Jewish Sexuality dot Com

Question:

I can understand why people get upset with deliberately confrontational, public gay parades in Jerusalem. But why is homosexuality such a no no when it is conducted in private?

Answer:

The first commandment in the entire Torah is the commandment to procreate, "Be fruitful and multiply." First and foremost, the act of marital relations is intended to bring holy souls into the world. This is why the sign of the brit [covenant] is stamped on the male sexual organ with the traditional circumcision, to emphasize its supreme sanctity.

Certainly, it is obvious to everyone that no offspring can come from a homosexual relationship. Thus, the Torah states: "Thou shall not lie with a man after the manner of a woman, it is an abomination (Vayikra, 18:22).

Homosexuality is contrary to G-d's will for the world. It is a clear misuse of the sexual organ, perverting the holy act of procreation into an act of egotistical pleasure. To understand the graveness of its far-reaching consequences, here is the Torah passage in full:

"Thou shall not lie with a man after the manner of a woman, it is an abomination. Neither shall lie with any beast to defile thyself with it; neither shall a woman stand before a beast to lie down before it, it is a perversion. Defile not yourselves with any of these things; for in all of these, the gentiles which I cast out before you were defiled, and the land was defiled; therefore I do punish its iniquity upon it, and the Land of Israel vomits out its inhabitants... For whoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. Therefore you shall keep my laws, that you commit not any one of these abominable doings which were practiced before you, and that you defile not yourselves in them; I am the  L-rd your G-d" (Vayikra, 18:22-30).

Homosexuality does not merely defile those who engage in it. It defiles the Land of Israel as well and causes its inhabitants to be vomited out into exile.

Furthermore, whenever a husband has relations with his wife in the proper manner, even if she is pregnant, or past the age of menopause, or using a permitted form of contraception (in cases allowed by Jewish law and an authorized rabbi's approval), a holy soul is brought into the world. According to the Kabbalah, a great spiritual union is triggered when a husband engages his wife in intercourse at the proper times and fashion, and an abundance of blessing is unleashed from the heavens. The Father of Modern Kabbalah the Arizal teaches that whenever the soul cannot become a living child, as in the permitted instances cited, it returns rectified to the heavenly "palace of souls," and is not spilled in vain.

However, should a man's semen be wasted in the course of a sexual transgression, the souls are captured by destructive spiritual forces called "kelipot," and this gives strength to the realm of evil in the world.

A look at the law forbidding masturbation will help explain this. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch [Abbreviated Code of Law] states: "It is forbidden to discharge semen in vain. This is a graver sin than any other mentioned in the Torah (Shulchan Aruch, Even HaEzer, 23:1). Those who practice masturbation and cause the issue of semen in vain, not only do they commit a grave sin, but they are under a ban, concerning which it is said, "Your hands are full of blood," (Yishayahu, 1:15) and it is equivalent to killing a person."

The Zohar states that the spilling of semen in vain is even worse than murder, for a murderer kills another person, but this person kills his own children and spills much blood (Zohar, Bereshit, 219b).

The Arizal explains that a regular murderer slays a man's body, but the soul of the slain person lives on in heaven. In the case of masturbation, since the wasted semen contains myriads of living souls, not only are these potential children destroyed, but all of the souls are captured by forces of evil and doomed to eternal spiritual purgatory and suffering, unless rectified by the person himself through a long course of repentance.

In the case of homosexuality, not only is the living semen, with its potential children destroyed, and their souls doomed to spiritual captivity and pain, but they are ejaculated into a completely polluted domain, which defiles the souls with a horrible defilement, as if flushing them down a toilet. In cases of oral sex, the living sperm is wasted, and the souls contained therein are destroyed in a most perverse and unnatural way. Can there be a greater abomination than this?

Suggested reading on same-sex attraction: Light in the Closet