The holiday of Chanukah is a holiday that celebrates
the triumph of our holy ancestors over religious persecution. In 167/66
B.C.E. Antiochus IV Epiphanies initiated a series of horrible religious
persecutions.
These persecutions included: 1) A rescinding of the rights of extensive religious freedom that were enacted by Antiochus III. 2) In December of 167 foreign idols were brought into the Beit Hamikdash (The Holy Temple). 3) Shabbat and Festivals were not permitted to be observed. 4) Altars were built so that unclean animals could be offered upon them in violation of Jewish law. 5) Circumcision was outlawed. 6) Dietary laws were outlawed. 7) Torah scrolls were burned.
Anyone who disobeyed these laws was punished with
execution. (See the article by Lawrence Schiffman in YU To Go, 5773, 44.)
This idea that Chanukah is primarily a festival that
celebrates the triumph of our ancestors over religious persecution has actual
relevance in Jewish law. The classic code of Jewish Law, the Shulchan
Aruch, records that the days of Chanukah were not established for mishteh
ve-simcha, for parties and celebration (670:2). The Mishnah Berurah explains
that there is a crucial difference between Chanukah when we are not legally
required to have a festive meal and the holiday of Purim, when we are required
to do so:
For on Purim there was a decree to destroy and kill
our bodies, which is in effect the nullification of drinking and happiness, but
not our souls. For on Purim even if we changed our religion they still
would have killed us. Thus, when God saved us on Purim they established
the practice of praising God through the physical celebration of our bodies by
drinking and celebrating. This is not the case with respect to
Antiochus. For Antiochus did not desire to kill them. He only
persecuted them in order to cause them to change their religion. As it
states, "to cause them to forget Your Torah, and to bring them away from
Your laws." And if the Jews had changed their religious ways then
Antiochus would have accepted them.... For this reason these days were
established only as days of praise and gratitude to God and not as days of
physical celebration. (Mishnah Berurah 670:6)
For our rabbis the message of Chanukah was always a
message of religious persecution and the right for religious freedom. The
rabbis chose to emphasize the miracle of the oil because it represents the
religious element of the revolt: the right to light a pure candle in the Beit
Hamikdash.
The message of Chanukah that we should focus on in our
own lives today is this idea of religious persecution. The same way in
which our ancestors stood up against religious persecution, we too, must stand
up for those who are persecuted in the name of religion. Because of our
ancestors in the time of Antiochus, because of our ancestors who faced so many
persecutions in Jewish history, we too have a responsibility to speak out
against persecution in the name of religion.
While this is true of all Jews it is especially true
of Jews in America.
In America we Jews have been the great beneficiaries
of those who have spoken out against persecution.
One of the greatest Chanukah stories of all time is
the story of what happened in Billings, Montana in 1993.
Here is an editorial from the Billings Gazette in
December of 1993:
"On December 2, 1993, someone twisted by hate
threw a brick through the window of the home of one of our neighbors: a Jewish
family who chose to celebrate the holiday season by displaying a symbol of
faith-a menorah-for all to see. Today, members of religious faiths throughout
Billings are joining together to ask residents to display the menorah as a
symbol of something else: our determination to live together in harmony, and
our dedication to the principle of religious liberty embodied in the First
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. We urge all
citizens to share in this message by displaying this menorah on a door or a
window from now until Christmas. Let all the world know that the national
hatred of a few cannot destroy what all of us in Billings, and in America, have
worked together so long to build."
That year nearly every window in Billings, Montana had
a paper Menorah.
In Montana, we Jews were once again the beneficiaries
of brave and kind people who stood up and spoke out against twisted
persecution.
This Chanukah I want to share my views on
homosexuality and same sex marriage -- an area that I believe relates to the
concern I have about religious persecution.
Some of what I have to say below is just my opinion
about a policy matter. Of course, you are welcome to disagree with my
opinion. The reason why I feel it is important to share my opinion in
this matter is because there are voices in the Orthodox Jewish community that
have taken a loud and aggressive position on this issue and I want to clarify
where my view is distinct from theirs. Second, even though it is only my
opinion about a policy matter, I believe that it is an opinion that comes from
a sensitivity to certain matters that are very much related to Judaism.
Recently a highly respected Rosh Yeshiva wrote an
influential article that I strongly disagree with. (http://haravaharonfeldmanarticle.weebly.com/)
He
stated that there is no difference between an active homosexual and a child
molester! To be sure, his view is more nuanced than that. But that
is the language he used and his language is extremely dangerous. How do
you think someone whose child or friend says that they are gay is going to
respond to that? They may now view them as one would view a child
molester!
This Rosh Yeshiva also writes that the active
homosexual is required to give up his life rather than commit the homosexual
act. How do you think someone who is gay is going to read that? It
may very well drive frum gay Jews into committing suicide. Chas
Veshalom! God forbid!
This Rosh Yeshiva also advocates excluding Gay Jews
from the Jewish community by not giving them honors in synagogue.
These views may very well lead to persecution of Gay
people and I feel the need to respond to this Rosh Yeshiva because he is not a
Hareidi rabbi whose students we will never meet, but a respected, local rabbi
whose students teach in our schools and live in our community.
Let me be clear about my own position. I think
that same sex marriage in the American secular legal system should be legal. I
don't wish to impose Jewish law on American society.
At the same time, I believe that the Torah prohibits
homosexual conduct and that the only possibility for a Gay lifestyle in
accordance with Jewish law is for the Gay person to practice abstinence.
Nor can the union of two people of the same gender be considered a kiddushin
(sacred betrothal) under Jewish law that is comparable to the mitzvah of
marriage. I would not officiate at a Gay marriage since the Torah
prohibits it nor can a Gay Marriage be allowed to take place in our shul, which
must obey Orthodox interpretation of Jewish law.
And yet, I believe (as I have spelled out in detail in
my book Fifty-Four Pickup) that the Torah's prohibition on homosexual conduct
is a chok, a prohibition whose violation should not carry our moral outrage or
moral disapproval. It is prohibited. But civil Gay marriage is no
more of a moral outrage than a Jew who decides to wear a garment made of wool
and linen.
In Fifty-Four Pickup I spell out the reasons why I
think it is not a moral sin, but a chok. I don't wish to go into all
those reasons here, but I would only add that I am by no means the first one to
suggest that the prohibition against a homosexual act is a chok. Rabbi
Aaron Lichtenstein recently gave an interview where he suggested that there are
great rabbinic authorities who think it is a chok, even while there are other
authorities who do not consider it a chok. (This article was referred to
me by Leon Furchtgott: http://pagesoffaith.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/perspective-on-homosexuals/).
The great Ramban says explicitly in his commentary
(Leviticus 18:6) on the Torah that the laws of sexual prohibitions (arayot) should
be seen as a chok that we must accept upon ourselves as gezeirat hamelekh (a
decree of the King). He writes that any explanation for them is very weak
(chalush me-od). So too, the great R. Yehudah Hechasid wrote that he does
not understand why the Torah prohibited a homosexual act.
When Rabbi
Moshe Feinstein was asked about this comment of R. Yehudah Hechasid, he said it
is not possible that Rabbi Yehudah Hechasid would say such a thing, therefore
the whole work must be a forgery. (Iggros Moshe, Yoreh Deah 3:115.)
But
Dr. Haim Soloveitchik, the world expert on medieval Jewish history, assured me
that that R. Yehudah Hechasid did say that and that the overwhelming manuscript
evidence proves that it is certainly not a forgery. These two medieval
figures, Ramban and Rabbi Yehudah Hechasid are not tertiary figures to Jewish
history, but leading authorities who we lean upon for direction on a daily
basis.
In general I am proud that our synagogue is a member
of a synagogue body known as the Orthodox Union.
The Orthodox Union (OU) has taken a vocal position on
this issue that I disagree with. They write on their website that they
are against America legally recognizing same sex marriage. They urged
everyone to vote "no" to the Gay marriage proposal in the recent
elections.
Their website explains their reasoning (in a statement
authored by Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, former Executive VP of the OU):
http://advocacy.ou.org/2006/orthodox-response-to-same-sex-marriage/
...
all religions have the responsibility of educating the public to core values
that we believe have universal, as well as particular, religious import. In
this connection we ought to consider a Talmudic passage (Chullin 92a) that says
that the nations of the world, however sinful, corrupt or perverse, still have
the merit of at least three behaviors, one of which is "they do not write
a ketubah for males." [A Ketubah is a marriage contract that a man traditionally
gives to a woman.]
But here is where I disagree with this statement of
the OU.
I don't view homosexuality as
"perverse." And I don't pretend to understand why the
Torah prohibits it. But the fact is that the Torah prohibits the
homosexual act. I totally accept the Torah's laws upon myself.
Whatever the Torah says we Jews must follow. But I view it as a chok, a
prohibition that we don't understand the reason for.
We should no more try to influence the way society
views gay marriage than we should try to influence the way the secular society
views other marriages which are also prohibited by Jewish law like, for
example, the marriage of a Kohen to a convert, or of a Kohen to a divorced
woman, or for that matter, the marriage of a Jew to a Gentile.
We Jews would be very upset if the Roman Catholic
teaching about divorce became the law of the land. We would be upset if
the Catholic understanding of divorce became a universal value in
America. Similarly, we should not be interested in the Torah's
prohibition of the homosexual act becoming the law of the land as well, just
like we should not be interested in the law of the land being a prohibition on
Jews marrying Gentiles.
Some of you might be thinking, why should America
legalize Gay marriage? Call it something else, just don't call it
marriage.
There is a narrow answer to that question and a much
broader answer.
First, let me acknowledge that the issue of gay
marriage is controversial, and I believe that there are reasonable people of
good will on both sides of the argument. For example, Obama in 2011 and Obama
in 2012. The fact that a person is against same-sex marriage doesn't make
them a bigot or intolerant. These are sensitive debates that involve
philosophy, ethics, and social science. There are arguments regarding defining
marriage as between a man and a woman that don't involve casting a moral
judgment on homosexual relations or invoking religious tradition. For example a
recent article by Robert George and two students: http://www.harvard-jlpp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/GeorgeFinal.pdf
Ultimately, I believe that these arguments should be
set aside because the risk of persecution of homosexuals is too great.
A secular society that denies Gay people the right to
get married is a secular society that willy-nilly is creating the framework for
persecution through an unstated moral attack upon Gay people. It is a
society that is holding on to the idea that Gay people are perverse and Gay
people need to be shunned and ostracized. If the OU website can casually
drop the word perverse into its discussion of Gay people, it is allowing for a
religious environment that can also promote a devastating theological attack on
a Gay person. One thing our own history has taught us to be
super-sensitive too, is that a theological case for persecution is but a short
step to an actual, physical persecution.
If it is a question of people being persecuted in America,
then the side of religion should always side with the people who may feel the
threat of persecution.
Because who are these Gay people? They are not
the other. They are not distant. They are our family.
In parashat Miketz the brothers of Yosefare distraught
when their brother Shimon is held as a prisoner in Egypt. The
ransom for Shimon is the appearance of their other brother, Binyamin.
Yaakov does not want to send Binyamin down to
Egypt. Yaakov says, Shimon is in jail and Yosef is lost. I don't
want to lose Binyamin as well.
Then Yehudah, the father of the future Mashiach, says
the words that qualify him to be the savior and leader of our people. He
says: "Anokhi e-ervenu (Genesis 43:9), I will bear
responsibility." I am responsible for Shimon. I am responsible
for Binyamin.
I know the folks of our congregation. I know
that when we speak about persecution of Gay folks we are not speaking about the
persecution of a distant other. It is the persecution of our friends, of
our brothers and sisters -- literally, of our sons and daughters, and of our
parents.
Whose job is it to raise a voice against the
persecution of our own family? The holiday of Chanukah teaches us that it
is our job: Each of us must say, 'Anokhi e-ervenu, I will bear responsibility.'
To reiterate: The Torah prohibits homosexuality for
reasons I do not understand. I totally follow the Torah even when I don't
understand its reasoning. But as Orthodox Jews we should not seek to
impose our own religious prohibitions on the secular society.
Two weeks ago we had some Gay Jews who spent a Shabbat
in our shul. One of these Jews told me that when the synagogue he was in
found out his story he was told not to come back again. Another person
from this group told me that the President of his synagogue publically
ridiculed him by making a crude sexual joke about him in front of everyone at
the shul Kiddush. Our history teaches us that the humiliation that our
brothers experienced is but a short step to actual acts of violence.
We must actively work to protect our Gay brothers and
sisters from being shunned, ostracized, and dehumanized. We must embrace
the Gay community, pray with them and sing with them, and together light the
flame for freedom in the land.
