Reform Reflections: Shas - all shook up

Members of the Shas Party have contributed much to understanding and tolerance over the last few weeks in Israel. Two weeks ago it was Nissim Ze'ev, who likened the prevalence of homosexuality in Israel to the phenomenon of Avian Flu, and suggested that only radical action similar to the mass culling of chickens could help root out this abomination.

Last week it was Shlomo Benizri, who has suggested that the most efficient way for the government to protect against the threat of earthquakes would be to abolish homosexual practices, since it is a well-known scientific fact that homosexuality causes earthquakes.

Now there is an important difference between these two learned contributions to the public debate on sexual orientation and public health. The reference to bird flu is certainly an original insight of MK Zeev, who certainly deserves all the credit for this breakthrough in immunology. This is not the case with regards to MK Benizri, who has not been slow to point out that he has done nothing more than quote our sacred sources.

It is indeed the case that both in the Jerusalem Talmud (Berakhot, Chapter 9, Halakhah 3, 13c) and in the Midrash on Psalms (both 18 and 118), as well as in later anthologies of Midrash, a statement can be found according to which the phenomenon of earthquakes is ascribed to prohibited homosexual activity. The explanation provided is a clear example of a microcosmic world view: that which happens in the human domain is played out in the heavens. Paraphrasing for the sake of our more sensitive readers (the Talmud is often X-rated, or demands at least Parental Guidance), the logic offered is as follows: since the earth moved for you by becoming excited in an inappropriate way, so I, the Creator of the World, will make my earth move on account of your impropriety.

I heard Benizri on the radio recently, and he was in robust form: repentance was not what he had in mind. He argued that the world was silent when opponents of Shas lambast Ultra-Orthodox Jews and accuse them of being obscurantist parasites, but suddenly everyone gets agitated when a rabbi quotes from our sacred sources. In short, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

There is nothing wrong in pointing out the inadequacies and inconsistencies of the free press in Israel, but it is difficult to see Benizri's defence as anything other than an elaborate diversion. He is saying to us: if you want to talk about gay rights, I want to talk about the rights of my constituency to respect (and also massive subsidies).

Behind the smokescreen of outrage, something else is going on here. These religio-politicians are presenting a picture of Judaism and its place in the world which goes like this: the Talmud is the source of our values, and it provides us with the Truth. All we need to do is to quote it as it is - if you don't agree with it, the problem is all yours.

I disagree profoundly with this approach to Judaism, and for that matter to life. I believe that all we can ever do in a particular context and generation is to search for the values by which we might best live. As a Jew, I am part of a tradition which offers an extraordinarily rich reservoir of moral insights and ethical tenets - I know of no greater tradition.

But the Judaism of which I am a part is one which considers the human story as one comprising both decline and advance, both backsliding and forward-thinking. On the question of sexual orientation, I believe that we know more today than once was known about how our urges and preferences come to expression. I look at my friends in caring same-sex relationships, and I ask myself: is this the love which causes earthquakes? If anything, it's the centuries of repression and denial, the pain caused by an inability to face up to who we are which has stored up enough frustration to account for any number of volcanic eruptions and seismic shifts. The love which dared not speak its name is now out of the closet, and that is something for which all of us should thank God. In a way, this has caused an earthquake: it has forced us to look again at our notions of Love and Family. It's worth remembering that the passage quoted relates to the teaching that an earthquake is something over which a blessing should be recited.

Rabbi Acha, in whose name the earthquake tradition is to be found, was using a metaphor. He was expressing his own belief that homosexual relations were an aberration, and using it to cope with the Divine aberration of natural disasters. In my version of Judaism, acknowledging that the love between two adults of the same sex is a fact for me to accept and celebrate encourages me to find new metaphors. It is the constant interplay of changing moral insight and the religious vocabulary of our tradition which has kept Judaism changing and growing. Looking to the Talmud for insights and values is a wonderful idea. Looking to it for geological analysis and contemporary social policy is courting disaster.

So blaming homosexuals for earthquakes is really about how we want to live our lives as moral and faithful human beings. Using the excuse that it says so in the Talmud is no excuse: it represents a denial of the notion that Judaism grows and evolves through time and in culture. The God in whom I believe wants me to grapple and grow, not to mock and shrink.

And besides, there's a great deal to quote in the Talmud: in each generation it is up to us to choose what we wish to quote. It is worth reading further in the Talmudic passage to which MK Benizri referred. Another explanation for the existence of earthquakes is given in the name of Rabanan, the Sages as a collective: they say it is the continued existence of fruitless conflicts which causes a shift in the Richter Scale. It's lucky the MK didn't quote this in the Knesset - there might have been a landslide.