Gay Pride, Red Cows, and The Cleansing Power of Ritual (Parashat Chukat and Parashat Balak)

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July 07, 2006 | By Caryn Aviv

, Pride

Media Type(s): Torah Commentary

Textual Source: Numbers

Torah Portion: Balak, Chukat

This resource is part of the Torah Queeries collection.

The author compares the ritual cow slaughter described in the Torah portion to the gay pride parade. Both Chukat Ha-torah and Pride parades are opportunities to mark the meaningful passage of time (life and death), to foster a sense of belonging to a broader community, and to symbolically transform participants in the ritual from one identity category to another (impure and unclean to pure and cleansed), even if the ritual no longer seems relevant or comprehensible to some parts of the community.

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