On halacha and gay marriage
Writing in the Jewish Journal's Morethodoxy blog, Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky writes that while he won't perform a gay marriage -- or an intermarriage, or a Kohen-divorcee marriage -- he still can't get behind California's Proposition 8. Here's how an Orthdox rabbi arrives at that conclusion.
I am an Orthodox Jew and rabbi .And I am also a human being. A human being who deeply appreciates the spiritual values of human dignity and civil rights that are the foundation of our democracy. Almost all of the time these two essential components of who I am reinforce and encourage one another. Here though, they are in conflict. I know what the Torah says of course, and its words are binding upon me. But as a human being reared on democracy, I cannot articulate for myself a convincing argument as to why the legal recognition of civil marriage should be withheld from citizens who, by dint of how they were born, are only able to form bonds of love and commitment with members of their own gender.
As an aside, I know that the domestic partnership laws afford almost all of the same rights and privileges that marriage does. But domestic partnerships belong to that category of “separate but equal”, suffering from the same kinds of unofficial inequalities that racially segregated schools did. It seems to me that we’re still left with a straightforward claim for “equality under the law”.
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Rabbi,
You will have to decide what trump card you play. Torah or CA State Law. Jewish life is full of these issues: Ordination of women rabbis; who wears tallit , kippah,or tfillin; which of the 613 mitzvhah you’ll keep; would you marry a reformed Jew to an Orthodox Jew.
The Torah isn’t a document of convenience, to pick and choose which items you find difficult to reconcile with secular life. Hashem didn’t say “Let me make all decisions easy for you.” You were at sinai, you made the committment to obey, before you knew what it was going to cost.
This wouldn’t be a problem for you if you truely felt that you were in exile, truely yearning with all your heart and soul to be re-united with all Yisroel ready to receive the comming of moshiach. Instead you have become an American, who happens to be Jewish as opposed to a Jew who happens to live in America.
However, I am in the same boat--although not a Rabbi. Here’s how I resolve the issue. I support civil marriage, as an American right under the equal protection clause of the Constitution, for all Americans, regardless of gender. But I don’t want the government interferring with my religion. And, my rabbi must follow Torah with 100% conviction. If you cannot separate your Jewish life from your American life, then you will never have a resolution of your issue. Anyway, that’s my opinion.
David Talbot
Mesa, Arizona
Religious folks are entitled to live their lives in accordance with their values, perhaps even obligated to do so. An Orthodox rabbi or a Catholic priest obviously have to follow religious rules that secular society does not require of all citizens.
Conversely, secular society’s laws should not enshrine religious notions in secular law. Marriage, then, should not be regarded as a sacrament by a secular state. Gay marriage should not be regarded as a violation of halakha or shariah by a secular state. Therefore, secular law must ensure precisely and completely the same rights for all citizens.
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Joshua Pines
08/26/09 11:53 AM
Nice take, Rabbi. Bravo.