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January 18, 2005

Homosexuality (2005)

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Letters to the Editor: On Homosexuality (1968)

Los Angeles, California. Rabbi Norman Lamm’s article on homosexuality in your January–February 1968 issue is most interesting. It represents an application of Jewish principles to a modern subject, an updating of Jewish law to modern life. It is a welcome addition to Jewish thinking for relatively unlearned individuals such as myself. However, one of the conclusions (or side remarks) I find most disturbing — if it reflects the general attitude in the Orthodox leadership. I refer to the statements that the author presents for advocating that homosexuality should not be treated as a criminal offense. Briefly, the two reasons given are: (1) our present society and its judiciary are such that the courts do not wish to intervene when other individuals and society are not directly involved; and (2) our prisons as now constituted would worsen the homosexual’s condition. I assume that Rabbi Lamm agrees that the Orthodox Jew (and others) whom he seeks to guide as well as to teach should be involved in American social and political life, and should participate in developing its laws and practices. And I also assume that it is desirable for the Jew to foster the implementation by the general community of the Noachide laws. On the basis of these two assumptions, I strongly question the validity of the two conclusions of Rabbi Lamm noted above. On the first, we accept the thesis that Judaism is unequivocally committed to higher moral practices. For Jews only? Obviously not — so obviously that we need not say more on this point. We may safely say that the Jew accepts the yoke of the Torah for himself and believes that the non-Jew should accept those moral and ethical ideals as are stated or implied in the Noachide laws. With this purpose, the Jew may act by example, by teaching and explaining, and by cooperating with the general community in specific actions, including community and political activities. The current attitude in some parts of the general community and of some cou…
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Marriage/Sexuality/Family Reprint List

1. Judaism & Modern Attitude to Homosexuality Encyclopedia Judaica Yearbook 1974. 2. Modern Attitude to Homosexuality ed. J. Neusner, revision of C 1 2004. 3. New Dispensation on Homosexuality Jewish Life, January/February 1968. 4. On Homosexuality Letters to Editor/Jewish Life June 1968. 5. Dr. Lamm's Comments on Jewish Attitude to Birth Control by Dr. I. Jakobovitz/Childand Family/Vol. 9, NO. 3 1970" ״ PERIODIC ABSTINENCE IN JEWISH FAMILY TRADITION INTERNE REVIEW OF NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING/SUMMER 19776 HEDGE OF ROSES//?OLE' OF SYNAGOGUE IN SEX EDUCA TION PART I, 19687 HEDGE OF ROSES; CHILD AND FAMILY WINTER/SPRING 1969 PART II & III8 LETTER TO EDITOR RE: HEDGE OF ROSES JEWISH LIFE JULY/AUGUST 1966 PAGE 569 ROLE OF SYNAGOGUE IN SEX EDUCATION/AER־.S'.4AD VIEWS 3/29/5710 JUDAISM VIEWS ON SEX EDUCATIONJ. OF AMERICAN MEDICAL WOMEN'S ASSN. 2/6811 THE NEW MORALITY UNDER RELIGIOUS AUSPICES TRADITION WINTER 1968CH IS THE NEW MORALITY NORMAL?/?^/ VIEWS 6/6812 MORALITY AND THE FAMILY (AN ADDRESS)EUROPEAN CHIEF RABBIS' CONFERENCE 5/31/67 (ITALY)13 FAMILY VALUES AND BREAKDOWN JEWISH CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING NOVEMBER 197314 LOVE AND MARRIAGE (MIZRACHI) 3/1/8115 AMERICAN JEWISH FAMILYCOMMISSION ON SYNAGOGUE RELA TIONS 3/7516 CONSULTATION ON INTERMARRIAGE & CONVERSION- AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE 2/27/7517 TZENIUT; A UNIVERSAL CONCEPTHAHAM GAON MEMORIAL VOLUME, Ed, RABBI ANGEL SEPHER-HERMON PRESS. 1997
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Article

The New Dispensation on Homosexuality: A Jewish Reaction to a Developing Christian Attitude (1968)

The much heralded “sexual revolution” of our times has finally infiltrated the very bastions of official morality in our Western world. A number of influential Christian churches, suddenly aware of their isolation in the face of the rapidly deteriorating moral level of the Christian world, have begun to reassess their codes of sexual conduct. As has happened so often in the history of the West, Christianity has begun to accommodate itself to Christendom, and the abyss that does and should keep morality apart from mores has shrunk ever more.One of the most significant documents of this astounding development is “Sex and Morality,” the Report by the Working Party to the British Council of Churches, published in October, 1966. It is the harbinger of a new dispensation in sexual morality, and presages the most serious consequences for the future of our society. New thinking on the Christian view of sex and sex practices is also evident in pronouncements and reports by Swedish and German churches.These developments are deserving of special treatment from a Jewish perspective. For the present, let us turn our attention to a recent meeting of American churchmen that was widely reported in the press of this country. On November 28, 1967, ninety Episcopalian priests gathered in New York to discuss their church’s approach to homosexuality. Their conclusions were sensational but, alas, predictable.A large majority of the priests, according to the New York Times reports, believed that homosexual acts should not be dismissed as wrong per se. Such acts “between two consenting adults should be judged by the same criterion as a heterosexual marriage — that is, whether it is intended to foster a permanent relation of love,” or whether the two individuals are merely "using” each other. A homosexual relationship “can be as fulfilling or as destructive as heterosexual ones.” Of course, the disclaimer follows: this does not mean that such acts should be “encouraged.” And so, the “Judae…
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