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@transgerimder
hi you can call me fern, i use they/he and i am a prospective convert to judaism!
i start my into to judaism class in late october!!!
i finally started this side blog because i wanted to reblog more jewish posts but am too nervous to on my main
“Blessed He who had made me Gay” “Blessed He who had made me a Bisexual man” “Blessed He who had made me a Trans man”
Font used: Stam Sefarad
Lesbian / Bisexual woman / Trans woman version Pride version
🩷🧡🤍Lesbian flag challah bread from lav.bakes on tiktok!🤍🧡🩷
happy pride
In Judaism joy is the supreme religious emotion. Here we are, in a world filled with beauty. Every breath we breathe is the spirit of God within us. Around us is the love that moves the sun and all the stars. We are here because someone wanted us to be. The soul that celebrates, sings.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Studies in Spirituality, p. 258
Yup.
It’s so weird to me that so many Christians act like Judaism is depressing and something that people need to escape from.
Like, I know that’s what y’all want to MAKE it to pressure us out of it, but we’ve always known that joy is a form of resistance.
Judaism, as a practice, exists to sensitize us to both the goodness of reality, so we feel joy and gratitude and awed tenderness, and to the brokenness of reality, so we can heal it and finish the work of creation. And the guiding star even there is joy and awe and wonder.
I think at least for most Christians it's not a conscious wanting to make Judaism something people have to escape from, I think it's a combination of projection (because Christianity *is* something lots of people want to escape from, at least white, European Christianity) and the fact that the only things the US school system, and I suspect lots of European school systems, teaches us about Judaism is about the Holocaust and other persecution. (I understand that said persecution is Christians trying to make Judaism something bad to be escaped from by making it miserable/deadly to exist as a Jewish person, but I don't think antisemites are aware of anything other than hating people because they're different in this specific way)
I was raised Christian and have been putting myself into spaces designed to help broaden my understanding of Jewish culture, and I was honestly surprised by your statement that it's about joy. I think perhaps this is one of those things that doesn't get talked about to outsiders, possibly because to those in the Jewish community it is so obvious/well known?
Speaking personally? It’s not that it’s not talked about to outsiders, it’s that it’s not always talked about explicitly.
So, like... if you follow a bunch of jumblr bloggers and notice us going absolutely feral passing around some pictures of pomegranates? That’s Jewish joy. When you see our pictures of sukkot and chanukiyot and shabbat tables? That’s Jewish joy. Delightedly “yes-and-ing” each other about speculative halacha? That’s Jewish joy.
More privately, part of our morning daily liturgy -something that, in many communities, is part of the “at home and waking up” daily prayer routine as opposed to the “in synagogue and functional” daily prayer routine (although it’s usually still said in shul, at least in the spaces I’m familiar with) is called “Nissim B’Chol Yom” - (literally “Miracles in Every Day”), in which we express gratitude and wonder at the mundanities that theoretically shape our existence. Also in that “at home and waking up” section are a prayer called “Elohai N’shama” in which we express gratitude for our souls, and “Elohai N’tzor” (also said after using the restroom) in which we express awe at how wonderful it is that the human body works.
And to take that further, we have prayers of joy and wonder for surviving dangerous situations, but also for seeing mountains for the first time [ever/in a while] or the ocean or particularly beautiful people. There is so much joy and awe and wonder for the amazing world we live in, and that we are part of it, and it spills into so much of what we do.
When we’re jumping around going “YES AND THAT PERSON/TRADITION IS JEWISH” -that’s not “hey, notice us” (okay, it’s sometimes “hey, notice us” or “hey! please remember we exist”); it’s something we do in our own spaces too, and it’s an expression of joy -communal responsibility means that we aren’t just shamed by each other’s failings, but that we reflect the glow of each other’s successes.
Ever been in a shul during a celebration, when we reach a lull and pelt the celebrants with candy while singing congratulations to them at the top of our lungs? Or watched the dancing spill out into the street as a community welcomes a new Torah? Heard the mood shift during the High Holy Days as we begin Ki Anu Amecha? Seen the look on a child’s face on their first day of school when you give them a honeystick and then start the lesson?
I had a rabbi growing up who dressed as Elmo for Purim every year so small children wouldn’t be frightened by all the noise going on when we boo Haman, and every year, especially as it got late, he wound up with a whole bunch of children arrayed around him while he/the chazzan/various other congregants read the megillah; often holding a small child and pointing things out. In the synagogue I currently belong to, the Hokey Pokey is part of the Simchat Torah dance lineup so that even the smallest, least Jewishly-knowledgeable children will have something they are confident that they know and can participate in wholeheartedly. My b’nai mitzvah class (I teach Sunday school) will launch into the Torah service at the top of their lungs with the slightest provocation because they think it’s fun to sing.
I wouldn’t say that it’s about joy -not everything in Judaism is joyful, and something does not become less Jewish for not being joyous. And there is an unfortunate reality that often, when there is joy, it’s shaded together with sorrow or defiance. The broken glass at weddings, the spilled drops at the seder, the counting of the Omer, because we have so many things to never forget.
And beyond that there is so much longing written into Judaism. So many what-ifs. So many places where too many died. So many places where people still do. So many somedays and maybes. Musaf. Leshanah HaBaah. The way many people will fall silent near the end of Birkat HaMazon. And so much of that is hopeful, but at the same time, so much of it still commemorates tragedy.
But... well. It’s not that we don’t talk about our joy. We do. A lot. But I suspect it’s harder to immediately comprehend and recognize for people who want to learn but don’t have the cultural context to do so. And I feel like portraying us as joyless and miserable and archaic and so caught up by the burden of historical suffering (not of our own making, for the more charitably minded) that we can and never will be free of it even if we want to (but we don’t want to because that’s how we manipulate people, for the particularly hostilely minded) is... a very efficient way to dehumanize us? Because people, writ large, experience joy. Experience a broad range of human emotions. So if “those people” don’t? Well... there’s probably something wrong with “them.” Or at the very least weird about “them.” To acknowledge our joy means to acknowledge that we’re people. That we’re still here, that we’re surviving, that we’re continuing to grow and change.
And there are a lot of people who are very threatened by that idea. Not just our joy, of course -this is a conversation I’ve had before with friends of other minority backgrounds. And on top of that... trauma can sell, and if you can convince the intended audience that it wasn’t really that bad or give them a hero fantasy where they would’ve helped, it can sell really well. Let them say “it could’ve happened to me“ and clutch their pearls, because they didn’t quite empathize before. Let them walk away able to sleep soundly, secure that it wouldn’t’ve been them as the victim, and if it had, someone would’ve come to the rescue, because someone always does, because these are stories, not people. Let them sleep soundly, having not even considered that they would’ve been the bad guys because those are characters and they know better.
And when all you know of a people is their pain, and you learn to define them by it, it becomes very difficult to see that that’s not necessarily how they see or define themselves.
Thank you for sharing your moments of joy with me. None of these are moments I have, or expect to have, the opportunity to see and I appreciate you sharing them and helping me to understand better.
If you want to see -at least a bit.
That first paragraph of examples? We do stuff like that on tumblr quite often. We’re currently a week out from Tu Bishvat -the corresponding uptick in excited posts about trees and plants is already starting. Two weeks after that is the beginning of the month of Adar, which will have with it a whole bunch of posts about constellations (especially old zodiac art from synagogues) and fish. Two weeks after that is Purim, and while you probably won’t see many costume photos on tumblr because of safety/privacy/anonymity concerns, there’ll definitely be food photos. (Two years ago, I got into a hamentaschen bakeoff with @nonasuch over our grandmothers’ respective recipes -the results of that should be pretty visible on both our blogs.)
The second paragraph: Here’s the everyday miracles being chanted, plus translation (Reform nusach). This is a harmony of Elohai Neshama and Asher Yatzar. Here’s the text and translation for Elohai Neshama; this is Asher Yatzar.
This is an explanation (and story) on the blessing for natural wonders. This has several examples of Jewish blessings on marvels of nature (please note the blessing for firsts, which is said often -and gets this special tune when sung the first night of Chanukkah). This is the prayer said responsively after surviving something dangerous; here’s the text and translation.
This is our main celebration song -looking at the video, that’s a celebration of a Bat Mitzvah. This is a major song for weddings -the text is biblical. This is a common dance for weddings (that has spread to B’nai Mitzvah in many communities) -hoisting the people getting married up into the air and dancing around them (the song is a prayer for peace in the daily liturgy). Here’s people throwing candy at a bar mitzvah.
This is a torah scroll completion and dedication. It’s really long, but highlights are the scribing, the singing, the part where the person reading the first reading every from that scroll does so under a canopy like a wedding, and then at the end where the whole congregation goes up and dances. This is another Torah dedication, with dancing in the streets as the Torah is escorted to its community. This is the tone shift I mentioned in the high holy day liturgy -the opening solemn bit is a prayer for forgiveness, but the main prayer here is about how we see our relationship with G-d.
This is a Simchat Torah celebration -this is a major religious observance -the celebration is reaching the end of the annual torah reading cycle and restarting it, and people are singing and dancing and drinking in the streets.
I’m the OP of this quote, but I’m reblogging for the amazing additions! Thank you for the links, whoever you are!
happy pride to my jewtuals and any queer jews this comes across :)
This one is for all my queer Jews
that's it that's the post
I think I know what this is talking about but I am not sure
Jordan was carved from British Mandate Palestine, just like Israel, when it became a country in 1946, but nobody in the Free Palestine movement says it should be dismantled.
So it is (part of) what I thought it was
Is it not also true that Jordan has and has pretty much always had a VERY large population of people who are considered/considere themselves to be Palestinians? Like a decent chunk of the country’s population, in effect making Jordan a de facto Palestinian state
You get an A+
Jordan was in fact founded to be the Palestinian state (as much as anything could be before "Palestinian" was invented as movement identity, much less discrete and exempt culture. Palestinian meant anyone hanging out in the British Mandate, usually Jews. The other present cultures included flavors like Levantine Arab.)
It's a slight oversimplification maybe, but the reality is that in the 1940's the entire issue was not framed as it is now, which makes it especially egregious when people talk about it as if it's been Israelis vs Palestians since '48. Those just weren't the 2 involved parties, it's a major fallacy.
The wild thing about Jordan is that if everyone were being honest, if there wasn't a scam being run, is that the Israeli Palestinian conflict would hardly exist. I stand by that.
first time jewposting but idgaf what the pope or really any christian has to say about the "first testament" (torah) bc its not their book. idrc if this is controversial but im really really tired of the CATHOLIC CHURCH pretending to be the authority on a book they stole and appropriated from us ESPECIALLY considering their history with massacring us and otherwise making it impossible for us to live our lives.
oh you’re so real for this
this post was in reference to someone asking a jew if theyre "seriously correcting the pope on the bible" when the jew in question was talking about the ten commandments.... like the texts that MOSHE RABBEINU brought down.... i get madder everytime i remember it
i need christians OUT of our business
I love dressing the Torah. I need one of those little 2000s-era doll dress-up games but it's dressing a Torah scroll
GUYS GUYS GUYS I DID IT!!!
This post was haunting me until I was like. Fuck it. I have a tablet and shitty drawing software and way too much time on my hands. So here it is!
Dress a Torah! Inspired by this Tumblr post: https://www.tumblr.com/jewishmuppet/817426064435527681/i-love-dressing-the-torah-i-need-one-of-
Please let me know if you have any suggestions of items or colors or backgrounds or whatever to add- I am happy to do so :)
🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺!!!!!! OH THIS IS SO PERFECT
Look at my beautiful Torah scroll!! *carries it up and down all of jumblr so everyone can touch it with their siddurim and tallitot*
if you want more ideas for mantels, I'm thinking of my two favorites in my shul - there's one that depicts the burning bush, and one with the symbols of the 12 tribes of Israel (kind of like this). And this is another mantel I adore!
I don’t want to live in NYC (too crowded/expensive) or Israel (too hot) but every time I hear about a cool kosher restaurant there you get me 🤏 this much closer to changing my mind
I would actually literally probably die if I had to live either place. I need to live somewhere polar. Just wish there was a bunch of Jewish food in the cold places.
Zionism isn’t colonialism but maybe it should be. We need to colonize the South Pole.
The problem with that is, I don't think penguin is kosher.
This is because Hashem knew, Penguins are for being friends with, not for eating
If you don't plan on eating penguin (which, y'know, fair) you probably aren't going to enjoy permanent habitation in Antarctica.
idk, nice subzero temps, snazzy parkas, nobody pogromming us, Chilean Sea Bass; what’s not to love?
The Thing is there tho
this is true! have we checked whether The Thing is kosher?
Shavuot being a holiday where we traditionally eat tons of dairy, and ask ourselves questions like, "whose idea was this we're all lactose intolerant" and also being a celebration of Ruth, who converted, and many converts not being cursed with inherited lactose intolerance.
Žižek really drops some paragraphs that make you sit up straight in your chair sometimes
Taps the sign
This essay explores the role, both in the creation of antisemitic myth, and in its attempted explanation, of a range of popular beliefs fram
— If I Am Not For Myself…: The Liberal Betrayal of the Jews
im just so happy i live in a time period where actual meaningful biological transition is possible. even if we lose rights or the ability to exist in public, nothing can turn back the clock on that, and just by having any sort of access to that our lives are made immensely better. millions of our sisters throughout history would never have dreamed of a day where they could have what HRT does for us.
please don't lose the plot of this. if you're a trans person on HRT you're a living miracle, the dream of hundreds of millions of your ancestors. your lives are all deeply meaningful no matter what anyone says.
A prayer by Kalonymus b. Kalonymus ben Meir that appears in his poem ספר אבן בוחן, יג Sefer Even Boḥan (§13), describing the author's wish t
Cursed be the one who announced to my father: “It’s a boy!"... ...How could he twist the course of the stars so much? How could he have erred so in his astrology? A lying tongue, a fool’s mouth it had given him For he foolishly transformed justice to poison He altered the law and transposed the lines
Oh, but had the artisan who made me created me instead – a worthy woman... ...I would say "how lucky am I"
Father in heaven who did miracles for our ancestors with fire and water... ...Who would then transform me from a man to woman? Were I only to have merited this being so graced by goodness...
What shall I say? why cry or be bitter? If my father in heaven has decreed upon me and has maimed me with an immutable deformity then I do not wish to remove it. the sorrow of the impossible is a human pain that nothing will cure and for which no comfort can be found. So, I will bear and suffer until I die and wither in the ground. Since I have learned from our tradition that we bless both, the good and the bitter I will bless in a voice hushed and weak: blessed are you [HaShem] who has not made me a woman.
I think I'm gonna go lay down for a little while.
ההופכי הצור אגם מים חלמיש למעינו מים מי יתן ותהפכני מזכר לנקבה! אלו זכיתי לכך כמה חננתני טובה
Excuse me i'm. Going to scream
IT GETS FUCKING BETTER
ואחר שכך למדתי מפי השמועה
שמברכין על הטובה ועל הרעה
אברך בקול נמוך בשפה חלושה
ברוך אתה יי שלא עשני אשה.
And after I learned so from hearsay's mouth
That you shall bless both for the good, and the bad
I will bless in low voice and a week lop
Blessed be G-d that hasn't made me a woman
guys im so sorry but this dude is a satirist and this poem is surrounded by other pieces of satire. as a trans jew, not good rep at all and it feels reductive to pretend that it is
note that these excerpts conveniently leave out rhe parts where he jokes about how women have life on easy mode and spend their days laying on the floor tasting one dish after another. this poem is looking down on women and complaining about how many mitzvot men are beholden to
not trans rep just sexism
Question- I'm converting and I'm intersex and I've seen stuff that honestly makes me feel like טומטום may be accurate for my gender- but I'm also seeing a lot of claims that it'd be an intersexist term or potentially bad within the context of Judaism. I'm someone with ambigious/androgyne stuff but both sets are underdeveloped basically. Though idk if I'd just be considered אַנְדְּרוֹגִינוֹס
Sorry if this is weird. I find the different Jewish sexes/genders to be incredibly interesting and I've wanted to find a term that might fit me forever- and finding out while converting that theres terms that could describe me??? Used in the Talmud??? It's just so cool and I wanted to know from someone who identified as אַנְדְּרוֹגִינוֹס
The main issue some people find with Tumtum as a label, is that it has been used in Hebrew as a pejorative similar to the R-slur. I don't know that it's a widely used pejorative, but the disfavour some people feel as a result is understandable. However it's still a term worn with pride by many members of the intersex Jewish community.
If you're wanting a digestible read that covers the topic of Sexes in the Talmud, that also has proper scholarly references for you to sink your teeth into for further reading, I recommend getting a hold of Trans Talmud: Androgynes and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature.
You don't need to divulge your sex development, just read, learn, and decide. The only relevance is if you have a vagina you don't get a Brit Milah under any circumstances, even with any variety of pseudo-penis.
this is honestly so endearing
this is so sweet oh my😭
