Judaism and sexuality Judaism and sexuality The Jewish tradition devotes considerable attention to sexuality. Sexuality is the subject of many narratives and laws in the Tanakh and rabbinic literature. In Judaism, sexuality is viewed as having both positive and negative potential, depending on the context in which it is expressed. According to the Rabbinical enumerations of the 613 commandments, the commandment to procreate is the first mitzvah in the Torah: "And God blessed them; and God said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply ["peru urevu" (פרו ורבו)], and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,
Homosexuality and Judaism Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote the foreword to Rabbi Chaim Rapoport's book "Judaism and Homosexuality: An Authentic Orthodox View". In the foreword, Rabbi Sacks has written: "Compassion, sympathy, empathy, understanding - these are essential elements of Judaism. They are what homosexual Jews who care about Judaism need from us today." Modern Orthodox leader Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein is reported to have said that the intensity of Orthodox community's condemnation of homosexuality goes beyond what its status as a religious transgression warrants, and that he feels toward homosexual people "criticism, disapproval, but tempered with an element of sympathy". In both the United States