Trans Jewish youth are ready for more. We are ready for a Jewish theology that does more than point to gender queerness in our history, but rather celebrates and encourages trans identity. We are ready for a Judaism that encourages us to be introspective. We are ready to think critically about our trans identities, to accept ourselves as trans. We are ready for a Judaism that actively wants us to be trans. A Judaism that encourages us to pursue transition to the extent we desire. A Judaism where Hashem is not only okay with our transness, but made us transgender for a reason. We are ready.

I recently had the distinct privilege of leading a shiur, or discussion, at “Holy Complexity: What Trans Experience Reveals About the Divine,” a day of learning organized by Pardes, featuring incredible trans Jewish scholars: Rabbi Abby Stein, Laynie Solomon, Rav Jericho Vincent, and Dr. Joy Ladin. My shiur, geared specifically for trans youth and young adults, focused on how physical transition encourages us to embody B’tzelem Elohim, or being created in the image of the divine.

From this perspective, we discussed the ways in which being trans is itself a divine act, and how Jewish texts have not only proven a history of physical transition, but rather, can be read as celebrating and encouraging transition. As a participant in my shiur said, “I need a version of God that wants me to be trans on purpose.” We’re done settling for a trans-neutral theology (i.e. a God that is okay with us being trans), but rather we are ready for and seeking a theology that forwards transgender liberation, rather than transgender acceptance alone.

To understand what I mean by needing a “trans-libertory” or “trans-positive” theology rather than simply a “trans-acceptance” or a “trans-neutral” theology, it can be helpful to look at the concept of “Donkey Torah,” explained by Rabbi Benay Lappe discussed in a lecture called, An Unrecognizable Jewish Future: A Queer Talmudic Take. In essence, the idea is that if a donkey was reading the Torah, all of the parts of our scriptures about donkeys would immediately jump out to them; it would be clear that donkeys have existed in Judaism before. This is how the transgender community has been traditionally approached in Jewish thought; we find examples in our creation story or in the Gemara where someone or something with transgender characteristics sticks out to us, and we can say “Look! Transgender people have existed in Judaism before.”

But, this approach can only take us so far. For everyone, not just transgender people, it isn’t enough to say that people like us have existed before. We all deserve validation and encouragement in our identities. We deserve radical positivity, that encourages us to be ourselves, whether or not someone exactly like us has existed before in our written traditions.

This is what I mean when I say that it is time for a trans-positive theology. It is time for us to move beyond cherry-picking examples from our tradition that prove that queerness exists, beyond trying to fit queer and transgender people into the cisgender and heterosexual boxes of traditional, halakhic Judaism. It’s time to create spaces of genuine trans-positivity, not just in queer organizations like Keshet, but across all Jewish communities. So, how do we do this? And who is working towards this type of theology?

One organization already engaging in this work is Svara, a “traditionally radical yeshiva.” One of Svara’s projects, the Trans Halakha Project, produces teshuvot, answers or guides to questions about the application of Jewish law to people’s lives, for transgender people and Tefillat Trans, a guide of blessings for trans people and our rituals. Svara’s Trans Halakha Project succeeds in its ability to move past examples of transness in Jewish text and towards a trans-positive version of Judaism, in which we are thankful that God has created us as trans people and blessed us with our rituals of transness such as wearing a binder, or taking hormones.

In their article, Towards Halakhic Euphoria, Laynie Solomon elaborates on what it means to create euphoric halakha, rather than a dysphoric halakha, or a halakha which seeks to fit transgender people into the cisgender-normative boxes of traditional Judaism. The Trans Halakha Project is the manifestation of that idea; it presents halakha for trans people in their own experiences, and crafts new blessings and traditions, instead of trying to fit trans experiences into cisgender experiences.

The Jewish world needs to move beyond transgender acceptance and into transgender positivity and liberation if we intend to truly welcome and integrate the transgender community into our Jewish communities.

We must anticipate transness before it arrives to us; don’t wait for someone in your congregation to ask for gender-neutral blessings when being called up to the Torah, host queer and transgender speakers to talk about queer and transgender experiences, and open up conversations about gender expression and transition. To move beyond transgender acceptance and to make trans- and queer-positivity the norm, we must make our space a trans- and queer-positive space before being asked to do so.

Print

Keshet envisions a world in which all LGBTQ+ Jews and our families can live with full equality, justice, and dignity.  Stay connected by joining our email list and following us on social media.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER