JPS Gender Sensitive Tanakh Review – Part II

by Rabbi David

That’s how AI sees Gender Sensitive.

I have a lot more to say.
Last week we focused on how much we hate men. We want to thank Elias Sacks for making it clear that you can still call a woman a woman, if it doesn’t offend people. Now I shall give you my full thoughts on the new JPS Gender Sensitive Tanakh, the RJPS and what I think should’ve been done. Please see Part I, so you have the basis for which to also complain about the JPS’s new version.
And here are my problems with sensitivity.

Your Rabbi’s Conclusion and Critique
I definitely have issues with this whole inclusivity thing. Next thing you know, congregants like me. Then they feel comfortable asking me questions. 
 
JPS just went to the next level. Could've said it was a Tanakh version where Gd is translated as Gd, as Gd doesn't have a gender, unless if we're talking about Gd's attributes or using anthropomorphism for us to connect. And they could’ve left the translation of “King” as “King.” That would make sense to me. As a king is a king and the Hebrew word for king is king. Catch this. Some things don’t make sense when you degenderize them. Such as my niece. And she is still my niece.

This inclusiveness offends me. And it belittles the Tanach by loading the title with terms like "Gender Sensitive."
Torah is not sensitive, and this attempt doesn’t help any person who believes in Torah. And I’m stuck trying to figure out why they call it The Gender Sensitive Tanakh. That's the "jarring" language. Must be that the idea of the RJPS Tanakh is to have a Bible out there for people who don’t like gender. A version of the Tanakh for non-religious people who won't read it.
Call it the 2026 Version. Or Tanakh for People Who Don't Like What Gd Thinks. Your rabbi would be fine with that.
I appreciate the idea that Gd can’t be defined as female or male. But are people that stupid that we need to translate the Tanakh incorrectly?!

We’re trying to make Gd more connectable, so we need a Tanakh that says Gd doesn't have any characteristics. A Tanach that doesn’t have the Tanach. “Scholars” should know that we can’t understand Gd. The fact that Gd throws us a bone by letting us feel like He has a hand, let the Torah give us that. It’s better than worshipping Baal.
 
We Need Other Versions
The JPS needs to be more inclusive. If they're going to do it right, they need more versions. There are so many people that are beyond gender. What about people that are beyond feelings. People that are beyond identification. Age. Age can totally mess people up. Nobody should be defined by how old they are. Numbers are very restrictive. 
JPS feels it's important to connect with the contemporary reader. Which means an American who hates identity and loves communism, and oppression of Jews. Father and Mother are too gender specific for Torah, as that supports the idea of family, and family is offensive to the contemporary reader. There should be The Communist JPS Version for those with Russian ancestry who miss the USSR. And for those who are feeling left out due to their Jew hatred, we need a The Revised Anti-Semite Version. Or The Revised JPS Version of Intolerance.
And what about those that don't believe in Gd? I still feel bad for those people. The Torah is not very inclusive of them. There is very little Baal in the Torah for the idol worshipping Torah fans. We need a The No God JPS Version. As long as "The" is in the title, I’m fine with the version.
The modern reader should be allowed to connect in their way. The way they want. That is the message of the RJPS. We need more versions. A version for everybody. It's already mid-2026. It’s been six months since that other version. We need "fresh eyes" on the Torah. The JPS Journal Tanakh where you get to write the Bible how you like. The JPS Coloring Book Tanakh. The Tickle Me Elmo Version of the Tanakh. We definitely need more of an array of The Heretic Tanakhs. Until we have these new editions out, the atheist will have to refer to Gd as "Gd." And that’s offensive.
The Atheist Sensitive Tanakh. That’s a seller. The Bible definitely does not do its job speaking to the atheist population.
There should be a The Muslim Brotherhood JPS Version put out for the contemporary reader who wants to bomb Israel and massacre the Jews. 
This is what "Gender Sensitive" in the title does. It mocks the simple idea they present of keeping Gd a little vague. For them to be vaguer in their translation is an argument, allowing for commentary. And that is fine, as we need more sources to allow us to argue with people who have no idea what they're talking about. We also need to give the Christian missionaries more sources to prove Jesus. Now they're going to be coming to us with proof that Jesus is “the person” of Gd. “Written right there in the RJPS version. It says ‘persons.’”

Final Thoughts
The Torah has to be the Torah. To me, that makes sense.
If they would just call it The Vague Version, I would be all in. It's the agenda behind the name that has me questioning if Moshe really said it. I never heard Moshe say "Gender Sensitive." Maybe when he suggested that the plague that slaughtered thousands of Jews in the desert wasn’t the worst thing, he was being a bit sensitive.
This "inclusiveness" is all loaded and it makes no sense. What kind of religion doesn’t allow you the joy of hating people.
 
Grapes of Wrath needs a new translation. Do people do it? Do people say "Tom Joad is jarring. We're going to change his name." Only "Drag Story Hour" does that. We need a JPS Drag Version for those who want to see humankind that way in nursery school.
Only the Bible is allowed to be constantly rewritten. Call it the JPS Commentary for People Who Have Their Thoughts.
Give it a few days, they're going to have to come out with a 2027 version, where referring to Gd as Gd is offensive. Somebody might have a thought, and we'll have to change the Bible again. The 2027 version of the JPS. The JJPS. The Jewish JPS Tanakh. The new version where the Torah is translated as the Torah. A version where somebody finally explains what a Tetragrammaton is.

The Gedolei Hador, the great rabbis of our generation, need to connect more with the contemporary reader. 
 
Get rid of the “Gender Sensitive” and your agenda. Call it a commentary and I’ll be fine. You did say that you made it a point to translate the words incorrectly. And that makes people feel better. “I love this Bible. Now I love the Tanakh. They totally botched it. Nothing like the original. Now it speaks to me.”
Commentaries are great when they make sense. And most commentaries mess up words. Listen to any of my sermons and you’ll see how supportive I am of mistranslating the Torah.

What we’re seeing here is the importance of the original language. To have a normal Torah, we need to get rid of the English. Have the Tanach in Hebrew only, so that we can be male chauvinistic as a people again. ​Something so that I can learn Torah again. A Torah where I don’t have to feel bad about offending Bethanie and her feelings about her recent breakup.
Thank Gd. If that's what I'm supposed to do to Him. Shoot. I messed this sentence up already. Thank The Eternal, they're not changing the Hebrew Bible. They tried, but they had a hard time changing the Hebrew in English.
Elias does say, "It's absolutely not the case that we're changing the Hebrew of the Tanach." Thank you for being sensitive and allowing Hebrew to be a language.

The goal is to "open up the Bible's world to the 21st century readers." And to let people know there’s an issue. It's old. That’s the issue with the Torah. It’s old. Stephen King didn’t write it. And I personally am changing the author to every Stephen King book. His name is jarring.
It's definitely not for Yeshiva guys. It's not offensive enough. I’m thinking the Yeshiva Bachurs are going to stick the Artscroll version. No issues with the translation. There we know it’s totally wrong. The Gender Insensitive Version for the Yeshiva Bachurs. Artscroll beat the JPS to that.

It’s their agenda and their new name. Torah with adjectives in the title is not Torah. I don't know if Gd should be going through an identity crisis. But now He is. You’re not going to get me to stop calling Gd “He.”
The Bible is supposed to offend people. The Gender Sensitive JPS Version is pandering to people who are not male chauvinists. And that is Biblically offensive.
 
All in all. Other than the Adam thing and the words that are feminine and masculine not staying feminine and masculine, I have no problem with the RJPS. See how I put the female before the male. Shoot. I probably just offended somebody again.
Call it a commentary, explain what a Tetragrammaton is, and which Transformer it’s part of, and I am fine with it.

​For the Jewish Publication Society's Tour of the RJPS with Elias go to Youtube.
Thank Gd somebody came around to fix His mistakes. Gd was never good at writing in English.