Gayness and God: Wrestlings of an Orthodox Rabbi

Ten years after his ordination as an Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg published “Gayness and God: Wrestlings of an Orthodox Rabbi.” By his mid-30s, the emotional toll of trying to deny his identity had become too heavy to bear. His deeply personal essay reflects both his refusal to leave Orthodox Judaism and his attempt to find a religious framework that could acknowledge sexual orientation as an unchangeable aspect of one’s identity, asking the traditional Jewish legal system to adopt viable responses.

Before this article appeared in the left-of-center Tikkun magazine, there were few public conversations about gayness within the Orthodox Jewish world. Indeed, Greenberg felt that he had to write under the pseudonym Rabbi Yaakov Levado; the name means “Jacob Alone,” a biblical reference to Genesis 32:24: “And Jacob was left alone; and there a man wrestled with him until the break of day.”

The essay’s publication became a catalyst. In the months that followed, Greenberg was inundated with letters from closeted gay and lesbian Orthodox Jews. He felt a deep need to organize this community. 

Six years later, Greenberg publicly revealed his identity in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, becoming the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. In 2001, he appeared in the documentary Trembling Before G-d, which brought greater public attention to the experiences of LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews. He later expanded these ideas in his 2004 book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.