Happy #NationalComingOutDay2021 !🌈
On Facebook today, I came across this memory from 4 years ago that I had shared with my 'friends' on Facebook:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4025576000881210&id=100002865503250
Here's the story I shared and re-read again today. It's a story that I think rings true for many, not just those within religious communities:
https://lilith.org/articles/coming-out-in-the-orthodox-world/
It's a long story but well worth reading. It'll touch your heart. ❤ It's about the journey of 2 Jewish Orthodox lesbians, Tamar and Arielle, who had to struggle with their feelings for each other 🌈 because their community is strongly heterosexual. However, their family, once they knew, were accepting, even the father who, after some study, revealed that G-d promised a suitable helpmate for Adam not a woman! This article points out that the word 'ezer' in Genesis is gender neutral.
I found this word 'ezer' interesting so I did some research on it. Nobody seems to be talking or writing about the possibility of G-d making a man or non-binary person as a helpmate for Adam so I thought I would.
I discovered some fascinating points coming out of the Hebrew word ezer. Grammatically, ezer is a masculine noun. Why would Eve be referred to using a masculine noun in Genesis 2:18 and 2:20? Surely this could mean that G-d would create a male for him which implies that Adam's helpmate will be a man! To be a female helpmate the word would have to be ezra which it isn't. This is clear because ezer and ezra look visually different in Hebrew, irrespective of whether the word is written in an unpointed text or not ie. with or without the vowels. Given this, could Genesis 2:18 and 2:20 provide us with textual, scriptural evidence of non-binary identity (in terms of gender identity or sex e.g. intersex or hermaphrodite) and gay relationships in Biblical times?
And later, when Genesis does refer to creating a woman, a completely different word is used ie ishah. So why didn't G-d use the word ishah when talking about who to create for Adam in Genesis 2:18 and 2:20? 🤔 Surely 'ishah' would have been used to specify a woman if there was no possibility of creating anything other than a cis woman for Adam, especially since 'ishah' appears only a couple of verses later (e.g. Genesis 2:22).
Perhaps the gender neutral explanation stems from the root of the word, which is the same root for both ezer and ezra. In addition, elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, ezer refers to 'G-d' as Israel's helper, and 'nations' helping Israel in terms of military aid. This supports the gender neutrality of the word ezer. Indeed, G-d in Judaism is sometimes referred to using gender neutral words in Hebrew because in Judaism G-d is not anthropomorphic ie. not described in human terms. And neither is G-d restricted to the binary male or female categorisation, hence the many Hebrew words for G-d span across female, male and gender neutral names.
Either way, if you want to argue that ezer refers to a woman it still implies that G-d sees the woman as equally strong as a man, not weak and submissive, since ezer also means strength. Therefore, so-called femininity and binary notions that create sharp distinctions between men and women are a mistake and an artificial social construct because G-d clearly does not see them as being that different from each other, hence G-d's language is not categorising female and male separately. So either the suitable helpmate is meant to be a man, or G-d created the first woman as a physically strong 💪, genderfluid woman (since it's fine to refer to her using a specifically masculine noun). It follows from this that so-called masculine women are more the norm than so-called feminine women, which rather blows the TERFs 'out of the water'. It then follows that transwomen are closer to the norm than people like to think today. Which makes sense because trans history goes back to ancient cultures.
What about Deuteronomy 22:5, I hear you say.🤔 Here we have a passage which people like to quote as a basis for being anti-trans, anti-gender non-conforming clothing and anti-drag for religious reasons. However, there are plausible, alternative explanations. One notable one given by the Medieval Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar, Maimonides. He argued in his 'The Guide for the Perplexed' that this passage actually refers to idolatry whereby, for instance, men dressed as a woman when worshiping the goddess Venus and women dressed in men's armour when worshiping in the presence of the god Mars. Indeed, it is known that in the Ancient Near East, cross-dressing was common, such as in Mesopotamia. Some scholars support this idolatry interpretation, others do not. But dismissing Maimonides on this point is a matter of the modern prejudice distinctive of Western Civilization. Maimonides is so often quoted as an authority on the Torah so why would he suddenly be less authoritative on this verse? 🤔 So to use this passage as an anti-trans, anti-non-binary, anti-drag passage is misguided and flawed, both philosophically and theologically.
Another example of a commandment concerning clothing stemming from avoidance of pagan idolatry is the forbidden mixture of sheep's wool and linen called shatnez. This only applies to sheep's/lamb's wool mixing with linen within the same article of clothing. Again, Maimonides (Rambam) discusses the reason behind this negative commandment (number 42) in his 'The Guide for the Perplexed'. According to Maimonides, it was so that Jews did not follow pagan practices but rather distanced themselves from them to avoid idolatry because pagan priests were required to mix sheep's wool with linen in their clothing.
I think this adds further support to the idolatry explanation given by Maimonides in the previous paragraph on cross-dressing.
Here's Chana explaining the commandment of shatnez:
https://www.facebook.com/TheJewishWoman.org/videos/541793210595779/
Returning to the story in the article: regrettably, it's still the case today that some feel reticent to be openly gay for fear of discrimination and rejection. 😪 But homophobia thrives where people don't talk about homosexuality and where there is a lack of education about it. Notice how Tamar's father educated himself to better understand his daughter. 🤔🙂🤗This is why a day like today is important. Hopefully, it will give encouragement and support to those who need it as well as acceptance and support from their families at whatever age they 'come out' as gay. And rest assured, they have the LGBT+ community ready and waiting to embrace them! 🤗💖🌈
I was lucky that, on 'coming out' at 14 yrs (and 1 month) my mother's response was awesome! So, I never had to hide my sexual orientation because I had her full support and that meant everything. So I've given her a special big hug today to say: Thanks, mum! 🤗
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