The bible states that Homosexuality is an abomination:
I wonder what those Jews who profess to Ultra Orthodoxy would do to homosexuals if they were in their power?
Recently the Netuei Karta, a group of right wing ortho-jews, spent Sabbath in Gaza to show solidarity with the Palestinians. They are unequivocal in their belief that Israel should not be Jewish controlled untill the Messiah arrives.
At least they are honest. They don't hide their beliefs or water them down. They are not attempting to bridge the divide between a book written thousands of years ago and today. I surmise they believe that when the Messiah arrives and the third temple is built, convicted homosexuals will be put to death as the bible commands.
The rest of Jewry are shocked by the actions of the Neturei Karta. They distance themselves from this group because they recognize that they are totally out of step with the world. It is implied, that even the most stringent of right wing jews no longer accepts all the rules of the bible as written.
Ortho-Jews are not arguing to enforce the laws of the bible, rather, they want a biblical Israel with the belief that it will be like Disneyworld: a Jewish theme park. All will be well in this theme park. There will be no crime and no sin. They stridently avoid discussing what are the rules of the bible that are distasteful in today's world: rules that govern women, death penalty for a variety of issues, etc.
At least the Neturei Karta are honest in their belief. They are willing for every jew in Israel to be killed if that will bring the Messiah. But the fakers at YU, the ones who so easily call homosexuality an abomination, do they want to punish gays with death?
Are they willing to open up the books on their own lives and live by the punishments of the bible?
From the Jerusalem Post:
A recent public forum at Yeshiva University that took on the question of homosexuality in the Orthodox Jewish world has prompted a backlash from students and teachers, who fired back with petitions and public lectures condemning the event.
Critics of the event, held December 22, say it lent legitimacy to those who are trying to water down aspects of Jewishlaw, which explicitly bans homosexuality. With some students and rabbis calling the event a desecration of God's name, YU President Richard Joel and Rabbi Yona Reiss, dean of the rabbinical school, circulated a statement in the days after the forum reiterating the "absolute prohibition of homosexual relationships according toJewish law."
In a lecture at YU on December 28, Rabbi Mayer Twersky sharply criticizedthe event, while acknowledging that its organizers probably had good intentions. "Not only in my lifetime, but I think in your lifetimes, there was a point in which such a shmooze [discussion] would have been unimaginable, inconceivable. Not only unnecessary, but inappropriate. Wrong," he said.
"If the Torah says something is a toevah [abomination], it is that," he said. "And there's no need and, more importantly, no justification for being politically correct in terms of what it is. The Torah says it, the Torah's value judgments are eternally true."
2 comments:
I don't see why according to Halacha anyone would want to punish anyone with death. Sometimes there is a need to do it, but only under very specific circumstances which almost never happen (Eidim, Hasraah, Hataras Atzmo LMisa)
Moreover one can make a legit argument that enforcement of the Torah's laws is only feasable in a situation where the large majority of Jews keep them, unlike the situation we have today.
What indication have the YU Roshei Yeshiva given that they do not pine for a society in which most Jews keep the Mitzvos on their own voiltion and halacha is enforced?
It is not a matter of want. Nor is it an issue of debating the method of enforcement of death penalty.
The philosophy is, as stated by command of god, that homosexuality is an abomination and deserves the death penalty.
There are many other laws that one suffers death penalty, but none are so publicly upsetting to Othodoxy as homosexuality. Why is that?
Wanting a Torah True society means that you want to a live in a govt whose philosophy is that gays deserve to die.
Post a Comment