PRIDE SHABBAT
It is apt that the last post I wrote was entitled ‘I am proud of you’. Appropriate because we have arrived to Pride Shabbat and Parshat Korach.
It is a Shabbat when Jewish community shout out loud: “we are proud of you”, “that we celebrate you”, that we are delighted that you are part of our community whether from the LGBTQ+ community, an ally or anyone else who has historically felt on the outside of Jewish community and needs welcome and celebration.
It is a Shabbat to celebrate a diverse and inclusive community in part because an aspect of Korach’s message was actually correct: ‘כׇל־הָֽעֵדָה֙ כֻּלָּ֣ם קְדֹשִׁ֔ים’, ‘all the community are holy’. The rebellious Korach stood out against the establishment and Moses’s leadership with a grievance that was in part fair. All of the community is holy, all of humanity, each person has been fashioned in the image of God and within all people is a spark of the divine, an aspect of sanctity. All human beings would do well to remember this whenever there is a moment when we speak badly about another or seek to trample on the rights, freedom and dignity of another person.
There is another part of this Parsha and the celebration of our Pride Shabbat – that is reverence for our tradition, for argument and disagreement. Korach is labelled by our rabbis as a leader who enters into the fray for his own interest and advancement not for ‘the sake of Heaven’, ‘לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם’, ‘le’shem shamayim’ [Mishnah Avot 5:17], why is this important this week? Our Masorti rabbis took part in training with Keshet UK, our very own Jewish communal LGBTQ+ educational charity, last week and a part of our conversations centred around the level of anger and tension in debates around LGBTQ+ rights at this time.
My take on this heated debate is that at some point we must check ourselves, that our lives, our work, our conversations and protests are for ‘the sake of Heaven’, ‘לְשֵׁם שָׁמַיִם’. A lofty ideal but that involves several parts, that my language is respectful and reverent to all people, especially those most vulnerable and that I do view a part of my work as unifying community not breaking it down.
Making our communities truly inclusive and safe spaces for a great range of people who want to be part of Jewish community is work in progress and no simple feat, our ambition should be simple: to welcome, celebrate and take pride in our diversity, our work is to ensure that when we get to complex questions of identity and gender that we find new and innovative way to pay reverence to the wisdom of our elders, to our tradition and still make good room for protection of those who most need our welcome and care.
Shabbat Shalom, Mazal Tov to all those celebrating Pride this Shabbat.
We are all so PROUD of you!
Shabbat shalom x
