Why is it wrong for a person to marry their dog? Sex in the Torah and liberal values

We're in danger of reducing Judaism to a pale reflection of itself if we ignore everything about it that we don't like.

Last Shabbat's parshah (weekly Torah portion) was Aharei Mot - Kedoshim, a double parshah that sums up this dilemma.  Aharei Mot includes the Torah's laws about forbidden sexual practices, a vital part of Jewish law: don't have sex with family members, in-laws, menstruating women (the author clearly had in mind a male audience), animals or other men.  We still get the bits about incest, adultery and bestiality, but not the  ones about homosexuality or, if we're honest, about avoiding sex during menstruation.  More specifically, some people might want to avoid sex during menstruation but they'd be unlikely to back law enforcement on the subject.

Kedoshim, on the other hand, contains some of the Torah's greatest hits: don't curse the deaf, don't put a stumbling block in front of the blind, leave the crops at the corners of your fields for the poor, love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.  This parshah also contains bits we don't like, but it certainly provides a good amount of material for left-wing, liberal and even secular sermon givers and doesn't make us feel embarrassed to be Jewish.

The other day a Liberal rabbi friend told me that readings from the book of Vayikra (Leviticus), rich as it tends to be with content that makes modern people uncomfortable, are often skipped over or de-emphasised by his colleagues.  While at Masorti we read every line of the Torah as part of the annual cycle, we can't deny that this temptation also exists for us.  A broader temptation for liberal-minded Jews (and I include Masorti in that definition) is to filter Judaism through the prism of our liberal values, simply ignoring the bits we don't like, and claiming that the result reflects an authentic interpretation of the tradition.

There are two problems with this: one has to do with liberalism and the other has to do with Judaism.

First, liberalism.  John Stuart Mill taught us that the State (or any other source of authority) has no right to coerce individuals other than to prevent them from harming others.  This is the basic justification for important progressive policies such as recognising same-sex marriage.  Thoroughgoing liberalism removes the need for value judgements or imposing our views on others.  It simply says live and let live.  If two people want to marry each other, we have no right to interfere.  Similarly, if someone wants to protest about same-sex marriage, they have the right to do that, as long as the protest doesn't verge on coercion.  The same applies to any other activities engaged in by consenting adults: hard drug use, incest, potentially even bestiality (as long as we could prove no animal cruelty was involved).

These examples show that the liberalism of most liberals is not all that thoroughgoing: most of us want to be able to make judgements, think about the kind of society we want to live in, and influence others in line with this.  Liberalism does not provide an escape from difficult, ideological, values-based debate.

Next, Judaism.  Judaism isn't interested in rights but in obligations.  As my colleague Rabbi Jeremy Gordon recently wrote in an article about Judaism and homosexuality (see page 22), halacha wants to control us from the time we get up to the time we go to bed at night, in every detail of our lives.  Judaism has been shaped by historical forces and shifting social values but if we try to reshape it in liberal, non-coercive terms we will be doing violence to its fundamental shape.  We need to hang on to Aharei Mot alongside Kedoshim.  This is important because Judaism has the potential to act as an effective check and balance against the excesses of liberalism taken to its logical conclusion.  Balancing ourselves between two such different ethical and political traditions forces us out of formulaic approaches and makes us think in an innovative way about each new issue we encounter.

This week

It's been busy.  Our professional staff have carried out a mid-year progress review and, while we face tough challenges in our efforts to grow the Masorti movement, we've made important achievements: expanding Noam's work in our communities and boosting summer camp numbers, running a successful Marom Lithuania trip and an international Marom Europe conference in London, finding ways to support Masorti rabbinical students, creating volunteer leadership teams for this year's Leadership Day (St Albans, 13th October - save the date!), our Annual Dinner and next year's Yom Masorti, creating a new Masorti corporate brochure to bring our message to a wider audience, and working hard to secure enough funding to expand our activities and achieve even bigger aims next year.

I've met with Charlotte Fischer, Citizens UK's Jewish Community Organiser to support her work with Noam and the Citizens' Group at New North London Synagogue, with Rael Goodman from the Jewish Agency to explore how to work in partnership to strengthen our relationship with Israel, and with Jon Benjamin from the Board of Deputies to find out how Masorti can get involved with the Board's new small community outreach programme.  I've also represented Masorti at meetings about the Jewish Leadership Council's Community Vitality Project and the professional advisory board of their leadership training initiative, LEAD; at a meeting of the Community Consultative Committee with heads of the United Synagogue, Reform and Liberal Judaism, and at the Israeli Embassy's Israel 65 reception.  And tomorrow I'm looking forward to running a shiur for members of New Stoke Newington Shul entitled 'Judaism Without God?'