If you wish to be nauseated...

[ChabadKahanist]

This statement is unacceptable.  Stoning people to death is a barbaric muslim death practice.  Jews and Christians and others should reject the practice completely, without exception.

Actually there was stoning in Judaism when there was a Sanhedrin.
It didn't haven't often bid it did occasionally happen.

[muman613]

This statement is unacceptable.  Stoning people to death is a barbaric muslim death practice.  Jews and Christians and others should reject the practice completely, without exception.

Unacceptable to you maybe, but you seem to not realize that Jewish law does require a man who sleeps with a man, who has been witnessed by two others who warned him to not engage in homosexual relations, and who is brought to the Sanhedrin to be stoned to death. This has absolutely nothing to do with islam and the comparison is an insult.

Those religious Jews here know we pray every day for the restoration of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court, and the resumption of Torah law. I know that Rabbi Kahane believed that some day soon (G-d willing) we will establish a true Torah state which will carry out the Torah as we were commanded so clearly by Hashem at Mount Sinai. So while it may seem unacceptable to NoMosqueHere, it is completely acceptable according to the word of Hashem who considers such sexual relations to be an abomination.

Regarding cross-dressing, it is not a capital offense, but it is dealt with through lashes.

http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/235,118/What-does-the-Torah-say-about-cross-dressing.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/940317/jewish/Negative-Commandment-40.htm

The 40th prohibition is that men are also1 forbidden from adorning themselves with women's ornaments.

The source of this commandment is G‑d's statement,2 "A man shall not wear a woman's garment."

Any man who adorns3 himself or wears an article which is known in that place to be specifically for women is punished by lashes.

You should know that this practice — of women adorning themselves with male articles or men with female articles — is sometimes done to arouse lust, as is well known among the nations; and sometimes done as a kind of idolatrous worship, as explained in books dealing with this subject.4 It is often stipulated in making some kame'ot5 that if a man is making it, he must wear women's clothing, and wear gold jewelry, pearls and the like; and if a woman is making it, she must wear armor and weapons. This is very well known among those who practice it.

Maybe it would be wise for people to read up on the sexual relations which are forbidden by our Torah:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0320.htm

[JTFenthusiast2]

Muman,

You would not stone gay people who did you, nor those you loved any wrong.  You wouldn't.   Homosexuality is against the law of the Bible, that doesn't mean you, and a I know you, would elect to become mercenary supreme by killing people that did nothing to you.  That's madness.  There was a reason why the sanhedrin executed, whatm but one person in 70 years, ONE.

[muman613]

Muman,

You would not stone gay people who did you, nor those you loved any wrong.  You wouldn't.   Homosexuality is against the law of the Bible, that doesn't mean you, and a I know you, would elect to become mercenary supreme by killing people that did nothing to you.  That's madness.  There was a reason why the sanhedrin executed, whatm but one person in 70 years, ONE.

Yes, but that is not a reason to accept the homosexuals as normal. The law is the law, for a reason, and a reason which I accept. I accept the complete Torah, not just the parts which are comfortable to me. While I am not perfect I admit the things I do which are wrong, and I work diligently to correct my observance of the commandments. So long as this is the goal I think there would be very few openly gay people, because once there are two witnesses and a warning, there may be consequences. I am the first one to state that the Torah repeatedly, more times than the commandment against homosexual relations (which occur twice in the Torah), states that one who desecrates the Sabbath deserves the death penalty. I am not a hypocrite because I believe that when the sanhedrin is in existence all the Torah laws will be enforced.

The reason that so few people were executed by the sanhedrin was because the court was instructed to 1) Try to find extenuating circumstances to find the convict not guilty. 2) High standard of witnesses and having to give a warning before the crime. 3) If the court found unanimously that the convict was guilty then the convict would be found not guilty...

At least they will have to take it back into the closet rather than parade it in Jerusalem..

[muman613]

http://www.meaningfullife.com/torah/parsha/devarim/shoftim/Unanimous_Verdict.php

In Jewish law, the court’s primary responsibility is to find merit for the accused, and to seek to preserve his life. "The congregation will judge him and the congregation will preserve him”[1]. The process of trying a capital case is overwhelmingly skewed towards the benefit of the defendant. No circumstantial evidence is accepted. The testimony of not one but two eyewitnesses is required, and both are carefully cross-examined for any discrepancies in their accounts. Furthermore, capital punishment is only meted out in a case where deliberate intent can be conclusively proved. Two witnesses must be produced who can testify to having warned the defendant in advance that his action was wrong, and of the consequences of that action.  Another requirement of capital cases is the rule of "halanat hadin,”[2] that a guilty verdict must not be completed in one day, but must be deferred for another day in order to leave more opportunity to find credit.

In Maimonides’ Laws of Sanhedrin[3], the following law is cited: "If a Sanhedrin[4] opens a capital case with a unanimous guilty verdict, he is exempt, until some merit is found to acquit him; then, those who convict will be in the majority, and then he will be put to death."

The source of Maimonides’ ruling is in the Talmud Sanhedrin.[5] The reason given for the exemption is that the court did not fulfill the condition of "halanat hadin", deferring judgment for the next day in order to find merit. Since they have all found him guilty, they will no longer find merit for him.

It is possible to interpret the meaning of the Talmudic passage in one of two ways. One is that the court’s verdict is disqualified, due to the lack of "halanat hadin". Another way of viewing it is that by failing to find even one facet of merit, the Sanhedrin has disqualified itself from judging the case.

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According to Jewish thought, the purpose of punishment is for expiation of the sin. Indeed, it can even be said that ‘punishment’ is an inaccurate translation of the Hebrew ‘onesh’. Punishment is not retribution, a Divine ‘getting even.’ It is a cleansing process, like a needle used to remove a splinter. Furthermore, reward and punishment in Torah is actually cause and effect. The Torah’s prescription for various forms of behavior (be it positive or negative) is no more punishment than say, fire ‘punishing’ the hand that is placed into it.

This is stated explicitly regarding the punishment of lashes: “Once he has been flogged, he is as your brother.”[6] Carrying out a capital verdict expunges the sin and enables the condemned one to experience eternal life[7]. Maimonides rules regarding all who incur death by the courts, or punishment by lashes, that "their death or lashes do not atone for their sins until they will do teshuva and confess their guilt.”[8] It is understood from Maimonides’ wording that the intention of the sentence is to bring atonement to the soul of the judged, which is facilitated through teshuva and confession (confession being a form of repentance).

[muman613]

JTFE2,

Of course I would never suggest anyone take the law into their hands and use the Torah to justify harassing or 'punishing' a person who is transgressing this law. As I am against those who harass Shabbat violators also... I also am one who seeks to find the good in all humanity, and find it very sad that even one life is terminated (both animal and human). But I also place a lot of trust in the Torah of Moses, and I feel that it is essential to preserve morality and civility in the world. This is why I bring up this topic...

But it bothers me that the transgression has become 'cool' and 'accepted' and that we are supposed to be 'tolerant' towards all kinds of perversion. This is another reason I bring up this topic.

[JTFenthusiast2]

JTFE2,

Of course I would never suggest anyone take the law into their hands and use the Torah to justify harassing or 'punishing' a person who is transgressing this law. As I am against those who harass Shabbat violators also... I also am one who seeks to find the good in all humanity, and find it very sad that even one life is terminated (both animal and human). But I also place a lot of trust in the Torah of Moses, and I feel that it is essential to preserve morality and civility in the world. This is why I bring up this topic...

But it bothers me that the transgression has become 'cool' and 'accepted' and that we are supposed to be 'tolerant' towards all kinds of perversion. This is another reason I bring up this topic.

Just so you know (and I do not think you are saying otherwise), I do not think this transgression and this bizarre one in particular is cool--at all.  I think it's strange and weird.  Sleep well, got to get up early!

[muman613]

It is no coincidence I bring up these laws during the week we are reading the Torah portion of 'Shoftim'/Judges. This parsha contains the laws for the judges of the sanhedrin...

http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/2278/jewish/Shoftim-in-a-Nutshell.htm

Moses instructs the people of Israel to appoint judges and law enforcement officers in every city. “Justice, justice shall you pursue,” he commands them, and you must administer it without corruption or favoritism. Crimes must be meticulously investigated and evidence thoroughly examined—a minimum of two credible witnesses is required for conviction and punishment.

In every generation, says Moses, there will be those entrusted with the task of interpreting and applying the laws of the Torah. “According to the law that they will teach you, and the judgment they will instruct you, you shall do; you shall not turn away from the thing that they say to you, to the right nor to the left.”

Shoftim also includes the prohibitions against idolatry and sorcery; laws governing the appointment and behavior of a king; and guidelines for the creation of “cities of refuge” for the inadvertent murderer. Also set forth are many of the rules of war: the exemption from battle for one who has just built a home, planted a vineyard, married, or is “afraid and soft-hearted”; the requirement to offer terms of peace before attacking a city; and the prohibition against wanton destruction of something of value, exemplified by the law that forbids to cut down a fruit tree when laying siege (in this context the Torah makes the famous statement, “For man is a tree of the field”).

The Parshah concludes with the law of the eglah arufah—the special procedure to be followed when a person is killed by an unknown murderer and his body is found in a field—which underscores the responsibility of the community and its leaders not only for what they do, but also for what they might have prevented from being done.