HOMOSEXUAL CONGREGATIONS

QUESTION:

A rabbi on the West Coast, the Regional Director of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations for Southern California, organized a congregation of homosexuals. He said, “These are people facing their own situation. They have become a social grouping.” Is it in accordance with the spirit of Jewish tradition to encourage the establishment of a congregation of homosexuals? (Asked by Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, President of UAHC.)

ANSWER:

THERE IS NO QUESTION that Scripture considers homosexuality to be a grave sin. The rabbi who organized this congregation said, in justifying himself, that being Reform, we are not bound by the Halacha of the Bible. It may well be that we do not consider ourselves bound by all the ritual and ceremonial laws of Scripture, but we certainly revere the ethical attitudes and judgments of the Bible. In Scripture (Leviticus 18:22) homosexuality is considered to be “an abomination?’ So, too, in Leviticus 20:13. If Scripture calls it an abomination, it means that it is more than a violation of a mere legal enactment; it reveals a deep-rooted ethical aversion. How deep-rooted this aversion is can be seen from the fact that although Judaism developed in the Near East, which is notorious for the prevalence of homosexuality, Jews kept away from such acts, as is seen from the Talmud (Kiddushin 82a) which states that Jews are not “under the suspicion of homosexuality.” In other words, the opposition to homosexuality was more than a Biblical law; it was a deep-rooted way of life of the Jewish people, a way of life maintained in a world where homosexuality was a widespread practice. Therefore homosexual acts cannot “be brushed aside, as the rabbi on the West Coast is reported to have done, by saying that we do not follow Biblical enactments. Homosexuality runs counter to the sancta of Jewish life. There is no sidestepping the fact that from the point of view of Judaism, men who practice homosexuality are to be deemed sinners.

But what conclusion is to be drawn from the fact that homosexual acts are sinful acts? Does it mean, therefore, that we should exclude homosexuals from the congregation and thus compel them to form their own religious fellowship in congregations of their own? No! The very contrary is true. It is forbidden to segregate them into a separate congregation, The Mishna (Megilla IV, 9) says that if a man in his prayer says, “Let good people bless Thee, O Lord,” the man who prays thus must be silenced. Bertinoro explains why we silence the man who says, “Let the good praise Thee.” He says it is a sin to say so because the man implies that only righteous people shall be in the congregation. The contrary is true. He adds that the chemical “chelbena” (Galbanum) has an evil odor; yet it is included in the recipe of the sacred incense offered in the Temple in Jerusalem. Bertinoro bases this idea specifically on the statement in the Talmud (Kerisus 6b) where the Talmud uses the example of the presence of ill-smelling Galbanum in the sacred incense as proof for the following statement: “No fast-day service is a genuine service unless sinners of Israel are included among the worshipers.” That is to say that if we were self-righteous and considered the community to be entirely composed of noble people, we would then be far too smug and self-satisfied for a truly penitential fast-day service. That is why Maharil, in the 14th century, followed the custom of saying before the Kol Nidre that we must pray side by side with the sinners. This has become our Ashkenazic custom before the Kol Nidre prayer and, in fact, it has become a universal Jewish custom since Joseph Karo, the Sephardi, mentions it as a law in the Shulchan Aruch, Orah Hayyim 619:1 (and compare the Be’er Hetev to the passage). In other words, not only do we not exclude sinners, we are actually forbidden to do so; they are a necessary part of the congregation. That is the significance of the law in the Mishna that we silence the reader if he says, “Let only the righteous praise Thee.”

This throws light on the present situation. We do not exclude them. We are forbidden by our tradition to do so. They are excluding themselves; and it is our duty to ask, why are they doing it? Why do they want to commit the further sin of “separating themselves from the congregation”?

Part of their wish is, of course, due to the “Gay Liberation” movement. Homosexuals, male and fe male, faced with laws which they deem unjust, are fighting in behalf of their rights and, therefore, are in the mood to extract formal recognition from all possible groups. If they can get the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to acknowledge their right to form separate congregations, it will bolster their propaganda for other rights. In fact, the press recently carried a demand on the part of women homosexuals for a separate congregation of their own. (I believe these were Christian women.)

It seems to me, also, that it is not unfair to ascribe an additional motive for their desire to be grouped together, to the exclusion of others: In this way they know each other and are available to each other, just as they now group together in separate bars and saloons in the great cities. What, then, of young boys who perhaps have only a partial homosexual tendency, who will now be available to inveterate homosexuals? Are we not thereby committing the sin of “aiding and abetting sinners” (M’sayye Yedey Ovrey Averah)? (b. Aboda Zara 55b)

To sum up: Homosexuality is deemed in Jewish tradition to be a sin, not only in law but in the Jewish way of life. Nevertheless it would be a direct contravention of Jewish law to keep sinners out of the congregation. To isolate them into a separate congregation and thus increase their mutual availability is certainly wrong. It is hardly worth mentioning that to officiate at a so-called “marriage” of two homosexuals and to describe their mode of life as Kiddushin (i.e., sacred in Judaism) is a contravention of all that is respected in Jewish life.