Gay Rights and Torah
In case you have not heard by now, either due to this not being a big deal to you, or living in a country that is not the United States, or a combination of both these factors, the United States Supreme Court has upheld that all over the country, Humans have the right to love whoever they want, regardless of Sexual Orientation. Of course this victory is being held down slightly by the very angry religious radicals who as I am devoting this blog post to do, clearly have not read their bibles correctly, else they would see their error.
First lets approach the verse from Leviticus that has enabled such hatred in the name of love:
Now, the first thing a person may try to point out is that the sentence I posted is not what is put in the bible. Sadly for that person, the version they have has been conveniently mistranslated from the original Hebrew. What I have listed here is the version that is reflected by the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as the Torah that currently is housed in the city of Tzvat.
For those who do not know the significance of these two texts, the two Torahs listed have existed for over 2000 years and 500 years respectively thus aiding to legitimacy of Judaism in general as well as ensuring that the newer texts do not change their wording for Human agendas in the name of a G-d they are not actually faithful to. I will note here that the modern Torah does not deviate from these ancient texts in more than a 1 percent difference, but I digress. That point is unnecessary here.
Now, lets look at the sentence itself, so that we may understand what is actually being said here instead of what people take it to mean.
First, it should interest the reader immediately that the word man is chosen instead of a more gender-less word. Also noted is that there is no sentence referring to the inverse. Right off the bat, it is obvious that Lesbians are not even noticed in this sentence that allegedly is the basis for all homophobia. In fact, Lesbian Sex in some stories in the Torah is even encouraged. The basis for this is due to the nature of ancient Polygamy. Sex between women was a way in ancient society to curb jealous wives from killing their competition.
Next lets look at the most important part of the first sentence. The part that has been altered in most translations. It states here that
“a man may not make love to a man the way he does to a woman.”
What does this mean? Well when two birds love each other much…
Just kidding. The man sticks his man parts inside the woman parts. So with this in mind, this would mean that a man should not stick his man parts inside another man’s man parts. Since it would cause intense pain as well as go against most form of geometry for a man’s penis to go inside another man’s penis, the only way that two men can have sex like a man and a woman would mean in the butt. Believe it or not, this sentence is a ban on Anal Sex. Not on Gays in general.
Now why would the Torah forbid Anal Sex of all things? Probably for the same reason that the Torah commands Jews to wash hands far before we understood what bacteria were: For health reasons. Exchange of blood is an easy way to trade blood born pathogens. These health reasons are a far cry from what the phrase has been used through history: To justify murder and bigotry. Both of which are listed as big no nos in the 10 Commandments.
Now lets look at the second sentence:
“It is an Abomination.”
Now this sentence looks to be obvious. By modern definitions, this word means something evil, or something that against all that is good in the world. But is that what the phrase actually means? Looking at what this word meant when the Torah was first given to the Jewish people on Sinai tells a different tale. The word Abomination in ancient terms roughly translates to the word Secular.
Yep that’s right. The full sentence from the Torah could be shortened to say: Do not have anal sex if you are a man because all the non Jews are doing it. The Torah was a way to ensure the Jews would be better people in a world filled with lots of rotten Humans, It makes sense that G-d would want the Jews to differentiate themselves from everyone else.
Now lets explore a few more outside the actual text laws that are important to note. The 10 Commandments themselves outline marriage so its a bit odd that it needs to be said again at a later point in the Torah. The fact this is added later, while not saying the law is less important, it is not outlined within one of the big ten, instead it is one of the other 603 commandments that are found within the sacred text.
But if nothing else, ignoring the other counterarguments that are likely to be thrown my way as this post is read, let us not forget one of the greatest rules of Judaism. Only the Lord above has the right to judge. Doing so yourself is going against the second of the 10 commandments. To think that you know better than G-d who has the right to be judged means that you are setting yourself as an equal to the Lord Himself.
http://tbatikkunolam.org/2012/05/22/what-does-the-torah-really-say-about-homosexual-acts/
http://www.reclaimingjudaism.org/teachings/what-does-judaism-have-say-about-homosexuality-jewish-same-sex-marriages-and-ordination