Challenging Acceptance: Exploring the Dichotomy between LGBTQ+ Relationships and Torah Principles
Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 
Amazon Music Have you ever pondered the delicate balance between societal acceptance and religious principles? In this thought-provoking episode, we broke down the boundaries and explored the ever-evolving dynamics between societal acceptance of LGBTQ+ relationships in contrast to the prohibitions outlined in the Torah. We questioned whether these behaviors should be opposed or tolerated and the broader implications of these choices.
We unraveled the gray areas and complexities of obedience and desire, using stories and figures from the Torah, such as Adam, Noah, and Moshe Rabbeinu, as reference points. This conversation wasn't just about challenging norms but rethinking our understanding of freedom, suggesting that surrendering to religious law can be a form of liberation. Engage in this enlightening and controversial dialogue and gain insight into the liberating power of becoming an 'evid Hashem,' a servant of Hashem, enabling decision-making irrespective of personal desires or impulses.
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Questions or Comments? Please email me @ michaelbrooke97@gmail.com
0:01 Today we discuss a heavy topic, a topic that probably needs to be spoken about, and while it may bring with it some controversy, I remind you that there are many different opinions on it, and this is just one, and from the head of a 26 year old, so you know. Recently it seems that there's been a cultural shift in the world, definitely in America, of humans being tolerated, and at times even encouraged to flaunt certain behaviors that were previously prohibited. Maybe the words or the word LGDBQT whatever mean something to you.
0:46 Maybe you've heard of it, but are we supposed to talk about it, address it? We know that the Torah does prohibit such behaviors of men marrying men and other prohibited relationships. Should we join rallies against it? Should we tolerate it? What should we do? And well, one idea I'd like to bring to the conversation To truthfully ask yourself who was the Torah written for? Did Hashem give the Torah to individuals who are odd, need some extra health, or did Hashem give the Torah to the normal, coherent thinking human?
1:32 I submit the second one. And then the Torah Hashem gives us certain prohibitions that may seem that they carry along with it certain odd behaviors. It is prohibited, we are told, for a man to marry a man or to engage in bestiality. This may seem like gross behaviors, but while the first reaction when you hear of somebody doing a sin like such is to say you know, this is a perverted individual, he's gross, maybe it's a different conversation, because the Yetzahara we know is a very, very luring fellow and a person. When he engages with the Yetzahara it can go downhill fast.
2:12 He can make an obese individual look enticing. He can make individuals fight to the death over a piece of paper that they call money. So we don't really understand what luring taiva seduction is, something above us. Perhaps the conversation should just be is this inside of Hashem's Torah and permitted, or does it fall outside of the Torah and is it prohibited, muttur or asur? And if it is mutur, then we can engage in the practice. But if it is outside of Hashem's Torah, well then we submit ourselves to Hashem's law and we gather up the strength, no matter what the pull is, and say no.
2:55 And if you think about it, it just came to be in this chazora, in this time, going through the cycle of the Torah. You can really learn the Torah if you had no prior knowledge as just trying to find the perfect human. First it was Adam and Reshoun, the greatest individual when things went awry. We are then introduced to Noah, who had some faith, and then eventually we get the quintessential Jew and it's Avram of Vino. He discovers Hashem and things. Then they build and we get Yitzchak and a trifecta with Jacob of Vino. We meet Aaron, akohin and Yosef and Sidkus and all of it. But the Torah concludes and finishes with the narrative all about Moshe Rabbeinu, and Moshe dying is the very end of the Torah and he is crowned to be the ultimate Jew.
3:36 And with what does Hashem eulogize? His number one trustee attendant? It calls him an evid. He was the quintessential servant of Hashem Dare. I say slave of Hashem Because maybe what we don't understand is that when we submit ourselves to Hashem's law with an obedience, with a subjugation, it is the most liberating feeling, because now you get to decide when you do something and when you don't. And even though a tiva, a feeling that you really want to do it and impulse comes, whether that be a tiva for a male or a female or anything weird that the Yates are and I put in front of you, when you're an evid Hashem, you say, well, it doesn't matter how I feel.
4:22 If Hashem said yes, then it's okay, and if it's no, then it's no. No matter how I feel, come from Moshe, become an evid Hashem. Liberate yourself, become a free person. Emancipate your strength when you learn to submit to Hashem's Torah, because now you get to call the shots, decide when and where you do something.