HOMOSEXUALITY

A group in the Temple is planning a discussion program on the question of homosexuality. What is there in Jewish law on this subject? (From I.B.C., Florida.)

CONSIDERING the prevalence of homosexuality in the East, one can say in general that it is remarkable how little place the whole question occupies in Jewish law. After the biblical prohibitions, there is almost nothing in the Mishnah, Talmud, and Codes on the question. The Talmud itself explains (perhaps unconscious of the fact that it is explaining it) why there is so little discussion of the question. In b. Kiddushin 82a it discusses the prohibition of seclusion (yichud) with any of the forbidden sexual degrees of relationship; i.e., a man must avoid being, or must not be permitted to be, alone with a woman with whom he is forbidden to have sexual relationship. Then the Talmud says that Jewish people are not under the suspicion of homosexuality (i.e., it is highly improbable among Jews) and therefore it is not forbidden for a Jewish man to be alone with another Jewish man.

There is an interesting development of this Talmudic statement in the way this dictum (that Jews are not suspected, etc.) is carried over to the Shulchan Aruch. The Shulchan Aruch (in Even Hoezer 24) states the law as derived from the Talmud that since Jewish men are not suspected of homosexuality, they are not forbidden to be alone with each other. Then Joseph Caro adds: “However, in these generations when sinful men have increased, it is better to avoid isolation with another male.” Moses Rifkes (Poland, seventeenth century) in his Be’er Ha-Gola, gives the Talmudic reference for the first part of the statement; but as for the latter part of the statement (“Nowadays when evil men have increased,” etc.) he notes carefully: “These are his own words; there is no reference for this precaution in the Talmudic literature, and Joseph Caro makes the precaution on his own authority.” Why should Joseph Caro have made such an extra precaution which the Talmud does not require, against males being secluded together? The Bes Shemuel (Samuel of Furth) explains, in the name of Joel Sirkes (Poland, sixteenth century), that in the land in which he (Joseph Caro) lived, homosexuality was rampant, but “not in our land,” hence it is not required for males to avoid isolation (see Bach to Tur, same reference). Of course this is correct historically. The Arab lands were notorious for homosexuality and Joseph Caro knew that. But to the rest of Jewry it seemed farfetched to prohibit males to associate with each other for fear of homosexuality.

Now as to the Biblical sources: They are Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, prohibiting male sexuality with males; also Deuteronomy 23:18, which prohibits male prostitutes who were maintained in connection with the idolatrous temples. So, more specifically, I Kings 14:24, speaking of the evils of Judah when it became corrupt, says that the people copied “the abominations of the nations around them and had male prostitution.” The prohibition is carried over into the Mishnah, Sanhedrin VII, 4, where it is briefly mentioned among the whole list of sexual relationships. Then the fullest discussion in the Talmud is in Sanhedrin 54b- There is a discussion whether illicit intercourse is punishable by death if it is involved with a person under the age of nine. The Rambam in Hilchos lssure Biah 1:14 summarizes this Talmudic discussion and says that both the active and passive partners are culpable (as the Talmud says) but the punishment of death should not be inflicted upon a boy under nine (evidently a young boy would hardly initiate such action). But Maimonides adds that although the punishment of death does not apply in this case, they should be punished by the courts. In other words, such intercourse with a boy under nine is potur from the death penalty, but asur (forbidden per se) and should be punished.

All in all, considering how much detail there is in the law on every kind of forbidden sexual relationship, the very paucity of biblical and post-biblical law on the matter speaks well for the normalcy and the purity of the Jewish people.