May 14, 2021

Bamidbar

Hello!

This week we start a whole new book of the torah: Bamidbar, or “in the wilderness”, 1:1-4:20 (blaze it). Not too be too cliche about it, but I’m feeling very wilderness-stuck lately myself lately. In this torah reading we talk about a census of how many people each tribe can militarily contribute (besides the Levites, who instead have to deal with the tabernacle), and we find out who camped where and which Levites were in charge of what.

This week also includes Shavuot, the holiday of revelation, when we recieved the torah from G-d. I hope that we are able to open our hearts and hear wisdom from Hashem. It is traditional to eat dairy/abstain from meat, study all night, and read the book of Ruth.

Tikkun Leil Shavuot (all night study session) list:

• 5/15 3pm through 5/16 9pm PDT Shavuot LIVE–presenters from many different orgs; all streamed live
• 5/16 3pm-9pm PDT Miles Nadal JCC (Toronto, ON) Tikun Leil Shavuot, fb link–multi-track (Contemporary, Text, Hands-On)
• 5/16 4pm PST-5/17 8AM PST with an overnight break, small congregations shavuot–large breadth of topics; includes services in the morning
• 5/16 5:30pm through 5/17 2am PDT The Paul Feig z”l Tikkun Leil Shavuot from Marlene Meyerson JCC; multi-track (Arts, Be’chol Lashon, Contemporary Life, Conversations of Note, Current Events, Jewish Learning, Kohenet, Move/Restore, Performance, Spirituality, Torah)
• 5/16 9am-9pm PDT Shavuwoke Festival. Queer focus, single track, schedule
• 5/16 10am-4pm PDT JCC East Bay
• 5/16 6:45pm-midnight Sha’ar Zahav
• 5/16 3:45pm-2am PDT Baltimore community tikun leil shavuot

These are all really varied events. All of them include some features that made me go “huh, that looks neat”. A few also have pieces of the schedule that make me go “ew, no.” I’ve included them all anyway. Jewschool has a round up of individual sessions as well.

Sephardi traditional shavuot options: special bread! Special traditions, from which I have learned that Sephardi tikun leil shavuot is called velada! There’s recordings and scans of liturgy! It’s all very neat.

Appropriately enough for parshat bamidbar, the 2020 Pew survey of American Judaism results were announced this week. One of the figures that stood out to me: of those surveyed who don’t attend services, 23% say “i don’t know enough to participate” as a reason why not. Usually the proposed solutions are to change services–more english, slower pace–but what if we instead provided more resources and classes on how to understand services, not just for people converting to judaism but for people who have been separate from it for a long time? Davening is one of the most meaningful parts of my personal practice of judaism, whether in community or alone, and I wish more people had access to it.

Most of my energy this week went to keeping up with and talking about the horrific violence in Israel/Palestine. I wrote one thread is about how American Jews are distressingly bad at solidarity, and thinking about why, and another thread is a collection of facts and sources about how Israel is committing apartheid against Palestinians.

Jews everywhere, regardless of where our ancestors lived, have the right of return to israel. Palestinians, from that actual place, do not. for more on this difference and why it needs to end, read Peter Beinart in Jewish Currents about teshuva and the right to return.

I do not know what power I have to fix any of this, but I plan to do what I can to speak up in my own social circles, boost Palestinian voices on social media, donate money to groups on the ground feeding people and providing medical care, and possibly going to a solidarity demonstration in my city. I implore you to do whatever you can as well. I am especially proud of people who work in jewish organizations who speak out, since they are putting their jobs at risk while doing so.

Also, keep in mind that antisemitism attributed to antizionists is often misattributed.

Here, have a poem about pinkwashing, and a musing essay on tattooing in different jewish cultures.

EVENTS

5/14 The Jewish People of Color National (Virtual) Shabbaton

5/15 3pm through 5/16 9pm PDT Shavuot LIVE

5/15 Singing For A Better World Virtual Concert

5/16 Queer women’s torah workshop part 1

5/16 Measuring the Literary Horror of the Talmudic Accounts Involving the Supernatural Entities presentation as part of PhilosophyCon 6: Metaphysical Horror conference panel (Not So) Dunwich Horrors

5/16 3pm-9pm PDT Miles Nadal JCC (Toronto, ON) Tikun Leil Shavuot, fb link

5/16 4pm PST-5/17 8AM PST with an overnight break, small congregations shavuot

5/16 5:30pm through 5/17 2am PDT The Paul Feig z”l Tikkun Leil Shavuot from Marlene Meyerson JCC

5/20: Gabriel Abensour (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): Rabbi Yosef Knafo’s Struggle for Democratization of Knowledge in Fin de Siècle Essaouira

5/23 From Northwestern University’s Arab-Jewish Culture, Identity, and Language: Past and Present series: Performance and Conversation With Tair Haim, Acclaimed Soloist of the Band A-Wa

5/23 SMQN event: Junt@s: A U.S. + Latin American Queer Hangout

5/25, 5/27 Reading Jewish Texts in an Age of Climate Change lectures from Julia Watts Belser, a disabled rabbi

5/26 SMQN Chai & Chat with Sigal Samuel, author of Osnat and Her Dove

5/27 SVARA Open Bet Midrash: Hyperlinks: Exploring Around and Off the Daf

6/6 Ancient Jewess Magic, a talk by Mika Ahuvia, author of On My Right Michael, On My Left Gabriel: Angels in Ancient Jewish Culture

6/13 Jews and Prison: Jewish Values Behind the Walls, presented by Elaine Leeder

6/13 From Anti-Semitism to Anti-Racism: Why Jews Should Support Defunding the Police

6/13 The Birdverse & Beyond - Author Talk with R.B. Lemberg, a wonderful queer jewish spec fic author

The Jewish Pet of the Week this week is Chester, a little floofball of a good boy.

That’s all folks! see you next week.

<3

Meli