In his second lecture on Leviticus 20 in 2009, Dennis Prager said: Jacob Milgrom argues that the Torah does not care about lesbianism because lesbians don’t spill seed. But there’s no prohibition against the spilling of seed in the Torah. The sin of Onan is in his refusing to inseminate his wife. The Torah could’ve explicitly banned masturbation and the spilling of seed but does not.
I have been perplexed for a long time about why the Torah does not have anything to say about lesbianism. I think I have the answer.
The answer is — all of these laws presuppose the male as the actor in sex. So just as the Torah does not say to the woman that she can not sleep with her father or brother or son, though there is the bestiality issue. It is hard to imagine a woman initiating bestiality. It was probably a kinky practice that some men found alluring. Bestiality is the only time the woman is possibly pictured as the actor…
I discuss the parsha with Rabbi Rabbs Mondays at 7pm PST on my live cam.
