have some cool stuff
Hey, all--
Have some recommendations of cool things, in anticipation of Shabbat.
1) Yael Kanarek has been heading a "Regendered Torah" project called Toratah for the last few years, basically translating the whole Torah (and other parts of the Hebrew Bible) in Hebrew and English while flipping the genders of all the characters involved, to wildly expand our understandings of the text, the stories, what's possible. I've been meaning to do something with it, and just haven't had a chance yet. Anyway, they just released an album of music based on some of the relevant verses:
2) Prayers for Jewish Working Girls (shoutout to @thematzohballsoup on Bluesky for making me aware of this GEM) from 1895, a collection of prayers in vernacular English by progressive Jewish activist Lilian Helen Montagu (1873-1963). For young women working in sweatshops and other exploitative conditions, mostly. Labor justice spiritual sustenence.
3) A reminder that if you like and value the work that I put out here, that subscribing, if you are able, is the best way to support it to keep going.
And if you join the House of Study, you get tools for deeper transformation and community for doing the work. This being a person in the world is hard, and being accountable for your spiritual growth, having a place to grapple with the hard questions, and space to consider your place in work for a more whole world all matter, matter critically. That's what the Thursday space is for.
4) Two Tribes is an exciting new graphic novel about a 13 year-old trying to integrate both her Jewish and Muscogee identities, "perfect for fans of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang."
5) Relinquished is an important new book on the systemic inequalities of adoption– all the more urgent now that abortion access has been taken from us. It's about the grief of the American mothers for whom the choice to parent was never real. For, as much as adoption has seemed like a "reasonable compromise" in a lot of conversations about abortion justice in the public square, that's because there has been almost no focus on the lives, needs, and impact of mothers who relinquish infants for private adoption. It's a difficult but critical book:
6) Otyken is an indigenous folk-rock-pop band from Siberia, and they just kind of slay. Their music is fun, their lyrics are great, and they just seem delightful and badass (I'm sorry, that stringed instrument from the animal skull??) I've been following them on IG for a while and enjoy them. This is their most recent:
7)
That's it. Shabbat Shalom.
And really: Please subscribe if you're and able to, and not doing so already.
It makes a difference.
