This event was unlike any simcha or blessed event that I have ever witnessed. For one, the queer nature of this ancient event was so poignant. Not only was one of their witnesses a bisexual Female-to-Male transsexual but the other was as queer and questioning as any man ever was. The rabbi, a feminist lesbian and visionary, and the sponsor a queer woman, all but one person present were parents. We stood together in a circle looking at one another as words of blessing were spoken by both women about this man about to make a small sacrifice to enter the covenant.
We laughed nervously at the small phrases spoken in jest by the rabbi and sponsor, we shot glances about the room searching for the understanding of what would transpire here in this room of men once the women folk were gone and we held our hands dangling in front of our own places of manhood. So much nervousness wrapped in the trappings of tradition and l’dor v’dor [to Generation and Generation]; yet, we all held the feeling of connectedness that traditions bring.
Dropping trou' the convert sat and waited, eyes closed, clenched and braced waiting for the piercing needle that would be a rebirth of sorts on his 7 year road to conversion. The women were waiting with baited breath for the words of blessing to be chanted, but time stood still in that moment of wonder, that moment of pain and that moment of transformation. My own mind wandered on to thoughts of genital surgery and the heady academic debates brought on by pictures of the outcomes of such things. Yet, almost, the same thing was happening here with this genital modification. With the blood from his penis he was transformed into someone who was only a step away from the mikveh. Still the same person but now transformed by the letting of his blood thus confirming his commitment to becoming Jewish.
Praised are You, Adonai our God, who rules the universe, whose mitzvot add holiness to our lives and who gave us the mitzvah to circumcise converts.
