Ki Teitzei
Hello!
Content notes for this week's newsletter are: antisemitism, transphobia, sexism, biblical genocide, holocaust discussion, anti-Palestinian bigotry, and antiblack racism.
This week's parsha is Ki Teitzei.
This parsha has a lot about social roles and power, including ones that violate and ones that validate contemporary worldviews and sensibilities. On the negative end, there's a couple of Those Verses used against trans people (22:5, 23:2) and it finishes with blotting out the name of amalek. There's a lot of writing about the "crossdressing prohibition" from queer perspectives, including one from Rabbi Sandra Lawson here.
On the good side, though: don't return runaway slaves to their masters; don't take the tools of someone's livelihood because they owe you money; don't abuse laborers. Shatnez stuff, too, about how unfair intermixing is not our way, whether that means 2 types of seeds in a vineyard or uneven livestock or wool and linen in the same cloth. It's a lot of wrestling with social roles and inequalities, which I guess I can respect even if I don't end up the same moral place.
One of those social roles fairness rules in Ki Teitzei is about a favored wife vs less favored and the birthrights of the first born, which fits in distressingly well with Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg's latest substack about Sarah and Hagar and power and privilege.
Good on Cook's Illustrated for featuring a couple non-Ashkenazi Jewish breads in this lovely illustration!
We're only 12 days into Elul, so it's decidedly not too late to explore things like Rabbi Jordan Braunig's daily prompts newsletter, one of the most compassionate takes on cheshbon hanefesh (accounting of the soul) that maintains a focus on accurate self-reflection.
The twelfth of Elul is the yahrtzeit of R’ Simcha Bunim. In his honor, I want to push us to think beyond our most immediate needs. I am imagining a spiritual take on “We want bread, and roses, too.” As we imagine ourselves in the year to come, how can we not just focus on the small changes? Given the chance to recreate ourselves, can we be utterly bold?
Speaking of the reason for the season, I'll be linking some options for online services and other high holy days programming in the events list below. If there's something you think I should add, reply to this email and let me know! There are some especially exciting options this year, like Kanisse's egalitarian sephardi yom kippur services (check out their resources page too!) If any of the congregations or services I link under events have an inaccurate description, PLEASE let me know, as I have not actually attended most of them before.
Here's some additional general resources for the high holy days and finding services or other stuff likely to fit your needs:
- tooooot! tooOOt tooOOt tooOOt! t'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'o'ot! toooooooot! -- a shofar recording from the Jewish Spirituality Project
- Some short readings particularly appropriate for Labor Day Rosh Hashana from the New England Jewish Labor Committee
- Twitter user BeccaTheWitz's list of free and cheap HHD services options from last year
- Jewish Voice for Peace's list of their affiliates' HHD offerings, including DIY resources as well as online services.
https://twitter.com/BL_HebrewMSS/status/1427531635092828169?utm_source=pocket_mylist
Liel Leibovitz published another embarrassing clunker in Tablet, continuing an unfortunate trend for that publication. As much as Zionists cite the Shoah as a reason that Israel needs to exist as a Jewish state, there is sometimes a particular discomfort or disdain for holocaust victims and survivors both, as mentioned in Shaul Magid's excellent review of Omri Boehm's latest book and also the entire concept of "Liberal Zionism".
On a more positive political note, Ayin Press has started a newsletter which makes it easier to keep up with their publications like Tardema.
There was a "race riot" in 1991 in Crown Heights consisting mainly of violence between Black people living in the neighborhood and white Jewish ones, kicked off by the accidental death of a Black child after a car in the Chabad Rebbe's motorcade ran a red or yellow light. It has apparently taken until this year for someone to interview one of the Black Jews who lived there at the time.
https://twitter.com/naturalog/status/1428730683153920008
I missed out on the latest in the Great Jewish Books Lecture Series but it turns out the Yiddish Book Center uploads recordings impressively quickly. The timing is especially appropriate, considering the anniversary of the destruction of Salonika on August 18th (article also by Dr. Naar).
My actual favorite thing is when a nonjewish interest of mine results in content for this newsletter, so I am extra-thrilled to report the existence of Gitl Schneiderman Learns To Live With Her In-Laws, a queer jewish short story that also exists as an audio recording. After reading it I immediately devoured the author's other work in the same universe.
https://twitter.com/Delafina777/status/1427683407400620033
There's a book review in The Nation about French Jewish art collectors during the French Third Republic (1870-1940). That has to have been a weird time and place to be Jewish (not that there are any normal ones, mind). While the stories it tells end with the holocaust, it seems like there's an effort to focus on the pre-Shoah portions and contextualization, which I appreciate.
In fact, there's been some distressing antisemitism around the world lately, including vandalism of a French vaccination center and a synagogue in Toronto. But pushing back on it is possible, and one of the worst internet antisemites is no longer anonymous. The Logically.AI article includes an explanation of how his identity was discovered ("doxxing") so if that would be distressing to you, do not read it.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/izzun/siddur-masorti-volume-ii-shabbat-festivalsSiddur Masorti's Shabbat and Holidays volume is on kickstarter! Their weekday siddur is my default one for davening by myself. It's gorgeous and has full transliteration. Don't let the sefardi nusach scare you off--it's thoroughly explained in the book, and the liturgy is honestly not much different than the Conservative stuff I was brought up on.
Queer Afghan Jew Josh Shahryar streams themself chanting Eicha / Lamentations daily at 8 PM Pacific time.
Josh is a much better choice to spend your time on than the last jew in afghanistan Zablon Simontov.
Lilith Magazine's writeup about Hungarian Jewish artist Ilka Gedő is wonderful, covering the difficulties she faced in the Shoah and in Communist Hungary afterwards while showcasing many amazing paintings and sketches.
There's now a yiddish translation + performance of Jimmy Buffett's Why Don't We Get Drunk And Screw with closed captions available in english and yiddish.
Miriam Saperstein's poem about shechina hit me hard in a good way:
missed connection: gay 4 g!d
schecht my heart, shechina
last friday night @ shul
lost u in the sea
of tenderqueers w/ tiny kippahs
banging on the tables
to the rhythm of psalms& when moshiach didn’t come
I reintroduced myself next morning
modeh ani
EVENTS!
8/22 Queer Women's Torah Workshop from Shawn Harris
8/22 New Rules Judaism: High Holy Days, 3 hour workshop, sliding scale $18-59
8/23-29 KlezKanada, including concerts, lessons, kids' programming, and more! You can register for the whole festival or only a portion, so the fee varies.
8/24 Jewish Prayer in Many Languages: From Sephardic Seattle to Syrian Brooklyn, Part Four (High Holy Days)
8/24 Sephardic vs. Ashkenazic: a study in liturgy. more info originally found in La Boz Sefaradi email list.
8/25 ACT UP's Movement-Building Strategies: A Conversation with Sarah Schulman from Jewish Currents and JVP
8/25, 9/1: Do We Need to Engage in Collective Teshuvah?: Difficult Conversations on Israel with Rabbi Brian Walt and Professor Joel Beinin, co-sponsored by several Reconstructionist congregations
8/29 Return: Daily Inspiration for the Days of Awe book talk with author Dr. Erica Brown on Sefaria
8/29 Sephardic Culinary History with Chef & Scholar Hélène Jawhara-Piñer Fruits & Spiced Round Challah for RoshHaShana.
8/31 “All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days” Book Talk, about Jewish woman resistance fighter Mildred Harnack, "the only American in the leadership of the German resistance".
9/2 What is the future you dream of?: Australia-based Loud Jew Collective Launch
9/7 Rosh Hashanah
- New Synagogue Project egalitarian non-denominational, EDT, RH morning, sliding scale $18+
- Tzedek Chicago pro-Palestine Reconstructionist, CDT, RH morning, $25-30 per service
- Kehilla shmita focused Renewal-ish, PDT, 2 days of RH, Shabbat Shuvah, sliding scale $20+
- Hinenu Baltimore reconstructionist, EDT, RH evening/morning, sliding scale $0-75
- Beit Tikkun music and politics, PDT, RH 2 days evening/morning/morning, sliding scale $36-250
- Workers Circle Rosh Hashone yiddishist secular, $25-36
- Kadima PDT, hippie Reconstructionist, RH evenining/morning, sliding scale $0+
9/12 Virtual Walking Tour: Jewish Porto, Portugal, $18-36
9/16 Yom Kippur
- Kanisse Egalitarian Sephardi, EDT, evening/morning/evening
- New Synagogue Project egalitarian non-denominational, EDT, YK Kol Nidre, morning, Neilah, sliding scale $18+
- Tzedek Chicago pro-Palestine Reconstructionist, CDT, YK evening/morning/evening, $25-30 per service
- Kehilla shmita focused renewal-ish, PDT, YK evening/morning/evening, Shabbat Shuvah, sliding scale $20+
- Hinenu Baltimore reconstructionist, EDT, YK evening/morning/evening, sliding scale $0-75
- Beit Tikkun music and politics, PDT, YK evening/morning-thru-evening, sliding scale $36-250
- Workers Circle Yom Kippur leftist yiddishist secular (i think), $25-36
- Kadima hippie Reconstructionist, PDT, YK evening/morning/evening, sliding scale $0+
The Jewish pet of the week this week is Luna!
https://twitter.com/pantspossum/status/1387510126240800769
See you next week! Shabbat shalom,
<3
Meli