The Drag Shabbat Jewish Therapy for Non-Jews and their Friends

Rabbinical, traditional Judaism, like all the great Monotheisms, is deeply patriarchal. It forbids men to wear dresses and women to wear kippas. And yet, within, the Jewish man is often contaminating virility. The feminized Jew, the effeminate Jew, as a pathological product of the diaspora. Hysterical, prone to nervousness, slimy, disgusting, a deficit masculinity. Why are we doing this? The rule in the Torah (Deut. 22:5) is that men must not wear womens garments and vice-versa. However, Moses Isserles in the ShulchanAruch (OrachChayyim 696:8) says it is permitted on Purim since the intention is purely for fun. Hence when there is no evidence of any immoral purpose, as in a pantomime, and everyone is well aware that the principal boy is a girl and the dame is a man and the cross-dressing is purely for fun, there does not seem to be a problem. "...and on the seventh day God rested" The Sabbath is a weekly ritual conducted in millions of Jewish House holds each Freida evening to usher in the commanded day of rest. The sabbath is a time when Jews gather with their loves ones, to rest, celebrate the weeks achievements and take time for spiritual reflection. The Ritual, like many aspects of the Jewish faith, is highly divided in to gender specific roles. It opens with the "woman" of the house lighting candles, followed by the "man" of the House leading the prayers over Bread and Wine. The Shabbath it's self is personified at "The Sabbath Queen", depicted as a beautiful bride, who brings peace and beauty to all those who experience her. At our drag shabbat we invite you to enter the spirit of an Xplore Shabbat free of gendered barriers. light the candles as a man. Chant the traditional blessings a husband would use to exhort his wife to your lesbian lover. Please come dressed to impress, in Drag or just in something that makes you feel beautiful and special. It's about open and exclusive. Opening your house, your doors, It's about ritual, ritual. space to rest and to come together. It's ritualized, and exclusive. Repetition. It's more precise, there's nothing that happens wthout a reason. Let into a secret. Fascination for the shabbat situation, touches the unconscious, being excluded, being part of it, triggers race issue, Dress as your favourite over-Jewish character, long fake fingernails, cheap jewelry, cheap too sweet wine with plastic cups, Challah, have strong opinions, have a fight, allow yourself to be too much, be inappropriate in a Jewish way. Famous examples include Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Woody Allen, Karl Marx, George Castanza, Mother and Father Castanza, a Chassidic or dancing Jew, an ultra-intellectual sadistic or masochistic Jew, a doctor or lawyer, psycho-analyst, philosopher even and/or

lesbian feminista Marrano Jew, a Christian-Jew, a Muslin-Jew, a half-Jew, a nonJew. Franz Kafka. AvitalRonell. Ludwig Wittgenstein. Martin Heidegger. Why not? Come on get triggered! You dont have to be Jewish. Be ambivalent and fascinated, belonging and not belonging.

Everyone was an over-Jewish character, long fake finger nails, cheap jew-rey, no taste in dressing, indulge your anti-semetic stereotypes, cheap too sweat wine with plastic cups, challah, Jewish people have a temper, have strong opinions, have a fight, they were too much, be too much, be inappropriate, in Jewish way, Famous exemples, Woody Allen, Act out a certain Jewishness. Why people do this? They want to reaffirm their identity in a way that fees right to them. Religion survives atheism, it survives homosexuality. Something in Judaism resists. It want people to feel that it is beautiful. I dont want people to sweat too much. The leather seder, Something in me pushes me to add these religious things into my play. The burka bondage, the Christianity, the crosses, etc., what is it that pushes us to do this, that you are reaffirming religion also by desecrating it. But when Jews do it, it is different, there is more love of the religion. It doesnt seek to convert anyone. I am Jewish without being Jewish. I am authorized without being authorized. I could convert to the Rabinical authorities. But I thought, no, no, no, it is more interesting and powerful to hold this place, this non-place. Estrangement at once from the nonJewish community and the Jewish community. What relationship does it have to my sex life? Jewish masculinity which, on the one hand, is non-virile, but on the other hand is ultra-virile. It doesnt present itself in an obvious way as being virile.