Hello and happy Pride month! This is two-minute Torah! My name is Mat Wilson and I’m the rabbinic intern at Drexel Hillel and a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
This year for Pride I’ve been reflecting on the role of community in feelings of Pride and acceptance. When I first came out as transgender, many of the people in my life were not accepting, and it took me a while to find my community. There’s a story in Torah that always feels relatable to my early experiences as a queer and trans person, and I want to share it with you today.
Our ancestor Joseph, read by some as a queer ancestor, experiences dreams throughout his life. Rabbi Haviva Ner-David says that dreams are “a Divine message told in the unique language of our unique souls”. Dreams are a deeply personal part of lived experience.
So, Joseph is having these dreams, he’s seeing incredible things, and he wants to share them with his family. Instead of responding with curiosity or excitement his brothers come to hate him and even his father, who loves him above the rest of his siblings, berates him for it. Almost certainly not the response Joseph was expecting.
Fortunately, Joseph doesn’t silence himself, and after enduring additional difficult situations with his family, we later see him experiencing the joy and acceptance that comes from sharing his dreams within a community that truly valued what he had to share.
This Pride month, may we be blessed to know the value of our unique souls, and may we be blessed to be with people who recognize that value, as well. Let us trust that our people are out there, even if we haven’t found them yet. And may we proudly celebrate exactly who we are.
Happy Pride!