Video: Homophobic Haredi Rabbi Yehuda Levin Explains Himself On MSNBC

Conservative Rabbi David Kirshner is on with Levin. Lawrence O'Donnel very politely makes Levin look like the homophobic nutjob he is.

 

Comments

[Truth]

I guess G-D is a homophobe as well.

[MM]

Hmmmm, love your neighbor as yourself is "superficial." News to me....

[norm]

I think the headlien should be "... exposes himself."

[harold]

He is certainly getting his 15 minutes of fame! More power to him!

How much longer will the ass licking of gays go on before it loses steam and the media moves on. I squirm when I see all the politically correct posturing that is going on. What an interesting spectacle. Reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld (The Outing) when he and George "fall all over themselves" being politically correct when speaking of gays . To refresh ones memory, here is how the script of one of the scenes goes:

Jerry: There's been a big misunderstanding here! We did that whole thing for your benefit. We knew you were eavesdropping. That's why my friend said all that. It was on purpose! We're not gay! Not that there's anything wrong with that...

George: No, of course not...

Jerry: I mean that's fine if that's who you are...

George: Absolutely...

Jerry: I mean I have many gay friends...

George: My *father* is gay...

[yo]

Kirshner is Conservative, not Reform, for whatever its worth.

[A.R.]

Yes, God is a homophobe. God is an Atheist too.

[corn popper]

Be honest, Levin as nutty as he is, is the most scholarly of the three, and despite the clear bias against him, wipes the floor with the conservative no-nothing hack and the brainless o'donnel.

[Alter Kocker]

How much longer will the ass licking of gays go on before it loses steam and the media moves on.

Harold:
Once again your ignorance and bigotry is absolutely deplorable.

What goes on in a bedroom between two consenting adults is THEIR business, not yours, not a rabbis and certainly not the media's. Certainly issues of gay rights gets media play at this time, it stands to reason that a subset that lived closeted and in fear of religious zealots of all types has to begin to find a voice.

Levin, as with most of the ultra orthodox feeds off of the ignorance and bigotry of the great unwashed. He seeks to aggrandize himself on the backs of those whose views and lifstyles are divergent from his own. He injects the bugaboo of apposition to the deity-or rather, his interpretation of same as his justification of the hatred and bile that he spews like filth.

It is the people such as Levin that should be the enemy, not those he attacks.

[WoolSilkCotton]

Soon, Levin will have a show on Fox News Channel.

[Shmarya]

Kirshner is Conservative, not Reform, for whatever its worth.

Thanks! Fixed it.

[george brown]

To believe that gedolim are not being manuplated today is naive on your part.Neither the agudah nor any other organization speaks for orthodox jewery. Whoever has more PR sends out the message that they represent the orthodox jewish world.
While Leven may be outspoken and may have gone about the wrong way in getting out his message, it certianlt is true everything he said.
All organizations have their first and main goal to get as much as they can from elected officials.

[harold]

What goes on in a bedroom between two consenting adults is THEIR business

Not on this web site (squeeze, squeeze)

[Pierre]

r. Kirshner though does not do a good job responding *as a Conservative rabbi*, he discusses it sociologically. Even though he is a rabbi, he gives a non-rabbinic view on the matter and though I may disagree with Conservative views or not (which are more nuanced than Orthodox presenters give it credit for), he literally just gives more posukim justifying R. Levin's 'compassion' component.

[mitch]

agree with Pierre. R. Kirshner's rebuttal is textually weak and he conflates issues. If the same God who ID's V'Ahavta l'Rei'e'cha, and Tzelem Elokim, also takes about mishkav ish, then how can he simply dismiss a forbidden act?
as for R. Levin, to my surprise i found myself agreeing with his bigger point but growing nauseous on how he was communicating it.
truth is there is a middle road and that's the one signed by the 150 O rabbis/professionals. R. Levin lacked the sensitivty that many gays struggle with, the recent suicides, beatings, etc.. being gay can be very challenging and we need to appreciate that from a midat rachamim and ohev yisroel. at the same time, we can't simply dismiss what is explcitly written in the Torah. R. Levin's best barb on R Kirshner was calling his view "cut and paste Judaism."

[Josh]

"rabbi" Kirshner sounded like a fool! I don't care who looks better to non-Jews, but from an educated perspective, Kirshner's clearly an idiot.

His views are why Israeli Jews hate American Jews, they use whatever the flavour of the month view in society is to influence their beliefs rather than using the bedrock foundations of Judaism to change society and make the world a better place! I have a major problem with someone supporting abortions of convenience, but I have an even bigger problem with people using the Torah to justify it.

[honest observer]

I've been spending quite some time lately watching and listening to recordings of yehuda levin. like him or not, he's well spoken, intelligent, and knows the subject matter he speaks of. i also don't doubt his sincerity.

[Pierre]

Definitions of terms are thoroughly and at times deliberately conflated ("gay agenda"/homosexual), very complex issues (sexual preferences versus IDENTITIES) over-simplified. For a time one could read in material representing the all-girls-team side of the GLBT scene (in fact, before the acronym gained widespread acceptance), voices were raised AGAINST "it's not a choice" - because for centuries, women have been told their roles, behaviors and inclinations were decided for them by their female bodies - that they were prone to emotionalism, "hysterical" because their reproductive organs moved around in their bodies (this was science), etc, etc. To be told YET AGAIN that they were INCAPABLE of such a CHOICE as preference was something of a last straw of disgrace - but then the need for political consolidation brought VERY divergent factions into "common cause", the ambiguously-defined "movement for Equality". the Kinsey statistics in being re-calibrated (after it became clear Kinsey himself fudged data), have indicated only further the conflation of identities based on preferences - much of which shows a strong role of CHOICE - but again, not present in the POLITICAL definitions for identity.

[Nobody]

Hey I kinda like this guy now that I've actually heard what he has to say. He really wiped the floor with Kirshner and made pretty good points.

[Nathaniel]

Levin is a bigot and an advocate of violence; he is a tare among wheat. He needs to concern himself with his own faith and get that Judaism isn't the only religion or philosophy and that he has no basis to argue that other minorities should be discriminated against except some archaic document. He should remember the Holocaust - gays were in those camps too, and history will look back on his ignorance with disdain and pity.

He's advocated violence against gays (cf, recent Israeli gay rights march). If there was a god (c'mon, no man has such knowledge) then I think levin would find he stands outside the notion that God is love.

More importantly, so tired of small minds thinking some god would actually chose him. The whole notion of chosen people is arrogant, exclusionary and equivalent to Nazi nationalism.

He's a disgrace to Judaism and humanity.

[Remote control]

Ironically Levin practices the same "cut & paste Judaism he accuses Kirshner of doing.

The Torah allows for & even regulates the practice of slavery.

Modern orthodox Jewry has evolved beyond this dehumanizing practice.

Unless of course the good Rabbi is hiding some folks in his basement.

[the usual chaim]

"He needs to concern himself with his own faith and get that Judaism isn't the only religion or philosophy"

this is really the main salient point here. we live in a secular democratic republic. Levin may be entitled to his views and practices and it is precisely because he is entitled to them that others are entitled to theirs. His aim entails a fundamental subversion of what american public life is supposed to be.

that being said, while kirshner's textual argument is very weak, the halachic argument he tries to tie it to is stronger: if creating an oppressive environment is directly linked to increased suicide rates (either immediate or progressive via drug abuse) then it is arguable that it becomes a matter of pikuach nefesh. one may object to this reasoning but I dont think it can be summarily dismissed.

[Joel M]

I'm surprised, very surprised, to see how well Levin dealt with the issues.

[Simon Rose]

Greetings

The homosexual act is forbibden by the Torah. How does one get around such a straight forward command and say it's somehow now OK or Kosher?

Why not say adultery is also Kosher, and child molestation etc...

When people scream loud enough about their sexual urges and they become common place in society does that make it all of sudden acceptable by Jewish standards?

This is not how Judaism works or Halacha even in conservative Judaism.

I look forward to some comments.

[Nobody]

The questionable "nathaniel" wrote the following -
"More importantly, so tired of small minds thinking some god would actually chose him. The whole notion of chosen people is arrogant, exclusionary and equivalent to Nazi nationalism.

He's a disgrace to Judaism and humanity.

Posted by: Nathaniel | October 15, 2010 at 12:48 AM "

If Judaism includes a notion of "chosen people" and you equate a notion of chosen people with "nazi nationalism" then Judaism is nazism according to your feeble mind. But in that case, why do you care that anyone is a "disgrace to Judaism?" Wouldn't that be a good thing according to your warped logic?

[doesn'tmatter anymore]

Yes your Hashem is clearly homophobic .

[doesn'tmatter anymore]

I hate you god with all my heart and all my soul.he is responsible for the core feelings of unworthiness and self hatred at the deepest level of the human soul on this planet today giving us the four religious scourges of humanity judaism christianity and their source hinduism with its creator god brahma.even buddhism is related to brahma/jehovah in some perverse way.what a tragedy for us all there is no escape from this tyrant who claims to be love but is anything but.