#no more 'im jew-ish' no youre a jew

[hindahoney]

Don't let threats against synagogues scare you out of going. The people making these threats want you to be scared. They want you to be so scared that you don't feel safe living your life as a proud and visible Jew, so scared that you take your menorah out of your window and remove your mezuzah from your doorpost. The more you concede, the more they feel like they're winning and the more emboldened they get.

Now, more than ever, we need Jews to be loud, proud and unapologetic. You should not be afraid to exist as a Jew. Wear your star of David. Wear your kippah. And take pride in who you are and where you come from.

[matan4il]

Just wanted to send some love your way 🩵 Im a left-ish diaspora Jew who had, up until really recently, taken the stance that the conflict between Israel and Palestine was too complex for me to fully understand. I appreciate blogs like yours because they have genuinely helped me understand and see through the narratives that both sides are equally at fault, or that Israel is some colonialist war machine bent on gobbling up all available territory at the expense of everyone else’s lives.

It’s kind of frightening for me to have a stance at all, when the people around me were all silent on October 7th but have no issue hanging Palestinian flags outside their homes and filling their social media with slogans that they claim are simply “anti Zionist” but are absolutely anti-Semitic.

I don’t know how to explain to them that YES my heart bleeds for every average human in Gaza who genuinely does want to just exist, but that doesn’t meant that I think the onus for peace lays exclusively on Israel’s shoulders, and I don’t support disbanding Israel as a country. I worry a lot about being too one-sided or simplifying things too much; I still feel very much like I’m sitting in a middle position, due to those concerns. And it’s scary that it still wouldn’t be enough for people — FRIENDS, even — around me.

Sorry for the ramble. Thank you for your informative posts. Speaking as someone who finds a lot of joy in fandom stuff, I really hope the tides turn so that kind of thing can occupy more space in your mind than worrying does 🩵

Awww, Nonnie! I am hugging you SO MUCH!

My heart aches, because you're absolutely right. It doesn't matter how much we'll denounce racism, they will still call us racist. It doesn't matter how often we state that we want life and dignity for both Jews AND Palestinians, they'll still accuse us of supporting genocide. It doesn't matter if we'll criticize the government, they'll still claim we're brainwashed to silence our voices.

So if it's not about our actual beliefs and positions, what's it about?

It's about the fact that we're Jews. And we're told that we can only be "good" Jews if we throw our fellow Jewish people under the bus, even though for every other minority, solidarity is encouraged and celebrated. We're only "good" Jews if we give up our native rights by adhering to a narrative that paints us as colonizers of our own ancestral land, even as native rights are upheld as vital for every other indigenous group. We're only "good" Jews by doubting the multiple testimonies of rape and baby beheadings, even though every victim is supposed to be heard and believed. We're only "good" Jews if we agree to give up the right to self defense, which means we give up the right to live safely, to live peacefully... really, if we give up the right to live, period. All while telling us this is due to the value of all human life. They're literally gaslighting us with "All Lives Matter," and it's the same crowd who could recognize the issue with that slogan, when it was used to silence black people demanding that very same right.

We do not have to go along with this modern "witch test," where they try us by dunking us into water, and the only way to be "innocent" is to die drowning, so if we didn't, then we're witches, and we die still, because they burn us at the stake. I refuse to collaborate with the erasure of Jewish identity, history and rights, which leaves all Jews stripped of protection, vulnerable to abuse, and I will keep speaking, even if they call me every dirty name they can think of for recognizing the Jewish right to live, and to live in our historic homeland, especially as we have always been willing to live here side by side with others. Whatever they say about me, at least I won't be a tokenized Jew, that they can use to bully other Jews into silence.

We absolutely can be pro-Israeli AND pro-Palestinian, rather than turning anti-Israeli to "prove" we're good, pro-Palestinian Jews.

I'm sorry, IDK if I'm actually helping here! Just know that you're not alone in feeling this way. Actually, the fantastic Mayim Bialik also talked about this recently, so I'll give you her eloquent words:

(this is just a part of the vid, you can find the whole thing here)

Thank YOU for the kind words! And may we all get back to just being able to enjoy fandom as the fun, escapist hobby it should be. Sending you lots of hugs and love! xoxox

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

[tobacconist]

Let me preface this by saying IM NOT RACIST! but i DO hold certain racist views, such as black people being better at dancing, and that the chinese have secret occult powers, and that jews control the world (no hate guys! good for you!)

however,;, and i do actually want to hashtag check my #internalracism here so please feel free to argue and preach in the replies but, ahem...

THE MOST ATTRACTIVE RACIAL COMBINATION IS :- * ½~¾ white + ½~¼ ANYTHING ELSE.

am i wrong about this? i think this is true of both men and women. not because white people are inherently sexier or anything like that (definitely not) and i might be biased in this because (eric andre voice) im a mullato and also #mixedracemasterrace and like im also recently #selfpartnered #iammyownperfectman #singleisaslur and trying to love myself more (loving myself rn, typin lefthanded) but fr like is it not true though? white+chinese or white+black or white+indian etc etc am i wrong though about this? like its the best of both worlds. like dont we all agree that dark skin + blue/green eyes or blonde/ginger hair is hot as fuck? lightskin blacks? white people with that slight chineseness that doesnt even always come from being ethnically chinese? etc this is why mediterraneans and jews are so sexy i think. #mixedracemasterrace

on another note i think people should be more nationalistic about hair colour. us brunettes have to stand together against the tyranny of the blonde master race. and theyre not even the master race. gingers are obviously the master race. green eyed gingers. not to get all nazi-ish but i think everyone knows the order of supremacy goes, instinctively,:- HAIR: white > grey > ginger > blonde > brunette EYES: green > blue > brown each of the races has its own sexiness but mixed race is sexiest, AS ALREADY ESTABLISHED. white>yellow>red>black>white>yellow>red>black>white etc.

wait, actually lets see. i think these things are anonymolous:. but im not talking about individual character, im just talking about sexiness.

be honest. J would like to know your opinion.

[mayybirds]

I love that Ethan is Jewish in your fic. I like that it adds some depth to his character and is especially poignant in zombie-ish settings I think. I was wondering your opinion on non-jewish writers making characters Jewish in fics? Especially in settings that could be especially upsetting for a practicing Jew. Im Jewish but I feel like I barely qualify as both my parents are Jewish atheists and I'm kind of disconnected from my faith so I'm wondering if it would be a bad idea to include such hcs in my fics. Also I was wondering, what do you think about Jewish!Karl Heisenberg?

Oh, thank you! Making Ethan Jewish was initially an impulse decision, but one I felt very strongly about once it was in my drafts. I'm glad it resonates. <3 I do think putting a Jewish character in a zombie setting is such an unexplored area, and if I'm brave enough I definitely want to eventually push on what Ethan's (loose) sense of Jewish faith would make of realizing he's a mold!boy, given Jewish laws around body modification and funeral proceedings...

I personally have no problem with non-Jewish writers writing Jewish characters, though a couple things worth noting here--I fall into the old(?) camp of thinking that generally a mixed/diverse cast more representative of the real world in any story, so long as it is done with respect and good intent (and an open ear to feedback), is for the better, rather than the new (Twitter inspired?) mind that one can only ever write from their own worldview successfully (There's layers and layers of nuance here concerning that debate and what stories one "can" write and where one might be overstepping boundaries, but that's not your question really so I'll not jump into my whole spiel there).

The second thing worth noting, though, as it pertains better to your question and your information on your personal situation... depending on who you ask, I'm not Jewish either, lol! To be clear, I identify as Jewish both religiously & culturally, have Jewish ancestry, and consider myself a practicing Jew--but I'm only ancestrally Jewish through my father. My mother was not born Jewish nor ever converted. Depending on who you ask, I'm not Jewish haha. I see myself as Jewish, as I was raised in no other faith, and according to many reform Jews--the sect I belong to--that's good enough. If you asked many other Jews, though, (hell, if you asked some of my own orthodox ancestors), they'd likely tell you "no!!!".

Rule number one, with Jewish people, in my experience? None of us agree on almost anything lol. Jewish faith is splintered into vastly different sects and practices, these days, and what's acceptable and true to me as a reform Jew likely lines up very little with what's acceptable and true to most Orthodox or Conservative Jews. I guess I say all this for two-fold reasons: One, to not cast any illusions about my Jewishness in order to better appear a "jewish authority," but also to stress that... there's no single good answer for a "jewish authority," because Judaism isn't a singular uniform religion. As the child of non-practicing Jews, you likely already know a lot of this, but it feels worth stressing! To me, if you asked, I'd say you're Jewish if you feel you're Jewish, which entitles you to explore and write about your view of Judaism/Jewish identity however you please--in fics or otherwise.

And for people who aren't Jewish at all, I think it's just worth noting--there's no interpretation of Jewishness that would please all Jewish people lol. I'm sure my interpretation of a Jewish!Ethan would be wildly offensive to some other Jewish people. So much as I say, "write in good faith and listen thoughtfully to feedback," no one should ever be shocked if they're praised by some Jewish people and criticized by others. Like all religious and cultural/ethnic minorities, Jewish people are not a monolithic opinion... we're arguably more splintered than many minorities lmao.

But yes, tldr, my personal opinion? I think you individually have every right to write Jewish character hcs into your fics, just as I think anyone can as long as they do so with respect, restraint, and forethought (&, as a Jew, "barely qualifying" or not, I'd say you personally have more wiggle room than goyim to just...do as you like with your writing about Jewish-ness... when one is basing their fiction off any personal experience, arguments about 'validity' become ridiculous. It's valid if it's true to your experiences and feelings, even if they're not universal! Nothing is universal!). That said--take my opinion with a grain of salt, because I have no more right to give you a "Jewish stamp of approval" than anyone else!

(And on your last note, I'm actually a huge fan of the idea of a Jewish!Karl. My current draft notes for his chapters currently imply his mother was Jewish, but I'm undecided on whether I'll explicitly leave that in. In my heart, though, yes, he's matrilineally Jewish. I think it brings an additional element to his backstory of basically being abducted into a religious cult and stripped of his own identity as a child particularly... poignant... because boy did Christians do this to some Jewish kids, historically!)

[galaxythreads]

Why not let taika be dumb by himself, whats the point in stalking and making fun of his new stuff just because of a marvel movie he made? (Also its a bit insensitive considering he isn't even white)

Unfollow me, please. Please stop harrasing me. Leave me alone. If you send me another message like this I'm going to report you to tumblr for harrassment. I know you're the same person. I recognize your speech pattern. Your anon handle means nothing. I could find you on Tumblr and I might, soley to block you. You've sent me more than five of these. If you were going to change my mind about Ragnarok, you would have done it by now. Stop.

-

And for the record:

Waititi's race did not even occur to me. .....?......? Why would it have? I literally just googled it. Okay. He's a Polynesian Jew. That's awesome. But like. What am I meant to do with this information beyond respect it and move on??? No I mean that genuinely. Am I supposed to do something else with this knowledge?

Dheisbdiehdhd.

Look. If I decided to pick apart every Polynesian or Jewish piece of media (which if I did something is deeply wrong with me and I need a hug and someone to slap me) and insisted that there was something wrong with them the storyteller inherently for being this race, that would be racist. Or that Polynesians/Jews can't write good stories, that would be racist. Me saying every black person isn't a good writer would be racist. Or every white person. Racism. Racism is when you single out an entire group to loathe and insist that they're abnormal or dangerous for being born that way. (Also it's ignorance, but you can't know everything all at once, so just listen and apologize. Most people will be very understanding you didn't know the Thing.)

Me discussing one (1) movie that Waititi made, where I never even brought up race because WHY WOULD I HAVE????????? is not racism? It's discussing storytelling?

Wait. Do you think I hate Waititi as a human being for Ragnarok? Anon????.?.??....? I don't like him as a director. I would still happily take a bullet for him because he's a human? And he does, outside of his work, seem nice-ish. I don't think we could be friends, but that doesn't mean I want him dead. Oh my gosh. Go to sleep. Eat a KitKat.

People are not racist for discussing bipocs work. I love discussing all writing from everyone. My favorite ao3 author is Jewish, and I love all the references she puts to her religion in her fics. Genuinely, always brings a smile to my face. I love it when culture bleeds into a fic or a movie or a book. Look, Im not a good writer just because I'm lesbian. It didn't give me magic powers. Your identity doesn't protect you from bad writing.......good writing does. And every race and culture has amazing writers.

You know why I hate Ragnarok? Do you? Honestly? Have you thought to ask yourself that? Because I have never spoken about it. I just circle around the point and make bad jokes.

It has nothing to do with the comedy. I hate Ragnarok because it is one of the most insensitive films I have ever seen when it comes to mental health. That's it. Waititi is so insensitive to mental health struggles it is harmful. A fact I break down in detail in my video on why and how. It had nothing to do with his race. WHY WOULD IT EVER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIS RACE???

I---

[twobruhsinahottub]

Some old friends of mine found out i went on holiday to Israel twice and dropped me, calling me a terrorist supporter because I dared step foot in my mother's home town. What they failed to notice was 1) i was a small child, i had no choice, and 2) i went there because my mother had been given months to live and it was her last wish! To visit home again! Luckily, she is still with us today, but like ????? She went there to see her home one last time. And the time we went previously was because she wanted me to visit the Kotel and she wanted to visit her mother's old home.

The "friends" of mine didnt know any of this. They just told me i was evil and blocked me (they were online friends). They didnt even ASK why i was there.

And the worst part? Those friends? They were Jewish -_- they were anti-zionist Jews who just....hated other Jews for visiting our holiest site????? Idk man.

Also, as a fellow NZ Jew (I believe I recall a post previously of yours OP stating you're in NZ, correct me if Im wrong), I totally get that fear. I recently attended my local pride event, and my mother wore a shirt that said "Pride" in Hebrew. I wore my Magen David necklace. We both received dirty looks from many people, and in the end both ended up leaving early, because we felt unsafe. A year prior we went to the same event, both wearing the same things, and had zero issue.

I also hesitate to tell anyone irl that im Jewish, because i just know what the next question will be ("oh god are you a zionist?!") and if i answer wrong i could be in danger. And its not Palestinians who do this. Its mostly white people who actually know nothing about the situation and just like to trend hop and be seen as correct all the time.

What also sucks about being Jewish here in Aotearoa, is how effing small the community is. There are two synagogues in my town and im lucky for that! As theres only like....6? Ish? In the entire country. I say my town but its over an hour away lol. But yeah, one synagogue is orthodox and would be unlikely to accept a gay trans person, and the other is the one I used to attend before they started protecting abusers! And putting really shitty people on the board -_-

Also to add more somewhat unrelated complaints: the big left wing party in Aotearoa? Yeah they kinda suck ass. Last I checked they were rather antisemitic, and also make some really shitty statements? Not to mention all the other crappy stuff. And our other options are just right wing!

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, i just wanted to get that off my chest. Hope you're doing well this evening!

You know what? I'm still not over that fucking post.

Like there are multiple reasons as to why someone would like to visit Israel. It could be to see a religious site which is important to them, and not even just jewish site, muslim, Christian or Baha'i sites too. They could have family they want to visit.

There are multiple reasons as to why someone would want to send a gift to Israel. It could be their family members birthday, someone could have just beaten cancer, someone could be in the hospital dying and you want to give them something to make their last few weeks not utterly terrible.

And whilst this is not new, it is just straight up xenophobia. Israeli government bad is something that is well established, but it's not like Israeli citizens or the citizens of any country are their government.

And yeah, it does really piss me off and make me actually mad that my ex friend reblogged that.

I literally have to avoid certain parts of town because strangers who do know my opinion will see that I'm visibly jewish and harass me. I have had to avoid going to things I've been invited to because the organizer has made some posts with could be construed as either being normal about jews and Palestinians or be antisemitic and I don't want to risk it. I have to do a fucking jew test on any potential romantic or sexual partners to make sure they are normal about jews before we go on a date in case they find out I'm Jewish on the date and I get attacked.

And literally all of this behavior does not come from Palestinians. It comes from non Palestinians, mainly white people, who appropriate Palestinian suffering as their own and act because of that. I have so much more patience for Palestinians because of what they go through than a random white person.

And honestly, I just cannot stop thinking about what would've actually happened if I stayed friends with my ex friends. If they would've harassed or attacked me. And I worry to this day that the Judenhass will get too much and they'll fucking doxx me.

[formicarum-rex]

playing oregon trail 5 (a certified Problematic Fave) and thinking about all the other historical moments in american history that a simulation style game could be educational, and the sort of unfortunate situation we're in currently, where proper educational software, especially in non-STEM areas, has more or less been pushed out by the internet. I feel like games do have the benefit of being able to put you in other people's shoes. history has a reputation of memorizing facts and figures, but games can make the effects of those facts real for the player, as they can see the direct outcome of them on how their character fares. they can teach empathy and make the motives of people from the past ("heroes", "villains", and normal people in-between) more understandable.

anyway, possible oregon trail-esques (based on american history, since oregon trail is):

most clearly from the oregon trail experience, something regaring the experience of native americans in the 19th century. Kids probably wouldnt like it as much as Oregon Trail since there can´t honestly be any "good" outcomes, the game *has* to be rigged, but its an important perspective that The Oregon Trail just glosses over, at best. And where the player's actions in Oregon Trail, whether conscious or not, has a direct negative impact on the indigenous nations. How do you chose to deal with the US government? do you make treaties? war? is war forced upon you?

gold rush in california and/or alaska and the yukon. (im more familiar with the california rush so this is more based on that, but I understand that there are similarities to the alaskan/yukon one.) there are a lot of luck based outcomes. you´ll definitely want to program in the idea that those selling to the miners generally got richer than the miners themselves, even if the miners have more exiciting gameplay. you could also play around with different ways of mining over time. you could also include multiple perspectives, whether american whites, american blacks, european, mexican/californio, native, chinese, etc. but if its designed for schools, you'll probably want to cycle everyone through all of these perspectives, or else you'll have students chosing backgrounds based on themselves (as is natural), and anyone who isnt white, or even american, will have a much worse time, and that sucks.

(there was in fact a "Yukon Trail" game, but my impression of it is that it focused on the journey there as much as what happened at the location, which is what is more interesting to me, and at minimum there's no choice to already be living in Alaska/the Yukon. it may otherwise be good.. i haven´t played it, but should)

a dice roll determines which southern/eatern european country youre from, and what religion you are. you start at ellis island, and you have to survive late 19th/eary 20th c. New York as an Italian Catholic or a Polish Jew or etc. do you Americanize? what kinds of work do you go into, if you even get a choice? can you survive a work environment pre-regulation? what chances do you take to try and get you and your family out of the tenements?

conversely. you are either native born or an immigrant, but either way, you luck and work your way into some cash. how do you navigate being a millionaire of the gilded age? what politicans do you support? do you implement vertical and horizontal integration into your business? are you able to secure a monopoly? what if your workers go on strike? what are the most appealing options, to you, the magnate?

Try to escape slavery. This is honestly the most Oregon-trail ish of the bunch, since it is about travel to a different part of the continent, and has a specific goal in mind. do you take your family with you and incur more risk? how well are you able to prepare? there´s a lot of luck involved with this. what route do you take? depending on background and/or luck, the game may not give you a proper map and you have to rely on verbal tradition for navigation. where do you go? northern states or all the way to canada? why would you chose to go further north? (hint: a certain federal law you probably memorized for the test-- see how seemingly random names and dates you memorize actually effected real people?). what kind of people are you able to trust? how do you know? you could give the player to decide to stay and not run away, in an attempt to stay with family or with the hope of waiting out the civil war (if playing in a civil war year), and the game can tell you how that pans out.

puritan simulator. choose a wacky name. try not to die of the new england winters or be burned as a heretic. be forced to put your 21st century ideas of society and religion to the side in order to keep up a good relationship with your fellow citizens and avoid exile to rhode island, or worse. how does your religion influence your ideas on the land you're occupying, the government you participate in, your relationships with the native peoples? same game, other half: youre a native american in what would become new england. there's some difficult decison making to be done with the meta knowledge of the player. being hospitible to the newcomers will not work out. but then, rebellion is barely any better. much like with the first item on the list, the cards are stacked against you.

various poltics simulators for different eras. weighing the wishes of your constituency, your ideals, your wealth, etc to be elected and re-elected. curriculum items include not just political history, but civics items as well.

Great Depression simulator. I've proposed enough of these that you can guess what the options are, and what the goals would be. How do you deal with being poor/the dustbowl, etc? how does Hoover's and Roosevelt's words over the radio effect you? maybe the game starts post-wwi, and you are given some success before the crash to show the severity of it. how do different ethnic and geographical backgrounds effect you? how do your experiences with the depression influence your stance on whether we should enter WWII?

[lepertamar]

i have a question i hope isn’t too prying or weird/ignorant: can you discuss why/what kinds of textual details cause you to interpret holies as jews? obviously i support ‘there’s just a vibe’ as reason enough but i was wondering if there was more you could compile?

i’d loove to~~…….sorry it took me a lot time to get around to this it's just i didn’t know how much background jew stuff i should explain! first I don't think holies are like…..a 1:1 analogy with jews, they don’t work as a like ‘stand-in’, and I don’t think they were intended as such. (most obviously they don’t pass down generationally. they all have a convert-like status!) what I would say is an insane amount of stuff about jews and judaism ime like….applies to or parallels holies/holy-ness as a fictional concept? where relating the two like deepens parts of each other in a sff way.

-so the most distinct(?) thing is how every holy has a manifestation of the same exact soul—G-d’s soul—burned into them (fierce as death, jealous as sheol), and they agree that it's G-d's soul, but the strange way G-d communicates, and everyone's different prices and different ideas and povs as different people inevitably must lead them to disagree on a lot else (insert 4 diff jew jokes here). So, while again not an allegory, so much about judaism applies to prices. A significant part of being a holy seems to be sort of an attention to the patterns that ripple in G-d’s soul — Tamar looking at Safirah’s arm when she first starts studying the holy starts to feel the patterns are telling her something, and when her eyes are burnt out, she sees the patterns in such a way that she starts being able to understand them, while simultaneously they are infinite: there’s the implication that it's a lifelong choice to bind herself to studying these infinite mysteries and layers in her eyes, due to being a member of the People who do this.

this is a strong parallel to how jews relate to torah! (to the centuries of commentary from the talmud and more, to ritual, to ideas about G-d, to being a jew as something very precious but also a harsh steep contract, to their relations to each other through this mycelium network made out of G'dsoul) -- an intense continuous pondering and puzzling and debating with others of our People and wrestling and thereby contributing our particularly jewish thoughts and acts to the world in a way that is contributing our arguments to G-d, as a part of everything we do while living. it parallels holies as a specific subset of the (also very jewish) worldwide covenant of You Lives Will Argue For You. because....judaism, like holies, is kind of a bdsm contract. uh ok i'll put the rest of this under the cut:

-judaism is. so I say this with absolute reverence and seriousness but. judaism is a bdsm-ish private contract/covenant between a people and G-d: if you will be My people, I will be your god. explicitly a self-maintained outgroup and subgroup that has negative interest in the rest of humanity joining it or doing as it does, a collective People with a specific role with regards to G-d. As in: ‘we who wrestle with G-d’. irl, a lot of goyim don’t understand why jews choose to follow a set of rules and take it so seriously if jews don’t think everyone should do it/would be better off doing it. jews say ‘goyim who don’t follow this aren’t doing wrong by not doing it’ and mean this, and it's not cuz goyim aren't capable of morality, it's cuz it’d be like saying another, unbound person should follow the bdsm contract we have with our top — it's about the particularized contract. and in that contract, engaging and wrestling with our private commandedness from G-d and taking it seriously in a way others don't need to is the whole point. 

so—while expressed very differently cuz sehhinah is a magic fantasy, there’s imo a strikingly similar construction for holies — they have made a specific type of contract with G-d, it's a strange minority thing that has no universal applicability, and is morally neutral as a status. there’s a strikingly similar misunderstanding of why holies would burn their eyes out and be stuck with a price set like a fiery seal in their body, when they could just wait to die and go to heaven, not understanding that wrestling with that grip is the whole point. 

The misunderstanding is expressed way less destructively than irl because this is a utopia, but Eliya describes it in a way so utterly divorced from Tamar’s experience that it’s grotesque, Havilah simpers about it in a nonsensical way, Yairen projects a wish of rebirth and salvation on it that is harshly rejected, Tamar herself in the prequel short story is so floored and obsessed when she actually sees one that it overhauls her entire worldview, which hints at how poorly she understood them before. She ponders what kind of a people would burn their tongues out, and why — a familiar refrain for anyone who’s heard jewish converts’ stories. 

and! in a major contrast that actually isolates and elucidates this comparison better, a big difference between the 'contract' with holies and the irl contract with jews is that for holies, there is only one explicit private mitzvah (beyond the global mitzvah of Your Lives Will Argue For You....which is also jewish feeling as fuck lol) that is Commanded to the holies specifically, as an older, private covenant, and unlike the irl jewish mitzvot that enumerate many many good works and virtuous actions, in-universe this holies' mitzvah is almost 100% amoral: you cannot see that which burns the one that sees it, without being burned by seeing it, you must live with this. 

but I like to think the expansion of implications from that may well parallel the expansion of implications that makes up all jewish thought in the real world, because it would make sense for it to! What does holies burning their eyes out to see G-d and all that comes of it Mean as a person or a collective people? what does jews binding themselves to a set of laws and the name We Who Wrestle With G-d and all that comes of it Mean as a person or a collective people? That resonates in parallel. holies can be many things in addition to being holies, much as jews are many things in addition to jews, they can do theurgy just like anyone else can, they can have whatever profession (if the passive prejudice — mostly ableism — of the fictional society allows it) or social role they want. etc. etc. but they are still A People Apart because of this relation with G-d, and they cannot be one of that People without doing the thing that makes them part of that People. Both before and after Tamar sees G-d and blinds herself, she thinks in those terms: ‘to become one of the Holy—‘ and ‘she is one of the Holy now—’ A member of this People.

-also, like irl, this is not the only way to relate to G-d. other humans can pray to and talk to G-d whenever they like and communicate/get information and visions from Them, without actually touching Their soul (so actively wrestling with G-d and being physically injured by it as proof they did so, like Jacob did -- it is not in heaven, it is here inscribed upon me as a jew) and being burnt. I think this is important!!! becuz when I stress jews as a unique type of relation with G-d rather than an exclusive one, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit a lot of jews…don’t do this in an honest way lol. like. i have always believed it IS cognitive dissonance (and against halakha) to say ‘only jews may know G-d (who is the creator and ruler of the universe and the only god)—what? of course there’s nothing special about it.’ (and people do say this.) it’s not having a relation to G-d that makes jews a people apart, it’s the type of relation. it’s very truthful to say jews have a specifically delineated type of relation to and covenant with G-d as a People: described in our Tanakh our thought and history and theology and philosophy, and the shape of the relation, the role the relation plays in their life, is imo more significant than the contents when it comes to fictional parallels (see eg the rabbits of watership down, or vulcans from star trek). It’s like a function in math.

I like this parallel: the point of becoming a holy is more that it is an irrevocable choice you made about who you are and what your people is, specifically in the dimension of yourself-in-relation-to-G-d—where G-d will take on a particular role and enforce certain brutal, merciless conditions on you They don’t take on for others or enforce on others. And your like…responsibility for your choices, they parallel each other in their cores and ends i think.

-the word holy in judaism: the hebrew word for holy doesn’t have quite the same connotations the English does. It comes from the root k-d-sh, which means ‘set apart.’ This is how G-d says it in the Torah, ‘I have set you apart to be Mine....I have sanctified (....holified) you among the nations/set you aside from the nations to be Holy, as I am Holy.’ The sanctum where the ark of the covenant rested where G-d’s fiery presence appears is the Holy of Holies, etc.

-speaking of, the use of fire in judaism as being connected to G-d: G-d appears as fire. G-d comes forth from the ark of the covenant as fire, G-d leads the israelites to Sinai as a pillar of fire, G-d pours down as fire for Elijah. And fire is how sacrifices were made: offerings of animals to G-d were wholly or partially burned away by fire. after Moses begged to see G-d his face blazed forever afterwards and frightened the other people. etc.

-judaism involves legal change and ritual presence and memory, embodying of memory (...‘she did something sacred, and she’s still burning?’) of bodies objects times and acts: commanded for upholding our end of being a jew, in the world, through material reality. in the mythical times of the Tanakh the legal and material law connect often, the distinction between the law of G-d and the nature of G-d can be ambiguous — see perez-Uzzah. in modern times, it is carried out by our law alone. irl the presence of G-d is shown through the ways we the jews acknowledge G-d: the things we wear, the things we eat and don't eat, the ways torah scrolls and other scripture is treated, etc, and the inhabiting and performance of jewishness by a person is ritually animated as part of our being and life on earth, including ‘living while being a jew.’ this is the way we glorify an immaterial G-d in an embodied way in our every movement and act -- in effect, replicating a mundane, immaterial version of the experience of having a price!! in-universe, holies’ every act is done while aware of their active price that obliges them to contend with and argue before G-d, to reach similar constructions of roles/effects. there’s a million of these in irl judaism lol, this is what halakha is, but couple more blatant examples:

-example 1: circumcision as ritual bodily change, with a very old history of insistence upon it, sometimes thought of as barbaric mutilation and the resulting permanent exposure of the glans as lustful and offensive, and in some periods/places practiced only by jews, and leaned into: eg: “During this period in history Jewish circumcision called for the removal of only a part of the prepuce, and some Hellenized Jews attempted to look uncircumcised by stretching the extant parts of their foreskins. This was considered by the Jewish leaders to be a serious problem, and during the second century CE they changed the requirements of Jewish circumcision to call for the complete removal of the foreskin, emphasizing the Jewish view of circumcision as intended to be not just the fulfillment of a Biblical commandment but also an essential and permanent mark of membership in a people.

-example 2: the original way of praying with tefillin is to wear them all day, not just for morning prayer, and are intended to fulfill the Torah’s instructions to maintain a continuous "sign" and "remembrance" (of the Exodus in this case). The effect of both wearing tefillin all day but also taking them off and on makes it a constant reminder (to yourself) and signifier (to others) of your jewishness—the action of remembering to do it and not letting it fade into the background like a circumcised penis can—making it stay active, the way a price would feel. 

-and! by definition tefillin contain torah verses, and there are parallels between torah and prices too—because the torah is the closest thing irl to a manifestation of G-d’s soul. like that’s a very interpretation, but—the ways torah is treated and analogized in judaism (see the way the ark of the covenant is echoed by torah arks in synagogues, talmudic interpretation of the israelites being married to torah at sinai, the reverent treatment of torah scrolls and written names of G-d, mystical ideas of the torah being filled with decipherable secrets), they can work that way. (one of my fave recent descriptions of torah is it ‘shapes supports constrains and eroticizes, like a corset’ :3 as a price does!) the magical insistence on being known truthfully (theurgy, the whole point of the series) makes a big difference from the irl passivity of words on paper that are animated into active demand only by jews’s insistence on it through our culture, but it leads to paralleling roles, but with a ton of like....genuinely speculative ‘what if?’ fantasy stuff. (but! I can also imagine another similarity-opposite loop: elaborate rituals to manage the relentless constant presence of G-d, to enduring it or leaning into it through times where it’s exhausting and overstimulating—but of course this is headcanon!)

-There is no Book in sehhinah: G-d’s commandments and declarations of truths are mostly implicit, and anyone can communicate with G-d — but also holies all have G-d burned into them, as i said up at the top: holies must argue it directly, and, in part, argue this way, whereas other people can sort of be indifferent to it if they so choose. even if they know G-d is studying and learning from them anyway, it’s not a contract for them.

-after all that: both in terms of ‘general cultural vibes and sentiments’ AND ‘general theological concepts’, this: 

Tamar’s smile glows in the light of God’s fire. “Yeah. I saw Them, Elīya. That was me. I saw Them. And I might not know everything about myself—and I know what that knowing looks like, I’ve seen God—but that I’m someone who’s done that? That that’s part of me? Yeah, I’m pretty solid on that part.”

....is one of the most jewish lines i’ve ever read anywhere lol

-speaking of Incredibly jewish lines, from Safirah:

Heaven would not provide enough variety for me. God is a friend and a companion, and I would prefer They stay with me, in my arm, on many travels, to all options I can find after the Resurrection…

(this also implies that 'staying with safirah, in their arm' (like They are now in this life) means that like......it's soul-deep, the reconstitution and reawakening of a holy would retain their price as a part of their soul....)

-more bits: Safira canonically complains that there’s very little understanding of holies among the general population because most holy thought and writings lack basic intros and that this leads to extreme shock and ogling whenever someone encounters one and are smitten crazy in a way they didn’t expect (i.e. Tamar lmao), and is writing a book trying to explain it and dispel some misunderstandings, which is ON THE NOSE Jewish IssuesTM wwwwwfjkhgfedf

-depictions of persecution of holies have (milder) antisemitism parallels: in the past, accusations of vampire-like contamination, degeneracy, being subjected to repression/concealment and/or forced assimilation. In the current time period there’s typical contradictory stereotypes: of being venerated when no one does venerate them, of being powerful when most of them are not powerful. the way being a holy goes hand in hand with general disability (and very specifically, disability is NOT accommodated or normalized in-universe), that, like jews living in cities and societies dominated by non-jews in historical and current times, and like all real disabled people too, hampers their ability to function in society (eg, Tamar has to navigate unmarked buttons and beg for someone abled to offer her a motorcycle ride to Ennuh, there is no braille or transportation for the blind) albeit through a more circuitous route than irl antisemitism.

-unsure how deliberate this is, but tamar in sehhinah has a great deal of parallels with tamar of genesis, the daughter-in-law of judah who disguised herself as a prostitute to trick him into impregnating her, and who exposes his hypocrisies and inadequacies by turning his actions back on him. she also has a good deal of overlap with jacob, the source of the name israel, who flees his brother and homeland with a blessing obtained by trickery, and eventually returns having made a life for himself and after prevailing against the tests of g-d and man, to face his brother's demands.

-and finally well some of it IS in fact just vibes lol. Stuff that’s hard for me to describe why it feels so jewish to me. little things: vague Ruth/Naomi echoes in Tamar/Safirah, the way Tamar’s ‘eh’’s (note: placed at the beginning of her lines, not the end, important distinction!) and shrugs are a (often thought aggravating) jew-y way of speaking. and the way Eliya is surprised that ‘this is the most genuine she’s heard Tamar be’ after the above ‘know what that knowing looks like’ line, when Tamar HAS been utterly genuine the entire time! — just in a brusque, rude, answering questions with questions or ambiguities sort of way, which is also a typically jew thing too, and the way jews get interpreted a lot. Some of it is not even about holies — “your lives will argue for you.” But scenes surrounding holy-stuff are especially like that. the very first scene of Stars That Rise At Dawn, with Tamar motorbiking to the top of a holy mountain in a ritualized way with the desert and the desert city and river below her, and speaking to G-d……it all just feels so SO jewish in a casually unexotic way I’m not sure any other goyische author has hit upon.

--

EDIT even more shit i thought of later, this is already sooooo fucking long but tangentially:

-my previous favorite type of space jew before this series was vulcans from star trek (another example of a construction that is very jewish, but is not a ‘stand-in’, has very different inputs and outputs of content in a sincerely open, speculative fiction way; but the apparatus and shape of the mechanism of doing so is deeply jewish ('how to behave in a logical and informed manner' against the backdrop of 'feverishly instinctive telepathic society'; compare to 'how to acknowledge and understand the implications and entirety of a soul, eg to experience brightness and intensity is to be burned' against the backdrop of 'this world is made from the aggregate accumulation and reactions of souls, though few people understand this on a deep instead of taken for granted level')

-Shir haShirim parallels in tamar’s pov sections and in epigraphs from the pov of other historical holies, even beyond the obvious verse (8:6) i quoted above the cut. also notable because the shir hashirim is strongly convert-coded imo

-Sa-shira's epigraph paralleling (but not quite quoting!) both kaballistic discussions of the nature of G-d, and the traditional bracha format ("Blessed are You the Lord our God, ruler of the universe"/"Greetings to You, beloved of all Holy, emanator and emanation, center and edge of fractaling flame...")

-an interpretation of perfecting-creation (part of tikkun olam) that suits the utopian setting: for the rest of the world there is already the (already very jewish!) construction where anyone can do theurgy that is indelible and unique to them, adding to the world. a more particularized step from that is the holies pulling G-d into active entanglement with this-world people’s this-world lives

-along with the ritualized nature of tamar’s holy-ing in the prologue that i already noted down, she specifically decides to do it now becuz she just turned 17 (age of adulthood in-universe), paralleling bar and bat mitzvahs at 13 as the ritual by which a kid becomes religiously an adult jew, subject to halakha and responsible for their actions and choices....

-i FORGOT about this because even though it’s an extremely close reference, i find it boring LMAO, but Hannuša’s decision to become a holy in order to use G-d’s manifestation to heal sickness is a replication of the Ba’alei Shem (literally “masters of the Name (of G-d)”) from the Pale who practiced shamanism. (This would hit better if this wasn’t an early-20th-century solarpunk society lol)

-stuff about……the Jewish Soul. in dynamic trialogue with the quote i identified as the most jewish thing i’ve ever read, and with the way souls are (ad hoc) defined in sehhinah as (“that which makes you identifiable to yourself”) is this rash of quotes i reblogged in a hyperfixation during the high holidays with family, which is when the moral-neutrality of being a person-who-is-a-jew and my vague chicken-and-egg jealousy of converts both feel most acute LOL!

[konaizumi]

Gen Y ep 11 thoughts/reaction

- yeees, make thanuwayu canon!

- i literally just want wayu to be happy

- one of my favorite things about this show is how mature the characters feel, like a majority of the conflicts are caused by the characters being confused or unsure of their feelings and trying to take time to work through them and this unintentionally hurts other characters, but this feels more genuine than a bunch of drama created by stupid misunderstandings and characters being petty, and yes, communication would help a lot of these problems, but it never feels like the writers are just adding things in for no other reason than ‘drama’

- anyways, back to thanuwayu and that beautiful hug and wayu’s precious smile

- that brief flash of thanu’s smile, looking so genuinely happy to have wayu in his arms

- poor phai tho, I don’t want any of my babies getting hurt

- anybody else freak out for a second when he took off his shirt in the mirror and worry that he had gotten the tattoo then were immediately relieved when his back was still bare? just me?

- i tend to prefer college shows rather than high school ones, but my favorite thing about high school thai bls is how accurately they portray high school boys, just boys goofing off, showing their sexy hips

- pls poktong just kiss and make up already, i liked you a lot better when your genre was fluff

- watching pok being all flirty and douchy just seems out of character

- 15 min in and still no markkit

- i’m glad the whole blackmailing plot has now been fully explained, but seeing sandee suddenly smirking and being an asshole is giving me the same feelings as when poktong got weirdly aggressive last ep (by feelings i mean confusion and dislike)

- i wanted phai to end up with sandee bc sandee was so cute and sweet but i don’t know if i want that anymore

- also i forgive tong a little bit for what he did (getting pok beat up not switching the test scores) knowing that he had good(ish) intentions, he still fucked up tho and did a bad thing

- i’m calling it now, either next ep or next season, right when poktong is finally making progress, pok will find out about the switched scores and bam, drama

- pls poktong just kiss and make up already

- i know this scene is supposed to be romantic and all but i can’t stop cringing at the placement of the kisses, like next to the mouth but not quite the cheek? the chin??

- back to my preferred high school babies

- i can’t stop laughing at how they all got the coming of age parted bangs hairstyle to symbolize that they’re in college now

- all the high school babies look good except for pok who now has too much forehead, not that his style before was great but it was better

- thanu is such boyfriend material

- that phaiwayu hug hurts my soul, wayu looks so happy, i just want them both to be happy and not get hurt

- Finally!! 25 min in and finally we get markkit

- i want more of this thanu, thanu with a smile and joking around with his friends

- I really want jiw’s butterfly shirt

- jack and jew kidknapping mark like that was prob my favorite moment of the whole episode, that gif is now my header

- alright, padbok is back, still waiting for their story, but i kinda hope their resolution waits till season 2 bc i want character development for padbok and there’s already so much that needs to happen next ep that i think his story would only be rushed and somewhat glossed over

- i know some people hate padbok, and i also find him annoying, but ever since they dropped the idea of padbok x sab in an earlier ep, all i want is padbok redemption ark

- i guess thanu is somehow going to feature in the poktong story

- i absolutely love sab and klui, they are my favorites of the high school babies

- i guess i can’t call them high school babies anymore

- jackkoh, just admit your feelings for each other already

- aww, markkitwayu choosing custody over the babies, mark wants to be a good senior so badly

- soon as kit said they hadn’t picked a medicine beau, i was like, it’s going to be tong, and i was right, it’s ittpai all over again, but whether it’s better or worse remains to be seen

- kit really does attract the beau’s doesn’t he

- don’t worry mark, you’re much prettier than pok

- pls give me more kitwayu bonding and helping each other heal from pha

- damn kit, you were so close to getting phai to spill

- yes phai, make kit move in with mark

- i absolutely need to know what kit’s test is for phai’s suitors

- i would just like to admire dun’s ability to look so completely lovestruck, like his gaze is just so full of love and it’s so sweet

- that kiss was so cute, i’m sorry i ever doubted you thanuwayu

- that’s pha’s car isn’t it? he’s watching them? I thought he would come back this ep and cause some drama, but he didn’t so he has to come back next ep right?

- i like that they’ve softened poktong bc i like them much better as friends to lovers rather than enemies to lovers

- honestly, their story has a lot of potential but something about it is just really not working well for me and i think its the weird aggression bc they don’t annoy me when their being sweet and smiling. I think if pok had more of a bad boy vibe originally it would’ve been better bc the aggression wouldn’t seem so ooc and the conflict would feel a bit more natural

- their story also has a ton of parallels to ittpai (my gear your gown), so im interested how it’s going to go bc i did like ittpai despite the narrative issues of that show

- poktong: *doing whatever tf they’re doing*

  mark: tf did i just step in

- i really appreciate thanu just saying straight out that he has feelings for wayu, i know he struggled with it, but i like him coming to this point that’s like yes, he feels an attraction to phai, he feels drawn to him and he’s seen their poential future, but right now he has actual, solid feelings for wayu built up from their interactions over months

- what he has with phai isn’t real--it could be real, if he went down that path and choose to get closer to phai, but right now his feelings for wayu are real, so that’s what he’s choosing

- him saying they should never meet again was a little tho, spare my poor baby phai at least a little bit

- i get a dose of serotonin every time i see kit wearing mark’s gear

- the markkit is lacking this ep but they are trying to make up for it with all this good good thanuwayu content

- i’m torn between wanting and not wanting thanu to tell wayu about phai bc it will hurt wayu if he does but it’s gonna hurt more later on when wayu finds out on his own

- I can’t tell if wayu has a suspicion about phai, like he def senses there’s another person but I can’t tell if he knows it’s phai

- okay but thanuwayu are so cute and sweet together

- pls let my babies kiss, i couldn’t appreciate their first kiss bc i didn’t ship them then and wayu thought it was pha so pls let them have a do over

- you know what, i like thanuwayu having visions like thanuphai. I can’t quite tell if that was the writers’ intention, but i hope it is bc that would imply that thanuphai aren’t actually soulmates and that what they see is just a potential future, like they could be happy together, but there are also other people who they can be happy with

- i’m not super crazy about this whole ‘let’s rewrite my memories of pha with memories of you’ bc that doesn’t seem like the healthiest way to move on from pha or to start a new relationship but whatever makes wayu happy i guess

- however i do like how it ties into the whole ‘no predetermined fate’ thing and shows how life is shaped by choices and chance

- pls let my babies kiss tho

- hey so i am not liking this preview of the next ep

- anyways, so i’m liking how their handling the thanuwayuphai thing so far, but it is going to be bad next ep as im assuming the envelope that has phai’s picture is probably phai returning the picture to cut ties but obvi wayu is going to find out about their relationship

- still not sure how i feel about poktong, its better than last ep which i did not like and def shows more potential, but i think we’re gonna have to wait and see, don’t like the direction they’re taking with sandee tho

- also whoops, this got really long but i have a lot of feelings about this show

- fingers crossed for actual markkit content next ep

[guiltywisdom]

Ive actually felt very. Avoidant. Of doing any herb/lots/folk practices even though theres been some.. odd things that lead me to believe my ancesors did (and so i feel the effects) so while im still avoiding it generally, id really love to hear more of your thoughts on folk practices in christianity if you got any.. - c

I have a lot of thoughts actually but they aren’t well organised I’m afraid. I think there are many forms that folk practices can take and honestly intention is most important. There are harmless forms, harmful forms and in general I have problems with the misattribution of modern ideas into ancient ones, of twisting old beliefs into strange new ones. A perfect example of this are tarot cards and I specifically want to focus on the Rider-Waite and it’s direct derivatives. Tarot is derived from the Italian word trionfi, which probably means “trump card”.

They were used in tarocchi games and NOT for divination, at least not at their inception in the 15th century; later in the 18th century they were adopted for this use. An example of this game type deck which wasn’t used for divination would be the Tarot de Marseilles. The Rider-Waite tarot deck, the one which is in our mind as the default tarot, which was first published in 1909, is based on the Tarot de Marseilles! These cards just took the Tarot de Marseilles and made them “magical-ish” and removed any Christian imagery. The cards were heavily influenced by the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn which borrowed from many sources and were basically structured like a Masonic lodge. The 5 of coins (golden coins used for buying things) were turned into the 5 of pentacles and the Pope figure became the Hierophant. They just took something very mundane and decided it was magical; in of itself that isn’t terrible but what I dislike are the arguments to its magical and ancient origins. They claim these practices are ancient in an attempt to give it legitimacy, meanwhile actual ancient ideas are left at the wayside.

Okay. So now herbs. Herbs are just medicine, honestly yes and before we had so called “modern medicine” we had herbs. Science would later take the herbs and refine them, find the perfect mixes but honestly modern medicine is just herbs and other natural things. If you want to mix some herbs together and smear it on your leg, assuming it’s not poison, go ahead! If you want to smell nice, burn herbs or incense great! At home we have an aloe vera plant we use sometimes, nothing wrong with that. If you want to pray over your mixture to God to help heal you, great! If you are praying to anything else though, then that’s an issue.

Lots! Casting lots is simply using randomness to figure out the will of a supernatural being. People casted lots often in the Bible, they casted lots to see who was at fault for the storm in the Book of Jonah, the Romans casted lots to see who would get Jesus’ things in the gospels and the apostles casted lots to see who would replace Judas in the Book of Acts. Again it’s all about who or what you are praying to for the guidance. Asking God to guide you is very different from asking an ancestral spirit or a demon. Also, are you trying to use your own “power” or the power of God? So tarot cards are just a different type of lots which I honestly think is fine, assuming you are asking for guidance from the right places and of course you make sure that you aren’t being deceived. I think these things can be dangerous and using things meant for contacting things other than God might be dangerous. 

There is the Gospel of the Lots of Mary, a fifth–sixth-century C.E. Coptic miniature codex which is a form of tarot in which you randomly select a fortune from the book (I have a translated digital copy). Rolling dice, throwing bones, casting stones, divining the will of God. 

A large portion of Orthodoxy would speak against that but I’m on the fence, I think there is a middle ground. The ancient Jews of the Bible believed in spirits and demons and casting Lots, it means it was at least at some point compatible. When the Bible speaks about not tolerating a witch to live, I think it’s more speaking on what that witch is doing. She’s asking for guidance not from God, she might be harming people too. We should be wary that we are not being tricked into thinking it is God but I think it IS possible to roll your folk beliefs and your culture into Christianity. 

Urgh, this was all over the place. 

[potter-inthe-tardis]

I was tagged by @jessi-in-blackhole thank you for tagging me!!!!! 

rules; answer twenty one questions and then tag twenty one blogs you’d like to know better !

Name: You all can call me TT (it’s not my actual name but its close to it and its a nickname a lot of my irl friends call me) 

Star sign: Capricorn

Height: 5′ 5

Last film I saw: I think it was Dumplin 

Favorite musician/band: Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys, Mitski, Got7 

Song stuck in my head: I’m listening to music rn so the songs that are play are the songs stuck in my head for the moment, so rn it’s I Don’t Wanna Be Anywhere Else by The Jungle Giants  

Other blogs: i have one other active blog and 2 inactive ones, the active one is a kpop one (iwasntplanningonlikingkpop) the inactive ones, one is a like aesthetic/hipster one the other is one dedicated to Ong Songwu from Wanna One. 

Do I get asks: occasionally, maybe about one every couple weeks, or a hand full if i reblog one of those ask post. but l really love getting asks even if they are totally random. 

Blogs following: don’t judge me but 1,924 :/ in my defense when i started tumblr i followed just about every blog i encountered, and i have tried going thought and following inactive blogs but it’s a lot of work so :/  

What am I wearing: a red hoodie from when i was on my volleyball team in elementary school (it still fits cuz i was a big pre-teen and its still super comfy) and red sweatpants, they arent the same red tho, the pants are more maroon-ish. 

Dream job: television show writer/show runner/director 

Dream trip: To go to Germany, South Korean, China, and Australia. And also to go back to London, Paris, and Venice.  

Play any instruments: I kinda play Guitar 

Languages: English only, but I’ve been trying to learn other languages, my main focus has been German, French, and Korean, and i probably know Korean the most of those three, but still like I only maybe know like 3% Korean. 

Favorite food: Pizza and Sushi 

Favorite songs: Of all time, Something Good Can Work by Two Door Cinema Club, Veiled In Grey by Mystery Jets, and Perfection as a Hipster by God Help The Girl. and current faves, Simon Says by NCT 127, A.D.T.O.Y by 2PM, and whatever songs Vampire Weekend is gonna release any day now lol.  

Random fact: I’m left handed, and when i was in 7th grade I did a while science fair project on it called, is it harder for left or right handed people, because I was bitter that the world was made for right handed people. And in my elementary school only 5 people per class got into the schools official science fair where you showed off your project and got to compete for prize, and i was one of the 5 kids in my class to get in, with that project, and then one of the judges told me that i should have had the calculations in the metric system, even thought it was like a social experiment so it had calculations like ‘how may people thought this...’ or whatever. so how was i supposed to put that in metric system form, its been like 10 years (omg its been like ten years?!?) but im still confused on how i could have done that, and im still bitter. also i didnt win anything but i expected that.    

Im tagging: @heichoumama @pieces-of-silverwing @raiseuptoyourabilityy @neon-cowboys @pinkflosstaeyong @sshes-thunderstorms @hazelnutbread @black-infinity-parked-outside @qxeeralien @radio-freedunmovin @arcticrachael @pleasingbutts @majorquepena @imaginationofacrazyfangirl @walcahtt @silver-jews @fragranceofintegrity @claaaap and obviously you dont have to do this if you dont want to!!!!

[progressivejudaism]

hi i’m disabled and jew-ish (i’ve been learning and been pretty observant for about 4 years now but am too scared to go through official conversion) and i feel like the fact that i care so much about judaism and yet haven’t converted just makes me an antisemite who accessorizes judaism or something, but i’ve also been pretty dedicated for years so maybe im just lazy?

Hi there,

Thank you for your excellent question.   Although I will share my opinion (the opinion of someone who is just a rabbinical student), I think that this is the perfect question for you to ask your rabbi or cantor! 

I would argue that if you care so much about Judaism then you should really consider going through the conversion process.�� I cannot imagine how difficult and confusing it will feel for you to continue living in this liminal space between a Jew and a non-Jew– it must be rather lonely, no?

I would be happy to chat with you more personally (via direct messaging) if you think that that sort of conversation would help!  I am also happy to connect you with a rabbi or cantor in your area who might be able to help you further (especially if you feel like you cannot have a conversation with this with your current clergy).

Please let me know how I can best support you!

PJ

[jewishconvertthings]

hi, im sorry if this has been said at some point before, but im a prospective convert. because of who people i interact with are, were pretty open to discussions about heavy topics, like religion, gender, poverty, etc, but i really dont like saying im converting because im worried theyll assume that just means im automatically jewish if theyre a goy, or think i wont be a REAL jew once i do convert if theyre jewish. i love the journey, but the weird "jew(-ish)" limbo kind of sucks ⭐

B⭐ (im the previous anon with the star) mostly im worried about things because no matter what goyim just automatically consider me jewish or assume “im converting” means “im just describing that im having a spiritual journey, im jewish now”, and the first experience i had with a jewish person finding out i wanted to convert was Not Very Good.          

Hi anon,

I’m sorry your first experience with a Jewish person learning about your desire to convert went poorly. Please know that (at least from my experience and others I’ve talked to) that this person is a minority opinion. 

As for non-Jews making assumptions? Unfortunately, there’s not a lot you or anyone else can do, and frankly, this is the tip of the iceberg. These are just the initial assumptions - wait until you get deeper into the process and when you finally become Jewish! 

...

All flippancy aside, anon? The best you can do is try to educate people where possible, and to be honest about who you are and where you’re at with things. No, you can’t control other people’s perceptions of you, and that’s something that you’ll need to learn to live with, because it’s going to continue to happen in different forms your whole life. I understand your concerns, but there’s not much more you can do than to be upfront and educate the people who will let you. 

Being in the in-between space of “conversion student” is really awkward and sometimes unpleasant - this is true. It can be a very difficult and frustrating position to be in. However, it is absolutely necessary, and - as with many important life goals - the waiting period is actually a transition period. You need it so that you can grow into a version of yourself that is prepared to take this on. 

The good news is that the deeper into this process you get, the more obvious this becomes, and at least for me, I was able to become more patient over time because I realized just how much there was to learn and how far I needed to go. The great news, though, is that it doesn’t last forever. You will finish, if you so choose. You will step into this next part of your life, and you will look back on this time, with all its ups and downs as a watershed of growth. 

Best of luck to you - I hope you are able to embrace this exciting and challenging period of your life with an open mind, an open heart, and a focused attitude. 

[scottstiles]

clarz

replied to your post

“hi divvy! i know you are MAD right now, so don't answer this until you...”

thanks so much for answering this! tbh i love the fact that you're religious and that you clearly love it so much. i went to a very catholic college, so that kind of thoughtful and deep connection with religion and tradition is important to me, and i love seeing it in other people. it's an important part of who you are! and part of the reason i asked is because you mentioned disliking the performance thing in your initial post, and i really connect with that. when i was growing up, the church i went to was pretty plain and traditional (despite very liberal politics and interpretations of scripture.) most of the other people i knew who went to church were evangelical and/or southern baptist, and i always disliked that their churches had like, full rock bands at services, and poppy contemporary melodies to "hymns." i understand that they're trying to make church fun, but it always made me suspicious and felt disingenuous.                  i don't think religious services should be a chore, certainly, but i also don't think that they should be "fun" in that way. that's not the purpose of religion. i don't think religion should become more like entertainment or performance, because it's supposed to be a space that's completely different from the rest of the world. it makes it feel less holy to me. so i definitely relate to how you feel there. also, how did you end up feeling about the service in the moment? (and i'd love to hear about the ma'apilim sometime)                                            

SORRY I DIDN’T ANSWER THESE BEFORE CUZ I REALLY WANTED TO BUT PROCRASTINATION IS MY MIDDLE NAME (jk it’s tzviya but try saying that ten times fast. or just one time. slow.)

HERE WE GO:

1- i love finding other people who feel close to their religion, no matter what it is. i remember in teacher’s college i just naturally gravitated to the only catholic girls in my classes i guess simply because i enjoyed talking to them? we weren’t there learning to teach religion, but i’m always fascinated by what other people feel about it. i’ve found myself thinking on more than one occasion that i feel more comfortable with people who have that side to themselves, like me, rather than people who don’t interact/think about/believe in any of that kinda stuff. (im being purposefully vague because it’s a huge generalization, but nonetheless true-ish for me, i often find myself sharing much more common ground with palestinian muslims, for example, than a french canadian montrealer). i guess especially because religion is not something i consider a defining trait of mine, and im just in constant evolution with respect to that. judaism is so much more than just a belief in god or a practice of the rituals and commandments.

2- how fascinating to find someone in my age bracket who feels the same way about music in prayer. my problem has always been that i LOVE music, and its so personal and emotional that i DO see it fitting seamlessly with prayer but... it’s the setting that has always bothered me. it just never felt right for me in a synagogue. like you said, it’s just a different space. i don’t know about church and ‘making it fun’ but i definitely can imagine plenty of religions use music to draw in otherwise disinterested people who find prayer “boring” or pointless. music is awesome! i just wish people could feel the music in their soul as a separate entity from external music, like from an instrument. idk i guess i just really love singing XD and i wish it wasn’t always a performance or a competition of voices, because i think prayer should be personal. even if it’s between a community, its still voices connecting to each other. i’m reminded of Hannah’s prayer, in the book of Samuel (the prophet- his mother), she’s at the temple on one of the annual pilgrimages with her family and she’s depressed because she doesn’t have any children and her husband’s other wife just keeps popping out babies left and right. so she goes to be alone somewhere in the temple, and she’s weeping and praying to god for a child. Eli, the high priest, comes in and sees her shaking and moving her lips real fast so he goes, “hey, you shouldn’t be drinking in here” and she’s like “im not drunk, i’m praying”. so that’s the first place we read about a person actually praying, and not out loud. this was like a huge revelation to the priest cuz clearly he’d never seen that before, and now the tradition has become to pray like hannah. (as an aside, if u ever see the propaganda videos made by the nazis, they use footage of synagogues to show how loony tunes those jews are with their muttering and their rocking back and forth). cuz like, prayer is supposed to be out loud? ahaha anyway i forgot where i was going with this but... oh ya, okay, so prayer didn’t really exist (as we know it, in judaism- and therefore christianity/islam/western monotheism) until that point- it was all about the sacrifices. and the temple ritual was replete with music and instruments like the shofar, timbrels, lutes, blabla other ancient instruments. but since then, we’ve been meant to use our voices alone. so says tradition, i guess.

3- so i did go to services on yom kippur (kol nidre) but not at my shul. i went with my sister to the chabad house near my parents, and it was....not great. but it was compounded by a lot of factors- i got a wicked cold the day or two before, so my nose was running a marathon and i was coughing like a 90yr old with emphysema. i got my period that morning so i was on an extra steep emotional rollercoaster that i just somehow could barely control. so we sat on the other side of the mechitzah (the separation barrier between men and women), the rabbi/cantor stood at the head in the middle so we could all see, and we all prayed out loud, no hush on the women’s side or anything (pretty typical from what i remember of camp/school prayer services). but of course the tunes were not quite what i’m used to, and there was a bit of annoying stuff that just irks me as a perfectionist (like they use a lot of yiddish pronunciation of the hebrew words, injecting a bunch of oy oy oys and ahoyhoyhoys in random places, in fact i leaned over to my sister at one point and was like ‘did ned flanders write this nigun (tune)?’), but altogether i guess it was better than watching an orchestra perform the prayer? idk it was pretty bad, on an emotional level, but not in hindsight. im very good at ruining things for myself through sheer stubbornness. i must have embarrassed my sister just by existing next to her, poor girl, she really wanted me to like it. i’m glad it’s over, and hopefully by next year ill be back in nyc or some other city so i wont have to worry about it.

4- MA’APILIM!!!!! okay so this was my absolute favoritest thing as a kid and i can’t wait to describe it to you. one night in camp, every summer, the counselors and cits would wake us up at like 3am by barging into our cabins chanting (screaming, really) “MA’APILIM, MA’APILIM BEH-MASSAD, BEH-MASSAD. MATCHIL HALAYLA MATCHIL HALAYLA BEH-MASSAD, BEH-MASSAD.” which translates to : “ma’apilim at massad (the name of my camp) starts tonight.” i’m singing it in my head as i type XD. so they’d be screaming and we’d be tumbling bleary eyed out of bed to grab our socks and sweatshirts and run over to the flagpole (keep in mind i was 8 when i first experienced this, and we’ve had kids as young as 6 at camp). once we had all gathered in line with our bunkmates, the counselors and cits put on a little “skit”.

basically they acted like they were nazis and jews, and did a little skit of some basic bad holocaust stuff (don’t ask me to remember the exact details we’re talkin at least 20 years since i last did this) to scare the pants off of us. kids would always cry already at this point from the shouting. we’d all kinda follow into this “play” (sorry idk what else to call it), and marched over to the gym where we watched a fake hanging on the stage. they literally. hanged someone. in front of us. a fake noose, of course, duh, i remember my counselor showing it to me, but traumatizing to say the least (i still remember the name of the counselor they “hanged”- not sure this ever happened more than once but ill never forget it).

then we’d all hustle down to the waterfront, again “playing” the role of holocaust victims/survivors after these little “skits” had sort of put us in the headspace, and we play along, imagining we’d just experienced these things and were now running from it. it was terrifying and exhilarating as a small child, and an even more unbelievably emotional thrill ride as i got older and became pseudo-obsessed with holocaust lit and facts in general in my life (it never did go away but everything changes with age). ANYWAYS so down at the waterfront we got a speech from another counselor playing a member of the haganah (the main jewish defense force in palestine leading up to independence, which ben gurion later turned into the IDF). sidebar for a little history: in the 40s the yishuv (jewish agency) and the haganah began a mission called aliyah bet, “the second immigration,” an illegal smuggling operation to bring refugees from the holocaust into palestine under the noses of the british, since almost all countries in the world had barred their doors to jewish immigration from europe (a high level member of the canadian government is famously recorded as having answered, when asked how many jews they should let in, that “none is too many”). volunteer seamen from the US and canada and other countries crossed the ocean on cargo ships hastily refurbished to fit hundreds of people, picking up thousands of refugees in europe to smuggle them onto the beaches of haifa and tel aviv. paul newman has a lovely half nekid scene of this in the movie Exodus when he jumps off the ship in the middle of the night and swims up onto the beach- one of my fave movies ever and pretty much the story of aliyah bet (albeit with tremendous hollywood embellishment and only mild accuracy). these refugees who became illegal immigrants (caught or not) were known as “ma’apilim”- the root of the word is to “climb” or to “rise up”, and is found in the bible referring to the israelites who were still eager to enter the land even after the negative report of the spies.

okay so basically this was the idea. we were “playing” these illegal immigrants who had just escaped the holocaust, and were now facing another threat in the form of the british who were doing their best to keep them out of palestine. k so we’re down at the waterfront. all the kids get divided into small groups of about 10 or so, with one or two counselors at the helm to be our “haganah operatives” and guides to the end. what end, you say? so the camp is spread out into 2 areas, the main camp where the younger kids cabins were, and the dining hall and the gym and the waterfront, etc. then there’s a road in the middle of the camp, and beyond it a hill leading up to the senior cabins and some sports fields at the top. the goal was for each group to make it through camp to the top of the hill without getting caught by the “british,” played by the cits who were roaming around camp.

idk if i have to describe camp further for people who don’t know the concept, but basically we’re all in the middle of the damn woods with nothing around us for miles except the lake and the camps on the other side of it or down the road. ill never forget my first ma’apilim (tbh most of my description is from then, which is why its so fuzzy cuz these memories are 20+ years old), i was so lucky to get the tripper as our group leader (the tripper is the “nature dude” in camp, the survivalist ;). he immediately led us underneath the gym (which of course was just insane to my small mind... UNDER the gym??) to plan our route and give us instructions. we organized a roll call and signals, we practiced walking in a single file line silently and dropping to the ground on his signal. we smeared dirt on our faces for camo in the woods. it was *mason voice* intense. k so then as you can guess, we snuck our way up the hill through the woods. sometimes we’d encounter other groups, once in awhile i remember getting caught by a cit, and they’d take all or some of us to the “jail” on the basketball court” where we’d have to wait for a jailbreak (idk how that worked but it did, i remember it happening but not in any detail). a famous prison break that DID happen was at acre prison in 1947 when the irgun (another paramilitary jewish group) blew up the prison and broke out 28 of their members and 214 arab prisoners. if im not mistaken they briefly refer to it in exodus by recreating a prison break. exciting times. ANYWAYS fuck im such a tangential bitch sorry XD, by the end of the night we’d all make it to the top- “jerusalem”- and we’d have hot chocolate and say morning prayers as the sun rose over the hill. 

i feel like my description is a little lacking, but hopefully u get the basic picture. ma’apilim wasn;t even the heaviest part of camp- that was tisha b’av- the fast day when we commemorate the destruction of the temple and every other traumatic destructive event the jewish people have gone thru. that night they’d prepare the camp with candles in sand filled paper bags lining all the paths. after dinner we’d walk with our bunks on the path and watch little skits in different parts of camp- scenes from these moments in jewish history, like the holocaust, pogroms in europe, the spanish inquisition, terror attacks in israel, etc. after walking the path we’d all convene back at the waterfront, where they’d set out a small reconstructed “temple” on a makeshift raft in the lake, and a banner on the beach that said “yizkor”- remember. then they’d light both on fire and we’d sit and watch them burn while singing appropriately somber songs like eli eli, by hannah senesz. after that we’d go back to the gym and lie on the floor in small groups huddled around candles. we’d listen as some people chanted the book of eicha (lamentations), and would slowly fall asleep (depending on our age, of course). anyone that was still up after that was over got to stay in the gym if they wanted to watch exodus- a 4 hour movie. the next day we’d fast all day (only those who wanted- 13 y/o +) and treated it basically like shabbat- no regular activities.

MAN did i get some wild shit imprinted on me from camp!! but i don’t regret one second. i only wish other people could have the experience i did, but i dont even know if they still do that there. they probably do, but this old lady has no excuses to step foot in a summer camp anymore :(

as a completely coincidental aside and not at all as a self promo, idk if u knew this but i’ve been working on a documentary for over a year now and this whole thing is a major part of the plot. i interviewed a lady who was a passenger on the exodus, and about 4 or 5 people who were volunteers from montreal/new york/new jersey/toronto that picked up and smuggled the refugees. the stories are incredible. i just hope the rest of the world will get to hear it from their mouths one day. all we need is 100k to finish the film XD

[doctorwhos]

2, 3, 10, 14

2. are you single or taken?

single ! single for a while. ive been going on dates here and there, but nothings really stuck in a while!

3. rant. just do it

oh gosh uh. im honestly really fucking tired of the casual antisemitism thats spread across mainstream media. so many people are getting defensive over the crowley fanart thing and its exhausting !! why are you getting so mad over a jew saying something is antisemitic, and bringing up proof of it ?? what is it about judaism that gets your panties in such a twist ?? so many christian-atheists think that every religion is the same and that its terrible and patriarchal and oppressive and just like christianity and its not !! its really not !! judiasm and islam are so special and unique and have so much more in common then they do with christianity, and seeing people put all three together is so infuriating !!! listen to jews and jewish problems !! and goy/goyim isnt a slur !!

10. name a dog

pancakes !!! i wanna get a dog named pancakes so badly, just bc its such a stupid name. i do have a dog named angel !!! shes very stupid and old and i love her very much.

14. what’s your coffee order?

i hate coffee a lot alkjdsgsag but if i do order coffee (on the rare day im absolutely exhausted) i get a grande caramel frappe with almond milk. but my TYPICAL drink order is ill get a venti chai latte with almond milk and light ice. ill also put cinnamon on it bc i think it makes it taste better. i hate starbucks but i like tea too much. 

ask me some unusual(ish) things!

[tsuyoshikentsu]

#no more 'im jew-ish' no youre a jew

#we are not cowards

#we are not weak

#i cannot stress to you how much they see this as a game that they intend to win

#even if its fucking scary to be openly jewish thats why you need to be!

#They are playing the long game and part of it is trying to scare us into hiding

#we are not going into hiding

#jumblr#judaism#frumblr#jew stuff#jewish#jewblr#jewish stuff#j tag#jewish tag

#if anyone argues 'but i dont feel safe wearing it in my area' im going to respond to you the same way

#thats why you need to wear it

#you do not make things better by not wearing it

#'its not my responsibility to make things better' it absolutely is

#like it nor not there are so few of us that each jew becomes like a spokesperson for the rest of us

#you are likely going to be the first jew someone has ever met

#and its important that you give the impression of pride and not 'eh im kind of jew-ish'

#because when people see that they take it as a sign that if you dont respect it it's not worth respecting so they dont have to either

#anyway

#also they get so fucking mad when we're proud about being jewish and its funny to see

#every time i make a post about loving being jewish my inbox is like

#'you dirty jew i wish you all died in the holocaust' lol theyre sooo mad when we are proud of who we are Hinda, your tags have passed peer review.

Don't let threats against synagogues scare you out of going. The people making these threats want you to be scared. They want you to be so scared that you don't feel safe living your life as a proud and visible Jew, so scared that you take your menorah out of your window and remove your mezuzah from your doorpost. The more you concede, the more they feel like they're winning and the more emboldened they get.

Now, more than ever, we need Jews to be loud, proud and unapologetic. You should not be afraid to exist as a Jew. Wear your star of David. Wear your kippah. And take pride in who you are and where you come from.