WORDS CAN KILL- "Jewish and Transgender: Follow the Words of Hillel" by Leora Tanenbaum

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/02/25/jewish-and-transgender-follow-hillel_n_1280589.html


How dare anyone ever judge someone that is Transgender. If people did research or spoke to one going through it, they would have more of understanding and love to that person. As a gay man, I have a had a tough time with the idea of one that changes from one gender to another with hormones and surgery. Why? Because it is different and I just thought they must be strange. This sounds terrible, but as humans we have a tendency to think anything out of the ordinary is weird. When I met someone that was transgender and spoke with them, it put a face to the issue. I realized how prejudice I was and can only imagine how people think about transgender persons as well as gays, lesbians and bisexuals. This still does not make it right to stay ignorant and treat others with disdain. It's the obligation of all humans to learn about others. All because someone brought up in rural Alabama never met a Jew, they cannot use it as an excuse for them to join the KKK or beat up someone that is Jewish. Everyone should be taught from a young age to treat everyone they meet as a child of God. None of us are better or more pious than others. If there is sin in this world, it is treating others as less than. We are all equal in Gods eyes!  

The article:
"More than 170 Orthodox rabbis have openly condemned homophobia and anti-gay bullying (even while they also condemn gay sexual behavior). Yet, Rabbi Steven Greenberg and his male partner recently were told by the prominent rabbi of a Cincinnati Orthodox synagogue that they were prohibited from attending services there. When Greenberg tried to engage the synagogue rabbi in dialogue and said that some young gay people are in so much pain they attempt suicide, the synagogue rabbi replied, "Maybe it's a mitzvah ( a positive commandment) for them to do so."


My comments: 
That rabbi has blood on his hands. The CHUTZPAH of some people. He should be arrested for the next suicide that happened after that time! 


The article: 
Rabbi "Tendler has said of Ladin, "There is no niche where he can hide out as a female without being in massive violation of Torah law, Torah ethics and Torah morality."


To Ladin, however, being transgender is not an act of "violating" but an act of "becoming," and "becoming" necessarily involves interacting within the public sphere. She riffs on the famous series of questions posed by the great sage Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am for myself alone, what am I? And if not now, when?"


"Hillel also said that the entire Torah can be summed up as: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow human being." Orthodox Jewish leaders should thank Ladin for refusing to hide out, for reminding us how human beings should relate to one another."