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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

@rjelevi.bsky.social

2.8K followers 1.5K following 4.3K posts

Ethicist, half-assed text nerd. Sexual ethics & Jewish text. Queer. AuDHD. She/her. Current project: The Neurodivergent Talmud Book: When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics (IUP 2023) RJELevi.com

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · Nov 8

Hey, new followers! Since I have your attention, I published a book last year!
As we face another Trump administration, it's increasingly important to make a forceful case for the moral worth of sexual divergence, and that's what I do in "When We Collide: Sex, Social Risk, and Jewish Ethics:"

When We Collide

When We Collide is a landmark reassessment of the significance of sex in contemporary Jewish ethics. Rebecca Epstein-Levi offers a fresh and vital exploratio...

iupress.org

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 27m

Explicitly, in this case.

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 37m

I am returning to this particular dissertation as I try to get my rough manuscript in some vaguely workshoppable state of coherence, and wouldn't you know it, waiting for me right there was the fatphobic cherry on top of the moral neuroableism.

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · Sep 5

Well, I have in my researches today found an ethics dissertation that straight out SAYS we're pathologizing distraction with diagnoses like ADHD when we should treat it as a moral failing, and, well, thank you for saying the quiet part out loud so I don't have to, but also kindly go fuck yourself.

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 2h

Indeed. I am NOT dirty. I will have you know that I am in fact ASSIDUOUS about bathing.

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 2h

Okay, I'll buy that. So in that case, anti-Jewishness (or something like that) is the umbrella term that encompasses both anti-Judaism (theological or ritual claims, e.g. what we see in the medieval disputations) and antisemitism (racialized)?

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 2h

You mean, like the fetishistic sort of evangelical philosemitism?

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 2h

(Also, I say "anti-Judaism" as an umbrella term that includes antisemitism; I'm of the school of thought that "antisemitism" is a specific form of anti-Judaism that depends on modern racial categories. IOW, all antisemitism is anti-Judaism but not all anti-Judaism is antisemitism).

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 2h

NO SERIOUSLY I DIDN'T NEED YOU TO SO OBVIOUSLY DEMONSTRATE THE LINK BETWEEN ANTI-JUDAISM AND NEUROABLEISM. AT LEAST LEAVE ME A *LITTLE* WORK TO DO.

nb: there is actually a serious conversation to be had re: circumcision and bodily autonomy (that I DON'T WANT in my relplies). This...ain't it.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 3h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 3h

Also deeply unoriginal--it's just Mafia with the roles renamed. DO BETTER, SUPERSESSIONISTS.

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 13h

As the wise R. Memeiyahu said, LOLSOB

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 13h

My שרה WAS my girlfriend before she was my wife. Does this make ME one of the founders of Antifa?

Reposted by Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 16h

I don't care that you did it at the last minute. I care that you happened to put a single iota of thought into it. Even if that single iota is your last brain cell hanging on with the power of Red Bull

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Reposted by Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 16h

As an instructor, I'd rather see your fever dream, No Doze-fueled 4AM essays written at an IHOP rather than anything generated by an LLM.

Hope this helps

Dane 🔜 NYCC AA L-34 @monkeyminion.com · 18h

I wrote a 15 page report on heraldic symbolism in medieval armor and weapon design for my art history class the night before it was due (8am class). Made up 90% of it (only found one book for reference) and got an A. GenAI could fucking never.

wrote 20 pages on Faulkner's The Bear four hours before final papers were due on trucker pills and coffee and cigarettes and got an A, fuck you.
You people couldn't hang with real slackers.
finn
wokeupchic • 4d
It's fuck Al till your homework due in 25 minutes

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

Source video, a classic: www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...

Reading and Time: A dialectic between academic expectation and academic frustration

YouTube video by Seferin

www.youtube.com

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

"The girlfriend of one of the founders of Antifa."

A crudely animated cartoon bear-dog creature screenshotted mid-rant. It's a still from the video "Reading and Time," in which a grad student who wants to study Derrida argues with a professor about whether they also have to learn German to read Heidegger's "Sein und Zeit" in the original.

Subtitle reads:
"I want to think about radical politics, and now I have to go back and read this fucking Nazi."

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

Citation is in alt text, but to repeat here: this panel is from Alison Bechdel's "Dykes to Watch Out For" #485, "A Little Liberty for a Little Security" (2005).

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

"The girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa."

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

Also rewatching Drag Race all the way through.

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 15h

Spending too much money on too many different teas, including several greens that I probably won't manage to drink before they start to fade.

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 17h

Eh, either works!

Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 17h

Excuse me, Colonel Kira Nerys would NEVER stand for being referred to as merely "the girlfriend of" anyone.

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Reposted by Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

blaine @jblainefoster.bsky.social · 1d

yeah, healthcare costs resources! those resources have an environmental impact! the solution is to STOP FUCKING UP THE ENVIRONMENT FOR STUPID REASONS so it has the resiliency to support everyone! not to shame disabled and chronically ill people for accessing care.

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Reposted by Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 1d

I think more people should be aware of how much cool stuff Link does in real life. He’s not just a poster.

Thinking Person's Guide to Autism @thinkingautism.com · 2d

“As a neurodiversity advocate and as an autistic person, I’m really grateful for so much of the work that’s been done that allows me to be myself and to be successful being myself.” Link, who has been *banned*!?!? from this platform?

thinkingautismguide.com/2025/06/spac... #AutisticWhileBlack

Space Law, Race, and Neurodiversity: Autistic Advocate AJ Link

We live in a country & society that is built on racism. The neurodivergent community isn't free of that racism—per Autistic advocate AJ Link.

thinkingautismguide.com

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 1d

No, nope, I refuse to believe this. Despite not having a mystical bone in my body there is a part of me that is sure Dolly is a lamed-vavnik, and that means THE WORLD NEEDS HER.

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Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 1d

Yes.
I’m skilled at a certain kind of academic thinking and writing because I spent over a decade training to do it.
I’m talented at making up limericks.
One of these I’m at least trying to make a difference with. The other is a party trick.

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Reposted by Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi

Anthea Butler @antheabutler.bsky.social · 2d

So since I'm annoyed let me say a few things today.Some folks have been writing about Christian Nationalism and apocalyptic right wing movements for YEARS here in the US. YEARS. Do we get to have a platform in major mags and newspapers... rarely.

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