Gay hasidic jews
The liberal Jewish movements hold undergone dramatic shifts in their approach to gay, lesbian and transgender Jews in the past two decades, but among the Orthodox the changes have been far less dramatic — and in many quarters, virtually nonexistent.
Two seemingly explain biblical denunciations of queer sex, as well as the corpus of rabbinic commentaries and legal codes based on those verses, limit how far Orthodox Judaism, marked by its fidelity to traditional understandings of Jewish law, or halacha, can move on this subject.
Though several attempts have emerged in recent years to lend more support to Orthodox Jews experiencing homosexual desires and make the community more compassionate and welcoming toward them, all these attempts stop short of sanctioning gay relationships.
Theological and Legal Limitations
Across the spectrum of Orthodox practice, the consensus view is that homosexual sex and marriage are inconsistent with Jewish tradition. The objection is rooted in two verses in Leviticus that expressly prohibit a man from lying with another man “as one lies with a woman,” an act described as an “abomination” that is punishable by death. Though the prohibition is understood
Exclusive Book & Feature Reviews: The Closeted World of Homosexual Orthodox Jews Trembling before G-d - New Yorker Video - 84 minutes - 2001
In a small room in Jerusalem, Hasidic men are rocking back and forth, clutching their prayer books to their chest, rubbing ice cubes on their foreheads. They contain come to the Atonement Ceremony for Sexual Sins, an ancient ritual, to repent for harboring sexual thoughts, to cool their passions. Most attend the ceremony to repent for the sin of lusting after women — but a few atone for lusting after men.
Trembling Before G-D, an 84-minute documentary motion picture by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, introduces viewers to the troubled, conflicted world of gay and lesbianOrthodox Jews who must reconcile their sexual identity with their religious beliefs. Alienated from their families and shunned by their c
My secret life as a gay ultra-Orthodox Jew
Once you are pregnant that minor becomes both a hostage and your hostage taker. You are held hostage by your minor. We are expected to have eight or nine children and I kept getting pregnant. My feelings built up inside me until one day I was walking down the street in a little cul-de-sac somewhere. There was so much noise in my chief that I started saying "I'm male lover, I'm gay, I'm gay!" out loud.
It made me experience like I had to do something about it. Eventually, I told my husband. I consider he already knew I was homosexual but he'd convinced himself that it was just a latent desire rather than an integral part of my identity.
We still don't know what we are going to do. We have children together and a family set-up that works. If my husband and I separate we would surrender all of that. I think we would all miss something if we broke apart so I may adv stay married.
I hope my family can stay together, although I don't know what shape that would accept. People have all kinds of arrangements. Rabbis have diverse ideas than some about how you should keep people together. In a case like mine, instead of trying to
Stances of Faiths on Homosexual Issues: Orthodox Judaism
There is no central governing body but despite the different forms it has taken they all divide some common principles of faith and a deep loyalty to Halacha or Jewish law. Halacha is a code of habit that covers a vast range of ethical rules, social mores, ritual practices and spiritual disciplines. A quarter of the medieval code, the Shulchan Aruch, which to this day guides Orthodox Jews, focuses on sexual apply and marriage. Judaism celebrates creation as an inherent good. Consequently, Jewish law does not disparage sex. However, Orthodox tradition only supports heterosexual relations and only within the context of heterosexual marriage.
Orthodox tradition is religiously organized and socially structured by biblical and rabbinic teachings on fixed gender roles, creating separate religious duties and always separate spaces for men and women during worship. Orthodox Judaism believes that the Torah is of excellent origin and represents the synonyms of G-d. Jewish sacred texts, commonly understood in the Christian world as the Old Testament, include the Five Books of Moses, (referred to as the Torah), the P