Shavuot Article
I was honored to have my reflections on published in the May 31, 2024 edition of the Louisville Jewish Community’s Newspaper where I shared, briefly, some of my thoughts on what it means to decolonize Judaism. I was only given 700 words, so it is just an overview, but scroll down, and you will find information to register for the class I will be teaching next week which will be more comprehensive on this topic. To find out more, please click here. To register, please click here.
A year ago, on Shavuot, the Jewish Community of Louisville published my Torah: my story of coming out as transgender nonbinary. A year later, so much has changed, for me and for our planet. This Shavuot, what Torah does, each of us need to learn, share and live into this world. The Torah is a tree of life, but in what ways are our truths life-giving? I believe that if our understanding of Torah does not include loving our neighbor (=everyone) as ourselves, then we have more Torah learning and unlearning that we need to do.
Shavuot is one of the least well known of the major Jewish festivals, in large part because it often falls after the religious school year is over, but before summer camp season begins. This is tragic because it is, in so many ways, one of our most important holidays. This is yet another example of the ways in which Jewish time is colonized by non-Jewish time. After all, Jews have been counting time since 5784 years ago — but if you ask most of us what year it is, they will likely reply: “2024,” which corresponds to 2024 years since the birth of Jesus.
The word “colonization” is poorly understood by most people, which is also deeply tragic, because it means that so many of us are suffering from an affliction that we don’t even appreciate. Of course, most Jews on Turtle Island (colonial name: North America) do not even speak Hebrew, let alone know the deeper significance of our ancestral traditions or holy days. What we think we know about Judaism has been deeply distorted by the ways our religion has been (mis) translated.
Even the word “religion” is not a Jewish word or concept, which means we are constantly trying to understand ourselves using the wrong language. Hebrew is a verb-based language while English is a noun-based language. Noun-based languages are fixed and objectifying, while verb-based languages (like many Indigenous languages) are fluid and relational.
Sadly, this has profound spiritual implications in the ways that we live out our Judaism, a reality that is aggravated by the unresolved intergenerational trauma of the Holocaust, which has left most people in deep spiritual confusion and pain. This past year, this unhealed trauma has only amplified exponentially with devastating consequences. Our collective neshamah (Hebrew word for “soul”) is in agony.
It is for this reason that I believe that the holy day of Shavuot has extra spiritual significance this year. This ancient festival represents the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, 49 days after the Exodus from ancient Egyptian slavery. This number corresponds to the 49 years of the Jubilee, which the Bible describes as a global Passover liberation of sorts: the level-setting between the rich and the poor, when all debts are wiped clean and intergenerational wealth is redistributed. Not surprisingly, this generational practice was one of the many tragic losses that accompanied the colonial destruction of the Temple in the year 70 C.E. So much has been lost, misunderstood or mistranslated.
Instead, let this be the year in which we understand how to translate the Torah in life-giving and liberatory ways, so that it may truly become a tree of life to all of us who cling to it. We live in what was called by our rabbis “olam hafuch” or the “upside down world”: that is our colonized world where what is called truth is fake and what is called fake is true… where we say G!d is Love and yet judge others because of who they love, be it because of their gender or religion.
It is my deep personal spiritual commitment to decolonizing myself that has led me to form a new approach to Jewish Community organizing and funding. In our divisive and judgmental world where everyone is conditioned, at an unconscious level to exclude those different from us, I believe that communities of faith ought not integrate divisive politics of this world. We should be working to create a big tent of inclusion: one as welcoming as we had when we were liberated from Mitzrayim (our slavery in ancient Egypt) and when we first received the Torah (given to those who were physically present and those who were not yet even born).
May this Shavuot help us to hear the Torah — as if for the first time.
Global Shavuot Educational Session
I am excited to join Rabbis for Ceasefire’s Global All Night Shavuot Tikkun Leil Shavuot study-a-thon where I will be teaching a special educational session on “Decolonizing Tikkun Leil Shavuot” where I will be sharing my understanding of what decolonizing Judaism means and how it can bring a deeper healing to us all. My session will be on Wednesday morning, June 12th at 6AM Atlantic (5AM Eastern/6:30 AM NFLD). To register, please click here.
Join me in partnership with rabbis and Jewish communities from across the world, as we journey from the Revelation at Sinai toward a moral call to unite for pikuach nefesh: the urgency of saving lives. Come along for a night of study grounded in art, history, and Jewish sacred texts, moving together towards a permanent ceasefire and freedom for all. I am excited to be joining, because of my belief that any ceasefire must be accompanied with a broader shift toward global Truth and Reconciliation, and a decolonizing of our entire planet.
I am committed to healing this world. This is why I became a rabbi. I am heartbroken that my belief in nonviolence is somehow “partisan” in this broken and tragically colonized world. I am a vegan. I don’t understand why the belief that intergenerational trauma should be healed not bombed is so divisive. All oppression is interconnected, and true healing must be global and planetary. I am not advocating for Israel to be decolonized and the rest of the world to stay militarized. I am advocating for a global decolonization and I believe that every life is sacred. I will always choose the protection of life over the protection of a flag, because this is what Judaism has stated. The Torah commands us to not even hurt a fruit tree during a time of war, so what the state of Israel is doing violates everything that I understand to be true about Judaism. I stand on the side of Life, and Judaism, and Truth and Reconciliation, and I am grateful that I am not alone. I pray that more people awaken to the tragedy that is enabling the murders of so many innocent lives.
Our global hosting organization, Rabbis for Ceasefire, is comprised of hundreds of rabbis from all denominations: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, Humanist, and Post-Denominational, have all come together to advocate for the protection of life and the belief that bombs and war do not make us safe. To learn more about us, please click here.
Jewish tradition offers that staying up all night to learn on Shavuot is a form of sacred repair, making up for times when we failed to rise to the occasion. This is the “tikkun” in Tikkun Leil Shavuot – a call to meet the moment and repair the world. It is a massive global learning and healing experience stretching from sundown in Jerusalem on June 11th to dawn in Hawai’i on June 12th… may the many hours spent help us to learn and unlearn, to heal and to raise awareness of our global interconnections.
No prior Torah study experience required – all are welcome! Wherever you are in the world, we hope you’ll join us! To register, please click here.
Emerging Torah as Rabbi Nachshon emerges 