September 24, 2021

Vezot Haberakhah (or chol hamoed Sukkot)

Hello!

Content notes for this week's newsletter are antisemitism and racism, including racism against palestinians.

Jewish Calendar

This week's torah portion is actually not Vezot Haberacha; it is the reading for chol hamoed sukkot, but I wanted to talk about vezot haberacha since we will read it before my next jewsletter comes out.

Vezot Habrakha is read on Simchat Torah, and it is the last parsha in the entire torah! Before Moses meets his end he calls out particular prayers for the tribes of Israel (except Shimon i guess). After he dies Joshua receives his font of wisdom, leading straight into the haftara which is a selection from Joshua chapter 1.

Since we are still in Sukkot, who are you inviting to your sukkah this year as ushpizin/ushpizata, each associated with one of the sefirot? In additional to the originals (below) and the additional options from Neohasidic Rabbi David Seidenberg, Keshet and Noam Sienna put together a queer specific list.

The traditional lineup is:

• Avraham, Ḥesed ~ Lovingkindness

• Yitzḥak, Gevurah ~ Might, Judgment

• Yaakov, Tiferet ~ Beauty, Harmony

• Moshe, Netzaḥ ~ Triumph, Eternity

• Aharon, Hod ~ Majesty

• Yosef, Yesod ~ Foundation

• David, Malkhut ~ Kingship, Kingdom

But there's no reason to stick to only these.

At Jewish&, Davi Cheng writes about the overlap between Sukkot and MidAutumn Festival, both temporally and in bringing mooncakes and traditional lanterns into the sukkah.

This Sukah v'Lulav song is, as the kids say, a banger.

Some people have the custom of biting off the pitom (sticky-outy bit of the etrog) at the end of sukkot, and OpenSiddur has a tekhine for that moment with a fascinating approach to pleasure and mitzvot and fruit and sin.

We also read Kohelet/Ecclesiastes, my absolute fave depressed existential crisis book turned song by Pete Seeger. Fulfillment does not come from wealth or human achievement and there are no actual satisfying answers. But tomorrow we get up again and do our best again and see what happens.

Israel problems and antisemitism problems

Ilana Cruger-Zaken is raising funds for Palestinian olive farmers this sukkot, and wrote about it in Mondoweiss. I like the idea of using this type of donation to move away from the "green the desert" JNF zionist pushke boxes. You can contribute too by donating to Good Shepherd Collective.

I don't want to talk about Iron Dome funding besides to say that the US should not be sending billions of dollars to fund Israeli military violence, whether for missile defense systems or bombs or police foreign exchange trips.

In an Israeli not-problem, Mizrachi singer Sarit Hadad came out recently. She's in a relationship with her songwriter, and it's very cute. I'm faintly anti-celebrity and on the "stop pinkwashing Israel as a LGBTQ paradise" train, but I also don't want to undersell this. I'm not plugged into her work or israeli society, but the sephardi/mizrachi queer group i'm in is absolutely thrilled, and the song is cute, and that's enough.

Miscellaneous

My friend ada is starting a new weekly parsha email called Etz Hi beginning with the new torah cycle next week and you should totally check it out!

I found out recently about the Digital Transgender Archive and decided to browse for Jewish content because this is who i am as a person. There's quite a few interviews with trans jews from a variety of backgrounds (white and JOC, who grew up in orthodox or secular socialist jewish communities, and people who converted, and people involved with LGBT synagogues, among others.

The wonderful instagram user keyn ayin hara has a merch shop through Threadless now!

Queer Jewish farm Linke Fligl was covered in The Forward! Is it just me or is the current wave of jewish farmers like 85% queer. (Not complaining.) Also my mom's bff sent this to her to send to me which I think is cute. Thanks, Lillian. Thanks, Mom.

"A Recipe on Kmiydish Paper is a one-player game about delicious food and the communities who prepare it" inspired by Jewish foods in eastern europe before WWII. You play as a food, and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous. Yes, you play by yourself, like in the golem zine I linked a couple weeks ago.

I'm thinking about preordering Jewish Futurisms, a book by RISD's hillel executive director with chapter titles like "Mysticism" and "What Reconstructionists Believe", though I am decidedly turned off by "Nothing Sadder Than Secularism". Not everyone wants to be religious, and that's ok. Slightly weird that I'm still reminding people of that all the time despite being back in the religious fold myself.

Rabbi Emily Cohen is doing another round of her introductory Judaism online classes, Gan, starting October 12th. It's a sliding scale series and has a registration form as well as an eventbrite signup. Please fill out both if you want to take the class. The eventbrite link has more info on it, as does Rabbi Cohen's twitter thread. I love the division into Torah (story), Tefila (prayer), To do/not do (practice), and Theology (god stuff).

Events!

9/20-27 Jewish Ancestral Healing summit

9/25 Sephardic Poetry Sukkot with New Mexico congregation Nahalat Shalom

9/26 SVARA's drop-in Mishna collective, Days of AWEsome edition (last one!)

9/23, 9/30, 10/7 Shmita: Our Radical Ancestral Eco-Justice Solution for a Sustainable Future w/ Rabbi David Seidenberg (suggested donation $18-36, NOTAFLOF)

9/30 Secular Yidishkayt and Social Justice in the US South, with Josh Parshall by Yiddish Book Center

9/30 Don't Ask Don't Pray: Gender Resistance and Sexual Recognition in Reform Jewish Holiday Rituals

10/3 Let it Go, a workshop on shmita & body liberation from New Synagogue Project, Hinenu, and Fat Torah founder Minna Bromberg, PhD

10/5 Postmemory, Psychoanalysis and Holocaust Ghost: The Salonica Cohen family and trauma across generations, from Sephardic Digital Academy. (more info available in La Boz Sefaradi newsletter)

10/7, 10/21, 11/4 [Jewish Protection Magic class](Jewish Protection Magic) with Dori Midnight, sliding scale $72-$333

10/10, 10/17, 10/24 Mizrachi dance lessons on Moroccan, Bukharian, and Yemenite dance, $10/session

10/14 Decoding the Mishnah lecture from Mira Balberg

10/26 Burning Bushes: Queer Yiddishism and the lesboerotic, with Mira Schlosberg and Hinde Ena Burstin. (Australia-based, 9 PM PDT)

Jewish Pet of the Week

The Jewish Pets of the Week are these two canine sukkah helpers. Their human Erin did a great job building the sukkah too.

Moadim l'simcha,

Meli