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Queer and Trans Analyses of Torah and Talmud

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Queer and Trans Analyses of Torah and Talmud Torah and Talmud Flier for Kolot Chayeinu Class Announcement—2007 Gender Diversity in Aggada—Rabbi Elliot Kukla—2007 (used in Kolot class) Gender Diversity in Halacha-- Rabbi Elliot Kukla—2007 (used in Kolot class) Genesis of Gender—Joy Laden To Wear Is Human: Parshat Ki Teitze--Rabbi Elliot Kukla and Reuben Zellman, 2006 Curious About Judaism’s Take on Gender? The sages gave this some serious thought. Jewish sacred texts recognize six different categories for gender diversity. Now, it’s our turn to think and learn. “A Created Being of Its Own” A Seminar with Rabbi Elliot Kukla1 March 15, 22 and 29th at 7 P.M. At Kolot Chayeinu, 1012 8th Avenue, (between 10th & 11th Streets) Brooklyn Co-sponsored by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice The Kolot Chayeinu community needs knowledge to be a comfortable place for transgender, gender non- conforming and intersex people who participate (or might want to) in our congregation,. Develop a fuller understanding of gender and sex in Judaism, and get the information that will help us all be at ease. • Explore the spiritual implications of a broadened understanding of sex and gender in Judaism • Discover how Jewish sacred texts can help us create a community that has the knowledge to be truly welcoming of transgender, gender non-conforming and intersex people • Look at the theological implications of the texts for people of all genders The sessions on March 15th and 22nd are open to the public. March 29 is for Kolot members only. Kolot members are encouraged to join all three sessions. If that’s impossible, be there on March 29th (Kolot members only) for Trans “Tachchlis” (practicalities), aka “Trans 101.” We’ll also be developing practical action steps for the congregation. Sliding Scale: $36 -$90 (for three classes). No one turned away for inability to pay. Info? E-mail: [email protected]. 1 Rabbi Elliot Kukla was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 2006 and is currently the rabbi of the Danforth Jewish Circle in Toronto. He has been involved in transgender activism and education since 2000. He is currently co-creating a transgender resource library for Jewish Mosaic: National Center for Gender and Sexual Diversity (www.jewishmosaic.org) and helping to launch a website of educational and liturgical resources: www.transtorah.org (summer, 2007). Aggada (The way we tell our stories): Text Study on Bereshit Rabbah 8:1 God created the adam in His own image; in the image of God He created him – male and female [God] created them. -Genesis 1:27 * * * Said Rabbi Jeremiah ben Elazar: "When the Holy One, blessed be the One, created the first adam, [God] created him [an] “androgynos.” As there it is written: 'When God created the adam, He made him in the likeness of God; male and female [God] created them.’ (Gen 5:2)" Said Rabbi Shmuel Bar Nachman: “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be the One, created the first adam, He created him double-faced and [then] split him, and made for him two backs—a back here and a back there.” They asked him: “But isn’t it written: ‘and He took one of his ribs [tzelah]’?” He said to them: “[This actually means] one of his sides…as we understand it, ‘and one of the sides [tzelah] of the tabernacle.’” (Exodus 26:20) Rabbi Tanchuma in the name of Rabbi Benayah and Rabbi Berechya in the name of Rabbi Elazar said: “At the time that the Holy One, blessed be the One, created the first adam, [He] created him as a golem [an unformed physical substance]; and it was extended from one end of the world to its other end, as there it is written: “My golem Your eyes have seen…” (Psalm 139:16) -Midrash Rabbah 8 Questions: • What central difficulties with the grammar of the verse from the Torah is each of these commentators trying to solve? What difficulty within the context of the book of Genesis are they trying to solve? • How does each commentator solve these problems? How are the biblical verses used to support each rabbi’s opinion? • Why do you think there are three such diverse interpretations? Wouldn’t one version of the creation of humanity be enough? • What vision of gender does each of these interpretations of the creation of humanity lead to? Which one(s) do you prefer? Which one feels the most reflective of your own gender? Which one(s) seems most reflective of the creation of an ideal world? • What do you think it means to be created in the image of God? Were you raised to believe that your gender was created in the image of God? What would Jewish education and prayer look and sound like if it was based around the central idea that all bodies and genders are created in the image of God? Text Study Created by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, 2007, www.transtorah.org Gender Diversity in Halcaha (The way we walk): Mishna and Tosefta (1st-2nd C CE) If someone said: “I will become a Nazir when a son is born to me” and a son was born to him. Behold, this one is a Nazir! If a daughter, a tumtum or an androgynos is born to him, he is not a Nazir. But if he said “When I see that a child is born to me [I shall be a Nazir]”, even if a daughter, a tumtum or an androgynos is born to him, behold he is a Nazir. – Mishna Nazir 2:7 All are obligated for the reading of the Scroll of Esther [on Purim]: Priests, Levites, converts, freed slaves, disqualified priests, mamzarim, a born saris, a saris by human action, those with damaged testicles, those lacking testicles – all of them are obligated. And all of them have the power to fulfill the obligation of the community [if they read the Scroll of Esther to the community as a whole]. A tumtum and an androgynos are obligated [to read the Scroll of Esther]. But they do not have the power to fulfill the obligation for the community as a whole. The androgynos has the power to fulfill the obligation for his own kind [another androgynos] and does not have the power for one who is not his own kind. A tumtum does not have the power to fulfill the obligation for others, whether they are of his own kind or not of his own kind. Women, slaves and minors are exempt. Thus they do not have the power to fulfill the obligation of the community. - Tosefta Megillah 2:7 An Androgynos is in some respects legally equivalent to men, and in some respects legally equivalent to women, in some respects legally equivalent to men and women, and in some respects legally equivalent to neither men nor women…. Rabbi Yose says: an androgynos he is a created being of her own, but the sages could not decide if the androgynos is a man or a woman. But this is not true of a tumtum who is sometimes a man and sometimes a woman. –Mishna Bikkurim 4: 1, 5 Questions: • What general impression do you get from these texts of the role of the tumtum and androgynos in antique Jewish society? How do they differ from the role of gender variant people in our own times? • Based on all these texts what system do the rabbis seem to be using for dividing up genders? Is it binary? Is it a quadrant or something else entirely? • How are gender and power related in this text? Who seems to have higher status women or the tumtum and the androgynos? *** • What does the phrase “he is a created being of her own”? What implications does this have for the way we experience gender? Do you experience other people as uniquely created beings? Do you experience yourself as a uniquely created being? What would the world and this community look like if everyone was treated as uniquely created beings? “In order to understand transgender expression and see and respect people as they really are, we have to break down our gender conditioning. We have to get used to (and excited about) bearded ladies… short boys with 'dessert hands' and big-boned gals with deep voices. We have to trash the lists. This is exciting because when we validate other people and create space for their own unique gender, we do the same for ourselves.” - Micah Bazant Text Study Created by Rabbi Elliot Kukla, 2007 The Genesis of Gender In the beginning, there was gender. We all were born into a world in which to be human is to be gendered, to be divided by gender, assigned roles based on gender, taught to understand ourselves and our relationships with others in terms of gender. We inherited this world from our parents who inherited it from their parents, and on and on and back to the dawn of humanness, when hominids began extrapolating the physical difference between male and female bodies into systems of meaning that go far beyond chromosomes, genitals, secondary sex characteristics or reproductive functions. Both those who embrace gender as an innate human characteristic and those who reject it as oppressive ideology often point to the story of creation that opens the Book of Genesis to explain our deeply-engrained habit of defining human beings in terms of gender. When we examine that story, we find that it brings offers us a glimpse of a time when maleness and femaleness weren't yet freighted with social, ideological and psychological meanings we have come to associate with them.
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