The Torah portion we read this coming Shabbat starts with the story of Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, giving him some tips about refining his leadership model, delegating, becoming more effective in his leadership.
Then, fast-forward. The people Israel are hanging out at the base of Mt. Sinai, while God gives instructions to Moses. This translation is misleading; there’s no “warning” and no “staying pure.” God tells Moses to קדש the people—to make them holy, sanctified, set-apart.
It’s clear from the verb that Moses needs to do a thing to them. So then Moses goes back, and he does it! He קדש them. Sanctifies, makes holy, sets apart, something. It’s still not clear what the action is, but he does it. Plus the clothes washing thing. There’s no warning.
And then *record scratch* he keeps talking.
“Don’t go near a woman.”
God didn’t say that.
Suddenly, Moses is only addressing men. Women have gone from being subjects—part of the people—to objects. Who are sexual temptations who must be avoided.
In one sentence, Moses simultaneously cuts women out of Revelation and turns them into sexual objects.
Women aren’t the ones being told to prepare for Torah, here, after all. They’re just a problem.
Traditional commentators make sense of all this by suggesting that קדש is a command for Israel to attain a state of ritual elevation/purity, akin to where they must be to offer sacrifices in the Temple. Since seminal ejaculation would imperil that status, that’s what God meant.
Only problem is that קדש is not that state. We have a word for that. טהר.
Moses dumped his human stuff into his command from God. His ideas about gender and power and hierarchy and who matters and sex and whatever else. He twisted a command from the Holy One to suit his agenda.
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I AM SO SICK OF BINARY THINKING AND BINARY THINKERS
Eg! One can condemn the Israeli govt’s atrocities AND Hamas WHILE mourning all dead innocent who didn’t ask for this WHILE not abrogating one’s power analysis AND demanding a better future for everyone in the region (which doesn’t require eliding disproportionate harm/impact OR)
Asking what justice might look like. One can be pro civilian, pro children and anti-anyone who murders children. Without dropping a power analysis AND ALSO demanding a more whole future for everyone. One can stop regarding human life like we’re dealing with sports teams.
The State is asking citizens to report their neighbors, whose children will be wrenched from them. If the parents don't face criminal charges this time, they will in the next round of bills.
You can't do all of these, I imagine, but I also bet that you might be able to do more than zero of them:
Show up when you see or hear of an action happening.
Support organizing (can often include lots that can be done virtually.)
Call your congresspeople. Call your senators. Call your state reps and senators. Your school board, mayor, everyone. Tell them that trans rights are human rights and anything less is them losing their job.
AKA-- safe is good. Legal is good. But "rare," apropos of @toddiepeters' talk on our culture's implicit claim via Christianity that we need "appropriate" moral justifications for abortion--"rare" is stigmatizing.
How does it feel to be part of the 1 in 4 people who can get pregnant who will have had an abortion by the age of 45 who hears "safe, legal, rare"?
Do you feel more or less like you can tell your story to someone you love?
Do you feel more or less shamed?
Does "safe, legal, rare" help grow connections, honesty, truth, intimacy, or does it cause people to feel that they must close off parts of themselves, afraid that someone might ever find out?
In the 7th c BCE, Judean mercenaries began arriving to the Egyptian Elephantine island in the Nile, with their families. After the Babylonian conquest of Judea, more refugees came and a thriving Jew-ish community was rocking over there.
A whole storehouse of ancient papyri from the 6th-4th c BCE- has been found—so this is while parts of the Hebrew Bible are getting written , for context—that offer an amazing glimpse into their lives.
So my latest is about the bigger (they had a temple! They fought with the local Egyptian priests! We have info about how they celebrated Passover!) and more gorgeously (or, sometimes, just relatably) mundane stuff in this community.