This sheet on Leviticus 20 was written by Steve Greenberg 929 and can also be found here
The paired Torah portions of Aharei Mot and Kedoshim are, in gay Jewish terms, the “scene of the crime." In April of 1969 these two parshiot were my bar mitzvah portion. At the time, I had no idea that this double portion would come to mean so much to me. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 came to have their full caustic power on my life, when I was a closeted Orthodox rabbi living in Riverdale, New York, and involved in my first gay relationship. The high wire anxiety of this time led me to a showdown of sorts. I needed to make some sense of these verses in order to continue in good faith, not only as an Orthodox rabbi, but as a committed Jew.
I spent roughly the next ten years working on the emotional, intellectual, legal and spiritual ramifications of these two verses. My efforts eventually became a book released in 2004 and entitled: Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.
“And with a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman, it is an abomination.” Rabbinic reading focused this verse on a single act between men, namely, anal intercourse. Lesbian relations are mentioned nowhere in scripture. Remarkably, the Torah is utterly uninterested in “homosexuality.” The sameness of the sexes (homo=same) that dominates contemporary thought is missing here.
So what is it about anal sex between men that is such a problem?
One of the best avenues for understanding the meaning of any law is an exploration of the stories that provide the law with narrative contexts. According to the midrash, Noah’s son Ham does not merely see his father naked and drunk in his tent, but either castrates or anally rapes his father but the most overt biblical depiction of male-male sexual relations is the story of the destruction of Sodom. The aim of the mob in Sodom, according to the rabbis, was humiliation as punishment or sport, but not sexual fulfilment.
Read in this way, the verse in Leviticus 18 might well be prohibiting sex as an expression of power and humiliation while leaving sex between committed and loving partners permitted.
Since the prohibition follows a long list of incest prohibitions with related women, one scholar has suggested that the verse might be coming to prohibit sex with all one's male family members as well.
Lastly, according to Rabbi Ishmael in the Talmud, only the penetrating partner violates the rule in Leviticus. The receptive partner, he claims, is liable under a different verse in Deuteronomy (23:18) that prohibits temple prostitution.
These readings leave open the sort of sexual relations that occur outside of the circle of family relations, that are conducted without violence or humiliation and are not associated with the dramaturgy of pagan rites. Read in this way, love between men that is marked instead by care and commitment would seem not only permitted, but potentially holy.
I spent roughly the next ten years working on the emotional, intellectual, legal and spiritual ramifications of these two verses. My efforts eventually became a book released in 2004 and entitled: Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.
“And with a male you shall not lie the lyings of a woman, it is an abomination.” Rabbinic reading focused this verse on a single act between men, namely, anal intercourse. Lesbian relations are mentioned nowhere in scripture. Remarkably, the Torah is utterly uninterested in “homosexuality.” The sameness of the sexes (homo=same) that dominates contemporary thought is missing here.
So what is it about anal sex between men that is such a problem?
One of the best avenues for understanding the meaning of any law is an exploration of the stories that provide the law with narrative contexts. According to the midrash, Noah’s son Ham does not merely see his father naked and drunk in his tent, but either castrates or anally rapes his father but the most overt biblical depiction of male-male sexual relations is the story of the destruction of Sodom. The aim of the mob in Sodom, according to the rabbis, was humiliation as punishment or sport, but not sexual fulfilment.
Read in this way, the verse in Leviticus 18 might well be prohibiting sex as an expression of power and humiliation while leaving sex between committed and loving partners permitted.
Since the prohibition follows a long list of incest prohibitions with related women, one scholar has suggested that the verse might be coming to prohibit sex with all one's male family members as well.
Lastly, according to Rabbi Ishmael in the Talmud, only the penetrating partner violates the rule in Leviticus. The receptive partner, he claims, is liable under a different verse in Deuteronomy (23:18) that prohibits temple prostitution.
These readings leave open the sort of sexual relations that occur outside of the circle of family relations, that are conducted without violence or humiliation and are not associated with the dramaturgy of pagan rites. Read in this way, love between men that is marked instead by care and commitment would seem not only permitted, but potentially holy.
(יג) וְאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יִשְׁכַּ֤ב אֶת־זָכָר֙ מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י אִשָּׁ֔ה תּוֹעֵבָ֥ה עָשׂ֖וּ שְׁנֵיהֶ֑ם מ֥וֹת יוּמָ֖תוּ דְּמֵיהֶ֥ם בָּֽם׃
(13) If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death—their bloodguilt is upon them.
Rabbi Steven Greenberg is the founding director of Eshel
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