Category Archives: Events

Saul and the Necromancer of Endor (April 20, 2017)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
April 20, 2017.  See end of post for logistics.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

King Saul’s visit to the necromancer of Endor (1 Kings 28) introduces us to man who is at the end of his political life but hoping for saving words from beyond the grave. Saul hopes the necromancer will bring up the ghost of Samuel to help him. We will look at what drives Saul politically to seek out the necromancer, and at how the woman’s wizardry bypasses the traditional authority structure. Ruach HaYam member Sarah Pasternak will lead us in a discussion of Saul’s struggle with his own mortality and forthcoming irrelevance (with the regime change to David). This story has power politics, confrontation with mortality, and the story of a woman who defies the king’s decree.

It turns out that the Kabbalist Hayyim Vital, writing at the end of the 16th century, discussed the women diviners of his day in great detail, some of whom commanded respect and obedience from great rabbis of the day. The modern scholar J.H. Chajes sums up his essay about Vital and the diviners thus: “Their authority was not based on their scholarship or communal post… Their commanding voices were heard because they were benign witches, expert diviners, vivid dreamers, acute dream interpreters, and socially conscious prophets.” In our class, along with examining Saul’s motivations, we will ponder Chajes’ study in conjunction with the comments of Rabbi Geela Rayzel Raphael quoted on the event banner.

  • Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.
  • Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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’s a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC.
  • Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Ki Tisa as a Song of Longing (Mar 16, 2017)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
March 16, 2017.  See end of post for logistics.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

Parashat Ki Tisa is a Song of both longing and danger. First, the longing. Previous to our parsha, Moses has gone up to the top of Mount Sinai, entering the cloud of God’s presence, to remain with God for 40 days (Ex 24:18). While Moses is up on Mount Sinai encountering the Divine, the children of Israel wait expectantly at the foot of Mount Sinai for Moses to return with God’s prescription for a holy life.

Now the period of time is coming to an end and the people are restless, “for this Moshe, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!” (Ex 32.1 Everett Fox translation). They go to Aaron, brother of Moses, and say to him, “Make us a god who will go before us!” (Ex 32.1 Everett Fox translation). There follows the well-known story of the creation of the golden calf from the gold rings of the people, and of the people eating, drinking, and dancing wildly around their creation.

I would like to read the creation of the golden calf as the story of people who are yearning for God’s presence, and who do the best they can in their circumstances to fill that longing. But there is a problem with this reading, and that is where the danger comes it. Although Moses successfully pleads with God not to destroy the people entirely (Ex. 32:31-34), nevertheless God sends a plague upon the people (Ex. 32:35). Moses himself orders the Levites to assassinate 3,000 of the Israelites. (Ex. 32:26-28). If the people were expressing longing for God, how do we understand a world in which they can be punished for doing so?

We can illuminate the Exodus text by following the ancient rabbinic tradition of reading Torah intertextually with Song of Songs. But fair warning, the Song illuminates the danger as well as the longing.

  • Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.
  • Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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’s a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC.
  • Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Tziporah and the Awesome Fusion of Aaron and Moses (Feb 16, 2017)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
February 16, 2017.  See end of post for logistics.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

There is a mysterious and awe-filled encounter between YHVH and Moses, as Moses returns from Midian to Egypt to undertake the deliverence of the Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh (Exodus 4:24-27). It appears that YHVH seeks to kill Moses and that Moses’ wife Tziporah, a Midianite priestess with overtones of Osiris, performs a magical and life-saving circumcision. Immediately afterwords, YHVH sends Aaron from Egpyt to join Moses in the wilderness. Aaron meets Moses and kisses him. From now on, Aaron will “speak Hebrew” for Moses. Moses is both Hebrew and Egyptian and stuggles to come to terms with his existence as a hybrid being. Tziporah’s magical/priestly ritual forms a crucible for Moses, enabling him to essentially fuse with Aaron.

We will do a close reading of the text to uncover interesting implications for queer identity and for identity fusion, transformation, or hybridization. We will look at issues of ethnic as well as gender identity (is Moses really a nursemaid? do all the 5 women who birthed him continue to live within him?). As suggested by Penina’s study partner in preparing this class, Noach Dzmura (thank you Noach for all the great ideas!), the closest modern analogy may well be the cartoon character Steven Universe. Our friend Ezra Rose Greenfield has graciously agreed to give us an introduction to the hybrid/fushion personas of Steven Universe and his friends.

  • Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.
  • Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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’s a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC.
  • Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

A True Leader – Moses and the Five Women who Birthed Him (Jan 19, 2017)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
January 19, 2017.  See end of post for logistics.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

Join us for a queer look at Moses and the five powerful women of Exodus 1-2 who birthed/midwifed/nurtured the great leader of the Hebrew people. Despite contrary decrees by the powerful Pharaoh of Egypt, the women used their wits to gain power when they lacked authority. They launched Moses as a prophet and leader, and Miriam became a prophet herself. At the end of the book of Exodus, we will see that their efforts led to another quintuplet of women who changed their world: the daughters of Zelophehad – Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.

As we sit upon the eve of destruction, what can we learn about faith, resistance, persistance, and feminine and non-elite power, by a deep reading of this story?

This class will not discuss current events, but the universal questions which arise in the study will resonate and perhaps be useful. My approach to Torah is not, how can we make this verse or that speak to a current event? Rather, we collectively unpack and seek to understand and own the texts; we bring the text to our selves, and our selves to the texts. Thereby each of us can increase our knowledge of human and divine nature, and with deeper understanding, strengthen our selves for our various forms of life work.

  • Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.
  • Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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’s a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC.
  • Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Genesis: Creation, Destruction, and Re-Birth (Dec 15, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
December 15, 2016.  See end of post for logistics.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

Inherent in the watery story of creation is the deluge – the flood which God will bring to wipe out God’s act of creation. In the first six chapters of the Hebrew Bible, humanity is birthed, drowned and rescued. From “God’s spirit glided over the face of the waters, and God said ‘Let there be light.’” (Gen 1:2-3) to “YHVH regretted having made human beings on earth and was heartsick. So YHVH thought: ‘I will wipe the humans whom I have created from off the face of the earth.’” (Gen 6:6-7) And then – there is Noach: “A righteous man in his generation,” (Gen 6:9) who carries the small family and ark full of animals to dry land and a new future.

We will study Genesis 1-6, six chapters in which the entire Torah is written. We will seek guidance from Aviva Zornberg and the Sefat Emet to understand why God creates this doomed creature. As Zornberg discusses (citing Rashi), creating humans means that wicked beings will emerge, but if humans are not created, how will the righteous (tsaddikim) arise? Along the way, we will consider the gender identity of the human (s) created in the image of the divine.

This class will not discuss current events, but the universal questions which arise in the study will resonate and perhaps be useful. My approach to Torah is not, how can we make this verse or that speak to a current event? Rather, we collectively unpack and seek to understand and own the texts; we bring the text to our selves, and our selves to the texts. Thereby each of us can increase our knowledge of human and divine nature, and with deeper understanding, strengthen our selves for our various forms of life work.

  • Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.
  • Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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’s a good idea to put a note in the windshield that you are attending an event at EC.
  • Accessibility information: all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Elijah the Prophet: Zealotry, Despair, and Hearing kol d’mama daka (Sept 15, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
September 15, 2016.  Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.

Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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.

Accessibility information: MBTA accessible, all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

We will do a close reading of 1 Kgs 19, Prophet Elijah’s flight to the desert, where he prepares himself to die. In what way are Elijah’s fear of Jezebel, his zealotry for God, and his despair, linked to each other? When God attempts to teach Elijah that the divine is to be found in kol d’mama daka, but not in the wind, not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, does Elijah get the message? Note: biblical scholar Athalya Brenner writes that translations for kol d’mama daka, “as various as the RSV’s ‘still small voice’, ‘roaring thunderous voice’, ‘the sound of utmost silence’ and ‘a thin petrifying sound’ are all equally plausible.” We will be assisted in the study of despair by Elizabeth Sweeny who will present some of her work on Elijah and depression. Thank you, Elizabeth!!! 1 K 18:46 – 19:21 is the haftarah for Num 25:10 – 30:1, (parashat Pinchas). We will compare Elijah’s zealotry to the of Pinchas. How does zealotry manifest? In what ways does the text approve and disapprove?

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

The Hannah Narrative: Listening to (my, your, their) Inner Voice (August 18, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
August 18, 2016.  Ruach HaYam study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, but are open to any learning or faith background and friendly to beginners.

Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However 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.

Accessibility information: MBTA accessible, all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

This study is led by Penina Weinberg.

The Hannah Narrative, 1 Samuel 1:1-2:10, is recited as the Haftarah every year at Rosh Hashanah. R Nahman of Breslev teaches that “During the Days of Awe it is a good thing when you can weep profusely like a child. Throw aside all your sophistication. Just cry before God; cry for the diseases of the heart, for the pains and sores you feel in your soul. Cry like a child before his father.” (From R Noson’s work, “Liketey Eitzot”). The Talmud presents Hannah as an example to all of how to pray. “R. Hamnuna said: How many most important laws can be learnt from these verses relating to Hannah! Now Hannah, she spoke in her heart: from this we learn that one who prays must direct his heart. Only her lips moved: from this we learn that he who prays must frame the words distinctly with his lips.” (B. Berachot 31a-b)

Through many years of reciting the Hannah Narrative at the High Holy Days, I have generally understood the Hannah Narrative to be an example of how one needs to dig into one’s soul and shout out one’s inner longings. In this class, I want to ask the question, what is our responsibility to really listen? Is there a problem in expecting the Other to dig into their soul and to reach out to Us? In the Hannah Narrative, only Penina really listens from her own empathetic soul.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Majesty Thrown to the Dogs: Queen Jezebel and the Assault on Transgender Womanhood (July 7, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
May 26, 2016.  Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However we open the doors at 6:45 for schmoozing. Feel free to bring your own veggie snack for the early part.

Ruach HaYam study sessions are open to any learning background and friendly to beginners. For those arriving by car, parking is allowed within 2 blocks on event nights.
We are proud to have the co-sponsorship of Keshet for this event!

This study will be co-led by Mischa Haider and Penina Weinberg. They have recently begun collaborating on articles drawing wisdom from ancient Hebrew texts and applying it to understanding and undermining the assault on transgender womanhood today. In this study, we will look closely at the story of Queen Jezebel in 1 and 2 Kings. As a Phoenician princess, she was educated in religion and governance, and well able to sustain 400 prophets and run the kingdom. Yet she was out of place in the Israelite kingdom, scorned for her prowess, feared, and ultimately thrown to the dogs. In seeking to understand the forces which drove the King of Israel to destroy her, we seek to understand two things about the modern assault on transgender womanhood. What are the forces that drive this assault, and how can we honor and foreground the majestic souls of our modern day Queen Jezebels?

Mischa Haider is a transgender activist and mother. She is an applied physicist at Harvard University who studies applications of mathematical and physical models to social networks. She has written in the Advocate and Tikkun, and her research has been published in Applied Physics Letters. She also has a blog on the Huffington Post and is on the Board of Trustees of Lambda Literary.

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, founded the group Ruach HaYam and is president emerita and chair of various committees in her synagogue. Penina is a mother and grandmother.

Read Mischa and Penina’s article here: http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2016/05/13/unrighteous-anger-queen-vashti-and-the-erasure-of-transgender-women/

Accessibility information: MBTA accessible, all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

R Yochanan: The Impact of Identity on Torah Learning (May 26, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
May 26, 2016.  Study starts promptly at 7:15 pm. However we open the doors at 6:45 for schmoozing. Feel free to bring your own veggie snack for the early part.

We have a treat coming up! Our friend and wonderful teacher, Jonah P will be facilitating our next study. We will learn about Rabbi Yochanan, a recurring character in the Talmud, who is renowned not only for his Torah, but also for his great beauty and his deep love for his hevruta. He’s also famous for being the central character in one of the Talmud’s most homoerotic tales. In this session, we’ll examine this and a few other tales in which Rabbi Yochanan stars, get acquainted with this fascinating figure, and explore how his identity impacts his Torah learning.

This will be a text learning session which is open to any learning background and friendly to beginners (English translations provided for everything).

About the facilitator: Jonah P. has been reveling in the intersection of queer/trans and Judaism since becoming active in the Boston Jewish community in 2011. He recently completed a year of learning at Yeshivat Hadar.

Picture credit: http://www.kolhamevaser.com/2014/11/reflections-on-havruta-learning/

Accessibility information: MBTA accessible, all gender/accessible bathrooms, entry ramp.

Batsheva – In her own Voice (April 28, 2016)

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Ruach HaYam Workshop at Congregation Eitz Chayim, Cambridge, MA
Join us for an interactive study of Batsheva, in her own Voice. Study will be led by Penina Weinberg. 6:45 pm for schmooze. Bring veggie snacks if you wish.
Study will begin promptly at 7:15pm.
Congregation Eitz Chayim 136 Magazine Street, Cambridge, MA
April 28, 2016
Batsheva’s story begins with a bath on a roof-top, where her life is overpowered by King David’s (2 Samuel 11-12).  But at the end of King David’s life, Batsheva, as Queen Mother, holds the keys to the kingly succession and sits at the right hand of Solomon (1 Kings 1-2).  We will do a close reading of the biblical text, looking for Batsheva’s own voice, and for a trajectory of transition.
After a close reading of the biblical text, we will read Joy Ladin’s poem “Batsheva’s Version.”  The poem was written prior to Joy’s transition to living her life as a woman.  In her notes on the poem, Joy writes “I wrote ‘Batsheva’s Version’ as a tentative but conscious step towards gender transition…. Batsheva, trapped, angry, obsessively focused on the man whose life has swallowed hers, and passive-aggressively delighting in his destruction, is a kind of self-portrait.”   Using this poem, as well as the biblical text, we will discuss what it means to be trapped and what it might take to transition.  This is a universal question.