WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Shalom, everybody. 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.000 7, the 18th? 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:09.000 Rabbi Rachel is not joining us. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:12.000 lifecycle event today. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:17.000 at synagogues, so I will be driving solo. 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:19.000 that she is with us in spirit. 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:24.000 It is a heck. 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:29.000 This is the Torah portion of… 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:37.000 This is the Torah portion. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:42.000 Because we cannot do… 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:50.000 Walk us through one of them. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:55.000 names that we are holding. 00:00:55.000 --> 00:00:57.000 For safety… 00:00:57.000 --> 00:01:01.000 the land of Israel. 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000 Innocence across the Middle East. 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:12.000 things that want to go into the chat box. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:17.000 We can hold them and death. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:25.000 are learning today to the memory of my LaCroix. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:27.000 recently passed. 00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:43.000 At the age of 95. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Jane's helping for Sandy. 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 Jeff, Jane, Carol, Heather… 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.000 Charles, David, and… 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:16.000 Freddie King, the Silva Family. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Blessed are you, I deny our God. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:35.000 eternal sovereign. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:42.000 The people get anxious. The people get anxious. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:49.000 Because Moses is upstairs for 40 days. And their anxiety has nowhere to go. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:55.000 And even though they had the Ten Commandments that began with, I am. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:02.000 And don't make any pretend gods. The people's anxiety said to them. 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Where did Moses go? Where'd this guy go? We now have. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:12.000 nothing to protect us, no leader, nowhere to. put our hopes. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:17.000 And therefore, they went to Aaron and said, Make us a god. 00:03:17.000 --> 00:03:23.000 And out came a golden calf. And Moses comes downstairs. 00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:30.000 and sees what the people have done. and takes the two tablets of the covenant. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:39.000 and smashes them at the feet of the golden calf, grinds up the golden calf, makes the people drink it. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:48.000 Talk about eating your words. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:57.000 There's an exchange between Moses and God, please forgive them, don't schmeiss them. 00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:08.000 And then God says, come back upstairs. And we'll pick up where God says, come back upstairs. 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.000 where Moses says, hey, I want to see you. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.000 or does, in fact. Moses say hey. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:22.000 I want to see you. two very different ways. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 To begin today, two different poetic renderings of what it is. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:36.000 that Moses and God are after there. One is by Rachel Bahrenblatt, the other is by Rick Lupert. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.000 who would like to read the first? 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:48.000 Rabbi David, could I troll you for the link? Because I don't see it in the chat. 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:49.000 The link for the document. I'm sorry for today's document. 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:56.000 the link? I will put it again in the yep. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:57.000 I I I I. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:03.000 Uh, I don't think you put it in. I don't… Did you? Okay, I don't see it. So thank you very much for your effort. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:09.000 It's there again, would somebody like to read? 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:11.000 Someone go for it, please. 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:28.000 I wonder… I want to gaze at you, not through lowered lashes, protecting my tender places, but heart splayed wide to everything I learn when I let myself be seen. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:41.000 I want to gaze at you without flinching, knowing what you'll find in my eyes, my aches and imperfections, the cracks in my clay heart, the tarnished clouding my silver. 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:53.000 I want to see all of you, even if your pure light would burn out my circuits, even if all I can glimpse is your shadowed silhouette through my sheerest talit. 00:05:53.000 --> 00:06:10.000 If I bring my whole self to yearning for you, if I seek to see and to be seen wholly, can I call forth the you who would be in relationship with me? 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:15.000 yearning. And relationship. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:22.000 Even at expense of burning our circuits. Take a minute. 00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:42.000 Breathe that in. Notice what, if anything moves subtly. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.000 Would someone like to read from Rick Lupert? 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:50.000 I would. I have to say, I get his poetry every week. 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:54.000 for the Torah portion, and I really enjoy him. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:02.000 So… What is it about God's face that would end it all for us if we saw it? 00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:07.000 And whatever it is, has it stopped anyone from looking? 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:17.000 I'll tell you where I see it. There is the obvious, the faces of children and kittens, of course, which I only mention to improve the metrics. 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:22.000 How about the rain or lack of rain, if that's your thing? 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:29.000 There's a new flavor of ice cream with pancakes in it. I'm pretty sure God is in there. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000 Or at least on the face of someone eating it. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:36.000 I may never know. They don't deliver it to my house. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:46.000 God's face may be in my Amazon deliveries. I still remember when getting a package was like a treasure arriving at my house. 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:56.000 God's face is in poetry. Look at the spaces between these lines. Do you see it? 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:03.000 God's face is in the lines of this poem that you write when you're finished reading mine. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:24.000 Go on now. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.000 How's this? 00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:30.000 Much better. Thank you. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:40.000 One is about distance. One is about proximity. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Can we make space for both today? Cheryl, and then Iris. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:48.000 I didn't see it like that. I didn't see it as distance and proximity. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:52.000 No. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:59.000 I saw it as… each recognizing. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Well, actually, in Rachel's. I saw it. as something which I don't consider for her, which is still looking for, not having seen. 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Hmm. 00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:19.000 And I… You don't feel that about her, you know? So I think this is for people who are struggling. 00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:20.000 Hmm. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:29.000 to see. And with Wix, it's it's everywhere. Divine is everywhere. God's everywhere. Just look, you've got it. 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Being open. It's almost an answer. 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:35.000 see… Hmm. So seeking and finding. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:41.000 through Rabbi Rachel's. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:45.000 Yeah, another. Was it Iris? 00:09:45.000 --> 00:10:13.000 I was feeling with Rabbi Rachel's poem that there's more of a sense of humility in a way that when she's writing about not through lowered lashes, protecting my… tender places. So vulnerability and humility, and even though, yeah, I agree that she's certainly in relationship with Adanoi. I think it's recognizing. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:23.000 that changes, and… Depending on what we're living and other maybe other things that are external to us. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:32.000 And in Rex, I… my sort of first blush was that there was the sense of. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:39.000 scarcity, or maybe not totally scarcity, but… I was feeling that some of this was about the COVID pandemic. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 Mm-hmm. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:55.000 And… also just appreciating small things. I think it was the Amazon part that made me think about COVID. 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:56.000 Yeah. 00:10:56.000 --> 00:11:10.000 Hmm, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see how they show up in our materials for today. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:16.000 It's the end of Exodus 33 through the beginning of Exodus 34. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:23.000 We've already had the golden calf episode. And God has forgiven the people. 00:11:23.000 --> 00:11:30.000 And now we have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 chunks. 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:37.000 Or is it 8? It's 7. Let's do what we do. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:52.000 Moses said to see you say to me, raise these people, but you do not make, you did not made known to me whom you will send with me. 00:11:52.000 --> 00:12:11.000 And you said, I knew you by your name and found… and you found grace in my eyes. Now, if I find grace in your eyes, please make known to me your ways, so I will know you, and so I will find grace in your eyes. See that this nation is your people. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:16.000 And God said, my face will go before you and comfort you. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:32.000 Moshe said, if your face does not go, do not leave us here. For how will it be known that your people found grace in your eyes unless you go with us, so that we may be distinguished? 00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:38.000 I and your people from all the nations on the face of the earth. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:48.000 Goodyear Babe said to Moshe. It will also do this thing that you asked, where you truly found grace with me. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:57.000 And I know you out by name. Moshe said, Please show me your glory. 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:02.000 God said, I will cause all my goodness to pass before you. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:18.000 And I will call you before the name. I will call before you the name Yidhivav. My grace and my… Compassion. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:24.000 Rod said you cannot see my face, for no human can see me and live. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.000 You'd have offe said, Here is a place with me, stand at this rock. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:32.000 It will be in my glory passing. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:37.000 that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and my palm will screen you. 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:40.000 Until my passing. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.000 Then I will remove my palm, and you will see my back. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:48.000 But my face will not be seen. 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:56.000 said to Moshe. Carve for yourself two stone tablets like the first. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:59.000 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first step. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:02.000 It should be words, sorry. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.000 The words that were on the first tablets that you shattered. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:15.000 Be prepared by morning. Ascend Mount Sinai in the morning and stand there before me atop the mountain. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:38.000 Moshe carved two stone tablets as the first. Moshe woke in the morning, ascended Mount Sinai as Yud-Hevhe commanded him, and took in his hands the two stone tablets. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:39.000 Yahweh descended in a cloud. 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.000 One more. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:43.000 stood before him there. 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.000 And called the name of… 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:51.000 Yeah, Yahweh passed before Him. 00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.000 And called… 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 Yahweh, Yahweh. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:04.000 God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. Can you move it up, please? I can't see the rest. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:11.000 Abundant and hazard, and truth, extending hesed to the thousands. 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:27.000 Lifting inequity and transgressions and cleansing sin. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:35.000 Making space for proximity and distance. finding and seeking. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:56.000 being with, and… Yearning for… What's here? 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:01.000 that's here. Go ahead. 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:07.000 This song by the group Forerunner came to mind. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:15.000 Um… about what the the the the people were singing. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:16.000 Hmm. 00:16:16.000 --> 00:16:21.000 And Moshe sang to God. I want to know what love is. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:22.000 I want you to… I want you to show me. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:24.000 Hmm. 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:30.000 In my life, I've had heartache and pain. I don't know if I can take any more. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.000 And then I thought… Moshe says. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:43.000 I'm going to a meeting with the boss. And, you know, it implies that he's coming back. 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:59.000 I mean, if somebody said to you. Rabbi, I'm going to the store to pick up a few things, and didn't come back for more than a month. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:00.000 It must have been a long line at the checkout counter. 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:02.000 What would you think? 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:08.000 Yeah, and you can see why people are already anxious. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:14.000 I mean, what they've been through? That's a… not a good look. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:20.000 And here's their leader. Who's MIA? 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:36.000 And they're freaking out. I can relate to that, and I can relate to Moshe saying, please show me, show me, show me. And that's the longing that was in Rachel's poem. If I show you. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Thank you. Will you show me? Yeah. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:45.000 Okay. Thank you. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.000 who I am, who you are, who am I getting into this relationship with, and then the reminder that what we think is concealed is really being revealed all the time. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:53.000 Thank you. Thank you, Delia and then Nancy. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:18:08.000 I was just gonna say that the distance and the there is never a goal. It's the process of yearning that is… the preciousness of it. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Okay. Nancy. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:18.000 Um, I just have a question, um, to clarify something, please. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:29.000 When God says carve for yourself two stone tablets like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you shattered. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:38.000 So am I understanding that Moshe is going up to Mount Sinai holding these. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:45.000 big tablets, and God is going to write on them again. And weren't there more? 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:55.000 or am or am I thinking of the history of the world? By Mel Brooks, when they were 15, and now they're only 2. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.000 Okay, thank you. Yes, exactly. Okay. Thank you. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:02.000 More. Yeah, so… so, right, that's what you're… that's what you're thinking of, and, you know, 15 drops one! 10! No, but they're… there really were two tablets the first time, and 2 tablets the second. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.000 Okay. Okay, thank you. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Good time. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.000 I mixed up my… History. Okay. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:12.000 Mel Brooks, I mean, he's been around a while, it's… 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:21.000 Yeah, no, I know a thousand years old. But so it's an interesting thought of Moshe carrying these tablets up. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:22.000 Mm-hmm. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:27.000 I don't know. They're heavy. They're… I'm just thinking about the physics of it anyway. 00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:33.000 Yeah. So what would the midrash there be? 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:47.000 Boy, these are heavy, and I don't want to drop them and and last time I, you know, dropped them because I was so angry. This time I better be really careful. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:52.000 Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Joan. 00:19:52.000 --> 00:20:04.000 I would see it metaphorically as an enormously heavy responsibility, which it is for him to go up and. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:11.000 and be given the rules. Again. The first rules would have done. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:15.000 But… It's a human being. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.000 I'm frustrated with seeing the golden calf, he smashed them. 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:27.000 He's going up again with the same determination and a load on his back, but not tablets, necessarily. 00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:36.000 Okay. Yeah. Yeah this this this leadership thing is getting heavier. I thought they would do what you said not so fast. 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:44.000 Not so much. It's like herding cats. Cheryl. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:53.000 This may not be so popular. In 5 to 7, can you just… up a little bit, yeah. 00:20:53.000 --> 00:21:02.000 I have to make that just a little larger for myself. Okay. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:12.000 Is this… I mean, Jude Vave is going by saying, yay, I'm great. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:23.000 It just seems… I'm not sure what's happening here. This explanation of qualities in such a way. 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.000 Hmm… 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Um… 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Mm-hmm. 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:43.000 when he wasn't abundant and Hesid originally before. Moshe made the claim to save people, correct? 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:44.000 Ah. Did he? Did God? 00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:50.000 He wanted to smite folks. Well, we don't have that place, do we? We didn't add that. 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:55.000 Well. 00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:05.000 But the story is God was angry about the golden calf and threatened to smite. So the question is. 00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.000 Did he really, or was he helping Moshe grow? 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.000 By saying that and creating a leader who would then. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:17.000 stand up for his people and put himself. out like them. 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Yeah. Yeah. Is this developmental? Has God changed? Or has God stayed the same and now we understand that we need certain things? 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:32.000 It's, you know… I don't know, this sits funny for me. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:41.000 And so God presents that face. Uh-huh. This is core theology now. 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:42.000 I'm going to help it sit funnier. I'm going to help it sit funnier. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:50.000 But it sits funny for me. Compassion and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in chesed and truth. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:23:04.000 Extending chesed to thousands. Lifting iniquity and transgression and cleansing sin. I mean, these are all, like, true things, but it just, like, I don't understand the… 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:14.000 Okay, let's make it harder. Anyone have a sense of where we see those words liturgically? 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:15.000 Yeah, Iris. They are the 13 attributes. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:22.000 Weren't the 13 attributes, right? 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:23.000 Daily. 00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:31.000 And when do we see them? We see them daily, but in particular, when do we front them in a synagogue service? 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:37.000 Yom Kippur. For Yom Kippur. 00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:38.000 Russia. Yeah. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Rosh Hashanah, and especially Yom Kippur. Yeah, so this is. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:00.000 Mm-hmm. Um… 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:09.000 And the Torah is out, and the Torah is replacing the back of God. Um… Anyone know what… Davis is. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:17.000 On the Jewish calendar when this is happening, when Moses goes back upstairs and gets the 2nd tablets. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:18.000 No. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.000 North Cebuo or not yet Cebuo? 00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:28.000 Shavuotes was Ayam Adhuna, your God, you will have no other gods before me. The smoking Sinai. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.000 Okay. Oh, that time. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:37.000 But keep at it, keep at it. If you were designing a religion from scratch. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:45.000 And you wanted to make this moment most meaningful. What holiday would you associate with this? 00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:50.000 And the numbers in here's how many days after and before, work out this way. 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.000 the hot. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:55.000 What did he say? Oh, oh. 00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.000 Very close. Nancy said slichhot. It's… It's not Slihode, but it's very close. It's Yom Kippur. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:08.000 No, I… thank you. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:09.000 But when we say that, is God the one saying it or are we the one saying it? 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:13.000 The shattered tablets. 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:18.000 God is the one saying it, we're the ones calling it back to God. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:27.000 Yom Kippur is the day of second chances. Yom Kippur is the day of second tablets. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:38.000 It is the culmination of total forgiveness that we're given the tablets again. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:40.000 Hmm. 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:41.000 Okay. 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:48.000 Why is it so important that this happen in this plot right now? 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:56.000 What just happened? A golden calf. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:05.000 We, as a people, blew commandments 1, 2, and 3, right out of the gate. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:14.000 And so what's created? is tshuva itself. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:18.000 the possibility of returning. After the breaking. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:25.000 Hmm. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.000 It is one of the most radical teachings of Jewish life. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:31.000 And… 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:41.000 And it's not hidden. This is core. that the greatest of the breakings. 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:51.000 Led to the most profound. of reunification. 00:26:51.000 --> 00:27:00.000 But even so, sorry kid, you can't see my face and live. 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:07.000 So that's a little context and now everybody's hand is up. Iris, Amy, Deanna. 00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:12.000 I raise my hand before you presented all of that, and that's very moving. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:13.000 Oh, sorry. 00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:27.000 No, no, that's your job, you're teaching us. But I wanted to talk a bit just quickly about. 00:27:27.000 --> 00:27:28.000 Hmm… 00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.000 the stone and God's glory passing. Motion. God placed Moshe in the cleft of the stone. 00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:39.000 for me, that connected back to Jacob and the stone, and realizing. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:44.000 But he was in a sacred place, that the land was sacred and God was with him. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:50.000 And he didn't know it before or he wasn't really aware of it before. 00:27:50.000 --> 00:28:05.000 And the palm, the palm of God's hand. to be at the right hand of God is very significant, I think, in terms of a partnership, or even, I mean, for us, being in partnership. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:12.000 and to see back. to me is a symbol of following. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:18.000 That even though we can't see God's face, we have trust and we're in relationship and we can follow. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:21.000 Hmm… 00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:33.000 And also just last night. Um, my rabbi said that it was like a Yasha Koach moment that God thought Moses did just the right thing when. 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:41.000 when he broke the tablets and that was interesting. I never really thought about that. 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:45.000 But that's, I think, related to the whole developmental. 00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:46.000 Everybody is good. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:59.000 Mm-hmm. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. There's so much here. Amy Deanna, Ellen Ruth. 00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:08.000 Well, I, I have a concrete question. Then I will remove my palm, and you will see my back. 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:11.000 Like, full stop there. See my back. 00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:12.000 Uh-huh. 00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:16.000 When does that happen? I don't remember that. I can take it. I can take it metaphorically and say sometimes. 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:21.000 Uh-huh. 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:22.000 Good. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:32.000 you live your life, and then afterwards, you say that couldn't have been only me. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:33.000 But… 00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:38.000 Boom. Torah never says beautiful Amy Torah never says and Moses saw God's back. 00:29:38.000 --> 00:29:39.000 Yeah. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:45.000 And he was wearing L.L. Bean. Tor doesn't even try to go there. 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:47.000 So what is this? 00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:53.000 But God's saying. That will have been. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:30:02.000 Which means it's gotta… this is a whole fount of midrash just waiting to happen. 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:07.000 And I just want to speak to what Cheryl said. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:25.000 Guard doesn't always… hasn't always acted. 00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:26.000 There's no heresy here. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:34.000 As if God had those qualities. And this may be a little heretical, but maybe God's in a developmental process that it's… It's, um… the way 2 people grow in relationship. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:35.000 Yeah. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:49.000 Not that God is purportedly a person, but I mean, we can't deny what we've read. God doesn't always act like that. 00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:50.000 Mm-hmm. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:31:01.000 or God's actions don't strike us that way. It's a slightly different, right? So, who is God relative to… who do we believe, think, feel God to be? And how do we perceive, and do we know God by God's presence, absence? 00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:13.000 qualities, behavior, and how do we know those are God rather than what we are perceiving and the judgments that we make, oh, that was chesedik. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:22.000 was loving versus that was not. Those are judgments that we bring to it. So it's very complex. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:36.000 And it's totally relational. Far from heresy, Amy, this is the dance of… Of who we are in relationship with God. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:44.000 And there's a wonderful book entitled A Biography. Meaning that God must devolve. 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:51.000 That was a God who evolves or is it us who evolves in our ability to blank? And so God. 00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:54.000 God meets us where we are at each step. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:56.000 Is that the Karen Armstrong book? 00:31:56.000 --> 00:32:11.000 It's not the Carrie Armstrong book, um, and now that I'm looking for it, I can't find it. Uh… of course I can't find it, because I'm looking for it. I will look for it, and I will find it, just not now. 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:17.000 Thank you, Amy. Oh gosh, here come the hands. Deanna, Ellen Ruth Joan. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:23.000 Well, first of all, thank you for starting with those poems, because that gave such a great context. 00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:28.000 for reading this. Um… 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:29.000 I have two things. 00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:31.000 Good. 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:35.000 I was weirded out by 5 through 7. 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Because it sounds like the image of that is, I'm sorry, this might be a radical too, 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:43.000 like, a Monty Python. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:44.000 It's that kind of day. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:50.000 It's a Monty Python skin in my head, like, here's this cloud going by the mountain. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:56.000 God's waving out the… out of the cloud and turning his back, and… 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.000 So I'm troubled by it, and I kept re… 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:01.000 I think I can never unsee that. 00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:09.000 I… good. And that was my entire… my work here is done, Rabbi David. 00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:15.000 Anyway, I kept reading it over and over and reading the rest of it, and then suddenly I saw, oh… 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:20.000 Oh, in 1719, which I see that now you've highlighted it, Moshe said, 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:22.000 Please show me your glory. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:26.000 So this 5-7 is actually a response to 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:29.000 Moshe's request. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:31.000 a direct… 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:32.000 literal response. 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:34.000 Hmm… 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.000 So there's… 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:37.000 And what does MOSHA not ask? 00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:44.000 He doesn't say, show me your face, he says, show me your glory. 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:45.000 Yeah. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.000 Right! Right! Motion never says show me your face. 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.000 Yeah. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:34:01.000 How many of us spend our faith lives thinking at some point or another, Moses asked God, let me see your face. 00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:02.000 And I… 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:07.000 It is not true. 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:12.000 This goes back to that first poem of Rabbi Rachel's. 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:14.000 Um… 00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:16.000 That approach… 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:22.000 that is also, uh, holding back because the knowing that 00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:25.000 when you are actually in contact with God, 00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.000 It's going to be so huge, like… 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:33.000 You don't even know what's gonna happen. You might explode. 00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:36.000 So that ties into this. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:37.000 And then my… the other thing I've been thinking about… 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:39.000 Yeah. Yep. 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:42.000 through this discussion is about repair. 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:44.000 And about… 00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:45.000 Yeah, Shuva. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.000 I know a lot about repair in physical terms, in terms of 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:52.000 scars, like when you've had surgery. 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.000 or some kind of injury? 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:55.000 And the… and the flesh comes back together, that place is stronger. 00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:00.000 Yeah. 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:03.000 It's thicker and stronger than what it… 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:04.000 Like… 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:09.000 Yeah, think about it. Think about your relationships. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:16.000 There's a way in which… The braking makes the relationship stronger because. 00:35:16.000 --> 00:35:23.000 Once there's a repair, we know. that the relationship is resilient. 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.000 Yes, and also in the repair, in that process of the repair, 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:29.000 And this was also in that first poem. 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.000 One becomes vulnerable and opens up to 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:36.000 the other person in a deeper way. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:39.000 In order to make that repair. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:40.000 So that also strengthens the relationship. 00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:53.000 Yeah. Very much so. Um, one of the things that happened, and we don't have time to get into it, but it's so poignant, the people gave some of their jewelry. 00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:58.000 And out came the golden calf. And after the whole thing happened. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:04.000 The people took off their finery, we read. The people took off their adornments. 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:09.000 And never put them back on again. 00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:14.000 They lost some of their hubris. 00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:16.000 I want to say one more quick thing about repair. 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:17.000 Because I also… 00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:20.000 Yep, then… then Ellen Ruth, Joan, Corinne, and Text. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.000 I also do visible mending, which is where you 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:33.000 you darn things and fix things with embroidery, and you can see where the mend is, and it's made into a decoration. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:42.000 And so, repair can also create… take something that's broken and make it more beautiful than it was before. 00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:43.000 Yes, and there's also a stitch… 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:45.000 Kintsugi. 00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:50.000 equivalent in Japanese crafts called sashiko. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:37:01.000 Nice, nice. Thank you. Yeah, we may never get to anything. Ellen Ruth Joan, Corinne, Cheryl. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:07.000 I… I think there's, um… 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:09.000 align between… 00:37:09.000 --> 00:37:13.000 anthropomorphosizing God. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:16.000 And not. And… 00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:21.000 When we talk about God's face, 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:24.000 I… I don't really… 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:31.000 shit as his face, I see it more… 00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:32.000 Metaphorically. 00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:38.000 And maybe that's 5 to 7 about the qualities and the glory. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:41.000 to actually see… 00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:44.000 What this god is representing. 00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:49.000 And then the second poem, I don't remember the name of the person who wrote it, 00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:54.000 Um… it talks about seeing… 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:59.000 God's face in all of the… 00:37:59.000 --> 00:38:03.000 Um, beautiful things in this world. 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:05.000 And… 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:06.000 I think… 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:07.000 Yeah. 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:10.000 I think, perhaps… 00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:17.000 We do ourselves a disservice when we think about God's face. 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:21.000 as something physical. 00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:22.000 Because God is… 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:24.000 Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. 00:38:24.000 --> 00:38:28.000 my understanding of God is beyond… 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:29.000 something… physical. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:47.000 Right. Right? And… And we have struggled with this in prior sessions. What do you mean you saw God? What do you mean you saw God's legs? What is this? 00:38:47.000 --> 00:39:05.000 Torah is having trouble with words. And there's a movement between physicality and qualities and experience and meaning. All of that is happening here. Thank you, Ellen Ruth. 00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Joan. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:14.000 Last night you, Rabbi David. talked about opening up. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:19.000 about Shabbat, giving you an opportunity to open up. 00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:26.000 And the face. That we talk about is us. 00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:32.000 This is the faces us. The godliness appears in us. 00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:56.000 And and the reason that you… never see God's faces, of course, the obvious, that you don't see your own face until maybe you open up and realize that the qualities that are… that… that… Moshe would be telling you that you must have. 00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:57.000 Hmm. 00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:05.000 uh, can be in you. If you open to them. And if there were a way to express anthropomorphizing kicking back. 00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:14.000 to be the God that we think of as, you know, like we think of ourselves. It is ourself. 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:19.000 Hmm. Thank you, Joan. 00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:24.000 Thank you, Joan. Corinne, then Cheryl then text. 00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:43.000 Yes, quickly, three points. It's like the breaking of the tabbers is like a metaphor of breaking our egos, and there is some kind of meeting between our brokenness and God's brokenness. It's sometimes in that. 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:55.000 Liminal space where we break down that we can find that space for God. And and what is something, as in said is Kintsugi is broken. 00:40:55.000 --> 00:41:10.000 The weights looked after, the weight scared we've said. I think it's the same process that God looks after us after being broken and… Having seen and returning and preparing us, redeeming us. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:21.000 Yeah. Yeah. Yup, yup, yup and later we're going to keep the broken tablets with the whole ones in the ark. 00:41:21.000 --> 00:41:35.000 We never… lose sight of the breaking, not because we immerse in it, but because there's something transformational about letting earth back a little bit. 00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:49.000 And that's why the journey of Midsummer through that runway into Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, is so… Important and so generative. 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:50.000 So thank you for that. Cheryl. And then, yeah. 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:57.000 As the… There is nothing as whole as a broken heart, this Saint Judaism. 00:41:57.000 --> 00:41:58.000 Broken heart. That's right. 00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:02.000 So it's… 00:42:02.000 --> 00:42:06.000 That's right. Cheryl. 00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:20.000 So I'm sorry to keep harping on this, but I just had a thought and I kind of want to go with that. I really appreciated who said that God is growing and evolving in relationship with us. 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:30.000 And, you know, Amy… remembering also that God doesn't always act like this. So now I'm thinking I need to really review. 00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:41.000 how it's stated that God acts in all these other places, but I think it's not so nice to see if it's really… that or something else. 00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:49.000 And, um… Also, God doesn't say this is all of me. God just mentions these qualities. That doesn't mean that's all doesn't mean God doesn't. 00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:54.000 Correct. Good. Good. 00:42:54.000 --> 00:43:01.000 also doesn't have that flip side, because the only way we really know anything. 00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:08.000 is by knowing also what it's not. In fact, it's a proof. 00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:09.000 Mm-hmm. 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:17.000 methodology for making something known, and yes, like the yin-yang. And so, like, we appreciate light because we know dark. 00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:18.000 Dark, right, so, perfect example, so in the book of Isaiah. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:23.000 And so I. 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:37.000 The book of Isaiah, Isaiah, uh… calls forth a sense of divinity that, who is God? 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:38.000 Mm-hmm. 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:48.000 fashion's light U Voregoshek. This is basic morning liturgy and creates darkness. Osessalo makes peace and creates evil. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:54.000 Uh-oh, when the rabbis picked that up and put it into the morning liturgy. 00:43:54.000 --> 00:44:02.000 What they did is a teeny little slight yots of old-fashioned light, Borischek. 00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:09.000 creates darkness. O se shalom makes peace overeeta. Cull and makes all. 00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:10.000 Now, all-encompasses evil, but our rabbis could not bear. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:15.000 Hmm. 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:22.000 To put the word evil or bad and God in the same sentence. 00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:27.000 But is it true? By definition. 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:31.000 Because otherwise, divinity is not a unity. Divinity would have a limit. 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:38.000 Yeah, wholeness demands. The wholeness demands both sides. 00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:39.000 Thank you. 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:43.000 Yeah. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yup, yup. Ellen Ruth, is it on this? I want to be able to move us to text. 00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:46.000 Yes, it's around this. 00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:54.000 I never put together before a shattering of the first Ten Commandments. 00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:02.000 With the wedding ceremony, where you step on the glass, 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:03.000 Beautiful. 00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:10.000 And when… when I… when I got married, we asked our spiritual teacher what did it mean to step on that glass. 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:12.000 And he said, 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:13.000 Gorgeous. 00:45:13.000 --> 00:45:20.000 As soon as you make the vow, you have to acknowledge that you're going to break it. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.000 And so, you need a third force as the witness to the yes and the no. 00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:28.000 Yeah. 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:29.000 Hmm. 00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:38.000 And there's something about that now, thinking about the Ten Commandments, and the shattering of the first set, 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:49.000 And then the… carrying that around with the second set, we have the… the no and the yes together. 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:52.000 Creating for us… 00:45:52.000 --> 00:46:00.000 For each of us, the third force, to acknowledge that whatever… whenever we make a vow, we also have to acknowledge we're going to break it. 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:13.000 Yep. Beautiful. When I work with a wedding couple, one of my standard questions to them is, what are your biggest fights? 00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:19.000 And what happens after? for exactly that reason. 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:27.000 Beautiful. All right, we're going to do the best we can with the time we've got. This was a very rich, rich journey. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:32.000 So Moshe says, please show me your glory, not your face. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:38.000 We have a few. Things here about what's going on with Moshe. 00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:44.000 Not so much what's going on with God. But what's going on with Moshe? 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:53.000 And consider what it means about spirituality and leadership. Moshe has not had an easy year. 00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:59.000 Let's do… put that out there. The Orachaim. 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:08.000 Our sages. had seen… At the sea. 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:20.000 They all became prophets. They had such spiritual vision that they could see in that moment even the things that the prophet Ezekiel could not see. 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:28.000 And it's gonna say… In Exodus, God spoke with Moshe face to face. 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:34.000 And the oral time says it was in visions that were just a consuming fire. 00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:46.000 And an image of supernal light. But this… Big as it was, was now not what Moshe was really asking. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:53.000 Now Moshe is asking. for that level of total divinity itself. 00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:59.000 Notwithstanding that it says, please show me your glory, and not show me your face. 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:05.000 Moshe is being read to say, hey, I want to see you. 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:16.000 I want to see the whole thing. 00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:17.000 Yeah. Right. 00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:24.000 Maybe Moshe has doubts too. Maybe we all go back and forth. Maybe we all have golden calves at times. 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:25.000 We're not… 00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:31.000 Maybe we all have golden calves at times. Torah doesn't clean up for company. 00:48:31.000 --> 00:48:44.000 Tori is very human. in the respect that it makes space for faithlessness and doubt, and shattering things. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:54.000 We don't live in the ideal. a spirituality that is based only in the ideal doesn't help us, because we're not there. 00:48:54.000 --> 00:49:00.000 And so we need stuff along the way. 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:07.000 This principle. that Moshe wants to see more. 00:49:07.000 --> 00:49:13.000 And that Moshe is capable, because Moshe is Moshe, of seeing what most cannot. 00:49:13.000 --> 00:49:24.000 is something that finds expression throughout Jewish life. In… by the Middle Ages, by the time of Nachmanides, Ramban. 00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:33.000 there was this concept of the aspeklaria hama'irah. Literally the shining speculum. 00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:42.000 Imagine looking through one of those kaleidoscope things. And all you see are fractals. 00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:48.000 If we humans are lucky, that's what we get. 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:56.000 If you're a prophet. You might see not… A kaleidoscope. 00:49:56.000 --> 00:50:05.000 But some some looking into the telescope. into the far distance of the night. 00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:14.000 But it's unlit. You can barely make out just a little bit, but that's a lot! 00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:21.000 Only Moshe, it is said. had the Aspectlaria, the speculum, had the irah. 00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:31.000 That was illuminated, that shined. That this way, he saw what he could see with as much illumination. 00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:37.000 As one can. 00:50:37.000 --> 00:50:45.000 Moshe now is asking in the Ramban, desiring that he actually see in clear sight the glory of God. 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:54.000 Your glory means the great glory. Another way of saying the Aspectlarium era. 00:50:54.000 --> 00:50:55.000 You said it's a time the glory, God's glory is a space in time. 00:50:55.000 --> 00:51:00.000 And God answers. I will… 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:05.000 I didn't say that, but why not? 00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:06.000 Ah. Well, the Hebrew is kavod. 00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:12.000 How do you define glory? That's a lot to ask. I mean, you know… Yes. 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:22.000 So Kavod is honor, is glory, is weightiness. We're struggling on word here. 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:30.000 We're really struggling on word. And God answers this request, I will cause the measure of. 00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:35.000 The meduct of all my goodness to pass before you. 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:42.000 Because if I really passed my whole self before you, whatever that means. 00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:53.000 you couldn't stay you, so I'm gonna pass measures of it. And that's where… I don't bechanun comes from. 00:51:53.000 --> 00:52:00.000 So you can touch and get all my goodness more than others do, but this vision you've asked for of complete vision? 00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:10.000 You're human, you can't see it. 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:11.000 But this is not where Moshe started out. Does someone want to read from Shemot Rabba? 00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:19.000 I'll leave it… I'll leave it at that. 00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:20.000 When God revealed in the bush, 00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:22.000 This is Kor Midrash. 00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:27.000 Rabbi Yehuda Bar Nechemya? 00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:29.000 Nehemia said, 00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:30.000 Moshe was a novice at prophecy. 00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:32.000 Yeah. What was it? 00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:37.000 God said, if I reveal to Him in a loud noise, I will frighten him. 00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:41.000 If, in a low voice, he will scorn prophecy. 00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:45.000 God revealed to him in his Father's voice, 00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.000 Moshe said, My father comes from Egypt. 00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:54.000 God said to him, I am not your father, but 00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:56.000 God of your Father. 00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:58.000 Then, Exodus 3.6, 00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:03.000 Moshe hid his face, for he feared to gaze at God. 00:53:03.000 --> 00:53:08.000 Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha said, 00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:12.000 Moshe did not do right by hiding his face. 00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:14.000 Had he not hit his face, 00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:20.000 God would have revealed to him what is above, what is below, and what is to be. 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.000 Later, Moshe sought to see, as in Exodus 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:28.000 3318, Please show me your glory. 00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:30.000 The Holy Blessed One said, 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:32.000 When I sought, you did not seek. 00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:40.000 Now that you seek, I do not seek the way you seek. 00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:43.000 I'm loving the faces on screen. What am I seeing? 00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:46.000 That just twisted my brain completely. 00:53:46.000 --> 00:53:48.000 Tell me why. 00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:54.000 It it it. 00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:55.000 It's what you just said. Isn't that what you said? 00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.000 It's again, you know, God's like, I'm taking my bowl and going home. 00:53:59.000 --> 00:54:02.000 And then it? What just happened? 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:05.000 Okay. 00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:11.000 Then you just say that in the chat that it's the perception. 00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:20.000 It's not… because you can't see it, so you can only perceive it, and the perception won't be accurate, because we don't have the tools. 00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:26.000 And therefore, you don't have to hide your face. There are other Midrashim that really credit Moshe. 00:54:26.000 --> 00:54:31.000 with hiding his face from a position of humility. 00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:48.000 That this actually was the right thing to do. Here comes Yeshua ben Korcha saying, actually, Moshe, you know, be shy on your own time. 00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:49.000 Tell me. 00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:58.000 I don't, you know, that last line there just struck me the first one first piece we read, you know, when I it's like you didn't play the way I wanted you to play. So I'm taking my ball and going home. 00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:00.000 But God didn't do that, right? 00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:05.000 Well, it says, when I saw it, you did not seek. 00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:12.000 Now that you seek, I do not seek. the way you seek. 00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:19.000 It's like because Moshe hit his face and didn't according to this. 00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:20.000 This Midrash, yeah. Uh-huh. 00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.000 Saying that he should have revealed his face, right? Not that I agree with any of this. 00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:36.000 But because he did hide his face, God's like, well, now that you don't want to hide your face too bad. 00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:37.000 Why would this midrash exist? 00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:42.000 Instead of, yay, you've come to understand, here I am. 00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:52.000 Uh-huh. So, why does this exist? Remember, God did not write Midrash, although there are some people who think God wrote all the Midrashim and were just finding them. 00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:59.000 Why does this exist? What is this trying to tell us, aside from. 00:55:59.000 --> 00:56:07.000 just give us something to shoot at. What's going on here? You're not wrong, Cheryl. I'm just like, what's the what's the e-car here? You jump? 00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:16.000 You don't… you don't… timing is everything, they say. You don't always get what you're after. 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:31.000 Sometimes it's just not available to you. And that's true. You can bust your hoozy trying to understand something, trying to find a path, trying to know what to do. But we're human, so sometimes it's not available to us. 00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:41.000 Okay. Okay, what else? Nancy, right, you can't always get what you want, um, but if we're sticking with, uh, uh. 00:56:41.000 --> 00:57:00.000 Uh, you do get what you need, right, Delia? Um, and if we're sticking with song lines, therefore love the one you're with. Okay. 00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:06.000 God didn't. tell Moses to take a hike. 00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:15.000 Not quite. Why does this exist? Yeah, Deanna and then Iris. 00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:17.000 So, uh… 00:57:17.000 --> 00:57:18.000 What do you think? 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:27.000 That first line, well, second line, where, um, it says Moshe was a novice at prophecy. 00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:28.000 I love it, too. 00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:29.000 I love that line. I made it into my senior sermon. 00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:32.000 It's a great line. 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:35.000 He was a baby prophet, so this last line… 00:57:35.000 --> 00:57:38.000 He… yeah, the way I rendered it was a rookie. 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:40.000 Yeah, rookie. 00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:46.000 So, in that context, I can read this last line. 00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:50.000 as… God is trying to teach him. 00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:59.000 If you do this, it's… if your timing is wrong, like Joan said, it may not work out, or, you know, like… 00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:06.000 showing him where the edges are, where the guardrails are, and taking him step-by-step through this process of learning… 00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:15.000 This is what it means to be in direct relationship with me, which is one of the ways that I would interpret being a prophet. 00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:21.000 Boom. Boom. Put another way, who's timing? 00:58:21.000 --> 00:58:28.000 Who's in charge here? That's, I think, one of the core teachings here. 00:58:28.000 --> 00:58:31.000 Iris, what do you think? 00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:44.000 So I think also name for Adonoi comes to mind because I will be what I will be so that when you're seeking and, um, you know, the whole process. 00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:50.000 It's kind of that saying about it's a dance sometimes to be in relationship. 00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:59.000 So, and also… about the leadership and the following, where the people are at the time that the leadership is. 00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:00.000 Yeah. 00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:06.000 And so that that's all part of the dance and being what I will be… what I will be. 00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:15.000 Yeah. I will be what I will be. Don't pin me down. You can't. 00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:29.000 I'm unpinned downable. It's not that I'm evasive, it's just you can't put me in a box that you've limited me. The rule is that that's not what God is. 00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:36.000 I think there's something more here, too, and I don't… none of this is satisfying Cheryl, which is completely cool. 00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:40.000 Here's, you know, because there's something inherently unsatisfying here. We've shattered the tablets. Go ahead, Cheryl. 00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:48.000 Excellent. It's not that it's not satisfying, but when you. 00:59:48.000 --> 01:00:01.000 Well, maybe a little when you said, yeah, there's a bit of like, who's the boss here? And my whole goal is not to have a boss, but to have everything in connection. 01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:02.000 Sure. 01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:09.000 And the only way there can be connection. is when there's parity. 01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:14.000 Uh-oh. 01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:15.000 That's huge, isn't it? That's huge. 01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:19.000 I don't. Yeah, I. 01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:29.000 Because with… parody. 01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:30.000 Yep. 01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:38.000 It doesn't mean… it doesn't mean it's constant parity. It can go like this. Everything always goes back and forth, back and forth. It's like 90% one day and 10% here, and then it's 75 and 25, and as the learning and the exchange happens. 01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:42.000 But even so, that's still the 100% together. It's it doesn't. I don't mean equals, you know, even Stephen. 01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:52.000 Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I… I think I hear it. I think I hear it. And it's a challenge. 01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:53.000 Okay. Yeah. 01:00:53.000 --> 01:01:00.000 It's a core challenge, right? I mean, no, it's not bad. It's just a who are we relative to God? That's… that's what Key Tsai is all about. 01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:07.000 Entirely. And to this, I think this midrash is coming to say. 01:01:07.000 --> 01:01:20.000 All right, if motion was a rookie. How about the rest of us? 01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:21.000 We're in the aspiration phase. 01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:31.000 We're not even AAA baseball. We're… I've got spring training on my mind, please just bear with me. It's… it's… it's… Yeah, where, we're in like, you know, kiddie school T-bowl. 01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:44.000 Sure. Sure. Okay. But even so… to hide ourselves. 01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:52.000 Because we are afraid to look at God. He feared to gaze at God. 01:01:52.000 --> 01:02:03.000 If we are afraid. If we hide ourselves… If we hold ourselves back. 01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:16.000 Then, of course, we're not going to see. 01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:24.000 Fear or awe, Cheryl writes, the Hebrew is amenable to either one. Traditionally, it's understood as fear. 01:02:24.000 --> 01:02:35.000 Because fear was the holding back, and I'm gonna hide, and I'm, you know, send somebody else, go away. 01:02:35.000 --> 01:02:40.000 So what is it that God is after here? 01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:49.000 On the one hand, Moses is saying. Show me. And here's Rabbi David say show up to look. 01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:53.000 But here God says, you can't see my face. 01:02:53.000 --> 01:03:00.000 Are we being set up to fail, or are we being set up to succeed? 01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:02.000 John? 01:03:02.000 --> 01:03:09.000 The people down below have said, show us. Moshe. 01:03:09.000 --> 01:03:15.000 goes to another place in his head, and his… and he's pleading. 01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:21.000 How am I going to show them? Am I equipped to show them? Do I have the strength to show them? 01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:28.000 and he can only return, so to speak, with that second set. 01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:29.000 of tablets. 01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:40.000 of tablets, which are… yeah, which is his way of saying, here it is. It was this the first time, but you weren't ready for it. Now, here it is, and. 01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:52.000 to himself saying, I believe this is the right thing to do, God has given me these again. It hasn't changed, and I'm going to go down and. 01:03:52.000 --> 01:04:08.000 give them what they asked for. And they needed to be. They needed that because you've said, you know, there were no law, there was no… there were no rules, there were no laws, they were just a bunch of people who needed guidance. And so did Moshe. 01:04:08.000 --> 01:04:17.000 But he found it in himself. Because that's where we all ultimately find guidance, because there can be all the guidance, all the godliness, but if we're not open to it, we don't get it. 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:24.000 Hmm. 01:04:24.000 --> 01:04:26.000 But he was. 01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:35.000 To put it a slightly different way. I just need to reopen it. 01:04:35.000 --> 01:04:51.000 If you believe that this is… very much about humanity rather than divinity. Uh, this is… misbehaving a little bit, I'm sorry. 01:04:51.000 --> 01:04:57.000 Then as Abraham Joshua Heschel would say. We live and act. 01:04:57.000 --> 01:05:06.000 According to the image of humanity we cherish. the image of divinity. 01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:11.000 is almost irrelevant. Because each of us. 01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:15.000 This is in the Allen Frankl. Is made by Salomelohim. 01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:21.000 So at the end of the day, we may have a very difficult time grokking with people what God looks like. 01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:30.000 But you want to have the first inkling? Look around the room. 01:05:30.000 --> 01:05:42.000 And bring that morality to it. 01:05:42.000 --> 01:05:52.000 There are some who think that we can escape our corporeality. 01:05:52.000 --> 01:06:03.000 that the more spiritually we live. the more likely we are to be able to gaze directly. 01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:08.000 Has anyone ever been on a spirit quest where their body was denied? 01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:23.000 They didn't eat, they didn't drink, they ran 150 miles, they sat in the dark for a week, they smoked the peyote, they communed with the ancestors, they sat in the sweat lodge. 01:06:23.000 --> 01:06:30.000 Has anyone experienced something like that? or just been profoundly ill. 01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:37.000 Deanna, you may want to read this next one from Rabinu Bakhia. 01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:39.000 We must be precise. 01:06:39.000 --> 01:06:45.000 How did Moses think he could transcend inherent limit of human perception 01:06:45.000 --> 01:06:48.000 While corporeal. 01:06:48.000 --> 01:06:51.000 That's huge. 01:06:51.000 --> 01:06:59.000 The greatest of prophets, Moshe's physicality receded by his 40 days of self-denial on Sinai. 01:06:59.000 --> 01:07:07.000 And he thought that he thereby would not lose himself, but rather, as it were, transcend himself while still in body. 01:07:07.000 --> 01:07:15.000 Attaining what he and all will attain after fully separating from the material world. 01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:17.000 But the Holy Blessed One answered him, 01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:20.000 None can see me and live. 01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:27.000 Meaning that one who is still connected to body and spirit cannot attain this level in one's self while corporeal, 01:07:27.000 --> 01:07:30.000 Only after separating from body, 01:07:30.000 --> 01:07:33.000 As in Psalms 73, 24. 01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:43.000 By your counsel, you led me, and after your glory, you took me. 01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:51.000 After your kavod, after your glory. God, show me your glory. 01:07:51.000 --> 01:08:00.000 You really want to see my glory? The next step after that is you can't be. 01:08:00.000 --> 01:08:12.000 human and alive anymore. Which is why, by the way, that… It leaves tradition understands. 01:08:12.000 --> 01:08:25.000 When people are preparing to die. They may see things that the rest of us don't. 01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:40.000 The rabbi, does after your glory? You took me mean that behind your glory you took me? 01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:41.000 What does it mean? What does after mean? 01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:47.000 No… But… but it can't after well after is another way. 01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:54.000 Very good to say one's back in Hebrew. 01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:57.000 Yeah, that's what… that's how I interpreted it be like like like behind like behind your glory. 01:08:57.000 --> 01:09:11.000 So that is that's going to be a way in. Yep, that's going to be a way in. I see, I see, I see. It's not temporal, but yeah. Uh-huh. So now… 01:09:11.000 --> 01:09:28.000 Let's get into this. I'm going to move us through a little quickly just to get us to a place. Back to Ramban, or Nachmanides. Why is it that none can see me, God, and live? 01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:32.000 It isn't that one can see God and then die. 01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:44.000 Although that may be the case. But it's that before one can even GET what one is seeing, the soul will separate. 01:09:44.000 --> 01:09:55.000 Even in the case of seeing the angels, just angels, just angels, you know, hey, I went to the supermarket, and I just saw an angel. It wasn't God. It was a little angel. 01:09:55.000 --> 01:10:09.000 We would all go. This, Daniel said, even by this vision, my pain overcame me, that to see this. 01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:21.000 shatters… the limitations that make it safe for us to be us. 01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:32.000 It's like ripping the cocoon away from a butterfly before it's ready. 01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:44.000 Has anyone ever seen or experienced something that just totally shattered them and it became a challenge to integrate it? 01:10:44.000 --> 01:10:59.000 I bet we have. We might not have used these words, but these are elemental human experiences. 01:10:59.000 --> 01:11:04.000 John. 01:11:04.000 --> 01:11:05.000 Brian. Yeah. 01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:17.000 Maybe we're not supposed to see God as individuals you know going back to the household thing I I've always the time I was a little girl, I always thought that the kiddosh over wine. 01:11:17.000 --> 01:11:18.000 Hmm. 01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:26.000 was the happiest thing I ever heard. The music in it was just the most joyful. And when you have these joyful experiences in worship and community, you know, last night. 01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:30.000 Yeah. 01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:39.000 I was at school and we were doing the kiddosh and. 01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:40.000 Yep. 01:11:40.000 --> 01:11:45.000 there's a feeling in it. Maybe we all do or some of us have that experience, but it's never. 01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.000 the team sport part of it, the whole is greater than the sum of our parts. Yep. 01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:52.000 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 01:11:52.000 --> 01:12:01.000 Yeah, which is why we've seen this before. Sheena, the inherent indwelling presence of God, dwells amidst us. 01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:10.000 Among all the people together. Yeah, look at all the hearts! Aha! 01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:17.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 01:12:17.000 --> 01:12:26.000 So what's going on, God? I want to read the Orhachaim. 01:12:26.000 --> 01:12:33.000 Why would you restrain this from us? This awesomeness. 01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:42.000 I haven't had a chance to read. 01:12:42.000 --> 01:12:49.000 It's just like. Simpson? 01:12:49.000 --> 01:12:50.000 That's a way. Boom, boom, boom. 01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:57.000 The the the contraction to to make space. Or that positive energy coming in, because otherwise. 01:12:57.000 --> 01:12:58.000 Yup. There can't be enough. There can't be an us. 01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:03.000 or the donut hole? 01:13:03.000 --> 01:13:19.000 I can only be in relationship with another if there's another that isn't me and therefore other people are not just flawed attempts to be me. They actually have to be allowed to be different and therefore so too with God and us. 01:13:19.000 --> 01:13:27.000 There can't be a relationship otherwise. And if you could see the hole, we would cease to be. 01:13:27.000 --> 01:13:33.000 Yep, who wants the Orachaim? 01:13:33.000 --> 01:13:36.000 The light of life. Yes. 01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:43.000 The light of life. 01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:45.000 Does someone wish to read aloud? 01:13:45.000 --> 01:13:55.000 God said, "None can see me and live. meaning it is not I, God, restraining this thing from you. 01:13:55.000 --> 01:13:59.000 But it's not possible for you to get me. 01:13:59.000 --> 01:14:09.000 This is why God added and live. Meaning remain alive, because I, God, want you to live. Thus it is said. 01:14:09.000 --> 01:14:17.000 Psalms 8411. Better a day in your mere courtyard than a thousand anywhere else. 01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:24.000 I would rather get as close as I can get just once. 01:14:24.000 --> 01:14:26.000 Oh, is that a reference to the temple? 01:14:26.000 --> 01:14:35.000 It is. It is. Now, here is, you know, Psalms are evocative. 01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:45.000 And when our ancestors quoted Psalms, it was like a hyperlink. And so you click on the hyperlink of Psalm 84, and here's what you get next. 01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:57.000 And he was hyperlinking to this. Because Adonai. Our God is both Son and Shield. 01:14:57.000 --> 01:15:08.000 Adonai gives grace and glory, and does not restrain goodness from those who walk blameless. Adonai of hosts. 01:15:08.000 --> 01:15:17.000 Happy is the one who trusts in you. How can God be both sun and shield? 01:15:17.000 --> 01:15:41.000 I thought God is just the bright light. This is core liturgy, friends. This is… Before there was a seat door, before there were rabbis, before all that, there were the Psalms in the temple, and this is what our ancestors used as liturgy, because the Eternal is… our God, is Son and Shield. 01:15:41.000 --> 01:15:51.000 Grace and glory. The very thing that Moshe is looking for. Why? How can God be both Son and Shield? 01:15:51.000 --> 01:15:54.000 It's not annoy you hard. 01:15:54.000 --> 01:16:02.000 Because God is a unity, sure, so God is all things. And what else? 01:16:02.000 --> 01:16:11.000 because because you're the shield I take to me protects. You are protected from things you cannot handle or understand until you can. 01:16:11.000 --> 01:16:19.000 And so you can. And, right, so, like, anyone want to go on vacation to the sun? 01:16:19.000 --> 01:16:21.000 Yeah, to the core, yeah, right. 01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:26.000 Yeah, I mean, it, you know, don't bring your winter clothes. 01:16:26.000 --> 01:16:36.000 we will burn up. We can't… it won't be a vacation for us. We will cease to be. 01:16:36.000 --> 01:16:46.000 And so, inherent in the divine human relationship is a little bit of this. 01:16:46.000 --> 01:16:52.000 We can get closer. But we need to toggle back. We can get closer, and we need to toggle back. And again, it's a metaphor. It's a metaphor, that's all it is. 01:16:52.000 --> 01:16:56.000 Oh… 01:16:56.000 --> 01:17:02.000 Until we can train our vision, until we can develop capacity. 01:17:02.000 --> 01:17:07.000 But not even Moshe could develop the full capacity. 01:17:07.000 --> 01:17:18.000 Because Moshe was in body. And therefore… Let's get into that whole back thing. 01:17:18.000 --> 01:17:24.000 The Sforno goes there. Who wants it? 01:17:24.000 --> 01:17:38.000 And you will see my back. You will see the actualization of all that is below me, but my face will not be seen. It will not appear as me. 01:17:38.000 --> 01:17:45.000 hung from my existence can flow the existence of all that exists. 01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:49.000 As you asked. Which is like the second poem. 01:17:49.000 --> 01:18:05.000 Which is like the second poem. Do we really know in our knowing that all existence is with God? 01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:08.000 when we put ourselves in that space to get it, sure. 01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:27.000 But can we actually see it? It's like… It's like the fish being able to see the water. It's like the… the bird being able to see the air. 01:18:27.000 --> 01:18:32.000 Not because we're denied it. But because we're part of it. 01:18:32.000 --> 01:18:35.000 But isn't that… job. Isn't that the point to make ourselves aware? 01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:40.000 Yeah. 01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:41.000 to find that awareness through all of this study, and. 01:18:41.000 --> 01:18:44.000 Yep. 01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:52.000 So, how do we write to approximate it, to get close to it, to maybe instantly touch it? 01:18:52.000 --> 01:19:02.000 And to us, that's huge. That's a lot. It can transform a life. It can transform the world. 01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:09.000 But it's still the equivalent of putting on a little flashlight and holding it in front of the sun. 01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:18.000 So bright is that light, so whole is that wholeness. It's like, ah, I've got the whole world. But have you seen the Milky Way galaxy? 01:19:18.000 --> 01:19:25.000 And that's just one of billions? sense of scope. 01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:30.000 shifts profoundly. So the Bukhal sure. 01:19:30.000 --> 01:19:37.000 on my back. kind of goes there and he says this. 01:19:37.000 --> 01:19:41.000 While I didn't say Marcy earlier that my back is history. 01:19:41.000 --> 01:19:44.000 In time, the Bohoor Shor is going to go there. 01:19:44.000 --> 01:19:50.000 It's what happened. We leave behind us. 01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:57.000 essentially exhaust pipe fumes of all the things that we've done in our lives. 01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:04.000 Think of it like the book that opens and reads from itself the act of every hand. 01:20:04.000 --> 01:20:10.000 There is no back or neck for God comparable to humans who leave behind us what we do. 01:20:10.000 --> 01:20:18.000 And this seems the point. Actually, Moshe did not see Shkina at all. 01:20:18.000 --> 01:20:26.000 Rather, he saw rays of God's light that God radiates from a place after passing. 01:20:26.000 --> 01:20:31.000 As it were. Like the sun when it sets. 01:20:31.000 --> 01:20:35.000 He was not an astronomer, but he did a pretty okay job. 01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:42.000 Like, the sun, when it sets, moving west under the earth, so the disk of the sun is not yet seen, is not seen anymore. 01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:49.000 But even so, the shining is visible in the West as the sun distances at night. 01:20:49.000 --> 01:20:54.000 translation. Every sunset you've ever seen in your life. 01:20:54.000 --> 01:21:07.000 And that's what we… that's what he allegorizes to my back. But my face may not be seen. Like in the morning before the sun disks rises, and it shines, which, by the way, in Hebrew. 01:21:07.000 --> 01:21:15.000 It means to shine, like Zohar, but it also is to warn. 01:21:15.000 --> 01:21:17.000 It's a warning. What's the warning? What's the warning? 01:21:17.000 --> 01:21:25.000 Oh. 01:21:25.000 --> 01:21:26.000 Oh… 01:21:26.000 --> 01:21:33.000 It's warning that it's approaching. It's going to get continuously stronger and the sun's approach in the sky is like that radians left over after it passes, which is why a sunrise looks like a sunset. 01:21:33.000 --> 01:21:40.000 whose diminished quality can be seen before the sun actually rises, but in full light. 01:21:40.000 --> 01:21:45.000 We can't look. 01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:54.000 Not because the sun doesn't want us to. But because we'll go blind. 01:21:54.000 --> 01:21:57.000 And so what do we have? What do we have to do? 01:21:57.000 --> 01:22:04.000 I kept this from the solar eclipse. We have to wear our shades. 01:22:04.000 --> 01:22:12.000 And God is the shade. God supplies us. Kleep Hot. 01:22:12.000 --> 01:22:20.000 Shells to protect us and at the same time to encourage us to thin them. 01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:26.000 So that over time we can see more. 01:22:26.000 --> 01:22:33.000 Marcy. And then we're gonna get a little bit of this taste of what we can see. Marci. 01:22:33.000 --> 01:22:38.000 Just a sentence. Like the. 01:22:38.000 --> 01:22:46.000 Statement on the car mirror? Objects may be closer than they appear. 01:22:46.000 --> 01:22:49.000 closer than they appear. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. 01:22:49.000 --> 01:22:53.000 No warning. 01:22:53.000 --> 01:23:01.000 Now. Our tradition has a bit of a scruff-up battle. 01:23:01.000 --> 01:23:11.000 about what it is Mosheus saw. The Bukhal Shur says, oh, Moshe didn't see Shechinah at all. 01:23:11.000 --> 01:23:20.000 What does Rashi think? 01:23:20.000 --> 01:23:24.000 Yahweh, Yahweh, she is the attribute of compassion. 01:23:24.000 --> 01:23:34.000 The first alert to mercy before one sins, and the other after one sins and repents. 01:23:34.000 --> 01:23:41.000 and repents, yeah. Who is the attribute of compassion? 01:23:41.000 --> 01:23:47.000 Who? 01:23:47.000 --> 01:23:50.000 You know? Shekinah? 01:23:50.000 --> 01:23:56.000 Uh-huh… Rashi. 01:23:56.000 --> 01:24:04.000 is very precise with his Hebrew. Very precise. 01:24:04.000 --> 01:24:12.000 Midat Rachame. 01:24:12.000 --> 01:24:19.000 She is the attribute of compassion. 01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:27.000 And Rachame from the Hebrew word Rechem, which means. 01:24:27.000 --> 01:24:31.000 W-O-M-B. 01:24:31.000 --> 01:24:38.000 So if referring to Shakina, it is not outward God. It is. 01:24:38.000 --> 01:24:44.000 the indwelling essence of God. 01:24:44.000 --> 01:24:52.000 Remember that the next time you screw up. Because we will. 01:24:52.000 --> 01:24:59.000 to use Ellen Ruth's language, we smash the glass because we know we're going to screw it up. 01:24:59.000 --> 01:25:11.000 Our people could not get out of Sinai without screwing it up and being… brought back in. 01:25:11.000 --> 01:25:20.000 The God… of indwelling is the attribute of compassion. 01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:25.000 The attribute of inwardness. is the attribute of compassion. 01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:33.000 is Adonai, Adonai. Not far away. 01:25:33.000 --> 01:25:39.000 Not long-distance call. Right here. 01:25:39.000 --> 01:25:45.000 amidst the breaking. 01:25:45.000 --> 01:25:50.000 He is… Rashi is sighting to a teeny little bit of Talmud. 01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:59.000 And our Talmud piece is really interested in this forgiveness piece, because it's the core of Rosh Hashan and Yemke. 01:25:59.000 --> 01:26:08.000 So our last teeny little reading for today, and we have a little bit of… bonus text. 01:26:08.000 --> 01:26:31.000 Which we offer to you for your Shabbat enjoyment. Who wants to read from Talmud? 01:26:31.000 --> 01:26:32.000 Yochanan, yeah. 01:26:32.000 --> 01:26:39.000 passed before his face and called Exodus. Rabbi Johannin Johannon said, were it not explicitly written, it would be impossible to say. 01:26:39.000 --> 01:26:47.000 The holy Blessed One wrapped in a prayer shawl, like a prayer leader, showed Moses this order of prayer. 01:26:47.000 --> 01:26:54.000 We've been at this for thousands of years. I don't know, Adonai, keep going. 01:26:54.000 --> 01:27:14.000 God said. whenever Israel sins, let them act before me in accordance with this order of prayer, and I will forgive. The verse continues, I am Yud-Hey Vavafe before one sins, and I am Yudh-Hey Vavafeh after one sins and makes. 01:27:14.000 --> 01:27:24.000 tissueva. God, merciful and gracious. Exodus. 01:27:24.000 --> 01:27:30.000 We're gonna mess it up. 01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:38.000 But the ever-becomingness we call Yud-Heh Vavave. will still be. 01:27:38.000 --> 01:27:44.000 and is in relationship with us. Precisely in all we can see. 01:27:44.000 --> 01:27:54.000 and precisely in all we can't but earned to. And precisely what we… impute of that we can't find. 01:27:54.000 --> 01:28:10.000 But we get little bits, we get the light after the sunset, and the light before the sunrise. We get the light in the eye, we get the light of Shabbat, we get the light of Torah, we get the light of… healing, we get the light, and it's real light. 01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:21.000 It's real life. We need this right here and right now, because otherwise our story is over. 01:28:21.000 --> 01:28:30.000 We busted the. relationship. We blew the covenant. We shattered the tablets. 01:28:30.000 --> 01:28:36.000 it would seem to be over. 01:28:36.000 --> 01:28:43.000 But now, it's only beginning. It's only beginning. 01:28:43.000 --> 01:28:54.000 Because after breaking, there can be healing, and after a mess up, there can be forgiveness, and after… The blindness, in a sense. 01:28:54.000 --> 01:28:59.000 There can be seeing. 01:28:59.000 --> 01:29:04.000 We need this right now. In our Torah cycle. 01:29:04.000 --> 01:29:13.000 And then our world. And so it's critical that Kitisa come to be. 01:29:13.000 --> 01:29:27.000 We need this. Has a bit of the medicine for our hearts and our souls and our relationships and our community and the world. 01:29:27.000 --> 01:29:33.000 This is what has kept our people. like this. 01:29:33.000 --> 01:29:38.000 Holding the broken with the hole. 01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:47.000 And because of this. In the next two Torah portions, we get to make the Mishkan. 01:29:47.000 --> 01:30:00.000 We had the plans before. Maybe they were just for visualization, but now God understands, oh boy, they're actually going to need to build this thing, aren't they? Because they need a thing. 01:30:00.000 --> 01:30:17.000 They don't need a thing, they need a thing. But the thing is going to be empty, there won't be anything in it, but there'll be a thing, so they think there's a thing in it, but there isn't really a thing, and I… I'm not going to be found in the thing anyway, I'm going to be found between them, but this way they'll build something, and they'll do it together, and they'll know that I'm there. 01:30:17.000 --> 01:30:22.000 Close enough. And so we're going to build a Nishkan. 01:30:22.000 --> 01:30:28.000 And that'll be the next tutorial portions. The Book of Exodus will close. 01:30:28.000 --> 01:30:32.000 And we'll pick up with the Book of Leviticus. 01:30:32.000 --> 01:30:37.000 After Passover. It'll take a one-week break for Pesach. 01:30:37.000 --> 01:30:40.000 So I'll see you over the next two weeks. 01:30:40.000 --> 01:30:46.000 And then, I believe April… first week of April will be off. 01:30:46.000 --> 01:30:54.000 or something close to that. So, I'm gonna… I just put our materials in the chat box. 01:30:54.000 --> 01:30:57.000 I bless us all with a Shabbat of… Beautiful light. 01:30:57.000 --> 01:31:05.000 and healing