RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH GAY COMMITMENT -MARRIAGE CEREMONIES: DESTINATION:

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: JEWISH SPIRITUALITY :HOMOEROTIC SPANISH JEWISH LITERATURE

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:JEWISH RENEWAL:JEWISH SPIRITUAL RENEWAL: GAY RIGHTS:

Parasha Acharei: Leviticus 16:00-18:30

Rabbi Arthur Segal www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
Jewish Renewal www.jewishrenewal.info
Jewish Spiritual Renewal http://rabbiarthursegal.blogspot.com
Jewish Spirituality
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Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA

"Well I'm not dumb, but I can't understand why she walked like a woman and talked like a man, oh my Lola"

This parasha includes verse 18:22 from Leviticus, which has put liberal Judaism in the news and even on the front page of the New York Times. "You shall not lie with a man as one lies with a woman." This law is repeated in 20:13 with the addition of teaching us the penalty for transgression, which is death. As we read in an earlier d'var Torah, expounding on verses in a manner that ignores their historical context can have consequences that affect us still today.

While I abhor the idea of giving publicity to hate groups, I sadly refer you to the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church of Texas Web site: www.GodHatesFags.com. Their
"logical" syllogism takes Leviticus 18:22 and classifies all homosexuals as an abomination. By quoting Psalm 5:05, "Thou hatest all workers of iniquity," they believe that if God hates the homosexual, so should we. They further quote Isaiah 66:24, which they translate as saying that those who have transgressed against God will not have "their fires quenched" and that this means that homosexuals will reside in hell for all eternity. By referring to the death penalty of Leviticus 20:13, they justify the killing in Texas of an innocent victim of a horrid hate crime, Matthew Shepard, who was gay. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church actually proudly picketed his funeral. If there is anything of value to be found at this deplorable web site, it is that they do list the liberal Jewish temples on their list of "Fag Churches." These are places of worship where homosexuals are welcome not only as congregants, but also as rabbis and cantors, and can stand before the Torah on the bimah and have a commitment ceremony.

Please note that my use of the Westboro Baptist Gospel Church as an example is for illustrative purposes only, and is not meant to suggest that I consider them representative of the Christian position on homosexuality. I do not and neither should you.

The Anti-Defamation League reports that violent crimes against gays and lesbians are continuing to rise. The FBI says they are the third highest targeted group for hate crimes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says that gay and lesbian youth are at a four times higher risk for suicide than their straight peers. According to the National Network of Runaway Youth Services, 40 percent of the homeless teens on our streets are homosexual.

The rabbis of Reform Judaism, in an overwhelming vote, approved a resolution to back any rabbi's decision to preside over a gay union through "appropriate Jewish ritual." A compromise was reached to recognize the diversity of opinion within the movement and to support those who choose not to officiate at such ceremonies. Rabbi Paul Menitof, vice president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) stated: "These are people who are subjected to signals, subtle and not so subtle, that they are abnormal, sinful, less than whole. Can you imagine the impact on them to finally hear a confirming message after so many negative messages from all these religious groups?"

Please note that the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) does not call these commitment ceremonies marriages nor does it give them the status of kiddushin (sanctification). But there is an ecclesiastic imprimatur that makes it clear that their fellow congregants and God attach holiness to their union.

In 1990 the United American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) agreed to ordain openly gay rabbis. On March 16, 2000, Vermont's House of Representatives voted to recognize same sex unions, and Hawaii and Rhode Island moved in this direction as well. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France have created a special status called "registered partnerships." Other states, most recently California, have followed suit and then changed it. Still other states as of this writing are allowing it. It is interesting to note that for thirty-seven years the rabbis of the Secular Humanist Jewish movement have performed same-sex commitment ceremonies for both Jewish and intermarried couples alike.

There are some aspects of Jewish tradition that oppose homosexuality. These need to be understood in the historical context of the need to have children and the need to keep us from the bad habits of our neighbors. Homosexuality was looked upon as a deviant behavior under one's control. The authors of our laws were not aware of any biological or scientific basis for homosexual behavior. Since they believed that the behavior is under one's control, they viewed homosexuality as an abomination of what was normal. But just as the ancient church had pro-gay writers such as St. Aelrod, Ausonius, and St. Anselm, so did we. In his essay Deal Gently with the Young Man, Norman Roth describes the flourishing of homoerotic Jewish literature in Spain in the Middle Ages. This essay, and his Fawn of My Delights - Boy-Love in Hebrew Verse, quote many poems of this nature. Yishaq ben Mar-Saul of Lucena in the eleventh century writes about his gay lover. "He has inflamed my passions, and consumed my heart with fire, like Joseph in his form, like Adoniah his hair, lovely eyes like David, he has slain me like Uriah!" The Jewish poet Isaac Ibn Abraham of twelfth-century Spain writes of his pain of living in a "closet:" "The secret of love, how can it be contained, the heart and the tear are talebearers."

The Rambam (Maimonides), who was close to being a contemporary of Yishaq ben Mar-Saul and Isaac Ibm Abraham, accepts Jewish homosexuals as not being violators deserving of being on his list of apostates. He based this on Talmud Bavli Tractate Chullin 4a and 5a, which clearly teaches that one who repeatedly violates a particular commandment out of inner compulsion rather than to flout the tradition is to be considered a functioning equal member of the community. Ironically this same tractate, Chullin, also gives credit to the pagans who practice homosexuality for not actually marrying each other with a ketubah.

The rabbis declared in Talmud Bavli Tractate Kiddushin 82a that two Jewish bachelors are permitted to sleep in the same bed because Jewish men are not suspected of being homosexual. We saw in an earlier d'var that the same men were allowed to herd sheep because Jewish men are not suspected of bestiality. Rabbi Harold Shulweis posits that the rabbis clearly believed that homosexual behavior was a controlled, willful act and could be avoided if one wished to do so. But they were aware of other inborn behaviors. According to Jewish law, activities that are uncontrollable, even if they are prohibited, are "patur aval asur," which means free of culpability. Talmud Bavli Tractate Nadarim 33a teaches that God "frees one from punishment who is coerced."

The Talmudic Bavli Tractate Bava Batra 43a teaches that if we are to judge, we are "to judge according to that which you see with your own eyes." If we are to see gay men and lesbian women as deviants and sinners in control of their abominable behaviors, then we will continue to judge them in this manner. But if we open our eyes to the scientific evidence and an understanding of the history of the times when our laws were written, we will see them as caring, loving folk who wish to stand on our bimah and declare their love for each other before God, and we will therefore no longer judge them.

If the rabbis of the Talmud knew that homosexuality was not a learned, controlled behavior, I believe they would have reformed the Torah in the same manner they reformed the laws requiring us to kill a rebellious son (Deut. 21:18), torture the wife of a jealous man (Num. 5:12), and destroy a city in which Jews worshipped idols (Deut. 13:13). The Talmudic rabbis called these laws theoretical and having no application to life: "Lo hayah v'lo atid lihyot." If they knew that gays' sexual orientation was not an act of their willing, the laws against homosexual behavior might well have been set aside as well.

The rabbis also abolished another law. In Talmud Bavli Tractate Yebamoth 64a, the law is given that after ten years of marriage, if the wife has not given birth, it was grounds for divorce, as the purpose of marriage was to have Jewish children. The rabbis nullified this. There is also a law forbidding a man incapable of having children from marrying a Jewish woman who is capable. But do we see any rabbi refusing to wed a healthy woman to a man who had (God forbid) prostate, penile, or testicular cancer, or who is paraplegic? We say that they can adopt and raise Jewish children. And so can gay or lesbian partners, who can also deliver biological children. Please also note that in Talmud Bavli Tractate Sanhedrin 54b, where the rabbis discuss this Sabbath's parasha verse, there is no law against lesbianism.

Consider how much Judaism has reformed itself from the days of the Torah to the days of our prophets. While I am not comparing gay men to eunuchs, Deut. 23:2 says that a eunuch cannot enter into the Assembly of God. But Isaiah says in chapter 56, "As for the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, who have chosen what I desire and hold fast My covenant, I will give them in My house and My walls, a monument and a name. Better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name which shall not perish." Isaiah, and hopefully we, would rather have gay and lesbian couples among us who do good mitzvoth than heterosexual couples among us who are mean-spirited.

None of us is pure. Few of us follow every halacha to the letter of the law. Sabbath breakers, according to the Torah were to be stoned – as were homosexuals. Yet we do not vilify Sabbath violators today, keep them from marriage, or call for their execution. The Rambam understood that none of us is perfect. He reminded everyone of this by signing his letters, "Moshe Ben Maimon who transgresses three negative commandments in the Torah every day." He was referring to the prohibitions of a Jew returning to and living in Egypt. The rabbis overlooked that Torah law because of the mental anguish a forced move on the Jews living in Egypt would cause.

It has been posited that the Torah prohibition of men not having sex with men as they would with a women, is banning heterosexual men, who when they find themselves without women to have sex with, engage in sexual behaviors with men. Hence the verse is not condemning homosexuality, but such activities as male on male prison rapes.

The canard "allowing gay or lesbian couples on our bimah, under a kuppah wedding canopy will cause other people to become gay" is just ludicrous. It is just as silly as saying that mentally healthy gay men or mentally healthy lesbian women recruit children while mental healthy heterosexuals do not. The URJ did not condone child molestation. Thinking of homosexuals as perverted leads to horrible consequences. When liberal movements openly allowed rabbis to welcome homosexuals to their temples and to partake of every aspect of Jewish life, it was an indication of another ideal of liberal Judaism.

Shabbat Shalom:

Rabbi Arthur Segal

If visiting SC's Low Country, contact us for a Shabbat meal, in our home by the sea, our beth yam.

Maker of Shalom (Oseh Shalom) help make us deserving of Shalom beyond all human comprehension!!