FAQ
Q: Soooooo what's the deal with Life is a Sacred Text?
This project (mostly: essay-ish kinda pieces, but also: text studies, guided discussions, other stuff) uses ancient stories and history as a lens to see our own lives more clearly. It uses sacred myth as both mirror and window to see better how to become the people we are meant to be; to learn to become more useful to a world in need; to gain better tools to meet the inevitable challenges along the way.
Also it's got a lot of history nerdiness, Jewish context, occasional feminist* and queer threads and all sorts of weird cool things that I find down various rabbit holes.
*will be intersectional or it will be BS, cf Flavia Dzodan
The kinds of people who read Life is a Sacred Text include, but are not limited to:
- People looking for their role in the work for justice
- That friend that’s super brave about doing real deal inner work
- People who dig seeing familiar stories in a new light (and love an intersectional lens!)
- Religion geeks
- History nerds
- That friend unpacking their fundamentalist upbringing
- Everyone yearning for meaning who never felt at home in— or were marginalized by— the religious spaces they know
- You, if you're ready to go deeper than you ever have on the ways you can grow into the person you've been meant to be all along, and become even more part of the project of building a more whole world. ❤️🌱
If you want to catch up on the Bible-related posts so far, you can find them here:
(We're working on tagging everything so that the search bar will be way more useful, but it'll take a second, thanks for your patience and you can still find a bunch of stuff now that way.)
Q: Oohhkay, but I'm not religious. Or spiritual. Or: I've had a bad experience with religion already. Or: My community treats me like garbage because I'm trans and/or queer and/or Black and/or autistic and/or I had an abortion and/or (insert list of ways a person can be human here).
A: No, but really: This space is for you. I don't presume that you believe in whatever it is that some of us call spirituality, or the Universe, or God (the Big Bigness that exists within and beyond us, or some other way of describing it) or anything of the sort. This is a place for people, and meaning. For big questions about being a person, about suffering, about healing, about how we can become the best versions of ourselves and create a world in which everyone can thrive.
I know that some of you have been hurt--sometimes quite badly–by racist, and/or homophobic, and/or patriarchal, and/or ableist, and/or transphobic traditions (which may or may not be Judaism, ahem). If you're not Jewish, I hope to show you that there are a myriad of ways to read texts, some of which may be new to you. If you are, I hope to be able to show you some new ways, too. I hope this space is intellectually fascinating and emotionally compelling for you, and your relationship with ~ anything or anyone else ~ is entirely your own business, unless you'd like it to be part of the conversations here.
Q: NO BUT REALLY, RABBI, WHAT'S YOUR DEAL. PUT YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE.
A: That's a long story, check the About section for more on who I am and how I, uh, got to be this way.
Q: I'm having a problem with my subscription, emails, credit card, or something else related to my account. What can I do?
A: Email support@lifeisasacredtext.com with the subject line "Subscription issue" — and please be patient. It may take a couple days to get a reply. Human beings doing their best over here, including starting up a whole entire business, and things are a bit crunchy. But it's in process, OK?
Q: Who owns Life is a Sacred Text?
A: You do. Life is a Sacred Text is investor-free, and 100% independent. Readers become subscribers (you can subscribe here). 100% of our revenue (which funds this project and Rabbi Ruttenberg's other writing work and unremunerated advocacy work in the community*) comes from subscriptions and donations.
In the name of, "let's name labor as labor, eh?" The backchannel work of victim/survivor support and advocacy and work for systemic change around these things in Jewish institutional spaces that RDR has been doing for [checks watch] many years is extremely not a paid gig, though whenever people want to listen to about the central reporting and advocacy org that needs to be created, we're ready with the game plan. Zero desire to run the thing, though.
Q: How can I comment on a post?
A: Comments are available for subscribers. In order to comment, you have to subscribe. You can subscribe for free to have access to the Monday long essay or become a paid member of the Life is a Sacred Text House of Study community to get access to the Thursday interactive posts, text studies, Q&As, behind the scenes of my writing, and all the archives. Once you subscribe, you can scroll down to the bottom of any post on our website and sign in, then comment. If you are already signed in, you should see a way to comment easily.
Q: I want to subscribe to Life is a Sacred Text, but paying isn't on my can-do list now. What can I do?
A: Life is a Sacred Text is meant to be a space of learning for everyone! If you email noreply@lifeisasacredtext.com, we'll hook you up.
Q: I want to help the folks in the last Q!
And if you can support Life is a Sacred Text at a higher subscription level, you help to subsidize the subscriptions we give away (and we give away a lot of subscriptions). Please support this work so that we can share it with anyone who wants it. Thank you.
Q: I'm not going to subscribe at this time but I want to offer something to support this work. Can I do that? (Or: I am a subscriber, and I'd love to just kick in a little something extra!)
You sure can! I'm so grateful for your support, in whatever way is possible for you. Here's a link to a virtual tip jar:
Q: I'm not getting emails. What's the problem?
A: First, make sure you have emails turned on. Some people unsubscribe accidentally. Go to your account (click here) and click "Manage Emails":
Then make sure emails are toggled on. You want it to look like this (or, at least, the top one. You decide about the bottom):
Second, check your spam, promotions and junk folders. Search "noreply@lifeisasacredtext.com" in your inbox and make sure the emails aren't going to a separate folder. If they are, be sure to mark them as important or open and reply to an email, which will teach your inbox you like us.
If neither of these work, shoot us an email at noreply@lifeisasacredtext.com with the subject line "Subscription Issue" and we'll figure it out.
Q: I want to change my settings — change my email address, manage which emails I'm getting, update my credit card, etc. Where do I go?
A: You can manage all your settings by going to your account here: https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/#/portal/account.
Q: Is it OK if I share the post link out in the big world? Is it OK if I quote from it?
Please do share the Monday free essay links around widely!! The Thursday posts are locked for subscribers only, but if you're excited about one and want to circulate it with a suggestion that people subscribe so that they can access it, well, I wouldn't hate that. 😉
Some folks have asked if they may quote from the free Monday Life is a Sacred Text essays. You can! (Please understand that House of Study newsletters are meant for paying members only.) Please just provide 1) appropriate reference (citing author, title, site name) and 2) a link back to the source material at LifeIsASacredText.com (even if it was originally a Substack post–all archives are on this site now). Thank you!