The biblical command to “love the stranger as yourself” — to accept and love the person different from you — is what the Jewish tradition teaches, writes Rabbi Michael Oblath of Anchorage’s Congregation Beth Sholom. Congregation Beth Sholom holds its annual Shabbat for Pride tonight. Also, a list of  GLBT/Jewish resources.

GLBT and Judaism

by Rabbi Michael Oblath | Originally published in The Northview (Identity, Inc.), April 2009.

Within the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) there is a particular commandment that is stated on multiple occasions. The clearest expression is in Leviticus (19:33-34):

When a stranger lives with you in your land, you shall not oppress the stranger. The stranger that resides with you shall be to you as the native born among you; you shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

The stranger is the person that is different from you. It is a different category from the neighbor that is mentioned earlier in this same chapter in Leviticus (“you shall love your neighbor as yourself”). The ‘neighbor’ is the person that is just like you…whereas the stranger is the one that is different. It is a simple enough concept: love the stranger as one loves oneself…not an easy task though, not at all…especially when we look at human history, from at least the time of the book of Esther, some 2300 years ago. But, that is what our tradition teaches us. Look at our own life experiences, and apply the lessons we have learned to how we treat another person. Understand the feelings we have experienced in how we have been treated, and apply the love we have either felt or been denied…and treat the ‘other’ as we had desired to be treated.

What I teach as rabbi, and what my congregation (Beth Sholom) understands and practices, is that one must attempt to see another person as a mirror of each of us…to see another as if looking at ourselves. For, truly, is that not what human relationship is all about? It is what our tradition teaches.

It is not tolerance that we teach. Neither is it a life of tolerance that we try to live. It is rather that tolerance is understood as something inherently negative…to permit the existence of a person that is of different status than we are (always lower), and is thus allowed to hang around by virtue of our beneficence and good will.

To the contrary, we teach and urge society to look at the notion of ‘acceptance’ as a purer sense of the teachings of our religious tradition and history. To accept another is to say we are all equal…that we are all sharing this planet together…that we all want to be happy in our lives…that we all desire to be seen as wholly human just simply because we are. It is so very simple in concept, yet so very hard to help people see that their own experiences are not isolated. Rather, that they are shared by all of us on some level. These are the lessons…to open our minds and our hearts to the notion that true compassion and acceptance will not come to humanity, or even our own communities, until we accept each one we encounter, each person we see, as if we were looking at ourselves…for, truly, we are.

Michael Oblath, PhD. is the rabbi at Congregation Beth Sholom. He can be reached via the website at www.frozenchosen.org. Beth Sholom, a Reform Judaism temple, is located at 7525 E. Northern Lights Blvd. Anchorage, AK 99504. Beth Sholom is completely inclusive with GLBT people in both membership and positions of leadership. Rabbi Oblath is happy to perform GLBT commitment ceremonies and, hopefully some day soon, marriages.

Reprinted with permission of Identity, Inc.

Pride Shabbat

Congregation Beth Sholom is holding its Pride Shabbat this evening beginning at 7:30 PM.

• Date/time: Friday, June 1, 7:30 to 9:00 PM
• Location: Congregation Beth Sholom, 7525 E. Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK (see map)
• Cost of admission: Free event. All ages.
• Further info: see Congregation Beth Sholom website.

Resources

See also Keshet’s extensive listing of GLBT and Jewish resources.

Congregation Beth Sholom. Alaska’s largest Jewish congregation, a Reform Jewish synagogue serving the greater Anchorage community with members from Girdwood to the Mat-Su Valley, including Palmer and Wasilla.  It’s welcoming to LGBT people, and has taken the Keshet pledge Do Not Stand Idly By: A Jewish Community Pledge to Save Lives against anti-gay and anti-trans bullying. BWebsite and Facebook page. 7525 E. Northern Lights Blvd, Anchorage, AK (see map)

Bashert: The LGBT Initiative of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. Bashert reaches out to LGBTQ Jews in Greater Seattle — a great contact for Alaskans who are visiting or traveling through Seattle. Will you be in Seattle later in June? Bashert will hold its Pride Shabbat 2012 on June 22 at Temple De Hirsch Sinai on Capitol Hill, 1441 16th Ave, Seattle (see map).

Keshet is a national grassroots organization working for the full inclusion of GLBT Jews in Jewish life. In Hebrew, Keshet means both “rainbow,” a symbol of GLBT pride, and “bow,” an instrument for action. Keshet’s website has an extensive listing of GLBT and Jewish resources. Another important resource, Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, merges with Keshet in 2010, and its resources are being moved to Keshet.

World Congress of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Jews. The World Congress holds conferences and workshops representing the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, & transgender Jews around the world. The focus of these sessions varies from regional, national, continental, to global.

The Institute for Judaism and Sexual Orientation & The Jeff Herman Virtual Resource Center. Based at Hebrew Union College, the Rabbinical School for the Reform Movement, this institute and center is a robust online library of Jewish GLBT resources including liturgy, case studies, and a glossary.