This week, we talk about how God needs to give humans scaffolds to learn, holy princes are turned to evil nonsense, a Jewish dude gets a tattoo, and there are some rad name shenanigans. Also, craftspeople are literally magical, but then you gotta take responsibility for the things you create.
Full transcript available here.
The first couple seasons of "Ink Master" are available on Netflix. The Shrieking Shack podcast is cool and can be found here. The bit that Lulav quotes from the Quran is surah 22:5. The other older text that Jaz pulled from for an alternate translation was printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Also, Lulav notes that the first of the ten commandments resembles the Muslim statement of faith. Also you can follow @woolen.honey on Instagram.
This week's reading is Isaiah 43:21–44:23. Next week's reading is Malachi 3:4–24.
Support us on Patreon or Ko-fi! Our music is by the band Brivele. This week, our audio was edited by Lulav Arnow, and our transcript was written by Reuben Shachar Rose. Our logo is by Lior Gross, and we are not endorsed by or affiliated with the Orthodox Union.
This week, we talk about how God needs to give humans scaffolds to learn, holy princes are turned to evil nonsense, a Jewish dude gets a tattoo, and there are some rad name shenanigans. Also, craftspeople are literally magical, but then you gotta take responsibility for the things you create.
Full transcript available here.
The first couple seasons of "Ink Master" are available on Netflix. The Shrieking Shack podcast is cool and can be found here. The bit that Lulav quotes from the Quran is surah 22:5. The other older text that Jaz pulled from for an alternate translation was printed for the British and Foreign Bible Society. Also, Lulav notes that the first of the ten commandments resembles the Muslim statement of faith. Also you can follow @woolen.honey on Instagram.
This week's reading is Isaiah 43:21–44:23. Next week's reading is Malachi 3:4–24.
Support us on Patreon or Ko-fi! Our music is by the band Brivele. This week, our audio was edited by Lulav Arnow, and our transcript was written by Reuben Shachar Rose. Our logo is by Lior Gross, and we are not endorsed by or affiliated with the Orthodox Union.
Lulav: Hi Jaz.
Jaz: Hi Lulav.
Lulav: Oh man, it has been a while since we recorded. It's only been a week since you listeners have heard your dulcet tones in your ears, but we skipped out on a week cuz there was just a lot of stuff going on in our lives. I can't remember what any of those stuffs are, probably depression. Jaz, has anything cool and queer or Jewish happened in those last two weeks?
Jaz: Sure! One thing that has been happening is I have been watching a lot of the show “Ink Master” with my roommates—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Like back seasons of it, and “Ink Master”, for those of you who might not be familiar which is very fine because I wasn't really before we were all stuck inside all the time (Lulav chuckles) is a tattoo competition show. We watched the first couple seasons and then watched the most recent couple seasons and now we've been bouncing around in the middle for a while, watching them completely out of order partially cuz we want to watch all of them but also the later seasons are better so we (Lulav chuckles) we've been bouncing over to the later seasons.
Lulav: You can only take so much late aughts TV at once.
Jaz: It's really not even just that people are behaving badly because people are behaving badly on every season of the show, (Lulav chuckles) it's just that the tattoos are worse at the beginning so I'm less willing to put up with them behaving badly cuz they're not even that good.
Lulav: (laughs) Okay.. So what’s particularly queer about that?
Jaz: So there are some queer people who are like, tattoo artists on the show.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: The other day we were watching an episode and there was one person on one of the more recent seasons who we all agreed, like unequivocally, was the hottest person on the show that season (Lulav laughs) and all of us asked our partners, promptly, (Lulav laughs) okay, who is the person that all four of us in this house agreed of? Can you figure out who it was?
Lulav: I was looking at some very blurry photos, in my defense.
Jaz: Yes. People did varying amounts of good at this particular question.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: You weren't like, top of the pile but—
Lulav: I was switch of the pile.
Jaz: Uh, you were middle of the ranks. You did perfectly respectably in my opinion.
Lulav: Mkay, thank you.
Jaz: Anyway that was the same season in which there was a Jewish tattoo artist—
Lulav: Oh fun.
Jaz: Who, like, said some things about being a Jewish tattoo artist. However, he did say those things right before he got kicked off.
Lulav: Uh huh.
Jaz: And we were all like, I'm not sorry to see you go, not because of the Jewish thing but just because you are such a jerk. (Lulav laughs) Like, unrelatedly such a jerk.
Lulav: That feel when chillul Hashem.
Jaz: Yeah. So its a queer and Jewish experience and also our household is one where like, sometimes we watch TV on friday night after we all do a Shabbat dinner together and that's just, you know, what our practice looks like these days.
Lulav: Yeah.
Jaz: Lulav, what’s something cool and queer and Jewish thats happened to you this couple weeks?
Lulav: So we haven't recorded since Purim which means I get to tell you about some cool Purim stuff. One thing is that Khesed texted me, just like, what do you want for Purim? And I was like, wh— what do I want? Oh. Um... and we had not gone on a grocery trip for a bit in this household so I was like, “could you bring butter and nutmeg?” And they were like, “yeah sure and I will also bring some hamantaschen” and they did and it was great. I got to experience hamantaschen even though I haven't gone outside in like a week. I got to chat with them on our porch and, yeah I just like my friend Khesed. In return, bearing in mind that I still have to deliver them these things, I got them some bags of microwave rice that have veggies in them and like a, a shake. One of them fruity drinks that gives you a bunch of potassium—
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: Because they asked for accessible food. I know that struggle.
Jaz: Yeahhhh. That's real nice. Like, friendship trade.
Lulav: Yeah. Which I think is one of the things that you are supposed to do for Purim.
Jaz: Sort of in the spirit of mishloach manot?
Lulav: I thi- ahhh. I was only half paying attention during our Purim lesson for Soulful Jewish Learning. Also hopefully Rabbi Rappaport doesn't listen to this show. Uh, (laughs) hi Rabbi.
Jaz: Well, okay, so the things about Purim like—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: There's several Purim commandments but like—
Lulav: Oh! You have to feed people, right?
Jaz: Mm hmm. Matanot l'evyonim, which are like gifts, usually of like, money to people who need it.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And then—
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: There's mishloach manot which is more like food for your friends.
Lulav: Friend gifts. Okay.
Jaz: And then there is a Purim seudah which has a big Purim meal.
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: And—
Lulav: To confuse “blessed is Mordechai” and “cursed is Haman.” Boo.
Jaz: Uh, no the fourth one is the reading of the megillah.
Lulav: Oh yeah there you go. (laughs)
Jaz: Like, listening to the whole megillah.
Lulav: Okay. Cool.
Jaz: The thing that you mentioned about getting too intoxicated that you mix up cheering for the hero and booing the villain is not a mitzvah on the same level as those other ones.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: It is like a practice. It's not of the same degree of a mitzvah that we are commanded to.
Lulav: Also Ada was doing some study about this because what do you do if intoxication leads to bad habits for you?
Jaz: Right.
Lulav: And so it turns out that it's not necessarily intoxication like you can do other things to make that confusion happen.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: So it's not that you specifically have to get sloshed on Purim, it's that some people can.
Jaz: Sure. My mom sometimes says, quoting her father, it's like a thing that many Jewish holidays include, uh, an opportunity for indulgence (Lulav giggles) that you wouldn't be supposed to engage in in other times of the year that you're not always necessarily commanded to do, but that it’s built into the structure of the holiday.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And for Purim it's things like drinking way more than you should at other points. (Lulav snorts) Hanukkah's is gambling—
Lulav: Oh!
Jaz: Which is real fun.
Lulav: It's a bad gambling game!
Jaz: All— many gambling games are bad gambling games. (Lulav laughs) Um, Passovers is like, laying about, I think.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Doing nothing on a non-Shabbat day. Anyways so—
Lulav: That's great.
Jaz: It's great. Yeah.
Lulav: So the other Purim-related thing was that I think Shachar — or was that Rae? — was talking on the server about like, hey here's a Purim spiel that I was gonna go to, anybody wanna join? And so my good Jewish League of Legends server watched a Purim spiel together.
Jaz: That’s cute.
Lulav: Yeah. Including some of the members who aren't as actively Jewish, um—
Jaz: Actively Jewish? Or just not Jewish?
Lulav: Not Jewish yet, uhhhh, not actively Jew- I don't know.
Jaz: Okay.
Lulav: It depends. It— there's a mixture of people on the server, it's not actually a Good Jewish League of Legends server, it's just that like 2/3s of us are, or could be, or— yeah. Also I like saying Good Jewish League of Legends server because it sounds like Good Christian Minecraft server but better.
Jaz: What? Uh— I don't want to know. (Lulav laughs) Okay.
Lulav: (laughs) But yeah, it was just really nice, like you and I were on a date at the same time because we scheduled a date for Thursday evening not remembering that that's Purim and I walked back and forth to get some water and it was just cool saying hi to Mercury and checking out them having a great time with our friends. It was fun.
Jaz: That's lovely.
Lulav: Yeah. It was like a social event that I was not the center of which makes me feel good that like, this social space that I was one of the creators for exists without me.
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: And also exists with me.
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: When I choose to join, so.
Jaz: That’s nice. Lulav are you—
Lulav: And then—
Jaz: Ready?
Lulav: Sorry.
Jaz: Yes.
Lulav: I just want to give a quick rundown of media that I've been consuming lately. One is Hades the game. I enjoy it except for the Eurydice-Orpheus storyline. Also one of our transcribers is a Discord moderator for the official Hades server and is mentioned in the credits, so that's fun. And also um...
Jaz: Was it the Jane Austen adaptation?
Lulav: Maybe? Maybe. Oh! Oh no it’s that The Shrieking Shack finished the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so I have now listened to about 400 hours of a deep read of the entire Harry Potter series which has given me the blessing of never needing to go back and read those books.
Jaz: (laughs) Yeah, we have now listened, will definitely be true by the time this episode airs because I'll probably listen to it in the next day or two.
Lulav: Oh yeah. As soon as I got the notification that it was up for patrons I listened to it this morning (Jaz laughs) and then related to that and also weirdly to Cam is, Higurashi is really popping off. I don't know. That's all the media that I've been consuming. Sorry.
Jaz: Okay, great!
[Brivele intro]
Lulav: Welcome to Kosher Queers, a podcast with at least two Jews and generally more than three opinions! Each week we bring you queer takes on Torah. They’re Jaz —
Jaz: And she’s Lulav —
Lulav: And we’re here to joke about Judaism and talk Tanakh together. Today, our chevruta is learning the haftarah of Vayikra, which is Yeshayahu 43:21-44:23 and if you are just joining us or you can never keep straight all of the Hebrew names that I do for things that have well-known English names, this is Isaiah.
Jaz: It totally is. Also if you're just joining us, I apologize somewhat for Lulav just throwing in a bunch of names of just friends who you do not know.
Lulav: Also I haven't mentioned Rae by name, uh I've mentioned Shachar a lot and also Khesed, but yeah. (laughs)
Jaz: Yeah, that's what I mean.
Lulav: Great. Okay. Yes, listen to our backlog where there is a rich tapestry of my social life including who I was kissing like a year ago, so that’s— that’s a thing.
Jaz: I forgot about that. You just put a lot of your life online. (Lulav laughs) Anyway, Lulav would you like to summarize the parsha for us? The parsha that connects to this week's haftarah portion?
Lulav: Why Jaz I surely would! We're talking this week about Vayikra, which is the first parsha from Vayikra!
Jaz: Right.
Lulav: And I would like 45 seconds—
Jaz: Okay.
Lulav: To give us the rundown here.
Jaz: Before we do that—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: So we started Vayikra which is the book of Leviticus.
Lulav: Oh right.
Jaz: Quick refresher that books in the Torah are named for the first parsha just as the parsha is named for the first significant Hebrew word in it.
Lulav: And right away we start off with vayikra.
Jaz: Right, which Lulav, what does that mean?
Lulav: Uh, “and it spoke” basically.
Jaz: Yeah. Yeah.
Lulav: We start with the phrase, "and The Name spoke to Moshe saying".
Jaz: Yes, basically.
Lulav: Or like in front of the tent of meeting— whatever. Point is I'm gonna take 45 seconds and tell you all about that kra-ing.
Jaz: Yeah. Okay. It's just useful I think to note and to remember that Leviticus isn't a translation of the Hebrew name of it.
Lulav: It's a totally different thing.
Jaz: It's just a totally different name for the same book. Because the haftarah is named differently, named more after like who is the speaker in it and so they are basically the same in English and in Hebrew.
Lulav: Wait, sorry, the haftarah or the parsha?
Jaz: The haftarah! For the haftarah they're basically the same in English—
Lulav: Ohhh!
Jaz: And Hebrew.
Lulav: Because it's the prophet. Okay.
Jaz: Because it's just named after the prophet or like—
Lulav: There are kings here. (laughs)
Jaz: Right, and so the haftarah portion doesn’t each have a seperate name—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: It's just like the book it's in and those are basically the same in English and in Herbew, so.
Lulav: Great! Thank you for pointing that out. That's really great. So yes, do you have me 45 seconds? Pup pup, pah pah.
Jaz: Yeah. Ready, set, go.
Lulav: The Name is kra-ing at Moshe, talking about all kinds of acceptable sacrifices and the work that the kohanim have to do to offer them acceptably. What goes in the fire? No leaven, no honey, yes salt. What goes in the mouth? No fat, no blood. When priests do a commandment oopsie, they sacrifice a bull. When the whole of the people do a commandment oopsie, they all sacrifice a single bull. If a chief does a commandment oopsie? Goat sacrifice. If a rando does a commandment oopsie, goatess sacrifice. If someone doesn't offer important information that could help people out, or retroactively discovers they touched a nasty thing, they gotta bring a sacrifice that is within their means. HOWEVER, if someone does a targeted ill instead of just an oopsie, they must bring a ram and 120% repayment. Done!
[timer goes off]
Jaz: Nicely done.
Lulav: Thank you. I timed that while you were thinking of a gender. I probably would have said 40 seconds and gone over by like, two if I hadn't been timing it.
Jaz: Okay.
Lulav: Because of my HUBRIS.
Jaz: It's true.
Lulav: (laughs) So yeah, that is how Vayikra starts off. You can kind of see why its called Leviticus in other languages, cuz it's talking about the Levites and what they gotta do, but the connection to this week's haftorah as far as I can reckon is that the haftarah stats off talking about how you have not brought sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with sacrifices, you havet done all of the sacrifices that we talk about here as what you are supposed to do to make good. That's the best I got. (laughs)
Jaz: Okay.
Lulav: Do you notice any other connections or do you want to throw down about the thing that I just said?
Jaz: (chuckles) I think that sounds right.
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: I think that it's also sort of loosely connected through the idea of, mmm... setting up systems of what you want your society to look like and who's important in it.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: But that's related to the thing that you said.
Lulav: (giggles) Yeah, a lot of the back half of this haftarah talks about like, idolatry.
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: And that doesn't really show up in parshat Vayikra.
Jaz: I know. It's just been in a lot of other places, but not there so much.
Lulav: (laughs) Yeah. So Jaz, can you tell us a little bit about the context for this haftarah?
Jaz: Yeah! So we've done a bunch of stuff with Isaiah before. Isaiah is an early prophet, Isaiah is probably a compilation of historical writers.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Isaiah is a pretty staunch “we gotta fix society” type of dude so this feels very in line with what other things we've heard from Isaiah before. Enough so that it feels to me like if somebody put this in front of me before I had read it for this podcast and said please guess which prophet it was, like I might have guessed Isaiah.
Lulav: (chuckles) Okay.
Jaz: I don't know if you feel similarly about that but it feels pretty emblematically Isaiah to me.
Lulav: I mean I think we've talked before about how the book of Yeshayahu gets quoted a lot by we said Christians but there's a part here about uh, I am the one who formed you in the womb which shows up in the Quran and is—
Jaz: Oooooh.
Lulav: One of my favourite parts of poetry there. This might be a reference to an earlier thing from Torah and I'm just spacing on that, but it might be specifically from this haftarah.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: So.
Jaz: Yeah. So the place I feel like I know Isaiah best from—
Lulav: Mm hmm?
Jaz: I wasn't familiar with that bit from the Quran, although that's beautiful and I don't really know when Christians quote him cuz I—
Lulav: Yeah.
Jaz: I don't spend a lot of time—
Lulav: To be clear, I don't super know either (Jaz chuckles) but. (Lulav laughs)
Jaz: But I feel like I encounter Isaiah stuff mostly in the contexts of that quote that we read on the high holidays and that you see fairly regularly in social justice spaces about like, is this the kind of fast I desire? One where you just (Lulav giggles) like, stop eating for a day and nothing else changes? No! You gotta cast off the chains of the imprisoned and feed the hungry all year long, and you know that sort of thing.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Isaiah is a very justice-oriented person, but also through the frame of idolatry which is part of what he's doing here which is cool.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: So we can start right here with this thing about the people I form for myself, that they might declare my praise.
Lulav: Cool.
Jaz: What?
Lulav: No just, yeah let's start in the middle of a sentence apparently?
Jaz: Uh huh, uh huh. Wild. Why do you think they do that?
Lulav: So I didn't look much into the grammar.
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: My guess would be that these are separate sentences and that it's not actually starting in the middle but if it is, oh G-d, uhm... I guess that's the most important part of the preceding line because the preceding line, to be clear, Yeshiuyahu 43:20 is, "the wild beast shall honor me. Jackals and ostriches, for I provide water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people'', and then it starts the haftarah, "the people I form for myself that they might declare my praise".
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: And so I guess that is, of those two lines, the most important bit for understanding the thesis here, that you have not worshiped me and are weary of me.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: You know?
Jaz: Mm hmm. I think this question of is it a new sentence or is it not is a little bit of a debatable one (Lulav giggles) and it kind of depends how you translate it cuz the JPS translation definitely puts them together like it's one sentence and you can see how they do it.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: But I pulled up another translation, another of the books on my shelves and this is an older translation and they render here like 21 as, "this people have I formed for myself, they shall shew force my praise", (Lulav giggles) right?
Lulav: Yeah.
Jaz: And so it's like also trying to make a compromise and turn this basically into two sentences and it's just kind of how you decide you want to punctuate this and what makes most sense to you cuz the original text is not punctuated.
Lulav: Right, the Hebrew is, "am zu yatzerti li, tehillati, yesaperu", I guess. Does that look like it could just start, "the people that I formed myself", that it could just be a standalone thing?
Jaz: Yeah. I mean I think the reason that it's odd is there's nothing here that's like, obviously like a connector verb, right? You have the word “made” and you have these things that they are translating as “declare my praise”, anyway.
Lulav: It seems like our conclusion is that basically it can stand alone?
Jaz: Yeha, I mean I think also that Isaiah is poetry and poetry is not expected to always be the same grammatically as prose and that's true in Hebrew as well so ancient Hebrew poetry like this doesn’t work by rhymes like English so much, there's more things happening in terms of parallel structure and stuff like that.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: But there is still, it might be a little bit less straightforward than prose.
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: And anyway, but I was curious if you had thoughts about the meaning of this, like, I made people so that they can praise me.
Lulav: Oh, good point. So the vibes that I'm getting are like, hold on... ssss- uh. Saper. Safer? Ohhh.
Jaz: That word means a lot of things.
Lulav: Sure does. (laughs) And what does “tehillah” mean?
Jaz: Uh... So I think it's often translated as like, glory or praise or shining. Stuff like that.
Lulav: Okay. Oooh, another thing here is that “yatzarti” looks like, so there's a sense in which it can be forming, fashioning, framing, but there's also like — oh, “to bind in a narrow place,” never mind. I was gonna go with like, the people that I bound to me so that they might declare my praise but I dont think thats the meaning of to bind that is being used here.
Jaz: Mmm. One could lean into the shining part, certainly. The like, slightly more literal part—
Lulav: Mmm hmm.
Jaz: And read it not as like—
Lulav: Declare my praise and read it instead is like—
Jaz: Glitterfied.
Lulav: Reckon me shiny? (laughs) Glitterify, reckon me shiny. I love our translation abilities. We make good decisions.
Jaz: Absolutely.
Lulav: So yeah, I don't love this concept of making people just so that they can glitterify you.
Jaz: Okay.
Lulav: That's just so self involved. If you form a people to any end it would be to be the shininess that we reckon.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: Right? Like you create humans so that they can interact with each other instead of there being just void and vault.
Jaz: Hm.
Lulav: So, yeah I don't like the theological implications here.
Jaz: Well, hm. It reminds me a little bit.
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: Because to be clear, it's not like I formed people so that people will do this. This has a definite added to it—
Lulav: Mmm, mm hmm.
Jaz: Like I formed “this people” that they might, this particular group.
Lulav: “Am tzu”, rather than just “am”.
Jaz: Right. And there is a concept that people have bandied about that's like, we don't worship for G-d’s sake, we don't have rituals because G-d needs those rituals. G-d doesnt need that, but we do. (Lulav giggles) That I put together this community, I gave you these ritual pieces that you, you know, would use them.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And then you haven't.
Lulav: Yeah, hey.
Jaz: Especially because its not paired with anger about doing things, like there is this you have not brought me your sheep and not given me sacrifices and instead you've just like, handed over sins or whatever (Lulav giggles) then there's a thing about it is I who for my own sake wipe your transgression away and remember your sin no more. You and I were talking off air at one point about the responsibilities of parents to children, right?
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: And what it means to be a good parent—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And were talking about how like, giving your children tools to navigate the world, structures that they can build on to—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Is a good and useful thing for a parent to do.
Lulav: Scaffolding is very important.
Jaz: Scaffolding is super important and so the idea here that's like, I gave you rituals and I gave you things to do and you didn't do them and I didn’t press you about it and I said it's okay but didnt make you do anything, like I wonder—
Lulav: Mm.
Jaz: If one could read this as an admission that G-d didn't do the right thing.
Lulav: Hm.
Jaz: You know?
Lulav: Like you had the resources but not the scaffolding?
Jaz: Yeah.
Lulav: Mmm.
Jaz: Like, I knew what you could have done, but then when you didn't do it there's this thing of like, I didn't push you on it, I didn't lay out expectations and I'm like, coming back to you now to say that was incorrect. We gotta establish something else that works better because then the next bit is like, help me remember, let's join in the argument, tell me your version, you know? Like, we gotta put all of those pieces together.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: This version of reality where like, you're struggling isn't working.
Lulav: Yeah. And so we gotta start over and hash things out. Have more of a dialectic than a monolectic.
Jaz: Like, maybe right? Cuz the end of 43 is like—
Lulav: What does it mean to you that Hashem profaned the holy princes?
Jaz: Ohhh. A good question. I wasn't sure so I was looking at it and there is some debate in the commentary about who those people are.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And there's even some that doesn't translate this as the holy princes but instead like the holy sanctuaries.
Lulav: Interesting.
Jaz: Or like the people of the holy sanctuaries, so like the priests, so I'm not— I'm still puzzling over what to make of holy princes.
Lulav: Okay.
Jaz: And if you have thoughts about it I would welcome hearing them.
Lulav: Yeah. I was thinking that this kind of frames the abandonment of Yaakov to prescription and Yisrael to mockery—
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: As like, hey, I made your leaders kind of stupid but that’s just so we can like, start over from scratch.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: Does that make sense?
Jaz: How— well, what does that reading give us?
Lulav: It gives us that just because the monarchy has splintered and done horrific things to each other doesn’t mean there can’t still be people who are chosen to do better.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: It's the holy princes who are profaned. It's the fancy gathering places that are turned from altars to Hashem to altars to the Baalim.
Jaz: Mmmm. So there's still an opportunity, it's just not in the places that have traditionally been the places of power.
Lulav: Right, it’s thirsty soil and dry ground.
Jaz: Mmm... that's lovely.
Lulav: Awe, thank you. I try. (laughs)
Jaz: Okay so the thirsty soil and dry ground comes in the beginning of 44.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And it comes in the context of saying don't worry, and it's talking about the people who will continue to be.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And it doesn't- I wonder if there's some significance to like, they're very ordinary things right? Like sprouts, like grass, like it's not here being like, they will be fancy, you know?
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: It's just like, they will be.
Lulav: (chuckles) And what do you make of the line after that? "One shall say ‘I am the Lord’s.’ Another shall use the name Yaakov".
Jaz: One of the things I like about this—
Lulav: Mm hmm?
Jaz: Is those are all supposed to be ways of indicating basically the same thing—
Lulav: Yeah?
Jaz: But they don't have to say it the same way.
Lulav: Yeah! I love that. That's so diasporic.
Jaz: It's like, all of these people are Jews. They do not do it all the same way, it's like a very “two Jews, three opinions” type of deal.
Lulav: (chuckles) Except in this case I think it’s three Jews and four opinions?
Jaz: Yeah.
Lulav: I don't know.
Jaz: Yeah. (Lulav laughs) Also speaking of the tattoo thing—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: This person is like, writing on their arm.
Lulav: (laughs) Uh huh.
Jaz: Something that says they belong to G-d, like, with the full Tetragrammaton on there.
Lulav: Also they adopt the name of “wrestler with G-d”, so simultaneously this idea of being owned and wrastlin'.
Jaz: (chuckles) Yeah, and the two names that are explicit— okay, we have "I am the Lord’s", "Yaakov", "Of the Lord", and "Yisrael", and the two things here that are more classically names—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Are Yaakov and Yisrael and those are names of the same person at different parts of his life and there feels like there's some significance there. Not only is one of those names not more right or more true than another, it feels like a, you could shift over the course of a lifetime. Your Judaism might look different over the course of a lifetime. Both of those are equally valid expressions of Judaism.
Lulav: Mmm. That’s fun.
Jaz: You're not getting like, less Jewish or more Jewish or whatever.
Lulav: You're getting differently Jewish.
Jaz: Yeah, both of them are signs of flourishing. Of a flourishing Jewish community that grows up like grass. (Lulav makes a contented noise) And then we reiterate the first commandment of the ten commandments which is fun.
Lulav: So they're basically saying "la ilaha illa lla"?
Jaz: I think... so?
Lulav: (laughs) “There is no G-d but G-d.”
Jaz: Yes. Um, yeah and then there's more like, reassurances thrown in here and a pivot to anti-idolatry rhetoric.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Which, how do you feel about the anti-idolatry stuff here?
Lulav: (giggles) So I think it's interesting that we set up this scenario of a person who is self-sufficient enough that he has some extra to worship a G-d.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: And it's interesting that you would go through this whole social story when that's basically the point of temple worship, is ya have some extra, bring it to G-d.
Jaz: Mm hmm.
Lulav: Like they go into a lot of detail here to basically say what has been said everywhere else about, hey what are these carvings going to do for you? They're not the real G-d.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: It just seems to be saying a lot that does not work with the thesis that it ends up on.
Jaz: Mmm. Mm.
Lulav: Do you have any thoughts about this whole story about man who burns things in the fire and stuff?
Jaz: Yeah. A little bit. I'm thinking about the word here that's translated as "craftsmen ''.
Lulav: Okay. Give me a line number?
Jaz: 11. Uh, 44:11.
Lulav: Mm. There we go.
Jaz: "Harashim", and that root, chet-reish-shin, is an interesting one. It does mean like, a craftsperson, somebody who makes things with their hands.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: It's also related to (Lulav gasps) somebody who destroys things. It's also related to somebody who—
Lulav: An earthen vessel?
Jaz: Makes magic or is a magician. (Lulav chuckles) It's also, yeah, related to a vessel like something you can make with your hands.
Lulav: There's so much going on here.
Jaz: And it's also related to like, plotting and also being silent and being deaf. It's very much focused around people who make things and make a lot of different kinds of things and make things that somewhat can’t fully be understood by others due to specialized knowledge and—
Lulav: Mmm.
Jaz: Skills and maybe mystical knowledge and skills and who do not share that knowledge by virtue of some kind of silence. Like there's a lot that feels implied in the choice of this word which they did not have to use, like there are other words that (Lulav chuckles) that mean person who makes things.
Lulav: That don't mean 10 different things. (laughs)
Jaz: Right. So it is an interesting choice and it is— it is fascinating to me as a person who makes things and who thinks of part of my project of making things as very connected to my Judaism.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: To think about it as like, Judaism thinks that those things are magical. Literally magical. Sometimes scarily magic. Who knows what you could make with your hands?
Lulav: You're making things that didn't exist before and wouldn't exist without you.
Jaz: Right. And there's power in that and there's a certain amount of people who are nervous about that power, and also people don't want you to mistake the power of the things you can do with your own hands for different kinds of power, I guess.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Which is provocative for me, right? Like, is this an attempt to limit power? To, you know, establish norms like, no, only the priests get power, not other people who could make stuff with their hands? Or is this, why would you think that you can make something all on your own, seperate from everybody else?
Lulav: (giggles) Yeah.
Jaz: And that would be fine. And there would be no repercussions to it, you know? The way the tech industry just makes things and doesnt think about whether they should make them.
Lulav: What if we had a rideshare that stops in predetermined locations and carries multiple people? You mean the bus system that we've been defunding the entire time?
Jaz: Right. No, it's different from the bus system! How is it different from the bus system? Well, we can discriminate in who we pick up!
Lulav: (laughs) Thanks, tech.
Jaz: Right? Or like more broadly like, we're developing AI and what is that AI going to be used for?
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: You know?
Lulav: And that's a really good insight, is that this social story here is about single people working alone rather than a community working together.
Jaz: But also there's this thing over here that's like, who would fashion a G-d or cast a statue that can do no good? It's like a thing about are you doing good with the things that you're building?
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And they're like, are the things themselves can either look nor think. I think about that in terms of when people make algorithms and then like, the algorithms are made my humans so that they have human biases and then they discriminate based on race and it's like, well it's just the fault of the algorithm and it's like, well the algorithm doesn't think, you know?
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Like, humans think. Humans have made it this way to be racist, you know?
Lulav: Uh huh. Or like, wow don't insult this character and it's like, no it's not that we're insulting this character, it's that this character participates in racist tropes because the writers wrote it that way.
Jaz: Right, or the thing about how you have a straight person who writes a bi character in a way that's like, they've only written one bi character and they do these specific kinds of nasty representations of what bi people are supposed to be.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: You know? And then somebody else is like, well but some bi people can do that! And it's like, yes, of course, I would not be mad at a real live actual person (Lulav laughs) for doing that. However this is not a real live actual person, this is a character who somebody purposely designed to be that way. Yeah.
Lulav: Yeah.
Jaz: And I think that there's something to be said here when it says, if adherence will be ashamed, they're crafters, they're human, right? A certain amount of maybe you shouldn't play G-d with your creations? (Lulav chuckles) Yeah. So I wonder about that going into it. I also, there's a new Instagram account that I found and followed the other day—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: That I really like that's called Woolen Honey, it's @woolen.honey.
Lulav: Oh woolen, like honey which is unto wool.
Jaz: Yes. And it's all like, knitted things with commentary about how it connects to the weekly parsha.
Lulav: Oh! Baruch Hashem!
Jaz: I really like it. It's so very much my deal.
Lulav: (laughs) This is great.
Jaz: Yeah.
Lulav: Oh and then they seperate the stories by Bereshit and Shemot— ugh. This is a great account.
Jaz: Yeah it's great. Go follow them if you have an Instagram. And the person behind it is I think writing an article—
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: About the connection with Torah and yarn crafting and stuff like that which seems really cool. They said they would email me some questions and I could be part of it because I am a person who is passionate about both yarn crafts and Torah and their intersection.
Lulav: Mmm.
Jaz: But I do like this thing of like, crafters are human, you know? (Lulav laughs) There's like a lot of honoring in the details here of this is specialized work, specialized labor and beautiful. Someone gets a particular wood and chooses which one and the rains make them grow and the earth cultivates them and then a person takes some to be warm with and also takes some to make bread, but then also makes a G-d and worships some of it and its trying to say like, there's such beauty in the natural world and such beauty in taking what you need to live and thrive and using specialized skills that you have and it's like, okay and then you took all of that and made it into something negative, you know?
Lulav: (laughs) This is what you made—
Jaz: Right.
Lulav: With all that?
Jaz: Right. I don't know, so it feels to me like there's a way to think of it as honoring the process of crafting but also being like, the people who craft are human and have choices about what they're devoting their time and energy too.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: And also that it's kind of an abdication (Lulav chuckles), right? Like there's this thing that's like the person did all of these efforts and made all of these things and whatever and then says, “he bows down to it, worships it, he praises it and cries, ‘save me for you are my G-d.’ They have no wit or judgement, their eyes are besmeared and they see not.” Their minds and they cannot think, and it's almost sort of no, no, no look at all the things you, the actual person did do and can do, why would you then turn to something else that can do anywhere near what you can do? (Lulav laughs) Why would you worship that?
Lulav: Thanks. Does that wrap up the haftarah?
Jaz: I think basically unless there's anything else you want to add.
Lulav: I have no further farm wisdom. So that brings us to the best farm of all, Rating G-d’s Writing, in which we plow the reading and uh… lay seeds without scale so that they may flourish and be harvested by each other with a rating. (Jaz laughs) Wow that used most of my creative juices for the day. Jaz do you have a scale?
Jaz: What would you make out of the raw ingredients of this haftarah?
Lulav: Okay. I would make commitments to other people.
Jaz: Mmm.
Lulav: Because just living in the moment by yourself isn't uh... isn't G-d-honoring, like the way that you create stuff, the way that you do things for others that you have an interesting life, that's in community with other people.
Jaz: Hmmm.
Lulav: That is what I am forming from the material of this haftarah is commitments to people. Jaz, if you made an art project (Jaz chuckles) that represents this haftarah, I know I'm kind of stepping on the same—
Jaz: Stealing mine.
Lulav: Territory as you— hey! Um, if you made an art project that represents this haftarah, how many people would you like… on-board to help you with it and why is it not an idol?
Jaz: Mmmm. Okay. This is maybe not a fair answer, I don't care. I'm going with it anyway.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: Which is I am currently involved in making a creative project about this haftarah and I stand by it.
Lulav: (gasps) So meta.
Jaz: I have involved a number of different people in its creation. To make an episode of this podcast requires me, you—
Lulav: Oftentimes Ezra.
Jaz: Oftentimes Ezra to do our audio, someone to transcribe which is often but not always Shachar. If Shachar is not up to it it involves another person in addition to Shachar. It also requires the people who maintain our hosting services—
Lulav: Mmm.
Jaz: And our website and the website of Patreon and our patrons who keep our show funded and more sustainable for us to make and it requires that I have the flexibility to do this which means it also requires the people at my job and the families of the students I teach who make it possible for that job to continue to exist.
Lulav: Mm hmm.
Jaz: So I feel like the answer to your question is an awful lot of people are required to make a project.
Lulav: (laughs) Yeah.
Jaz: And I don't have a number for you.
Lulav: It's a lot though. That's great. Also that's a wonderful segway into the fun and flirty interjection I have for after you credit me.
Jaz: Oh my G-d. Okay. On that note, uh, let's wrap up for the week, shall we?
Lulav: That's a great note to wrap up on. Wow.
Jaz: Thanks for listening to Kosher Queers! If you like what you’ve heard, you can support us on Patreon at patreon.com/kosherqueers, which will give you bonus content and help us keep making this for you. Also, if you can’t commit to ongoing support but would still like to contribute, you can give to our Ko-fi, which is at ko-fi.com/kosherqueers. Find out more information about our podcast, including bios for our team, and links to our social media at kosherqueers.gay. Also, please spread the word about Kosher Queers. Our artwork is by the talented Lior Gross. Our music is courtesy of the fabulous band Brivele, whose work you can find on Bandcamp. Go buy their album and preorder their new one. Our sound production this week is done by my lovely co-host, Lulav Arnow.
Lulav: Oh listeners, if you should be in doubt about editing the podcast, indeed we created it from a tweet, then from discord DMs then from audio freeware and then from an online audio host, that we may share it with you.
Jaz: Awwww.
Lulav: Jaz Twersky and Reuben Shachar Rose make sure every episode is fully transcribed and big thanks to Jaz for doing the episode notes every week because that's where you'll find the surah that I absolutely butchered for my fun and flirty interjection there. You can find a link to the transcripts in those aformentioned episode descriptions kosherqueers.gay, where you can also see if Jaz and Shachar roped in additional help for the episode.
Jaz: I’m Jaz Twersky and you can find me @WordNerdKnitter on Twitter. I recorded this audio on the traditional lands of the Lenape people.
Lulav: I’m Lulav Arnow and you can find me @spacetrucksix on Twitter, or yell at me at @palmliker! I recorded this audio on the traditional lands of the Wahpékute Dakota.
Both: Have a lovely queer Jewish day.
[Brivele outro]
Jaz: This week's gender is: up to three free toppings.
Lulav: This week's pronouns are: yum and yums.