I know this story has some age on it now, especially in the whiz-bang world of the Web, but a week or two ago, the leaders of the conservative Jewish movement in America got together and decided that it was OK for them to ordain gay rabbis and perform same-sex union ceremonies.

Hey, they’re not the first to do it and likely won’t be the last. Many “mainline” Christian denominations have been doing it for decades. But that makes it no less disappointing. You would think folks who take Torah seriously would know a bit more about, well, the Torah. Because as part of their declaration, these leaders said they found nothing in Torah that would forbid it.

I guess they missed the part of the Torah called… the Torah. For example:

You are not to go to bed with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination. Vayikra (Leviticus) 18:22 (CJV/Stern)

Or, even more explicitly:

If a man goes to bed with a man as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they must be put to death; their blood is on them. Vayikra (Leviticus) 20:13 (CJV/Stern)

Now, no one is suggesting the death penalty for homosexuals or lesbians. The penalty was a command of haShem specifically for Jews living in the land of Israel at that time. We live in a more tolerant age.

But does tolerance always have to mean surrendering all values and giving oneself over to the ways of the world? I support “live and let live” as a guiding principle of life, but that doesn’t mean we must throw the Torah out completely.

The Torah represents a minimum standard of behavior necessary to find a lack of condemnation in the eyes of haShem. We should all be striving to live above and beyond that minimum standard, as did Yeshua. So I just don’t get where anyone can look at the Torah and say there’s nothing in it that conflicts with so-called “gay marriage” and “gay ordination.” The fact is, the Torah does conflict with it. If one chooses to ignore the Torah, fine… but be honest about it.

Of course, it’s somewhat easy to pick on the gay and lesbian community; it helps people of deep faith in haShem, his messiah Yeshua and the Torah avoid looking at their own sin. The point is, none of us should ever grow so complacent in our sin that we demand to be accepted… even ordained… in spite of it. While many of us, gay or straight, have sins we have given up on or let slide in our lives, the call of the Torah is to stand by its truths even when it makes us personally uncomfortable.

For it is when we are uncomfortable that we become aware of the sin in us, the ways we fall short of haShem’s perfect standard, and thus, our need for Yeshua. Only through struggle and repentance, though, can we work toward holiness … not through excuse-making, no matter what sin we struggle with.