Ariel Tovlev
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.
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Ariel Tovlev
Jan 319 min read
Humility: the Middah of Anavah
In preparing to apply for rabbinical school, I was meeting regularly with my rabbi. In one of our meetings he prepped me through a mock...
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Ariel Tovlev
Jan 96 min read
In Support of a Ceasefire
An explanation of why I am a Zionist who supports a ceasefire in Palestine.
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Ariel Tovlev
Dec 8, 20231 min read
Lessons in Grief Taught by a Teenager
A couple years ago, one of my professors died from an illness we all hoped she’d recover from. The whole college was in mourning over...
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Ariel Tovlev
Sep 15, 20218 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Nov 19, 20203 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Sep 18, 20202 min read
Mussar Musings for a New Year
Shanah tovah umetukah lekulam! A good and sweet new year for everyone. When I was younger, I thought of teshuva in the traditional sense...
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Ariel Tovlev
Aug 14, 20205 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Jun 13, 20204 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Feb 13, 20203 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Dec 24, 20194 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Nov 4, 20197 min read
The Life Of Sarah; The Deaths of the Martyrs
I knew rabbinical school was going to be difficult. Ancient and Modern Jewish history, Torah chanting, Hebrew grammar, learning all the...
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Ariel Tovlev
Jun 29, 20192 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
May 30, 20193 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Apr 2, 20195 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Mar 11, 20193 min read
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...
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Ariel Tovlev
Dec 4, 20174 min read
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....
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Ariel Tovlev
Aug 16, 20173 min read
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...
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