Expanding Blessing
"And THVH (Goddess) spoke to Moshah, saying: Speak to Aharonah and to her daughters, saying: Thus shall you bless the daughters of Tisraelah: Say to them:
May Goddess bless you and protect you.
May Goddess’s face shine upon you and be gracious with you.
May Goddess’s face lift towards you and grant you peace.” (Bamidbar 6:22-26)
Last week, Rabbi Rachel wrote in her teaching about how the ancient sages valued the wilderness in which Torah was received - a place of non-ownership that allowed for open access to sacred wisdom. Torah, they imagined, was meant for everyone who thirsted to learn it and practice it. In the wilderness, no walls of possessive exclusivity could contain it. Torah is acquired in a place with no boundaries.
Not only is Torah uncontainable: you can’t exhaust it either. There are seventy faces of Torah, each revealing new facets upon closer inspection. Torah is acquired through an appreciation of infinite depths.
In the spirit of this Torah-fluidity-abundance, contemporary artists and scholars Yael Kanarek and Tamar Biala have spent years translating the Hebrew Bible into Hebrew, by regendering everything. They call this project Toratah (“Her Torah”).
“The experience of reading Toratah, especially for those accustomed to the language of the traditional Bible, is not simple. It describes female presence in all aspects of Biblical reality. This presence manifests vividly and by both destructive and restorative powers. The women of Toratah express a wide range of human behavior and agency usually ascribed to men: they murder, commit incest, and rape. They reign and judge. They are priestesses, prophetesses, warriors, founders of tribes and leaders of nations…
“Toratah builds a new cultural language, it enables us to extricate ourselves from the patriarchal language that functions as a cultural default. Toratah marks a new horizon for social and spiritual self-understanding… What does it mean for a girl to read that she’s made in the image of the absolute Creator Goddess? What is a boy to learn as he grows to understand his role as her helpmate and caregiver?” (You can read more here. It is worth mentioning that although the project does not focus on non-binary language, seeing the Torah regendered creates space to imagine what a gender non-binary Torah might look like as well.)
The priestly blessing in parashat Nasso is particularly important for the living tradition of Jewish practice. Once upon a time, (male) priests used these words to bless the assembled people. In fact, the oldest archeological evidence of language found in the Torah contains these words on two silver amulets, dating from over 2500 years ago. After the Temple was destroyed, men in the priestly lineage continue to this day in some communities to recite these words at particular moments in the prayer service. Additionally, some parents will offer the blessing to their children at Shabbat dinner on Friday night. And some rabbis offer the blessing at life cycle rituals for babies, b’nai mitzvah, and wedding couples.
Here is a piece of Torah that has come alive in all sorts of ways. Rashi comments on “say to them [this blessing]” (Bamidbar 6:23): “so that everyone can hear it.” The blessing was always meant to arrive in a way that each and every person could hear it. Rendering it into the feminine instead of the masculine means the blessing expands, and we get a fuller glimpse of the Source of blessing and the folx who make up our community.
Many of you already know a version of the priestly blessing that uses feminine language, blended with a Buddhist metta meditation, created by Chava Mirel and used widely in Kavana spaces. This Shabbat, let her words and the ancient and ever-renewing flow of blessing lift your spirits, comfort your hearts, and encourage your aspirations:
May we be filled with lovingkindnessMay we be well, healthy and strong
May we be safe and protected
May we be peaceful and calm
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Jay LeVine
