Gender and the Non-Binary in Jewish Sacred Thought & Experience

Trans*, genderqueer, and intersex people have raised awareness that gender is not a binary system. Inspired by feminist and queer theory, we no longer need to associate women with body and emotions, and men with mind and logic, nor overlay other binaries onto how we develop our gender identities. Not only gender, but also binaries of all sorts are reified in much popular imagery—the transcendent divine is associated with the male aspect of divinity, above the female/immanent aspect. The male is imagined as giver, the female as receiver, in an intra-divine heterosexual coupling. But Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) contains multifold diverse images for the divine interplay that go beyond the stereotypical missionary position. 

In this class, we will read Tanakh, Talmud, Midrash, Zohar, and Lurianic kabbalah, as well as the writings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, and other modern Jewish thinkers, with a dash of gender theory and quantum physics to inform our perspectives. We will explore queer and genderqueer images and paradigms in Jewish text and contemplation, examining how aspects of identity, and of divine flow, shift gender, gender role, and orientation in a rich multivalent interplay to create life, nourish the world, and bring redemption. We will also consider how these endlessly shifting dynamics manifest in our own lives.

Format: in person, masks required

Time: Wednesdays, 7:00-8:00pm

Dates: Oct. 26, 2022-Nov. 9, 2022 (3 sessions)

Cost: Suggested donation of $36 to our adult education fund.