Parshas Ki-Savoh, 5779
18 Ellul °° Sept.18, '19
By Binyomin Feinberg, Contributor to The Jewish Press*
feinbergbinyomin@gmail.com
* The perspectives and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the ownership or management of The Jewish Press.
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On Sunday, Sept. 15, LGBTQ advocates demonstrated against Yeshiva University - right in the middle of Ellul. About 100 demonstrators appeared, with reports indicating that no more than 15 or 20 were from YU itself, out of thousands of YU students. A Rabbinical scholar handed out leaflets protesting the LGBTQ demonstration and the LGBTQ agenda. The flyers quoted a former Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University, the venerable Rav Aharon Soloveichik OB"M, who fought the YU Administration over the LGBT club years ago. Rav Aharon ZT"L then had exhorted YU that it's better to close down the entire institution rather than to allow a To'aiva club. Those timeless, holy words reverberate until today.
The demonstrators made five demands, see the list posted online (attached). They are, in our words (liberally accompanied by commentary):
1) an LGBTQ (To'aiva) Tolerance Overseer (to ensure that those who choose to flaunt their proclivities in public are treated in the manner of their preference);
2) LGBTQ promotionals at student orientations (jolting new students - just starting their studies at Modern Orthodoxy's flagship institution - with pro-LGBTQ propaganda);
3) An student LGBTQ Club, which celebrates a sin which the Torah (in VaYikra 18:22 and 20:13) brands as abomination as something of which to be proud, and even to be celebrated;
4) a statement from YU leadership against the free expression of (Torah-based) opposition to LGBTQ behavior and advocacy, accompanied by a threat of sanctions (for dissidents);
5) and the ability to hold LGBTQ events at YU - and to do so under the LGBTQ label (unfettered by the "inconveniences" of Jewish Law and Thought).
Two LGBTQ organizations, both claiming to be "Jewish," Eshel and Jewish (sic) Queer Youth, helped sponsor and organize the protest.
The leafleter, Reb Yonoson, explained that he's concerned over any cave in, even partial, by the YU Administration, to any of the demands of the LGBTQ demonstrators. That Torah-true sentiment was echoed in the content and tone of YU Roshei Yeshiva subsequently reacting to the march. (See this week's Jewish Press, page 12, for some of the vociferous opposition of YU Roshei Yeshiva to this demonstration.) For example, Rav Eliahu Ben Chaim made a number of comments, including:
sample excerpt quotes from Rav Ben Chaim:
"Our Torah punishes these acts (homosexual behavior) severely... The Torah was not given to angels. If the Torah prohibits them (these acts) then we are certainly able to overcome such desires.
...
"If someone believes in the Torah, he must accept its dictates. If he doesn't believe, there's nothing to talk about."
...
Everyone who has such inclinations must be helped (to overcome them) .. and "to (help him) avoid the severe punishment" (involved in these sins).
... "I once spoke to Dr. Lamm to complain about these types of people in Cordoza..."
"... There are foolish ("shotim") people ... someone who says this is permitted is a fool..."
In reference to LGBTQ advocates, he stated that "They are harming these people" (the very people they advocate for), both spiritually, as well as physically.
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In addition to foundational religious objections, the LGBTQ demands involve serious legal issues, from religious liberty to human trafficking to freedom of expression. For example, is the YU Administration prepared to deal with the specter of minors appearing at campus LGBTQ events hosting high school youth for "mentoring and educational" programs, and then becoming involved in illicit behavior with adults?
On the other side, Mordecai Levovitz, founder of Jewish Queer Youth, led chants of “nothing about us without us” to urge that the Orthodox institution include LGBTQ activists in a committee to address inclusion of LGBT agenda (despite the obvious conflict with VaYikra, ibid.).
More ominously, he threatened YU with blackmail: "The question is, is this the hill that Rabbi Berman wants to let Yeshiva University die on?” he said. “Does he so much not want gay people to have any sense of dignity (sic) that he’s willing to risk government funding? Is he willing to risk his own students and graduate students not getting jobs because the degree is associated with homophobia? We’ve already won. The question is how much is he willing to sacrifice? And for what?”
Before the event, Molly Meisels, president of the College Democrats Democrats and lead organizer of the march, tweeted out "We're asking for the bare minimum for the Yeshiva University LGBTQ+ community. We need support @AOC (Congresswoman) @SenatorRJackson (State Senator representing YU) @ydanis (City Councilman representing YU) @CnDelarosa (Assemblywoman representing YU) @Lin_Manuel (Star for Broadway's Hamilton) @RepEspaillat (Congressman representing YU) @DeborahJGlick (Greenwich Village's lesbian assemblywoman)". It is crucial for every reader to understand her intent here. She clearly sought to encourage governmental punishment of YU - if YU refuses to cave into the LGBTQ demands - by withholding government grants, or worse. We have a word for such conduct: "Blackmail."
Blackmail is a common accusation leveled against the LGBTQ movement, which prides itself on tolerance (of its own devotees, and allied political groups). This intolerant approach towards fidelity to VaYikra 18:22 and 20:13 seems, at first glance, to contrast with the LGBTQ rhetoric of tolerance for the LGBT "community." However, in reality, the latter "tolerance" rhetoric is a natural consequence of the former deep-seated animosity to the Torah. It is precisely because of its rejection of foundational Torah principles that the LGBTQ movement needs to brand itself as "tolerant" - selectively, of course - to gain sympathy for celebrating sin.
Since the march, a group of Yeshiva University alumni have started a #PledgeNotToPledge campaign, encouraging alumni to “pledge not to contribute any financial donations to the university until it takes the following concrete steps to ensure that all students feel comfortable on campus (as requested by the student body),” according to their Facebook page. The LGBTQ proclivity for blackmail has gained them particular notoriety throughout the world, with even some on the Left using the term "The Gay Mafia."
In a foray into the bizarre, Meisels, announced her deviancy at the event, prompting applause from the similarly unhinged crowd. (Why personal deviant proclivities need to be announced in public venues, to the cheers of the audience, was not properly elucidated.)
In actuality, her brazen announcement stands, alongside the aforementioned acts and demands, as yet one more manifestation of the unspoken essence of the LGBTQ activist movement. Contrary to what many imagine, the LGBTQ activist movement is NOT primarily aimed at securing benefits for people. It is bent on celebrating evil. They seek not only to proliferate the perpetration of abomination, but to legitimize it, to celebrate it, and to force everyone else to accept it. The movement is a true "advocacy" movement whose violation of the Torah is "LeHach'is" (beShitah, lit. "for spite"), rather than merely "LeTai'avon" (for mere personal benefit). See Kovetz He'oros (of Reb Elchonon), Aggadah, 10:1-6, regarding the hallmark character of Amalek being rishus leHachis. In that light, how ironic is it that this demonstration comes just one day after Jews around the world read in the Torah about the homosexualist Amalekite attack against the spiritually weaker Jews in the Desert (at the end of parshas Ki-Saitzai, 25:18; see Rashi and Medrash).
Another grave concern here is how Modern Orthodox silence in the face of this evil would strengthen the hand of those who seek to impose an LGBTQ agenda onto Orthodox Jewish Education, in NY, NJ, and beyond, specifically under the rubric of "Educational Equivalency" (an issue which has been covered repeatedly in the Jewish Press over the past several months).
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(Sources (partial list): The Forward, Moment Magazine, The Jewish Press, Facebook, Twitter)
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