Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

Beacon Press, 2023 

Through fresh and unexpected readings of the Bible, Loving Our Own Bones paints a luminous portrait of what it means to be disabled and one of God’s beloved. Julia Watts Belser delves deep into sacred literature, braiding the insights of disabled, feminist, Black, and queer thinkers with her own experiences as a queer disabled Jewish feminist. She talks back to biblical commentators who traffic in disability stigma and shame. What unfolds is a profound gift of disability wisdom, a radical act of spiritual imagination that can guide us all toward a powerful reckoning with each other and with our bodies.  

 
Image Description: The book cover is a haunting image of the ruins of the Temple of Zechariah, beneath an atmospheric blue sky. The book title and the author’s name appear in pale yellow, while the subtitle is white.

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem

Oxford University Press, 2018

Rabbinic Tales of Destruction examines early Jewish accounts of the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. Faced with stories of sexual violence, enslavement, disability, and bodily risk, I argue that our readings of rabbinic narrative must wrestle with the brutal body costs of Roman imperial domination. The book brings disability studies, feminist theory, and ecological thought to accounts of rabbinic catastrophe, revealing how rabbinic discourses of gender, sexuality, and the body are shaped in the shadow of empire.

 
A detailed image of two green leaves on a dark background, with rain drops visible on the surface. Tip of one leaf dips beneath the surface of a pool of water. The water is dark with small ripples and the hint of a reflection from the leaves.

Power, Ethics, and Ecology in Jewish Late Antiquity: Rabbinic Responses to Drought and Disaster

Cambridge University Press, 2015

Rabbinic tales of drought and disaster are key sites for grappling with ethical questions about power, hubris, and human response to crisis. Through a sustained reading of the Babylonian Talmud’s tractate on fasts in response to drought, this book shows how the Talmud challenges the biblical notion that virtue can assure abundance or that misfortune is a sign of divine rebuke. It reveals how stories of Jewish miracle workers and charismatic holy men allow the rabbis to wrestle with the possibilities and limits of human power.

 

Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities

Co-authored with Jane Maxwell and Darlena David. Hesperian Foundation, 2017

The Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities provides practical information on self-care, healthy and safe sexual relationships, family planning methods, pregnancy and childbirth, and violence and abuse. Full of stories compiled from women with disabilities in 42 countries around the world, the book provides accessibly written, heavily illustrated information to help women and their communities organize for disability-friendly health care, overcome disability stigma, and challenge the root causes of poor health.

The book is available for purchase from Hesperian in English and Spanish. It has been translated into 16 languages. Hesperian maintains a free public HealthWiki, which includes the full text of the book in English, Spanish, and French.