‘Overawed by the Marvel’ of Trans
A new miniprayerbook
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s well-known book The Sabbath was published in 1951. He describes Judaism as emphasizing the sanctity of events rather than that of physical objects, as well as tending to believe that things become holy when we choose to consecrate them.
Growing up, my rabbi taught us Heschel (who died before I was born). My rabbi has since described Heschel’s book, which was popular in its time, as “easily the primary text for all subsequent American Jewish Spirituality.” By the way, when my rabbi heard I was transitioning as a 17-year-old in 1997, he said “congratulations” to me, and today I say “congratulations” to everyone too. Good morning, whoever you are. Good evening. Good trans tidings to you. Congratulations.
The Sabbath isn’t yet public domain, but it’s my domain. When we sanctify something, it changes. I think Heschel would understand and would like to continue to live and change and cast and reflect light.
For Pride Month, I’ve taken some sentences from the book and replaced every instance of:
- “space,” “things of/in space,” “world of space,” or “spatial” with BODY
- “time,” “things of/in time,” or “day” with TRANS
- “Sabbath,” “seventh day,” “Day of Days” with QUEEN TRANS
