All the Days of a Woman: Niddah for Trans Women and Why It Matters
Are trans women obligated in the Jewish laws we usually think are about menstruation? What do we do with all the messy, (maybe) misogynistic texts on the topic? This year, Rabbi Xava De Cordova had the honor of writing her teshuva, “Are Trans Women Obligated in Niddah?” for the Trans Halakha Project. Join her in this shiur to dive into the texts, troubles and triumphs that shaped the answers to these questions and the future of halakha.
Rabbi Xava de Cordova is a disabled, Sefardi, Mizraxi trans woman and co-host of the world’s first Queer Talmud podcast, “Xai, how are you?” She is also the co-founder of Shel Maala, an online-first queer yeshiva, which she co-founded with SVARA fellow Binya Kóatz. She lives in Providence, RI, where she regularly produces Jewish ritual theatre (or did, before the pandemic) and does her best to steward the radical tradition she’s been blessed to inherit.
This shiur was recorded on Dec 5, 2023 as part of the Fall 5784 Niddah Lecture Series.
Niddah for Trans Women
Your purchase includes a download of one zip file, which contains:
- The complete video recording of this shiur with captions (.m4a and .vtt files)
- The slideshow presentation used for the shiur (.pdf file)
- Rabbi Xava's teshuva (.pdf file)
- The record of the live chat from the Zoom room during recording (.txt file)
- An audio-only version of the recording for easy listening (.mp4 file)