The rabbis teach: Al tifrosh min hatzibur — "Do not separate yourself from the community." (Pirkei Avot 2:4)
This text is often used as a command to individuals: stay engaged, show up, don't withdraw. But perhaps it is also a challenge to communities themselves: let us not create conditions that make belonging feel impossible for our people.
That teaching feels especially relevant during Pride Month. And it brings me to this week's parashah: Parashat Beha’alotcha. Before the Levites begin their sacred service, the Israelites gather around them and place their hands upon them, as it says: "The Israelites shall lay their hands upon the Levites." (Num 8:10)
Rabbis Avraham Ibn Ezra of 12th century Muslim Spain and Moshe ben Naimon (the Ramban) explained this verse respectively that this was the Israelites way of making the Levites their agents, or representatives, and that the people were designating the Levites to serve on their behalf.
Both understand the Levites' service to begin with an act of communal recognition. The community says, in effect: We trust you to bring your gifts to this sacred work on our behalf.
As we celebrate Pride Month, I think there is something powerful in that image. Pride is certainly about dignity and safety, but it is also about showing up fully—with our bodies, our loves, our histories, our questions, our joy, and our Torah. Not leaving parts of ourselves outside the sanctuary door.
The Levites are not asked to become someone else before they can serve. The people are asked to recognize who they already are.
Perhaps that is one way of understanding the teaching, "Do not separate yourself from the community." The work of community is not only showing up. It is creating communities where people can show up fully.
And maybe this is one of the gifts that queer life and queer Torah have offered the Jewish world: a reminder that holiness is not found in shrinking ourselves to fit inherited expectations, but in bringing more of ourselves into relationship—with one another, with tradition, and with the divine.
May we continue to build communities and a Judaism spacious enough for the fullness of who we are, and may the Torah that emerges from that fullness continue to bless us all.
Happy Pride Month and Shabbat Shalom, 🌈 ✡️
R’ David
This text is often used as a command to individuals: stay engaged, show up, don't withdraw. But perhaps it is also a challenge to communities themselves: let us not create conditions that make belonging feel impossible for our people.
That teaching feels especially relevant during Pride Month. And it brings me to this week's parashah: Parashat Beha’alotcha. Before the Levites begin their sacred service, the Israelites gather around them and place their hands upon them, as it says: "The Israelites shall lay their hands upon the Levites." (Num 8:10)
Rabbis Avraham Ibn Ezra of 12th century Muslim Spain and Moshe ben Naimon (the Ramban) explained this verse respectively that this was the Israelites way of making the Levites their agents, or representatives, and that the people were designating the Levites to serve on their behalf.
Both understand the Levites' service to begin with an act of communal recognition. The community says, in effect: We trust you to bring your gifts to this sacred work on our behalf.
As we celebrate Pride Month, I think there is something powerful in that image. Pride is certainly about dignity and safety, but it is also about showing up fully—with our bodies, our loves, our histories, our questions, our joy, and our Torah. Not leaving parts of ourselves outside the sanctuary door.
The Levites are not asked to become someone else before they can serve. The people are asked to recognize who they already are.
Perhaps that is one way of understanding the teaching, "Do not separate yourself from the community." The work of community is not only showing up. It is creating communities where people can show up fully.
And maybe this is one of the gifts that queer life and queer Torah have offered the Jewish world: a reminder that holiness is not found in shrinking ourselves to fit inherited expectations, but in bringing more of ourselves into relationship—with one another, with tradition, and with the divine.
May we continue to build communities and a Judaism spacious enough for the fullness of who we are, and may the Torah that emerges from that fullness continue to bless us all.
Happy Pride Month and Shabbat Shalom, 🌈 ✡️
R’ David
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