Nonbinary. There are many ignorant people who would claim that this is a new concept, and perhaps even a “trend,” instead of a valid identity. But somehow that presumption doesn’t line up with the fact that the world’s oldest monotheistic god was nonbinary: the Jewish God.
When I learned this, at first I was really surprised, because I thought the Christian God was derived from the Jewish God, and every Christian person I’d met seemed pretty insistent that God was a He. However, perhaps They were never a He. And for the record, Adam might not have been, either.
When one looks closely at the Torah, which is the religious book of Judaism, one notices that God is given both male and female attributes, such being like a male warrior, then They are like a woman in labor. Not only that, a closer reading of the story of creation implies that Adam was first created to be like God, meaning that they were both male and female. It seems to me that a lot of “religious” claims are geared around the society that practices it, and what that society values. In our case, that is heterosexual white male domination. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Did you know that about Judaism? As previously stated, I did not either, because the main religion that I have ever been exposed to is Christianity. I’m not denying that Christianity has plenty of merit, but I’m just saying, my ideal world would be where all were educated on the beauties of several different world views and where we all celebrated them. But the white Christian culture often screams over and drowns out everything else in America.
It should also be noted that I myself am not Jewish. This is written from an outsider’s perspective who wanted to do some research, educate herself, and support a friend who is Jewish. If you want to truly understand Judaism, then like with anything else, you should go directly to the source: a Jewish person.
But anyway, it is not a surprise that Jewish people are challenging gender norms, as they challenge a simple label themselves. They are not simply a race, culture, religion, or nation. It is said that they really can only be properly described as a family.
But here are some basic tenets of the Jewish faith. Basically, the Jewish religion is wrapped around believing in the one God that the Torah speaks about, and having a relationship with Them. They believe that Moses, who led the Jewish people out of enslavement in Egypt, was the greatest prophet, and that there will one day be a Messiah that restores the world to what many people would call “heaven”.
For the longest time, I thought Judaism was like “half of Christianity”: everything except Jesus or some nonsense like that. But it turns out Christians have interpreted the Bible in a vastly different way than Jews have, in a way that serves to prove that Jesus was the Messiah (and traditionally in a way that upholds the patriarchy). For instance, in Judaism, God is an eternal spirit that actually has no physical resemblance to humans, especially not white male humans. When it was said that God created us in Their image and likeness, it meant that like God, human beings could be rational and rise above feelings and animalistic instincts, just like God can be rational without being corporeal. Also, Jews seem to understand the concept that dividing people into “good” people and “bad” people is inherently too simplistic, and perhaps even dividing up our nature into a “good” side and a “bad” side doesn’t work either. Their philosophy is that one side of you, deemed yetzer tov, is like your conscience, and it could be argued that that is the “good” side of you, but what is really fascinating is the yetzer ra side. It is simply the selfish side of you, that wants to preserve your own needs. This side isn’t inherently bad, because it allows you to take care of yourself and achieve your own goals, but it is the part of you that can lead to do immoral things without the yetzer tov part of you, because you put your own desires above someone else. I found this significant, because instead of just labeling a person or something as “bad”, it gets at the root cause of why people do things that are wrong. Finally, Jews believe that the Messiah was not Jesus, and that the Messiah will be a military leader that restores the world to a righteous, just place not someone who resolves all your sins by dying on a cross. In fact, there have been several people who have claimed to be the Messiah, and the Jews of today believe that no one has actually met such criteria.
Like any other religion, Judaism has holidays that unfortunately many people don’t know about. For the longest time, I was just trying to pronounce Rosh Hashanah, and I had no idea what it was. It is the beginning of the new Jewish calendar year, where ram’s horns are blown (like in the Torah), honey apples are eaten (wishing you a sweet New Year’s), and pieces of bread are cast in water as a symbol for getting rid of one’s sins. One thing to note about the “Jewish New Year” is that there are several new years, according to the ancient traditions of the Jewish people: a new year for Jewish royalty in the scriptures, a new year for when people can first eat fruit off of trees, etc (which is known as Tu B’Shevet). The Month of Tishrei is the first month of the Jewish New Year, and the Month of Selichot and Elul is the month before this new year. Of course, in the month before the new year, one spends time reflecting on the year past, and since it is also known as the Month of forgiveness, it is also about something just as important: forgiving yourself for your mistakes and moving on with your life. The month of is seen as a time of a renewal of strength, looking inside oneself to prepare for the new year. And to top off this celebration of the new, Rosh Chodesh is a celebration of a new month in the Jewish calendar. And wouldn’t you know, this ancient religion has used this holiday as a day to commemorate women. They knew that women had their monthlies, and instead of shaming them for it or making them feel as though they could not talk about it, they used it as an excuse to celebrate women!
Also, Yom Kippur is known as “the Day of Atonement”, a day of fasting, prayer, and chastity. It is a day of asking for God’s forgiveness through a day of self denial. Sukkot is a celebration of the harvest in the fall, and Shavuot is a celebration of the harvest in the Spring. It is a way of thanking God for the way that They have provided for Them. Passover is a holiday that celebrates the story in the Torah where God rewarded those who believed in Them. Purim is a particularly interesting holiday because not a lot of people know about it, but if you ask me, everybody should celebrate it, because it is about a Jewish woman who had to be a part of a king’s harem, but spoke up for her people (which carried the risk of death) and ended up saving them from a man who wanted to massacre them all. That’s right, the oldest monotheistic religion was recognizing a woman who was meant only to be a sex slave, but ended up saving her entire nation just by her influence.
Everyone has heard about Hannakkah, but of course it is mostly overshadowed by Christmas. Which is ironic, as it is a holiday that is about Jewish people fighting for their autonomy and rights against a dictator who wanted to abolish them and their religion. He was known as Antiochus IV, and was a successor of Alexander the Great. During this time, a miracle happened: oil that was only fit for lighting a menorah in the Temple for one night ended up lighting it eight nights, and that is why we have the 8 day celebration of Hannakah, the menorah, and fried foods (for the oil). Also during the time this holiday commemorates, it is said that Jewish men would disguise their studying of the Torah with a gambling game whenever someone was looking is why dreidel is played. This holiday has nothing to do with Christmas, and is most certainly not the Jewish form of Christmas. Thinking about it that way disrespects what the holiday is supposed to represent.
The Jewish people also literally have a holiday that recognizes the destruction of their religion, called Tisha B’av. It was when the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, which I’m sure is just as tragic to the Jewish people as having buildings that symbolize our nation destroyed. Jewish people remind themselves of this day by fasting, reading stories of this in the Torah, eating bread with a hard-boiled egg covered in ashes, and going to synagogue. This day should be a sobering reminder to non-Jews of just how much Jews have had to struggle throughout history.
With that in mind, it is incredibly important for all of us to recognize the erasure of Jews in our culture, and see that our culture treats them as though the only time it is appropriate for us to be educated about them is when they were the victims of one of the most egregious times in history (the Holocaust). Thus, they are painted in our minds as only the poor victims, which erases who they were as a people and their rich and fascinating culture. What’s even more important is to learn directly from Jewish people themselves and treat articles like mine as only a secondhand source. But the most important thing you can do is learn about their culture yourself from your own research. Instead of having to educate you, I think that is what anyone from any minority group would appreciate most.