Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 1:01am
Toronto rabbi slams 'pagan' Jews
As Jews celebrated Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, Toronto Rabbi Yehuda Levin spoke out against the "pagan" acceptance of homosexual rabbi ordination by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. He said it reflects the historic conflict between traditonal Hebraism and pagan Helenism within Judaism.
Levin, an Orthodox rabbi and leader of Jews for Morality, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com said he now wishes to "apologize to the inter-religious community for the endorsement of paganism" by certain Conservative Jews.
"I feel that it is important for the purposes of [exposing] religious consumer fraud to declare to everyone that what they've done is totally antithetical to Judaism: to endorse homosexual clergy and homosexual unions," said Levin. "To try to in any way consecrate them or commit them is so antithetical, it's literally paganism."
Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is celebrated this year from sundown Dec. 15 to sundown Dec. 23. The holiday is most familiar for the eight-night lighting of the menorah.
This commemorates a miracle when the Maccabees reclaimed the Holy Temple from their Greek-Syrian rulers. As the temple was being prepared for rededication, only enough purified oil was found for one day's use, but the light continued to burn for eight days. That incident is re-enacted annually with prayers offered as the lights are lit in homes.
More significant than the limited military victory, Levin said, was the underlying victory of traditional Judaism over Hellenistic influences, in the ages-old struggle for fidelity to God's covenant. "Hanukkah was not only a war against the powers of the Greek empire that had overrun and controlled Israel but, importantly, the less well-known [aspect is that] Hanukkah is also a civil war between the traditional Jews, the orthodox Jews, and those who were aping the Greek culture, which included historically an embracing of homosexuality," said Levin.
"Hanukkah wasn't so much a victory over the Greeks; the Greeks continued to occupy major parts of Israel historically for a full half-century after the Jews started to celebrate Hanukkah," Rabbi Levin told LifeSiteNews.com. "So the main celebration of Hanukkah was the defeat of the pagan forces within Judaism, those who were attempting to paganize Judaism by aping the Greek culture, and endorse all kinds of pagan rituals and pagan ideologies including the practice of homosexuality. The Greeks said at that time in history, 'A woman for bearing children, a boy for true love.' That was their idea."
Rabbi Levin wants to label the Conservative action "for what it is. This is not Judaism - it's paganism."
Levin, an Orthodox rabbi and leader of Jews for Morality, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com said he now wishes to "apologize to the inter-religious community for the endorsement of paganism" by certain Conservative Jews.
"I feel that it is important for the purposes of [exposing] religious consumer fraud to declare to everyone that what they've done is totally antithetical to Judaism: to endorse homosexual clergy and homosexual unions," said Levin. "To try to in any way consecrate them or commit them is so antithetical, it's literally paganism."
Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is celebrated this year from sundown Dec. 15 to sundown Dec. 23. The holiday is most familiar for the eight-night lighting of the menorah.
This commemorates a miracle when the Maccabees reclaimed the Holy Temple from their Greek-Syrian rulers. As the temple was being prepared for rededication, only enough purified oil was found for one day's use, but the light continued to burn for eight days. That incident is re-enacted annually with prayers offered as the lights are lit in homes.
More significant than the limited military victory, Levin said, was the underlying victory of traditional Judaism over Hellenistic influences, in the ages-old struggle for fidelity to God's covenant. "Hanukkah was not only a war against the powers of the Greek empire that had overrun and controlled Israel but, importantly, the less well-known [aspect is that] Hanukkah is also a civil war between the traditional Jews, the orthodox Jews, and those who were aping the Greek culture, which included historically an embracing of homosexuality," said Levin.
"Hanukkah wasn't so much a victory over the Greeks; the Greeks continued to occupy major parts of Israel historically for a full half-century after the Jews started to celebrate Hanukkah," Rabbi Levin told LifeSiteNews.com. "So the main celebration of Hanukkah was the defeat of the pagan forces within Judaism, those who were attempting to paganize Judaism by aping the Greek culture, and endorse all kinds of pagan rituals and pagan ideologies including the practice of homosexuality. The Greeks said at that time in history, 'A woman for bearing children, a boy for true love.' That was their idea."
Rabbi Levin wants to label the Conservative action "for what it is. This is not Judaism - it's paganism."