Rabbi Micah Streiffer @mstreiffer Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

@mstreiffer

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Rabbi, teacher, parent, eternal student. Founder at . Rabbi at @TKAThornhill . PhD Student at McMaster Univ. Host of Seven Minute Torah podcast

https://t.co/iDDbAEfo5y

Joined March 2009

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

A reminder that Jewish practice isn’t all or nothing. You’re not “religious“ or “not.“ You don’t “keep Shabbat“ or “not.” It is legitimate to build a meaningful practice that is reflective of your beliefs and values, & to interpret Jewish practices in creative (& evolving) ways.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Jewish views of God that aren't the "Old Man in the Sky." A LOOONG 🧵 Lots of people say to me "I don't believe in God." And they are surprised to hear that I, a rabbi, also don't believe in the God they don't believe in. And NEITHER do many of Judaism's greatest thinkers. 1/30

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Personally, I love that Jews are always reinventing (dare I say "reconstructing") our conceptions of and relationship with God. We read our traditional texts through modern eyes, and we find new ways to resonate with ancient ideas. 30/30

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

That means that for Spinoza, God is not a supernatural being at all. God is the totality of what is - the stars and planets, the grass and trees, the laws of nature themselves. Even human beings are part of God. God didn't create the world - God IS the world. 7/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

The idea that there’s any single “right” way to practice Judaism is so ludicrous. One of our most ancient and cherished practices is not agreeing on how to practice.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Sigh….sad that this still needs to be said: Reform Judaism is real Judaism. With ritual, prayer, mitzvah, study, an ongoing textual tradition, & deeply held Jewish values. There have ALWAYS been multiple ways to be Jewish. Denying one another’s legitimacy is bad for the Jews.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Maimonides rejected Biblical literalism, especially when Torah speaks about God in a bodily way. Anytime the Torah says God spoke/saw/formed/got angry or any other verb, he says it must be allegory. God just doesn't DO the things we do. God is entirely separate from the world. 4/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

17th century philosopher/"bad boy" Baruch Spinoza had an opposite take. Maimonides said God had nothing in common w the world; Spinoza said God had EVERYTHING in common with the world. He believes God is synonymous with the universe: God is everything & everything is God. 6/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

In fact, God is so separate our words can't describe God. We can't say God is "great" or "wise" bc our words don't suffice to describe an entity that has nothing in common w our world. All we can say it what God ISN'T. (Not evil. Not dumb.) This is called Negative Theology 5/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

That probably sounds a little dry. But the idea is that God is found in the places where we make meaning: forming relationships, accomplishing goals, helping others, building legacy, repairing society. God is the "sum of everything in the world that renders life significant." 22/

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

But once in a while we enter into "I-You" relationship. That's where we see them for who they are. For just a moment we connect one a real level where we truly see each other. For Buber, God is what makes that possible. God is the "Eternal You" we encounter in every You. 17/

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Jewish texts belong to liberal Jews. The Talmud is a Jewish book, not an Orthodox book. Rashi & the Rambam never heard of “Orthodoxy.” Liberal Jews (like all Jews) are authorized AND responsible to learn & interpret Jewish texts. And our interpretations are authentically Jewish.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Normalize calling the Hebrew Bible the Hebrew Bible. There are whole religions built on it that don’t consider it “old.“ We understand why the New Testament is called that – but please stop referring to our holy book by a name that automatically labels it outdated or superseded.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

I support @RevDaniel in his support of the trans community. As religious leaders, our role is to affirm that people are good and holy just as they are - including the LGBTQ+ community. There's a lot of hate out there, but being loud doesn't make you right.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Know how to combat all the antisemites? Do something Jewishly amazing: read a book, host a Shabbat dinner, study Torah, make matzah balls (or falafel or jachnun), learn a Hebrew word, research your ancestry, listen to Jewish music. Judaism is joy - and nobody can take that away.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

The prayerbook makes a lot of claims: God created the world, wrote the Torah, parted Red Sea, lifts the fallen & heals the sick. What if you don't believe those things, but you care abt Judaism? What if you believe in something - but not THAT God? You're in good company. 2/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

That thing is: ethics. God IS morality, he said. God IS the existence of right and wrong. Humans can access that ethical ideal through their faculty of reason: we know right from wrong (even if we don't always follow it). That's the way God "talks" to us. 13/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Maimonides (Rambam) is a 12 cent. rabbi, philosopher & doctor. He studied Aristotle and tried to reconcile Jewish belief w/ Aristotelian philosophy. He identified God with Aristotle's "First Cause" and believed that human reason was the way to begin to access/conceptualize God 3/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

In other words, God is the engine behind our capacity to connect and relate to others. In this, he was deeply influenced by Hasidic Judaism. Though he did not believe in supernatural God like the Hasidic masters, he learned from them that God exists in the space between us. 18/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

10 months

Reform Judaism isn't just being non-observant. It is thoughtful, tradition-grounded Judaism in which individuals are empowered to build their Jewish practice based on study & on how the traditions & rituals bring them meaning. It is different than, but not less than, Orthodoxy.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Cohen's cross-town rival was this guy: Martin Buber. In addition to having an awesome beard, he also had an awesome theology. Buber believed that God is found in relationships. His most important work is called "I and Thou." 15/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@MillerMatthew20 @tlecaque @AdamKinzinger That’s exactly the problem - Christian extremism has been romanticized. Ask any Jew what they associate with the Crusades and they’ll tell you: death, destruction, and fear. 1/2

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Either way, Spinoza's ideas got him excommunicated from the Jewish community at age 23. He lived a lonely life (though he corresponded w his idol, Descartes). He died largely penniless but his ideas went on to influence the Enlightenment & serve as the VERY BASIS OF MODERNITY 10/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Hey fellow Jews - “religious” is not another word for “Orthodox.” There are many ways to be Jewishly religious.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

These things don't have to be supernatural to be significant. In fact, they are all the more significant because our lives are fleeting. Because our "salvation" (a favorite word of his) is here and now - not beyond the heavens. 23/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Cohen created a bunch of other ideas that matter Jewishly today. For example, he taught that there may not be a Messiah but a Messianic Age, and that Jews should join with non-Jews in working to repair the world. (But that's a subject for another thread.) 14/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Judith Plaskow suggested in "Standing Again at Sinai" that we need to think again about our God-language. She wrote, "Only deliberately disruptive - that is, female - metaphors can break the imaginative hold of male metaphors that have been used for millennia." 26/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Wow, this is the longest thread ever! Thanks for sticking with it. I'm curious: which images/conceptions of God resonate with you? Do you find God in nature? In ethics? In relationships? In creative power? Somewhere else? 29/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

This raises some radical religious dilemmas. Why bother praying to a God who is simply the universe? (Spinoza says God isn't really listening.) Also, he suggests there is no such thing as free will - everything is preordained by nature (i.e. God). 8/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Kaplan brazenly rejected many of traditional Jewish ideas, such as Chosenness, and miracles. And he asserted that God is not a being but rather the sum of the processes in the natural world that make for salvation (meaning) in life. 21/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

(Rabbi Harold Shulweis, who lived 50 years later, said something similar but different when he said that God matters less than Godliness, and Godliness is found in human actions toward each other.) 19/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

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That means that religion, prayer, ritual, and Jewish community still matter - even if God isn't supernatural. Because those things are all human institutions, ways to find meaning/salvation in the world. 24/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

In "I and Thou" Buber teaches that there are two kinds of relationships: "I-It" relationships are the ones where we see the other as an object. (Someone bags your groceries; someone teaches you something. We learn about someone.) That's how most of our lives are spent. 16/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

She suggested reaching into the sources to find images for God that are feminine and that match our experience of the Divine. Some will be anthropomorphic: Lover. Companion. Friend. Cocreator. Some will evoke God's creative & sustaining power: Wellspring. Source. Foundation. 27/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Maybe the most famous radical Jewish theologian is Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the mid-20 century founder of Reconstructionist Judaism. Kaplan was so committed to Judaism without supernaturalism that he wrote an important book called "Judaism Without Supernaturalism." 20/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Reform Judaism absolutely has a halachic process. It is a process of study and informed choice. It is robust, meaningful, textually-grounded, ever-evolving form of Judaism.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

What’s something you only know thanks to musical theatre? I’ll start: 1. The number of minutes in a year. 2. Anything about Alexander Hamilton.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@JewWhoHasItAll This is so much good information you are providing teachers. I would hope that if Jews were a minority, the majority culture would do so much research in order to understand our holidays. Good thing we don’t need to worry about it.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Moving into modernity, Hermann Cohen (d. 1918) was a German Jewish philosopher who influenced liberal Judaism. He was out to prove that Judaism was rational. Among other things, that meant for him that God was not supernatural. 11/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

For Cohen, like Spinoza, God is not a being or a person. BUT Cohen rejected Spinoza's idea that God is the world and embraced Maimonides' idea that God is totally separate from the world. In fact, for Cohen, God IS the one that doesn't really exist in the world, per se: 12/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Then there's the issue of morality. Can there really be right and wrong if there's no commanding God?? (Maybe. We'll talk about it when we get to Hermann Cohen in the 19th century.) 9/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

These kinds of images have begun to make their way into some liberal prayerbooks. Perhaps they better describe modern people's relationship with God than older words like "King" and "Ruler." 28/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

So far, all of our theologians have been male. And much of their imagery and language has also been masculine. Thankfully, this began to be questioned in the second half of the 20th century. 25/

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Maybe it goes without saying but let’s say it anyway: Queer people are created in the Divine image. You are good, and whole, and holy just as you are.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Imagine being in shul and the rabbi’s sermon boils down to “Your choices are destroying the Jewish people.” You’d never come back. That’s what intermarried families experience regularly. That’s how Jewish institutions are failing their own families & endangering the Jewish future

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@RealBobHatzes @MillerMatthew20 @tlecaque @AdamKinzinger The not-often-enough told story of the crusades is how the Christian armies on their way to conquer infidels in the Holy Land came across *more* infidels (I.e. Jews) right there in Europe…& slaughtered them. It’s one of the bloodiest times in Jewish and history.

@tlecaque

Thomas Lecaque

2 years

I hate to do it, but. Hi, crusade historian here. The Crusades were 700 years of military campaigns to seize the Holy Land, Spain, areas in the Balkans and Baltic, and campaigns in the Mediterranean. They were not defensive, and the Muslims weren't destroying relics.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

There is no such thing as “the way Judaism always was.” The idea that there is some eternal form of Judaism & liberal Jews have departed from it is a myth. Here’s what Judaism “always was”: dynamic, grounded in tradition yet creatively responsive to evolving needs.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

The Kotel is not a Haredi synagogue. It is a Jewish holy site, and all Jews should be free to practice there. We NEED to figure out ways to coexist as Jews - even when we practice differently - without using political power to silence one another.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Shanah Tovah, everyone, and may you have a sweet eight nights of Rosh Hashanah 🤦🏽 (Seen in a store that shall remain nameless.)

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@TheRaDR Pro-shenanigans is actually my official denomination.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

There is more than one way to observe Shabbat. There is more than one way to believe in God (or not). There is more than one way to keep kosher. There is more than one way to feel about Israel. There is more than one way to be Jewish.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Reform Judaism is deeply rooted in tradition. Reform Jews interpret, study, and engage with Jewish texts. Reform Jews live their Jewish values each and every day. Reform Judaism is Torah Judaism.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@epilesbian Great questions. Rabbis are basically teachers. Unlike priests, we don’t have any sacramental powers, and you don’t need a rabbi to mediate between you and God. We teach, lead communities, guide people in practice/ritual, perform pastoral care, etc.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Praying for the hostages at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas - including my friend Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and the three others who were taken hostage during Shabbat services. (1/2)

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

STOP ✡️✡️✡️ BELITTLING ✡️✡️✡️ OTHER ✡️✡️✡️PEOPLE'S ✡️✡️✡️ JUDAISM ✡️✡️✡️

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

@adlisrael Hey @adlisrael , take this down. Jews have the right to harness Jewish stories in service of promoting Jewish values like freedom and human rights. The only thing "despicable" is the way Bibi is acting like a pharaoh/dictator.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Anybody else tired of the word “Torah” being used as a synonym for Orthodox Judaism? I’m a religiously liberal Jew and I live Torah. It teaches me about social Justice, about striving for holiness, about ritual, Shabbat & repairing the world. That’s Judaism. That’s Torah.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@RealBobHatzes @MillerMatthew20 @tlecaque @AdamKinzinger The crusades left such a bloody mark on the Jewish psyche that our primary mourning prayer - the Mourner’s Kaddish, which is recited during every service - probably originated in 12-13th century Jews’ need for a ritual to help them cope with the the awfulness of the crusades.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

The Talmud is a Jewish book. Not an Orthodox Jewish book, not a Reform Jewish book. We might read it through a somewhat different lens, but it belongs to all of us

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

9 months

If you're too "religious" to sit next to a woman on a plane, then buy 2 tickets. No one should be harassed or asked to move because of their gender.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

"Torah observant" is not another word for Orthodox. Liberal Jews also observe Torah. We need different, less derogatory language to refer to our philosophical differences.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

It’s simple: call people by the pronouns and names they choose. Learn from them; affirm their identity and their choices. You don’t know them better than they know themselves.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Just taking a moment to appreciate the fact that the Rabbis of the Talmud recorded minority opinions. Not everybody does that.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Are you kidding me??

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@epilesbian Similar to priests - especially in the sense of leading a religious community - but as facilitators and teachers and without the role of intercessors. I like to say we perform ritual WITH people, not FOR them.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Know why I’m excited about December? Latke poutine. That’s why. ✡️ 🇨🇦

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@RealBobHatzes @MillerMatthew20 @tlecaque @AdamKinzinger What doesn’t make sense to me abt this response is the need to whitewash. The crusades don’t make Christianity bad. Christianity has a lot of goodness. But like other religious traditions, it has had times of violence and oppression. Why not own those & try to learn from them?

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

8 months

Jews have a right to self determination in their homeland. That is Zionism. Palestinians have a right to self determination in their homeland. That is Palestinian nationalism. These statements need not be mutually exclusive. They can (and must) coexist.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

There is no such thing as "Judeo-Christian."

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@ZordBuilder Hi. I don’t claim to be providing a comprehensive survey of Jewish theology. Of course there are many other thinkers with more (and less) traditional views.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

When people convert to Judaism, they should be fully welcomed, embraced, and celebrated. Full stop. As a follow up, people who convert have the right to a variety of opinions. Because they are Jews, and Jews have a variety of opinions.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

She’s a 10… and in a Reform congregation she counts as one of the 10 (in a minyan) because egalitarian Judaism.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Last night, this man marked the birth of his saviour - a migrant born in a manger because no one would take his family in - by abandoning migrants in subfreezing weather as a political stunt. Look at the face of callousness and cruelty.

@GregAbbott_TX

Greg Abbott

1 year

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

Shanah Tovah to all the 🌲 🌳 🌲

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

If Jews 2000 years ago had been stuck on keeping Judaism “the way it’s always been,” they would have rejected the Rabbis (and the Talmud) and Judaism would have disappeared. Let’s celebrate religious creativity instead of stifling it out of fear of change.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

The problem w “Anne Frank had white privilege” is that it misses that race is societally constructed. “Whiteness” is not the same in 2022 America & 1940s Nazi Europe. In that society, Jews were excluded from the “master race” & therefore didn’t have that privilege. 1/2

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

This is not a true statement. In fact, Jews have rarely agreed on every point of Halacha - even some big ones. Pretending that "Halacha is Halacha" is misunderstanding the entire Halachic enterprise.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@jh_swanson Totally agree. Many Jews are also in the habit of denying Palestinian nationhood (and thus claim to their native land), as if that wasn’t precisely the kind of thing that is done to us.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

6 months

Hey fellow Jews: women can wear tefillin.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Charlie is a kind & gentle soul who builds bridges & is deeply involved in interfaith & social justice work. CBI (where I served in 2005 as student rabbi and had the honour of dedicating the sanctuary) is a warm & vibrant community. May there be a speedy & peaceful resolution.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

I think the task of Jewish life is to find yourself in ancient texts, and to apply those findings to repairing the actual world you are living in.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

7 months

This is your regular reminder that there is no such thing as the "one right way" to practice Judaism - and there never was.

@KosherRedPill

The Kosher Red Pill

7 months

@blakeflayton @Womenofthewall Tradition is tradition. Therefore, mechitza is the way. COPE

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

@benshapiro I fail to understand why people care so much about who others marry. If you don’t believe in same sex marriage, don’t marry somebody of the same sex. Let others live their lives.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

There is more than one way to keep Shabbat. A thread 🧵 When people say they are Shomer Shabbat (they "keep Shabbat") they usually mean they don't use electricity, cook, drive a car, writing, etc, on Shabbat. That's not what it means to me. (Or at least not ALL it means.) 1/18

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

10 months

Can Reform Jews be Shomer Shabbat? I say yes, but it looks different than in Orthodoxy. 🧵 1/6

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@MillerMatthew20 @tlecaque @AdamKinzinger Associating Christo-Fascism with the taliban rather than calling it a crusade or inquisition allows us to continue to ignore its deep Christian roots. You can’t combat it without understanding it. 2/2

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

So how did you break your fast? Mac & cheese and Jameson here.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Also pluralistic. There can be more than one right answer, and that is a sign of vitality.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

As a liberal Jew, I don’t think of Torah & Bible as literal truth. I don’t believe God wrote the Torah. I believe it to be the record of our people’s search for the Divine; a set of sacred stories (of varying historicity) that express our religious & national journey. 1/3

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

9 months

@AeonSynchro Know who was pretty woke? The prophet Isaiah. Also Amos. They were all about sticking up for the vulnerable. They even believed it was a Jewish value

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

1 year

I appreciate the unifying sentiment of the “a Jew is a Jew” narrative. But I don’t think it’s useful to pretend that we were ever philosophically unified, especially @ the expense of erasing our legitimate disagreements today. Judaism has always been multivalent.

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Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

Just a reminder that religious pluralism is a good thing. We don't all have to be the same kind of Jew. The fact that we think, believe, and practice differently is a source of strength.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

9 months

Today is the Jewish new year for animals. Make sure to wish your pets Shanah Tovah! 🐕 🐈 🐄 🐫

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

What is hateful to you do not do to another. That is the whole Torah. All the rest is commentary. Go and learn.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@BYUwvolleyball This just doesn’t seem like enough. Call it racism. Condemn it. Declare that it has no place in your institution. It’s not just about being nice to guests; it’s about a egregious, bigoted, violent act perpetrated against a young person and the fact that no one stood against it.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

11 months

Seeing all the vitriol this week makes me proud, as a Reform rabbi, to be part of a Jewish movement that is inclusive, open, and welcome. That strives to see the image of God in all people - and not only to "tolerate" the LGBTQ+ community but to embrace all for who they are.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

@jh_swanson Erev Thanksgiving. Makes sense.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

9 months

@Sassy_Khat That's not correct. Reform Judaism is the belief that Judaism itself has been constantly in evolution and that we are continuing the ancient tradition of interpreting and living our tradition in each generation. We didn't make it up - Jews have always done it.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

PSA: There is no such thing as “reformed” Judaism. That makes it sound like a group of people reformed (changed) Judaism once. *Reform* Judaism is the belief that Judaism is - and has always been - in dynamic evolution.

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@mstreiffer

Rabbi Micah Streiffer

2 years

This is a set of Jewish texts on reproductive rights. Thank you @TheRaDR for creating this.

Tweet card media

The Torah of Abortion Justice(Annotated Source Sheet) | Sefaria

A listing of some of the key sources that inform a Jewish understanding of abortion.

www.sefaria.org

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