[media-credit name=’ERIN KEEFE/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox rabbi, spoke about the power of discourse to alleviate difference and achieve understanding to a crowded room at Hillel Monday night. He began his lecture by relaying the struggles he must confront in uniting conflicting Orthodox Jewish and gay identities.

Greenberg has reopened and reinterpreted traditional interpretations of Jewish biblical texts, which denounce sex between men. He said he found evidence of same-sex love in medieval Talmudic narratives and Jewish poetry, which he conveys in his acclaimed book, “Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition.” Rabbi Greenberg expressed his gratitude to the University of Wisconsin Press for being the first publishing company to accept his manuscript.

He said while he was an adolescent, he faced confusion because of attraction to both men and women, which snowballed into a “dangerous secret.” When he came out to an Orthodox rabbi in Israel, he said he was surprisingly met with warmth and understanding.

“‘My dear one, you have twice the power of love, so use it carefully,'” Greenberg recalls the rabbi as saying.

Greenberg said the rabbi gave him the inspiration to transform his secret into a public issue, raising questions of homosexuality in Orthodox communities.

“Being Orthodox and gay is like eating a cheeseburger on Yom Kippur,” Greenberg said. “Redemption, [however], will come when we trust conversation and not ideology.”

He advocated a plan for a “Welcoming Synagogue,” which is based on principles in temples to eradicate humiliation, advocacy and dishonesty of homosexuals.

Greenberg said he feels that if synagogues are more accepting, gay congregation members will be more open and honest concerning sexual orientation, instead of being shamed into silence.

Greenberg also stressed the idea that people should confront differences, not ignore them.

“All people fear difference,” he said. “We need to recognize to speak to people’s fear, not throw epithets of fear … and figure out how to talk with one another.”

Greenberg appeared in an influential documentary, “Trembling Before God,” in 2001 that he said called for social change and compassion for difference through community dialogue. Later that year, he teamed up with filmmaker Sandi DuBowski to promote the documentary throughout the United States, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom, Germany, Mexico and South America.

Several UW students attended Greenberg’s lecture.

“After listening to Rabbi Greenberg speak, the struggles and humiliation that gay people face when trying to reconcile their sexuality with religion becomes all too clear,” UW senior Chris Toman said. “But his courage to come out and be unafraid to be who he is, is a model for us all.”

Greenberg said God’s love for creation translates into current debates over new innovative, cultural and spiritual readings of Biblical texts.

“There is no religion that can’t address new issues such as homosexuality,” Greenberg said. “God trusts us to know our hearts and trusts us to figure out the intimacy in our hearts.”

The Jewish Cultural Collective coordinated the lecture. The independent student-run organization brings culturally and artistically diverse speakers, film and music to UW.