Both gay and celibate: an Orthodox rabbi's difficult dilemma

It is not illegal to be actively homosexual in Israel, but that does not mean it is accepted -- especially within the country's religious Orthodox community.

When a member of that community is also gay, the dilemma is complete.

"Religion does not prohibit a man from loving another man," says R, a gay and an Orthodox rabbi who dares not give his name because he might be branded an abomination if he were found out.

But there is a biblical injunction against a man "lying with a man as with a woman," as the saying goes. That ban, in the book of Leviticus, prescribes death for the wrongdoer.

Therein lies a dilemma for R, who is discreetly seeking to change the mindset about homosexuals among religious Jews, whom he characterises as homophobic and ignorant.

Even so R remains true to his religious faith, despite Israel decriminalising homosexuality in 1988.

The Bible says what it says, the Orthodox religious community stands by it, and that includes R himself.

Leviticus, one of the five books of the Torah, which contains Jewish law, says "you shall not lie with men, as with women; it is abomination. Neither shall you lie with any beast to defile yourself with it; nor shall any women stand before a beast to lie down to it; it is perversion."

"If a man also lies with men, as he lies with a women, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

R takes that injunction seriously. He lives with another observant Jewish man in what he describes as a romantic but celibate relationship, and one that is not flaunted in public.

Even so, R says "we are part of the religious world and we plan to stay there."

Both gay and celibate: an Orthodox rabbi's difficult dilemma
AFP -