Gay Student replies to Condemation by Yeshiva University Rabbi - Mordechai Levovitz to Rabbi Mayer Twersky

Our teacher Rav Soloveitchik would not have given a public diatribe like the one delivered by his grandson, Rabbi Mayer Twersky this week. As the officer says on the TV drama, "You have the right to remain silent..." It looks like everything Rabbi Twersky has said, now can and will be used against him in the court of public opinion.

See the stinging retort on the Cyberdov blog, where Mordechai Levovitz responds to Rabbi Mayer Twersky,  "Being Gay in the Orthodox World - a response worth reading."

We muse, is it time to start thinking seriously about halakhah and homosexuality? If you can invent and permit shabbos scooters and elevators, if you can prepare fake crab meat, well there must be some way to move the discussion from abomination to accommodation.

Recall that Talmud Bavli Hullin (our translation)103b says:

Said Yalta to R. Nahman, “What is the case? For everything that the Torah prohibited, it permitted something [equivalent] in its place.

(1) It prohibited [eating an animal's] blood. But it permitted [us to eat its] liver.

(2) [It prohibited intercourse during the issue of] menstrual blood. [But it permitted intercourse during the issue of] blood of purification [i.e., that flows after initial intercourse with a virgin or after childbirth].

(3) [It prohibited eating] the fat of beasts. [But it permitted eating] the fat of wild animals.

(4) [It prohibited eating meat of] the swine. [But it permitted eating] the brain of the mullet fish (Cashdan: or sturgeon).

(5) [It prohibited eating] the moor-hen. [But it permitted eating] the tongue of a fish.

(6) [It prohibited relations with] a married woman. [But it permitted relations with] a divorced woman [even] during the life of her husband.

(7) [It prohibited relations with one's] brother's wife. [But it permitted relations with] a levir [i.e., the brother's wife after he dies with no issue].

(8) [It prohibited relations with] a Samaritan woman. [But it permitted relations with a captive woman] who was attractive.

“I crave [to eat a recipe made from] meat and milk. [What is the equivalent for that?]”

R. Nahman said to his butchers, “Roast an udder for her on a spit.”