#judaism is not just a religion so it makes sense that our customs are not exlusively about g-d

[jewreallythinkthat]

I love that Judaism focusses so much on the here and now of our actions rather than what happens after death. I think it's so important that so many beliefs and rules are about how we live and not how we die because at the end of the day, how we live impacts other while how we die, in theory, does not (obviously grief etc but physically the way I die shouldn't really have a material affect on others, unlike living my life to help and raise other up).

I honestly think it's something a lot of people struggle to understand as the dominant global religions of Christianity and Islam put so much importance on heaven and hell and like... Should those exist, then that's a problem for me once I get there. I cannot believe a good and loving G-d would send someone to hell when they have led a life to better the world however that same person didn't believe in the right deity? I cannot understand the idea that faith will protect you from all sins and negative actions - that you could harm and hurt but because you believe in G-d then all of that is forgiven and completely fine.

It's why I find the notion of atonement and forgiveness in Judaism so healing and important. If you have harmed your fellow man, they are the one who must grant forgiveness if you are truly apologetic, not G-d and not a priest. It is only after you have shown true contrition for what you have done, and tried to make amends, that you can go to G-d for forgiveness. The only person who can grant forgiveness is the one harmed and you have to face up to that. The idea that a priest can just relieve you of the harm you've caused someone else is so insulting to me. That they could still be hurting and confused and dinstead of trying to find out why and growing as a person, you leave them in that state to satiate your own need for release from the guilt.

I feel lucky to be from a people who value our time on earth as important and not just a temporary sojourn before heaven and a people that understands that to apologise and atone, you must face up to what you have done in the realest possible way.

As a note, I am not trying to bash religions. I'm sure there are some with similar views, it's more that I can probably count on one hand the number of times he'll and heaven have been discussed in shul because they are just not the most important thing?

[writingwithcolor]

Depicting Real World Religions Alongside Constructed Religions

Maya asked:

Hi WWC! Thank you so much for this blog, it's an infinitely wonderful resource! Do you have any suggestions for how I can balance representation of real religions with fantasy religions, or should I avoid including these together? Does the fact that certain things bleed over from our world into the fantasy world help legitimize the appearance of real world religions? I feel like I can come up with respectful ways to integrate representation in ways that make sense for the worldbuilding. For instance, no Muslim characters would practice magic, and both Jewish and Muslim characters would conceive of magic in ways that fit their religion (rather than trying to adapt real religions to fit my worldbuilding). I also have some ideas for how these religions came about that fit between handwave and analogous history (though I realize the Qur'an is unchangeable, so I'm guessing Islam would have come about in the same way as IRL). BTW—I'm referring to humans, not other species coded as Muslim or Jewish. I may explore the concept of jinns more (particularly as how Muslims perceive fantastical beings), but I definitely need to do a lot more research before I go down that road! Finally, I saw a post somewhere (*but* it might have been someone else's commentary) suggesting to integrate certain aspects of Judaism (e.g., skullcaps in sacred places/while praying, counting days from sundown instead of sunset) into fantasy religions (monotheistic ones, of course) to normalize these customs, but as a non-Jewish person I feel this could easily  veer into appropriation-territory.  *One of the posts that I'm referring to in case you need a better reference of *my* reference: defining coding and islam-coded-fantasy

[This long ask was redacted to pull out the core questions asked]

"Both Jewish and Muslim characters would conceive of magic in ways that fit their religion (rather than trying to adapt real religions to fit my worldbuilding)."

Just a note that while having religion be part of magic is a legitimate way to write fantasy, I want to remind people that religious characters can also perform secular magic. Sometimes I feel like people forget about that particular worldbuilding option. (I feel this one personally because in my own books I chose to make magic secular so that my nonmagical heroine wouldn’t seem less close to God somehow than her wizard adoptive dad, who is an objectively shadier person.) I’m not saying either way is more or less correct or appropriate, just that they’re both options and I think sometimes people forget about the one I chose. But anyway moving on—

Your decision to make the water spirits not actual deities is a respectful decision given the various IRL monotheistic religions in your story, so, thank you for that choice. I can see why it gets messy though, since some people in-universe treat those powers as divine. I guess as long as your fantasy Jews aren’t being depicted as backwards and wrong and ignoring in-universe reality in favor of in-universe incorrect beliefs, then you’re fine…

"I saw a post somewhere (but it might have been someone else's commentary) suggesting to integrate certain aspects of Judaism (e.g., skullcaps in sacred places/while praying, counting days from sundown instead of sunset) into fantasy religions (monotheistic ones, of course) to normalize these customs, but as a non-Jewish person I feel this could easily veer into appropriation-territory."

That was probably us, as Meir and I both feel that way. What would make it appropriative is if these very Jewish IRL markers were used to represent something other than Judaism. It's not appropriative to show Jewish or Jewish-coded characters wearing yarmulkes or marking one day a week for a special evening with two candles or anything else we do if it's connected to Jewishness! To disconnect the markers of us from us is where appropriation starts to seep in.

–Shira

To bounce off what Shira said above, the source of the magic can be religious or secular--or put another way, it can be explicitly granted be a deity or through engagement with a specific religious practice, or it can be something that can be accessed with or without engaging with a certain set of beliefs or practices. It sounds like you’re proposing the second one: the magic is there for anyone to use, but the people in this specific religion engage with it through a framework of specific ideas and practices.

If you can transform into a “spirit” by engaging with this religion, and I can transform into a “spirit” through an analogous practice through the framework of Kabbalah, for example, and an atheist can transform through a course of secular technical study, then what makes yours a religion is the belief on your part that engaging in the process in your specific way, or choosing to engage in that process over other lifestyle choices, is in some way a spiritual good, not the mechanics of the transformation. If, on the other hand, humans can only access this transformative magic through the grace of the deities that religion worships, while practitioners of other religions lack the relationship with the only gods empowered to make that magic, that’s when I’d say you had crossed into doing more harm than good by seeking to include real-world religions.

Including a link below to a post you might have already seen that included the “religion in fantasy worldbuilding alignment chart.” It sounds like you’re in the center square, which is a fine place to be. The center top and bottom squares are where I typically have warned to leave real-world religions out of it.

More reading:

Jewish characters in a universe with author-created fictional pantheons

–Meir

[worfsbarmitzvah]

I've thought about how gentile Abrahamic religions are antisemitic religious colonialism before and it pisses me off a ton and I'm thankful you said it, but now that it's someone besides me saying it, I'm gonna give some criticism (please don't take this personally)

Everything up to Abraham (particularly Adam and Noah) have G-d creating and tending to the entirety of humanity, right?

During Abraham's time, it should stand for something that G-d tends to Hagar and Ishmael, right? Especially since Hagar gives her own name for G-d and He makes a promise to Ishmael that he'll be the father of nations (or something like that). And I think the Prophet Muhammad is supposed to be descended from Ishmael.

And Noahides are a whole Thing in all this too ofc.

But the bigger thing is there are definitely texts and interpretations that take G-d being the G-d of the Hebrews and extend it to Henotheism, but for the Jews who are purely monotheists and say there is truly only one G-d in existence and He belongs only to us, isn't it cruel to totally deny the vast majority of humanity the Divine, especially if He is still their Creator and controls the world(s) they live in?

this whole thing is coming from the assumption that judaism was always monotheistic. it wasn’t. at one point in time we were monolatrous, meaning we only worshipped one g-d but didn’t deny the existence of others. hell, the language used in the torah supports this (the way the text treats egypt’s g-ds being perhaps the most prominent example). hashem has always been our specific g-d, since before the idea emerged that he is the only g-d. our/the world’s perception of him may have since evolved into this idea of one singular deity, but it has not always been that way.

hagar and ishmael still come from our mythology surrounding our particular g-d. the idea then emerged in islam, which was born with the same jewish roots that christianity was, that muslims were descended from ishmael. and, like, i don’t really mind or care about that either way. ishmael’s not a super major figure in our folklore. the story, along others in breishit, genuinely does lend itself to the idea that hashem can be the guardian of many different peoples, families, and nations. and to tell the truth i don’t genuinely have much of a problem with sharing some folklore and roots.

but it NEEDS to be acknowledged where those roots come from. for so much of history, right up until today, christians and muslims have pretended they know our g-d and our folklore and our history better than we do. they have MURDERED us for worshipping our g-d and practicing our customs in OUR way, the way we have been since before their religions and cultures emerged. if the religions that find their roots in our culture were more willing to listen to us, respect us, and learn from us, maybe i’d be less angry. but they’re not. they’ve tried and tried and tried to eradicate us and erase where they came from and make our stuff theirs. i don’t think it has to be like that forever but i don’t think we’re very close to it not being like that as of now.

also, i can’t think of a single cultural mythology that doesn’t have a creation story of some kind. it’s just the kind of thing that societies do when they try to make sense of their place in the grand scheme. the fact that we believe our g-d created the entire world does not actually mean that that story or that g-d belongs to the entire world. the fact that everybody thinks our creation myth applies to and belongs to them is just more evidence of how widely our culture has been co-opted.

there’s nothing we can do to change the fact that our g-d has been made universal (either through the natural evolution of our theology or from colonialism and cultural theft, more likely a combination of both) and i have to be fine with that. sure, fine, the people who have adopted our g-d as their own without actually bothering to understand us at all can outnumber us by orders of magnitude.

but why does our holy city have to also be their holy city? the christians have the vatican and rome and islam has mecca and medina. why do they need jerusalem? why can’t even that just be ours?

again, i have to push this aside and be okay with sharing if i truly want to have peace in our land. and i do, because i love eretz yisrael and yerushalayim more than i hate what has been done to her. the situation has grown so far beyond the injustices i am angry about that it is impossible to right those injustices without creating brand new ones. so i will be okay with sharing our g-d, our texts, and our land. but that doesn’t mean the injustice of it won’t burn like a fire in my heart.

[matan4il]

I also understand why Israel needs to exist. I do. I’ve read up on Israel’s history, I’ve been to Israel, I know the mindset of ”we would rather be alive and condemned than dead and pitied”. I see the irony when people say ”go back to Europe” but jews clearly aren’t safe there either. I try to explain this to people because a lot of people don’t understand. And I support Israel’s right to exist and defend it’s citizens. I call out those I encounter that argue that Israel are in the wrong for not agreeing to be attacked and have their people murdered.

Hi Nonnie, thank you so much for this ask, for speaking up and standing for what is right! It's really reassuring to know that people can and do get it. *hugs*

And IDK if you're the same person as the ask I got just before, I think you are, so I agree with most things, I just feel the need to add that... you mentioned ethnic countries as ones where people share "a language, history and origin." That's actually Jews exactly. We're not just a religion, we're a people, too. We have common ancestry, culture, language, history, customs, homeland, values... you name it. Our religion is one that binds our people as a part of this bundle that makes up our identity. And it's true, you can convert to Judaism, meaning you can embrace the religion. But when you convert, you also have to be accepted by the community, and you have to agree that you bind your fate to that of the Jewish people. You're not just changing a belief system, you're joining a nation. And up until recently, it was also pretty clear that, when you converted, you and your kids would marry Jews, and their kids would marry Jews, and so in that sense, you're even adopting the ancestry of the Jewish people and embed it into your own family for generations to come.

Thank you again for speaking up, even when I'm sure it's not easy, and I hope you are taking care of yourself! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[disparition]

Why do you pick parts of California you do for In.A.Walled.City?

How do you come up with concepts like a mile wide highway nation that exists in the legacy of a Amazon delivery driver turned communist general?

There's so much imagination to extrapolate what these places should look like, does it just come from looking around and earnestly thinking about what comes next for the places we live in?

Thanks!

Yes, I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of the places I travel to. I've always been into speculative fiction of various kinds as well as more grounded theorizing about the future shapes of human societies, and when I started touring regularly I began thinking a lot about this in a more physical and direct sense.

I noticed for example that a lot of strip malls and outdoor shopping centers throughout the US - especially on the west coast - have a physical structure that can be easily converted into a small fortified community. Many of them even have decorative watchtowers and borrow the aesthetics of medieval and early modern fortifications, even if these are very superficial. This comes up in several places in the story and is part of the origin of the name, but the first one I thought about (briefly referenced in episodes 5 and 8, and it will come up again much later) was the Tejan outlet mall just north of the grapevine pass, which would be a strategically crucial area for a number of reasons.

One idea for the series came from reading a firsthand account of Napoleon's Russian campaign, written by his aide de camp Philippe Henri de Segur. It was a fascinating and very personal portrait of a huge humanmade disaster. So the first sketch I wrote, which will not appear in the series until episode 17 (Mia Marisol and the Last Governor of California) is a similarly personal account written by an aide to one of the most famous generals of the period. She was a UPS driver by the way, not Amazon. Marisol is not the same kind of figure as Napoleon and her career takes a different turn, but she is a similarly divisive and transformative figure of her time.

Another idea, for the setting, came in the form of trying to reconcile the history and present of Judaism and various Jewish communities, to address our cycle of being both victims and perpetrators of violence and oppression and nationalism. This is the core of episode 2, as well as the final section of episode 6, and is the reason that the story is set in the Hebrew year 6000 (or, the 23rd century according to the Gregorian calendar). It is a theme that will be interwoven throughout the work, and is the other part of the meaning of the name.

The first actual story I wrote in this world was what became episode 8. The first line of the episode, "first it was Borders, then it was Barnes&Noble, then it was nothing", came to me in the middle of the night and I had to get up and start writing, and The Historian was the eventual result. That episode is largely based on my own experiences in the world of publishing (I worked for Barnes&Noble.com managing their online community and customer reviews, then later for a book publishing house that was part of the Disney/ABC conglomerate) as well as my own predictions about future intersections of literature, fandom, and religion. Episode 4, The Marketer, is also part of that particular thread.

Starting in late 2020, due to a number of family crises, I had to drive between LA and SF every week or two. It was during these drives that I came up with the idea of a road as a nation in and of itself and a culture of constant travellers who maintain and regulate that road. The story of that nation is arguably the most "gimmicky" episode since it's about the future of interstate 5, it's episode 5, and musically speaking it's in 5/4. It was also the most fun to work on.

As you might guess, each episode takes a very long time to make. But I am still working on the next one. Thank you very much for listening!

[nerves-nebula]

I’ve never really recognized it as “religious trauma”, but I’m nodding along to ur list. It’s just kinda stuff that happened. Except for the few things that grown me was kinda at like ‘that seems a little bad actually-‘

I remember being 7 and first thinking what if God isn’t real as I was trying to sleep. So it’s like midnight and I’ve just had this world breaking thought that immediately had me spiraling down two trains of thought: Im going to hell for thinking that, and, what if he isn’t what the fuck. So of course I’m freaked out and I’m pretty sure child me needed a fucking hug or some assurance or something, so I went to my parents room, which woke up my mom. At which point I realize, I can’t tell them my actual problem because it was a thought I was ashamed of having, and I didn’t want to run the risk of getting in trouble for some nebulous comfort that was frankly unfathomable cus my parents suck. So I just said felt sick, and took “sorry” my mam gave me as comfort enough (which in hindsight is not a great response to that), and just had to go back to bed with all that. That shit stuck with me. I remember at Sunday school, maybe months or a year later, when one of the teachers said doubt was put in our minds by the devil, I was so fucking relieved.

And there’s the fact that I didn’t know other religions were a thing. I didn’t know there were other blends of Christianity. I lived in a small town and I just had never been touched by that concept until I moved at 11, and one of our religious education modules was on Judaism. Everyone else was just learning customs and calendar stuff, and I was having a whole epiphany. I was so confused until halfway into the lesson, and I realized they were talking about not being catholic. I literally searched the library for a book that would explain this arcane concept. And it was just such a mind blowing experience. I was couldn’t comprehend why no one had ever mentioned other religions if there were so many. And how did it make any sense that there were so many. The differences aren’t subtle. Point is, it was a whole thing.

If I hadn’t moved I would have been made to do my confirmation that school year. And that’s not okay! The whole point of that sacrament is that you’re choosing Christianity, like your old enough and conscious enough to make that choice. Adult in the eyes of the church and all that. Baptism but leveled up. But they make children do it. Unrelated, but when I first learnt about it I was 8, and there was a girl in my class that never had to religion with us. Which was the weirdest thing to me at the time, because sure there were people that didn’t have to do Irish or English, because they had different first languages. But religion? I always found that so weird. But she literally just. Wasn’t catholic. And I just couldn’t conceptualize that. It didn’t occur to me that could be an option.

Jesus, raising kids with a religion is brainwashing of the highest order and no one can change my mind on that. Sorry for rambling at u, that post just made me think.

If I hadn’t moved I would have been made to do my confirmation that school year. And that’s not okay! The whole point of that sacrament is that you’re choosing Christianity, like your old enough and conscious enough to make that choice. Adult in the eyes of the church and all that.

my girlfriend said this exact same thing when i was forced to be confirmed. said it didnt count but tbh that feels like a cop out. like its something ive been forced to do, like a spiritual violation or something, it still happened. but, eh, whatever

Jesus, raising kids with a religion is brainwashing of the highest order and no one can change my mind on that.

not sure i agree with you here, but i can agree that a lot of the ways kids are raised within Christianity is cult-ish and brainwash-y and bad.

[baroque-hashem]

Okay, so, I thought about responding to this and talked with my partner a bit and decided I should just put my thoughts down, but I didn't want to respond on the actual original post, because--um--reasons? Idk. Don't wanna start a fire fight, just wanna get my thoughts out there, but idk I don't really think of my thoughts as super controversial anyway here it is.

Warning, long post ahead.

Okay, so, I am someone who is ethnically Ashkenazi, like, my great grandfather left his shtetl and his whole family was wiped out in the Shoah. This is an ethnic, cultural tradition that I am a part of. This is in my blood, my history, my identity. The different diasporas are, to me, distinct ethnic and cultural traditions, and I don't think a convert can choose to be a part of a diaspora/a Jewish ethnic group. You could certainly say you align with Ashkenazi interpretations and traditions for Judaism, but you cannot be Ashkenazi.

A white man from England could convert to Judaism and be a Jew, but he cannot choose to become a part of a tradition, a culture, an ethnic group he has no ties to except sharing a religious tradition with. This is one of those areas where we get into the strange reality that Judaism is both an ethnic and a religious identity. There are Jews like me who are solely ethnic/cultural Jews. And there are Jews who are solely religious Jews, they have no ties to the actual ethnic identity of Jewishness, they are not Jews in an ethnic sense, rather Jews of belief, Jews of lifestyle, Jews who embrace the culture despite coming from a completely different ethnic/cultural background.

By a similar token, I view this as if someone converted to Buddhism and another person asked them, "Oh, what kind of Buddhist are you?" And the person responded confidently that they consider themselves Chinese, because the tradition of Buddhism they follow originated with the ethnic Chinese people. Like...you cannot just become ethnically Chinese by belief. You can never be part of that identity unless it is in your blood.

Same with converts to Judaism. You can believe wholeheartedly in the holy books and teachings of Judaism, you can adhere without fault to the customs and traditions and lifestyle that Judaism outlines. But you cannot be ethnically Jewish. That is one thing that a non-birth convert can never share with an ethnic Jew. We cannot share blood. And that is fine. This is not gatekeeping, this is not exclusion. This is simple fact. Being a Jew solely by belief does not make you any less Jewish. But it does mean that you are different than ethnic Jews, Jews by blood. Judaism is remarkably accepting of its converts, moreso than any other ethnic religion I can think of, and I think that's why Jews have such a serious conversion process, because it shows that converts are serious about making this religion, this lifestyle, their identity. But still, a Jew by birth is not the same as a Jew by belief. We are different. We are equally Jews, but we are different kinds of Jews, just as Sephardim and Ashkenazim are different kinds of Jews, they have different histories and traditions, despite coming from the same place. The important thing is, we are all Jews. But we are also different kinds of Jews. And I don't see any reason for Jews to become a single unidentifiable mass of Jewishness. We all can and should maintain the distinctness and diversity of our individual identities.

I'm just deeply bothered by the idea that someone with no ties to my ethnicity can somehow consider themselves part of my ethnicity and my history just by simple belief. And I guess I am just thinking out loud. Maybe I misunderstood the OP. But I still think I feel better having expressed my thoughts on this matter either way.

[angry-unicorn]

My Body is  a Temple

Body modification is a common practice in the United States as well as other parts of the world. What most people don't realize is the backlash that came come with it. Body modification is defined as altering of the human anatomy. Changing anything about your body is a modification, similar to adding a turbo to your car.  83% of the earth's population has their ear lobes pierced. Yet getting any piercings in your face or getting a tattoo is still taboo to a large number of people.  Most major cities like New York or Charlotte, North Carolina have a very diverse population. People are exposed to more ideas and different types of people. In smaller towns such as mine there is a lot of the same type of person.  The most common religion in my region is Southern Baptist or Methodist. Most individuals who comment on my body use the bible to defend their actions. The verse most commonly used is “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.” from Leviticus 19:2. What most do not consider is the context of this verse. In its full context the marks of the dead and printing of marks are referring to what the bible considers Pagan rituals. My tattoos are not rooted in any rituals of any king, they are simply things I enjoy.  Another popular quote that has been used against my appearance is “ know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” from 1 Corinthians 6:19. Most temples and places of worship I know are decorated with beautiful paintings and other art works, so if my body is a temple why would it be any different? I would also like to point out that the bible has only been around for 3,500 years, half the amount of time tattoos have been.  These same people also assume my faith. Being that I live in the same small town they do it is assumed I follow the same faith. Larger populations tend to have bigger varieties in religion. Religions that are much more lenient about tattoos including Judaism (Rabbis do differ on this opinion), Hinduism, and  Buddhism. Athiest also generally don't have a view on tattoos in a religious sense but may object in other ways. Many people in my life don't follow a religion at all. In addition to the bible quotes some people are just rude. I am often asked how will they look when I grow old. Some people ask me if I enjoy being hurt or being in pain. I have received more mistreatment from non tattooed people than those who have them.  Many employers also require them to be covered as they can be seen as unprofessional. Careers that involve working with the public may ask you to wear long sleeves or cover with make up. Jewelry and piercings are usually a safety issue and are more than fair to restrict. I have had customers ask to be helped by some one else assuming I could not assist them far more often where I live now. The assumption is also more aimed at women who are tattooed. I have had many tattooed male coworkers treated far more respectfully because tattoos are not considered feminine or lady like. At the end of the day we are entitled to do what ever we want with our bodies despite the opinions of other. It does make life harder when those opinions are false. My appearance doesn’t define my work either or who I am as a person.

[penguicorns-are-cool]

and just to add on to this

I've come across a LOT of Christians online who have said they celebrate Jewish holidays like Pesach and Chanukah and have b'nei mitzvot because their parents or they believed that because Jews follow old testament our customs are a part of their roots and they can reconnect to their roots by practicing Jewish customs

That is cultural appropriation and is completely ignorant of Judaism and why we have these customs. Also, Judaism is a closed practice. If you aren't doing it with another Jewish person, you really shouldn't be. Our holidays and customs are not a way to connect to your roots as a Christain, a lot of our customs and some of our holidays didn't even exist by the time Christianity started, they developed overtime and a lot of the times were somehow influenced by oppression usually from Christians.

The idea that you can use Judaism to connect to your roots or in any way have any claim to Judaism because "Jesus was a Jew" or something like that is pure supercessionism. Judaism today is nothing like it was 2,000 years ago when Jesus lived. "connecting to your roots" through Judaism is like if I as someone living in the US tried to connect to my roots through native american culture, it doesn't make any sense.

Judaism is not some proto-christianity. It's a completely seperate religion that Christianity took some of their religous texts from and being Christain does not give you any claim at all to any part of Jewish culture. so just, if you want to participate, ask a Jewish friend or go find a rabbi, but don't just do it.

And just to follow up on that previous reblog without derailing it: a lot of the really weird relationships and discourse that exist out there in the neo-pagan, Satanist, and atheist communities are in fact echoes of the weird relationship that Xtianity has with Judaism.

Xtianity has a weird, tumultuous relationship with Judaism because they must simultaneously validate the Tanakh and the Jews who created it or else their own religion is devoid of context and built on a house of cards. But! If they validate Judaism, then they have to grapple with the fact that the Jews did not accept their interpretation of the Tanakh, that we still, against all odds, exist, and that because we still exist, we are still around to point out the ways in which the New Testament does not fit with the Tanakh and that the Tanakh does not inherently or naturally point to Jesus. And that's to say nothing of the bloody history of Xtianity towards Judaism. Our continued existence is a sore point and a weakness in the Xtian narrative that has been a constant source of irritation, frustration, and violence since the dawn of Xtianity. And, at the same time, there is a certain fascination with Judaism related to things that have been appropriated by Xtians or understood as particularly useful in spreading supercessionist ideas. So what you wind up with is a toxic mix of antisemitism and philosemitism (effectively fetishization and orientalism) that drives too many Xtians to "love" us by attacking our beliefs and way of life, and stealing whatever they think will be most helpful in their mission (especially as it pertains to Jews) in order to try and convert us.**

Many people who have also been hurt from inside of Xtianity or by the broader Xtian culture they live in seek to deconstruct those ideas by creating an inverse of Xtianity in one way or another. Those who turn to Satanism typically do this by worshipping the opposite force of the Xtian god. Those who turn to neo-paganism typically do this by embracing an unambiguously polytheistic religion and/or by turning to the cultural historical enemies of Xtianity. Those who turn to atheism typically do this by rejecting "God," "faith," and "organized religion" (as these concepts are understood by Xtian norms.)

And honestly? That's fine. If it helps, if it brings you meaning and joy, knock yourselves out. I have no problem with people turning to these beliefs for reasons of healing as well as simply being drawn to it. And for what it's worth, I did a similar thing by turning to Judaism. Obviously I had many other reasons for becoming a Jew as well, and I assume that's true for the aforementioned folks, too. Judaism healed a lot of Xtianity-shaped wounds for me, and if your paganism, Satanism, and/or atheism helps you in the same way as well as bringing you meaning, I sincerely wish you the best.

However, the problem is that many times, unless you turn to Judaism and learn our side of the story, it's very difficult to deconstruct the antisemitism of your past entanglement with Xtianity. Xtian antisemitism has permeated western society so thoroughly for so long that it is real *work* to identify and unlearn it. Those converting to Judaism have the benefit of the Jewish community and extensive educational resources to help. Other folks do not.

Here's the problem: if you simply invert Xtian ideas, you are still treating Xtianity as the baseline reality from which your other assumptions and beliefs flow. If you just choose the opposite at every chance, you divorce yourself from Xtianity, but not its prejudices.

Now you might fairly ask, "hey Avital, if we are making the opposite choice at every turn, wouldn't that invert the antisemitism to being at least neutral if not positive towards Judaism?" And that would be perfectly logical! But unfortunately deeply and (for us) dangerously incorrect.

The reason is because (1) antisemitism has never been rational but reactionary instead, (2) philosemitism is also bad, and (3) it is structured in a way that it's pretty much always "heads I win, tails you lose." Have you ever noticed that according to antisemites, Jews are both ultra-white and also dirty foreign middle eastern invaders? That we are supposedly very powerful and run the world, but are also weak and degenerate? That both the Right and the Left have extensive antisemitism problems? Etc.? There's a reason - it's because antisemitism is designed to other us no matter what. So oftentimes I see folks inverting Xtian philosemitism to being "those awful fundamentalist Old Testamenters" or inverting Xtian antisemitism to valorizing Judaism, but only to the extent that they can meme-ify our religion down to fighting God and/or being un-pious godless liberals.

But like other groups, we are a diverse and complicated group with a very long history and a lot of trauma to boot.

If you're trying to unpack your Xtian conditioning, please also unpack your antisemitism and philosemitism. If not for our sake and for it being the right thing to do, at least do it for yourselves, because unless you deconstruct that as well, you will still be operating within a really ugly aspect of a Xtian mindset.

(**Please note that this isn't literally all Xtians everywhere, but it is a lot of Xtians in most places and throughout most of history. There are absolutely Xtians who are good allies to Jews, but they are much smaller in number and are swimming upstream in their relationship to both Jews and Xtianity.)

[merulanoir]

So one thing that's kind of funny, re: religion.

I come from a typical Finnish family. Here in Finland it was (still is, unfortunately) common to baptize children a few months after they were born. Now, I was born in '91, and things have changed, but even in 2021 most kids become Lutheran whether they want it or not.

But. Most families are not religious. I visited church maybe...few times a year. I did go to a Lutheran pre-school from when I was three up until I turned six. If I remember correctly, it was a few times a week, and consisted of learning Bible stories in a kid-appropriate way. Apart from that, religion was never talked about at home. My grandma insisted on a bedtime prayer when we visited, but that was it.

I left the church at 16. Before that, I went through Confirmation, because it was yet another thing that was just expected from people my age. And the thing is, I have always been religious (at the age when I could understand what it means.) I desperately tried to make sense of Christianity. But by then I knew I was queer, and the best I could find was either "keep it quiet and we will look the other way," or "well of course we love you DESPITE you being queer."

So I left the church. I was an angry and depressed teenager, so I very fluidly declared myself an atheist. Over time, my mom and older little brother followed my footsteps and left the church too, and my stepdad had left even before he met my mom. We were a very secular family in a very Lutheran country.

Now that I'm beginning my conversion into Judaism my family is getting very uncomfortable. This clearly reminds them off my coming out as trans, because they're forced to confront something that they have been aware of but that has never touched them personally. Judaism is a big, unknown thing to them, and just like with trans stuff, they realize they would have to read and think about things in order to understand. And I'm fairly certain they just...won't.

Facing someone who says "yeah, I believe in G-d" makes them extremely uncomfortable, because they're used to laughing at fundies. Mocking religious people has become a standard joke in Finland, and now they feel like they have to walk on eggshells because woo, scary. I think that if I had returned to the Lutheran church this would have blown over, but my family doesn't know a single thing about Judaism. My mother asked me how I could feel like I fit in with such a "backwards religion" (her words, verbatim.) She was genuinely surprised when I told her about Reform Jews.

In the end I think some family members ended up doing the bare minimum of research about trans things. They mostly listened when I explained stuff, too. They're not bad people, just normal folks who don't like learning new stuff that requires adjustments to their daily life (hey, I've been there.) However, I don't think they will make any kind of an effort to accommodate Jewish customs. They observe the traditional Christian holidays out of habit, and those are not going to be changed simply because a family member converts to Judaism and wishes to observe Shabbat and the other important festival days.

Luckily the Finnish Reform movement is growing as we speak. I hope that through them I will meet more Jews and be able to participate in holidays and customs. On top of that, my partner lives in the US, so if everything goes well I will hopefully be living there part-time in the future. It would be amazing to be able to regularly attend services in person.

This is just me regurgitating things that have been running amok inside my head lately. I'm excited to start the conversion process. Our rabbi is cool, and despite her living abroad she is very much involved in our Shabbat meetings over Zoom. I'm also coming to genuinely enjoy studying Hebrew now that the alef-bet is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. I'm hoping to eventually read and understand enough that I could read the Tanakh and prayers without relying on a translation all the time.

[writingwithcolor]

Gingerbread man as golem

@yaronata asked:

I would like to write a character who is Jewish and uses a Golem. She's based on the D&D class of the artificer which looks magic but isn't, because they produce all their effects with inventions, like the "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" quote. Her story is that her very Jewish town was under attack from a terrible monster when she was little. Her Rabbis made a Golem to protect the town, and it succeeded but was torn to pieces in the process. She was fascinated by the Golem and as a kid didn't see a big difference between it's sentience and person's so was really thankful for its sacrifice like you would a person's sacrificing their life for you. They thought all the pieces had been devoured by the monster before it died, but she went looking and found the piece used to animate the Golem, which she, kinda misunderstanding called its "heart". She kept the piece and grew up to be an incredibly skilled cook, specialising as a baker in the town. I imagine she would make a lot of really good food for the Jewish holidays, or to break fasts on ones like Yom Kippur or Tish'abav. But she also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice and the town still being alive, because I feel "we are not dead woo" is a big theme for Jewish holidays from my research, so it could fit, for which she invented ginger bread men to be the golem, and gave them little "hearts" of fruit or honey, and you're meant to eat them limb by limb like the beast did before eating the heart. This would be the inspiration for using the "heart" piece later to make her own giant gingerbread Golem to help her save the world.

These are my questions 1) would it be considered bad or disrespectful for someone who isn't a Rabbi to make a Golem, or is this method of taking an animating piece someone else made disrespectful? 2) Her journey will take her far from her town and her Jewish family and friends and she will likely travel with gentiles. Would it be disrespectful for a Golem to be used to protect a lot of gentiles and one Jew in the course of saving the world? I don't want to fall into the stereotype of someone putting all their effort into valuing and protecting very specifically the group that in real life is oppressive to them. 3) While she is not using magic and is actually mimicking its effects with technology she invents, is this drawing too close to the line of "magical Jew"? 4) I like to "play test" my characters in ttrpgs to really get a feel for them before I write. Would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character when I am a gentile, and would it be disrespectful to play a Jewish character in a setting where there are demonstrably real gods other than the one of Judaism?

I really like this character idea and I think it's cute and fun and rooted in Jewish culture but I really want to make sure it's respectful and as good as I, a gentile researching on the internet, thinks it is. Thanks so much! Have a nice day!

My answer to this is very complicated because there are things I both like and do not like about this premise. First of all, I love the idea of a cookie golem, and I'm even imagining the magic word that brings him to life (EMET/truth) would be written in icing. And I'm okay with the part about how she found a piece of the old golem and used it to build a new golem, because that makes sense for a golem made from a baked good when you think about how people use sourdough starter to make a new batch of sourdough.

However, here are the thing that make me cock my head to the side like my little sister's German shepherd:

1. re: "magical Jew" - that's not a trope I've ever heard of. Remember, marginalized groups don't receive identical disrespect across the board. It is indeed a trope to use Black people or disabled people as supernatural plot devices who exist only to further the stories of white main characters or able-bodied main characters. But I can't say as I've ever seen anyone using Jewishness that way. Usually if we are someone's one-dimensional plot device it's as someone's lawyer, fixer, "money guy", etc, not a supernatural force. So this isn't something you have to worry about.

2. I have a certain level of discomfort with you playing as a Jewish character just because playacting as a marginalized culture you're not part of strikes me as off, but I understand that that's how you gain insight into a character you're about to write so it's more of a writing exercise than anything else. (I wonder if D&D regulars from marginalized groups have written about this -- I've only played a few times casually with family so if I did run into this type of discussion in my social justice reading I wouldn't have absorbed it. If anyone is curious I played first as Captain Werewolf, and then switched to playing as Cinnamon Blade because lawful good was too hard. :P )

3. I would prefer you omit the detail about eating the cookies piece by piece symbolically, for two reasons: a. it unintentionally evokes Communion by having appreciative people consume a baked good symbolic of an entity who sacrificed his life for theirs, and b. focusing on the details of flesh consumption reminds me too much of Blood Libel (yes, a gingerbread man is in the shape of a person but how many of us actually think about it literally, the way this act would cause?)

As to your first question: I'm fine with her making a golem even though she's just a rando. Second question: I see what you're saying and maybe it could be more okay if it's really clear how well these gentile folks are treating her? And questions three and four are answered above.

I really do love the idea of a giant gingerbread man golem. Cookie golem T_T <3

--Shira

I would like to second Shira’s point about not ripping apart the gingerbread cookies. I honestly would prefer they were used as decoration, and other cookies eaten instead, since that part just feels so not-Jewish to me, but I don’t have golem-specific issues other than that. It seems like you have already been doing a lot of research, which is appreciated.

As far as the ttrpg/DnD aspect… I bounce back and forth on the topic of playing characters that are so very different from our experiences, other than in fantasy-related ways. However, I am aware that a lot of people will play with, and experiment with gender in game, and learn something about themselves in the process (the number of trans players of ttrpgs who tried out their gender in game before they were out is high). It’s different with Judaism, and even more significantly different when it comes to things you can’t convert into, like various actual, real-world races. But because people do sometimes experience growth from experiences like this, I’m hesitant to dissuade players completely. I do urge you to, at a minimum, bring the same care, research, and willingness to learn, that you brought to this question.

--Dierdra

This sounds like a creative storyline that you could have lots of fun with 😊

At first I was confused by this part:

She also made a town specific holiday to honour the Golem's sacrifice

But then you really got me thinking about different types of Jewish holidays and how they come about, so thank you for that!

Because it’s often the little details that either make a story super powerful or kind of nonsensical, I think it would be a good idea to decide what type of holiday is being created here:

A full-blown chag with restrictions on labour and halachic obligations? These are commanded in Torah and new ones can’t be added.

A minor yom tov with halachic obligations but no restrictions? These were instituted by the rabbis prior to the destruction of the Temple, so again new ones can’t be added.

A public holiday or equivalent? This would usually be declared by the Knesset in Israel, and filter to the rest of the Jewish world from there.

A community-based yom tov with specific customs only for people in the know, such as certain Chasidic groups celebrating the birthdays of their deceased leaders? I asked around, but no one can really tell me how these holidays get started, which is probably a good indication that they arise quite organically from a group of people who all just feel that it should be celebrated. Probably not created by a single person, as such.

Something she runs from her bakery, not religion-based, but more like a day of doing special products and deals the way many small businesses do on their anniversary?

Now, if the people of a modern-day town were actually saved by a real live Golem, that would arguably be the most overt miracle for many generations, so there would be a decent chance of options 3 and/or 4 happening. It’s entirely plausible that there could be special foods for this day that become a tradition, including Golem cookies. People who directly benefited might also return to the site where the Golem fought the monster and recite the prayer, ‘Blessed is Hashem, Master of the Universe, Who performed a miracle for me in this place.’

Alternatively, if it’s important that your MC created the holiday, something like option 5 might be the best. Hopefully this will still fulfil what you need: you describe her as incredibly skilled, so I can imagine the day when she goes all out on the Golem cookies being one of the most exciting events of the year for the townspeople, just because her baking is that good. Plus, they already have a personal stake in the Golem’s sacrifice, so I definitely think it could be a thing without being an official holiday. Also, if she is outside of an all-Jewish environment, don’t forget that she would have to decide whether to commemorate the anniversary in the Hebrew calendar or the local one.

Coming back to the cookies, sorry if we’re getting a little repetitive on this point! But I don’t see the cookies being torn limb from limb as part of a celebration. First of all, this doesn’t sound like a very celebratory thing to do, to say the least. Can you imagine explaining that to a three-year-old on their first Yom HaGolem? They would be terrified! (I don’t read this suggestion as accidental anti-Semitism so much as getting carried away with a metaphor, which I’m sure as writers we have all done!)

But also, it’s worth pointing out that our commemorative foods aren’t usually that literal. If you think about hamantaschen, maror, or apple in honey, they’re all symbols. That’s not to say that having Golem-shaped cookies is a problem, as this sounds like just a bit of fun that the MC is having and not something that is directly at odds with Judaism or Jewish culture. But it’s worth bearing in mind that the more literal you go from there in terms of tying the cookies to the event they commemorate, the less culturally aligned your holiday food becomes.

Finally, about the Golem protecting non-Jewish people: I like this idea! There’s a stereotype that we only use whatever is at our disposal to help ourselves and other Jewish people, so a Golem being created by Jews but helping others as well is a big plus for me. Of course, as has already been pointed out, this would be an odd choice if her Saving The World team were anti-Semitic or otherwise disrespectful to her/her community, but I don’t think you were headed that way!

-Shoshi

I have to come back in here just to squee over the phrase “Yom HaGolem.” Well done :D

--Shira

[covenoftheopenmind]

Cultural Appropriation and the Pursuit of Fulfillment and Spiritual Wellness

written by Lady Tehilah Firewind on 11 January 2021

Cultural appropriation is the taking of customs or traditions for personal gain from those cultures which lie outside of one’s own heritage. Some further define appropriation as being the profiting off of others’ cultures, particularly minority cultures which have been demonized and misrepresented by the masses for years. 

A straight-forward example is when someone of European heritage, already advantaged by the racist nature of society, makes ethnic jewelry en masse such that it is cheaper and more readily purchased than the hand-crafted goods produced by actual ethnic minorities. Now this person is profiting off of the style and customs of a culture that is being robbed of opportunities for advancement in society, which I think most people will admit is a detriment to society.

For one thing, this form of appropriation is a detriment because it means the quality and authenticity of available goods diminishes in time. Eventually, those who cannot sell their higher quality, hand-made goods will go out of business. This will leave only the larger, en masse suppliers, those who don’t care at all about preserving the original traditions and cultural meanings, things with inherent value which can become lost to public consciousness if we aren’t careful. Note that there is no problem purchasing the authentic goods from the hand-crafters of the world, who benefit from us sharing in their cultures in this way. It isn’t appropriation in and of itself to wear jewelry or clothes from unfamiliar cultures.

Now, appropriation can also be a detriment to one’s personal practices. Knowing the origins of a practice, tradition, or idea helps to illustrate its meaning. Having a personal understanding of the things we make use of for religious purposes is important, but so too is having an authentic understanding of how others view these concepts as well, both right now in the world, and throughout history. 

So, it's good to be critical when others appropriate traditions that are unfamiliar to them as a way of ensuring the authenticity and academic maintenance of these cultures. However, it's never ok to tell other people what they can and cannot do in their own personal practices. It’s ok to work with Greek, Norse, Indian, Chinese, African, whatever deities and ideas a person gravitates towards the most, so long as one also puts in the time to properly understand those traditions. 

Most of us have some of every ethnicity somewhere in our heritage. For most of us, traditions that belonged to our ancestors come most naturally, but everyone is different. For some of us, breaking the mold and starting something new, or tapping into an energy that is a bit less familiar to our blood and bones, can bring about the greatest sense of comfort and security of all. Comfort and security are a critical component of spiritual wellness, being in large part the purpose of incorporating religion into our lives in the first place.

Religion should never feel like a fad or a phase, but the notion that you cannot “try out” other religions is false, of course. You can go and live with shamans and experience tribal life, you can practice orthodox Judaism and attend Chabad prayers, and you can go in live in Buddhist or Christian monasteries for a time. You can have genuine experiences, especially when emerged in these cultures, and then decide that these ways of life aren't for you. However, once a person finds their path, that should be roughly the one they walk for the rest of their lives.

Today there is a lack of permanence to our choices, like we feel we can erase or cancel aspects of ourselves or our own pasts by trying out enough new things or having enough new experiences. That's why everyone always wants to travel the world and live glamorous lives, and rarely do people just want to settle into a warm hearth and eat off the land. 

People seek new experiences as a means of fulfillment, without realizing that fulfillment isn't something you experience, but something you choose for yourself in every moment of every day.

[beshert-bh]

My journey to/with Judaism

***This is a super long post, it’s the FULL story, not a brief overview, but it would mean the WORLD to me if you read it***

Upbringing: very much Not Jewish™️

I was born into a Catholic family. I have a goyish last name. I was baptized as an infant, and my parents took me to church each week as a kid.

In kindergarten — back when I still went to a secular private school — one of my best friends was Jewish. He told me all about the traditions his family did...told me all about the kippahs they wear, and how they had their own game called dreidel for this holiday they celebrated, called Hanukkah. (Of course this convo was at a basic-kindergarten-level of knowledge.) When I came home from school I was fascinated with Hanukkah, (this is cringey to admit but my 5-year-old self tried to integrate the traditions together and so in order to do this I drew up a “Christmas dreidel” complete with Santa Claus’ face on one side, a present on another side...you get it)

And that is when I was promptly put in “parochial” schools. I went to Catholic school from 1st grade to 12th grade. I went through Holy Communion and Confirmation like all the other kids did. My elementary soccer team’s mascot was an Angel. My high school’s mascot was a Crusader. Our high school was located on Rome Avenue. I went to a Catholic youth conference. I considered becoming a nun because I was single all throughout high school.

Growing up, around Christmastime we would always travel to visit my grandma, and she would always say we’re “German Jewish” — but I would write her off. In my mind, I was like, Yeah ok like 1%? .....It felt like my grandma was acting like one of those white people who takes a DNA test and says, “Look! We’re 1% African!” So I would dismiss her and remind her how we’re Catholics and she would drop the subject.

Falling away from Xtianity: my first 2 years of college

My freshman year I changed — politically — as I was only conservative in high school because of the ‘pro-life’ agenda being shoved down my throat. I really aligned more with liberal and leftist policies and views, though. Once I became open to new political ideology, I began to question my theological beliefs.

I always had a strong connection to God. My whole life. But I struggled with connecting to Jesus, Mary, the saints, and so on. So obviously my freshman year of college I began to fall away from Catholicism.

You see, Catholics are “bad at the Bible” as I like to say. Other Christians do a better job of teaching and analyzing the writings. They actually require school-aged children to memorize Scripture passages. Catholics mostly just teach the same stuff over and over. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, blah blah blah. Catechism, liturgical calendar, blah blah blah. Parts of the mass, fruits of the spirit, blah blah blah.

So since I was already doubting Catholicism, its corrupt leadership, and its mindless traditions.... I thought maaaaybeeee I would find purpose, truth, clarity, etc. in plain-old Christianity. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The other Christian churches I went to baptized people (which is a BIG LIFE DECISION) on the spot. For example if a newcomer felt on a whim that they wanted to be baptized, the church would do it right then & there. No learning, no planning or preparing, that was it. They promoted blind faith and circular thinking. I began to realize these were both normal attitudes and cognitive patterns within any and every Christian community that I encountered.

Even the Christians who exhibited curiosity mostly just asked questions in order to be able to understand, and then accept, the doctrine as truth. Questions never ever challenged anything.

Oh and let’s throw in the fact that I’m bisexual. Homophobia, transphobia, biphobia (and more) are rampant in the church. So needless to say, with all my observations about the lack of logical thinking in the church (and considering my sexual orientation) I fell away. I stopped going to church unless my family made me when I was home from college.

Enter stage right: Judaism

In retrospect I happened to have a lot of friends in my sorority and my favorite fraternity on campus who were Jewish (the frat happened to be a traditionally-Jewish one). Thought nothing of it at the time. Fast forward to junior year when I met this cute guy on Tinder. He’s now my boyfriend and we’ve been dating for over a year. He didn’t tell me this on Tinder, but when we went on our first date, he revealed that he’s Jewish and wanted to make sure that’s something I was ok with. Clearly I had no problem with that. I wasn’t too into Christianity anymore but I still identified as one (and I was still surrounded by Christian friends in my sorority) so I told him I was Christian/raised Catholic and asked hypothetically if he would be comfortable with a “both” family. He said yes.

We started dating during an October, so of course Hanukkah came up soon. There was a mega challah bake at our local Chabad, which he took me to, and we had a blast. From then on I decided I wanted to show him how supportive I was of his Jewishness. (The last girl he dated dumped him after 3 months BECAUSE he was Jewish... so I felt that I needed to be supportive)

We started going to shabbat services and dinner every week. We did Hanukkah together (we bought our first menorah together, he taught me how to spin a dreidel, his mom bought me Hanukkah socks...lol). At some point in our relationship I told him I may have Jewish ancestry from my grandma but it’s distant and my whole extended family is Christian so it really wouldn’t even matter. I don’t remember when I had that conversation with him.

Eventually, after another few months of Shabbat services and Shabbat dinners, Pesach came around.

We went to the first seder together. The second seder is what changed everything.

Deciding to convert

At first I wasn’t sure if I belonged at this second seder. My boyfriend had always brought me to every event. I had never attended anything alone at Chabad before. But I went anyway. Throughout the night I felt increasingly comfortable. I had never felt more like I was a *part of something* than I did at this seder.

I sat near a friend who I recognized. (He knows I’m raised Catholic.) Then he & his friends welcomed me. We all took turns reading from the Haggadah, we drank the four cups of wine together, and we laughed together as I had maror for the first time.

Then the familiar faces left to go home, and one of them even went to another table to sit with his other friends whom he hadn’t had a chance to see yet that night. Naturally I thought I was alone again. I almost left, but something tugged at my heart to stay until the very end of the second seder. Something told me to keep going and keep taking in this wonderful experience.

The rest of the night consisted of many songs (most likely prayers, in retrospect) I did not know. Everyone stood to sing and we all clapped to the rhythm. I knew none of the words but I still clapped along, alone at my own table. Then one of the boys — the one who had been sitting with my friends and I earlier — motioned at me to come over and join his other friends. I approached this new table full of people I’d never met, feeling awkward as ever, and they not only hoisted me up to stand on the table with them as they chanted, but they also included me in their dance circle. (no, I don’t think it was the Hora, we just spun around over and over. lol.)

This was the first night I felt at home with Judaism. Going through the Jewish history with the Haggadah, remembering the important occurrences and symbolizing them with various foods, ending the night by being welcomed into the community... it was transformative. After attending shabbat services for months and learning about Jewish values, it changed something in me when I observed Pesach for the first time last year. I knew this path would be right for me. I felt as if my soul had found where it belonged. The Jewish history, traditions, beliefs, and customs resonated with me. It all just... made sense.

I told my boyfriend I wanted to convert. I wrote three pages of reasons. But I sat on the idea of converting and did nothing for a while. I did do some more research on Judaism, though, as I continued to attend services each week.

The exploration stage

I began to actually research on my own time. If converting was something I was genuinely considering, it was high time I began actively learning as much as I could possibly learn. It was time to dive deeper than just attending the weekly services and googling the proper greetings for Jewish holidays.

I started digging deeper into Judaism and Christianity so I could compare and contrast the two. I needed to understand the similarities and differences. And BOY are they different. That was surprising at first, but the more I learned about Judaism, the more I loved how different it was from the Christianity I was indoctrinated into.

Not only are the values and teachings of each religion vastly different, but the Tanakh (which is “The Old Testsment” in Christian Bibles) actually contradicts:

The entire “New Testament”

The gospel books specifically

The Pauline letters specifically

How did I realize this? Some bible study of my own, but mostly through online research. And, of course, I would have gotten nowhere without the help of Rabbi Tovia Singer and his YouTube videos. He debunks everything there is to debunk about Christianity.

Here were some things I came across when researching:

It confused me how the four Gospels didn’t align (like, major parts of the story did not align at all...and supposedly they’re divinely inspired...but they don’t even corroborate one another?)

It confused me how the psalms we sang in church were worded completely different from the true wording in the Bible (essentially the Christian church is taking tehillim and altering it to benefit Christian dogma and Christian rhetoric.)

It confused me how we read in the Bible that Jews are ‘God’s chosen people’ and yet in every Catholic Church, every Sunday, there is a Pauline letter being read which depicts proselytization of Jews, as if Jews are lost and need Christians to save them. As if Jews would go to hell if they fail to accept Jesus.

It confused me why we would pray to Mary and the saints, because praying is worship, and worshipping anyone but God themself is idolatry.

It confused me why Christians make, sell, and use graven images. Idolatry. Again.

It confused me why Christians give absolute power to humans. For example, if you crawl up the same steps (Scala Santa) that Jesus supposedly crawled up before he died, you automatically get “saved” because *some old men who have no divine power* said so (they have a term for this and it’s called “plenary indulgence” lol).

It confused me why Jesus was believed to be the messiah considering he had to have biologically been from the line of Joseph. Wasn’t Jesus supposedly conceived without any help from Joseph? Wouldn’t that render Jesus, uh, not messiah by default? Even if he was from Joseph’s blood, he still did not complete all the tasks moshiach is supposed to fulfill. And even if he DID fulfill all the tasks required of moshiach... we still would not worship a messiah as he is human and not GOD.

These were all new thoughts I developed this past year between Pesach and Yom Kippur. New questions that challenged everything I thought I knew. It was like teaching a child 2+2≠22 but rather 2+2=4.

Hillel

This fall, after the High Holy Days, my boyfriend began attending shabbat dinners at a rabbi’s home. His new rav lives in the community and it’s exclusive to be invited, so I never imposed. We do Shabbos separately now (with some exceptions, we do it together sometimes).

I continued to go to Chabad with one of my friends who knew I wanted to convert. But one month, she couldn’t come at all, and I felt a little judged there anyway.

So I began going to Hillel a few months ago. And I honestly have found a home there.

From Hillel’s Springboard Fellow reaching out to me and taking me out for coffee to get to know me... to running into my sorority & fraternity friends at every Hillel event (shabbat or otherwise)... From getting included in various clubs like the women empowerment group and the mental health inclusivity group... to being the only college student to participate in Mitzvah Day (hosted by Hillel) with the elderly and the local Girl Scout troop... I feel truly welcome. I’ve started to attend every week. I even talked briefly with the rabbi about having Jewish lineage and wanting to convert.

Discovering new information

I went home to be with family during Thanksgiving break. My grandma flew in so she was there when I got home. She stayed with us from then until New Years (and she’s actually moving in with us next year.)

Of course, now I have a Jewish boyfriend, Jewish friends, and I’ve done extensive research on Judaism. So this time I had background knowledge when she inevitably said... “You know, we’re German Jewish!”

I inquired a little. I asked her what she meant. How is she Jewish? I know my uncle took a DNA test this year and came back part Ashkenazi. But I needed a deeper explanation than DNA.

She revealed to me that her mom’s mom was Jewish. We believe she married a Christian man. Together they had my great-grandmother, who I believe was Christian. She had my grandma, who had my dad, who had me.

And I immediately felt like that changed things. At first I was (internally) like, Now I definitely need to convert! But then I was like, Wait, does this make me Jewish? Am I Jewish-ish? ...Can you be considered Jewish if you’re only ethnically Jewish but not raised Jewishly? ...Can you be Jewish if your dad is your only Jewish parent? ...Can you be Jewish if your dad never had a bris or a bar mitzvah?

I joined a bunch of Jewbook groups, began learning the Hebrew calendar & holiday schedule, and found some folks who assist with Jewish genealogy. They did some digging for me and apparently I descend from the Rothschild family. THE Rothschild family.

Who is a Jew? Who “counts”?

This is something I’ve been muddling over.

At Hillel, at my school at least, most people are pretty Reform. They’re very liberal with their definitions of Judaism (they believe in patrilineal descent and not only matrilineal descent).

They accept me and see me as actually Jewish ...and the ones who don’t... they at least see me as Jewish-adjacent, an “honorary Jew” or an “ally to the Jewish people”.

My boyfriend, however, still sees me as Not Jewish.™️ (For context he’s Reform but he’s trying to become as observant as possible) I know he only thinks this was because of how we began our relationship and because of how I was raised. But I’m very confused here.

Do I count?

Do I not?

Do I count *enough* but still need to go through a formal conversion process?

So...now what?

I don’t know how to navigate this odd journey but I have felt for a while that I have a Jewish neshama and I feel a strong need to affirm it. I just don’t know how or what is appropriate. Do I learn Hebrew? Sign up for a trip to Israel/Germany/Poland? Put up a mezuzah? Or go toward the other end of the scale, and head down a path of a formal conversion/reaffirmation process?

Thank you in advance for your responses and thanks for reading. 🤎

[elizabethan-memes]

Can you elaborate on Erusamus and the reformation please, or at least point me toward sources? Politics make more sense than philosophy to me, so I see the reformation through the lense of Henry VIII, or the Duke of Prussia who dissolved the teutonic order, or France siding with the protestants during the 30 Years War because Protestants > Hapsburgs

So sorry to take so long!

If you needed this answer for academic reasons, given that summer term is pretty much done I’m probably too late to help, but I hate to leave an ask unanswered.

HELLA LONG ESSAY BENEATH THE CUT SORRY I WROTE SELF-INDULGENTLY WITHOUT EDITING SO THERE IS WAY MORE EXPLANATION THAN YOU PROBABLY NEED

Certainly religion has been politicised, you need look no further than all the medieval kings having squabbles with the pope. Medieval kings were not as devastated by the prospect of excommunication as you’d expect they’d be in a super-devout world, it was kinda more of a nuisance (like, idk, the pope blocking you on tumblr)  than the “I’m damned forever! NOOOOOOO!” thing you’d expect. I’m not saying excommunication wasn’t a big deal, but certainly for Elizabeth I she was less bothered than the pope excommunicating her than the fact that he absolved her Catholic subjects of allegiance to her and promised paradise to her assassin (essentially declaring open season on her).

I think, however, in our secular world we forget that religion was important for its own sake. Historians since Gibbon have kind of looked down on religion as its own force, seeing it as more a catalyst for economic change (Weber) or a tool of the powerful. If all history is the history of class struggle, then religion becomes a weapon in class warfare rather than its own force with its own momentum. For example, historians have puzzled over conversion narratives, and why Protestantism became popular among artisans in particular. Protestantism can’t compete with Catholicism in terms of aesthetics or community rituals, it’s a much more interior kind of spirituality, and it involves complex theological ideas like predestination that can sound rather drastic, so why did certain people find it appealing?

(although OTOH transubstantiation is a more complex theological concept than the Protestant idea of “the bread and wine is just bread and wine, it’s a commemoration of the Last Supper not a re-enactment, it aint that deep fam”).

I’ve just finished an old but interesting article by Terrence M. Reynolds in Concordia Theological Quarterly vol. 41 no. 4 pp.18-35 “Was Erasmus responsible for Luther?” Erasmus in his lifetime was accused of being a closet Protestant, or “laying the egg that Luther hatched”. Erasmus replied to this by saying he might have laid the egg, but Luther hatched a different bird entirely. Erasmus did look rather proto Protestant because he was very interested in reforming the Church. He wanted more people to read the Bible, he had a rather idyllic dream of “ploughmen singing psalms as they ploughed their fields”. He criticised indulgences, the commercialisation of relics and pilgrimages and the fact that the Papacy was a political faction getting involved in wars. He was worried that the rituals of Catholicism meant that people were more mechanical in their religion than spiritual: they were memorising the words, doing the actions, paying the Church, blindly believing anything a poorly educated priest regurgitated to them. They were confessing their sins, doing their penances like chores and then going right back to their sins. They were connecting with the visuals, but not understanding and spiritually connecting with the spirit of Jesus’ message and his ideals of peace and love and charity and connecting with God. Erasmus translated the NT but being a Renaissance humanist, he went ad fontes (‘to the source’) and used Greek manuscripts, printing the Greek side by side with the Latin so that readers could compare and see the translation choices he made. His NT had a lot of self-admitted errors in it, but it was very popular with Prots as well as Caths. Caths like Thomas More were cool with him doing it, but it was also admired by Prots like Thomases and Cromwell and Cranmer and Tyndale himself. When coming across Greek words like presbyteros, Erasmus actually chose to leave it as a Greek word with its own meaning than use a Latin word that didn’t *quite* fit the meaning of the original.

However, he did disagree with Protestants on fundamental issues, especially the question of free will. For Luther, the essence was sole fide: salvation through faith alone. He took this from Paul’s letter to the Romans, where it says that through faith alone are we justified. Ie, humans are so fallen (because of the whole Eve, apple, original sin debacle) and so flawed and tainted by sin, and God is so perfect, that we ourselves will never be good enough. All the good works in the world will never reach God’s level of perfection and therefore we all deserve Hell, but we won’t go to hell because God and Jesus will save us from the Hell we so rightly deserve, by grace and by having faith in Jesus’ sacrifice, who will alone redeem us.  The opposite end of the free will/sola fide spectrum is something called Pelagianism, named after the guy who believed it, Pelagius, who lived centuries and centuries before the Ref, it’s the belief that humans can earn their salvation by themselves, by good works. Both Caths and Prots considered Pelagius a heretic. Caths like Erasmus believed in a half-way house: God reaches out his hand to save you through Jesus’ example and sacrifice, giving you grace, and you receive his grace, which makes you want to be a good person and do good works (good works being things like confession of sins, penances, the eucharist, charity, fasting, pilgrimages) and then doing the good works means you get more grace and you are finally saved, or at least you will go to purgatory after death AND THEN be saved and go to heaven, rather than going straight to Hell, which is what happens if you reject Jesus and do no good works and never repent your sins. If you don’t receive his grace and do good works, you won’t make the grade for ultimate salvation.

(This is why it’s important to look at the Ref as a theological as well as a political movement because if you only look at the political debates, Erasmus looks more Protestant than he actually was.)

There are several debates happening in the Reformation: the role of the priest (which is easily politicised) free will vs predestination, transubstantiation or no transubstantiation (is or isn’t the bread and wine transformed into the body and blood of Jesus by God acting through the priest serving communion) and the role of scripture. A key doctrine of Protestantism is sola scriptura. Basically: if it’s in the Bible, it’s the rules. If it’s not in the Bible, it’s not in the rules. No pope in the bible? No pope! No rosaries in the bible? No using rosaries! (prayer beads)

However, both Caths and Prots considered scripture v.v. important. Still, given that the Bible contains internal contradictions (being a collection of different books written in different languages at different times by different people) there was a hierarchy of authority when it came to scripture. As a general rule of thumb, both put the New T above the Old T in terms of authority. (This is partly why Jews and Muslims have customs like circumcision and no-eating-pig-derived-meats that Christians don’t have, even though the order of ‘birth’ as it were goes Judaism-Christianity-Islam. All 3 Abrahammic faiths use the OT, but only Christians use the NT.)

1.       The words of Jesus. Jesus said you gotta do it, you gotta do it. Jesus said monogamy, you gotta do monogamy. Jesus said no divorce, you gotta do no divorcing (annulment =/= divorce). Jesus said no moneylending with interest (usury), you gotta do no moneylending with interest (which is partly why European Jews did a lot of the banking. Unfortunately, disputes over money+religious hatred is a volatile combination, resulting in accusations of conspiracy and sedition, leading to hate-fuelled violence and oppression.) The trouble with the words of Jesus is that you can debate or retranslate what Jesus meant, especially  easily as Jesus often spoke in parables and with metaphors. When Jesus said “this is my body…this is my blood” at the Last Supper, is that or is that not support for transubstantiation? When Jesus called Peter the rock on which he would build the church, was that or was that not support for the apostolic succession that means Popes are the successor to St Peter, with Peter being first Pope? When the gospel writers said Jesus ‘did more things and said more things than are contained in this book’, does that or does that not invalidate the idea of sola scriptura?

2.       The other New Testament writers, especially St. Paul and the Relevation of St John the Divine. (Divine meaning like seer, divination, not a god or divinity). These are particularly relevant when it comes to discussing the role of priests and priesthood, only-male ordination, and whether women can preach and teach religion.

3.       The Old Testament, especially Genesis.

4.       The apocryphal or deuterocanonical works. These books are considered holy, but there’s question marks about their validity, so they’re not as authoritative as the testaments. I include this because the deuterocanonical book 2 Maccabees was used as scriptural justification for the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, but 2 Maccabees is the closest scipture really gets to mentioning any kind of purgatory. Protestants did not consider 2 Maccabees to be strong enough evidence to validate purgatory.

5.       The Church Fathers, eg. Origen, Augustine of Hippo. Arguably their authority often comes above apocryphal scripture. It’s from the Church Fathers that the concept of the Trinity (one god in 3 equal persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit) is developed because it’s not actually spelled out explicitly in the NT. Early modern Catholics and Protestants both adhered to the Trinity and considered Arianism’s interpretation of the NT (no trinity, God the Father is superior to Jesus as God the Son) to be heresy. Church Fathers were important to both Catholics and Protestants: Catholics because Catholics did not see scripture as the sole source of religious truth, so additions made by holy people are okay so long as they don’t *contradict* scripture, and so long as they are stamped with the church council seal of approval, Protestants because they believed that the recent medieval theologians and the papacy had corrupted and altered the original purity of Christianity. If they could show that Church Fathers from late antiquity like Augustine agreed with them, that therefore proved their point about Christianity being corrupted from its holy early days.

Eamon Duffy’s book Stripping of the Altars is useful because it questions the assumptions that the Reformation and Break with Rome was inevitable, or that the Roman Catholic Church was a corrupt relic of the past that had to be swept aside for Progress, or that most people even wanted the Ref in England to happen. Good history essays need to discuss different historians’ opinions and Duffy can be relied upon to have a different opinion than Protestant historians. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s works are good at explaining theological concepts, he is a big authority on church history and he’s won a whole bunch of prizes. He was actually ordained a deacon in the Church of England in the 1980s but stopped being a minister because he was angry with the institution for not tolerating the fact he had a boyfriend. The ODNB is a good source to access through your university if you want to read a quick biography on a particular theologian or philosopher, but it only covers British individuals. Except Erasmus, who has a page on ODNB despite being not British because he’s just that awesome and because his influence on English scholarship and culture was colossal. Peter Marshall also v good, esp on conversion. Euan Cameron wrote a mahoosive book called the European Reformation.“More versus Tyndale: a study of controversial technique” by Rainer Pineas is good for the key differences in translation of essential concepts between catholic and protestant thinkers. The Sixteenth Century Journal is a good source of essays as well.

[whocalledhimannux]

TBATD Chapter 10 note

Most of the differences between the mythology in this chapter and the mythology in canon are deliberate. As a general note, I think the show, for the most part, tried to avoid portraying “religion” in favor of a milder, more secular philosophy, with the Spirit World being seen more as nature/magic than something sacred. Which is, yknow, not surprising for a Nickelodeon show. But I did want to take a bit of a closer look at religion in this fic, which is one reason why the idea of dragons and blackfish (and wolves and badger moles and air bison, for that matter) as sacred is more prominent in my writing than in canon.

Also, it seems as though the true origins of bending in the series are not actually that widespread. Not only does Roku have no idea that the koi in the spirit oasis are Tui and La, but he directs Aang to the oldest spirit he can think of rather than one connected to the Water Tribe, which suggests to me that knowledge of Tui and La has likewise been erased from their cultural memory. The Fire Nation strayed a lot from the original Sun Warrior culture. Knowledge of the lionturtles and energybending was lost.

So while the viewers know a lot about the origins of FN and WT culture (and about bending/the Avatar in general--although I haven’t seen LoK, so I personally don’t know as much about that), there’s a vacuum for the ordinary people, and it’s only natural for the vacuum to be filled with things that are not quite... well, right, for lack of a better term.

Side note: I think my feelings on this are influenced by my own Jewish background: Judaism distinguishes between halacha (law, which is mandated by the Torah and the Talmud) and minhag (custom, which develops out of other practices). There is a tremendous respect for minhag, to the point where sometimes a minhag becomes so respect that it has the force of halacha even if there is no “real” biblical basis for it. For example, wearing a kippah or a yarmulke was once minhag, but is now considered almost a universal rule for Jewish men. So that’s why I’m hesitant distinguishing between “real” and “fake”--I think cultural practices developed by people over time are just as true, in a way, as things handed directly to them by a higher power. So... the spirit stuff we get in canon is halacha, but in-universe for my fic, much of what plays out in this story is minhag that is just as important.

Anyway. I think this Fire Nation myth is pretty compliant with what comes out in canon, with one exception: the “Sunset Cliffs” in the current capital city are seen as the location of the first fire, rather than the Sun Warrior ruins. Zuko straight-up had no idea that the first fire was still burning, and the current Fire Nation doesn’t seem to see itself as direct descendants of the Sun Warriors--Zuko talks about them with some distance, their ruins aren’t a common pilgrimage spot or anything, and they’re said to have “died out” rather than just being subsumed into Fire Nation history, so I see this as being an old, old shift in the legend. If the Sun Warrior culture has been “gone” for a thousand years, it makes perfect sense for the legend to just naturally drift from their home to the current cultural center.

The dragon antagonism, on the other hand, I see as being relatively recent--added by Sozin as a way to justify the hunting of dragons. I mean damn, the dragons gave the Fire Nation their fire and show up a LOT as a cultural motif, so imo it would take some pretty strong propaganda to overcome that. The “prove you’re a strong firebender by fighting a dragon” argument is the secular propaganda, and the “btw dragons have always been pretty dangerous so we don’t owe them gratitude” is the religious propaganda.

As for the Southern Water Tribe, I really think they’re just begging for a better spiritual tradition. I can accept that the North would make the oasis their spiritual center and be content with that, because they can actually feel the peaceful aura or whatever, but I don’t think the SWT, on the other end of the world, would be emotionally sustained by “there’s this one place that’s really holy, but we can’t explain why, there are no stories about it, there are no rituals for you to participate in, and that’s literally all you get.” It’s just way too abstract.

And yes, I recognize the irony of saying this as a Jew, but diaspora Judaism was/is HEAVILY ritual-based for a reason. Plus, historically it was very common for Jews with strong attachments to their diasporic homeland to bestow with spiritual significance by calling it a “New Promised Land” or the “Garden of Eden,” which both reaffirmed the religious importance of the Land of Israel and allowed them to find holiness in whatever land they happened to be living. So the myth that Katara tells does something similar--it starts at the spirit oasis, acknowledges its significance, provides a strong basis for the link between the two Water Tribes, and then gives the South its own culture, equally as important.

Related: I think it’s a little odd to have the moon as the only “teacher” of waterbending, when the other sources are all animals that actually bend and the moon just kind of hangs out there? Learning to push the tides, sure, fine. But it also seems like the South uses animal motifs more than the North--Sokka’s war paint, the wolf helmets, Bato’s ceremonial headdress. Those things don’t show up in the North, so again, I think it’s fitting to have the North be more content with their abstract, place-based religion and the South turn more towards the natural world and storytelling. As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, I was inspired by a different fic for the choice of orcas as waterbending teachers/sacred animals, but their distinctive coloring was also a big reason I settled on them. I sort of imagine that, in an earlier time when the identity of the koi fish was known, some waterbenders looked at some orcas and thought “clearly these giant fish are the messengers/students/what-have-you of our two patron spirits.”

So those are my thoughts on Avatar/The Blackfish and the Dragon mythology. And for the record, all of the parallels to Judaism were 100% subconscious, and I didn’t notice them/mean to talk about them until I was writing this note and couldn’t find an easier way to explain what I meant. This post isn’t meant to be some kind of proselytizing/my beliefs are better than anyone else’s deal, and the actual content of the myths is inspired more by a variety of Indigenous American and Polynesian origin stories that I read for research... just filtered through a Jewish lens cuz that’s how my brain works.

Oof, this is a long note. If you made it to the end, you have my warmest thanks.

[spacelazarwolf]

i think there's a big difference between saying "religious laws shouldn't influence secular politics" and saying "religious people shouldn't be politicians." the first is pretty much a no brainer. if we're talking about the us, we live in a multi-cultural multi-faith nation, as you said, so holding all 330 million people to one set of religious laws and customs make no sense (unless you're a christian nationalist). but saying that religious people shouldn't be politicians gets into some murky territory for a few different reasons:

in this specific situation, it presents queerness and religious identity as inherently at odds with each other, and i've spoken pretty extensively about how that mindset has harmed me as a queer jew who is often pressured by queer gentiles to "pick a side" where tbh most jews who aren't queer friendly just leave me alone.

@nothorses has been talking a lot lately about how atheism isn't just a lack of belief in god, how for a lot of people it can be a belief system in and of itself. does that mean that atheists who feel this way shouldn't be politicians since their beliefs affect the way they view the world and would affect their political decisions? or is it just when there's a deity involved? what about religious folks like myself who don't believe in a deity? what about indigenous religions? pagans? spirituality? where is the line between "good beliefs created in an acceptable moral vacuum" and "bad beliefs that are tainted by religion and spirituality"? who gets to draw that line? and does that acceptable moral vacuum even exist when in places like the us even our secular culture is highly influenced by christianity?

if, for example, only secular jews are allowed to run for political office, how much of our culture (because judaism and jewish culture are heavily intertwined) do we need to reject in order to be allowed to run for office? are we allowed to celebrate holidays with our family as long as we don't believe in god? or believe in any sort of higher power or spiritual elements of the world? are we not allowed to attend synagogue because it might influence our values? or, since our upbringings inform our values in adulthood, are we entirely disqualified if we were raised jewish? how many generations removed from observant judaism do we need to be in order to be deemed acceptably secular? how do we prove that we are secular enough to be trusted to participate in gentile society?

and like i said, none of this is to say that religion needs to be a part of politics. religious laws and customs should have no say over secular law (in fact, for jews it's required that we follow the law of the land we live in first before jewish law). but i think this is a topic that requires a lot of nuance.

Does that apply to politicians that are Jewish? Does that apply to Muslim politicians, and their Sharia law? Or does it just apply to Christian politicians because you hate Christians?

so this is in reference to this post, which for context, I made during the overturning of roe v wade, and it still rings true as we're experiencing extreme waves of hateful, faith-based anti queer legislation. I'm not going to claim to speak for other countries and their structures, but I stand by my principles; I don't think you should have a multi-cultural, multi-faith nation run by religious politicians on religious principles. But also. yeah. I hate christianity especially in the context of the United States. Maybe I would feel differently if they didn't force their ideology into policy and law while crying "separation of church and state" when muslim children exist in classrooms with their kids.