Parshat Noach, with Ezra by 2 Queers 4 Questions

Parashat Breishit, by Agnes.

It's time for Tisha B'Av, the Jewish day of mourning par excellence, the day that first of all commemorates the destruction of our temple in Jerusalem and then piles on every other tragedy in Jewish history. We're talking about how to mourn, how to heal, how to be broken and what comes next.

In tribute to Tisha B'av's theme of a ruined structure, we've blown apart our usual terse style of inquiry and left our four questions as four piles of deconstructed rubble:

1. Are we actually sad what does it feel like to mourn on purpose on schedule are we faking it is this real grief.

2. Okay but what about a temple is the temple supposed to be our home would it feel like a home if we could make it again do we even want it to be our home what happens when you lose your home that you maybe didn’t even really want to begin with?

3. How do we understand blame responsibility collective guilt blaming the victim consequences a loss of coherence.

4. And but then what’s next what do you even do the day after things fall apart is it painful is it exhilarating can we get a little bit of aftercare?

AT LAST! We've been counting the days, and now it's Shavuot. And it's our first-ever in-person episode. How appropriate for a long-awaited holiday commemorating an in-person encounter between God and the Jewish people. So let's get intimate. Let's talk about love, revelation, wheat.

Our questions - a little oblique this time:

1. Do we want it?

2. Do I have to show up?

3. Who's invited?

4. Will I see you again?

The Omer, baby. Not a holiday, you say? Correct. But an unmissable aspect of the Jewish calendar, and maybe, as we discuss, the key to bringing out the "fuck you" that lies at the heart of having our own Jewish map of time. This is the in-between time, the time of growth, waiting, anticipating, grieving, counting.

Our questions:

1. Are we going away from, or are we going towards?

2. Why is this counting personal?

3. Is Zionism a spiritual problem or a political one?

4. Is the Omer boring?

Pesach. Passover. It's kind of the big one in a way. One of the most iconic and most encompassing and also the origin of the format of this very podcast (four questions). And it celebrates the origin of our people and of our calendar and our autonomy... it was a daunting one and also we were really busy and we are super late. Sorry. But c'mon get off our backs. We hope it is illuminating!

Our questions:

1. What does it mean to put a traumatic experience at the center of our collective narrative?

2. What vision of freedom does this holiday invite?

3. Food: why? Why food?

4. What are the undigested emotions at play in this holiday – anger, frustration, failure?

Our Purim episode stumbles in way past deadline, maybe a little hungover but in high spirits. This is a lighthearted holiday which holds many secrets... Our questions:

1. Who comes out of the closet on Purim?

2. Is exile always a bad thing?

3. Who has authority when God seems absent?

4. Why do we throw a wild party to commemorate such a terrifying event?

Chanukah... oh, Chanukah. What a joyful bundle of contradictions. The minor holiday with a major cultural profile. The festival of lights in the darkest of times. The insurgent anti-assimilationist celebration that turned into an imitation of a certain keystone holiday of the Xtian empire. You may think you know this holiday, but let's take a closer look.

Our four questions for Chanukah:

1. Who is the enemy and how do we fight them/it?

2. What ruins is it time for us to rededicate?

3. Which miracle? / Where do we want to look for our miracles?

4. What darkness are we hoping to light? / What do we do with darkness, what do we do with light?

Email us at [email protected]! Music by Sam Durkes & Ezra Furman!

Okay now we're really into the deep-cut holidays. The last of the high holidays is the most mysterious, when we finish reading the Torah, pray for rain and dance like mad.

Our questions:

1. Why is there a holiday about nothing?

2. What happens at the end of the Torah?

3. Have you ever seen the rain? / What’s rain got to do with it?

4. Why do we dance?

It's Sukkot! Temporary dwellings, agricultural prop-work, tons of joy, a sprinkle of nihilism, rubbing our difference in the devil's face. Learn about the B-side of the High Holidays. We surprised ourselves with this one and how thematically juicy it is. And it turned out to be a surprisingly emotional episode, too. Join us?

The Queers (as always): Agnes Borinsky & Ezra Furman

The Questions (rather minimalist, like a Sukkah):

1. What do we build?

2. What do we do?

3. Why is Kohelet so emo?

4. Who's invited, and why?