While the lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
community is still coming to terms with recent developments in the Tel Aviv gay
center shooting investigation, some are already calling on its members to
engage in self-examination.
Rabbi Dr. Ratzon Arusi, rabbi of the central city of Kiryat
Ono and a member of the Chief Rabbinate Council, said last week that
legitimizing "abnormal" sexual inclinations leads to violence in
society. He expressed his hope that the bloodshed at the youth club would lead
to what he referred to as "disillusionment" in the community.
In a Torah lesson he gave following the breakthrough in the
murder investigation, Rabbi Arusi argued that human and biblical history proved
that accepting and containing the phenomenon of "he and he, she and
she," as he put it, "breaches all other borders, which opens the door
to violence."
He said he learned that from the "generation of the
flood," which was the first to recognize same-sex marriages, and as a
result "the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of
violence." He added that both King Solomon and Maimonides had pointed to a
connection between the two.
"Our non-religious brothers say that Maimonides was a
rationalist, a philosopher and a scientist, and not just a man of Torah,"
said Arusi, calling on the LGBT community to take his opinion seriously.
According to the rabbi, the community members must examine
through experts whether in such a society "the level of violence does not
exist at a much higher level and at a greater potential" before fighting
for equal rights. "How is it that the entire society is being turned into
a guinea pig?" he asked.
'Apologize to the religious public'
Rabbi Arusi went on to say that immediately after the gay
center shooting, four years ago, "irresponsible people" automatically
accused the religious and ultra-Orthodox public of committing a hate crime,
assuming that the culprit came from that public and had ideological motives.
Now, he said, they must apologize and offer reconciliation,
as "the entire affair has been found to be internal."
According to the rabbi, the offense is particularly serious
as an entire public was blamed rather than just an individual. "We must be
very careful with such things in the public discourse, not to inflame the
situation and not to take stands hastily."
This isn't the first time that Kiryat Ono's rabbi is caught
in homophobic remarks. In the past he had said that "the phenomenon of
demonstrative and communicative homosexuality is wrong, and does a disservice
to gays, certainly to the religious ones among them."
In a letter he wrote following a letter by religious
homosexuals seeking acceptance, Arusi said that "we must know how to deal
with the phenomenon of demonstrative and communicative homosexuality which is
the mother of all sins in our time, and it's a shame that we have come to this.
"We must know how to deal with dear God-fearing Jews
who were born as homosexuals in order to relieve their pain, and in order to
show them ways to find true happiness."
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