Trans Perspectives of Parsha Tazria Metzora

Hani Esther Indictor Portner [email protected]

Karl M. Baer/N.O. Body from a Man's Maiden Years, 1907
I was born a boy, raised as a girl. The fabric of my life was twisted from tangled threads until, with a mighty blow, the inner nature of my masculinity tore apart the veil of half-truths that upbringing, habit, and vital necessity had spun about me. One may raise a healthy boy in as womanish a manner as one wishes, and a female creature in as mannish; never will this cause their senses to remain forever reversed. But customs and habits bind so tightly that it needed an impulse from without, which was, however, also felt strongly from within, before I resolved to undertake the decisive outer transformation.

The Four Worlds -Reb Zalman/Zohar
Jewish mystical tradition teaches that we live simultaneously in four worlds: the world of action, the world of emotion, the world of thought, and the world of spirit. We can imagine the Four Worlds as a ladder or a tree (one above the next), and/or as concentric circles (one inside the next). They are:
עולם העשייה ASSIYAH / ACTION
Assiyah is the world of action and physicality. This is the tangible world, the world of the body. In Torah study, this world evokes Torah’s plain meaning. In assiyah we take concrete action to seek our Source through building, making, and doing. Poetically / mystically speaking, this world is associated with the season of winter and the element of earth.
עולם היצירה YETZIRAH / EMOTION
Yetzirah is the world of emotion and relationship. In this world our hearts seek to relate to each other and to our Source. We make connections and draw associations, reading Torah through an emotional lens. The Hebrew name of this world evokes “forming,” as in forming clay into a shape, or as in the inner work of spiritual formation. Poetically / mystically speaking, this world is associated with the season of spring and the element of water.
עולם הבריאה BRIYAH / INTELLECT
Briyah is the world of consciousness, thought, and intellect. In briyah we interpret Torah through story (midrash). The Hebrew name of this world evokes “creation,” and in this world we cultivate mental awareness that God speaks the world into being in every moment, creating us anew. Poetically / mystically speaking, this world is associated with the season of summer and the element of air.
עולם האצילות ATZILUT / SPIRIT
Atzilut is the world of spirit and essence, sometimes called the world of “emanation.” In this world we seek to access Torah’s secret mystical wisdom. In atzilut all divisions fall away as we connect with the ineffable. Poetically / mystically speaking, this world is associated with the season of autumn and the element of fire.

Beyond the Gender Binary-excerpt from article "Gender in Judaism" by Roots Metals 2023
(1) Zachar (male), (2) Nekevah (female), (3) Androginus, (4) Tumtum, (5) Aylonit Hamah, (6) Aylonit Adam, (7) Saris Hamah, and (8) Saris Adam
ANDROGINUS
This gender describes people with both “male” and “female” characteristics. It is referenced 149 times in the Mishna and 350 times in the Mideast and in Jewish law. Androginus people are generally placed under the equivalent of a non-binary label.
TUMTUM
This term describes a person with obscure or vague sexual characteristics, comparable to the term agender. It’s referenced 181 times in the Mishna and the Talmud, as well as 335 times in the Midrash and Jewish law.
AYLONIT HAMAH
This gender describes a person who is determined to be female at birth but later naturally develops male characteristics. This person is known to be infertile. This term is referenced 80 times in the Mishna and Talmud, as well as 40 times in the Midrash and Jewish law codes. This term is comparable to the term intersex.
AYLONIT ADAM
This gender describes a person who is determined to be female at birth but later develops male characteristics through human intervention, comparable to the term trans man.
SARIS HAMAH
This gender describes a person who is determined to be male at birth but later naturally develops female characteristics. This term is referenced 156 times in the Mishna and the Talmud, as well as 379 times in the Midrash and Jewish law codes. It’s comparable to the term intersex.
SARIS ADAM
This gender describes a person who is determined to be male at birth but later develops female characteristics through human intervention, comparable to a trans woman.

Excerpt from Reinterpreting the Mikveh by Rabbi Pauline Bebe in 2008:
The mikveh takes us back in time, as we immerse ourselves in the world of Creation. The root k-v-h that forms the word mikveh appears for the first time in Genesis 1:9: “Let the waters beneath the sky be collected [yikavu] in one place.” Further, in the next verse emerges the expression mikveh bamayim, the name given to the seas, where k-v-h connotes “the gathering.” This first mikveh is filled with mayim (water).
In the most archaic Hebrew script, the letter mem is a zigzagging line, drawn like waves that recall water. It is interesting to note that in many languages, the phoneme “m” is associated with “mother” (ima, umm, mutter, mere, madre, mama, etc.). The person who plunges into the ritual bath of the mikveh — entirely surrounded by water, nude, without any barriers, and without touching its sides — resembles the fetus in the mother’s womb. The immersion in the mikveh becomes a return to the sensations of the uterus, a return to our source and an act of renewal.
You cannot know who you are without knowing whence you came. This return to what happened before is sometimes a way of softening the traumas of the past, to start anew after a difficult life experience. Conversely, sometimes it is a way to celebrate something precious in one’s life or something new. The word kav means “to be strong” or “strength” in Aramaic. The return to our source reinforces us……Traditional Jewish law requires that only women go to the mikveh. However, when the immersion in a mikveh is part of a couple’s sexual life, if both partners go to the mikveh, they together assert that they are taking charge of their sex life. Making a visit to the mikveh a regular part of the cycle of a couple’s sexual life does not imply a denial of sexuality, but rather a couple’s decision to set temporal boundaries to their sexuality. Jewish tradition honors sexual impulses.
The Talmud tells us that without passion the world would cease to exist. However, sexuality, like water, must be channeled in order for life to flourish fully. Passion is exhilarating, but it is not a permanent condition. Moreover, it may gain in intensity when limits are set, as is true with music–where the silent notes underscore the melody. So it goes with sexuality: the downtime (which could be confined to menstruation in the case of women), punctuated by the mikveh utilized by both partners, is a form of suspension–a Sabbath-of sexuality. It can leave the space necessary to discover a different face of the other, in a more disciplined tension.
In Genesis 1, God creates the world by separating the waters and then withdrawing them to make space for earth and life to appear. The Akkadian root ku’u (one of the possible antecedents of the Hebrew word kav) means “to wait for, to stretch, to underscore the tension of enduring or waiting.” Oscar Wilde said: “In this world there are only two tragedies; one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it.” Expectation is the romantic framework of love and desire. The mikveh reintroduces the other as a friend; the lover becomes a friend again-and the friend, a lover.”

Exerpt of The Mikvah User's Bill of Rights - a Guide for Rabbinic and Lay Leadership-Chaya Feuerman, 2020

1. Mikvahs should be sensitive to persons with all kinds of disabilities. Easy access via ramps, lifts, grab bars, and other means, including braille are important aspects of dignity that persons with disabilities deserve, both in ambulating in and out of the mikvah building as well as in preparation rooms and immersion rooms. It is not respectful that a person be hoisted up stairs or some other awkward experience.
   
2. A woman has a right to body autonomy. She should not be touched. If a mikvah attendant notices a hair on a woman’s back, she should ask for permission to remove it. Furthermore, any part of a woman's body that can be checked by herself should not be subject to inspection by a mikvah attendant. That means that only a woman's back need be checked and permission to do so should always be obtained first.
   
3. Lastly, there ought to be annual satisfaction surveys covering all aspects of the mikvah experience – physical, emotional and spiritual. These should be reviewed by the boards of every mikvah and the results publicly disclosed. Accountability and transparency is a form of checks and balances and should be implemented as with any other service. Women should look forward to engaging in the mitzvah of mikvah without any fears, emotional upheaval or deprivation of spiritual fulfillment.
   

Rabbi Xava De Cordova Commentary on Trans Women and Niddah-2023
Article by Jackie Hajdenberg for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Some Jewish legal questions tackled by the group at Svara ( the queer yeshiva based in Chicago) had not previously been answered, such as how to mark conversion for someone who is male but does not have a penis. In other cases, accepted Jewish law pertaining to gender can be painful for those who are nonbinary or trans, either because the answer is not clear or because the law does not match up with contemporary understandings that gender and sex are distinct.
“[Those are] areas where trans people are sort of most likely to either feel lost themselves or be interrogated by their community. … And so they’re sort of these urgent halachic needs,” said De Cordova, who was privately ordained by a rabbi from the Renewal Judaism movement. “And 99.9% of the literature about them so far has been written by cis people, about us.”
De Cordova concluded that trans women are obligated in niddah, the ritual purity laws. In her teshuva, she provides several approaches to emulate the complicated counting cycle that tallies the days a woman is considered ritually impure following menstruation. She suggests using a seven- and 11-day cycle originally proposed by Maimonides, the 12th-century scholar and philosopher. De Cordova also suggests that the imposition of a cycle not based in biology means ancient and medieval rabbis had some understanding of womanhood as a social construct.
“There’s many cases in which the rabbis sort of choose to orient niddah around their understanding of women, which I would call the social construction of womanhood by rabbis, rather than observable physical phenomenon or actual women’s experience,” she said.
For De Cordova, the experience of writing about niddah provided her with new insights about some of the oldest Jewish legal texts on the subject.
“They’re flexible enough and sort of responsive enough that I can really find a lot of freedom and space in working with them,” she said of the ancient sources. “And that was just a really sort of wonderful and freeing transition to go through.”

Avigayil Halpern on Niddah -2023
I want to suggest that niddah observance can align with a sense of queer time.
It is an experience of time that is not based on an external, measured, “universal” calendar. Rather, it takes place in each person’s body, outside of “normative notions of the clock.”
This is an offering from the laws of niddah to all of us:
How can we experience ritual and sanctity through the timelines of our own bodies, our own experiences?

A Mikveh Ritual to Prepare for Gender-Affirming Surgery written by Emmett 2023
This ritual imagines a person visiting the mikvah, ritual bath, before surgery.
It can be done in any body of water.
While Bathing in Preparation for Immersion:
This is my hair. It blows in the wind and flows in the water. It sparkles, and it is mine.
This is my head, and inside it is my brain. It thinks and feels and connects. It studies and learns and loves. It sparkles and it is mine.
These are my ears. They listen to the Torah of the world and the Word of Hashem in everyone
They sparkle, and they are mine.
This is my nose. It breathes in my Nefesh anew each morning, and with it I smell flowers and spices, pets, and partners. It sparkles, and mine.
These are my eyes. They watch and read and admire, and with them I see the works of Hashem and Their image in everything around me, They sparkle, and they are mine.
This is my mouth. It speaks and sings, tastes and savors, and with it I speak my own Torah into being. It sparkles, and it is mine.
This is my neck. It turns and flexes, and shows my eyes the world around me. It sparkles, and it is mine.
These are my shoulders. They can be pillows to others in times of need, and they allow me to move my arms and hands, They sparkle, and they are mine.
These are my arms. They can embrace the world. They sparkle, and they are mine.
These are my hands. They heal and hold, they write and play, they are tender and tough and gentle and firm. They sparkle, and they are mine.
This is my chest. It holds my lungs and my heart, my most vital organs, where my body sustains me. It sparkles, and it is mine.
This is my back. It holds me upright and allows me to walk in the ways of the generations before me, and to forge new pathways forward through the wilderness. It sparkles, and it is mine.
This is my belly. It's the furnace that keeps me warm, that gives me energy and strength to move and think and dance and love. It sparkles, and it is mine.
This is my pelvis. Its the hinge on which my body turns and bends. It is full of sensation and beauty and mystery and life. It sparkles, and it is mine.
These are my legs. They hold me up and move me forward. They allow me to walk and run and jump and dance. They sparkle, and they are mine.
These are my feet. They connect me to the ground and the Earth we share with all of Hashem’s created beings. They sparkle, and they are mine.
Recite Before Entering the Water:
I clean my body, and it shines and sparkles with life and light.
I change my body, and it changes me, and it is me, and I am me.
When entering the living waters, I bring all of myself to be enlivened and made holy.
When I leave the living waters, I walk away connected to all of myself and to my ancestors.