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ettarose.bsky.social
@ettarose.bsky.social
460 followers 1.3K following 420 posts
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Queer disabled and Jewish
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ettarose.bsky.social
Just gonna put this here from last week but also about this weeks portion. It’s not my best writing but i was able to look at things slightly differently. Sorry if the alt text is weird, I had some issues with character limits so got rid of a few extra spaces and things but it may have messed it up
I love Simchat Torah. It is now my favorite holiday for all of the reasons I hated it as a kid. It turns out that dragging kids into the circle to dance is more fun than being dragged. Simchat Torah is a marker of time. The renewal of a cycle that never ends. A moment to reflect on all that we have leamed, all the ways we have changed, all the nuances that we are yet to find. A decade ago I stood in this exact spot in front of most of the people in this room today along with friends and family. There are so many similarities, the people, the prayers, the Torah itself. Yet the differences are just as stark. This room was still accented in red, the carpets and seat covers more worn with age, the sound system was brand new. And I am different. I am now dancing happily with the kindergarteners rather than trying to hide in a corner. I am far more confident in myself and my identity. And I see more of the good in the world. The text is the same, my context is different. I have read Noah, my Bat Mitzvah portion, every year, around this same time, because this is when we read it. Some years I have raged at the injustice of the flood, other years I have found comfort in the covenant at the end. This year I can't help but wonder at what made Noah special. While trying to find Jewish sources online on pretty much any question I could ask, 1| found myself reading the first thirty or so chapters of Bereshit Rabbah, as Sefaria is one of the few places online to find decent commentary on more obscure topics. Further reading, of course, only led to more questions, ideas, and arguments that I did not have time to write about so I made a note of the most interesting and tried to move on. There was one section however that I could not shake. In BR 3:7-8 the Rabbis discuss the usage of "it was evening" as opposed to "It will be evening". So clearly, they argue, there was some measure of time before there was an evening to mark it with. "Rabbi Abahu said: This teaches that He continuously created worlds and destroyed them, until He created the current one, and said: 'This one pleases Me, those did not please Me' Rabbi Pinhas said: The source for R Abahu is: 'Gd saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good'. Part of the reason it stuck with me is the nitpick-ness. Was versus will be is one of those distinctions that pulls me in. Also, the question of how the first three days occurred when there was no sun to measure time has bothered me for quite some time. From the beginning, under this interpretation, Gd foresaw everything. From Eve eating the apple, to the flood, to our enslavement in Egypt, the destruction of the Temples, all of the war and suffering throughout history. And it was very good. Why then, is this the world that survived creation. My first, kind of irreverent and meta, thought was that we didn't, or haven't yet. That this is all Gid foresceing things as the world is created. But I don't actually like that interpretation too much. Sure it would make a decent story but it's a rather pessimistic view and I have been working on reaching toward hope recently. Instead, after thinking about it and sleeping on it, I came to think that this world, this version of humanity, survived for the same reason Noah was favored to survive the flood. Now, this gets a bit wonky so bear with me. Parshat Noah begins: "This is the line of Noah. -Noah was a righteous man; he was blameless in his age; Noah walked with Gd." A portion named after Noah begins with his sons. "He was blameless in his age" "Rabbi Yehuda said: [Only] in his generations he was considered righteous, but had he been in Moses' generation or Samuel's generation, he would not have been considered righteous." "Noah walked with God." "This is analogous to a prince who had two sons, one older and one younger. He said to the younger, "Walk with me, and he said to the elder, 'Come and walk before me."" There are several other analogies that all have the conclusion that while favored, Noah was far less favored than the Patriarchs. This is the line of Noah. Blameless in his age. But not in the ages of his descendants. And what else can we hope for, really. What was progressive fifty years ago is out of date and often even offensive now. Look at the language of the Civil Rights Era or carly queer studies. Look at the language of Abolition, a movement that still exists and for much the same reason. What is progressive now, in fifty years, will be the same. The best that we can hope for is that our descendants are more loving, kinder, people that we could ever imagine. And we come back to Simchat Torah. To the endless cycle of Torah. Every generation reads the same words, at the same time of year, essentially forever. The text I read now is the same as it was a decade ago, will be the same a decade from now. The kids, reluctant to dance, will grow up and a decade from now be dragging the next generation into the joyous chaos. We are here for them. We are here for our descendants. We are here to create a brighter world with dancing and joy. Let us be righteous in our time so that in future generations they will look back and say that we were not righteous. That our righteousness looks crude and offensive because humanity has moved forward. So that someday we will be the world that Gd saw, and said was good.
October 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Please add alt text :)
"The combination of DEI and immigration is politically lethal," Andreessen wrote. "When these two forms of discrimination combine, as they have for the last 60 years and on hyperdrive for the last decade, they systematically cut most of the children of the Trump voter base out of any realistic prospect of access to higher education and corporate America."
July 12, 2025 at 12:36 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Alt 3/3. Sorry once more for the format lacking, I am in the car on my phone rn
ICE's arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government's open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza. The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech. Many individuals and organizations have expressed support for Mahmoud and outrage at the government's conduct, and have offered their assistance in the legal proceedings. Mahmoud greatly appreciates all of that support, as do we.
March 9, 2025 at 8:07 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Alt 2/
Initially we were informed this morning that he had been transferred to an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, when his wife - a U.S. citizen who is eight months' pregnant and was threatened with arrest as well by the ICE agents last night - tried to visit him there today, she was told he is not detained there. We have subsequently received reports that Mahmoud may be transferred as far away as Louisiana. We will vigorously be pursuing Mahmoud's rights in court, and will continue our efforts to right this terrible and inexcusable - and calculated - wrong committed against him.
March 9, 2025 at 8:06 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Amy E. Greer is an associate at Dratel & Lewis and issues this statement: Last night ICE agents wrongfully arrested Mahmoud Khalil, claiming his student visa was revoked - even though Mahmoud is legal permanent resident (green card) and not in the U.S. on a student visa. Confronted with that fact, the ICE agents detained him anyway. Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud's behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention. Currently we do not know Mahmoud's precise whereabouts.
March 9, 2025 at 8:05 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
I am an American Jew. Genocide is bad, full stop. Israel is committing a genocide. I am not Israeli. Bringing up Israel is not effective. I haven’t talked about it much on here bc I have big feelings and short form text is not a venue I feel comfortable expressing the nuance
“Literally No one mentioned Israel”
March 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Blue VA and @cvilledems.bsky.social PLEASE add alt text to your posts, especially with info like this it is super important to make sure that disabled folks can get this info. We want to know what’s going on as well
Tweet from @cvilledems: TOMORROW, Feb. 26: Join a call with our Congressional Rep. John McGuire: He is hosting a Telephone Town Hall on Wednesday, February 26 at 6pm. The call-in number is 877-229-8493. PIN 123268. Let him hear it.Ask hard questions. What are his plans to stop the current madness? Posted 9:26 AM Feb 25, 2025 428 Views
February 26, 2025 at 12:13 AM
ettarose.bsky.social
Jason C. Lynch: Well, I guess my first response is that even if everything the court just said is correct, I see that as only potentially affecting the defending women executive order. There's nothing in the military excellence order that turns on one sex or another or even is premised on there only being two biological sexes. Judge Reyes: It says you have to live in the barrack of your biological sex. And it only gives two types of barracks, male or female. And by the way, it adopts the defending women EO, so the first point is not correct either. If I'm intersex, where am I allowed to go? You would agree with me that being intersex isn't a gender ideology. It's just chromosomal patterns, right? tread to into the biology
February 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Alt text pt 1
Judge Reyes: EO 14183 adopts the definitions of a separate executive order called Defending Women from Gender Ideology, Extremism and Restoring biological Truth to the federal government. And that EO states, "sex shall refer to an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female." And it states that, "It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female." Do you see that or do you remember that? Jason C. Lynch:I will take the court's word for it. Judge Reyes: You understand, as a matter of biology, it's just incorrect that there are only two sexes, right? Jason C. Lynch: Do I understand that to be incorrect as a biological matter? Judge Reyes: Yes. It is incorrect as a biological matter. You understand that, right? Jason C. Lynch: I don't understand that to be incorrect. Judge Reyes: You understand that not everyone has an xx or an xy chromosome, right? Jason C. Lynch: Honestly, no, I don't.
February 18, 2025 at 6:20 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
Please add alt text!!!
Those companies had an ally in President Joe Biden - especially, said his chief of staff Bruce Reed, after he watched "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One," a story of A.I. gone rogue. Having already signed one executive order restricting the sale of those crucial chips to China, Biden signed another to establish safety and security mandates.
February 5, 2025 at 1:11 PM
ettarose.bsky.social
#stereophonic
The stage of the Golden Theater on Broadway set up as a recording studio. The center has a large audio mixer under a large window. There is an amp rack stage left with a guitar downstage of it. Stage right has a door and a set of stairs leading down to the stage.
December 21, 2024 at 11:45 PM