God beyond of the genre: reread the Torah from a transgender perspective
Text by Joy Ladin* taken from his book "The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah From A Transgender Perspective"(The soul of the foreigner. Read God and the Torah from a transgender perspective), ed. Brandeis University Press (United States), 2018. Freely translated by the volunteers of the Gionata project
Religious traditions based on Torah tend to conceive humanity in male terms. Torah is full of stories about men and laws aimed at men, and the idea that male experience is the most important aspect of human experience also influences the way in which God is represented.
Although Torah does not portray God as a man, he uses male pronouns to refer to him. When God speaks with individuals, these are almost always men.
When God is glorified in the songs, most of the metaphors used- "king", "warrior", "father" and so on- are based on male figures and experiences. Since humanity is largely conceived in male terms, God is also understood in the same way.
As Judith Plaskow and other feminist theologians supported, when we broaden our idea of humanity to include women with the same attention paid to men, we also expand the aspects of human experience that we can use to understand God.
We can recognize God as a female as well as male, mother as well as father, queen as well as king, nurse as well as warrior, "she" as well as "he". Obviously God is neither more female nor more male, but thinking about God through the experience of women, as well as men, highlights aspects of the divinity that we otherwise tend to neglect.
Theologies centered on men and feminists help us to understand God by analogy with masculinity and human femininity.
Following the same principle, expanding our definition of humanity to include transgender people allows us to recognize in God elements that reflect the lives of transgender people - those lives that, like God, do not conform to traditional roles and categories.
* Joy LadinHe is an American poet and essayist, known for having been the first openly transgender teacher in an Orthodox Jewish institution. He has published twelve books, including the autobiography "Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Beteween Genders" (2012) and "The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from Acturender Perspective" (2018). His works explore issues related to gender identity and spirituality, offering a unique perspective that combines personal experience and literary analysis.
Original text:Introduction Shipwrecked with God
