Suggested Discussion Questions:
1. Note: Remaining unchaperoned in a closed room with another person with whom one is prohibited to have sex is a rabbinically prohibited. This stricture could be strictly or loosely applied. Does this rule of "yichud," (prohibiting seclusion behind closed doors with another) have salience for you in the contemporary context? In what contexts might it and what contexts might it not?
2. The standards of caution regarding sexual liaisons between men was dictated by cultural mores. In France and Germany there was little cultural tolerance of same-sex relations so the law itself was lenient. In Sephardic and Arabic contexts, both in Spain and the later in Safed, there was more cultural tolerance of same-sex relations and so the rabbis of those communities often argued for more stringent barriers to prevent violation. What does this tell us about yichud in general?
3. What should the law look like today?" Should gay people be forbidden to seclude with a person of the opposite sex?