“Queering Kabbalistic Gender Play” in Queer Religion

December 13, 2011 in Queer Religion

“Kabbalah” as mass-media and New Age phenomenon has become a resource for spiritual seekers, entrepreneurs, and many feminists and queers constructing postmodern theologies on the basis of non-normative Western antecedents. Yet theosophical Kabbalah is relentlessly sexist, heteronormative, and homophobic. This paper presents a queer reading of three theosophical Kabbalistic themes on the relationship of masculine and feminine, suggesting that the Kabbalistic use of these categories can productively undermine the very heteronormativity it reinscribes.

Jay Michaelson is a writer, scholar, and activist who works at the intersections of spirituality, Judaism, sexuality, and law.

“Queering Kabbalistic Gender Play” in Queer Religion