Date/Time
Date(s) - 12/19/2020
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Categories
Event title: Beit Toratah Mincha with TAO-Temple Adath OrPlease note: Beit Toratah is running this event on Zoom, not TAO. You MUST register through them in order to get Zoom credentials and attend.About Beit Toratah: https://www.beittoratah.org/aboutBeit Toratah (HerTorah) is the house of study and ritual for the Regendered Bible. Beit Toratah was inaugurated on Simchat Torah day, October 11, 2020, with a service led by Rabbi Mira Rivera and Rabbi Emily Cohen. Beit Toratah aims to lead by example Jewish study and ritual expressed entirely in women’s body language.
The rewriting of the Hebrew Bible by reversing the genders of all characters reveals the divine influence in women’s body language. The need comes in response to the astonishing void of women-centered sacred texts in the Jewish canon and a desire to answer the question: What legacy do we leave our daughters?
This technical adaptation, one can understand as a translation, unsettles habitual thinking introduced by our ancient stories. Tehova Elohin, the divine influence, transmitted through a mother-daughter lineage, codifying women’s experience in sacred terms. New matriarchs in central positions, such as Emrahamah (High Mother; parallel to Abraham) and Moshah come to life, as well as patriarchs who seek to secure their daughters’ place in the social order.
When both narratives come together, they create a vision and a reading for a Torah that is a complete “spiritual body,” a Torah Shlema. The joining of both narratives opens the sacred texts for LGBTQ+ and gender-fluid readings.
Since 2016, Israeli-American artist Yael Kanarek has been rewriting the Torah in Hebrew and English to reveal the feminine divine as a central presence in the Hebrew sacred texts. This need emerged after a decade long of Kabbalah study and practice. First draft of Chumash Toratah in Hebrew completed was completed in April 2020. She is currently working with Jewish Studies scholar, Tamar Biala, on the second draft. Additionally, she has been creating Visual Midrashim as fine art prints, exploring ideas in Jewish thought through letters and form.
