“People are going to find their way back to whatever they’re going to find their way back to.”
Rabbi Mordechai Rackover, the Jewish chaplain of Brown University and the rabbi at Brown-RISD Hillel (which serves both Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design), doesn’t quite fit the popular conception of Orthodox Jews as out of touch with the modern world. He’s rarely found without his iPhone (except on Shabbat, of course), maintains a Kosher food blog, and is an almost alarmingly prolific tweeter. By any measure, he is as deeply involved in both modern American and Orthodox life as anyone can be. So what led him to strongly decry a recent statement by a group of Orthodox rabbis that condemned gay marriage, though he agrees with them that it is “halachically impossible”?
On the evening of Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011 two Orthodox Jews stood under a chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy) in Washington, D.C. Their names were Yoni Bock and Ron Kaplan, and they were entering into what has been described as the first Orthodox gay wedding. Almost a year and a half before, 199 Orthodox rabbis, educators and mental health workers slogged through a months-long consensus process to produce a document titled “Statement of Principles.” While they maintained that “homosexual acts” like gay marriage are contrary to Orthodox halachic interpretation, the rabbis articulated in no uncertain terms that Orthodox Jews with “a homosexual orientation” were to be accepted, treated with the same respect and dignity afforded to others and made a part of their communities to the greatest extent possible. They also decried the forced application of “reparative therapy” or “change therapy” and the forced entrance of gay Orthodox Jews into heterosexual marriages.
Unsurprisingly, many Orthodox Jews felt that the ceremony misrepresented Orthodox beliefs, and a new group of Orthodox rabbis issued another statement, this one titled “Orthodox Rabbis Stand On Principle.” They argued that since same-sex marriage “is not sanctioned by Torah law,” the ceremony was “not an Orthodox wedding.” They even went a step further, arguing that “by definition a person who conducts such a ceremony is not an Orthodox rabbi.”
Yet Rackover, who agrees that gay marriage is not halachically acceptable, takes issue with these rabbis. He wrote a column in response to “Orthodox Rabbis Stand on Principle,” noting that the Orthodox community spends a disproportionate amount of time attacking this particular issue, while many others (he names child sex abuse, serious gender discrimination and poverty as examples) are left alone. In it, he is is outwardly exasperated with the eagerness of the “Orthodox Rabbis Stand On Principle” signers, writing “Big News! The Torah and Orthodox understanding of Halacha prohibit gay marriage. Who knew?” But he continues, “An Orthodox rabbi myself, I happen to agree that this was not an Orthodox wedding. But I think these rabbis’ response is a much bigger problem than two Orthodox gay men seeking a way to dignify their relationship through marriage.” What Rackover wants to know is why the rabbis should criticize this “abomination” and not others?
This question is emblematic of the line that Orthodox Jews walk today, especially ones like Rackover. He is the religious leader of a campus community that in many ways does not follow Orthodox halacha, but he’s quick to note that he doesn’t believe in one single truth and that there are multiple valid interpretations of Jewish law. Amid the problems of Jewish assimilation and secularism — and on the front lines of both of these issues — he seeks to carve out a relevant place for Orthodoxy in the modern world.
Rackover readily acknowledges that the world today is different than it was when the sources Orthodox Jews now look to for guidance were formed. “We’re all going to act like Moshe Rabbeinu?” he asks mockingly. He doesn’t necessarily want to return to that world. As an Orthodox rabbi who serves as the university chaplain to an overwhelmingly non-Orthodox population and the rabbi to a definitively pluralistic Hillel (there’s even a LGBT group within Hillel called Queer Hillel) Rackover doesn’t want to impose his own halachic stance on others – including the many students who come to him for guidance. “If you love someone, you’re going to try to fix them. I have a different understanding of how to fix someone,” he concluded. “People are going to find their way back to whatever they’re going to find their way back to.”
Harpo Jaeger is the New Voices Magazine Web Editor.
