Author Archives: Penina

The Heart of Judah

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From the 14th century “Sister Haggadah” Spain, Catalonia (Barcelona). 1325-1374 CE. Copyright: British Library [Public domain]

This is a story about the heart of Judah.   We will look at what may possibly form/transform Judah’s heart, and read an interesting rabbinic commentary that illustrates how Judah’s heart enables him to “draw near” to his estranged brother Joseph “in order to arouse Joseph’s love and spark his compassion.”

WOMEN WHO FORM JUDAH’S HEART

Judah has two formative women in his life who I would argue contribute strongly to the development of a great heart: his mother Leah and his daughter-in-law Tamar.

LEAH

First: Leah. When Jacob, who would be Judah’s father, sets out to take a wife, he choses Rachel, daughter of Laban. (Note, Rachel did not choose Jacob, but that’s a story for another time.)  He serves Laban 7 years to be able to marry Rachel.   Laban tricks Jacob into taking Leah for a wife before he can marry Rachel.  Rachel is from the beginning the favored wife, and Leah pines for Jacob to love her.   When her first three sons arrive, Leah gives them names which signify that God has seen her affliction (Re’uven/See, a son!), that God has heard that she is hated (Shim’on/ Hearing) and finally that the third son will join her to her husband (Levi/Joining). (Gen 29:32-34).  [Names as translated by Everett Fox].  Taken together, the names show that Leah is unhappily pining away, feeling unloved and alone.

When the fourth son arrives Leah stops giving birth for a time and gives thanks to God.  She calls the child Yehuda/Giving Thanks (Gen 29:35 Fox). None of the names are precisely written according to the meaning invested in them.  However, biblical names are often assigned a meaning in the text suggested by a word with similar letters.  By the explanations of the text, we may see that as she carries and births Judah, Leah is turning her attention away from affliction, hatred, and loneliness, and towards praise for the Divine.  Put another way, she stops thinking of herself in relation to how her husband neglects her and connects herself directly to the Divine. I suggest that Judah is born with this connection to the Divine instead of the negative emotions denoted in the names of the first three sons.  Furthermore, in the unwritten text we may as a result imagine a special bond between mother and son.  This bond based upon thanksgiving gives Judah the possibility of a compassionate heart. We understand already that he may be fated to outshine his older brothers in leadership and in fact be one of the progenitors of King David.   This is not to say that Judah is racking up good deeds as he grows up, but, to his credit, he is the brother chiefly responsible for keeping Joseph alive, sold into slavery instead of slain.

TAMAR

The second strong female who molds Judah’s heart is Tamar, his daughter-in-law.   Tamar is married in sequence to each of Judah’s older sons, Er and Onan, who die leaving her twice-widowed. Judah packs Tamar off to her father’s house with a vague promise to marry her to the third son, Shelah, when he comes of age.  This leaves the widow Tamar chained to Judah’s family, with no chance to find another husband.  At that time, a woman without husband and sons would have been in a precarious situation, as she would not inherit from her father.  Time drags on, Shelah grows up, and Judah does not make the marriage, perhaps because he fears that Tamar caused the death of his sons.  (The text indicates otherwise: that God took both sons for their wickedness).  Finally, after the death of Judah’s wife, Tamar waylays Judah when he is in a festive mood, appearing to him as a veiled woman available for sexual encounter.   Afterward, Tamar takes Judah’s signet, cord and staff as pledge for payment of a kid from his flock.  These articles would have been clearly identifiable as belonging to Judah.  When Tamar becomes pregnant, Judah finds out and is furious with her.  He threatens to burn her. Tamar produces his signet, cord and staff, proving that he is the father (Gen 38:1-25).   At this point, Judah realizes he was wrong to deprive Tamar of her rights and of her societal need to marry Shelah׃

And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She has been more righteous than I; because I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. (Gen 38:26)

Tamar teaches Judah to recognize a person more righteous than himself.  I suggest that this recognition turns Judah himself towards righteousness and enables him to enact love for his father, and to open up Joseph’s heart. Further, that the maternal/divine influence at birth enables Judah to take in the lessons from his daughter-in-law Tamar.

JUDAH AND JOSEPH:  THE HEART IN ACTION

The Joseph saga in our text is long and varied.  There are two key points which work together to show Judah’s heart in action:  Joseph’s withdrawal from his family and Judah’s tender outreach at their meeting.

JOSEPH’S WITHDRAWAL

When Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery, Joseph prospers in Egypt and becomes the Pharaoh’s right hand man, in charge of his stores.  Years go by, yet Joseph never sends word to his family that he is thriving in Egypt, nor does he reach out to them when famine hits.   Why doesn’t he do so? Aviva Zornberg suggests that Joseph’s forgetting is a matter of survival for himself after trauma.  God makes him forget, but also Joseph embraces the forgetfulness.  She expounds on Gen 41:51

  “..when he comes to name his first-born son, he calls him Menasseh – forgetfulness: ‘for God has made me forget completely my suffering and the house of my father’ (Gen 41.51).  Joseph has forgotten his history, himself… For if he is to survive his own unwitnessed death in the pit, he must forget his father’s house, his past, himself.”  Zornberg pg 302.

Joseph becomes unknowable and remains hidden – to himself, to his Egyptian friends and relations, and to his family.  He walks like an Egyptian.  Then the brothers come to visit and start to penetrate the wall of forgetfulness.  All the brothers but one arrive when famine hits in Canaan, Joseph’s homeland.  They leave at home Benjamin, the youngest, Joseph’s full brother, the only other child of Jacob’s favorite wife Rachel.  Jacob will not hear of Benjamin leaving home, not with Joseph already lost to him.

When the brothers arrive in Egypt, they do not recognize Joseph.

Gen 42:[7] And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spoke roughly with them… [8] And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.

Joseph knows his brothers but does not reveal himself, in fact he makes himself strange to them.  Zornberg suggest this is self-disguise.

“Beyond the asymmetrical drama of recognition and non-recognition, there is the enigma of ‘He made himself strange unto them.’ This reflexive verb suggests a more-than-tactical move of self-disguise on Joseph’s part.”    Zornberg pg 303

Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies (mirgalim – the word is repeated 7 times with 25 verses).  He demands that they return with their brother Benjamin to prove they are not.  In private, Joseph cries when he hears his brothers talk about their guilt in mistreating him and how it has lead to what they think is a requirement to pay for their transgression by bringing Benjamin (Gen 42:21-24).  The brothers go home, leaving Shimon behind, bound up, but do not immediately return with Benjamin.  Reuben offers to guarantee Benjamin’s safety by pledging that Jacob can slay Reuben’s two sons if Reuben does not return with Benjamin.  It’s a ghastly offer and Jacob does not accept (Gen 42:37-38)

When the famine becomes extreme again, Judah steps up to safeguard Benjamin’s return so that the brothers can revisit Egypt.  Unlike Reuben, Judah simply takes all the surety on his own shoulders.  (Gen 43:8-9).  Surely his heart, which has been expanded by the influences of Leah and Tamar, is feeling love for his father.   Rabbi Yitz Greenberg writes:

“[F]ar from reacting violently to Jacob’s total possessive love for Rachel’s youngest son, Judah will give up his own life in order not to break his father’s heart again.”

Jacob has no choice but to allow Benjamin to go.  When they arrive, Joseph’s heart yearns for Benjamin but he again remains hidden and cries to himself.  Joseph’s long years of hiding himself, of “self-disguise,” have crusted over his heart – made it difficult for him to reveal himself even now:

Gen 43 [29] And he lifted up his eyes, and saw Benjamin his brother, his mother’s son, and said: ‘Is this your youngest brother of whom ye spoke unto me?’ And he said: ‘God be gracious unto thee, my son.’ [30] And Joseph made haste; for his heart yearned toward his brother; and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.

Joseph sends the brothers home with bountiful food supplies, and a silver goblet hidden in Benjamin’s pack, then dispatches his steward to accuse them of theft.  The brothers swear that whomever has the goblet will be Joseph’s bondsman (Gen 44:9).   They find the goblet in Benjamin’s pack and Joseph threatens to keep Benjamin as a servant.   This is a disaster! The brothers fall on the ground in front of Joseph as if to plead for Benjamin.  Judah is their spokesman.  Then a remarkable thing occurs.  Judah draws near to Joseph.

JUDAH DRAWS NEAR – CRACKING JOSEPH’S HEART

Then Judah draws near to him [Joseph].  Vayigash elayiv Yehudah.  [Gen 44:18].

Why, the rabbis ask, did Judah draw near to the apparent stranger, when he was already in front of him?  What can be the meaning hidden behind text that appears to be a repetition of what is already known?  The text has already told us that Judah and his brothers have fallen prostrate on the ground in front of Joseph (Gen 44:14).

Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, (1730-1788) writes:

 “The Or ha-Hayyim [Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar 1696-1743] asks why the term and Judah approached is necessary [since we know Judah was already standing close to Joseph], appropriately explaining that the drawing near to Joseph took place within Judah’s heart, as in the verse ‘As face answers to face in water, so does one man’s heart to another’ (Prov. 27:19).  With these words Judah sought to inspire Joseph’s compassion, and therefore he approached him in his heart, drawing near to Joseph and truly loving him, in order to arouse Joseph’s love and spark his compassion.  The words of the Or ha-Hayyim are certainly wise and faithful.”  Green, pg 153 from Peri Ha-Arets

The Or ha-Hayyim interprets this verse to mean that Judah, in approaching with his heart the unknown Egyptian, who had “made himself strange,” was able to raise up the sparks of love and compassion from Joseph.  Judah pleads with Joseph to allow Benjamin to go home and to permit Judah to stay as the bondsman.  In response, Joseph opens his heart to all his brothers and reveals his true self.  Aviva Zornberg points to the verse where Judah breaks though Joseph’s crusted heart.

This is “the sentence that accesses Joseph’s pain…[Judah says] ‘For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?  Let me not be witness to the evil that would befall my father.’ (Gen. 44:34).  Zornberg pg 306

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg describes the moment this way:

“Joseph’s blocking wall crumbles. He is flooded with yearning for the father who loved him more than life…. Joseph, moved to the core, reaches out to his father and family. He brings them down to Egypt and nurtures them lovingly through the famine and its aftermath.”

Judah performs the opposite of keeping the stranger at arm’s length. Judah’s compassion for Benjamin, and the loving way in which he approaches Joseph, breaks through Joseph’s Menasseh – his tactical amnesia.    We note that Joseph cried upon seeing his brothers, but prior to Judah drawing near, he did not reveal himself.  Had he wanted to unite with his family, he could have done that years ago.  But Judah drew his heart near to Joseph’s heart and melted the isolation which Joseph had built up around him.

FINAL WORDS

Judah’s heart is steeped in the maternal/divine connection with his mother Leah.  It is further tempered by Tamar’s lesson about righteousness.  Judah first leads his brothers in saving Joseph’s life, then demonstrates great love for his father.  In the end his heart reaches out directly to Joseph’s heart “in order to arouse Joseph’s love and spark his compassion.”

If your neighbor feels like a stranger to you, be like Judah: open your heart and bring the neighbor within arm’s length.  Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, who researches ancient texts in conversation with disability studies, queer theory, feminist thought, and environmental ethics, issues a clarion call:

Let us strive together to break down barriers within ourselves and our communities.  Let us refashion the crusted architecture of our minds that keeps the Holy at bay.” Belser pg 28-29

SOURCES

Belser, Julia Watts.  “God on Wheels: Disability and Jewish Feminist Theology.” Tikkun. 29. 27-29, 2014.

Fox, Everett. The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. New York: Schocken Books, 1997.

Green, Dr Arthur, Rabbi Ebn Leader, Ariel Evan Mayse, and Rabbi Or N. Rose. Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from around the Maggid’s Table, Vol. 1. 1 edition. Woodstock, Vermont: Jewish Lights, 2013. [Menahem Mendel of Vitebsk, 1730-1788 quoted Peri Ha-Arets] (pg 153)

Greenberg, Rabbi Yitz  “Can We Save the Unity of the Jewish People? Parashat VaYigash 5781” Accessed 12/27/20: https://www.hadar.org/torah-resource/can-we-save-unity-jewish-people#source-9535

Zornberg, Avivah Gottlieb. The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious. New York: Schocken Books, 2009.

Brief story of Judith

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In the Septuagint (LLX), Judith is a bad-ass heroine, heartily accepted and lauded by her people after she saves them from Holofernes. She is portrayed as quite independent – relying upon her faith in God, but very inner directed, brave, and splendid. Lots of intertextual links to Jewish heroes, male and female. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate (4th C CE) turns her into a chaste super pious widow who is basically following God’s direction – still a heroine, story much the same, but more directed – not so much agency – and not so fully respected. A story you would expect from a celibate Christian priest.

There is zero in Jewish tradition concerning Judith until about 1000 CE. Never was a Hebrew version of the LLX story. Jerome, in making the Latin Vulgate claims to have translated from Hebrew but this cannot be established. None of the Jewish historians, philosophers or rabbis mention her until she appears in the middle ages. Her story then is similar to LLX, but gets wrapped into multiple midrashic and liturgical stories of Hanukkah and Judah. She becomes quite prominent as a Jewish heroine (see first illustration – above), perhaps partly because it is a time of increasing nationalism (12th-14th centuries or so), perhaps in reaction to Christian adoration of the Virgin Mary. Judith remains a hero to the Jewish people over time (see second illustration).

Christian art in the 15th century mixed Judith up with quite misogynist views of women. The art in last frame shows that she was conflated with Salome and both were portrayed as rather vile seducers.

A Candle on the Darkest Days – Hanukkah, Judith, and Rebecca Nov 19, 2020

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinber Picture is a photo of a small hannukiah lit in the midst of a great cold wind on the cobblestone front porch of an empty house on a Maine beach on the 6th day of Hanukkah in 2019. No, we’re not at Hanukkah yet, but we are at the Jewish calendar date 3 Kislev, the beginning of the month in which Hanukkah falls, and the darkest month of the year. We are two days after the new moon of Kislev. We can take hope in candles lit against the darkness. We are also at Parashat Toldot, Genesis 25:19-28:9, wherein Rebecca makes the most existential cry of the entire Torah, and Jacob and Esau fight against the gender roles assigned them at birth, reversing them with the support of the Divine and Rebecca. And we’re at Transgender Day of Remembrance. As Jill Hammer writes below, we are in a time of introspection and outward action. We’ll talk about the texts, about Judith and Rebecca, about gender roles, and about how to bring light into darkness. Jill Hammer’s book The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons situates each day of the year in its season, quarter, phase, and part of nature. Jill writes this about Kislev, in ancient Israel: “Once the new moon was announced, bonfires were lit in the hills above Jerusalem. Far-flung communities would see the bonfires and light their own, until all the Jewish communities knew that the new moon had come. As stars help a ship locate itself on the sea, the bonfires helped Jews locate themselves in time, joining them to the root consciousness of their people. According to Rabbi Judah, the 1st of Kislev is the first day of winter in Israel (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzi’a 106b). We are close now to the darkest days of the year, and the new moon bonfires remind us of the Hanukkah candles growing each night. The flames teach that when the moon is dark, we can expect its face to shine again, and when the sunlight is dimming, soon it will begin to grow again. This is true also for us: The quiet of introspection can and should lead to outward action in the world.” 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Tower of Babel – Confronting Conformity and Slavery Oct 22, 2020

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg October 22, 2020 The story of the Tower of Babel, Gen 11:1-9, is included in the Torah portion for this week: Parashat Noach. This enigmatic story comprises only a few verses, and seems to indicate that a crime against God has been committed. But what is the crime? What in fact are the builders doing? The city of Babel seems actually more important than the Tower. Judy Klitsner, author of “Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other” suggests that “In tyrannizing one another by extinguishing the divine spark of individuality, the tower builders made standing before God impossible.” Is this, as she says, a story about a “coercively conformist society,” or about genuine explorers? How big a part is played by the fact that city building then required slavery? This will be a lively discussion, light on text, geared to everyone who has ever puzzled over the Tower of Babel. Will we find any answers? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Will we have fun trying? YES! Picture is Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1573). Yellow and orange two tone stair step edifice with doors and windows towering over a plain of green. On the side of the plain to the right is a green river with small sailing craft. In front of tower on the plain to the left is a knot of men – perhaps engaged in discussing the building of the tower. 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Why being queer in shul helps me to understand our institutional racism

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Our shul has recently embarked upon a course of community-building around anti-racism and diversity.   We have employed trained facilitators to guide our conversation.  From my perspective as a queer Jew, I offered up a comment in our first session about how the way in which I interact with the shul gives me some insight into how systemic racism may operate in our congregation, not necessarily overtly, but as an institutional problem. 

A member asked me how I could say that there was a lack of acceptance for me as a queer Jew, when the Rabbi readily agreed to my request for the use of gender neutral pronouns when calling an individual up to read from the Torah.  This terrific question calls for a measured answer.

The Rabbi agreeing to gender neutral pronouns is a validating and good feeling thing, an individual act of kindness and recognition.  As an individual, people treat me with respect and acceptance.  Yet it’s the institutional things that are difficult.

In our services we make an effort to mic all speakers, which is radical for a Conservative oriented shul, and very helpful to me as a person whose hearing is somewhat limited.  We strive to accommodate with ramp and large print prayer books.  There are a good number of caring folks heading up and participating in our committees and Board.  And yet, it is an institution with a history, with habits of thought, with practices, with policies that may not speak fully to some of the marginalized constituents, be they queer Jews, Jews of color, patrilineal Jews, disabled Jews, Jews by choice, interfaith partners. 

Speaking for myself personally, during an in-person prayer service, I can tune out the masculinist prayer book, Siddur Sim Shalom, the old Conservative siddur from 1985, because I carry with me one or two of my personal prayer books:  Siddur Lev Shalem is the new Conservative siddur that has gone a long way to providing gender inclusive and matriarch inclusive language.   Siddur Shahar Za’av is a siddur published by a queer synagogue.  I can and do make individual accommodations for myself by tuning out what the congregation is reciting, while listening to and participating in the music.

Yet, the masculinist prayer book on Sat mornings is the unquestioned and unapologized nexus of Saturday prayer, it is part of the institution of the shul.  It annoys me.  It sets my teeth on edge in places.  As a representation of the institution where I am a member, it excludes me and my lived experience.   It shows me that no matter how welcoming some individuals are,  as an institution we have work to do to celebrate and include LGBTQ Jews.

What holds me in the community is the promise of greater inclusion and celebration.  In our weekly Shabbat Torah study sessions, I often bring in the teaching of queer and/or disabled Jews.  When given a chance to read from the Torah, I have been able to bring in a feminist and/or queer and/or disabled perspective to the Torah portion.  Reactions from congregants and the Rabbi are positive and heartwarming.

From this experience, I can now question:  in what way is our shul, as an institution, perpetuating racism, in the same way that the siddur perpetuates an institutional masculinist/patriarchal view of the divine? In what way are we as an institution expecting marginalized persons to do all the heavy lifting?   We have individuals who are queer, of color, disabled, in interfaith families, and we often are able to provide welcome and accommodation.  But the culture overall is white, Ashkenazi, and heteronormative.  Having one or two or even three members from any group does not make a culture.

I am proud to say that our shul is grappling with these questions of inclusion and celebration, of understanding systemic racism and biases. We can only move forward by truth telling, by asking ourselves and each other hard questions, and by sitting with some discomfort in the process.

Shekhinah and Prophets. The God With – The God Who Punishes (Aug 20, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg August 20, 2020 At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details] Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam ——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Banner image is by David Lawrence and can be found at Octobergallery.com, which is one of the oldest African American art galleries in the nation. Lawrence’s Shekinah is a proud Black woman, lit from above and behind, who appears to see into your soul and out from hers.

Penina will be sharing a number of ideas which are interrelated, pulling together teachings and thoughts from Joy Ladin, Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, and “The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. This will be a conversation, thinking together about ideas of sin, victimization, racism, the voices of the prophets, the rabbis and the Shekhinah. This is very much a work in progress for Penina and she looks forward to thinking in community with friends of Ruach HaYam. Alexander writes that one of the false ideas that drives mass incarceration of Black men – perpetuating a vast underclass that is identical to slavery – is the notion that Black men would not be imprisoned if they did not commit crimes. (Her book is based upon research on incarcerated Black men). This notion blames the victims of systemic racism for the injustices perpetrated upon them and justifies the loss of voting privileges, housing, employment and family. How is this notion similar or not to the Hebrew Bible claim that the downfall of the temples and the fall of the monarchy are the result of failures of the Israelites to worship as their God demands? Is the God of punishment in effect blaming the victim instead of the overwhelming might of Israel’s enemies: the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans? Do the Prophets speak the language of blame the victim sometimes, and other times the language of the Shekhinah? We will consider two teachings. One is Joy Ladin’s new poetry collection in process, called “Shekhinah Speaks”. Ladin’s Shekhinah is a bad-ass fully independent female divinity, not in the least a binary reflection of a male divinity. This Shekhinah is not the God of punishment, but the God who stands by the side of the human, flesh to flesh, pushing, prodding, saving from the ground up. Ladin describes Shekhinah as an alternative, decentralized, binary-dissolving way of thinking about how the Divine moves in and through us to make a more just society. You can learn in detail about this here Rabbi Julia Watts-Belser, in her book “Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem” presents a teaching on how the destruction of the Temple in Roman times is treated in Bavli Gittin. Here, she says, the rabbis do not blame the victims, do not suggest that Jerusalem fell to the Romans because they sinned and God punished. Instead the rabbis describe the overwhelming force of the Roman conquerors and the toll they take upon the bodies of the people. You can see a teaching by Rabbi Belser, where she reflects on “The God Who Suffers With” here Perhaps we will find Belser’s “God With” is a bit like Ladin’s “Shekhinah” 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

These are the (different) words: Parashat Devarim (July 23, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg July 23, 2020 At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details] Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam ——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Image is Deuteronomy, decorated initial-word panel from BL Harley 7621, f. 254v. Date 1450-1474 c British Library

Devarim is partly a restatement of the history to date of the Israelites, but told in a new way. Why does it change? How does the text (or Moses?) rewrite history and memory? What can we learn about modern day re-writing of history? Join us for a lively deep dive into the first portion of Devarim, quite logically called Parashat Devarim.

Devarim 1:16—18: [Moses speaking to the Israelites] “I commanded your judges at that time saying, hear out the cases of your brethren and adjudicate righteously between a man and his fellow and the immigrant residing with him (גר). Do not be partial in judgment: hear out the small as well as the large. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s. And any case that is too difficult for you, you shall bring it to me and I will hear it.” 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Caleb: Ruach Acheret – Different Spirit – What is Leadership? (June 18, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg
June 18, 2020
At 6:45pm meeting will be open for logging in and schmoozing.
Study begins at 7:15.
[Image is Spies of Canaan by Diego Franceso Carlone at St. Martin’s Abbey in Weingarten, Germany. (Photo: Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons)]
 
Our study session is in the week of Parashat Sh’lach (Numbers 13:1 – 15.41), which tells a story of fear and courage at the border between wilderness and homeland (the story of the spies!), spells out a set of sacred norms about sacrificial offerings, relates the tale of a man who is stoned for gathering sticks on Shabbat, and commands the wearing of the tzitzit. Some of you may remember discussing Sh’lach two years ago. Which is great! We’ll build on that.
 
This time, we are mindful of a country deeply disrupted by systemic racism, blood in the streets, and a pandemic. Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to learn with Julia Watts Belser, who dedicated her text study to “teaching as an act of solidarity with thousands who are protesting, grieving, and risking so much to bring down white supremacy and build a world where Black Lives Matter. ” So this time, in our study of Caleb and the spies, we will try to have a deeper understanding of what leadership might look like, and how change is stymied by so-called “sacred norms.”
 
Joy Ladin puts it this way, referring to the Jewish world, and really universal in perspective:
“Wherever we travel in the Jewish world, we can see the positive effects of efforts to bring human laws, lives, and communities into line with divine standards of justice and loving-kindness. But those who don’t fit communal norms know the downside of this ideal: its tendency to cast an aura of sanctity over flawed and even oppressive social structures and to frame efforts to make communal norms more inclusive as threats to the essence and existence of the community……The emphasis on sacred normativity in Judaism and the Jewish community harms those, like LTBTQ Jews, who don’t fit established norms. It also harms the Torah by obscuring the queerness on which its moral and spiritual vitality depend.”
Ladin, Joy. “Both Wilderness and Promised Land: How Torah Grows When Read Through LTBTQ Eyes.” Tikkun 29, no. 4 (Fall 2014): 17–20.
  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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Ezekiel’s Vision and the Revelation at Sinai (May 21, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg via Zoom – May 21, 2020
[Image:“Ezekiel’s Vision” oil on masonite.  By permission of Artist Nick Kokis] We are coming up to the the holiday of Shavuot, the date which tradition tells us is the date upon which the Torah was given at Sinai. Through a study of a few short texts, we will have a conversation about the nature of revelation. We will read Ezekiel 1:1-28 and 3:12, which is the haftarah for Shavuot day 1 – the vision of the prophet Ezekiel of wheels within wheels, of a fiery mass, of a living creature with 4 heads, 4 sides, 4 wings. What is the nature of Ezekiel’s vision? How does it compare to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-17) and to the revelation at Sinai (Exodus 19:1-20:23 is one of the Torah readings for Shavuot 1)? We will refer to Julia Watts-Belser’s article “God on Wheels: Disability and Jewish Feminist Theology” where she writes “One recent Shavuot Ezekiel’s vision split open my own imagination. Hearing those words chanted, I felt a jolt of recognition, an intimate familiarity. I thought: God has wheels! “In relating Ezekiel’s vision to the Sinaitic revelation, an implicit connection is made between prophecy and revelation. Ezekiel’s vision is taken to be a collective vision at Mount Sinai, where every Jew was able to see God’s presence. This implies that every Jew was a prophet and could become as great as Ezekiel… Ezekiel [chapter] 1 thus reveals what even the most common Israelite saw at Sinai on that awesome occasion. Its recitation on the first day of Shavuot calls that wondrous event to mind with numinous detail. Luminous beyond understanding, the vision in Ezekiel 1:4-28 is a sight for the inner eye.” – Micheal Fishbane https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-read-ezekiel-on-shavuot/ 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

And the Fire Flashed all Around: Song of Songs (April 23, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg via Zoom – April 23, 2020
  • 6:45pm – 7:15pm meeting will be open for logging in and schmoozing.
  • Study begins at 7:15.
  • Zoom information here
[Image:Shir Hashirim (Mandatory Palestine, ca. 1930) Decorated scroll is a product of the circle of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, dated to circa 1930. From JTS Library] Penina Weinberg will lead this interactive discovery of Song of Songs through text study, discussion, pictures, and music [if technology cooperates]. Like Ben Azzai, we will link up the words of the Torah with the Writings, until the fire flashes all around. Sunglasses are recommended. 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. *** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***