Aviv Foundation grants $1 million to expand operations of
Orthodox LGBTQ inclusion group Eshel
Donation, which will allow the group to work in new areas
and hold more events, comes amid both a surge in interest and pushback.
I hate to sound like a broken record. But remaining silent
about a development as significant as this - would, in my view, amount to
condoning it. I do not. And as an Orthodox Jew, I feel obligated to respond.
The question of accepting LGBTQ Jews - whether gay, lesbian,
bisexual, or transgender - into the Orthodox community is a very complicated
one. First, however, it is important to point out that homosexuality and
transgender identity are two radically different issues with very different
halachic implications. The one thing they have in common is the way society has
historically treated them and how societal attitudes toward both have evolved.
For purposes of this essay, I will limit my comments to
homosexuality and discuss how observant gay Jews should be treated by the
Orthodox community. That has always been a difficult question for me to answer,
and it has become increasingly so as society has moved toward greater
acceptance - and even celebration of it.
I have expressed my views on this subject many times. Ad
nauseam, some would say. But in light of this latest development, I feel
compelled to repeat them for the sake of clarity.
The act of male homosexual intercourse is a serious Torah
prohibition. By definition, therefore, it cannot be celebrated by an Orthodox
Jew. That does not mean that someone who experiences same-sex attraction should
be condemned. It is one thing to be attracted to behavior the Torah forbids.
That attraction is not itself sinful. Acting upon it is.
A gay individual who refrains from homosexual relations has
done nothing wrong. At the same time, celebrating a homosexual identity—even if
one never acts upon those desires—is problematic. Whether a gay person succumbs
to that temptation in private is not our business. Judaism teaches us not to
judge people based on what we suspect they may do, but on what they actually
do.
Therefore, if someone says he is attracted to members of the
same sex, that alone does not disqualify him from being a full-fledged member
of the Orthodox Jewish community in good standing. What is not acceptable is
celebrating desires that the Torah explicitly forbids.
Enter Eshel…
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