April 20, 2020 by admin

“Queering the Torah”

What could we do if we all came together as a community—trans folks, gender non-conforming folks, non-binary people, cis people—to spend a day exploring Torah informed through the lens of queer experience? On Sunday, October 27th, our Beit Midrash in New York City was filled with the energy of people who showed up for each other, who showed up for inclusion and diversity, for Torah and for queerness. We kicked off the program by turning to three leaders, Rabbi Sarra Lev, Rabbi Emily Aviva Kapor-Mater and Rabbi Steven Greenberg, who have made the lives of so many queer Jews better through their work. We asked them questions like “What do you do when the Torah lets you down?” and “What does Queer Torah mean to you?” 

In breakout sessions that followed, we explored topics like “How Do We Talk About Sex in the Yeshiva?” and “Declaring the Pure to be Impure and Other Queer Superpowers.” Our learning was interwoven with singing, and we gathered at the end to stand together and daven Mincha, the afternoon prayer service. 

I didn’t think I needed Queer Torah in my life, but it turns out I was wrong. From Rabbi Sarra Lev I learned that the work of queering the Torah is to make the invisible visible and that the rabbis have been doing this thing called queering the Torah for centuries. This is the very same work behind the rabbinic project of midrash, of looking at the Torah and, instead of seeing just the literal plain sense of the word, attempting to give voice to that which is unsaid. 

AVI STRAUSBERG “A Torah of Tears: Reflecting on Torah Informed by the Lens of Queer Experience,” on the Lilith Blog.

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The Lilith Blog

December 2, 2019 by Avi Strausberg

A Torah of Tears: Reflecting on Torah Informed by the Lens of Queer Experience

Hadar’s Queer Colloquium.
Trent Campbell, Picture This Productions

I didn’t think I needed Queer Torah in my life. I had a narrow vision of what Queer Torah was, which was limited to queering the characters of the Torah, essentially imposing gayness onto our ancestors, for the sake of seeing myself represented in our narratives. While I don’t underestimate how for many people it is not only powerful but even necessary to see ourselves represented in Torah, for me this notion held little appeal. This is why, even as a queer rabbi, I didn’t have any of the good Queer Torah books* I was supposed to have on my bookshelf. I never sought them out, and if I’m honest, I’d say I even felt a bit turned off by them. 

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