Our Values
Queer-centric.
We centre queer people and queer ways of thinking. We take pride in who we are and our special cultures.
Emotional Realness.
We aim to create a learning environment in which you can bring your whole self. Your joys and your sadnesses, your vulnerabilities and your confidences, are all welcome. The Talmud speaks of our hearts as the site of reason - emotion is an essential part of thought.
Resisting Domination.
We are all actively resisting forms of domination that persist in our society. We recognise that the class antagonisms of capitalist society occur through the channels of racial, gendered, sexual, and ability-based descrimination. While we are on the journey to abolishing the present state of things, we will do all we can to mitigate harms and lower the barriers that keep us from accessing Torah.
We are all learning.
Teachers are learners and learners are teachers. Mistakes are not to be avoided but welcomed, as they are the steps through which we reach knowledge. Through the process of learning together we create the community we desire.
Accessibility is a communal process.
We aim to provide a space which meets as many different access needs as possible while being transparent about our own limits. We will all work towards recognising our access needs and articulating them to others. We all do our best towards meeting each other's needs.
Lifting up others.
We applaud, cheer, and encourage each other. We celebrate everyone's successes.
Actively questioning.
Every letter of Talmud, every word of halakha [Jewish law/the way] is open for questioning and critique. Every generation of Jews is free to challenge the halakha of the previous; we continue our tradition only by disputing it at every opportunity.
Rigorous.
We work towards precision so that we embody the texts with authority. Rigour involves a commitment to the intricacies of the grammar and meaning of each word we study, but equally it's a commitment to putting into action the ethical and political conclusions we draw.
Deep.
What matters is not how much we learn, but how deeply we know it. Pages of Gemara cannot compare to one word that has been completely internalised. A Hasidic tale tells of a yeshiva bokher [a student at a yeshiva] who boasts to his Rebbe that he has been through every single page of Talmud. The Rebbe looks the boy up and down and responds “that may be so, but not a single page has been through you!”