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Trembling Before G-d (2001)
Greater future?
"Trembling before G-d" is an American documentary produced by Sandi Simcha DuBowski. This documentary looks at several Jews' complicated life situations due to their sexuality and religion. It demonstrates the difficulties people may face while being homosexual and following orthodox Judaism. The participants, several American Jews with one Israeli and one British, took a part in the movie telling their story and experience. It is important to notice that the majority of them were shot without their faces shown. In addition, psychotherapists and Rabbis participated in the documentary discussing the topic of homosexuality and its complicated connection to the orthodox Judaism. This movie raises an important question of being able to follow Judaism and being homosexual at the same time. Furthermore, the discussion is highly based on the religion itself and its crucial components like Torah, community, prayers, rituals and the creator. It can be supposed that Jewish homosexual are majorly told that it is a sin and revolt against God, however, nowadays with the greater tolerance and openness, Jewish religion can be interpreted a bit differently, as the constant learning between God and followers, as well as homosexuality is a sign of ability to fight.
As it was mentioned, the documentary tells us several stories of homosexual Jews trying to fit in the religious community without being discriminated. It was shown, for instance, how women (story of Michelle) married men they did not want to spend life with, or how it was called "marriage of convenience". On the other hand, men who had an attraction to the men, caused their wives' go through anxiety and depression. Further, Davis' situation demonstrated how homosexual man was trying to fight his "abnormality" by visiting therapists and psychiatrists. One more case was about Mark's complicated path from being expelled from special institutions for educating Jews (Yeshiva) for his homosexual activity and fighting with AIDS, but at the same time staying devoted to his religion. Also there is a story of two women being in relationship but circled out of the family. These, and more cases were discussed in the documentary as well interview of Rabbis and therapists, who were covering both sides of such situations. From one point of view, it was proposed that it is a sin which is punished by G-d and should not occur in the first place. While some of them claimed that G-d is himself learning from human-beings and from interaction with them. At the same time, being a homosexual should mean that this person is capable of fighting related issues and complications; that he has that necessary strength.
For the orthodox Judaism Torah is the most sacred component which should be followed by people. Torah is majorly accepted and understood as the first five books from the Hebrew Bible, as well as given knowledge and laws received by Moses from God. Torah provides a path a Jew should follow. For instance, such components as worshipping God, that God has no corporeal aspect and sees all actions of men. Nevertheless, one of the crucial aspects is family. According to the religious studies, the family is the basis for everything or how it was stated in the documentary it is "basic structure of formation". We can clearly see it in the story of Abram and Sarai who was not able to have children. God stated that it is not possible for Abram to father a nation without having children, therefore God himself gave them a son from Sarah - Isaac. It can be concluded that family is the basis of everything, even religion, and it should be constructed in the instinct way- man marries a woman and then they gladly will have children. In addition, it was mentioned in the documentary that relationship between man and woman is instinct, while homosexual relationship is a display of "anti-Jewish law" or "revolt against the creator".
From the history we are able to see how strict can be orthodox Jews about their religion. For instance, at the time of king Antiochus Epiphanes who invaded Jerusalem 198 BC and persecuted Jews, people were forced under his control to eat pork. These people were ready to get tortured and die rather than disobey God's rules. This historic example demonstrated how Jewish people are devoted to the religion and are afraid and not ready to disobey his rules. Even nowadays, as it was claimed in the movie, coming out or even realizing homosexuality is a tragic for many of the followers. It causes self-harming, depression, anxiety and suicides. In this way people punish themselves for not being "normal" and usually are circled out of the community. Almost all the stories from the documentary illustrated that there is no option for being orthodox Jew and homosexual. Therefore, this impossibility leads to mentioned tragic consequences. It can be suggested that the documentary majorly demonstrated this side of view.
Nevertheless, with the greater tolerance and openness, people started interpreting religion in a differing way. Now there is a turn to a more liberal way of seeing religion and Torah exactly. This liberal view emphasized the importance of ethical principles and tries to pay less attention to rituals. For instance, some would say that Talmud (combination of Mishnah, written collection of oral Torah and commentary) does not have to be the true words of God and a human does not have to obey it so strictly. Also some Rabbis see God being responsible to human's actions and in the constant conversation. In addition, being homosexual can mean that the person is able to fight against complication because of that.
It can be concluded that despite strict rules written in the sacred documents and told by Rabbis, nowadays the situation can change from being harmful for Jewish homosexuals to accepting those people by the religious community and by families especially. This documentary provided important thoughts for all of us and a great discussion. It was so complicated to stay orthodox Jew and homosexual at the same time and not feel guilty and humiliated. Hopefully, the situation will change to more liberal view on that issue.