Rachel
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rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Rachel
@rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.7K following 8.2K posts
Religious Studies & Hebrew Bible PhD student📚/Jewish✡️/ADHD & Autistic🎧/Myth & Religion Nerd🏺/Recovering Attorney ⚖️/Perpetually Sleepy💤
(she/her)
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rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Guys, I want to write about a menorah pendant, but reply to help me pick which specific one:

1) With fake Hebrew
2) With grapevines (interesting bacchic thing going on)
3) With inscription indicating it is an amulet
4) Totally typical OG glass menorah pendant with shofar, lulav, & etrog
Front and back views of a salmon-colored gem in a gold mount. The front has a seven-branched menorah on a tripod. The back has fake Hebrew. (Look, not all Jews knew Hebrew, even back then!) The caption reads: “CBd-831 Magical gem in post-antique gold mount: Menorah (A) Hebrew pseudo-script (B)” Transparent red gem inscribed with a menorah flanked by grape vines. The caption reads: “CBd-1910 Amulet(?) gem: Menorah, grapes.” A circular gray bronze amulet, broken at the top. The description reads: “This 4th or 5th century C.E. bronze amulet shows three Jewish symbols: a lulav, menorah, and shofar. The reverse side bears the Greek inscription, ‘For the welfare of lady Matrona’—that is, a married Roman woman. It would have been worn as a protective talisman. The object is in the Reifenberg collection at the Israel Museum.” Circular yellow glass pendant stamped with a menorah flanked by a shofar, lulav, and etrog.
November 21, 2025 at 1:36 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
I’m only half kidding. This specific iconography appears in four main places that I’ve seen: 1) pendants like the one above, 2) grave inscriptions, 3) synagogue art, &…4) stamps for kosher bread like this 👇🏻 #Jewish
Roman-period stamp for bread. Shield-shaped, with an image of a menorah flanked by a shofar, lulav, & etrog.
November 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Jews in Late Antiquity wore menorah pendants like this to display their #Jewish identity, to express messianic hopes, to protect themselves from evil, & to indicate that they were kosher.
Circular yellow glass amulet stamped with an image of a seven branched menorah, flanked by a shofar, lulav, and etrog.
November 20, 2025 at 11:26 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Pokemon that I’d love people to associate with me!

1. Vaporeon: my familiar & partner in crime.
2. Uxie: a sleepy spirit of wisdom & intelligence. I kin.
3. Charizard: the very best boy, & my ride.
4. This specific Alcremie: Caramel
swirl with ribbons. Cute, delicious, magical.
Vaporeon, a light blue cat-like pokemon with a fish tail and fins round its neck and head. Uxie, a pokemon who looks like a gray fairy creature with two tails, a yellow helmet-like crest, a red gem on its forehead, and shut eyes. Charizard, a pokemon who is an orange dragon with wings that are dark green on the underside. It has a flame on the tip of its tail. Alcremie, a pokemon who is a little witch made out of whipped cream. This one is labeled as the “Caramel Swirl” color, which is tan with white on the tips of its ears and peaked head. It also has light purple eyes and light purple bows on its head.
November 16, 2025 at 3:16 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
A lot of research & media seem interested in making autism into “the white male Nazi sex-offender disorder,” & it’s unspeakably gross. Just another channel for villification & stigma, alongside the “pathetic, subhuman tragedy” narrative. #Autistic
Gold text on royal blue background: “Please leave the autistics out of these shenanigans.”
November 13, 2025 at 10:53 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Happy Halloween from my family! (Mine has the scarred eye, my husband’s is the worried-looking ghost pumpkin, & kiddo did the outline of her favorite pokemon, Wishiwashi.)
Three jack-o-lanterns. One is an orange pumpkin carved with a grinning face and a scarred left eye. Another is orange with the outline of a fish creature with fins. The one in front is a white, squat pumpkin with a big, worried looking frown and triangle eyes.
October 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Ugh Messianics. Ugh. They roleplay as Jews, but hate actual Jews.
Multi-panel comic showing a group of Power Rangers putting their hands in for a team handshake. Each is labeled as a type of Judaism. First, the red ranger, labeled “Reform,” puts his hand in. Next, the blue ranger, labeled “Conservative,” the pink ranger (Reconstructionist), the black ranger (Orthodox), and the yellow ranger (Chasidic). Then, a big purple mitten-like hand labeled “Messianic” joins the pile. The rangers look up angrily to see a purple Teletubby trying to join their circle.
October 27, 2025 at 5:37 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Yeah , better to pick something with no connection to Judaism at all, such as…the v’ahavtah, & Shemot 19:18!

(Jesus was just quoting Torah, guys.)
Post: “I’m always amazed Christian Fundamentalists want to display one of the three different sets (yes, there are three) of the Ten Commandments in schools -- from Judaism — instead of one of the three versions of Jesus’s Great Commandment. From Christianity. 🤷” The post includes a link to the Wikipedia page for the “Great Commandment,” with an image showing an English translation of the v’ahavtah: “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.”
October 26, 2025 at 4:56 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
My 6yo wants me to tell you all that her favorite is Wishiwashi. (It’s tiny, but schools up with other Wishiwashi to make a big, scary form.)
The two forms of the Pokemon Wishiwashi. The Solo form is a tiny blue and silver fish with giant eyes, that always appear to be crying. The School form is a large, angry-looking blue fish made up of hundreds of tiny solo form Wishiwashi.
October 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Golem does explode a little too often for me. If we’re doing ground types, there is only Garchomp for me. His whole body is a mouth for going “CHOMP!!”
The pokemon Garchomp, a navy blue bipedal dragon with a shark tail and torpedo-like extensions on either side of its head. Its front is yellow and red, and it has horns growing on its arms and legs, which gives the combined impression of a giant mouth with teeth.
October 12, 2025 at 6:45 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Leave us alone. We didn’t ask to be everyone’s new boogieman.
Gold text on royal blue background: “Please leave the autistics out of these shenanigans.”
September 27, 2025 at 7:03 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Like…sometimes the penis has wings, or its own arms & legs, or its own little penis, or is otherwise anthropomorphized or given animal features. This is a wind chime from Pompeii.
A small metal charm hanging from a chain. It is shaped like a penis, but posed so that it resembles a crouching beast. The glans looks like the head. It has wings, rear hooves, and a tail that ends in another little penis.
September 27, 2025 at 6:12 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
The Romans essentially used surprise dick pics as protective magic. Anyone attacking you with the evil eye would get so surprised & distracted by your weird dick necklace, they’d lose focus.
“The power of Roman phallic amulets came not only from supernatural deities, but also their ability to shock, surprise, and distract viewers, presumably because they were seeing a phallus (and sometimes, a very unusual one) where they did not expect one.”
September 27, 2025 at 5:59 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
This layout is not the work of an allistic mind. js

(The content is pretty #autistic too!)
Diagram showing the layout of a page of Talmud. The mishnah and gemarah text are in the middle, surrounded by what I can only describe as concentric boxes of commentary,including the tosafists, Rashi, Masoret haShaas, Ein Mishpat, other commentaries, glosses of vocabulary, R. Aqiva Eger, and anonymous or printer’s additions. It’s very complicated, but very organized.
September 25, 2025 at 12:20 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Asherah has something to show you 👀👀👀
Clay icon of a Semitic goddess, perhaps Asherah. She has long hair, plants growing on her legs, what may be twin infants at her breasts, and she is spreading apart her labia with both hands for the viewer. The caption says she was discovered near Kibbutz Revadim, Israel, & is from circa 1250 B.C.
September 22, 2025 at 9:20 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
The Kabbalistic Tree of Baking

Whereby divine Volume emanates to the lower vessels & is differentiated into units
A chart showing how to convert various measures of volume used in baking. Each unit is portrayed as a circle with bumbers around it, and lines link each circle to the appropriate number on each of the other circles. It looks like the Kabbalistic tree of the sefirot.
September 21, 2025 at 12:21 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Should I….should I share the comic? Yes. I will. It will be new to someone. Messianics aren’t Jews!
Comic strip showing power rangers putting their hands in for a team handshake. First, the red ranger labeled “Reform” puts in their hand, followed by the blue ranger (Conservative), the pink ranger (Reconstructionist), the black ranger (Orthodox), and the yellow ranger (Chasidic). Suddenly, a big purple hand labeled “Messianic” joins the handshake. The rangers all look up angrily to see a purple teletubby trying to join them.
September 17, 2025 at 3:39 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
My husband’s car tire blew out on the freeway. My car is still in the shop from when a dude hit me last week. Neither of us at fault, but we still have to deal with it :///

1. Cars suck, far too much trouble
2. WTF, God?
Drawing of a little bird in a nightcap waking up in a bed. He is saying “Modeh ani?” in Hebrew, which is the beginning of the Jewish prayer of gratitude for a new day, said upon waking. Outside the window, there is a yellow sun with a smily face saying “your misery is tasty”
September 17, 2025 at 3:00 AM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
I tried to copy this Greek amulet, but it turns out it’s hard to copy terrible drawings, too….I had to make him skinny to fit the page :(
Bad pencil drawing attempting to copy the image in the quoted post, of a magical sigil from the Greek Magical Papyri. It has a very boxy hooved man strangling a snake & stepping on a fish. The figures are labeled in pseudo-Greek and surrounded by writing in an incomprehensible magical script.
September 11, 2025 at 5:06 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
God, it’s so true, the real ones are also TERRIBLE! That’s the only reason I push forward despite my obvious ineptitude. Lookit this guy from the Greek Magical Papyri:
A magical sigil. It has an interconnected picture of a person with hoofed limbs and a freakishly large, boxy torso. The torso might have a face on it. That face might have three eyes. It’s hard to tell because tge picrure is very badly drawn. The guy is labeled “IAO,” which I’m pretty sure is “Yah.” The guy is strangling a snake labeled “Ariadobadozeira,” and standing on a fish labeled “Zagure.” He holds a magical letter shaped like an ankh. There is incomprehensible pseudo-Greek under the picture and to it’s right, as well as incomprehensible “magical writing” on each side, which looks sort of like Greek letters with circles at the ends of the lines.
September 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Oh God when did Rosh Hashanah get so close????? I’ve been so busy with kiddo’s problems at school, it snuck up. Quick! Start thinking about repentance! Aaaaah!

Anyway here’s my attempt to sketch a shiviti I saw, meditating on teshuvah. IANAA (I am not an artist).
Pencil sketch of a shiviti, a picture used for prayer or meditation. The heading says “Shiviti for T’shuvah (Repentance)”. At the top it says “tshuvah,” “repentance” in stylized Hebrew. It has an interconnected six-pointed star figure in the center, surrounded by symbols of the four elements labeled in Hebrew. In the upper left is a sun and crescent moon, representing fire. In the upper right is a shofar dripping liquid into a glass representing water. In the lower left are sprouting grains and plants, representing earth. In the bottom right is a coiling snake, for wind. At the bottom are the roman numerals 1-7.
September 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
I got new #Jewish nerd stickers from @miriamanzovin.bsky.social, & they make me very happy 😊 Please, let me autistic-ly show you my beloved stickers!
A circular sticker with a scene of desert dunes & the text: “The Bamid-Bar: Beer, Wine, Manna, Quail, Est. 2448 A round sticker showing a night sky over the ocean, framed by black bird feathers. At the top are three bird-like creatures, labeled in Hebrew “Sanoy,” “Sansanoy,” and “Semangelof.” The figures appear as they do on amulets for protection against Lilith, if you’ve seen those.
September 9, 2025 at 10:37 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Fuck off, bigot. Find some other tokens for your hate movement. Autistic people want no part in it.
Gold text on royal blue background reading “Please leave the autistics out of these shenanigans.”
August 31, 2025 at 5:54 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
I completed my collection of all 63 forms of the #Pokemon Alcremie! Just in time for Satoshi Tajiri’s 60th birthday. Fitting! #Autistic
August 28, 2025 at 4:23 PM
rachelneedsanap.bsky.social
Gold text on royal blue background reading: “Please leave the autistics out of these shenanigans.”
August 26, 2025 at 2:44 PM