What kind of world do we live in where my trans friend is more comfortable at Chabad, the cultural icon of Orthodox Judaism, and not the Reform temple with its ultra egalitarian, inclusive spiritual politics? This question that I have been pondering all started with the closing of a gay bookstore. Outwrite Bookstore and Coffee [...]
Jay Michaelson: God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality Sunday, October 23 | 11:00 am | $10, Discounted $8 Washington DCJCC, 1529 16th Street NW Ticket includes light bagel brunch Purchase tickets at washingtondcjcc.org/litfest or call (202) 777-3251 One of The Forward’s “fifty most influential Jewish leaders in America,” Jay Michaelson tackles the contentious “God vs. gay” divide. He argues that religious communities should [...]
“Circumcise … the foreskin of your heart,” G-d says in Devarim 10:16. But how the heck do you hack off the skin around your heart? And by the way, the heart doesn’t have a foreskin! Here’s what I gather: circumcision is a mitzvah because Abraham did it, and so should we, right? On the other [...]
Forbidden Talmud showcases the NSFW (Not Safe For Work) Talmudic texts that they “forgot” to teach you in Yeshiva. This week, we learn how to be a voyeur. It has been taught: R. Akiba said: Once I went in after R. Joshua to a privy, and I learned three things from him: I learned that one does not [...]
