2 Queers 4 Questions

After a long time away, the Queers return! Is this the beginning of a new season of 2Q4Q? We do not know. But we wanted to talk about prayer. Here is a conversation between Agnes and Ezra in which we ask four questions about Jewish prayer, using the Abraham Joshua Heschel 1952** essay “Prayer As Discipline” to structure our talk. We get into some real open-hearted amateur theology type stuff here...

A dvar Torah on parashat Ha'azinu by Ezra Furman. With dreams, songs, the Sifrei, Moses, Jewish holidays, the Sefat Emet and food.

A dvar Torah on parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech by Agnes Borinsky. With Ben Lerner, Caedmon, poetry, failure, Moses, today and possibility.

A dvar Torah on parashat Ki Tavo by Ezra Furman. With completion, storytelling, covenants, arrival and starting over.

A dvar Torah on parashat Ki Tetzei by Agnes Borinsky. With vows, seeking, lost animals, Bob Kaufman and silence.

A dvar Torah on parashat Shoftim by Ezra Furman. With news, anxiety, authority, Rashi, prophets and trust.

A dvar Torah on parashat Re'eh by Agnes Borinsky. With circumference, crossing over, change, altars and Elul.

A dvar Torah on parashat Eikev by Ezra Furman. With rain, love, the Ronettes, the Shma, Rabbi Chanina and awe.

A dvar Torah on parashat Devarim by Ezra Furman. With Moses, Rabbi Yosei bar Chanina, murder in Gaza, Isaiah, Tisha B’av and rebuke.

A special joint-parsha episode for the week of Matot-Masei: Agnes & Ezra in conversation about this week's double parsha (strangely, the first double parsha of the year this year). Really I think this was just a very difficult and upsetting Torah portion and we were both afraid to do it alone. This is a throwback to the first era of this podcast, when we had rambling conversations about the holida...

A dvar Torah on parashat Pinchas by Agnes Borinsky. With reassurance, Pinchas, murder, tractate Sanhedrin, the Sfat Emet, Rebbe Nachman and heartbreak.

A dvar Torah on parashat Balak by Ezra Furman. With transphobia, language, Balak, Bilam, art gigs, community and blessings.

A dvar Torah on parashat Chukat by Agnes Borinisky. With water, the lake, death, Miriam, Avivah Zornberg and the unconscious.

A dvar Torah on parashat Korach by Ezra Furman. With anger, Allen Ginsberg, Korach, Moses, God, Aaron, and liminality.

A dvar Torah on parashat Shlach by Agnes Borinsky. With parents, children, therapy, God, hearts and eyes.

A dvar Torah on parashat Behaalotcha by Ezra Furman. With making records, speech, Moses, Cock Sparrer, Dr. Martin Luther King and Pesach Sheini.

A dvar Torah on parashat Naso by Agnes Borinsky. With James Baldwin, vows, betrayal, Rashi, Bob Dylan and Moses.

A dvar Torah on parashat Bamidbar by Ezra Furman. With God, failure, numbers, Rabbi Yehoshua and language.

A dvar Torah on parashat Bechukotai by Agnes Borinsky. With dreaming, New Year's resolutions, heartsickness, restitution, history and waking.

A dvar Torah on parashat Behar by Ezra Furman. With time, repentance, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, the Maharal of Prague, the Omer and the Baal Shem Tov.

A dvar Torah on parashat Emor by Agnes Borinsky. With Shabbat, Robin D.G. Kelley, imagination, priests and bodies.

A dvar Torah on parashat Kedoshim by Ezra Furman. With justice, weirdness, holiness, homophobia, Julia Kristeva and strangers.

A dvar Torah on parashat Acharei Mot by Agnes Borinsky. With Aaron, grief, James Hillman, imitation, blood and gay sex.

A dvar Torah on parashat Metzora by Ezra Furman. With chronic illness, the inhuman, blood, birds, the Sfat Emet and Passover.

A dvar Torah on parashat Tazria by Agnes Borinsky. With skin outbreaks, high priests of Los Angeles, Rav Hamnuna, demons and bodies.