Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi
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rjelevi.bsky.social
Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi
@rjelevi.bsky.social
Ethicist, half-assed text nerd. Sexual ethics & Jewish text. Queer. AuDHD. She/her.
Current project: The Neurodivergent Talmud
Book: When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics (IUP 2023)
RJELevi.com
The spot that would be ideal for this is currently occupied by a bunch of interpretation theory, "world religions"-type stuff, and miscellany that doesn't fit in other categories, and while some of that has its problems, it's not like I want to hide its very existence.
November 12, 2025 at 8:22 PM
I’m delighted to announce that my book, When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics, has won the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award in the Philosophy & Jewish Thought category. I’m also honored to be in such excellent company with the other awardees. Mazel Tov all around!
November 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Hey, anyone at Vanderbilt missing a pet gecko? There’s a tiny one kind of chilling in a corner of the accessible ground floor bathroom of the div school. Didn’t SEEM like a pet, but you never know.
October 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
"The girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa."
October 9, 2025 at 5:30 AM
"The girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa."
October 9, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Relatedly, here is an email I just had to send out:
October 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
I did a terrible job staying offline on the holiest day of the year, but I did at least draw Faintly.
October 3, 2025 at 1:46 AM
September 25, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Remove from oven and cool on a rack, then chill, ideally overnight, before serving. 12/12
September 9, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Do I know anyone who can read Chinese seal script? I have a clay teapot I inherited from my mother (to whom it was gifted, if memory serves, sometime in the oughts) and I’ve only now started exploring the kinds of tea you would use such a thing for.
September 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
All of the cats I have been lucky enough to share my life with were and are wonderful, and the Best Cats in their own unique ways, AND: of all of them there is no question in my mind that Faintly is the one who would throw down for me in a fight.
September 1, 2025 at 4:17 AM
My candle burns at both ends,
It will not last the night.
But oh, my foes, and ah, my friends,
It makes a lovely light.
-ESVM

(This is a visual joke).
August 29, 2025 at 1:26 AM
(3/3):
August 26, 2025 at 4:16 AM
(2/3). The line cut off from the end of the last verse is “Its power to pollute lies right in the uncanny valley.”
August 26, 2025 at 4:15 AM
I admittedly ALSO did a banger my very first year of teaching when I did an Intro to Religion survey course called Purity and Pollution: (1/3?)
August 26, 2025 at 4:11 AM
Here it is, in all its glory:
August 26, 2025 at 2:01 AM
They’re the ones I’m wearing in this photo (from 2006, so I guess I got them during college):
August 19, 2025 at 5:07 AM
August 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Faintly has decided I’m not allowed to use my keyboard.
July 31, 2025 at 5:48 PM
I mean, you simply cannot convince me that this tiny doofus (complimentary) is not the most beautiful creature ever to have existed.
July 30, 2025 at 8:10 PM
July 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Perhaps you, too, need a Chroma today.
July 30, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Okay, this is the third iteration of this account (I assume a bot) that has followed me and liked and RS's random posts. I have blocked and reported each time, but this is getting exceedingly annoying.
July 23, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Faintly screams her head off at me whenever I sear, saute, pan fry, or otherwise cook anything on the stove with dry heat and oil, because I sometimes cook fish this way.

She is beginning to show some signs of age (she’s 11) and hopefully has many more years, as I cannot imagine living without her.
July 20, 2025 at 5:40 AM
If you're wondering what rabbinic metaphor has to do with anything, or why epistemic power matters right now, here's one reason:
July 14, 2025 at 2:52 AM