MK Yitzhak Pindrus (UTJ) on Tuesday shared with Channel 12 the Torah’s view regarding fornication and illicit sex. He didn’t invent anything that’s not written in the Torah. He said: “Leave aside the economy, this is the most dangerous thing in the State of Israel. Because it is written, the land will vomit you, you will be expelled from here, and so on. And so, in my understanding, I need not only to prevent the pride parade but to prevent this movement altogether.”
Before we continue, I must state for the record that MK Pindrus was right. Leviticus 28, which we read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur, near the end of the fast, indeed warns that if we do not avoid the illicit sex and fornication of the nations of Canaan, the land would vomit us just as it has done to them.
Now, it’s true that Leviticus 28 warns against many transgressions, including those involving close relatives and beasts. But while there is no universal movement that encourages incest and bestiality, the LGBT movement not only supports same-sex relations, it pushes them as things to be proud of.
In that context, anyone who reads the warnings in Leviticus 28 can understand the national threat of the LGPT movement as MK Pindrus presented it.
He stated: “In my view, this is the most dangerous thing for the State of Israel, more than ISIS, more than Hezbollah, more than Hamas.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday took the Knesset podium, put on a yarmulka “out of respect for the Torah” and cited several Torah verses that mete out the death penalty for issues other than homosexuality, such as the rebellious son.
“There are many more people in this country who speak rudely to their parents than there are LGBT people. Why are you so busy with LGBT people?” Lapid asked.
It wasn’t a good argument. Pindrus didn’t declare an all-out war on the LGBT because they violate the Torah, but because their violations are on the list for which we would be vomited by the land.
Lapid would have done better by asking Pindrus why he is not going after other sins in Leviticus 28, which, according to what we are told on Yom Kippur, are easily as dangerous to our stint on this land as homosexual Israelis.
The Likud issued a statement in response to MK Pindrus, saying: “The statements of MK Pindros are not acceptable to Prime Minister Netanyahu and do not reflect the policy of the Israeli government. The government led by Netanyahu is committed to safeguarding individual freedoms, LGBT rights, and protecting minority rights.”
Alas, that response was less intelligent than Lapid, who at least attempted to understand Pindrus’s argument. He didn’t get it, because, let’s face it, Yair Lapid is not the brightest torchlight in the Falange march (he once argued that Copernicus was a Greek philosopher). But the Likud didn’t even show an interest in why a respectable, albeit Haredi, man, the son of American olim, who served in the IDF and was the mayor of Beitar Illit, would risk being attacked just because he hates homosexuals.
And if the Likud showed no interest, you can imagine what the left did with Pindrus’s statement…
Yaron Ten-Brink wrote in TimeOut: “The conduct of the leaders of Shas and United Torah Judaism in this government obligates every democratic-liberal party to declare a divorce, to give up fantasizing about a future coalition and to go to war against the very existence of the Haredi parties that have declared themselves enemies of democracy, and lead to their outlawing.
“As part of the new contract that Israeli society must draw up and sign with itself for its future, the Haredi public will be represented by Haredi politicians who will register with democratic parties, and they will do a better and more honest job because their election to the Knesset will depend in so doing. and if not? It will only be our fault.”
But wait, there was more: the chairman of the gay lobby in the Knesset, Yesh Atid MK Yorai Lahav Hertzanu (he’s the MK who jumped over his table to rush at committee chairman Simcha Rothman) and the LGBT Association on Wednesday appealed to the Attorney General demanding to open an investigation against MK Pindrus over his remarks against the gay community.
“I contacted the AG this morning demanding to open a criminal investigation against MK Pindrus for incitement to violence and, if necessary, to remove his immunity and prosecute him. His dangerous words are a high point in the violent and inflammatory discourse against the gay community. This is an incitement that permits the blood of friends and members of the gay community in Israel, and ushers in the next murder.”
Yes, free speech is not a popular value in Israeli society. But, of course, the Haredi parties are also trying to legislate criminal penalties against anyone who criticizes Haredim.
MK Pindrus should have heeded another Biblical warning, that of the prophet Amos (5:13): “At such a time the learned man keeps silent, for it is an evil time.”
