just a friendly reminder that this type of rhetoric is misleading, (in my opinion, slightly antisemitic) and not the way to go about fighting religious homophobes.
religious jews still follow these laws. we dont wear clothes that have a blend of wool & linen (laws of shatnez). fresh produce in israel follows all of the agricultural laws outlined in the torah. as for some of the other laws i always see referenced: we donât eat shellfish or pork or anything prohibited by the torah. clean-shaven men will only ever use electric razors never blades. we donât work on the sabbath, we observe the sanctioned holy days, we believe in, love and fear God and obey Godâs commandments.
personally, i find the rhetoric harmful and insulting for three reasons. one, it only works on the (very christian) premise that the torah is outdated, and that ~nobody in their right mind~ would follow those laws anymore. two, it tends to ignore the fact that lgbtq+ orthodox jews exist and have to live through the struggle of being lgbtq+ and observant, despite community backlash, severe judgement and institutionalised homophobia. and three, it gives homophobia-masked-as-religious-observance some sort of legitimacy because yeah, the rest of those laws are kept in varying degrees by millions of people.
donât fight homophobes by saying âlook at all of these other ridiculous lawsâ â those laws matter to a lot of people, including me, a jewish lesbian. instead, say âdo not stand idly by your fellowâs blood (leviticus 19:16)â, âwhoever humiliates another in public forfeits their place in the World to Come (avot 3:11), âone shall not say to a person words that hurt them or cause them pain against which they cannot stand (sefer hachinuch, mitzvah 338)â, âdo not do to others that which you would not wish them to do to you. this is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary (gemara shabbat 31a)â, and what is perhaps one of my favorite verses in tanach, âto what is good and just is more preferable to God than sacrifice (proverbs 21:3)â.
oh, and hereâs a good starting point for educating your religious friends and family members.Â
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
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