On Homosexuality and the Media

Rabbi Melanie Aron

April 30, 2004

Last Friday I spent two hours with a reporter from the Mercury News who was following up a story she had written on recent efforts to recall San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales. She had been speaking with a group of fundamentalist ministers who were incensed by the city’s decision to extend health care benefits to the same sex spouse of a city employee who had recently been married in San Francisco. Her question for me was : what about Leviticus 18: 22 ?

For starters I found it ironic that a branch of Christianity which leans so heavily on the Pauline doctrine of the primacy of faith over works, that is that the commandments are not necessary as all salvation comes from faith in Jesus as the Messiah, should start quoting Biblical law. Yes, in Chapter 18 of Leviticus, lying with a man as one lies with a woman is called a to’evah, an abhorrent thing, but the term to’evah is used over 100 times in the Torah, covering diverse violations of the commandments, including eating non-kosher food, physical contact with a menstruating woman, intermarriage, witchcraft and participating in non-Jewish religious practices. Was the next local fundamentalist crusade going to be joining in our efforts to restore a kosher butcher to the San Jose community?

That’s a fine answer for the outside world- but what about our Jewish response? Homosexuality is mentioned in three legal texts in the Bible. In Leviticus 18, our Torah reading tonight, we find a list of forbidden sexual relations, which is then repeated in Leviticus 20, where the prohibition on homosexuality is also repeated. In chapter 18 these are stated as religious absolutes and in chapter 20 more as societal crimes with an attached punishment. The text in Deuteronomy is only indirectly about homosexuality. It states that the earnings of a male prostitute may not be brought into the Temple as an offering, parallel to the prohibition of the fees of a female prostitute.

Christians sometimes quote the story of Sodom and Gemorah to demonstrate God’s abhorrence of homosexuality, though the Biblical prophets and later Jewish commentators have understood the critical sin of Sodom to be their extreme selfishness and unwillingness to share their wealth with the needy. That the Sodomites requested to have the two male visitors brought out so that they might be raped, is a mere illustration of the depravity of their society and their cruelty to visitors, and is not about homosexuality per se.

Contemporary Jews have responded to the Levitical texts in a variety of ways.

First, some argue that there are many Biblical laws that we don’t see as incumbent upon ourselves today. Especially for those who don’t observe niddah (not touching potentially menstruating women) or who don’t keep kosher, why would this law concerning to’evah be viewed as more important? Rabbi Arthur Waskow takes this approach in arguing that the Rabbis of the Talmud knew that circumstances change and the law changes. He shows many examples where the rabbis knowingly changing a Biblical teaching. He also notes that our understanding of science changes our outlook, particularly in relation to spilling seed as we no longer believe that semen contains miniature people.

A second approach is to look carefully at the three Biblical passages concerning homosexuality and note that they are all in the context of not participating in idolatrous ritual practices. The Deuteronomy passage speaks about cult prostitutes. The Leviticus text begins: “I am the Eternal Your God, do not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you, nor shall you follow their laws.” Some scholars argue that the homosexual practices banned are known to the Israelites in a pagan religious context and therefore have nothing to do with homosexuality as it is practiced today in a monogamous loving relationship. This argument has also been picked up by Reform and Conservative rabbis including the well known Rabbi Harold Shulweis and locally by Rabbi Stuart Kelman who authored an article on this subject for the Conservative movement.

A third approach is to look at the Torah holistically and to use the general to refute the specific. This is the approach that Rabbi David Ellenson, President of the Hebrew Union College, takes in a recent article. He argues that Reform support for same sex marriage is not an example of “embracing the goals of liberal America” while ignoring Jewish values. Rather he argues that the extension of rights to gays and lesbians is part of the Biblical quest for justice and the basic Jewish vision of humanity. A core Jewish value is the teaching at the very beginning of Genesis that every human being is created betzelem, in the image of God and is thus of infinite value, whatever their sexual orientation. Further he notes that the commandment, do not oppress the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt, is the most repeated commandment in the Torah. It is repeated 39 times as opposed to the commandment against homosexuality which is found only in the Levitical codes. Rabbi Ellenson notes that the rabbis of the Talmud taught regarding Halachah, Jewish law, that the commandment “you shall do that which is upright and good” trumps any conflicting commandments. Thus promoting stable and loving homes where bonds between partners are permanent and sanctified would in his mind trump earlier prohibitions.

Our movement has passed a number of resolutions on related issues which can all be found on the website of the Reform movement www.urj.org.

The section which Cantor Felder-Levy will be chanting is read by Orthodox and Conservative Jews on Yom Kippur afternoon, at the point in the service where the Reform movement reads Leviticus 19, the Holiness Code.