Far From Zion

Homosexuality and halacha

There is shift in the debate about homosexuality in the world right now. The discourse is changing in the political and religious sphere as people realize that the old bigotries just won’t do anymore. Fank Rich has an Op-Ed in today’s NYTimes about the waning days of anti-Gay bigotry in enshrined in U.S. Law, as a reaction to the delightfully stupid and amazingly hateful video by the National Organization for Marriage, The Gathering Storm (I’m not going to link to it).  Even Karl “the gays are coming to take your guns, vote Republican” Rove’s disciple, Steve Schmidt senses the shifting winds and has thrown his support behind marriage rights for all. And in the sphere of faith, even Rick Warren is backpedaling toward less bigotry.

So, what about the Jews? Haim Watzman at South Jerusalem has a piece up about And Thou Shalt Love, a short film about a gay Orthodox Jew who cannot abandon either of those parts of himself (for more on this, of course, everyone should see Trembling before G-D, and look at the other resources on their website).

I am especially fond of this line of the post, which sums of the problem facing Orthodoxy in all religions around this issue:

What is certain is that the process must begin by the acknowledgment that current halachic attitudes to homosexuality create an injustice that the halacha and that the community of believers cannot tolerate.

The Orthodox have to find a way to square the reality of homosexuality as a valid expression of love with their own belief systems, and this will no doubt take some time (how long did it take to resolve the number of plagues issue, after all? Rabbinic arguments are eternal…), but it is a debate that must happen because, as Watzman puts it, the current condemnation“cannot be tolerated in a system that is meant to be the practical expression of God’s immanence in the world.”

There are plenty of halachic arguments out there. Rabbi Bradley Arston, dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies wrote an argument (pdf) that was accepted by the Conservative Movement some time ago, and his website has a plethora of further writings on the subject.

The key point that Rabbi Arston makes, and one that is echoed in Jay Michaelson’s long piece on reconciling being gay and religously Jewish, is that

Encouraging sexual responsibility and stability among homosexuals can only strengthen family values and traditional communities for all.  Lacking any compelling reason for stigmatizing monogamous gays and lesbians, the clear moral imperative is to take a bold stand with these innocent and seeking Jews rather than with those who would oppress them.  We must find a way to draw these people into the fabric of Jewish community, with the goal of bringing them  to a life of Torah and mitzvot.

Now, as always, we must remember the fundamental goal of Jewish law: “Clearly justice is the ultimate value to which God’s will must conform; any dichotomy between them is unthinkable.  The demand of ethics and the command of God are one.”

“The demands of ethics and the commands of God are one.” Right there is the reason that all people of faith should not only support equal rights and dignity for GLBT people, they should be leading the charge.

(in the political sphere, Israel is reaching out internationally to gay rights groups to bolster its case against Iran. This is a pretty good idea and far more hepful than calling Iran the next Third Reich)