By Rabbi Bernhard D. Rosenberg
EDISON, New Jersey — Many have written me regarding whether tattoos are allowed in Judaism. Some, especially young adults, have tattooed the concentration camp numbers of their parents, grandparents or other relatives.
My father who had the numbers would always tell me how proud he was that he survived and that we should always defend the Jewish people and Israel.
He said there was no life in Auschwitz, therefore he told people to subtract the number of years he was there from his real age. Some survivors were embarrassed having numbers on their arm and some had the numbers removed. Having just returned from Israel, I noticed many young people with various tattoos.
Do tattoos violate Jewish law?
Most rabbis say yes. Their objection traces to Leviticus 19.28, which states: “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” The Hebrew phrase k’tovet ka’aka here rendered as incision, is also sometimes translated as “tattoo.”
According to the biblical commentator Rashi, the phrase refers to a kind of permanent, un-erasable writing engraved on the skin.
I must tell you that as a rabbi I have never prohibited a person with a tattoo to lead and participate in ritual nor would I differentiate them from any other friends. As an adjunct professor I can tell you many students adorn themselves with tattoos. If tattooing was allowed I might have considered my father’s number being tattooed on my left arm, but being religious I can not do so.
Can I be buried in a Jewish cemetery if I have a tattoo?
There is nothing in Jewish law that calls for denying a Jewish burial to an individual with a tattoo, but some private burial societies may deny burial. I for one judge people on their merits with or without tattoos.
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Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey and is the author of Theological and Halachich Reflections on the Holocaust, among other books.
thanks for clearing that up for me. I do have a few tattoos and I was worried that I wouldn’t be buried in a Jewish Cemetery. Having said that I know religious women to have permanent makeup. Not sure what that difference is.
https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/5195#SnippetTab
Within the Reform movement, there are some signs of a more lenient approach. While officially the movement’s rabbinic leaders have rejected tattooing as “an act of hubris and manipulation that most surely runs counter to the letter and spirit of our tradition,” the rabbis admit that their verdict is “subjective and laced with ambiguity.” In 2014, Reform Judaism magazine ran a cover story on tattoos, in which several Jews described their motivations for getting Jewish-themed body art. Rabbi Marshal Klaven, a tattooed Reform rabbi in Texas who wrote his rabbinical thesis on tattoos, argues that tattoos that affirm one’s Jewishness and connection to Jewish tradition would not seem to be prohibited.