Avodah Zara 22: Gentiles, Animals, Fields, Widows, Bestiality and Seclusion

Today's daf ends Perek I and begin Perek II.  We have been discussing ways in which Jews separate ourselves from Gentiles regarding idol worship and business relationships.  Today the rabbis begin to advise us about personal relationships with Gentiles.  

It is helpful to have read Steinsaltz's notes about these teachings.  He suggests that these  recommendations to distance ourselves from Gentiles have been in fact debated by many rabbis since the canonization of the Talmud.  When these most ancient laws were discussed, it is understood that people without Judaism were often without the rule of law.  Jews were fearful for their lives.

First, the rabbis teach us about owning land in partnership with a Gentile.  Clearly this was practiced, and it was expected that both parties would contract to share their earnings without sharing the earnings of a Gentile who works the land on Shabbat.  As an aside, this particular argument is interesting to me because I had assumed that there was an environmental or biologically based need for the land to rest.  Animals and people, for example, work better when we have time to rest over the course of a week.

Our new Mishna teaches that we are not to keep our animals in Gentiles' inns because we suspect Gentiles of bestiality. This would be like putting a stumbling block before the blind (Leviticus 19:14).  A woman may not seclude herself with a Gentile because Gentiles are suspected of immoral sexual behaviour.  Finally, no Jew should seclude him/herself with a Gentile for Gentiles are suspected of bloodshed.

The Gemara tackles these points one at a time.  First, we learn more about the rabbis concerns about Gentiles and bestiality.  The rabbis can site verses that suggest that Gentiles regularly sodomize their animals and other verses that teach us that Gentiles would not defile their animals.  It seems that an underlying tension is the need for Jews to do business with Gentile partners.  

Our daf concludes with examples of restrictions that face Gentiles and Jews; Jews and animals.  Jewish women are said to be more appealing to Gentiles than their own wives.  The rabbis speak of Eve's contamination by the snake.  Further, Jewish widow were not to house Talmud students for they would know the students' discretion would allow them to have illicit relations with these tenants.  Even worse, Jewish widows were not to own dogs, for they would be suspected of bestiality.

Widows were in a bind.  They would have more difficulty than others with gaining a much needed income through being landlords.  Further, they would be less safe and more lonely than others because they would not be permitted to have dogs.  The rabbis thought very optimistically about the sexual appetites of older women.