fields? As everyone with experience with cattle will tell you, castration of animals was invented for very good reason.

It seems to be just another impractical and unworkable law written by priests who had no idea about agriculture, law designed to be avoided by some clever roundabouts.

(Ouch! I let my gentile neighbor to borrow my pair of bulls, and he returned them without balls! What can I do? Let him borrow more bulls!)

See for example this. Jews are supposed to leave all land fallow every seventh year and live of locusts (Yes I know the lore - in bygone times when Jews were truely pious and observant, the sixth year harvest was double that usual, wouldn't rot or spoil and rats or mice wouldn't touch it). Nevertheless, Jews in Israel today find a way to get around this commandment.