This is basically just so I can work through some of my faith problems by having some fun with the Bible!! There’ll be incorrect quotes, and.... more when I think of them!!
(I have been raised a Christian my whole life, so if I ever come across as anti-Semitic or racist, please tell me and I will do my best to fix it!! I understand that the Christians have really skewed a lot of things when it comes to Jews and their heritage)
I need answers. Are mermaids kosher? What did your rabbi say???
As per my rabbi, mermaids are NOT kosher, due to the following:
1) If mermaids are like Ariel from The Little Mermaid, then they have human intelligence and free will. This makes them human (whatever King Triton might have to say on the subject), and thus eating one is committing murder, which is against halacha. (She could convert to Judaism, though!)
2) If mermaids are like the original little mermaid, then they have intelligence (possibly of human levels), but no souls and thus no free will. This means they are not human, but they appear human, and thus eating one is in violation of lifnei iver, which means “before the blind” and comes from the verse “do not place a stumbling block before the blind.” In other words: someone seeing you eat the mermaid may assume the mermaid is human, and thus that eating human is okay, and thus they may commit murder to eat human, which is against halacha.
3) Mermaids that do not fit the “human top, fish bottom” tradition of mermaids may not possess fins and/or scales, thus marking them as not kosher.
There are no known animal species that have human intelligence and meet the kosher requirements for their kind of animal. Dolphins and octopi don’t have fins and scales, rats aren’t kosher because they’re rodents, crows eat dead things and are predators. Pigs are being studied for the possibility of human intelligence, but pork is like...the one thing even gentiles know isn’t kosher. And monkeys and apes would fall under lifnei iver. I’m sure there’s another rule that applies, but off the top of my head I can already tell you they wouldn’t be kosher. (Koko the gorilla might even be a good starting point for an argument over whether gorillas have souls. She had human intelligence, memory retention, understood emotions, and acted of her own free will.)
With the understanding that I’m a believer in “G-d created science, so duh, of course His rules would match up scientifically, anyone who says science is the enemy of G-d doesn’t understand the actual text very well,” I’d say that running through these is a bit of proof to me that G-d is, indeed, watching over us. Or, since I’m a believer in “G-d is a computer programmer,” that we were programmed for it to be impossible to be 1) human-level intelligent and also 2) kosher.
As someone who’s read the OT twice (not from a devotional perspective, but as someone who finds the world’s various religious texts fascinating) the one thing that leapt out at me during my readings is how so many of the constraints in the Torah -- which a lot of people just write off as one people’s set of peculiar little taboos -- actually make sense from a hygienic/health perspective. From dietary practices to concepts of “purification” and “unclean,” the Jews had a lot of practices that, whatever their origin, kept them healthy. It’s a fact that for most of Europe’s history, when the surrounding gentile populations were dropping like flies, Europe’s various Jewish enclaves had a massively lower incidence of those various ills and plagues. To the point that it was not uncommon for the gentile population to blame the Jews for their ills: “We’re being smitten by this pestilence, and yet those Jews aren’t getting sick! They must be doing this to us!” It’s almost like whoever it was that conjured up the various constraints somehow knew that they would keep the people alive and healthy in a world where they were surrounded by populations who did not practice those sound hygienic measures.
Even some of the ones that seem ridiculous by modern standards, like “anything a menstruating woman sits on is unclean.” There were no pads or tampons. You bet your ass it was unclean. Whatever rudimentary menstruation containment they’d come up with at that point, it likely leaked and/or easily disarranged itself. You know what you get in a desert climate, living in a tent, with the smell of fresh blood? Predators. like, forget the whole “blood carries disease” (and it did, blood parasites were so common at the time that the Egyptians considered bleeding from the anus normal), you can’t get to the Promised Land if you died of acute wolves. So how to make the items ritually clean and usable again? Fucking wash them. That’s it. They had to be washed.
Or like the “don’t mix fibers of two kinds.” I saw an incredible discussion here on Tumblr about that. Basically, the fibers that were available to the Israelites were linen (lightweight fabric, good for hot weather) and wool (heavy, good for cold weather and rain). Do you know what happens when you try to mix these? You get an unusable mess that will not contain the properties of either fabric. It’s a disaster--a waste of time, labor, and fiber. And if you try to full the fabric (which means a process by which you clean, thicken, and strengthen natural fabrics), the fibers won’t full the same. It’s just bad all around.
Or even, “every seventh year, let your land lie fallow and don’t grow anything.” You know what happens in that year? All the old stalks, leaves, etc. fucking rot. They, in modern lingo, compost. They refresh the soil. They keep you from stripping all the nutrients, so you can continue to grow things. And you can continue to drop as much cowshit as you want on that field to make it nice and fertilize-y during that year. You just can’t grow anything. By the time you come back to planting you’re going to have a nutrient-rich field that’s absolutely raring to provide you with high-quality produce.
This is one of my big beefs with the Orthodox. Ask an Orthodox person about halacha and they’ll say “it doesn’t matter if it lines up with science, G-d said it therefore we do it.” And I’m like . . . one, that’s completely contradictory to the teaching of Torah (which demands you question), and two, the point is, isn’t it fucking fascinating how G-d’s instruction book is scientifically sound. Like we were being, I don’t know, taken care of.
Even as a very secular Jew, I find it fascinating how many of the old laws were basically ancient health and safety regulations, or just make sense. Take regular days off to avoid burnout. Try to minimise the suffering of the animals you eat. Wash your hands before you eat.
I see a set of rules that my ancient ancestors came up with, and instilled it as a fundumental part of their culture, to keep themselves safe. And of course many of them don’t make any sense today! We’re living in a completely different time and place!
We no longer have to worry about burying our dead as fast as possible, because we have refrigeration to prevent rot. Same goes for our meat. We now have fibers that work together. Our society no longer revolves around agriculture, and the harvest of grains, fruits and livestock. But theirs did. The rules made sense they were made!
This also works with Judaism’s doctrine of questioning- it’s an encouragement to change with the times. The rules made sense when they were made, but we’re supposed to ask “does it still make sense today?”
Sometimes people pop into my posts tagged with trans stuff to tell me their opinions about how many genders God made. And I block them. But I do wonder sometimes if I’m following the same religion as these people because if God made all humans in Their image then certainly God has multiple genders even if you believe there are only two genders. And in the Bible God is compared to both a father and a mother. This is confirmation class 101. Did everyone else not get a lesson on the gender of God in middle school? Just me? Okay.
Anyways, I guess people aren’t that interested in theology. Just saying rude things and feeling better about themselves. I do believe though that God is every gender, including no gender. There’s a little bit of God in everyone and the little bit of God that people see in me is a non binary trans man. And I’m content with that.
My youth leader used to encourage us to find where we saw God in the people around us and to tell them if we felt compelled to. She was onto something I think. The little bit of God I saw in her was a kind of holy goofiness. A divine kind of funny that you might find in the laughter of a child. Since then I’ve been looking for God in everyone and once you start seeing Him in people and things it’s hard to stop.
I see God in all of you. I see God in the non binary people that send me asks. Telling me that they’re coming out to their parents. That I made them feel okay about who they are. I see God in the girls learning how to be okay with loving other girls. I see God in the people leaving places and people that hurt them. I see Him in the people spreading knowledge. I see Her in the blogs where men, cis and trans, binary or non binary, celebrate loving men and being men in a new and positive way free of violence. I see God in the aromantic people loving partners and loving being alone and loving sex and loving never having sex. I see Him in a man loving his wife. I see God in queerness and straightness in equal measure in every possible gender and They are beautiful and full of joy and sorrow.
But like I said, the people that comment about two genders on my posts probably aren’t interested in theology. So I just block them.
hey felony i've been following your blog for a while and you are a really amazing person and I appreciate you a lot!! I was wondering if you would be willing to kinda go into/discuss your personal journey with faith and queerness? it's something i've been struggling with recently and would really appreciate hearing your thoughts <3 (for real though, please don't feel obligated if youre not comfortable. I know this is a pretty hot topic, so please only if you're ok with it!!!!!!!)
first of all, thank you so much!!! I’m absolutely willing to talk about it, and afterwards if you have any questions (like, about specific aspects of it) I’m completely open to answering them :))
~~ Full thing under the Keep Reading, warnings for a lot of talk about God, Christianity, (a LOT of) homophobia, faith, and so on~~
I would like to start by saying you are completely valid, both in your faith and in your sexuality/gender, no matter what they are, and I am so proud of you.
okay, now about me laskdlsj
I have been raised as a Christian my whole life, and have gone to church everywhere I have lived, and my whole family has been very active in the Church body. It was church Sunday morning, AWANA on Wednesday evenings, and when I was old enough, youth group on Sunday evenings. (For awhile I even did a second youth group at a different church on tuesday nights)
My whole family is Christian (immediate family, that is) and because of that, I was raised surrounded by Christianity. The first two things when moving to a new place were (and are) 1. Unpacking and 2. Finding a new church.
All of this lead to me being more familiar with Christianity and the Bible than the average person. It also meant I had this... unspoken pressure to be Christian. So at a young age (around four I think?) I accepted that Jesus was the Son of God, that I was a sinner, and that by dying (and then coming back to life) Jesus had redeemed me from my sin. All well and good right.
I continued going to church two to three times a week, memorizing a few Bible verses for AWANA, and praying before every meal and sometimes bedtime. I grew older, moved, joined a new church, helped at a food pantry run by my church after a few devastating tornadoes.
I saw God work in the aftermath of those tornadoes. I saw Him in the way we got donations for the ice maker we desperately needed to provide for disaster relief workers down to the cents of what we needed, and the way we were able to have meals for people who lost everything and the people who were working day in and day out to rebuild houses, clean properties, and overall do anything in their power to help the people affected.
My faith had never been stronger.
A year or so later I began to get really invested into BBC Sherlock, and with newly acquired access to the internet, I searched out the fandom on pinterest and wattpad. I was disgusted by all of the gay art and headcanons that came up. Didn’t they know that being gay was gross and a sin? it was repulsive and disgusting.
But I couldn’t avoid it. I was too far into the fandom and I ended up coming across more and more content with johnlock, crossovers with destiel, there was trans and ace sherlock, dean working through internalized homophobia (back when I didn’t even know who dean was, and I was still homophobic myself). Eventually I stopped clicking away whenever I saw a picture of john and sherlock embracing.
It was like... when you tell a kid they aren’t supposed to know about something, and they immediately want to know it all. I slowly began searching it out, because surely if people shipped them so much, there had to be something redeeming the fact that it was gay.
it started an interesting cycle of seeking out gay content, hating myself and the content because gay is BAD, loving the content because so much of it was loving relationships and heartfelt things, and then seeking out more gay content. eventually i accepted gay being okay, and after that (and a particularly moving trans!sam fic) i ended up accepting trans people.
and then came the hitter.
I started questioning myself.
I started relating to liking guys and girls, realizing that *maybe* finding girls that pretty wasn’t just platonic, and so i did a pro-gamer move (/s) and immediately became homophobic again. i couldn’t be gay, or bi, or anything, because that was WRONG
but it wasn’t. and eventually i was able to admit to myself that i wasn’t straight. I identified as bi at first, and even though i didn’t tell anyone about it, i was still happy that i was finding myself. (even though i still looked away when i noticed a girl was pretty)
then i realized that pan was just, a better fit for me? so pan it was!! and thus began the questioning!! since then I’ve come to id as ace, aro-spec, pan, and polyamorous, and eventually (after a severe gender-crisis) genderfluid.
throughout all of the questioning... I’ve really struggled in my identity and my faith. i often feel like i have to choose between the two.
i’ve been raised to think that if i accept my identity as a queer person, i lose my identity in Christ. and that, if i want to accept my identity as a child of God, i have to reject who i am (and that is partially correct, since i have to reject my sinful nature, but that’s not the same)
but that’s not how it is!! once you believe in God, and accept that Jesus died for your sins, you are irrevocably a Christian, and NOTHING can stop you from being a child of God and going to heaven. Not any sin, not anything you think, or say or do, for the rest of your life.
the thing is, the bible that we *think* condemns homosexuality, actually condemns incest, pedophilia, and adultery. God made people in His own image, and when he saw what he had made it was GOOD. He made me the way I am for a reason, and He LOVES me the way i am.
I still deal with a lot of internalized homophobia and transphobia. but,,, I also know that God is love. He is never-ending, overflowing love. and He thinks of me as His kid.
My faith has struggled a lot since I started accepting my queerness, but... it’s not God that’s condemning me, it’s the Church (and not even all of the church!!) and my queerness doesn’t mean i can’t follow God and obey Him.
I have bad days, and I have good days, and even when I feel disconnected from God, I know that He loves me and that He is proud of me.
and the same goes for you, okay?
you are not disobeying God for being queer, and being proud of your faith doesn’t mean rejecting your queerness. He loves you and made you the way you are, and He is so proud of you. <3
Can’t get over the prominence of the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac in my childhood. Can’t get over the prominence of the moral of God above family and friends in my childhood. That always tore me apart.
I remember asking a staff member at my camp “how do you have faith like Abraham, I want to believe I could trust God that much, but I don’t think I could”. I felt so guilty for not fully trusting God.
Yeah, it was pretty wild to go from, “you only need faith as small as a mustard seed,” to “you need to have so much faith that you would kill a family member for god’s shit and giggles.”
Look y’all I know that’s how that story is taught but literally that is not the moral of the story, Abraham failed that damn test, and I will stand behind this interpretation until I die.
That’s not how the story was taught at all at my shul.
Not only does G-d never speak to Abraham again, Torah tells us he came down from the mountain ALONE.
The price of him not questioning was the loss of his son in a totally different way. The bond was broken. He completely and utterly failed on all counts.
Damn I wish I could show this interpretation to my mom. I know she wouldn’t get it, but like, maybe if she could, she’d understand how deeply she hurt me when this conversation played out about her not being willing to accept my transition.
“What would I tell my pastor, huh? That I’m fine with letting you turn away from God’s will?”
“Who is more important to you, your child or your pastor? Because I don’t understand why you’d lose either of us, but if it did come down to that, who are you here for, me or him? Are your children not the most important people in your life?”
And she responded in a way that left probably a permanent scar even if she does ever come around. “Im here for God. He made you a woman and I respect His path for your life over the ungrateful one you’re trying to set for yourself.
And I think in her heart she believes it is the moral choice to place honoring what she thinks is God’s wishes over her childrens’ wellbeing.
But this interpretation says No. Don’t persecute your children in the name of God!
I’m not even religious, but damn if this interpretation didn’t put some salve on that scar of mine.
@dino-nugget7 also worth noting is that Isaac made the same mistake with his children, pitting Jacob and Esau against each other, and for his pains he was stricken blind at the end of his life and couldn’t see either of them. Torah has A LOT to say on this subject. So does the Christian Bible: Colossians says “fathers, vex not your children, lest they become disenheartened.”
Your mother, full stop, was wrong, and so is any “church” that taught her this was the way to go.
Torah shows us an act of gender transformation. When Eve is created, she comes from a man. There’s nothing shameful or unnatural indicated in how she comes to be. And in Tanakh, in the psalms, we have “you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, how well I know it.” If G-d made and knew you before you were born, then he knows what’s up and what your soul is like. “Man looks at the outward appearance, but G-d looks at the heart.”
Tanakh makes it clear. If your heart says you’re a man, and G-d knew and created you to have that heart, then so you are, and that was intentional.
If anyone’s interested in some resources for more on the topics explored in this post…
Check out this post by @wild-desert-highway “It was for Hagar” for a similar take on the story of Abraham’s failure in the sacrifice of Isaac story.
“…And then God turned to Abraham and said your turn. Take your son, your beloved son, Abraham, the promise for your future, and take the life from his lungs. You had no remorse to do the same thing to Ishmael - Ishmael, your son. …”
I highly recommend trans Jewish scholar Joy Ladin’s The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective. In that book, you’ll find:
various characters in the Torah (including Abraham and Sarah) as “gender failures” according to their cultures;
and more figures (including Jacob) whose stories can be read through a queer lens
stuff about Adam and Eve when it comes to gender constructs – the “origin” of gender, of gender roles, and then of patriarchy
God as the ultimate stranger
I’m also gonna promote some of my own stuff like a dork but it relates to this post’s content, plus i draw from both Christian and Jewish sources.
A section of my website blessedarethebinarybreakers.com features a “timeline of gender diversity in – and pre – Christian history.” It’s written from my own Christian lens, but I did my utmost to make the page on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible; the “Old Testament”) reflective of Jewish views as well, with much of my citations coming from Jewish authors. On that page you’ll find:
the first human (ha-adam) as a genderfull or genderless figure who becomes both Adam and Eve (rather than being exclusively Adam to start with), and what that means for how we can interpret Genesis 1-3 in terms of gender and sex
Sarah and Abraham as intersex
Joseph read from a trans lens, with the famous colorful coat being translated as a “princess dress”
Trans look at the eunuchs of the Hebrew Bible
I have a sermon that focuses on Abraham called “No Good Patriarchs” that wrestles with another uncomfortable part of his story – his abuse of the enslaved woman Hagar
And another sermon that continues that previous sermon’s themes called “Jacob and Esau - Imagining Beyond Ourselves” that reads Jacob as an underdog as one assigned secondborn at birth who fights the oppression against him only to assimilate into the structures that once oppressed him…
Some of my favorite Judaica is from @nerdykeppie. The patch (or sticker or whatever) says Beitzelem Elohim with the trans pride flag behind it. The Hebrew means “Made in the image of G-d” and is from Genesis (see the previous post re: the first creation story). I have the version with the bi pride flag, and I love it to bits.
Let’s remember, Jesus was a Jewish man of color, born homeless to an unwed teenager, who spent his formative years as an illegal immigrant before returning to his home country to hang out with twelve men, prostitutes, and socially untouchable tax collectors while he taught a radical social doctrine of equality, love, and forgiveness that included paying taxes, free healthcare, and the sharing of resources within a community.
hey felony! not sure if you've seen this already to rb but here: mistythegenderqueermess*tumblr*com/post/643954814227808256/dont-come-at-me-about-the-bible-and-homosexuality
Jesus: [to all of the people who were swindling people in the temple] And remember, if I get harsh with you, it's only because you're doing it all completely wrong.
