shel

The Transsexual Chofetz Chaim

Mutant, librarian, poet, union rabble rouser, dog, Ashkenazi Jewish. Neuroweird, bodyweird, mostly sleepy.


I write about transformative justice, community, love, Judaism, Neurodivergence, mental health, Disability, geography, rivers, labor, and libraries; through poetry, opinionated essays, and short fiction.


I review Schoolhouse Rock! songs at @PropagandaRock


Website (RSS + Newsletter)
shelraphen.com/

nex3
@nex3

So rabbis are like Jewish priests, right?

Well, not really. "Priest" is actually a well-defined term in Judaism that's totally distinct from rabbis.

So what do the priests do?

Pretty much nothing, since the second temple was destroyed.

So Jewish priests exist in theory but not in practice?

Oh no, they exist in practice. We know exactly who the priests are.

But... they do nothing?

Yeah, pretty much nothing at all.


shel
@shel

in some shuls they say the first blessing over the torah and do one blessing over the congregation. and some of them are cohost CEOs


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in reply to @nex3's post:

at least the ones in Jerusalem, yeah. the rules about being Jewish already differ somewhat based on whether or not you're in "the holy land", but if a third temple was built they would suddenly differ tremendously and hundreds of obsolete laws would become relevant for the first time in two millenia

this sounds like an entertaining plan for a certain kind of super villain. "this man keeps getting in the way of my plans...but if I stealthily rebuild the Temple he'll be stuck performing sacrifices and can no longer interfere!"

but in reality it just starts a debate as to whether this new structure actually counts as the new Temple and before that debate concludes it gets blown up by people upset about the sudden destruction of the Dome on the Rock. 50/50 shot as to whether the man in question was inconvenienced at all by these events or whether he'll die in the crossfire as the inevitable war starts over the status quo crashing and burning

and it turns out the villain's real goal was to steal that cool ladder from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre while everyone was distracted

...okay maybe I think about Jerusalem too much