The utilization of a writing portfolio in this class has been an interesting experience because a lot of my writing as provided a jumping off point for my discussions in class. The trend I got into during the semester was doing the readings during the evening and then sitting down to write my reflections a couple of hours before class, reflecting on what I would like to discuss that day. The process of writing allowed for the ball to begin rolling and the thoughts to begin to form. This aided me analyzing the texts during class.

A theme that repeats throughout my writing is the discussion of women, specifically the definitions that get associated with women along with their function in certain situations, specifically descriptions. Something that differentiates this writing from other writing that I do is the inclusion of questions in many of my reflections. Many of the readings left me asking questions and I made sure to include these.

I feel that my writing did change over the course of the semester, but in a more subconscious way. As the course continued my understanding/questions built on each other which allowed for more context as I completed the writings. This process of writing over the course of the semester definitely allowed me to see the changes in thought more dynamically then say writing a couple of a papers. The writing style definitely lent itself to a discussion based class such as ours.

For my final essay I was thinking of expanding on the final reflection I wrote on “Shiksappeal.” I found this essay to be really interesting and I would like to delve deeper into it through closer analysis. Something else I thought might be interesting to write about was the Love Poetry by Rabbis. When initially reading this poems I drew a lot of connections between them and pointed out the gruesome element to some of the poems in my reflection. This element was not discussed as much in class and might be interesting to expand on in an essay that analyzes the poetry.

If I had the opportunity/the time I would rewrite many of my reflections just because of the alternative perspective I have now. For example some of the readings we did early on in the class can be reanalyzed from the perspective gained through readings done later on.

Questions that I would explore leaving the class revolve around LGBTQIA+. There is still more I would like to know about the treatment of these individuals across the different sects of Judaism. Something I have found myself thinking about and would be interested into looking further into is how families of same-sex partners are treated and what the process is for a same-sex couple to have child, and what the expectations are regarding donors, surrogates, adoption, etc. The LGBTQIA+ family is something I have always found interesting, especially looking at from different perspectives. I would be curious to see if some sort of memoir, book, or essay exists out there that revolves around this topic.