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Circumcisions For Men, Women and Everyone In Between (Parshat Ekev)

August 16, 2011 by Patrick Beaulier

“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 hand, a circumcision isn’t a child’s choice. It’s something that happens to you without your consent. I suspect if babies could talk, they wouldn’t be too keen on elective surgery.

Also, it’s unfair that men have the opportunity to perform mitzvot that women can’t. And what about transgender people or people with ambiguous genitals? Aren’t we all children of the same G-d, fair and equal? How can G-d put us in a position where one person’s ability to glorify Him/Her is above others? Seems lame to me.

Circumcising the heart resolves that issue. It tells us, metaphorically, to remove the junk that surrounds out hearts, that keeps the good stuff from coming in. Regardless of who we are, and what we have going on “down stairs”, we can equally take part in the mitzvah of circumcision by putting G-d first and peeling away the layers of our own ego that keep us from being truly made in the image of the Lord.

 

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud), LGBTQ & Women Tagged With: circumcise heart, circumcision, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, D'var Torah, darshan yeshiva, ekev, online conversion, parshah ekev, parshat ekev, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, This week's D'var, this week's torah portion

Parshat Ekev: Is G-d A Genocidal Maniac?

July 28, 2010 by Patrick Beaulier

I watched Christopher Hitchens the other day on YouTube. The “Arch Bishop of Anti-Theism” remarked that the Jewish G-d was a genocidal megalomaniac and bemoaned how anyone could worship such a terrible deity.

Ironically, Christopher Hitchens is Jewish. But that’s a whole other story.

If you read Parshat Ekev, you’re left wondering if he’s right. The Hebrews are about to enter the promised land, and Moses is telling them to do some pretty cruel things to the Canaanites on G-d’s behalf. “You shall not spare them…no man will be able to stand up before you until you have destroyed them…their gods you will burn with fire…you shall drive out those nations from before you” (Deuteronomy 7:16-22).

So I guess you’re right, Hitch. G-d, it seems, doesn’t have a lot of loving-kindness for the Canaanites.

If you have the chance, watch a documentary called The Bible’s Buried Secrets and you’ll learn something interesting about the ancient Israelites: they weren’t exactly the mighty warriors that the Bible talks about. In fact, they were shepherds, outcasts, nomads, serfs…people on the fringes of society.

I know a little bit about people on society’s fringe. I’ve spent a good bit of my life there, as a nerd, a weirdo, a freak, a rocker, an artist. I think my teen years were the culmination of all of these identities.

Anyway, these are the people today who sit on the outside of society. Something we all have in common: we like stories that give us strength. We generally feel powerless, whether it’s powerless over some popular kid at school, a loudmouth boss at work that won’t leave you alone, whatever. So we come up with elaborate stories that give us a sense of belonging, a sense of unity with people in our struggle, and ultimately, stories where we win in the end. Pop culture is filled with these stories: Revenge of the Nerds, Napoleon Dynamite, American Splendor, Ghost World, SLC Punk…these are our “Parshat Ekevs” (or would that be Ekevot?)

Imagine what it must have been like to be a beaten up surf in the Bronze Age, a social pariah of your time, totally worthless to any community you tried to belong to, and then have someone tell you that you are chosen specially by the one true G-d who believes in you and that you are actually the descendent of mighty warriors. Sounds pretty rad to me.

So yes, Hitch, this G-d seems like a tyrant. But when life won’t stop beating you up, it’s nice to know that you have some muscle on your side and that you belong to something bigger than yourself.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaqD7IYQVoM

Filed Under: Jewish Text (Torah/Haftarah/Talmud) Tagged With: american splendor, atheist, bible's buried secrets, christopher hitchens, convert to judaism, convert to judaism online, darshan yeshiva, eikev, napoleon dynamite, parshat ekev, patrick "aleph" beaulier, patrick aleph, pbs, punktorah, rabbi beaulier, rabbi patrick aleph beaulier, revenge of the nerds, slc punk

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