When I study Torah, the verse that returns to me over and over again is from Genesis, that we are all created in the image of God. That “all” includes people of all nationalities, all races, all faiths, and all sexualities. The first Adam was neither man nor female. The “rib” was no rib, but a side. As a college student, I was first exposed to Levinas’ Talmudic readings. There I discovered this interpretation. Adam haRishon was neither male nor female, but both. When we look at our Torah with fresh eyes, we can see that the words that have always been there were far more inclusive than we might have seen.
The same is true with our Constitution. This week Justice Gorsuch used an analysis of the clear text of the Constitution to ensure that LGBTQ citizens of this country could not be fired for who they are. While searching for the “pshat”, the simple meaning of the test, he showed the spirit of the law. The abolitionist minister Theodore Parker in 1853 wrote a statement later simplified to “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Micah 6:8 teaches “what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk modestly with your God;” In rabbinic literature, we say that to follow God is to follow the deeds of the Holy One, to emulate God’s ways. I celebrate this decision of the Supreme Court, bringing equality, justice and love to all.
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