#queer Jews

[widthofmytongue]

In Berakhot 60a, Rav Yosef discusses a beraita relating to gender transition or reassignment in Genesis 30:21, which teaches us:

וְאַחַר יָלְדָה בַּת וַתִּקְרָא אֶת שְׁמָהּ דִּינָה

'And afterwards she [Leah] bore a daughter, and named her Dinah'

The Gemara asks, what is meant by the addition of the word "afterwards" [ וְאַחַר ]? What does the verse seek to convey by emphasizing that after the birth of Zebulun, Leah gave birth to Dinah? Rav Yosef suggests that after Leah passed judgment on herself, she observed: "Twelve Tribes are destined to descend from us, and if this child is a son, my sister Rachel will not share equal standing as progenitor"; immediately the child was transformed into a daughter, and Leah named her Dinah; meaning she named her daughter after her judgment [ דִּינָה ].

I’m a rabbi, and so I’m particularly saddened whenever religious arguments are brought in to defend social prejudices — as they often are in the discussion about transgender rights. In fact, the Hebrew Bible, when read in its original language, offers a highly elastic view of gender. And I do mean highly elastic: In Genesis 3:12, Eve is referred to as “he.” In Genesis 9:21, after the flood, Noah repairs to “her” tent. Genesis 24:16 refers to Rebecca as a “young man.” And Genesis 1:27 refers to Adam as “them.”

Surprising, I know. And there are many other, even more vivid examples: In Esther 2:7, Mordecai is pictured as nursing his niece Esther. In a similar way, in Isaiah 49:23, the future kings of Israel are prophesied to be “nursing kings.”

Why would the Bible do this? These aren’t typos. In the ancient world, well-expressed gender fluidity was the mark of a civilized person. Such a person was considered more “godlike.” In Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the gods were thought of as gender-fluid, and human beings were considered reflections of the gods. The Israelite ideal of the “nursing king” seems to have been based on a real person: a woman by the name of Hatshepsut who, after the death of her husband, Thutmose II, donned a false beard and ascended the throne to become one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs.

The Israelites took the transgender trope from their surrounding cultures and wove it into their own sacred scripture. The four-Hebrew-letter name of God, which scholars refer to as the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, was probably not pronounced “Jehovah” or “Yahweh,” as some have guessed. The Israelite priests would have read the letters in reverse as Hu/Hi — in other words, the hidden name of God was Hebrew for “He/She.” Counter to everything we grew up believing, the God of Israel — the God of the three monotheistic, Abrahamic religions to which fully half the people on the planet today belong — was understood by its earliest worshipers to be a dual-gendered deity. - Rabbi Mark Sameth

[jewish-lgbtq]

Jewish Progress Pride flag, from Keshet!

[redwiccanrobin]

Edit because not enough people are seeing this in the notes:

(From my Instagram story)

[genderqueerdykes]

merry christmas & happy hanukkah to every queer person who observes these holidays! i hope that spending time with your families go as well as it possibly can. i wish everyone dealing with queerphobic families that the conversations remain light and civil this year. i'm wishing the best for everyone, especially queer Jewish people. take care of yourself, you are loved. you deserve to celebrate with those you love without criticism or feeling put on the spot.

[honorlessrogue]

not only this, but religious queer people deserve to be safe in not just queer spaces but jewish queer spaces as well. there have been times when i finally found queer jewish people to connect to only to find out that they will completely reject you if they find out you're religious, as if it's impossible to be both. there are orthodox queer jews out there. and we don't need to drop a part of our identity in order to conform to what you deem as an "acceptable" way to be a queer jew. there are just as many ways to be a religious queer jew as there are ways of being queer. or ways of being religious. or just ways of being a jew. stop trying to put everything into neat little boxes because people don't work like that and you should know that by now

Jewish queer people deserve to be safe in queer spaces.

[moonmoonthecrabking]

happy pride month to religious queer people, who feel like they’re contradictions, or told that they’re contradictions, but stay true to these important parts of themselves anyway. happy pride to the queer religious people who have to explain their identities, and who have to defend their faith or their queerness in either circle.

i love you, i am one of you, thank you for being in this community with me.

[jewishboricua]

pride month is about to start, so lemme say something real quickly: happy pride to all the queer Jews out there who might feel left out of their communities (this goes for the queer and the Jewish communities) and also that Hashem loves you as you are and you don’t need to ever hate yourself for being different or convince yourself that you need changing!! 🩷 (and for the queer Jews who don’t believe in g-d, I just hope you have a good month!!)

[changeling-droneco]

Honestly, as someone asexual and probably some flavor of aro goy myself, im so sorry to all the asexual and aromantic jewish folks who has to deal with the biggest ace and aro blogs not shutting up about palestine and everything, especially fuckyeahasexual, who has taken ZERO steps in caring for jewish aces and has been INCREDIBLY antisemetic going as far as to yell at people who so much as donate to ao3 instead of gaza, accuse israel of being the main perpetrator of october seventh, spreading intense amounts of blood libel, and more.

It is utterly heartbreaking to see a blog that was once a safe spot for rallying around a shared identity turn so bitter and cruel and actively damaging. You all deserved a safer place to celebrate your asexual and aromantic orientations, and to not be shamed for simply existing, you arent a traitor, or a monster, or anything like that.

Jewish aces and aros are as valid in your identities as any other ace or aro, and im so sorry that so few aces and aros seemed to have learned from the coordinated attacks on our identity/right to exist, and proceed to do the same bullshit to you. I'm sorry for the utter failure of the queer community for jewish queers just in general. It's disgusting, its horrific, and you deserve so much more then just this one ace's apologies

[ashinafantasy]

because i'm curious:

[hachama]

Did I ever post pictures of all the pride flag variant kippot? I started of making the custom flags so I could get pictures and there were SO MANY and I LOVE that for us. Yes, we all stand under the rainbow, yes all non-cis genders are included under the trans pride flag, but also! It! Is! So! Good! To be seen for who you are and to have a way to identify people whose lived experience is close to your own. That's so good! It's so validating!

So here is my gallery of colors:

WAIT I HAVE TOO MANY.

[elzurxa]

Happy pride & שבת שלום

[chelledoggo]

there's too much animosity towards queer people who want to practice their faith/spirituality, both within their respective religions and within the LGBTQIA+ community.

we need to protect and lift up our queer siblings of faith.

our queer Christians.

our queer Jews.

our queer Muslims.

our queer Hindus.

our queer Buddhists.

our queer Sikhs.

our queer Baháʼís.

our queer Wiccans/Pagans.

our queer Shintos.

our queer siblings of indigenous/folk faiths.

our queer SBNR siblings.

our queer siblings of whatever religion/spiritual systems they observe.

you're all beautiful and valid and loved and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 💖

[goldenangelbaby]

There is something so beautiful about queer Catholics and even queer people in any religion who are so devout despite people telling us we are a sin and damned. And yet, we still worship. And yet. And yet. And yet.

[girlwithsword]

I'm going to keep being SO JEWISH, and SO QUEER, and SO SO KIND and I'm going to do that /loudly/ for the rest of my life.

[magnetothemagnificent]

Reblog if you're Jewish and queer and *dreading* Pride month this year