Gay marriage? – Ask the Rabbi
Q. The Australian Labor Party has voted in support of same-sex “marriage” as its official party position.* Would Judaism ever support such a view?
A. Marriage began with the beginning of human history, when God created Adam and Eve and brought them together. In the eyes of Jewish tradition He was even the cantor at their wedding. From them emerged the whole of the human race.
Every bridegroom is Adam; every bride is Eve. The love that joins them is not only theirs; it is a link in human destiny. There can be other close relationships, but none is so precious, so productive.
There are two tenses to marriage – today, with its loving companionship, and tomorrow, with its founding of a family.
The way the Creator designed the male of the species, the way He designed the female, shows that by nature they are meant to be together.
This is not the case with two males or two females, and whatever you call a close bond between men or between women, the term “marriage” applies only to a heterosexual union.
To re-invent the definition of marriage empties the term of its meaning. If you redefine one word to suit yourself, you can redefine every word, and you end up by undermining and distorting human language and speech as a whole.
If you claim you have a right to call a non-heterosexual relationship “marriage”, you end up by undermining and distorting the foundations of society.
* This article originally appeared in 2011.