Homosexuality and the Bible — A Jewish Perspective
Image via Wikipedia The Conservative movement within American Judaism is debating the issue of homosexuality , centered in the questions of the ordination of homosexuals as rabbis and the blessing of same-sex union. As with Christian denominations , the inescapable issue is the authority of the Bible. The Old Testament ’s clear words of condemnation for all homosexual behavior would seem to be clear enough, but the Virtual Talmud blog offers this explanation: The question of same-sex marriage is controversial, of course. It would be easy to argue, as many do, that same-sex marriage, and by extension all homosexuality, is biblically prohibited. Leviticus 18:22 clearly states, “Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman, it is an abhorrence.”If we were to read the Bible as a fundamentalist would, those words might be enough for us. But as Jews, we don’t act simply on the literal words of the Bible. We seek to understand God’s will for us through the lenses of (rabbinic) inte