The Torah teaches us to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. It is this fundamental Jewish value that was emphasized throughout my yeshiva education and today it is this same value that I stress to my own children.
I read with utter disbelief that a rabbi would suggest that the suicide of a homosexual Jew is a mitzvah (“The Cost Of Standing Idly By,” Opinion, Oct. 15).
I don’t understand how we Orthodox Jews cannot bring ourselves to feel compassion and be tolerant towards homosexuals in our community. I am not advocating changing the Torah law. But the Orthodox community has shown that it can embrace Jews who have transgressed many laws in the Torah; why must we single out homosexuality as being so abhorrent? Why are we teaching our children to hate and exclude?
The sin that a homosexual couple may or may not commit in the privacy of their home is between them and God. The sin that we as the Orthodox community commit in our attitude towards homosexual Jews is between us and our fellow Jews. Shame on us.
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