In Parshat Lech Lecha (Gn. 12:1-17:27), God and Abram enter into a covenant (brit); through this covenant, Abram becomes Abraham and receives many blessings and responsibilities. As people in queer relationships and community, what covenant do we create and uphold? What are our blessings to each other, and how do they shape who we become?
Blessing for Torah Study
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu la'asok b’divrei Torah. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who hallows us with mitzvot, charging us to engage with words of Torah.
Beginning with Our Own Torah
1) Imagine a moment when you felt part of a group as your full self. What qualities of the group helped you to feel in community with them? In what ways could it have shaped you?
2) What is a covenant? What might it mean in the context of queerness?
(1) When Abram was ninety-nine years old, ה׳ appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai.Walk in My ways and be blameless. (2) I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will make you exceedingly numerous.” (3) Abram threw himself on his face; and God spoke to him further, (4) “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You shall be the father of a multitude of nations. (5) And you shall no longer be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations. (6) I will make you exceedingly fertile, and make nations of you; and kings shall come forth from you. (7) I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come. (8) I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God.” (9) God further said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant. (10) Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. (11) You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. (12) And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the homeborn slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring, (13) they must be circumcised, homeborn and purchased alike. Thus shall My covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact. (14) And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from kin; he has broken My covenant.” (15) And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah. (16) I will bless her; indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she shall give rise to nations; rulers of peoples shall issue from her.”
and that, the covenant of circumcision, was given with thirteen covenants, as the word brit, covenant, appears thirteen times in the portion dealing with the circumcision of Abraham (Genesis 17:1–14).
"'Peoplehood' Reconsidered" by Rabbi Toba Spitzer, Reconstructing Judaism (2016)
We can think of covenant as a structure—a social structure, a structure made of practices, both ritual and ethical, a structure made up of moral norms and obligations. It is through this structure that the Power of Godliness becomes manifest in the world.... The traditional notion of covenant challenges us to experience a sense of obligation as a collective—we have mutual obligations with all those with whom we are in covenantal relationship. We experience this in our congregations as obligations of hesed—of caring for one another, of welcoming new members. We also experience covenantal commitment in taking seriously that which is at the center of our communities: our mission and vision, our commitments to Jewish learning, to social action, to acting on our values both internally and in the broader society. We experience “belonging” ideally not as a value in and of itself, but as the framework within which we carry out the sacred work of fulfilling our brit with one another and with God....
Covenant is meaningless if it does not involve real obligations and standards with which we can hold ourselves accountable...[A] shift in emphasis to covenantal commitment makes clear that inclusion in the community is meaningful only to the extent that we are a collective that shares values and vision and goals. We certainly want to be as welcoming as possible—but at the same time we can never forget that our communities exist for the sake of something Else, something higher, something Godly, and that we fail in that goal if we focus too much on making everyone comfortable, and not enough on remembering why we’re together in the first place.
"Blessing of Gratitude for Queer Ancestors & Community" by Katie Kelly-Hankin (she/her), Sarah Grumet (she/they), and Reed Kolber (they/them), Ritualwell
This is a blessing of gratitude to our queer ancestors, all those who came before us, swirling back in time through the generations. They faced challenges with love and fierceness, living their truths as best they could in a world that didn’t make space for them. Each step they walked cleared the path for us.
This is a blessing of gratitude for our queer elders, who taught us how to love openly and unapologetically. They have celebrated and supported us in our growth, and shown us by their lived examples that there is more than one way to be a family.
This is a blessing of gratitude for our queer friends, siblings, and cousins who tell us every day, “we see you, you are visible, you are worthy.” They remind us that we must continue to walk hand in hand, heart to heart, toward greater liberation.
This is a blessing of gratitude for the queer young folks coming up after us. We stand, with full hearts, in awe of them as they continue to remake the world into a kinder place: one where everyone is included, everyone is valued, and everyone is free to be themselves.
(1) ה׳ said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. (2) I will make of you a great nation,
And I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
And you shall be a blessing.
(3) I will bless those who bless you
And curse the one who curses you;
And all the families of the earth
Shall bless themselves by you.” (4) Abram went forth as ה׳ had commanded him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Ending with Our Own Torah
1) Return to the moment when you felt part of a group as your full self. What blessings do you want to share with that group?
2) What covenant do you want to create and uphold in queer community? How can it shape you?