Fairness of Punishment

Question

I would like for a rabbi to answer this question for me.
Suppose you have two men. One is straight and the other is gay. For the one who is straight, it is very easy not to violate the negative commandment in the Torah forbidding lying carnally with another man, and therefore easy to avoid the punishment for doing so. But for the gay man, it is very difficult to avoid violating the same commandment, and because he is most likely to commit this sin, he will suffer the punishment because of his attraction to men, a trait he has not chosen to have.
This is just an example. Some people have the inborn desire to commit certain sins, almost to the point of being unable to have the control, and any effort to resist their urge to commit such a sin is too much to bear, either physically or emotionally. But because of this, they will be punished, all as another person not born with the same urge can easily avoid the punishment.
My question is, how is that fair?

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Answers

  1. The Just Ask! - AskTheRabbi.org Team

    In truth, your question is not about homosexuality, it is about any struggle that a person has with keeping specific commandments. As you write, some people seem to be born with an innate desire for certain things that are forbidden. Others experience forbidden “delights” and then become addicted, in one form or another, to them.

    For all forbidden things that a person does in this world, they will need to give an accounting in the Spiritual Realms. If there are extenuating circumstances, they will be taken into account, because in the Spiritual Realms there is not one uniform system of justice. God judges each person according to who they are are and takes into account every single detail of that person’s life and actions before passing judgement.

    Best wishes from the AskTheRabbi.org Team