אני קושית יפה/I’m a Cute Black Girl Pg 94
Tonight, after the Shabbat Service I am doing the announcements…so after work I will be putting on my skirt, which in my backpack and heading off to shul.
Besides having all these feelings rushing in me with all that is going on around me…
after talking with a new friend, I am filled with even more…
Tonight’s service is going to be led by a Transgender Member and the Vice President of the Shul’s daughter. Besides how I feel about it not being led by an actual Rabbi, I am not sure about how I feel about a transgender leading the service tonight.
I am not Homophobic or Gender-phobic etc. in any way… I mean after witnessing 
the whole Bruce Jenner/Kaitlyn Jenner saga, I grew a hold back towards transgenders. But after getting to know this person, over the past few years, I have warmed up to it and even though I don’t like it, I have come to accept it. But I am not sure I can accept him/her leading the service tonight.
While speaking to my friend he told me how a few weeks ago in a meeting a Rabbi in shul referred to G-d as a 
. I was gobsmacked when he told me that. I have come to love the Jewish Progressive Stream, but when you come to changing G-d, I have a major issue.
in the torah the writings refer to him as a man. He created man first. Yes, now in the world we see MEN and WOMEN as equals but we cannot go around changing G-d and what has been writing in the Torah.
are no less than men, and I have opened up to women wearing…
but no man or woman is equal to Hashem and so I believe and think that he should never be referred to by any female pronoun like humans are. No matter how gender should be perceived in this new age.
So tonight, shall be an experience for me…not sure how I feel about it. I mean I have grown to like her and accept her. I have welcomed being led by a female rabbi… will see how being led by a transgender leader will be.
As much as I enjoy my progressive community and shul, and no matter how much I have put in towards it…I do feel that should things become so mixed up and too accepting I may have to step away.
Yesterday I emailed the Board of my shul about how I felt about the and after some back and forth and me even copying some of their siddur I was told that as long as they don’t proclaim their feelings about the war and their movement and as long as they no longer wear their clothing to shul and religious events they will still be accepted.
Not sure what I am going to do about it now, but I don’t accept that response.
Whoa, lot of inner conflicts there, which, as my former Rabbi, is a very Jewish thing! It’s good that you’re wrestling with these things, because this is essentially what Judaism is about: doubt, which can be an act of faith.
The “male” G-d has more to do with the limitations of ancient Hebrew than anything else. It was a pretty rudimentary language, and couldn’t take into account many of the changes in our understanding of gender and sexuality.
I myself refuse to use the word “melech” (king) in prayers. I substitute it with “ruach,” which means “spirit.” I’m 99.9999% atheist (also a very Jewish thing; Mark Twain said the Jews believed in, at most, one G-d), but when I conceieve of a possible deity, it is not a gendered individual. Rather, I think of it as an unknowable “force” that keeps all the dials set right (if you know anything about the “fine structure constant,” you’ll understand what I’m talking about.)
Shabbat shalom!
Shabbat Shalom to you too, @ravdiablo 💗
@ravdiablo…okay I don’t know anything about “Fine Structure Constant”. I respect your views and inability to call Hashem ‘Melech’ and refer to him as ‘male’ but I cannot see him as anything else and I cannot accept a Rabbi to verbally refer to him as ‘They’.
I understand that the world is changing and confused or trying to equalize the different streams and I don’t agree with it but I will accept it. As humans we can be ‘He, She, They, It…’ or whatever else. But Hashem is King and in the torah it has proclaimed him as such and never will I accept him to being declared anything.
Human subjects can be equalized and brough down, but religion cannot.
Warning Comment