A Commentary on Leviticus 19
Known in Judaism as "The Holiness Code"

by Rabbi Lisa A. Edwards

All notes reference verses of Leviticus Chapter 19

We are your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered children:
     You must not seek vengeance, nor bear a grudge against the children of your people.18

We are your bi, trans, lesbian and gay parents:
     Revere your mother and your father, each one of you.3

We are elderly lesbians, bisexuals, gay men, and transgendered people:
     You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old.32

We are the stranger:
     You must not oppress the stranger. You shall love the stranger as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. 33-34

We are lesbian, gay, trans, and bi Jews:
     You must not go about slandering your kin.16

We are your trans, gay, bi, and lesbian siblings:
     You shall not hate your brother or sister in your heart.17

We are lesbian, gay, trans, and bi victims of gay-bashing and murder:
     You may not stand by idly when your neighbor's blood is being shed.16

We are your bi, gay, trans, and lesbian neighbors:
     You must not oppress your neighbor.13
     You must judge your neighbor justly.15
     You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.18

Rabbi Lisa A. Edwards, PhD.

Lisa A. Edwards has been the rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) since August 1994. BCC is a congregation inclusive of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, heterosexuals, our families and friends. 

Rabbi Edwards holds an A.B. degree from Brown University, a Master's in English Literature from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, where she wrote a dissertation entitled, Restoring Voices: Traditional Jewish Sources in Post-Holocaust Jewish American Fiction.

Rabbi Edwards attended rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion at its Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York campuses, receiving a master's degree in Hebrew Letters in 1991 and ordination in 1994. Rabbi Edwards and her partner, Tracy Moore (editor of Lesbiot:Israeli Lesbians Talk about Sexuality, Feminism, Judaism and Their Lives, Cassell Press, 1995), celebrated with the BCC community in November 1995, when, on their 10th anniversary, they stood together under a chupah at a ceremony co-officiated by Lisa's brother, Rabbi Laurence Edwards and Rabbi Laura Geller of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills.

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