Omer Learning 2018: Day 27 | Parashah: Acharei Mot

Today is 27 days, which is 3 weeks and 6 days of the Omer

Instructions for counting the omer are found on our Omer Overview Page. You can find the specific blessing for today at chabad.org.

We’re dedicating a new Sefer Torah on the first day of Shavuot. In honor of this joyous occasion, we’re using the counting of the Omer to take a whirlwind trip through the Torah

Today’s portion is Acharei Mot from the book of Leviticus. Today’s insight was generously provided by Rabbi B.

Verses of note: Leviticus 18:22

What caught your attention in this parashah?

If I’d had a Bat Mitzvah, this would have been my combined Torah portion, with Kedoshim. Like the majority of people who have this as their Torah portion, I am sure as a teenager I would have refrained on providing commentary on this portion in general, and from this specific verse in particular. As I grew in both my understanding of people and of issues, I’ve had to grapple with this text and its message. Why would male homossexuality be an abhorrence? After all, I had friends, classmates and teachers who were gay and seemed to live a good and productive life. Why was this highlighted in the Torah as particularly bad?

What’s one explanation for these verses?

According to Dr. Baruch Levine in his JPS commentary on Leviticus, mishkevei isha mean “after the manner of lying with a woman”, by the introduction of the male member. He explains that this can be understood from the story of the destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19. He concludes that male homosexuality is described in the context of xenophobia – “the extreme fear of strangers induces a community to attack visitors.”

If I allow myself to do a completely imaginative reading of this verse, really not based in Biblical Hebrew, I would read it literally, ” A male should not lie with another male as though he is lying with a woman — that is an abhorrence.” In my “midrash” I think that this means that as long as everyone involved in the sexual relationship is clear that this is a homosexual act, it would not be a problem. The abhorrence would be the lie — if one thought that he was having a relationship with a woman and not with a man.

Yet, by sharing the correct Biblical reading of this verse, Dr. Levine brings up an important point. This prohibition is based on the fear of ill-treating the immigrant, the stranger, out of fear. The abhorrence is not the act, in my opinion. The abhorrence is the fear of what is different, and the infliction of pain on others because one is afraid of them. This verse, then, could be re-interpreted as, “Don’t do bad things to foreigners, out of fear of their different ways.” May we be blessed with with the ability to celebrate difference, spread love and not fear.

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