WEBVTT

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R. Rachel: Good morning, everyone, and good Shabbos. It… it… day is…

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R. Rachel: The 6th of June, we are in Parashat Baha'alotcha.

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R. Rachel: And, the main thing this Parsha is known for, I think, is probably either the lamps, the setting of the menorah that

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R. Rachel: features at the beginning of the Parsha, or it is the story that we will be looking at today, which is…

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R. Rachel: Miriam having some things to say about her brother's wife, And,

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R. Rachel: everything that ensues from there. So we'll be looking at prayers for healing.

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R. Rachel: And what those are, and what they mean, and how we offer them, and what we think that's about. And also, while we're at it, what did Miriam even do?

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R. Rachel: And, the thing that happens to her, is it a punishment or a reward?

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R. Rachel: So first, I invite names in the chat box, those for whom we're praying for healing.

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R. Rachel: Those whom we're holding in our hearts this morning.

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R. Rachel: And we will make a bracha for our learning.

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R. Rachel: Baruch Atta Adonai, Elohayna Malacha Olam.

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R. Rachel: Blessed are you, Adonai our God, sovereign of all being. You sanctify us in connecting command.

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R. Rachel: And command us to busy ourselves in words of Torah.

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R. Rachel: And I'm seeing name… names appearing in the chat box. I will add to the Masha Ahuvia Butlea.

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R. Rachel: As our opening this morning, instead of a poem, I have a video for us.

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R. Rachel: And I am going to…

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R. Rachel: Pause the screen share, and then begin it again in such a way that hopefully you will all be able to see

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R. Rachel: This video and hear this video.

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R. Rachel: Since in this morning's Parsha, we have

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R. Rachel: the first ever prayer for healing, coming from Moses.

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R. Rachel: Are the video that we'll hear and see to get us in the right headspace and heart space.

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R. Rachel: is a prayer for healing. Can everyone see where it says, let us be healed?

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R. Rachel: Alright, and if I hit play, let's see if you can all hear also.

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R. Rachel: In our fauna, I have fun, I love.

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R. Rachel: We must be strong, and we must be healed.

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R. Rachel: Ohio, no.

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R. Rachel: In alfana

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R. Rachel: So that was our… Opening this morning.

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R. Rachel: And with that, I will… Bring us to… Our source sheet again.

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R. Rachel: And let me put also in the… put the source sheet in the chat one more time for anyone who needs it.

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lindabkramer: That, rabbi, can we, designate this healing to Nancy Heller?

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R. Rachel: Yes, absolutely.

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lindabkramer: Thank you.

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R. Rachel: That's a beautiful idea.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, let, let us…

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R. Rachel: Hold Nancy in our hearts and pray for her healing. May our learning accrue to her merit.

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R. Rachel: To help her heal speedily and smoothly and in every way.

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lindabkramer: Thank you.

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R. Rachel: Let me say it together on main. So, can everyone see the text sheet?

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R. Rachel: Super. We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… we have 7 chunks of Torah.

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R. Rachel: I'd like 7 readers, and let's see where this takes us.

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Amy V: Can you make it a little larger, the print? And I'll see it. Okay.

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R. Rachel: Let me try… is this a little… is this… hang on, is that a little better?

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Amy V: Yes.

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Amy V: Miriam and Aron spoke against Moshe on the matter of the Cushite he took as his wife. They said, he took a Cushite as wife. Has Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh only spoken through Moshe? Didn't God also speak through us? And Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh heard.

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Deliah: The man Moses was very humble, more than anyone on the face of the earth.

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Deliah: Suddenly, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh spoke to Moses, and to Aharon, and to Miriam. Come out, you three, to the tent of witnessing. The three came out.

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Iris Barten: Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh descended in a pillar of cloud, standing in the door of the tent of witnessing, and called Aharon and Miriam.

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Iris Barten: The two came forth.

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Iris Barten: God said, Please hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh will make myself known in a vision and speak in a dream.

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R. Rachel: Anyone else?

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lindabkramer: Not so, my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.

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lindabkramer: I speak mouth to mouth with him, not in veiled speech.

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lindabkramer: And he behold the form of…

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lindabkramer: Yohivavi, so why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

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Amy V: Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh was angry at them and went, and the cloud turned.

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R. Rachel: Sorry, just spotted a typo. Should say snow.

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Amy V: The cloud turned from atop the tent, and behold, Miriam had Sorry.

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R. Rachel: gauntlet.

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Amy V: Surat, white as…

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R. Rachel: snow.

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R. Rachel: Should be snow. Sorry about that.

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Amy V: Oh, no. Aron turned to Miriam, and behold, she had Surat.

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Corinne: Ron said to Moshe, My lord, please, do not account for rust.

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Corinne: Our foolishness and sin that we sin.

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Corinne: Please, let her not be as dead.

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Corinne: Whose flesh birthed from the mother's womb is half consumed?

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Diana Rico: Moshe cried out to Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, saying, Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh said to Moshe, if her father had spit in her face, wouldn't she be ashamed for seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp for seven days, then be gathered back into camp.

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Diana Rico: Miriam was shut out from the camp for 7 days, and the people did not journey onward until Miriam was gathered back.

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R. Rachel: Oh, that's our reading for this morning.

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R. Rachel: What comes up for us? What…

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R. Rachel: What calls out to be explained?

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Deliah: Why Miriam and not Aharon?

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R. Rachel: Right, so the… it's clear that Miriam and Aharon both are speaking against Moshe, right? Same very first verse.

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R. Rachel: So why does God get mad apparently only at one of them?

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R. Rachel: What else?

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Iris Barten: Also, because Aharon is a priest.

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Iris Barten: So, I'm wondering about what is expected of him as a priest.

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Iris Barten: You know, to be, criticizing.

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Iris Barten: But we're having doubt, and maybe that's why, because he is a priest.

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Diana Rico: That's so funny.

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Iris Barten: He would not want to see his brother marry a Kushite.

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Iris Barten: I don't know, there's a lot of different ways to think about that, I think.

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R. Rachel: Right, so we… what appears to be the complaint here? Like, what do they seem to be upset about?

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Iris Barten: It's also because they want to know why God isn't speaking

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Iris Barten: with them, as God does with…

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lindabkramer: Marcel.

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R. Rachel: Let God speak with us.

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R. Rachel: Why does God only speak to Him, right? So is it about the Cushite, or is it about God's silence?

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Amy V: Both.

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lindabkramer: Yeah, I think so.

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Deliah: They also don't understand the part about the flesh being half-dead and the birth.

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Deliah: Yeah.

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lindabkramer: Hmm.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, well, that's a great question. What actually is that about? I think… Most commentators see it as…

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R. Rachel: As a very visceral image of some kind of… Terrible stillbirth, right?

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Deliah: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: But it's a very vivid and kind of violent image.

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R. Rachel: Which might tell us something about…

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R. Rachel: Sarat, or their fears of Tsarat. By the way, I…

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R. Rachel: I just want to note, this is the word, tzarat, right, in Hebrew.

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R. Rachel: It is usually rendered with a different English word.

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R. Rachel: Anybody have a guess on what that word is?

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Deliah: Leprosy.

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R. Rachel: Correct.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, usually, most translations say leprosy. Here's the thing, what's described here?

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R. Rachel: Flesh white as snow?

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R. Rachel: That's not what leprosy looks like.

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R. Rachel: Also, Sarat is a condition that not only people can get, but houses can get?

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lindabkramer: Oh.

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R. Rachel: We know that houses cannot get leprosy.

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R. Rachel: One cannot infect the walls of a house with leprosy.

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R. Rachel: So, our sages conclude, therefore, that Sabra'at has to… it's… this has to be something other than…

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R. Rachel: the familiar illness that we know about. There's something uncanny going on here that's not just about… maybe not just about physical contagion.

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Amy V: And what about snow?

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Amy V: White as snow?

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R. Rachel: Why does snow, that's an interesting metaphor, isn't it? For a… for a… Desert culture.

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Amy V: Yeah, was there snow?

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lindabkramer: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: There… I mean, there must have been. And it does snow in some parts of the Middle East, in high places.

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R. Rachel: But, right, it's not a common thing.

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R. Rachel: I might imagine that, like, white as salt would have been a more apt comparison.

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Amy V: Yeah, or sand.

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R. Rachel: Sand, right.

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Diana Rico: In high deserts. I live in New Mexico in a high desert. There are mountains outside my window.

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R. Rachel: Okay, so I…

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Diana Rico: desert, and we have snow for 5 months of the year, so…

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R. Rachel: Noted.

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Diana Rico: Depends on the geography.

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R. Rachel: Right, and the altitude, I'm guessing.

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Diana Rico: Yeah, I'm at 7,300 feet.

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lindabkramer: Yeah.

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Diana Rico: And there would… there might have been snow on the mountains, like Mount Sinai, also, part of theater. I don't know.

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R. Rachel: Bear in mind, of course, the geographical region we're talking about is small, and in one part of it, we have the lowest… right, the Dead Sea is the lowest.

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Diana Rico: So, yeah.

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R. Rachel: So it's mostly not elevated, but maybe that just makes it all the more remarkable.

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R. Rachel: As a metaphor.

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lindabkramer: Beautiful.

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Deliah: When was the translation made to leprosy, and what was going on in the culture at the time? Do we know that?

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R. Rachel: Great question. I don't actually know the answer, but I'm gonna make note of the question.

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R. Rachel: I'm using this mistranslation.

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R. Rachel: Apply.

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Deliah: Because that might give us some very interesting information about what was going on then.

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R. Rachel: Lilith notes in the chat that maybe this is… there's a sort of an albino, temporary albinism thing, which is sort of fascinating. Deanna, I see your hand.

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Diana Rico: I have a question about that, in the last verse.

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Diana Rico: If her father had spit in her face, wouldn't she be ashamed for 7 days? Why would her father have spit in her face? I don't understand that.

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R. Rachel: Huh?

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Diana Rico: And then my other thing I want to say is I note that the people did not journey onward until Miriam was gathered back, so she was important.

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R. Rachel: Right. Those are really good points. Yeah, absolutely. The fact that the people didn't move on tells us something important. And also, what is going on with the father spitting in the face?

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R. Rachel: Because that metaphor is not explained.

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Diana Rico: No, it comes out of nowhere.

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R. Rachel: So…

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Iris Barten: Is that some sort of… Expression of disdain, or… Punishment, or other, you know…

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Iris Barten: Not… not happy about something a person did.

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Iris Barten: you know, it's… I don't know, I just… I have that connotation from somebody spitting like that. It's different from the poo-poo-poo that we do for the…

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R. Rachel: Right, right. It's not like, like the, the, the against the evil eye…

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Iris Barten: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: Spitting. It's… there's something different happening here.

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R. Rachel: So, who's spitting in whose face and why?

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R. Rachel: And ashamed is a strong word here, also.

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Diana Rico: Can I say one more thing? Yeah. I'm moved that Aron is the one who defends her.

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R. Rachel: Mmm…

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Diana Rico: her brother.

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R. Rachel: Yeah.

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Deliah: I have another question, which I've never thought of. Is God considered the Father in Christianity, but also in Hebrew?

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Deliah: In our tradition.

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R. Rachel: Hmm…

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Deliah: Because if the Father spits in his face, if… if God… is God the Father in our understanding, or is that a Christian understanding?

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R. Rachel: Is a fabulous question.

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Iris Barten: Boom.

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Deliah: Because then would it be God spitting in her face?

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R. Rachel: Right.

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Iris Barten: a Vino Malcano, right? We have…

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Deliah: But yeah, we do have that.

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lindabkramer: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: So I would say, yeah, that is a metaphor that we have. I mean, that it became prominent in Christianity in part as part of the Trinity.

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R. Rachel: Right? Father, Son, Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. So, in that sense, Father becomes part of that familial triad.

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R. Rachel: But yeah, we have God as Avinu all over the place.

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Deliah: Right.

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R. Rachel: Maybe this was a custom at the time?

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R. Rachel: This may have meant something to readers in that moment, or listeners in that moment, that's missing to us, culturally.

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Nancy Goody: Don't you think it's, I mean, it's already been said in some ways that, you know, she brought shame.

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lindabkramer: Hmm.

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Nancy Goody: Whoever the father to spit in the face, you know, brought shame to the family, therefore…

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Nancy Goody: This was the reaction.

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R. Rachel: Right. So, has Miriam has somehow brought shame?

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Amy V: It's interesting, because if she brought shame, she brought shame because of her shaming.

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lindabkramer: Yes.

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Amy V: You know, the implication is, is that they should just stay out of… Moshe's business, like, you're…

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R. Rachel: Right.

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Amy V: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: That's right, so what, what, what is… it appears that what she says here is…

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R. Rachel: They spoke against Moshe on the matter of the Kushite, he took his wife.

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R. Rachel: So that's one thing. And then there's, right, then there's the, has God only spoken through Him? What about the… what about us?

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Nancy Goody: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: But what…

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R. Rachel: What's up with that? Why are they angry? Are they angry that he got married? Are they angry that she's a Kushite? Are they angry about something else, and this is just the presenting issue? We don't know.

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Deliah: And is there a, kushite women are darker in skin. Cushites are darker.

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Deliah: So, is there some kind of dark…

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Deliah: Light, she got turned to snow, white to white, and she talked against the dark.

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R. Rachel: Oh, that's really interesting. Yeah, absolutely.

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R. Rachel: That's worth noting.

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Iris Barten: I also wonder if turning to snow has the potential to have tshuva, you know, to change and to be purified again. That kind of inherent…

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R. Rachel: There's a… there's that… a beautiful line,

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R. Rachel: Pretty sure this is Isaiah, to write that God will turn our sins white as snow. Wow.

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R. Rachel: Right, so that there's a… There is a… a… scriptural metaphor.

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R. Rachel: could repre… tonight snow could represent Teshuva.

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Deliah: Did Isaiah wrote that… write that yet?

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R. Rachel: Just got that in. Rachel, I see your hand.

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Rachel Rudansky: Yeah, I was just wondering if spit in the face is a shaming, or is that a healing process? Because the spit does have certain…

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Rachel Rudansky: healing qualities.

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Rachel Rudansky: So, that was the question I had. If we're, you know, judging it as a shaming, maybe it's not, maybe it's a purification.

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R. Rachel: Oh, I love that. That's beautiful, right? Maybe, maybe some…

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R. Rachel: Are we reading this as an expression of, you should be ashamed of yourself, or an expression of, you need healing, and this is something that will heal you?

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R. Rachel: I love that.

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R. Rachel: I agree.

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Iris Barten: Or if the spitting is a wake-up call.

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Iris Barten: You know, like…

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Iris Barten: to stop and think about what you're doing, and how to change, which then is the tshuva also.

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Iris Barten: In addition to the potential for purification, which really is, you know, when we stop and change, then it's purification. So maybe they go together.

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R. Rachel: Beautiful.

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R. Rachel: Alright, any other thoughts?

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R. Rachel: Bubbling up as we look at this, or shall we move on to our commentators?

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Corinne: I thought maybe sometimes it's sibling rivality, and people in the community sometimes don't accept that

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Corinne: Each one has a different charisma, and some may be chosen for certain things, others for other things, for sure.

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Corinne: Doesn't mean that it diminishes their…

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Corinne: capacity to connect to God, but as humans, we always compare why He's getting the job, why not me, why He's being promoted, why not me?

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Corinne: This C, closeness to God as a spiritual promotion.

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Corinne: And they've been left behind.

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R. Rachel: That's really beautiful, thank you for that.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, all three of them can connect to God, so why are two of them jealous?

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R. Rachel: And… and what is it about the… what are… what are they projecting on each other or on God?

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R. Rachel: So, here's… the first thing… Nope, more?

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Iris Barten: I just have a question. We didn't talk about if there is a prophet among you.

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R. Rachel: Oh, yeah.

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Iris Barten: So, I'm wondering about that.

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R. Rachel: If there is a prophet among you, God, I will make myself known in a vision and speak in a dream.

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R. Rachel: Which is often how prophecy works in our tradition.

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R. Rachel: But Moshe is different.

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R. Rachel: God says, to Moshe, I speak mouth to mouth, not in veiled speech.

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R. Rachel: And, right, Moshe and God have a different kind of relationship. Nancy.

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Nancy Goody: I'm sorry, I had to just look up something, because I… the whole idea of spitting being curative, and Rachel.

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Nancy Goody: you know, brought this up, because I had never heard of it, so I quickly looked it up, and apparently.

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Nancy Goody: Certainly animals lick wounds, for healing, and there is some science behind

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Nancy Goody: licking or spitting on a wound, but if it's deep, it could cause bacterial problems. However, then going to not our Bible, not the Tanakh.

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Nancy Goody: But… Apparently, Jesus restored a blind man's sight, including spitting in his eyes.

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Nancy Goody: So, I'm just curious about the lineage from our Bible to that one, and the.

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R. Rachel: That's.

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Nancy Goody: I never would have looked this up, I'm sorry, I don't usually try to be distracted by.

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R. Rachel: No, I'm so glad that you did.

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Nancy Goody: Well, it's a little irrelevant in some ways, but…

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R. Rachel: No, I mean, it's part of the same… it's part of the same universe of texts. Yeah, it is. James, are you actually here? Can you tell us anything about,

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R. Rachel: Jesus splitting in the blind man's eye?

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James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): It's just that, that's just one of the stories of his many healings and such that he,

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James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): that he used his saliva to, heal a man that was blind. They portray it on the TV shows and in some of the other writings that he actually put it in, he spits on some soil, and then rubs that in the man's eye, as opposed to actually spitting in his eyes, so…

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R. Rachel: Okay, interesting.

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R. Rachel: That makes me think of,

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R. Rachel: the Jewish funeral tradition of placing some soil from the Holy Land on the eyes

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R. Rachel: On the… once… when someone has died and their body has been…

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R. Rachel: cleansed and blessed and shrouded and ready for burial, one of the last things we do in some communities is put a little bit of soil on the eyes.

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R. Rachel: Which makes me think of that morning blessing, right? God who wipes sleep from the eyes and slumber from the eyelids.

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R. Rachel: Anyway, now I'm… now I'm down a rabbit hole. Corinne!

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Corinne: I was curious to ask, within the Coen.

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Corinne: a clan, or a group. Are there rabbis, or were there spiritual leaders who had the charisma for healing, as in some communities you have.

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R. Rachel: Hmm…

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Corinne: some dedicated person, ministry, for the healing of people. Is there something like that in Judaism?

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R. Rachel: That's a great question. I don't think that there was in these days.

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R. Rachel: I've… I don't know anything about… in the time of the ancient priests, right, the priesthood as described here, I don't know that that was one of their functions.

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Deliah: It is one of their functions in later times.

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R. Rachel: Thank you, Delia.

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Deliah: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, Amy and then Rachel.

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Amy V: I think it's a beautiful phrasing,

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Amy V: Not my servant Moses, he is faithful in all my house. I speak mouth-to-mouth with him. So there's the mouth-to-mouth, and then there's the spitting. They're… they're obviously very different, but mouth-to-mouth.

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Amy V: I speak intimately with him. I guess it also sounds like I speak directly with him.

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Amy V: So, he's not saying, well, he's my peer.

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Amy V: But he's saying, he's different than you guys.

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Amy V: And, the spitting might be healing in other contexts, but it does say Wouldn't she be ashamed?

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Amy V: You know, clearly, that doesn't seem to be the implication here, that her father was… that this was a healing.

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R. Rachel: So I'm just… I'm noting, first, your point of the intimacy of mouth-to-mouth.

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R. Rachel: what comes out of our mouths? This is how God speaks, how do we speak?

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R. Rachel: There's something about oral transmission here, whether it's spit or words, something about what comes out of our mouths.

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R. Rachel: Has something to… is in… is deep in this story.

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lindabkramer: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: Rachel.

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Iris Barten: I'm sorry. I'm sorry about my ring.

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R. Rachel: Rachel and then Iris.

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Rachel Rudansky: Thank you. I just wanted to say, addressing who are the healers, I just want to mention the women.

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R. Rachel: Hmm.

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Rachel Rudansky: Because we have Rachel, the midwife, she's delivering babies, and then there are other women doing other things for healing.

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Rachel Rudansky: And also wanted to add the mouth-to-mouth is also breath to breath.

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Rachel Rudansky: And… fishing it.

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Rachel Rudansky: There's some references to God as closer than our breathing.

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Rachel Rudansky: in other texts. So anyway, just wanted to share that. Thank you very much.

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R. Rachel: I love that, and God breathes in us, right? At the very beginning of our story of creation, God breathes into the first adam, the breath of life. So, again, something that emerges from… bearing in mind, of course, God doesn't have a mouse.

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Rachel Rudansky: Oh, or at least.

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R. Rachel: Rambam would be very clear with us that all of these are metaphors, images that we use, because we can only understand

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R. Rachel: what it's like to be us, and not what it's like to be God. Okay.

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R. Rachel: Oh.

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Rachel Rudansky: Okay.

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R. Rachel: Iris, where did that take you?

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Iris Barten: Yeah, I feel connected to what Rachel and other people are saying, and I also wonder if the mouth-to-mouth reminds us, or is, indicative of God's words.

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Iris Barten: going to Moshe, and then Moshe speaks God's words. It's like.

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R. Rachel: Oh, I love that.

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Iris Barten: Any, you know, any interference in what is being transmitted.

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Iris Barten: And the other part of that, which I think we're touching on.

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Iris Barten: The… this is kind of about boundaries, also.

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Iris Barten: When… Let's see exactly. But how could you not… How could you disrespect?

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Iris Barten: Moshe, basically, because of the relationship that Moshe and God have, so it was crossing a boundary, I think, but also, you know, they wanted to be heard, so it's an interesting balance.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. Nancy, where's this taking you?

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Nancy Goody: Well, I'm sorry, I had to step away for a minute, so maybe this has been said, but the idea of

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Nancy Goody: God…

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Nancy Goody: putting, you know, speaking into Moses' mouth. I'm thinking, isn't there in Genesis about God breathing life into a dome? Maybe it was said already, I am… I apologize if I've missed, you know…

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R. Rachel: Absolutely, God breathes the breath of life into the Adam.

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Nancy Goody: And I was thinking of… I'm sorry, but in mouse-to-mouth resuscitation today.

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Nancy Goody: This is, you know, it's called the breath of life.

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R. Rachel: Hmm.

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Nancy Goody: reason. So, you know, anyway.

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R. Rachel: Awesome. Alright, I'm gonna take us into our texts, and I think we'll see, unsurprisingly, that some of the things y'all have settled on, or been struck by, have also struck the stages of our tradition at various times.

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R. Rachel: First, just, would someone like to read

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R. Rachel: the prayer of Moshe, just so we… word by word. And remember, this is… these are the words that we heard sung at the beginning of our learning today.

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R. Rachel: Short and sweet.

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Nancy Goody: You want it in Hebrew and English, or… Elna Rafanala.

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Nancy Goody: God, please.

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Nancy Goody: heal… Please, hurt.

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R. Rachel: Thank you, man.

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Nancy Goody: God, please heal her.

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R. Rachel: That's right. Usually we would say, God, please heal her, but going literally syllable by syllable.

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Nancy Goody: Right.

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R. Rachel: God, please. Heal, please.

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R. Rachel: Her.

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R. Rachel: That's the whole prayer.

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Nancy Goody: And a beautiful song.

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R. Rachel: Isn't that a gorgeous setting? I've found that really moving. So the question with Rashi is always, what's bugging Rashi? What gets on his nerves?

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R. Rachel: And the answer seems to be he was worried that it was too short.

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R. Rachel: A thing no one has ever said to any rabbi, ever.

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R. Rachel: Pray longer.

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R. Rachel: Somebody want to read Rashi?

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Deliah: Please heal her. Why did Moshe not pray at length?

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Deliah: So Israel should not say, his sister is in trouble, and he stands and offers long prayers. Another explanation is Moshe did not pray at length, so Israel should not say.

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Deliah: On behalf of his sister, he prays long, but on our behalf, he would offer no long prayer.

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R. Rachel: I love this one. I love that the first cons… you know, his sister's in trouble, and all he's gonna do is pray.

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R. Rachel: And then the second one, oh, he'll pray for his sister, but not to us, right? There's a…

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Nancy Goody: You and damned if you don't.

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R. Rachel: People have grown.

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Nancy Goody: about…

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R. Rachel: Rabbis since time immemorial.

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R. Rachel: And there is nothing new under the sun.

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R. Rachel: But okay, so he prays briefly for these reasons. And here's what, Brachut has to say about it. El. Someone want to give us this one?

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Nancy Goody: Once a student served as prayer leader before the Ark, and he was very short in his prayer before Rabbi Eliezer.

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Nancy Goody: Whose students protested and said to him, his prayer is too short!

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Nancy Goody: Eliezer said to them, is his shortening his prayer any more than did Moshe, our teacher, as in numbers, Moshe… Moses cried out to Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, saying, God, please.

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Nancy Goody: Heal her, please.

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R. Rachel: Or maybe this is all good stuff for me to be reading as I dive into the beginning of high holiday prep, which is what we are all doing at this time of year. All right, note to self.

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R. Rachel: Y'all won't mind if I keep it short.

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R. Rachel: And Ibn Ezra just looks at the word Vayitzak that Moshe cried out.

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R. Rachel: It says the fact that he cried out shows that he was in pain.

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R. Rachel: And his sister was suffering, and so he was suffering.

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Amy V: It seems to me that also,

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Amy V: he has his intimacy with Hashem that he doesn't need to keep beseeching.

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Amy V: That they have this direct relationship.

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R. Rachel: Hmm…

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Amy V: That almost has this… understanding in Moshe that he will be heard.

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Amy V: Whereas the people, they would kind of have to put a little more work into it. But, boy, this… his prayer is too short, the prayer is too long.

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Amy V: It really doesn't even seem ancient at all.

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R. Rachel: There's something timeless about that, huh?

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Amy V: Yeah, yeah. I guess also Nancy and I were at services last night, and one of the next championship games was on, so we were talking beforehand about the length of the service.

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R. Rachel: Yup.

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Nancy Goody: Well, Amy was, anyway. She knows Nick's won, so, you know.

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R. Rachel: Alright, that's good, right?

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Nancy Goody: Yes, that shows.

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R. Rachel: how much I know about sports. Alright, so the Sforno then comes in and says, okay, what was actually going on here

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R. Rachel: is that he was pleading that Miriam be healed so she wouldn't be subjected to the embarrassment of having to go outside the camp.

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R. Rachel: So for at least some of our commentators, we're getting back into this question of, is Miriam embarrassed? Should she be embarrassed?

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R. Rachel: Is it embarrassing to need healing?

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R. Rachel: Is it… Embarrassing to… Have a body that doesn't always function the way you want it to, and…

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R. Rachel: Sometimes you need to… Take a week outside the camp and heal, Delia.

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Deliah: That's what I was gonna say, isn't, like, you know, we've redone, like, the red tent, going outside, is it, like, a shunning away, or is it a space to go and do your deeper healing?

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R. Rachel: Mmm…

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Amy V: And to be relieved of the regular obligations towards the community.

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Deliah: To focus on… in on yourself.

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Amy V: Yes.

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R. Rachel: Love that.

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R. Rachel: Deanna, I see your hand.

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Diana Rico: Wasn't Moses a stutterer?

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Diana Rico: And I'm wondering if… anywhere in the Torah, he had shame around his difficulty speaking.

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R. Rachel: Oh, yes, actually.

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R. Rachel: Because…

390
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Diana Rico: Then he would have empathy for…

391
00:38:58.160 --> 00:39:09.140
Diana Rico: What's happening with even more empathy, not just that she's his sister, but that he's… he understands what that kind of embarrassment around a physical disability might be like.

392
00:39:10.970 --> 00:39:13.050
R. Rachel: Love that. Hang on, I'm writing this down.

393
00:39:14.240 --> 00:39:18.329
R. Rachel: Chance to heal… Did emotion stutter.

394
00:39:20.620 --> 00:39:21.189
R. Rachel: Was he…

395
00:39:21.190 --> 00:39:22.690
Diana Rico: I'm ashamed about that.

396
00:39:23.030 --> 00:39:23.630
Iris Barten: Nope.

397
00:39:24.470 --> 00:39:30.260
R. Rachel: So there is… we do know that, when God is first speaking to him at the bush.

398
00:39:30.390 --> 00:39:36.840
R. Rachel: he basically says, you know, pick, pick… don't pick me, God, I'm not up to this. You know that I'm.

399
00:39:38.080 --> 00:39:38.850
Deliah: Something of mouth.

400
00:39:38.850 --> 00:39:41.579
R. Rachel: I'm a man of circumcised lips.

401
00:39:41.580 --> 00:39:42.430
Diana Rico: Right, right.

402
00:39:42.430 --> 00:39:51.110
R. Rachel: It's his own whole interesting phrasing, but there's a midrash that says that he stuttered because he put a hot coal in his mouth.

403
00:39:51.620 --> 00:40:01.250
R. Rachel: I'm seeing some heads nodding, that at one point, Pharaoh was angry. Pharaoh was concerned, his advisors were saying, you know, this baby you've adopted might someday usurp you.

404
00:40:01.560 --> 00:40:05.959
R. Rachel: And so, Pharaoh put a hot coal and a ruby in front of Moshe.

405
00:40:06.200 --> 00:40:11.060
R. Rachel: And he said, if the baby reaches for the ruby, then I know he's actually after my throne and I'll kill him.

406
00:40:11.800 --> 00:40:19.270
R. Rachel: And he was gonna reach for the ruby, but an angel moved his hand so that instead he picked up the hot coal and put it in his mouth, and he burned his lips.

407
00:40:19.390 --> 00:40:21.579
R. Rachel: And tongue, and that's why he stuttered.

408
00:40:22.340 --> 00:40:29.330
R. Rachel: But yeah, he had some… I think it's safe to say, some anxiety about his…

409
00:40:30.750 --> 00:40:33.849
R. Rachel: The fact that his speech didn't flow smoothly.

410
00:40:34.710 --> 00:40:38.089
R. Rachel: Oh, that's interesting, we're back to speech.

411
00:40:46.720 --> 00:40:48.439
R. Rachel: Love that. Alright.

412
00:40:49.060 --> 00:40:52.070
R. Rachel: Let us… oh, Iris, I see your hand.

413
00:40:52.600 --> 00:40:53.690
Iris Barten: Thank you.

414
00:40:53.920 --> 00:41:00.279
Iris Barten: So, I'm thinking also, that Moshe is being…

415
00:41:00.530 --> 00:41:13.839
Iris Barten: concise, and partly because he really wanted to say what he needed to say, and I'm wondering if it's also because God already knew what happened, so it… you don't have to

416
00:41:14.420 --> 00:41:22.019
Iris Barten: Please heal my sister? Because, you know, whatever she has, so that's one thought.

417
00:41:22.870 --> 00:41:39.510
Iris Barten: And I also am thinking about that Moshe prayed for Miriam, even though Miriam criticized Moshe. So, we don't really hear about a process that Moshe went through, or if there is one, I don't know what it is, but…

418
00:41:39.850 --> 00:41:44.930
Iris Barten: It's kind of… he just… he gets to the place where he can pray for her.

419
00:41:46.090 --> 00:41:49.470
R. Rachel: How often do we pray for the people who criticize us?

420
00:41:49.840 --> 00:41:50.450
Iris Barten: Yeah.

421
00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:54.719
Iris Barten: We're… yeah, we're supposed to, but yeah.

422
00:41:54.960 --> 00:41:57.209
R. Rachel: Perhaps easier said than done.

423
00:41:57.210 --> 00:41:57.600
Iris Barten: Yeah.

424
00:41:57.600 --> 00:42:04.370
R. Rachel: Right. We've got a couple of different classical takes here, and then we'll move to some modern voices. Somebody want to read…

425
00:42:04.770 --> 00:42:12.369
R. Rachel: Both of these are from Devarim Raba, from the, you know, the great collection of Midrash.

426
00:42:13.850 --> 00:42:15.389
R. Rachel: Somebody want to do the first one?

427
00:42:23.800 --> 00:42:31.459
Diana Rico: Moshe cried out, A parable of comparison. A mighty man had a chain around his neck.

428
00:42:31.680 --> 00:42:38.459
Diana Rico: He freed himself from that chain. Sometime later, he saw the chain placed around another's neck.

429
00:42:38.690 --> 00:42:43.880
Diana Rico: The mighty man began crying out. People said to him, why are you crying out?

430
00:42:44.130 --> 00:42:51.249
Diana Rico: He said to them, You do not know what he is going through, but I know what pain he is experiencing.

431
00:42:52.180 --> 00:42:57.660
Diana Rico: The chain was around my neck, just like this, and I know what pain he is experiencing.

432
00:42:58.040 --> 00:43:13.219
Diana Rico: So, too, Moshe cried out, The Holy Blessed One said to him, Why are you crying out? Moshe said to God, Master of the universe, I know what pain Miriam is suffering, as I remember the chain into which my hand was once placed.

433
00:43:13.300 --> 00:43:19.870
Diana Rico: As in Exodus 4-6, behold, Moshe's hand had Surat, like snow.

434
00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:38.580
Diana Rico: After Moshe prayed on her behalf, the Holy Blessed One healed her, as in Numbers 12.25, the people did not travel until Miriam was gathered back into the camp. That is why they remembered what befell Miriam as a result of Lashon Harrah, malicious speech.

435
00:43:40.710 --> 00:43:45.240
R. Rachel: So, the… What's being alluded to here

436
00:43:45.640 --> 00:43:55.070
R. Rachel: is a moment earlier in Moses' story where Moses is sort of doubting God's capacity to carry him through this whole Exodus.

437
00:43:55.300 --> 00:43:59.239
R. Rachel: adventure, and God says, stick your hand into your cloak.

438
00:43:59.490 --> 00:44:04.490
R. Rachel: And Moses sticks his hand in his cloak, and when he brings it out, he has to rot. It is white as snow.

439
00:44:06.350 --> 00:44:09.459
R. Rachel: And then he sticks his hand back into his cloak, and God takes it away.

440
00:44:11.460 --> 00:44:20.720
R. Rachel: So… These two stories are linked by the mention of Tsarat, by being white as snow, And…

441
00:44:21.190 --> 00:44:28.179
R. Rachel: Also, by maybe the notion that this gives Moshe some empathy for what his sister is going through, because he's been there.

442
00:44:29.130 --> 00:44:36.219
R. Rachel: And this is the origin of the primary rabbinic explanation for what Miriam did wrong.

443
00:44:37.810 --> 00:44:41.650
R. Rachel: What befell Miriam as a result of La Shon Hara?

444
00:44:42.740 --> 00:44:46.379
R. Rachel: Bad speech, wicked speech, malicious speech.

445
00:44:51.790 --> 00:44:54.539
R. Rachel: Questions, comments, concerns?

446
00:45:01.010 --> 00:45:02.090
R. Rachel: Yeah, Deanna.

447
00:45:02.090 --> 00:45:05.829
Diana Rico: Well, so here Miriam is being made an example.

448
00:45:06.970 --> 00:45:08.130
Diana Rico: by God.

449
00:45:08.770 --> 00:45:11.559
Diana Rico: Mmm, this is… this is what'll happen to you.

450
00:45:11.870 --> 00:45:14.009
Diana Rico: If you engage in malicious speech.

451
00:45:14.550 --> 00:45:15.110
R. Rachel: Right.

452
00:45:15.690 --> 00:45:16.460
R. Rachel: Right?

453
00:45:17.300 --> 00:45:20.309
R. Rachel: And the malicious speech in question

454
00:45:21.650 --> 00:45:24.990
R. Rachel: Seems to be. He took a Cushite, his wife.

455
00:45:26.550 --> 00:45:27.140
Diana Rico: Right.

456
00:45:27.140 --> 00:45:32.389
R. Rachel: And, or, possibly, has God only spoken through Moshe? Didn't God also speak through us?

457
00:45:33.050 --> 00:45:41.990
R. Rachel: But clearly, saying something about the Cushite here is problematic. Oh, whoa, sorry, that scrolled too fast.

458
00:45:42.270 --> 00:45:50.619
Diana Rico: There's still the question that we haven't answered, which is what… what… why Miriam is the one that's being punished and not her brother.

459
00:45:50.620 --> 00:45:51.340
Amy V: Yeah.

460
00:45:51.340 --> 00:45:57.430
R. Rachel: you noticed that they… that our passage begins, Miriam and Aaron.

461
00:45:57.430 --> 00:45:58.260
Diana Rico: Yeah.

462
00:45:58.830 --> 00:46:00.589
Diana Rico: They did the same thing.

463
00:46:03.690 --> 00:46:04.540
R. Rachel: the question?

464
00:46:06.350 --> 00:46:15.329
Amy V: And in fact, he had more standing in the community, so he was capable of greater damage

465
00:46:15.590 --> 00:46:20.090
Amy V: To the community's cohesiveness and lack thereof.

466
00:46:21.200 --> 00:46:26.540
R. Rachel: So let's look at this next piece from Devaram Rabba, from the same Midrashic source.

467
00:46:35.510 --> 00:46:36.970
R. Rachel: Someone read us this one.

468
00:46:46.890 --> 00:46:50.940
R. Rachel: Alright, I'll take it. Aharam turned to Miriam, and behold, she had Surat.

469
00:46:51.240 --> 00:46:53.969
R. Rachel: Aharon went to Moshe and said to him.

470
00:46:54.180 --> 00:46:59.629
R. Rachel: Our Lord Moshe's siblings do not suffer themselves to be separated from one another except through death.

471
00:47:00.010 --> 00:47:03.490
R. Rachel: Our sister, while still among the living, is separated from us.

472
00:47:03.720 --> 00:47:10.350
R. Rachel: Not only this, but now all Israel will hear and say that the sister of Moshe and Aharon has Zarat.

473
00:47:11.040 --> 00:47:14.830
R. Rachel: Half of this bad name will be about you.

474
00:47:15.510 --> 00:47:21.139
R. Rachel: Convinced by Aaron's words, Moshe arose and prayed for her, and God was moved by him.

475
00:47:23.070 --> 00:47:30.829
R. Rachel: So here we've got Aaron coming back to Moses and saying, Moses, this is not okay. Now our sister has been separated from us.

476
00:47:31.020 --> 00:47:33.909
R. Rachel: And it's gonna impact your reputation!

477
00:47:34.210 --> 00:47:37.040
R. Rachel: Your sister engaged in Lashon Harrah.

478
00:47:39.650 --> 00:47:44.720
R. Rachel: You're gonna have a bad name over this if you don't do something about it.

479
00:47:45.800 --> 00:47:48.309
R. Rachel: And so Moses goes and prays.

480
00:47:48.950 --> 00:47:54.529
Amy V: But… but… isn't this, like, almost the definition of chutzpah?

481
00:47:55.130 --> 00:47:56.029
R. Rachel: Whose part?

482
00:47:56.110 --> 00:48:05.249
Amy V: on Aron's part, he was… he was 50% of this, and now he's saying, you are going to have a bad name.

483
00:48:05.250 --> 00:48:05.940
R. Rachel: Isn't that interesting?

484
00:48:06.100 --> 00:48:06.670
Amy V: Such…

485
00:48:06.670 --> 00:48:11.430
R. Rachel: So, there's something here, maybe about family dynamics, about siblings, like…

486
00:48:11.840 --> 00:48:15.950
R. Rachel: My sister and I just did something, but you're gonna get a bad name for it.

487
00:48:17.450 --> 00:48:20.870
R. Rachel: I think there's a lot of room for Midrash here.

488
00:48:21.050 --> 00:48:24.950
R. Rachel: Modern Midrash, because mostly that's not where our sages go with it, but just…

489
00:48:25.130 --> 00:48:29.760
R. Rachel: Family dynamics. Who does what? Who gets blamed?

490
00:48:30.120 --> 00:48:36.010
R. Rachel: Who is successful in negotiating for… For a reprieve?

491
00:48:37.010 --> 00:48:37.910
R. Rachel: Great.

492
00:48:37.910 --> 00:48:46.599
Deliah: But also, the more responsibility you have in a culture, the more, Clear, you have to…

493
00:48:47.360 --> 00:48:49.920
R. Rachel: Mmm, right. I love that.

494
00:48:51.990 --> 00:49:01.860
R. Rachel: So the Fiskuni just comes along and looks at the fact that in El Na rifanala, the word na appears twice. Please is in there twice.

495
00:49:03.150 --> 00:49:07.419
R. Rachel: It says, the first please is a request. The second please means now.

496
00:49:07.860 --> 00:49:11.129
R. Rachel: What do we want? Healing. When do we want it? Now.

497
00:49:12.620 --> 00:49:19.840
R. Rachel: But God's reply goes to say, well, I can't heal her right now, there have to be some consequences.

498
00:49:20.610 --> 00:49:27.409
R. Rachel: So, she needs to be scolded, or she needs… right, there need to… there need to be consequences for the things that she said.

499
00:49:29.610 --> 00:49:31.559
Deliah: But is it really consequences?

500
00:49:32.920 --> 00:49:36.489
Deliah: Or is it a space to do inner healing?

501
00:49:36.900 --> 00:49:42.559
R. Rachel: That's… that's the question. I think the tradition mostly sees it as consequences.

502
00:49:42.560 --> 00:49:43.030
Deliah: Right.

503
00:49:43.030 --> 00:49:47.539
R. Rachel: but not entirely. And I think we can choose to see it in other ways.

504
00:49:48.560 --> 00:49:54.279
Deliah: The tradition… the tradition mostly doesn't go into deep women's healing sources.

505
00:49:54.510 --> 00:49:55.580
R. Rachel: That's also true.

506
00:49:55.580 --> 00:49:56.120
Deliah: Yeah.

507
00:49:57.570 --> 00:50:06.039
R. Rachel: Contemporary rabbi Elie Confer points out how short the prayer is, how urgent and spontaneous is.

508
00:50:06.330 --> 00:50:13.419
R. Rachel: And here's the point that I love. The five words of the prayer center around the word rifah, heal.

509
00:50:13.620 --> 00:50:21.359
R. Rachel: Surrounded by sounds that produce an oral chiastic structure. Chiastic means shaped like an X. It's something that…

510
00:50:21.360 --> 00:50:36.189
R. Rachel: like, goes into the middle and then comes back out again. It's something that has a parallel on either side. Think of the shape of a letter X, right? The middle. So the sound of this prayer takes us in and then back out again.

511
00:50:36.430 --> 00:50:46.680
R. Rachel: El na rifanala. The terms are inversions of each other. El la. It's the same sound, just forward and backwards.

512
00:50:47.370 --> 00:50:55.860
R. Rachel: And the… or the A terms are… sorry, the A terms are inversions of each other's sounds, L and La, and the B term is the same sound, na.

513
00:50:56.050 --> 00:50:59.590
R. Rachel: All of this highlights Rafah, the request to heal.

514
00:51:02.100 --> 00:51:07.930
R. Rachel: Which I love. I love the look at this as a piece of oral poetry.

515
00:51:08.130 --> 00:51:12.800
R. Rachel: That we hear. El na rifanala. Goes in and back out again.

516
00:51:13.800 --> 00:51:23.339
R. Rachel: And Avoter Rabbi Natan says, in that moment, Moshe drew a small circle and stood within it and prayed for mercy, saying, I will not move from here until you heal Miriam, my sister.

517
00:51:24.290 --> 00:51:28.819
R. Rachel: Which… May also resonate for any of us who have spent time

518
00:51:29.260 --> 00:51:32.550
R. Rachel: In a hospital with someone we love who is ill.

519
00:51:33.050 --> 00:51:35.730
R. Rachel: I'm not leaving, they can pull up a chair.

520
00:51:35.870 --> 00:51:38.070
R. Rachel: I will sleep in the lounge.

521
00:51:40.340 --> 00:51:47.200
R. Rachel: Of course, this may also be resonating for those of us who've spent time in hospital as the patient. Cheryl, good morning, I'm so glad you're here.

522
00:51:48.820 --> 00:51:52.160
R. Rachel: Whoa, and I see that lots of things are in the chat box.

523
00:51:52.280 --> 00:51:54.499
R. Rachel: while I was…

524
00:51:55.950 --> 00:52:03.180
R. Rachel: Speaking, oh, yep, yep, sibling, sibling everything. Oh, James, you're the oldest of four, I'm the youngest of five, that's funny.

525
00:52:03.950 --> 00:52:09.059
R. Rachel: Yep, so sibling dynamics, wow, that one's really resonating with us, I love that.

526
00:52:09.950 --> 00:52:12.910
R. Rachel: So, now we have here a…

527
00:52:13.020 --> 00:52:25.390
R. Rachel: Whoa, contemporary read on the experience of Miriam, and I made a note at the bottom of the page that this is not the end of the passage. There's two more little paragraphs, so when we get to the bottom, we should keep going.

528
00:52:25.570 --> 00:52:29.149
R. Rachel: Would someone like to read The Experience of Miriam?

529
00:52:29.770 --> 00:52:32.990
R. Rachel: Or this piece from the Five Books of Miriam, Ellen Frankel.

530
00:52:34.330 --> 00:52:47.379
Amy V: Miriam the prophet teaches, even though the Torah states that both Miriam and Aron spoke against Moses, only I was singled out by the narrator and God for punishment.

531
00:52:47.580 --> 00:52:49.319
R. Rachel: Look, we noticed that, too.

532
00:52:51.190 --> 00:52:55.030
Amy V: Leia the Nehmer points out, note that the verb.

533
00:52:55.890 --> 00:52:57.390
R. Rachel: The Ted dea Bear.

534
00:52:57.640 --> 00:53:13.069
Amy V: Oh, that's a T, okay. Spoke against is in the feminine singular, though both Miriam and Arona are its subjects. The rabbis add, and note also that Miriam's name is listed first.

535
00:53:13.070 --> 00:53:28.129
Amy V: reversing the usual order in the Torah, and that only Miriam is stricken with leprosy, while Aron remains untouched, proving that she is the instigator of the challenge to Moses.

536
00:53:28.150 --> 00:53:33.869
Amy V: Lilith the Rebel Protests, No, it only proves that she's taken that rep.

537
00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:43.270
Amy V: Our daughters ask, but what motivates Miriam to speak up against her brother Moses… her younger brother Moses?

538
00:53:43.450 --> 00:53:53.580
Amy V: Is it really because of the Kushite woman he had married? Who is she? And what has she done wrong? The rabbis answer.

539
00:53:54.280 --> 00:54:06.489
Amy V: She is an Ethiopian queen, Cush being the biblical name for Ethiopia, who Moses married after fleeing Egypt, but before reaching Midian.

540
00:54:06.530 --> 00:54:22.129
Amy V: Others teach that she is Moshe's Midianite wife, Sapporah. In this second interpretation, Kush refers to either her native country or her beauty. Our daughters ask.

541
00:54:22.180 --> 00:54:35.879
Amy V: Why does Miriam speak against her to Moses? The rabbis answer. Some say that Miriam's complaint is racially motivated. She objects to her brother's marriage to a Black woman.

542
00:54:37.220 --> 00:54:38.970
R. Rachel: And the end…

543
00:54:39.970 --> 00:54:58.259
Amy V: Hagar, the stranger, objects. I doubt that. We know that the ancient Near East, especially the North African region of the Nile Delta, was a melting pot of ethnic groups. So this kind of racial bias seems unlikely.

544
00:54:58.290 --> 00:55:13.630
Amy V: The rabbis suggests. Another view is that Miriam is rebuking her brother for refusing to sleep with his wife once he has returned from Mount Sinai, newly dedicated to God. So…

545
00:55:14.160 --> 00:55:20.120
Amy V: Miriam is speaking not against the Cushite woman, but on her behalf.

546
00:55:21.730 --> 00:55:33.299
R. Rachel: I love how that one turns everything on its head. So all of… in Frankel, every place where she says, the rabbis say, she is summarizing existing Midrash.

547
00:55:35.100 --> 00:55:42.669
R. Rachel: So, there is Midrash that says that after coming down from the mountain, Moshe refused to sleep with his wife.

548
00:55:43.590 --> 00:55:50.079
R. Rachel: Because he decided he was now so deeply consecrated to God, That he no longer…

549
00:55:50.630 --> 00:55:55.139
R. Rachel: No longer had the time or the spaciousness for family life?

550
00:55:56.350 --> 00:56:01.570
R. Rachel: you know, we don't know. Of course, tradition doesn't tell us. All we know is that there's this midrush that says he avoided

551
00:56:01.840 --> 00:56:04.790
R. Rachel: His… his… the bed, the marital bed from then on.

552
00:56:06.130 --> 00:56:11.310
R. Rachel: And so in that understanding, Miriam is mad here on her sister-in-law's behalf.

553
00:56:11.830 --> 00:56:17.020
R. Rachel: Our tradition is very clear that There's a responsibility that having…

554
00:56:18.520 --> 00:56:25.259
R. Rachel: Pleasant consensual sex… pleasant consensual sex with your partner is a spouse's obligation.

555
00:56:25.750 --> 00:56:29.459
R. Rachel: Specifically, it's the man's obligations, a heteronormative tradition.

556
00:56:30.920 --> 00:56:37.410
R. Rachel: And so, Moses is falling down on the job of being a good husband because he won't sleep with his wife.

557
00:56:41.110 --> 00:56:43.079
R. Rachel: I kind of love how…

558
00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:58.349
R. Rachel: how that takes this whole story of maybe Miriam being racist, or talking out of turn against her sister-in-law, and suddenly makes it… Miriam is the defender of her sister-in-law's right to the marital experience she wants.

559
00:57:00.260 --> 00:57:02.009
R. Rachel: I see some people laughing.

560
00:57:06.350 --> 00:57:10.980
R. Rachel: This is one of our tradition's understandings of what might have been going on here.

561
00:57:16.420 --> 00:57:17.949
R. Rachel: Here's another one.

562
00:57:18.610 --> 00:57:21.839
R. Rachel: And this one is long, but I think really beautiful.

563
00:57:22.600 --> 00:57:25.740
R. Rachel: Let's see, we have 4 paragraphs.

564
00:57:26.020 --> 00:57:28.619
R. Rachel: Can I have 4 readers for these 4 graphs?

565
00:57:30.310 --> 00:57:40.030
Nancy Goody: In our midrash, Miriam loses her status after she argues with Moses. But strangely, that loss turns out to be a gain.

566
00:57:40.190 --> 00:57:45.709
Nancy Goody: Now people who come to her are no longer seeking indirect access to Moses.

567
00:57:46.130 --> 00:57:49.729
Nancy Goody: During her struggle with Surratt.

568
00:57:50.140 --> 00:57:57.329
Nancy Goody: Miriam learned about vulnerability, and learned what it was like to be banished from the camp for 7 days.

569
00:57:57.570 --> 00:58:06.569
Nancy Goody: A week is a short time, but for Miriam, it is long enough to view the camp, with its problems and intrigues, from a new perspective.

570
00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:11.289
Nancy Goody: She is still the same person she was before, but not completely.

571
00:58:11.620 --> 00:58:16.239
Nancy Goody: How do you regard your skin once it has begun to flake with sarat?

572
00:58:16.440 --> 00:58:25.360
Nancy Goody: And how do you re-engage completely with the drama of the camp when you have once lived outside its borders, away from its machinations?

573
00:58:25.930 --> 00:58:36.499
Nancy Goody: Contemplating these questions confirms for Miriam that what she has always suspected, that it is we who create worlds of meaning and value.

574
00:58:36.700 --> 00:58:54.170
Nancy Goody: Worlds that are suspended on fragile threads of relationships, experiencing marginity, is that the right word? Gives her the distance she needs to choose, once again, to relate to others and to God, or to reject making such commitments.

575
00:58:58.350 --> 00:59:02.589
Deliah: Miriam teaches the Israelites, and most especially the women.

576
00:59:02.720 --> 00:59:13.689
Deliah: That she has seen how people build worlds of meaning and value in their homes and in their relationships, and how these are the world through which they can experience God.

577
00:59:13.910 --> 00:59:20.880
Deliah: She shares with them the knowledge that even outside the camp, one can build structures in which to experience God.

578
00:59:21.030 --> 00:59:31.270
Deliah: These are not structures of the Levites, and perhaps the aspect of God experienced outside the camp is not the same as that addressed in Levitical worship.

579
00:59:31.530 --> 00:59:37.130
Deliah: Rather, the aspect of God addressed outside the camp is that of the marginalized.

580
00:59:45.830 --> 00:59:59.090
Diana Rico: The god I experienced in the days of my banishment was not that of the Kohanim, she explains. But there is only one god, exclaimed the women. Miriamet replies, Yes, there is, indeed, one god.

581
00:59:59.090 --> 01:00:06.380
Diana Rico: But we have been told where we may experience God, how we may worship God, and what God expects of us.

582
01:00:06.380 --> 01:00:18.480
Diana Rico: But we also know, in the Holy of Holies, in our own hearts, that we have experienced God outside the structure of the formal offerings. The women murmur a quiet assent.

583
01:00:29.480 --> 01:00:30.920
R. Rachel: Cheryl, you want to read?

584
01:00:33.620 --> 01:00:38.250
Sherrill Cropper: Miriam talks about something else she experienced outside the camp.

585
01:00:38.860 --> 01:00:42.880
Sherrill Cropper: Something neither seen nor heard, but felt.

586
01:00:43.900 --> 01:00:45.449
Sherrill Cropper: I was never alone.

587
01:00:46.310 --> 01:00:49.900
Sherrill Cropper: The women grow silent, reflecting and remembering.

588
01:00:50.590 --> 01:00:54.310
Sherrill Cropper: Others must surely have come to Miriam's insight.

589
01:00:54.460 --> 01:00:58.149
Sherrill Cropper: But she is the first to articulate it to the women.

590
01:00:58.710 --> 01:01:03.410
Sherrill Cropper: She teaches them to transmit it to their infants as they nurse them.

591
01:01:03.990 --> 01:01:07.190
Sherrill Cropper: Wherever you are, God is.

592
01:01:07.580 --> 01:01:12.369
Sherrill Cropper: And even if someday there are no longer priests or Levites.

593
01:01:12.480 --> 01:01:16.590
Sherrill Cropper: There will be mothers telling their children, the presence of God.

594
01:01:24.650 --> 01:01:27.320
R. Rachel: What strikes us in particular here?

595
01:01:28.210 --> 01:01:29.420
R. Rachel: If anything.

596
01:01:34.770 --> 01:01:37.560
Diana Rico: This re… re-centers everything.

597
01:01:39.290 --> 01:01:45.179
Diana Rico: Recenters the woman, re-centers motherhood, and the relationship between mother and child.

598
01:01:45.440 --> 01:01:46.670
Diana Rico: And God.

599
01:01:48.250 --> 01:01:51.350
Diana Rico: Did she… did she end up spending 7 days?

600
01:01:51.350 --> 01:01:53.699
R. Rachel: I'll just spend 7 days outside the camp.

601
01:01:53.700 --> 01:01:54.220
Diana Rico: You did.

602
01:01:54.220 --> 01:01:56.070
R. Rachel: And the people don't move on.

603
01:01:57.110 --> 01:01:59.150
R. Rachel: They wait until she comes back in.

604
01:02:00.280 --> 01:02:05.789
Deliah: It brings the focus back to women as the ground and background.

605
01:02:05.940 --> 01:02:09.870
Deliah: Which is not… Which is not so… ugh.

606
01:02:10.020 --> 01:02:13.119
Deliah: But it's almost the most important part.

607
01:02:13.120 --> 01:02:14.439
R. Rachel: Hmm,

608
01:02:14.650 --> 01:02:16.200
R. Rachel: Iris, did you have a hand up?

609
01:02:16.800 --> 01:02:21.830
Iris Barten: Yeah, thank you. I'm… Res… feeling this,

610
01:02:22.310 --> 01:02:33.380
Iris Barten: the aspect of God outside the campus, that of the marginalized, which to me conveys that it is not necessarily a place to…

611
01:02:33.770 --> 01:02:39.130
Iris Barten: To look into yourself and to think about your relationship with God and others.

612
01:02:39.330 --> 01:02:45.440
Iris Barten: But maybe, you know, it has, it has that connotation to me.

613
01:02:51.060 --> 01:02:52.030
R. Rachel: Cheryl.

614
01:02:55.300 --> 01:02:57.319
Sherrill Cropper: Apologies, I didn't set my alarm.

615
01:02:57.860 --> 01:03:05.829
Sherrill Cropper: I… I'm really sorry that I missed all the rest, so forgive me if I repeat something.

616
01:03:06.660 --> 01:03:09.109
Sherrill Cropper: Of that others have said, but…

617
01:03:12.230 --> 01:03:15.360
Sherrill Cropper: the fact… it's a… maybe it's what Deanna meant.

618
01:03:15.710 --> 01:03:23.859
Sherrill Cropper: The fact that we are, Here, throughout everything, that creating

619
01:03:24.060 --> 01:03:26.390
Sherrill Cropper: The tent of meeting, and

620
01:03:28.640 --> 01:03:35.149
Sherrill Cropper: the Khanim and all of that is to create a place Where God dwells.

621
01:03:35.640 --> 01:03:43.500
Sherrill Cropper: And this basically says, It's a place to focus, maybe, but…

622
01:03:43.500 --> 01:03:44.260
R. Rachel: It's not.

623
01:03:44.260 --> 01:03:45.980
Sherrill Cropper: where God dwells.

624
01:03:46.890 --> 01:03:53.229
Sherrill Cropper: And it brings back the whole concept, basically, from Rashid, where

625
01:03:53.900 --> 01:03:58.749
Sherrill Cropper: made in the image of God, God breathed life.

626
01:03:59.530 --> 01:04:01.280
Sherrill Cropper: into us.

627
01:04:01.810 --> 01:04:05.849
Sherrill Cropper: that… Breath in itself is God-like.

628
01:04:07.240 --> 01:04:14.750
Sherrill Cropper: It is the very breath that connects us to God, and as long as we remember that, it's Shekhina, it's…

629
01:04:15.130 --> 01:04:17.150
Sherrill Cropper: It's the divine within us.

630
01:04:18.180 --> 01:04:19.560
R. Rachel: Beautiful, beautiful.

631
01:04:19.560 --> 01:04:25.190
Sherrill Cropper: a basic thing I just wanted to ask you is that this is the section also where there's a cloud.

632
01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:36.520
R. Rachel: We're… in general, yes, during this part of the story, the cloud of… the cloud settles, and we camp, and then the cloud lifts and we move, but it hasn't been mentioned

633
01:04:36.900 --> 01:04:37.720
R. Rachel: lately.

634
01:04:37.720 --> 01:04:38.250
Sherrill Cropper: J.

635
01:04:38.520 --> 01:04:43.390
Sherrill Cropper: Because I was just thinking to myself, though, that

636
01:04:44.130 --> 01:04:55.420
Sherrill Cropper: If there is a time when someone is sent outside the camp, and the cloud descends, it means that this is all a part of plan also.

637
01:04:55.420 --> 01:04:56.330
R. Rachel: Nothing.

638
01:04:56.330 --> 01:04:57.559
Sherrill Cropper: didn't leave.

639
01:04:57.740 --> 01:04:58.140
R. Rachel: Right.

640
01:04:58.140 --> 01:05:02.399
Sherrill Cropper: Well, one of us is considered marginalized for whatever reason.

641
01:05:02.870 --> 01:05:07.419
R. Rachel: Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Amy, I see your hand.

642
01:05:10.620 --> 01:05:14.320
Amy V: Thank you. This also seems like,

643
01:05:14.760 --> 01:05:21.169
Amy V: the beginnings of almost the foreshadowing of the runway and the high holidays.

644
01:05:21.480 --> 01:05:30.070
Amy V: Where you don't… When she's sent away, and she… she has… Time.

645
01:05:30.240 --> 01:05:32.260
Amy V: time with herself.

646
01:05:32.960 --> 01:05:41.710
Amy V: It's like the runway to the High Holidays, where we… We look inward.

647
01:05:42.720 --> 01:05:48.400
Amy V: contemplate, We take a little bit of an inventory.

648
01:05:48.660 --> 01:05:52.179
Amy V: But then, we returned to community.

649
01:05:52.550 --> 01:05:53.780
R. Rachel: Hmm…

650
01:05:53.780 --> 01:05:55.540
Amy V: Complete that process.

651
01:05:57.520 --> 01:06:01.339
R. Rachel: I love that, and I've… that was not intentional.

652
01:06:01.650 --> 01:06:14.109
R. Rachel: on the part of Rabbi David or me, but we are… we are already… we are, this week, becoming so immersed in the beginnings of high holiday planning that it feels like the universe had a hand in that.

653
01:06:14.520 --> 01:06:21.400
R. Rachel: I guess that's the… This is where we are in this part of our journey.

654
01:06:22.050 --> 01:06:23.740
R. Rachel: Inward, outward.

655
01:06:26.020 --> 01:06:33.040
R. Rachel: So the two lines that I highlighted, the two things that really leapt out at me, one of them is, wherever you are, God is.

656
01:06:33.530 --> 01:06:38.080
R. Rachel: Which I think is that point that y'all made, that the place where God dwells is wherever we are.

657
01:06:38.910 --> 01:06:43.440
R. Rachel: And also, she is still the same person she was before, but not completely.

658
01:06:45.840 --> 01:06:52.980
R. Rachel: I think any of us who have experienced significant illness Might resonate with that.

659
01:06:53.770 --> 01:06:55.139
R. Rachel: I know that I do.

660
01:07:01.640 --> 01:07:04.500
R. Rachel: So we have one more text, and then we'll…

661
01:07:05.170 --> 01:07:14.269
R. Rachel: see where all of this has brought us all together. This is, again, from another contemporary teacher.

662
01:07:15.650 --> 01:07:17.290
R. Rachel: Anybody want to read this one?

663
01:07:33.890 --> 01:07:40.310
Iris Barten: Before he could utter another word, a dark cloud appeared and rumbled above them like a rebuke.

664
01:07:40.560 --> 01:07:50.669
Iris Barten: When the cloud lifted, as suddenly as it had appeared, the skin on Miriam's arm was stricken with snow-white scales. In panic and confusion.

665
01:07:50.820 --> 01:07:53.230
Iris Barten: Arone banished her from the camp.

666
01:07:53.350 --> 01:08:00.670
Iris Barten: For days, Miriam sat outside, seething in her exile, her arm a scaly blaze of white fire.

667
01:08:00.950 --> 01:08:07.090
Iris Barten: Then, late on the seventh day, alone and looking uneasy, Moses appeared.

668
01:08:07.220 --> 01:08:15.020
Iris Barten: Miriam remained silent, her eyes glaring. Moses looked at her arm and hesitatingly began to speak.

669
01:08:16.920 --> 01:08:25.809
Iris Barten: You know, sister, I never wanted this post. I tried to tell the voice in the burning bush that I was not suited for this.

670
01:08:25.939 --> 01:08:30.589
Iris Barten: But God insisted and told me to make snakes out of sticks.

671
01:08:30.810 --> 01:08:41.799
Iris Barten: The voice in the burning bush said, If you want to see my powers as expressed in you, put your hand into your bosom and then pull it out.

672
01:08:41.960 --> 01:09:00.190
Iris Barten: And there it was before me, covered with snowy scales. Don't you see? God has now spoken to you, too, from a cloud. Beware of what you ask for, my sister, for God has answered you and etched the power of prophecy onto your skin.

673
01:09:00.359 --> 01:09:01.880
Iris Barten: Now, you two…

674
01:09:02.020 --> 01:09:10.330
Iris Barten: can bear the burden of this people, whom I have neither fathered nor mothered, but nevertheless carry on my back.

675
01:09:10.970 --> 01:09:26.690
Iris Barten: Miriam looked down at her arm, and behold, the scales were healed. Her arm tingling, she followed her brother back to the camp. Reverendly, the people waited as she gathered her things and took her place at the head of the line.

676
01:09:28.420 --> 01:09:29.499
Iris Barten: That's very interesting.

677
01:09:30.040 --> 01:09:33.330
R. Rachel: Anything jump out for us in this mid-rush?

678
01:09:39.180 --> 01:09:40.689
R. Rachel: Deanna, I see your hand.

679
01:09:43.069 --> 01:09:48.849
Diana Rico: In the first paragraph, her arm a scaly blaze of white fire.

680
01:09:49.050 --> 01:09:49.890
R. Rachel: Yup.

681
01:09:49.899 --> 01:09:52.759
Diana Rico: talked about in connection with the words of the Torah.

682
01:09:53.059 --> 01:09:55.039
Diana Rico: That specific phrase.

683
01:09:55.989 --> 01:10:01.659
Diana Rico: And also, it seems that this is saying that she has now been given the gift of prophecy.

684
01:10:02.449 --> 01:10:08.789
Diana Rico: I mean, it is saying that, for God has answered and etched the power of prophecy onto your skin, so she is now…

685
01:10:09.399 --> 01:10:12.239
Diana Rico: A prophet, also, like her brother.

686
01:10:13.430 --> 01:10:20.390
R. Rachel: So, I don't know… Some of us may have a custom on Saturday nights of making havdalah.

687
01:10:20.690 --> 01:10:25.310
R. Rachel: Traditionally at Havdallah, we sing to Eliyahu Hanavi.

688
01:10:26.360 --> 01:10:29.669
R. Rachel: Alright, sing of Eliyahu Hanavi, Elijah the prophet.

689
01:10:30.210 --> 01:10:35.470
R. Rachel: Some of us also sing Miriam Hanevi-ha.

690
01:10:36.270 --> 01:10:37.930
R. Rachel: Miriam the prophet.

691
01:10:38.420 --> 01:10:41.800
R. Rachel: So that is, in fact, a label that our tradition gives her.

692
01:10:43.250 --> 01:10:45.680
R. Rachel: Which I think is powerful. Cheryl, I see your hand.

693
01:10:49.810 --> 01:10:57.739
Sherrill Cropper: That's another example of… What you called out before, which was… The same, but different.

694
01:10:58.530 --> 01:11:09.740
Sherrill Cropper: That, I know for myself, seeing some others, that when you go through something big, Traumatic.

695
01:11:10.860 --> 01:11:20.180
Sherrill Cropper: There is a shift that, in some ways, breaks down… The ego piece?

696
01:11:20.520 --> 01:11:22.620
Sherrill Cropper: The self-centered piece.

697
01:11:23.170 --> 01:11:30.180
Sherrill Cropper: That allows us to be more… more Hesid.

698
01:11:30.830 --> 01:11:31.150
R. Rachel: Oh, Lord.

699
01:11:31.150 --> 01:11:37.910
Sherrill Cropper: consideration, Of others and what they might be going through, even if it's not exactly the same thing.

700
01:11:38.100 --> 01:11:38.980
R. Rachel: Oh my god.

701
01:11:38.980 --> 01:11:41.049
Sherrill Cropper: It's like a crack in the shield.

702
01:11:41.440 --> 01:11:45.130
Sherrill Cropper: The mask that we sometimes use in public.

703
01:11:45.700 --> 01:11:47.240
Sherrill Cropper: That can never…

704
01:11:48.090 --> 01:11:52.929
Sherrill Cropper: It's not supposed to be healed, it's important, it's part of the journey, it's part of the growth.

705
01:11:55.570 --> 01:11:58.320
R. Rachel: There's a crack in everything, it's how the light gets in.

706
01:11:59.140 --> 01:12:00.619
R. Rachel: Rabbi Leonard Cohen.

707
01:12:00.940 --> 01:12:01.710
lindabkramer: Yeah.

708
01:12:05.370 --> 01:12:08.929
R. Rachel: Yeah, Miriam's gone through something here, and it changes her.

709
01:12:10.470 --> 01:12:16.060
R. Rachel: Part of what I like about this Midrash is that we see Moses Acting like a… brother.

710
01:12:17.080 --> 01:12:17.930
R. Rachel: Mmm.

711
01:12:19.430 --> 01:12:21.980
R. Rachel: You know, sister, I never wanted this.

712
01:12:22.620 --> 01:12:25.030
R. Rachel: I did not ask to be.

713
01:12:25.920 --> 01:12:31.910
R. Rachel: the guy in charge. I did not ask to be responsible for this stiff-necked people.

714
01:12:32.160 --> 01:12:37.720
R. Rachel: In fact, I tried to tell God to give the job to somebody else, and instead, God gave me my arm to rot.

715
01:12:38.640 --> 01:12:42.049
R. Rachel: Like, that's how God handled me saying, I don't want this job.

716
01:12:44.340 --> 01:12:48.030
R. Rachel: Sometimes our responsibilities choose us. Cheryl again.

717
01:12:50.540 --> 01:12:57.930
Sherrill Cropper: that sibling place, it's… I'm sure people have talked about it, right? It's such a… Strong.

718
01:12:58.270 --> 01:13:00.860
Sherrill Cropper: Also not requested.

719
01:13:01.510 --> 01:13:03.400
Sherrill Cropper: thing that happens.

720
01:13:03.900 --> 01:13:04.660
R. Rachel: Oh, yay.

721
01:13:04.660 --> 01:13:14.619
Sherrill Cropper: and, in a way, here with this particular… Midrash, it feels… He's happy now to share.

722
01:13:15.090 --> 01:13:15.700
R. Rachel: Hmm.

723
01:13:16.780 --> 01:13:24.369
Sherrill Cropper: To share the position in ways that he couldn't before, because there still was that male-female thing, and now he has

724
01:13:24.640 --> 01:13:28.890
Sherrill Cropper: A partner in the ability to form.

725
01:13:29.110 --> 01:13:30.659
Sherrill Cropper: Continue to form.

726
01:13:30.980 --> 01:13:33.219
Sherrill Cropper: And Jill, the people and community.

727
01:13:37.900 --> 01:13:40.279
R. Rachel: partner in prophecy and leadership.

728
01:13:40.480 --> 01:13:42.609
R. Rachel: He's not as alone in it anymore.

729
01:13:43.040 --> 01:13:45.209
R. Rachel: I like that. That's a beautiful way to…

730
01:13:45.470 --> 01:13:47.160
R. Rachel: Beautiful thing to come away with.

731
01:13:53.510 --> 01:13:58.550
R. Rachel: So I'm gonna take us back to… The text where we began.

732
01:14:00.330 --> 01:14:03.849
R. Rachel: Just to look again at all the things that y'all had to say about it.

733
01:14:08.920 --> 01:14:15.750
R. Rachel: And I think the link to Shuva and the High Holidays Is already here.

734
01:14:18.110 --> 01:14:23.689
R. Rachel: The question of… Is Miriam… should Miriam be shamed, or…

735
01:14:24.030 --> 01:14:27.430
R. Rachel: Should she be uplifted? Is she being uplifted?

736
01:14:28.830 --> 01:14:31.160
R. Rachel: And then what comes out of our mouths?

737
01:14:32.090 --> 01:14:38.689
R. Rachel: our words… Our impact on each other, our impact on reputation.

738
01:14:39.680 --> 01:14:43.599
R. Rachel: And the ways in which words and breath

739
01:14:44.210 --> 01:14:48.100
R. Rachel: can be an expression of our connection with God, or not.

740
01:14:48.400 --> 01:14:51.020
R. Rachel: Depending on the choices that we make.

741
01:14:54.790 --> 01:14:56.250
R. Rachel: Nancy, I see your hand.

742
01:14:56.250 --> 01:15:02.419
Nancy Goody: Could you just raise up the section so we could see the very beginning? Because I just

743
01:15:03.410 --> 01:15:06.050
Nancy Goody: It does say about speaking out

744
01:15:06.720 --> 01:15:13.129
Nancy Goody: on the matter of his wife, he took a cushion. You know, and it's one, you know.

745
01:15:14.270 --> 01:15:19.830
Nancy Goody: I'm just thinking about the… I'll lower my hand. I was just thinking about,

746
01:15:20.150 --> 01:15:30.429
Nancy Goody: the section in commentary where it talked about how maybe Miriam was speaking on behalf of

747
01:15:30.710 --> 01:15:40.300
Nancy Goody: And boy, from reading that, I just… I mean, I'm not reading, you know, the Hebrew of this, but it doesn't really seem to…

748
01:15:40.490 --> 01:15:45.519
R. Rachel: It's… well, it's… it is ambiguous, right? Viter, Miriam Va-Aharon.

749
01:15:46.360 --> 01:15:55.930
R. Rachel: spoke, Miriam and Aaron, and by the way, Teda Bear, this is… she spoke. She spoke, Miriam and Aaron, so that's a weird construction.

750
01:15:55.930 --> 01:15:56.550
Nancy Goody: Right.

751
01:15:56.550 --> 01:15:58.490
R. Rachel: Bemosha with Moses.

752
01:15:58.490 --> 01:15:58.840
Nancy Goody: Right.

753
01:15:58.840 --> 01:16:08.029
R. Rachel: On the… on the matter of the woman… the woman the Kusha, shite woman, Asher la Kach.

754
01:16:09.730 --> 01:16:11.619
R. Rachel: That he… that he took.

755
01:16:12.410 --> 01:16:12.910
Nancy Goody: Okay.

756
01:16:12.910 --> 01:16:16.930
R. Rachel: Took, being the colloquial, right, you know, took to wife.

757
01:16:17.450 --> 01:16:17.860
Nancy Goody: Okay.

758
01:16:17.860 --> 01:16:25.199
R. Rachel: because he took a Kushite wife. That's all it says. So…

759
01:16:25.540 --> 01:16:30.200
R. Rachel: Are they complaining? Is she complaining about the Kushite? Is she defending…

760
01:16:30.520 --> 01:16:33.840
R. Rachel: All it really says is they… they spoke…

761
01:16:35.190 --> 01:16:45.860
R. Rachel: I'm not even sure I would say… against Moshe. They spoke… with Moses, in Moses.

762
01:16:46.290 --> 01:16:51.520
R. Rachel: against Moses. That's… against is a… is a… Choice.

763
01:16:52.020 --> 01:16:52.610
Nancy Goody: Hmm.

764
01:16:52.610 --> 01:16:56.170
R. Rachel: Could also just be… but that is also usually how it's rendered.

765
01:16:56.490 --> 01:17:01.279
R. Rachel: On the… on the matter of the Cushite woman, because he took a Cushite woman.

766
01:17:02.060 --> 01:17:10.320
Nancy Goody: Right, so it really doesn't… imply, I think, the idea of, that…

767
01:17:10.760 --> 01:17:15.900
Nancy Goody: she is beseeching Moses to go back to the marriage bed.

768
01:17:16.160 --> 01:17:18.820
R. Rachel: No, I think that is…

769
01:17:18.820 --> 01:17:23.320
Nancy Goody: I think it's a little bit of a stretch, but that's just me thinking that, you know, it's…

770
01:17:23.320 --> 01:17:23.950
R. Rachel: I'm finding my.

771
01:17:23.950 --> 01:17:24.310
Nancy Goody: Let me…

772
01:17:24.310 --> 01:17:27.249
R. Rachel: Back to that midrash, where was it? Nope, it's not that one.

773
01:17:27.380 --> 01:17:32.059
Nancy Goody: It was the very end, I think, of Ellen Frankel, no?

774
01:17:32.240 --> 01:17:39.770
R. Rachel: There we are, you're right, it was the end of Ellen Frankel. Right, who had… and I did not look it up, but, I can find that Midrush.

775
01:17:40.150 --> 01:17:46.250
R. Rachel: I'm pretty sure that this is a place where, yeah, the main line of the tradition.

776
01:17:46.880 --> 01:17:49.290
Nancy Goody: wouldn't go there. Right, right.

777
01:17:49.290 --> 01:18:00.300
R. Rachel: Some of the rabbis do, and I love the creativity of it as a way of saying, you know what, stop assuming that this was something she did wrong. Maybe she was standing up for someone who needed.

778
01:18:00.300 --> 01:18:00.750
Nancy Goody: Exactly.

779
01:18:00.750 --> 01:18:01.420
R. Rachel: Definitely.

780
01:18:01.420 --> 01:18:04.500
Nancy Goody: Right, it's just very interesting that, I mean, it's…

781
01:18:05.000 --> 01:18:21.990
Nancy Goody: And obviously, all Midrashes, all interpretation, you know, but it's just interesting that it's so different, and it… it just didn't strike me in looking back at that again, that one would come up with that. But that's just me. I mean, I'm…

782
01:18:22.460 --> 01:18:24.949
Nancy Goody: A thousand other people have, you know, said other things.

783
01:18:25.440 --> 01:18:30.629
R. Rachel: part of what I love about our tradition's understanding of Midrash is that

784
01:18:30.940 --> 01:18:36.470
R. Rachel: A, so many… all of these Midrash can coexist, and no single one has to be the answer.

785
01:18:37.390 --> 01:18:45.050
R. Rachel: And B, that we explicitly seek holiness in the fact that there are so many and they don't agree.

786
01:18:46.190 --> 01:18:51.060
R. Rachel: Which means there's something holy about multiplicity of voices.

787
01:18:51.870 --> 01:18:55.370
R. Rachel: As a… as a value, as a…

788
01:18:58.140 --> 01:19:07.429
R. Rachel: that we're not seeking to find the one singular truth. That's not generally the Jewish Torah Interpretation Project.

789
01:19:07.860 --> 01:19:15.170
R. Rachel: We're looking… we're looking through a kaleidoscope to see how God Asterisk, holiness, meaning…

790
01:19:16.340 --> 01:19:25.939
R. Rachel: Is reflected and refracted through all of these different lenses, and you turn the kaleidoscope, and now it's a different picture, but still a beautiful one and a holy one.

791
01:19:26.350 --> 01:19:27.780
R. Rachel: At least that's the hope.

792
01:19:30.600 --> 01:19:38.110
Nancy Goody: I'm just saying, I've probably got this wrong, but Bevedai, you know, like, if only, or…

793
01:19:38.110 --> 01:19:39.220
R. Rachel: You know.

794
01:19:39.220 --> 01:19:41.840
Nancy Goody: I'm sorry, maybe it's Hollyvi?

795
01:19:41.840 --> 01:19:42.489
R. Rachel: televised the way.

796
01:19:42.490 --> 01:19:44.809
Nancy Goody: televi, excuse me, you know, and I'm just…

797
01:19:44.810 --> 01:19:45.390
R. Rachel: So…

798
01:19:45.750 --> 01:19:46.630
Nancy Goody: I'm sorry?

799
01:19:46.630 --> 01:19:52.890
R. Rachel: You were close. Bevadai is… it is certainly so, and Halovai is, oh, it should be so lucky.

800
01:19:53.220 --> 01:19:56.390
Nancy Goody: Yeah. And so, I just,

801
01:19:57.270 --> 01:20:02.000
Nancy Goody: I'm just thinking, yes, it is in our tradition to… to,

802
01:20:02.450 --> 01:20:15.269
Nancy Goody: realize that there are many midrashim, I think it's Mishim, that, may be conflicting, but we hold those, you know, and I'm just thinking… I'm sorry, I don't…

803
01:20:15.430 --> 01:20:19.899
Nancy Goody: I'm… I'm… I… it's just touched a nerve. Not… not today, I mean, but I…

804
01:20:19.990 --> 01:20:36.779
Nancy Goody: My nerve is touched, in general, about the lack of understanding of the nuance of what's going on in the Middle East, and how Westerners are quick to come up with it. This is it.

805
01:20:38.430 --> 01:20:40.939
R. Rachel: I'm gonna stop our screen share here.

806
01:20:40.940 --> 01:20:43.239
Nancy Goody: But you know what I mean? Whereas…

807
01:20:43.240 --> 01:20:46.730
R. Rachel: Holding the multiplicity of truths.

808
01:20:46.730 --> 01:20:55.080
Nancy Goody: Right, and that it's very… I love… my dear friend Amy would use the word, it's very nuanced.

809
01:20:55.770 --> 01:21:04.839
Nancy Goody: You know, it's very complicated, and you have to realize there's sort of some nuance here that has to be taken into account. And yet.

810
01:21:05.030 --> 01:21:10.670
Nancy Goody: I'm sorry, I'm just very troubled by this this past few weeks.

811
01:21:10.670 --> 01:21:11.300
R. Rachel: Billy.

812
01:21:11.300 --> 01:21:12.090
Nancy Goody: And…

813
01:21:12.640 --> 01:21:26.300
Nancy Goody: how… I mean, what I love about is our tradition is sh… our… our… sorry, my Jewish… tradition is teaching me that for Jews, we can hold the multiplicity.

814
01:21:26.300 --> 01:21:27.310
R. Rachel: We have to.

815
01:21:27.310 --> 01:21:29.290
Nancy Goody: And we have to.

816
01:21:29.290 --> 01:21:45.310
R. Rachel: And in some ways, it's much easier to do that when it's a matter of, this Midrash says X, and that Midrash says Y, about a thing that Miriam said 3,000 years ago, and it is much harder to do that when it is

817
01:21:45.750 --> 01:21:51.720
R. Rachel: this Jew feels this way about Israel and Palestine, and that Jew feels that way.

818
01:21:53.540 --> 01:21:59.599
Nancy Goody: And the non-Jews who ascribe things to the Jews…

819
01:21:59.600 --> 01:22:00.490
R. Rachel: Whole other…

820
01:22:00.490 --> 01:22:08.069
Nancy Goody: Israel, and I think that's what I'm really wrestling with, and it's been very difficult for me this past two weeks. Anyway, so I'.

821
01:22:08.070 --> 01:22:14.509
R. Rachel: And I want to name the fact that almost certainly within this room, we have a multiplicity of views.

822
01:22:14.510 --> 01:22:15.650
Nancy Goody: Oh, absolutely.

823
01:22:15.650 --> 01:22:21.330
R. Rachel: And I know that because I have a multiplicity of views that don't all agree with each other, right?

824
01:22:21.330 --> 01:22:22.250
Nancy Goody: I just…

825
01:22:22.250 --> 01:22:23.870
R. Rachel: like… Yes, exactly.

826
01:22:23.870 --> 01:22:24.610
Nancy Goody: Exactly.

827
01:22:24.610 --> 01:22:27.219
R. Rachel: And Delia, I see you, I just want to finish my thought, which is.

828
01:22:27.220 --> 01:22:28.229
Deliah: No, no problem.

829
01:22:28.230 --> 01:22:34.089
R. Rachel: Part of what I hope we take away from this Torah study every week is the recognition that

830
01:22:34.340 --> 01:22:44.349
R. Rachel: that these and those are the words of the living God, and that where we find God, whatever that means for us.

831
01:22:44.780 --> 01:23:00.060
R. Rachel: has to be in the multiplicity of voices. It has to be in the fact that we don't all see things the same way, and how amazing that is, because if we all… like, how boring the world would be if there were only one view and one truth, and nothing else were possible.

832
01:23:00.240 --> 01:23:01.280
Nancy Goody: Great, thanks.

833
01:23:01.280 --> 01:23:01.680
R. Rachel: sometimes…

834
01:23:01.680 --> 01:23:02.530
Nancy Goody: Sorry, I didn't mean to…

835
01:23:02.530 --> 01:23:02.990
R. Rachel: Crush it.

836
01:23:02.990 --> 01:23:03.530
Nancy Goody: this.

837
01:23:03.530 --> 01:23:04.000
Deliah: No.

838
01:23:04.000 --> 01:23:04.920
R. Rachel: Oh, I…

839
01:23:04.920 --> 01:23:05.770
Deliah: Perfect!

840
01:23:06.040 --> 01:23:06.929
R. Rachel: I really feel bad.

841
01:23:06.930 --> 01:23:10.370
Nancy Goody: I'm very heavy on my soul and heart, I'm sorry.

842
01:23:10.490 --> 01:23:12.000
R. Rachel: You are not alone.

843
01:23:12.000 --> 01:23:20.419
Deliah: And I want… I wanted to add, not just for Jews, my understanding, of…

844
01:23:20.490 --> 01:23:32.080
Deliah: mystical mystery schools is that the first step in entering, which I think is kind of what we do here, is holding two completely conflicting emotions.

845
01:23:32.180 --> 01:23:33.580
Deliah: At the same time.

846
01:23:33.870 --> 01:23:39.149
Deliah: That is the first step to step out of what we think of as normative reality.

847
01:23:40.020 --> 01:23:40.689
R. Rachel: Love that.

848
01:23:40.690 --> 01:23:41.210
Deliah: Yeah.

849
01:23:42.890 --> 01:23:44.420
R. Rachel: That's beautiful. Wow.

850
01:23:44.730 --> 01:23:48.379
Deliah: So we're doing it, everyone's doing it, should they choose to accept this mission.

851
01:23:48.610 --> 01:23:51.110
R. Rachel: Your mission, should you choose to accept it.

852
01:23:51.110 --> 01:23:51.870
Deliah: Right.

853
01:23:52.690 --> 01:23:53.719
R. Rachel: I love that.

854
01:23:54.950 --> 01:24:00.780
R. Rachel: Well, so I'm gonna… I honestly, that is the best closing blessing I could give us.

855
01:24:01.280 --> 01:24:14.690
R. Rachel: May we continue to strengthen ourselves and each other in our capacity to hold to the whole, even when the different pieces and the different narratives and the different perspectives are pulling at us.

856
01:24:14.810 --> 01:24:17.630
R. Rachel: May we be people who are able to hold the whole.

857
01:24:17.880 --> 01:24:21.180
R. Rachel: For ourselves, for each other, for our community, for our world.

858
01:24:21.380 --> 01:24:24.829
Deliah: And expand our ability to live in that discomfort.

859
01:24:26.210 --> 01:24:27.800
R. Rachel: And to find the beauty…

860
01:24:27.800 --> 01:24:28.400
Deliah: Safe in this.

861
01:24:28.400 --> 01:24:32.509
R. Rachel: God in it. God, whatever we each need that word to mean.

862
01:24:32.510 --> 01:24:33.110
Deliah: Yeah.

863
01:24:33.910 --> 01:24:35.869
R. Rachel: I am going to stop the recording.

864
01:24:35.870 --> 01:24:36.320
Deliah: Recording?

865
01:24:36.960 --> 01:24:41.740
R. Rachel: And stay on… Recording is stopping.