#Sha'ar Zahav

[anderswasrightt]

hey! i saw you post about your jewish conversion process (congrats on starting that btw!) and i wanted to ask if you've heard of congregation sha'ar zahav? you may already know about them/attend their services by zoom, but they're a really incredible reform queer congregation based in San Francisco, who have Shabbat services over zoom.

I'm taking a class on queering religion taught by a rabbi who used to lead the congregation, and we attended one of their Shabbat services for an assignment and it was deeply moving.

Thank you for the congrats!!! I haven't heard of that congregation before but it sounds amazing! Today was actually the first Shabbat service i've ever experienced, so it will be interesting to see what other congregations are like! The class you're taking sounds great too; I'd love to do something like that some day :D

[infiniteglitterfall]

Need to get in the Rosh Hashanah mood?

So did I. But my YouTube playlist worked for me!

The last song is George Harrison's "Peace on Earth." I had some year where I was just extremely feeling this as a Rosh Hashanah song. I think someone here pointed out last year that Harrison was maybe in the process of converting to Judaism at the end of his life. I'll take it!

All of these are pretty old now; I'm open to additions and suggestions! The more upbeat and/or heartfelt, the better.

Also, I'm curious about whether anyone else ever mentally calls it "Roshie Hashoshie." Just me?

editing to add: if anyone wants queer services, Sha'ar Zahav is a queer shul (straights welcome too) that does a lot of hybrid and Zoom services. Here's their High Holy Days info.

You don't have to be a member to attend, but I assume membership is still "pay what you can including free." High Holy Days tickets are donation only, pay what you can; and I think if you choose "other amount" and put zero, it'll still let you through.

[germiyahu]

So I haven't received it yet cuz shipping, but I ordered this one from Congregation Sha'ar Zahav because it was highly recommended!

https://shaarzahav.org/our-siddur/

I also discovered that Artscroll is currently giving away siddurim, including non-Ashki ones!

https://hashemlovesyou.net/

I also have and love Mishkan T'filah, and am currently waiting for my travel version to be delivered 😊

Thanks! I'll have to pass on the Sha'ar Zahav for now, it's awfully expensive and I just did a payment plan on my credit card for the Lev Shalem and the Mahzor Lev Shalem together. But I'd be interested to check that one out someday!

But I will take advantage of a free Siddur, if it's not inappropriate, I asked for a Nusach Edot haMizrach, because I would also like to have a Sfaradi perspective even if I'm 90% sure my congregation is Ashkenazi?

[pomegranateandhoney]

Siddur Sha’ar Zahav

I got a notification today that my copy of the Siddur Sha’ar Zahav has been shipped! I am so, so, so excited to receive it.

Created in 2009, Siddur Sha’ar Zahav speaks directly to experiences which are not found in other published siddurim — prayers for being single, contemplations for nonbelievers, and blessings for coming out of dark places. It engages traditional Jewish liturgy and goes beyond. It is also a complete LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) and egalitarian Jewish prayer book. It is for those who are learning prayers and those who are deeply knowledgeable.

There are powerful sections with:

- Blessings (Brachot) for many occasions, daily life and life-cycle events - Remembrances (Chesed V’Emet) for synagogue, graveside and home use - Multiple readings for Pride Shabbat and Transgender Remembrance  - Shabbat - Songs (Shirim/Z’mirot) from our world-wide Jewish heritage

I have been waiting quite a while for the siddur to become available again!

While my synagogue uses the Siddur Sim Shalom, at home I have the Mishkan T’filah and an old copy of the Gates of Prayer. Right now I really rely heavily on transliteration, but I’m hoping to work on my Hebrew so that I won’t require it. I’m glad that the Siddur Sha’ar Zahav has transliteration as well. And I am so excited to have a book with prayers like these soon!

[nmajh-lgbt]

But the cookbook was Susan Unger’s brainchild. “I was a young adult living in San Francisco in the 80’s, and the HIV epidemic was really coming at us full force and I wanted to do something….Had the AIDs crisis not been going on, I’m not sure I would have thought of the idea,” Unger said.

From start to finish, the project took about 12-18 months. The process involved queer members reaching out to the families they had been alienated from, for traditional family recipes to fill the cookbook. “The project provided a way for young people to reach out to their parents and grandparents,” Unger told me.

The Sha’ar Zahav congregation wanted to do more than just brunches. “The cookbook gave us a sense we were doing something,” said Ogus. Three dollars from every purchase of the cookbook went to the Food Bank of the San Francisco AIDs Foundation. A total of $13,000 went to the San Francisco Food Bank (about 51,607.28 in today’s dollars).

Read more: https://forward.com/life/406937/during-the-aids-crisis-this-gay-jewish-cookbook-kept-a-community-together/

[nonstandardrepertoire]

i love your siddur! i wanted to know if you’ve ever read siddur sha’ar zahav or siddur masorti?

ah, thank you so much! i've only seen excerpts from Siddur Sha'ar Zahav, but i have a copy of Siddur Masorti and i'm very much looking forward to their upcoming shabbat volume; i think the work Isaac and Adam have done is really phenomenal and a great service to the Jewish world at large. i've been quite taken with the excerpts from SSZ that i've seen, but i can't really say much about the prayerbook as a whole, since i haven't really been able to spend time with it in the same way that i have with SM. i'd like to pick up a copy one of these days, but other things have been a higher priority, so i haven't quite managed it yet

[nonbinaryfrillish]

Pride Shabbat 5777 / 2017 at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in San Francisco

[convertjourney]

Bought a siddur!

I bought the Siddur Sha'ar Zahav earlier today, and I can't wait to dig in whenever it arrives! Let me know if you want to see some pics of the layout, I know there aren't a lot of reviews out there

[ryuutchi]

the bottom right one is the original logo for Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, which still exists!

Vintage pins from the Lesbian Herstory Archive’s button collection | 70s/80s

[weaponsofclairvoyance]

congregation sha'ar zahav feat. @tickfleato today was a good day

[infiniteglitterfall]

HEY LGBTQIPA+ JEWS, JEWS-TO-BE, AND ALLIES. WANT A QUEER-FRIENDLY SHABBAT SERVICE?

Sha'ar Zahav, in San Francisco, has just announced that they are doing virtual services for Shabbat for at least the rest of March 2020.

They've been thinking about some way to make their services accessible online for a while, so I'm hoping they continue this practice!

(It's a Reform synagogue, FWIW. And their website says LGBTQ, I think. But their purple shirts, on the back, in rainbow letters, in all caps, offer this whole alphabetized list: "ASEXUAL BISEXUAL ENBY GAY INTERSEX LESBIAN PANSEXUAL QUEER STRAIGHT TRANS JEWISH WWW.SHAARZAHAV.ORG")

Here's the info:

Friday Night Shabbat Services: Friday, March 13, 7:30pm Pacific Time - Tune in to Shabbat services by clicking here. We will be using our Siddur Sha'ar Zahav prayerbook, but will make it as accessible as we can in case you don't have one. If you'd like to purchase a Siddur, please do so here.

(It should be the same time every Friday, so don't worry if you're seeing this later!)

They also have this on the 13th, before Shabbat services:

Hineni Caring Community: Friday, March 13, 6:00pm - We will be learning about how we can best care for each other in community right now and how we are coping with this situation. We will be meeting via Zoom ONLY so please click here to attend virtually.

I'll reblog this to add any new virtual events there in March!

And if you like what you see, they have this:

Members: Join our online group (SZ Members)! Get on ShulCloud, our fabulous new database and member portal, so we know how to communicate with you. We also need correct phone numbers so we could be in touch if we need to. If you can't find your login information, just login with your email and hit "forgot password." If you are still having trouble, feel free to email heidy@shaarzahav.org.

Not-yet-members: Is it time for you to officially join our community? Click here!

(Both that, and the ShulCloud thing, go to their membership application page for me? Maybe on desktop there's something else, idk. Becoming a member gets you on their email list, but you can also sign up for that at the bottom of their website.)

Worthy of note: membership at Sha'ar Zahav is free.

You are welcome to donate but it's not required, and it's separate from the actual membership form.

❤ Please signal boost this to help those who are isolated from the Jewish community! ❤

[emoyouth]

I WANT THIS SIDDUR SO BAD!!!!! But it’s 50 $ and with international shipping it would cost about 100 $ in total. And I can’t afford that. But I want it so bad, I’m almost crying. Isn’t there any solution to this? Please? Somebody wants to donate this siddur to me? :)

[nmajh-lgbt]

San Francisco, CA. 1/28/2015

My name is Zach Hauptman, and I’m a queer, genderqueer Jewish poet. I’ve been going to Congregation Sha'ar Zahav since I was eight years old. It has always been my Jewish community that supported me in my queer journey, and my Jewish community that I turn to when I don’t know the next steps. 

Etz chayim

I am a metaphor of a metaphor a tree of life a willow standing at the river banks.

Unfurl me and kiss the letters, burning your lips with insight, and find your teeth in my grammar. The soil in which I grow is thick with names, and I thrive on the dead and the never buried.

I am at the center, pulling myself up by branches. My leaves are curved, singed but not yet ash. Like Rashi I came only to explain a simple meaning.

[thevampiremarie]

If I am remembering correctly from class, they are the first queer congregation in the United States and the first synagogue in America to welcome/support/uplift AIDS victims during the AIDS crisis.

They also created their own egalitarian, feminist, inclusive, queer-positive siddur that has masculine, feminine, (and neutral, i think) language when possible, along with prayers and blessings written by the congregation.

I'm a huge fan of them (partially because of my professor), if you decide to check them out, I think you would find them super interesting.

They have their siddur online:

hey! i saw you post about your jewish conversion process (congrats on starting that btw!) and i wanted to ask if you've heard of congregation sha'ar zahav? you may already know about them/attend their services by zoom, but they're a really incredible reform queer congregation based in San Francisco, who have Shabbat services over zoom.

I'm taking a class on queering religion taught by a rabbi who used to lead the congregation, and we attended one of their Shabbat services for an assignment and it was deeply moving.

Thank you for the congrats!!! I haven't heard of that congregation before but it sounds amazing! Today was actually the first Shabbat service i've ever experienced, so it will be interesting to see what other congregations are like! The class you're taking sounds great too; I'd love to do something like that some day :D

[nonbinaryfrillish]

Pride Shabbat 2018, Congregation Sha'ar Zahav

(ft me, eli @determinedmonster, and entity)

[thevampiremarie]

(this bit from the rabbi's welcome, written by my professor, always makes me cry a little)

"A prayer book captures the time and place in which it is put together. When I first came to Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, I found a diversity of Jews I had never seen before: motorcycle dykes with helmets still on, transfolks of all genders and orientations, multiracial couples and families, gorgeous gay men decked in leather, a woman in a wheelchair on the bimah, giving the drash - here, finally, I had found what the words ahavah rabbah, God's great love, really mean.

We are each made b'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. This book is not afraid to name the deepest human experiences. It invites us, all of us, to stand naked before God, to see - and be seen."

hey! i saw you post about your jewish conversion process (congrats on starting that btw!) and i wanted to ask if you've heard of congregation sha'ar zahav? you may already know about them/attend their services by zoom, but they're a really incredible reform queer congregation based in San Francisco, who have Shabbat services over zoom.

I'm taking a class on queering religion taught by a rabbi who used to lead the congregation, and we attended one of their Shabbat services for an assignment and it was deeply moving.

Thank you for the congrats!!! I haven't heard of that congregation before but it sounds amazing! Today was actually the first Shabbat service i've ever experienced, so it will be interesting to see what other congregations are like! The class you're taking sounds great too; I'd love to do something like that some day :D