Have you ever heard a person say, “I am a bad Jew”?  I hear it all the time, usually in response to something having to do with Jewish life or spirituality. Upon further inquiry, I usually find out what that statement means.  Sometimes it means, “I don’t know as much as I feel I ought to know.” Or, “I don’t go to synagogue, for various reasons having to do with finances, habits, or lack of time.”  Or, “Last time I thought about religion or spirituality, I was thirteen years old and I have not picked up a book about Judaism or had a teacher since because life is crazy busy.” Often times, it is also “one of my parents, or my spouse, is not Jewish and I have been made to feel less than.” I recognize this issue, as it comes up for me in a multitude of ways. When am I enough?  What does it mean to be enough?  These questions are ubiquitous and come up for people in all concepts of their identity: parenthood, attractiveness, education, job success, and social status.  Usually, underneath … [Read more...]

We’ve studied the rape of Dinah in Exodus 34. We’ve studied the rape of Tamar in 2 Sam 13. We’ve studied the rape of an unnamed woman in Judges 19. These were the first three sessions of our April life-long learning series (there’s still one more session, join us Tuesday at 12:00 or 7:30). When our core text treats women as objects of man’s wrath, and these texts are a part of one of the most read book in the world, this has significant implications for our culture. The images, the responses, the voicelessness, all of this is internalized by the reader. As readers in modernity, we must accept that these images exist, AND we must push back on images that reinforce violence against women. We could just ignore them, but they’d still be there. We can certainly contextualize them in history as a recognition of life in Ancient Near Eastern culture, and yet these horrific acts still occur today. We grapple with the difficult imagery, we acknowledge it, and we give voices back … [Read more...]