The phallus in our stars: Sexual violence in the Animal Apocalypse

Abstract

The Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90) provides some of the most vivid imagery in Second Temple literature. In reference to the descent of the Watchers allegorized as stars, the narrative invokes the simile “they let out their phalluses like stallions” three times. Beyond the simile’s allusion to the oracle in Ezek 23:20, the stallion phallus remains largely unexplored. Our investigation demonstrates the associations of stallions with “aggressive virility” and foreignness based on the Hebrew Bible and contemporary Hellenistic and early Jewish literature. Moreover, we show the Animal Apocalypse’s innovative emphasis on the violent nature of the sexual acts, a feature absent in Gen 6 and the Book of Watchers, and argue for the episode’s contextualization with other early Jewish texts in which sexual violence is present. By spotlighting the stallion-phallused stars with their foreign genitalia, the Animal Apocalypse highlights anxieties surrounding communal boundary crossing and its violent repercussions.

Introduction

The Animal Apocalypse (henceforth Anim. Apoc.) or the Animal Vision (1 En. 85–90) summarizes history from Adam to the eschaton in the form of an allegory and provides some of the most vivid imagery in Second Temple literature. A star-turned-bovid with the phallus of a stallion—invoked no less than three times—might be the most indelible of the images. ¹ While several of the images from the visions have been the subject of scholarly investigation, the stallion phallus is yet largely underexplored, apart from noting the simile’s allusion to the oracle in Ezek 23:20. However, we contend that the stallion phallus carries with it symbolic significance that underscores the violent nature of the sexual act described.

In order to support our contention, our analysis is informed by both comparative and literary approaches. We consider contemporary Hellenistic literature and the associations of stallions with cavalry imagery and sexual aggression. Furthermore, we examine stallion imagery as presented in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish literature, and its direct associations with foreignness and sexual violence. Within the Anim. Apoc., we examine how sexual violence functions in its allegorical framework and how it differs from its direct textual antecedents. We argue that the stars commit acts of sexual violence, and discuss how their aggressive virility is portrayed in the dream-vision as a whole. ² By recognizing sexual violence in the Anim. Apoc., we demonstrate that the allegory is best understood alongside other early Jewish works in which scenes of sexual violence express anxieties over communal boundaries. ³

The stallion phallus simile in Anim. Apoc. 86, 88, and 90

The Anim. Apoc. roots itself in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible by placing emphasis on biblical chronologies and allegorical story-telling. ⁴ The allegories presented in the Anim. Apoc. do not always adhere to “concrete associations” that parallel scriptural sources exactly; the narrative interprets, adjusts, and provides additional details for which there are no precedents. ⁵ The associations remain unexplained and uninterpreted, even to Enoch who experiences their allegorical presentation in a dream. At the same time, although perhaps not readily apparent to modern readers, the images the author employs contain associations that were drawn from broader cultural anxieties that pertained to crossing communal boundaries, the origins of evil, and the violence produced as a result.

According to the Anim. Apoc., the origin of violence in the world is marked by two events in the antediluvian era: the violence of Cain against his brother and the sexual violence of the Watchers against human women. ⁶ The first event (85:4–9) portrays Cain’s act of murder and its amelioration by the birth of Seth. The proliferation of legitimate offspring from Seth’s line concludes the scene, and no other comment is given to the repercussions of Cain’s transgression. By the world returning to proper order through Seth’s licit progeny, the narrative provides a resolution which is set in stark contrast to the account that follows it, both in the violence committed and the chaos it spawns.

The second violent event, which remains the focus of this paper, immediately follows the multiplication of Seth’s lineage:

And again I [Enoch] saw with my eyes as I was sleeping. I saw the heaven above, and look, a star fell from heaven, and it arose and was eating and pasturing among those cattle. Then I saw those large and black cattle, and look, all of them exchanged their pens and their pastures and their calves, and they began to moan, one after the other. And again I saw in the vision, and I looked to heaven, and look, I saw many stars descend and cast themselves down from heaven to that first star. And in the midst of those calves they became bulls, and they were pasturing with them in their midst. I looked at them and I saw and look, all of them let out their phalluses like stallions, and they began to mount the cows of the bulls, and they all conceived and bore elephants and camels and asses. And all the bulls feared them and were terrified before them, and they began to bite with their teeth and devour and gore with their horns. And they began to devour those bulls, and look, all the sons of the earth began to tremble and quake before them, and to flee. (1 En 86:1-6)

The passage above describes Asael, a Watcher who descends and co-mingles—“eating and pasturing”—with humans, which results in illicit sexual activity among them. Although the transgressive sexual activities are not portrayed in a positive light, neither do they directly result in violence. ⁷ Moreover, the illicit instruction usually associated with Asael is not explicit in the Anim. Apoc. The Watcher is simply referred to as “the first star that had fallen from heaven” (88:1) and again as “the first star” in the final judgment scene (90:21) without any mention of either transgression or illicit instruction. ⁸ It appears then that his transgression pertains to boundary crossing, which results in an implied surge of unsanctioned sexual activity expressed by the euphemisms, “[the black cattle] exchanged their pens and their pastures and their calves, and they began to moan, one after another” (86:2). Thus, although Asael’s descent is not portrayed as positive, the Anim. Apoc. places greater emphasis on the subsequent Watchers who descend after Asael—“those stars whose phalluses were like the phalluses of stallions”—who are marked by the violent chaos their actions instigate.

The second descent, that of the “many stars” in 86:3–6, addresses two primary issues of concern to the author of the Anim. Apoc. ⁹ The first issue is the means by which the Watchers were able to impregnate human women. Neither the Gen 6 account nor the BW offers any competing or even speculative answer to this question. ¹⁰ The Anim. Apoc. makes sure to explain such mechanics; it notes that the stars “became bulls,” meaning that they transformed into humans, and “were pasturing with [the calves] in their midst.” ¹¹ The second issue the Anim. Apoc. addresses is the origin of evil, which is instigated by the Watchers’ violent actions and sets in motion the propagation of illegitimate offspring (elephants, camels, and asses) on the earth. The humans (bulls) are immediately afraid and moved to violence against the offspring in the form of biting, devouring, and goring with their, presumably, bull-horns. Responding to the bull-initiated aggression, the offspring “began to devour those bulls” sending fear-laden and violent reverberations throughout the world, and causing even the earth to “cry out” (84:6–87:1). In contrast to Seth’s lineage who restored proper order to the earth after Cain’s violence, the author of the Anim. Apoc. emphasizes how violent offspring only serve to perpetuate further violence and chaos. ¹²

After Enoch observes all this, his perspective is shifted to two sets of angelic beings (one set of four and one set of three) represented by figures that were like “white men.” He is then taken to a high place by the group of three figures to witness the fate of those in his dream-vision, at which point the second occurrence of the stallion-phallused bovids is mentioned:

And as I looked in the vision, look, one of those four who had come forth hurled stones from heaven and gathered and took all the great stars, whose phalluses were like the phalluses of stallions, and bound all of them by their hands and their feet, and threw them into an abyss of the earth. (1 En 88:3) ¹³

This judgment scene portrays the punishment of the second group of stars, and excludes Asael who receives his own punishment in 88:1. Just as the boundary-crossings of Asael and the other Watchers were differentiated earlier—the former leading to unsanctioned sexual activity, and the latter to sexual violence and chaos on the earth—the Anim. Apoc. further distinguishes the two transgressions by addressing their judgments individually.

The third and final mention of the stallion-phallused bovids occurs in 90:21, which describes an eschatological future and final judgment. The first star and “those stars whose phalluses were like those of stallions” are summoned and bound by the Lord of the Sheep and thrown into a fiery abyss. ¹⁴ In both 88:3 and 90:21, the second group of stars is identified by their stallion-like phalluses. Their sexual organs are critical to their identities, and the aggressive virility associated with those organs implies that their sexual violence was not committed in a fleeting “moment of passion.” Their licentious nature suggested by the transgressive phalluses implicates them in both scenes of their judgment.

In terms of literary devices, the animal imagery employed throughout the Anim. Apoc. remains consistently allegorical except for the stallion-phallused stars. The antediluvian patriarchs are not depicted as being like cattle; they are cattle. Unlike other dream-visions, the Anim. Apoc. avoids nearly all approximating language including the use of similes and metaphors. ¹⁵ Even when Enoch is taken to a high place by three angelic figures in 87:4, the integrity of the allegory remains uncompromised in the angels’ instruction to “Stay here until you see all that happens to those elephants and camels and asses and to the stars and to the cattle and all of them.” Enoch observes the scene and is accompanied by interpreting angels, but the allegory itself remains intact. The exception, however, to the allegory’s consistency is the recurring phrase “they let out their phalluses like stallions.” While some scholars draw attention to the otherness of the elephants, camels, and asses, ¹⁶ the animals are nevertheless depicted as “normal” within the animal allegory. ¹⁷ But in an allegorical framework where all of the humans are depicted as animals, additional emphasis on foreignness or otherness must be communicated another way. Thus, the author of the Anim. Apoc. spotlights the Watchers’ transgression by using the only nonhuman animal simile in the allegory: “all the great stars, whose phalluses were like the phalluses of stallions.”

Stallions in Greek and Jewish literature

Given the emphasis on the stallion-like genitalia in the Anim. Apoc., one might presume the creatures’ sexual urges and actions are connected to their noteworthy sexual organs. This anatomical detail begs the question: Why did the writer select the stallion phallus for the bovids? The following section demonstrates that the Anim. Apoc. attributes the proliferation of violence in the world to the aggressive virility of the stars based on observable stallion behavior in the broader context of both Hellenistic and Jewish literature.

Concerning the observed behavior of stallions in the ancient world, they are known to be aggressive if not castrated. ¹⁸ There is some evidence to suggest that the aggression of stallions, kept entire, was valued in war contexts by ancient Greeks. ¹⁹ This is in contrast to other groups contemporary with the ancient Greeks in central Asia which preferred geldings for their cavalry. ²⁰ Evidence from Jewish writings produced in response to and in light of Seleucid rule suggests Jewish residents of Palestine were familiar with a strong cavalry. For example, 1 and 2 Maccabees mention the Seleucids’ use of cavalry in Palestine on multiple occasions. ²¹ The reliability of the military accounts presented in these two works, however, has been questioned based upon the implausibility of the numbers and strategies they describe. ²² That aside, other historical works speak clearly to the reliance of the Seleucids on horse power. ²³ In Appian’s description of the Battle of Magnesia, he writes of Antiochus the Great’s military that,

This was how Antiochus drew up his infantry. The cavalry, mail-wearing Galatians and what was known as the Macedonian agema, were stationed on both wings. These Macedonian cavalrymen were specially selected, which was the reason they got the name agema. An equal number of them were positioned on either side of the phalanx. Next to the cavalry on the wings, were, to the right, some light-armed troops and additional horsemen, armed with silver shields, and twelve hundred mounted archers . . . and another unit of mailed cavalry, along with what were called the companion cavalry, a lightly armed body of horse. This was Antiochus’ battle formation. It appears that he placed his main hope on the cavalry, as he stationed a large part of it in the front. ²⁴

While it might be noted that Appian is describing a particular battle scene outside of Judea, his description indicates that the Seleucids had a large cavalry, and that this cavalry was used in a broader strategy of domination.

In addition to the horse’s aggression being associated with cavalry in ancient Greek contexts, it is also associated with the stallion’s sexual urges and virility. In a discussion on stabling horses in ancient Israel, Deborah Cantrell notes that the sexual urges of stallions pose a “safety risk” as they are difficult to control when aroused. ²⁵ Outside of their stabled context, free-range horses form harem groups with one stallion per three to four mares and their offspring. ²⁶ Within these harems, mating patterns are polygynous with the stallion being responsible for up to ninety of the offspring. ²⁷ In a harem take-over, sometimes the aggressing stallion rapes the mares and kills the foals to establish his position over the harem. ²⁸

The observable sexual behavior of the stallion is also reflected in classical Greek literature. The Iliad, for example, compares the sexual drive of the stallion for mares to the warrior’s lust for battle. ²⁹ Aristotle noted in his History of Animals that “Copulation is not a toilsome business for horses, as it is for oxen. After human beings, the horse, both sexes, is the most salacious (λαγνίστατον) of all animals.” ³⁰ Mark Griffith notes that the horse’s sexuality is displayed in classical artwork with the horse’s sexual allure matched with the rider’s sexual allure. ³¹ In sum, the violent and virile stallion imagery in Greek literature and art forms a part of the cultural backdrop for the Anim. Apoc. and helps situate the writer’s use of the stallion phallus image in Greek sources.

The association of stallions and horses with violence and virility is echoed in Jewish literature contemporaneous with the Anim. Apoc. and the Hebrew Bible. Writings from Qumran depict horses in their violent military context. For instance, the writer of 1QpHab connects the description of horses accompanying Babylonian forces in Hab 1:8 to those of the Kittim in the writer’s own socio-historical context. The military forces are “swifter than leopards,” “keener than wolves in the evening,” and, critically, coming “for violence” (לחמס‎). ³² In another striking example, the so-called “War Scroll” (1QM) describes scenes with mounted horsemen in battle formation, and even specifies the male sex (סוסים זכרים‎) of the horses they ride. ³³

The Hebrew Bible, across its many genres, also associates horses with military violence, and often foreign military violence. ³⁴ The horse is a tool of Pharaoh to terrorize Israel fleeing from bondage, and the animal upon which YHWH takes out his wrath in Miriam’s victory song. ³⁵ Galloping horse hooves is the poetic image that the writer of Deborah’s hymn uses to describe the battle against Sisera (Judg 5:22). Outside of these epic poems, the biblical historical narrative tacitly condemns Solomon for gathering horses from Egypt and other places. ³⁶ The prophetic book Habakkuk describes Babylon’s horses as more menacing than wolves (Hab 1:8). Isaiah identifies horses as a defining feature of a foreign culture that the house of Jacob must eschew (Isa 2:7). Jeremiah and Ezekiel consistently connect horses to battle and often to the brutality of foreign invaders. ³⁷

In addition to the horses’ association with the brutality of foreign invaders in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, two passages in these books associate stallions with licentiousness and aggressive virility. ³⁸ The first passage in Jer 5:7–8 reads,

How can I forgive you for this? Your children left me and swore by non-gods. When I satiated them, they committed adultery and thronged to brothels. They were stallions in heat (מיזנים‎), well-endowed with testicles (משכים‎), each individual neighing after his companion’s wife. ³⁹

The metaphor of a stallion in heat appears to be a familiar image to the author by sight or reputation. Moreover, the author draws particular attention to the stallion’s genitals. The unbridled nature of the stallion’s quest for a sexual partner is compared to Judah’s quest to be fulfilled by non-gods. The stallion’s aggressive sexual nature is characterized as deviant within the author’s standard of sex being confined to one’s community-sanctioned partner.

The second passage in Ezek 23:5–34 occurs within a writing known for its graphic and violent sexual imagery. ⁴⁰ The chapter invokes the image of the horse four separate times and pulls together the various associations of horses as violent, foreign, and sexually aggressive. In Ezek 23:5–6 and 12, the writer personifies Samaria and Judah as “whoring sisters” who lust after foreign mounted horsemen. ⁴¹ The mounted horsemen come from the powerful empires of Assyria and Babylon, which underscores their foreignness and association with military might. Ezekiel 23:20 most clearly articulates the association between the stallion and virility:

Yet she [Judah] increased her whoring to remember the days of her youth in which she whored in the land of Egypt. She lusted after their paramours whose phallus was that of donkeys and whose emission was that of stallions.

The metaphor connects the unfaithful actions of Judah to animals’ sexual activity like the metaphor in Jer 5:7–8. Instead of associating Judah with the horse like Jeremiah, Ezekiel associates the animals with Egypt. Safwat Marzouk suggests that the donkey phallus and stallion emission images are part of a strategy to depict Egypt as the monstrous Other throughout Ezekiel. ⁴² Still, in both passages, there is something about the stallion and its virility that has caused the writers to reach for it as an appropriate metaphor for Judah’s relentless quest for partnership outside of its relationship with YHWH. The passage in Ezekiel ends by describing how those sexually attractive, mounted horsemen turn on Judah, personified as a woman, and violently sexually assault her (Ezek 23:23-34). The enduring association of the stallion with violence, foreignness, and aggressive virility are all on display in Ezek 23.

Sexual violence and the Anim. Apoc.

Against the backdrop of the descriptions of stallions in Greek and Jewish literature, the function of the stallion genitalia on the stars-turned-bovids in the Anim. Apoc. is clear. The writer draws attention to the sexual, violent, and exogamous nature of the assault against the heifers through the image. The emphasis in the Anim. Apoc. on the sexual violence inflicted by transgressive outsiders appears more pronounced when the work is compared to its literary antecedents: Gen 6:1–4 and the BW 6–11. ⁴³

The sharpest contrast to the violent sexual encounter described in the Anim. Apoc. can be drawn with the “terse” story in Gen 6:1–4. ⁴⁴ The passage states, “When humans began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, the sons of the gods (בני האלהים‎) saw that the daughters of humankind were good-looking and took (ויקחו‎) them as wives” (Gen 6:1–2). Of their sexual encounter, it states, “the sons of gods went into the daughters of humankind (יבאו . . .אל בנות האדם‎) and bore to them children.” The children resulting from this union were “heroes (הגבוים‎) of old, men of renown” (Gen 6:4). ⁴⁵ While these verses do not depict an explicitly consensual sexual encounter between the sons of the gods and the daughters of humankind, they also do not explicitly signal sexual violence. ⁴⁶ The euphemism “go into” (בוא אל‎) is used in biblical Hebrew to describe a broad range of sexual encounters. The passage does not use the hallmark terms of sexual assault in the biblical writings (namely, חזק‎ and ענה‎). ⁴⁷ This passage is followed by the beginning of the flood narrative (Gen 6:5–7) which describes the profound wickedness of humanity, but it does not explicitly connect that wickedness to the offspring mentioned in Gen 6:4 like the Anim. Apoc. does.

Building upon and reframing Gen 6:1–4, the BW 6–11 begins to answer the questions that the four short verses of Genesis beg. The BW connects elements of Gen 6:1–4 with the flood narrative that comes after it, and provides more detail on the nature of the beings who descend to earth, their coordinated plot to take the daughters of humankind, and the ramifications of their offsprings’ actions. The BW also includes a description of the Watchers imparting “illicit angelic instruction” to their human wives. ⁴⁸ While many more details are filled out around the sexual encounter between the human women and other-worldly beings, the BW offers no more details on the encounter itself and merely repeats the euphemism, “go into,” found in Gen 6:4. ⁴⁹

Although the BW does not provide more detail on the sexual encounter between the Watchers and women, it does deem the sexual union as problematic and impure. The giants that are born from the Watchers crossing a sexual boundary are a sign of the problematic nature of the sexual union. ⁵⁰ The impurity of that union is underscored in Greek witnesses (Panopoliotanus and Syncellus) to the BW which add that the Watchers “began to . . . defile themselves” (μιαίνεσθαι ἐν αὐταῖς) through their intercourse with human women. ⁵¹ From the generation of giants came a generation of Nephilim who wreaked havoc across the earth by acting violently with one another and the rest of creation. ⁵² The direct line that the BW draws between the boundary crossing sexual activity and the resultant violence is a unique innovation. ⁵³ The BW, however, stops short of describing the sexual activity as violent in its own right.

Building on the traditions in Gen 6:1–4 and the BW 6–11, the Anim. Apoc. expands on the sexual boundary crossing and violence found in those writings. Boundary crossing in the Anim. Apoc. is highlighted through the language of the stars that “descended” (ወረዱ) into the pen of calves as interlopers from another realm. While they take on the appearance of domesticated bulls, their stallion genitalia mark them as Other. The selection of stallion genitalia also suggests that the encounter is violent given the association between horses and aggressive virility. The allegory notes that they “let out” (አውፅኡ) their sexual organs, exposing themselves as Other before describing how they began to “mount” (ይዕርጉ), or, hyper-literally, go up onto the calves. ⁵⁴ The combination of exposure associated with aggression followed by mounting, however, adds to the sense that the sexual encounter was violent. Furthermore, to confirm the simile as an integral part of the narrative, the stars’ stallion-like phalluses mark them as a sexually violent Other and follow them to their pre- and post-diluvian judgments. ⁵⁵

Patterns of sexual violence

By marking the sexual acts of the stars/Watchers as violent, the Anim. Apoc. brings the narrative into line with other stories of sexual violence found in biblical and early Jewish literature. And while hints of sexual violence can be detected throughout the Hebrew Bible, the three narratives whose language clearly communicates that the sexual act falls under the rubric of sexual violence—Gen 34, Judg 19–20, and 2 Sam 13—follow a pattern. ⁵⁶ Each act of sexual violence not only crosses a social-sexual boundary of some sort, but it also leads to violence which is followed by social fragmentation.

While this pattern is well-documented in the scholarship on biblical sexual violence, it is worth examining one of these instances in-depth. ⁵⁷ The story of Gen 34, commonly referred to as “The Rape of Dinah,” acts as a good test case for comparison with the story of sexual violence in the Anim. Apoc. Like the Anim. Apoc., the Dinah story highlights sexual boundary crossing with a foreign Other, and also uses male genitalia to highlight the sexual perpetrator’s otherness. Moreover, the Gen 34 narrative becomes a foundational story for addressing exogamy in early Jewish literature as demonstrated by its reference and retelling in Jubilees, the Testament of Levi, and Judith. ⁵⁸

The story of Dinah begins with her going out to see the women of Canaan where Jacob and his family settled. While out, Shechem, the son of Hamor and a Hivite prince, takes Dinah and rapes her. ⁵⁹ With Dinah still in his custody, Shechem requests his father approach Dinah’s father to arrange a marriage on his behalf with Dinah. As Hamor carries out his son’s request, Dinah’s brothers learn of the incident and are outraged. Hamor requests the marriage, and Dinah’s brothers deceitfully accept the proposal provided the Hivite men circumcise themselves. The condition demonstrates Dinah’s brothers believe Shechem crossed a social-sexual boundary. Not only did he rape their sister, but also an uncircumcised man violated the daughter of a circumcised people. When the Hivite men accept the offer and proceed to circumcise themselves, Dinah’s brothers, Simeon and Levi, enter Shechem’s city, kill all of the men, recover Dinah, and plunder the city taking everything including the women and children. The acts of violence—the rape and violent response—leave a social fissure between Jacob’s household and the people of Canaan.

While Dinah’s story in Gen 34 seems shoehorned into the biblical narrative with no connection to what precedes or follows it, early Jewish interpreters of the story found important lessons in it which had implications for their social and sexual ethics. ⁶⁰ Early Jewish writers from the community that produced Jubilees, to the Greek writers of Judith, to Josephus who recalled Dinah’s story in his writings, each highlighted the insider-outsider dynamic in the sexual violence. ⁶¹ They recognized that violence begets more violence in the biblical narrative and worked to explain it, as well as justify Simeon and Levi’s actions against the city. ⁶² This pattern of sexual violence was recognized and interpreted in early Jewish literature, and may have been well-recognized by the time of the composition of the Anim. Apoc.

Following a similar pattern, the Anim. Apoc. highlights that a social-sexual boundary was crossed in the animal pen. Not only did the star-turned-bovids descend into the calves’ pen from another realm, but like Shechem, their genitalia did not look like those of the bovids in the pen. The sexual violence of the stallion-phallused bovids against the calves bred more violence just as Shechem’s rape of Dinah bred more violence. Because of the wild animal offspring of the calves, the bovids “began to bite with their teeth and devour and gore with their horns,” which incites the offspring to devour them in return (1 En. 86:5). Ultimately, society is fractured as “all the sons of the earth began to tremble and quake” in the midst of the violent chaos (1 En. 86:6). Different from Gen 6:1–4 and the BW 6–11, the Anim. Apoc. more clearly links the sexual violence and sexual boundary crossing with the communal violence and social fracturing that follows it. In so doing, the Anim. Apoc. follows the pattern of stories of sexual violence found in biblical and early Jewish literature.

Conclusion

In the Anim. Apoc., the stallion phallus functions as an image of aggressive virility. While the image may seem obscure to modern readers, ancient notions of stallions would have evoked images of a dominant cavalry and lusty sexual urges. Thus, when the star-bovids are portrayed as endowed with these foreign genitalia, it is not a surprise when they commit acts of sexual violence. In each of the three occurrences of the simile—“they let out their phalluses like stallions”—the boundary crossing transgressions of the stars mark them as disruptive Others. Moreover, their actions pose a threat to both the order of society and the order of the cosmos. And like in Gen 34, sexual violence in the Anim. Apoc. results in communal violence, and highlights the concerns of the authors regarding social-sexual boundaries. The graphic imagery the Anim. Apoc. employs, therefore, is anything but frivolous, and underscores ancient Jewish anxieties of boundary crossing and its violent repercussions.