Tzemah Yoreh

My name is Tzemah Yoreh, and I am a congregational rabbi on the autism spectrum. How is that possible? How can I thrive in a profession that is pastoral, that rewards extroversion, that seems mostly for those who intuitively grasp social dynamics? It's rare that I can understand the emotions and dynamics of my closest family members, let alone a room full of people whom I know only peripherally. And yet I have thrived in my role as a rabbi. Along with the deficits of being on the spectrum, there are precious gifts that being neuroatypical bequeath me. But, to be honest, it took me a while to find them. In So Compassionate it Hurts: My Life as a Rabbi on the Spectrum, I share my personal journey of being a religious leader on the spectrum, how I've used my gifts to positively impact my congregation (and, in turn, myself), and stories that I hope can inspire those with similar challenges to keep pushing and pursue their passions.

My Life as a Rabbi on the Spectrum

So Compassionate it Hurts

Like beautifully layered rock formations lining the walls of a desert canyon, so is the Biblical text. Story is piled upon story until the foundations are invisible. Those foundations tell a different story-one that only a trained geologist can teasefrom the rock, one that only a Biblical philologist, trained in the dissection of literature, can find in the text. In this early version of the Abraham story Abraham the patriarch gave his wife, Sarah, to a local monarch who may have impregnatedher with Isaac. The purity of the Israelite bloodline is not in doubt, however, since Abraham killed Isaac to atone for his sins before Isaac had a chance to procreate. In this and many other respects, this early version of Abraham story is very different from what those familiar with the canonical text may recall. Why Abraham Killed Isaac traces the development of this uniquely divergent account and its slow development into the canonical text we have today.

Why Abraham Killed Isaac

The supplementary hypothesis offered in this book suggests that the search for three or four different fragmentary documents in the Pentateuch is erroneous and that the editorial procedure was one of successive additions upon one original text, an organic procedure in a culture where the written word was respected, and revelation revered. The earliest layer of Pentateuchal narrative is E which this book focuses on isolating.

Tzemah Yoreh

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