convertinprogress - Tumblr blog

[convertinprogress]

I secretly hated treyf food, and wanted an excuse to not eat it

Alright new game for jewish converts only;

Why did you become Jewish?

Wrong answers only

[convertinprogress]

I'm Aaron, I'm 24, I use he/they/it pronouns. I converted to Judaism through a small synagogue in the upper Midwest (the US). I'm trans, queer, and disabled. I have since moved to the Seattle area.

This blog has been somewhat dormant lately, as I've moved, changed jobs several times, and gotten married. I'm working on reviving it

I am still practicing, and hope to continue being a resource for those converting and curious about it. Feel free to DM me with questions :) (I may not answer right away, but I get back to as many people as I can!)

[convertinprogress]

Jewish converts are like adopted children. sure, they're not biologically related to the rest of the family, but that doesn't make them any less family than the kids who were born into it, even if they joined at an older age.

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“INTERVIEWER Do you think of yourself as having a relationship with God? CARSON No. But that’s not bad. I think in the last few years, since I’ve been working on Decreation and reading a lot of mystics, especially Simone Weil, I’ve come to understand that the best one can hope for as a human is to have a relationship with that emptiness where God would be if God were available, but God isn’t. So, sad fact, but get used to it, because nothing else is going to happen. INTERVIEWER He’s not available because he chooses to remove himself or he’s not available because he doesn’t exist? CARSON Neither. He’s not available because he’s not a being of a kind that would fit into our availability. “Not knowable,”as the mystics would say. And knowing is what a worshiper wants to get from God—the sense of being in an exchange of knowledge, knowing and being known. It’s what anybody wants from any relationship of love, and the relationship with God is supposed to be one of love. But I don’t think any kind of knowing is ever going to materialize between humans and gods. INTERVIEWER Is it stymied because of the nature of the beast? CARSON Because of the difference of the two orders. If God were knowable, why would we believe in him?”

Anne Carson, The Art of Poetry No. 88

[convertinprogress]

Happy Happy Happy

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jews on simchat torah

[convertinprogress]

something happens, in the bible, when you get too close to death but re-turn anyway. this 'something' has a phrase: לֹ֣א נָכַר. it translates to "can't be recognized," "was not registered," something like that, but why translate it at all? keep it semiotic. keep it leaky, risky, muddy. in the bible, when god tells you to die but then lets you live anyway, you come back and are not recognizable. job is brought to the brink of death, and his friends לֹ֣א נָכַר him. jacob, about to lose his blessings, becomes לֹ֣א נָכַר to his father. joseph, mock-killed by his brothers, is too לֹ֣א נָכַר. moses comes down from spending 40 days with god. becomes לֹ֣א נָכַר. you can't translate what these men looked like after they didn't-die. their didn't-dying is above register; it, in and of itself, cannot be recognized. sometimes god tries to kill you and you live. and you'll only know it once you see it

[convertinprogress]

Happy last night of Hanukkah y'all!!

Hope all of you have had a great Hanukah; I'm biased, but it is one of the best holidays B)

[convertinprogress]

Jewish material culture is so cool. Museums and homes and synagogues all over the world are filled with unique ritual objects created specifically for Jewish purposes, made with every kind of material imaginable. There's tallit, torah scrolls, menorahs, kiddish cups, etc. Amazing.

[convertinprogress]

One cannot earn love; love is not a reward, but a blessing.

- Viktor Frankl, “Man’s Search for Meaning”

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oh youre bisexial? name two of every thing

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(Image description: a photo of four posters, arranged in a two by two grid. All of the posters are linocuts, with ink in the positive space and white negative space forming the words “G-d made me trans”. From top left to bottom right, the designs are: 

Two cyan stripes, alternated with two pink stripes, combined with the negative space to make the trans flag

One large block of light purple and one large block of light green, combined with the negative space to make the genderqueer flag

Three stripes- one dark purple, one yellow, and one black, combined with the negative space to make the nonbinary flag

Four stripes: one pink, one light purple, one blue, and one black, combined with the negative space to make the genderfluid flag

End description.)

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I’m sorry for not seeing this earlier but !! I love these so much they look so good!!

[convertinprogress]

"I have always believed that in order for LGBTQ Jews to connect with our God, we need to stop shaming LGBTQ Jews. God made us who we are, and we ought to fully acknowledge and celebrate every aspect of our lives. If we are committed to the theological ideal that all people are created b’tzelem Elohim, “in the image of God,” then we have to include gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, and transgender people. God made us all. Just as we are. Full Stop. When we, as LGBTQ Jews, can stop separating our sexuality from our spirituality, we will live fuller, richer, and more meaningful lives. For me, this is an issue of shleimut—“wholeness” or “completeness.” The Jewish LGBTQ person lives in shleimut when she/he/zee does not have to be Jewish in one place and queer in another, but can be all of themselves at every place and every time. We cannot cut off our sexuality any more than we could cut off being Jewish, and if we have to hide any part of ourselves, we are not authentic to our own souls. Our integrity to live in the world is fully realized when we cannot only acknowledge our sexuality, but celebrate it as a gift from God. We are complete without needing to be changed. We are complete and whole and blessed."

-Rabbi Denise L. Eger in Mishkan Ga'avah: Where Pride Dwells

[convertinprogress]

attention everyone converting to judaism:

i love you + i'm so excited for you + i hope that your community knows how lucky they are to have you + i wish you the best of luck in your journey + i know that you're going to be an amazing, wonderful, spectacular addition to our family + i am offering you a hug/thumbs up/mezuzah kiss to the forehead.

[convertinprogress]

for the sake of the mitzvah of being whole

was inspired by a very cool project published by Svara--a book of rituals & blessings for trans lives! it's a very very cool project

series of 14 screenprints on two types of paper! details below

[convertinprogress]

"feygele" term reclaimed flag

a flag for Queer Jewish people who reclaim the term "feygele" (or one of its other many spellings)

The center symbol is a pink magen david whose points are made up of separated triangles (symbols that evoke the pink triangle forced upon gay individuals during the holocaust & which has been since reclaimed by the queer community tying together both Jewishness and Queerness here). Within that symbol is a light pink, almost white, little bird. feygele can also mean "little bird" in Yiddish. The background is a pink "rainbow" of stripes.

Though the term feygele has historically been used in a derogatory way particularly toward gay Jewish people, some queer Jewish people have since reclaimed the term for themselves. Because of this influx of Jewish folks of all parts of the LGBTQIA+ community reclaiming this term to describe themselves, including myself, I thought it would be nice to make an attempt at creating a flag for it. (Though you don't need to use the flag to reclaim it, obviously)

disclaimer: exclusive to Queer Jewish people. goyim and cishet people can reblog, but please don't use this flag if you're not jewish and queer!

[convertinprogress]

I accidentally answered an ask about books before I was ready, so here's a proper post.

Here are some of the books I read during or after my conversion that I think helped me along in my understanding of Judaism, Jewish history, culture, or just helped me deepen my ties to Judaism:

Living A Jewish Life

Choosing Judaism

A Book of Life

Entering Jewish Prayer

Essential Judaism

Voices of Torah (volume 2)

Here All Along

Horodno Burning (multiple tws for this, including for pogroms)

On Women and Judaism

The Jewish Home

Bonus other media:

Fiddler on the Roof (including the Yiddish version)

Xai, How Are You? (podcast)

SVARA and Shel Maala online yeshivas