All transgender and non-binary folx are welcome to join us for a second meeting of this new Torah and book study group! We are reading Joy Ladin's book The Soul of a Stranger: Reading Torah from a Transgender Perspective, which 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. In the May 22nd meeting, we'll be discussing chapter 2 of Ladin's book together.
Please note: This group is intended as a space for transgender and non-binary people only.
Here is a summary of The Soul of a Stranger 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. (Goodreads)