Major Jewish Rabbis And Scholars Declare That Homosexuality “Is A Natural Thing”, Homoerotic Love Is Permitted, And Sodomite Relationships Must Be Accepted

In contrast to the rabbinic voices heard on the LGBT level , there are other, but much less vocal, rabbinic voices in the field and in the halakhic field, and many have changed there over the past four decades, Dr. Ronit Irshai and Rabbi Ze’ev Farber, Both of whom are from the Hartman Institute, who have studied (separately) the relationship to homosexuality in Halakhah.

” Rabbi Rafi Peretz’s words do not reflect the developments that have taken place in the past 30 or 40 years,” says Dr. Ir Shai, a gender researcher at Bar-Ilan University, who brings one of the leading halachic authorities, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, “There is no such thing as homosexuality, and it is not in nature, so there was no reason to deal with it halachically or morally,” she says. “In the mid-1970s, most of the world agreed with him.

“But the situation is almost completely reversed, and today there is a growing recognition among many Halachic people, which is a completely natural situation, and these rabbis are the silent majority, their voices may not be heard in public, but they do holy work with the LGBT community. Once there is recognition that this is natural, a very difficult moral problem arises between the halachic prohibition against male marriage and the lack of halakhic response. ”

According to Dr. Irshi, “Judaism has never opposed sexuality, and vice versa – it requires it, and here it leaves a whole group of people with no ability to find a sexual outlet. In addition, Judaism not only did not oppose marriage and family – it is one of its core values, and here, ostensibly, it discusses a whole group of people for loneliness, God forbid, for the rest of their lives. ”

“It’s time to encourage homosexuals to live together in a monogamous and binding relationship”

“When rabbis meet with their good students , you can not look them in the eye and tell them, ‘You are perverts, you are wicked,’” says Shai, adding: ” These guys want to remain religious and want to remain loyal to halakha. , This is their religious world, but they want a solution to their distress, and that requires a much more serious confrontation. ”

“They are the halachic framework of ‘Marranos’
Rabbi Farber, an Orthodox rabbi, explains that there are halakhic authorities who view the LGBT community as “anusim” – a halakhic expression that describes a situation of “no choice.” He seeks to explain what Halakhah allows by means of a Talmudic story that describes the legal situation of a woman, Free and half slave.

They told him to punish himself every time he thought about boys, made it clear to him that this was a hereditary criminality-and they blamed him for gravity. At age 13, Shai Bramson turned to a religious organization that deals with conversion treatments-but he experienced a dark period. The words of the Minister of Education brought him back years ago

“According to Halakha, it was determined that she should be released completely because she is not allowed to marry anyone in her current situation, which led her to turn to prostitution, Rabbi Meshulam Ruta explained that she should not be treated as sinful because she is” raped. ” A prohibition, even if technically not permitted, is considered an act outside of the control of the person, which can not be judged on him. ”

Rabbi Farber presents another halachic example: “Rabbi Mas’ud HaCohen allowed the court to annul the marriage in case the man anchors the woman because the husband causes her to make a prohibition and start a new life with a new man.” Rabbi Mas’ud claimed that she was ” Since the urge to be in a relationship is too strong to give up, so we have to solve the problem in the most efficient way we have. ”

While Rabbi Feinstein came out firmly against the LGBT, at that time (1974), Rabbi Norman Lamm, of Yeshiva University in the United States, determined that homosexuals could be treated as “Marranos.” Rabbi Farber explains that “because their natural attraction is to their species, and since normal people can not give up a system for the rest of their lives – in fact they have no other option but to commit the offense.”

“In recent years, a number of other rabbis, especially Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Rabbi Benny Lau, have claimed this, and in my opinion, the answers of Rabbi Ruta and Rabbi Mas’ud reinforce this argument and even give us advice in which direction to act.”

“Homosexuality is a natural thing”

Dr. Ronit Ir Shai insists that “Rabbi Rafi Peretz does not reflect what is happening today in the world of religious-national law, and in my opinion this is beginning to seep into the ultra-Orthodox world as well.” The rabbis of the moderate stream in religious Zionism are dealing with this issue intensively, .

“I am married and observant, even if the majority do not see me as such,” says Yael Rashlin, who was a religious man, married and the father of children. Today she is married to Hadar, who is also a observant woman, and mothers of the baby: “I am no different from any of you.” If you deserve to fall in love and be happy in the family unit,

An example of how halakhic authorities have adopted these rulings in recent decades is from Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, former head of Yeshivat Har Etzion and one of the leading rabbis of religious Zionism. “He said that as long as the religious communities do not refrain from allowing them to attend the Torah on Shabbat, there is no reason for their feelings of hatred and hatred towards homosexuals, Contain them and accept them within communities as equals. ”

She further argues that “in terms of halachic work, there is an increasing distinction between identity and action: The Torah forbade male sex, but it did not forbid homoerotic feelings, nor love between two men, and the Torah did not write anything about their relationship It is true that she sanctified the heterosexual family, but what is forbidden is only male sex, and once you understand this, it is much easier to break this prohibition and make distinctions within it.

“For example, there is a distinction within the act itself – and I also hear this from rabbis as important as Rabbi Rafi Peretz, in this great thing called religious Zionism … In the act itself, what is forbidden is male sex, and there are already rabbis who understand that if it is in nature, There are rabbis who understand this matter and give a halakhic ruling in this spirit to religious homosexuals, who are not religiously observant, Who seek their blessing. ”

“Let children grow up to Torah and mitzvot”

Rabbi Farber adds that “just as the sages had to solve the problem of the half-slave and the agunah, we too have a duty to solve the problem of those with a sexual orientation. Distressed Halachic advice.

“And most importantly, to say out loud and with all our heart that we have no judgment about homosexuals, it is a natural situation in which some people are living, and they have to live their lives in the way they were born to live.”

Rabbi Farber calls for “putting judgment aside and going hand in hand: encouraging homosexuals to live together in a monogamous and binding relationship with each other and a woman with her spouse, and raising children to fulfill Torah and mitzvot, like all heterosexual couples in the religious community.” (source, source)