Since a large part of my family is… trust me I hear you. In fact our Rabbi stood up and said that he was going to perform same sex marriages in our Synagogue as it was the morally right thing to do. This was 10 years ago. We were all very proud of him.
Awwwwwwwww - makes me want to be Jewish now.
Kinda.
Okay, not really. That whole kosher and sabbath keeping thing sounds like a real pain in the arse.
Nope, they’re the best thing ever.
The whole kosher thing has ensured that my parents will never want to move in with me and Mr. Neville. It also keeps them from rearranging our dishes or otherwise interfering in how we keep things when they come to visit. They do interfere a bit when they visit my sister, so I’m glad we have rules they don’t understand to keep them from doing it at our house. Of course, it helps that the only pork dish I ever really liked was sweet-and-sour pork, and I always preferred sweet-and-sour chicken anyway. (Seafood I do miss, though)
The Sabbath thing is my excuse to not do stuff I hate doing from sunset Friday through sunset Saturday. I consider housework, yard work, errands, driving (which I hate), any cooking more difficult than heating up something from a can or toasting bagels, and of course any work that I’ve brought home to be work, and therefore off limits (I’m not Orthodox and don’t do the whole no-turning-lights-on-or-off thing). Best yet, it’s a religious observance, so people are very reluctant to ask me to put it aside except in a genuine emergency. Even better than that, it gives me a reason to not feel inferior to people who get lots of stuff done on any given weekend- it’s not that I’m lazy, I’m religious.
Isn’t that the very point of Sabbath observences–to force you not merely to rest but to take a break from the world?
You only THINK you’re taking unfair advantage of the rules. You’re like Jordan on Scrubs, thinking she was hurting Dr. Cox by going to his house and pleasuring him while he watched Sports Center and then refusing to cuddle.
Lesbianism isn’t forbidden in Leviticus, either.
Evidently, Lesbianism is Old Testament Approved™. 
(If you ask some Orthodox Jews, who care about this sort of thing, they will tell you that lesbianism isn’t okay in the same degree as premarital sex isn’t okay - only sex sanctified by marriage is okay, and in “the rules” two women cannot be married to each other … but lesbianism definitely has a different status from male homosexuality, which is an “abomination” in Leviticus.
Your average Reform Jew, BTW, could not care less about that stuff, figuring that the stuff against homosexuality is as obsolete as the bits of Leviticus concerned with animal sacrifices in the old Temple. Most Reform congregations I know have been doing religious Jewish gay weddings for years now.)
We don’t actually know. The Torah doesn’t explain all the reasons why we should keep the Sabbath, or the benefits that may come from doing so. There has been a lot of speculation on this in various Jewish writings and debates over the centuries, but we don’t know the answer for sure, and probably never will.
I certainly do see it that way, and observe accordingly. Other Jews do different things.
I should not have implied that what I wrote is the only possible interpretation, and did so only out of carelessness, arrogance, and a desire to make a bad joke. You know, just being me, basically.
Most Conservative Jews don’t care either (my Synagogue is Conservative), in my experience.
We’ve approved ordaining gay rabbis and same-sex commitment ceremonies since 2006. I said “It’s about time” when we did.
I converted with a rabbi in Berkeley, CA, whose synagogue wasn’t actually affiliated with the Conservative movement (even though the services were pretty much exactly like any other Conservative services) because our congregation was more gay-friendly than the Conservative movement then encouraged. I’m straight, but I’d feel very uncomfortable in a synagogue that said that being gay was a sin. This is one reason (among others) that I am not Orthodox.
I had a feeling this was the case, but all I know about for sure is Orthodox and Reform.
I presume Reconstructionists don’t care, either.
I think it odd that more Christians are likely to take that bit of Leviticus seriously than most Jews …
Depends on the Xtian.
At my home church nobody gives a damn. The very closest they come to giving a damn is to refuse to do same-sex weddings for non-members, but they don’t do heterosex weddings for non-members either, so that’s just being consistent… But they also put up with me and at least one other atheist attending because we like the people.
At my father’s church, homosexuality is definitely thought of as an abomination to god. But they’re all wankers.
Oh, definitely.
Anecdotally one gets the impression that Jews are, on average, much more likely to be liberal on this issue than Christians.
That is not of course to deny that there are plenty of Christian churches which are liberal on the issue of homosexuality.
The irony here is that Jesus’ criticism of the Judaism of his day was based at least in part on blindly following rules and judging others; yet modern-day Christianity is, on average, is more likely to follow that bit in Leviticus & “judge” (read: condemn) gays & homosexuality than modern-day Judaism …
Pfffft - you people are so behind the times. Being gay has been cool in my Church since it was founded.
