Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi
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rjelevi.bsky.social
Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi
@rjelevi.bsky.social
2.8K followers 1.5K following 4.4K posts
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
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rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
The bottom shelf, near floor level, of a wall-mounted pipe-and-wood bookshelf, containing, randomly, Paracelsus, some Karen Armstrong, a handbook of Celtic mythology, books on the Salem Witch Trials, the possession at Loudon, an ethnography of a Thai Buddhist nun, a book on Israeli lesbians, Sassure, Derrida, Habermas, Gadamer, Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," and Melville's "Bartleby." Plus a few others.
November 12, 2025 at 8:22 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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!
Congratulations to the 2025 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award Winners! Medieval & Early Modern Jewish History & Culture Winner: Iris Idelson-Shein, Between the Bridge and the Barricade: Jewish Translation in Early Modern Europe (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) Finalist: Rowan Dorin, No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe (Princeton University Press, 2023) Modern Jewish History & Culture: Africa, Americas, Asia, & Oceania Winner: Ayelet Brinn, A Revolution in Type: Gender and the Making of the American Yiddish Press (New York University Press, 2023) Finalist: Rachel Gordan, Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American (Oxford University Press, 2024) Jewish Literature & Linguistics Winner: Hannah Pollin-Galay, Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) Finalist: Michela Andreatta, Moses Zacuto’s Hell Arrayed: A Seventeenth-Century Hebrew Poem on the Punishment of the Wicked in the Afterlife (Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, 2023) Philosophy & Jewish Thought Winner: Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi, When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics (Indiana University Press, 2023) Finalist: Yaniv Feller, The Jewish Imperial Imagination: Leo Baeck and German-Jewish Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
November 6, 2025 at 11:12 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
A little gecko (maybe 3” nose to tail) with an olive brown body with lighter horizontal blotches across the back and a tail with alternating dark and tan rings. It’s on a brown tile floor, in a corner, against a pink tile wall.
October 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
"The girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa."
A crudely animated cartoon bear-dog creature screenshotted mid-rant. It's a still from the video "Reading and Time," in which a grad student who wants to study Derrida argues with a professor about whether they also have to learn German to read Heidegger's "Sein und Zeit" in the original. Subtitle reads: "I want to think about radical politics, and now I have to go back and read this fucking Nazi."
October 9, 2025 at 5:30 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
"The girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa."
Panel from Alison Bechdel's "Dykes to Watch Out For" #485, "A Little Liberty for a Little Security" (2005). Panel shows Mo, driving home from an interview for a library job, talking to her girlfriend, Sydney on a wired headset, in profile, with a characteristically irritated-trending-toward-irate expression. There are 3 speech bubbles, which read, top-to-bottom: What a nightmare. I'm telling you, if Bergen-Belsen had a bookmobile, this chick woulda been driving it. I'm NEVER gonna find a job! Sydney? SYDNEY! Are you there?
October 9, 2025 at 5:10 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Relatedly, here is an email I just had to send out:
Screenshot of an email to one of my classes, that reads: Dear all, two things: First: take an extension on your peer review deadline through Monday, 10/13. Second: Some of you may have noticed that the syllabus has a class scheduled during fall break, and fall break scheduled two weeks from now. This is, obviously, completely wrong. We will not, in fact, be having class this Thursday, during fall break, and we WILL be having class on Thursday, 10/23. I have absolutely no idea where I got those dates from. -RJEL
October 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
I did a terrible job staying offline on the holiest day of the year, but I did at least draw Faintly.
A pencil and ink drawing of Faintly, my shorthaired mackerel tabby cat, that I drew today. Faintly is flopped on her side, with her face and belly facing the viewer. She has her lower front paw curled around the side of her face.
October 3, 2025 at 1:46 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
A lemon with “IN PLAY” written on it in sharpie sits on top of a framed poster, which is hanging on a beige wall. The poster’s header reads “WHAT SHOULD I CALL YOU?” and goes on to enumerate various aspects of pronoun, title, and honorific etiquette.
September 25, 2025 at 3:16 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Remove from oven and cool on a rack, then chill, ideally overnight, before serving. 12/12
Photo of the blackberry-apricot pie I made this year for my birthday. It has a glazed lattice top. Photo of a slice of blackberry-apricot pie on a jade-green plate.
September 9, 2025 at 3:41 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
Photo of a small, sort of egg-shaped teapot made of purple-brown clay and dotted with lighter flecks. The lid is done in a sort of wood-grain style. Photo of the bottom of the teapot, which bears two square seals with what I assume are Chinese characters.
September 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
A shorthaired brown mackerel tabby is arranged on a blue dining chair she has knocked over, with her butt on the chair back (which is parallel to the floor) and her front claws in the seat (which is perpendicular to it). She looks straight at the camera with a “yeah? What are YOU gonna do about it?” expression.
September 1, 2025 at 4:17 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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).
A photo of one fig from our tree that is the first I picked this season.
August 29, 2025 at 1:26 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
(3/3):
When bodies leak and ooze stuff from out of their nether regions The rules on their ensuing impurities are legion But now there’s no more temple, so all that’s come on through Is menstrual impurity which makes married sex taboo. Amer’can evangelicals gave purity a ring To symbolize abstaining from premarital flings By taming their libidos, they displayed their set-apartness From secular modernity, that pit of filth and darkness Purity, impurity, disgust and pollution Show how diff’rent groups react to major institutions With leaks, and death, and sex, our bodies manage we needs must Through purity, impurity, pollution and disgust!
August 26, 2025 at 4:16 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
(2/3). The line cut off from the end of the last verse is “Its power to pollute lies right in the uncanny valley.”
The rabbis made this ritual code ‘bout self-examination Through them, what’s more, the body’s prone To complex fragmentation The early Christians, meanwhile, Liked moral purity best To remain pure, one’s heart and soul Were put to stringent test. The Qur’an tells believers they should wash before they pray, Their covenant to honor so that they might gain the day For small contaminations just a partial wash will do For greater ones, a full-body cleanse they must go through Early Muslims argued o’er the timing of ablution Before ev’ry prayer, or only after a pollution? Four stages of purification we get from Ghazali Who says excessive washing of the body is sheer folly. Purity, impurity, disgust and pollution Are the forces that inspire ritual ablutions Also, now, with sexual control and moral trust, lie Purity, impurity, pollution and disgust Corpse impurity’s intrinsic, unlike other sources Anything that’s in its shadow succumbs to its forces As the corpse decays we take some marks out from its tally Its power to pollute lies right in the uncanny valley
August 26, 2025 at 4:15 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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?)
To the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious": We start our tale with Douglas Anthropologist extr’ordinary Claimed that what’s impure Is what is outside of the ordinary We challenge her with Nussbaum Theorist of emotionality Who says that what disgusts us points us toward our animality. Purity, impurity, disgust and pollution Deal with weirdness, fear and anger, ritual and exclusion If it’s strange or yucky, then you’ve got the basic thrust of Purity, impurity, pollution and disgust Now we read the Hebrew Bible And its complex purity code Two different types of impur’ty It heaps onto our load Ritual impurity’s mundane and unavoidable It’s not a sin, and with some time And rituals, it’s voidable Moral impurity, alas Builds up in the land More oft than not, it stays Until the eschaton’s at hand.
August 26, 2025 at 4:11 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Here it is, in all its glory:
p. 1 of 3 of screenshots of my ethics parody song, "Ethics, Ethics, Everywhere": (To: RuPaul’s “Queens, queens, everywhere.”) Agents, duties, acts, commandments Cases, contexts, flourishing, power Don’t you know, bitch, they’re basic questions How should you live, what’s your suggestion? Ethics, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Ooh, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Name that means duty, focus on actions Deontology, here’s my attraction Right and wrong just can’t be muddled Ends don’t change that, don’t get befuddled Universal laws apply here Gaming out outcomes just won’t fly here A just society needs clear standards You’re ends in yourselves, don’t let them pander All of your life from crib to coffin Connections current and forgotten Up for study like a sacred text Leaving you questioning and perplexed Ethics, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Ooh, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Where is the moral law? Bitch, here’s the moral law. Duty to the moral law. Uphold the moral law. I’m consequentialism, hey, how are you? No really, how else will I know what to do? An action is righter if its outcome is better Even if the law wasn’t met to the letter. P. 2: To you I’m intuitive, kinder and clearer Bringing the stakes of the reasoning nearer. But things are not always as clear as they seem— Do ends really ALWAYS justify the means? All of your life from crib to coffin Connections current and forgotten Up for study like a sacred text Leaving you questioning and perplexed Ethics, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Whose well-being matters most, hm? Ooh, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Worth asking… Now I’m virtue ethics, unruly and scattered For me it’s the shape of the agent that matters What traits should you cultivate, regulate, discipline What kind of person are you, are you listenin’? What ways of being are useful and nourishing? What habitus is conducive to flourishing? Who am I, and who am with? What can I account for with my bag of tricks? I come from the Big Guy and I came to tell you Whatever these other folks might try to sell you The right way to live comes from what I reveal I’m Divine Command ethics and I’m the real deal Fulfil the mitzvah, obey the command The deity’s got moral matters in hand Don’t think you can just defy me, Take a leap to faith, say “God, please try me!” Agents, duties, acts, commandments Cases, contexts, flourishing, power Don’t you know, bitch, they’re basic questions How should you live, what’s your suggestion? Ethics, ethics everywhere P. 3: (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Hold UP! Ethics, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Hold UP! Ooh, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) BITCH, I SAID HOLD UP A MINUTE! White dude ethics seem tidy and neat But who’s been left out—or crushed under their feet? Jamming us all into categories— Stop me if you’ve already heard this story. Your trolley problem ain’t worth shit girl, People don’t reason like that in the real world! Think about gender, race, disability Now let’s go trouble the subject’s tranquility! All right, folks, time to start thinking! What’s made most sense to you? This hasn’t been solved yet! Now critique! Critique! Critique! Critique! Ethics, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere) Ooh, ethics everywhere (Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere)
August 26, 2025 at 2:01 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
They’re the ones I’m wearing in this photo (from 2006, so I guess I got them during college):
Me in spring 2006, in brown drapey trousers, a brown suede blazer, a dark red scarf, and a black beret, in front of Basilica San Marco in Venice.
August 19, 2025 at 5:07 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
A New Yorker cartoon by Paul Noth. The banner across the top reads “A Critique of Pure Reason.” The drawing is of a dude in a shirt and slacks sitting in an armchair, thinking “This is boring.”
August 15, 2025 at 9:00 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Faintly has decided I’m not allowed to use my keyboard.
A shorthaired brown mackerel tabby cat flops aggressively on a desk in front of a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
July 31, 2025 at 5:48 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
I mean, you simply cannot convince me that this tiny doofus (complimentary) is not the most beautiful creature ever to have existed.
A small, black shorthaired cat with gold-copper eyes stands on a desk and peers down adorably.
July 30, 2025 at 8:10 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Screenshot from my book draft: What has this to do with focusing one’s heart? One clue, I think, is the contrast between his conduct when praying with others and when praying by himself. When R. Akiva prays with others, of necessity he cannot fully devote his attention to the heavens. With others, one’s attention is shared, and rightly so, among a number of foci. One has to take care for their well-being, their boundaries, and indeed their ability to focus on their intended objects of attention. Diffusion of attention isn’t merely unproblematic in this sort of space, it’s required. When R. Akiva prays by himself, however, he could more fully focus his heart toward the Heavens. Solitary prayer is, for him, a space where uninhibited attention tunneling is possible. And when he can tunnel his attention, it turns out, R. Akiva’s body moves. Why does it matter, especially to a contemporary reader interested in neurodivergence, that the text associates exuberant and repetitive body movement with deep hyperfocus? Because, far too often, narratives of compulsory ablebodiedness tell us that focus can only occur when the body is still. A common refrain in elementary school classrooms, for example, is some variation on a theme of the following checklist for “whole body listening:” [Two examples of "eyes looking, ears listening, hands still, mouth closed, legs crossed" posters aimed at elementary schoolers] According to this neuroableist standard, neither R. Akiva nor Hannah are focused or listening with their whole body. Hannah’s lips are not closed. R. Akiva’s hands and feet are neither still nor quiet. On this point, it’s also important to note that the contrast the text draws between R. Akiva’s public and private prayers is far from unproblematic. While attention to the needs of one’s fellows is important, indeed, obligatory, the text makes some assumptions about what constitutes “encumbering” or “inconveniencing” the congregation that want unpacking...
July 30, 2025 at 5:43 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
Perhaps you, too, need a Chroma today.
A small, shorthaired black cat stands on a desk in front of a computer screen. She is craning her neck back around to lick my hand.
July 30, 2025 at 5:24 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
Screenshot of an obnoxious antisemitic bot (I assume) account whose picture is the word "Rothschild," whose display name is "[heart emoji] RABBI FINGERS WHORES LIKE BOWLING BALLS" and the url discord . gg/ u6a6B83RCt, and whose handle is magicalparent11.bsky.social
July 23, 2025 at 10:24 PM
rjelevi.bsky.social
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.
A shorthaired brown mackerel tabby cat with a cloudy right eye sprawls on a wood floor and looks up at the camera. Her left leg is reaching up my left foot and her paw is on my ankle.
July 20, 2025 at 5:40 AM
rjelevi.bsky.social
If you're wondering what rabbinic metaphor has to do with anything, or why epistemic power matters right now, here's one reason:
Screenshot from a section of my new article in the Journal of Textual Reasoning, "Woman as Metaphor: Mashal and Epistemic Control," 1 of 2: In the United States, at least, our current political moment should remind us all too well of the stakes of overriding someone else’s self-accounting, and of the terrible power of making metaphors out of real people. As a terrifyingly rapid procession of state legislatures, now emboldened by a brazenly eliminationist federal government, move to ban gender-affirming care and public access for transgender youth—and increasingly, transgender adults—it is noteworthy that one of the key claims through which lawmakers and advocates justify their actions is that of epistemic control. Disease metaphors are rampant here: the “woke mind virus,” the “epidemic” of “gender ideology,” the “social contagion” of queer culture and queer and trans adults bent on “grooming” and preying upon youth. Such language absolutely has the same genocidal function that Sontag identifies in, for example, Nazi cancer metaphors: “To describe a phenomenon as a cancer is an incitement to violence. The use of cancer in political discourse encourages fatalism and justifies ‘severe’ measures—as well as strongly reinforcing the widespread notion that the disease is necessarily fatal.” But it also points to a deeper claim about whose categories, associations, expertise, and self-knowledge can be trusted. Screenshot from a section of my new article in the Journal of Textual Reasoning, "Woman as Metaphor: Mashal and Epistemic Control," 2of 2: Transgender youth, so the claim goes, cannot possibly be trusted to know who they really are, on account of their youth, or on account of disability (much of this rhetoric, noting the real phenomenon of significant overlap between gender and sexual variance and autism and other neurodivergences, assumes that such disabilities clearly preclude sufficient self-knowledge or agency), or simply because gender nonconformity is taken as evidence in and of itself of incapacity. And, if their agency and self-accounting cannot be trusted, their claims must have been coerced by nefarious forces and agents: the so-called “groomers,” whose real threat is not putative sexual violence, but rather their supposed ability to wrest epistemic control of youth away from its “proper” keepers.
July 14, 2025 at 2:52 AM