Halacha Headlines

The word אפיקורס and אפיקורסוס is commonly tossed into the ring of ideas to discredit and undermine other peoples valid opinions Ive made it a habit of mine to never dispense of it. Therefore rather than reverting to distasteful name calling I’ll let the Rambam do the talking. The Rambam in הלכות תשובה פרק ה הלכה ד says the following.

For example, humans (or animals) desire to eat and the reason we can taste and food os tasty is a response to life itself being dependent on getting adequate nourishment and if food tasted like dirt we wouldn’t tend to that need but we also have the ability to corrupt it by treating it as the primary drive and overeat unhealthily.

For example the underlying desire to eat is bound with our

Given the inconclusiveness of human studies it would seem entirely reasonable to look to the biology in animal and insect world where homosexual sex acts but for in a handful of species and cases are very rare. It would be fair to assume that void of environmental factors the sexual attraction and sex drive in the animal and insect worlds are a secondary process to the natural reproductive process as the reason homosexuality is aberrative in other biologies.

,Non-discretionary nature and not largely environmentally influenced is simply uninformed. The consensus opinion of modern psychology Lichtenstein references is feeling not fact as scientists continue to grapple with the mysterious forces which underlie human behavior and human sexuality.

A mixture of anecdotal evidence based on clinical evaluations and self reporting. The critical point which must be emphasized is that the notion that modern science has concluded that LGBTQ lifestyle is nature

The rabble opinion aside, the question of whether people are born homosexual or not remains open ended and scientists are unable to point to any single gene associated with being gay. In light of the impossibility in framing a study isolating causality the evidence to support biological determination is comprised of much debated circumstantial evidence such as the Pillard & Bailey study of identical and fraternal twins (which failed to properly control for environmental influences) and

Underlying his compassion and sympathies is his acceptance of the concensus opinion in modern psychology that homosexuality is biologically determined and not a “lifestyle” choice. This is further pronounced in the orthodox jewish community where leading a gay and openly alternative lifestyle exacts a grievous cost on LGBTQ boys and girls who are faced with the rock of conformity and the hard place of what they believe is nothing other than an expression of who they naturally are.

Dovid Lichtenstein in a previous podcast titled “The Torah Hashkafa Of Dealing With People With Alternative Lifestyles” expressed great sympathy for otherwise orthodox frum people who struggle with their Homosexual nature. He told over a personal story of a yeshivah boy who does not desire the opposite sex and was frightened that if forced into marriage it would end in divorce. He questioned if its appropriate to condemn such a person to a celibate and lonely life.