Quick recap of Sodom: Story appears both in Muslem tradition and in the Hebrew Bible. Catch up on your Sodom facts on Wikapedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah

Its been understood traditionally as God destroying a city of (you guessed it), folks engaging in SODOMY, because boy on boy action is such a terrible terrible sin! Even though you ask me, its is clear from the Hebrew Bible, that whats going on in Sodom is not alternative family structures and loving relationships (did that exist anywhere in the ancient world ???) but specific kind of prohibited rape.

Lot has a bunch of angels over for dinner, and the people of the city come to Lot’s door and say, “where [are] the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.” (Gen 19:5).

They ask, the for the angels, so they can gang- bang them, and Lot our good man, who God saves from the fire and brimstone, replies, “I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as [is] good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof Gen 19: 8).” Aka, don’t take the dudes, instead rape my daughters. In other words, its ok to penetrate women against their will, because, hell they are property anyway, but do that to dudes and your fry. This seems to be the moral of Sodom. (Look you got to start somewhere, they started with banning boy-boy rape)

Oh, and the best part, is that the area of Sodom and bunch of other “bad” cities would become uninhabitable desert for all time – hence the dead sea as Sodom fits the bill just right.

So, how about it – lets have the pride parade in Sodom next year – transform the history of the dead, salty earth into one of human love and egalitarian co-existence, no matter who is doing the penetrating (as long as its consenting adults). It is time to take back Sodom for several reasons, the best three I could think of are below. Post your reasons in comments.

Tommorow, I’m leaving Israel – and my last words from the holy land are indeed – “Take back Sodom” A fitting last thought to a rather strange and random summer.

1. God doesn’t get to just destroy cities – its time someone sent The Word up there. \

2. It could a beautiful location for a night rave in the desert.

3. Somewhere overtime, what seams like the literal meaning of the Hebrew bible got interpreted away – even back then the story was about the ethics of consent vs. no consent sex , versus who was doing the fucking. Thus, would it not be perfect restoration of damaged earth to make Sodom a celebration/location of consensual sexuality in all its many forms.

There is very little out there for modern orthodox folks who are no longer buying it.  The Ultra-orthodox apostates can turn to organizations such as Footsteps in the states. The organization guides people who seek it out towards basic skill training, GEDs, and other survival tools. (Unchosen by Hella Winston tells you all about this organization). I hear that Israel also has a simular NGO, but I could not locate its website, if you know about it please write in.

In either case the modern orthodox don’t need GEDs – they have  higher education from top universities, what they need (that the ultra-orthodox might need as well) are people to talk to about their spiritual life.  Unraveling a system of meaning is terrifying when you see no other system to replace it – no other will of God, besides the normative orthodox observance. After all, that is the party-line in mainstream orthodoxy – they, apparently, hold a monopoly on the will of God.

Thus many who leave, continue to believe that Orthodoxy is essentially – Judaism/truth/Divinity and they simply do not like it, and thus leaving symbolizes rejecting Judaism/truth/divinity.

There needs to be a place to go for conversation on this issue – a place where the Will of God is understood in contingent and multiplicities ways. Where the ethical problems in Orthodoxy can be discussed – Where can you go to ask a question and receive an intellectually honest answer that takes into account multiple currents in Judaism (halachic and non-halachic) alongside world thought at large. For example, at least for me this question was very important “Why would God make me a woman, if I feel most comfortable in male roles?”  As a very young woman, I loved the apologetic about the specialness of woman’s primary roles as private and domestic. At 22, I understood the injustice of circumscribed lives. (I also understand that many people who are just and wonderful and thoughtful continue to find meaning in Orthodox.) There are hundreds of similar questions that challenge the ethics of a system where your birth determines what you can and cannot do.

The one thing I wanted to find on the web and could not is the following message. People do not leave Orthodoxy because it is to hard, they leave because they are seeking the Will of God. At least I am.   If you are interested in discussing these questions from any end of the spectrum. Please post, I cannot wait to here form people who might know of some outlets for this conversation.

Nishmat took all the students for Friday night to what is known as a fairly picturesque and hippie-filled Jerusalem neighborhood, Nahloat.  The group went to what is supposed to be a famous area minyan – Kol Rina.  And thus, I went through the alleys and down to the basement, to Kol Rina and found my spot behind the great wall of separation, behind the man’s section.  This of course is the most offensive machitza ever – the women are not equal but separate, but actually behind the men, behind a wall, that thank god had curtains about four feet of the ground that could be moved away for the Dvar Torah (rabbinic homily).

This week, I decided to listen to the Dvar Torah – it must have been divine providence, because the Dvar torah was simultaneously the most honest, and most offensively hideous thing I ever heard within Orthodox Judaism – this guy, whose name I never found out, actually had the gull to say it like it is, and thus I know have language for saying Good-bye to Orthodoxy. Thank you random Dvar Torah Man.

This man, brought up a feminist classic:  Daughters of Zelophehad. In brief, its an account of women who ask Moses to alter the existing law, because it screws over their right to inherit their father’s land, and when Moses goes to God with the problem, God declares these women to be correct and changes the law to accommodate them   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelophehad).  This Kol Rina man went one to say that he understands that the women in today’s Judaism are also dealing with a great injustice. However, currently we do not have a way to communicate with God, the way they had back in the time of Moses, thus the women should just suck it up till messianic redemption.  When we are redeemed the women will bring their injustice before God, who will fix it the way he sees fit.  

Now, I have clarity, and clarity is a powerful thing – the core problem within Orthodox Judaism is the perpetuation of injustice, for fear of rocking the boat. (0nce upon a time they used to say that we cannot set up a Jewish state till Messiah comes, but for better of worse, someone had the balls to change that) Theologically, today’s rabbi’s  have no balls for fear of doing the wrong thing. Thus they willfully freeze the system; and this is inherently injust.  How can one simultaneously acknowledge human pain, and tell those in pain to wait…and wait…and wait, because those who can end the pain have no fait?  Yes, I say faith, because to combat injustice is an act of faith – in a good God, who created good humans, who will make justice manifest.  On the other hand, those who lack faith, fear for “Jewish continuity.” Their primary experience is fear:  of change, of modernity, of feminism, of evolution, of God.  Fear is the lack of faith, the lack of hope.

Continuity cannot be a separate goal; the goal must be to have something great, something that is striving to continue. For instance intermarriage is not a problem but a symptom of a problem….more to come.

1. I can write about articles I’ve read.

2. Stuff I’ve experienced.

3. Stuff I generally thing about all the time.

 For today, I’m going to stick to experience, since this is supposed to be a record of this season’s adventure, and thus I will continue rambling on about the settlers, and I a new topic – Christians.  After Shabbat with hard core settlers ( I mean actual territory-occupying-God-gave-us-the-land-and-it-is-a- sin-to-give-it-back settlers),  I headed on a tour of the  Church of holy Sepulchre build on the spot where it is said that Jesus was crucified and resurrected.  Only ten people at a time can enter the holiest place within the church – his “tomb,”and thus the line is intense, and people are pushy as hell. Being the good liberal that I am, I tried to understand the narrative of the other – pushing me to get to Jesus. People have been waiting decades to touch these stones that are standing in the place where their God once stood.

People are in trances, crying, kneeling,  crawling on their knees to the holiest places, while the majority of the people on the Russian Language tour (don’t ask  why i picked it,  I didn’t really, my cousins did and its half the price of other tours) are photographing, and even I couldn’t resist, and photographed a two monks praying in the spot of the last supper.

Overall, I understand intellectually that Jerusalem has been a holy spot long before Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Our temples where build on the ruins of others.  This land has been continually holy for thousands of years - it is an inherited holiness.  I just cannot get over the “ruins of others” part.

I experience it a bit like the way some people experience Modern Art. You know others appreciate it, and thus you go and pretend to appreciate it as well.  In Jerusalem I’m always a tourist, watching others pray, even as I pray. This is not to say that I don’t have moments of holiness – inspiration and such.  Yet those moment seem a  world away from a city that really should not belong to anyone, a city that breeds little intellectual or spiritual innovation because its members are worshiping the ancient, raising it on a pedestal above the current (for the most part).  

I cannot look beyond the politics of the Jerusalem, after all it is not a found city, it is not Tel Aviv, a place that was swamps until Jews drained those swamps and planted trees. Jerusalem already existed (before 1948) as a hyper-holy city, hell it already existed before Christ and before the Torah as a holy city.  It is true that under Jewish control, Jewish and Christians and Muslims can got to to the holy places, while under Muslim control that was not possible. I’m not blind to history; however, I also know that this holy city brings self-riotousness and violence into the world. The holy city is made political in absolute terms by becoming the capital of a modern state – the place of its courts and its Parliament instead of prayer of all traditions. The politics is not only interfaith.  Women cannot pray in minyan at the kotel because the Kotel belongs to israel, and in israel the ruling religion does not let women gather and pray.

 This actual and rhetorical  violence came to the forefront when I witness the swearing in ceremony of Israeli solders at the Kotel, I did not understand the speeches, all except for a single reference to the Book of Yehusha – the first of the books of the Prophets. In this book God commanded the Jews to  destroy or conqure the seven nations of Canaan. God gave the Jews a land already occupied by civilizations upon civilizations. Our Mount Zion, the location of our destroyed temples is also the location of the temple we destroyed.

In the Torah, God commands the following:

 ”Say to the people of Israel, When you pass over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their figured stones, and destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places; and you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it” (Numbers 33: 50-53).

This was the ethic of the Bible -  and this continues to be the spirit of the ethic today, even if its translated into modern terms (The UN give it to us, the world sanctioned our presence,  instead of God gave it to us. We observe more human rights, we are democratic, instead of we are righteous and we are chosen. They are terrorists, instead of the they are pagans).  Ownership is no an unalienable absolute, and certainly not a catch all response. Thus, the politics of holiness do not impress me. 

 I find my holiness else where. If Torah in the code by which we should live our life – then I cannot say “Torah Tzia Tzion” (Torah goes out from Zion).  In many ways, despite it own troubles (they are huge and numerous) Torah Tzia Modernity, and Post-Modernity and even perhaps (I say it with my caution)Torah goes from from the emorphes concept that is the “west”. Just as in the time of the Talmud Torah Tzia Babylon- the authoritative Talmud, we study today.