Reform Judaism and Same-Sex Marriage 179
that the male shall“cleave unto his wife”(Gen. 2:24) comes explicitly to prohibit homosexual intercourse; that is to say, homosexual behavior threatens marriage and childbirth.” Bar Kaparah offers an agadic etymology for to- evah, the biblical term for“abhorrence”: toeh atta bah,“you go astray after it.>> The fourteenth-century Spanish commentator R. Nissim b. Reuven Gerondi explains: “One abandons heterosexual intercourse(mishkevei isha) and seeks sex with males.”* That is to say, since sexual union is traditionally expressed within the context of marriage, the indulgence in homosexual intercourse is destructive of this most basic unit of society and community.” This theme continues in the medieval Sefer Hachinukh, mitzvah 209:
God desires that human beings populate the world He created.?® Therefore, He has commanded that they not destroy their seed through acts of unnatural intercourse which do not bear fruit (that is, children). These acts violate not only the commandment of marital intercourse(mitzoat onah) but also every standard of sexual propriety, since by its nature homosexual intercourse is despised by every person of reason. Thus, the human being, who was created to serve his God , should not bring shame upon himself through such disgusting behavior. And for these reasons the rabbis prohibited a man from marrying a barren woman or one who is past childbearing years.”
From the sources cited by the Responsa Committee, the major concern of the rabbis seems to be that homosexual activity will be nonprocreative, and will prevent men from marrying and women from marrying and producing children. Some of the most tragic family circumstances created by forcing gays or lesbians to live straight lives and marry has been the pain caused to spouses and children when gays and lesbians can no longer pretend to be heterosexual. In a society that accepts gays and lesbians, they will not feel compelled to be what they are not. The mitzvah of peru urevu(procreation) is limited to males.*’ In Reform Judaism the mitzvah would equally apply to males and females. We have also come to recognize that some people genuinely ought not be parents, and therefore we have limited the mitzvah to those who are physically and psychologically capable of performing parental duties. The issue of procreation is com
plex. New reproductive techniques, however, are being used