NEW YORK - A Conservative Jewish seminary in New York has agreed to admit gays and lesbians who want to become rabbis, but declined to take a stand on whether rabbis should officiate at same-sex unions.
The Jewish Theological Seminary announced its decision on Monday, more than three months after the Rabbinical Assembly's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards authorized the ordination of gays and lesbians.[/size]
What is a Jewish seminary?
Notice that they have a committee that just makes up its own laws regardless of what The Torah says. What morons.
They claim that they "interpret" the Torah and halakah, making themselves seem like a judicial system for Judaism. However, by passing a third teshuvah at their December meeting (the first two Teshuvah maintain the prohibitions for homosexual rabbis, unions and sexual relations), they "legislated" their own law.
Here is a well-written article that explained the situation a couple weeks before the vote took place. It discusses what would be illogical:
http://www.uscj.org/The_Conservative_Mov7074.htmlHere's an excerpt:
"If even a limited range of homosexual conduct is declared permissible, rabbinic ordination could not be denied homosexual candidates, whose behavior would be consistent with halachah as understood by the Conservative movement.
Conversely, if homosexual activity is ruled no obstacle to rabbinic ordination, the permissibility of the full range of homosexual conduct (regardless of any theoretical limitations on which halachic sanction might be conditioned) will be inferred, as rabbis serve as exemplars of Jewish piety and halachic observance. So, too, the ritual celebration of homosexual unions would follow inexorably from ordination of sexually active homosexuals: How could a community’s rabbi – charged among other duties with solemnizing marriages – be engaged in a romantic relationship ineligible for sanctification?
Similarly, should the Law Committee sanction same-sex marriage or commitment ceremonies, the permissibility of homosexual conduct would be inferred, for how can Jewish law sanctify the forbidden? Again, the presumed right to rabbinic ordination would follow, as no violation of Jewish law would be apparent.
If change is approved, only sweeping change will be possible. The halachic changes proposed are so extraordinary in scope that they effectively exceed the authority of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The committee is intended as an advisory and interpretive resource, charged with the enlightened application of Jewish law already in existence. It is not a legislative body, entitled to enact new law in accordance with its own vision. Minimally, the proposed changes represent abrogation of long-established laws governing foundational areas of Jewish family life and sexuality."
Read the entire article though.
The rabbis on the committee who approved of the third teshuvah admitted later that the Torah and halakah prohibit homosexual relations. They know that people in a union will not abstain from
sexual relations. They know it's wrong but the rabbis who
approved of same-sex marriage are pretending that there won't
be sexual relations in the marriage. They're also in denial because they know homosexual rabbis would engage in homosexual behavior--which clearly is a violation.
Topic: New York Jewish seminary will allow gays, lesbians (Read 5862 times)