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R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom, everybody! It is May 9, Arab Mother's Day in the United States and Canada. Happy Mother's Day for folks who are mothers or mother figures, or who have mothers.

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R. David (he/him): We're had mothers, it's Mother's Day weekend. We are moving through the Omer period, we are coming up on Shavuot.

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R. David (he/him): Let's put in the chat box everyone we are holding in our hearts for healing.

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R. David (he/him): And we'll dedicate our learning to them.

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R. David (he/him): They're caregivers.

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R. David (he/him): And to their beloveds.

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R. David (he/him): And we can hold ourselves as well.

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R. David (he/him): In their merit, in the merit of our learning, the Shabbat, Baruch Atta Adonai, Elohinu.

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R. David (he/him): Blessed are you, Adonai, our God Eternal Sovereign, who makes us holy in God's mitzvot, and commands us to busy ourselves in words of Torah.

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R. David (he/him): We are finishing the Book of Leviticus.

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R. David (he/him): As much as I say that

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R. David (he/him): We learn to love Leviticus.

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R. David (he/him): Leviticus doesn't have a tremendous amount of plot.

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R. David (he/him): Things will shift starting next week when we open the book of Numbers. But we have a double partial to finish us off.

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R. David (he/him): And in them, there are more mitzvot.

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R. David (he/him): And in particular, as I mentioned in the email to get us started, This opening piece… of…

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R. David (he/him): Why we do what we do.

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R. David (he/him): Spiritually, do we follow mitzvot because we're told to?

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R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom, Diana.

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R. David (he/him): Do we do it because it says? Do we do it because we think it's good for us? Do we do it because we know the reason, or we think we know the reason, and we agree with the reason? Do we not do it if we don't agree with it?

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R. David (he/him): Why do we do what we do?

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R. David (he/him): That's the question of…

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R. David (he/him): this last piece of the book of Leviticus, and to introduce it, I want to get us to a word.

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R. David (he/him): And the word is Bechukotai, the second of our tutorial portions that are combined today. It comes in

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R. David (he/him): The I at the end is my.

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R. David (he/him): Kukim.

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R. David (he/him): Hakim, what is a hook?

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R. David (he/him): A chok is technically a law, but it's related to the verb chakak.

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R. David (he/him): Which is to engrave, or to carve. So we could imagine law as engraved pathways, carved…

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R. David (he/him): pathways. The legislative branch, the Knesset in Israel, is called Rashut, the authority, Hamikhu Kekkit, the law engraver.

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R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom Meredith.

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R. David (he/him): So we have two opening poems to get us started on that.

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Linda Kramer: Thank you, mate.

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R. David (he/him): Boop!

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R. David (he/him): Linda, you've… put on twice. I'm gonna remove one of you.

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Linda Kramer: Yeah.

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R. David (he/him): There you go.

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R. David (he/him): So let's open up with these two poems to get us started. One of them is by Reb Zalman.

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Rachel Rudansky: Could I interrupt for a moment and ask you where the my possessive is in…

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R. David (he/him): Right here.

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Rachel Rudansky: Oh, really? Yeah.

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R. David (he/him): At the end. Ty. My.

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Rachel Rudansky: Oh, okay. I guess there's more than one possessive type. Okay, thank you.

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R. David (he/him): All good! So, who would like to read Reb. Zolman's?

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ert: In order to transmit an engraved message, the medium of transmission must give up something of itself.

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ert: This is what the chipping out process of engraving entails.

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ert: And the medium of transmission here is us.

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ert: More than the other types of mitzvah.

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ert: The Hukam asks for a higher level of surrender to a will that is not our own.

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ert: And I have found that they bring me closer to the realization of God.

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R. David (he/him): So, Hakim are something about surrendering.

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R. David (he/him): to the source of the Chuk.

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R. David (he/him): The surrender to the source of the command. A chok is one form of mitzvah.

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R. David (he/him): It's even more than a command. It's something engraved. It's carved on.

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R. David (he/him): What else comes… if there's any emotions from Reb Zalman's words, and then we'll pick up

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R. David (he/him): Rachel's, and then we'll do some reading.

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R. David (he/him): We're a small group, go for it.

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Sherrill Cropper: I am… Love this, because… this description, this feeling, because when you first said engraving, I thought.

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Sherrill Cropper: It's an engraving on us.

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Sherrill Cropper: these rules.

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Sherrill Cropper: That, I didn't think about it as the giving up piece, which works so well for me.

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Sherrill Cropper: sometimes I need to hold… myself.

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Sherrill Cropper: back to really feel the importance of the moment, as opposed to the, I'm here.

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Sherrill Cropper: So I really, I really like this. And also, it reminds me of a scientific study years ago on the brain that showed that when we have… and there's, there's things, guidelines about how to make a habit.

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Sherrill Cropper: habitual, and how many times to do it. It literally is like creating a new wagon wheel rut in your brain, so that it becomes habitual, and that came to my mind as well.

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R. David (he/him): Good. That's right.

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R. David (he/him): That's right.

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R. David (he/him): the rabbis and, God are… Really good neurobiologists.

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R. David (he/him): That's right.

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R. David (he/him): Anything else? Yes, Rachel?

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Rachel Rudansky: Well, I'm just… I don't understand who could Keem…

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Rachel Rudansky: Well enough to understand the… that… those stanzas in the poem.

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R. David (he/him): It comes from chakak, which is to engrave or carve. That's all it is. The word chok, that, that…

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R. David (he/him): kind of mitzvah that is because I told you so.

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R. David (he/him): Is related to engraving on us.

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R. David (he/him): It's literally written in stone.

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Rachel Rudansky: But what is it meant by that these types of mitzvot can be hook, keen, and others can't, or others aren't?

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R. David (he/him): Right, so, so sometimes, sometimes we're told why a mitzvah. Sometimes it's obvious.

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R. David (he/him): Leave the corners of the fields for the poor. Why? Because they're poor.

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R. David (he/him): Why should you care? Because you were poor.

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R. David (he/him): And you have the stranger's heart, you know the stranger's heart, because you were a stranger in Egypt.

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R. David (he/him): That's not a hook. That's… it's a mitzvah, it's a command, it's a duty, it's a good deed, but it's not… it's not a because I said so.

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R. David (he/him): Don't wear two different kinds of… threads.

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R. David (he/him): called ShotNes. That's an old, old command.

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R. David (he/him): Why?

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R. David (he/him): Are the linen and the wool gonna have a fight? Probably not.

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R. David (he/him): That's a hook.

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R. David (he/him): Don't eat pigs.

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R. David (he/him): We can imagine that that's from help, and maybe it is, but it doesn't say so.

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R. David (he/him): It says, be holy, therefore don't eat pigs. Really?

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R. David (he/him): Let's see what comes. Ellen Ruth, Deanna.

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R. David (he/him): You're muted, Ellen Ruth.

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ert: I'm struck… excuse me… I'm struck by the lines and the medium of transmission here is us.

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ert: And then it refers back to…

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ert: When he talks about the meaning of transmission at the beginning, you must give up something of yourself to understand.

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ert: And the poet William Collis Williams wrote this poem, and in it he said.

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ert: I wanted to write a poem you'd understand, for what good is it to me if you don't understand it, but you have to try hard?

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ert: And that's what… this poem by Rev. Zalman Schechter is saying to me.

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R. David (he/him): Hmm.

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ert: But I have to give up a part of myself, that I have to try hard to understand what's being said.

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R. David (he/him): Yep.

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R. David (he/him): I mean, after all, it doesn't say why.

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R. David (he/him): So there is a surrendering here. It doesn't make sense.

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R. David (he/him): At least to us.

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R. David (he/him): Now, do we know, you know, who are we relative to God? I mean, there's that kind of thinking, and so there's an inner process that has to go on.

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R. David (he/him): Absolutely, Ellen Ruth. Deanna, we'll pick up Rabbi Rachel's, and then we'll do some… and then Iris, okay.

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R. David (he/him): You're muted, Deanna.

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Diana Rico: Sorry, A question. Are we to understand engraved?

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Diana Rico: An engraved message.

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Diana Rico: As something literally engraved on stone or whatever, or is this…

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R. David (he/him): That's where the word comes from.

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Diana Rico: Or is it metaphorical, or both?

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R. David (he/him): Well…

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R. David (he/him): That's a great question! It's definitely metaphorical. If you saw the movie, the Ten Commandments were carved in stone!

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R. David (he/him): Right? So, is it like that? Well, we're not told.

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R. David (he/him): As we see, we're gonna… we're gonna open up the Torah portion, it's gonna say, if you follow my Chukim.

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R. David (he/him): not defined.

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Diana Rico: That's what I thought, thank you.

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R. David (he/him): Of course, of course, right? Why would the most important word be defined? Exactly, Iris.

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Iris Barten: So, thank you.

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Iris Barten: I think that, yeah, it's metaphorical, and it's… tangible.

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Iris Barten: So, I'm feeling it's about being receptive to what is offered to us, and then by receiving it, we can

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Iris Barten: Act in a way that expresses those values, or .

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Iris Barten: the values, what we believe, so I really think it's about love, and it's about relationship.

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Iris Barten: And so, when…

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Iris Barten: Yeah, so when we're the medium of transmission.

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Iris Barten: We give of ourselves, it's part of that flow of being in community, being in relationship, and

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Iris Barten: living the covenant, really, so I think that's… well, that's what it means to me.

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R. David (he/him): Yep. Hang on to that notion of covenantalism. We're gonna come back to that.

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Iris Barten: Yeah.

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Iris Barten: And it's… I just… the last thing is that I think it's about opening our heart.

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Iris Barten: And receiving from, the divine, and then living that and sharing it with others to be in community.

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R. David (he/him): Okay, beautiful. Now hold all of that together as someone else reads.

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R. David (he/him): From Rabbi Rachel, and I need to make this ever so slightly smaller, because she had a few more words to say. There you go.

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Diana Rico: Either or.

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Diana Rico: If you will follow my laws and observe my commandments.

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Diana Rico: I will grant you rain in its season.

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Diana Rico: You will eat your fill.

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Diana Rico: I will live in your midst.

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Diana Rico: I will untie your tangles.

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Diana Rico: Where there is rye bread, there will always be pastrami. You and your mother will remain on good terms no matter what.

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Diana Rico: But if you do not obey, if you break my laws and spurn my rules, if you break my covenant.

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Diana Rico: I will set my face against you, I will shatter your glory.

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Diana Rico: I will leave your boat be calmed.

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Diana Rico: You will never find a good parking place again.

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Diana Rico: You will poison the skies, and your fields will not feed you.

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Diana Rico: I can be infinitely more hostile than you.

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Diana Rico: But I won't be.

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Diana Rico: In the end, you'll realize I was here all along, waiting for you.

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Iris Barten: Thank you.

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R. David (he/him): What'd you think?

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R. David (he/him): We're a small enough group, you can just unmute.

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Iris Barten: This is making me cry.

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Sherrill Cropper: I… No, she cracks me up.

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Sherrill Cropper: The part about God smiting.

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Sherrill Cropper: Has always been an issue for me.

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Sherrill Cropper: And I have interpreted it as…

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Sherrill Cropper: That we feel she mighted because we become separate.

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Sherrill Cropper: When we don't do what we in our inner

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Sherrill Cropper: Souls. Are belly barometers. No is correct.

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Sherrill Cropper: in a… To be a righteous.

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Sherrill Cropper: Freemischtik.

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Sherrill Cropper: human being, Mensch, We separate ourselves from the divine.

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Sherrill Cropper: There is something that is an automatic connection

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Sherrill Cropper: When we allow for Sheffa, for the divine flow, for us to be a conduit in the world.

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Sherrill Cropper: And when we separate from that and get caught up in ourselves to the Point that we…

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Sherrill Cropper: Separate from others.

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Sherrill Cropper: That is a separation from God.

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Sherrill Cropper: From the design.

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R. David (he/him): Okay. There's a lot here.

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R. David (he/him): Do we really believe that if we eat pig, we'll never get another good parking spot?

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R. David (he/him): And yet, so many people look to God and say, why did this happen to me?

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R. David (he/him): And… Historically, our people have been in the business of trying to figure this out.

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R. David (he/him): And yet, we have Theodicy, T-H-E-O-D-I-C-Y.

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R. David (he/him): Why do bad things happen to good people?

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R. David (he/him): If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and just?

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R. David (he/him): Does it mean that… We weren't good.

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R. David (he/him): Does it mean we deserved it?

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R. David (he/him): Does it mean that God did any of this at all?

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R. David (he/him): Or is it more as Cheryl is saying, we will feel hit on, Or… something else.

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R. David (he/him): what is… our relationship between divinity and causation. That's gonna be a big question when we reach Torah.

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R. David (he/him): Rachel, and then Ellen Ruth.

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Rachel Rudansky: Oh, okay, I thought Ellen Roof was before me, but, I just want to say that when I was reading the Parshas, there's all of this, you know, this… all of these bad things are going to happen if you don't demand, and then in the very end, it's sort of like, oh, but it's okay, we, you know, in the end.

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Rachel Rudansky: I just want you to know I'm here, and just as she says it here, so I just think it's kind of funny, you know, that we, you know, it's put up in that kind of construction, you know, that it's really gonna shake you up, and then at the end, it's very loving and caring, so…

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R. David (he/him): Do I have to pull this car over?

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R. David (he/him): I am going to kill you, but I'm always here for you.

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R. David (he/him): Ellen Roost.

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ert: In relation to the dietary restrictions.

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ert: I always think of that as looking out for my good health, and that there's wisdom in it. And so, to,

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ert: Make that idea a little bit…

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ert: more abrasive of the different things that I'm being told to do. I see it as for my well-being, not for, like, if you do this, this will happen. Could be more, in a certain sense, like the Buddha's cause and effect.

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ert: So.

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R. David (he/him): I know. Maybe so.

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ert: I don't totally get that there's this horrible God, if I eat spare herbs, he's gonna do something horrible to me, but that maybe if I eat spare herbs, I won't feel very well. And he's letting me know about that.

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R. David (he/him): Maybe, maybe. And there are a lot of people who eat shrimp, and they're very happy.

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R. David (he/him): I happen not to be one of them, but okay, right? So…

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R. David (he/him): One of the things here, with Hukim, it goes to, ultimately, our humility.

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R. David (he/him): Because we think we know why, but the whole point is that we may not know why, and yet it's there. Are we willing to take it, quote, on faith that it's good for us?

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R. David (he/him): Are we willing to take it on faith for some chukim, but not other Hukim?

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R. David (he/him): this, I mean, why do we do what we do, or not?

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R. David (he/him): Meredith, last comment, and then let's see what Tora has to say about this cause and effect thing.

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Meredith: See, I really don't like this.

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R. David (he/him): NO!

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Meredith: Because it's, oh, if you don't do this, you're gonna pay.

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R. David (he/him): Z…

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Meredith: And it's… and it's very… turn… it turns me off.

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Meredith: It turns me off, and I… I don't run towards it and say, oh yeah, I want to do all these mitzvah, because I want to avoid…

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Meredith: bad things happening to me. I want to be able…

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Meredith: I want to be able to tap into my goodness.

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Meredith: My… my goodness as a human, and not because there's some external threat that something bad is gonna happen if I don't do X, Y, and Z. So, I don't like any of this.

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Meredith: I'm curious… I'm just curious what… what… what is… what is the point?

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R. David (he/him): What's the point? Alright, so thank you for saying a quiet thing out loud. Do we really want to fear the consequence of a vengeful God?

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R. David (he/him): So, the Schneuer Zalman of Liotti book.

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R. David (he/him): called Tanya, which maybe some of you have heard.

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R. David (he/him): Takes the position that ultimately there are two reasons why we do anything.

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R. David (he/him): And one of them is love.

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R. David (he/him): And one of them is fear.

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R. David (he/him): And this particularly applies In our relationship with Mitzvot.

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R. David (he/him): And that ultimately, because of the way humans are wired.

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R. David (he/him): The tradition needs to put both out there.

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R. David (he/him): But of the two, the higher form is love.

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R. David (he/him): Not fear.

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R. David (he/him): But how many of you who have either been teenagers or raised them, Ever said to your teenager.

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R. David (he/him): Please clean your room because you love me.

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R. David (he/him): And it worked.

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R. David (he/him): Don't all raise your hands at once.

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Sherrill Cropper: I wish I had to fill out with that.

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R. David (he/him): Right? So, maybe there's something developmental here.

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R. David (he/him): Or maybe there's a primal part of us

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R. David (he/him): That sometimes needs to feel the truth and consequences.

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R. David (he/him): And… Sometimes we're gonna rebel against that in our desire to prefer the loving, inviting God.

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R. David (he/him): than the consequential God.

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R. David (he/him): It's all on the table, it's been… it's here every day. Why do we do what we do in Torah? Why do we do what we do in Jewish? So…

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R. David (he/him): Here's how it goes.

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R. David (he/him): Let's do what we do. I have chunked it up into… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, haha, 7! I'm gonna make it as big as it can be. There you go.

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R. David (he/him): Let's do what we do.

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Meredith: I'll do it, Rabbi.

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Meredith: If you walk in my hukim, And keep my mitzvot.

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Meredith: And do them.

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Meredith: I will give you a reins in their season, and give the earth her produce, and I will give the tree of the field its fruit.

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Meredith: Your threshing will overtake the vintage.

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Meredith: And the vintage will overtake the sewing.

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Meredith: You will eat your bread to satiety and dwell securely in your land.

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Sherrill Cropper: I will give peace in the land, and you will lay asleep without trembling.

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Sherrill Cropper: I will Shabbatify beasts from the land, and no sword will cross your land.

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Sherrill Cropper: You will give chase to your enemies, and they will fall before you too soon.

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lindabkramer: I have a view.

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lindabkramer: We'll give chase to 100, and 100 of you will give chase to 10,000.

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lindabkramer: Your enemies will fall before you to sword.

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lindabkramer: I will look with favor on you. I will multiply and raise you, and I will keep my covenant with you.

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Susan Phillips: You will eat old grain long stored, and clear out the old to make room for new. I will give from my shechina to within you. My soul will not spurn you.

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Iris Barten: I will walk myself amidst you, and I will be God to you, and you will be my people. I am Yod-Heh-Vove-Heh, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from being their slaves, who broke the yoke from on you and caused you to walk upright.

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R. David (he/him): Buuuu!

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ert: But if you do not hear me, And do not do all.

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ert: these mitzvah… If your soul's a bore, My hookm.

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ert: And sperm, my ordinances, so that you do not do all my mitzvah, and you invert my covenant.

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R. David (he/him): One more.

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Rachel Rudansky: Then… I will do this… to you. Thank you.

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Rachel Rudansky: I will account misery on you.

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Rachel Rudansky: I'm sorry, I will account misery on you.

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Rachel Rudansky: Consumption and fever, causing eyes to pine and body to languish. You will sow your seeds to no purpose, for your enemies will eat it.

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Rachel Rudansky: I will set my face against you. You will be rooted by your enemies.

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Rachel Rudansky: And your foes will dominate you. You will flee through none pursuit. You will flee though none pursues you.

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Rachel Rudansky: And can I please just read something again? I will set my face against you. You will be routed? Rooted?

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R. David (he/him): Routed.

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Rachel Rudansky: routed by your enemies, and your foes will dominate you. You will flee through. None pursues you.

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R. David (he/him): And it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on.

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R. David (he/him): And on, and on, and on.

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R. David (he/him): You'll be hit sevenfold, you'll hit… you'll be hit seven seven sevenfold, the wild beasts of the field will come, they will make you bereft of children, they'll destroy everything. Another sevenfold, here it comes, avenging the covenant.

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R. David (he/him): pestilence, you'll be handed over to the enemy, you'll eat, but you'll always be hungry, and then if even that doesn't work, you'll… another sevenfold! You'll eat the flesh of your sons, and you'll eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and smash your sun images, and set your corpse upon the carcasses of your idols, and your cities will be ruined.

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R. David (he/him): And all sorts of terrible things, and you'll be scattered.

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R. David (he/him): And then the land will recover.

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R. David (he/him): And the survivors among you, will flee… And you'll be lost.

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R. David (he/him): But eventually, They will confess.

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R. David (he/him): And they'll come back.

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R. David (he/him): And I will remember my covenant.

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R. David (he/him): And I'll bring them back.

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R. David (he/him): And I'll remember them for the covenant of their ancestors.

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R. David (he/him): Whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in sight of the nations to be a god to them.

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R. David (he/him): Everybody feel better now?

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R. David (he/him): What's here?

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R. David (he/him): What's here?

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R. David (he/him): It seems like both Reb Zalman and Rabbi Rachel We're really going here.

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R. David (he/him): And Rabbi Rachel was using a little bit of humor to get us in.

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R. David (he/him): But there's some pretty deep stuff here. Meredith Ellen Ruth, or Ellen Ruth Meredith, I don't know who was first.

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Meredith: I… this, to me, Rabbi, it's like the gumball machine.

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Meredith: And it feeds into the gumball machine of God, like, okay, you behave yourself, you do well, good things happen, and it doesn't work that way.

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Meredith: And so…

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R. David (he/him): So, it's…

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Meredith: It's hard enough to have faith in God, right, and believe

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Meredith: And He… and God has shown us, in various ways.

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Meredith: his bounty, you know, like, good stuff. But you gotta keep it up!

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Meredith: You gotta keep it up, some more good stuff happens, and if you don't, well, too bad. You're in trouble.

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lindabkramer: Hmm.

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Meredith: So, this is gumball machine for me.

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R. David (he/him): you know, where's the love?

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R. David (he/him): Huh?

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R. David (he/him): Yeah, I mean, this is why the poems were so spot-on.

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R. David (he/him): Right? Let's call it what it is. Ellen Ruth Sherrill.

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ert: I just would like to add something into the conversation. Sure. I'm personally struggling with

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ert: whether God actually wrote this, quote-unquote, wrote.

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R. David (he/him): Obama.

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ert: Or whether this was a way that the heads of the tribes controlled people to do what they wanted them to do.

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ert: I don't know why that's coming up for me, but I would like to just add that thought to the conversation.

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R. David (he/him): That's always on the table, but it's especially on the table when we don't like what it says. Oh, God couldn't have written that!

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R. David (he/him): Now, Academically, there are some who would say that this is the P, letter P narrative.

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R. David (he/him): the priestly narrative in the documentary hypothesis, meaning it was written by the Levi'im and the Kohanim. This was written by the priests to induce compliance.

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R. David (he/him): Okay, that makes some measure of intuitive sense.

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R. David (he/him): Cheryl.

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Sherrill Cropper: I also have that feeling, as Ellen was saying.

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R. David (he/him): Does anybody not have that feeling? Just, I'm just curious. Does anyone not have that feeling?

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R. David (he/him): Are we all here in the same boat?

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R. David (he/him): We're all here in the same boat. Okay!

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Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, I, you know, however,

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Sherrill Cropper: I also go to another place, which is a little bit of Buddhist training.

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Sherrill Cropper: Which is in addition to our own personal karma, which is basically saying, follow the mitzvot.

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Sherrill Cropper: You know? And good things happen. Plant good seeds, get good trees.

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Sherrill Cropper: There's also something called group karma, nation karma, family karma.

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Sherrill Cropper: And how we behave in the face.

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Sherrill Cropper: of that.

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Sherrill Cropper: is also a determination of our personal, I'll just say righteousness.

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Sherrill Cropper: It's easy to be nice to the nice.

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Sherrill Cropper: You know, it's… it's easy to…

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Sherrill Cropper: To give when people are grateful.

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Sherrill Cropper: When no one's looking?

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Sherrill Cropper: how we behave When all around us, things are falling to poop?

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Sherrill Cropper: Those are the measures by which

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Sherrill Cropper: We can take account of ourselves, and by which the divine takes account of us.

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R. David (he/him): The Torah of Cheryl, thanks be to God. Deanna.

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R. David (he/him): I think, Iris.

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Diana Rico: I love the Torah of Cheryl, thank you for that.

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Diana Rico: I want to bring in something that Ellen Ruth said in the chat that really resonated for me.

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R. David (he/him): something, let's see.

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Diana Rico: He said, makes me think we currently have sinned a lot to have the world we have now.

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R. David (he/him): I know, right?

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Diana Rico: But here's how I understood that when I read it.

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Diana Rico: I think it's true that when I think about all the troubles that we have now, they are grounded in human folly.

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Diana Rico: We've created the pollution, we've created the climate crisis, we've created a system where the top 1% own all the money. We've created poverty, we've created racism.

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Diana Rico: God didn't come down and smite us with these things. We created them.

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Diana Rico: So this… differs from the text that we just read, but I feel that it's true.

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R. David (he/him): Unless you say that what God is saying here, or Torah is saying here, is there will be consequences of your actions, choose wisely.

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Diana Rico: Yes, the wording doesn't… doesn't read that way to me, but I believe that that's true.

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R. David (he/him): Right. Okay. So, you and Ellen Ruth have made a fundamental move, and it's very Jewish.

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R. David (he/him): And it's this.

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R. David (he/him): When, I'm gonna use Cheryl's word, poop, when poop?

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R. David (he/him): Happens?

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R. David (he/him): What is a spiritual person?

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R. David (he/him): to do.

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R. David (he/him): Because poop will happen.

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Corinne: Yeshuah.

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R. David (he/him): There it is.

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R. David (he/him): You know, that's the showstopper, right?

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R. David (he/him): You know, when terrible things happen, when people get sick, when people die, when people ding your car in the supermarket parking lot, when there's a Holocaust.

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R. David (he/him): What are spiritual people to do?

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R. David (he/him): Are we to say God is dead?

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R. David (he/him): Are we to say, what did I do to bring this on?

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R. David (he/him): Even though there may be no literal causation.

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R. David (he/him): Do we take on… A heightened spirituality to…

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R. David (he/him): Make sure that we respond in a manner that Well, fill in your blank.

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R. David (he/him): We've been at this for…

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R. David (he/him): Maybe so. And for thousands of years, our people have been wrestling this. Why did the temple fall in Jerusalem? Why did… why did God let the Romans take it down? Why were we exiled? These are human questions. And…

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R. David (he/him): Helmut's answer is, we acted badly, and therefore, God didn't protect us from the Romans.

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R. David (he/him): An historian will tell you, nothing could have protected us from the Romans.

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R. David (he/him): And yet.

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Sherrill Cropper: from the room.

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R. David (he/him): Is there no spiritual response?

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Sherrill Cropper: what's important.

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R. David (he/him): Maybe so. Maybe so. And that kind of thinking, you know, leads us to something like, well, thank God for the Holocaust, because now there's a State of Israel.

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R. David (he/him): Right? And so this if-then thinking, and it's very complicated.

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R. David (he/him): It's very complicated.

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R. David (he/him): And… Yet, we have to return to our elemental question, and why do we do what we do?

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R. David (he/him): Because God said so.

373
00:36:40.650 --> 00:36:44.210
R. David (he/him): Because tradition says so. Because we know it's good for us.

374
00:36:44.370 --> 00:36:48.090
R. David (he/him): Because we believe there are moral pathways here.

375
00:36:48.350 --> 00:36:53.090
R. David (he/him): Because there's something important in the discipline, of…

376
00:36:53.230 --> 00:36:58.830
R. David (he/him): Honoring these mitzvot, whether or not we, quote, agree with them from our ego.

377
00:36:59.260 --> 00:37:04.500
R. David (he/him): Because we need some structure in our lives, and it's good for us to have it, even

378
00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:09.859
R. David (he/him): you know, it could be any structure, we might as well use this one. Why do we do what we do?

379
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:14.020
R. David (he/him): Is it because of consequences? Is it out of love? Is it out of fear?

380
00:37:16.330 --> 00:37:22.100
R. David (he/him): Are we gonna root poverty out because God said so? Well… Not yet!

381
00:37:27.230 --> 00:37:28.669
R. David (he/him): What do we do with this?

382
00:37:29.800 --> 00:37:37.350
R. David (he/him): Marcy, and then let's see what tradition does with it. And then, I'm so sorry, Iris, you're next, and then Marcy. I apologize.

383
00:37:37.930 --> 00:37:38.930
Iris Barten: Thank you.

384
00:37:39.910 --> 00:37:48.220
Iris Barten: So, I think a lot of this, for me, is about finding meaning in life and what I do to find meaning

385
00:37:48.430 --> 00:37:53.399
Iris Barten: Yeah, and to feel I'm living what's important, what matters to me.

386
00:37:54.280 --> 00:37:55.450
Iris Barten: So I think…

387
00:37:55.540 --> 00:38:15.430
Iris Barten: by, living with mitzvot, that it is part of connecting with Adonoi and connecting with each other. So I think that we would not have a fruitful life. We would… what I think a lot of this says in the text

388
00:38:15.770 --> 00:38:19.220
Iris Barten: Is having a fruitless life.

389
00:38:19.220 --> 00:38:20.000
R. David (he/him): Hmm.

390
00:38:20.160 --> 00:38:22.859
Iris Barten: And not being connected with our souls.

391
00:38:23.730 --> 00:38:28.420
Iris Barten: You know, not living our soul, so, that's…

392
00:38:28.420 --> 00:38:32.620
R. David (he/him): Don't, don't, don't let… Don't let the poop take your soul away.

393
00:38:32.780 --> 00:38:33.530
Iris Barten: Yeah.

394
00:38:33.880 --> 00:38:38.159
Iris Barten: And just to develop as a human being. Not just, but, you know, to develop.

395
00:38:38.310 --> 00:38:42.150
R. David (he/him): Right. So, not just, I mean, that's the whole point!

396
00:38:43.110 --> 00:38:44.110
R. David (he/him): Right.

397
00:38:46.090 --> 00:38:50.140
R. David (he/him): Marcy, Ellen, Ruth, and then we're gonna do Torah. More Torah.

398
00:38:50.500 --> 00:38:56.980
Marcia's iPad: My teacher, Rabbi Manny, always used to say, the Torah.

399
00:38:57.190 --> 00:39:02.370
Marcia's iPad: is written… by the Jewish people, for the Jewish people.

400
00:39:03.040 --> 00:39:08.690
Marcia's iPad: And he would agree that every single thing that you mention

401
00:39:09.020 --> 00:39:14.709
Marcia's iPad: About why do this, why we're doing that, what… All of it applies.

402
00:39:15.340 --> 00:39:23.570
Marcia's iPad: then it's all… Something that… it just keeps the tradition alive.

403
00:39:23.830 --> 00:39:24.390
R. David (he/him): Hmm.

404
00:39:24.630 --> 00:39:25.550
Marcia's iPad: and…

405
00:39:28.830 --> 00:39:34.719
Marcia's iPad: that the Jewish people It's still together, is it?

406
00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:39.790
Marcia's iPad: It's a miracle, which I think many people just take for granted.

407
00:39:40.550 --> 00:39:47.850
Marcia's iPad: I mean, after everything that's gone down, And my other teacher, And… and Talmud…

408
00:39:48.110 --> 00:39:53.829
Marcia's iPad: Has me always asking the question, What were the rabbis thinking?

409
00:39:53.830 --> 00:39:54.340
R. David (he/him): King.

410
00:39:54.580 --> 00:40:01.569
Marcia's iPad: And the rabbis consistently are thinking how to keep the Jewish people together.

411
00:40:01.570 --> 00:40:02.310
R. David (he/him): gather.

412
00:40:02.310 --> 00:40:06.990
Marcia's iPad: Because that is the burning question, almost always.

413
00:40:07.200 --> 00:40:10.630
Marcia's iPad: And I think all those things that you mentioned.

414
00:40:10.870 --> 00:40:26.290
Marcia's iPad: All of those are ways to keep the Jewish people together. Now, you may not like somebody threatening you, but let's talk about threats. Let's go back to Mount Sinai, and let's turn the mountain upside down on your head and say, want to get married?

415
00:40:28.110 --> 00:40:29.170
Marcia's iPad: No pressure.

416
00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:30.150
Marcia's iPad: So…

417
00:40:30.150 --> 00:40:31.869
R. David (he/him): Say yes! Say yes!

418
00:40:31.870 --> 00:40:32.220
Marcia's iPad: mess!

419
00:40:32.220 --> 00:40:32.750
R. David (he/him): Say it!

420
00:40:32.750 --> 00:40:38.980
Marcia's iPad: Yes, and it looked gun to your head, so… It's that combination of… Fresher?

421
00:40:39.130 --> 00:40:40.490
Marcia's iPad: From the inside?

422
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:46.220
Marcia's iPad: And then there's a dangerous, crazy-ass world, sorry, excuse my French.

423
00:40:46.220 --> 00:40:46.660
R. David (he/him): Oh.

424
00:40:46.660 --> 00:40:55.940
Marcia's iPad: That, that is just always out there, which causes people to cling to…

425
00:40:56.220 --> 00:41:01.059
Marcia's iPad: What they know, and a lot of times, what they don't know.

426
00:41:01.950 --> 00:41:07.310
R. David (he/him): Thank you. Yeah. It was such a rich discussion. Last comment, Ellen Ruth.

427
00:41:11.250 --> 00:41:20.070
ert: Rabbi, you gave us a choice of whether we do… Because of fear of love.

428
00:41:20.380 --> 00:41:30.450
ert: And I would like to say, though, there's a third element, which is our own spiritual knowing.

429
00:41:30.790 --> 00:41:40.580
ert: Our intuition, our knowing of what is right. Without love or fear in relation to God.

430
00:41:41.810 --> 00:41:48.550
ert: And I think that's a really important aspect.

431
00:41:48.740 --> 00:41:51.490
R. David (he/him): Yep, a very humanist approach.

432
00:41:52.070 --> 00:41:52.840
R. David (he/him): Sure.

433
00:41:53.060 --> 00:41:53.780
R. David (he/him): Sure.

434
00:41:54.070 --> 00:41:59.849
R. David (he/him): So, just in the interest of time, let me summarize…

435
00:41:59.970 --> 00:42:02.850
R. David (he/him): what this is here on the women's commentary.

436
00:42:03.160 --> 00:42:05.710
R. David (he/him): That…

437
00:42:06.510 --> 00:42:16.510
R. David (he/him): This notion of good things if you comply, bad things if you don't, is an overall very common trope.

438
00:42:16.920 --> 00:42:20.350
R. David (he/him): in Near East life.

439
00:42:21.190 --> 00:42:26.429
R. David (he/him): You see it in contracts. You see it in treaties.

440
00:42:26.870 --> 00:42:31.810
R. David (he/him): To this day, you see it in the oath that doctors take.

441
00:42:33.650 --> 00:42:34.680
R. David (he/him): Right?

442
00:42:35.170 --> 00:42:51.490
R. David (he/him): It impresses on the heart and the soul the importance of what it is we say we're taking on, whether or not we actually believe that if we don't comply, we'll never get a good parking spot again.

443
00:42:54.630 --> 00:43:01.339
R. David (he/him): The other thing… that… All of these say…

444
00:43:02.250 --> 00:43:05.340
R. David (he/him): Well, actually, two things. One of them is about symmetry.

445
00:43:06.380 --> 00:43:11.650
R. David (he/him): Every putative blessing has a curse on the other side, if we don't.

446
00:43:11.830 --> 00:43:19.189
R. David (he/him): And the curses tend to be explicated even more than the blessings. It does not mean that the world is…

447
00:43:19.350 --> 00:43:21.329
R. David (he/him): A bad, bad, bad, bad place.

448
00:43:21.480 --> 00:43:29.600
R. David (he/him): It's just the style of the Mideast way of saying these things back in the day.

449
00:43:30.640 --> 00:43:32.010
R. David (he/him): But no matter what.

450
00:43:32.590 --> 00:43:38.259
R. David (he/him): It all ends with that bit at the end that I think, Rachel, you were talking about.

451
00:43:38.490 --> 00:43:40.770
R. David (he/him): That I will… that I, God, will still be here.

452
00:43:41.420 --> 00:43:42.979
R. David (he/him): And I wait for you.

453
00:43:44.130 --> 00:43:49.139
R. David (he/him): As Rabbi Rachel's poem said, I was here all along, just waiting for you.

454
00:43:52.040 --> 00:43:53.530
R. David (he/him): These writings probably

455
00:43:54.180 --> 00:44:01.849
R. David (he/him): in the end, gave hope to the people after the Babylonian exile, because they explained how God could have allowed the downfall and the exile to happen.

456
00:44:02.280 --> 00:44:04.800
R. David (he/him): But there'll always be a promise of restoration.

457
00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:11.939
R. David (he/him): But we have to turn to God. We have to turn to God. And in the language of the women's commentary.

458
00:44:12.100 --> 00:44:13.690
R. David (he/him): It's called Tshuva.

459
00:44:14.680 --> 00:44:17.359
R. David (he/him): But the English word feels very different.

460
00:44:18.100 --> 00:44:19.400
R. David (he/him): Repent.

461
00:44:20.020 --> 00:44:21.180
R. David (he/him): Repent.

462
00:44:21.280 --> 00:44:23.220
R. David (he/him): Because we did something wrong.

463
00:44:26.350 --> 00:44:27.930
R. David (he/him): Maybe bad things.

464
00:44:28.490 --> 00:44:30.080
R. David (he/him): Turn us away from God.

465
00:44:30.280 --> 00:44:34.300
R. David (he/him): As opposed to, we turn away from God and then bad things happen.

466
00:44:35.420 --> 00:44:38.850
R. David (he/him): But we have to turn back toward God. We have to turn back.

467
00:44:38.960 --> 00:44:43.089
R. David (he/him): So if we take out this word, repent, at the end.

468
00:44:45.290 --> 00:44:48.900
R. David (he/him): And we use the Hebrew tshuva literally to return.

469
00:44:52.270 --> 00:44:55.010
R. David (he/him): Maybe it will sit a little bit differently.

470
00:44:55.810 --> 00:45:03.150
R. David (he/him): And we can understand this less about, do this or else I'm pulling the car over and no ice cream.

471
00:45:03.700 --> 00:45:06.609
R. David (he/him): And more hoop's gonna happen?

472
00:45:09.950 --> 00:45:11.200
R. David (he/him): Return.

473
00:45:11.550 --> 00:45:14.130
R. David (he/him): Return. Return.

474
00:45:18.350 --> 00:45:19.920
R. David (he/him): Marcy?

475
00:45:20.700 --> 00:45:21.460
Marcia's iPad: Oh.

476
00:45:21.880 --> 00:45:23.290
R. David (he/him): Marcy? No, Marcy. Yes, Marcy.

477
00:45:23.290 --> 00:45:24.020
Marcia's iPad: No, no, no.

478
00:45:24.020 --> 00:45:25.200
R. David (he/him): No, no Marcy.

479
00:45:25.400 --> 00:45:27.410
Marcia's iPad: I was just… I was just sturning…

480
00:45:28.150 --> 00:45:34.519
Marcia's iPad: To return. Just a little shift. Sometimes a little tiny shift, it doesn't even take a lot.

481
00:45:35.790 --> 00:45:38.450
Marcia's iPad: a little… Adjust?

482
00:45:38.450 --> 00:45:39.779
R. David (he/him): Yep. Yep.

483
00:45:39.930 --> 00:45:41.709
R. David (he/him): Yep, Rachel, were you coming in?

484
00:45:42.480 --> 00:45:55.229
Rachel Rudansky: I was, but I could wait, but I'll just… I'll just call in that line in Reb Zalman's prayer, that a higher level of surrender to a will that is not our own…

485
00:45:56.030 --> 00:46:05.669
Rachel Rudansky: I think fits into what we're discussing here about tshuva and refining ourselves, and surrendering to a deeper level

486
00:46:05.920 --> 00:46:06.910
Rachel Rudansky: Yeah.

487
00:46:06.910 --> 00:46:15.530
R. David (he/him): Yeah, and not with a fatalism, right? It's not, woe is me, I'm surrendering. It's… it's, okay, this is reality.

488
00:46:16.640 --> 00:46:20.640
R. David (he/him): And in this, I… Turn toward. Meredith.

489
00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:24.219
R. David (he/him): This is challenging for some, this is challenging.

490
00:46:24.220 --> 00:46:30.930
Meredith: I could… I appreciate that, that, you know, poop happens.

491
00:46:31.230 --> 00:46:33.820
Meredith: And there's always somewhere to go.

492
00:46:33.900 --> 00:46:34.959
R. David (he/him): Keep talking, I'm listening.

493
00:46:34.960 --> 00:46:39.120
Meredith: Always somewhere to go that you're not alone.

494
00:46:39.820 --> 00:46:44.830
Meredith: So, I guess… that… Is a comforting thing.

495
00:46:46.010 --> 00:46:51.400
R. David (he/him): Okay, is it enough to be comforted here? I mean, maybe the answer is yes.

496
00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:58.910
R. David (he/him): And comfort ain't nothing. What more might it be asking beyond mere comfort?

497
00:46:59.090 --> 00:47:02.950
R. David (he/him): Or what might it be offering more than mere comfort?

498
00:47:03.480 --> 00:47:03.910
Rachel Rudansky: J.

499
00:47:03.910 --> 00:47:05.390
Meredith: Open-mindedness.

500
00:47:05.870 --> 00:47:06.959
R. David (he/him): Okay, what else?

501
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:09.590
Meredith: That, that you would, you know, do something different.

502
00:47:10.060 --> 00:47:10.850
R. David (he/him): Okay.

503
00:47:11.900 --> 00:47:15.869
Rachel Rudansky: A deepening, going further, deeper.

504
00:47:16.700 --> 00:47:17.310
R. David (he/him): Okay.

505
00:47:17.310 --> 00:47:24.279
Rachel Rudansky: Abreb Zalman says, a deeper level of surrender, a will that is not our own, it's not about us.

506
00:47:24.550 --> 00:47:25.739
R. David (he/him): It's not about us.

507
00:47:26.680 --> 00:47:28.220
R. David (he/him): It's not about us.

508
00:47:28.730 --> 00:47:36.300
R. David (he/him): It's not about us. So the Svarno goes there, But in a roundabout way.

509
00:47:37.830 --> 00:47:41.699
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna read this one just because it needs a little bit of explanation.

510
00:47:42.970 --> 00:47:49.609
R. David (he/him): If you walk in my chukim, not just if you do my chukim, if you walk in my chukim.

511
00:47:49.960 --> 00:47:52.870
R. David (he/him): And he says that these kukim are like royal decrees.

512
00:47:53.320 --> 00:47:57.689
R. David (he/him): But they're to guide life's endeavors, not some life's endeavors.

513
00:47:58.270 --> 00:48:00.940
R. David (he/him): And not life's endeavors sometimes.

514
00:48:01.720 --> 00:48:08.020
R. David (he/him): But no matter what, that's what he's implying here. And that's what he's gonna call walking.

515
00:48:09.050 --> 00:48:11.559
R. David (he/him): And there are all these texts about that.

516
00:48:12.770 --> 00:48:22.929
R. David (he/him): That this happens in our lives, in the wholeness of our lives, the messiness of our lives. And therefore, to keep the mitzvot is not just to check a box.

517
00:48:24.070 --> 00:48:26.270
R. David (he/him): It's to do them meticulously.

518
00:48:27.100 --> 00:48:28.440
R. David (he/him): Consciously.

519
00:48:30.280 --> 00:48:33.699
R. David (he/him): guarding them, keeping them, it's, it's, it's Shamor.

520
00:48:34.630 --> 00:48:37.469
R. David (he/him): In the Hebrew, like the sham-Rub in Isha' end.

521
00:48:37.580 --> 00:48:38.809
R. David (he/him): It's a Shabbat.

522
00:48:39.700 --> 00:48:42.009
R. David (he/him): And so, if you do these things.

523
00:48:43.860 --> 00:48:53.209
R. David (he/him): Try to understand their purpose, even if it's beyond us, to give their performance meaning. Who was it that talked about giving our lives meaning?

524
00:48:54.290 --> 00:49:01.800
R. David (he/him): No matter what, thank you, Iris, you will merit the end you'll merit to be a creature who reflects God's

525
00:49:02.300 --> 00:49:03.240
R. David (he/him): image.

526
00:49:04.280 --> 00:49:14.000
R. David (he/him): That the flow of divinity will happen through us, not because we got the rains and it's seasoned and we got a parking spot.

527
00:49:14.770 --> 00:49:16.560
R. David (he/him): Yay, God loves me!

528
00:49:17.620 --> 00:49:20.370
R. David (he/him): But whether or not we get a parking spot.

529
00:49:22.740 --> 00:49:24.219
R. David (he/him): And that's the harder one.

530
00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:31.260
R. David (he/him): It's the sort of reverse gumball machine, right, Meredith?

531
00:49:33.190 --> 00:49:39.820
R. David (he/him): that what looks like a gumball machine divinity, Sforno is being quite radical here, and he's flipping it on its head.

532
00:49:40.280 --> 00:49:42.929
R. David (he/him): And saying, actually, it's not about that at all.

533
00:49:46.650 --> 00:49:56.050
R. David (he/him): It's about being in God, being… walking in a holy way, No matter what happens.

534
00:50:03.970 --> 00:50:05.310
R. David (he/him): So why…

535
00:50:05.520 --> 00:50:13.229
R. David (he/him): Then, did Torah Nita say this at all? Would someone like to read the Oracheim? Literally, the light of life?

536
00:50:18.550 --> 00:50:24.229
R. David (he/him): Torah already said, we're gonna dwell securely in our land, so why does Torah have to say any of this? Someone.

537
00:50:26.080 --> 00:50:36.619
ert: Why did Taura need to say this, having already… Said that will dwell securely.

538
00:50:37.230 --> 00:50:45.530
ert: Maybe Torah intends that there be no divided hearts among the children of Israel.

539
00:50:45.890 --> 00:50:54.209
ert: So God offers them shalom and neighborliness, or God means global peace.

540
00:50:55.160 --> 00:51:02.779
ert: Tara usually says… You're a land.

541
00:51:02.900 --> 00:51:08.819
ert: The land refers to the whole earth.

542
00:51:09.100 --> 00:51:11.589
ert: Thus, dwells secure.

543
00:51:15.110 --> 00:51:25.599
R. David (he/him): Ellen Ruth, they're having a bit of an internet issue. Thus dwell securely means peace in all the world. The Torah here doesn't say you'll dwell securely in your land.

544
00:51:26.100 --> 00:51:29.000
R. David (he/him): And that gets the Ura Chaim's attention, because

545
00:51:29.490 --> 00:51:33.110
R. David (he/him): Instead, the Torah says you'll dwell securely in the land.

546
00:51:34.430 --> 00:51:37.449
R. David (he/him): Which means, in his reading.

547
00:51:38.730 --> 00:51:50.739
R. David (he/him): That this is about not just everyone dwelling securely, but it being, therefore, also, all the land and all the world.

548
00:51:51.790 --> 00:51:55.250
R. David (he/him): which… Links back to what this foreigner was saying.

549
00:51:57.240 --> 00:51:59.520
R. David (he/him): It doesn't matter what happens.

550
00:52:00.140 --> 00:52:03.259
R. David (he/him): You know, there could be a cataclysm. There…

551
00:52:03.620 --> 00:52:05.940
R. David (he/him): Could be everybody wins the lottery tomorrow.

552
00:52:06.240 --> 00:52:12.240
R. David (he/him): Anyone seen… The movie Bruce Almighty.

553
00:52:13.820 --> 00:52:20.320
R. David (he/him): with Jennifer Aniston, and Morgan Freeman plays God, because Morgan Freeman always plays God.

554
00:52:20.560 --> 00:52:24.970
R. David (he/him): Someone wants to… you know.

555
00:52:26.280 --> 00:52:44.870
R. David (he/him): get God's attention, and essentially God says, alright, you think it's so easy, you go do it. And this guy named Bruce, who's a newscaster, decides, that he's gonna accept God's invitation, he's gonna be God, and suddenly everybody wins the lottery! And…

556
00:52:44.910 --> 00:52:52.039
R. David (he/him): like, and the moon is closer so people can fall in love, we'll ignore that there were consequences for that. It was really, really great.

557
00:52:53.630 --> 00:52:55.100
R. David (he/him): And he was kind of a schmuck.

558
00:52:56.680 --> 00:53:05.060
R. David (he/him): And then he learned that there are certain things you can't command. There are certain things you can't, you know, hocus-pocus, and one of them is God. Another of them

559
00:53:05.430 --> 00:53:08.769
R. David (he/him): is love. Another of them is actually good behavior.

560
00:53:09.530 --> 00:53:12.669
R. David (he/him): So our choice to behave a certain way.

561
00:53:13.850 --> 00:53:16.189
R. David (he/him): To pursue the common interest.

562
00:53:17.100 --> 00:53:18.650
R. David (he/him): for all peoples.

563
00:53:19.110 --> 00:53:28.170
R. David (he/him): Not just our own parochial interest. To walk in the sukim of that, becomes…

564
00:53:28.430 --> 00:53:33.099
R. David (he/him): The essence of what it means to walk with God.

565
00:53:34.860 --> 00:53:38.620
R. David (he/him): And that is not conditional on circumstance.

566
00:53:42.030 --> 00:53:46.959
lindabkramer: And this really plays into How you lived your life.

567
00:53:47.640 --> 00:53:48.670
lindabkramer: Down.

568
00:53:48.970 --> 00:53:53.280
lindabkramer: In my family, my grandmother, may she rest in peace.

569
00:53:53.280 --> 00:53:54.120
R. David (he/him): Amen.

570
00:53:54.780 --> 00:54:00.820
lindabkramer: Always said, don't give away your clothes.

571
00:54:01.080 --> 00:54:06.859
lindabkramer: When you outgrow them, I need to take them to the yeshiva.

572
00:54:07.150 --> 00:54:12.260
lindabkramer: They need our help. That keeps Judaism alive.

573
00:54:13.830 --> 00:54:16.960
lindabkramer: You know, a total intention.

574
00:54:17.220 --> 00:54:26.270
lindabkramer: Also, having a son at 18 who develops Parkinson's disease, And my grandmother's reaction is…

575
00:54:28.650 --> 00:54:34.430
lindabkramer: He has to help other people that are less… Able…

576
00:54:34.730 --> 00:54:44.250
lindabkramer: than he. And so she now gives him away, and in her mind, I think this is all walking with God.

577
00:54:44.550 --> 00:54:47.069
lindabkramer: To behave and do good.

578
00:54:48.340 --> 00:54:51.459
lindabkramer: And reading this reminds me of her.

579
00:54:54.330 --> 00:54:57.640
R. David (he/him): Reb Zalman in his day used to say that,

580
00:54:58.030 --> 00:55:01.289
R. David (he/him): every people on Earth has some…

581
00:55:01.400 --> 00:55:09.380
R. David (he/him): function in the body of humanity? And if so, then maybe the Jews wear white blood cells.

582
00:55:12.960 --> 00:55:15.099
R. David (he/him): We run to where the infection is.

583
00:55:16.690 --> 00:55:17.240
lindabkramer: help.

584
00:55:18.180 --> 00:55:19.100
R. David (he/him): We give.

585
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:19.770
lindabkramer: Thank you.

586
00:55:19.770 --> 00:55:24.669
R. David (he/him): Like, like, schehold says the mitzvah is not.

587
00:55:24.840 --> 00:55:26.109
R. David (he/him): To be loved.

588
00:55:26.270 --> 00:55:27.410
R. David (he/him): It's too loved.

589
00:55:27.410 --> 00:55:29.500
lindabkramer: Love, yes, to love.

590
00:55:34.820 --> 00:55:39.860
R. David (he/him): Come on, everybody, I'm having a temporary technical issue. Please stand by.

591
00:55:44.940 --> 00:55:45.960
R. David (he/him): All right.

592
00:55:52.950 --> 00:56:00.349
R. David (he/him): So here's the next piece. The Buchholz Shur writes again of our verse, if you walk in my Chukim.

593
00:56:01.900 --> 00:56:06.320
R. David (he/him): And he writes that if you do what I cause to be decreed that you should do.

594
00:56:07.490 --> 00:56:10.019
R. David (he/him): Everything is gonna help out.

595
00:56:13.590 --> 00:56:15.619
R. David (he/him): Essentially, ecology will work.

596
00:56:18.590 --> 00:56:22.600
R. David (he/him): But as so often happens in… Hebrew.

597
00:56:22.950 --> 00:56:27.340
R. David (he/him): The word decree It means something more.

598
00:56:31.080 --> 00:56:36.129
R. David (he/him): Anyone see… So, Shet is that.

599
00:56:36.440 --> 00:56:41.709
R. David (he/him): T at the end here is to… is I did something.

600
00:56:43.740 --> 00:56:47.100
R. David (he/him): The hate at the beginning here is causative.

601
00:56:47.930 --> 00:56:49.920
R. David (he/him): Which leaves Teklamid.

602
00:56:53.250 --> 00:56:55.320
R. David (he/him): Anyone happen to know that word?

603
00:57:02.620 --> 00:57:03.750
Rachel Rudansky: Tall?

604
00:57:03.830 --> 00:57:04.760
R. David (he/him): Yeah!

605
00:57:05.070 --> 00:57:06.469
R. David (he/him): Yes, Rachel, what's it mean?

606
00:57:08.500 --> 00:57:13.309
Rachel Rudansky: I know it has significance, but I'll have to think about what it means, I don't know.

607
00:57:13.310 --> 00:57:14.279
R. David (he/him): Anyone have it?

608
00:57:14.280 --> 00:57:15.250
Rachel Rudansky: Oh…

609
00:57:18.260 --> 00:57:18.940
Marcia's iPad: inch?

610
00:57:20.020 --> 00:57:21.550
Marcia's iPad: I'd like to buy a valve.

611
00:57:21.550 --> 00:57:22.709
R. David (he/him): They'd like to buy a valve.

612
00:57:22.710 --> 00:57:23.320
Marcia's iPad: Oh my god.

613
00:57:23.320 --> 00:57:29.100
R. David (he/him): In the winter, we pray for rain. In the summer, we pray for.

614
00:57:29.100 --> 00:57:30.370
Marcia's iPad: Do.

615
00:57:33.690 --> 00:57:37.209
R. David (he/him): That this notion of divine decree.

616
00:57:38.280 --> 00:57:43.240
R. David (he/him): Is not so much divine decree, as…

617
00:57:43.780 --> 00:57:48.379
R. David (he/him): something gently… it doesn't even descend, right? It just…

618
00:57:49.680 --> 00:57:53.880
R. David (he/him): It appears very gently on the surface of things.

619
00:57:56.350 --> 00:58:01.469
R. David (he/him): And Rachel Verdansky is having just a high old time in her Zoombox right now.

620
00:58:02.340 --> 00:58:04.959
R. David (he/him): That this notion of…

621
00:58:06.500 --> 00:58:14.430
R. David (he/him): The magic friend in the sky, with the male, with the big beard, who points and says, do this.

622
00:58:15.080 --> 00:58:24.180
R. David (he/him): D-O this, not D-E-W this, might actually not be so top-down vertical.

623
00:58:25.140 --> 00:58:30.239
R. David (he/him): It may… Be something that inheres in the nature of things.

624
00:58:32.260 --> 00:58:34.210
R. David (he/him): It may precipitate.

625
00:58:34.570 --> 00:58:36.709
R. David (he/him): Right in the presence of things.

626
00:58:37.830 --> 00:58:38.850
Marcia's iPad: Pun intended.

627
00:58:39.910 --> 00:58:41.210
R. David (he/him): Pun…

628
00:58:41.940 --> 00:58:42.780
R. David (he/him): intended.

629
00:58:47.450 --> 00:58:53.369
R. David (he/him): Because it's so easy to read command and mitzvah and all of that as…

630
00:58:54.270 --> 00:58:56.969
R. David (he/him): You know, that, that big finger.

631
00:58:59.540 --> 00:59:12.099
Sherrill Cropper: Another sense of… The importance of being mindful, Because all of the… created things.

632
00:59:12.530 --> 00:59:20.289
Sherrill Cropper: That now have the dew appear magically, are just inherent in their actual being.

633
00:59:20.570 --> 00:59:25.629
Sherrill Cropper: If we are mindful of how we behave, we will naturally see

634
00:59:25.990 --> 00:59:29.109
Sherrill Cropper: What things are and their purpose.

635
00:59:32.000 --> 00:59:42.550
R. David (he/him): Forgive me, I'm just literally relocating because my charger isn't working, and I'm about to lose power, and I'm hoping that this charger will work.

636
00:59:42.860 --> 00:59:44.389
R. David (he/him): appears to be. Okay.

637
00:59:45.230 --> 01:00:02.919
Rachel Rudansky: I was thinking the same thing, Cheryl, about paying attention, and how the movement of the hand to the wrist, to the elbow, to the shoulder is so… there's so… it's infinite. It's… well, it's not infinite, but there's just so much to it.

638
01:00:02.920 --> 01:00:09.360
Rachel Rudansky: And, so I was thinking the same thing about paying attention and what it gives.

639
01:00:13.350 --> 01:00:25.300
R. David (he/him): Just in the interest of time, Arthur Waskow has another poem, it's in the materials, and I'm gonna leave it to you to have. It's very breath connection.

640
01:00:26.170 --> 01:00:34.019
R. David (he/him): But I want to move down to this piece about God saying, I will be your God and you will be my people.

641
01:00:35.890 --> 01:00:46.079
R. David (he/him): Or as, Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young, I think, sang back in the day, I am yours, you are mine, you are what you are.

642
01:00:47.500 --> 01:00:48.969
Marcia's iPad: And you make it hard.

643
01:00:53.060 --> 01:00:54.390
R. David (he/him): Fair enough.

644
01:00:54.840 --> 01:00:56.030
R. David (he/him): Fair enough.

645
01:00:56.890 --> 01:00:58.640
R. David (he/him): Look again at the English with me.

646
01:00:59.980 --> 01:01:06.549
R. David (he/him): I will give from my shechrina within you.

647
01:01:07.200 --> 01:01:11.160
R. David (he/him): Or literally, I will give my shechina to within you.

648
01:01:12.410 --> 01:01:14.459
R. David (he/him): What a strange rendering.

649
01:01:17.580 --> 01:01:18.760
R. David (he/him): What do you make of that?

650
01:01:22.420 --> 01:01:25.080
R. David (he/him): Reminds me a little bit of the dew that just shows up.

651
01:01:27.900 --> 01:01:30.940
R. David (he/him): I will give from my Shechina within you.

652
01:01:35.440 --> 01:01:36.130
R. David (he/him): Iris.

653
01:01:36.130 --> 01:01:37.080
Marcia's iPad: It's already there.

654
01:01:37.290 --> 01:01:38.990
Iris Barten: It feels like we.

655
01:01:39.510 --> 01:01:46.110
Iris Barten: have, you know, our soul in the spark of the divine, and the Shekinah is that loving…

656
01:01:46.770 --> 01:01:50.800
Iris Barten: Female quality, and so…

657
01:01:52.290 --> 01:02:01.649
Iris Barten: Giving from the Shekinah within me means that it's… there's already this potential, there's already a seed.

658
01:02:01.820 --> 01:02:02.850
R. David (he/him): And…

659
01:02:02.960 --> 01:02:05.560
Iris Barten: So, that's being nurtured.

660
01:02:06.090 --> 01:02:10.139
Iris Barten: And helping me to live that Shekinah, that's…

661
01:02:10.140 --> 01:02:11.050
R. David (he/him): Hmm…

662
01:02:11.270 --> 01:02:13.129
Iris Barten: That's what I take from that.

663
01:02:13.400 --> 01:02:14.360
R. David (he/him): Soap.

664
01:02:14.710 --> 01:02:18.600
R. David (he/him): What I hear you saying is that if we do the flukim.

665
01:02:20.170 --> 01:02:24.759
R. David (he/him): we become more in contact with the shechina already there.

666
01:02:25.620 --> 01:02:29.240
R. David (he/him): It's… it's not so much that, alright.

667
01:02:29.660 --> 01:02:33.479
R. David (he/him): It's the gumball time! Here you have your lot of sheena here.

668
01:02:33.800 --> 01:02:35.989
R. David (he/him): But something more existential.

669
01:02:36.860 --> 01:02:40.899
Iris Barten: Yeah, to me. I mean, I know the Shekinah is everywhere, and…

670
01:02:41.180 --> 01:02:45.280
Iris Barten: I connect that with the spark within me, so…

671
01:02:45.650 --> 01:02:46.460
R. David (he/him): Okay.

672
01:02:46.460 --> 01:02:49.539
Iris Barten: Part of the relationship and the process, I think.

673
01:02:51.560 --> 01:02:52.270
R. David (he/him): Okay, what else?

674
01:02:52.870 --> 01:02:53.800
Sherrill Cropper: I'm sorry.

675
01:02:54.130 --> 01:02:55.429
R. David (he/him): Go ahead, go ahead.

676
01:02:55.430 --> 01:02:59.919
Sherrill Cropper: I want to be a little bit of Marcia right now and say, as above, so below.

677
01:03:00.210 --> 01:03:11.230
Sherrill Cropper: That… Yes, the Shekinah… It's not, I will give you, I have given you.

678
01:03:11.650 --> 01:03:12.120
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

679
01:03:12.120 --> 01:03:14.970
Sherrill Cropper: The Shepina within you exists.

680
01:03:15.650 --> 01:03:25.689
Sherrill Cropper: It's… it's just an is. We would not be able to breathe, to function, to exist, were…

681
01:03:25.990 --> 01:03:33.369
Sherrill Cropper: Shekinah, the Shefah, the flow, not within us. It is the same.

682
01:03:34.180 --> 01:03:45.750
Sherrill Cropper: as Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. It… Yes. Is not a connector as much as a fluid… similar existence.

683
01:03:45.960 --> 01:03:53.230
R. David (he/him): There it is. There it is. And if you've taken the Hebrew series, you know that the verb…

684
01:03:54.070 --> 01:03:59.480
R. David (he/him): In the, oops, in the past tense, wit natati, this VOV over here.

685
01:03:59.820 --> 01:04:03.429
R. David (he/him): things. It can mean either and, or it can mean Marsha.

686
01:04:04.450 --> 01:04:09.110
Marcia's iPad: Oh, and or… So… it's a nectar, or something.

687
01:04:09.110 --> 01:04:10.630
R. David (he/him): That's the AND, right?

688
01:04:10.640 --> 01:04:11.310
Sherrill Cropper: tense.

689
01:04:11.310 --> 01:04:12.660
R. David (he/him): Right! Right.

690
01:04:12.660 --> 01:04:13.479
Marcia's iPad: Say again?

691
01:04:14.060 --> 01:04:15.500
R. David (he/him): Reversing tense, so…

692
01:04:15.500 --> 01:04:16.670
Marcia's iPad: Oh, -oh.

693
01:04:16.670 --> 01:04:20.480
R. David (he/him): Right. So, Natati is, I gave…

694
01:04:21.810 --> 01:04:27.500
R. David (he/him): Vitna Tati in biblical Hebrew can mean, I will give, but it also can mean, and I gave.

695
01:04:27.830 --> 01:04:36.240
R. David (he/him): Right? So, Cheryl is onto something that, grammatically, it literally says, I've already given you my Shechina, it's already there!

696
01:04:36.680 --> 01:04:37.210
Iris Barten: Right.

697
01:04:38.140 --> 01:04:49.770
R. David (he/him): The fact that, you know, biblical grammarians come in and do their thing, okay, how lovely, thank you very much. But it also means, I gave you my shechina, I can't spurn you, you're mine, it's inherent.

698
01:04:50.460 --> 01:04:53.860
R. David (he/him): Any more than a, you know, You know…

699
01:04:54.200 --> 01:05:00.769
R. David (he/him): parents and kids, right? I mean, there are always some freights, but… My DNA is in you.

700
01:05:01.500 --> 01:05:03.370
Sherrill Cropper: I have one other thing, which is…

701
01:05:03.520 --> 01:05:06.649
Sherrill Cropper: I am your God, I brought you out of Egypt.

702
01:05:07.290 --> 01:05:14.209
Sherrill Cropper: I… there's a part of me that likes the consistency, and another part that says, enough already! How many.

703
01:05:14.210 --> 01:05:14.660
R. David (he/him): No.

704
01:05:15.550 --> 01:05:15.990
R. David (he/him): Why?

705
01:05:15.990 --> 01:05:17.500
Sherrill Cropper: You're telling us this?

706
01:05:17.500 --> 01:05:17.819
R. David (he/him): I don't.

707
01:05:17.820 --> 01:05:19.289
Sherrill Cropper: No! You know.

708
01:05:19.290 --> 01:05:20.610
R. David (he/him): And… and… but do we?

709
01:05:20.610 --> 01:05:20.970
Sherrill Cropper: did I?

710
01:05:20.970 --> 01:05:21.770
R. David (he/him): But do we?

711
01:05:22.080 --> 01:05:23.000
R. David (he/him): But do we?

712
01:05:23.960 --> 01:05:25.089
R. David (he/him): Do we really?

713
01:05:25.540 --> 01:05:29.739
Sherrill Cropper: So I looked it up. It's, like, dozens of times in the.

714
01:05:29.740 --> 01:05:30.670
R. David (he/him): Do we really know?

715
01:05:30.670 --> 01:05:32.310
Sherrill Cropper: does come out.

716
01:05:32.560 --> 01:05:35.849
R. David (he/him): Do we really know that God is the source of liberation?

717
01:05:36.910 --> 01:05:39.650
R. David (he/him): Do we really get that we were bought and paid for?

718
01:05:40.870 --> 01:05:42.579
R. David (he/him): Do we really get…

719
01:05:43.560 --> 01:05:45.630
Sherrill Cropper: Not if you buy the shekinah.

720
01:05:45.850 --> 01:05:50.699
Sherrill Cropper: constant thing. Then we did it because we are.

721
01:05:51.010 --> 01:05:54.399
R. David (he/him): Okay, but do we really get that? Do we really get it?

722
01:05:56.270 --> 01:05:58.530
Marcia's iPad: Yeah, as a collective.

723
01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:05.360
R. David (he/him): If you really get it, the Ibn Ezra now comes and says, you're not going to fear that you might lack

724
01:06:06.870 --> 01:06:13.349
R. David (he/him): If you really get it, Because my glory dwells with you. What's to be afraid of?

725
01:06:14.610 --> 01:06:21.259
R. David (he/him): I'm not like a human being who abhors to dwell anywhere. I'm not gonna run away from a fight.

726
01:06:21.450 --> 01:06:24.739
R. David (he/him): I'm not gonna run away from you. I'm not gonna run.

727
01:06:26.850 --> 01:06:27.610
Sherrill Cropper: Sorry, is that a few.

728
01:06:27.610 --> 01:06:28.979
ert: In relation to,

729
01:06:28.980 --> 01:06:30.150
Sherrill Cropper: I walked my set.

730
01:06:30.630 --> 01:06:36.820
Sherrill Cropper: I'm sorry, Eleanor, one second. Is that a future tense, I will walk myself amidst you?

731
01:06:37.290 --> 01:06:39.460
R. David (he/him): Yup! It's both again!

732
01:06:39.930 --> 01:06:41.360
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, yeah.

733
01:06:41.360 --> 01:06:42.140
R. David (he/him): VIP.

734
01:06:42.550 --> 01:06:43.870
R. David (he/him): Both, again.

735
01:06:43.870 --> 01:06:45.580
Rachel Rudansky: Could you put…

736
01:06:46.640 --> 01:06:49.019
R. David (he/him): You know, two people are talking at the same time.

737
01:06:49.020 --> 01:06:50.620
Rachel Rudansky: Could you highlight that?

738
01:06:51.040 --> 01:06:52.470
R. David (he/him): I have to find it.

739
01:06:52.470 --> 01:06:54.199
Rachel Rudansky: Thank you, I'm sorry.

740
01:06:54.200 --> 01:06:58.119
R. David (he/him): who… the walk is, Va'olech.

741
01:06:58.260 --> 01:07:00.970
R. David (he/him): I will walk, or I walked.

742
01:07:02.910 --> 01:07:03.750
Rachel Rudansky: Thank you.

743
01:07:04.860 --> 01:07:19.360
ert: In relation to what Cheryl just said, I wanted to say something similar, that I had this really strange thought when I was reading about God saying, again, brought you out of the land of Egypt.

744
01:07:19.380 --> 01:07:28.969
ert: The strange thought was that this religion came from being victims, and that felt so uncomfortable.

745
01:07:30.120 --> 01:07:31.149
R. David (he/him): hurting the victim.

746
01:07:31.450 --> 01:07:34.549
R. David (he/him): At, but converting the victimhood into agency.

747
01:07:34.550 --> 01:07:35.780
Marcia's iPad: Yes!

748
01:07:36.100 --> 01:07:38.570
Marcia's iPad: Yes, that's what I talked about.

749
01:07:39.440 --> 01:07:44.760
Marcia's iPad: It's a trauma bond that created a great faith.

750
01:07:45.210 --> 01:07:48.480
Marcia's iPad: And, that continues to evolve.

751
01:07:48.630 --> 01:07:55.070
Marcia's iPad: The trauma may have occurred, but the response to it Is a great healing.

752
01:07:55.420 --> 01:08:02.209
Marcia's iPad: And… and inspirational. Now, in this moment.

753
01:08:02.210 --> 01:08:02.960
R. David (he/him): Okay.

754
01:08:03.210 --> 01:08:07.459
R. David (he/him): Now… Let's pull this out of the sky.

755
01:08:08.300 --> 01:08:10.879
R. David (he/him): It does turn up that we screw up in life.

756
01:08:12.630 --> 01:08:19.879
R. David (he/him): the top screw-up of the Jewish people in the history of The received tradition is…

757
01:08:21.310 --> 01:08:23.930
Marcia's iPad: Is it baseless, hatred?

758
01:08:23.949 --> 01:08:26.779
R. David (he/him): Yeah, that's a big one, even bigger.

759
01:08:27.250 --> 01:08:28.630
Marcia's iPad: Oh, the golden cast.

760
01:08:28.630 --> 01:08:29.470
R. David (he/him): Yeah, sure.

761
01:08:30.689 --> 01:08:31.439
R. David (he/him): short.

762
01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:37.200
R. David (he/him): We didn't get it.

763
01:08:38.620 --> 01:08:40.029
R. David (he/him): Where'd that guy go?

764
01:08:41.080 --> 01:08:45.049
R. David (he/him): Remember, we're still with Sinai for, you know, most of Leviticus. We're still there.

765
01:08:48.450 --> 01:08:49.869
R. David (he/him): Once upon a time.

766
01:08:50.130 --> 01:08:59.899
R. David (he/him): right after the Ten Commandments, there was complete unity, there was complete communion with union. And then, what did we do? We built a golden calf.

767
01:09:00.340 --> 01:09:02.289
R. David (he/him): Because… where's God?

768
01:09:03.130 --> 01:09:03.979
R. David (he/him): Where's Scott?

769
01:09:09.210 --> 01:09:13.399
R. David (he/him): But here is, even in the worst of our worst, no matter what we do.

770
01:09:14.520 --> 01:09:19.039
R. David (he/him): The whole point of tshuva And the opportunity of tshuva.

771
01:09:19.930 --> 01:09:21.830
R. David (he/him): Is that it never dies.

772
01:09:25.100 --> 01:09:27.420
R. David (he/him): The story didn't end with the golden calf.

773
01:09:28.490 --> 01:09:34.809
R. David (he/him): There was another chance. The story didn't end with Moshe breaking the tablets. There was a second set of tablets.

774
01:09:35.779 --> 01:09:39.000
R. David (he/him): The story doesn't end if we break the covenant.

775
01:09:40.479 --> 01:09:43.050
R. David (he/him): Even in Torah's if-then rendition.

776
01:09:43.859 --> 01:09:46.150
R. David (he/him): God takes us back.

777
01:09:48.109 --> 01:09:50.350
R. David (he/him): Suddenly, Yom Kippur means something.

778
01:09:50.609 --> 01:09:53.559
R. David (he/him): Which, by the way, is the anniversary of the second tablets.

779
01:09:55.860 --> 01:09:59.230
R. David (he/him): I will give from my Shechino within you.

780
01:10:00.420 --> 01:10:05.530
R. David (he/him): Because it never dies, It can always be reactivated.

781
01:10:05.820 --> 01:10:06.750
R. David (he/him): No.

782
01:10:07.480 --> 01:10:08.320
R. David (he/him): Matter.

783
01:10:08.900 --> 01:10:09.820
R. David (he/him): What?

784
01:10:12.480 --> 01:10:22.249
R. David (he/him): Your car may get dinged in that parking lot. You may never get another good parking spot. Again, it is true. The rains might not fall, but the earth can heal herself.

785
01:10:22.800 --> 01:10:23.220
Sherrill Cropper: Is it.

786
01:10:23.220 --> 01:10:24.450
R. David (he/him): There may be consequences.

787
01:10:24.450 --> 01:10:27.320
Sherrill Cropper: or re-recognized. I mean, it's an.

788
01:10:27.320 --> 01:10:31.000
R. David (he/him): It's there. Different words for the same idea.

789
01:10:31.170 --> 01:10:32.719
R. David (he/him): Because people screw up.

790
01:10:33.450 --> 01:10:37.390
Sherrill Cropper: Means it stopped being… it stopped working, or.

791
01:10:37.390 --> 01:10:41.480
R. David (he/him): We're saying different things, but from our lived experience, it ain't there.

792
01:10:43.320 --> 01:10:49.850
R. David (he/him): The hero of… we're saying the same thing, but from the perspective of the person who feels disconnected from God.

793
01:10:50.680 --> 01:11:03.519
R. David (he/him): or bad things happen to. You know, it might as well not be. That's why Rashbi, Shimon Bar Yochai, said in The Hero of Zohar, You are my witnesses, says God.

794
01:11:03.770 --> 01:11:09.809
R. David (he/him): If you are my witnesses, then God is in the world. But if you're not my witnesses.

795
01:11:10.640 --> 01:11:13.779
R. David (he/him): give y'all, as if I'm not there.

796
01:11:18.120 --> 01:11:23.939
R. David (he/him): If you live and you connect, I see Iris, your hands. If you live this.

797
01:11:24.350 --> 01:11:32.280
R. David (he/him): Then, you know, you're gonna connect with that Sheena, you're gonna activate… call it what you will, but if you don't.

798
01:11:32.510 --> 01:11:34.730
R. David (he/him): give Yaho, as if.

799
01:11:35.420 --> 01:11:36.710
R. David (he/him): It ain't there.

800
01:11:38.190 --> 01:11:42.840
R. David (he/him): And so anywhere you bring me back, there I will come to you.

801
01:11:44.480 --> 01:11:46.149
R. David (he/him): Because I'm already there!

802
01:11:49.370 --> 01:11:52.150
R. David (he/him): Shane is already there, as Iris said.

803
01:11:53.230 --> 01:11:57.550
R. David (he/him): No matter what. And here come all the hands, Iris and then Rachel.

804
01:11:58.870 --> 01:12:02.370
Iris Barten: So I… this short…

805
01:12:02.550 --> 01:12:17.279
Iris Barten: commentary is so really powerful. I see that it's going back and forth between what God has given us and then what we do with it, because it's… to me, it's very compelling.

806
01:12:17.470 --> 01:12:27.150
Iris Barten: And as I was saying, and Daryl, and we're all saying about the shehinah is within us, and then my soul will not spurn you.

807
01:12:27.250 --> 01:12:28.180
Iris Barten: That's…

808
01:12:28.300 --> 01:12:37.369
Iris Barten: again, I think back-and-forthness, because God's soul will not spurn us, but it's also our soul that God gave us.

809
01:12:37.900 --> 01:12:38.420
R. David (he/him): Huh.

810
01:12:38.690 --> 01:12:43.300
Iris Barten: So that it will not spurn us, because it's related to God.

811
01:12:43.460 --> 01:12:56.430
Iris Barten: I will walk myself amidst you. I think that's not just about a group of us, but it's walking within me. That's how I'm taking… maybe it's a little bit of a stretch to

812
01:12:56.700 --> 01:12:59.569
Iris Barten: Trans, you know, to say, admit.

813
01:12:59.740 --> 01:13:08.119
Iris Barten: a myths means that, the fact that… well, I do believe it's a fact that God brought us out from Egypt

814
01:13:08.220 --> 01:13:16.649
Iris Barten: Who broke the yoke and then caused us to walk upright, you know, to be proud and to live our values.

815
01:13:17.380 --> 01:13:24.280
Iris Barten: back and forthness there, that it's like a facilitation, and if we accept that facilitation…

816
01:13:24.280 --> 01:13:24.790
R. David (he/him): Beautiful.

817
01:13:25.080 --> 01:13:26.260
Iris Barten: We have…

818
01:13:26.260 --> 01:13:44.970
R. David (he/him): Beautiful. Which I think maps to the theological problems that we had with the shot, with the plain meaning of the text and those poems that we started with. You know, if we're good girls and boys, and we eat our vegetables, and we do our homework.

819
01:13:45.030 --> 01:13:59.089
R. David (he/him): then everything will be fine, and we'll be blessed, and if not, then everything will suck. You know, we've got that give and take in our lives, and here comes the text, looking exactly like we experience it.

820
01:14:01.260 --> 01:14:01.790
Iris Barten: Sorry.

821
01:14:01.790 --> 01:14:03.520
R. David (he/him): And to me, I find that very cool.

822
01:14:04.040 --> 01:14:04.650
Iris Barten: Yeah.

823
01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:05.900
Iris Barten: I think I said…

824
01:14:05.900 --> 01:14:06.719
R. David (he/him): Very cool.

825
01:14:06.720 --> 01:14:09.229
Iris Barten: Alright, but it's actually the text, yeah.

826
01:14:09.230 --> 01:14:13.459
R. David (he/him): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you didn't make it up, Iris. Hey, James, good to see ya.

827
01:14:14.670 --> 01:14:18.040
R. David (he/him): And then, oh, sorry, Rachel, then James, my bad.

828
01:14:19.040 --> 01:14:31.649
Rachel Rudansky: Sorry, James, thank you. I just quickly want to say that, I, in my text, the word for, Shekinah is translated as sanctuary.

829
01:14:31.650 --> 01:14:33.100
R. David (he/him): And luckily… Oh, no!

830
01:14:33.100 --> 01:14:46.910
Rachel Rudansky: Luckily, I was able to see that, you know, my spirit will not reject you, which made me feel able to say what I said in the beginning, but the transl… we're up against it in our society. I mean, they didn't translate it properly.

831
01:14:46.910 --> 01:14:47.570
R. David (he/him): Crap.

832
01:14:47.710 --> 01:15:02.540
R. David (he/him): Well, so that's an interesting question. So the Sforno goes there. It's not that it's mistranslated, it's that both translations are accurate.

833
01:15:02.540 --> 01:15:12.300
R. David (he/him): When you go into the land of your enemies, and the temple, the Mishkan, is no longer there, my glory will go with you. Mishkani

834
01:15:12.300 --> 01:15:14.489
R. David (he/him): could be Mishkan…

835
01:15:14.490 --> 01:15:30.929
R. David (he/him): like, my Mishkan, not from my Shechina. They're both the same, but at the end of the day, is not the temple the physical manifestation of Shekhina? Build me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among you.

836
01:15:32.670 --> 01:15:37.980
Rachel Rudansky: So, the words are… the roots are the same? Is that what I'm…

837
01:15:38.380 --> 01:15:39.830
R. David (he/him): Absolutely.

838
01:15:39.830 --> 01:15:40.869
Rachel Rudansky: Oh my gosh.

839
01:15:40.870 --> 01:15:42.430
Marcia's iPad: The same for…

840
01:15:42.710 --> 01:15:45.489
R. David (he/him): Mishkan, Mishkan, and Sheena.

841
01:15:45.890 --> 01:15:46.220
Marcia's iPad: Absolutely.

842
01:15:46.220 --> 01:15:49.280
R. David (he/him): Absolutely, because Shoheim is to dwell…

843
01:15:49.700 --> 01:15:56.990
R. David (he/him): Shohein is to dwell. Shabbat morning, or Rosh Hashanah.

844
01:15:57.250 --> 01:16:07.670
R. David (he/him): Dwelling forever! Mishkan, Shekinah, same root. That's the whole point.

845
01:16:08.280 --> 01:16:09.690
R. David (he/him): It's the whole point!

846
01:16:11.490 --> 01:16:17.160
Rachel Rudansky: But I thought you should… I thought Shekinah was some aspect of God.

847
01:16:17.380 --> 01:16:18.400
R. David (he/him): Yeah, your points.

848
01:16:18.400 --> 01:16:19.770
Rachel Rudansky: Place!

849
01:16:19.770 --> 01:16:27.280
R. David (he/him): No, of course not! Well, once upon a time, Sheena had an address. One Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Israel.

850
01:16:28.370 --> 01:16:35.390
R. David (he/him): Nowadays, That was Shekinah there? Gosh, I hope so. But Shekinah isn't less here.

851
01:16:36.400 --> 01:16:41.839
R. David (he/him): There was this heretical teaching that the temple actually kept Shekhina hostage.

852
01:16:42.360 --> 01:16:44.290
R. David (he/him): Because everyone had to go there.

853
01:16:45.740 --> 01:16:48.340
R. David (he/him): And now we seek Sheena everywhere.

854
01:16:50.260 --> 01:16:52.730
R. David (he/him): But the Word is the same!

855
01:16:52.730 --> 01:16:53.430
Rachel Rudansky: That's amazing.

856
01:16:53.430 --> 01:17:00.270
R. David (he/him): The physicality seeks to channel the experience of the transcendent.

857
01:17:01.380 --> 01:17:03.310
Rachel Rudansky: Oh, gosh, okay.

858
01:17:03.730 --> 01:17:06.889
Rachel Rudansky: Thank you, I never, ever, ever saw that, or knew.

859
01:17:06.890 --> 01:17:18.930
R. David (he/him): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're saying the same thing. And I want… yeah, yup, thank you for giving us a moment there. This is the same thing, and you will be my sanctuary.

860
01:17:19.350 --> 01:17:22.990
R. David (he/him): You will be my temple. It's the same!

861
01:17:23.170 --> 01:17:25.740
Marcia's iPad: Mmm… Meaning.

862
01:17:25.740 --> 01:17:31.410
Rachel Rudansky: Plus… Or God is the temple. No, we are the temple.

863
01:17:31.890 --> 01:17:34.850
Rachel Rudansky: Oh, well, okay.

864
01:17:35.490 --> 01:17:42.560
R. David (he/him): You got it! You got it! A lot of words, but at the end of the day, you just put equal signs in front of all of them. That's right. James.

865
01:17:45.990 --> 01:17:50.129
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Well, obviously, I was a little late today. I don't know if this was discussed or not, but…

866
01:17:50.360 --> 01:17:53.129
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Forgive me if I'm bringing up something that's already been talked about.

867
01:17:53.250 --> 01:18:00.069
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): I hear… people say frequently, and actually Iris even said it as well just a few minutes ago.

868
01:18:00.170 --> 01:18:03.010
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): My spirit, my soul.

869
01:18:03.470 --> 01:18:04.540
R. David (he/him): Huh.

870
01:18:04.540 --> 01:18:06.640
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): God gave me this, and so forth.

871
01:18:06.940 --> 01:18:10.819
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): But… It seems to me that the teachings are not so much

872
01:18:11.030 --> 01:18:15.690
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): One of permanence or of independence.

873
01:18:15.920 --> 01:18:20.140
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): It's not that it's my soul, it's not that it's me, per se.

874
01:18:20.480 --> 01:18:22.389
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): But it's almost like it's on loan.

875
01:18:23.070 --> 01:18:26.970
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Like, it's a part… of the Divine.

876
01:18:27.310 --> 01:18:40.510
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): And it's a part of me, but I am it, and it is part of the divine, so therefore I am part of the divine. So there's no… there's no real separation, there is no me, in that sense. There's no ownership, there's no…

877
01:18:41.150 --> 01:18:45.759
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): separate identity, I guess, is kind of where I'm going. You understand what I'm saying?

878
01:18:45.760 --> 01:18:55.000
R. David (he/him): Yes. So, we didn't say it outright, but we implied it when we looked at this forno, that if we really live this way.

879
01:18:56.110 --> 01:19:04.480
R. David (he/him): then we will fulfill the deep essence of what it is to be made in the image of God.

880
01:19:07.320 --> 01:19:10.029
R. David (he/him): And that image is the soul of God.

881
01:19:10.780 --> 01:19:13.079
R. David (he/him): And our words immediately break down.

882
01:19:15.350 --> 01:19:21.729
R. David (he/him): Absolutely. It doesn't change our essence, although it changes our experience of our essence. It may refine us.

883
01:19:22.240 --> 01:19:26.119
R. David (he/him): But existentially, we're chips off the old block, no matter what we do.

884
01:19:26.460 --> 01:19:28.589
R. David (he/him): We may not experience it that way, though.

885
01:19:29.110 --> 01:19:32.659
R. David (he/him): Unless… No matter what happens, we keep turning back.

886
01:19:33.970 --> 01:19:38.440
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): So what's… what is within the writings, the teachings, the…

887
01:19:38.440 --> 01:19:39.260
R. David (he/him): Okay, I'm…

888
01:19:39.260 --> 01:19:42.410
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): The words of the ancient rabbis around that concept.

889
01:19:42.410 --> 01:19:48.270
R. David (he/him): Just… James, just because we're running out of time, why don't we take that up?

890
01:19:48.760 --> 01:19:54.620
R. David (he/him): In our discussion afterwards, okay? Yep. So… I mentioned Zohar.

891
01:19:55.520 --> 01:20:00.320
R. David (he/him): Rachel, you went where Zohar goes.

892
01:20:00.830 --> 01:20:04.940
R. David (he/him): In our piece, in our proof text, I will give from my shechina within you.

893
01:20:06.360 --> 01:20:09.580
R. David (he/him): The Aramaic says this, would someone like to read?

894
01:20:12.020 --> 01:20:14.970
R. David (he/him): and then I'm gonna bring it to where we are in the calendar.

895
01:20:17.660 --> 01:20:20.390
Rachel Rudansky: Could you make it a little larger? I will give…

896
01:20:20.970 --> 01:20:25.450
Rachel Rudansky: I will give from my Shekinah within you. Thank you.

897
01:20:26.280 --> 01:20:36.520
Rachel Rudansky: My Mishkan, my Shekinah are the same, which also are Mashkan.

898
01:20:36.710 --> 01:20:43.920
Rachel Rudansky: My pledge that God took back for Israel's sin the new.

899
01:20:44.470 --> 01:20:45.829
R. David (he/him): And now restores.

900
01:20:45.830 --> 01:20:55.610
Rachel Rudansky: now restores. Thank you very much. Pardon me. Once a man was very fond of his friend, and he said to him, I'm so fond of you that I will stay with you.

901
01:20:55.920 --> 01:21:09.609
Rachel Rudansky: said the other. How do I know you will stay with me? So, he took all of his most precious belongings and brought them to him, saying, Here is a pledge to you that I will never leave you.

902
01:21:10.680 --> 01:21:15.079
R. David (he/him): What is the pledge that God gives us to say, I will never leave you?

903
01:21:20.810 --> 01:21:21.600
R. David (he/him): I pledge.

904
01:21:25.350 --> 01:21:31.040
Rachel Rudansky: life. We're given life, we're given learning, the ability to learn, we're…

905
01:21:33.460 --> 01:21:39.799
Rachel Rudansky: I'm not gonna say Torah, because It's too abstract.

906
01:21:39.800 --> 01:21:43.959
R. David (he/him): Okay? But even this text says, even when all the poop happens.

907
01:21:44.180 --> 01:21:46.340
R. David (he/him): No matter how far you try to run.

908
01:21:47.540 --> 01:21:50.040
R. David (he/him): I'm still with you. I'm here waiting.

909
01:21:54.550 --> 01:21:58.020
R. David (he/him): No matter what terrible things happen, no matter what.

910
01:22:01.630 --> 01:22:05.320
R. David (he/him): Yep. So… Fast forward…

911
01:22:07.110 --> 01:22:13.050
R. David (he/him): I will walk myself amidst you, I will be your God, you will be my people. This is the, I am yours, you are mine.

912
01:22:14.940 --> 01:22:18.840
R. David (he/him): Does this… Sound familiar to anyone?

913
01:22:20.950 --> 01:22:23.290
R. David (he/him): I will be yours, and you will be mine.

914
01:22:24.520 --> 01:22:27.130
R. David (he/him): Aside from the Crosby, still, Nash, and Young song.

915
01:22:29.420 --> 01:22:31.980
R. David (he/him): Anything else in…

916
01:22:32.440 --> 01:22:39.020
Iris Barten: Is that related to the Song of Songs? Or I'm also thinking of the Shema, but I don't know if either one are there.

917
01:22:39.020 --> 01:22:47.230
R. David (he/him): Well, it's all about peace that we love with our full hearts, and God is with us, and sure, but is there anything particular in tradition that grabs you?

918
01:22:47.790 --> 01:22:50.569
R. David (he/him): And says this pretty explicitly.

919
01:22:51.390 --> 01:22:53.569
R. David (he/him): I'll be yours, and you'll be mine.

920
01:22:56.290 --> 01:23:02.050
Marcia's iPad: bringing you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage, to be.

921
01:23:02.050 --> 01:23:02.400
R. David (he/him): for you.

922
01:23:02.400 --> 01:23:03.359
Marcia's iPad: of God.

923
01:23:03.710 --> 01:23:05.949
R. David (he/him): That's one. Anyone have any others?

924
01:23:07.710 --> 01:23:12.350
R. David (he/him): The second I advance the screen, your alt marriage.

925
01:23:12.790 --> 01:23:14.020
Iris Barten: Oh, no.

926
01:23:14.020 --> 01:23:17.159
Corinne: I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine.

927
01:23:17.910 --> 01:23:19.599
R. David (he/him): Okay, Song of Songs, y'all.

928
01:23:19.600 --> 01:23:21.830
Rachel Rudansky: I will go with you.

929
01:23:22.360 --> 01:23:23.460
Rachel Rudansky: Ruth.

930
01:23:23.670 --> 01:23:26.070
R. David (he/him): There it is!

931
01:23:26.570 --> 01:23:28.620
Iris Barten: Wherever you go, I will follow.

932
01:23:29.340 --> 01:23:31.670
R. David (he/him): There it is!

933
01:23:33.830 --> 01:23:40.579
R. David (he/him): Ruth says, do not, you know, crap has happened. A lot of people have died.

934
01:23:44.950 --> 01:23:47.669
R. David (he/him): Do not urge me to leave you, she says to Naomi.

935
01:23:47.860 --> 01:23:49.960
R. David (he/him): To turn back and not follow you.

936
01:23:50.230 --> 01:23:57.669
R. David (he/him): Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

937
01:23:57.830 --> 01:24:04.259
R. David (he/him): Amech, Ami, your people will be my people. The Elohai, Elohai, and your God, my God.

938
01:24:05.110 --> 01:24:06.560
R. David (he/him): Why is this here?

939
01:24:11.540 --> 01:24:15.169
Rachel Rudansky: Because of Leviticus 26, 12.

940
01:24:16.180 --> 01:24:17.800
R. David (he/him): And why is this here now?

941
01:24:18.480 --> 01:24:20.779
R. David (he/him): what's coming up on the Jewish calendar?

942
01:24:24.150 --> 01:24:25.580
Rachel Rudansky: Chivalrous…

943
01:24:25.580 --> 01:24:26.320
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

944
01:24:26.600 --> 01:24:27.450
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

945
01:24:27.740 --> 01:24:29.790
R. David (he/him): And what do we read on Shavuot?

946
01:24:30.990 --> 01:24:31.840
Rachel Rudansky: Roof.

947
01:24:32.150 --> 01:24:34.639
R. David (he/him): And why do we read Ruth on Shavuot?

948
01:24:37.980 --> 01:24:44.379
R. David (he/him): So there's also all been about the threshing and all of that, but ultimately it's about identity and becomingness.

949
01:24:45.080 --> 01:24:45.840
R. David (he/him): Right.

950
01:24:47.470 --> 01:24:52.330
R. David (he/him): We stand at Sinai together, and we receive Torah, and God says, I am.

951
01:24:52.620 --> 01:24:53.550
R. David (he/him): Who are you?

952
01:24:53.940 --> 01:24:54.990
R. David (he/him): your mind.

953
01:24:56.740 --> 01:24:58.510
R. David (he/him): Where you go, I will go.

954
01:24:58.690 --> 01:25:10.320
R. David (he/him): Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. I will walk myself amidst you, I will be your God, you will be my people, no matter what!

955
01:25:14.790 --> 01:25:17.020
R. David (he/him): The only question is, do we turn back?

956
01:25:17.760 --> 01:25:19.260
R. David (he/him): Do we turn back?

957
01:25:19.900 --> 01:25:22.000
R. David (he/him): Do we stay in relationship?

958
01:25:22.850 --> 01:25:24.850
R. David (he/him): When the poop happens.

959
01:25:26.570 --> 01:25:28.540
R. David (he/him): Because if we don't…

960
01:25:28.810 --> 01:25:38.839
R. David (he/him): then we're gonna feel chased, we're gonna feel alone, we're gonna feel abandoned. Will God actually abandon us if we do those things? The plain text says yes.

961
01:25:40.050 --> 01:25:44.889
R. David (he/him): But I think there's another way to understand it now, that we're gonna feel that way.

962
01:25:45.110 --> 01:25:47.769
R. David (he/him): Because it's not God who turned away, we did!

963
01:25:51.810 --> 01:25:58.839
R. David (he/him): But even at the end, The 7x7x7 times 7 that we saw?

964
01:25:59.390 --> 01:26:02.919
R. David (he/him): All those sevens? God is still waiting for us.

965
01:26:06.720 --> 01:26:13.259
Iris Barten: And Ruth was turning toward… she was making a choice, you know, that wasn't her faith to begin with.

966
01:26:14.170 --> 01:26:17.449
R. David (he/him): So let's finish with Ellen Frankel, but someone like to read.

967
01:26:22.520 --> 01:26:25.290
Meredith: Esther, the hidden one, prays.

968
01:26:25.430 --> 01:26:30.360
Meredith: How long, oh God, how long will you hide your face from us?

969
01:26:30.750 --> 01:26:35.949
Meredith: How mysterious are your ways? How measureless your silence.

970
01:26:36.130 --> 01:26:42.609
Meredith: When will you shine your face upon us once more, Shekinah, who dwells in this world?

971
01:26:43.330 --> 01:26:48.010
Meredith: The Holy Zohar explains, The Blessed Holy One said.

972
01:26:48.170 --> 01:26:55.229
Meredith: You have made me homeless, as well as yourselves, for the queen has left the palace along with you.

973
01:26:55.510 --> 01:27:04.570
Meredith: Everything is ruined, my palace and yours, for a palace is worthless to a king unless he can enter with his queen.

974
01:27:04.910 --> 01:27:13.750
Meredith: A king is only happy when he enters the queen's palace and finds her with her son. They all rejoice as one.

975
01:27:13.950 --> 01:27:17.279
Meredith: Now, neither the son nor the queen is present.

976
01:27:17.580 --> 01:27:20.000
Meredith: The palace is totally desolate.

977
01:27:20.160 --> 01:27:23.970
Meredith: What can I do? I, myself, will be with you.

978
01:27:27.730 --> 01:27:28.830
R. David (he/him): No matter what.

979
01:27:30.580 --> 01:27:31.929
R. David (he/him): No matter what.

980
01:27:32.530 --> 01:27:34.669
R. David (he/him): And sometimes we may not feel it.

981
01:27:35.960 --> 01:27:44.279
R. David (he/him): And so we need community, we need others, we need mitzvot, we need reminders, we need pictures, we need symbols, we need images, we need stories, we need the whole thing.

982
01:27:46.910 --> 01:27:47.760
R. David (he/him): Rachel.

983
01:27:47.760 --> 01:27:51.270
Rachel Rudansky: Is this a reference to Esther?

984
01:27:52.250 --> 01:27:55.360
R. David (he/him): It's the same story!

985
01:27:56.960 --> 01:28:00.090
Rachel Rudansky: I, I, I… Yeah, I don't…

986
01:28:00.090 --> 01:28:01.609
R. David (he/him): It's the same, so stop crying!

987
01:28:01.610 --> 01:28:04.129
Rachel Rudansky: Can you make that link for us?

988
01:28:04.800 --> 01:28:05.510
Rachel Rudansky: Like, why…

989
01:28:05.510 --> 01:28:13.940
R. David (he/him): It's the same story! Here comes this person hidden in the palace while the world around her goes to crap.

990
01:28:16.660 --> 01:28:19.850
R. David (he/him): And God appears to be completely absent.

991
01:28:22.400 --> 01:28:25.279
R. David (he/him): And Esther's name means what? Hidden.

992
01:28:25.280 --> 01:28:26.790
Iris Barten: Thank you.

993
01:28:28.600 --> 01:28:30.300
R. David (he/him): Esther. Setter.

994
01:28:35.080 --> 01:28:37.839
R. David (he/him): But God was with her all along.

995
01:28:41.130 --> 01:28:43.600
R. David (he/him): Precisely in the obscuring.

996
01:28:45.080 --> 01:28:48.060
R. David (he/him): Or, as Rabbi Marsha would say.

997
01:28:50.010 --> 01:28:52.340
Marcia's iPad: Concealment? Revelation?

998
01:28:52.720 --> 01:28:57.389
R. David (he/him): it is. And what are we coming up on right now? Shavuot, which is revelation.

999
01:28:57.390 --> 01:28:58.360
Marcia's iPad: Thoroughly food.

1000
01:28:58.590 --> 01:29:11.140
R. David (he/him): And reality fades, and I am the Eternal, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, the first things out of the proverbial mouth, the first things carved.

1001
01:29:11.340 --> 01:29:17.749
R. David (he/him): Huquim carved on the stones that Moses would bring.

1002
01:29:19.130 --> 01:29:20.240
R. David (he/him): So, yes.

1003
01:29:20.390 --> 01:29:26.470
R. David (he/him): Crap happens. Yes, our world is… is… staking for it.

1004
01:29:27.790 --> 01:29:38.649
R. David (he/him): I don't understand the book of Leviticus to be doing if-then theology, although the Pshot needed to say that, maybe because our ancestors needed the fear.

1005
01:29:39.110 --> 01:29:40.889
R. David (he/him): to induce compliance.

1006
01:29:41.930 --> 01:29:44.220
R. David (he/him): But we can understand it in a very different way.

1007
01:29:44.440 --> 01:29:51.020
R. David (he/him): We can understand it more ontologically, in terms of identity, in terms of God's ever-beingness and becomingness.

1008
01:29:51.770 --> 01:29:55.000
R. David (he/him): And that is Shekinah, and that is walking with

1009
01:29:55.310 --> 01:29:59.369
R. David (he/him): If that is carved on our home, it's really carved, if we really get it.

1010
01:30:00.750 --> 01:30:03.880
R. David (he/him): Then it transcends anything that might happen.

1011
01:30:06.860 --> 01:30:07.590
R. David (he/him): questions.

1012
01:30:07.590 --> 01:30:08.240
Rachel Rudansky: Because then…

1013
01:30:08.240 --> 01:30:08.620
R. David (he/him): Doesn't…

1014
01:30:09.190 --> 01:30:10.160
Rachel Rudansky: I'm sorry.

1015
01:30:10.370 --> 01:30:10.960
R. David (he/him): Go ahead.

1016
01:30:11.290 --> 01:30:13.300
Rachel Rudansky: Then the tax returns.

1017
01:30:13.610 --> 01:30:16.150
Rachel Rudansky: To the punishment again.

1018
01:30:17.090 --> 01:30:27.550
Rachel Rudansky: So, we're given a reprieve, and we're saying, my spirit will not reject you, and we're feeling good. And then it goes back to, but, you know.

1019
01:30:27.550 --> 01:30:29.189
R. David (he/him): Yeah, because… why?

1020
01:30:30.220 --> 01:30:30.970
Marcia's iPad: Yeah, release this.

1021
01:30:31.650 --> 01:30:36.440
R. David (he/him): Right? Right! Because we're gonna forget again, because we're people.

1022
01:30:37.650 --> 01:30:41.900
R. David (he/him): Hey, I had this amazing spiritual experience, and what have you done for me lately?

1023
01:30:42.880 --> 01:30:48.459
R. David (he/him): And, you know, I had a parking spot today, but, you know, And then tomorrow, I don't.

1024
01:30:48.660 --> 01:30:50.350
R. David (he/him): And people die.

1025
01:30:51.420 --> 01:31:00.510
R. David (he/him): And… we hurt. And people treat us badly, and bad things happen to good people, and, and, and.

1026
01:31:01.800 --> 01:31:06.539
R. David (he/him): But at the end of that whole thing, If you look in…

1027
01:31:06.720 --> 01:31:10.090
R. David (he/him): The text, and, you know, we don't have time.

1028
01:31:10.560 --> 01:31:16.069
R. David (he/him): What we get to is the sense that no matter what, God is waiting for us all along.

1029
01:31:17.110 --> 01:31:18.110
Marcia's iPad: How comforting.

1030
01:31:19.690 --> 01:31:23.629
R. David (he/him): And we need that comfort and that hope and promise to maybe…

1031
01:31:24.130 --> 01:31:27.140
R. David (he/him): Help us to keep turning toward

1032
01:31:27.680 --> 01:31:32.469
R. David (he/him): You know, it's easier to turn toward if you know someone's there, or something is there.

1033
01:31:35.920 --> 01:31:38.260
Rachel Rudansky: I don't feel that way myself.

1034
01:31:38.560 --> 01:31:39.200
R. David (he/him): No?

1035
01:31:39.200 --> 01:31:42.629
Rachel Rudansky: feel it's important to turn towards, because it's important.

1036
01:31:43.220 --> 01:31:50.880
Rachel Rudansky: Not because someone's there holding me up. I just… I'm held. I'm held by so many beautiful things.

1037
01:31:51.630 --> 01:31:54.589
Rachel Rudansky: I, I, I don't… that doesn't motivate me to do good.

1038
01:31:54.590 --> 01:31:59.889
Marcia's iPad: Explain. Say it, say again? Raj.

1039
01:32:00.280 --> 01:32:05.779
Marcia's iPad: You said that, what doesn't motivate you to do good?

1040
01:32:05.780 --> 01:32:07.720
Rachel Rudansky: That, you know, God is there.

1041
01:32:08.140 --> 01:32:20.439
Rachel Rudansky: you know, do something for me. It's, I think, you know, wanting to more act in the image of God and do mitzvot, because it feels good to do mitzvot, not because God is gonna give me.

1042
01:32:20.970 --> 01:32:27.380
Rachel Rudansky: points on it, or I'm gonna, you know, finally get a husband one day, you know what I mean?

1043
01:32:27.380 --> 01:32:28.420
R. David (he/him): Yep.

1044
01:32:28.660 --> 01:32:30.270
R. David (he/him): So, I wanna…

1045
01:32:30.400 --> 01:32:38.479
R. David (he/him): Look, we've been at this challenging moment, this peace, pretty much since we climbed out of trees.

1046
01:32:39.290 --> 01:32:40.920
R. David (he/him): And certainly as a people.

1047
01:32:41.560 --> 01:32:52.009
R. David (he/him): So I'd like to end… I'm gonna skip some stuff, we just didn't get to it, our conversation was so rich. I want to end with one teaching, chant the last sentence of the book of Leviticus for us.

1048
01:32:52.470 --> 01:32:54.480
R. David (he/him): Close the book of Leviticus.

1049
01:32:55.200 --> 01:32:57.579
R. David (he/him): And open the book of Numbers next time.

1050
01:32:58.730 --> 01:33:01.210
R. David (he/him): What's the point of all of these things?

1051
01:33:01.690 --> 01:33:08.790
R. David (he/him): It's literally to awaken, to arouse the sleeping heart. All of this is about shifting our consciousness.

1052
01:33:09.610 --> 01:33:13.120
R. David (he/him): All who whack… all who walk a path that isn't good for them.

1053
01:33:13.490 --> 01:33:18.610
R. David (he/him): ultimately lack the ultimate knowledge of God and the good of serving God.

1054
01:33:18.890 --> 01:33:22.579
R. David (he/him): Turning our hearts toward doing me to what Rachel, as you just said.

1055
01:33:24.170 --> 01:33:28.409
R. David (he/him): And therefore, We can understand these…

1056
01:33:28.680 --> 01:33:31.590
R. David (he/him): Key words if we… if you will not listen.

1057
01:33:32.000 --> 01:33:37.100
R. David (he/him): You know, then the bad things will happen. Not to mean if you don't listen, but if you fail to really get it.

1058
01:33:38.640 --> 01:33:44.519
R. David (he/him): Not understanding the advantages of serving God, the benefits to us of following the Chukim.

1059
01:33:44.830 --> 01:33:49.560
R. David (he/him): May result in refusing to do so, which is Inverting the covenant.

1060
01:33:50.360 --> 01:33:55.969
R. David (he/him): And that's why Israel went into exile, because of this lack of da'at.

1061
01:33:56.330 --> 01:34:05.289
R. David (he/him): This lack of knowing. And for the mystics and Kabbalists among us, da'at is more than just knowing.

1062
01:34:05.400 --> 01:34:12.449
R. David (he/him): Daat is an intuition of identity, a fusion of knowing and understanding.

1063
01:34:13.200 --> 01:34:15.310
R. David (he/him): It's beingness.

1064
01:34:15.920 --> 01:34:17.310
R. David (he/him): itself.

1065
01:34:18.010 --> 01:34:21.019
R. David (he/him): Which is associated with Yod-Heh-Vafeh.

1066
01:34:21.910 --> 01:34:29.559
R. David (he/him): And so when the book of Leviticus closes, What does it close with?

1067
01:34:30.040 --> 01:34:35.150
R. David (he/him): These are the mitzvot, all of them. And this knowingness

1068
01:34:35.490 --> 01:34:42.810
R. David (he/him): is what Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh commanded connected with Moshe to tell us at Sinai.

1069
01:34:44.000 --> 01:34:53.529
R. David (he/him): This knowingness, this beingness, this becomingness, that God is with us, and in us, And threw us!

1070
01:34:54.160 --> 01:34:56.069
R. David (he/him): And it's up to us to turn.

1071
01:34:56.740 --> 01:34:57.750
R. David (he/him): True.

1072
01:34:58.290 --> 01:34:59.540
R. David (he/him): That's the point.

1073
01:35:00.980 --> 01:35:15.090
R. David (he/him): Behavina.

1074
01:35:15.090 --> 01:35:39.960
R. David (he/him): Let us be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other. Be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other. Be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other. Be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other.

1075
01:35:39.960 --> 01:35:43.919
R. David (he/him): And the book of Leviticus closes.

1076
01:35:44.060 --> 01:35:51.159
R. David (he/him): I bless us all with a Shabbat of presence, From Shechina to Shekinah?

1077
01:35:52.470 --> 01:35:55.059
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna stop the screen share.

1078
01:35:55.680 --> 01:35:58.319
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel will be back next week.

1079
01:35:59.340 --> 01:36:05.269
R. David (he/him): And we look forward to opening together the book of Numbers, and I'll stop the recording now.