Editing Jewish views on homosexuality (section)

===Applicability of Biblical death penalty===
{{see also|Capital punishment for homosexuality}}

Like many similar commandments, the stated punishment for willful violation was the [[death penalty]], though minors under 13 years of age were exempt from this, as from any other penalty.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Sanhedrin.54a.29|title=Sanhedrin 54a:29|website=www.sefaria.org}}</ref> However, even in Biblical times, it was very difficult to get a conviction that would lead to this prescribed punishment. The Jewish [[Oral Torah|Oral Law]] states that capital punishment would be applicable [[Gay sexual practices|only if two men were caught in the act of anal sex]], if there were two witnesses to the act, if the men involved were warned that they committed a capital offense, and the two men—or the willing party, in case of rape—subsequently acknowledged the warning but continued to engage in the prohibited act anyway. In fact, there is no account of capital punishment, in regards to this law, in Jewish history.

Rabbinic tradition understands the Torah's system of capital punishment to not be in effect for the past approximately 2,000 years, in the absence of a [[Sanhedrin]] and [[The Third Temple|Temple]].<ref name=levine97>{{cite journal |author=Samuel J. Levine| year=1997–1998|title=Capital Punishment in Jewish Law and its Application to the American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview|url=http://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=scholarlyworks |journal=St. Mary's Law Journal |volume=29 |pages=1037–1051}}</ref> The relative absence of anti-homosexual prosecutions is also linked to the Jewish belief that [[Heteronormativity|homosexuality did not exist in the community]].<ref name=":1" />

[[Rabbinic literature|Classical rabbinic Jewish sources]] do not specifically mention that [[Androphilia and gynephilia|homosexual attraction]] is inherently sinful. In fact, the mental and emotional feelings two men experience when they engage in intimate relations are not condemned. However, they are condemned if intercourse, commonly interpreted as [[Sexual penetration|penetrative sex]],<ref name=":1" /> occurs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/orthodox-judaism-and-lgbtq-issues/|title=Orthodox Judaism and LGBTQ Issues}}</ref> If the man caught does {{transliteration|he|[[teshuva]]}} (repentance), i.e., he ceases his forbidden actions, regrets what he has done, apologizes to God, and makes a binding resolution never to repeat those actions, he is seen to be forgiven by God.<ref>Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Repentance, Chapter 2</ref>