YNET NEWS: Rabbi Arussi responds to letter from gay community calling for acceptance by Orthodox rabbis; those with homosexual tendencies should receive treatment, he says
Homosexuality is a disease that should be treated, the chief rabbi of KIryat Ono, near Tel Aviv, wrote in response to a letter from the gay community published in Ynet weeks ago.
"It is doubtlessly a disease, seeing as anything in nature that deviates from the norm is a disease," wrote Rabbi Ratzon Arussi, referring to homosexual tendencies. He was responding to a letter sent to dozens of rabbis throughout Israel by operators of a website catering to the homosexual community, HOD.
"We must make an effort to act in an intelligent way so that those who have homosexual tendencies are treated and rehabilitated ," the rabbi wrote. He called for all rabbis to assist homosexuals in their communities that "can find no cure."
Arussi also admitted that in many cases Orthodox Jews respond with violence in the face of open displays of homosexuality because they are "shocked, hurt, and offended."
"I have read your letter with much consideration because it is touching and insightful," Arussi wrote in his response to Rabbi R., who wrote the letter on behalf of homosexuals. "The religious community requires the correct tools in order to deal with homosexuality, and especially one exhibited openly."
"Those who can live normally with a female should not develop these unnatural instincts in themselves," he wrote. ’The sin of our time’ >>> By Kobi Nachshoni | April 23, 2008
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