FEATURED JOBS
Rabbi Daniel Burg supports his agreement with same sex marriages by suggesting, “Literal interpretation of the Torah can sometimes lead to misinterpretation of its meaning” (“Nuanced Faith,” Feb. 3).
Let us look at the section of Leviticus, chapter 18, that we read on Yom Kippur at minchah. It tells us that we are prohibited from copying the immoral practices of Egypt and Canaan, and then states that a man may not lay with another man’s wife (adultery), a man may not lay with a close female relative (incest) or with another man (sodomy) or an animal (bestiality). How does Rabbi Burg think we have misinterpreted the meaning of the holiness code? Would he permit adultery? Incest? Sodomy? Bestiality? “Faith can be quite nuanced” as Rabbi Burg says, but there is a limit to nuance.
We can fully support civil partnership or civil union to protect the person’s civil rights, but we cannot nuance the Torah to mean the opposite of what it very clearly says.
Joseph Feld
London
