We queers have so much to say about love. We know what it is like to risk everything for it. We know what it is like to negotiate love without the crutch of gender roles to fall back on. We know what it was like, for many years, to love without benefit of marriage or any other kind of legal or social recognition. To love despite disapproval. We know what it is like to love lavishly, fiercely, sequentially or simultaneously, without the benefits or constraints of convention.
Read moreKedoshim Question: Aural Argument
For this week's Torah portion, Kedoshim, Kol Aleph – the Jewish Renewal Blog – reprinted a piece I wrote in 2013, immediately on the heels of the Supreme Court arguments in the Windsor and Obergefell, the same-sex marriage cases. In it I imagine oral argument before the heavenly court to revoke the biblical prohibition on homosexuality, with no less than the famed Rabbi Hillel as the attorney for the petitioners. I was honored that this piece was selected for inclusion in this year's array of Torah commentary from Renewal rabbis and students.
Read moreGifts of the Queers
Many of us left families of origin to form families of friends. Many of us brought children into the world in complicated and creative family arrangements – with multiple adults, exes, friends, all playing a role in raising children who will never have cause to doubt just how wanted they were. Yes, those of us in queer families know the difference between kinship and biology, and that is something we can teach the Jewish world.
Read moreReturn from Brigadoon (Report from Rabbi Land)
I just got back from Brigadoon. That’s how I’ve begun to think of the annual Ohalah conference. It’s the winter jamboree of Jewish Renewal rabbis from around the world. The week felt like being at a yeshivah, not of the old kind, but a yeshivah as you might imagine it in Olam Haba, in Paradise. Rabbis and students of all ages and genders. All of them with a hand in the old texts and an eye on the future of the planet. Progressive people, creative people, mystics and musicians.
Read moreAt the Rebbe's Gay Tish
And then the participants began to roll in. Like Chasidim would pour into Bratzlav or Berditchev or Lublin, to spend the Jewish holiday at the shtibl and table of their favorite rebbe. Instead of Yisroels and Motls and Shmuels, we instead had Davids and Steves and Marks and Sams – several of each, in fact. Instead of gabardines and shtreimls we had shorts and tank tops and, by the pool, nothing at all.
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