Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
by Steven Greenberg
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steven GreenbergEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-02-24
ISBN: 0299190943
Number of pages: 312
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Book Reviews of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
Book Review: Well researched and insightful view of Halacha and homosexuality
Summary: 5 Stars
Wrestling with God and Men provides an excellent, well researched, and ballanced study of the issues of homosexuality and traditional Biblical law. In traditional Jewish scholarly form, he gives more time and respect to dissenting oppinions. Ultimately, his argument comes down to a lament over the death of Halacha. Until the enlightenment in the 19th century, the Halacha was a process by which matters were brought to reason before the Law (Bible or Torah). Essentially, the Halacha was a set of rules for change management that allowed an ancient Torah to respond to a never ending succession of modern changes to our human understanding of G_d's world. Modern Orthodox Judaism declared this process closed in response to the enlightenment and, in essence, killed Halacha. As a result, all his study and analysis is pointless because there is no longer a process for reviewing this (or any other) question before the law. Homosexuality is one of many questions that we struggle with today. The Torah (Bible) can provide guidance to help us make sense of these questions, whether or not we agree with those insights. Rabbi Greenberg provides a well documented, ballanced, scholarly analysis of some important insights the Torah provides to help us come to terms with this issue without telling the reader what to conclude.
Summary of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
Wrestling with God and Men is the product of Rabbi Steven Greenberg's ten-year struggle to reconcile his homosexuality with Orthodox Judaism. Employing traditional rabbinic resources, Greenberg presents readers with surprising biblical interpretations of the creation story, the love of David and Jonathan, the destruction of Sodom, and the condemning verses of Leviticus. But Greenberg goes beyond the question of whether homosexuality is biblically acceptable to ask how such relationships can be sacred. In so doing, he draws on a wide array of nonscriptural texts to introduce readers to occasions of same-sex love in Talmudic narratives, medieval Jewish poetry and prose, and traditional Jewish case law literature. Ultimately, Greenberg argues that Orthodox communities must open up debate, dialogue, and discussion--precisely the foundation upon which Jewish law rests--to truly deal with the issue of homosexual love.This book will appeal to all people of faith struggling to merge their belief in the scriptures with a desire to make their communities more open and accepting to gay and lesbian members.
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