Category Archives: Ruach HaYam Learning

Queerly Meeting Elijah the Prophet (March 18 2021)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg March 18 2021

Who is the prophet Elijah? We studied his despair and triumph over the prophets of Baal a couple years ago. Now we will look at some of the other wonderful tales, including his miraculous ascent to heaven and the close resemblance of his life to the life of Moses. We will be preparing to welcome Elijah to our Pesach tables.
“Elijah, whom the Bible portrays as an angry, jealous prophet who fights without mercy and without compromise against the worship of Baal, is transformed in post-biblical Jewish literature into a man of infinite kindness and grace, the benevolent prophet who helps people in need. He appears in Rabbinic academies, reveals hidden mysteries, rescues victims of blood libel, arrives to every Passover seder, is present at every circumcision ceremony, and more.” Shinan, Avigdor, and Yair Zakovitch. From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends.
This introduction to Elijah will also prepare us to welcome Liam Hooper as co-leader on April 22. Liam is the author of a new book: //Trans-Forming Proclamation: A Transgender Theology of Daring Existence.// Liam reads Elijah with with an eye toward the ethical responsibilities and obligations we have as humans. For Liam, Elijah’s story, as literature, is a story of the human lot that is packed with ethical teaching.

Image: Prophet Elijah going up to heaven, fresco in the Saint Naum Monastery near Ohrid in Macedonia.

At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Building Mishkan vs Temple: Willing Heart vs Corvee Labor Feb 28 2021

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg February 28 2021

We will compare parashat Terumah (the week’s Torah reading) to 1 Kings, where Solomon builds the temple with corvee labor, resulting in the immediate rebellion of the Northern Kingdom when Solomon dies. We will mine the texts for what it means to come to an enterprise (or our lives) with an inclined/willing heart, vs an imposed obligation.
We will note that those who built and decorated the mishkan were all genders – craft persons of all materials, and that the mishkan was fabulous in its decoration. We will compare this to the Temple being constructed by indentured (corvee) labor (all male?) We’ll look at the intention of the builders (Moses and Solomon), and at the resulting buildings and carry forward our study of the heart.

On the left, a drawing from Chabad.org of the desert mishkan – with colorful clothing and draperies and giant billows of mystical smoke signifying the presence of God. On the right, an unattributed painting of Solomon’s temple with a great gold basin, gold pillars, brass or gold bowls, and a tall and very imposing enclosed building, with a thin funnel of smoke down front.

At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

The Heart of Judah: The Force of Female Formation Jan 21 2021

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg January 21, 2021

This is a study about the heart of Judah. We will look at what may possibly form/transform Judah’s heart, and read an interesting rabbinic commentary that illustrates how Judah’s heart enables him to “draw near” to his estranged brother Joseph “in order to arouse Joseph’s love and spark his compassion.”
I will suggest that Judah’s heart is steeped in the maternal/divine connection with his mother Leah. It is further tempered by Tamar’s lesson about righteousness. Judah first leads his brothers in saving Joseph’s life, then demonstrates great love for his father. In the end his heart reaches out directly to Joseph’s heart “in order to arouse Joseph’s love and spark his compassion.”
Banner: Judah and his brothers negotiating with Joseph. From the 14th century “Sister Haggadah” Spain, Catalonia (Barcelona). 1325-1374 CE. Copyright: British Library [Public domain]

At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

A Candle on the Darkest Days – Hanukkah, Judith, and Rebecca Nov 19, 2020

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinber

Picture is a photo of a small hannukiah lit in the midst of a great cold wind on the cobblestone front porch of an empty house on a Maine beach on the 6th day of Hanukkah in 2019.

No, we’re not at Hanukkah yet, but we are at the Jewish calendar date 3 Kislev, the beginning of the month in which Hanukkah falls, and the darkest month of the year. We are two days after the new moon of Kislev. We can take hope in candles lit against the darkness. We are also at Parashat Toldot, Genesis 25:19-28:9, wherein Rebecca makes the most existential cry of the entire Torah, and Jacob and Esau fight against the gender roles assigned them at birth, reversing them with the support of the Divine and Rebecca. And we’re at Transgender Day of Remembrance. As Jill Hammer writes below, we are in a time of introspection and outward action. We’ll talk about the texts, about Judith and Rebecca, about gender roles, and about how to bring light into darkness.

Jill Hammer’s book The Jewish Book of Days: A Companion for All Seasons situates each day of the year in its season, quarter, phase, and part of nature. Jill writes this about Kislev, in ancient Israel:

“Once the new moon was announced, bonfires were lit in the hills above Jerusalem. Far-flung communities would see the bonfires and light their own, until all the Jewish communities knew that the new moon had come. As stars help a ship locate itself on the sea, the bonfires helped Jews locate themselves in time, joining them to the root consciousness of their people.
According to Rabbi Judah, the 1st of Kislev is the first day of winter in Israel (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Metzi’a 106b). We are close now to the darkest days of the year, and the new moon bonfires remind us of the Hanukkah candles growing each night. The flames teach that when the moon is dark, we can expect its face to shine again, and when the sunlight is dimming, soon it will begin to grow again. This is true also for us: The quiet of introspection can and should lead to outward action in the world.”

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Tower of Babel – Confronting Conformity and Slavery Oct 22, 2020

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg October 22, 2020

The story of the Tower of Babel, Gen 11:1-9, is included in the Torah portion for this week: Parashat Noach. This enigmatic story comprises only a few verses, and seems to indicate that a crime against God has been committed. But what is the crime? What in fact are the builders doing? The city of Babel seems actually more important than the Tower.

Judy Klitsner, author of “Subversive Sequels in the Bible: How Biblical Stories Mine and Undermine Each Other” suggests that “In tyrannizing one another by extinguishing the divine spark of individuality, the tower builders made standing before God impossible.” Is this, as she says, a story about a “coercively conformist society,” or about genuine explorers? How big a part is played by the fact that city building then required slavery?

This will be a lively discussion, light on text, geared to everyone who has ever puzzled over the Tower of Babel. Will we find any answers? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Will we have fun trying? YES!

Picture is Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1573). Yellow and orange two tone stair step edifice with doors and windows towering over a plain of green. On the side of the plain to the right is a green river with small sailing craft. In front of tower on the plain to the left is a knot of men – perhaps engaged in discussing the building of the tower.

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Shekhinah and Prophets. The God With – The God Who Punishes (Aug 20, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg
August 20, 2020
At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Banner image is by David Lawrence and can be found at Octobergallery.com, which is one of the oldest African American art galleries in the nation. Lawrence’s Shekinah is a proud Black woman, lit from above and behind, who appears to see into your soul and out from hers.

Penina will be sharing a number of ideas which are interrelated, pulling together teachings and thoughts from Joy Ladin, Rabbi Julia Watts Belser, and “The New Jim Crow – Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander. This will be a conversation, thinking together about ideas of sin, victimization, racism, the voices of the prophets, the rabbis and the Shekhinah. This is very much a work in progress for Penina and she looks forward to thinking in community with friends of Ruach HaYam.

Alexander writes that one of the false ideas that drives mass incarceration of Black men – perpetuating a vast underclass that is identical to slavery – is the notion that Black men would not be imprisoned if they did not commit crimes. (Her book is based upon research on incarcerated Black men). This notion blames the victims of systemic racism for the injustices perpetrated upon them and justifies the loss of voting privileges, housing, employment and family. How is this notion similar or not to the Hebrew Bible claim that the downfall of the temples and the fall of the monarchy are the result of failures of the Israelites to worship as their God demands? Is the God of punishment in effect blaming the victim instead of the overwhelming might of Israel’s enemies: the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans? Do the Prophets speak the language of blame the victim sometimes, and other times the language of the Shekhinah?

We will consider two teachings. One is Joy Ladin’s new poetry collection in process, called “Shekhinah Speaks”. Ladin’s Shekhinah is a bad-ass fully independent female divinity, not in the least a binary reflection of a male divinity. This Shekhinah is not the God of punishment, but the God who stands by the side of the human, flesh to flesh, pushing, prodding, saving from the ground up. Ladin describes Shekhinah as an alternative, decentralized, binary-dissolving way of thinking about how the Divine moves in and through us to make a more just society. You can learn in detail about this here

Rabbi Julia Watts-Belser, in her book “Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem” presents a teaching on how the destruction of the Temple in Roman times is treated in Bavli Gittin. Here, she says, the rabbis do not blame the victims, do not suggest that Jerusalem fell to the Romans because they sinned and God punished. Instead the rabbis describe the overwhelming force of the Roman conquerors and the toll they take upon the bodies of the people. You can see a teaching by Rabbi Belser, where she reflects on “The God Who Suffers With” here Perhaps we will find Belser’s “God With” is a bit like Ladin’s “Shekhinah”

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

These are the (different) words: Parashat Devarim (July 23, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg
July 23, 2020
At 6:45pm ET, meeting will be open for logging in, schmoozing and solving any technical issues. [see below for details]
Study begins at 7:15 ET.

——>>>>>> Zoom login can be found in the Ruach HaYam study room
https://www.studywithpenina.com/ruach_hayam
——>>>>>> Only recognized names will be admitted to Zoom meeting. Please be sure to RSVP

Image is Deuteronomy, decorated initial-word panel from BL Harley 7621, f. 254v. Date 1450-1474 c British Library

Devarim is partly a restatement of the history to date of the Israelites, but told in a new way. Why does it change? How does the text (or Moses?) rewrite history and memory? What can we learn about modern day re-writing of history? Join us for a lively deep dive into the first portion of Devarim, quite logically called Parashat Devarim.

Devarim 1:16—18: [Moses speaking to the Israelites]
“I commanded your judges at that time saying, hear out the cases of your brethren and adjudicate righteously between a man and his fellow and the immigrant residing with him (גר). Do not be partial in judgment: hear out the small as well as the large. Fear no man, for judgment is God’s. And any case that is too difficult for you, you shall bring it to me and I will hear it.”

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Caleb: Ruach Acheret – Different Spirit – What is Leadership? (June 18, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg

June 18, 2020
At 6:45pm meeting will be open for logging in and schmoozing.
Study begins at 7:15.
[Image is Spies of Canaan by Diego Franceso Carlone at St. Martin’s Abbey in Weingarten, Germany. (Photo: Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia Commons)]
 
Our study session is in the week of Parashat Sh’lach (Numbers 13:1 – 15.41), which tells a story of fear and courage at the border between wilderness and homeland (the story of the spies!), spells out a set of sacred norms about sacrificial offerings, relates the tale of a man who is stoned for gathering sticks on Shabbat, and commands the wearing of the tzitzit. Some of you may remember discussing Sh’lach two years ago. Which is great! We’ll build on that.
 
This time, we are mindful of a country deeply disrupted by systemic racism, blood in the streets, and a pandemic. Earlier this month, I had the good fortune to learn with Julia Watts Belser, who dedicated her text study to “teaching as an act of solidarity with thousands who are protesting, grieving, and risking so much to bring down white supremacy and build a world where Black Lives Matter. ” So this time, in our study of Caleb and the spies, we will try to have a deeper understanding of what leadership might look like, and how change is stymied by so-called “sacred norms.”
 
Joy Ladin puts it this way, referring to the Jewish world, and really universal in perspective:
“Wherever we travel in the Jewish world, we can see the positive effects of efforts to bring human laws, lives, and communities into line with divine standards of justice and loving-kindness. But those who don’t fit communal norms know the downside of this ideal: its tendency to cast an aura of sanctity over flawed and even oppressive social structures and to frame efforts to make communal norms more inclusive as threats to the essence and existence of the community……The emphasis on sacred normativity in Judaism and the Jewish community harms those, like LTBTQ Jews, who don’t fit established norms. It also harms the Torah by obscuring the queerness on which its moral and spiritual vitality depend.”
Ladin, Joy. “Both Wilderness and Promised Land: How Torah Grows When Read Through LTBTQ Eyes.” Tikkun 29, no. 4 (Fall 2014): 17–20.

 

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

Ezekiel’s Vision and the Revelation at Sinai (May 21, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg via Zoom – May 21, 2020

[Image:“Ezekiel’s Vision” oil on masonite.  By permission of Artist Nick Kokis]

We are coming up to the the holiday of Shavuot, the date which tradition tells us is the date upon which the Torah was given at Sinai. Through a study of a few short texts, we will have a conversation about the nature of revelation. We will read Ezekiel 1:1-28 and 3:12, which is the haftarah for Shavuot day 1 – the vision of the prophet Ezekiel of wheels within wheels, of a fiery mass, of a living creature with 4 heads, 4 sides, 4 wings. What is the nature of Ezekiel’s vision? How does it compare to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-17) and to the revelation at Sinai (Exodus 19:1-20:23 is one of the Torah readings for Shavuot 1)?

We will refer to Julia Watts-Belser’s article “God on Wheels: Disability and Jewish Feminist Theology” where she writes “One recent Shavuot Ezekiel’s vision split open my own imagination. Hearing those words chanted, I felt a jolt of recognition, an intimate familiarity. I thought: God has wheels!

“In relating Ezekiel’s vision to the Sinaitic revelation, an implicit connection is made between prophecy and revelation. Ezekiel’s vision is taken to be a collective vision at Mount Sinai, where every Jew was able to see God’s presence. This implies that every Jew was a prophet and could become as great as Ezekiel… Ezekiel [chapter] 1 thus reveals what even the most common Israelite saw at Sinai on that awesome occasion. Its recitation on the first day of Shavuot calls that wondrous event to mind with numinous detail. Luminous beyond understanding, the vision in Ezekiel 1:4-28 is a sight for the inner eye.” – Micheal Fishbane https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-read-ezekiel-on-shavuot/

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***

And the Fire Flashed all Around: Song of Songs (April 23, 2020)

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Ruach HaYam teaching presented by Penina Weinberg via Zoom – April 23, 2020

  • 6:45pm – 7:15pm meeting will be open for logging in and schmoozing.
  • Study begins at 7:15.
  • Zoom information here

[Image:Shir Hashirim (Mandatory Palestine, ca. 1930) Decorated scroll is a product of the circle of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, dated to circa 1930. From JTS Library]

Penina Weinberg will lead this interactive discovery of Song of Songs through text study, discussion, pictures, and music [if technology cooperates]. Like Ben Azzai, we will link up the words of the Torah with the Writings, until the fire flashes all around. Sunglasses are recommended.

Penina Weinberg is an independent Hebrew bible scholar whose study and teaching focus on the intersection of power, politics and gender in the Hebrew Bible. She has run workshops for Nehirim and Keshet and has been teaching Hebrew bible for 10 years. She has written in Tikkun and HBI blog, and is the leader and founder of Ruach HaYam.

*** Ruach HaYam https://www.facebook.com/groups/Ruach.HaYam/ study sessions provide a queer Jewish look at text, and are welcoming to LGBTQ+ and allies, to any learning or faith background, to all bodies, and friendly to beginners***