Rabbinical Student, Simcha Howard

Please join us for a thought-provoking class by our visiting Rabbinical Student, Simcha Howard!

In-person with Zoom option for those that can not attend.

The Torah is assumed by many to be exclusionary of variant-sexed bodies, and modern critique often interprets Biblical categorization of non-normative bodies in an inherently negative way. However, if we strip away modern assumptions regarding gender and sexuality, might we encounter new and liberatory revelations of queerness in the text of the Torah?

The Torah also establishes strict regulations governing the human body, in order to ensure the survival of an Ancient Canaanite society that was organized around reproduction, lineage, ritual purity, inheritance, and covenantal continuity. Yet, many Biblical verses that serve these purposes are used to support queerphobic beliefs, even while the Torah does not espouse them itself.

In this one-hour class, we will set aside our restrictive, modern assumptions about the Torah, gender, and sex, to reveal new frameworks of queerness in our tradition that might surprise and delight. We will also explore the socio-political realities of an ancient world where the body functioned as a “legal instrument”, and we will ask:

• How can we “trans” Torah study?
• What can we pull from the depths of our tradition, in order to live fully as queer Jews?
• Why was the Torah bent on regulating the body in the context of the ancient Near East?