Judaism and Sexual Orientation - Orthodox Jewish Views

Orthodox Jewish Views

While a variety of views regarding homosexuality as an inclination or status exist within the Orthodox Jewish community, Orthodox Judaism generally prohibits homosexual conduct. While there is disagreement about which acts come under core prohibitions, all of Orthodox Judaism puts certain core homosexual acts, including male-male anal sex in the category of yehareg ve'al ya'avor, "die rather than transgress", the small category of Biblically-prohibited acts (also including murder, idolatry, adultery, and incest) which an Orthodox Jew is obligated under the laws of Self-sacrifice under Jewish Law to die rather than do. According to the Talmud, homosexuality is forbidden between non-Jews as well, and is included among the sexual restrictions of the Noachide laws.

In a speech given in 1986, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, discussed "individuals who express an inclination towards a particular form of physical relationship in which the libidinal gratification is sought with members of one's own gender". He wrote that "society and government must be to offer a helping hand to those who are afflicted with this problem".

But Rabbi Benjamin Hecht writes that one Orthodox rabbi views homosexuality as a deliberate rebellion against God.

Rav Moshe Feinstein, in Iggrot Moshe, Orach Chaim, Part 4, Responsa 115, adopted a very strong position against homosexuality. Human drives are necessary although they must be controlled. Since there is no purpose for the homosexual drive, Rav Moshe contends, it must not be a true drive. Therefore, the underlying reason for gay behavior, he argues, must be to rebel against God, to wish to do something forbidden (perhaps, implying some innate knowledge of its forbidden nature).

Traditionally, homosexuals have been considered to have chosen to engage in homosexual actions in order to spite God (le-hach'is) or to be perverse. Beginning in the 1970s and influenced by new perspectives in the sociological and biological sciences, some Orthodox rabbis began to adopt more sympathetic positions toward those who feel drawn to homosexual activity, without ever accepting the legitimacy of homosexual activity itself. Rabbi Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, in his entry Homosexuality in the Encyclopedia Judaica (Keter Publishing), describes the traditional opinion in this way:

Jewish law rejects the view that homosexuality is to be regarded merely as a disease or as morally neutral.... Jewish law holds that no hedonistic ethic, even if called "love", can justify the morality of homosexuality any more than it can legitimize adultery or incest, however genuinely such acts may be performed out of love and by mutual consent.

Rabbi Norman Lamm (the Chancellor, Rosh Yeshiva, and former president of Yeshiva University, a major Modern Orthodox Jewish institution) advocated that some (although not all) homosexuals should be viewed as diseased and in need of compassion and treatment, rather than willful rebels who should be ostracized. He distinguishes between six varieties of homosexuals, including "genuine homosexuals" who have "strong preferential erotic feelings for members of the same sex", "transitory" and "situational" homosexuals who would prefer heterosexual intercourse but are denied it or seek gain in homosexuality, and heterosexuals who are merely curious.

When Steven Greenberg, who received Orthodox rabbinic ordination, publicly announced that he was homosexual, there was a significant response from rabbis of all denominations reported in the Jewish newspapers. Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a leading rabbi at Yeshiva University, stated "It is very sad that an individual who attended our yeshiva sunk to the depths of what we consider a depraved society,"

Tendler said that Rabbi Greenberg's announcement is "the exact same as if he said, 'I'm an Orthodox Rabbi and I eat ham sandwiches on Yom Kippur.' What you are is a Reform Rabbi."

Sandi Simcha Dubowski's movie Trembling Before G-d (2001) documented the experiences of several homosexual Modern Orthodox and Haredi Jews. The spokesperson for Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran, attacked the film with an article "Dissembling Before G-d", maintaining that gay people can be cured through therapy, and that the movie is meant to promote homosexuality:

Unfortunately, though, "Trembling" seems to have other intents as well. While it never baldly advocates the case for broader societal acceptance of homosexuality or for the abandonment of elements of the Jewish religious tradition, those causes are subtly evident in the stark, simplistic picture the film presents of sincere, conflicted and victimized men and women confronted by a largely stern and stubborn cadre of rabbis.

That picture is both incomplete and distorted. For starters, the film refuses to even allow for the possibility that men and women with homosexual predilections might - with great effort, to be sure - achieve successful and happy marriages to members of the opposite sex.

In November 2011, Greenberg officiated at the marriage of two Orthodox men, thought to be the first Orthodox same-sex marriage.