WEBVTT

1
00:00:02.060 --> 00:00:14.949
R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom, everybody! It is our first official Shir Ami CBI Soul Spa of Summer 26. Lovely to be with you.

2
00:00:15.840 --> 00:00:20.590
R. David (he/him): And good Shabbos, everyone. It is the 12th day of Tammuz.

3
00:00:20.700 --> 00:00:29.590
R. David (he/him): We are heading after this week into the 10-week period that leads to You guessed it, Rosh Hashanah Okay.

4
00:00:30.560 --> 00:00:32.320
R. David (he/him): Let's open our hearts.

5
00:00:33.030 --> 00:00:36.880
R. David (he/him): For a blessing of… Abundance?

6
00:00:37.660 --> 00:00:39.410
R. David (he/him): A blessing of healing.

7
00:00:39.670 --> 00:00:43.169
R. David (he/him): If there are names for healing to put in the chat box.

8
00:00:43.450 --> 00:00:44.730
R. David (he/him): Please do.

9
00:00:44.870 --> 00:00:47.880
R. David (he/him): I will add one myself.

10
00:01:00.180 --> 00:01:02.100
R. David (he/him): For Masha, for Deborah.

11
00:01:06.100 --> 00:01:10.120
R. David (he/him): For Nancy, Mark, Roger, Karen, John, Helen.

12
00:01:18.610 --> 00:01:20.119
R. David (he/him): for that as well.

13
00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:25.020
R. David (he/him): And for all the names unspoken.

14
00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:28.539
R. David (he/him): Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melecha Allah.

15
00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:33.569
R. David (he/him): Vasher kit shanu wil mitsevotavit si vanu la asok bidibrei

16
00:01:33.810 --> 00:01:37.699
R. David (he/him): Blessed are you, Adonai, our God, eternal sovereign.

17
00:01:38.010 --> 00:01:41.340
R. David (he/him): Who makes us holy in God's connecting command.

18
00:01:41.480 --> 00:01:45.589
R. David (he/him): To busy ourselves in words of Torah.

19
00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:48.529
R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom. Good to see you, Diana.

20
00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:52.510
R. David (he/him): We're in a double… Harsha.

21
00:01:53.280 --> 00:02:07.299
R. David (he/him): today, to make up some time. Not because we want to make up time, but just the way the Jewish calendar works. Rosh Hashanah is early this year, and to accommodate that, some Torah portions are doubled.

22
00:02:07.690 --> 00:02:14.190
R. David (he/him): So it's a double portion that includes many, many things.

23
00:02:14.960 --> 00:02:18.579
R. David (he/him): What we're not going to talk about today is the story of Balak.

24
00:02:19.380 --> 00:02:27.140
R. David (he/him): And Bil'am, and the talking donkey, and all of that. We are not going to talk about rituals of

25
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:35.919
R. David (he/him): Purification, which is Parshat Hukat, among other things. But we are going to talk About Miriam.

26
00:02:36.810 --> 00:02:44.670
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel is not here today, she has a life cycle event, but she has brought us 7 Miriam songs.

27
00:02:46.060 --> 00:02:48.430
R. David (he/him): In which she has invited us.

28
00:02:48.710 --> 00:02:52.489
R. David (he/him): to begin with two of them. Would two like to read, please?

29
00:02:54.370 --> 00:02:55.669
R. David (he/him): Just to open us up.

30
00:02:57.650 --> 00:03:01.790
Meredith (she/her): Here in the desert, I take each woman's hand.

31
00:03:02.100 --> 00:03:04.889
Meredith (she/her): And lead her through the narrow straits.

32
00:03:05.220 --> 00:03:09.759
Meredith (she/her): I sing protection until her baby comes safely through.

33
00:03:10.150 --> 00:03:15.430
Meredith (she/her): I have no daughters to teach what I know, and the girls fear me.

34
00:03:15.650 --> 00:03:20.929
Meredith (she/her): The Egyptian ways I learned from Shiphrah and Puah will die with me.

35
00:03:21.230 --> 00:03:26.519
Meredith (she/her): One of the girls I delivered will inherit my carved birthing stool.

36
00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:37.140
Meredith (she/her): my stock of hyssop, my wool and sea sponges, but only I know the names of God I call upon in the night.

37
00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:49.139
Amy V: And when I die, there will be no water. And when I am gone, the well will disappear. Without me, the people will be restless.

38
00:03:49.270 --> 00:03:55.440
Amy V: But brother, my brother, do not weep. Bury me here on the flats of Zien.

39
00:03:55.580 --> 00:04:02.219
Amy V: The women will sing my songs at sundown, and I will hear their voices on the wind.

40
00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:12.659
Amy V: Every woman of Israel who seeks to draw these waters forth will be my hands. Thus has God spoken. Amen. Selah.

41
00:04:13.990 --> 00:04:14.790
R. David (he/him): Amen.

42
00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:19.070
R. David (he/him): Miriam is, and then Miriam is not.

43
00:04:19.370 --> 00:04:21.230
R. David (he/him): And what's this about a well?

44
00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:29.609
R. David (he/him): And what's this about people being able or not being able?

45
00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:31.080
R. David (he/him): to get water.

46
00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:36.929
R. David (he/him): What emotions come up?

47
00:04:42.840 --> 00:04:44.290
R. David (he/him): Just hold out, Cheryl.

48
00:04:45.290 --> 00:04:46.090
Sherrill Cropper: I.

49
00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:48.829
Sherrill Cropper: I am so touched by this, I haven't read it.

50
00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:55.160
Sherrill Cropper: before. And this just really Really,

51
00:04:57.310 --> 00:05:03.539
Sherrill Cropper: I can just. I can just feel this. It's it's an acceptance also that I

52
00:05:04.120 --> 00:05:18.800
Sherrill Cropper: I did not feel before about Miriam dying, and no water, and just her legacy. That first section of her legacy is amazingly beautiful.

53
00:05:20.760 --> 00:05:23.489
Sherrill Cropper: And she reaches out to her brothers.

54
00:05:25.280 --> 00:05:27.140
R. David (he/him): My brother, my brother, do not we.

55
00:05:27.860 --> 00:05:42.729
Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, I mean, well, she reaches out to a brother, but I'm assuming it's both brothers. But brother, and then I'm gonna give Rabbi Rachel my Torah thing if you say it twice. But brother, my brother.

56
00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.059
R. David (he/him): Now we'll see. We'll see where she gets that from.

57
00:05:47.660 --> 00:05:48.410
Sherrill Cropper: Mmm.

58
00:05:50.380 --> 00:05:56.519
Sherrill Cropper: I mean, Miriam's well, it's called Miriam's well, right? Where she, where the water is drawn from. And if.

59
00:05:57.210 --> 00:05:58.930
R. David (he/him): It's called that, yeah.

60
00:06:00.730 --> 00:06:06.850
R. David (he/him): How did the people get water in the desert, right? How did the people get the water for 40 years in the desert?

61
00:06:12.090 --> 00:06:15.369
R. David (he/him): Other emotions in the room, and then we'll look at the text.

62
00:06:18.230 --> 00:06:19.040
R. David (he/him): John?

63
00:06:19.300 --> 00:06:21.699
Joan Green: This to me is about birth.

64
00:06:21.940 --> 00:06:30.560
Joan Green: and how she is a midwife, whether she is actually, or how, whatever that role is to her.

65
00:06:30.880 --> 00:06:36.159
Joan Green: The skills that she learned and she is.

66
00:06:36.900 --> 00:06:42.710
Joan Green: When she says, after I die, there'll be no water, to me, represents.

67
00:06:43.100 --> 00:06:48.670
Joan Green: bringing forth, Safely bringing new life.

68
00:06:48.840 --> 00:06:51.540
Joan Green: Into their into their midst.

69
00:06:52.220 --> 00:06:55.899
Joan Green: And she'll be remembered for what a wonderful…

70
00:06:56.220 --> 00:07:01.439
Joan Green: How she midwifed, whether that means birthing or something associated.

71
00:07:01.880 --> 00:07:08.330
R. David (he/him): How she midwifed, yeah. Because we do not read in Torah whether Miriam had children.

72
00:07:08.780 --> 00:07:15.680
R. David (he/him): And yet… she places herself here, or Rachel places her here, as a mother figure.

73
00:07:16.520 --> 00:07:17.220
R. David (he/him): If anyone…

74
00:07:21.380 --> 00:07:23.629
R. David (he/him): Any other emotions that want to come?

75
00:07:28.420 --> 00:07:29.220
R. David (he/him): Deanna.

76
00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:31.870
Diana Rico: Yeah, hmm.

77
00:07:32.780 --> 00:07:37.220
Diana Rico: I love this because it really captures the fact that

78
00:07:38.540 --> 00:07:48.599
Diana Rico: Mother is a very big thing and I don't mean in the human sense, I mean you can be a mother and not have physically given birth to specific children.

79
00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:51.360
Diana Rico: It's a bigger thing than that.

80
00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:52.990
Diana Rico: And that's…

81
00:07:52.990 --> 00:07:53.640
R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

82
00:07:54.110 --> 00:07:57.420
Diana Rico: Yeah. And that's what Miriam is to the people.

83
00:07:58.430 --> 00:08:04.730
Diana Rico: And the connection with water, obviously, we can't live without water, so…

84
00:08:05.960 --> 00:08:06.660
R. David (he/him): -H.

85
00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:10.329
Diana Rico: Yeah, she made it possible for them to live in the desert.

86
00:08:10.910 --> 00:08:13.309
R. David (he/him): She made it possible to live in the desert.

87
00:08:13.690 --> 00:08:17.140
R. David (he/him): So… This itself is a midrash.

88
00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:21.530
R. David (he/him): Because of what this text is.

89
00:08:21.790 --> 00:08:23.990
R. David (he/him): We're in numbers 20.

90
00:08:24.510 --> 00:08:29.850
R. David (he/him): We've divided it up into… how about 7? 7! 7 bits.

91
00:08:31.460 --> 00:08:37.939
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna embiggen it a little bit more, I think I can get a tiny bit more, and let's have…

92
00:08:38.190 --> 00:08:40.269
R. David (he/him): Seven of us do what we do.

93
00:08:43.380 --> 00:08:53.669
Diana Rico: All the community of the children of Israel came to the desert of Sin in the first month of the third year, and the nation dwelled at Kadesh.

94
00:08:54.050 --> 00:09:02.429
Diana Rico: Miriam died there, and was buried there. The community had no water, and they congregated against Moshe and Aharon.

95
00:09:04.310 --> 00:09:19.520
Susan Phillips: The nation quarreled with Moshe, saying, if only we had perished when our brothers perished before Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh. Why did you bring the congregation of Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh to this desert for us and our livestock to die there?

96
00:09:21.970 --> 00:09:32.850
David Green: Why did you raise us from Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, and not a place with grain and figs and vines and pomegranates, and there is no water to drink?

97
00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:41.780
David Green: Moshe and Aharon came away from the congregation to the entrance of the tent of witnessing, and fell on their faces.

98
00:09:47.390 --> 00:09:51.630
David Green: I remember that phrase from last week fell on there, fell on his face.

99
00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:55.440
R. David (he/him): So David, you get to Midrash that when we get to it.

100
00:09:55.720 --> 00:09:56.820
R. David (he/him): Others.

101
00:09:58.000 --> 00:09:59.079
R. David (he/him): Keep going.

102
00:10:01.630 --> 00:10:11.170
Sherrill Cropper: Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay's glory appeared Yudhey Vave spoke to Moshe, saying, Take the staff and assemble the congregation.

103
00:10:11.270 --> 00:10:13.319
Sherrill Cropper: You and your brother Aharon.

104
00:10:13.560 --> 00:10:23.259
Sherrill Cropper: And speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will bring forth its water from the rock, so you can provide drink for the congregation and its livestock.

105
00:10:26.710 --> 00:10:27.639
R. David (he/him): Keep it coming.

106
00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:50.390
Rachel Rudansky: Moshe took the rod from before Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, as God commanded him. Moshe and Aaron convened the congregation before the rock, and he said to them, "Listen, you rebels, we will get water for you out of this rock.

107
00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.329
R. David (he/him): Look at it again. Read it differently.

108
00:10:53.710 --> 00:10:54.920
R. David (he/him): A quote.

109
00:10:55.510 --> 00:11:03.570
Rachel Rudansky: Listen, you rebels, we, Will we get water for you out of this rock?

110
00:11:04.290 --> 00:11:04.990
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

111
00:11:05.300 --> 00:11:06.190
Rachel Rudansky: Thank you.

112
00:11:08.420 --> 00:11:11.320
lindabkramer: Moshe raised his hand and twice.

113
00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:14.530
lindabkramer: Struck the rock with his staff.

114
00:11:15.230 --> 00:11:20.700
lindabkramer: Out came great waters, and the community and their livestock drank.

115
00:11:21.710 --> 00:11:24.500
lindabkramer: And then I said to Moshe and Aaron.

116
00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:37.830
lindabkramer: As you did not trust me to affirm my holiness in the sight of the children of Israel, thus you will not bring this congregation into the land that I gave them.

117
00:11:44.090 --> 00:11:44.760
R. David (he/him): One more.

118
00:11:51.980 --> 00:11:54.790
Joan Green: Those are the waters of Meriva.

119
00:11:55.100 --> 00:12:01.559
Joan Green: By which the children of Israel quarreled with Adonai, whose holiness was affirmed through them.

120
00:12:08.760 --> 00:12:09.589
R. David (he/him): All right.

121
00:12:11.910 --> 00:12:14.840
R. David (he/him): What says you must midrash me?

122
00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:19.140
R. David (he/him): Or, this has already been midrashed, and we've already seen some.

123
00:12:27.400 --> 00:12:36.930
Marcia's iPad: Can you… Put this in a timeline, like, what came before, and what's coming, because I'm confused.

124
00:12:37.040 --> 00:12:45.980
R. David (he/him): Yep, so we're in the Book of Numbers. We've already had the whole situation with the scouts, the spies, so that was…

125
00:12:45.980 --> 00:12:57.350
R. David (he/him): the second year of their journey, and God said, okay, you are too afraid to enter, you're too faithless, you're too striven, all this lashon hara.

126
00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:09.009
R. David (he/him): So it's going to be your descendants that go in. We're going to send you back into the desert so the next generation can come of age and we'll try again. So this is after that.

127
00:13:09.860 --> 00:13:14.519
R. David (he/him): The end of the book of Numbers where we're we're moving toward and.

128
00:13:14.630 --> 00:13:18.440
R. David (he/him): The book of Deuteronomy are the last years.

129
00:13:19.610 --> 00:13:21.630
R. David (he/him): The last time of the travel.

130
00:13:22.790 --> 00:13:28.190
R. David (he/him): So the people have been traveling, they're wandering, they're pissed, they're tired.

131
00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:35.840
R. David (he/him): They're probably really sick and tired of being hot.

132
00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:42.099
R. David (he/him): And all they have to eat is manna.

133
00:13:45.590 --> 00:13:47.630
R. David (he/him): Cheryl and then Ellen Ruth.

134
00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:51.450
R. David (he/him): And then Susan.

135
00:13:55.100 --> 00:13:57.080
Sherrill Cropper: I think Ellen Ruth was first.

136
00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:00.839
R. David (he/him): Was she? I'm sorry. Ellen Ruth, then Cheryl, then Sus.

137
00:14:01.590 --> 00:14:02.220
Sherrill Cropper: Thank you.

138
00:14:02.630 --> 00:14:03.440
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

139
00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:04.320
Ellen Ruth Topol: Umm.

140
00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:09.410
Ellen Ruth Topol: I'm I'm struck by when God says.

141
00:14:09.580 --> 00:14:20.580
Ellen Ruth Topol: As you do not trust me to affirm my holiness on the side of the children of Israel, thus you will not bring this congregation into the land that I gave them.

142
00:14:21.060 --> 00:14:25.160
Ellen Ruth Topol: And I'm putting it in present times.

143
00:14:25.770 --> 00:14:37.180
Ellen Ruth Topol: And thinking that is anti… Semitism, all the negativity about Judaism happening on the planet right now.

144
00:14:37.560 --> 00:14:39.860
Ellen Ruth Topol: Testing our faith.

145
00:14:40.620 --> 00:14:45.860
Ellen Ruth Topol: And I'm kind of storing it in a different way.

146
00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:52.169
Ellen Ruth Topol: And what just happened in the election in New York City.

147
00:14:52.420 --> 00:14:57.340
Ellen Ruth Topol: Makes me, frightened, upset, and concerned.

148
00:14:57.810 --> 00:14:58.500
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

149
00:15:00.150 --> 00:15:00.960
R. David (he/him): Oops.

150
00:15:01.180 --> 00:15:08.840
R. David (he/him): So, the themes of negativity and maybe faithlessness. And this isn't from anyone in particular, this is from Moses!

151
00:15:11.340 --> 00:15:12.740
R. David (he/him): This is Moshe.

152
00:15:15.970 --> 00:15:17.460
R. David (he/him): So this is a big deal.

153
00:15:18.700 --> 00:15:21.530
R. David (he/him): What is it that Moshe did?

154
00:15:23.130 --> 00:15:23.770
R. David (he/him): to…

155
00:15:23.770 --> 00:15:26.039
Ellen Ruth Topol: It struck the right, the right trend.

156
00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:27.909
R. David (he/him): So? So?

157
00:15:28.510 --> 00:15:30.879
Ellen Ruth Topol: You should have struck at once.

158
00:15:30.880 --> 00:15:33.189
R. David (he/him): Actually, what did God say?

159
00:15:35.030 --> 00:15:35.550
Ellen Ruth Topol: Okay.

160
00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:37.400
R. David (he/him): Sweet, sweet.

161
00:15:37.400 --> 00:15:38.320
Susan Phillips: To the rock.

162
00:15:38.550 --> 00:15:39.550
R. David (he/him): Speak.

163
00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:40.820
R. David (he/him): To the rock.

164
00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:45.310
R. David (he/him): Speak to the rock, and it will bring forth water.

165
00:15:49.290 --> 00:15:53.859
R. David (he/him): This justifies Moses not being able to reach the land? What's going on here?

166
00:15:58.160 --> 00:16:00.130
R. David (he/him): This seems kind of harsh.

167
00:16:04.670 --> 00:16:05.360
Susan Phillips: Mmm.

168
00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:11.320
R. David (he/him): So many hands. Cheryl Susan Deanna.

169
00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:16.470
Sherrill Cropper: I was going to speak a little bit about that. But 1st again, they're complaining.

170
00:16:17.380 --> 00:16:21.790
Sherrill Cropper: Kind of, you know, annoys me. I think I've been bringing

171
00:16:22.030 --> 00:16:27.040
Sherrill Cropper: It's I. I'm curious as to why it says twice. Strike the rock.

172
00:16:27.690 --> 00:16:30.909
Sherrill Cropper: And something that I'd never seen before is that.

173
00:16:31.940 --> 00:16:36.500
Sherrill Cropper: God says to, I don't know, he says to Moshe and Aaron.

174
00:16:37.110 --> 00:16:37.630
R. David (he/him): No, no.

175
00:16:37.630 --> 00:16:39.390
Sherrill Cropper: Not go into.

176
00:16:39.580 --> 00:16:46.999
Sherrill Cropper: the Promised Land, and we know that, you know, Moshe winds up dying and not going to the Promised Land, but Aaron does, doesn't he?

177
00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:48.350
R. David (he/him): Nope, Aaron dies.

178
00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:49.310
Sherrill Cropper: Doesn't either.

179
00:16:49.560 --> 00:16:51.299
Sherrill Cropper: Nope, Aaron's gonna die.

180
00:16:51.800 --> 00:16:55.559
R. David (he/him): Aaron's gonna die, then Moshe at the end will die.

181
00:16:55.930 --> 00:16:57.650
R. David (he/him): And it will be Joshua.

182
00:16:58.070 --> 00:17:06.230
R. David (he/him): Who leads the people in. Torah ends and then the prophetic books begin. And the first book is Joshua. And here we go.

183
00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:08.380
Sherrill Cropper: But I have a question, which is.

184
00:17:08.380 --> 00:17:08.700
R. David (he/him): Yes.

185
00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:09.740
Sherrill Cropper: Yes.

186
00:17:10.849 --> 00:17:15.949
Sherrill Cropper: Why is it noted, you know, as

187
00:17:16.069 --> 00:17:22.150
Sherrill Cropper: Marcia had asked, what's the timeframe here in the very 1st part, it says.

188
00:17:23.010 --> 00:17:27.420
Sherrill Cropper: came to the Desert of Sin in the first month of the third year.

189
00:17:27.420 --> 00:17:29.699
R. David (he/him): Yeah, I'm adding third year for context.

190
00:17:29.950 --> 00:17:36.809
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, so the first month, We're not really told a lot of the time.

191
00:17:37.330 --> 00:17:40.370
Sherrill Cropper: When in the calendar we are like this.

192
00:17:41.650 --> 00:17:43.000
Sherrill Cropper: So I'm just.

193
00:17:43.470 --> 00:17:45.640
R. David (he/him): Hong Kong, what's the… yep, ye

194
00:17:46.060 --> 00:17:50.940
R. David (he/him): Now, first month back then is Nisan, which is spring.

195
00:17:53.560 --> 00:17:56.869
R. David (he/him): It isn't what we call the first month. Everything's off by 6 months.

196
00:17:58.210 --> 00:17:58.890
Sherrill Cropper: Okay.

197
00:17:59.330 --> 00:18:01.029
R. David (he/him): Rabbis did that later.

198
00:18:01.450 --> 00:18:05.110
Sherrill Cropper: So Miriam dies, but spring is a growing time.

199
00:18:05.520 --> 00:18:06.120
R. David (he/him): Aha.

200
00:18:06.120 --> 00:18:09.130
Sherrill Cropper: There's no water for the growing time because.

201
00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:11.029
R. David (he/him): And they're in the desert anyway.

202
00:18:11.420 --> 00:18:16.789
Sherrill Cropper: Well, but it didn't matter, because they got water, they got manna, and you know.

203
00:18:17.350 --> 00:18:18.950
Sherrill Cropper: God following them they.

204
00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:27.510
R. David (he/him): And now, and now, yeah. So it's the fertile time. It's the fertile time when they are used to being in abundance, and now they don't even have water.

205
00:18:28.760 --> 00:18:29.430
Sherrill Cropper: Right.

206
00:18:30.010 --> 00:18:32.330
R. David (he/him): Mmhm Yeah.

207
00:18:32.630 --> 00:18:37.580
R. David (he/him): Yeah, nothing in Torah is… Unimportant.

208
00:18:37.750 --> 00:18:42.349
Sherrill Cropper: And like they're repeating five, six, you know, why did you take us out of Egypt?

209
00:18:42.690 --> 00:18:43.370
Sherrill Cropper: So, like.

210
00:18:43.370 --> 00:18:44.030
R. David (he/him): -Hu.

211
00:18:46.720 --> 00:18:49.519
Sherrill Cropper: There's constantly this narrow place.

212
00:18:49.650 --> 00:18:53.760
Sherrill Cropper: Yeah. They find themselves back in mentally and spiritually.

213
00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:54.699
R. David (he/him): Yeah, okay.

214
00:18:55.050 --> 00:19:03.900
R. David (he/him): Over and over and over and over and over. And we're being reminded of this right now, over and over. Yep.

215
00:19:04.590 --> 00:19:07.230
R. David (he/him): Susan, Deanna, Rachel.

216
00:19:07.570 --> 00:19:08.270
Susan Phillips: Okay.

217
00:19:09.230 --> 00:19:16.160
Susan Phillips: Pardon the pun, but I think Moses is just totally tapped out. He didn't respect God's

218
00:19:16.420 --> 00:19:19.829
Susan Phillips: sanctity by not following his instructions. But

219
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.149
Susan Phillips: I think, most crucially, he

220
00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:27.310
Susan Phillips: He's lost faith in the people.

221
00:19:27.540 --> 00:19:28.250
R. David (he/him): Hmmm.

222
00:19:28.250 --> 00:19:28.880
Susan Phillips: And.

223
00:19:29.080 --> 00:19:35.220
Susan Phillips: He, he abused them by calling them rebels and, and kind of… Very angrily. Yeah.

224
00:19:35.850 --> 00:19:36.520
R. David (he/him): Yeah, how?

225
00:19:36.850 --> 00:19:39.519
R. David (he/him): So it's it's not that Moshe.

226
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:46.950
R. David (he/him): It's not that you hit the rock. You didn't trust me. You didn't affirm me.

227
00:19:47.490 --> 00:19:55.400
R. David (he/him): You didn't say, God will now get you the rock. What did Moshe say? Will WE get water out of this rock for you? Me, Moses!

228
00:19:58.860 --> 00:20:10.900
R. David (he/him): So, I think you're really right onto something here. He's tapped out, he's angry, he's defiant, he's… he's… you know, and what happens when we get into anger?

229
00:20:11.340 --> 00:20:14.319
R. David (he/him): Where we end up in our own feelings.

230
00:20:14.890 --> 00:20:24.750
R. David (he/him): Because that anger is really powerful, by definition. And anger is not always bad. Sometimes it's rocket fuel to propel us to make change in the world.

231
00:20:25.030 --> 00:20:27.520
R. David (he/him): This situation is not okay.

232
00:20:28.760 --> 00:20:34.710
R. David (he/him): But when we do it in a way that becomes hostile, That becomes the issue.

233
00:20:35.340 --> 00:20:40.150
R. David (he/him): And I think Moshe here wasn't just angry, he was hostile.

234
00:20:40.590 --> 00:20:41.940
R. David (he/him): You rebels.

235
00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:48.270
R. David (he/him): And that became the thing.

236
00:20:51.190 --> 00:21:09.379
R. David (he/him): Shaul writes, will we? Is that Moshe and Aaron questioning Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh? You could read it that way, right? So here's Moshe with the staff saying, all right, is this going to work? Am I, Moses, and we, Aaron, going to get this rock for you? I'm sorry, get this water for you? Not God? Whack! Whack!

237
00:21:12.120 --> 00:21:17.970
R. David (he/him): Here come all the hands. Deanna, Rachel, Amy, Meredith, Joan.

238
00:21:18.090 --> 00:21:20.599
R. David (he/him): Essentially, everybody talk.

239
00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:22.180
R. David (he/him): Perfect.

240
00:21:22.950 --> 00:21:24.860
Diana Rico: I'm struck.

241
00:21:25.540 --> 00:21:26.710
R. David (he/him): Nice pun.

242
00:21:26.710 --> 00:21:30.979
Diana Rico: No pun intended by the fact that

243
00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:37.680
Diana Rico: in 7, 8. The instruction was, speak to the rock before their eyes.

244
00:21:37.900 --> 00:21:38.470
Diana Rico: So…

245
00:21:38.470 --> 00:21:38.850
R. David (he/him): Typ.

246
00:21:38.850 --> 00:21:47.029
Diana Rico: For me, this is about… Moshe's complete Abrogation of his faith.

247
00:21:48.860 --> 00:22:01.929
Diana Rico: he… I mean, he's lost his faith, at least momentarily, and he is being told to speak to the rock before their eyes, because he's supposed to do this in order to bring their faith back.

248
00:22:02.160 --> 00:22:03.040
R. David (he/him): Right.

249
00:22:03.940 --> 00:22:04.270
Diana Rico: Any…

250
00:22:04.270 --> 00:22:04.750
R. David (he/him): Right.

251
00:22:04.750 --> 00:22:08.370
Diana Rico: He does something else completely that makes things worse.

252
00:22:09.400 --> 00:22:10.070
R. David (he/him): Oh.

253
00:22:11.150 --> 00:22:18.359
R. David (he/him): Now, I don't think any of us blames Moses. You know, I don't think any of us would want to be Moses here.

254
00:22:20.070 --> 00:22:27.849
R. David (he/him): Meredith writes, but when we are so into our own feelings, we can't be receptive to what's going on around us. Prevents Moshe from heeding God's

255
00:22:28.750 --> 00:22:32.319
R. David (he/him): So, what is it inside of Moshe that

256
00:22:32.520 --> 00:22:41.230
R. David (he/him): didn't let him hear. It's the same question that we actually asked in services last night. Why couldn't the Prophet Bil'am

257
00:22:41.360 --> 00:22:46.790
R. David (he/him): See the donkey right before his eyes. I'm sorry, the angel right before his eyes.

258
00:22:46.960 --> 00:23:04.310
R. David (he/him): Why? Only when the Spirit came upon him, this is a prophet, mind you, was he able to say, listen to me, I am… listen to the words of the Gevel Shittum Ha'ayim, the words of the man whose eyes are

259
00:23:04.570 --> 00:23:06.130
R. David (he/him): now able to see.

260
00:23:07.170 --> 00:23:17.189
R. David (he/him): So there's something in both of these Torah portions about sensory deprivation or sensory blocking from things that are core.

261
00:23:18.700 --> 00:23:22.360
R. David (he/him): That's not part of this time of year. No, no, not at all.

262
00:23:25.130 --> 00:23:31.250
R. David (he/him): Yeah. Rachel, Amy… no, that wasn't right. Was it Rachel? No.

263
00:23:31.250 --> 00:23:32.010
Rachel Rudansky: Yes.

264
00:23:32.010 --> 00:23:33.819
R. David (he/him): You guys know who it is. Thank you.

265
00:23:33.820 --> 00:23:49.720
Rachel Rudansky: Okay, yeah, just a quick question. I wanted to understand, Joshua, if you might please put Joshua into a reference, because we know that Moshe, because of his behavior, he doesn't go to the Promised Land, and Aaron as well.

266
00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:51.150
Rachel Rudansky: So…

267
00:23:51.150 --> 00:23:52.319
R. David (he/him): So why Joshua.

268
00:23:52.320 --> 00:23:52.660
Rachel Rudansky: Yes.

269
00:23:52.660 --> 00:23:53.290
R. David (he/him): Yeah, right.

270
00:23:53.290 --> 00:23:56.529
Rachel Rudansky: Joshua, and who is he, and how is he related here?

271
00:23:56.530 --> 00:23:59.969
R. David (he/him): So Joshua is son of Nun.

272
00:24:02.170 --> 00:24:06.050
R. David (he/him): Joshua is one of the two scouts.

273
00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:08.250
Rachel Rudansky: Right, okay.

274
00:24:08.250 --> 00:24:10.699
R. David (he/him): who got it right.

275
00:24:11.420 --> 00:24:19.229
R. David (he/him): We're not like grasshoppers. We totally can do this. Just have faith in God. Joshua was one of the two when

276
00:24:19.890 --> 00:24:30.250
R. David (he/him): the people were fighting, and Moses had to raise his hands to give them strength, and he got really tired, and he was gonna drop his… his hands. Joshua was there literally holding his hands up.

277
00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:37.109
R. David (he/him): Joshua was sort of like, the aide-de-camp.

278
00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:44.119
R. David (he/him): And so for his faithful service and for his keeping faith.

279
00:24:45.610 --> 00:24:46.640
R. David (he/him): God.

280
00:24:47.310 --> 00:24:48.880
R. David (he/him): chose Joshua.

281
00:24:49.650 --> 00:24:52.630
R. David (he/him): But that, that, that choosing happens a bit later.

282
00:24:55.560 --> 00:24:58.449
R. David (he/him): Here is the first time Moses learns it ain't gonna be him.

283
00:25:02.970 --> 00:25:06.120
Rachel Rudansky: So it sounds like Joshua merited.

284
00:25:06.700 --> 00:25:10.059
R. David (he/him): Whatever that means. And we're going to be talking about merit today. Yeah.

285
00:25:10.360 --> 00:25:13.570
R. David (he/him): Yeah, Rachel, Susan, are you next?

286
00:25:14.770 --> 00:25:15.410
Susan Phillips: Oh.

287
00:25:15.610 --> 00:25:16.400
Susan Phillips: I'm.

288
00:25:18.210 --> 00:25:23.859
Susan Phillips: I didn't want to talk too much, but I I feel like Aaron had lost

289
00:25:24.430 --> 00:25:29.090
Susan Phillips: his brother and sister, and yeah.

290
00:25:29.250 --> 00:25:36.349
Susan Phillips: I think that that had a big impact on. He just kept going without time to grieve. I mean, I think that.

291
00:25:36.350 --> 00:25:37.100
R. David (he/him): Boom!

292
00:25:37.100 --> 00:25:37.700
Susan Phillips: Thank you.

293
00:25:42.080 --> 00:25:42.910
R. David (he/him): Yeah!

294
00:25:44.300 --> 00:25:46.210
R. David (he/him): In fact, all the people did.

295
00:25:48.410 --> 00:25:52.830
R. David (he/him): Now, when people die, what do you expect to see?

296
00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:01.569
R. David (he/him): Someone dies. What happens?

297
00:26:07.600 --> 00:26:11.279
R. David (he/him): Cheryl writes for me. Talk it out. Talk it out. What happens?

298
00:26:13.590 --> 00:26:17.059
R. David (he/him): God forbid we get news that someone close to us dies.

299
00:26:17.240 --> 00:26:20.509
R. David (he/him): Just unmute and blurb out what happens.

300
00:26:20.510 --> 00:26:22.420
Amy V: Shock? Grief?

301
00:26:22.420 --> 00:26:25.270
Rachel Rudansky: We stop doing actions.

302
00:26:25.670 --> 00:26:26.270
Amy V: Froze.

303
00:26:26.270 --> 00:26:28.549
Marcia's iPad: Anger, denial.

304
00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:32.130
Joan Green: becomes a focal point.

305
00:26:32.310 --> 00:26:45.089
R. David (he/him): There's crying, there's, you know, you stop what you're doing, right? All these things, all the community, very top, all the community of the children of Israel came to the desert of Sin in the first month, and the nations welded Kadesh.

306
00:26:45.280 --> 00:26:50.940
R. David (he/him): Miriam died there and was buried there. The community had no water. Wait.

307
00:26:53.760 --> 00:26:55.760
R. David (he/him): Where'd all the grieving go?

308
00:26:58.090 --> 00:26:59.320
R. David (he/him): Where is it?

309
00:26:59.730 --> 00:27:02.450
Marcia's iPad: Survival energy now.

310
00:27:02.790 --> 00:27:04.980
R. David (he/him): So, you see that?

311
00:27:04.980 --> 00:27:06.219
Sherrill Cropper: Last line.

312
00:27:06.450 --> 00:27:12.650
Sherrill Cropper: The community… and they congregated against Rosh Hashanah and Iran. I mean, grief can frequently turn to anger. I mean, it.

313
00:27:12.650 --> 00:27:17.010
R. David (he/him): Right, okay, so.

314
00:27:17.360 --> 00:27:26.630
R. David (he/him): In that space, that little space right there, Is a whole unspoken world.

315
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:27.780
Amy V: Mmhm.

316
00:27:29.090 --> 00:27:36.440
R. David (he/him): Sometimes midrash comes in the form of explicating what is there.

317
00:27:37.130 --> 00:27:41.080
R. David (he/him): I'm still waiting for David to talk about falling on the face.

318
00:27:41.260 --> 00:27:47.620
R. David (he/him): Sometimes… Midrash comes along to fill in a gap.

319
00:27:49.210 --> 00:27:51.120
R. David (he/him): Not what is said.

320
00:27:51.450 --> 00:27:53.439
R. David (he/him): But what is not?

321
00:27:58.480 --> 00:28:01.910
R. David (he/him): And it gets sublimated. That becomes the midrash.

322
00:28:02.350 --> 00:28:06.380
R. David (he/him): It gets sublimated, it gets transferred, it, it, it.

323
00:28:07.850 --> 00:28:12.930
R. David (he/him): Becomes radioactive it it choose your word becomes virulent.

324
00:28:14.220 --> 00:28:21.590
R. David (he/him): That gap… is tremendous. Now, what else is in that gap?

325
00:28:21.900 --> 00:28:22.760
R. David (he/him): Look.

326
00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:27.470
R. David (he/him): At what's before the gap, and what's after the gap.

327
00:28:31.780 --> 00:28:32.980
R. David (he/him): Miriam?

328
00:28:33.490 --> 00:28:36.570
R. David (he/him): died and was buried.

329
00:28:37.790 --> 00:28:42.200
R. David (he/him): And then, the community had no water.

330
00:28:43.530 --> 00:28:45.389
R. David (he/him): What else goes in the gap?

331
00:28:48.250 --> 00:28:50.170
Amy V: Oh, she was the water.

332
00:28:50.380 --> 00:28:56.669
R. David (he/him): She was the water! And that is the genesis, pun intended.

333
00:28:57.090 --> 00:29:00.970
R. David (he/him): of the idea of Miriam and the Well.

334
00:29:01.230 --> 00:29:07.369
R. David (he/him): The whole idea of Miriam as water bringer, as life giver.

335
00:29:11.580 --> 00:29:13.199
R. David (he/him): Comes from right here.

336
00:29:13.710 --> 00:29:18.540
R. David (he/him): Again, that tiny little space that says nothing.

337
00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:21.939
R. David (he/him): Seems to say a heck of a lot.

338
00:29:22.990 --> 00:29:26.349
R. David (he/him): And almost all of the midrash.

339
00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:28.629
R. David (he/him): Of this whole thing.

340
00:29:29.140 --> 00:29:32.049
R. David (he/him): Emerges in response to that gap.

341
00:29:35.430 --> 00:29:39.650
Amy V: But then, this is what I was going to point out before.

342
00:29:39.860 --> 00:29:48.800
Amy V: is, I keep wondering… If God didn't want… Moses to strike the rock.

343
00:29:49.760 --> 00:29:54.640
Amy V: Why… why was the choice to then let the water out anyway?

344
00:29:55.220 --> 00:29:57.310
R. David (he/him): Hmm, why would God do that?

345
00:29:57.800 --> 00:29:59.069
Amy V: Yeah, that's what I can.

346
00:29:59.070 --> 00:30:00.610
R. David (he/him): Why would God do that?

347
00:30:01.370 --> 00:30:04.259
James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Because God always shows up no matter what.

348
00:30:05.880 --> 00:30:07.050
Marcia's iPad: Oh.

349
00:30:07.270 --> 00:30:08.900
Marcia's iPad: I don't know about that.

350
00:30:10.500 --> 00:30:18.620
Marcia's iPad: Not the way we… I can't even wrap my head around that, because it's kind of scary.

351
00:30:18.990 --> 00:30:22.279
Marcia's iPad: I guess, what did they say? God is where we let him in?

352
00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:24.230
Marcia's iPad: But we have to do it?

353
00:30:25.910 --> 00:30:30.439
R. David (he/him): So, maybe… God does this.

354
00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:34.289
R. David (he/him): Because the alternative would be worse.

355
00:30:35.750 --> 00:30:37.849
R. David (he/him): The people would have no water.

356
00:30:38.010 --> 00:30:39.489
R. David (he/him): There'd be no people.

357
00:30:40.830 --> 00:30:45.300
R. David (he/him): Moshe was not capable of bringing it, bringing it in.

358
00:30:46.450 --> 00:30:48.390
R. David (he/him): It could be the end of the story.

359
00:30:50.240 --> 00:30:52.050
Marcia's iPad: Who let God in in this case?

360
00:30:52.850 --> 00:30:56.350
Marcia's iPad: Or did God just open the door and go, go in himself?

361
00:30:56.560 --> 00:30:58.040
Marcia's iPad: First of all, it's okay.

362
00:30:58.040 --> 00:31:04.949
R. David (he/him): Well… I don't know that the people associated the water with God. People associated the water with Moses.

363
00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:12.919
R. David (he/him): Right? That's part of the problem. But we need to keep them alive so that their descendants might learn better and try again.

364
00:31:13.410 --> 00:31:16.509
R. David (he/him): The whole story now depends on the people getting water.

365
00:31:17.850 --> 00:31:19.700
Amy V: But why at the rock?

366
00:31:20.530 --> 00:31:24.719
R. David (he/him): Why hit the rock? Because Moses was pissed as all get out.

367
00:31:25.190 --> 00:31:26.230
Amy V: No.

368
00:31:26.780 --> 00:31:32.869
Amy V: why at the moment where Moses was doing what he wasn't supposed to do.

369
00:31:33.540 --> 00:31:35.170
R. David (he/him): Oh, why should the water come out there?

370
00:31:35.510 --> 00:31:37.289
Amy V: At that point, yeah.

371
00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:38.610
R. David (he/him): It's a good question

372
00:31:39.060 --> 00:31:46.919
R. David (he/him): That's a good question. The best answers I have are what I've given you, but I hear that there's another possibility. Oh, that didn't work.

373
00:31:48.450 --> 00:31:52.329
R. David (he/him): And so God is going to magically cause a well to appear later.

374
00:31:54.170 --> 00:31:55.920
R. David (he/him): It's, yeah, okay.

375
00:31:56.210 --> 00:32:05.799
R. David (he/him): Notice how much magic is needed here. There's a well that follows Miriam. There's a water that comes out of a rock. I mean, these are magical portions.

376
00:32:06.190 --> 00:32:09.019
R. David (he/him): And usually when magic is happening.

377
00:32:09.380 --> 00:32:13.120
R. David (he/him): It's because there's something so out of whack.

378
00:32:13.790 --> 00:32:18.240
R. David (he/him): That only something beyond this world could possibly.

379
00:32:18.450 --> 00:32:21.400
R. David (he/him): Possibly get the story moving in a direction.

380
00:32:22.220 --> 00:32:25.509
R. David (he/him): Had the waters not parted, there would be no story.

381
00:32:25.510 --> 00:32:27.779
Marcia's iPad: Hmm, that's what I was just thinking.

382
00:32:27.780 --> 00:32:43.929
R. David (he/him): Right? Right? Right? Had they had no… had they not had water, there would be no story. And we could come up with different ways to do it, but I think that's… if you don't believe in a divine author and you're coming up with a narrative explanation, I think that's the one that coheres across Torah.

383
00:32:46.320 --> 00:32:56.440
R. David (he/him): Oh my gosh, there were so many hands! I'm gonna call on folks who have not yet spoken. David, then Meredith, then Ellen Ruth, then Cheryl.

384
00:32:57.310 --> 00:33:04.139
David Green: Well, I'm replying to your… Second request that I should explain fell on their faces.

385
00:33:04.430 --> 00:33:08.769
David Green: And like the Torah, like Cheryl says.

386
00:33:09.020 --> 00:33:12.470
David Green: If it if it's said twice, there must be a significance to it.

387
00:33:12.590 --> 00:33:18.639
David Green: Well, last week, The conclusion was that it was…

388
00:33:19.030 --> 00:33:22.170
David Green: It's read as some sort of humility.

389
00:33:22.460 --> 00:33:27.569
David Green: Humility, reverence.

390
00:33:30.580 --> 00:33:39.230
David Green: it seems to be in the same context when the people are rebelling, or when God is angry.

391
00:33:39.590 --> 00:33:47.660
David Green: And they are… Grasping at straws and looking for answers. They, they, you know, it's their way of saying.

392
00:33:47.660 --> 00:33:48.250
R. David (he/him): Yes.

393
00:33:48.480 --> 00:33:50.139
David Green: Tell me, you know.

394
00:33:50.600 --> 00:33:52.410
David Green: Tell me how to handle this.

395
00:33:54.880 --> 00:34:01.089
R. David (he/him): That's another reason why when we reach the Grand Alenu at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

396
00:34:01.620 --> 00:34:04.129
R. David (he/him): I go flat on the ground.

397
00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:11.149
R. David (he/him): And why there is a tradition in some places.

398
00:34:12.570 --> 00:34:22.219
R. David (he/him): Susan adds, despair. This is, you know, what is humility, fear, despair? I mean, they all have something in common, and the way I receive it, David, is something like this.

399
00:34:22.350 --> 00:34:28.320
R. David (he/him): This is so far beyond me. I alone can't do this.

400
00:34:29.230 --> 00:34:30.300
David Green: Surrender.

401
00:34:30.520 --> 00:34:34.709
R. David (he/him): Surrender, in Hebrew, hakne'a. That's a lovely word.

402
00:34:38.020 --> 00:34:44.099
R. David (he/him): And we people in the West have a Big bugaboo about surrendering.

403
00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:51.430
R. David (he/him): Ego, me, power, agency, autonomy, will, free will. Surrender.

404
00:34:55.090 --> 00:34:57.749
R. David (he/him): And that's why I go flat on the ground.

405
00:34:58.090 --> 00:35:00.039
R. David (he/him): To defy all of that.

406
00:35:03.910 --> 00:35:04.640
R. David (he/him): Yep.

407
00:35:05.210 --> 00:35:07.590
R. David (he/him): Meredith!

408
00:35:07.740 --> 00:35:11.509
R. David (he/him): Ellen, Ruth, Cheryl, Deanna, and then we're gonna grab some mid.

409
00:35:11.770 --> 00:35:19.160
Meredith (she/her): For me, the theme for me is, what are we paying attention to?

410
00:35:19.750 --> 00:35:21.869
Meredith (she/her): So we have grief.

411
00:35:21.900 --> 00:35:22.850
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

412
00:35:22.850 --> 00:35:26.070
Meredith (she/her): That can be all consuming.

413
00:35:26.250 --> 00:35:26.690
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

414
00:35:26.690 --> 00:35:37.979
Meredith (she/her): If we let it, and it can. But that calls to us, and we have to pay attention to it.

415
00:35:38.200 --> 00:35:41.730
Meredith (she/her): But that gets, like, bypassed.

416
00:35:41.880 --> 00:35:50.889
Meredith (she/her): by basic human… Thirst, we're thirsty, we need water, and so.

417
00:35:51.130 --> 00:36:08.119
Meredith (she/her): what are we supposed to do? So these are, like, competing needs. There's the emotional need for grief and reverence and honoring Miriam for all that she has done to give everybody water. And then there's also…

418
00:36:08.770 --> 00:36:11.080
Meredith (she/her): getting it, getting the water.

419
00:36:11.430 --> 00:36:24.799
Meredith (she/her): So, and Moshe, I think, was overwhelmed by grief over his sister, and also trying to manage these folks. Yes. And so…

420
00:36:25.330 --> 00:36:26.330
Meredith (she/her): Yeah, so…

421
00:36:26.330 --> 00:36:29.889
R. David (he/him): And there was no time, or at least they took no time.

422
00:36:29.890 --> 00:36:30.660
Meredith (she/her): No time.

423
00:36:31.110 --> 00:36:31.940
R. David (he/him): No time.

424
00:36:32.270 --> 00:36:32.940
Meredith (she/her): Okay.

425
00:36:33.160 --> 00:36:34.540
R. David (he/him): This is an emergency.

426
00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:35.290
Meredith (she/her): Yep.

427
00:36:37.210 --> 00:36:37.900
R. David (he/him): Yep.

428
00:36:38.900 --> 00:36:43.860
R. David (he/him): Of course, our attention as people tends to get distracted and,

429
00:36:44.390 --> 00:36:45.680
R. David (he/him): Diffused.

430
00:36:46.140 --> 00:36:48.050
R. David (he/him): Even without emergencies.

431
00:36:48.320 --> 00:36:49.709
R. David (he/him): Let me check my phone.

432
00:36:50.090 --> 00:37:01.549
R. David (he/him): Just, you know, to check my phone. To, you know, doom scroll. It's like you were in services yesterday, Meredith. Checks in the mail. We talked about this. Why don't we hear? Why don't we see what's right in front of us?

433
00:37:01.940 --> 00:37:03.350
R. David (he/him): Why don't we get it?

434
00:37:05.250 --> 00:37:13.139
R. David (he/him): And the bodies have needs, but there's a lot of emotion here, and it sometimes can help us, and sometimes gets in the way if we don't deal with it.

435
00:37:13.720 --> 00:37:14.650
R. David (he/him): Yep.

436
00:37:15.830 --> 00:37:17.889
R. David (he/him): Ellen Ruth Cheryl Deanna.

437
00:37:18.430 --> 00:37:24.020
Ellen Ruth Topol: I feel a contradiction which I'm trying to figure out.

438
00:37:24.260 --> 00:37:24.630
R. David (he/him): Okay.

439
00:37:24.630 --> 00:37:33.380
Ellen Ruth Topol: So… It's presented that because of Miriam, we're having water.

440
00:37:33.630 --> 00:37:39.920
Ellen Ruth Topol: That's the midrash. But then later, it's presented as if we show our faith

441
00:37:40.490 --> 00:37:49.580
Ellen Ruth Topol: God will provide us with water. So, what is it? Did we lose the water because Miriam…

442
00:37:49.970 --> 00:37:58.529
Ellen Ruth Topol: died or is the water because of God and okay.

443
00:37:59.330 --> 00:38:03.190
R. David (he/him): In whose merit comes the water?

444
00:38:04.320 --> 00:38:08.980
R. David (he/him): And of course, water is symbolic of flow.

445
00:38:09.010 --> 00:38:28.000
R. David (he/him): of Shekhinah, of the divine feminine, right? And that's the giver of life. So from whence comes this? Ellen Ruth, that's the big question. Let's see if today's Midrash answers it, or at least gives us some fodder with which to approach it.

446
00:38:28.080 --> 00:38:29.200
R. David (he/him): Is that cool?

447
00:38:29.750 --> 00:38:30.870
Ellen Ruth Topol: Yes.

448
00:38:30.870 --> 00:38:38.639
R. David (he/him): Yeah, you're asking the same questions the rabbis have asked for centuries and centuries. Cheryl, Deanna, and then we'll move on.

449
00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:40.680
Sherrill Cropper: And.

450
00:38:40.950 --> 00:38:43.169
Sherrill Cropper: So some of what I was thinking.

451
00:38:43.350 --> 00:38:49.189
Sherrill Cropper: has been said, but a lot of my personal spiritual journey.

452
00:38:49.560 --> 00:38:52.230
Sherrill Cropper: is based on breath.

453
00:38:53.320 --> 00:39:00.160
Sherrill Cropper: And… Creation came from breath, God speaking.

454
00:39:00.290 --> 00:39:01.650
Sherrill Cropper: into being.

455
00:39:02.540 --> 00:39:07.990
Sherrill Cropper: And… So… That's the highest level, I think.

456
00:39:08.620 --> 00:39:10.650
Sherrill Cropper: Spiritually.

457
00:39:11.320 --> 00:39:14.579
Sherrill Cropper: And because it doesn't require physicality.

458
00:39:15.940 --> 00:39:19.549
Sherrill Cropper: Breath is life. So water is life once we get here.

459
00:39:20.020 --> 00:39:36.189
Sherrill Cropper: And of course, there's a lot of water, it's part of what was in Rabbi Rachel's poem, right? The water, and Miriam put her baby brother in the water, and danced by the water, and, you know, so she's… she's the water, but when…

460
00:39:36.510 --> 00:39:38.139
Sherrill Cropper: Adonai speaks.

461
00:39:38.350 --> 00:39:39.680
Sherrill Cropper: to Moshe.

462
00:39:39.930 --> 00:39:41.400
Sherrill Cropper: and around.

463
00:39:42.090 --> 00:39:47.940
Sherrill Cropper: We feel the chesed coming through. We feel the compassion.

464
00:39:48.120 --> 00:39:55.510
Sherrill Cropper: And the life affirmingness of Speaking of breath into being.

465
00:39:55.830 --> 00:40:01.330
Sherrill Cropper: And so When… Mo… Mochelle?

466
00:40:01.440 --> 00:40:04.129
Sherrill Cropper: Falls back to a very basic.

467
00:40:04.360 --> 00:40:06.050
Sherrill Cropper: Human place?

468
00:40:06.430 --> 00:40:08.010
Sherrill Cropper: of anger

469
00:40:08.300 --> 00:40:22.460
Sherrill Cropper: It's the other side of the Sephirot tree. It's Gavora. It's boundaries. It's a strength where normally, in a lot of the studies that I've been doing, and James knows.

470
00:40:23.210 --> 00:40:27.149
Sherrill Cropper: Moshe is like Netzach, you know, he's the one…

471
00:40:27.150 --> 00:40:30.190
R. David (he/him): Go, go, go, go, go, go.

472
00:40:30.560 --> 00:40:37.699
Sherrill Cropper: And so by shifting to this, it's the balance is no longer there.

473
00:40:38.040 --> 00:40:41.230
Sherrill Cropper: It's shifted from right to left.

474
00:40:41.400 --> 00:40:46.489
Sherrill Cropper: And It leaves no room for the speaking, for the compassion.

475
00:40:46.490 --> 00:40:47.600
R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

476
00:40:47.600 --> 00:40:48.860
Sherrill Cropper: to come through.

477
00:40:49.070 --> 00:40:49.690
Sherrill Cropper: and.

478
00:40:49.690 --> 00:40:50.320
R. David (he/him): Yes.

479
00:40:50.320 --> 00:40:56.780
Sherrill Cropper: There's no speaking speaking into creation the water. It's forcefully.

480
00:40:58.750 --> 00:41:05.299
Sherrill Cropper: Creating water. But it wouldn't even if, if, I don't know, I didn't say, well, you didn't do it right.

481
00:41:05.300 --> 00:41:05.640
R. David (he/him): Okay.

482
00:41:05.640 --> 00:41:09.269
Sherrill Cropper: God, my compassion for all of you, you are my people.

483
00:41:09.440 --> 00:41:12.930
Sherrill Cropper: would was not so great that water came anyway.

484
00:41:13.090 --> 00:41:27.460
R. David (he/him): Okay, I like it. There's another… in that same vein, you know, we… one of the things we've seen all year is repeated tropes of creation. This is a new creation, this is another opportunity.

485
00:41:27.950 --> 00:41:35.019
R. David (he/him): Early Genesis, let there be light, there was light, and God spoke, and the waters coalesced.

486
00:41:37.770 --> 00:41:38.920
R. David (he/him): Genesis 1.

487
00:41:41.920 --> 00:41:44.449
R. David (he/him): And God is saying to Moses, speak.

488
00:41:45.810 --> 00:41:47.530
R. David (he/him): And the water will come.

489
00:41:50.170 --> 00:42:02.579
R. David (he/him): It's allegorical to Genesis 1. Here, even amidst death, there is life. Speak it into being, as I spoke it into being. And he didn't do that.

490
00:42:02.980 --> 00:42:04.830
R. David (he/him): He missed a chance.

491
00:42:06.740 --> 00:42:09.780
R. David (he/him): As we all miss those kinds of chances all the time.

492
00:42:11.840 --> 00:42:12.399
Sherrill Cropper: It was missing.

493
00:42:12.400 --> 00:42:12.740
R. David (he/him): Yes.

494
00:42:12.740 --> 00:42:14.130
Sherrill Cropper: Transfer his breath.

495
00:42:14.790 --> 00:42:15.530
Sherrill Cropper: for the divine.

496
00:42:15.530 --> 00:42:16.260
R. David (he/him): Sure.

497
00:42:16.260 --> 00:42:17.490
Sherrill Cropper: come through him.

498
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:18.340
R. David (he/him): Yep.

499
00:42:19.030 --> 00:42:30.209
R. David (he/him): Yes. And when we… right, exactly. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Now, there's a little bit of Kabbalistic code. Let's… if we want to, we can stay after and unpack it.

500
00:42:30.950 --> 00:42:35.859
R. David (he/him): Deanna, last comment, and then we're going to jump into whatever Midrash we have time to Midrash.

501
00:42:37.870 --> 00:42:41.300
Diana Rico: I'm curious about the significance of the staff.

502
00:42:44.050 --> 00:42:45.210
R. David (he/him): Nice.

503
00:42:45.570 --> 00:42:55.040
Diana Rico: In… certain Mexican indigenous traditions

504
00:42:55.530 --> 00:43:03.889
Diana Rico: the staff. The baston is extremely important. It's a it's a sign of the person who's the leader.

505
00:43:04.230 --> 00:43:07.719
Diana Rico: Who takes care of the congregation.

506
00:43:07.990 --> 00:43:12.739
Diana Rico: Yeah. They have to use their leadership wisely.

507
00:43:12.740 --> 00:43:13.530
R. David (he/him): Yes.

508
00:43:14.480 --> 00:43:20.459
Diana Rico: And he's not. He's he's using this symbol of his leadership.

509
00:43:20.680 --> 00:43:23.160
Diana Rico: And doing something violent with it.

510
00:43:23.330 --> 00:43:24.550
R. David (he/him): O.

511
00:43:24.550 --> 00:43:28.879
Diana Rico: In the rock, like, - no, this is… this is not how it works.

512
00:43:29.140 --> 00:43:30.820
R. David (he/him): That's not how it works.

513
00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:35.510
R. David (he/him): Again, here is some Midrash, connecting text to text.

514
00:43:36.040 --> 00:43:42.220
R. David (he/him): God said to Moses, lift your hand, take your staff and place it over the waters, it'll split. So…

515
00:43:42.350 --> 00:43:44.339
R. David (he/him): Here's that same staff!

516
00:43:45.730 --> 00:43:48.840
R. David (he/him): Right? He's figuring, oh, it's the staff that did it.

517
00:43:48.990 --> 00:43:52.540
R. David (he/him): No, it's not the staff that did it. It's God that did it.

518
00:43:53.910 --> 00:43:54.610
R. David (he/him): Damn.

519
00:43:54.830 --> 00:44:01.419
R. David (he/him): And it's the staff that… Moses used in the last Torah portion.

520
00:44:02.250 --> 00:44:07.909
R. David (he/him): You know, we didn't read this part to show Korath and his people.

521
00:44:08.140 --> 00:44:11.140
R. David (he/him): That, no… You ain't got it.

522
00:44:11.250 --> 00:44:24.440
R. David (he/him): Aaron took his staff and put it next to the Holy of Holies with all the other staves, staffs, stoobs, of the other tribes, and it was only Aaron's staff, it's just a stick, that suddenly

523
00:44:25.470 --> 00:44:28.789
R. David (he/him): Grew leaves and flowers and almonds.

524
00:44:32.650 --> 00:44:33.310
Diana Rico: Okay.

525
00:44:33.720 --> 00:44:36.320
R. David (he/him): demonstrating fertility.

526
00:44:36.770 --> 00:44:48.060
R. David (he/him): Power and divine flow. Only Aaron's staff at the Holy of Holies. So now, exactly, Moses is taking the staff, the biggie, and…

527
00:44:48.670 --> 00:44:51.700
R. David (he/him): woo Woo.

528
00:44:53.530 --> 00:44:58.279
R. David (he/him): It isn't just he hit it with his hand. You're absolutely right, Deanna. So there's a lot here.

529
00:44:58.710 --> 00:45:11.010
R. David (he/him): There's elements of misuse of power or and sublimated emotions and emergency situations and leadership, and it's all kind of falling apart.

530
00:45:11.390 --> 00:45:13.849
R. David (he/him): The whole thing is falling apart.

531
00:45:14.020 --> 00:45:15.370
R. David (he/him): Just as…

532
00:45:15.510 --> 00:45:22.859
R. David (he/him): It kind of needs to. At this time of year, we're heading into Tisha B'Av in a few weeks. Here we go.

533
00:45:23.540 --> 00:45:29.480
R. David (he/him): This week, This little gap, this guy right here.

534
00:45:30.370 --> 00:45:31.370
R. David (he/him): This one.

535
00:45:32.430 --> 00:45:37.930
R. David (he/him): From whence came the idea of the grief and Miriam's well.

536
00:45:39.540 --> 00:45:53.719
R. David (he/him): had given so much midrash that we couldn't not spend all of our effort on it, so let's get into this. I'm going to breeze us through a couple of quick things just to get to other things. This idea of the well

537
00:45:55.240 --> 00:45:58.379
R. David (he/him): Is very, very old.

538
00:45:59.020 --> 00:46:04.529
R. David (he/him): Thousands of years, even before all the written Midrashim.

539
00:46:05.900 --> 00:46:08.539
R. David (he/him): So this was part of the oral tradition.

540
00:46:08.710 --> 00:46:10.650
R. David (he/him): Even before the exile.

541
00:46:10.820 --> 00:46:13.909
R. David (he/him): From the land of Israel. Pirkei Avot.

542
00:46:14.170 --> 00:46:15.649
R. David (he/him): Mystically said.

543
00:46:16.410 --> 00:46:24.180
R. David (he/him): That 10 things were created at twilight before the first Shabbat, meaning to say these are the last things that God created.

544
00:46:25.470 --> 00:46:36.080
R. David (he/him): So that they would be in the world. The mouth of the earth that swallowed Korach, the mouth of Miriam's well, this was one of them, the mouth of the donkey from this week's Torah portion, where

545
00:46:36.240 --> 00:46:43.840
R. David (he/him): Bilaam is riding the donkey, we're not looking at it this year. Noah's rainbow manna, Moses' staff.

546
00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:57.650
R. David (he/him): There was a diamond in the temple that radiated profound light. The fact of letters, the fact of writing, and the two tablets of the covenant. These things that come into Torah at different places.

547
00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:11.040
R. David (he/him): They all had to be created because they had to be part of creation. And so, Kirke Avot grabbed the oral tradition and said that these things were created on the last moment before Shabbat.

548
00:47:13.520 --> 00:47:19.390
R. David (he/him): When the rabbis Started codifying Jewish law into Talmud.

549
00:47:20.350 --> 00:47:23.410
R. David (he/him): Someone want to read how they rendered this?

550
00:47:23.560 --> 00:47:28.549
R. David (he/him): And they were fully aware of pure KI vote. What did they do? Someone want to read?

551
00:47:34.660 --> 00:47:36.779
Susan Phillips: The sage. Oh, go ahead.

552
00:47:36.780 --> 00:47:38.450
R. David (he/him): Go, go.

553
00:47:38.450 --> 00:47:41.880
Susan Phillips: The sages taught 10 things were created at twilight.

554
00:47:42.030 --> 00:47:48.960
Susan Phillips: before the first Shabbat, and they are Miriam's Well, Mana Noah's

555
00:47:49.330 --> 00:47:54.890
Susan Phillips: Rainbow writing, writing implements, the tablets, Moshe's grave.

556
00:47:55.020 --> 00:48:06.729
Susan Phillips: The cave in which Moshe and Eliyahu stood, the opening of the mouth of Bilaam's donkey, and the opening of the mouth of the earth to swallow the wicked of Korach.

557
00:48:08.420 --> 00:48:09.760
R. David (he/him): What are the big differences?

558
00:48:12.100 --> 00:48:14.050
R. David (he/him): They made a change.

559
00:48:14.350 --> 00:48:15.430
R. David (he/him): What did they do?

560
00:48:18.840 --> 00:48:23.720
R. David (he/him): I see a bunch of people going like this, but no one's telling me. Someone want to say it?

561
00:48:23.720 --> 00:48:25.240
Sherrill Cropper: The cave and the grave.

562
00:48:26.350 --> 00:48:28.659
R. David (he/him): Okay, the cave and the grave, yup.

563
00:48:29.040 --> 00:48:30.760
Amy V: The order of things.

564
00:48:30.910 --> 00:48:35.629
R. David (he/him): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They put Miriam's well first.

565
00:48:35.630 --> 00:48:36.350
Meredith (she/her): Mmm.

566
00:48:38.100 --> 00:48:43.460
R. David (he/him): And the order of things rabbinically is really important. They don't do that by accident.

567
00:48:43.590 --> 00:48:50.649
R. David (he/him): The rabbis were saying, and this was about 1,500 years ago now, maximum, a minimum.

568
00:48:51.100 --> 00:48:54.520
R. David (he/him): But the most important of these was Miriam's well.

569
00:48:56.800 --> 00:49:04.810
R. David (he/him): Because otherwise, none of it would have mattered. Who cares if Noah had a rainbow? It'd be over. Who cares if there'd be writing? There'd be no Jews.

570
00:49:05.140 --> 00:49:07.820
R. David (he/him): There'd be no story. There'd be no nothing.

571
00:49:09.460 --> 00:49:10.119
Amy V: And now that…

572
00:49:10.120 --> 00:49:10.790
R. David (he/him): 'Cause I.

573
00:49:11.210 --> 00:49:14.589
Amy V: The punitive thing is at the end.

574
00:49:14.910 --> 00:49:15.950
R. David (he/him): Yeah!

575
00:49:16.770 --> 00:49:19.710
Amy V: Everything else is… Creating, giving.

576
00:49:19.940 --> 00:49:31.650
R. David (he/him): Correct. So our ancestors, our rabbinic ancestors, needed to Diminish… The violence aspect of this.

577
00:49:32.310 --> 00:49:38.629
R. David (he/him): And they needed to upgrade Miriam's well, because they thought it was so important.

578
00:49:40.550 --> 00:49:42.940
R. David (he/him): So… So what?

579
00:49:47.020 --> 00:49:51.329
R. David (he/him): Someone want to read another part of Talmud where the rabbis are trying to figure out.

580
00:49:51.870 --> 00:49:53.619
R. David (he/him): So what about the well?

581
00:49:54.240 --> 00:50:12.600
Amy V: The well was in Miriam's merit, the pillar of cloud was in Aaron's merit, and Mano was in Moshe's merit. Miriam died, and the well disappeared, as in Numbers 21. Miriam died there, then Numbers 22.

582
00:50:12.690 --> 00:50:23.609
Amy V: The congregation had no water, but the well returned later for the duration of their 40-year journey in the merit of both Moshe and Aaron.

583
00:50:24.930 --> 00:50:29.619
R. David (he/him): So… This is the source of Miriam's well.

584
00:50:30.820 --> 00:50:31.710
R. David (he/him): Talmud.

585
00:50:31.880 --> 00:50:34.730
R. David (he/him): Which is not usually where we look.

586
00:50:35.980 --> 00:50:40.449
R. David (he/him): Usually it's Midrash this, and Midrash that, and Midrash the other thing.

587
00:50:40.700 --> 00:50:46.699
R. David (he/him): This is directly in Talmud. It goes to how important it is. Now, the well was in Miriam's merit.

588
00:50:47.560 --> 00:50:49.550
R. David (he/him): And then she died, no more wealth.

589
00:50:50.210 --> 00:50:53.960
R. David (he/him): But there had to be water because the people didn't all die.

590
00:50:55.260 --> 00:51:02.620
R. David (he/him): And so the water had to continue, so the rabbis reasoned that the well returned later for the rest of their journey.

591
00:51:04.130 --> 00:51:06.140
R. David (he/him): Bezechut shenayim.

592
00:51:06.460 --> 00:51:10.270
R. David (he/him): In the merit of the two of them, meaning Moses and Aaron.

593
00:51:11.610 --> 00:51:17.809
R. David (he/him): Moses and Aaron were alive still, and then eventually it was just Moses, so it was in their merit.

594
00:51:18.480 --> 00:51:20.339
R. David (he/him): That the well was there.

595
00:51:21.510 --> 00:51:22.840
R. David (he/him): Okay.

596
00:51:25.010 --> 00:51:26.950
R. David (he/him): Now, pick up what Rashi said.

597
00:51:39.590 --> 00:51:41.339
R. David (he/him): What did Rashi do with that?

598
00:51:42.730 --> 00:51:45.210
R. David (he/him): Rashi is not a feminist, usually.

599
00:51:54.610 --> 00:51:55.520
R. David (he/him): Someone.

600
00:51:57.040 --> 00:52:02.919
Joan Green: It doesn't say for how long the congregation had no water.

601
00:52:03.080 --> 00:52:04.080
R. David (he/him): It doesn't.

602
00:52:04.080 --> 00:52:16.949
Joan Green: It might have been an event in which they were frightened. They saw something happen that for some reason they thought they weren't going to have that strength because she had gone.

603
00:52:17.260 --> 00:52:17.940
R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

604
00:52:17.940 --> 00:52:19.530
Joan Green: But it returned.

605
00:52:20.290 --> 00:52:24.620
Joan Green: You've said, that things happen in funny time…

606
00:52:25.210 --> 00:52:31.569
Joan Green: We can't… we can't tell what the timing is, or the cost of it, necessarily.

607
00:52:31.850 --> 00:52:32.510
R. David (he/him): True.

608
00:52:32.640 --> 00:52:38.120
R. David (he/him): And yet, we see here in Midrash, Starting in Talmud itself.

609
00:52:38.710 --> 00:52:42.229
R. David (he/him): That it became a core rabbinic.

610
00:52:43.290 --> 00:52:44.350
R. David (he/him): Assumption.

611
00:52:45.150 --> 00:52:50.970
R. David (he/him): That there was something mystical going on with Miriam. That Miriam was able to bring forth water.

612
00:52:51.230 --> 00:53:02.439
R. David (he/him): And that when she was no longer there, there was no water for a while. And then the well came back, if you're in Talmud, because of Moses and Aaron. But Rashi! Look what Rashi does!

613
00:53:02.860 --> 00:53:06.470
R. David (he/him): They had the well in Miriam's Barrett.

614
00:53:07.060 --> 00:53:08.260
R. David (he/him): Rashi?

615
00:53:08.590 --> 00:53:11.980
R. David (he/him): Changed the story.

616
00:53:13.440 --> 00:53:16.110
R. David (he/him): And Raji… Go ahead.

617
00:53:16.110 --> 00:53:18.850
Joan Green: Talk to me about the word merit.

618
00:53:18.850 --> 00:53:21.850
R. David (he/him): Oh, I'm so glad someone asked!

619
00:53:26.040 --> 00:53:29.980
R. David (he/him): Maybe there's a midrash about that. Oh, look, there is.

620
00:53:35.270 --> 00:53:40.420
R. David (he/him): To someone who has a question about Merit Wanna Read from Rabenu Bahya.

621
00:53:42.650 --> 00:53:54.980
Joan Green: Congregation had no water. When Miriam died, the well departed for the well was in Miriam's merit for following Moshe in the Niles waters.

622
00:53:55.500 --> 00:53:58.709
Joan Green: Moshe's sister watched him from afar.

623
00:53:59.020 --> 00:54:11.079
Joan Green: That the well was removed at her death shows that the well was with the people in her merit. Still later, and for the remainder of 40 years, the well would be with them.

624
00:54:11.600 --> 00:54:15.810
Joan Green: Then Israel sang the song, Spring Up or Well, Sing to It.

625
00:54:16.580 --> 00:54:18.620
Joan Green: So, too…

626
00:54:18.780 --> 00:54:28.349
Joan Green: Then Moshe and Israel sang this song to Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, a song they sang to the end of 40 years, like the start of the 40.

627
00:54:28.390 --> 00:54:33.770
R. David (he/him): And all of us are now looking, you're, everyone's looking at the text and we're all like.

628
00:54:34.820 --> 00:54:35.560
R. David (he/him): What?

629
00:54:39.010 --> 00:54:46.740
R. David (he/him): So this is very thick and needs to be unpacked. So let me do that. And I think I might be able to answer.

630
00:54:47.160 --> 00:54:48.760
R. David (he/him): All of the questions.

631
00:54:49.340 --> 00:54:53.060
R. David (he/him): Because this text does it, but it does it in code.

632
00:54:53.630 --> 00:54:59.850
R. David (he/him): When Miriam died, the well departed, because the well was in Miriam's merit. What was Miriam's merit?

633
00:55:01.090 --> 00:55:06.050
R. David (he/him): If you remember back in the beginning of Exodus, or if you saw the movie.

634
00:55:08.010 --> 00:55:14.530
R. David (he/him): Miriam followed Moses in the basket as it went down the Nile.

635
00:55:15.010 --> 00:55:20.810
R. David (he/him): And the basket reached The daughter of Pharaoh.

636
00:55:21.390 --> 00:55:24.359
R. David (he/him): And Miriam just happened to appear.

637
00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:29.199
R. David (he/him): And said, I know someone who can suckle the child for you.

638
00:55:30.090 --> 00:55:35.219
R. David (he/him): And the person who suckled the child was Miriam's mother, Moses's mother.

639
00:55:35.350 --> 00:55:39.660
R. David (he/him): So, Miriam… Made it all work.

640
00:55:40.330 --> 00:55:42.849
R. David (he/him): That Miriam risked her life.

641
00:55:43.530 --> 00:55:47.030
R. David (he/him): Knowing it was illegal to put Jews to…

642
00:55:47.340 --> 00:55:50.180
R. David (he/him): A basket because they were all supposed to drown in the nut.

643
00:55:51.050 --> 00:55:55.839
R. David (he/him): Miriam broke the law for something more important, and she did so.

644
00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:00.110
R. David (he/him): by going into the water. So, Rabbanu Bakhia

645
00:56:00.230 --> 00:56:10.739
R. David (he/him): makes the connection. Midrash is connecting text to text and says, there's something about water, there's something about courage, there's something about alacrity.

646
00:56:12.690 --> 00:56:14.539
R. David (he/him): And that was the merit.

647
00:56:14.690 --> 00:56:20.099
R. David (he/him): That the flow, the flow Comes from putting ourselves out there.

648
00:56:21.910 --> 00:56:27.489
R. David (he/him): Or at least we experience the flow by putting ourselves out there. This is one way in which.

649
00:56:28.230 --> 00:56:30.790
R. David (he/him): By doing what the time needed.

650
00:56:31.380 --> 00:56:35.230
R. David (he/him): And then… She died.

651
00:56:36.900 --> 00:56:40.039
R. David (he/him): Ergo, it was in her merit, but later.

652
00:56:40.210 --> 00:56:50.840
R. David (he/him): For the remainder of the 40 years, the well would be with them as in. Very soon after this incident in the book of Numbers, Israel is going to sing a song

653
00:56:51.080 --> 00:56:57.580
R. David (he/him): in the book of Numbers, and it says, spring up a well, sing to it.

654
00:56:58.480 --> 00:57:03.240
R. David (he/him): Where did the children of Israel learn to sing anything?

655
00:57:07.340 --> 00:57:14.109
R. David (he/him): Rachel Radansky is doing the universal symbol for a salt shaker, getting a waiter.

656
00:57:14.110 --> 00:57:15.780
Rachel Rudansky: This is attention.

657
00:57:15.780 --> 00:57:18.290
R. David (he/him): Tell me about the tambourine.

658
00:57:19.590 --> 00:57:24.950
Rachel Rudansky: Well, Miriam plays the tambourine as their… Crossing.

659
00:57:25.020 --> 00:57:27.800
R. David (he/him): Right, crossing the… yeah!

660
00:57:28.200 --> 00:57:30.389
Rachel Rudansky: you know, the Nile, right? The Cross.

661
00:57:30.390 --> 00:57:30.720
R. David (he/him): No.

662
00:57:30.720 --> 00:57:32.600
Rachel Rudansky: Let's see, not the Nile, let'.

663
00:57:32.600 --> 00:57:33.960
R. David (he/him): The other one, right!

664
00:57:33.960 --> 00:57:37.340
Rachel Rudansky: And it riles everybody's enthusiasm to.

665
00:57:37.340 --> 00:57:38.000
R. David (he/him): No.

666
00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:39.920
Rachel Rudansky: It's going forward. It's going forward.

667
00:57:39.920 --> 00:57:42.849
R. David (he/him): Exodus, Exodus 15.

668
00:57:42.850 --> 00:57:43.640
Rachel Rudansky: See.

669
00:57:44.940 --> 00:57:45.480
Rachel Rudansky: May…

670
00:57:45.480 --> 00:58:00.040
R. David (he/him): Then Moses and Israel sang this song to God as they crossed the sea and made it.

671
00:58:00.300 --> 00:58:05.070
R. David (he/him): So the children of Israel began their 40 years with a song.

672
00:58:05.970 --> 00:58:13.629
R. David (he/him): And now they're going to keep singing that song to the end of their 40 years. The people are going to sing.

673
00:58:14.980 --> 00:58:21.650
R. David (he/him): Which is really fun for a congregation named for singing, thank you. Spring up, oh well, sing to it!

674
00:58:21.900 --> 00:58:28.819
R. David (he/him): The song, the fact of singing that Miriam taught them how to do amidst their grief, amidst their fear.

675
00:58:30.860 --> 00:58:35.370
R. David (he/him): Don't let it silence you, Miriam says. To the contrary!

676
00:58:36.190 --> 00:58:43.039
R. David (he/him): It's a little bit like, you know, make believe you're brave and the trick will take you far, you may be as brave as you.

677
00:58:43.170 --> 00:58:44.600
R. David (he/him): Seeing yourself.

678
00:58:44.790 --> 00:58:50.760
R. David (he/him): To be right that that singing actually changes.

679
00:58:51.350 --> 00:58:54.140
R. David (he/him): Our experience, our identity, our wiring.

680
00:58:54.950 --> 00:58:57.750
R. David (he/him): And it doesn't matter if we are…

681
00:58:58.470 --> 00:59:08.629
R. David (he/him): You know, we've got voices or not. Tone deaf, it works great, too. It's the outflow of Cheryl. When you sing, you're outflowing what?

682
00:59:14.030 --> 00:59:15.270
Sherrill Cropper: Air breath.

683
00:59:18.690 --> 00:59:20.949
R. David (he/him): Breath brings water!

684
00:59:23.570 --> 00:59:27.140
Rachel Rudansky: Well, this resonates also with the talking to the rock.

685
00:59:28.070 --> 00:59:29.030
Rachel Rudansky: Right.

686
00:59:29.030 --> 00:59:30.130
R. David (he/him): Talk to the Rock.

687
00:59:30.130 --> 00:59:31.730
Rachel Rudansky: Talk to the rock sing.

688
00:59:31.730 --> 00:59:33.350
R. David (he/him): Not ratchet.

689
00:59:34.850 --> 00:59:35.230
Rachel Rudansky: Yeah.

690
00:59:35.230 --> 00:59:42.279
R. David (he/him): Right, right, right. So there's a lot here and y'all and and it's it's it's it's here.

691
00:59:42.360 --> 00:59:55.249
R. David (he/him): Right. Cheryl asks a great question. I'm curious why this is in pure KO vote. Isn't that the ethical rules portion? Yes. I mean, I see Diana, she's gonna come in a second. Pure KO vote is mainly that, but it also has other things.

692
00:59:55.330 --> 01:00:00.019
R. David (he/him): There's this whole part of Pierre Canelo where they riff on tens.

693
01:00:00.300 --> 01:00:11.849
R. David (he/him): There are 10 things created, and then there were 10 trials of Abraham, and, you know, and here are the sevens in Jewish life. Pirkei Avot does that sacred geometry alongside the ethics.

694
01:00:13.070 --> 01:00:18.949
R. David (he/him): And ethics becomes one of the ways of expressing some of those 3s, 7s, and 10s.

695
01:00:21.100 --> 01:00:23.410
R. David (he/him): So it's both and. Deanna?

696
01:00:25.050 --> 01:00:29.050
Diana Rico: Two things. I want to say something about merit, first of all.

697
01:00:29.050 --> 01:00:29.630
R. David (he/him): Yes.

698
01:00:29.790 --> 01:00:33.900
Diana Rico: In Buddhist tradition, there's a practice that I deeply love.

699
01:00:34.220 --> 01:00:39.820
Diana Rico: At the end of anything that you've done, that's a form of prayer.

700
01:00:40.620 --> 01:00:42.650
Diana Rico: You dedicate the merit.

701
01:00:43.150 --> 01:00:43.700
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

702
01:00:43.700 --> 01:00:44.700
Diana Rico: Practice.

703
01:00:45.090 --> 01:00:45.820
R. David (he/him): Yes.

704
01:00:46.070 --> 01:00:52.409
Diana Rico: Dedicate the merit of your practice, you send it out, the goodness that has come up.

705
01:00:52.860 --> 01:00:57.569
Diana Rico: Through whatever you've just done, you send it out to wherever it's needed in the world.

706
01:00:58.100 --> 01:01:01.350
Diana Rico: And I think that's so beautiful, and so this…

707
01:01:01.680 --> 01:01:06.979
Diana Rico: Use of merit in these passages makes sense to me in that context.

708
01:01:08.100 --> 01:01:19.650
Diana Rico: The thing about the singing is extremely important to me. I… some of the practices that I partake of from other cultures involve a lot of singing, singing of prayers.

709
01:01:20.110 --> 01:01:28.409
Diana Rico: Obviously, Judaism does, too. But like specifically, I live in a desert. I live in the high desert of northern New Mexico.

710
01:01:28.610 --> 01:01:33.910
Diana Rico: Where water is incredibly precious, especially since we've been in a drought for 20 years.

711
01:01:34.070 --> 01:01:34.390
R. David (he/him): Yep.

712
01:01:34.410 --> 01:01:36.269
Diana Rico: That's getting worse.

713
01:01:36.490 --> 01:01:54.960
Diana Rico: And when I first moved here, I would go sit by the river in the mountains near me, also by the acequia, which were the old irrigation systems that the Spaniards and the natives established to irrigate the land so that water, so that food would grow. And those are still active. They're communal.

714
01:01:54.960 --> 01:01:57.850
Diana Rico: communal practices of water sharing.

715
01:01:57.980 --> 01:02:00.850
Diana Rico: Part of… it's the commons.

716
01:02:01.550 --> 01:02:04.329
Diana Rico: I would go sit by the waters and sing to them.

717
01:02:04.690 --> 01:02:12.660
Diana Rico: And in singing to the waters, singing holy songs to the waters, I established a relationship with the waters.

718
01:02:13.070 --> 01:02:13.650
R. David (he/him): Mmh.

719
01:02:15.010 --> 01:02:18.129
Diana Rico: Very powerful. The water responds.

720
01:02:18.690 --> 01:02:19.280
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

721
01:02:19.640 --> 01:02:21.429
Diana Rico: This is what they're doing here.

722
01:02:21.890 --> 01:02:22.370
R. David (he/him): Okay.

723
01:02:24.500 --> 01:02:27.689
R. David (he/him): Isn't this quite a thing? Isn't this quite a thing?

724
01:02:29.190 --> 01:02:48.580
R. David (he/him): And I don't know that the Jewish ancestors got it from the world wisdom traditions, or the world wisdom traditions got it from the Jews. As I'm about to write, it'll be in tomorrow's Rabbi's Corner. The way I take religions are that they all draw from the same

725
01:02:48.990 --> 01:02:49.940
R. David (he/him): Well.

726
01:02:50.270 --> 01:03:02.610
R. David (he/him): that they all speak universal truths in particular ways, and if they're true, that can only be because we're drawing from a common truth. To think that any one religion

727
01:03:02.720 --> 01:03:04.250
R. David (he/him): corners the market.

728
01:03:05.180 --> 01:03:08.870
R. David (he/him): How can that be a universal truth if we're the only ones who see it?

729
01:03:12.730 --> 01:03:13.470
R. David (he/him): Yes.

730
01:03:14.120 --> 01:03:17.219
R. David (he/him): Diana, thank you for that. Marcy, is it on this?

731
01:03:21.230 --> 01:03:23.010
Marcia's iPad: I just see that.

732
01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:24.110
Marcia's iPad: Oh.

733
01:03:25.250 --> 01:03:31.780
Marcia's iPad: God is getting a little bit antsy And losing patience.

734
01:03:31.970 --> 01:03:34.740
Marcia's iPad: I mean, swallowing people?

735
01:03:34.950 --> 01:03:36.120
Marcia's iPad: Is that the Earth?

736
01:03:36.120 --> 01:03:36.720
R. David (he/him): last week.

737
01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:40.170
Marcia's iPad: Yeah, and and now,

738
01:03:40.480 --> 01:03:43.750
Marcia's iPad: Very angry with, Moshe.

739
01:03:43.970 --> 01:03:50.439
Marcia's iPad: So it seems God is, running out of, out of patience and,

740
01:03:50.790 --> 01:03:51.680
Marcia's iPad: Smiting!

741
01:03:51.680 --> 01:04:01.769
R. David (he/him): So what is — so yeah, what is this? There's a wonderful book that, because I'm looking for it, I cannot find. It is called God.

742
01:04:02.010 --> 01:04:03.600
R. David (he/him): A biography.

743
01:04:05.140 --> 01:04:09.740
R. David (he/him): Which, if you think about it, is really, really radical.

744
01:04:10.970 --> 01:04:13.710
R. David (he/him): Because how can God have a biography?

745
01:04:15.150 --> 01:04:19.270
Marcia's iPad: And insinuates a beginning and an end.

746
01:04:19.270 --> 01:04:34.870
R. David (he/him): Or or at least change. So so is this God is changing or we experience God a certain way based on how we evolve? That becomes a question. But but in terms of plot, Marcia, I mean, of course you're right.

747
01:04:35.460 --> 01:04:40.369
R. David (he/him): You know, the god of, of love and liberation, and I mean, it's still there.

748
01:04:41.040 --> 01:04:49.670
R. David (he/him): And we're getting… You know, threats and losing patience and smiting and, and, and all of that ick.

749
01:04:50.160 --> 01:04:53.460
R. David (he/him): Now, it just so happens that the people are losing it.

750
01:04:57.350 --> 01:05:03.410
R. David (he/him): So, are, is the story reflecting the God they experienced because they were losing it?

751
01:05:03.630 --> 01:05:09.369
R. David (he/him): Or is the story reflecting God as God was? I can't answer that question for you.

752
01:05:10.440 --> 01:05:14.699
R. David (he/him): But then again, isn't that always our question?

753
01:05:14.920 --> 01:05:21.149
R. David (he/him): Is God… is the God we experience, or the God we don't experience, just how we are? Or how God is?

754
01:05:21.780 --> 01:05:30.779
Marcia's iPad: Oh, we were discussing that the other day. How would you know what the mind of God is? What are the how do you analyze that?

755
01:05:32.160 --> 01:05:39.959
R. David (he/him): Yep. Yep, yep, yep. And what are what what with all of our words? I mean, how good can any of our words be? But it's all we've got.

756
01:05:41.570 --> 01:05:43.820
R. David (he/him): So, here we are!

757
01:05:44.130 --> 01:05:48.069
R. David (he/him): Right now in this time of year. Huh. Hmm.

758
01:05:49.520 --> 01:05:52.450
Marcia's iPad: And promotion, he didn't even want the job. That's right.

759
01:05:52.450 --> 01:06:02.550
R. David (he/him): That's right. That's right. Please, take my job, please. But if, you know, and you mean you're not even going to give me the bonus of entering the land? Come on, now. All right, let's move on.

760
01:06:03.040 --> 01:06:08.259
R. David (he/him): Let's move on. Tiny little midrash.

761
01:06:08.380 --> 01:06:10.489
R. David (he/him): Notice this comes from a guy.

762
01:06:10.750 --> 01:06:13.620
R. David (he/him): Who died in the early 1600s.

763
01:06:16.130 --> 01:06:19.160
R. David (he/him): Maybe this gives us a partly part answer. Someone want to read?

764
01:06:21.310 --> 01:06:23.150
Diana Rico: A woman is like a well.

765
01:06:23.830 --> 01:06:27.929
Diana Rico: The more one takes water from it, the more water comes into it.

766
01:06:28.480 --> 01:06:33.490
Diana Rico: So, too, woman, when she does acts of loving kindness with poor people.

767
01:06:33.620 --> 01:06:37.269
Diana Rico: Her money and goods increase like the water in the well.

768
01:06:38.550 --> 01:06:50.380
Diana Rico: As soon as the well ceased, Israel gathered around Moshe and Aharon, who were mourning Miriam. God said to them, as you are mourners, should Israel die of thirst?

769
01:06:50.660 --> 01:06:54.130
Diana Rico: Stand, take the staff, and give Israel water.

770
01:06:55.220 --> 01:06:57.980
R. David (he/him): So maybe God gave the water.

771
01:06:58.580 --> 01:07:01.460
R. David (he/him): Not as a reward to Moses.

772
01:07:02.580 --> 01:07:05.980
R. David (he/him): Not as part of teaching anything to anyone.

773
01:07:06.920 --> 01:07:10.909
R. David (he/him): But just because the people were mourning, and what do you do when people are mourning?

774
01:07:12.880 --> 01:07:16.849
R. David (he/him): You give them food, you give them drink, you don't ask.

775
01:07:18.410 --> 01:07:20.909
R. David (he/him): I feel hungry, here, eat something.

776
01:07:21.610 --> 01:07:23.620
R. David (he/him): I'm cold, put on a sweater.

777
01:07:28.610 --> 01:07:30.120
Diana Rico: May I share something?

778
01:07:30.330 --> 01:07:34.210
R. David (he/him): Please. And then we'll pick up Ellen Frankel. We'll need a bunch of.

779
01:07:34.380 --> 01:07:37.859
Diana Rico: This makes me very emotional because my grandmother did this.

780
01:07:38.020 --> 01:07:43.349
Diana Rico: My mother's mother… Who I did not know, because she died before I was born.

781
01:07:45.560 --> 01:07:49.629
Diana Rico: Was the town school teacher in Maricajo, Puerto Rico.

782
01:07:50.280 --> 01:08:00.349
Diana Rico: In the Depression, when nobody had money, she was responsible for a household of at least 6 people, including her mentally ill brother, her mother.

783
01:08:00.590 --> 01:08:04.590
Diana Rico: My, my, my mother, who was a baby.

784
01:08:05.100 --> 01:08:09.989
Diana Rico: Her husband, my grandfather, died when my mother was a baby.

785
01:08:11.140 --> 01:08:23.779
Diana Rico: people would come, like the Compassinos would come to her door, and she would help them. She would help them get medical care, she would give them food, she would give them money if she, you know, if they needed it.

786
01:08:24.350 --> 01:08:31.280
Diana Rico: And my mother asked her, how can you do this? And she would say, we have so much.

787
01:08:31.979 --> 01:08:34.000
Diana Rico: God wants us to share it.

788
01:08:34.830 --> 01:08:36.519
Diana Rico: And she always had enough.

789
01:08:48.180 --> 01:08:50.860
Diana Rico: And she was a woman of tremendous faith.

790
01:09:00.950 --> 01:09:05.049
Joan Green: That's what I think this whole thing is about, returning people to faith.

791
01:09:05.990 --> 01:09:06.550
R. David (he/him): Yep.

792
01:09:12.200 --> 01:09:15.090
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna need five readers.

793
01:09:15.800 --> 01:09:18.000
R. David (he/him): Now we're getting into the context.

794
01:09:18.569 --> 01:09:24.250
R. David (he/him): Of loss and faithlessness and faith and hurt and healing.

795
01:09:31.540 --> 01:09:33.060
R. David (he/him): I need 5 readers, please.

796
01:09:33.580 --> 01:09:51.379
Amy V: The rabbis begin, "Immediately after Miriam died, the people complained that they lacked water, and so we learn that her death disappeared the miraculous well that had accompanied the Israelites throughout their desert journey."

797
01:09:51.880 --> 01:09:56.860
Amy V: As long as Miriam was alive, the well sustained the people.

798
01:09:57.060 --> 01:10:12.080
Amy V: But as soon as she died, the well vanished, resurfacing periodically in Jewish legend. Most often in the Sea of Galilee, those sightings have been reported as far away as Poland.

799
01:10:13.570 --> 01:10:22.720
Sherrill Cropper: Shirach bat a shell, the historian adds. At twilight on the sixth day of creation, God created this well.

800
01:10:22.970 --> 01:10:29.220
Sherrill Cropper: Which in time passed from him to Abraham, and from him to Hagar.

801
01:10:29.450 --> 01:10:31.330
Sherrill Cropper: And then on to Isaac.

802
01:10:31.550 --> 01:10:34.940
Sherrill Cropper: But the well was lost during Egyptian captivity.

803
01:10:36.210 --> 01:10:41.959
R. David (he/him): Rosh Hashanah Day 1, we're gonna read about Hagar and a well that suddenly appeared.

804
01:10:45.160 --> 01:10:50.439
R. David (he/him): Notice where, like, we've seen all of these Midrashim, and they're all just coming together right here.

805
01:10:51.080 --> 01:10:53.330
R. David (he/him): Keep going. Miriam continues.

806
01:10:55.640 --> 01:10:57.470
David Green: Miriam continues.

807
01:10:57.650 --> 01:11:07.430
David Green: Because of my merits, my powers of prophecy, my protection of my baby brother Moses, my skillful midwifery among the Hebrew slaves.

808
01:11:07.610 --> 01:11:10.550
David Green: And my victory song at the Sea of Reeds.

809
01:11:10.680 --> 01:11:16.320
David Green: This well was restored to the Jewish people and was called by my name.

810
01:11:17.430 --> 01:11:19.849
R. David (he/him): All the Midrashim in one place, keep going.

811
01:11:19.990 --> 01:11:20.820
R. David (he/him): Someone.

812
01:11:27.450 --> 01:11:40.080
Joan Green: Our mother's offer. An ancient folk tradition teaches that Miriam's well fills all wells at the end of Shabbat and gives such water miraculous curative powers.

813
01:11:40.080 --> 01:11:41.869
R. David (he/him): to get us through the week ahead.

814
01:11:43.940 --> 01:11:44.770
R. David (he/him): One more.

815
01:11:49.120 --> 01:12:00.010
Susan Phillips: Our daughters declare Miriam's Well has become for us a symbol of Jewish women's creativity, spirituality, collective experience, healing, and wisdom.

816
01:12:00.440 --> 01:12:06.549
R. David (he/him): Anyone know a small version of Miriam's well?

817
01:12:11.190 --> 01:12:12.400
Amy V: The mikvah?

818
01:12:13.840 --> 01:12:16.730
R. David (he/him): Yes, I'm thinking even a smaller one.

819
01:12:24.640 --> 01:12:26.860
Rachel Rudansky: Chalice Well in England.

820
01:12:27.590 --> 01:12:36.949
R. David (he/him): Same principle. Notice the Christians brought it through from Judaism. Now, I'll give you a hint.

821
01:12:38.180 --> 01:12:38.630
Corinne: Mirr.

822
01:12:38.630 --> 01:12:41.000
R. David (he/him): Pass over. There it is!

823
01:12:42.770 --> 01:12:43.419
Rachel Rudansky: What is it?

824
01:12:43.420 --> 01:12:44.450
R. David (he/him): There it is.

825
01:12:44.450 --> 01:12:45.010
Rachel Rudansky: Okay.

826
01:12:45.010 --> 01:12:46.240
R. David (he/him): Miriam's cup.

827
01:12:46.430 --> 01:12:48.099
Rachel Rudansky: Oh, Miriam's cup.

828
01:12:48.260 --> 01:12:49.719
R. David (he/him): Miriam's cup!

829
01:12:50.810 --> 01:12:53.990
R. David (he/him): How many of you were raised with Miriam's cup?

830
01:12:57.190 --> 01:13:02.120
R. David (he/him): Not a single one of us. But that's not because anyone did it wrong.

831
01:13:02.360 --> 01:13:12.750
R. David (he/him): I'm skipping very far ahead and I'll come back. We're not going to get to all this. Miriam's cup did not exist as a current tradition.

832
01:13:13.860 --> 01:13:16.400
R. David (he/him): Until 1977.

833
01:13:20.550 --> 01:13:29.509
R. David (he/him): Its origin was this. In Boston, in the early 80s, they concretized it. A group of Jewish women.

834
01:13:30.020 --> 01:13:49.300
R. David (he/him): gathered together on what happened to be Rosh Chodesh. They were trying out new rituals for some time. A woman led a meditation on Miriam's well, visiting there symbolically to gain inspiration and renewal from its Mayim Chaim, from its living waters. And the next week, another woman was so deeply affected that she created the first Miriam's cup.

835
01:13:49.460 --> 01:14:01.859
R. David (he/him): 77, 81, it's, you know, Midrash plays games with time. She put a crystal goblet in the middle of her Shabbat table, filled it with spring water, had all members of her family take a sip of that water.

836
01:14:03.530 --> 01:14:16.590
R. David (he/him): And since then, when I send this back around, you can grab this and click on it. The very first Miriam's Cup and the very first rituals that ever were associated with it.

837
01:14:17.010 --> 01:14:19.800
R. David (he/him): We're brought into being by women.

838
01:14:21.680 --> 01:14:35.350
R. David (he/him): as a parallel to Elijah's cup, and now in liberal communities around Jewish life. You see Miriam's cup in beautiful kosim, or kosot, Miriam, Miriam's cups.

839
01:14:35.460 --> 01:14:39.059
R. David (he/him): Fashioned for this purpose as if they were always part of Jewish life.

840
01:14:39.260 --> 01:14:47.529
R. David (he/him): I have one. It's gorgeous. I, I, I, I, I adore it. I, I bring it to our community. Didn't exist.

841
01:14:47.960 --> 01:14:57.999
R. David (he/him): 50 years ago. It did not exist, and yet it existed thousands of years ago. We're just putting it on our seder plates, because it is no less a part of the liberation.

842
01:14:58.570 --> 01:15:01.870
R. David (he/him): It is equally part of the liberation as Elijah the prophet.

843
01:15:04.300 --> 01:15:06.570
R. David (he/him): So here's practical Midrash.

844
01:15:08.530 --> 01:15:09.280
R. David (he/him): Now.

845
01:15:10.810 --> 01:15:12.689
R. David (he/him): What happened with Moses?

846
01:15:16.450 --> 01:15:21.320
R. David (he/him): We have all of this love, flow, alacrity.

847
01:15:21.710 --> 01:15:23.110
R. David (he/him): Showing up.

848
01:15:24.510 --> 01:15:30.019
R. David (he/him): On the one hand, and Moses losing it on the other.

849
01:15:31.820 --> 01:15:35.589
R. David (he/him): And I think Susan and Meredith particularly.

850
01:15:35.780 --> 01:15:38.690
R. David (he/him): Link the two of them through the lens of grief.

851
01:15:41.640 --> 01:15:44.179
R. David (he/him): Rashi and a few others are gonna go there.

852
01:15:48.970 --> 01:15:50.389
R. David (he/him): Let me do this one.

853
01:15:51.900 --> 01:15:55.350
R. David (he/him): Will we get water for you out of this rock?

854
01:15:58.360 --> 01:16:07.690
R. David (he/him): Or as Moses, you know, invoking the voice of Moses, you rebels! Will we get water from you out of this rock? Whack, whack!

855
01:16:08.820 --> 01:16:15.340
R. David (he/him): And they said this because they didn't they couldn't recognize which rock God intended. Which rock?

856
01:16:17.230 --> 01:16:20.100
R. David (he/him): So when the well disappeared after Miriam's death.

857
01:16:20.600 --> 01:16:22.930
R. David (he/him): The rock from which water flowed.

858
01:16:23.140 --> 01:16:24.210
R. David (he/him): Vanished!

859
01:16:24.450 --> 01:16:31.639
R. David (he/him): And took its place among other rocks. There are lots of rocks in the desert. Maybe it's this rock, maybe it's that rock. Who knows which rock it is?

860
01:16:33.410 --> 01:16:37.239
R. David (he/him): Israel said to them, This is Midrash, of course.

861
01:16:37.370 --> 01:16:43.709
R. David (he/him): What difference is it to you from which rock you bring forth water from us? Water for us.

862
01:16:44.350 --> 01:16:46.579
R. David (he/him): Who cares? So long as it's water.

863
01:16:48.610 --> 01:16:50.380
R. David (he/him): But what was it to Moses?

864
01:16:51.740 --> 01:16:58.359
R. David (he/him): That rock from which the water flowed in that well, you know, wells have a rock at the bottom, you know, something, like, right?

865
01:16:58.680 --> 01:17:00.560
R. David (he/him): What did that rock represent?

866
01:17:03.290 --> 01:17:05.189
R. David (he/him): Is there a psychologist in the room?

867
01:17:08.500 --> 01:17:10.559
R. David (he/him): What did that rock represent for?

868
01:17:11.150 --> 01:17:12.160
R. David (he/him): For Moses.

869
01:17:13.560 --> 01:17:14.920
R. David (he/him): Or I should say, who?

870
01:17:15.080 --> 01:17:16.859
R. David (he/him): Did that rock represent?

871
01:17:18.700 --> 01:17:19.840
Susan Phillips: Here, Miriam.

872
01:17:21.420 --> 01:17:22.510
R. David (he/him): Of course.

873
01:17:22.930 --> 01:17:27.960
R. David (he/him): So, Moses says, like, you people, you just don't get it, do you?

874
01:17:28.390 --> 01:17:29.810
R. David (he/him): I'm grieving.

875
01:17:30.700 --> 01:17:33.630
R. David (he/him): And Moses now calls them REBELS!

876
01:17:35.000 --> 01:17:35.960
R. David (he/him): Mohim.

877
01:17:36.980 --> 01:17:41.230
R. David (he/him): And now Rashi's like, it's a heck of a word. It also means fools.

878
01:17:41.720 --> 01:17:43.500
R. David (he/him): And he gives us some Greek.

879
01:17:43.920 --> 01:17:46.340
R. David (he/him): Or what teachers would teach.

880
01:17:46.510 --> 01:17:50.620
R. David (he/him): Features in Hebrew also, Mohim.

881
01:17:52.680 --> 01:17:55.169
R. David (he/him): But we weren't told anything about this rock.

882
01:17:57.400 --> 01:18:00.170
R. David (he/him): So, that's gonna be a source of mid-rush, too.

883
01:18:00.310 --> 01:18:05.630
R. David (he/him): Morim, rebels, fools… Teachers…

884
01:18:06.490 --> 01:18:09.200
Sherrill Cropper: Maureen is also very close to Miriam.

885
01:18:09.200 --> 01:18:13.909
R. David (he/him): Yes, it is. Yes, it is. And that's where I went.

886
01:18:17.600 --> 01:18:21.860
R. David (he/him): I saw… Hamorem.

887
01:18:22.460 --> 01:18:25.079
R. David (he/him): As very close to Miriam itself.

888
01:18:26.790 --> 01:18:30.929
R. David (he/him): And so here's what I wrote. I can't read my own writing. Would someone read it?

889
01:18:35.680 --> 01:18:49.939
Amy V: Miriam died. Everyone was feeling grief. But Taurus is nothing about time to grieve. Folks were out of sorts. The people, and also Moses and Aaron, Miriam's brothers.

890
01:18:50.020 --> 01:19:02.329
Amy V: Moses was in such straits that when he called the people rebels, he used the word with the exact same letters as Miriam. Talk about Freudian slips.

891
01:19:02.330 --> 01:19:02.940
Susan Phillips: Hmmm.

892
01:19:04.210 --> 01:19:06.179
R. David (he/him): All he could see was his sister.

893
01:19:07.370 --> 01:19:09.470
R. David (he/him): Now, it turns out that I…

894
01:19:09.560 --> 01:19:17.850
R. David (he/him): I created that myself, but I was not the first to create it. The dean of the seminary where I've taught.

895
01:19:17.920 --> 01:19:32.659
R. David (he/him): also picked that up. And we're not going to read this here, but I want to… I want to acknowledge that Rabbi… sorry, Dr. Orhard Prowzer picked that up before me, and wrote it in the Women's Torah Commentary. So I made up a true story.

896
01:19:33.480 --> 01:19:38.920
R. David (he/him): She got there first, I just didn't know it when I typed. Yeah, Meredith.

897
01:19:41.390 --> 01:19:43.710
Meredith (she/her): I have a question. So

898
01:19:43.820 --> 01:19:53.579
Meredith (she/her): There are grief rituals, Rabbi, right? Yes, there are. So what happened to them? They weren't created yet at this time.

899
01:19:53.580 --> 01:19:54.740
R. David (he/him): You know what they were.

900
01:19:54.950 --> 01:19:56.620
Meredith (she/her): So, so…

901
01:19:57.130 --> 01:20:09.429
R. David (he/him): Sure, they were. The people grieved. People knew how to grieve. You know, people died, and the people wailed. You know, they buried Jacob, and they wailed, and they buried

902
01:20:09.700 --> 01:20:14.440
R. David (he/him): Joseph and they, and they cry. I mean, we, we saw this, it's that.

903
01:20:14.440 --> 01:20:14.890
Meredith (she/her): Okay.

904
01:20:14.890 --> 01:20:19.300
R. David (he/him): But either there was an emergency, you asked the right question. There's this hole in the text.

905
01:20:19.710 --> 01:20:20.290
Meredith (she/her): Right.

906
01:20:20.720 --> 01:20:21.340
R. David (he/him): Right?

907
01:20:21.450 --> 01:20:25.729
R. David (he/him): Right? When Ja- when, when Aaron dies, they're gonna grieve him.

908
01:20:27.730 --> 01:20:28.300
Meredith (she/her): Right.

909
01:20:28.480 --> 01:20:35.670
R. David (he/him): When Joseph disappeared and Jacob thought him dead, he did Crea. He actually tore his shirt, right?

910
01:20:35.670 --> 01:20:36.000
Meredith (she/her): Okay.

911
01:20:36.000 --> 01:20:39.050
R. David (he/him): You know, it's it's all there. So what happened here?

912
01:20:39.050 --> 01:20:40.110
Meredith (she/her): So what happened?

913
01:20:40.320 --> 01:20:41.350
R. David (he/him): What happened?

914
01:20:43.430 --> 01:20:44.240
Meredith (she/her): You know.

915
01:20:44.240 --> 01:20:44.959
R. David (he/him): Fill them out.

916
01:20:44.960 --> 01:20:45.340
Meredith (she/her): Yeah.

917
01:20:45.340 --> 01:20:51.880
R. David (he/him): What happened? What happened? It went out the window because all they were focused on was their thirst.

918
01:20:53.290 --> 01:20:58.769
R. David (he/him): Or Cheryl writes, yet in Egypt they did not know Joseph, they lost the traditions. Maybe so.

919
01:20:59.900 --> 01:21:04.169
R. David (he/him): They, they lost, they lost things, they lost here.

920
01:21:06.970 --> 01:21:10.149
R. David (he/him): As we all sometimes lose here.

921
01:21:10.780 --> 01:21:13.440
R. David (he/him): And when we lose here, we're lost.

922
01:21:15.260 --> 01:21:18.939
Meredith (she/her): So they completely lost grounding, footing.

923
01:21:18.940 --> 01:21:19.690
R. David (he/him): Damn!

924
01:21:19.690 --> 01:21:21.310
Meredith (she/her): No, no.

925
01:21:21.550 --> 01:21:23.899
Meredith (she/her): They were out of their mind.

926
01:21:24.110 --> 01:21:28.349
Meredith (she/her): Yeah. I mean, not crazy, but you know.

927
01:21:28.350 --> 01:21:31.129
R. David (he/him): Yeah. Yeah. They lost it. Sure.

928
01:21:31.250 --> 01:21:31.780
Meredith (she/her): Yep.

929
01:21:32.590 --> 01:21:33.990
R. David (he/him): They became a mob.

930
01:21:36.690 --> 01:21:38.320
R. David (he/him): They became a mob.

931
01:21:39.650 --> 01:21:45.280
R. David (he/him): Korra had his mob and now everybody's a mob once you unleash that energy.

932
01:21:45.870 --> 01:21:48.059
R. David (he/him): With the meh meh meh meh meh.

933
01:21:48.950 --> 01:21:51.280
R. David (he/him): It can become insidious and toxic.

934
01:21:52.880 --> 01:22:00.220
R. David (he/him): But we don't need to only turn to, you know, group consciousness and all of that. It's also individual in each of us.

935
01:22:03.170 --> 01:22:06.530
R. David (he/him): It's been some months since we took down the walls.

936
01:22:07.970 --> 01:22:13.910
R. David (he/him): moving into the High Holidays and the intensity of spiritual life and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

937
01:22:14.380 --> 01:22:16.040
R. David (he/him): That stuff tends to grow back.

938
01:22:18.740 --> 01:22:22.430
R. David (he/him): And so here's a first Torah portion going.

939
01:22:23.940 --> 01:22:27.610
R. David (he/him): or a second one, I guess, when you start with Korach, saying, Hey.

940
01:22:28.790 --> 01:22:29.790
R. David (he/him): Hi!

941
01:22:30.610 --> 01:22:32.050
R. David (he/him): How you doing in there?

942
01:22:32.870 --> 01:22:34.019
R. David (he/him): What's going on?

943
01:22:34.650 --> 01:22:36.069
R. David (he/him): Remember who you are.

944
01:22:37.270 --> 01:22:45.430
R. David (he/him): We're just gonna… Hmm, where do we want to end? Let's end. We're going to do some skipping.

945
01:22:48.030 --> 01:22:56.379
R. David (he/him): Let's end here. We're not going to do Orahorn Prowzer because I've summarized it. Actually, I think we have time to read Jonathan Sacks.

946
01:22:59.070 --> 01:23:00.020
Meredith (she/her): recovering.

947
01:23:01.400 --> 01:23:02.679
Meredith (she/her): Should I read, Rabb.

948
01:23:02.880 --> 01:23:04.090
R. David (he/him): Yeah, please, please.

949
01:23:04.090 --> 01:23:07.490
Meredith (she/her): Bereavement leaves us deeply vulnerable.

950
01:23:07.790 --> 01:23:12.459
Meredith (she/her): In the midst of loss, we can find it hard to control our emotions.

951
01:23:12.780 --> 01:23:16.170
Meredith (she/her): We make mistakes. We act rashly.

952
01:23:16.360 --> 01:23:19.620
Meredith (she/her): We suffer from a momentary lack of judgment.

953
01:23:20.010 --> 01:23:24.480
Meredith (she/her): These are common symptoms even for ordinary humans like us.

954
01:23:24.820 --> 01:23:29.129
Meredith (she/her): In Moses' case, however, there was an additional factor.

955
01:23:29.320 --> 01:23:34.599
Meredith (she/her): He was a prophet and grief can occlude or eclipse the prophetic spirit.

956
01:23:35.350 --> 01:23:41.320
Meredith (she/her): Maimonides answers the well-known question as to why Jacob, a prophet.

957
01:23:41.430 --> 01:23:49.909
Meredith (she/her): Did not know that his son Joseph was still alive. With the simplest possible answer, grief banishes prophecy.

958
01:23:50.300 --> 01:23:57.619
Meredith (she/her): For 22 years, mourning his missing son, Jacob, couldn't receive the divine word.

959
01:23:57.730 --> 01:24:01.929
Meredith (she/her): Moses, the greatest prophet of all, remained in touch with God.

960
01:24:02.090 --> 01:24:05.890
Meredith (she/her): It was God, after all, who told him to speak to the rock.

961
01:24:06.130 --> 01:24:10.659
Meredith (she/her): But somehow the message did not penetrate his consciousness fully.

962
01:24:10.880 --> 01:24:13.210
Meredith (she/her): That was the effect of grief.

963
01:24:13.320 --> 01:24:19.929
Meredith (she/her): So the details are, in truth, secondary to the human drama played out that day.

964
01:24:20.190 --> 01:24:26.799
Meredith (she/her): Yes, Moses did things he might not have done, should not have done. He struck the rock.

965
01:24:27.130 --> 01:24:32.450
Meredith (she/her): said we instead of God, and lost his temper with the people.

966
01:24:33.330 --> 01:24:34.729
R. David (he/him): Thank you. One more, someone.

967
01:24:39.390 --> 01:24:40.750
R. David (he/him): Take us home, someone.

968
01:24:42.110 --> 01:24:52.839
Amy V: The real story, though, is about Moses the human being in an onslaught of grief. Vulnerable, exposed, caught in a vortex of emotions.

969
01:24:52.960 --> 01:25:09.260
Amy V: Suddenly bereft of the sisterly presence that had been the most important base note of his life, Miriam had been the precociously wise and plucky child who had taken control of the situation.

970
01:25:09.810 --> 01:25:19.450
Amy V: when the life of her 3-month-old brother lay in the balance, undaunted by either an Egyptian princess or a rabbi father.

971
01:25:20.050 --> 01:25:29.929
Amy V: She had led the Israelite women in song and sympathized with her sister-in-law when she saw the price she paid for being the wife of a leader.

972
01:25:30.410 --> 01:25:37.650
Amy V: The Mitra speaks of her as the woman in whose merit the people had water in a parched land.

973
01:25:38.220 --> 01:25:44.370
Amy V: In Moses' anguish at the rock, we sense the loss of the elder sister.

974
01:25:45.380 --> 01:25:48.809
Amy V: Without whom he felt bereft and alone.

975
01:25:49.440 --> 01:25:59.159
Amy V: The story of the moment Moses lost his confidence and calm is ultimately less about leadership and crisis.

976
01:25:59.500 --> 01:26:08.769
Amy V: or about a staff or a rock than about a great Jewish woman, Miriam, appreciated fully only when she was no longer there.

977
01:26:12.390 --> 01:26:13.980
R. David (he/him): So this is real deep.

978
01:26:14.630 --> 01:26:16.719
R. David (he/him): This is really deep stuff.

979
01:26:17.910 --> 01:26:22.400
R. David (he/him): I want to acknowledge that some of us have Are coming through grief.

980
01:26:22.640 --> 01:26:24.560
R. David (he/him): for beloveds.

981
01:26:25.510 --> 01:26:27.160
R. David (he/him): And this can be triggering.

982
01:26:28.000 --> 01:26:36.650
R. David (he/him): And I want to acknowledge Ellen Ruth's question from the very beginning, that she sees a conflict here.

983
01:26:37.090 --> 01:26:38.370
R. David (he/him): Between…

984
01:26:38.680 --> 01:26:55.499
R. David (he/him): the sacred experience and the human experience between God and Moses, between the flow and the anger, which one is it? And the answer is, well, yes, it's both, because we live in this world, and we have

985
01:26:55.690 --> 01:26:59.169
R. David (he/him): Emotions and some of those emotions.

986
01:26:59.690 --> 01:27:04.880
R. David (he/him): Can find ways to feel or become disconnected from.

987
01:27:06.160 --> 01:27:07.110
R. David (he/him): God.

988
01:27:07.670 --> 01:27:10.000
R. David (he/him): Because that's what happened.

989
01:27:10.160 --> 01:27:14.019
R. David (he/him): Whether we are in grief, and we can't experience

990
01:27:14.520 --> 01:27:19.279
R. David (he/him): God in the same way because our natural human instincts.

991
01:27:20.990 --> 01:27:22.290
R. David (he/him): Dot dot dot.

992
01:27:23.420 --> 01:27:28.920
R. David (he/him): Or we are so angry that we have to blame something or someone.

993
01:27:29.140 --> 01:27:31.170
R. David (he/him): And God's big enough to take it.

994
01:27:34.500 --> 01:27:39.369
R. David (he/him): Or we feel the world is unfair and unjust and therefore to hell with you, God.

995
01:27:39.800 --> 01:27:47.559
R. David (he/him): Spirit meaning holiness, whatever. Or, spirituality seems to fall by the wayside when the world goes to crap.

996
01:27:48.990 --> 01:27:52.079
R. David (he/him): Or, or, or, all of those are very real.

997
01:27:52.410 --> 01:27:59.100
R. David (he/him): And it turns out that we are all experiencing some form of all of them all the time. We all have a teeny little bit of Moses in us.

998
01:28:01.160 --> 01:28:03.919
R. David (he/him): So, this is a story about loss.

999
01:28:04.060 --> 01:28:08.030
R. David (he/him): But it's also a story about finding a new.

1000
01:28:09.790 --> 01:28:15.250
R. David (he/him): Because only, only when this was expressed, could…

1001
01:28:15.570 --> 01:28:19.279
R. David (he/him): Our people then find the greatness of Miriam.

1002
01:28:21.820 --> 01:28:24.089
R. David (he/him): Only after all of this.

1003
01:28:24.730 --> 01:28:30.399
R. David (he/him): And we find our own spiritual greatness, but not by being numb to it.

1004
01:28:31.000 --> 01:28:35.700
R. David (he/him): And not by staying in the place of being parched.

1005
01:28:37.590 --> 01:28:40.999
R. David (he/him): Maybe that's why all of this comes right now.

1006
01:28:42.120 --> 01:28:47.490
R. David (he/him): Because next week, in Torah, We will have crossed the threshold.

1007
01:28:47.770 --> 01:28:53.049
R. David (he/him): Into what we call the 3 weeks, the 3 weeks of putative descent.

1008
01:28:53.480 --> 01:29:03.930
R. David (he/him): from the 17th of Tammuz, which is when the Romans first breached the outer walls of Jerusalem, to Tisha B'Av, when they destroyed the temple and the exile began.

1009
01:29:04.340 --> 01:29:13.789
R. David (he/him): of almost 2,000 years. Those three weeks, we begin to encounter the walls that have grown back up.

1010
01:29:13.990 --> 01:29:16.360
R. David (he/him): The felt sense of separation.

1011
01:29:16.500 --> 01:29:29.400
R. David (he/him): from the sacred, the mess of the world, as if to begin tenderizing our hearts and souls. Anyone ever tenderize a steak by beating it into submission?

1012
01:29:31.260 --> 01:29:35.760
R. David (he/him): It's a little bit like what we're talking about. And then only then

1013
01:29:36.810 --> 01:29:50.959
R. David (he/him): can our course begin toward the High Holidays. Only then does the ascent begin. Only then do the seven weeks of comfort begin, leading to Rosh Hashanah. So Torah is on time.

1014
01:29:54.030 --> 01:29:55.570
R. David (he/him): And so are we.

1015
01:29:55.940 --> 01:29:57.780
R. David (he/him): It's 1132.

1016
01:30:00.950 --> 01:30:05.400
R. David (he/him): I love this group. You went… where the Midrash goes.

1017
01:30:07.110 --> 01:30:10.439
R. David (he/him): You ask the questions that our ancestors have asked.

1018
01:30:12.150 --> 01:30:20.100
R. David (he/him): And in doing so, you have put yourself in the shoes of not just tradition, but the future, because now you get to go live it.

1019
01:30:22.420 --> 01:30:24.089
R. David (he/him): So I bless you to go live it.

1020
01:30:25.700 --> 01:30:29.360
R. David (he/him): May this Shabbat be one of finding new inflow.

1021
01:30:29.640 --> 01:30:37.819
R. David (he/him): And experiencing it, not despite the world and its mess, but precisely in it.

1022
01:30:38.110 --> 01:30:40.459
R. David (he/him): As a healing and as a blessing.

1023
01:30:41.820 --> 01:30:46.100
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna put… Are materials back in the chat box?

1024
01:30:46.910 --> 01:30:51.410
R. David (he/him): I am going to finish doing that right now.

1025
01:30:52.360 --> 01:31:01.139
R. David (he/him): Here you go. we have a few more weeks of this series. We will end after July 18.

1026
01:31:01.310 --> 01:31:10.020
R. David (he/him): The course for the High Holidays on the spiritual imagery, the emotional imagery of the High Holiday Liturgy.

1027
01:31:10.170 --> 01:31:18.830
R. David (he/him): think the opening of the gates, and Unetana Tokef, and our Avinu Malkenu, and, you know, all of that.

1028
01:31:19.150 --> 01:31:33.430
R. David (he/him): Tol Nidre. That's going to begin July 28, one month from now. Please register, it's free for members of either congregation. There's a fee for non-members, and you can pay it to either congregation.

1029
01:31:33.510 --> 01:31:47.670
R. David (he/him): I thank you for being with us. Rabbi Rachel will be back next week, and we look forward to taking you through another really wonderful set of stories about women who did right in Torah.

1030
01:31:48.090 --> 01:31:58.970
R. David (he/him): We'll be looking at the daughters of Tzilaf Achad, who actually told Moses to go change Torah, and he did. So Shabbat Shalom, everyone, and I'll stay on.