Pesach
Hello! The torah reading this shabbat is not where we are in the regular cycle, but instead the day 7 passover reading. My brain is slightly fried, so there will be fewer non-time-sensitive things in this week's edition and more of them in next week's instead.
There have been so many events lately, and a good number of them were fortunately recorded! I myself missed this sephardi mizrachi pesach songs event as well as the extremely collaborative star studded yiddish third seder but both recordings are available after the fact.
I am still giggling at Sarah Day filling Miriam's cup with hard seltzer at her seder.
https://twitter.com/sarahdayarts/status/1375525717639843846
The Trans Jews are Here convening this past week had great information and lovely sessions too. If you weren't able to go, you should be able to register and receive the recordings when they're processed and sent out. Rabbi Becky Silverstein and Svara launched the Trans Halacha Project at one of these sessions, and there is a related survey for trans Jews currently open.
https://twitter.com/rabbibecky/status/1377255494113501185
Happy "i refused to join the idf lmao" day from JVP and taylor swift stans everywhere.
Mimouna, a North African celebration the day after pesach, is coming up this Sunday. I have linked a few events below.
Isabel B R D on twitter reminded me that saying shechecyanu is appopriate upon seeing a beloved friend face to face for the first time in a month, and mechayei meitim for the first time in a in a year.
Speaking of twitter, the other day I did a quick little thread of resources for counting the omer, including GIF the Omer, the Chabad-hosted spiritual guide to counting the omer that goes over the overlapping sefirot with daily introspection questions.
Do you want to listen to Daniel Boyarin, Jill Hammer, and Susannah Heschel discuss Homeland, Exile, and Diaspora?
Jewish Currents' Arielle Angel interviewed Rabbi Alissa Wise about her leaving JVP (in case you missed that announcement and sermon from last week's email, you can read it here) and about pro-Palestine Judaism in America, and Jewish History in general. Rabbi Wise says:
"Throughout Jewish history, there have been moments of openness and closedness. There was the Talmudic Era, when there was so much inquiry in trying to figure out what Judaism was going to be in exile. Then there was a medieval period of closedness, where everything had to be codified. Then in the modern period, Judaism opened up again with the Enlightenment. More recently we’ve been in a closed period again, because of the hegemonic power of Zionism in the Jewish community. The vision I have is one of openness."
In Geveb has a whole list of summer yiddish learning programs along with details of each, including location, cost, and more.
EVENTS
4/4 12pm PDT Brivele Tishele concert
4/4 1pm PDT, The International Mimouna. register
4/5 Mimouna Fest w/SHIN-DC. More info on facebook
4/6, 4/13 Torah, Worldly Knowledge, and Controversy: Exploring medieval responsa on the importance of science and philosophy in jewish learning, with Dayan Daniel Kada (more info, zoom link)
4/9 Beyond Productivity: How Shabbat Values Underscore Disability Justice Principles, a special friday night service from Kol Tzedek
4/15 Mending the World As Jewish Anarchists, a book event for There Is Nothing So Whole As a Broken Heart. You can buy a book from the hosting indie bookstore with your free ticket.
4/22 Leonard Cohen's Mystical Midrash
The Jewish Pet of the Week is Millie Curie, hard at work helping friend-of-the-Jewsletter brin recover from surgery!
https://twitter.com/nonstandardrep/status/1377733002562789379
Before we go, readers, I have a quick request for you. I am nearly out of my backlog of Jewish Pets of the Week to feature! If you have a cute pet (all pets are cute) whose household includes at least one jewish human, please send along a picture of said pet. You can reply to this email with a picture, the pet's name, and permission to feature the pet in a future week.
That's all, folks!
<3
Meli