We are not entitled to harm our bodies by our physical actions...

Is My Body Mine?

By Tali Loewenthal

The idea that "my body belongs to me" has been an important factor in making modern life more secular and libertine. "My body belongs to me," some people say, "and therefore I can do what I like with it, as long as I do not harm other people." It sounds logical enough. We live with our bodies all the time. We can understand that there should be rules about what we do to other people. But my body is "me", so why should anyone else care? Why should the Torah care? Why should the Torah give rules for how I treat my own body?

In fact, many of the rules and teachings of the Torah are precisely about our own bodies. The laws of kosher concern what kind of food we feed to our bodies. There are special blessings to be said before and after eating. There are laws and ideals of modesty and of personal morality. There are laws against physically damaging our bodies. There is even a law against tattooing.

Now, we understand that G‑d is the Master of the whole universe and therefore He is able to give us rules through His Torah which affect every detail of our lives. G‑d created the world, and our bodies are part of the world, and therefore it makes good sense that there are Torah teachings and rules about what we do or do not do with our physical bodies. However, there is a further step.

The Torah perspective is that our body in fact does not belong to us, it is totally Divine property. In this it is different from the possessions that we own, our money, computer, house, car. It is true that in general terms "the whole world belongs to G‑d"1 but nonetheless, G‑d has given us material possessions which we actually possess, although of course we have to use them in the right way, as guided by the Torah. By contrast, our physical bodies do not actually belong to us. The Sages tell us they are lent to us by G‑d, and they retain their spiritual quality all the time. This is brought out by a comment on a law in the Parshah (Torah section) read in the synagogue this Shabbat-- the parshah of Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9)

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