Trans Day of Visibility Special
Rabbah Rona Matlow
Friday March 31 is Trans Day of Visibility. This is a day where we work to bring ourselves out and bring justice for those in our community who are being oppressed.
Last Saturday in synagogue, I noted an interesting curiosity in the Torah reading, which appears in the Hebrew, but is usually hidden in the English. This occurs in Leviticus Chapter 4. The text refers to the possibility that the anointed High Priest errs, saying “If the High Priest should sin,” likewise for a communal sin, “If the entire community sins,” and for an individual, “If a single person…” BUT — for the Nasi — the Prince or political leader, it says asher, which really translates as WHEN! The Torah is expecting our political leaders to have a much higher likelihood of failure than even the religious leaders such as the anointed High Priest, who carries so much responsibility.
Trans Day of Visibility weekend this year is the last weekend before the Jewish festival of Passover begins. In Jewish liturgy, it is called the Festival of Freedom. And of course, we wish that all trans people could enjoy true freedom globally. But even in the U.S., where we are facing unprecedented threats from our political leaders, that just isn’t the case.
The Shabbat before Passover is called Shabbat HaGadol — the Great Sabbath. Traditionally, the rabbi would give a sermon on final preparations for the Passover holiday on this day. But I call your attention to the prophetic reading for this day. I find prophetic readings very powerful and moving. They were instituted in the 2nd century BCE (around the same time as the Hanukkah story) because oppressors prohibited study of Torah.
The reading for this Sabbath is from the book of Malachi, chapter 3. In this text we find the following:
From the very days of your fathers, you have turned away from My laws and have not observed them. Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to you—said the LORD of Hosts. But you ask, “How shall we turn back?” Ought man to defraud God? Yet you are defrauding Me. And you ask, “How have we been defrauding You?” In tithe and contribution. You are suffering under a curse, yet you go on defrauding Me—the whole nation of you. (NJPS/sefaria.org)
The importance of this message is one that is totally missed by those who continue to oppress the trans community and other marginalized communities. They think that they are preserving what God wants by protecting some notion of ritual purity. But as the Prophet clearly states here, that is NOT what God wants. Why does God command these tithes? God doesn’t eat! The tithes are designated so that the food insecure can have access to a guaranteed source of food.
The Prophet continues:
Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, and let there be food in My House, and thus put Me to the test—said the LORD of Hosts. I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you; and I will banish the locusts from you, so that they will not destroy the yield of your soil; and your vines in the field shall no longer miscarry—said the LORD of Hosts.
This is one of several texts found in Bible where we can see very clearly that we are being chastised for failing to follow God’s desires and the result is environmental disaster. Deut 11 brings it about most succinctly – follow idolatry (such as gross capitalism and colonialism) and bring about climate change and the disaster that comes from it.
All people, regardless of religious affiliation, and whether they themselves are religious or not, could read these messages and learn from them. They are anywhere from 3,500 to 2,500 years old, yet they have huge relevance today.
May we see the time when every day is TDOV because we can live freely and safely as who we are, because people come to understand that they are violating God’s will in the way they are acting, rather than enforcing it. It’s been there all along — they just need to read it!
Peace out,
Rona
Category: Transgender Body & Soul
