One of 613 commandments

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (America’s Rabbi) is a truly positive person. He wants the Torah to be a source of Jewish unity rather than division. In his frenzied attempt to square the circle (“Orthodox Jews must not demonize gays,” July 16) Boteach explains that homosexuality is a religious sin but not a moral sin. There are 613 commandments in the Torah – only one is against gay sex. When attempting to aid gay couples, he tells them to create a kosher home, turn off the TV on the Sabbath, put on tefillin every day, etc.

Pity the secular gays who don’t want to do all these things. They want to watch TV on Saturday and also be gay. Boteach misses the mark entirely. The Torah will never be a unifying factor for all Jews until the Orthodox stop their endless proselytizing and interference with the views and lifestyles of the rest of us Jews.

YIGAL HOROWITZ

Beersheba

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s argument for viewing homosexuality as just another religious sin, akin to violating the Sabbath or eating on Yom Kippur, as opposed to a moral sin, is specious.

Boteach points out that homosexuality is categorized in the Torah as an abomination, as are many things. Neglecting to treat kindly the orphan, the widow, the stranger and the poor, too, is a moral and a religious failure – an abomination. A Jew who does that has failed to recognize the essence of Jewish behavior vis-a-vis one’s fellowman.

Eating on Yom Kippur because one has a craving or is secular is a religious sin in Boteach’s lexicon, not a moral one. The case of some leftist Jews who defiantly held banquets on Yom Kippur in the early years of the State of Israel is, however, another matter. Publicly violating a Torah stricture with flagrant disdain a la Zimri ben Salu (Parashat Pinchas) suggests a deep moral flaw and carries more weight. That is sinning for sinning’s sake; celebrating the sin – yet even that has nuances.

Boteach, however, erroneously claims that the practice of homosexuality is not immoral because no other innocent party (contrary to theft or adultery) is hurt by such behavior involving “two consenting adults in a relationship.”

“Two consenting adults” is a notion borrowed from 20th century non-Jewish sources of law and has little bearing on defining Torah principles.

More importantly, he’s wrong. The homosexual act by definition involves two individuals, just like adultery. Each individual automatically involves the other, presents the other with the opportunity and means to act. Had one of the two not been there, there would not have been a homosexual or sinful act. By providing the necessary second party – the condition, the kelim and encouragement to sin – each individual becomes the other partner’s means to sin. Willing participation in a homosexual act causes another to violate a Torah principle. Each is responsible not only for his own behavior, but also for his partner’s. Like adultery, the homosexual act involves betrayal – not of a marriage partner, but of God and His moral principles.

As such, homosexuality is a moral sin, using Boteach’s definition.

PHIL LUGOSI

Jerusalem