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Is Going To Starbucks A Spiritual Act? (Plus Drag Queens, Ponchos and Tents)

June 12, 2015 by Patrick Beaulier

starbucks drag queens

Three things to talk about here. First, let’s talk about clothes…what they communicate about who you are, what your life is about, and what you think of yourself and the world around you. And RuPaul. Then we’ll talk about a tent in the wilderness. And after that, Starbucks, sacred ritual, and how we’re basically living the same lives we were living thousands of years ago.

Let’s do this!

Holy Drag Queens

What a person wears says a lot about who they are, and what they represent. A cheap suit means an attempt to be upwardly mobile, in a tasteless way. A military uniform commands power from civilians, or shows rank among the troops. We can see a person’s lot in life from what they wear, and of course, how they wear it. The clothes don’t make the man, but in a way, they do.

Once upon a time we had these priests called the Kohanim, and yowzah, they had some drag man. The priestly vestments contain several “clues” as to the way in which a priest was to be understood in relation to the community: the mixing of linen and wool (shatnez) and the blend of crimson, purple and blue with gold interlaced.

First, the mixing of wool and linen must be addressed, because it’s really, really, really strange (then again, so is most of the Bible, so shocker, eh?) The commandment for the high priest to mix wool and linen comes before the prohibition of shatnez. This is arbitrary at first glance. Perhaps wool and linen represent two seasons that are not supposed to be mixed together, reflecting how the ancient Israelites thought of God as the maker of a world of opposites: light/dark, land/sky, sky/water, winter/summer, etc. Another possibility could come from a later prohibition on cross-dressing.

Drag.

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Filed Under: Community Member Blogs, LGBTQ & Women Tagged With: acharei mot, coffee shops, kodesh ha kodeshim, mishkan, rabbi patrick aleph, rupaul drag race, Tetzaveh

A Buffet of Sex, Ritual, Ethics, Death and Acharei-Kedoshim

April 15, 2013 by Patrick Beaulier

Double Torah portions are awesome, because you get a buffet of Jewish goodness all in one week. It’s also a little daunting — so many options, you don’t know where to start.

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The Truth About…’s/Flickr Creative Commons

There’s some cool stuff in here (not hurting your neighbor), some not-so-good-stuff (the whole homosexuality bit), and some downright odd stuff, like the prohibition against shatnez. No matter where you find yourself on the spectrum of Jewish identity, Acharei Kedoshim is going to speak to you in some way or another.

Holiness might not be a gay Buddhist in blue jeans

Weird sex stuff (PunkTorah TV)

Circle Pit the Bimah: Double Portion Split EP

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: acharei, acharei mot, acharei-kedoshim, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, kedoshim, online conversion, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier

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