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What Does the Torah Really Say about Cross-Dressing?
Sep 9, 2022 By Joy Ladin | Commentary | Ki Tetzei
Every year, Ki Tetzei returns us to the only verse of the Torah that seems to speak about transgender and nonbinary people, particularly about those like me who used to be known as “transsexuals,” people born physically male or female who identify so strongly with the opposite gender that we can only live authentically as that gender: A woman must not put on man’s apparel, nor shall a man wear woman’s clothing; for whoever does these things is abhorrent to your God. (Num. 22:5)
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The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective
Nov 20, 2018 By Joy Ladin | Public Event audio
Reading some of the best-known Torah stories through the lens of transgender experience, Joy Ladin explores fundamental questions about how religious texts, traditions, and the understanding of God can be enriched by transgender perspectives, and how the Torah and trans lives can illuminate one another.
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Gender Inside and Outside the Camp
Apr 28, 2017 By Joy Ladin | Commentary | Metzora | Tazria
The idea that others would examine and report on intimate details of our bodies—that such things would be of communal concern, and subject us to institutional regulation—may seem archaic. But as transgender people know, when it comes to gender, this kind of surveillance is alive and well.
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Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders
Mar 5, 2013 By Joy Ladin | Public Event audio
Dr. Joy Ladin, David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English, Stern College for Women – Yeshiva University, discusses her work Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey Between Genders.
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