The penalty is suspended, but the prohibition is not. Certainly no one would argue that the Rabbis found a way to make murder okay, and offer as proof the fact that we are not stoning murderers.

In that respect, mishchav zachor is on EXACTLY the same footing as murder or adultery — it is prohibited in the strongest possible terms, but the Rabbinic courts have no power to impose the penalty for it and, if they did impose it, would themselves be subject to the death penalty (once the courts are again empowered to impose it) for murder for having executed someone in circumstances not permitted by the Torah.

IOW, the death penalty for adultery has not been mitigated due to Talmudic interpretation — all death penalties are suspended while the Jewish people are in exile and there is no Sanhedrin. So the Rabbis have not re-interpreted the prohibition against adultery, have not “changed a direct command about adultery”, and cannot interpret the proscription against mishchav zachor. Any group of Rabbis who could “interpret” that command away could just as easily “interpret” a command to worship jc in.

As with adultery, mishcav zachor remains every bit as prohibited even though the death penalty cannot currently be imposed. As to what either one of us would “like to see” happen, that’s about as relevant as whether we’d like to see a hechscher on shellfish.

*(Lit. “Lying down with a man;” for various reasons, the term “homosexuality” can be very misleading here, because the English term is both over-inclusive and over-inclusive. As a Hebrew teacher, you are probably familiar with the confusion caused by trying to apply the English term “work” in place of the Heb. melacaha)

It seems to me that if you can change a direct command about adultery, you can find a way to interpret the proscription on homosexuality.

Not that I think it will happen. Just that I’d like to see it.

But according to the Torah, Meryl, it is a sin and we are talking about the equivalent of murder – they are of equal severity. And it is not bigotry to point out that the Torah prohibits something in the strongest possible terms. There is no more justification for reading approval of mishcav zacor into Judaism than there is of reading j.c. into Judaism, and the Gay Judaism movement has no more legitimate claims than do the Jews for Jesus — i.e. none.

–We don’t stone adulterers. Perhaps it’s time to convene a Sanhedrin and work out the problem with homosexuality, too.–

Work it out how? After all, we don’t stone people for homosexuality either, so it’s already on the same status as adultery. No Sanhedrin ever ruled that adultery is permitted, and no Sanhedrin would or could. A Sanhedrin that says there’s no prohibition of male homosexual acts is not a Sanhedrin, any more than a Sanhedrin who declared that we all need to become Christians would be a Sanhedrin.

If adulterers went parading around saying “I’m an adulterer, I identify myself as an adulterer, my life is nothing without adultery, and I demand your respect and approval for my adultery, and the readjustment of all your societal institutions to accommodate my sexual desires,” do you think that their demands would be any better received?

People, slave owners, have the right to express the pride in who they are, even if other people do not approve. Is that called freedom? I mean what part of my parallel to your statement is the freedom to which you call out? The freedom to “express who you are”, the freedom to “be what you are”, or the freedom to “be what you are even if other’s disagree”?

What is freedom? We know slavery is not freedom, so don’t go there. Is a slave owner free?

What of the freedom, the right to express, of a pure soul, the soul, enslaved and bound within the body of a pervert?

Is someone locked into a pattern of self-abuse free? A drug addict, or an alcoholic?

What are Mardi Gras, Flesching, May Poles, or any of the “fertility” carnivals about? Is that freedom?

Freedom for which part — the slave owner or the slave?

The “World Pride” march has been held in Jerusalem for several years now. Let them move it to Tehran or Riyadh.

No, actually, it hasn’t. The international “World Pride” march was supposed to be held in Jerusalem in 2005 but was voluntarily postponed to 2006 because of the tension over the “disengagement.” At the scaled down parade that was held instead, a “religious” protestor stabbed three people with a knife. The 2006 World Pride parade was canceled and removed to a stadium on the Hebrew University campus at Givat Ram due to threats.

But, yes, a gay pride parade has been held in Jerusalem every year (except last year) for, what, five years now. As has a gay pride parade also been held in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rome, Athens, London, Moscow, Chicago, New York … you get my drift. It’s not a matter of “moving” the parade. It’s a matter of accepting that people have the right to express their pride in who they are, wherever they are, even if other people don’t approve. It’s called freedom. It’s what Western civilization is all about.