{"id":45448,"date":"2018-12-10T20:29:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T18:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=45448"},"modified":"2022-07-05T09:03:48","modified_gmt":"2022-07-05T06:03:48","slug":"welcoming-love-and-the-book-of-leviticus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/welcoming-love-and-the-book-of-leviticus\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcoming Love AND The Book Of Leviticus"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leviticus 18 records a famous (infamous?) commandment understood to apply to all expressions of homosexuality: \u201cDo not lie with a male as one lies with a woman, it is an abhorrence” (Leviticus 18:22). A similar commandment is offered two chapters later in Leviticus 20. The apparent proscription of homosexual acts in Leviticus forms the basis for all later halakhic prohibitions of homosexual acts. These passages all speak about homosexual acts outside of the context of homosexual relationship. The nature of the sex is casual, almost circumstantial — two bachelors who happen to be under the same blanket, a young boy seduced by an older man (<\/span>Mishneh Torah<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Issurei Bi’ah<\/span><\/i>, 1:14).<\/span><\/p>\n

The context of the Bible’s knowledge of homosexual acts is clarified by examining the two occasions where these acts are threatened. In the first case, the men of Sodom demand that Lot send out his guests so they could rape them. It should be noted that these would-be rapists are all heterosexual. Similarly, in the second case the Benjaminites of Gibeah demand “Bring out the man who has come into your house, so that we can be intimate with him.” Robert Gordis notes: “Actually, the two episodes highlight the heinous sin involved in violating the ancient practice of hospitality to strangers; they are not primarily concerned with homosexuality.”<\/span><\/p>\n

There is not a single case in the Tanakh which deals with homosexual acts in the context of homosexual love. Every biblical case treats heterosexuals who engage in homosexual acts as an expression of idolatry, of power (such as rape), or, presumably, for fun. This perspective supports the claim: \u201cThere is no such individual [as the Jewish homosexual]. So much is he missing from the cast of characters of Jewish society that one is hard put to find a halakhic term used specifically for him (Freundel 1986:71-72).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Torah was not speaking about homosexual orientation because it had no awareness of the possibility of such a possibility. Mention has already been made that sexual orientation is in part dependent upon cultural factors. The idea of two men or two women loving each other, living together, nurturing each other-and in that context making love-became a possible self-identity only with modernity. The Torah did not prohibit what it did not know. So what is the Torah prohibition addressing?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Bible knows of homosexual <\/span>acts<\/b>, but not of homosexual <\/span>orientation<\/b> or <\/span>persons<\/b>. As such, its designation of a homosexual act as a <\/span>to’evah<\/span><\/em> may be understood as referring to a homosexual act outside of the context of the entire person. Anonymous or coercive homosexual acts (as, for example, the prevalence of such acts in prisons) are, indeed, abominations. <\/span>To’evah<\/span><\/em> still applies to sexual relations with minors, bath house sex, rape, sadomasochistic sex. Indeed, all sexual acts which are coercive, morally degrading, or violent were prohibited by the Torah. That prohibition has not changed at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question for our time is whether there is a possibility of sanctifying a range of homosexual behavior just as we sanctify a narrow range of heterosexual behavior. On that question, the Torah was silent because the question could not have been conceived, let alone formulated. It can be formulated now.<\/span><\/p>\n

Heterosexuals live with a sexuality they did not choose or create. Homosexuals similarly live with a sexuality they did not choose or create. Sexual orientation, once formed, is permanent, for heterosexuals and for homosexuals. It is not up to us to sanctify our own orientation while we prevent that same possibility for others. Just as God does not deal despotically with creation (B. <\/em><\/span>Avodah Zara<\/span><\/em> 3a<\/em>), so too we must not deal despotically with deep-seated and unchangeable drives for love, connection, and family.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this information points in a similar direction, verifying the wisdom of the Torah that “it is not good for a person to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We are commanded not to judge another until we have stood in his place (<\/span>Avot<\/em> <\/span>2:5), that we must all abide by a single standard (Exodus 12:49), and that we must love each other (Leviticus 19:18).<\/span><\/p>\n

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