Ruach HaYam Teaching presented by Penina Weinberg at Congregation Eitz Chayim, 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA – May 23, 2019. 6:45pm. (Scroll to end for logistics)
Join us at Ruach HaYam, an independent queer havurah, for a discussion about Joy Ladin’s book, The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. In her book, Joy writes that “The covenant with Abraham is founded on Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob’s embrace of trans experience: their willingness to live outside the gender roles they were born to and become the kinds of people they were not supposed to be. By portraying trans experience as the foundation for covenant with Abraham, the Torah plants God’s recognition that people do not have to be what binary gender says we are at the heart of the Abrahamic religious tradition.”
This is not a presentation by the author, but will be a conversation led by Penina Weinberg, who has attended many of Joy’s readings. We will read mostly from Chapter 2 of Joy’s book, and look at the Torah texts to which she refers. How might Joy’s theology help to heal the divide between religious and LGBTQ communities? How does her definition of “trans experience” apply to ourselves? If you have an opportunity to obtain The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective before our meeting, please do so, but it’s not required.
Banner image: Baruch Nachson (contemporary Israeli artist), Avraham Welcoming the Three Angels (acrylic on canvas). Abraham and Sarah preparing food for the angels, accompanied by barn animals and rider on horseback.
Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.
** Logistics**
Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. We open the doors at 6:45 for schmoozing. Feel free to bring your own veggie snack for the early part. A parking consideration is in effect for the three blocks around EC during all regularly scheduled events. It is a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC. You will find a note here if you wish to print one out.
Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.
Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are welcoming to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners.