Human relationships — Judaism

What the specification asks for

Paper 1, Section 2, 2.4 (Judaism). Assessed on AO1 (knowledge and understanding) and AO2 (analysis and evaluation), weighted equally. Incandio is aligned to this specification. It is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's indicative content — the point numbers are given so you can check every unit against your own copy.

1 · Understand it

Jewish law makes sexual attention a debt a husband owes his wife. It is listed alongside food and clothing and it is enforceable. Notice how far that is from the usual assumption about religious sexual ethics: the law's anxiety is not that sex might happen, but that it might be withheld.

What it means

Judaism treats sexuality as a good part of creation with a proper place, and has never treated it as a concession to weakness. The specification asks what it is for, how Jews differ about sex outside marriage and about homosexuality, and what non-religious attitudes are with a Jewish response.

Onah is the husband's obligation of sexual and emotional attention, which Jewish law treats as the wife's right. Kiddushin is betrothal or sanctification, and the root means to set apart as holy. Tzniut is modesty in dress and behaviour, applying to men and women, though the imbalance in practice is criticised from inside. Niddah is the body of law governing when a couple may have sexual relations.

On love, the teaching should be stated precisely. The Torah commands loving your neighbour as yourself, and rabbinic tradition treats it as the whole law with everything else as commentary. Ahavah in that verse is a commanded orientation rather than only a feeling.

The disagreement here is sharp and formally documented. Orthodox Judaism maintains the classical prohibitions while contemporary Orthodox writing increasingly distinguishes the prohibition on acts from the treatment of the person. Reform Judaism has ordained LGBT rabbis and conducted same-sex marriages since the 1990s. Conservative Judaism changed its position in 2006 through its own legal process, permitting same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination while retaining a halakhic framework.

Why believers hold it

The reasoning is that a religion holding the body good cannot treat sex as shameful, so its restrictions have to be about relationship rather than about the act. That is why Jewish law regulates timing, obligation and consent inside marriage rather than merely permitting sex there — and why onah exists at all.

It also explains what the modern disagreement is really about. It is not whether Judaism thinks bodies are bad; it is whether halakhah develops. Every argument in this unit reduces to that question, which makes the Jewish material unusually clear for evaluation.

The Conservative decision of 2006 is the strongest single piece of evidence available on either side, because it shows Jewish law changing through its own mechanism rather than being overridden. The Orthodox position is equally coherent and is not reducible to prejudice: it follows from a claim about the source of the law rather than from an attitude to people.

The secular position — that consent, honesty and absence of harm are sufficient — gets different answers from different movements. Reform Judaism largely agrees about orientation while keeping the language of sanctification; Orthodox Judaism accepts the concern for the person while denying that consent settles the question, on the grounds that relationships have consequences for children and community and that sanctifying an act is a further consideration beyond permitting it.

Where it comes from

• The Torah — Leviticus 19:18 (translated)

  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

  The command from which the surrounding chapter's social laws follow — fair wages, honest weights, care for the deaf and the blind, and the stranger.

  What it is doing here: Supplies the governing principle for relationships generally, which the rabbis treated as the summary of the whole law rather than one command among many.

• The Torah — Genesis 1:27 (translated)

  God created humankind in his own image.

  B'tzelem Elohim — every human bears the divine image, which grounds the infinite value of a human life and the equality of all people.

  What it is doing here: Grounds the dignity of the person that contemporary Orthodox pastoral writing appeals to and that Reform Judaism uses in its argument for change.

• The Torah — the Ten Commandments (Aseret ha-Dibrot) — Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (translated)

  Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

  The commandments given at Sinai, covering duty to God and duty to other people, and the basis of Shabbat observance.

  What it is doing here: Places sexual conduct inside the covenant's obligations rather than outside them, which is why the regulation is legal rather than merely advisory.

Where it bites

It shows in the marriage ceremony's blessings, which speak of joy and companionship rather than of duty alone; in the laws of niddah observed in Orthodox households; in Reform and Conservative synagogues conducting same-sex weddings; and in Orthodox organisations that have developed specifically to support gay Jews remaining inside observant communities. That last one is worth naming, because it shows a position holding the prohibition and rejecting exclusion at the same time.

For an answer, drawing on two movements is worth more than any amount of detail about one, since the specification asks for differing attitudes and the movements have taken formally opposed positions.

What people get wrong

People think: Judaism regards sex as sinful or as a concession to weakness.

Actually: The obligation of onah contradicts it directly: sexual attention is a debt the husband owes and the wife may enforce, listed alongside food and clothing. A tradition worried that sex might happen would not make its absence actionable.

People think: Christians believe divorce is always wrong.

Actually: That is the Catholic position; Orthodox Christianity permits divorce in limited circumstances and most Protestant churches permit divorce and remarriage. The same error is what produces 'Jews believe' about same-sex relationships, when the movements have taken formally opposed and documented positions.

People think: Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.

Actually: Judaism is a living religion with its own law and its own two-thousand-year interpretive tradition. It matters here because Jewish sexual ethics is legal rather than confessional — it regulates obligations between spouses — and assuming it matches Christian sexual ethics misdescribes both.

What the examiner expects you to understand

• Give attitudes from two movements, since the specification asks for differing attitudes and the positions are formally documented.
• Use onah as evidence that Judaism treats sexuality as a good to be sanctified rather than a danger to contain.
• Name the Conservative decision of 2006 as evidence that halakhah has a mechanism for change.
• Give the non-religious view as a principled position about consent and harm rather than as indifference.
• Separate sex outside marriage from same-sex relationships; they are argued on different grounds.

2 · Grade 9 Notes

Core belief / issue

Judaism treats sexuality as a good created thing with a proper place, and the specification asks for what it is for, how Jews differ about sex outside marriage and about homosexuality, and what non-religious attitudes are with a Jewish response. The teaching on love is worth stating precisely: the Torah's command is to love your neighbour as yourself, which the rabbis treated as the whole law and the rest as commentary.

Key terminology

Incandio's mark schemes credit the religion's own vocabulary; spelling variants are accepted, a vague paraphrase is not.

Kiddushin

Betrothal or sanctification; the first stage of Jewish marriage, and the word means to set apart as holy.

Onah

The husband's obligation of sexual and emotional attention to his wife, which Jewish law treats as her right.

Tzniut (also tznius)

Modesty in dress and behaviour, applying to men and women.

Ahavah (also ahava)

Love; in the Torah a commanded orientation towards the neighbour, not only a feeling.

Niddah (also taharat hamishpacha)

The laws of family purity governing when a couple may have sexual relations.

What Judaism teaches

• shared — Sexuality is a good part of creation, and marriage is where it belongs; Judaism has never treated it as a concession to weakness.
• shared — The command to love your neighbour as yourself governs relationships generally, and rabbinic tradition treats it as the summary of the whole law.
• shared — Sexual pleasure within marriage is a mutual obligation and specifically a right of the wife, which Jewish law states directly.
• divided — The traditions differ sharply on same-sex relationships and on sex outside marriage.
  • Orthodox Judaism — Maintains the classical prohibitions; contemporary Orthodox writing increasingly distinguishes the prohibition on acts from the treatment of the person.
  • Reform (Progressive) Judaism — Ordains LGBT rabbis and conducts same-sex marriages, arguing from the dignity of the person and the historical development of halakhah.
  • Conservative (Masorti) Judaism — Changed its position in 2006, permitting same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination while retaining a halakhic framework.

Why it teaches this

The reasoning is that a religion holding the body good cannot treat sex as shameful, so its restrictions have to be about relationship rather than about the act. That is why Jewish law regulates timing, obligation and consent inside marriage rather than merely permitting sex there. And it is why the disagreement about same-sex relationships is genuinely about how halakhah develops, rather than about whether Judaism thinks bodies are bad.

Sources of authority

• The Torah — Leviticus 19:18 (translated)

  You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

  The command from which the surrounding chapter's social laws follow — fair wages, honest weights, care for the deaf and the blind, and the stranger.

  How to use it: Reading it with its own chapter turns it from a sentiment into legislation, which is a much better answer than quoting the verse alone.

  What it does not settle: Shared with Christianity, so it is not distinctively Jewish.

• The Torah — Genesis 1:27 (translated)

  God created humankind in his own image.

  B'tzelem Elohim — every human bears the divine image, which grounds the infinite value of a human life and the equality of all people.

  How to use it: Because the value comes from God, it belongs to a person whatever their condition — the same premise reaches life, disability, race and human rights.

  What it does not settle: It does not settle abortion. Jewish law can require abortion to save the mother's life, which follows from the same premise read alongside pikuach nefesh.

• The Torah — the Ten Commandments (Aseret ha-Dibrot) — Exodus 20:1–17; Deuteronomy 5:6–21 (translated)

  Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

  The commandments given at Sinai, covering duty to God and duty to other people, and the basis of Shabbat observance.

  How to use it: The Sabbath commandment is grounded in creation itself, which is why Shabbat is described as sanctifying time rather than as a day off.

  What it does not settle: How strictly the commandments bind divides Orthodox from Reform Judaism, and that divergence is worth naming.

• Jewish thought — Tikkun olam; developed in rabbinic and later kabbalistic teaching (translated)

  Repairing the world.

  The duty to work at mending a broken world. Especially prominent in Reform Judaism's account of Jewish purpose.

  How to use it: It gives the meaning of life an outward direction: the purpose is not personal salvation but the world's repair, which is a distinctive answer on 2.2.

  What it does not settle: Its prominence differs by tradition. Presenting it as the whole of Jewish purpose flattens Orthodox emphasis on mitzvot.

Different interpretations

• The prohibition in Leviticus read as a permanent law and read as historically situated; this is precisely the argument between the movements and it should be reported as such.
• Modesty read as a rule for women and read as a discipline for everyone; the sources address both, and the imbalance in practice is criticised from inside.
• Marriage read as primarily for children and read as primarily for companionship; Genesis supplies both and Jewish tradition does not rank them absolutely.

Differences within Judaism

This is one of the sharpest and best-evidenced disagreements in modern Judaism, and it is documented in the movements' formal decisions rather than being a matter of impression.

• Orthodox Judaism — Classical prohibitions maintained; sex belongs within marriage; growing pastoral literature on treating gay Jews with dignity.
• Reform (Progressive) Judaism — Same-sex marriages conducted and LGBT rabbis ordained since the 1990s.
• Conservative (Masorti) Judaism — Position formally changed in 2006 through its own legal process, which is a well-documented example of halakhah developing.

Application to the issue

It shows in the marriage ceremony's blessings, which speak of joy and companionship; in the laws of niddah observed in Orthodox households; in Reform and Conservative synagogues conducting same-sex weddings; and in Orthodox organisations that have developed to support gay Jews remaining within observant communities.

Arguments supporting

• Treating sexual attention as an obligation owed to the wife is a genuinely unusual protection. — Jewish law makes onah her right rather than his privilege. (judaism)
  Answered by: The framing is still within a legal system whose authority structures were male, which is the criticism reformers make.
• Loving your neighbour as yourself is the strongest available principle for sexual ethics. — It rules out using a person, which covers the cases a rule-based ethics can miss. (shared)
  Answered by: It is general enough to be compatible with several different rule sets, which is why Jews who share it still disagree.

Arguments challenging

• Ancient prohibitions should not govern modern relationships. — Understanding of sexual orientation has changed entirely. (reform-jewish)
  Answered by: The Orthodox reply is that a law claimed as divine is not amended by changed understanding, which is the real point at issue between the movements.
• Consent between adults is the whole of sexual ethics. — Where no one is harmed there is nothing to regulate. (non-religious)
  Answered by: Judaism answers that relationships have consequences for children and community, and that sanctifying an act is a further consideration beyond permitting it.

Secular / non-religious perspective

Atheist and Humanist attitudes take consent, honesty and the absence of harm as sufficient, treat orientation as morally neutral and see no reason to restrict sex to marriage. Jewish responses vary by movement: Reform Judaism largely agrees on orientation while retaining the language of sanctification; Orthodox Judaism accepts the concern for the person while denying that consent settles the question.

Examinable throughout Paper 1. Nothing here earns a mark on Paper 2.

Evaluation

The hinge: Whether halakhah develops. Every disagreement in this unit reduces to that question, and it is what makes the Jewish material unusually clear for evaluation.

Defensible conclusions

• The Conservative decision of 2006 is the strongest evidence available that Jewish law has a mechanism for change, which strengthens the reformist case considerably.
• The Orthodox position is coherent and is not reducible to prejudice: it follows from a claim about the source of the law rather than from an attitude to people.
• The most defensible answer separates the questions the specification joins, since sex outside marriage and same-sex relationships are argued on quite different grounds.

Not defensible

• Saying 'Jews believe' about same-sex relationships, when the movements have taken formally opposed positions.
• Claiming Judaism regards sex as sinful, which the obligation of onah directly contradicts.

Exam use

• Identify · 3 marks — Three Jewish beliefs about sexual relationships, or three purposes of marriage in Judaism.
• Outline · 4 marks — Two attitudes developed, ideally from two different movements, since the difference is the assessment.
• Explain · 6 marks — Explain differing Jewish attitudes to same-sex relationships: the classical prohibition, the Reform and Conservative developments, and the argument about whether halakhah changes.
• Evaluate · 12 marks — 'Religious teachings about sex are out of date.' The Conservative 2006 decision is the strongest single piece of evidence on either side.

Common mistakes

• Presenting one movement's position as Jewish teaching, when the specification asks for differing attitudes.
• Giving the non-religious view as indifference rather than as a principled position about consent and harm.
• Assuming Jewish sexual ethics matches Christian sexual ethics.

“Christians believe divorce is always wrong.” — That is the Catholic position. Orthodox Christianity permits divorce in limited circumstances, and most Protestant churches permit divorce and remarriage.

Write instead: Name the tradition. 'Catholic teaching holds marriage indissoluble, so the Church annuls rather than divorces' is accurate and scores; 'Christians believe' on a divided question is not. Do not over-correct. Many claims genuinely ARE shared — the Trinity, the resurrection, the authority of the Bible — and hedging those makes an answer weaker, not more careful. (Named in the 2025 examiner report for Paper 1.)

“Judaism is the Old Testament part of Christianity.” — Judaism is a living religion with its own scriptures, its own two-thousand-year tradition of rabbinic interpretation, and its own account of what God requires. The Tanakh is not the Christian Old Testament in either arrangement or authority.

Write instead: The Tanakh has three divisions — Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim — and is read alongside the Talmud and rabbinic tradition. Jewish teaching about the afterlife, salvation and law is developed on its own terms. The scriptures overlap substantially, and the differences in ordering, canon and interpretation are real. Naming the Tanakh's structure is directly examinable at Paper 2 1.2.

Grade 9 insight

Jewish law makes sexual attention a debt the husband owes his wife — onah — and it is enforceable, listed alongside food and clothing. A Level 4 answer sees how far that is from the usual assumption about religious sexual ethics: the law's concern is not that sex might happen but that it might be withheld. That is the strongest available evidence for the claim that Judaism treats sexuality as a good to be sanctified rather than a danger to be contained.

Carry on through Judaism

• Previous unit: 2.3 · Sanctity of life, abortion and euthanasia
• Next unit: 2.5 · Marriage and partnership
• Human relationships in the other religions: Buddhism · Christianity · Hinduism · Islam · Sikhism
• All of Judaism · Incandio Religious Studies · The 4RS1 specification