WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:02.949
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Okay. All right.

2
00:00:03.800 --> 00:00:04.590
R. David (he/him): Ashalom.

3
00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:13.300
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Good morning, First Province. It is the 4th of July. It is the 19th of Tammuz.

4
00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:16.890
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And we are in Parashat Pinchas.

5
00:00:17.490 --> 00:00:24.769
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: which is maybe best known for an incident with a spear and a broken valve.

6
00:00:24.950 --> 00:00:30.779
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: which James just wrote about on his blog yesterday. But that's not where we're going this morning this morning. Instead.

7
00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:35.409
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: We're gonna dip into the story of the daughters of Tzilof Hud.

8
00:00:35.780 --> 00:00:43.419
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Who seek an inheritance at a place and time when women were not empowered to inherit.

9
00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:47.139
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Which we thought would be a fun place to go this morning and take us to some.

10
00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:49.590
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Interesting destinations.

11
00:00:49.590 --> 00:00:51.109
R. David (he/him): Yeah, before we start.

12
00:00:51.380 --> 00:00:59.419
R. David (he/him): You're gonna see things over the next couple of weeks that we typically don't see. If you've learned with, me or us before.

13
00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:17.999
R. David (he/him): Maybe you remember that the three weeks leading to Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of Av, are called in Jewish time the three weeks, or between the straits. It is a time where we are spiritually descending toward Tisha B'Av.

14
00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:25.080
R. David (he/him): And one of the… Attention-getting rituals of this time is that Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh.

15
00:01:25.290 --> 00:01:32.510
R. David (he/him): which we render in English as YHVH, is turned down And the Hebrew…

16
00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:44.969
R. David (he/him): alphabet one notch so the tenth letter Yud becomes the ninth letter Tet the fifth letter Hey becomes the fourth letter Dalit to symbolize.

17
00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:45.820
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: No, I'm.

18
00:01:45.820 --> 00:01:48.420
R. David (he/him): a diminishment of

19
00:01:49.030 --> 00:02:00.329
R. David (he/him): The felt sense of divine flow, it's always there, but it's the 3 weeks we are descending, and then we will ascend later. So, instead of YHVH in the English.

20
00:02:00.480 --> 00:02:05.320
R. David (he/him): For the next three weeks, we will see TDHD.

21
00:02:05.540 --> 00:02:14.380
R. David (he/him): Which some will render as tadhad, but we can call Adonai Elohim God, whatever we wish.

22
00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:17.289
R. David (he/him): And every time you see it, it will…

23
00:02:17.530 --> 00:02:20.619
R. David (he/him): Look a little weird and that's deliberate.

24
00:02:21.430 --> 00:02:23.850
R. David (he/him): To get our attention to where we are.

25
00:02:24.880 --> 00:02:29.619
R. David (he/him): So… In these 3 weeks, we are going to pray for

26
00:02:29.760 --> 00:02:33.500
R. David (he/him): Our nation's healing, suitable for this Independence Day.

27
00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:40.290
R. David (he/him): And… Every name that we hold in our hearts.

28
00:02:44.310 --> 00:02:46.949
Deliah: And what secular day is Tisha B'Av?

29
00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:53.260
R. David (he/him): It is the 21st into the 22nd of July, so we're on our way.

30
00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:53.770
Deliah: Okay.

31
00:02:53.770 --> 00:02:55.130
R. David (he/him): We're on our way.

32
00:02:55.460 --> 00:02:59.190
R. David (he/him): So together, let's raise everything in our country up.

33
00:02:59.620 --> 00:03:07.800
R. David (he/him): Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha'olam, Asher ki tshanu bemitzavotav, v'tzivanu la'asak.

34
00:03:07.800 --> 00:03:08.750
Deliah: Talk simply.

35
00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:13.979
R. David (he/him): Great Torah. Blessed are you, Adonai, our God, eternal sovereign.

36
00:03:14.090 --> 00:03:21.729
R. David (he/him): Who sanctified us in God's mitzvot, and commands us to busy ourselves in words of healing.

37
00:03:23.270 --> 00:03:27.860
R. David (he/him): May our learning today be for the sake of empowerment.

38
00:03:27.990 --> 00:03:34.059
R. David (he/him): and healing. Rabbi Rachel, I'm inviting you to unmute. Do you want to take us through the opening?

39
00:03:34.850 --> 00:03:37.219
R. David (he/him): If you are able to take us through the opening.

40
00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:43.379
R. David (he/him): You may not be able to take us through the opening right now.

41
00:03:44.820 --> 00:03:46.600
R. David (he/him): I will take us through the opening.

42
00:03:47.140 --> 00:03:50.530
R. David (he/him): We have… Two little excerpts.

43
00:03:50.640 --> 00:03:55.970
R. David (he/him): One about the daughters of Salaf al-Khad, who's Call for inheritance.

44
00:03:56.230 --> 00:03:59.380
R. David (he/him): Will animate us. Would someone like to read?

45
00:04:02.890 --> 00:04:03.800
Diana Rico: I'll read.

46
00:04:05.080 --> 00:04:07.230
Diana Rico: Salafahad's daughters.

47
00:04:07.810 --> 00:04:12.549
Diana Rico: They crossed the camp, dry-mouthed, hearts pounding.

48
00:04:12.680 --> 00:04:18.500
Diana Rico: All eyes are fixed on the lonely quintet, walking with resolute steps.

49
00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:29.999
Diana Rico: They are pious and wise, and they call us to action, to move from the place of injustice and bias, and pave the untrodden way.

50
00:04:30.950 --> 00:04:32.350
Diana Rico: Elizabeth Topper.

51
00:04:33.100 --> 00:04:33.970
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

52
00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:40.440
R. David (he/him): As we will see, the Daughters of Tilaphica did something that… Well…

53
00:04:40.540 --> 00:04:46.089
R. David (he/him): I'll let the text speak for itself, but the call for justice and non-bias.

54
00:04:47.100 --> 00:04:49.390
R. David (he/him): And piety and wisdom is,

55
00:04:49.830 --> 00:04:54.039
R. David (he/him): Fitting for this day on our secular calendar as well. Now.

56
00:04:55.580 --> 00:05:03.149
R. David (he/him): Equipoise that against this line from the Declaration of Independence. We probably all know it.

57
00:05:03.280 --> 00:05:05.560
R. David (he/him): If not memorized it, who wants it?

58
00:05:10.570 --> 00:05:14.040
R. David (he/him): If there's a word that wants to be yelled in there, you know what to do.

59
00:05:16.830 --> 00:05:21.810
Joan Green: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal.

60
00:05:22.140 --> 00:05:31.570
Joan Green: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

61
00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.400
R. David (he/him): Joel, that is not what it says!

62
00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:36.229
Joan Green: Oh, it does.

63
00:05:37.300 --> 00:05:41.070
Joan Green: I learned to read at a different time from you, Rabbi David.

64
00:05:42.460 --> 00:05:50.480
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Well, I think maybe what it actually says, unfortunately, is men, but I like the way you read it, Joan.

65
00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:50.990
R. David (he/him): -H.

66
00:05:50.990 --> 00:05:53.220
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Word of our point this morning.

67
00:05:58.010 --> 00:06:00.249
R. David (he/him): So let's have it. Here we go.

68
00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:07.830
R. David (he/him): This… Section… Toward the end of the Book of Numbers.

69
00:06:08.660 --> 00:06:16.100
R. David (he/him): comes right after last week, if you were with us, you saw the destruction of Korach and his band.

70
00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:20.009
R. David (he/him): Who essentially led a rebellion against Moses.

71
00:06:20.790 --> 00:06:29.509
R. David (he/him): And that will become at least part of the background. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven, seven parts.

72
00:06:29.980 --> 00:06:34.590
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, you'll narrate, please, and let's do what we do while I talk.

73
00:06:35.540 --> 00:06:38.840
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I will give this my best shot, alright!

74
00:06:39.330 --> 00:06:41.900
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Let's read both what to take.

75
00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:43.170
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Certainly.

76
00:06:48.410 --> 00:06:49.710
R. David (he/him): Let's do what we do.

77
00:06:54.130 --> 00:06:59.329
David Green: Salaf al-Khad, son of Haifa, had no sons, only daughters.

78
00:06:59.800 --> 00:07:08.100
David Green: The names of Tzilafah Chad's daughters were Machla, Noah, Pogla, Milka, and Tirza.

79
00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:09.429
R. David (he/him): Beautifully done.

80
00:07:12.350 --> 00:07:15.949
Deliah: TGHD spoke to Moshe saying.

81
00:07:16.150 --> 00:07:34.049
Deliah: To all counted in the census, the land will be apportioned as shares, according to the listed names. To large groups, increase the share. To small groups, reduce the share. Each man will be assigned his share according to his census count.

82
00:07:38.870 --> 00:07:39.420
Brett Chinn: But…

83
00:07:40.290 --> 00:07:49.039
Brett Chinn: But by lot will the land be apportioned, allotted by their ancestral tribe? By the lot will it be apportioned, whether for large or small groups?

84
00:07:52.920 --> 00:07:56.890
Susan Phillips: the daughters of Selafrad, son of…

85
00:07:57.370 --> 00:08:06.120
Susan Phillips: Heifer, son of Gilad, son of Makair, son of Menasha, of the family of Menasha, son of Yosef, drew close.

86
00:08:06.290 --> 00:08:10.189
Susan Phillips: His daughters' names were Mahla, Noah.

87
00:08:10.630 --> 00:08:15.860
Susan Phillips: Hogla, Milka, and Terza, they stood before Moshe.

88
00:08:16.210 --> 00:08:22.690
Susan Phillips: Eleazar, the Kohane, the chiefs, and the whole assembly at the entrance of the Tent of Witnessing, saying.

89
00:08:27.650 --> 00:08:34.370
Sherrill Cropper: Our father died in the desert. He was not among those who stood against Adonai and Korach's faction.

90
00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:43.879
Sherrill Cropper: But by his own sin died, and he had no sons. Why should our father's name abate in his family just because he had no son?

91
00:08:44.230 --> 00:08:47.169
Sherrill Cropper: Give us a holding among our father's kinsmen.

92
00:08:47.290 --> 00:08:50.379
Sherrill Cropper: Moshe drew near their case before Adonai.

93
00:08:53.430 --> 00:08:58.109
Iris Barten: ADHD said to Moshe, the daughters of Saleh Fahad.

94
00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:16.290
Iris Barten: Speak correctly. Give them a hereditary holding among their father's kinsmen. Transfer their father's share to them. And speak to the children of Israel, saying, If a man dies without a son, you shall transfer his property to his daughter.

95
00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:19.940
Iris Barten: Hmm.

96
00:09:24.260 --> 00:09:24.950
R. David (he/him): One more.

97
00:09:29.730 --> 00:09:35.829
Meredith (she/her): If he has no daughter, you will give his inheritance to his brothers.

98
00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:51.099
Meredith (she/her): And if he has no brothers, you shall give it to his father's brothers. And if his father had no brothers, you shall give it to his nearest relative in his own family, who will inherit it.

99
00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:59.509
Meredith (she/her): This will be the law and judgment for the children of Israel as TDHD commanded Moshek.

100
00:10:02.180 --> 00:10:10.109
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Alright, so looks like no matter what I do on this phone, I cannot see all of you at once, so I may not be able to call on you.

101
00:10:10.460 --> 00:10:15.160
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So, I invite us to…

102
00:10:15.400 --> 00:10:18.469
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Do our best to just jump in, and…

103
00:10:19.090 --> 00:10:24.040
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Share, and we'll try not to step… Refugee has.

104
00:10:24.450 --> 00:10:27.460
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Darshani, Midrashmi, interpret me.

105
00:10:32.030 --> 00:10:39.670
Brett Chinn: I'll jump in. Something that stood out to me was in verses 3, 5, where… Said that the

106
00:10:40.040 --> 00:10:46.890
Brett Chinn: Yeah, her father died in the desert. He, by his own sin, died. Does that mean that he…

107
00:10:47.790 --> 00:10:57.109
Brett Chinn: killed himself? Like, what does that mean? Is it a… I… that's how I interpret it, versus a sin that he didn't have any sons? And also, just…

108
00:10:57.580 --> 00:11:02.209
Brett Chinn: You know, they… Named the daughters at least twice, so.

109
00:11:02.210 --> 00:11:02.930
R. David (he/him): Paul?

110
00:11:02.930 --> 00:11:07.620
Brett Chinn: Clearly, there's importance. They're like, do not miss this. Do not miss this. Right.

111
00:11:07.620 --> 00:11:11.320
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Think of how often in our stories the women don't get names at all.

112
00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:11.730
Brett Chinn: Yeah.

113
00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:19.930
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Five women get named twice, so that's definitely worth noting. And also it says died by his own sin was not

114
00:11:20.030 --> 00:11:22.080
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: part of Korach's band.

115
00:11:22.390 --> 00:11:27.089
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: which, for the record, I don't understand to mean killed himself, but rather

116
00:11:27.380 --> 00:11:33.820
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I, you know, have made his own mistakes and died in his own way for his own reasons, but was not part of the rebellion.

117
00:11:34.780 --> 00:11:35.550
Brett Chinn: Oh, okay.

118
00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:37.240
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: What else?

119
00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:40.640
R. David (he/him): I see Susan's hand.

120
00:11:42.380 --> 00:11:47.709
Susan Phillips: I just had a… I had a question related to the father. Did I…

121
00:11:47.880 --> 00:11:50.579
Susan Phillips: Did I misunderstand this, or…

122
00:11:50.710 --> 00:11:59.800
Susan Phillips: make a mistake in understanding that the father could have been the person that gathered wood on Shabbat?

123
00:11:59.980 --> 00:12:03.660
Susan Phillips: and that's how we died. I thought I had read something like that.

124
00:12:07.600 --> 00:12:14.219
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That, I can certainly believe that that's a Midrash somewhere. Rabbi David, do you know that one?

125
00:12:16.060 --> 00:12:21.519
R. David (he/him): Off the top of my head, it's not coming, Susan. But I will look for that.

126
00:12:22.490 --> 00:12:23.440
Susan Phillips: Okay.

127
00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:28.210
Susan Phillips: In the privacy of my mind, I might have mixed it up. It's okay.

128
00:12:28.210 --> 00:12:30.380
Rachel Rudansky: No, I found that one, too.

129
00:12:30.380 --> 00:12:31.350
R. David (he/him): Oh!

130
00:12:31.350 --> 00:12:36.080
Rachel Rudansky: Stoned to death because he collected wood on Shabbos.

131
00:12:36.280 --> 00:12:38.360
Rachel Rudansky: So he was murdered. Really.

132
00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:39.740
R. David (he/him): Oh, that's so scary.

133
00:12:39.740 --> 00:12:43.170
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The irony is that we are not the first generation to look at this and say.

134
00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:46.770
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Why does it say died by his own sin?

135
00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:49.090
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: What's that about?

136
00:12:49.400 --> 00:12:53.889
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That clearly that's the answer that some of our ancestors came to. Delia, do you have a hand up.

137
00:12:54.370 --> 00:12:55.150
Deliah: I do.

138
00:12:55.460 --> 00:13:11.409
Deliah: it's like… so yes, Percy said, okay, give it to the daughters, but then they went on and on. But try to find the brothers. Try to find the brothers. Try to find the brothers here and there and here and there and here and there. If you really can't, okay, give it to the daughters.

139
00:13:13.150 --> 00:13:14.980
R. David (he/him): I'm hearing some feels in the room.

140
00:13:16.490 --> 00:13:22.170
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And I think I saw in the chat a request for the Hebrew word that means sin here. It is chet.

141
00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:31.419
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: the same word that we say when we sing, al-chet shachatan ulephanecha, for the sin that I have sinned against you by doing this and that.

142
00:13:31.590 --> 00:13:37.140
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And the sin that I've sinned against you by doing something else, right? Same word.

143
00:13:38.040 --> 00:13:46.260
Deliah: I guess I wanted to say that we're still kind of marginalized as women for a very special situation.

144
00:13:50.060 --> 00:13:52.530
Brett Chinn: I read it as.

145
00:13:52.750 --> 00:14:04.090
Brett Chinn: Like, yeah, I agree with you, Delilah, but also it is a slight improvement that if there isn't a son, it goes to the daughters. And then if there's no daughters, then we go back to the brothers.

146
00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:07.370
Brett Chinn: I mean, it's like crumbs, but.

147
00:14:15.640 --> 00:14:16.760
R. David (he/him): Iris.

148
00:14:21.180 --> 00:14:22.480
Iris Barten: And.

149
00:14:22.660 --> 00:14:35.910
Iris Barten: One, two… the daughters drew close, so I'm finding that they're wanting to feel connected with TDHP and.

150
00:14:35.910 --> 00:14:36.560
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

151
00:14:36.560 --> 00:14:43.340
Iris Barten: To hope that that will bring forth justice, basically, or for…

152
00:14:43.650 --> 00:14:47.939
Iris Barten: The people who would be making the decision to

153
00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:57.950
Iris Barten: see that they're drawing close, and there's… there's a spirituality that would support what they're saying they… that's just.

154
00:14:58.110 --> 00:15:07.990
Iris Barten: The way my device is, I can't really see what 911 says, and so I missed… I mean, I should have, but I didn't get to read.

155
00:15:08.340 --> 00:15:09.259
Iris Barten: all of the.

156
00:15:09.260 --> 00:15:09.870
R. David (he/him): Okay.

157
00:15:09.870 --> 00:15:11.400
Iris Barten: And so, yeah.

158
00:15:12.130 --> 00:15:14.870
R. David (he/him): Yeah, I pulled it up. So…

159
00:15:15.380 --> 00:15:19.150
R. David (he/him): The Drew Close piece is a big deal. What?

160
00:15:19.430 --> 00:15:20.830
R. David (he/him): is…

161
00:15:21.270 --> 00:15:28.610
R. David (he/him): If you remember from the book of Leviticus, where over and over again we see this, what is that root really about?

162
00:15:29.530 --> 00:15:31.889
R. David (he/him): How has Tori used that route before? Yeah.

163
00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:38.799
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That is the root of the word that we translated sacrifice, right? A corban.

164
00:15:39.080 --> 00:15:41.919
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The Kravan is literally a drawing near.

165
00:15:43.550 --> 00:15:50.030
R. David (he/him): And now it's… something else is happening. The physicality of sacrifice has turned into what?

166
00:15:53.570 --> 00:15:54.170
Iris Barten: Hmmm.

167
00:15:55.590 --> 00:15:57.100
R. David (he/him): Somebody said, hmm…

168
00:15:57.410 --> 00:16:06.049
Iris Barten: I do. It feels like it's taking a different… Presence for,

169
00:16:06.280 --> 00:16:14.900
Iris Barten: I'm sorry, for drawing closest to actualize something in a way that is connected with autonomy.

170
00:16:15.520 --> 00:16:16.150
Iris Barten: Don't think.

171
00:16:16.150 --> 00:16:16.710
R. David (he/him): -H.

172
00:16:16.710 --> 00:16:17.659
Iris Barten: Feeling that.

173
00:16:18.020 --> 00:16:20.369
R. David (he/him): Yeah, actualizing what?

174
00:16:21.690 --> 00:16:23.099
Iris Barten: Tove.

175
00:16:23.650 --> 00:16:25.010
Iris Barten: In a way.

176
00:16:25.160 --> 00:16:26.070
Iris Barten: And.

177
00:16:26.560 --> 00:16:34.180
Iris Barten: actualizing speaking up for yourself and doing what's right, but I think… It's actualizing Tove, really.

178
00:16:37.630 --> 00:16:39.479
R. David (he/him): Everyone take this in.

179
00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:48.350
R. David (he/him): Everyone take this in, the physicality of Jewish 101, where we brought things.

180
00:16:48.690 --> 00:16:51.600
R. David (he/him): Is already starting to shift.

181
00:16:52.020 --> 00:17:01.880
R. David (he/him): into a spirituality of action, of standing up for, of actualizing, of goodness, of justice, of speaking up, of…

182
00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:07.609
R. David (he/him): And that this is an act of spirit.

183
00:17:09.869 --> 00:17:10.589
Iris Barten: Okay.

184
00:17:11.210 --> 00:17:11.890
R. David (he/him): Hmm.

185
00:17:12.069 --> 00:17:17.450
R. David (he/him): Hmm. Someone. Yeah. Meredith Joan Delia.

186
00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:33.939
Meredith (she/her): And if we look at 3-5, Moshe drew near their case before TDHD. And TDHD is Tzefelochat? Is that who that is? Is that what that is? What is that?

187
00:17:33.940 --> 00:17:38.920
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It is Yud-Hey-Vav-H But shifted down a letter.

188
00:17:39.190 --> 00:17:45.069
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So that's the reminder that because we're in the 3 weeks, God may feel a little more distant.

189
00:17:45.380 --> 00:17:52.590
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: than usual. So Tdhd is Good, hey Bob, hey, just gotta remove.

190
00:17:53.230 --> 00:17:54.049
Meredith (she/her): Thank you.

191
00:18:00.790 --> 00:18:02.959
R. David (he/him): So what's happening with Moshe?

192
00:18:10.310 --> 00:18:11.110
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Okay.

193
00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:15.590
R. David (he/him): Got your jump.

194
00:18:16.080 --> 00:18:24.509
Joan Green: I don't know if this is the first time there is such a dramatic exchange that,

195
00:18:25.230 --> 00:18:28.320
Joan Green: You… the… only the men were counted.

196
00:18:29.030 --> 00:18:30.490
Joan Green: I… I believe.

197
00:18:30.780 --> 00:18:35.730
Joan Green: And here, these five women.

198
00:18:36.210 --> 00:18:45.689
Joan Green: step up to a very special place and insist on being present, and

199
00:18:46.110 --> 00:19:02.190
Joan Green: This is socially, I'm sure it's not acceptable and the day, but they really are making an enormous statement for themselves. I a little.

200
00:19:02.190 --> 00:19:03.570
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Giving it for themselves.

201
00:19:03.570 --> 00:19:04.380
Joan Green: Pardon?

202
00:19:04.380 --> 00:19:09.179
R. David (he/him): Sisters are doing it for themselves.

203
00:19:09.180 --> 00:19:09.600
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Thank you.

204
00:19:09.600 --> 00:19:17.350
Joan Green: It's time. It's time in this, in this, in the spirit of inheritance and even in of acknowledgement.

205
00:19:17.350 --> 00:19:17.740
Deliah: Okay.

206
00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:25.760
Joan Green: Women who did not have an appropriate place. And these girls said to hell with this.

207
00:19:25.760 --> 00:19:39.799
Joan Green: are going to make ourselves present. It also reminds me of how there has always seemed to be this business of, in Jewish families, having a son.

208
00:19:40.250 --> 00:19:53.860
Joan Green: And I am sure that's remnant of the day when you had babies till you gave a son, because that was the inheritance. And women were…

209
00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:55.540
Joan Green: Pregnant and.

210
00:19:55.540 --> 00:19:56.410
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Absolutely.

211
00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:00.109
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And to be clear, this is not just a Jewish…

212
00:20:00.380 --> 00:20:05.470
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Problem. Women being able to inherit or not inherit

213
00:20:05.970 --> 00:20:09.309
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: being able to own land or not own land.

214
00:20:09.310 --> 00:20:09.740
Deliah: Okay.

215
00:20:09.740 --> 00:20:15.070
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Some of us in this room are old enough to remember when women couldn't have our own checking accounts.

216
00:20:15.070 --> 00:20:15.790
Deliah: Mmhm.

217
00:20:16.870 --> 00:20:18.640
Joan Green: Credit cards, I remember.

218
00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:19.140
Deliah: Mmh.

219
00:20:19.140 --> 00:20:22.400
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Right? Like, how far have we actually come?

220
00:20:23.130 --> 00:20:28.429
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yeah. And we have come some distance, and this harsh side is…

221
00:20:28.800 --> 00:20:30.559
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: A piece of the beginning of that.

222
00:20:30.870 --> 00:20:36.449
R. David (he/him): So let's say the quiet thing out loud.

223
00:20:37.720 --> 00:20:39.710
R. David (he/him): There were some feels in the room!

224
00:20:40.890 --> 00:20:44.960
R. David (he/him): Torah is not avoiding the hard thing.

225
00:20:47.030 --> 00:20:52.320
R. David (he/him): Some of us look at Torah and say, well, thanks, you gave us crumbs.

226
00:20:53.040 --> 00:20:58.139
R. David (he/him): Others say… Torah is recognizing what was.

227
00:20:58.280 --> 00:21:02.810
R. David (he/him): And laying a pathway to change it.

228
00:21:04.900 --> 00:21:10.289
R. David (he/him): Notice… Torah is itself being changed.

229
00:21:10.450 --> 00:21:12.450
R. David (he/him): Within Torah.

230
00:21:13.390 --> 00:21:13.910
Iris Barten: No.

231
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:22.070
R. David (he/him): Everyone take that in. Torah is being changed within Torah.

232
00:21:25.840 --> 00:21:29.830
R. David (he/him): This… Is the only place.

233
00:21:31.970 --> 00:21:33.769
R. David (he/him): where this happens.

234
00:21:35.560 --> 00:21:37.750
R. David (he/him): That must tell us something.

235
00:21:39.230 --> 00:21:43.920
R. David (he/him): I have lost track of hands. Delia Iristiana.

236
00:21:44.490 --> 00:21:45.270
Deliah: Umm.

237
00:21:45.620 --> 00:21:48.600
Deliah: First of all, but I'm gonna… okay.

238
00:21:49.020 --> 00:22:06.649
Deliah: I wanted to say first that the chills that I got from that poem of what it must have been those women to walk the distance to get there through the stairs and the, you know, and all of us.

239
00:22:07.020 --> 00:22:16.460
Deliah: I want to say men and women, when we step up, walk that distance. But then to respond that it's almost like

240
00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:23.319
Deliah: Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey or T-D-D, blah, blah, said, give it to them.

241
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:29.979
Deliah: And then the other interpretations feel to me like that was then men's interpretation afterwards.

242
00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:36.260
Deliah: That's directly from the divine is absolutely give it to them.

243
00:22:36.680 --> 00:22:44.649
Deliah: And, and so we have this divine connection, but then how it's interpreted in our culture gets really kind of screwed up often.

244
00:22:45.940 --> 00:22:46.750
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Dramatic.

245
00:22:49.570 --> 00:22:50.170
R. David (he/him): Yep.

246
00:22:51.230 --> 00:22:53.110
R. David (he/him): Yup, keep it coming!

247
00:22:55.070 --> 00:22:56.200
R. David (he/him): Who's next?

248
00:22:56.200 --> 00:22:57.020
Diana Rico: Me, yeah.

249
00:22:57.290 --> 00:22:58.309
R. David (he/him): Go for it.

250
00:23:00.500 --> 00:23:01.780
Diana Rico: Well, two things.

251
00:23:02.450 --> 00:23:03.930
Diana Rico: one…

252
00:23:04.110 --> 00:23:11.750
Diana Rico: Brief personal thing I want to share, which is that yesterday I closed a sale of the only land I have ever owned.

253
00:23:12.020 --> 00:23:16.090
Diana Rico: Which I bought 6 years ago with money that I inherited from my father.

254
00:23:17.530 --> 00:23:18.790
Diana Rico: God bless him.

255
00:23:20.060 --> 00:23:23.459
Diana Rico: So this is very resonant for me. I was struck

256
00:23:23.760 --> 00:23:29.699
Diana Rico: I was very struck by Yudhi Vavhe immediately saying, you're right.

257
00:23:30.530 --> 00:23:31.370
Diana Rico: To them.

258
00:23:32.130 --> 00:23:33.829
Diana Rico: I mean, that shocks me.

259
00:23:34.070 --> 00:23:46.660
Diana Rico: I completely agree with Delia and what Brett said about the crumbs, and immediately it reverts to, but let's, you know, but let's make sure all these other male lineages are taken care of.

260
00:23:47.020 --> 00:23:50.830
Diana Rico: But I was very struck by that immediate,

261
00:23:51.550 --> 00:23:56.690
Diana Rico: giving in or recognition of injustice and making it right.

262
00:23:57.020 --> 00:24:00.179
R. David (he/him): Okay. So I I wanna acknowledge something spiritual.

263
00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:02.390
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: For y'all to see the text we found for today.

264
00:24:02.390 --> 00:24:10.640
R. David (he/him): Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to acknowledge something spiritually that's happening because thank you, Deanna. The check is in the mail after Shabbos.

265
00:24:12.070 --> 00:24:14.489
R. David (he/him): How does this bear on what we think of God?

266
00:24:15.840 --> 00:24:23.949
R. David (he/him): God either recognized the injustice, Or gave in.

267
00:24:26.330 --> 00:24:29.230
R. David (he/him): And why was there injustice in the first place?

268
00:24:29.830 --> 00:24:33.139
R. David (he/him): And can I talk to the manager, please?

269
00:24:37.050 --> 00:24:39.990
R. David (he/him): Aha! That's right underneath the surface.

270
00:24:40.490 --> 00:24:43.219
R. David (he/him): That's right. Oh my gosh, there are so many hands.

271
00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:43.780
Iris Barten: Hang on.

272
00:24:43.780 --> 00:24:45.570
R. David (he/him): Iris…

273
00:24:45.770 --> 00:24:46.280
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's.

274
00:24:46.280 --> 00:24:49.749
R. David (he/him): I got I think I got this Iris Brett David Sherrill.

275
00:24:50.020 --> 00:24:52.149
R. David (he/him): We may never get to our text. This is great.

276
00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:53.620
Iris Barten: Okay.

277
00:24:53.970 --> 00:24:56.939
Iris Barten: So, going back to the poem for one word.

278
00:24:57.050 --> 00:25:01.579
Iris Barten: The land that was yet… that was still untrodden.

279
00:25:01.700 --> 00:25:05.710
Iris Barten: That means it's not gonna be an easy path, you know, that…

280
00:25:05.970 --> 00:25:11.750
Iris Barten: They're getting there, and they're walking there, but it's gonna be… a challenge.

281
00:25:11.900 --> 00:25:16.519
Iris Barten: Yep. That's what we think about God's,

282
00:25:16.710 --> 00:25:24.940
Iris Barten: Sort of place in this when it's a spirit, spiritual connection and drawing close. I think that God was.

283
00:25:25.260 --> 00:25:28.200
Iris Barten: you know, anthropomorphizing God, but that God

284
00:25:28.340 --> 00:25:32.440
Iris Barten: Saw that this was unjust and wanted to.

285
00:25:32.800 --> 00:25:39.789
Iris Barten: Sort of facilitate that it move forward, so that when the sisters drew close.

286
00:25:40.230 --> 00:25:47.100
Iris Barten: that was their action, and I think there was a sort of mutual action in meeting them.

287
00:25:47.570 --> 00:25:52.320
Iris Barten: that God did, because justice, justice, you shall pursue.

288
00:25:52.320 --> 00:25:53.940
R. David (he/him): Oh.

289
00:25:54.170 --> 00:25:58.510
R. David (he/him): I am with you, everybody. I'm just trying to deal with a little technical thing here.

290
00:25:58.650 --> 00:26:09.259
R. David (he/him): So, yeah, what do we say about God? There's injustice in the world. We have some feels about this, it turns out.

291
00:26:09.380 --> 00:26:19.569
R. David (he/him): We are at that time of year where the mess of the world is something that we spiritually open to more particularly.

292
00:26:21.190 --> 00:26:22.650
R. David (he/him): What's that about?

293
00:26:23.090 --> 00:26:24.799
R. David (he/him): Notice the timing.

294
00:26:24.910 --> 00:26:34.659
R. David (he/him): Notice the timing. And we can't turn away, because it's right here. And so Torah makes us face it. Makes us face it.

295
00:26:35.060 --> 00:26:41.900
R. David (he/him): It's all of a piece. I think I got it reopened now. So thank you for that comment.

296
00:26:42.060 --> 00:26:44.289
R. David (he/him): I am back with you.

297
00:26:46.670 --> 00:26:52.360
R. David (he/him): 1 of Cheryl or Brett and then David and Amy.

298
00:26:53.940 --> 00:27:01.920
Brett Chinn: I think I was next. So Rabbi, what did you say about Torah is locked by Torah? Or what was the exact words that you used?

299
00:27:02.350 --> 00:27:06.760
R. David (he/him): Torah is being changed within Torah.

300
00:27:06.760 --> 00:27:10.940
Brett Chinn: Yeah, so… I would.

301
00:27:11.490 --> 00:27:14.110
Brett Chinn: I… I forgot who said this, but

302
00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:18.409
Brett Chinn: What it's if we were to read it as.

303
00:27:18.750 --> 00:27:37.609
Brett Chinn: the text, is it true that men are just given things, whereas women have to ask for them? I don't know. I know that that was the case historically. Like, so what's the diff… like, we go all the way back to Adam and Eve. Is Adam granted some liberties that Eve isn't granted? No. No. And so…

304
00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:43.360
Brett Chinn: It feels like if I zoom out, it feels like God is saying.

305
00:27:43.950 --> 00:27:51.600
Brett Chinn: Humanity, men, you kind of made your choice. I'm not the one that dictated that men are better or more worthy than women.

306
00:27:51.600 --> 00:27:53.150
R. David (he/him): And all men are created equal.

307
00:27:53.150 --> 00:27:56.650
Brett Chinn: Yeah, exactly. I didn't do that. You chose that.

308
00:27:56.650 --> 00:27:57.270
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

309
00:27:57.270 --> 00:28:00.890
Brett Chinn: All you have to do is to ask for things to be.

310
00:28:02.010 --> 00:28:02.990
Brett Chinn: recalibrate.

311
00:28:02.990 --> 00:28:04.060
R. David (he/him): Celebrating.

312
00:28:04.060 --> 00:28:13.999
Brett Chinn: But I mean, which we is idealistic, right? But like, if that were the case, why are these the first women to say, you know, we're actually going to ask for some change?

313
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:15.490
R. David (he/him): Someone has to be first.

314
00:28:15.490 --> 00:28:16.950
Brett Chinn: Someone has to be first, yeah.

315
00:28:24.440 --> 00:28:25.230
R. David (he/him): You know.

316
00:28:27.460 --> 00:28:28.670
R. David (he/him): Carol David Inc.

317
00:28:36.780 --> 00:28:40.910
Sherrill Cropper: Might have to like talk this through a little and need some help.

318
00:28:41.560 --> 00:28:44.819
Sherrill Cropper: At some point, I want to go back to the, you know, saying it.

319
00:28:44.940 --> 00:28:46.460
Sherrill Cropper: So nice. Said it twice.

320
00:28:46.460 --> 00:28:49.069
Nancy Goody: Can you speak up, Cheryl? We can hardly hear you.

321
00:28:49.340 --> 00:28:53.830
Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, at some point I'd like to go back to where it was so nice, they said it twice, the…

322
00:28:53.970 --> 00:28:58.300
Sherrill Cropper: the sisters names, but for now what I was thinking.

323
00:28:58.710 --> 00:29:03.570
Sherrill Cropper: was how it started with me thinking.

324
00:29:04.670 --> 00:29:09.000
Sherrill Cropper: Aj and I spoke through the daughters to help.

325
00:29:09.880 --> 00:29:11.580
Sherrill Cropper: Correct something.

326
00:29:11.800 --> 00:29:12.470
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yes.

327
00:29:12.470 --> 00:29:21.420
Sherrill Cropper: And that brought me to the thought of agency. Would that remove our agency if that were true?

328
00:29:21.420 --> 00:29:23.130
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: God is speaking through us.

329
00:29:23.700 --> 00:29:32.679
Sherrill Cropper: Yes, and to to make this distinction and have them go to Moshe.

330
00:29:32.850 --> 00:29:35.190
Sherrill Cropper: And then I started to.

331
00:29:35.330 --> 00:29:39.720
Sherrill Cropper: flesh it out a little bit more pun intended.

332
00:29:40.030 --> 00:29:50.869
Sherrill Cropper: that Agency has two meanings, I think. It's either we're standing alone outside of divine connection.

333
00:29:51.520 --> 00:29:56.780
Sherrill Cropper: Or we have agency while we stand within divine connection.

334
00:29:57.330 --> 00:30:10.990
Sherrill Cropper: and that our agency can lead us into a negative path, or many options of negative paths, or it can lead us into what we would deem on a divine level.

335
00:30:11.140 --> 00:30:18.800
Sherrill Cropper: positive paths, and there's not just one good way. There may be a number of good ways that we could follow.

336
00:30:19.040 --> 00:30:29.599
Sherrill Cropper: And I feel that When we are in connection to the divine, when we are open

337
00:30:29.970 --> 00:30:36.440
Sherrill Cropper: to that connection consciously, unconsciously. But when we are open to it.

338
00:30:37.450 --> 00:30:43.410
Sherrill Cropper: The paths that we ultimately choose can only be a positive path.

339
00:30:43.930 --> 00:30:44.480
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

340
00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:46.770
Sherrill Cropper: No, there may be a number of options.

341
00:30:47.030 --> 00:30:48.060
Sherrill Cropper: For that.

342
00:30:48.850 --> 00:30:53.009
Sherrill Cropper: Which led me to right side, left side.

343
00:30:53.150 --> 00:31:02.919
Sherrill Cropper: Sephirot and But at but agency being agency is there, we get to choose whether it is without

344
00:31:03.270 --> 00:31:04.549
Sherrill Cropper: We say, you know.

345
00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:06.860
Sherrill Cropper: God gave us agency.

346
00:31:09.070 --> 00:31:16.040
Sherrill Cropper: But that agency is questionable on how we apply it, and whether or not we've

347
00:31:16.410 --> 00:31:20.000
Sherrill Cropper: open ourselves to divine direction and connection.

348
00:31:22.280 --> 00:31:24.390
Sherrill Cropper: I'm kind of still working on it, but does that.

349
00:31:24.390 --> 00:31:28.060
R. David (he/him): Well, keep it, yeah. Keep working on it.

350
00:31:29.930 --> 00:31:31.409
R. David (he/him): Keep working on it.

351
00:31:32.370 --> 00:31:37.469
R. David (he/him): I mean, what would we say about profits? Have they lost their agency? What would we say?

352
00:31:37.470 --> 00:31:38.350
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Without.

353
00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:39.610
R. David (he/him): Okay.

354
00:31:40.270 --> 00:31:44.989
R. David (he/him): What would we say about anyone who stands up? Have they lost their agency or are they acting?

355
00:31:46.230 --> 00:31:47.380
R. David (he/him): That's the question.

356
00:31:47.750 --> 00:31:51.130
R. David (he/him): David, Amy, and then I think maybe we'll get to the tech.

357
00:31:51.130 --> 00:31:53.320
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Maybe it's the text? Yeah, that sounds right.

358
00:31:54.350 --> 00:31:55.170
David Green: Yeah.

359
00:31:55.320 --> 00:31:57.320
David Green: I understand the the

360
00:31:57.700 --> 00:32:05.650
David Green: perspective that this is crumbs. But but there's nothing about this reading that strikes me as crumbs.

361
00:32:05.890 --> 00:32:07.170
R. David (he/him): Or crummy.

362
00:32:07.170 --> 00:32:17.780
David Green: Yeah, I mean all the language except for the recitation of the legal rights. All the language to me seems to be encouraging.

363
00:32:18.420 --> 00:32:24.059
David Green: a a change from the rest from the double recitation of the women's name.

364
00:32:24.060 --> 00:32:24.660
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Excuse me.

365
00:32:24.660 --> 00:32:27.110
David Green: To to to Todd Hodd's

366
00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:43.470
David Green: response. The daughters speak correctly. He didn't say, Oh, oh, all right, you leave me no choice, he said. The daughters speak correctly. He is advocating. He is acknowledging that that's the right result. It doesn't strike me as

367
00:32:43.490 --> 00:32:55.659
David Green: as begrudging. At the end, he says, and if you have no brothers, give it to his nearest relative. It doesn't say the nearest male relative. He's kind of continuing on that

368
00:32:56.170 --> 00:33:03.770
David Green: on that line. So it's, you know, like the Declaration of Independence. It strikes me as an acknowledgement of

369
00:33:03.910 --> 00:33:09.080
David Green: The way it's been, but an aspiration to do better.

370
00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:14.590
David Green: And an acknowledgement that the way it's been is… you know, not…

371
00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:18.420
David Green: It's not, it's not right, even though.

372
00:33:18.420 --> 00:33:19.440
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Not just.

373
00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:20.070
David Green: Yeah.

374
00:33:20.250 --> 00:33:24.359
David Green: So I don't. So from the inception this has struck me as

375
00:33:24.810 --> 00:33:29.749
David Green: as aspirational, even inspirational. I'm not, not crummy at all.

376
00:33:29.960 --> 00:33:35.059
David Green: That's, that's, it's cumulative of everything that's been said, except that it's.

377
00:33:35.820 --> 00:33:41.239
David Green: The first male statement of the male, my male perspective, by definition.

378
00:33:44.950 --> 00:33:54.730
R. David (he/him): Few eyes, I just want to acknowledge, I'm not sure you could see Rabbi Rachel in the room. David, as you were speaking a few, I'm just watching the room, a few eyes sort of went like this.

379
00:34:00.330 --> 00:34:04.679
R. David (he/him): So I just want to keep saying there are emotions in the room.

380
00:34:05.370 --> 00:34:07.939
R. David (he/him): Tara doesn't avoid the hard stuff.

381
00:34:09.530 --> 00:34:12.440
R. David (he/him): Amy, last comment maybe.

382
00:34:12.449 --> 00:34:13.559
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And we'll look at some.

383
00:34:14.889 --> 00:34:20.370
Amy V: I didn't ever hear it as crumbs. They…

384
00:34:20.580 --> 00:34:25.369
Amy V: They were granted it because they asked, they asked because they were ready.

385
00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:28.040
Amy V: You have to be ready.

386
00:34:28.580 --> 00:34:41.179
Amy V: There's that understanding throughout Torah that you have to have a readiness for things, and that different people are in different places and at different points in development.

387
00:34:41.449 --> 00:34:48.790
Amy V: Korach obviously wasn't leadership material. Moses was.

388
00:34:49.610 --> 00:34:54.149
Amy V: I guess the only other thing I want to say is that

389
00:34:56.610 --> 00:35:06.120
Amy V: God is evolving, we're evolving, and if there's no absolute boundary, like you-know-who's wall,

390
00:35:06.470 --> 00:35:10.960
Amy V: Then we change God. God changes us. So.

391
00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:18.350
R. David (he/him): Theology is right here, everybody. Theology is barely hiding. Theology is in drag.

392
00:35:19.190 --> 00:35:19.750
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Oh!

393
00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:23.290
R. David (he/him): Notice a few things. One.

394
00:35:24.060 --> 00:35:26.449
R. David (he/him): This is a tikkun.

395
00:35:26.590 --> 00:35:28.660
R. David (he/him): In Hebrew, a repair.

396
00:35:28.850 --> 00:35:34.380
R. David (he/him): By definition, most tikkunim, plural of tikkun, Partial.

397
00:35:36.230 --> 00:35:39.549
R. David (he/him): It's not exactly the same, it's not exactly ideal.

398
00:35:39.740 --> 00:35:43.350
R. David (he/him): Think Kintsugi, that Japanese art where you take the

399
00:35:43.710 --> 00:35:46.030
R. David (he/him): Gold and place it on the crack.

400
00:35:46.950 --> 00:35:52.780
R. David (he/him): It's different. It's beautiful. It may be even more valuable this way, but it is not the same.

401
00:35:54.090 --> 00:35:54.910
R. David (he/him): One.

402
00:35:56.630 --> 00:35:57.470
R. David (he/him): 2.

403
00:35:58.230 --> 00:36:03.110
R. David (he/him): Korah said to Moses, Hey, what are we all, chopped liver?

404
00:36:03.340 --> 00:36:04.760
R. David (he/him): Enough of you!

405
00:36:05.040 --> 00:36:06.290
R. David (he/him): Get out of here!

406
00:36:06.860 --> 00:36:09.109
R. David (he/him): Why do you aggrandize yourself?

407
00:36:11.420 --> 00:36:15.480
R. David (he/him): The daughters of Tzilafachad go to Moshe and say, hey now.

408
00:36:15.850 --> 00:36:23.739
R. David (he/him): Our father died, so why should our father's name abate in his family just because he had no son? Give us a holding.

409
00:36:26.410 --> 00:36:28.490
R. David (he/him): Those are very different approaches.

410
00:36:30.560 --> 00:36:31.290
R. David (he/him): In one…

411
00:36:31.290 --> 00:36:37.270
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Acknowledges to Moshe in some way and to God, but brought in a very different spirit.

412
00:36:38.350 --> 00:36:39.330
R. David (he/him): So to speak.

413
00:36:39.480 --> 00:36:40.060
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yeah, sure.

414
00:36:41.210 --> 00:36:43.870
R. David (he/him): So to speak.

415
00:36:44.230 --> 00:36:44.980
R. David (he/him): Yep.

416
00:36:45.290 --> 00:36:51.730
R. David (he/him): Yep. So there's another tikkun to how you make social change. That way may not work.

417
00:36:53.260 --> 00:36:54.430
R. David (he/him): Let's try this way.

418
00:36:57.170 --> 00:36:59.519
R. David (he/him): Number 2, number 3.

419
00:36:59.640 --> 00:37:07.070
R. David (he/him): Notice, again, Torah changed, Amy says, God changed.

420
00:37:09.010 --> 00:37:11.720
R. David (he/him): An injustice was righted, kind of.

421
00:37:14.650 --> 00:37:16.180
R. David (he/him): Who was speaking through whom?

422
00:37:17.290 --> 00:37:18.910
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's not much, but it's.

423
00:37:18.910 --> 00:37:20.019
R. David (he/him): Let's find out.

424
00:37:21.220 --> 00:37:22.140
R. David (he/him): Deanna.

425
00:37:25.670 --> 00:37:28.690
R. David (he/him): And then Delia. Wait, wait, yep. Is it on this?

426
00:37:29.500 --> 00:37:36.070
Diana Rico: It's on what we just read, yeah. What's the significance of the number five and what's the significance of five times two?

427
00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:39.070
R. David (he/him): Oh, yummy.

428
00:37:39.320 --> 00:37:41.380
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, you want to grab that.

429
00:37:41.740 --> 00:37:44.449
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: 5 because of the 5 daughters?

430
00:37:44.670 --> 00:37:53.180
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yeah, alright. So 5 daughters. The 1st thing that I think of when I hear the number 5 is 5 are the books of Torah.

431
00:37:53.460 --> 00:38:01.729
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I think that's probably the the The dominant, or the… For the bottles.

432
00:38:02.250 --> 00:38:03.030
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's just…

433
00:38:04.870 --> 00:38:07.989
R. David (he/him): We're having some difficulty hearing you, Rabbi.

434
00:38:09.130 --> 00:38:13.029
R. David (he/him): So, 5 books of Torah, 5 times 2 or 10.

435
00:38:13.710 --> 00:38:15.420
R. David (he/him): 10 spheroids.

436
00:38:15.540 --> 00:38:19.960
R. David (he/him): Ten commandments. Ten impulses of creation.

437
00:38:22.970 --> 00:38:24.489
R. David (he/him): A lot of other tens, too.

438
00:38:25.170 --> 00:38:26.160
Diana Rico: Thank you.

439
00:38:26.710 --> 00:38:27.340
R. David (he/him): Yep.

440
00:38:27.510 --> 00:38:29.920
R. David (he/him): Ellen Ruth, we haven't heard from you.

441
00:38:32.440 --> 00:38:39.650
Ellen Ruth Topol: I think it hasn't been mentioned that the Women…

442
00:38:41.060 --> 00:38:47.619
Ellen Ruth Topol: I don't know how to say this. It doesn't seem like they're married, does it?

443
00:38:47.870 --> 00:38:54.390
Ellen Ruth Topol: Yep. And that… that makes… that makes a big difference in my understanding.

444
00:38:54.930 --> 00:38:59.219
Ellen Ruth Topol: Because if they were married, then it would have been.

445
00:38:59.590 --> 00:39:09.140
Ellen Ruth Topol: the problem would have been that the husbands would inherit that land, perhaps, and it would go in a whole other direction.

446
00:39:09.660 --> 00:39:14.649
Ellen Ruth Topol: So, it's not stated there that they're not married.

447
00:39:14.840 --> 00:39:19.309
Ellen Ruth Topol: But that's something I wonder if you could say something about.

448
00:39:19.880 --> 00:39:22.689
R. David (he/him): They weren't married. Good for you.

449
00:39:23.410 --> 00:39:36.589
R. David (he/him): What does that mean? Sisters are doing it for themselves. I don't recall if the Midrash is in here, but there's a lot of Midrash about that. Well done.

450
00:39:36.870 --> 00:39:40.800
R. David (he/him): Well done, Ellen Ruth. Delia Rachel Radansky.

451
00:39:44.750 --> 00:39:47.909
R. David (he/him): Delia, we're not hearing you, I'm gonna skip you. R.

452
00:39:49.430 --> 00:39:54.589
Rachel Rudansky: Yes, I'm very interested in what was going on in the women themselves.

453
00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:57.359
R. David (he/him): Hang on to that. We're going to go there.

454
00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:10.700
Rachel Rudansky: My adorable cousin sent me this card for my birthday of these women holding hands. And women really speak of that unity that makes changes for the world.

455
00:40:10.700 --> 00:40:11.689
R. David (he/him): And to that, we'.

456
00:40:11.690 --> 00:40:13.840
Rachel Rudansky: Good to see that. Good in that. Thank you.

457
00:40:14.010 --> 00:40:15.229
R. David (he/him): Yup, Delia.

458
00:40:15.570 --> 00:40:29.130
Deliah: I just want to respond to what you said about you can't change it this way, you can change it this way. Sometimes when you're up against authority and hierarchy, you first need the zest to start it. And then all this.

459
00:40:29.130 --> 00:40:30.779
R. David (he/him): truths to be self evident.

460
00:40:30.780 --> 00:40:37.400
Deliah: And after that, you need to come in a different way. And both of them are often necessary.

461
00:40:37.640 --> 00:40:39.130
R. David (he/him): Okay, yup.

462
00:40:39.380 --> 00:40:40.270
R. David (he/him): Yup.

463
00:40:41.490 --> 00:40:44.250
R. David (he/him): There are ways. Let's go, everybody.

464
00:40:45.110 --> 00:40:49.630
R. David (he/him): A little bit of… Scriptural midrash.

465
00:40:50.010 --> 00:40:56.560
R. David (he/him): In the phrase Moshe brought near their case, their case before Tadha, before God.

466
00:40:57.470 --> 00:41:00.980
R. David (he/him): The word case is mishpat, as in justice.

467
00:41:01.210 --> 00:41:03.059
R. David (he/him): So fate is a judge.

468
00:41:04.150 --> 00:41:14.769
R. David (he/him): Mishpatan at the end, if you took a Hebrew class, Mishpatan is Plural, third person, possessive, feminine.

469
00:41:15.910 --> 00:41:25.540
R. David (he/him): Their case, their judgment. But the nun, this nun sofit, this final nun, is made much bigger.

470
00:41:26.150 --> 00:41:33.910
R. David (he/him): In the Torah, if you look at any Torah, this nun, their judgment, their case, is made super big.

471
00:41:36.230 --> 00:41:45.660
R. David (he/him): A Torah is not kosher unless that nun, their feminine judgment, their feminine justice, is made super big for emphasis.

472
00:41:46.040 --> 00:41:49.280
R. David (he/him): Would someone like to read a little bit about why?

473
00:41:52.170 --> 00:41:56.950
Meredith (she/her): Their case in Hebrew is Mishpatan.

474
00:41:57.310 --> 00:42:00.289
Meredith (she/her): If you look in a safer Torah.

475
00:42:00.410 --> 00:42:05.610
Meredith (she/her): You'll see that the final letter, the nun, is extra long.

476
00:42:05.960 --> 00:42:15.119
Meredith (she/her): Jewish mystical thought holds that only 49 gates of understanding Are given to man.

477
00:42:15.370 --> 00:42:18.150
Meredith (she/her): The 50th gate is divine.

478
00:42:18.260 --> 00:42:22.300
Meredith (she/her): And the letter none is equal to the number 50.

479
00:42:22.480 --> 00:42:38.170
Meredith (she/her): in Gematria. So for the Torah to emphasize 50 in the daughter's case indicates that a special and divine understanding came into the world specifically because of their merit.

480
00:42:39.610 --> 00:42:41.740
R. David (he/him): There's something going on here.

481
00:42:43.250 --> 00:42:45.580
R. David (he/him): This goes to your agency point.

482
00:42:45.840 --> 00:42:47.970
R. David (he/him): cheryl.

483
00:42:48.140 --> 00:42:51.710
R. David (he/him): Right. There's something happening here now.

484
00:42:52.720 --> 00:43:00.650
R. David (he/him): Ben Eltterman entitled this essay, The First Time a Woman Asked to Speak to the Manager.

485
00:43:03.470 --> 00:43:05.599
R. David (he/him): But it ain't quite so.

486
00:43:07.570 --> 00:43:09.730
R. David (he/him): All the way back in Genesis.

487
00:43:10.060 --> 00:43:11.710
R. David (he/him): Isaac Yitzchak.

488
00:43:13.180 --> 00:43:15.440
R. David (he/him): Had a wife, Rifta.

489
00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:19.750
R. David (he/him): And here's what happened. Someone read.

490
00:43:26.490 --> 00:43:28.160
R. David (he/him): Someone read, Joan.

491
00:43:28.630 --> 00:43:31.060
Joan Green: Yitzhak pleaded with

492
00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:40.200
Joan Green: Todd had for the sake of his wife, for she was infertile. Todd had responded to his plea, and his wife Rivka conceived.

493
00:43:40.410 --> 00:43:44.310
Joan Green: The fetuses scampered in her room, and she said.

494
00:43:44.480 --> 00:43:50.720
Joan Green: If so, why am I this? And she went to inquire of Tadhad.

495
00:43:52.010 --> 00:43:54.020
R. David (he/him): Not exactly a complaint.

496
00:43:54.640 --> 00:43:56.339
R. David (he/him): A word, God.

497
00:43:56.510 --> 00:43:59.739
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Definitely going to speak to the manager, as it were.

498
00:44:01.340 --> 00:44:05.209
R. David (he/him): And this is the first time anyone went to God to ask why anything.

499
00:44:06.310 --> 00:44:08.500
R. David (he/him): So notice again, the woman.

500
00:44:10.580 --> 00:44:15.619
R. David (he/him): And the word to inquire of. Anyone got the Hebrew?

501
00:44:17.310 --> 00:44:18.270
Deliah: The last…

502
00:44:19.260 --> 00:44:20.090
R. David (he/him): thrush.

503
00:44:20.090 --> 00:44:20.930
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Okay.

504
00:44:21.100 --> 00:44:22.060
R. David (he/him): As in Midrash.

505
00:44:22.060 --> 00:44:28.340
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: As in mid-rush. Lidrosh, To to to ask to midrush of God, to ask God to midrush it.

506
00:44:29.490 --> 00:44:37.189
R. David (he/him): -Hu And that, in essence, is what the daughters of Tzilafakhad are doing here, except they're not asking.

507
00:44:37.470 --> 00:44:41.649
R. David (he/him): They're asking, but they're not quite asking. They're telling.

508
00:44:44.100 --> 00:44:51.329
R. David (he/him): So one of the things we learn is that this impulse of justice, it's not enough to say, hey, now there's something wrong here.

509
00:44:53.120 --> 00:45:04.490
R. David (he/him): We actually need a solution. We actually need to move the envelope, you know, to bend that moral arc of the universe. It's not just enough to say.

510
00:45:04.490 --> 00:45:05.200
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Justice.

511
00:45:05.200 --> 00:45:10.309
R. David (he/him): Right, right, right. And that's what the daughters of Salaf Achad did.

512
00:45:11.110 --> 00:45:16.189
R. David (he/him): Nancy, and then we're going to go to Rashi because everybody needs a little Rashi.

513
00:45:16.780 --> 00:45:22.190
Nancy Goody: I have a question, if you could just scroll up, and it has to do with the crowns.

514
00:45:22.510 --> 00:45:23.979
R. David (he/him): Yeah, the tagine.

515
00:45:23.980 --> 00:45:24.660
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yes.

516
00:45:24.660 --> 00:45:31.359
Nancy Goody: Could, because I know you've talked about these in the past, but could you, these look different or similar?

517
00:45:31.360 --> 00:45:46.419
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: There is a beautiful Midrash that says that the Tagin are there, the crowns are there, so that we might hang our Midrashim on them. They are the hooks. Imagine like hooks in a coat room on which we hang.

518
00:45:46.630 --> 00:45:48.320
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: our interpretations.

519
00:45:50.070 --> 00:45:53.580
R. David (he/him): It has been years since I've heard that one, Rabbi Rachel, thank you.

520
00:45:53.580 --> 00:45:54.969
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Oh, I love that one.

521
00:45:54.970 --> 00:45:56.620
R. David (he/him): Yeah. And so.

522
00:45:56.620 --> 00:46:00.240
Nancy Goody: They look like they have a little more hooks than others.

523
00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:01.600
R. David (he/him): Certain letters.

524
00:46:01.600 --> 00:46:05.569
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Justin, that's the… this particular Sofair's style?

525
00:46:05.760 --> 00:46:06.450
Nancy Goody: Got it.

526
00:46:06.450 --> 00:46:12.619
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I think there are rules about which letters can have crowns. Some can and some cannot.

527
00:46:12.620 --> 00:46:14.279
R. David (he/him): The nosophy gets three.

528
00:46:14.280 --> 00:46:14.890
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The difference…

529
00:46:14.890 --> 00:46:15.290
Nancy Goody: Right.

530
00:46:15.290 --> 00:46:18.990
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Appearance like 1 of them on the well actually on the.

531
00:46:19.430 --> 00:46:24.510
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: On both of these final nuns, on one of them, the crown looks a little more… Yep.

532
00:46:24.510 --> 00:46:27.709
Nancy Goody: Yeah, that's what I was noticing. Okay, thank you.

533
00:46:27.710 --> 00:46:31.969
R. David (he/him): The reason being is if you fully hook this nun, you're going to hit.

534
00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:36.509
R. David (he/him): This word and you can't touch letters.

535
00:46:36.920 --> 00:46:38.379
R. David (he/him): Letters can never touch.

536
00:46:40.390 --> 00:46:41.310
R. David (he/him): All right.

537
00:46:41.310 --> 00:46:41.710
Nancy Goody: Thanks.

538
00:46:41.710 --> 00:46:45.849
R. David (he/him): Okay, so a little Rashi between friends. Who wants it?

539
00:46:54.530 --> 00:46:56.180
R. David (he/him): Teeny little bit of Rashi.

540
00:47:02.040 --> 00:47:03.630
Sherrill Cropper: Yitzhak plead.

541
00:47:03.880 --> 00:47:04.620
Sherrill Cropper: with.

542
00:47:04.900 --> 00:47:05.590
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Nope.

543
00:47:05.590 --> 00:47:06.420
R. David (he/him): Oh, here, R.

544
00:47:06.420 --> 00:47:06.900
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Excellent.

545
00:47:06.900 --> 00:47:13.120
Sherrill Cropper: Oh, sorry. The Daughters of… Salafakad, speak correctly.

546
00:47:13.290 --> 00:47:29.440
Sherrill Cropper: As in the Targum's Ya'ut, equals right, God said, just so is this Parsha written before me on high. That is, their eyes saw what Moshe's eye did not see.

547
00:47:29.640 --> 00:47:31.749
R. David (he/him): Wait a second! Wait a minute!

548
00:47:33.340 --> 00:47:34.180
R. David (he/him): What?

549
00:47:36.950 --> 00:47:43.400
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So there is a notion that there is both… that not only… in addition to the written Torah and the oral Torah.

550
00:47:43.600 --> 00:47:51.480
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: that we talk about and teach about. There's also the Torah as we have it on Earth, and the Supernal Torah.

551
00:47:51.990 --> 00:47:55.329
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The Torah that is written before God, that God's copy.

552
00:47:55.790 --> 00:47:59.799
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And apparently in God's copy, it already said women are supposed to inherit.

553
00:48:00.850 --> 00:48:05.689
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That was God's sense of justice from the get-go, but Moshe just couldn't see it.

554
00:48:06.040 --> 00:48:08.920
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Of course, Morsha didn't have a written copy.

555
00:48:10.690 --> 00:48:12.309
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: But let's not worry about that right now.

556
00:48:12.400 --> 00:48:24.679
R. David (he/him): Motions taking dictation, God said to Moses, God spoke to Moses saying, God spoke to Moses saying, it just, it's all the time, and here's Rashi saying.

557
00:48:27.630 --> 00:48:28.950
R. David (he/him): Moshe got it wrong.

558
00:48:30.150 --> 00:48:34.490
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: In God's own copy, God knew that women were supposed to inherit.

559
00:48:35.030 --> 00:48:40.410
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The injustice is our problem of interpretation. God was always more just than that.

560
00:48:40.720 --> 00:48:42.730
R. David (he/him): Moshe got it wrong.

561
00:48:43.160 --> 00:48:54.489
R. David (he/him): I love this. And the women had to come and change it. Their eyes saw what Moshe's eye did not see. You mean prophecy isn't limited to Moshe?

562
00:48:55.070 --> 00:48:56.170
R. David (he/him): Oh.

563
00:48:58.030 --> 00:48:59.260
R. David (he/him): Cheryl!

564
00:49:02.170 --> 00:49:07.680
Sherrill Cropper: Sometimes seems to me that the Torah is, I'm

565
00:49:08.420 --> 00:49:16.610
Sherrill Cropper: Maybe this comes from Sefer Yetzirah, where everything just gets created by these letters, but that there are these

566
00:49:16.930 --> 00:49:18.220
Sherrill Cropper: doors.

567
00:49:18.890 --> 00:49:20.540
Sherrill Cropper: Opportunities.

568
00:49:20.960 --> 00:49:23.070
Sherrill Cropper: All through the Torah.

569
00:49:23.810 --> 00:49:30.390
Sherrill Cropper: that… only need to be… found when it's correct to be found.

570
00:49:30.850 --> 00:49:31.820
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

571
00:49:31.820 --> 00:49:39.459
Sherrill Cropper: I would suspect that God's Torah what is Targum?

572
00:49:40.270 --> 00:49:41.060
R. David (he/him): Sorry.

573
00:49:41.340 --> 00:49:49.530
R. David (he/him): Targum is the first major Aramaic vernacular at the time, translation of Torah.

574
00:49:49.870 --> 00:49:57.259
R. David (he/him): It is essentially a first complete midrash spoken in the street language of its day.

575
00:49:58.580 --> 00:50:00.639
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, so even that.

576
00:50:00.810 --> 00:50:07.939
Sherrill Cropper: is not complete. That is never complete, because there is all. There are always opportunities available.

577
00:50:08.190 --> 00:50:15.410
Sherrill Cropper: and we call it mid rush, but it feels to me like it is just opportunities that.

578
00:50:15.410 --> 00:50:16.020
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Okay.

579
00:50:16.320 --> 00:50:19.010
Sherrill Cropper: were are inherently there.

580
00:50:19.540 --> 00:50:27.559
Sherrill Cropper: It's not that Moshe didn't get it right. It's that it wasn't Moshe's door. It wasn't Moshe's opportunity.

581
00:50:28.020 --> 00:50:40.329
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: You mean we need all of us and all of our lenses and all of our interpretations over the course of the evolution of human history to be able to see everything that was always already there?

582
00:50:40.580 --> 00:50:42.330
Sherrill Cropper: Exactly and ongoing.

583
00:50:42.710 --> 00:50:43.790
R. David (he/him): Whoa!

584
00:50:44.130 --> 00:50:50.549
R. David (he/him): How many of us imagined at any point, here's Torah, that's what it is, go home?

585
00:50:52.830 --> 00:50:56.389
Sherrill Cropper: Well, we know that's not so because there's so much mid-rush, but…

586
00:50:56.390 --> 00:50:57.510
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: We know.

587
00:50:57.950 --> 00:51:01.099
R. David (he/him): We know, but here's Torah saying so!

588
00:51:02.640 --> 00:51:11.480
R. David (he/him): It's really lovely to hang out with these, you know, hippy dippy people who say that Midrash is, you know, this thing, but here's Torah saying so.

589
00:51:14.080 --> 00:51:14.440
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: True.

590
00:51:14.440 --> 00:51:14.900
R. David (he/him): Women!

591
00:51:14.900 --> 00:51:17.110
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Acknowledges that she's not finished.

592
00:51:18.290 --> 00:51:20.070
Sherrill Cropper: In case we didn't realize.

593
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:23.250
R. David (he/him): In case we didn't realize, oh, by the way.

594
00:51:24.310 --> 00:51:27.420
R. David (he/him): In a sense, we've been waiting for this Parsha the whole year.

595
00:51:27.420 --> 00:51:28.480
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yes.

596
00:51:28.480 --> 00:51:34.830
Sherrill Cropper: You know, we talk about the Constitution as an evolutionary document.

597
00:51:34.830 --> 00:51:36.190
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Living document.

598
00:51:36.190 --> 00:51:38.820
Sherrill Cropper: Yes, a living document. Thank you.

599
00:51:39.730 --> 00:51:44.789
Sherrill Cropper: you know. Obviously, fundamentalists do not say that about Torah or other.

600
00:51:45.390 --> 00:51:46.699
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Or the Constitution.

601
00:51:46.700 --> 00:51:48.429
Sherrill Cropper: Liturgical, yeah.

602
00:51:48.600 --> 00:51:50.640
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yeah, Rabbi David's eating a d.

603
00:51:51.050 --> 00:51:56.069
Sherrill Cropper: In other faiths, similarly, there are fundamentalists and not.

604
00:51:56.250 --> 00:52:02.090
Sherrill Cropper: and it feels Hmm, not to be…

605
00:52:02.320 --> 00:52:06.909
Sherrill Cropper: not to be critical, but just in my understanding.

606
00:52:08.010 --> 00:52:09.620
Sherrill Cropper: This is the point.

607
00:52:09.820 --> 00:52:21.590
Sherrill Cropper: How do we grow? How do we evolve if we are not open to opportunity whenever we can find it? Whenever it appears, haha, magically.

608
00:52:21.780 --> 00:52:23.010
Sherrill Cropper: to us.

609
00:52:23.280 --> 00:52:25.839
Sherrill Cropper: For whatever level we are at.

610
00:52:26.520 --> 00:52:31.229
Sherrill Cropper: You know, it comes… different things come to different people, whatever level we are at.

611
00:52:31.970 --> 00:52:33.900
Sherrill Cropper: spiritually.

612
00:52:34.940 --> 00:52:35.510
R. David (he/him): -H.

613
00:52:35.510 --> 00:52:36.050
Sherrill Cropper: I.

614
00:52:36.050 --> 00:52:36.570
R. David (he/him): Yes.

615
00:52:36.570 --> 00:52:39.829
Sherrill Cropper: Love that. It just feels so welcoming.

616
00:52:40.300 --> 00:52:41.810
Sherrill Cropper: and embracing.

617
00:52:42.070 --> 00:52:43.849
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Then we're doing it right.

618
00:52:44.400 --> 00:52:46.210
R. David (he/him): Then we're all doing it, right?

619
00:52:46.210 --> 00:52:50.170
Sherrill Cropper: This this particular class is always so.

620
00:52:50.170 --> 00:52:50.850
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

621
00:52:50.990 --> 00:52:55.560
Sherrill Cropper: important and grounding and hearing everybody's opinion so that

622
00:52:56.320 --> 00:53:04.029
Sherrill Cropper: they're in a different place than I am, and then I get to hear it and feel it and take it in and grow with it. You know, it's…

623
00:53:04.720 --> 00:53:06.689
Sherrill Cropper: Thank you so much for having this.

624
00:53:07.010 --> 00:53:08.030
R. David (he/him): Thank you.

625
00:53:08.250 --> 00:53:11.130
R. David (he/him): I'm stalling for tech stuff. Amy.

626
00:53:13.100 --> 00:53:13.490
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Oh.

627
00:53:13.600 --> 00:53:18.639
Amy V: Well, I think Cheryl said a lot of what I would have said, but

628
00:53:19.930 --> 00:53:24.970
Amy V: It's not for me to correct the rabbis, but as soon as you wrote, Moshe got her.

629
00:53:24.970 --> 00:53:25.950
R. David (he/him): PLEASE!

630
00:53:25.950 --> 00:53:29.589
Amy V: I cringed at Moshe got it wrong.

631
00:53:29.910 --> 00:53:33.420
Amy V: It seems to me Moshe got it narrow.

632
00:53:35.040 --> 00:53:37.300
Amy V: Expand, and

633
00:53:37.610 --> 00:53:48.050
Amy V: expansion, I think, sometimes has to be propelled by those who are disempowered, because if you're in a system that empowers you.

634
00:53:49.080 --> 00:53:58.099
Amy V: why would you even look at it critically? You have to be on the outside. So the women were on the outside and could take us to the next step.

635
00:53:58.760 --> 00:54:00.469
R. David (he/him): That is so important.

636
00:54:00.710 --> 00:54:07.610
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Thank you for naming that. And also, yeah, we were being a little glib in saying Moshe got it wrong, quote-unquote.

637
00:54:07.850 --> 00:54:09.050
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And…

638
00:54:09.210 --> 00:54:18.719
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: But yeah, Moshe's view is limited, as any person's view is inevitably limited, even Moshe, who spoke to God face to face. And…

639
00:54:19.420 --> 00:54:21.010
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And that's really powerful.

640
00:54:21.950 --> 00:54:28.390
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: that we always need the the view from the outside to help us see the whole clearly.

641
00:54:30.380 --> 00:54:44.440
R. David (he/him): I'm gonna share the screen again and keep going. You're gonna see in the document some highlights that don't belong there. I don't know why they are there. I will try to correct it before I put it online, but they don't tell us anything, alright?

642
00:54:44.950 --> 00:54:57.589
R. David (he/him): So, let's talk about what Moshe is doing here, and recognizing that we're heading toward a season where character development, our own personal betterment.

643
00:54:57.970 --> 00:54:59.789
R. David (he/him): is coming forward.

644
00:55:00.040 --> 00:55:00.840
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Okay.

645
00:55:04.020 --> 00:55:06.079
R. David (he/him): What else is going on here?

646
00:55:06.570 --> 00:55:09.830
R. David (he/him): Especially as concerns Moshe.

647
00:55:10.260 --> 00:55:12.999
R. David (he/him): Who wants to read this Midrash from the Tan Chuma?

648
00:55:14.110 --> 00:55:15.729
R. David (he/him): These first two paragraphs.

649
00:55:16.080 --> 00:55:20.139
Nancy Goody: Moshe drew near their case before God.

650
00:55:20.750 --> 00:55:24.770
Nancy Goody: Some say God made it too hard for Moshe.

651
00:55:25.910 --> 00:55:34.030
Nancy Goody: When some righteous become haughty by their mitzvot, the Holy Blessed One drains their capacity.

652
00:55:34.190 --> 00:55:38.979
Nancy Goody: As Moshe said to the people, Deuteronomy 1 17.

653
00:55:39.370 --> 00:55:44.139
Nancy Goody: The case that is too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it.

654
00:55:44.590 --> 00:55:48.180
Nancy Goody: The Holy Blessed One drained his capacity.

655
00:55:49.630 --> 00:55:52.459
Nancy Goody: So when they don't. Oh, I'm sure I stopped there.

656
00:55:52.700 --> 00:55:53.659
R. David (he/him): No, no, keep going.

657
00:55:53.660 --> 00:56:00.469
Nancy Goody: Oh, okay, and I'm gonna… okay, so when the daughters of… I can't even try to pronounce that, sorry.

658
00:56:00.470 --> 00:56:01.510
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I love HUD.

659
00:56:01.820 --> 00:56:04.230
Nancy Goody: Right. What she said came to him.

660
00:56:04.230 --> 00:56:04.780
R. David (he/him): Okay.

661
00:56:05.440 --> 00:56:17.989
Nancy Goody: God made it too hard for him, as in Numbers 27, 5, 7. Moshe brought their case before God. God said, the daughters of Salolahuf

662
00:56:18.390 --> 00:56:20.100
Nancy Goody: Speak correctly.

663
00:56:20.640 --> 00:56:27.989
Nancy Goody: Such is the law. The Holy Blessed One said to him, did you not say the case that

664
00:56:28.190 --> 00:56:31.219
Nancy Goody: That is too hard for you. Bring to me.

665
00:56:31.370 --> 00:56:35.880
Nancy Goody: The judgment that you do not know, behold, even the women know it.

666
00:56:37.580 --> 00:56:42.809
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So what is this one saying about Moshe? What's the picture of Moshe that's being painted here?

667
00:56:46.560 --> 00:56:47.230
Brett Chinn: Who's.

668
00:56:47.230 --> 00:56:47.900
R. David (he/him): Susan.

669
00:56:48.450 --> 00:56:49.440
R. David (he/him): Okay.

670
00:56:49.800 --> 00:56:51.359
R. David (he/him): Okay, Susan?

671
00:56:52.040 --> 00:56:58.030
Susan Phillips: I'm We usually think of him as being humble, but in this case he seems to be arrogant.

672
00:56:59.830 --> 00:57:00.570
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

673
00:57:00.710 --> 00:57:08.409
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: and this one there does seem to maybe be a little arrogance, you know. Don't worry if it's too hard for you. Bring it to me. I'll fix it for you.

674
00:57:08.840 --> 00:57:09.620
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Alright.

675
00:57:09.840 --> 00:57:14.139
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: This one is… and of course, there's no tone in the original.

676
00:57:14.590 --> 00:57:20.359
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So we don't know, was he saying it in that kind of condescending way or not?

677
00:57:20.600 --> 00:57:21.270
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: This…

678
00:57:24.410 --> 00:57:26.369
R. David (he/him): Yeah, Rabbi Rachel, you just.

679
00:57:26.700 --> 00:57:27.689
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That's correct.

680
00:57:30.180 --> 00:57:34.099
R. David (he/him): Yeah. I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll take it briefly from.

681
00:57:34.100 --> 00:57:34.450
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Here we.

682
00:57:34.450 --> 00:57:35.070
R. David (he/him): here.

683
00:57:35.240 --> 00:57:36.030
R. David (he/him): Yep.

684
00:57:36.330 --> 00:57:46.640
R. David (he/him): Okay, so here comes the pile-on on Moshe. If Moshe got it wrong, question mark, not period, I hear you, Amy. If…

685
00:57:48.140 --> 00:57:58.960
R. David (he/him): Torah needed to be corrected. If we were… if Moshe wasn't ready, if it wasn't his chalikut, if it wasn't his… if it wasn't part of his remit to bring this forward.

686
00:57:59.110 --> 00:58:01.790
R. David (he/him): Then it means that it ain't all Moshe.

687
00:58:02.840 --> 00:58:04.650
R. David (he/him): It can't be all Moshe.

688
00:58:05.270 --> 00:58:07.969
R. David (he/him): And here come the rabbis now saying.

689
00:58:08.140 --> 00:58:11.579
R. David (he/him): Aha! What made Moshe think it's all him?

690
00:58:14.070 --> 00:58:16.309
R. David (he/him): What makes any of us think it's all us?

691
00:58:19.350 --> 00:58:21.209
R. David (he/him): Where do we not listen?

692
00:58:21.990 --> 00:58:24.120
R. David (he/him): Where do we not fully hear?

693
00:58:25.540 --> 00:58:33.600
R. David (he/him): And here come all the hands, it's great! Welcome to the Jewish High Holiday season, where we start taking that focus and turning it inward.

694
00:58:38.640 --> 00:58:41.559
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It can be for Moshe, it can be for us. We are on the.

695
00:58:42.080 --> 00:58:43.920
R. David (he/him): Yeah, that's what these 3 weeks are.

696
00:58:44.280 --> 00:58:45.740
R. David (he/him): Deanna Sherrill.

697
00:58:47.200 --> 00:58:53.420
Diana Rico: Question, what does this phrase mean? Drained his capacity, drains their capacity.

698
00:58:54.210 --> 00:58:57.010
R. David (he/him): You think you're all that, huh?

699
00:59:02.190 --> 00:59:04.520
Diana Rico: Like bringing them down a notch?

700
00:59:04.710 --> 00:59:09.859
R. David (he/him): Exactly. Bringing them down a notch. Oh, wait a minute. What did we just bring down a notch?

701
00:59:11.700 --> 00:59:13.090
R. David (he/him): How did we start today?

702
00:59:14.020 --> 00:59:18.829
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Our our awareness of the presence of God, our Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh.

703
00:59:19.090 --> 00:59:21.390
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Has been downshifted a notch.

704
00:59:22.260 --> 00:59:23.270
R. David (he/him): to Tadhad.

705
00:59:26.590 --> 00:59:29.309
R. David (he/him): Even our awareness of spirit.

706
00:59:30.080 --> 00:59:32.940
R. David (he/him): Ritually, we turn it down a little bit.

707
00:59:35.310 --> 00:59:36.440
R. David (he/him): Oh, boy.

708
00:59:38.020 --> 00:59:41.610
R. David (he/him): Because it turns out there's injustice in the world and we need to feel it.

709
00:59:43.010 --> 00:59:46.439
R. David (he/him): The fact that it coincides with the 4th of July, I.

710
00:59:48.580 --> 00:59:48.920
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yeah.

711
00:59:48.920 --> 00:59:49.540
R. David (he/him): The color.

712
00:59:49.540 --> 00:59:51.150
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And yeah, we just read the cards.

713
00:59:51.150 --> 00:59:53.940
R. David (he/him): As Brett would say, I just read the cards. Cheryl.

714
00:59:55.660 --> 00:59:56.500
Sherrill Cropper: And.

715
00:59:57.610 --> 01:00:12.950
Sherrill Cropper: At some point, I'd like to go into more about Tadha, because I always have a hard time with that, and what that actually means, and how to feel about it. But my thought here is that, and I understand this is Midrash, so obviously anything goes, but

716
01:00:13.220 --> 01:00:24.449
Sherrill Cropper: this midrash about Moshe being haughty, I mean, he did just strike the rock, right? So, we have an understanding that he is human. He can be…

717
01:00:24.740 --> 01:00:29.860
Sherrill Cropper: the leader, the prophet, whatever, but he's still human, and

718
01:00:30.140 --> 01:00:35.649
Sherrill Cropper: Everything has been male-oriented in society to this point.

719
01:00:35.770 --> 01:00:40.819
Sherrill Cropper: and it makes total sense to me that he would not deem to make a

720
01:00:41.210 --> 01:00:49.930
Sherrill Cropper: make a decision here, and because he can go to God, he goes to God. It's like, I'm not the one who's going to say.

721
01:00:50.210 --> 01:00:55.220
Sherrill Cropper: Women, because that puts him in a position of or King.

722
01:00:55.440 --> 01:00:56.360
Sherrill Cropper: Right?

723
01:00:56.550 --> 01:01:09.579
Sherrill Cropper: There are certain things… he's been told by God a whole bunch of stuff, and you're saying this is a correction, Torah corrects itself. It cannot be a correction by Moshe that makes him the king.

724
01:01:09.730 --> 01:01:10.480
Sherrill Cropper: And…

725
01:01:10.480 --> 01:01:11.570
R. David (he/him): Whoa!

726
01:01:11.780 --> 01:01:19.979
Sherrill Cropper: It has to be that he goes to God on this, since only males are counted, and only males this, and it's a male… everything.

727
01:01:20.150 --> 01:01:22.929
Sherrill Cropper: I don't see it as haughty at all.

728
01:01:23.120 --> 01:01:25.290
Sherrill Cropper: I see it as human.

729
01:01:26.610 --> 01:01:27.670
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Absolutely.

730
01:01:28.080 --> 01:01:33.300
Sherrill Cropper: Staying with his humbleness and recognition that he is not God.

731
01:01:33.540 --> 01:01:42.410
R. David (he/him): This and this are the world's words of the living God. And, when Moshe wants to say to God, God, soak your head.

732
01:01:44.390 --> 01:01:45.870
R. David (he/him): Moshe does so.

733
01:01:46.220 --> 01:01:49.230
R. David (he/him): You want to knock them out, you're gonna have to come through me.

734
01:01:50.360 --> 01:01:56.490
R. David (he/him): You forgive these people. They know not what they do. Somebody else's religion, right? And on and on it goes.

735
01:01:56.920 --> 01:02:02.200
R. David (he/him): So when Moshe wants to get up there, Moshe does.

736
01:02:03.220 --> 01:02:05.960
R. David (he/him): Again, you're not wrong, Cheryl. It's this and.

737
01:02:06.360 --> 01:02:10.720
Sherrill Cropper: I understand, but God has already said, males this, males that.

738
01:02:11.870 --> 01:02:12.470
R. David (he/him): Well.

739
01:02:12.470 --> 01:02:13.040
Sherrill Cropper: Right?

740
01:02:13.510 --> 01:02:14.310
R. David (he/him): Well…

741
01:02:14.570 --> 01:02:16.039
Sherrill Cropper: Who gets counted?

742
01:02:16.320 --> 01:02:19.220
R. David (he/him): God spoke to Moshe, saying.

743
01:02:19.350 --> 01:02:24.330
R. David (he/him): Either God said it, Or that's what Moshe heard God say.

744
01:02:25.360 --> 01:02:25.980
Sherrill Cropper: I'll put.

745
01:02:25.980 --> 01:02:27.600
R. David (he/him): Joan just went like this.

746
01:02:28.220 --> 01:02:33.449
Sherrill Cropper: But that go… then… then the entire Torah, and God speaking to Moses, is…

747
01:02:33.750 --> 01:02:35.930
R. David (he/him): Well, that's the whole point!

748
01:02:35.930 --> 01:02:38.289
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's a little bit of a game of telephone.

749
01:02:38.420 --> 01:02:42.920
Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, but don't you think I would have said, you got that wrong, come back.

750
01:02:44.140 --> 01:02:44.700
R. David (he/him): Yes.

751
01:02:44.700 --> 01:02:49.560
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And maybe, as you were saying earlier, Cheryl, there… For the.

752
01:02:51.960 --> 01:02:52.760
Sherrill Cropper: A trap.

753
01:02:52.760 --> 01:03:04.900
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Maybe this wasn't for Moshe to bring forward. It was for the daughters. Or maybe it was for Judith Plasko to bring forward when she wrote Standing Again at Sinai.

754
01:03:05.040 --> 01:03:08.490
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And the world wasn't ready to hear it until she was ready to say it.

755
01:03:09.180 --> 01:03:17.529
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's an and. It's an and, not an or. There are things, maybe, that we're ready to understand in Torah in the year 2026,

756
01:03:17.750 --> 01:03:21.819
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That we could not have understood in 1776.

757
01:03:23.710 --> 01:03:24.179
Sherrill Cropper: Oh, I.

758
01:03:24.180 --> 01:03:26.390
R. David (he/him): So to speak, so to speak.

759
01:03:27.430 --> 01:03:31.420
R. David (he/him): Yeah. Let's, let's move forward. The CFRE.

760
01:03:35.710 --> 01:03:38.399
Diana Rico: The daughters of Cephala drew close.

761
01:03:38.800 --> 01:03:51.950
Diana Rico: When the daughters of Cephalad heard that the land would be apportioned by tribe and not to women, they gathered together to take counsel, saying, God's mercies are not like the mercies of flesh and blood.

762
01:03:52.020 --> 01:04:05.089
Diana Rico: Even if the mercies of flesh and blood are greater for men than women, not so the mercies of God, who spoke and brought the world into being. God's mercies are for men and women alike.

763
01:04:05.110 --> 01:04:13.920
Diana Rico: For all, as in Psalms 145 9, God is good to all, and God's mercies are on all God's creations.

764
01:04:14.750 --> 01:04:21.209
R. David (he/him): I adore that this Midrash is putting in the mouth of the Daughters of Talafakkad.

765
01:04:21.520 --> 01:04:23.880
R. David (he/him): The Psalms.

766
01:04:25.030 --> 01:04:27.220
R. David (he/him): That came later.

767
01:04:29.490 --> 01:04:36.640
R. David (he/him): And that the daughters of Zalafuchad are sort of throwing it back at God in a sort of lovely way.

768
01:04:37.380 --> 01:04:40.460
R. David (he/him): Hey, God, your mercies are for everyone!

769
01:04:42.830 --> 01:04:48.849
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And of course, there's the core rabbinic principle. There's no before or after in Torah.

770
01:04:49.020 --> 01:04:56.190
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So just because the songs haven't been written yet, doesn't mean the daughters of Tsolofkad couldn't mystically know them.

771
01:04:57.760 --> 01:05:03.439
R. David (he/him): Isn't that cool? Now, here's the really fun part. Rachel Radansky, this is for you.

772
01:05:03.760 --> 01:05:05.660
R. David (he/him): I think this is for you.

773
01:05:06.280 --> 01:05:18.220
R. David (he/him): Because earlier, I believe it was you, and if not, please forgive me and tell me who said this, that the women, and I think whoever was saying it was speaking generically.

774
01:05:18.660 --> 01:05:26.069
R. David (he/him): Collectively work together and listen to each other and take each other's counsel and hold hands. Was that you, Rachel?

775
01:05:27.180 --> 01:05:33.899
R. David (he/him): That was you. So look in the Sefre again. They gathered together to take counsel.

776
01:05:38.730 --> 01:05:41.459
R. David (he/him): This is kind of what you're talking about, right?

777
01:05:44.660 --> 01:05:51.979
Rachel Rudansky: Well, to take counsel or to give counsel to each other. Is that what that means?

778
01:05:51.980 --> 01:05:54.870
R. David (he/him): Maybe. Maybe. Now compare that.

779
01:05:55.120 --> 01:05:57.939
R. David (he/him): To something in the book of Leviticus.

780
01:05:58.230 --> 01:06:04.839
R. David (he/him): The highlights here are not supposed to be there. I'm sorry. I can't get rid of them.

781
01:06:05.010 --> 01:06:14.010
R. David (he/him): Why did Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron who brought the strange fire, Die.

782
01:06:15.870 --> 01:06:20.079
R. David (he/him): And there are 4 reasons in Midrash. You want it, Rachel?

783
01:06:20.280 --> 01:06:25.450
R. David (he/him): The emphasis is going to be on the fourth one Yeah.

784
01:06:29.020 --> 01:06:30.879
Rachel Rudansky: Which Rachel are you speaking of?

785
01:06:30.880 --> 01:06:32.090
R. David (he/him): You, you.

786
01:06:32.090 --> 01:06:35.190
Rachel Rudansky: Oh, do I want to mention the four reasons?

787
01:06:35.190 --> 01:06:36.849
R. David (he/him): Yeah, read it. Go ahead.

788
01:06:36.850 --> 01:06:37.440
Rachel Rudansky: Oh, oh.

789
01:06:37.440 --> 01:06:38.090
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Oh, God.

790
01:06:38.090 --> 01:06:41.309
Rachel Rudansky: Read it. I'm sorry.

791
01:06:41.910 --> 01:06:42.939
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: That's the part.

792
01:06:42.940 --> 01:06:47.369
Rachel Rudansky: The top. Okay. Bar Kapara said to the name of Rev.

793
01:06:47.680 --> 01:07:02.139
Rachel Rudansky: Yirmiyah ben Elazer, the son of… the sons of Aaron, died for four reasons. The proximity, the offering, the strange fire, and for not seeking guidance from one another.

794
01:07:02.460 --> 01:07:07.330
Rachel Rudansky: the proximity that they didn't enter from within and without.

795
01:07:08.210 --> 01:07:14.540
Rachel Rudansky: the offering. They brought a carbon that they were not commanded.

796
01:07:14.730 --> 01:07:19.500
Rachel Rudansky: Strange fire. They entered with fire from the kitchen.

797
01:07:19.740 --> 01:07:28.100
Rachel Rudansky: For not taking guidance, as it is said in Leviticus 10.1, each took his fire pan.

798
01:07:28.230 --> 01:07:29.110
Rachel Rudansky: H.

799
01:07:30.690 --> 01:07:35.739
Rachel Rudansky: I'm sorry, each deciding for oneself, not seeking guidance from the other.

800
01:07:37.140 --> 01:07:39.060
Rachel Rudansky: Did I read that? Okay.

801
01:07:39.060 --> 01:07:40.260
R. David (he/him): You'd read it perfectly.

802
01:07:40.280 --> 01:07:42.370
Rachel Rudansky: I thought you were saying something. Okay.

803
01:07:42.370 --> 01:07:44.950
R. David (he/him): Nope, nope, nope Perfect!

804
01:07:45.060 --> 01:07:45.910
R. David (he/him): So…

805
01:07:45.910 --> 01:07:46.969
Rachel Rudansky: Good fire.

806
01:07:46.970 --> 01:08:04.019
R. David (he/him): So here's another tikkun. The daughters of Tzilafachad not only made a tikkun of Torah, not only made a tikkun for what Korach did when he went to Moses and said, hey, now, enough with you. Get out of here.

807
01:08:05.220 --> 01:08:15.679
R. David (he/him): Footnote, sometimes, Delia, one needs to do that. But now, the daughters of Salaf al-Khad are making a tikkun for the sons of…

808
01:08:16.189 --> 01:08:17.100
R. David (he/him): Aaron.

809
01:08:17.850 --> 01:08:18.550
Susan Phillips: Mmhm.

810
01:08:22.149 --> 01:08:24.419
Rachel Rudansky: Okay, say more about that, because I'm not seeing…

811
01:08:24.420 --> 01:08:32.029
R. David (he/him): The sons of Aaron each decided for one's own self. I'm going to go and.

812
01:08:32.359 --> 01:08:36.860
R. David (he/him): But the daughters of Salafachah took counsel together. They went together.

813
01:08:37.050 --> 01:08:40.369
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: They were, they were consultative, they were.

814
01:08:40.950 --> 01:08:46.280
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: collaborative in a way that Midrash imagines the sons were not.

815
01:08:47.010 --> 01:08:50.719
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And so, in choosing to be collaborative.

816
01:08:52.740 --> 01:09:01.250
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: They affected the, cosmic spiritual repair Non-collaborative actions of errant thoughts.

817
01:09:01.670 --> 01:09:03.160
Rachel Rudansky: Amen.

818
01:09:03.160 --> 01:09:06.739
R. David (he/him): Amen. In the interest of time.

819
01:09:06.870 --> 01:09:10.529
R. David (he/him): I am just quickly gonna just skip.

820
01:09:11.680 --> 01:09:16.329
R. David (he/him): And again, none of this should be highlighted. I don't know why it is.

821
01:09:16.649 --> 01:09:18.419
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Do you want to take us to the Dersh.

822
01:09:19.700 --> 01:09:22.269
R. David (he/him): We've got a little bit of time.

823
01:09:22.270 --> 01:09:22.920
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Thank you.

824
01:09:22.920 --> 01:09:28.689
R. David (he/him): We got women's commentary. Rivka, give me a second. The Dershuni isn't here, Bobby.

825
01:09:31.590 --> 01:09:40.830
R. David (he/him): We've got the Baba Batra, which we're going to skip just if in time. The Toldot Yitzchak, we're going to skip. Oh, this Yershuni. I'm so sorry.

826
01:09:41.410 --> 01:09:44.409
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: This is the… yeah, this was… I thought we would skip to this one.

827
01:09:44.689 --> 01:09:46.069
R. David (he/him): Of course, go for it.

828
01:09:46.270 --> 01:09:53.450
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Yofi, someone want to read Rivka Lubitz? This is from Dershuni, contemporary Israeli women's midrash.

829
01:09:55.020 --> 01:10:04.209
Susan Phillips: I'll be glad to Why at first were they called daughters of Selafchad, then only after by their names?

830
01:10:04.980 --> 01:10:06.940
Susan Phillips: Shadow and Terror.

831
01:10:08.640 --> 01:10:10.509
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Baal and Pakhat.

832
01:10:10.510 --> 01:10:11.560
Susan Phillips: Baghad.

833
01:10:12.210 --> 01:10:17.779
Susan Phillips: was in them at first. At first, they sat in their father's shadow, fearing to raise their heads.

834
01:10:17.920 --> 01:10:27.199
Susan Phillips: After the sisters became closer to each other, they strengthened each other to be known by their names, as in the daughters of Salaf Khad.

835
01:10:27.410 --> 01:10:30.850
Susan Phillips: Drew Close, and these are the names of his daughters.

836
01:10:32.720 --> 01:10:34.559
Susan Phillips: Do you want me to continue?

837
01:10:34.560 --> 01:10:36.849
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Pause there for just a moment, is…

838
01:10:37.830 --> 01:10:50.840
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Is it clear to everyone what Rivka is? What Lubitz is doing with the name here? Right? Taken the name and broken it into its pieces of shadow and fear.

839
01:10:51.720 --> 01:10:59.140
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And we don't hear that when we hear the Hebrew name Shalofkad, which we've been tripping over all morning. But for a native Hebrew speaker.

840
01:10:59.370 --> 01:11:04.599
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: You hear that shadow and fear are both hidden in his name.

841
01:11:05.950 --> 01:11:06.720
R. David (he/him): And and and.

842
01:11:06.720 --> 01:11:07.220
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: At the top.

843
01:11:07.220 --> 01:11:07.680
R. David (he/him): Even more.

844
01:11:07.680 --> 01:11:10.369
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: You're in shadow and fear.

845
01:11:10.940 --> 01:11:15.420
R. David (he/him): Yeah, even more than fear. Even more than fear. Pahad.

846
01:11:16.580 --> 01:11:18.280
R. David (he/him): is terror.

847
01:11:20.370 --> 01:11:22.599
R. David (he/him): It's, it's like fear plus.

848
01:11:26.410 --> 01:11:27.110
R. David (he/him): Okay.

849
01:11:27.230 --> 01:11:29.040
R. David (he/him): So, what was it like?

850
01:11:29.360 --> 01:11:32.869
R. David (he/him): From the very beginning, who talked about this? What was from that first poem?

851
01:11:33.450 --> 01:11:35.709
R. David (he/him): What was it like for them to do this?

852
01:11:39.980 --> 01:11:41.610
R. David (he/him): And then…

853
01:11:42.010 --> 01:11:42.690
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Oops.

854
01:11:44.370 --> 01:11:51.080
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: walking into this situation of asking for something that had never been asked for before.

855
01:11:53.530 --> 01:11:56.629
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And then all right, let's hear the let's see the second paragraph.

856
01:11:57.960 --> 01:11:58.900
R. David (he/him): I'm not asked.

857
01:12:04.590 --> 01:12:05.250
Susan Phillips: Okay.

858
01:12:06.360 --> 01:12:21.940
Susan Phillips: Tenot asked God if Zelophehad's daughters spoke the truth, why didn't you write that in your Torah in the first place? After all, you are truth, and your Torah is truth, and your word endures forever. God answered her.

859
01:12:21.940 --> 01:12:30.620
Susan Phillips: There is truth that descends from above, and there is truth that grows from below. Blessed is the generation in which truth from above

860
01:12:30.890 --> 01:12:35.070
Susan Phillips: meets truth from below, as in Psalms 85,

861
01:12:35.380 --> 01:12:41.600
Susan Phillips: 12. Truth will grow from the ground, and justice will look down from heaven.

862
01:12:44.090 --> 01:12:52.250
R. David (he/him): So, Nancy and Amy… When God answered her, you both smiled.

863
01:12:54.630 --> 01:12:56.950
R. David (he/him): Why did you both smile?

864
01:12:59.220 --> 01:13:01.659
R. David (he/him): What moved within you?

865
01:13:05.170 --> 01:13:05.940
Amy V: Oh, wow.

866
01:13:05.940 --> 01:13:11.939
Nancy Goody: I don't know why, but I kept thinking of Martin Luther King and justice will rise up like water.

867
01:13:12.790 --> 01:13:14.150
R. David (he/him): Rise up.

868
01:13:14.500 --> 01:13:15.630
Nancy Goody: Right, it just.

869
01:13:15.630 --> 01:13:16.740
R. David (he/him): Hot days.

870
01:13:16.740 --> 01:13:17.800
Nancy Goody: came to mind.

871
01:13:18.790 --> 01:13:20.969
R. David (he/him): Justice both descends.

872
01:13:21.480 --> 01:13:23.310
R. David (he/him): And rises up, Amy.

873
01:13:24.470 --> 01:13:37.370
Amy V: Well, since… since you called out Nancy and I, we've… we've been on the streets in many places with signs for many years now, so,

874
01:13:37.790 --> 01:13:40.189
Amy V: Reading this is very nourishing.

875
01:13:41.160 --> 01:13:43.230
Amy V: We've done a lot of work.

876
01:13:43.850 --> 01:13:45.919
Amy V: And have to do more.

877
01:13:47.200 --> 01:13:48.729
R. David (he/him): It's going out asks.

878
01:13:48.730 --> 01:13:52.510
Amy V: I just want to say nourishing again. This is very nourishing.

879
01:13:52.720 --> 01:13:53.600
R. David (he/him): Nourishing.

880
01:13:54.420 --> 01:13:55.410
R. David (he/him): Torah.

881
01:13:56.630 --> 01:14:01.780
R. David (he/him): Hey, God, if this is what you meant in the first place, why didn't Torah say it in the first place?

882
01:14:01.980 --> 01:14:11.349
R. David (he/him): Hey, if capital punishment is supposed to be banned by Jewish life, what's it doing in Torah?

883
01:14:13.930 --> 01:14:19.909
R. David (he/him): And the answer over and over again is what we've been saying. Tor is not finished.

884
01:14:20.470 --> 01:14:23.509
R. David (he/him): Within the four corners of Torah.

885
01:14:23.950 --> 01:14:30.940
R. David (he/him): Either explicitly like the daughters of Zalafahad or within the words as we see, as we've seen elsewhere.

886
01:14:33.390 --> 01:14:35.450
R. David (he/him): Is the call for us.

887
01:14:35.940 --> 01:14:43.640
R. David (he/him): To repair, to complete Torah, not by totally changing it, but by evolving it from within itself.

888
01:14:44.920 --> 01:14:52.349
R. David (he/him): In this respect, Midrash and Jewish law aren't anything-goes, there are rules, but there's this implicit

889
01:14:52.510 --> 01:15:00.420
R. David (he/him): Call for us to finish it. The daughters of Salafakad had to say what they had to say, which means that.

890
01:15:00.670 --> 01:15:05.660
R. David (he/him): Torah had to be the way it was originally given, which means

891
01:15:06.560 --> 01:15:12.169
R. David (he/him): That the injustices and the imperfections are not to be taken as at face value.

892
01:15:12.920 --> 01:15:19.710
R. David (he/him): But they call for us to engage. There's our agency piece. There's Cheryl's piece about it wasn't on Moses to do.

893
01:15:21.350 --> 01:15:30.949
R. David (he/him): It's on Nancy to do, and Amy to do, and Joan to do, and David to do, and it's on… it's on all of us to do. In a sense, we're all the daughters of Zlachad.

894
01:15:31.230 --> 01:15:31.850
Susan Phillips: We all…

895
01:15:31.850 --> 01:15:34.600
R. David (he/him): All start out in this place of shadow and terror and then.

896
01:15:42.200 --> 01:15:45.550
R. David (he/him): Has any social change come any other way ever?

897
01:15:50.290 --> 01:15:52.809
R. David (he/him): What's in the room now? It is the 4th of July

898
01:15:59.400 --> 01:16:00.510
R. David (he/him): What's in the room?

899
01:16:05.390 --> 01:16:08.389
R. David (he/him): There were feels, there were thinks, what's in the room? Cheryl.

900
01:16:08.950 --> 01:16:10.860
Sherrill Cropper: Potential liberation.

901
01:16:11.510 --> 01:16:19.279
R. David (he/him): and liberation. Well, is that not all of Torah's mission and call? We are the daughters and sons of liberated slaves.

902
01:16:23.990 --> 01:16:26.250
R. David (he/him): Keep it coming. What's in the room?

903
01:16:27.300 --> 01:16:28.170
R. David (he/him): Rachel.

904
01:16:28.170 --> 01:16:30.369
Rachel Rudansky: We have to work together.

905
01:16:30.610 --> 01:16:46.150
Rachel Rudansky: I just came from a week of improv for democracy. and we had so much fun, and we did so much good work and so much learning about how we can work together and enjoy the process.

906
01:16:46.600 --> 01:16:47.110
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

907
01:16:47.110 --> 01:16:47.800
Deliah: Yes.

908
01:16:48.120 --> 01:16:49.700
R. David (he/him): Nice. Delia.

909
01:16:50.340 --> 01:17:04.810
Deliah: I love that. I pray for my lessons to come through joy. They're lessons, they're challenging, but I'm also gonna say the liberation is together, but it's in the inner us that's… it's the inner.

910
01:17:05.040 --> 01:17:09.329
Deliah: Liberation that… Allows us to make the togetherness.

911
01:17:11.140 --> 01:17:11.940
R. David (he/him): Nice.

912
01:17:12.630 --> 01:17:14.299
R. David (he/him): Anything else in the room?

913
01:17:21.940 --> 01:17:22.910
R. David (he/him): Tyrus.

914
01:17:23.570 --> 01:17:38.119
Iris Barten: I have a lot of feelings about this. I'm just thinking about the name Talaf Bahad that was the father's name, and it came from… Yeah. …else, right? So it's maybe intergenerational shadow and terror, and…

915
01:17:39.930 --> 01:17:46.310
Iris Barten: He was living that also, and then the daughters were brave enough to change it.

916
01:17:46.430 --> 01:17:47.660
R. David (he/him): Oh.

917
01:17:48.060 --> 01:17:48.720
Iris Barten: Yep.

918
01:17:51.330 --> 01:17:52.180
R. David (he/him): Nice.

919
01:17:52.460 --> 01:17:53.120
Iris Barten: No.

920
01:17:53.200 --> 01:17:58.250
R. David (he/him): What we have inherited, what we have received is not the end of the story.

921
01:17:59.000 --> 01:17:59.680
Iris Barten: Mmhm.

922
01:18:00.650 --> 01:18:01.330
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

923
01:18:01.680 --> 01:18:08.750
R. David (he/him): And now come all the hands. Delius Susan. I want to make sure we have time for these three little teachings at the end. They're great.

924
01:18:08.750 --> 01:18:16.729
Deliah: And back to the Hebrew word for neighbor, love the neighbor as yourself is love your shadow self and love your connection to the divine.

925
01:18:16.900 --> 01:18:20.869
Deliah: So however you approach it or in all directions, yeah.

926
01:18:20.870 --> 01:18:27.019
R. David (he/him): There's some code in there, but absolutely. Absolutely. Who just had their hand up?

927
01:18:27.660 --> 01:18:32.639
Susan Phillips: I did, but I'd rather make sure that we had time to do the other stuff.

928
01:18:32.820 --> 01:18:35.910
R. David (he/him): Okay, alright, we have Ellen Frankel.

929
01:18:36.770 --> 01:18:41.689
R. David (he/him): We've made a practice of doing the midrash and then showing, showing the math, right?

930
01:18:42.980 --> 01:18:46.219
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, are you in, airspace now?

931
01:18:47.100 --> 01:18:50.969
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I am. I am. Want me to read the Ellen Frankel.

932
01:18:51.330 --> 01:18:56.479
R. David (he/him): Well, I'm just seeing, you know, I've been doing a lot of talking, you've been in and out, so.

933
01:18:56.480 --> 01:18:59.710
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I think I've got, yes, the bars are back up, so maybe I'.

934
01:18:59.710 --> 01:19:02.790
R. David (he/him): Okay, yeah, alright, I'm gonna go mute for the rest.

935
01:19:03.760 --> 01:19:06.660
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: All right. Actually, does someone want to read the Helen Franke.

936
01:19:09.910 --> 01:19:29.420
Brett Chinn: The rabbis teach Zalef Behad's daughters pursue their claim to their father's inheritance because they believe that God's love is not like the love of a mortal father. The latter prefers his sons to his daughter, but the one who created the world extends divine love to women as well as men.

937
01:19:29.810 --> 01:19:44.090
Brett Chinn: God's tender mercies are on all God's works. In fact, so wise, pious, and learned are these five daughters that they choose to remain unmarried for 40 years because they cannot find suitable partners.

938
01:19:44.560 --> 01:19:53.140
Brett Chinn: The sages in our own time suggest, no, this story justifies why women were later permitted to inherit land within a patriarchal system.

939
01:19:53.520 --> 01:20:10.240
Brett Chinn: Berea, the scholar counters, or we understand this story as a valuable lesson for us all, teaching us that Jewish law has the flexibility to expand and embrace women, giving us increasingly more rights and a fairer share of our common legacy.

940
01:20:11.000 --> 01:20:20.890
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So that first little graph, the rabbis teach all of those different midrash that Frankl cites, we have taken a look at today. So we've seen where those ideas come from.

941
01:20:21.170 --> 01:20:24.320
R. David (he/him): Yeah, we took out a long mid-rush,

942
01:20:24.320 --> 01:20:28.860
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: There's a long piece of Talmud in the middle. You can look at it on your own Oh.

943
01:20:28.860 --> 01:20:37.009
R. David (he/him): Yeah, the piece on Salaf Khan's daughters not being married. Ellen Ruth predicted that. Well done, Ellen Ruth.

944
01:20:37.010 --> 01:20:38.170
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Absolutely.

945
01:20:38.860 --> 01:20:41.050
R. David (he/him): Yep. Women's Torah contest.

946
01:20:43.230 --> 01:20:45.789
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Alright, who wants to take women's tour commentary?

947
01:20:48.720 --> 01:21:05.050
Amy V: Give us a holding. The language is bold. Note the absence of any polite, petitionary language equivalent to please. Instead, the women use the commanding imperative, give, among our father's kinsmen.

948
01:21:05.250 --> 01:21:17.490
Amy V: As some rabbinic sages note, the women make clear their desire to remain connected to community and family. This statement adds moral force to their request.

949
01:21:17.970 --> 01:21:23.440
Amy V: The plea of Zalafahad's daughter is just.

950
01:21:24.220 --> 01:21:34.620
Amy V: Daughters is just. God responds with emphatic approval, literally. Rightly, the daughters of Zalafahad speak.

951
01:21:34.920 --> 01:21:38.790
Amy V: Give them a hereditary holding among their father's kinsmen.

952
01:21:39.090 --> 01:21:56.360
Amy V: God issues two related demands. First, God decrees that the leaders grant the women's request. God's language practically repeats that of the daughters, emphasizing that their petition be fulfilled in accordance with their request.

953
01:21:56.700 --> 01:22:10.249
Amy V: God adds that this land be given to them as hereditary. They not only get a holding, Ahuza, but receive land that they can bestow as an inheritance on others, Nahala.

954
01:22:10.250 --> 01:22:10.730
Nancy Goody: Okay.

955
01:22:10.980 --> 01:22:21.570
Amy V: The women who sought to ensure that their father's name not be written out of history now enter history themselves by gaining a legacy of land and law.

956
01:22:22.150 --> 01:22:22.920
Nancy Goody: Hmmm.

957
01:22:24.680 --> 01:22:26.750
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: So it's, it's noteworthy.

958
01:22:26.970 --> 01:22:31.490
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: How much they receive, and how much God grants.

959
01:22:31.940 --> 01:22:38.810
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And that they become not only holders of the inheritance, but part of the chain of inheritance, right?

960
01:22:38.810 --> 01:22:39.250
Nancy Goody: Sweet.

961
01:22:39.250 --> 01:22:41.490
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: receiving and bestowing

962
01:22:42.500 --> 01:22:48.880
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: of course, is a lovely metaphor for us as students of Torah, who both receive and bestow

963
01:22:49.340 --> 01:22:50.550
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: what we learn.

964
01:22:51.830 --> 01:22:55.000
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: The last thing we've got here is Richard Elliott Friedman.

965
01:22:55.550 --> 01:22:57.080
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Somebody want to take this one?

966
01:22:57.750 --> 01:22:58.300
R. David (he/him): It's.

967
01:22:58.300 --> 01:23:15.309
Deliah: Management is an important step in the development of women's rights, but its message is mixed. On one hand, it says women can inherit property and their right of inheritance precedes the rights of their father's male siblings or other male relatives.

968
01:23:15.420 --> 01:23:31.419
Deliah: On the other hand, this applies only if their father had no sons. If a father had even one son and 10 daughters, the son inherits the family land. The daughters are dependent on that brother or on their husbands for property.

969
01:23:32.020 --> 01:23:36.380
Deliah: The Torah does not command a revolution in the status of women.

970
01:23:36.520 --> 01:23:49.440
Deliah: It provides for steps such as this one, in which in the short run established that women do have rights, and which ultimately participated in the development of women's rights more generally.

971
01:23:49.700 --> 01:23:56.239
Deliah: We can praise the Bible for how far it went, or we can be critical that it did not go farther.

972
01:23:56.240 --> 01:23:57.130
Nancy Goody: But we…

973
01:23:57.130 --> 01:24:08.569
Deliah: We would do better to examine how far it went in its age and how much this contributed to the transformation in the balance between men and women in the millennium that followed.

974
01:24:08.910 --> 01:24:09.490
Nancy Goody: Okay.

975
01:24:11.740 --> 01:24:14.230
R. David (he/him): Is it crumbs? Some say yes.

976
01:24:15.050 --> 01:24:16.360
R. David (he/him): Some say no.

977
01:24:19.770 --> 01:24:20.330
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Is it enough.

978
01:24:20.330 --> 01:24:21.020
R. David (he/him): I…

979
01:24:21.020 --> 01:24:23.629
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Some say yes, some say no.

980
01:24:24.590 --> 01:24:25.810
Deliah: It's a process.

981
01:24:26.080 --> 01:24:26.809
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: It's in.

982
01:24:26.810 --> 01:24:27.520
R. David (he/him): process.

983
01:24:27.520 --> 01:24:32.290
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: If we see it as a process, if we see it as a link in the chain.

984
01:24:32.710 --> 01:24:39.989
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Not the destination, but moving us further, like bending that arc a little further toward justice.

985
01:24:41.690 --> 01:24:46.940
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: With knowledge that that work of justice is always ours to do.

986
01:24:48.560 --> 01:24:49.200
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And then we…

987
01:24:49.200 --> 01:24:50.020
R. David (he/him): No, the…

988
01:24:50.180 --> 01:24:54.280
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: Things that came before us have never yet gotten it all the way right.

989
01:24:55.500 --> 01:25:01.850
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And we will do our best, and the generations that come after us will look back and say they didn't get it all the way right either.

990
01:25:03.230 --> 01:25:04.850
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: And we're gonna keep trying!

991
01:25:06.180 --> 01:25:09.080
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I can't think of a better…

992
01:25:09.310 --> 01:25:13.089
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: place to wrap up our Torah study on this 4th of July.

993
01:25:13.940 --> 01:25:19.409
R. David (he/him): There are a couple of hands in the room. We've got a few minutes. Ellen, Ruth, and Delia.

994
01:25:19.410 --> 01:25:22.349
Rabbi Rachel Barenblat: I'm gonna duck out because we are approaching shitty limits.

995
01:25:22.350 --> 01:25:23.250
Ellen Ruth Topol: Yes.

996
01:25:23.480 --> 01:25:25.269
R. David (he/him): Go, go, hang on, Ellen R.

997
01:25:25.270 --> 01:25:26.160
Ellen Ruth Topol: Slide.

998
01:25:26.160 --> 01:25:26.720
R. David (he/him): Hang on.

999
01:25:26.720 --> 01:25:27.130
Ellen Ruth Topol: Okay.

1000
01:25:27.130 --> 01:25:31.999
R. David (he/him): Hang on, Ellen Ruth. Wait a minute, please. Please wait a moment. Wait. Please wait.

1001
01:25:32.360 --> 01:25:41.169
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, thank you, Shabbat Shalom. A couple of quick announcements before we turn off the recording, and then Ellen, Ruth, and Delia, I'll call on you.

1002
01:25:41.550 --> 01:25:43.469
R. David (he/him): We are on the next week.

1003
01:25:43.590 --> 01:25:49.470
R. David (he/him): We will open. We will close the book of Numbers. We are on the following week.

1004
01:25:49.640 --> 01:25:52.089
R. David (he/him): When we were open the book of Deuteronomy.

1005
01:25:52.220 --> 01:26:01.999
R. David (he/him): After that, incredibly, we reach Tisha B'Av. There will be commemorations at both communities on different days.

1006
01:26:02.380 --> 01:26:07.129
R. David (he/him): And then we shift into the High Holiday series.

1007
01:26:07.220 --> 01:26:23.939
R. David (he/him): on the spirituality and spiritual imagery of Core Highology Liturgies. It is free for members of both communities. There is a charge if you are a guest, so please register if you are interested.

1008
01:26:24.690 --> 01:26:26.460
R. David (he/him): It feels odd.

1009
01:26:27.040 --> 01:26:29.139
R. David (he/him): For us to be.

1010
01:26:29.260 --> 01:26:46.039
R. David (he/him): talking about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and all of that. We're having a heat wave in the Northeast. It feels very early. And yet, we're starting to see the injustices, the imperfections, the turning back on ourselves. It's time.

1011
01:26:47.390 --> 01:26:47.770
Deliah: Okay.

1012
01:26:47.770 --> 01:26:48.700
R. David (he/him): It's time.

1013
01:26:49.030 --> 01:26:56.769
R. David (he/him): So I bless us with a Shabbat of justice and righteousness.

1014
01:26:57.400 --> 01:27:04.429
R. David (he/him): I bless us with a Shabbat of making space for the voices we don't usually hear.

1015
01:27:06.400 --> 01:27:10.470
R. David (he/him): I am going to put in the chat box again.

1016
01:27:10.470 --> 01:27:28.289
R. David (he/him): the document, although it's got some highlights, I will correct it on the website. I will turn off the recording now, and we'll start with Ellen Ruth, Delia, and Iris. Shabbat Shalom, everyone. Thank you for being with us, and we'll see you again.

