Homosexuality has been a pivotal issue for Conservative Judaism since the 1980s. A major Jewish denomination in the U.S., Conservative Judaism has wrestled with homosexuality and bisexuality as a matter of Jewish law and institutional policy. As with other branches of Judaism debating the acceptability of same-sex sexual expression, Conservative Jews faced both long-standing rabbinic prohibitions on same-sex sexual intimacy as well as increasing demands for change in the movement's policies toward gay, bisexual, and lesbian people. Previously, the Conservative movement had changed its policies toward women, for example, by allowing the ordination of women as rabbis in 1983. Similarly, the Conservative leadership has been asked to stop discriminating against gay, bisexual, and lesbian people. This goal has been partially completed with the approval of the ordination of gay, bisexual, and lesbian rabbis in 2006 and of same-sex marriage ceremonies under Jewish law in 2012. However, the Conservative decision did not call same-sex marriages kiddushin, the traditional Jewish legal term for marriage, because that act of consecration is non-egalitarian and gender-specific. In the conventional kiddushin ceremony, a pair of blessings is recited and the bridegroom gives his bride a ring, proclaiming that he is marrying his bride “according to the laws of Moses and Israel.”.
Conservative Halakha on sexual orientation In Conservative Judaism, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (CJLS) of the Rabbinical Assembly makes the movement's decisions concerning Jewish law. The CJLS consistently refused to pass several proposed takkanot concerning the Levitical prohibitions on male-male anal sex, but also on all forms of homosexual intimacy, in general. In 1992, the CJLS action affirmed its traditional prohibition on homosexual conduct, blessing same-sex unions, and ordaining openly gay, bisexual, and lesbian clergy. However, these prohibitions grew increasingly controversial within the Conservative movement. Regarding ordination, a major criticism of the ordination of LGBTQ individuals is that interpretations of Jewish law prohibit gay sex, and rabbis are held as examples of following Jewish law.
A variety of liberal proposals had been brought forth in the non-Orthodox community, including some by Rabbinical Assembly rabbis. Some argued that a change in Jewish understanding and law on this issue must take place due to new information about the biology and genetics concerning human sexuality. Others argued that a change was required solely on ethical grounds. The CJLS accepted no such papers, as Conservative Judaism sees itself as bound by halakhah.
However, these arguments were soon expanded upon within more formal halakhic responsa, one of the most prominent by Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson. He used historical, sociological, and ethical considerations to argue that homosexuality, as it is now understood today, was not described by the Torah or understood by traditional rabbis. As such, one could restrict the understanding of the Torah prohibition to cases not being considered today. His views were considered important, but they were not accepted by themselves as halakhically convincing. A few years later, Rabbi Elliot N. Dorff used these arguments in his case for re-evaluating Conservative Judaism's stand on sexual orientation but held that Artson's paper was insufficiently halakhically rigorous. Dorff studied the issue of coercion, arguing that people who were innately homosexual due to biology were not to be regarded as sinning. His early papers on the subject began to gain acceptance among a minority of RA rabbis, but ultimately, it was made clear that the CJLS would not accept this argument as sufficient.
Two additional papers, one by Rabbi Gordon Tucker and one by Rabbis Myron Geller, Robert Fine, and David Fine, went further than Dorff's paper. Tucker's paper stated that it is necessary to expand the definition of the halakhic process, and the Geller, Fine, and Fine paper redefined the corpus of Halakha as representing the evolving beliefs and ideals of the Jewish people of a particular time and place as distinct from representing an infallible Divine will. While both papers had the support of at least 6 members, a majority of the CJLS found that both papers represented so extensive a change that they could not be accepted as mere changes of Jewish law, but each should be regarded as a Takkanah that would uproot a Torah prohibition if passed. Under the CJLS rules, once a majority of the committee found a responsum to be a Takkanah, accepting it would require a majority of the Committee (13 of 25 votes), while an ordinary responsum could be accepted as a valid alternative with as few as 6 of 25 votes.
On December 6, 2006, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted diametrically opposed responsa on the issue of sexual orientation. The CJLS's action permits each congregational rabbi and rabbinical school to decide which responsum to adopt, hence setting its own policy on the subject. The adoption of dual, contradictory responsa represents a straddling of the contemporary societal divide over sexual matters. It also represents a sharp change from previous Conservative policy, which in 1993 had adopted a consensus position reaffirming a blanket prohibition on homosexual conduct while welcoming gay, bisexual, and lesbian people as members.
The Dorff, Nevins, and Reisner responsum One responsum, by Rabbis Elliot N. Dorff, Daniel Nevins, and Avram Reisner, reduced the extent of traditional restrictions and substantially changed Conservative views on homosexual conduct. It characterized most such restrictions as rabbinic in character. It found rabbinic restrictions subject to reconsideration by the CJLS under its interpretation of the principle of Kavod HaBriyot, the Talmudic rule of legal reasoning that rabbinic (but not Biblical) restrictions can be overridden based on "respect for others" or "human dignity". Holding that the concept of kavod habriyot interpreted as human dignity reflects Conservative Judaism's evolving understanding of human nature, it found rabbinic restrictions on homosexual conduct inconsistent with human dignity contemporarily understood and accordingly declared such restrictions lifted. Finding that it lacked authority under the kavod habriyot principle to lift biblical prohibitions, it analyzed the Biblical passages involved and found that male-male anal sex was the sole De'oraitha (Biblical) restrictions. It held that such conduct remained prohibited in Conservative Judaism as a Biblical prohibition. The responsum permitted Conservative rabbis to allow same-sex union ceremonies and gave the option for Conservative rabbinical schools to admit and ordain openly gay, bisexual, and lesbian rabbis. It held that same-sex couples should be presumed not to engage in prohibited conduct in the same way that Conservative Judaism presumes that married heterosexual couples observe sexual prohibitions such as Niddah.
The responsum begins with a quote from Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook,
The light of the Messiah, when it blazes in the heart, teaches one to dignify all people: “It shall be on that day that the root of Jesse will stand as a sign to the nations, and peoples will seek him, and his consolation shall be dignity." (Isaiah )
After a discussion of contemporary theories of sexuality and a warning against promiscuity, the responsum interprets Leviticus and as pertaining to male-male anal sex only:
Ancient authors employed euphemism when describing sex, making it difficult to prove exactly what activities they understood to be included within these verses. Is it possible that the biblical prohibition called mishk’vei ishah and later, by the Rabbis, mishkav zakhur, includes actions other than anal intercourse? These verses have been variously translated, but almost all readers conclude that they prohibit anal sex between men, with the first verse addressing only the insertive partner, and the second verse including the receptive partner.
We have demonstrated that only one form of homosexual intimacy, anal intercourse between men, is prohibited at this level as an ervah. We must conclude that any Jew who seeks to fulfill the Torah's commandments must avoid this forbidden act.
The responsum also insisted that Jewish law could not be interpreted any more permissively:
In contrast, our colleagues Rabbis David Fine, Robert Fine and Myron Geller have argued that the verses in Leviticus should be understood to prohibit only those sexual relationships that offer no possibility of marriage. In an age when gay marriage is permitted by some jurisdictions, they argue, the Torah's ban is no longer universal. Although they present their reading as “the p’shat,” there is nothing simple or contextual about this interpretation. Nowhere does the passage mention marriage. The list of forbidden sexual relations includes menstrual sex, which can occur within a marital context. It is hard to accept that the Torah forbids bestiality only because it offers no opportunity for marriage. This reading, too, is sui generis — unsupported by either ancient or modern commentaries.
The responsum described rabbinic prohibitions on sexual relations as mere fences, many of which, it said, the Conservative movement had already lifted. It compared Rabbinic prohibitions on homosexual conduct to strictures on a husband approaching or touching his wife during the Niddah (post-menstrual) period:
However, our community does not enforce, and indeed does not accept, these severe prohibitions. We do not hold, as a matter of fact, that the laws of ”approach” are biblically mandated, but rather that they are in the category of rabbinic fences and borders that are all ultimately intended to protect against transgression of the fundamental biblical rules about sexual conduct. Just as the Sages of old exempted themselves from some of the severity of the laws against contact between the sexes between relatives,45 so have we concluded that average people can be trusted to maintain appropriate relations despite social kissing and hugging and moments alone together, even behind locked doors.
This teshuvah distinguishes between a Torah mitzvah and later rabbinical fence laws. It argues (page 8) that:
"We conclude that there is only one prohibited sexual relation of arayot among homosexual behaviors, which is anal sex between men, and that other restrictions have no basis in biblical legislation. ...While some readers might conclude from the texts reviewed above that Jewish law imposes a universal and undifferentiated ban on all homosexual intimacy, we must emphasize the nuances found in this literature. ...The Torah's most severe sexual prohibitions are identified as ervah (plural: arayot). In antiquity, these were punishable by death as well as by the severe divine penalty known as karet. Of these sexual prohibitions alone did the rabbis teach, yeihareig v’al ya’avor, that one should die rather than transgress. We have demonstrated that only one form of homosexual intimacy, anal intercourse between men, is prohibited at this level as an ervah..."
The responsum questioned whether requiring celibacy for same-sex couples was feasible, quoting Deuteronomy :
For this mitzvah which I command you today is not too grand for you, nor is it far away. It is not in heaven, that it be said, ‘who will ascend to heaven to get it for us, and teach us how to do it?’ It is not across the sea,...
The responsum invoked and extensively commented on the concept of Kevod HaBriyot, "human dignity," noting that the concept is traditionally limited to Rabbinic enactments: