Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible

by Gregg Drinkwater (Editor), Judith Plaskow (Foreword), Joshua Lesser (Editor)

A modernized, queer reading of the Torah

In the Jewish tradition, reading of the Torah follows a calendar cycle, with a specific portion assigned each week. These weekly portions, read aloud in synagogues around the world, have been subject to interpretation and commentary for centuries. Following on this ancient tradition, Torah Queeries brings together some of the world’s leading rabbis, scholars, and writers to interpret the Torah through a "bent lens". With commentaries on the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and six major Jewish holidays, the concise yet substantive writings collected here open up stimulating new insights and highlight previously neglected perspectives.

This incredibly rich collection unites the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight-allied writers, including some of the most central figures in contemporary American Judaism. All bring to the table unique methods of reading and interpreting that allow the Torah to speak to modern concerns of sexuality, identity, gender, and LGBT life. Torah Queeries offers cultural critique, social commentary, and a vision of community transformation, all done through biblical interpretation. Written to engage readers, draw them in, and, at times, provoke them, Torah Queeries examines topics as divergent as the Levitical sexual prohibitions, the experience of the Exodus, the rape of Dinah, the life of Joseph, and the ritual practices of the ancient Israelites. Most powerfully, the commentaries here chart a future of inclusion and social justice deeply rooted in the Jewish textual tradition.

A labor of intellectual rigor, social justice, and personal passions, Torah Queeries is an exciting and important contribution to the project of democratizing Jewish communities, and an essential guide to understanding the intersection of queerness and Jewishness.

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

349 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Danni Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book includes an essay for each of the Parashat in the Torah, themed around finding a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer perspective through which to view that Parashat. Each is written by a different author, and many of them are quite insightful. Unfortunately, the authors rarely mention anything about their own identities, nor does the book give any background about each other, so it is often very difficult or even impossible to know when the author of any given commentary is writing about something they know from their own lived experience, or about something they know from friends or family members, or about something they read about...which makes it hard to evaluate how to relate to their perspectives. The book predominantly and overwhelmingly focuses on gay and lesbian viewpoints; bisexual and transgender perspectives are mentioned in only a small handful of essays and even then, those perspectives seem to be being presented by people for whom they are not personal, firsthand experiences. There are certainly many interesting ideas and views in this book, and overall I enjoyed reading it, but at the same time, I really wish that it had done more, gone further, and fully included perspectives beyond gay and lesbian.

[Zev]

This book has both an introduction and a preface. It's...a bit much. I hate to say it, but the writing is super dense and not at all accessible. It's overly academic and super dull, and -I didn't even make it past the introduction-. In a 'blink and you miss it' moment in the introduction, the person who wrote the introduction notes that "people" thought this should have included solely essays by LGBT+ rabbis. They immediately explained that most of the essays were by straight allies. I instantly noped out. "People" were probably members of the LGBT+ community. I'll search for takes from people in the LGBT+ community.

[Jasper]

this unfortunately felt like a repeat of earlier queer readings of Jewish texts, where “queer” is stripped of its historically political meaning and warped into a bland “gay people are just like you” mantra. this is a book i probably would have loved in high school, where i was starved for any kind of connection between lgbt identity and Judaism, but now, just reads to me as an outdated product of its time.

[Adina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This extraordinary collection provided me with such a diversity of meaningful insights. I’ve never read a book of commentary along with the weekly Torah portion before, and I always found something both provocative and relevant to chew on. I will definitely return to this practice again in the future. This book helped me realize how essential Queer perspectives are to my own identity and understanding of what it means to be Jewish.

[York · Rating 4 out of 5]

While lapsing into confusing and distancing queer theory at some points, other parts were very touching to me. Although I am a Methodist, not Jewish, I found it a useful resource both as an exercise in interdisciplinary studies and also in understanding some of these oft-ignored verses better, taking them into my own personal theology.

[Mills College Library]

222.10708 T676 2012

[Alex Haasky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Outdated now but still has some good insight, and was probably great when it first came out (no pun intended, okay maybe slightly intended). I would recommend a more modern book on the topic.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Oct 2012) My plan is to really read a chapter a week. Thankfully, I found out about and purchased this book right before simchat torah, so my timing is excellent.

Bereshit - the whole text stems from the lines about g!d creating humans and their genders. much of the text discusses the history of rabbis and rabbinic thought discussing the non-existence of binary genders, but actually a spectrum, especially taking intersex people but also trans* people into account. 4 stars.

Noach - written by Steve Greenberg. The first thing g!d sees in the world that is NOT good (lo tov) is when a human being is alone. Also about noah and what his son Ham might have done that was so bad.

Lech Lecha - focused on two points. 1st point - in this parasha, people's names, bodies, and relationships change as they become more fully themselves. A good paragraph is devoted to discuss of how this also applies to transpeople. 2nd point - all about covenants, what they are, how they are sacred, when people change them and what they mean. The first point spoke to me more soundly; the second one got a little blurry for me. 11/1/12

Vayera - this text is very "meta". It reminds me of the queer theory reading and postmodernist thought I learned about in college. Not my favorite method of analysis. In some ways, this text refused to engage with the issues raised in Vayera, instead focusing on other small bits and re-interpreting them up the wazoo, without getting anywhere. 11/1/12

[Plan didn't last very long! Will try again.]

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each year, I choose a couple of books to accompany me through the year’s Torah cycle. Because this is an anthology, each essay has a vastly different approach to the parsha, and I responded to some more than others. They’re all fairly short, some focused on unpacking queer tropes in the text or halakhic impact of the parsha on queer lives, others on how themes from the parsha echo the authors’ personal experiences (for example, the memoir of an aging gay activist interwoven with Moses’s final days). There were some real gems throughout, and I’m really glad to have read it.

[Malachi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of past Torah Queeries, some of which I have read at the Jewish Mosaic website. Anyone looking for alternative readings of Torah portions would be well served by this book and by the Jewish Mosaic website.

[Jordan Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully insightful & diverse

As said in the title, Torah Queeries is wonderfully insightful and diverse. I enjoyed being able to read commentary from so many different queer individuals.

[Loen]

Really loving this book of commentary! I think some readings are a little convoluted or stretches, but its always interesting regardless.

I really disliked the interpretation of Rebecca.