carefully rewrap it to form a shin. L’shem yhud, ture and customs that surround and sustain I leave marks on my body where the tefillin them. Just as -identified women have and my chest binder lay. With the tefillin tight reclaimed and “queered” many traditional around my left arm, I place my right hand markers of femininity (such as lipstick and over my eyes Sh’ma Yisrael... “Hear O Israel, high heels), trans people have the potential to the divine abounds everywhere, and dwells in liberate rituals and traditions from their op- everything. The many are one.” (Marcia Falk, pressive boxes and binaries. The Book of Blessings) I hold these words in my Wearing a tallit katan chest binder is si- prayers as I recite the second paragraph of multaneously observing and reclaiming Jew- the Sh’ma and kiss the tzitzit tied to the edges ish tradition. It is reclaiming what of my chest binder. I am learning to love my- observances looks like “on the heels” of fem- self and simultaneously unlearning my own inist Jewish thinkers who have challenged me Ari Lev Fornari currently internalized . to do it differently and inspired me to acces- lives in San Francisco I am trying to decipher what Jewish “thick- sorize along the way. My observance is a com- and works at a nonprofit ness” looks like, what binds us as a community, mitment to engage with Jewish texts and organization providing what serves as our common assumptions, prac- traditions and be transformed through that administrative support tices, and prayers. As a trans person, I am both engagement. I want to fulfill the command- for youth-led action re- outsider and insider, continually transforming ments, both in light of and in spite of my at- search projects. He plans rituals, squirming, and wiggling, and creating tempt to simultaneously subvert to attend rabbinical school in 2008. This more space, not only for myself, but for peo- norms and transgress gender boundaries. piece is adapted from a ple of every gender. Wearing a tallit or wrap- This helps me affirm the presence of God and Torah Queerie originally ping tefillin is not inherently sexist. It is not the holiness in my body and in my gender. Vayira published by Jewish rituals that are problematic but rather the cul- Elohim et ha’adam b’tzalmo. Mosaic. ReMapping the Road from Sinai Judith Plaskow, professor of religious studies at Manhattan College and a Jewish feminist theologian, and Rabbi Elliot Rose Kukla, a Chaplain Resident at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center and a activist, writer, and educator, explore the potential and limits of a shared transgender and feminist movement. Dear Judith, of women and trans people within Judaism, we When I was a teenager exploring Judaism, must begin with similar agendas and goals: I read your book Standing Again at Sinai. What recognition of marginalization, rejection of hi- struck me most vividly was your insight that erarchical binary thinking, and an attempt to deep within Jewish thought a hierarchical re- create more space within the covenant for a va- jection of difference exists that goes far be- riety of identities and embodiments. yond the marginalization of women. Inviting How might women and trans people sup- women to shape the future of Judaism, then, port each other in this project of renewing the leads to fundamental theological shifts within tradition? How can we deconstruct the binary the tradition, as it questions all the binary dis- divide between men and women while work- tinctions of Jewish life and law. ing to lift the subjugated voice of women In the 17 years since you wrote that book, within Judaism? quite a lot has happened in the Jewish world. You asked nearly two decades ago how Women’s mounting participation in Judaism the central categories of Jewish thought has continued to reshape its essence. At the would be altered by women shaping Torah. same time transgender liberation movements What does Sinai look like to you now? How have increasingly questioned gender itself will the tradition be transformed as we begin and asked whether the categories male and to find ways for women, transgender, inter- can (or should) be the basic way we people, and everyone else to also stand divide up humanity. again at Sinai? — Elliot Kukla December 2007 Tevet 5768 Sometimes the goals of feminist and trans- To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA gender thought appear to be at odds with each Dear Elliot, www.shma.com other. And yet I believe that to raise the voice When I reflect on Standing Again at Sinai 2 and the work I have done since, I see the of the conversation about how gender-based most fundamental theological question I oppression impacts the lives of all people raise as that of authority: Who has the au- whether we identify as women, transgender, thority to define the ongoing meaning of Ju- , gender , sissy boys, or some- daism? Who has been included and who has thing else. been excluded from the conversations affects trans people in multiple through which Jewish life takes on meaning? ways. Male-to-female transgender women are How do hitherto marginalized groups mobi- held to impossible and damaging misogynist lize the authority of tradition and authorize ideals of beauty in order to be seen as “real” ourselves to enter into the process of shaping women. Female-to-male transgender men are the Jewish future? often regarded as not “male enough,” unable I’m excited by the ways in which the to be seen for who they are or to wield male so- entry of transgender and intersex persons cial power. Furthermore, binary hierarchical into Jewish debates about gender and sexu- gender norms make the lives of people who live ality both highlights dimensions of the tradi- between male and female invisible. tion that have long been ignored and Likewise, transphobia (the fear of gen- expands on some central feminist insights. der variation in society) circumscribes Feminists first drew a sharp distinction be- women’s lives. Women continue to be op- tween sex and gender in order to make the pressed not only because femininity is deval- point that neither the psychological and ued but also because of the narrow emotional characteristics of men and women boundaries that define “acceptable” female NASHIM: A Journal nor their social roles are biologically or di- appearance and behavior. of Jewish Women’s vinely ordained. Transgender activists argue I respect your desire to not get caught up Studies and Gender that the sex/gender distinction is itself prob- in the latest hot issue, but it is important to be Issues lematic and that the very notion of only two clear about what is at stake for my community is produced by the same set of social in this conversation: transgender people face No. 17 (Spring 2009) processes and power relations that create unemployment rates that hover around 80 gender hierarchy. percent; they experience significant obstacles Explores new models The challenge as I see it is to formulate when accessing healthcare, education, protec- for addressing sexuality feminist and transgender issues in ways that tion from violence, and other basic services. draw connections between our struggles. I say Mostly, this treatment stems from the belief Contact: [email protected] this because I worry that the Jewish community that there are only two ways of being created in for more information has a short attention span! Despite women hav- the image of God — male or female. ing reshaped Judaism in profound ways in the I’m curious about how the growing last decades, an enormous amount of work re- awareness of genders beyond male and fe- mains to be done. It is much more interesting male impacts your own theology. My genera- and fun to put programming time and energy tion is indebted to you for advancing feminist — and even funding — into the latest hot issue thinking. What tools can we use to continue than to look yet again at the more intransigent to shift gender boundaries to include the lib- aspects of sexism. eration of people of all genders? — Elliot How then do you talk about transgender issues in ways that don’t “change the subject” Dear Elliot, from that of the continued subordination of Moving beyond the notion that there are women? And from my side, how do I talk only two genders will mean asking new ques- about the continued subordination of tions of tradition and expanding the cate- women in ways that challenge the gender gories of Jewish thought in a way that builds binary? — Judith Plaskow on the feminist transformation of Judaism. For example, while contemporary Jews have Dear Judith, trouble thinking beyond the , You ask how we can talk about transgen- the rabbis of the past were quite aware of the der issues in ways that don’t “change the sub- existence of persons who did not fit into a di- December 2007 ject” from the continued subordination of chotomized . The tumtum and Tevet 5768 women. For me, transgender issues are not a (), who today we To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA new “subject” at all but rather a continuation would label “intersexed” persons, are cate- www.shma.com 3 gories that appear many times in rabbinic lit- male gender at birth and raised as a boy but erature. The rabbis defined the tumtum as an now see herself as completely female. For individual who is actually a or a , that person the category of “woman” is the but who appears to have no genital organs be- most liberating gender there is, as it reflects cause his or her genital area is covered over at her inner sense of self. birth. They defined the androgynos as some- Gender liberation is multifaceted. On one who has the genitals of both sexes, so that the one hand, we must fight to create space it is impossible to determine whether s/he is within genders for more complex and di- male or female. Although the fundamental verse ways of being male or female. At the approach of rabbinic texts is to use these cat- same time, we need to allow room between egories as thought experiments that serve to genders for post-binary identities that en- clarify and bolster a rigid gender grid, con- compass more ways of being human. temporary Jews could seize the opening they I agree that we can draw upon classical provide to extend or undermine a binary un- Jewish texts — the tumtum and androgynos derstanding of gender and to question our — as a resource in these goals. Although I own gender dimorphism. concur that the rabbis’ primary approach to The concept of transgender may also be a these gender-variant figures was to use them much more fruitful way to think about God to bolster a rigid gender grid, other voices than simply adding female images to the over- emerge from our tradition that offer differ- whelmingly male language of tradition. Using ent perspectives. male and female imagery for God, as do some In the Mishna, Rabbi Yossi says that the new prayerbooks and feminist liturgies, tends androgynos is neither essentially male nor fe- to reify and reinforce stereotypically masculine male but a “created being of its own.” This and feminine qualities. Imagining a transgen- phrase is a classical legal term for exception- der God builds on the feminist project of re- ality; it is an acknowledgement that not all of covering the female aspects of God but creation can be understood within binary sys- highlights the shifting nature of the divine tems. In my reading, it is also a theological gender and the ultimately problematic nature statement. It is a proclamation that God cre- of gender categories. It incorporates the idea ates diversity that is far too complex for hu- of multiplicity and fluidity as well as insistence mans to understand or ever fully categorize. on the inadequacy of male metaphors. There are parts of each of us that are uncon- Both the category of androgynous and tainable. All of us — whether we see ourselves the notion of a transgender God raise a major within or between male and female genders question. Should the goal of these changes, — are uniquely “created beings of our own.” on both the theological and the communal This idea allows for infinite gender identities levels, be the dissolution of gender or the that are all created in the image of God. multiplication of genders? I am not willing to I continue to be inspired and encour- surrender the category of woman while peo- aged by your ideas. How do you answer your ple called women continue to be discrimi- own question? Do you seek to multiply or dis- nated against — but I would like to hold that solve gender? I am captivated and deeply category more lightly. — Judith moved by your image of God as transgender. What sources from within Judaism might we Dear Judith, draw upon to bring this image into our It seems that only the multiplication of liturgy and theology? — Elliot genders and not the dissolution of gender can serve the goals of both feminism and Dear Elliot, transgender activism. I agree entirely that, in the world in A post-binary is only lib- which we live, the multiplication of genders erating for those of us who truly see ourselves best serves feminist and transgender objec- as post-binary and feel trapped and invisible tives. So long as social, political, economic, December 2007 when held within the categories of male or and religious power and resources continue Tevet 5768 female. Some transgender people identify to be distributed along gendered lines, I can- To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA wholly with their preferred gender. For ex- not imagine surrendering gender categories. www.shma.com ample, a person might have been assigned Moreover, I don’t see how there can be real 4 change in gendered power relations unless that represents justice; and the new female the multiple perspectives and insights that and natural images that are part of many emerge out of women’s and transgender ex- feminist liturgies. I also want to include the periences are recognized and valued. Still, I metaphoric shifts in the way the people of Is- understand gender — including the sense rael are imagined in Jewish texts — most that it reflects one’s inner self — to be partly often as a male community but sometimes as a creation of social institutions and practices. a feminized community (to maintain a het- Therefore, to my mind, your goals of creat- erosexual position in relation to the deity). ing space within and between genders — The entry of women and of transgender peo- goals I affirm — press toward the dissolution ple into Jewish leadership roles multiples the of gender. I want to see a society in which metaphoric potentialities for envisioning the gender is simply one of numerous facets of relationship between God and Israel and identity and is far less salient than it is in ours. So for me, there is a fruitful tension be- The image of God as transgender is an tween the idea of multiplying and dissolving attempt to capture the tension between genders. The image of God as transgender is an multiplying and dissolving genders. attempt to capture this tension. The sources within Judaism that might be used to develop thus the nature of God. There’s an analogy this image are largely the sources that femi- between undermining the gender binary by nists have been talking about for the last 40 multiplying social genders and exploding years: the existence of female images, such as the notion of a male God by multiplying Shekhinah, that have been overlooked and left metaphors for God and our relationship with out of the liturgy; the natural images that sug- God. We can think of God as masculine, fem- gest that God is beyond gender; the gender- inine, female, male, both, neither, in various crossing imagery in which a “male” God has combinations, and in terms that have noth- the so-called feminine qualities of feeding ing to do with gender, so that through multi- and nurturance as well as the feminine divine plying, we dissolve. — Judith Changing Sex, Changing Gender Noach Dzmura small number of people change sex. tional statements concerning sex-change, AMany more change gender. “Transgen- none concern gender-change. The law passes der” refers to gender-change with (or with- over like the angel of death out) sex-change. Gender-change is to identity passed over Jewish households in Egypt; per- what sex-change is to a body. Identity haps with the same salubrious effects. We live changes are easier to acquire and (often) among you, daven with you, but we are in harder to recognize. In some states a judge exile. To survive, we must be visible in rela- may order gender-change when no sex- tion to the binary. While law passes over gen- change has been performed. This means that der difference, custom is unable to change; it a female body dressed in male clothing can must. If there are no roles for those of us who be, by order of the court, as much a man as are transgender to play as transgender Jews Avraham Avinu or God Himself. So, while the who may or may not also be men or women, community struggles for same-sex mar- the Jewishness of our lives will be lost. riage, two same-sex bodies may legally marry The fundamental binary — what is a if one of them is transgender. In addition, man or a woman — is crumbling under be- when one partner in a heterosexual marriage nign neglect, and we fail to notice. One can changes sex, the couple may remain together only wonder at this gray area in the law and — in a legal, same-sex marriage. its disconnection from the heteronormative December 2007 There is a similar blindness to “trans- ethic. “Transgender” challenges Judaism Tevet 5768 gender” in Jewish law and society. While more profoundly than feminism or homo- To subscribe: 877-568-SHMA there are halakhic responsa and denomina- sexuality. Feminists and homosexuals argue www.shma.com 5