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To Believe or Not To Believe... an Eternal Question
Rosh Hashanah sermon about belief & disbelief in God
Ariel Tovlev
Oct 8, 20247 min read
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On Race, Diversity, and being B'tzelem Elohim
Stories from my own life on diversity which have taught me about ignorance and efforts to move past it.
Ariel Tovlev
Feb 16, 202422 min read
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When Forgiveness is Not Teshuvah
On Yom Kippur, we ask for forgiveness from those we have wronged, and we grant forgiveness to those who have wronged us. We consider this...
Ariel Tovlev
Sep 16, 20218 min read
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A Year After: Remembering the Tree of Life Massacre
It has been a year now since the antisemitic massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. I remember exactly where I was when I...
Ariel Tovlev
Nov 19, 20203 min read
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Trans Love is Miraculous
Anyone who has been in love knows how otherworldly the feeling is: the out-of-body feeling of weightlessness, the in-the-body feeling of...
Ariel Tovlev
Aug 15, 20205 min read
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Anti-Trans Legislation
The government's attempt to roll back trans healthcare protections is personal to me. Between 2014-2015, I spent an entire year trying to...
Ariel Tovlev
Jun 14, 20204 min read
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Advocating for Safety Over Bravery
I hate the term "brave space." I understand that no space can completely be a safe space, and most spaces in the world are not safe...
Ariel Tovlev
Feb 13, 20203 min read
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Living Out Loud
I've been thinking about something lately. I know I talk a lot about being trans. And some people who haven't known me very long might be...
Ariel Tovlev
Dec 24, 20194 min read
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Chag Ga'avah Sameach -- Happy Pride!
Ze'evi and I went to pride wearing our pride kippot, and I had on a Jewish queer pride flag. Throughout our day/evening, multiple people...
Ariel Tovlev
Jun 30, 20192 min read
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From One Land to Another
As I pack up my LA apartment to relocate to NYC for the summer, I'm remembering this time last year when I was leaving Israel and the...
Ariel Tovlev
May 31, 20193 min read
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Gender Neutral English and Hebrew
Language that we use holds meaning and weight. We categorize things based on the words that we use for them. Without each of their...
Ariel Tovlev
Apr 3, 20195 min read
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The Only One
Sometimes people ask me how things are going for me, with regard to me being a trans rabbinical student. And I really appreciate the...
Ariel Tovlev
Mar 12, 20193 min read
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What's In a Name?
A lot of people didn't know me before my transition, so not everyone knows that the name Ariel was given to me by my parents at birth....
Ariel Tovlev
Dec 4, 20174 min read
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Lessons From My Mother: On Hatred and Our Responses To It
I'm having some thoughts on some of the responses to the hatred brewing in the US, namely the two following ideas: no one is born knowing...
Ariel Tovlev
Aug 17, 20173 min read
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