Posted on 07/06/2013 1:38:33 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
LOS ANGELES — Sinai Temple is a Conservative Jewish congregation perched on a hill in Westwood, famous for its wealth, its sizable population of Persians, many of whom fled Iran after the fall of the shah, and a well-known and outspoken rabbi who has at times pushed his congregation on ideologically adventurous paths.
So it was that three weeks before the Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California, the rabbi, David Wolpe, announced in a letter to the synagogue that gay marriages would be performed in this 107-year-old congregation, as soon as the court ruling he anticipated was handed down.
Celebrating same-sex marriages is hardly a new stand for Conservative Jewish congregations. But the decision in this distinctive synagogue has set off a storm of protests in recent days, particularly from Persian Jews, reflecting not only the unusual makeup of the congregation but also the generational and cultural divisions among some Jews over how to respond to changing civil views of homosexuality.
“To officiate a union that is expressly not for the same godly purpose of procreation and to call such a relationship ‘sanctified’ is unacceptable to a sound mind,” M. Michael Naim, an architect, said in an open letter to other Iranian members of the congregation. “Homosexuality is explicitly condemned in Scripture and has been categorically and passionately rejected by all classical Jewish legal and ethical thinkers as a cardinal vice in the same category as incest, murder and idolatry.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I’d probably add to your list, Modern Orthodox, which is pretty consistently Zionist and socially conservative.
I grew up the equivalent of Modern Orthodox (or, perhaps more correctly, non-Hasidic Orthodox) in Israel, but married into a Hasidic family.
Every USA citizen in our family is a TEA-Party side Republican.
Not gonna happen. For the liberal Jews, liberalism comes first.
Jews who marry the same sex, will, in time whither from this Earth.
Biologically, they extinct themselves by definition.
True, but wouldn't that pertain regardless of whether "gay marriage" was legal or not? I'm not arguing for or against "gay marriage" with that rhetorical question,, but I don't see the relevance of your point to the "gay marriage" debate.
From this Jewish perspective, I'd say you just about nailed it.
There can be no multiplication of their gene pool in a biological flow into the future. Their line basically stops right there, when they wed or live in union.
Of course they can adopt or do IVF (women) but technically speaking, what can be the byproduct of such a same-sex union...nothing at all, no kids and 2 dogs or a role-confused adopted or IVFed child.
Wolpe is a shonde, a disgrace! The congregation should endeavor to get another rabbi..
Mr Naims outrage reminds me of the police inspector
from ‘Casablanca’... Shocked to find gambling in a
casino. Indeed.
While I share mr naim’s contention that the Torah rejects
gay union in explicit terms even a lib should understand,
I’m puzzled as to why an intelligent man like Naim
would be surprised that a ‘conservative’ ‘temple’ would
take such a move!?
Surely mr. Naim’s 1st clue should have been the
‘rabbi’s well known angst regarding the very
veracity of the bible and god himself.
You can’t make this stuff up... Look up the rabbis
Views (on tape) regarding the very fundamentals
of Judaism will make this latest stunt fit right in.
Not to worry though .. At the rate deformed and conserved
Jews are intermarrying and not reproducing, there
won’t be many marriages let alone gay jewish ceremonies
to perform in the coming generation.
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