Keshet is a national grassroots organization with
offices in Boston, Denver, and the Bay Area that works for the full inclusion
and equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews in all facets of
Jewish life-- synagogues, Hebrew schools, day schools, youth groups, summer
camps, social service organizations, and other communal agencies. Led and
supported by LGBT Jews and straight allies, Keshet offers resources, trainings,
and technical assistance to create inclusive Jewish communities
nationwide.
Jews read sections of
the Torah each week, and these sections, known as parshiyot, inspire endless
examination year after year. Each week we will bring you essays examining these
portions from a queer perspective, drawn from the book Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on
the Hebrew Bible and the Torah Queeries online collection. This week,
Joy Ladin*, Gottesman Professor of
English at Stern College and Keshet board member, explains how Rebecca, at the
well, models the Torah’s unique brand of radical independence. Joy’s recent
memoir is titled Through the Doors of Life: A Jewish
Journey Between Genders.
After burying his wife Sarah, the aged Abraham summons
his servant Eliezer and makes him swear to leave Canaan and return to Abraham’s
homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. Eliezer prays that God identify the
right woman by having her offer water to him and to his camels.
After burying his wife Sarah, the aged Abraham summons
his servant Eliezer and makes him swear to leave Canaan and return to Abraham’s
homeland to find a wife for his son Isaac. Eliezer prays that God identify the
right woman by having her offer water to him and to his camels. Eliezer presumably chose camel-watering as a sign of Divine approval because it went so far beyond the code of hospitality that it could be motivated only by hesed, loving-kindness to a stranger and to animals. Given how much camels drink after a long journey through the desert, watering a caravan-worth is like filling a swimming pool with a bucket. That not only takes kindness; it takes the strength, determination, and independence necessary to turn kindness into action. Rebecca is there to draw water for her household; Rebecca’s kindness to Eliezer means that her own family has to wait for the water they, too, need. She risks her family’s anger to fulfill her own ideas about the proper treatment of strangers and animals.
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