{"id":1301,"date":"2024-04-16T22:43:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T02:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reclaimingthetruth\/?p=1301"},"modified":"2024-04-16T23:02:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-17T03:02:53","slug":"what-does-the-torah-say-about-lesbians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/reclaimingthetruth\/2024\/04\/what-does-the-torah-say-about-lesbians\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does The Torah Say About Lesbians?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What Does The Torah Say About Lesbians?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

What does The Torah say about lesbians? While many religious people lump all homosexuals into one group, you may be surprised to find that the Biblical text does not lump women and men into the same category with regard to homosexuality. Thus, many people do not know what the text says about lesbians.<\/p>\n

What Does The Torah Say About Lesbians?<\/h2>\n So, what does The Torah say about lesbians? You may be surprised to learn that the answer is nothing. The Torah speaks specifically of males lying with males, as with a woman. It never speaks of women lying with other women.<\/p>\n

Why Were Lesbians Excluded From The Torah?<\/h3>\n There are many theories as to why The Torah does not mention homosexual acts between women. Some scholars attempted to say this was because the book was chauvinistic and women were excluded from The Law. However, this theory has largely been dismissed, because there are laws specifically for women.<\/p>\n

Most Likely Reason<\/h3>\n Another theory is that lesbians are not mentioned because sex between two women does not result in the loss of \u201cseed.\u201d That is to say, a woman\u2019s eggs are not expelled during the sexual act as is a man\u2019s semen. Thus, the act does not threaten the continuation of the Jewish line in the same manner. This is the most popular theory in modern scholarship.\u00a0 I will discuss this later in the article when we explore Orthodox beliefs.<\/p>\n Frederick E. Greenspahn<\/a> wrote,<\/p>\n \u201cThe absence of references to lesbianism in the Bible is noteworthy.<\/p>\n (The rabbinic prohibition is based on the biblical proscription \nof imitating Egyptian and Canaanite practices.)27 This cannot be \nwritten off as the result of biblical androcentrism, since females \nare mentioned alongside males in other prohibitions (e.g., Lev \n20:15\u201316). Some have thought that lesbianism is omitted because \nsuch relations do not entail physical union or lead to the \u201cspilling \nof seed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culture<\/h3>\n \ Personally, I think it is important to remember the culture of the people at the time The Torah was written. Men often had more than one wife and a wife was to obey and please her husband sexually. Relationships were not monogamous, as we think of marriages today. Thus, it is likely that the marital bed in ancient Judaism may have had more than two people in it at a time. Polygamy was the norm. However, a woman did not have more than one husband.<\/p>\n

Ruth and Lesbian Undertones in Torah<\/h3>\n While The Torah does not mention lesbian activity explicitly, the book of Ruth<\/a> has been seen by many Biblical Scholars as hinting at a lesbian love affair.<\/a> While Ruth is Naomi\u2019s daughter-in-law, Ruth\u2019s words of desperation, in Ruth 1:16, sound like modern-day wedding vows.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201c16But Ruth replied:<\/p>\n \u201cDo not urge me to leave you<\/p>\n or to turn from following you.<\/p>\n For wherever you go, I will go,<\/p>\n and wherever you live, I will live;<\/p>\n your people will be my people,<\/p>\n and your God will be my God.<\/p>\n 17Where you die, I will die,<\/p>\n and there I will be buried.<\/p>\n May the LORD punish me,<\/p>\n and ever so severely,<\/p>\n if anything but death<\/p>\n separates you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n Scholars also note the Hebrew word used when Ruth clings to Naomi is the same word used for Adam clinging to Eve in sexual union. That word is dabaq.\u00a0 Whatever the nature of the relationship between these two women, Ruth\u2019s words have gone down in Jewish history as the ideal form of love and loyalty.<\/p>\n Therefore, while The Torah provides no law against lesbian activities, it may offer a picture of a beautiful same-sex love between women.\u00a0 So, if The Torah mentions lesbians at all it is in an accepting and respectful manner. They are the ideal of love.<\/p>\n

What Does Judaism Say About Lesbians?<\/h2>\n

What Does Conservative and Reform Judaism Say About Lesbians?<\/h3>\n Because there is no prohibition against lesbians in The Torah, Rabbis have been more lenient overall about the subject than they are about male homosexuality. Lesbianism has been seen as more of a taboo than something forbidden outright. That is to say, it is not encouraged, but if it happens it is not a call for total exclusion from the community. Frederick E. Greenspahn<\/a> said, \u201cWhatever the reason, the lack of a biblical prohibition against female homosexual behavior allowed the rabbis to be more \nlenient in that case than with males.\u201d<\/p>\n Within Conservative and Reform communities the law against homosexuality has been more lenient in recent years. Many synagogues now have gay and lesbian Rabbis. In these communities, male homosexuality is viewed as a bigger problem than female homosexuality because the prohibition in Leviticus is specific to men. The communities have become more accepting of both, however, noting that The Torah only speaks against one particular behavior and not a person or their sexual preference.<\/p>\n

What Does Orthodox Judaism Say About Lesbians?<\/h3>\n \ Unfortunately, The Orthodox have a different view. In Orthodox Judaism, they still understand homosexuality, both in males and females, to be a direct Torah violation. While a conversation has begun within the community, the resounding answer has been that homosexuality is forbidden.<\/p>\n Orthodoxy is very concerned with the continuation of a Jewish community. For this reason within Orthodox Judaism women who choose same-sex relationships are often looked down on more than gay men.\u00a0 Rachel Shapiro Safran<\/a> wrote,<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the \nfact that research has indicated that heterosexual people\u2019s attitudes toward gay men tend \nto be more negative than those toward lesbian women (Capitanio, 1999; Kite & Whitley, \n1996), the opposite argument has been made in regards to Orthodox Jews. Many argue \nthat among Orthodox Jews, attitudes towards lesbian women are more negative than \nattitudes towards gay men (Dworkin, 1997; Mark, 2008).\u201d<\/p>\n

What Is The Real Reason For The Orthodox\u2019s View of Lesbians?<\/h3>\n The reason is that Orthodox Rabbis believe women should be producing and raising Jewish children. Safran<\/a> wrote,<\/p>\n \u201cDespite the clear Biblical and Talmudic prohibitions that many Orthodox leaders \nand authorities use in supporting their stance on homosexuality, many Orthodox gays and \n8lesbian individuals sense that the real block against redefining the halachic ruling on \nhomosexuality has not been the explicit language in the Torah, Talmud, and rabbinical \ncommentaries, especially since historically, the commentaries did not seem to be as harsh \n(Ariel, 2007). Rather, \u201cthe origin seems to be nested in the cultural biases of a \nconservative community that promotes \u201cfamily values,\u201d wants to see its sons and \ndaughters married and producing children, and has little appreciation for \u201calternative \nlifestyles\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion: What Does The Torah Say About Lesbians?<\/h2>\n \ So, what does The Torah have to say about lesbians? Nothing. Not one word. What does the Jewish community say about lesbians? For the most part, lesbians are accepted. However, The Orthodox community remains steadfast in their belief that all homosexuality is wrong. Let us pray for a day when all Jews will be accepted in all sects of Judaism. If G-d did not condemn something, who is mankind to condemn it? Are we greater in authority than Hashem or Torah? Nay.<\/p>\n \ \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \ What does The Torah say about lesbians? While many religious people lump all homosexuals into one group, you may be surprised to find that the Biblical text does not lump women and men into the same category with regard to homosexuality. Thus, many people do not know what the text says about lesbians. What Does […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4932,"featured_media":1304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246,21,267,282,51,228,255,54,48,249,1,45],"tags":[450,33,12,60,27,6],"class_list":["post-1301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-gender","category-gender-equality","category-homosexuality","category-jewish-law","category-love","category-marriage","category-sex-laws","category-sexuality","category-torah","category-uncategorized","category-women","tag-feminism","tag-gender-and-sexuality","tag-jewish-law","tag-sex-laws","tag-sexuality","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Does The Torah Say About Lesbians?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What does The Torah say about lesbians? 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