Bottom Up Torah: How Queer Jews Are Changing Orthodoxy

Imagine being told you belong to a faith that is fighting to keep you out—and refusing to leave.

In this week's Madlik, Geoffrey Stern and Rabbi Adam Mintz welcome Rabbi Steve Greenberg, the first openly gay Orthodox-ordained rabbi, for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation.

Key Takeaways

1. Vulnerability transforms the meaning of Torah.
2. Bottom-up change is reshaping Orthodoxy.
3. The tradition has the capacity — and the precedent — to grow.

Timestamps

[00:00:12]

Rabbi Steve Greenberg's coming-out context and the question of LGBTQ+ Jews as teachers of Torah.

[00:03:11]

Steve's Yom Kippur aliyah story and being vulnerable to the text.

[00:04:46]

Confronting the biblical verses; reframing what Leviticus might mean.

[00:06:22]

Tamar's courage and parallels to LGBTQ+ belonging.

[00:08:57]

"Bottom-up Judaism": queer Jews staying, not leaving — shifting the halachic landscape.

[00:11:39]

Google rabbis, post-COVID authority shifts, and personal autonomy in community life.

[00:15:08]

Israeli changes: rejecting the Rabbanut, forming new models of partnership.

[00:17:42]

A painful role-play with a rabbi exposes how harmful "lifelong celibacy" messaging is for gay teens.

[00:21:19]

New data on LGBTQ+ rabbinical students and why queer spiritual sensitivity strengthens Jewish leadership.

[00:24:56]

Parents as powerful advocates: Orthodox families pushing shuls and schools to stop rejecting their children.

Links & Learnings

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Transcript here: https://madlik.substack.com/

Eshel: https://www.eshelonline.org/