Religiousness and Morality

As I'm sure many of you have realized, I have been truly fascinated during our recent chumash classes. (and frustrated since I'm dying to just know all of the answers already!) What I found so beautiful today was the fact that in Judaism there must be a mix of the "religious" and the "moral." There is no such thing as having one and not the other. It simply cannot happen. I think this is very important for many of us in the class (including me) because sometimes we get so bogged down on the "religious" side of things that we forget about what sometimes seems obvious, the morality. When we look at someone who is dressed modestly we automatically think that she is a "religious" person. However, if she is a nasty person who treats her friends terribly, she cannot be classified as "religious." The following example is regarding the new dress code. Ever since the new dress code system has been put in to effect, there is a noticeable difference in people's skirt length. This is fantastic! However, I also hear people comment on the longer skirts and in some way ridicule the "frum look" or even "frum" people. (By the way, I'm totally including myself in this. I'm guilty of it too!) Some people might say that she is "religious," but she is not because she is not acting in a moral, appropriate way. This reminds me of the Ramban we learned on "Kedoshim Tehiyu." Ramban says that we need to make sure that even if we keep the rules technically, we shouldn't act in a refined way. We should act in an appropriate way in the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.
Another thing I would like to discuss is the overused word: "religious." When classifying or talking about Jewish people, we often use the term "religious." However, we always say it with quotes around it or point out that it is in fact not the right word. I think this is because people classify people who wear a black hat as "religious." However, as I discussed before that shouldn't be the criteria of "religious." There is the moral realm that plays in it as well, and I think we often forget that.

Do You Worship G-d or Your Religion?

And Religious Tolerance

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The following post was inspired by the article "Are Mormons Any Weirder Than The Rest Of Us?" by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Click here to read the full article.

I would like to start off this article by asking you a question: Do you think you are better than anyone because you are Jewish (or to make it even more specific: an Orthodox Jew)? 

What spurred the article is that there has been much debate over the fact that Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are Mormon. A lot of people don't like that.  Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association said that the "ideal profile of the next president of the United States" should be "a man of sincere, authentic, genuine Christian faith." Pastor Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Church of Dallas called the Mormon faith "a cult" and said he would prefer "a competent Christian to a competent non-Christian."

What is it with other groups hating on other groups? I know that there's not much we can do about other people's prejudices, but the least we can do is make sure we don't have any of our own. We should try to be open minded and see a person for who they are and what they've done. Every religion has weird things that people can point at and say "that's weird" and make fun of it. It's not like people haven't been making fun of Jews for forever. We should try to be more sensitive and make sure that we don't accidentally say something offensive.  I think a lot of us are all guilty of it sometimes. We find ourselves making sweeping,  offensive, generalizations about other religions (or anything that is different) without realizing what is so bad at the time. We should be more careful about what we say. 

Rabbi Boteach brings up an interesting commentary on the Akeida from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson. He says that the key to the story is to see Isaac not as an individual but as a religion. Yitzchak was Judaism- the person who would continue Abraham's belief system. With his death, everything that Abraham had taught in terms of his rejection of paganism and the belief in one G-d would be lost.

"The test, therefore, was this: Would Abraham follow G-d's commandment to kill off his religion or would he put his religion before G-d's will? What really mattered to Abraham? G-d or Judaism? And if they were to be put in conflict, what would he choose? The religious fanatic is the man or woman who has ceased to serve G-d and has begun worshiping their religion, making their faith into yet another false idol. Religion is solely the means by which by which we come to have a relationship with our Creator. But when it becomes a substitute for G-d it becomes soulless and fanatical, seeing as there is no loving deity to temper it. It is in this light that we can understand why an Islamic fundamentalist is so deadly, seeing as he is even prepared to go against G-d's express commandment not to murder in order to strike a blow for the glory, not of the deity, but Islam."


... "It does not matter if they are Jewish, evangelical, Mormon or Muslim.What does matter is whether their faith is focused on relating to G-d and, by extension, caring for G-d's children, or whether they see the purpose of their high station to promote their particular religion. It is easy to identify the difference. People who are in a relationship with G-d are humble and do their utmost to refrain from judging others. Their proximity to a perfect being reminds them of their own fallibility. Their experience of G-d's compassion leads them to be merciful and loving. But those who worship a religion are arrogant and think they have the only truth. They are dismissive of other people's beliefs and maintain that advancing the cause of their religion is more important than life itself. The rabbi in Israel who recently made the strange comment that soldiers should face a firing squad rather than listen to a woman sing is a classic example of this heresy.
Those who worship their religion evince the classic characteristic of cult members. Whereas a real faith system is empowering and makes one strong and capable of operating outside their own faith community, cult members can only identify with other members of their group and require the environment of the cult in order to function. They don't have beliefs. Rather, they take orders."

Okay, so I know that Rabbi Boteach said some pretty major things. But looking back and really thinking about it- do you happen to agree with him? If not, what are some arguments you would respond? Do you agree with what he said about people worshiping their religion? Which one is more important to you- Hashem or your religion? I know they both come hand in hand, but at the end of the day, our practices are just a means of getting closer to Hashem.

Making Connections: This article, in many ways, relates to what we're learning in Kedoshim at the moment. Here are some things to consider:
Letter of the Law vs. Spirit of the Law: People who "worship their religion" instead of worshiping G-d may have a case of following the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. Just because you are following the laws doesn't give you the right to act like a bad person.
Kedoshim T'hyu ki kadosh ani: Be holy for I am holy. We want to emulate G-d and be good people. Yes, we want to make sure we are separate from other nations, but we also want to try to be accepting. You can be separate and still be able to function together.
Can't have one without the other: We learned that you can't be a G-d fearing person without also being a kind person.

Assimilation

Part of Sefer Vayikra has showed us the dangers of following other cultures and religions, such as Mitzraim and Ca'naan. Therefore we have many laws or chukim that separate us from other religions and set apart our religious practices from their religious practices. In the days of the torah, there was clearly a constant threat of assimilation based on the laws found in the Torah. The religions of other nations were appealing to the Jews so therefore Hashem made specific laws which show Jews that they are separate from other nations and establish barriers and boundaries between the different religions. There is such an emphasis in the Torah on the "kedusha" of the Jewish people - their holy quality that sets them apart as a separate nation.

Today we have this same problem of assimilation. Since the Enlightenment in Europe in the 18th century, Jews have been choosing to forget their faith and assimilate into the secular cultures. In the year 2000, the assimilation rates are astounding: 55% for Europe as a whole, 50% among Jews in America and France and close to 40% among British Jews. These numbers are insane. When the number of Jews drops in the world, it is not because of death - it is because of assimilation. This is a topic that I think should be on all of our minds, and I was reminded by these disturbing figures during Chumash today because we spoke about other nations who had laws that the Jewish people might have found appealing. As a Jewish nation, we need to find a way to lower these percentages because they are a threat to the existence of the Jewish people.

Hello my dear fellow classmates,

We have had many discussions in class and there is something that I have always wondered about. Do you sometimes think that the Torah is outdated?

There are so many things in the Torah that don’t apply to our lives anymore today. Can you think of a few examples? Does it bother you? Would you like to change it? Im very interested to see what you think!

Survey

Since I do not have much time due to the sickness of my little John (my computer's name) I am going to create a little survey just to find out what you guys think about Chumash in general:

1. What is your favorite from Bereshit Shmot Vayikra Bamidbar Dvarim and why?

2. What do you like most about the Chumash?

3. What important lessons have you learned from the Chumash?

4. Do you understand most of the things you read in the Chumash? What about Commentaries?

5.So far, what was your favorite thing that you learned in Chumash class until now?

Attention: these results might be skewed due to the fact that I did not use a random sample of the population of the school, but at least we will know what the results of our class to these questions will be like :)

2 Perushim

We have learned that there are two perushim for "Kedoshim tihuyu"
One being that we will be Kedoshim if we build a fence around the things that are prohibited
And the other perush is that we should be careful and know the limit with the things that are permitted.

Personally, I loved the second perush for several reasons.
The first one being that I was raised to believe that many concepts in Judaism were created because we need a limit in life and we are human beings who are supposed to be able to live with having certain limitations and not simply following our animal instincts.

I think that putting a fence around the things that are prohibited has very different opinions since we already see that in this day and age the different groups of Jews that have emerged because some believed we must make more fences than others (and other reasons). For example the Charedi, who have much more strict fences than other people. It is therefore hard to set the fence without being too extreme since we do not know where to place it.

On the other hand, putting a fence around the things that we enjoy is much easier since it tells us that we mustn't overdue things even though they are technically allowed. This is then much easier to follow since it is not an actual law, but it is to improve man and help him overcome his weaknesses, while putting a fence around the things that are prohibited just simply admits that we will fail from the beginning which does not give a human hope to improve, but just an easy way out since it won't be as bad if he sinned (since he only sinned about the fenced law and not the actual)

Importance of every word in the torah

There is this concept that every word in the torah has
importance to it and that it was written for a reason.

Having learned in Chumash that there is a kind of a repetitionof the ten commandments, before having learned this I want to ask you why you think there is that repetition, and how that concept can be applied to this. Some can argue that this shows that not every word in the torah is significant and some can be left out. Tell me what you think!

Honoring Your Parents and Shabbat

The following post will be devoted to trying to better understand passuk gimel on our own (and using commentaries) without learning it in class. Let's see how much we can figure out on our own!

Vayikra Perek 19 Passuk 3 reads as follows: 

אִישׁ אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו תִּירָאוּ, וְאֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ:  אֲנִי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם. 

You shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep My sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. 

אִמּוֹ וְאָבִיו תִּירָאוּ
Rambam: Reverence or fear means that one should act toward his parents as he would toward a sovereign with the power to punish those who treat him disrespectfully.
Rashi: Prohibits children from: sitting in his parents' regular places, interrupting them, or contradicting them in an abrupt or disrespectful manner. Honor, like it says in the ten commandments, refers to a general serving of one's parents (such as assisting them when they have difficulties).
וְאֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ
Rashi: If your parents tell you not to keep shabbat, you're not allowed to obey them. So the two commandments flow well: you have to fear your parents but Hashem's commandments still take precedence over the wishes of your parents'. 
Sifra: God, father, and mother are all partners in a person's existance. 

 שַׁבְּתֹתַי 

I didn't exactly understand this, but it speaks of shabbat in plural. It might be referring to the "higher" and "lower" Shabbat, but I am unclear as to what is the difference. Feel free to fill in the blank.

What other questions do you have about this passuk?

These commandments seem too familiar to the ones in the 10 commandments. Why does it have to be restated? If it is because they are a little different, why isn't everything just included in the first one? 

Is there any significance to the commandments being followed by  אֲנִי, יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם.?

Torah and Thanksgiving

This past Thursday we had Mrs. Amara Levine Reich as our mishmar speaker. Mrs. Reich's shiur was about giving thanks. When we were split into chavrutas I was very excited because I got to teach my group all about the korban todah which we learned in Chumash class. I was even more excited when Mrs. Reich gave over Rabbi Leibtag's commentary on the Korban Todah that we all learned. The Korban Todah has some unique laws. First, the Todah is brought along with forty loaves of bread. Four of which are given to the Kohen and the rest are eaten by the non-Kohen. The normal shelamim can be eaten over a period of two days and one night, but a Todah offering has only one day and night for consumption. This means that the person who brings the Todah offering has a shorter amount of time to eat his animal and an additional 36 loaves of bread to eat.
Rabbi Liebtag explains that the only way that this could be done was to share the Korban Todah communally with as many friends and family members as possible. This way it would be eaten within the allotted time. So the Korban Todah was designed not just as a personal offering of thanksgiving, but to inspire others to share in a communal offering of thanks.
Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, I would like to pose a few questions. Do you think it is 'okay' or appropriate for Jews to celebrate Thanksgiving? Why or why not? Besides for the Korban Todah, are there any other places in Tanach or davening where giving thanks is mentioned? (hint: think about shemona esrei and what we say when we first wake up in the morning!)Do you think a day like Thanksgiving is important or should every day be a day of thanks? Is Thanksgiving a personal or communal holiday?

What Was Life?

Hello,
Every week we all post basically the same exact post, and I just could not think of what to write about (other than the same thing that has been posted). So although we did not go over this in class yet, I thought I would bring up something new.
In the pesukim we were reading, it said that a man could not allow his daughter to be a prostitute in order to get money. When I read this I was shocked. Why did G-d even have to tell them not to do this? It seems to me that it should not even have been a question. It makes one wonder- what kind of society were these people living in? The Jews weren't such good people back then either, if they had to have been told not to do this.

A few questions to ponder that I thought when reading the pesukim:
1. Were the Jews doing the things that G-d was forbidding, and that's why they had to stop, or was G-d just stating it for the future?

2. Were the Jews even good people/ deserving of the Torah at that point in time?

Fences

Hello everyone! This past week we learned the different opinions of Rashi and Ramban about the arayot and aveirot. Rashi mentions that it is important to build fences around the arayot and aveirot because simply mentioning that we re forbidden to do them is not enough. I liked this answer because sometimes we need something extra to remind us not to do these things. However, this bothered me a little bit because how are we supposed to know what these fences are? How can we determine what to put a "fence" around? This also lead me to think about us as Jews today. It i difficult for us to follow the mitzvot, as Sade pointed out in her post, so would these special fences even make a difference in our lives today? We know that we are supposed to follow the Torah and we learn the consequences for not doing the mitzvot, but does this stop people? Where are these fences when we need them?? Every single Jew today seems to choose what they want to follow and what they are going to completely disregard. This is not the way we are ideally supposed to live, but we do anyway. Does anybody have any idea as to where there are certain fences around aveirot or arayot that could be helpful to us when trying to perform or even understand the mitzvot?

Letter vs. Spirit

So today in Chumash Mrs. Perl brought up a concept about the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. I think this is fascinating concept that is prevalent in our lives today. Not only according to the law in terms of the government or the justice system, but even with simpler things like when our friends or parents ask us for a favor. We may just literally do what they ask or do it with more care and thought. It's all about intentions. There are so many examples that I'm sure we could all think of but here's an easy one. When we know we have to come to davening at school: if we literally follow the law (letter of the law) we could just show up. But if we follow the spirit of the law, we can come to davening and actually daven to Hashem. That is the spirit of the law. So here's my question for you - do we do things in the letter of the law or the spirit of the law? I do not think that we often consider the spirit of the law, and we more than often focus on just completing the task at hand or maybe even not following the law in the correct way.

I also think we can connect this to a concept in Judaism about "lifniim mishurat ha'din" which is a phrase that refers to going above and beyond the law of the Torah. When we do things in this manner, we do more than is required when following the law. This is kind of related to the idea of letter vs. spirit because it allows us to reflect on the true intentions of our actions. What is the purpose of everything we do? Do we consider our intentions before we do thinks? And to make this even more general, do we think before we speak or act? These are the kinds of things I love learning about in Chumash because it is so easy to relate it to our lives. These kinds of concepts seem so simple and natural, but in reality they are not easy to do at all. They are the minor things in life that we may neglect or overlook, but the truth is that they are very important and substantial to the way we live.

Fences

Today in Chumash we learned about the importance of establishing fences around the mitzvot, specifically the Arayot. Not only do these fences help us keep these laws and maintain our status as a "kadosh" nation (using the many definitions of kadosh that we have: separate, holy, pure, etc.), but they also add kedushah into our lives. I was wondering what life would be like without such fences. How would society work if we didn't have such fences around the mitzvot and the Torah? How would our perspective change towards the mitzvot, the Torah, and perhaps the entirety of Judaism if we did not have these fences that some of which were established by the rabbis?

Scenario: There is no such thing as traffic lights. There is a set speed limit, lanes on the street, and policemen to pull people over if they do not comply with the laws of driving. However, the government has decided that traffic lights are no longer necessary. Would this work? Would the roads be safe for cars to drive and pedestrians to walk? Personally, I think this would be a tremendous failure. Maybe it is not fair to equate traffic lights with the fences around the mitzvot but it is an example that could be a little bit relevant to the subject at hand.

Hello my dear fellow classmates,
so lately we have been having discussions in class about how the forbidden relationships which obviously led us to further discussions. I would like to bring up something very important that our dear Mrs. Perl said(whom i miss greatly!!) We live in a western society that is very concerned with individualism(which is also what we learned in Psychology!!) Today, we are very concerned about what will personally benefit us.Therefore, many people in our society seem to have issues with the Torah today. We fail to recognize that we cant just always do what pleases us and must understand that we have to make personal sacrifices for our G-d.
Here are a few questions i have to this topic:
1. Is it outrageous taht G-d asks us to sacrifice aspects of your life for Him?
2. Is our society today immoral because its so focused on the individual? Does that make us egocentric?
3. Is the Torah perhaps outdated because in the past people were willing to sacrifice so much for their gods whereas today it is not so?

Of course the topic in class this week on the blog has been about forbidden relationships, as we have been discussing them in class. I am not sure what I am able to add to this really. I think that what we have been learning has helped to increase my knowledge on these forbidden relationships and why they are not so great. It was cool to me that we could connect the concept of Avodah Zarah to this topic as well. I also wanted to point out, like Alexa said, how nice our class discussions have been. I understand that not everybody has the same opinion, but it is nice to be able to have a calm discussion and I think we should have these more often!

Other Religions and Homosexuality

So as the focus of our chumash blog for the past few days has been gay people, I guess I will write about this very subject. We all have very different opinions in our class regarding the Torah's treatment of gay people. Some of us may think that the Torah is oppressive of gays or perhaps unfair towards them because they cannot control their own feelings. I don't think we realize that Judaism is not the only religion that is ostensibly against gay people. The three primary religions of our time, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity all have negative opinions of gays in their main texts. While the reaction ranges from trying to teach the gays to overcome such harmfulness in their lives to punishment by death, both Islam and Christianity do not approve of homosexuality.

In Islam, homosexuality is considered unlawful. The different sects of Islam differ in reactions towards homosexuality, with one sect opting to enforce a physical punishment and another choosing not to inflict pain on gay people. (I have a source if you're curious: http://www.missionislam.com/knowledge/homosexuality.htm) Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, a Muslim doctor, of the ISNA, an Islam organization, is quoted to have said that homosexuality is a "moral disorder..a moral disease, a sin and corruption..People acquire these evil habits due to a lack of proper guidance and eduation." And this is beyond crazy - in Afghanistan, the Taliban army has publicly executed 10 people who were accused of performing homosexual acts. Now I know what the justification for this may be: radical Muslims have different standards in regard to society. But nevertheless, I think we can all agree that THIS is oppressive - and the Torah certainly isn't.

Christianity is a little kinder to homosexuals. Many sects accept homosexuals and accept them in their churches. However, the Roman Catholic church views homosexuality as sinful. Also, many American Christians today do not want homosexuality to be an accepted part of society and believe that homosexuality contradicts God's vision for humanity as outlined in the Bible. Christians are sometimes the primary protestors at anti-gay marriage rallies because of their interpretation of the Bible.

The point of this post was not to condemn homosexuality. I just want everyone to see that Judaism is not the only religion that does not approve of homosexuality. Because these three religions originated in ancient times where most people did not accept gays, they each seem to discriminate against gays. Although the punishments vary, both religions, Islam and Christianity, for the most part, look down on homosexuality.

Here's a fun fact: Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does not discriminate against gays, despite the fact that it is the Jewish state.

Gays, Bullying, Christianity: In The Media

It seems that we might be going really harsh on the Jews with all this homosexuality business. Perhaps we are forgetting all the other religions out there. I am not saying that two wrongs make a right, I'm just saying, there's more out there. Anyways, I was just watching TV when this issue came to my attention. What a coincidence that the Leviticus passukim I saw on the screen were very familiar...

"Matt's Safe School Law" is supposed to be an anti-bullying law in Michigan. It is named after a student, Matt, who had committed suicide some years ago because he got bullied because he was gay. How odd, then, that the legislation against bullying named after him seems to have all too many loopholes.

I have researched the Issue and have pulled up some articles. I'll put in little blurbs but you're welcome to click the links and read the full articles.

Huffington Post:

"Michigan's recent anti-bullying bill debate has moved one step forward and two steps back for actual protection against bullying in the state's schools. The anti-bullying bill, is named "Matt's Safe School Law" for Matt Epling of East Lansing, Michigan who committed suicide after being bullied. Like all anti-bullying efforts, the goal of the bill is to protect those who are vulnerable to attack and create a safer and more humane environment for all children in schools.

Unfortunately, the state's Senate Republicans added language to the bill to establish that schools could not prohibit "a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian."

What kind of 'sincerely held belief' would lead someone to bully? The clause added by the Republican Senators is none-too-subtly coded language specifically aimed at protecting anti-LGBT intimidation and hostility; cloaked in the rhetoric of freedom of religion.

...

Laws to protect religious freedom should be aimed at leaving religious people alone to practice our beliefs in what ever way we choose. Yet they must simultaneously protect the LGBT school child to practice his or her beliefs in whatever way he or she chooses -- including ways that others may disagree with. Nobody has the right to harass and bully.

Any anti-bullying legislation must be the same for all people. Get rid of the loophole for religious beliefs. It is insulting and wrong."

Time Magazine:  

"Michigan is already one of only three states in the country that have not enacted any form of anti-bullying legislation. For more than a decade, Democrats in the state legislature have fought their Republican colleagues and social conservatives such as Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, who referred to anti-bullying measures as “a Trojan horse for the homosexual agenda.” In that time, at least ten Michigan students who were victims of bullying have killed themselves.

This year, Republicans only agreed to consider an anti-bullying measure that did not require school districts to report bullying incidents, did not include any provisions for enforcement or teacher training, and did not hold administrators accountable if they fail to act. And they fought back Democratic attempts to enumerate particular types of students who are prone to being bullied, such as religious and racial minorities, and gay students. But it was the addition of special protections for religiously-motivated bullying that led all 11 Democratic senators to vote against the legislation they had long championed

...

To understand what happened in Michigan, it’s important to know that social conservatives consider themselves the real victims. At the federal level, they unsuccessfully fought for the inclusion of a provision protecting religious freedom when Congress expanded the definition of a hate crime to include crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation. They also strongly oppose legislation that would prevent discrimination against gay individuals in the workplace, charging that such a law would endanger religious freedom. A report on the Christian Broadcasting Network outlined one such concern: “The special protections for gay and transgendered teachers will make it extremely difficult for [public school] districts that might want to remove them from the classroom.”

In other words, social conservatives believe that efforts to protect gays from assault, discrimination or bullying impinge on their religious freedom to express and act on their belief that homosexuality is an abomination. That’s stating it harshly, but it is the underlying belief.

This belief, however, relies on a warped understanding of religious liberty. Freedom of religious expression doesn’t give someone the right to kick the crap out of a gay kid or to verbally torment her. It doesn’t give someone the right to fire a gay employee instead of dealing with the potential discomfort of working with him.

It’s also a highly selective conception of religious liberty. The same religious conservatives who applaud the religious exemption in Michigan’s anti-bullying bill would be appalled if it protected a Muslim student in Dearborn who defended bullying a Christian classmate by saying he considered her an infidel."

 Here's another Huffington

If anyone got this far, God bless. Additionally, I have some questions

- America: I thought you were supposed to be a place of equality and acceptance? Remember when you guys wanted a separation of church and state? Lies!

-See. Well, here is some proof for you guys that it is difficult to be gay. I know there was much debate in class about, you know, "Does it really ruin your life?" Well, it does. And it starts early on. Kids are stuck with the choice: come out and be tortured or stay in and feel empty? Either way it's bad, whether on a social level or on a religious level. Oy vey.

I would like to start my post by saying that I really like the new idea that Mrs Perl showed us for when we have our class discussions. I think it is a great way to get everyone involved and comfortable enough to voice their opinion without feeling attacked. It does seem difficult because sometimes when you feel so strongly about something it's hard to be silent when someone else is arguing against you. However, I believe that we can this challenge. Even though we've only had like two class since it was introduced, there already seems to be an improvement. What do you guys think?

My next topic is a question. So, we learned in passuk 22 that a man cannot lie with another man in a way that a man lies with a woman. This makes perfect sense to me. However, I do have a question. What if two gay men are together but they don't lie with each other. They have feelings for each other and they date but nothing more than that. Do you think that is still prohibited? Do you think it is prohibited but the punishment is just less severe? Also, what about someone who likes men and women. Do you think that make it better or worse? Why?

Some More Homosexual Perspectives

I will be talking about the forbidden sexual relation as described in Vayikra 18:22 which states:

“‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is an abomination"

This is a very controversial passuk which strikes much debate about homosexuality.

I did some research on  wikipedia and came up with the following. Granted, this is from wikipedia, so I don't know how much of it is accurate but at least it's something.

Is homosexual intercourse allowed?

Orthodox Jews: No; it is contrary to Judiasm; categorically forbidden by the Torah.

Reform Judaism: Yes.

Conservative Judaism: Up until December 2006 held same position as orthodoxy; now has multiple opinions under its philosophy of pluralism. One opinion continues to follow the Orthodox position; Another opinion has a more liberal view but still regards certain sexual acts as prohibited.

Is homosexual orientation, if not acted upon sexually allowed?

Orthodox Jews: Yes; the Torah only forbids homosexual intercourse, not homosexual desires. 

What about lesbians? They weren't specifically mentioned here.

Maimonodies says in The Mishneh Torah:

"For women to be mesollelot with one another is forbidden, as this is the practice of Egypt, which we were warned against: "Like the practice of the land of Egypt . . . you shall not do" (Leviticus 18:3). The Sages said [in the midrash of Sifra Aharei Mot 8:8–9], "What did they do? A man married a man, and a woman married a woman, and a woman married two men." Even though this practice is forbidden, one is not lashed [as for a Torah prohibition] on account of it, since there is no specific prohibition against it, and there is no real intercourse. Therefore, [one who does this] is not forbidden to the priesthood because of harlotry, and a woman is not prohibited to her husband by this, since it is not harlotry. But it is appropriate to administer to them lashings of rebellion [i.e., those given for violation of rabbinic prohibitions], since they did something forbidden. And a man should be strict with his wife in this matter, and should prevent women known to do this from coming to her or from her going to them."

Basically: Not allowed to be a lesbian. It is forbidden.

A Midrash:

"Rabbi Huna said in the name of Rabbi Joseph, 'The generation of the Flood was not wiped out until they wrote marriage documents for the union of a man to a male or to an animal.'" This seems to be saying that being gay is so bad that it was the straw that broke the camel's back and caused Hashem to flood the world.

A Controversial Story For You Guys to Blog About. (READ THIS, you'll be glad you did!)

Steven Greenberg is an Orthodox Rabbi who received his smicha from Yeshiva University. Then he came out; he is gay. What do you think happened...?

"Being an Orthodox Rabbi and actively gay is an oxymoron," said Rabbi Moshe Tendler, Rosh Yeshiva and Professor of Biology. "It is very sad that an individual who attended our yeshiva sunk to the depths of what we consider a depraved society," Rabbi Tendler continued. Tendler said that Rabbi Greenberg's announcement is "the exact same as if he said, 'I'm an Orthodox Rabbi and I eat ham sandwiches on Yom Kippur.' What you are is a Reform Rabbi." 

--What is your reaction to this true story?

To read more about this, you can click here.

Pascal's Wager

Many times during chumash class we come up with interesting ideas and topics to discuss, and some recurring themes are how sometimes people feel that Judaism is oppressive and how we might be wasting our lives doing things for no reason because in the end, there might not be G-d or punishment or our religion might be wrong (for eating non-kosher or something).

Last year with Mrs. Perl's navi class we discussed Pascal's Wager, and I thought it would be interesting to introduce it to those who have doubts about certain things and cannot find satisfactory answers.

Pascal's Wager is the argument that it is in one's own best interest to behave as if G-d exists, since the possibility of eternal punishment/hell outweighs any advantage of believing otherwise.
Ask yourself: even if in the end we are the wrong religion or everyone just goes to heaven or nothing happens, will it be so bad if you live a Jewish life? You will live morally and you can still have fun. Judaism, as Mrs. Perl pointed out, is about the collective and not individuals, which is good. You won't be centered on only what pleases you (not that you are if you aren't Jewish).
Is it worth the risk?

*PS- i really like how Mrs. Perl pointed out that people are all about themselves now and it used to be about everyone as a whole. If people could function as one unit I feel that life would be somehow nicer...

Why would God create us a certain way if God wants us to be another way?

We learned about how homosexuality is not allowed in Judaism.
It simply does not make sense to me that God would create a human to be homosexual, but then forbid him to follow his one true desire in life. I do not believe that this is one of God's tests and challenges since it is beyond logical and not to be compared to other things.

I had this idea. What if the torah simply meant, do not be homosexual without any reason and desire. This means, that people should not go around experiencing (since many people decide in one point during their life that they should maybe try this out since it is fun and exciting (don't ask me where the fun in that is- I personally do not see it either), but some people are like that. Therefore God wanted to tell those people they should not experience this way, but everyone should follow their true desires...
What do you guys think?

Out of Context?..

Smack in the middle of the prohibition of all these sexual immoralities in Perek 18, we get Passuk 21. The previous passuk said not to have sexual relations with the wife of your friend, and the one before said that you're not allowed to have relations with a woman when she's getting her period. And then comes passuk 21:

"And thou shalt not give any of thy seed to set them apart to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy G-d: I am HaShem"

 Isn't this a little weird? Here we are, minding our business, finally thinking that this is an order that makes total sense (color coded: pink=  people who are related to you, no reason given because it's universally wrong. blue= dependent upon culture. all of them are sexual immoralities) and then this passuk comes along! Oh, lovely complications!

Or is it...?

Mrs. Perl had a wonderful answer to this puzzle that she came up with by herself (with the help of ____ (insert author of that book that I forgot the name of here) ) and I think it is just perfect!

When I usually thought of Avodah Zarah I would just think ... I don't know. A bunch of statues and people bowing to them? It's a bit fuzzy. But never when I thought of Avodah Zarah did I think of what it actually was: a sexual immorality.

That's right, my classmates. We all saw this coming- avodah zarah was basically one big practice of celebrating the physical self. Man was the center of their focus. There is this physical and social element in avodah zarah that is also present in passing your child through a fire for fertility.  

So ,"my dear fellow classmates"- what is the consensus? 

Don't you guys agree with this? Avodah zarah is linked to sexual immorality! This isn't so random after all! What are your comments?  

Also, what did/do you think about Avodah Zarah? What is it you picture/think when someone says "Avodah Zarah"? 

Hello My Dear Fellow Classmates,
so today in class we were talking about open mindedness among orthodox(and conservative and reform) Jews. There were a lot of disagreements going on which is why i thought that this would be a great discussion topic. So since this is a Chumash class i will ask the following question: Can you think of anywhere in the Torah where the Jews were told that they were better than others, that they were the chosen people and that they needed to separate themselves? The answer is yes. and i am certain you can list numerous examples. I am not saying that this is wrong in any way. However, do you think that that might have caused Jews to become less open minded? Do you think that we subconciously create a barrier between ouselves and those who are "different?" and is so WHY?

Whenever discussing the Jewish laws in class there is always some sort of debate. Everybody seems to feel very strongly about their opinions, and it seems to be that people do not agree with the way that we are commanded to practice laws such as nidah. Sharon asked a good question about why we cannot just go to the mikvah now so that we can do what we please without being punished. Although I am not a Rabbi and certainly cannot say what the rules are and why they are this way, I feel that as a Jew, we need to accept the laws the way they are. In today's society there are so many different sects of Jews and everybody has a different opinion as to how we are supposed to go about practicing laws. Many people today do not even keep the laws of nidah, and as we learned, there is a harsh punishment for this. I think that is upsetting that we are so far removed from the time when the Jews received the Torah and actually knew how to practice the laws properly. Without the proper guidance, many people find themselves lost lost and most of us end up making our own rules. So, it is difficult for us to come up with reasons about why we should keep many of the laws or why we have to keep them in such a way, but I feel that it is important to recognize that we are a special, unique nation and that we should take this into consideration while performing the mitzvot. Whenever we are not sure about something we always have a Rabbi to go to for answers, and we can even look up the sources behind certain mitzvot that bother us on our own! These mitzvot are a guide for us for our lives and without certain guidelines, we would just be like all of the other nations. There are so many people in the world who are lost and have terrible lives because they do not practice their religion, or do not have a religion at all and they end up with nothing. We have so much and it is important to always remember this.

Judaism Is Genius

I walked out of Chumash class on Thursday very happy! The class was filled with such great discussion and I really felt I gained a lot from it. I think it is so genius how Judaism embraces sexual relationships between husband and wife. (Something that many other cultures don't have.) At first, most of us felt that it's so annoying that a man cannot touch a woman when she is in nidah because you cannot reveal her nakedness. However, once again, Judaism switches something that we see as annoying into something beautiful! In no way is Judaism looking down at sexual relationships; rather it is saying that there needs to be boundaries, a way to channel that specialness. Sexual intercourse should not be done in a casual manner but one that is special and meaningful. There will be times every month when a husband and wife cannot have a sexual relationship. This does not mean that the wife is 'dirty' in any way! Rather, she needs to be special. This is perfectly connected to what we learned earlier about the mishkan. One cannot constantly be going in and out of the mishkan. If there's a constant access, it grows stale. This is why there needs to be boundaries to ensure that every time one enters the mishkan, he experiences the awe of G-d and leaves with his spiritual batteries recharged.