Volume 26 Issue 5 03 Mar 2017 5 Adar 5777

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Joyless or joyful living

Two weeks ago, our school community gathered to dedicate our new Aron, our new Ark. On the doors of the Aron, appear the words אני תפילתי- I am my prayer. Our High School students, Ethan and Sienna shared their reflections on these words from Psalms. They both emphasised that to be one’s prayer is to challenge oneself to go beyond prayerful words that reflect one’s hopes and aspirations and strive to make one’s prayer a reality, to live one’s prayer. 

This is not easy to do.

I would like to introduce you to J Ladin. J representing the initial letter of this individual’s first name.

J had a difficult decision, the most difficult in J’s life, in terms of being one’s prayer. J went to a Jewish Day School (not Emanuel School). In fact, J was an English teacher in the school. J is Jewish.

During prayer time, this school had separate services for males and females. J was included on the male side. When all the men were chanting out loud the prayer thanking God for making them male, J would join them with his voice, but in her heart she was whispering the prayer for being a woman.

For years, J was experiencing great turmoil; hiding who she truly was, she was not being her prayer which she dare only whisper.

J took leave from school. During this time J underwent SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery, also called Gender Confirmation Surgery). Having left the school as J (JAY) Ladin, she now returned as Joy Ladin. In her Jewish school she was now proudly declaring אני תפילתי- I am my prayer. The school believed otherwise and dismissed Joy for no longer being Jay, declaring her actions “immoral”, “horrifying” and “against Jewish tradition”.

This week, in Parashat Terumah, we read about the making of the Aron, the first Ark.

The Aron is described as being of gold, inside and out, leading our Jewish tradition to declare that every person should strive to be the same on the outside as he/she is on the inside.

In dismissing Joy, the school lost a teacher who had the courage to be one’s prayer, an individual whose outer being was true to her inner self. The school lost a living Aron.

This Sunday past was Rosh Chodesh Adar, which we celebrated with Crazy Hat Day on Friday. Adar is the month of Purim, in which we celebrate our singularity and our acceptance of the unique being of each individual. To be a Yehudi, a Jew, is to be a Yechidi, an individual. This week’s Parashah describing the making of the Aron, along with this month’s celebration of Purim, remind us that being one’s prayer through authentic living is an expression of our Jewish tradition to which we are all challenged to aspire.

מי שנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה

When Adar enters, one increases in joyousness.