Vayeshev's Dreamer & Judith's Resistance
SHABBAT SHALOM, DREAMERS. <3
I'll mostly let my notes on Parshat Vayeshev speak for themselves, but let it be known that I'm firmly in the camp of Joseph being a neurodivergent, gender expansive, queer dreamer I can relate to, whose story is itself a dream that reveals MUCH about the interpreter... us.
How we read Joseph is incredibly telling, maybe moreso than anything other ancestor. I know that my own lens is tinted by my own identity as a neurodivergent, gender expansive, queer dreamer with my own trauma and my own deeply complex and fraught family story, and from that angle this story is one that contains really powerful moments of witnessing my own story and healing, especially in the week's to come.
Questions for pondering:
- Do we protect, encourage, or resent and judge dreamers?
- How do we each tend our own inner dreamer?
HAPPY CHANUKAH!
I have exciting news for Chanukah season, which is that I will have art included in the winter quarterly publication from Yente, an awesome UK-based, queer, Jewish student-run, creative collective. This edition is centered around Judith, the less often celebrated heroine of the Chanukah season. Highly recommend reading about her, but my quick recap will help frame understanding of the art I submitted, which I'll share below.
My retelling of Judith's Resistance:
Once upon a time, there was a widow with a great deal of chutzpah who was surrounded by her beloved people whose city was under siege and by the Assyrians, led by a general, Holofernes. The city ran out of water and the men decided to ask HaShem for help and then wait longer for water to appear, but Judith would have none of this and took delicious cheese, wine, and her chutzpah and she said to the men, "Listen to me and I will do something which will be remembered throughout all generations among the children of our nation."
Then, she went to the enemy camp and gave delicious, salty cheese to the general, Holofernes, until he was compelled to drink tremendous amounts of the wine she offered, more wine than he had ever had since he'd been born, and upon his succumbing to the effects of the wine and losing consciousness, Judith took the general's own blade and cut off his head, returning to her people with his head, and eventually reclaiming the land and the water. And thus, she is indeed remembered throughout the generations.
I hope that your Chanukah musings might include honoring of the incredible resistance and fortitude of a woman who knew what to do and saved her people through her resistance to both the passivity of the men leading her people and the oppressive forces that endeavored to kill her people through theft of life-giving, soul-nourishing water.
My depiction of Judith's Resistance:
You can order your own copy of the Judith edition of Yente here:
UK Ordering | International Ordering
I've also quickly uploaded this piece for purchasing a print, sticker, etc.:
Judith's Resistance on Redbubble
I'm wishing all of you who read these little bits of musing so many lovely nights of light, warmth, family, fried potato goodness, and a refueling of your own Judith-flavored chutzpah during these upcoming days.
Chag urim sameach!
Yaakov