Kolot: Voices from The Ark Synagogue
Aug 6, 2026 · 10 min · 7 segments
In this talk Rabbi Lea Mühlstein explores how the Torah’s warning of blessing and curse in Re'eh can inform our response to the new Equality and Human Rights Commission Code on single‑sex services…
Lea MühlsteinHost
In Deuteronomy's logic, the Israelites will reap blessings for following the laws and will be struck with curses if they do not.
Yet despite what our parasha says elsewhere about neither adding nor taking away from the commandments, Judaism has always had to negotiate the gap between law as it is written and life as it is lived.
Indeed, as I argued from this very parasha many years ago, I doubt Judaism would still be a living religion if our ancestors had not done precisely that.
I've been thinking about these different halakhic approaches as a new statutory code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission came into force this week in response to an earlier Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender.
The code does not create new law, but it does give guidance that organisations are expected to take seriously.
The aspect of the code which has attracted the greatest amount of attention is the provision of single sex services, including toilets and changing facilities.
The new guidance has caused considerable anxiety among trans individuals, many of whom are understandably asking what these new rules will mean in the most ordinary circumstances of daily life.
Where am I allowed to go to the toilet? Will I be challenged? Will I have to explain myself? Will I suddenly be made to feel that my presence is a problem? There has been plenty of public debate about analysing the details of the Code.
Instead of regurgitating
those arguments, I want to focus on the Jewish question raised by its publication.
What do we do when a law exists, but applying it straightforwardly risks creating a situation that is unworkable, humiliating, or simply at odds with the reality in which people have been living? There are three distinct halakhic approaches which I think are particularly helpful for us to consider as we reflect on this question.
In Deuteronomy's logic, the Israelites will reap blessings for following the laws and will be struck with curses if they do not.
Yet despite what our parasha says elsewhere about neither adding nor taking away from the commandments, Judaism has always had to negotiate the gap between law as it is written and life as it is lived.
Indeed, as I argued from this very parasha many years ago, I doubt Judaism would still be a living religion if our ancestors had not done precisely that.
I've been thinking about these different halakhic approaches as a new statutory code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission came into force this week in response to an earlier Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender.
The code does not create new law, but it does give guidance that organisations are expected to take seriously.
The aspect of the code which has attracted the greatest amount of attention is the provision of single sex services, including toilets and changing facilities.
The new guidance has caused considerable anxiety among trans individuals, many of whom are understandably asking what these new rules will mean in the most ordinary circumstances of daily life.
Where am I allowed to go to the toilet? Will I be challenged? Will I have to explain myself? Will I suddenly be made to feel that my presence is a problem? There has been plenty of public debate about analysing the details of the Code.
Instead of regurgitating
those arguments, I want to focus on the Jewish question raised by its publication.
What do we do when a law exists, but applying it straightforwardly risks creating a situation that is unworkable, humiliating, or simply at odds with the reality in which people have been living? There are three distinct halakhic approaches which I think are particularly helpful for us to consider as we reflect on this question.
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