Editing Religion and sexuality (section)

===Judaism===
{{main|Judaism and sexuality}}
{{see also|Homosexuality and Judaism|Judaism and masturbation|Tzniut|Niddah|Yichud|Negiah|Adultery#Judaism}}
[[File:Homophobic protestors-02. Haifa 2010.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jewish]] protesters holding Anti-LGBTQ Protest signs during the Gay Pride parade in [[Haifa]], [[Israel]] (2010)]]

In the perspective of traditional [[Judaism]], sex and reproduction are the holiest of acts one can do, the act through which one can imitate [[God in Judaism|God]], and in order to preserve its sanctity there are many boundaries and guidelines. Within the boundaries, there are virtually no outright strictures, and it is in fact obligatory. It prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage, maintains biblical strictures on relations within marriage including observance of ''[[niddah]]'', a prohibition on relations for a period including the menstrual period, and ''[[tzniut]]'', requirements of modest dress and behavior. Traditional Judaism views the physical acts of adultery, incest, intentional waste of semen, the physical act of [[Men who have sex with men|men having sex with men]], and male masturbation as grave sins. Judaism permits relatively free divorce, with [[Orthodox Judaism]] and [[Conservative Judaism]] requiring a [[get (divorce document)|religious divorce]] ceremony for a divorce to be religiously recognized. Worldwide movements in Judaism considered more liberal have rejected Jewish law as binding but rather inspirational and allegorical, so adapted perspectives more consistent with general contemporary Western culture.

Most of mainstream Judaism does not accept [[polyamory]], although some people consider themselves Jewish and polyamorous.<ref name="haaretz.com">{{Cite news|last=Krupkin |first=Taly |url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.551971 |title=Polyamorous Jews seek acceptance - Jewish World News - Haaretz - Israel News |newspaper=Haaretz |date=2013-10-12 |access-date=2017-06-30}}</ref> One prominent rabbi who accepts polyamory is [[Sharon Kleinbaum]], who was ordained in [[Reconstructionist Judaism]], which considers biblical Jewish law as not necessarily binding, but is treated as a valuable cultural remnant that should be upheld unless there is reason for the contrary. She is the senior rabbi at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York which works independently of any major American Jewish denomination. R Kleinbaum states that polyamory is a choice that does not preclude a Jewishly observant, socially conscious life.<ref name="haaretz.com"/> Some polyamorous Jews also point to biblical patriarchs having multiple wives and concubines as evidence that polyamorous relationships can be sacred in Judaism.<ref name="polyamorous">{{cite web|last=Lavin |first=Talia |url=http://www.jta.org/2013/10/10/news-opinion/united-states/ahava-raba-polyamorous-jews-engage-with-multiple-loves-and-their-jewish-traditions |title=Married and dating: Polyamorous Jews share love, seek acceptance {{pipe}} Jewish Telegraphic Agency |website=Jta.org |date=2013-10-10 |access-date=2017-06-30}}</ref> There is an email list dedicated to polyamorous Jews, called ''AhavaRaba'', which roughly translates to "big love" in Hebrew.<ref name="polyamorous"/> (Its name echoes the [[Ahava rabbah]] prayer expressing thanks for God's "abundant love").

====Orthodox====
{{Main|Tzniut}}
There are several levels to the observance of physical and personal modesty (''tzniut''), according to [[Orthodox Judaism]], as derived from various sources in ''[[halakha]]''. Observance of these rules varies from aspirational to mandatory to routine across the spectrum of Orthodox stricture and observance.

Orthodox Judaism also maintains a strong prohibition on interfaith sexual relations and marriage. Orthodox Judaism, alone of all the Jewish denominations, retains relatively mild traditional disabilities on divorce, including a Biblical prohibition on a [[Kohen]] (priestly descendant of [[Aaron]]) marrying a divorcee or a woman who has engaged in certain types of [[sexual misconduct]]. An Orthodox [[get (divorce document)|bill of divorce]] is required for a divorce to be recognized.

====Conservative====
[[Conservative Judaism]], consistent with its general view that [[halakha]] (Jewish law) is a binding guide to Jewish life but subject to periodic revision by the Rabbinate, has lifted a number of strictures observed by [[Orthodox Judaism]]. In particular, in December 2006, Conservative Judaism's [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]] adopted ''[[responsum|responsa]]'' presenting diametrically opposed views on the issue of homosexuality. It adopted an opinion restricting a prior prohibition on homosexual conduct to male-male anal sex only, which it declared to be the only Biblical prohibition, declaring all other prohibitions (e.g. male-male oral sex or lesbian sex) rabbinic, and lifting all rabbinic restrictions based on its interpretation of the Talmudic principle of [[Kevod HaBriyot]] ("human dignity"). While declining to develop a form of religious gay marriage, it permitted blessing lesbian and gay unions and ordaining openly lesbian and gay rabbis who agree not to engage in male-male anal sex.<ref name="rabbinevins-gayjews">{{Cite web|url=http://www.rabbinevins.org/HHH%20Dorff%20Nevins%20Reisner%20Final2.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604193252/http://www.rabbinevins.org/HHH%20Dorff%20Nevins%20Reisner%20Final2.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Elliott N. Dorff, Daniel Evans, and Avram Reisner. ''Homosexuality, Human Dignity, and Halakha.'' Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, December 6, 2006|archivedate=June 4, 2007}}</ref> It is also a traditionalist opinion, upholding all traditional prohibitions on homosexual activity, also adopted as a majority opinion,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070422081604/http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/Roth_Final.pdf|url-status=dead|title=Rabbi Joel Roth, Homosexuality Revisited, Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, Rabbinical Assembly, December 6, 2006|archivedate=April 22, 2007}}</ref> The approach permits individual rabbis, congregations, and rabbinical schools to set their own policy on homosexual conduct. It reflects a profound change from a prior blanket prohibition on male homosexual practices. It acknowledges a sharp divergence of views on sexual matters within Conservative Judaism, such that there is no single Conservative Jewish approach to matters of sexuality. Conservative Judaism currently straddles the divide between liberal and traditional opinion on sexual matters within contemporary American society, permitting both views.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://forward.com/news/9576/conservative-panel-votes-to-permit-gay-rabbis/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208205536/http://www.forward.com/articles/conservative-panel-votes-to-permit-gay-rabbis/|url-status=dead|title=Conservative Panel Votes To Permit Gay Rabbis|archivedate=December 8, 2006|website=The Forward}}</ref>

Conservative Judaism has maintained on its books a variety of requirements and prohibitions, including a requirement that married women observe the family purity laws and a general prohibition on non-marital heterosexual conduct. The family purity laws require women to be recognized as [[Tumah and taharah|tumah]] or [[niddah]] during their [[menstrual period]]. As a tumah, a woman is to wait 7 days for her menstrual cycle to end and then 7 "clean days" in order to enter the [[mikveh]] and begin sexual relations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ner-David |first1=Haviva |chapter=Reclaiming Nidah and Mikveh through Ideological and Practical Reinterpretation |pages=116–135 |jstor=j.ctt9qgfbf.12 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3trmH8PaQLsC&pg=PA116 |editor1-last=Ruttenberg |editor1-first=Danya |title=The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism |date=2009 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-7634-6 }}</ref> During this time, it is forbidden to have any type of contact with the niddah, thus anything she touches is not to be touched and no physical contact is permitted.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/ot/lev/15?lang=eng|title=The Third Book of Moses Called Leviticus|date=2016|website=The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints}}</ref> On the same day as the [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]] released its homosexuality responsa, it released multiple opinions on the subject of niddah including a responsum lifting certain traditional restrictions on husband-wife contact during the niddah period while maintaining a prohibition on sexual relations. The permissive responsum on homosexuality used the Conservative movement's approach to niddah as an analogy for construing the Biblical prohibition against male homosexual conduct narrowly and lifting restrictions it deemed Rabbinic in nature. The responsum indicated it would be making a practical analogy between an approach in which male homosexual couples would be on their honor to refrain from certain acts and its approach to niddah:
{{blockquote|We expect homosexual students to observe the rulings of this responsum in the same way that we expect heterosexual students to observe the [[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards|CJLS]] rulings on niddah. We also expect that interview committees, administrators, faculty and fellow students will respect the privacy and dignity of gay and lesbian students in the same way that they respect the privacy and dignity of heterosexual students.}}

The responsum enjoined young people not to be "promiscuous" and to prepare themselves for "traditional marriage" if possible, while not explicitly lifting or re-enforcing any express strictures on non-marital heterosexual conduct.<ref name = "rabbinevins-gayjews"/>

Even before this responsum, strictures on pre-marital sex had been substantially ignored, even in official circles. For example, when the [[Jewish Theological Seminary of America]] proposed enforcing a policy against non-marital cohabitation by rabbinical students in the 1990s, protests by cohabiting rabbinical students resulted in a complete rescission of the policy.

Conservative Judaism formally [[Interfaith marriage in Judaism|prohibits interfaith marriage]] and its standards currently indicate it will expel a rabbi who performs an interfaith marriage. It maintains a variety of formal strictures including a prohibition on making birth announcements in synagogue bulletins for children on non-Jewish mothers and accepting non-Jews as synagogue members. However, interfaith marriage is relatively widespread among the Conservative laity, and the Conservative movement has recently adapted a policy of being more welcoming of interfaith couples in the hopes of interesting their children in Judaism.

Conservative Judaism, which was for much of the 20th century the largest Jewish denomination in the United States declined sharply in synagogue membership in the United States the 1990s, from 51% of synagogue memberships in 1990 to 33.1% in 2001, with most of the loss going to Orthodox Judaism and most of the rest to Reform. The fracturing in American society of opinion between increasingly liberal and increasingly traditionalist viewpoints on sexual and other issues, as well as the gap between official opinion and general lay practice vis-a-vis the more traditionalist and liberal denominations, may have contributed to the decline.<ref name="icpa-waxman">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-waxman-f05.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701162349/http://www.jcpa.org/cjc/cjc-waxman-f05.htm|url-status=dead|title=Chaim Waxman, Winners and Losers in Denominational Memberships in the United States. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2005|archivedate=July 1, 2012}}</ref>

====Reform, Liberal, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic====
{{Further|LGBT-affirming denominations in Judaism|LGBT clergy in Judaism|Same-sex marriage and Judaism}}
[[File:Pride Minyan.jpg|thumb|A halakhic egalitarian Pride [[minyan]] in [[Tel Aviv]] on the second Shabbat of [[Hanukkah]]]]

[[Reform Judaism]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/same-sex-marriage-kiddushin/|title=5774.4|website=Central Conference of American Rabbis}}</ref> [[Humanistic Judaism]], and [[Reconstructionist Judaism]] do not observe or require traditional sexuality rules and have welcomed non-married and homosexual couples and endorsed homosexual commitment ceremonies and marriages.

Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism are more tolerant of interfaith partnerships and often explicitly welcome interfaith families at their synagogues and services. Reform and Liberal branches of Judaism do not currently perform religious (and therefore legally binding) marriage ceremonies for interfaith couples; however as of October 2020, Liberal Rabbis may bless an interfaith marriage under a [[chuppah]] at their discretion, provided the couple intend to keep a Jewish household.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.liberaljudaism.org/marriage-mixed-faith-blessings-faq/ | title=Marriage & Mixed Faith Blessings FAQ }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/uk-liberal-rabbis-allow-interfaith-couples-to-marry-under-a-traditional-canopy/ | title=UK liberal rabbis allow interfaith couples to marry under a traditional canopy | website=[[The Times of Israel]] }}</ref> Humanistic Judaism permits interfaith marriage. Reform, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic Judaism also do not require a religious divorce ceremony separate from a civil divorce.

It has been speculated that the more tolerant attitudes of Reform, Reconstructionist, and Humanistic Judaism towards both sexual diversity and interfaith marriage may have contributed to the rise in their popularity during the 1990s, from about 33% of affiliated households to 38%, passing Conservative Judaism as the largest Jewish denomination in the United States.<ref name = "icpa-waxman"/>