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| Gay and Orthodox - Yair Cherki (JTA) |
It is in that spirit that I want to add my own love (among the many others that have expressed theirs) of a fellow Jew whom I do not know. He just came out as a homosexual. JTA reports the following:
Yair Cherki, the religion reporter for Israel’s Channel 12, became a household name because of his sidecurls, his cheery demeanor and his rapid-fire delivery as he has guided his viewers into the lives and homes of Israel’s haredi Orthodox community.
On Tuesday, he delivered a different sort of message — a wrenching coming-out statement posted to Facebook.
“I love guys. I love guys and the Holy Blessed One,” a religious term for God, Cherki wrote. “It’s not a contradiction, and it’s not new.”
He went on to describe how he had grappled with a secret that had tormented him.
“I have always lived with the clash between this sexual preference and faith,” he wrote. “There are those who solved the conflict by saying there is no God, and there are others who have said there are no gays. In my flesh, I know they both exist and I try to resolve this internal conflict in multiple ways.”
If there were a prototype of a gay Jew who is a believer and observant, Yair Cherki is that person.
As I often say here, being attracted only to members of the same sex is not a sin. Only acting on that attraction in ways which the Torah explicitly forbids is. As a believer and observant Jew I assume that despite his inclinations, he resists doing things which the Torah forbids. Including things that he may naturally be inclined todo because of his sexual orientation.
I have no clue what he does in private. But that is true about almost everyone I know, We all sin in one way or another. Hopefully not deliberately. And if we sometimes succumb to our desires – as religious Jews we regret it and try to do Teshuva with the intent to never to do it again.
This is how a religious Jew behaves when it coms to sins between God and Man. (When it comes to sins between man and man, Teshuva can only be done by first getting forgiveness from the person you sinned against.) Be that as it may, I believe that as an observant Jew who loves God, Yair Cherki is of that mindset and behaves accordingly since that is what the Torah demands.
I also applaud his coming out. I’m sure there is more than one observant homosexual that is still in the closet fearing the backlash if they come out. It must be impossibly hard to live a lie like that. One needs to be honest about himself for his own good and the good of society. In this way he will no longer be pressured to get married. Which in most cases would be a disaster for him and an unknowing spouse – until after the Chupah.
This is in stark contrast to the LGBTQ+ community. Their take is to consider intimate homosexual relationships something to be celebrated. Something to even flaunt in a Gay Pride Parade. They consider intimate same sex relationships to be morally equivalent to heterosexual relationships. God is not in the picture.
Except in their complete rejection of God and His words in the Bible. Which are seen as having no moral value in the more ‘enlightened’ world in which we now live. And without the bible who is to say they are wrong? Who gets hurt when 2 consenting adults have sex together regardless of whether they are of the same sex or not?
It is to Yair’s great credit that he struggled with the conflict between his attractions and his beliefs. And that he is determined to be observant even while recognizing his homosexuality. He did not reject God at all. He embraces God. As should we all. Whether he ever succumbs to a homosexual Taavah (desire) is nobody’s business. Same as anyone else who succumbs to a forbidden heterosexual Taavah. Nobody’s business except God.
