183
28. See M, Sanhedrin 7: 4, BT Sanhedrin 54a- b, and Yad, Isurei Bi'ah 14, the penalty is sekilah, or" stoning" according to its particular halakhic form( M. Sanhedrin 6: 4).
29. Lev. 20:13.
30. Footnotes 30, 31, 32 are quoted from the CCAR Responsum. Male homosexual intercourse features as one of the wicked deeds of the Sodomites ( hence," sodomy"; Gen. 19: 5) and of the Benjaminites in Gibeah ( Jud. 19:22). In addition, the kadesh or male prostitute( I Kings 14:24, 15:12; 11 Kings 23: 7) proscribed in Deut. 23:18 may have provided male homosexual intercourse; this, at any rate, is how the Talmud ( Sanhedrin 54b) interprets the verse, although Targum Onkelos reads it differently.
31. Rabbinic tradition, however, affirms that male homosexual intercourse ( mishkav zakhur), like the other arayot, is forbidden to Gentiles as well; Sanhedrin 58a- b; Yad, Melakhim 9: 5.
32. The concept of holiness is here identified with that of distinctness, of separateness from other peoples and their way of life( 20:24, 26), a theme to which we shall return below.
33." It is only in our generation that homosexual behavior has been found to involve not merely a single overt act or series of such acts, but often to reflect a profound inner condition and basic psychic orientation, involving the deepest levels of personality." Hershel Matt as cited by Bradley Artson , " Gay and Lesbian Jews: An Innovative Jewish Legal Position," Jewish Spectator, Winter 1990-91 Vol. 55,# 3, p. 6.
34. Footnotes 34-39 are cited from CCAR Responsum; Sanhedrin 58a. Note Rashi's comment to the next part of the Genesis verse," And they shall become one flesh."" a child is created by both male and female and it is in the child that her flesh. becomes one."
35. Nedarim 51a.
36. Ran, 5a, s.v. to'eh atta bah.
37. See also Gen. Rabah 26: 5 and Lev. Rabah 23: 9: the generation of the Flood was destroyed because they wrote wedding contracts for males and animals. 38. See Gitin 41 b and Arakhin 2b: the world was created only for the sake of the commandment" be fruitful and multiply", as it is said( Is 45:18)," He did not create it for waste, but formed it for habitation."
39. Yevamot 6lb- 62b; Yad, Ishut 15: 7. A dispute exists in the literature as to whether a man ought to continue to try to beget children even after he has fulfilled the Toraitic mitzvah of procreation. Rambam holds, at least as a matter of Torah law, that one who has fulfilled this commandment may then marry a woman who is not capable of bearing children.
40. Yevamot 65b Kiddushin 34b- 35a.
41. I have certain reservations about how women are recruited as surrogate mothers which may lead to the exploitation of poor women.