The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective

by Joy Ladin

Reading some of the best-known Torah stories through the lens of transgender experience, Joy Ladin explores fundamental questions about how religious texts, traditions, and the understanding of God can be enriched by transgender perspectives, and how the Torah and trans lives can illuminate one another. Drawing on her own experience and lifelong reading practice, Ladin shows how the Torah, a collection of ancient texts that assume human beings are either male or female, speaks both to practical transgender concerns, such as marginalization, and to the challenges of living without a body or social role that renders one intelligible to others―challenges that can help us understand a God who defies all human categories. These creative, evocative readings transform our understanding of the Torah’s portrayals of God, humanity, and relationships between them.

Genres: Judaism, Jewish, Religion, Queer, Nonfiction, LGBT, Transgender

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2018

Reviews

[Bogi Takács]

Insightful and heartfelt! I liked it a lot, and appreciated that she had trans readings of the Torah in ways that were genuinely new, and approached parts that QUILTBAG+ readings of the text often don't approach. (A small detail, but: I was also happy to see her state outright that the intersex parts of the Mishnah/Talmud are not about transness per se, they are about being intersex. A lot of non-intersex trans writers really obscure that distinction.)

I also really liked the focus on G-d and on having a personal relationship - if this is at all possible - with an incredibly unknowable being. I feel a lot of contemporary authors avoid saying ANYthing about having any kind of religious feeling, even when that would be directly relevant to the topic; this book isn't like that.

Sometimes Joy Ladin had opinions which put her in a minority position among trans people (e.g., that a trans person can never really be binary in some senses - if I understood that right?); I think it is a good combination to read this book together with her memoir, which gives more background on her views. In any case, this is a book that lends itself to discussion, so I don't mind disagreeing on various points. :) If anyone wants to discuss it with me, I'd love that!

I felt the last chapter could have been expanded a bit more (re: conversion and transness - there are trans people who convert), and some of the endnotes would have worked better incorporated into the text. (Especially about race, I felt.)

Also random annoyance that is totally not the author's fault: apparently the term "super-minority" is used in sociology in two entirely different, opposite meanings. (1. As a synonym for model minority, 2. as being literally the only minority person in a group.) I wanted to read more on 2. after Ladin's discussion, but I keep on finding it used in the other sense.
_______
Source of the book: KU Jewish Studies

[Abi (The Knights Who Say Book) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. The first time I read the final chapter (on its own, for a class) I felt like I was repeatedly being washed over with waves of wisdom. Having read the whole book, I can say it truly represents a really interesting way of reading and relating to the Torah and G-d, and issues a fierce call for tolerance and justice. I definitely need to read Joy Ladin's other works.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this brief book. Joy Ladin gives us four takes on Torah: not the four levels of interpretation (PaRDeS) you find in rabbinic readings of the text, but four of her own.

1. There are penetrating observations about the personalities of Adam, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob...and God!

2. There are more systematic thoughts about God, along the lines that are sometimes called "negative theology": not dismissive or derogatory toward God, but rather, starting from the idea that God is beyond anything we can imagine about God. So, how do we relate?

3. Not steadily but throughout, Ladin tells us stories about her own life and her journey as a transgender woman. She doesn't sugarcoat the pain she's gone through, but mainly, she is using her story to help us understand God and Torah (and incidentally, vice versa).

4. By the end of the book, she endows us with hope that a "spiritual discipline" (147) of knowing the soul of the stranger will help us create a community that can embrace us all.

What does transgender perspective have to do with it?

Ladin is NOT going through Torah looking for people who are assigned the wrong gender at birth, or who don't fit into the gender binary. It's not transgender people but a "transgender perspective" that she wants us to start using.

Few people identify as transgender, but most people have trans experiences: experiences, however brief, of acting in ways that don't fit our usual gender roles." (35)

What's more, she looks at people in Torah having those experiences and demonstrates how those moments bring the presence of God into their lives.

It's not always a comforting experience when God enters one's life by exploding gender expectations. God showing Abraham the stars and saying "You WILL be a father, even though you are so old, and your descendants will be this numerous" is not like God keeping Sarah from being a mother, which in that time and place meant not being a woman.

It's often an experience I wouldn't have noticed was gendered. If only men can be priests, then being a son of Aaron is totally different from being a daughter--and even being a son of one levitical family, with one set of tasks and expectations, is a different gender role than being a son of another family from the same tribe!

Ladin talks about how her own experience growing up with the expectations of being a boy placed upon her made her identify more with God. She imagines God feeling unseen, unheard, misunderstood, even lonely, as she was when they used to call her Jay. What might seem off-putting about a God that is completely different from anything we imagine is precisely what made her feel close to God, as a fellow outcast.

What's more, as she points out, in the Torah God manifests God's self in ways that human beings are supposed to see as disappointment, hurt, and anger. "How long will this people spurn me?", God asks Moses after the Golden Calf (when the Israelites include God in their camp only in an image they already know) and after repeated incidents in the wilderness when it seems that the human beings have forgotten about God at the Red Sea and at Sinai.

Transgender people, Ladin says, can identify with this. She particularly tells us about how, when she was no longer a man, her son could not see her as the father he knew before. A synagogue insisted on using her Hebrew deadname as part of her son's name, not understanding how that would land with her. Her employer, Yeshiva University, put her on leave for a year and then accepted her as a woman--but erased any mention that she had ever been anything but. The gender binary was so strong, they could not see her for who she was and had been. But all of us, she says, can echo what God tells Moses: "I am what I will be."

I will be honest: at moments when I was reading the book, I wondered whether the author was projecting her own pain outwards in ways that made no sense. She enunciates strict methodological principles for her exegesis (11), and the first of them is to be grounded in the pshat, the plain meaning of the text. There were moments when I thought a different reading than hers would be equally "plain," and more meaningful to me, as in NOT identifying Tziporah, the Midianite wife of Moses, with the Cushite woman he is later said to have married. (Seeing them as two different women would let us hear his siblings, Miriam and Aaron, complaining to him that he was neglecting his first wife--which we know from other places in the text that Moses had a tendency to do!) But the flip side of that is that her reading is just as possible, and (while less generous to Miriam and Aaron) it is meaningful to Ladin, and helps her make her point.

I am glad and grateful that I put my doubts aside and actually listened to her talk about her own journey away from feeling connected with God but isolated from the Jewish community. She says:

Although my identification with God helped me recognize God's inherent strangeness, it also represented a kind of private idolatry. Just as the Golden Calf gave the Israelites a deity that fit comfortably into their ideas and lives, my image of God's incurable isolation from human community gave me a deity who fit comfortably into mine. (170)

In the later chapters of the book, she repeatedly and convincingly makes the point that it is possible for us to welcome God, in all God's weirdness, into our communal life--and it is possible to do the same with transgender people. If we come to recognize--if I come to recognize--the times and ways that I have not fit into the gender binary, even for a moment, then I and we can commit ourselves to pay attention to others' trans experiences and to listen to transgender people.

And like God among the Israelites, openly trans people expect to be recognized no matter how we appear, to be treated with respect no matter how disruptive our presence may seem, and for our feelings to be acknowledged and accommodated, no matter how unusual, hard to understand, or inconvenient they may seem to others in the community. (136)

That is what it means to know the soul of the stranger--for we were strangers in the land of Egypt.

[char · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In fact, if we take seriously the idea that human beings are created in the image of God, then whenever we expand our understanding of humanity, we can expand our understanding of God" (8).

I'm so grateful to have read this book. Through extrapolation on a collection of stories from the Tanakh, Ladin brings a powerful sense of meaning and relevancy that goes beyond most dvarim Torah I've heard today. Seriously, this is the strongest I have connected to most of these stories - especially Jacob and Esau - thanks to Ladin's interpretations.

Granted, the book is quite a bit different from what I was imagining. I expected a more explicit reading of characters AS trans, like Jonah in the prologue (which I LOVED), but Ladin is firm in her focus on themes and takeaways, rather than imposing labels on the Torah. And in the end, I'm glad that this is the direction that she took. She delicately balances her own experiences and personal reflections with her robust knowledge of Biblical scholarship, producing an equally informative and powerful reflection on what the Tanakh can mean for transgender Jews, and for all Jews.

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is both a wonderfully original and deeply personal work, as Ladin uses the lens of her own experience as a transgender woman to explore different biblical figures: How did Abraham’s rejection of his responsibilities as Terach’s firstborn son, or Jacob’s claiming of his brother’s birthright, impact how they related to those around them, and to their culture’s understanding of masculinity? Can we explore the tension of the Golden Calf incident as arising from the Israelites’ discomfort with a God who refused to be embodied in a way that made them comfortable? And a deeper question: did God create the binary categories of male and female, light and dark, chosen and stranger, or are they shaped by human judgments and limitations?

As I said, the book is also deeply personal, but Ladin’s revelations have a purpose. Many of Ladin’s insights are inspired by her own experiences as a trans woman, and particularly by her experience of not being seen or recognized for who she was. Describing those experiences gives her language and imagery to make points cis readers might not otherwise be able to follow. And quite frankly, there are far too many theologians over the centuries who pretended their experiences hadn’t shaped their thinking, that the truth of their insights was based on their universal experiences and magical lack of bias. It’s a relief to read theology deeply grounded in a specific person’s lived experience.

Lots of food for thought here, and an important voice in the conversation.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, first of all, Ladin is a gorgeous stylist and I’ve heard her teach before so I knew this was going to be good.
I’ve been reading a few pages every week since Simchat Torah and it’s an amazing long form drash. She does the thing that rabbis can do where they meld the personal with the interpretive to make the text shine anew and make the listener/reader rethink their relationship with both.
It was serious Torah.

[Sofia Freudenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful weaving of personal narrative, gorgeous prose, and rich scholarship. An exposure this kind of approach to Torah learning that I genuinely found compelling and often quite moving. Ladin somehow makes her personal experience one that everyone can relate to, which is an impressive skill.

[eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really wonderful and illuminating.

"to welcome Gd into our communities is to welcome a stranger who will never assimilate, who will not go along, who will not follow our rules, accept our judgements, embrace our values, affirm our doctrines, confirm our biases, or look or behave the way we expect—a stranger who may bless us or curse us, who is responsible for all the good and all the evil that befalls us, who takes without asking and gives without explanation. To love Gd, we must learn to love someone who will always be a stranger. To serve Gd, we must serve the needs of a stranger. To grow close to Gd, we must become intimate with a stranger. To open ourselves to Gd, we must open ourselves to a stranger."

"Like the non-Israelites who, as Gd anticipates during the Exodus, willingly circumcise themselves and all the males in their households to participate in the Passover offering, we willingly, if not happily, hitgayer, accept the pain of being seen as strangers, because to us, those communities are home."

"Not only is Gd unlike anything in the heavens, the earth, or the waters: Gd does not fit and has no place in any human or natural order."

"It was not only the stories the Torah told, but also the way the Torah told them, that spoke to the life I was living. The Torah's colorless, sketch-like narration: the lack of description of landscapes, scenes, clothing, interiors, figures, faces, sounds, or colors: the almost complete failure to acknowledge the feelings of the people the Torah portrayed, echoed my own dissociated relation to the world around me. My body tasted, felt, and perceived, but my real self, the self I felt I was, had no body...The Torah's depictions of human lives, in which even the most shocking events, like Cain's murder of Abel, begin and end in a few brief words, felt oddly akin to my shadow life, in which years passed like days, intimates were as distant as strangers, and whatever happened among them happened far away."

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean I read the first three chapters and skimmed the last so I'm calling that good enough.

It was interesting to read about the trans experience being likened to other gender-transing experiences, it reminded me of the reddit post from (you guessed it) sol which was like "Going from boy to man, or girl to woman, is a type of trans experience, because you're crossing boundaries that define gender roles." That's an interesting argument and I'd like to see it applied in a broader context, in like a holistic critique of gender structures way.

But mostly I think I don't really like the notion of god and it's hard for me to read about? Like I viscerally dislike the character of god in the torah as well as the bible, like as far as the book goes as a piece of literature it's not all that great? So I don't know, maybe that's why I didn't want to finish the book. But I really appreciated such a thorough queer reading of the religious text, because usually it's some surface level "god doesn't hate gays!" but this was like, god is a stranger, unknowable in his truest form, a stranger to all men; and being trans is to be a stranger to those around you and maybe even to yourself, and to know god is to know a stranger and that's like, the queer experience. So I appreciated that much.

[DW Rowlands · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had...mixed feelings about this book, many of which can probably be linked to my mixed feelings about Joy Ladin's identity as "old-fashioned – a garden-variety transsexual, rather than a post-modernist shape-shifter.”

Dr. Ladin strikes me as too willing to forgive transphobic cis people and too accepting of the argument that transition is legitimately a stress on one's friends and family that causes real harm to others, rather than something that only upsets others to the degree that they are problematically invested in gender identity and roles. I also found her comparison in the last chapter of the experiences of "super-minorities" (people who are unique or nearly unique in their local environment) to that of Ha Shem trying to live among the Israelites in the desert after the Exodus to be questionable. Both are cases of someone not fitting in, but when super-minorities don't fit in, they are generally the ones who are harmed, while Ha Shem regularly responded to not fitting in by killing people.

That said, I think that some of the earlier chapters, in which she tries to show that gender roles in the Torah are more social than divinely ordained do have some merit.

[Noa · Rating 5 out of 5]

In "The Soul of the Stranger," Joy Ladin challenges readers to reconsider the relationships we have with God and each other. Her reframing of the stories of Genesis as narratives of trans experiences are extremely compelling. The narratives that Ladin elucidates allow us to view role performance and relationality of Biblical characters from new perspectives, making room for not only trans experiences but for the experiences of multiple other populations whose stories are not always elevated. Ladin points to models within the Torah that encourage the expansion of binaries and applies them to how Jewish communities today can and should treat folks outside of the gender binary. Ladin also makes the case for a theology of self-determination, which she describes as "the God-given power to be what we will be." Whether she is commenting on the transgender experience, filial or parental responsibility, or God's role in our lives, Joy Ladin brings a depth of insight, a wealth of compassion, and a mastery of language to her readings of the Bible's timeless origin stories. 

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like there are bits of brilliance in this book, and they will stick with me. However, a lot of the parallels feel strained, and the language gets very repetitive. I like the fact that Joy uses her experience as a transgender woman as a window into describing the broader experience of feeling different and unseen, so that her specific experience relating to the Torah can actually help anyone find new ways to relate to the Torah and to feel inspired by it.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much here about understanding scripture, G-d, one's place as a transgender person. Appreciate her distinctions between transgender and transsexual, even if I wouldn't use that terminology (apparently she goes into this more in her memoir), and also on the multiple positions to consider as a person enmeshed in relationships. But mainly for the theology within.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I tore through this book way too fast and need to read it again... and again... In shifting our perspective into the liminal spaces beyond binaries, Ladin opens up new ways of reading the text - not just for transgender people but for all of us.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be wonderful in both its theological and textual insights! Ladin uses the particularity of her personal experiences to offer wider wisdom, and I found her juggling of this well-balanced. And beautifully written!

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

The section comparing the incommunicability of the trans experience to the inexpressible essence of god and the compromises made to connect was really good. The stuff on analysing Torah figures was not.

[Pamela Gottfried · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book filled with personal insights and wisdom. I highly recommend engaging the author as guest speaker in conjunction with reading this book.

[Mills College Library]

296.30867 L155 2019

[Adrian Shanker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part theology this accessible and readable book by Joy Ladin was thought provoking and engaging. Highly recommend!

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely intriguing, the author uses their own transgender experience to think about G-d as the ultimate stranger.

[leo :} · Rating 5 out of 5]

took me a minute to get through but this is spectacular. reading anything through a trans lens gets a 10/10 from me.

[Jordan Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good to read a Jewish perspective on trans theology!

[sam]

no rating, for class

[Joelle]

I managed to read through page 70 before I ran out of library check out time. I want to continue, but the book tends to $30 and I'm not sure I want to spend it on this book.

[Smorris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a literary masterpiece, but perhaps still rich with insight for someone for whom this is a novel perspective to encounter.

[Ariel Tovlev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read. I love the universal approach. One does not need to be trans to have a trans experience: when your sense of self is radically altered or evolved. We all go through this as we age. Some of us go through it with a traumatic experience. Trans people know this experience intimately, and through our experiences, we can teach about the general human condition. By reading the Bible with a trans lens, we can better understand these transformative experiences and how they connect us with divinity and humanness.