Radical Cleric? More Like the Mild Mannered Squaresville Rabbi

OK, so here's the test of whether I'm 'Radical', 'Liberal', or merely 'slightly more open minded than Chief Justice Roberts'.



The Reform Movement has just created a new handbook meant to help affirm Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and trans-gendered individuals with new rituals and blessings. No big deal right?

Well, they apparently included three blessings for your sex-change operation. I couldn't feel more conflicted.

I've felt for a long while that the final frontier of Civil Rights in America is in full inclusion and embracing of Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals into Judaism: sanctioning and officiating homosexual marriages, standing up for partner benefits and affirming the right for Gays and Lesbians to adopt children. I'm proud to say I'm attending my first Gay wedding this weekend. (Shoot, I need to buy a gift and my Visa's maxxed. Anyone want to help keep this blog going by contributing, I dunno, a set of Nambe salad bowls?)

And I recognize that trans-gendered and trans-sexual individuals endure a lot of ridicule, scorn and hatred for being who they are. I can honestly see how painful it might be for somebody to feel that their self-image and identification may be as a woman even though they have a man's body.

And I get that people need their lives and their sacred moments affirmed by Jewish rituals, even new rituals.

But I'm sorry, I just can't go there to that blessing the sex-change place. Let me off the bus, this is where I gotta bail. I don't know what the blessing is that the rabbis came up with(She' lo asani isha might be close), but I just can't see it. It's a major life change, but one completely unfathomable to the rabbis and the tradition. Yes, there were dual-gendered and non-gendered individuals mentioned by the rabbis in the Talmud (androgynus and tumtum, respectively), but nobody surgically changed their sex back then.

I mean, if I were to make up a trans-surgery blessing, it would be uber-tortured and angst-ridden as all hell... something like: 'Blessed are you, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who made me as a man, physically, but then gave me a profound love of makeup and Manolo Blahniks and lots of other stuff that made me depressed and confused, often suicidal, to the point that I paid a doctor a ton of dough to cut off my wang and fashion for me a pseudo-punany, but hey, I'm not bitter, and I'm totally cool with You. Amen.'

I mean, what are other alternatives to a wacky new blessing? Do you go to the Mikvah to symbolize rebirth? If so, do you go before the surgery (like a bride before a wedding) or after (like a convert who's passed Beit Din)? And then, what do you tell the Mikvah lady? For a female-to-male operation, couldn't you just have a Bris? Or are you like, created circumcised (which the rabbis also discuss even though they state that such a thing never happened)?

I fully agree with the right for individuals to have sex changes if they feel it's right for them. I agree with treating trans-gendered individuals with respect, as complete and total equals, just like any other person in society. It's the blessing or ritual-making over the surgery I feel weird about.

On the one hand, I'm at a loss for how to proceed. On the other hand, this is pretty new territory, which needs an enterprising rabbi to investigate its Halachic matters; I see a job opportunity. Post a reply if you're interested in being 'Chief Posek on Halachic Sex Changes'. I think I'm probably too square for the gig.

Hey, my apologies. Maybe I blew it as 'Radical Cleric' and don't live up to the hype. Also, I'm sorry for not giving an impassioned defense of the practice or a complete tirade against it. I know blogs are supposed to be laced with inflammatory vitriol. I think it might be kind of radical to be conflicted in a blog, no?