On a Friday evening,Shabbat, in late May, President Obama, calling himself “an honorary member of the tribe,” addressed Conservative Congregation Adas Israel in Washinton, D.C., as not just the President of the United States but also a believer in “tikkun olam” which he defines as promoting universal progressive ideals – fighting bigotry and working for social justice everywhere.
Is that the Jewish definition of tikkun olam? The following is a letter I wrote when President Obama “evolved” in his views on gay marriage from opposing it to advocating for it.
Dear Mr. Stanley,
As an act of both respect and courtesy, I am sending you a copy of an article I wrote, which referenced a public statement you made regarding our President’s acceptance of Gay Marriage. “President Obama has admirably continued to demonstrate the values of tikkun olam in his work to make America a better place for all Americans. I am truly proud of President Obama and know that so many others in the Jewish community share my feelings.”
It is obvious to me from the very fact that you have elected to demonstrate your support for Democrat candidates by serving as President of the National Jewish Democratic Council and that you once served as the National Vice-President of the American Jewish Congress, you are a proud Jew who wishes to couch your public pronouncements and actions in Jewish terms.
Tikun Olam is, according to our Jewish tradition, a spiritual regeneration of the world, in kabalistic terms, the gathering of the shards of the Shviras HaKelim, the breaking of the vessels, necessary in the creation of a physical world. To some, the individual Jew enhancing his adherence to the Mitzvos, the Commandments of G d enumerated in the Torah, accomplishes Tikun Olam. To others, this is insufficient. For them Tikun Olam requires the Jewish community’s enhancing its adherence to the Mitzvos. To still others, Tikun Olam requires humanity to enhance its adherence to the Mitzvos – the Jews observing the 613 Mitzvos and society observing the 7 Mitzvos of Noah. In every case, condoning Gay Marriage, not only does not advance Tikun Olam, it obstructs it.
Leviticus 18 clearly states the prohibition of homosexuality describing at as a toevah – an abomination – an extremely harsh word. “If a man lies with a man as with a woman both of them have committed an abomination… Our Rabbis, ancient and contemporary teach us that toevah is a Hebrew construct for the words toeh attah ba – through it you go astray – that is, society as a whole. This is manifest by its rejection of the one man, one woman married unit; the building block of society, its rejection of the anatomical structure of human beings and its rejection of the obligation enunciated in the very first Mitzva of the Torah to be fruitful and multiply insuring the future of humanity; joining G d in the very act of creation itself. Indeed, marriage is clearly defined in Genesis – “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
The very word describing such an act – sodomy, is derived from the homosexual desires of the residents of Sodom who, when the Angels visited Lot, demanded they be sent out so that the male populace of the City can “know them. To “know” in a Biblical context means sexual activity understood as such by Jewish and Christian Biblical scholars alike. Lot’s offer to send out his daughters instead, demonstrates the desire expressed in “knowing” by the population was to engage in the homosexual rape of Lot’s visitors. As you know, according to the Biblical narrative, the residents of Sodom were so morally corrupt, so utterly evil, that in spite of Abrahams intervention on their behalf, G d was left with no recourse but to destroy them together with their City.
The Torah as well expresses in the strongest terms its abhorrence of the pagan rite of the kadesh and kadesha; the male or female ritual prostitute with whom one engaged sexually as an act of religious piety. Finally, the Bach (late 16h century, lived in Eastern Europe) in Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law, expressly permits two males to share the same bed. He observes that there is no fear of homosexuality as it is not prevalent among the Jewish People, again underscoring this prohibition.
Finally, as to the issue of “nature or nurture,” so much a part of today’s debate regarding homosexuality, the Midrash’s advice regarding the proper approach to the fulfillment of G d’s Will is telling. It advises us that a Jew should not state “I have no desire for that which is prohibited.” He should rather state, “I will not do that which G d has prohibited.” It formulates the principle that Torah observance, living G d’s Will, is about subjugating our desires to His desires. The definition of the Tzadik, the perfectly righteous individual is the person who has reached the level of having no desire in opposition to G d’s Will – literally G d’s commandments naturally flow through his very being.
I am deeply distressed that you, an individual who, on the one hand by his actions indicates his Jewish pride by electing to express his political attitudes not merely as an American but as a Jewish American, as President of the National Jewish Democratic Council, yet, paradoxically, grossly misrepresents a Jewish concept central to our theology of world redemption to support an act condemned by Jewish Faith, tradition, and civilization. At best this is an indication of ignorance of Judaism and at worst, a willful desire to pervert Judaism’s values to one’s own ends.
As I wrote in my article, every American has the right to express an opinion and to attempt to advance that opinion as the law of the land. I value this important element of American citizenship. Please, if you must in future invoke Judaism to support your political opinion, ensure that Judaism really supports your view.
I join with all Americans in the effort to advance the human condition for every citizen by ensuring our society lives by a moral and ethical code, which bespeaks our declaration “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” Given the sources I have referenced, Gay Marriage is clearly not one of the “certain unalienable rights” given to us by our Creator.
Respectfully,
Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz