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R. Rachel: Good morning, everyone. Good Shabbos. It is the 11th of July. It is the 26th of Tammuz, and we are here in Parashat Matot Masei, where we will have, I think, some fun conversations about vows.

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R. Rachel: an invitation to put in the chat box the names of anyone for whom you're praying for healing.

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R. Rachel: We lift them up. We hold them in our hearts.

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R. Rachel: And before we make our bracha, a reminder, we're in the three weeks, this period of semi-morning leading up to Tisha B'Av.

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R. Rachel: And during this time, tradition says we're a little bit…

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R. Rachel: maybe out of sync, or shifted a little bit further away from God, or away from access or connection to that force which we name as God, and so everything is…

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R. Rachel: shifted over a little bit, and that's why in our source sheets and in our blessing this morning, you'll see that Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh has transformed

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R. Rachel: to what some of us will vocalize as Todd Hud.

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R. Rachel: But it's just another way of saying Adonai, of saying Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, just Adonai

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R. Rachel: Baruch atah tadhad, Elohinu melech ha'olam asher kitshanu b'mitzvotav b'tzivanu la'asok b'divrei Torah Blessed are you.

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R. Rachel: Tud Hud, our God, eternal sovereign.

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R. Rachel: You sanctify us in connecting command, and command us to immerse ourselves in words of Torah.

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R. Rachel: So I know the thing we all most want to be thinking about right now in the height of midsummer is the high holidays.

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R. Rachel: Some of you were looking at me funny.

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R. Rachel: Our Torah portion this week comes…

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R. Rachel: As though it were a cosmic reminder that the high holidays are coming.

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R. Rachel: and that maybe it's time to take a look at our actions and our words and our choices.

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R. Rachel: And this week's Parsha will have a lot to say about vows.

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R. Rachel: So our opening today.

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R. Rachel: Takes us forward in time to Kolnidre.

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R. Rachel: Would anyone like to read this poem by Rick Lupert?

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Meredith (she/her): I would like to.

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Diana Rico: Go ahead, go ahead.

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Meredith (she/her): I heard Cole Nidre on a violin tonight.

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Meredith (she/her): They should take all legal documents and set them to music.

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Meredith (she/her): All vows, this legal document, written in unholy language, a prenuptial agreement, For our inevitable failing.

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Meredith (she/her): This relationship with the year, whoops, the year itself, a contract awaiting the biggest signature.

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Meredith (she/her): Every promise I make, a guaranteed broken one, between today and a year's worth of Jewish days from now, the next time the shofar is dusted off, we'll have this conversation again.

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Meredith (she/her): Forgive me this year, and last year, and next. Forgive everyone who ever stood at the mountain. Forgive our promises, our oaths, our vows, all vows. You made the whole world, and on this day and every day, you knew this would happen.

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Meredith (she/her): Pardon me, please.

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R. Rachel: Mmhm.

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R. David (he/him): We're going to talk a lot about vows today.

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R. David (he/him): And we're going to talk about vows using the words That we will hear later.

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R. David (he/him): There's a nether… Ko Nidre.

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R. David (he/him): There's a sheva, which is the number 7, but it also means an oath.

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R. David (he/him): Push it forward.

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R. David (he/him): And there's an assure.

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R. David (he/him): Konnichiwa, the SRA

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R. David (he/him): An obligation, a prohibition, a way that we restrict ourselves or bind ourselves to what we say.

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R. David (he/him): Over and over and over and over and over.

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R. David (he/him): So before we even read the Torah portion or the excerpt, just let it wash over you.

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R. David (he/him): Don't read!

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R. David (he/him): Just look.

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R. Rachel: What is the colors?

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R. David (he/him): Just.

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R. Rachel: Highlighted.

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R. David (he/him): Just take it in.

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R. David (he/him): Subtle it is not.

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R. David (he/him): Boom! Boom! Boom!

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R. David (he/him): Before you read, what are the emotions in the room?

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R. David (he/him): Call them out.

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R. David (he/him): You haven't read, don't read, all you see are colored boxes.

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Diana Rico: restriction.

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R. David (he/him): Keep it coming.

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Jill Schneiderman: Heaviness.

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R. David (he/him): Yep.

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Rachel Rudansky: Guidance.

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R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

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Deliah: Strange anticipation.

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R. David (he/him): strange anticipation.

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Sherrill Cropper: Importance.

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R. David (he/him): Importance.

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Rachel Rudansky: Elusive obviousness.

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R. David (he/him): Elusive obviousness.

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R. Rachel: Hmm, okay.

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Jill Schneiderman: Solemnity.

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R. David (he/him): Solemnity?

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Iris: There's like a pattern to me that seems almost punctuated because the paragraphs are similar in form, not identical.

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R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

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Iris: Mmm.

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R. David (he/him): Okay.

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R. David (he/him): Okay.

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R. David (he/him): Now that we're reading it.

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R. Rachel: Nine little bricks of text.

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R. David (he/him): Little bricks.

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R. David (he/him): Let's do what we do, everybody. Go ahead.

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R. Rachel: Just unmute and read a couple verses.

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R. David (he/him): Drop some knowledge.

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Nancy Goody: Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel, saying, This is what Tadha commanded. If a man makes a vow or oath to Tadha.

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Nancy Goody: Obligating his soul, then he must not break his word, he must do all that came from his mouth.

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Deliah: If a woman makes a vow to TDHD, obligating herself while in her father's household in her youth.

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Deliah: And her father hears her vow or obligation on her soul, and stayed silent to her, then all her vows must stand, and every obligation on her soul must stand.

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R. Rachel: Somebody's got to take verse six.

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Sherrill Cropper: But if her father restrains her on the day he hears her, then none of her vows and obligations on her soul will stand.

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Sherrill Cropper: And Adonai will forgive her since her father restrained her.

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Iris: Okay, sure.

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Rachel Rudansky: Yep.

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Iris: Okay, go ahead, Rachel.

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Rachel Rudansky: If she has a husband.

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Rachel Rudansky: When she takes on her vow, even a rash utterance of which she obligated her soul, the husband hears his wife, and he stayed silent on her on the day he heard it.

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Rachel Rudansky: Then her vow must stand, and the obligation on her soul must stand.

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Iris: But if her husband restrains her on the day he hears it.

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Iris: Then her vow is held back from upon her.

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Iris: Even the rash utterance by which she obligated her soul, And Todd will forgive her.

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Iris: Okay.

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Jill Schneiderman: of the vow of a widow or divorcee all she obligates on her soul must stand and if while in her husband's house she made a vow or oath obligating her soul her husband heard it and stayed silent to her and did not restrain her then all her vows must stand and all her obligations on her soul must stand.

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R. Rachel: Verse 13.

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R. David (he/him): But if her husband held them back on the day he hears, then nothing came from her lips will stand, whether vows or obligations on her soul. Her husband held them back, and Adonai will forgive her.

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Diana Rico: Every vow and every oath of obligation to afflict the soul, her husband may uphold or restrain.

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Diana Rico: If her husband stays silent to it from that day to the next.

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Diana Rico: He upheld every vow or obligation on her. He upheld them by staying silent to her on the day he heard it.

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R. David (he/him): What?

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R. Rachel: But if he held them back after the day he heard, then he will bear her iniquity. These are the laws Adonai commanded Moshe between a husband and his wife, between a father and his daughter while in her father's household in her youth.

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R. Rachel: So,

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R. Rachel: What pops for us?

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R. Rachel: What says Darshani? Explain me, or make this make sense.

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Deliah: Just don't let your husband or father hear you when you say it.

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R. Rachel: Okay, maybe the answer is… Say it where he can't hear.

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Iris: And…

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Iris: there. It's like there has to be an intermediary or someone to hear that there isn't the same agency for a woman to say what she wants about her commitment.

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Iris: Unless it's validated.

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R. Rachel: Mmm.

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Iris: That's what it feels like.

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R. Rachel: Right. So there's a question of agency. Who has agency? Do we have it?

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R. Rachel: Them.

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R. Rachel: And if we have it, As women, when do we have it?

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R. Rachel: Yep, I like gaming the system by vowing outside male presence, male ears.

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R. Rachel: Alright, what else we got?

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Amy V: Sounds like authority without any discernment, really.

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R. Rachel: Mmm.

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Amy V: Maybe… The man supposedly has some discernment and can pass judgment, but a widow or divorcee, Hers just stands.

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R. Rachel: You know, isn't it great? My vows are fine. I'.

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Amy V: Right. I mean, it makes being a widow or divorcee look good, right?

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R. Rachel: Well, which…

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Amy V: Testing.

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R. Rachel: Anyways, when you think about the amount of agency granted to women in antiquity, And.

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R. Rachel: Makes a certain kind of sense.

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Sherrill Cropper: Can we look at seven, eight, and 13?

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R. Rachel: 7, 8, and 13. All right, so 7, 8.

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Sherrill Cropper: Husband?

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Sherrill Cropper: when she takes on her vow, even rash utterance by which is obligated, the husband hears the wife and stayed silent on the day he heard it. Then it stands, which is what it says about the father as well.

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R. Rachel: Mmhm.

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Sherrill Cropper: Here's, it doesn't say anything versus here's, it says something.

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Sherrill Cropper: And then 13, but if a husband held back on the date, He hears.

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Sherrill Cropper: then nothing that came from her lips will stand.

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R. Rachel: But they're.

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Sherrill Cropper: Am I… am I reading this incorrectly, or do they say opposite things for the same situation?

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R. Rachel: I think what I understand the plain text to be saying is if she has a husband and he hears it, but he doesn't say anything to her, then the vow stands.

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R. Rachel: Right.

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R. Rachel: If.

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Sherrill Cropper: Her husband…

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R. Rachel: Holds back her vow on the day that he hears it.

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R. Rachel: So if, if, if…

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R. Rachel: Imagine, Plooney, the husband, hears his wife making a vow, and immediately says, - that's not gonna… no, you can't do that.

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Sherrill Cropper: So hold back doesn't mean doesn't say anything.

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R. Rachel: No, I think means holds back her words.

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Sherrill Cropper: Denies.

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Sherrill Cropper: Those words for her.

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R. Rachel: I think that's how I would read that and hang on now I'm looking.

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R. Rachel: at the Hebrew to see if it makes anything any clearer.

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R. David (he/him): Yeah, that'.

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Diana Rico: That's how I understood it.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, I think that is correct. So it'.

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Sherrill Cropper: I…

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R. Rachel: If there's a husband and he hears her make a vow.

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R. Rachel: If he speaks up immediately and says no, then the vow is canceled. But if he stays quiet.

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R. Rachel: If he holds back his own possible objection.

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R. Rachel: Then he loses the right to tell her what to do.

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Jill Schneiderman: Mmh.

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R. David (he/him): I was expecting some more feels than this.

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Sherrill Cropper: It's repeating things. Well, we don't have to like it, but I mean, how many times can we just be feministically annoyed?

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Diana Rico: Yeah, we're used to this. This is nothing new.

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Sherrill Cropper: The whole purpose of…

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Diana Rico: This is how we live.

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Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, five, but this is life.

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R. Rachel: Add the phrase, how many times can we be feministically annoyed?

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Sherrill Cropper: Yes.

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R. Rachel: That's my new favorite phrase.

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Sherrill Cropper: You like it.

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R. Rachel: I do.

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Sherrill Cropper: You may use it.

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Sherrill Cropper: So…

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Sherrill Cropper: However, here where it repeats the father and then the husband, it does not say that about the father holding back.

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Sherrill Cropper: Just the.

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R. Rachel: That's it.

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Sherrill Cropper: In this particular case.

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R. Rachel: So there seems to be a difference, right? In both of those cases, the woman seems to be… Subject?

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Sherrill Cropper: Tom, yeah.

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R. Rachel: To male authority, but it seems to be different when it's the dad versus when it's the husband.

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R. Rachel: Or maybe different when she's up.

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Sherrill Cropper: Back.

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R. Rachel: Difference when she's a minor versus when she's an adult.

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R. Rachel: Maybe.

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R. Rachel: Is one way we might do that.

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Sherrill Cropper: I got married back then, so I don.

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R. Rachel: Oh, that's also true. Oh, good, the hands are popping. Ellen Ruth and then.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: I have a few questions.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: How? How are these rules getting passed on to the people?

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Ellen Ruth Topol: How do, how do they know this is?

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R. Rachel: So at the very beginning up here, Moshe spoke to the heads of the tribes. So Moshe is saying this to all of the tribes.

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R. Rachel: Chiefs, if you will, and then they each go back to their tribes and promulgate it to the community.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: And then every time you make a vow, do you have to say it out loud so that other people are hearing you?

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R. Rachel: That's a great question. Does this presume that vows must be allowed?

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R. Rachel: If I make a silent promise, does it count?

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R. Rachel: That's a great question.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: And I have one other thing to say. I keep on thinking about the idea of up until you're 13, all the sins that you do get passed back to your parents. They don't stick on to you.

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R. Rachel: I love that.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: Yeah. Okay.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: So that being said, when I think about husbands or fathers get the opportunity to say, well, you know, we restrain you, you can't make that vow. It feels so like they're making you childlike.

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R. Rachel: Absolutely. And there's an open question, maybe, as to whether

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R. Rachel: in some ways, it's appropriate for a child to be childlike, and for a parent sometimes to say, like, no, you can't have ice cream for breakfast. I don't care what you promised your best friend, I'm not doing that for you, right?

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R. Rachel: Feels very different from… A grown woman making a vow.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: And then I guess I have one last thing to say. When I'm looking at all of this, it makes me angry.

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R. Rachel: Shamati, I hear you. I think we all do.

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R. Rachel: the…

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R. David (he/him): Hang on to it. It's gonna come.

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R. Rachel: Yep, we've got goodies for you today. Meredith, what do you got?

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Meredith (she/her): I don't know if I have anything. I just… I just am like, why is it… well, that nobody's…

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Meredith (she/her): invalidating or validating a man's vow. It's just the women who… it's contingent on the attention of whether it be the father or the husband, and

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Meredith (she/her): Well, I don't hear… I don't see anything about their vows.

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Meredith (she/her): Nobody weighs in on those. Am I missing something?

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Meredith (she/her): Oh.

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R. David (he/him): Nope.

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Meredith (she/her): Okay.

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R. David (he/him): Sometimes it's worth saying the quiet thing out loud, Rachel Radansky.

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Rachel Rudansky: Well, we're just getting a few pieces of text here, and I don't. I always kind of feel like, well, there's no context. We're just commenting on a few pieces of text, and

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Rachel Rudansky: I… I… I don't find that

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Rachel Rudansky: I don't feel that that's a ripening of an opinion that can come from this.

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R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

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Rachel Rudansky: So,

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R. David (he/him): So legit, the context, this is the very beginning of Parshat Matot before it.

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R. David (he/him): They were talking about,

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R. David (he/him): Some of the physical sacrifices, physical offerings of the holiday cycle, so there's a disconnect.

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R. David (he/him): It isn't the same subject, this is a new subject, and then after these pieces.

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R. David (he/him): The people go to war.

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R. David (he/him): Against the Midianites.

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R. Rachel: I…

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R. David (he/him): So does that help, Rachel? Does that hur.

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Rachel Rudansky: It doesn't, it doesn't help because we.

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R. David (he/him): No.

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Rachel Rudansky: Well, we have a whole Torah here.

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R. David (he/him): -Hu.

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Rachel Rudansky: And,

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R. David (he/him): Okay.

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Rachel Rudansky: What last week I've left with all week is, well, if the Torah can change.

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Rachel Rudansky: and it was written incorrectly. What makes us a whole uphold all of this.

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Rachel Rudansky: it makes you question whether this is also designed by people, and not the Word of God. And if it isn't the Word of God, why waste our time on it? We know what people do.

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R. David (he/him): Or it was the Word of God, and there's something in here calling us to shift it in partnership. Or this was the society at the time where women could never make vows, period, end.

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R. David (he/him): And what ancient Judaism did is say, all right, we're going to start with that sociological system.

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R. David (he/him): And then give men one shot.

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R. David (he/him): You can't obliterate the vowel in two weeks. You have to do it right away.

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R. Rachel: Is this an incremental beginning at change? I want to lift up in the chat box, a couple of people are pointing out, what is it about vows needing to be audible?

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R. Rachel: And why wouldn't a silent vow that one makes in, you know, if I make a vow in one's heart, why doesn't that count?

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R. David (he/him): And…

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R. Rachel: I want to add, maybe does that have something to do with,

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R. Rachel: with the way that when we make confession, when we say the Vidui.

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R. Rachel: we have to do it out loud, right? That's one of the first steps of teshuvah, is saying, oh, I screwed up.

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R. Rachel: So what is it about speech and hearing?

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R. David (he/him): Shalom.

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R. David (he/him): Bhagadnu. We do it out loud. We all can hear it. Cheryl's raising her hand.

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R. David (he/him): You need to unmute. There you go.

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Sherrill Cropper: Takes a moment.

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Sherrill Cropper: I, I'm a fawn. I'm fond of silent, direct connection, vows and conversation.

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Sherrill Cropper: However, I started thinking that

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Sherrill Cropper: With all this talk of saying it out loud, that when we say it out loud, we need to use our breath.

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Sherrill Cropper: And breath is the beginning of creation.

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Sherrill Cropper: you know, things get spoken into being.

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R. David (he/him): You said that last week, too.

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Sherrill Cropper: Yes. So when I heard that this about being allowed.

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Sherrill Cropper: as opposed to silent. That's what came to my mind.

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Sherrill Cropper: Again, I'm fond of the private connection.

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R. David (he/him): Huh?

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R. David (he/him): A vow is something that is between us and the sacred but also is unfolded sociologically.

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R. David (he/him): So help me God.

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R. Rachel: In modern parlance, we don't speak about vows much.

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R. Rachel: Outside the context of wedding vows.

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R. Rachel: But think about the way that the speech that happens in a wedding changes the state of reality.

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R. Rachel: Before it, you weren't married, and after it, you are. The words… Change something.

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R. Rachel: Or at least they're supposed to.

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R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

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R. Rachel: It's more solemn than, it's more, more weighty.

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R. Rachel: Kind of speech.

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R. David (he/him): More than a promise.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, it it's more than a promise. It's a It's a vow.

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Rachel Rudansky: Well, we have modern terms, right? Like contracts and.

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Rachel Rudansky: No way.

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R. Rachel: Ancients, well, so did our ancestors, right?

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Rachel Rudansky: So we're making vows all the time, right? To drive in the proper way and to follow the law.

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R. David (he/him): Oh, that's the question, right? Is that a foul?

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R. Rachel: Or is that a part of a A Brit?

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R. David (he/him): Covenant.

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R. Rachel: secular. We have a secular covenant that I to to…

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R. Rachel: Drive on the correct side of the road and not steal things.

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R. David (he/him): here's the basic understanding that I have, and then I'll call on Deanna. What's the difference between a promise and a covenant? A promise is, hey, American Express, if you give me the credit card.

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R. David (he/him): I'll pay the bill.

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R. David (he/him): But I don't really care if you respect me, I don't care if you like me.

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R. David (he/him): I don't need to live in community with you.

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R. David (he/him): My emotional or spiritual reality doesn't depend on you, American Express. If it does, please stay after, we'll talk.

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R. David (he/him): A covenant is different.

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R. David (he/him): A covenant is promise plus relationship.

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R. David (he/him): Where it matters to the relationship if the promise is kept or not.

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R. David (he/him): Where the covenant Is what enfolds the promise.

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R. David (he/him): That's different. And a vow… Is, I'm putting myself on the line.

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R. David (he/him): American Express can sue me if I don't pay, but if I break my vow.

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R. David (he/him): I feel different about myself. Community feels different about me.

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R. David (he/him): The covenantal…

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R. David (he/him): relationship person in which that vow unfolds may feel different about me. Society may feel different about me, so help me God, and I lie on the stand. Boy, that's a big deal.

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R. David (he/him): That's more than I promised to tell the truth.

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R. David (he/him): So it's degrees, and it's relationship, and it's context.

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R. David (he/him): This is not about promises, this is about Thou's.

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R. David (he/him): Core relationship with the covenantal.

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R. David (he/him): Well, you'll have to suss it out.

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R. David (he/him): Does that help a little bit?

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R. David (he/him): So I'm yeah, so I'm I'm seeing this.

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R. David (he/him): I'm seeing… Let's see if conversation brings it out. Deanna Ellen Ruth.

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Diana Rico: Thank you, Rabbi David. I really like those definitions. I just have a question, and it's probably been explained already, but I'm not clear. In the context of this parsha, is a vow only something that is spoken out loud?

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R. David (he/him): Yes.

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Diana Rico: Is that correct? Okay.

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Diana Rico: Thank you.

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R. David (he/him): Owen Roof.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: Oh.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: I keep on thinking why I'd make a vow in the first place.

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

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Ellen Ruth Topol: And then I keep on thinking about the broader context of, religion, spiritual tradition that's begun.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: And you want to keep tabs on people who are making vows that are not part of the spiritual religious tradition that you're starting.

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

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Ellen Ruth Topol: by the fathers and the husbands who are the men who are kind of in charge of the religion are killed.

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

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Ellen Ruth Topol: Tabs on what's going on.

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R. David (he/him): Very interesting. So this is a power move.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: So…

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R. David (he/him): Very interesting algorithm.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: That's how I dream into it, when I try to put myself in this situation of somebody controlling my vow, and why would they be doing that?

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Ellen Ruth Topol: Because what?

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R. David (he/him): And I'.

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Ellen Ruth Topol: saying is going against what what they're trying to develop.

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R. David (he/him): Yep.

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R. David (he/him): Thank you, Ellen Ruth. Amy?

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Amy V: There's no mention of if a woman makes a vow.

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Amy V: Her father or her husband is not in earshot.

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R. David (he/him): On the day he hears of it.

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Amy V: Yeah, Sophie.

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R. David (he/him): First day he hears it, so, so…

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R. David (he/him): But what if he doesn't? Well, if he doesn't, then…

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R. David (he/him): He hasn't had an opportunity to annul it.

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Amy V: So is it valid or not?

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

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R. David (he/him): But if he happens to hear it 2 weeks later.

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R. David (he/him): On the day he hears it, Oh, no, no, no, no.

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Amy V: So the statute of limitations starts.

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R. David (he/him): I'm just kid.

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Amy V: Thank you.

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R. David (he/him): When he hears it, when he hears it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Diana Rico: Where does it say that? Because I'm not. I'm reading it differently.

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R. David (he/him): Aww… If her phone.

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R. Rachel: Father restrains her on the day he hears it. Whereas in verse nine, if her husband restrains her on the day he hears it.

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Diana Rico: But he, but I'm hearing, I'm understanding that as he hears her saying it, not he hears about it.

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R. David (he/him): So the… Language is M.

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R. David (he/him): ambiguous.

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R. Rachel: Okay. The reference, yeah.

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R. David (he/him): Yeah, but it stands to reason that the putatively empowered male is not going to be chained to the woman following her around just in case she says something.

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R. Rachel: Oh, but why?

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R. Rachel: That sounds like so much fun.

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R. David (he/him): Oh yeah yeah

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R. David (he/him): But notice what you're asking. What's a vow? Why is this here? Is this empowering women a little bit? Is it disempowering women? Is this about the religion? What is this actually about? We're gonna say Kol Nidrei.

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Diana Rico: I'm really just asking about the preposition of.

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R. David (he/him): Yeah, well, yeah.

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Diana Rico: Yeah, a little bit.

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R. David (he/him): words mean a lot.

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Diana Rico: Yeah, we'll.

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R. Rachel: to the rabbinic world.

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Diana Rico: Huh.

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Deliah: But how would he hear it from somebody else? From, so there's, I mean, what's the way that later he might.

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R. David (he/him): We've now become Talmudists.

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R. Rachel: Right?

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R. David (he/him): You have to hear it directly.

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R. Rachel: This is exactly the kind of question that Talmud asked. Well, what, what if somebody hears it? Well, how many people need to hear it for their testimony to be valid? Right, right. This gets it.

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R. David (he/him): Do you hear it directly? What if you read the telegram? All that is on top.

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R. Rachel: top of Torah. Here we're at the kernel, we're at the heart of the of the Matroshka Dal, and all we have is this.

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R. Rachel: which has some ambiguity.

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R. David (he/him): Yeah. Amy, I think I saw you in.

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R. David (he/him): You're not in.

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R. David (he/him): Cheryl, you're in.

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R. Rachel: And, and then maybe move to.

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R. David (he/him): We'll do.

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R. Rachel: To juxtapose this with our very next text.

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R. David (he/him): Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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R. David (he/him): Cheryl.

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Sherrill Cropper: I have to say, on a very basic level.

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Sherrill Cropper: Like, not very deep.

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Sherrill Cropper: As some people have brought up.

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Sherrill Cropper: I…

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Sherrill Cropper: I love that we're having this class to review all of this for the… so we're not feministically annoyed, but…

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R. David (he/him): Okay.

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Sherrill Cropper: I feel that I mean, this was the structure.

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Sherrill Cropper: This was what they had grown up with.

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Sherrill Cropper: from the time that things stopped being matrilineal, which we

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Sherrill Cropper: know in some cultures happened earlier, you know, very early.

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Sherrill Cropper: And.

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Sherrill Cropper: I feel like I want to give these.

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Sherrill Cropper: Poor schnooks.

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Sherrill Cropper: Mail snucks a break.

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Sherrill Cropper: Give these portions.

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R. Rachel: Nook's a break. I love you, Chery.

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Sherrill Cropper: You know, it's all they knew, you know.

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R. David (he/him): Well, and so this.

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Sherrill Cropper: This leaves room for growth, right? This leaves room for question and all of that. But I'm sitting here and thinking, it's all they knew. They were schnooks. They weren't well written.

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R. David (he/him): So what do we do with it?

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Sherrill Cropper: Yeah. So, okay. So here we are now.

400
00:32:19.310 --> 00:32:20.519
R. Rachel: Let's see what we did.

401
00:32:20.520 --> 00:32:22.160
R. David (he/him): Let's see what we do with it.

402
00:32:22.350 --> 00:32:23.620
R. David (he/him): Okay, so…

403
00:32:23.620 --> 00:32:27.250
R. Rachel: I want to read to us this prelude.

404
00:32:32.230 --> 00:32:32.760
Amy V: Sweet.

405
00:32:32.760 --> 00:32:34.210
R. Rachel: Bates Tora Top.

406
00:32:36.040 --> 00:32:40.720
Diana Rico: I'll read it Prelude shoes on other feet.

407
00:32:41.160 --> 00:32:49.880
Diana Rico: The re-gendered Bible, Torah Tah, her Torah, is a rewrite of the Hebrew Bible by gender reversing all characters.

408
00:32:50.600 --> 00:32:57.979
Diana Rico: The new narrative centers the stories on a matriarchal lineage in contrast to the patriarchal lineage described in the Bible.

409
00:32:58.450 --> 00:33:04.050
Diana Rico: Some ask, why not regender straight to gender neutral, non-binary in English?

410
00:33:04.120 --> 00:33:22.339
Diana Rico: We have learned, through Torah Ta, how deeply we all live in a men's designed world, without defining, writing, and expressing a women's designed world, excuse me, that is positioned at exactly the same level as the male-dominated Bible we are so familiar with.

411
00:33:22.790 --> 00:33:27.380
Diana Rico: Gender neutral language could result in an extension of the former.

412
00:33:28.080 --> 00:33:31.060
Diana Rico: and continued obfuscation of the latter.

413
00:33:31.220 --> 00:33:41.479
Diana Rico: We believe that for fluidity to become really possible, female gendered language needs to be fully articulated and present and integrated into culture.

414
00:33:44.500 --> 00:33:49.069
R. Rachel: So this is obviously a contemporary project. We'll have some older texts in just a moment.

415
00:33:50.090 --> 00:33:56.599
R. Rachel: But this is… Six verses of what we just read, an excerpt.

416
00:33:57.920 --> 00:33:58.750
R. Rachel: Regendered.

417
00:33:59.190 --> 00:34:06.850
R. David (he/him): in many Jewish contexts. I mean, imagine a Torah Written by hand.

418
00:34:07.930 --> 00:34:18.010
R. David (he/him): where all the male words become female, and all the female words become male, and God defaults to feminine instead of masculine.

419
00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:20.989
R. David (he/him): In some circles, it's radical.

420
00:34:21.670 --> 00:34:24.550
R. David (he/him): In some circles, it's… Saturday.

421
00:34:24.650 --> 00:34:25.340
R. Rachel: Yeah.

422
00:34:27.130 --> 00:34:29.089
R. David (he/him): So, as we read this.

423
00:34:29.920 --> 00:34:35.560
R. David (he/him): Check in with your hearts. We're going to ask the same emotion questions. What's in the room?

424
00:34:35.880 --> 00:34:37.900
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, you were, I'.

425
00:34:38.030 --> 00:34:39.770
R. Rachel: Yeah, we're good. Carry on.

426
00:34:39.770 --> 00:34:43.370
R. David (he/him): So, 5… 5… People.

427
00:34:45.350 --> 00:34:46.340
R. Rachel: Please read.

428
00:34:47.650 --> 00:34:50.069
R. David (he/him): It's the same, except different.

429
00:34:50.500 --> 00:35:00.990
Jill Schneiderman: If a woman makes a vow or oath to Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, obligating her soul, then she must not break her word. She must do all that came from her mouth.

430
00:35:00.990 --> 00:35:17.080
Jill Schneiderman: If a man makes a vow to Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh obligating himself while in his mother's household in his youth, and his mother hears his vow or obligation on his soul and stays silent to it, that all his vows must stand and every obligation on his soul must stand.

431
00:35:20.120 --> 00:35:20.740
R. Rachel: Per se.

432
00:35:20.740 --> 00:35:21.380
R. David (he/him): Someone…

433
00:35:25.890 --> 00:35:37.299
Diana Rico: But if his mother restrains him on the day she hears it, then none of his vows and obligations on his soul will stand, and Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh will forgive him since his mother restrained him.

434
00:35:38.670 --> 00:35:57.020
Sherrill Cropper: If he has a wife when he takes on his vow, even a rash utterance by which he obligated his soul, the wife hears her husband and she stays silent to it on the day she hears, then his vow must stand and the obligation on his soul must stand.

435
00:35:59.210 --> 00:36:12.840
Nancy Goody: But if his wife restrains him on the day she hears it, then his vow is held back from upon him, even the rash utterance by which he obligated his soul and Tadha will forgive him.

436
00:36:14.770 --> 00:36:17.360
R. Rachel: What feelings are in the room?

437
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:29.559
Jill Schneiderman: Well, I will say right off the bat that I can… I can understand this. When it was reversed, you know, in the original text, I…

438
00:36:29.890 --> 00:36:41.939
Jill Schneiderman: It's like gobbledygook to me, but with the positionality switched, it makes sense. You know, I can follow it. It's actually remarkable to me how much I did not tune out.

439
00:36:42.330 --> 00:36:46.939
Jill Schneiderman: Reading this with the subject being changed, you know.

440
00:36:46.940 --> 00:36:49.340
R. David (he/him): Why did you not tune out, Jill?

441
00:36:49.660 --> 00:36:54.929
Jill Schneiderman: Yeah, you know, because I was centered in a way, you know.

442
00:36:54.930 --> 00:36:57.659
R. David (he/him): Why were you not centered before, Jill?

443
00:36:59.740 --> 00:37:01.100
Jill Schneiderman: They don't.

444
00:37:01.300 --> 00:37:09.380
R. Rachel: Look at just the, but if his, when I heard out loud the words, but if his mother restrains him on the day she hears it, I thought, oh, I've done that.

445
00:37:11.410 --> 00:37:14.380
R. Rachel: Right, like it, it just lands differently.

446
00:37:14.670 --> 00:37:16.750
R. David (he/him): To your son, Drew.

447
00:37:16.750 --> 00:37:17.470
R. Rachel: Right.

448
00:37:17.650 --> 00:37:21.310
R. Rachel: When he was small and needed, sometimes, restraining.

449
00:37:23.050 --> 00:37:23.920
Jill Schneiderman: Well…

450
00:37:23.920 --> 00:37:25.809
R. David (he/him): There are many hands in the room now.

451
00:37:27.330 --> 00:37:28.000
R. David (he/him): Okay.

452
00:37:30.280 --> 00:37:32.259
R. Rachel: Delia, and then Meredith.

453
00:37:32.640 --> 00:37:45.929
Deliah: This has always begged the question to me, if we did have a matrilineal matriarchal, what happened? What did we do not right? I don't want to take a power over dynamic and put it

454
00:37:46.010 --> 00:37:53.780
Deliah: A woman over men. I want a whole different, scene. And, you know, did we do something in that?

455
00:37:54.200 --> 00:37:58.019
Deliah: In that phase of power over that ended up.

456
00:37:58.680 --> 00:37:59.780
R. Rachel: Mmm.

457
00:38:00.530 --> 00:38:09.250
R. Rachel: So that's also a parallel question, right, to the way that Hebrew prayer language gets shifted around.

458
00:38:09.280 --> 00:38:20.789
R. Rachel: for some of us, there's been a shift from masculine god language to feminine god language, and then feeling like, wait, it's still power over language. I don't want to just go from king to queen, I want words that

459
00:38:21.280 --> 00:38:28.150
R. Rachel: Touch me in a different place. So there's an evolution there, maybe. Meredith, Iris, Cheryl.

460
00:38:28.960 --> 00:38:36.079
Meredith (she/her): Well, what does restrain mean? What are we talking about? Restraining adults? I don't understand.

461
00:38:36.080 --> 00:38:39.680
R. Rachel: I understand it to mean to forbid her from doing it.

462
00:38:40.980 --> 00:38:42.410
Meredith (she/her): From making the vow?

463
00:38:43.550 --> 00:38:45.230
Meredith (she/her): Or from doing anything.

464
00:38:45.230 --> 00:38:50.909
R. Rachel: Or from no, from from make from the vow the the woman makes a vow.

465
00:38:51.050 --> 00:38:56.110
R. Rachel: I will give… 20% of everything we own to charity.

466
00:38:56.600 --> 00:38:58.269
R. Rachel: And if the husband hears it.

467
00:38:59.130 --> 00:39:01.420
Meredith (she/her): He doesn't like it, then he says no.

468
00:39:01.550 --> 00:39:03.659
R. Rachel: He says no, then his no stands.

469
00:39:04.060 --> 00:39:05.390
R. Rachel: That's how I would understand.

470
00:39:05.390 --> 00:39:06.840
Meredith (she/her): I really don't, I really don.

471
00:39:06.840 --> 00:39:08.520
R. Rachel: I don't like it.

472
00:39:09.020 --> 00:39:10.089
Meredith (she/her): I don't like it.

473
00:39:10.430 --> 00:39:12.840
R. David (he/him): If we don't like it, what do we have to do?

474
00:39:15.530 --> 00:39:16.950
Meredith (she/her): I don't know. What do we.

475
00:39:16.950 --> 00:39:17.280
R. David (he/him): Oh.

476
00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:17.800
Meredith (she/her): Okay.

477
00:39:18.180 --> 00:39:23.920
R. David (he/him): So, as we saw with the… if you were with us last week, we saw Torah change.

478
00:39:24.030 --> 00:39:29.620
R. David (he/him): the daughters of Tel Avvakad went to Moses and said, hey, now I'd like to please speak with the manager.

479
00:39:32.650 --> 00:39:40.670
R. David (he/him): Drush… happens. Like, many of us on this call don't like capital punishment, so what did Jewish life do?

480
00:39:42.890 --> 00:40:00.639
R. David (he/him): narrowed the category until there was no such thing. And Talmud asks, well, if that was the case, why was capital punishment there in the first place? And Talmud's answer is, one of my favorite lines in Judaism, to drosh it.

481
00:40:01.250 --> 00:40:04.270
R. David (he/him): And receive reward for the act of.

482
00:40:05.410 --> 00:40:06.270
R. Rachel: Transforming.

483
00:40:06.270 --> 00:40:18.959
R. David (he/him): Transforming it because that is what it was doing there, to animate our own moral agency, to get in there and use tradition to shift it.

484
00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:19.610
R. Rachel: Better.

485
00:40:19.610 --> 00:40:22.339
R. David (he/him): Same thing with the daughters of Talaf al-Khad

486
00:40:22.530 --> 00:40:37.960
R. David (he/him): Why? If this was the outcome that women should be able to inherit, so why did God say in the beginning, and the men shall inherit, and if there are no sons, and precisely to arouse the daughters of Telafchad to stand up and say, hey now.

487
00:40:38.650 --> 00:40:41.230
R. David (he/him): Why is there injustice in the world?

488
00:40:41.730 --> 00:40:44.379
R. David (he/him): Maybe it's to animate our own

489
00:40:44.660 --> 00:40:47.079
R. David (he/him): Agency to step up and say, hey now.

490
00:40:48.060 --> 00:40:51.900
R. David (he/him): So if you don't like it, buckle up.

491
00:40:54.060 --> 00:40:54.840
Iris: Mmhm.

492
00:40:55.320 --> 00:40:57.199
R. Rachel: I, where was,

493
00:40:57.470 --> 00:41:00.369
R. Rachel: Iris, and then Cheryl, and then Amy.

494
00:41:00.840 --> 00:41:02.480
R. David (he/him): And then we're gonna do text.

495
00:41:02.730 --> 00:41:03.330
Iris: Okay.

496
00:41:03.690 --> 00:41:05.870
Iris: Well, one quick comment, then.

497
00:41:06.220 --> 00:41:25.019
Iris: what I feel different about this reverse gender text and the original is in the original, the men didn't have to account to anyone, so it was, you know, such a stark difference. It's obvious, but, you know, like, here they're having to account to

498
00:41:25.610 --> 00:41:27.749
Iris: their mother, or… so…

499
00:41:27.750 --> 00:41:28.260
R. Rachel: Mother.

500
00:41:28.260 --> 00:41:32.809
Iris: It was very stark to see, and it was good to see.

501
00:41:33.970 --> 00:41:35.220
Iris: I'm

502
00:41:35.690 --> 00:41:47.570
Iris: Yeah, and Rabbi David, when you were talking about the daughters of Solech HaHad, I thought of that, too, during our conversation, that it related to inheritance.

503
00:41:47.730 --> 00:41:53.920
Iris: And where, you know, if a woman is… I'm sorry.

504
00:41:54.230 --> 00:42:02.050
Iris: There's a… A son who's a brother to the woman and the inheritance, and if there isn't

505
00:42:02.280 --> 00:42:09.940
Iris: conversation, or the woman isn't given a voice, or doesn't take her voice. That really has a big impact.

506
00:42:10.320 --> 00:42:26.460
Iris: And what I just said isn't quite as clear as what I was thinking before, sorry. But I just see it as related to inheritance, and that what the daughters did definitely relates to what we're saying now, and how that Parsha

507
00:42:26.460 --> 00:42:33.259
Iris: kind of flows into the moral awakening that is evolutionary, I think.

508
00:42:33.770 --> 00:42:35.400
Iris: So thank you. Anyway.

509
00:42:35.400 --> 00:42:41.320
R. David (he/him): Evolutionary, evolutionary, evolutionary. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

510
00:42:41.780 --> 00:42:42.270
Iris: Yes.

511
00:42:42.270 --> 00:42:48.510
Sherrill Cropper: So I think this has been said.

512
00:42:48.770 --> 00:42:54.890
Sherrill Cropper: But I I'm not sure I didn't hear it in the same words, and maybe I'm

513
00:42:55.090 --> 00:43:00.450
Sherrill Cropper: I don't know. I when we read it in the masculine.

514
00:43:01.410 --> 00:43:02.480
Sherrill Cropper: leaning.

515
00:43:03.280 --> 00:43:09.820
Sherrill Cropper: it. Yes, it's the power struggle. But in that power struggle there is innate restriction.

516
00:43:10.680 --> 00:43:16.540
Sherrill Cropper: and When we read it in the feminine version.

517
00:43:16.820 --> 00:43:27.989
Sherrill Cropper: It's more maternal and compassionate and caring, based on very fifties roles of men and women.

518
00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:31.279
R. Rachel: Anything. It says the exact same thing.

519
00:43:31.780 --> 00:43:32.500
Sherrill Cropper: Pardon?

520
00:43:32.500 --> 00:43:34.839
R. Rachel: It says the exact same thing.

521
00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:35.810
Sherrill Cropper: Exactly.

522
00:43:35.810 --> 00:43:36.410
R. Rachel: But why does it.

523
00:43:36.410 --> 00:43:37.589
Sherrill Cropper: That's what I am saying.

524
00:43:37.590 --> 00:43:38.340
R. Rachel: It's us.

525
00:43:38.340 --> 00:43:47.929
Sherrill Cropper: where when my father disciplined, it was with power and restriction, and if my mother disciplined.

526
00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:55.160
Sherrill Cropper: Well, mostly my father disciplined. She would say, your father will take care of this.

527
00:43:55.160 --> 00:43:57.669
R. David (he/him): Until your father comes home.

528
00:43:57.730 --> 00:44:03.090
Sherrill Cropper: Exactly, exactly. I don't know that my children

529
00:44:03.490 --> 00:44:11.479
Sherrill Cropper: have this same view. And I will ask them if a man tells you something versus a woman, like if daddy did it versus me.

530
00:44:11.480 --> 00:44:11.830
R. Rachel: Hi.

531
00:44:11.830 --> 00:44:12.450
Sherrill Cropper: I.

532
00:44:13.300 --> 00:44:22.669
R. Rachel: I'm, you know, I'm one singular data point, and I tried to raise my child in as feminist a way as I know how, and my ex-husband would say the same thing.

533
00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:26.390
R. Rachel: I am confident that my child would agree that

534
00:44:26.930 --> 00:44:31.719
R. Rachel: the threat of discipline from Dad is different than the threat of discipline from Mom, and one of them

535
00:44:31.990 --> 00:44:32.960
R. Rachel: Is.

536
00:44:34.330 --> 00:44:39.239
R. Rachel: gentler, and… Like, I don't think that's… I don't think things have.

537
00:44:39.750 --> 00:44:47.160
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, so the root place though is different. The root place is restriction.

538
00:44:47.880 --> 00:44:49.370
Sherrill Cropper: constriction.

539
00:44:50.050 --> 00:44:57.139
Sherrill Cropper: over capacity and agency versus caring to prevent danger.

540
00:44:59.120 --> 00:45:01.660
R. David (he/him): Are we still talking about Yom Kippur here?

541
00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:03.640
R. David (he/him): Okay.

542
00:45:03.640 --> 00:45:05.520
Sherrill Cropper: About men and women, sir.

543
00:45:06.100 --> 00:45:06.970
R. David (he/him): I know.

544
00:45:08.110 --> 00:45:09.260
R. David (he/him): I know.

545
00:45:10.590 --> 00:45:11.370
R. David (he/him): I know.

546
00:45:11.370 --> 00:45:24.270
R. Rachel: Just notice how differently it lands in us. If his father restrains her on the day he if her father restrains her versus if his mother restrains him, it's literally the same sentence.

547
00:45:25.350 --> 00:45:25.820
Iris: Mmh.

548
00:45:25.820 --> 00:45:27.879
R. Rachel: But they don't land in us the same way.

549
00:45:29.350 --> 00:45:31.980
R. David (he/him): Because we're mid-rushing whether we say so or not.

550
00:45:34.190 --> 00:45:37.680
R. David (he/him): Amy, Iris, Delia, and then we are gonna move on.

551
00:45:40.870 --> 00:45:48.410
Amy V: I realized that, you know, my energy was so low reading the original text, and

552
00:45:49.180 --> 00:45:59.479
Amy V: It sort of has the aroma, very sadly, of domestic abuse, when it's… heard by modern ears.

553
00:46:00.280 --> 00:46:09.420
Amy V: I had a picture of the film where the woman's calling for help and the man grabs the phone.

554
00:46:09.780 --> 00:46:14.670
Amy V: It's very hard to read it Neutrally.

555
00:46:14.670 --> 00:46:15.570
R. Rachel: Yeah, I was.

556
00:46:15.570 --> 00:46:22.260
Amy V: As a modern woman, knowing what we know, and I would say not just men and women, but.

557
00:46:23.240 --> 00:46:23.640
Nancy Goody: So…

558
00:46:23.640 --> 00:46:37.420
Amy V: I say domestic, you know, children being sometimes over controlled. So I just wanted to throw that out there that I felt almost like that page was gray.

559
00:46:37.860 --> 00:46:38.430
Nancy Goody: Mmh.

560
00:46:38.430 --> 00:46:39.719
Amy V: The original version.

561
00:46:40.590 --> 00:46:41.300
Nancy Goody: Yep.

562
00:46:41.720 --> 00:46:45.539
R. David (he/him): Yeah. And it's Torah we're talking about here. Right?

563
00:46:48.360 --> 00:46:51.710
R. David (he/him): So, what do we do with those emotions? What do we do?

564
00:46:52.070 --> 00:46:53.840
R. David (he/him): What do we do with the hard text?

565
00:46:54.240 --> 00:46:57.949
R. David (he/him): Well, we've seen examples this year of some of the things that we do.

566
00:46:58.460 --> 00:47:00.820
R. David (he/him): Iris Delia, and then we're gonna move on.

567
00:47:01.540 --> 00:47:08.160
Iris: Thanks. This was a quick thing I meant to say before, that if a vow has to be heard.

568
00:47:08.300 --> 00:47:19.490
Iris: And who does the man have to say the vow to, or say it out loud for someone to hear it? And if not, then is it a valid vow at all?

569
00:47:19.700 --> 00:47:23.360
Iris: Well, that's the piece that I thought was missing.

570
00:47:24.900 --> 00:47:25.440
Iris: Yes.

571
00:47:31.350 --> 00:47:32.250
R. David (he/him): Delia.

572
00:47:32.470 --> 00:47:43.630
Deliah: I wanted to say that there's a, a book that was written years ago, like in the 1970s, that did not use he and she for the characters, it used na and nan.

573
00:47:43.630 --> 00:47:57.700
Deliah: And you read it, and it's called The Cook and the Carpenter. And you notice how much we've all been enculturated by our culture. Oh, that must be a man because they're doing this. Oh, that must be a woman because they're doing this. And then.

574
00:47:57.700 --> 00:48:02.430
R. Rachel: The fiction is really good about messing with that, and you realize how much you depended on it.

575
00:48:02.580 --> 00:48:15.499
Deliah: Right. And you come to the end, and I won't tell you if you ever read the book what the characters are, but it speaks to why we see men and women differently from our experience, our, you know, our milieu, and our training.

576
00:48:17.160 --> 00:48:17.960
R. David (he/him): Yup.

577
00:48:18.390 --> 00:48:20.910
R. David (he/him): It all comes down.

578
00:48:21.120 --> 00:48:23.120
R. David (he/him): To how these words land.

579
00:48:23.440 --> 00:48:30.729
R. David (he/him): And it's not just individualized, right? It's collective. No one does call Nidre privately. Meredith, is it on this?

580
00:48:32.710 --> 00:48:35.590
Meredith (she/her): Maybe it's a discussion for later, but.

581
00:48:35.910 --> 00:48:38.550
Meredith (she/her): What does it mean to have agency?

582
00:48:38.840 --> 00:48:44.569
Meredith (she/her): So it's in there… And we struggle with it.

583
00:48:45.130 --> 00:48:56.239
Meredith (she/her): And then what? We write about it, and we say, oh, you know, it should be different. Like, I'm not clear how we exercise agency in this context.

584
00:48:56.690 --> 00:48:57.460
R. David (he/him): Good.

585
00:48:57.900 --> 00:48:59.960
Meredith (she/her): So that may be something for later, I don't know.

586
00:48:59.960 --> 00:49:03.739
R. David (he/him): Let's see. Let's let's see if we if the conversation answers the question.

587
00:49:04.640 --> 00:49:05.390
R. David (he/him): All right.

588
00:49:06.140 --> 00:49:12.369
R. David (he/him): For those of you who are shulgoers, Fast forward to September 21.

589
00:49:13.930 --> 00:49:18.369
R. David (he/him): It's possible that your rabbis know what date Yom Kippur falls on.

590
00:49:18.710 --> 00:49:20.669
R. David (he/him): Ask us how we know.

591
00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:24.039
R. David (he/him): It is October, September 21.

592
00:49:24.680 --> 00:49:25.270
R. Rachel: Yes.

593
00:49:26.350 --> 00:49:28.550
R. David (he/him): And what are you doing?

594
00:49:29.970 --> 00:49:32.600
R. Rachel: It's the start of Kolnidre Services.

595
00:49:32.600 --> 00:49:34.580
R. David (he/him): You are, just picture yourself.

596
00:49:34.860 --> 00:49:38.950
R. David (he/him): If you're physically in a synagogue, you're, you're, you're

597
00:49:38.970 --> 00:49:55.369
R. David (he/him): You're… you're not… you're probably not wearing cut-off jeans. You have been on this journey for some time. It was Rosh Hashanah, that was an experience. If you're in this group, odds are pretty good that you're seeing the whole High Holiday.

598
00:49:56.440 --> 00:49:56.860
R. Rachel: Park.

599
00:49:56.860 --> 00:50:11.450
R. David (he/him): ground as… as an organic whole, and you didn't start to… you know, the day before Yom Kippur, you've been at this for a while. And this is now the culmination of… of a process, and a pinnacle of the year, and…

600
00:50:11.450 --> 00:50:19.979
R. David (he/him): out comes the Torah, and there's this profound solemnity, and everybody is standing on their feet.

601
00:50:20.300 --> 00:50:27.950
R. David (he/him): And out comes that tune, that tune we hear just once a year.

602
00:50:29.080 --> 00:50:42.910
R. David (he/him): Ko Wo Nidre.

603
00:50:43.750 --> 00:50:49.910
R. David (he/him): Ve'esale.

604
00:50:53.570 --> 00:50:55.470
R. David (he/him): Okay, baby, baby, baby, baby.

605
00:50:57.370 --> 00:50:59.340
R. David (he/him): And there's something happening.

606
00:51:00.040 --> 00:51:01.779
R. David (he/him): Maybe we can give it.

607
00:51:01.930 --> 00:51:07.449
R. David (he/him): Voice, maybe we know what it is that's happening and maybe we just don't.

608
00:51:08.170 --> 00:51:12.539
R. David (he/him): Maybe we understand the words, maybe we don't understand the words, but there's something happening.

609
00:51:14.260 --> 00:51:20.260
R. David (he/him): And we're connecting as we do this with everybody else around the world who's doing this thing.

610
00:51:20.260 --> 00:51:20.590
Nancy Goody: Mmm.

611
00:51:20.700 --> 00:51:21.860
R. David (he/him): And…

612
00:51:26.050 --> 00:51:38.320
R. David (he/him): The music shifts from these little moves to this big soaring energy, and suddenly somebody tells us that we're forgiven, that we're released.

613
00:51:42.010 --> 00:51:45.600
R. David (he/him): And you can see around, people are breathing differently.

614
00:51:47.040 --> 00:51:51.510
R. David (he/him): Shoulders are dropping a little bit. What is happening here?

615
00:51:55.750 --> 00:51:59.480
R. David (he/him): And the words… Although here, they're in Aramaic.

616
00:52:01.260 --> 00:52:07.650
R. David (he/him): It's the Neder, it's the Esor, it's the Shavua It's the same things.

617
00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:13.789
R. David (he/him): Someone want to read the English of Kalnidre, and try not to make it sound lawyerly.

618
00:52:17.990 --> 00:52:34.659
Jill Schneiderman: All vows, obligations, devotions, dedications, duties, commitments and oaths that we vowed, oathed, devoted, or obligated on our souls from the last Yom Kippur to this Yom Kippur, may it come to us for good. We repent them all.

619
00:52:34.810 --> 00:52:41.240
Jill Schneiderman: May all of them be released, forgiven, annulled, null and void, invalidated and not upheld.

620
00:52:41.340 --> 00:52:48.760
Jill Schneiderman: Let our vows not be vows, our obligations not be obligations, and our oaths not be oaths.

621
00:52:57.550 --> 00:53:01.839
R. Rachel: I love how the tradition gives us all of these words.

622
00:53:02.200 --> 00:53:10.289
R. Rachel: Released, forgiven, annulled, null and void, invalidated, and not upheld, in case I wasn't clear before.

623
00:53:10.650 --> 00:53:13.710
R. Rachel: Right? It's like this outpouring.

624
00:53:16.140 --> 00:53:29.330
Jill Schneiderman: You know, it's so much bigger than, you know, the way my children were taught, Yom Kippur, we… you know, it's time to say you're sorry, you will be forgiven, and, you know, it's so much…

625
00:53:29.380 --> 00:53:40.539
Jill Schneiderman: huger than that, right? Because you're not forgiven, you're released, you know? And you're released in so many dimensions, you know?

626
00:53:41.200 --> 00:53:44.209
R. David (he/him): Mmhm Now… What's the move?

627
00:53:44.210 --> 00:53:44.779
R. Rachel: from sharing.

628
00:53:44.780 --> 00:53:50.489
R. David (he/him): getting hard hands from Cheryl, which turns suddenly into heart balloons for everybody. What's the move?

629
00:53:53.370 --> 00:53:58.950
R. David (he/him): Vows can only be annulled in the original text if somebody is.

630
00:54:04.570 --> 00:54:05.380
R. Rachel: Listening.

631
00:54:06.360 --> 00:54:10.520
R. David (he/him): Some vows can only be annulled if the vower is.

632
00:54:11.930 --> 00:54:13.130
Nancy Goody: restrained.

633
00:54:15.590 --> 00:54:16.580
R. David (he/him): Bye.

634
00:54:18.360 --> 00:54:19.929
Nancy Goody: The opposite sex.

635
00:54:21.420 --> 00:54:31.370
R. David (he/him): Yeah, okay, so there's this, quote, male figure that annuls the vow.

636
00:54:32.650 --> 00:54:37.209
R. David (he/him): And in order for that to, quote, work by the terms of the text.

637
00:54:37.890 --> 00:54:40.229
R. David (he/him): The vow-er needs to be what?

638
00:54:41.870 --> 00:54:42.769
Amy V: A man.

639
00:54:43.360 --> 00:54:47.140
R. David (he/him): The vow-er, not the vow- The vowel where the person… Eminent.

640
00:54:47.140 --> 00:54:47.720
Diana Rico: Sorry.

641
00:54:47.720 --> 00:54:49.559
R. David (he/him): Diamond in. All right, so.

642
00:54:50.950 --> 00:54:54.570
R. David (he/him): How does that work? Does this only work for half the people?

643
00:54:55.010 --> 00:55:00.840
R. Rachel: Are you saying, like, does Kolnidre only… Kolnidre releases me, but it doesn't release you?

644
00:55:01.720 --> 00:55:03.039
R. Rachel: That can't be right.

645
00:55:03.040 --> 00:55:04.249
R. David (he/him): That can't be right.

646
00:55:04.380 --> 00:55:08.710
R. David (he/him): So, wait a minute… The soul is what?

647
00:55:13.140 --> 00:55:15.580
R. David (he/him): In Jewish speak, the soul was feminine.

648
00:55:15.580 --> 00:55:17.780
R. Rachel: Oh, that's where you're going with that right?

649
00:55:17.780 --> 00:55:20.079
R. David (he/him): In Jewish speak, the soul is feminine.

650
00:55:23.160 --> 00:55:25.590
R. Rachel: Right, the, the word… Neshama.

651
00:55:25.590 --> 00:55:26.710
R. David (he/him): Neshama.

652
00:55:27.170 --> 00:55:28.100
R. Rachel: Feminine.

653
00:55:29.860 --> 00:55:32.989
R. David (he/him): In Aramaic nafshatana, the soul.

654
00:55:33.180 --> 00:55:33.870
R. David (he/him): Yes.

655
00:55:35.050 --> 00:55:45.599
R. Rachel: Which is to say, perhaps in relationship with the divine, we are all in the position of being, quote.

656
00:55:46.310 --> 00:55:47.480
R. Rachel: Feminine.

657
00:55:49.400 --> 00:55:49.900
R. David (he/him): Almost.

658
00:55:52.050 --> 00:55:55.189
R. David (he/him): Now, does that mean that God is masculine?

659
00:55:57.020 --> 00:56:06.460
R. David (he/him): No, but is there a quality? We don't have to essentialize this. Is there a quality?

660
00:56:07.170 --> 00:56:10.280
R. David (he/him): You know, just wait till your father gets home.

661
00:56:11.910 --> 00:56:15.770
R. David (he/him): of judgment, Of restriction.

662
00:56:17.560 --> 00:56:31.249
R. David (he/him): Maybe it's that facet that we need, and this is the source of so much of the text of the High Holidays, where there is a release from judgment to compassion.

663
00:56:31.720 --> 00:56:35.199
R. David (he/him): That… This becomes this.

664
00:56:35.830 --> 00:56:38.800
R. David (he/him): I'll do that again. This becomes this.

665
00:56:40.540 --> 00:56:45.229
R. Rachel: The moment after Colney Dre is over, literally the next things we say.

666
00:56:45.940 --> 00:56:51.550
R. Rachel: is, and God says, I forgave you, as I said I would.

667
00:56:55.300 --> 00:56:57.629
R. Rachel: We just may not feel it until.

668
00:56:57.970 --> 00:57:03.720
R. Rachel: 25 hours later, at the end of Na'ilah, once we've gone all the way through the day, and it's done its work in us.

669
00:57:04.030 --> 00:57:12.819
R. Rachel: But the liturgy tells us the minute this prayer is heard, is sung, God says… You're good.

670
00:57:13.340 --> 00:57:14.319
R. Rachel: You're good.

671
00:57:14.500 --> 00:57:18.059
R. David (he/him): You're good. I gotcha. And then we internalize it for a day.

672
00:57:20.590 --> 00:57:22.639
R. David (he/him): We just made a lot of moves.

673
00:57:23.780 --> 00:57:25.700
R. David (he/him): We just made a lot of moves.

674
00:57:25.900 --> 00:57:35.640
R. David (he/him): But these moves are what we're aiming toward, and it comes from this text. The vows, the oaths, the obligations. Ellen Ruth Sherrill.

675
00:57:36.690 --> 00:57:39.830
R. David (he/him): And then what's… we're going to answer your question, Ellen Ruth.

676
00:57:40.130 --> 00:57:40.820
Ellen Ruth Topol: Alright.

677
00:57:40.820 --> 00:57:43.950
R. David (he/him): What's… What's with the vows?

678
00:57:44.780 --> 00:57:51.419
Ellen Ruth Topol: For me, this has to do with ethics and perfection.

679
00:57:51.930 --> 00:57:52.670
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

680
00:57:52.670 --> 00:57:54.270
Ellen Ruth Topol: And.

681
00:57:54.430 --> 00:58:02.769
Ellen Ruth Topol: Why would I make a vow in the first place? Because I'm trying to uplift myself, because I'm trying to

682
00:58:04.410 --> 00:58:05.520
Ellen Ruth Topol: That.

683
00:58:05.940 --> 00:58:09.340
Ellen Ruth Topol: what I think in that moment is…

684
00:58:11.220 --> 00:58:17.509
Ellen Ruth Topol: Okay. And Cheryl was pointing out, making me more pure.

685
00:58:17.860 --> 00:58:26.440
Ellen Ruth Topol: But maybe I missed the mark, right? Maybe I don't understand something about it, or maybe I can't do it.

686
00:58:26.560 --> 00:58:32.179
Ellen Ruth Topol: And so when we get a clean slate.

687
00:58:32.300 --> 00:58:39.350
Ellen Ruth Topol: We have no release for this. Then we have an opportunity again to go for perfection in our ethics.

688
00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:43.770
R. David (he/him): Mmhm.

689
00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:47.390
R. David (he/him): Sure.

690
00:58:48.470 --> 00:58:49.270
Sherrill Cropper: I'm…

691
00:58:49.640 --> 00:59:01.440
Sherrill Cropper: I'm a bit concerned because when I think about a vow, something that I commit to, it's with a desire, as Ellen Ruth, to elevate or to change or to commit.

692
00:59:01.820 --> 00:59:09.180
Sherrill Cropper: to some goodness. And yet, in Kol Nidre, there's a comment, if you go, is of repenting.

693
00:59:09.280 --> 00:59:16.979
Sherrill Cropper: it's like, we have to repent things. I've never really thought of Kolnudrey as releasing me

694
00:59:17.230 --> 00:59:24.689
Sherrill Cropper: from vows as opposed to releasing me from…

695
00:59:24.960 --> 00:59:29.310
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, negative karma, let's say, of things that I may have accrued.

696
00:59:29.650 --> 00:59:37.569
Sherrill Cropper: So clean the slate, you know, please forgive me and release me. And this is saying.

697
00:59:37.940 --> 00:59:40.530
Sherrill Cropper: something totally different. I mean.

698
00:59:40.650 --> 00:59:47.820
Sherrill Cropper: If I've made a vow with goodness in my heart and a desire to be Better.

699
00:59:49.840 --> 00:59:51.560
R. David (he/him): And you fell down on the job.

700
00:59:51.560 --> 00:59:52.180
Sherrill Cropper: late.

701
00:59:53.170 --> 00:59:55.090
Sherrill Cropper: Oh…

702
00:59:55.090 --> 00:59:56.980
R. David (he/him): And you fell down on the ground.

703
00:59:57.280 --> 01:00:00.039
Sherrill Cropper: You know, I mean, that doesn't go away for me.

704
01:00:00.040 --> 01:00:02.229
R. David (he/him): And you fell down on the job.

705
01:00:02.230 --> 01:00:06.549
R. Rachel: This is, this is popping up in the chat also, right? That what we need. Yeah.

706
01:00:06.670 --> 01:00:14.900
R. Rachel: The need for teshuva is because I made a vow to God, and then I broke it by not doing the thing I said I would do.

707
01:00:15.300 --> 01:00:17.849
Sherrill Cropper: Okay, sorry, I'm so ignorant in this, thank.

708
01:00:17.850 --> 01:00:20.689
R. David (he/him): No, you're not. No, no, no. No, no, no.

709
01:00:20.690 --> 01:00:25.200
R. Rachel: I made a vow to God that I would not yell at my son this year.

710
01:00:25.820 --> 01:00:26.319
R. Rachel: And then I.

711
01:00:26.320 --> 01:00:26.880
R. David (he/him): I'm.

712
01:00:26.880 --> 01:00:27.610
R. Rachel: Oops.

713
01:00:27.610 --> 01:00:29.400
Sherrill Cropper: Oh, just don't do that.

714
01:00:29.630 --> 01:00:31.579
R. Rachel: Well, I don't, but… Yeah.

715
01:00:31.860 --> 01:00:35.140
R. David (he/him): Yeah. Let's let's let's put some proverbial meat on

716
01:00:36.220 --> 01:00:43.090
R. David (he/him): All right, let's, let's, let's unpack this. Why is it so bad to make a vow?

717
01:00:43.350 --> 01:00:45.300
R. David (he/him): What's the difference between a vow and a prom

718
01:00:49.200 --> 01:00:50.609
R. David (he/him): First commandment.

719
01:00:51.220 --> 01:00:52.750
R. David (he/him): I'm the Lord your God.

720
01:00:53.370 --> 01:00:57.630
R. David (he/him): Don't have any gods before me. Don't make any graven images, number two. Number three.

721
01:00:59.680 --> 01:01:02.520
R. David (he/him): Don't take the name of Yudhivape in vain.

722
01:01:03.220 --> 01:01:07.740
R. David (he/him): Don't demean the name, don't demean divinity by

723
01:01:07.970 --> 01:01:15.549
R. David (he/him): Saying, you know, I, I, I swear to God, I'll, I'll mow the lawn and then you don't mow the lawn.

724
01:01:16.190 --> 01:01:17.610
R. David (he/him): -Oh.

725
01:01:18.190 --> 01:01:25.749
R. David (he/him): So the Baalshem Tov, Says, quoting Ecclesiastes, actually better not to make a bow at all.

726
01:01:29.740 --> 01:01:40.090
R. David (he/him): Because if you break a vow, eventually you're going to break an oath. And if you break an oath, you're like, you know, an oath is like, I swear to God, and you're denying God.

727
01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:42.839
R. David (he/him): And that's the third commandment.

728
01:01:46.910 --> 01:01:47.840
R. David (he/him): -Oh!

729
01:01:47.840 --> 01:01:55.649
R. Rachel: If you get in the habit of making promises and then falling down on them, eventually that will lead you down the slippery slope to

730
01:01:55.880 --> 01:01:59.500
R. Rachel: denied to diminishing God, God forbid.

731
01:01:59.970 --> 01:02:03.940
R. David (he/him): In modern language, it's not just about the word, so help me God.

732
01:02:04.170 --> 01:02:09.160
R. David (he/him): But about making commitments that shape the spiritual field.

733
01:02:09.640 --> 01:02:11.409
R. David (he/him): Our own and other people's.

734
01:02:12.980 --> 01:02:13.639
R. David (he/him): Just a minute.

735
01:02:14.110 --> 01:02:15.070
R. David (he/him): Delia.

736
01:02:15.970 --> 01:02:18.070
Deliah: Because it

737
01:02:18.730 --> 01:02:25.429
Deliah: If you make a vow, you're assuming that you think you know what's gonna happen in the future. We know nothing.

738
01:02:25.530 --> 01:02:32.930
Deliah: So almost making a vow is taking away divine process that we don't know nothing about.

739
01:02:33.340 --> 01:02:34.380
R. David (he/him): Additionally, obs.

740
01:02:34.380 --> 01:02:35.120
Deliah: do.

741
01:02:35.120 --> 01:02:41.030
R. David (he/him): Yeah, traditionally observant people will say, you know, I'll pick you up at 10 o'clock.

742
01:02:41.740 --> 01:02:51.690
R. David (he/him): without making a vow. They'll actually say it as if that, you know, I'm not making a vow, I'm not making a vow, you hear? Not a Kalnidrey thing.

743
01:02:51.800 --> 01:02:52.650
R. David (he/him): Right?

744
01:02:53.860 --> 01:02:55.700
R. David (he/him): So along comes the remark.

745
01:02:55.890 --> 01:02:57.370
R. David (he/him): Moshe Cordovero.

746
01:02:58.070 --> 01:03:00.839
R. David (he/him): In his mystical text, Partes Rimonim.

747
01:03:03.630 --> 01:03:10.180
R. David (he/him): For those of you who have little, just not much background in Jewish mysticism and spirit.

748
01:03:10.980 --> 01:03:11.870
R. David (he/him): The worst…

749
01:03:11.870 --> 01:03:12.910
R. Rachel: Sound weird.

750
01:03:13.090 --> 01:03:14.209
R. Rachel: Just roll with it.

751
01:03:14.210 --> 01:03:20.859
R. David (he/him): But roll with us. The word assure, the word obligation, it literally is binding.

752
01:03:21.240 --> 01:03:25.679
R. David (he/him): It means 3 things if you're Moshe Cordovero, it's like that vow.

753
01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:34.730
R. David (he/him): If a woman obligates herself and that is the Sphera, the Jewish mystical energy center we call Bina.

754
01:03:35.720 --> 01:03:37.280
R. David (he/him): Discernment.

755
01:03:37.620 --> 01:03:43.470
R. David (he/him): A feminine aspect, which is the realm of vows.

756
01:03:44.090 --> 01:03:47.380
R. David (he/him): Wait a minute. Suddenly, this is not about girls.

757
01:03:48.210 --> 01:03:48.970
R. Rachel: Poor boys.

758
01:03:49.250 --> 01:03:54.959
R. David (he/him): Or boys. This is now about internal spiritual process.

759
01:03:55.100 --> 01:04:00.669
R. David (he/him): Where if we make a vow, discernment is a knowing through identity.

760
01:04:00.880 --> 01:04:10.560
R. David (he/him): A vow is a promise of identity and relationship and covenant, right? So, so there's an overlap there. So that's number one thing about an obligation is number two.

761
01:04:10.720 --> 01:04:12.419
R. David (he/him): It's a binding.

762
01:04:13.860 --> 01:04:15.839
R. David (he/him): And the word here is imprisoned.

763
01:04:17.010 --> 01:04:19.440
R. David (he/him): But a very special kind of imprisoning.

764
01:04:19.590 --> 01:04:26.080
R. David (he/him): The king… In Song of Songs is bound in channels.

765
01:04:26.780 --> 01:04:34.430
R. David (he/him): So… If you've ever seen the Sephirotic tree with all those energy centers, there are lines that connect them.

766
01:04:35.890 --> 01:04:44.270
R. David (he/him): There's a line that connects Tiferet, which is heart space, the middle sphere of, and malchut.

767
01:04:44.940 --> 01:04:47.310
R. David (he/him): Which is also feminine, right?

768
01:04:47.440 --> 01:04:48.870
R. David (he/him): Whoa!

769
01:04:49.620 --> 01:05:01.380
R. David (he/him): And number three, it's like God who frees the bound. We say in the Amidah, Sow meth, no fleem.

770
01:05:01.890 --> 01:05:03.320
R. David (he/him): Raises the fallen.

771
01:05:03.970 --> 01:05:12.180
R. David (he/him): V'rofeh cholim, and heals the sick. U'mati rasurim, and frees the bound.

772
01:05:14.310 --> 01:05:16.460
R. Rachel: We say it in the daily morning blessings, too.

773
01:05:18.770 --> 01:05:26.929
R. David (he/him): The way that we obligate ourselves fundamentally affects the flow of energy through the world.

774
01:05:27.720 --> 01:05:30.120
R. David (he/him): The flow of divinity through the world.

775
01:05:30.510 --> 01:05:38.029
R. David (he/him): It's how we hold Tiferet and Malchut together. What is that? Our heart space with presence.

776
01:05:38.310 --> 01:05:48.730
R. David (he/him): For some of us, it's going to resonate in terms of spirit and other people, this is duck speak and we have to translate it to be heart space and presence.

777
01:05:49.190 --> 01:05:50.370
R. David (he/him): Head and heart.

778
01:05:50.860 --> 01:05:52.129
R. David (he/him): Heart and body.

779
01:05:54.520 --> 01:05:57.360
R. David (he/him): What's at stake here is our full selves.

780
01:05:59.350 --> 01:06:02.640
R. David (he/him): And this is not actually about gender inequality.

781
01:06:02.890 --> 01:06:06.660
R. David (he/him): It's actually about spirituality in these different valences.

782
01:06:06.800 --> 01:06:08.749
R. David (he/him): Of energy in our lives.

783
01:06:09.250 --> 01:06:14.430
R. Rachel: Questions popping up in the chat about the Akedah, the binding of Isaac.

784
01:06:15.280 --> 01:06:16.580
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

785
01:06:17.070 --> 01:06:18.840
R. Rachel: Different.

786
01:06:19.790 --> 01:06:22.180
R. Rachel: This is this is not that.

787
01:06:22.420 --> 01:06:25.659
R. David (he/him): Yeah, that's, that's a binding like tying up.

788
01:06:26.640 --> 01:06:27.180
R. Rachel: But it'.

789
01:06:27.180 --> 01:06:29.760
R. David (he/him): Not a channeling. Not a channeling.

790
01:06:30.730 --> 01:06:34.499
R. David (he/him): But it's a good question because the English is the same. Yeah.

791
01:06:34.690 --> 01:06:35.980
R. Rachel: Hebraically, it's.

792
01:06:36.210 --> 01:06:36.770
R. David (he/him): Yep.

793
01:06:36.940 --> 01:06:37.660
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

794
01:06:37.850 --> 01:06:38.690
R. David (he/him): Yep.

795
01:06:40.610 --> 01:06:49.860
R. David (he/him): we put these forward not because, you know, they're gonna rock your socks necessarily, although I think some of you are finding comfort in this way of thinking.

796
01:06:50.020 --> 01:06:54.210
R. David (he/him): But because the Baal Shem Tov and the Ramak understood from, from jump.

797
01:06:54.540 --> 01:06:57.949
R. David (he/him): That this is about something else entirely.

798
01:07:01.540 --> 01:07:04.269
R. David (he/him): How could it be about just what it's about?

799
01:07:05.360 --> 01:07:09.030
R. David (he/him): This was their contribution to making a fundamental shift.

800
01:07:14.240 --> 01:07:15.909
R. David (he/him): Now let's talk in English.

801
01:07:18.440 --> 01:07:19.730
R. David (he/him): Ellen Frankel.

802
01:07:20.110 --> 01:07:21.909
R. David (he/him): What do we do with Ellen Franke

803
01:07:22.320 --> 01:07:26.039
R. David (he/him): Who wants it? Maybe 3 people, or 2 people, the last 2 were short.

804
01:07:27.370 --> 01:07:33.809
Amy V: The rabbis teach, we Jews have always regarded taking a vow quite seriously.

805
01:07:34.210 --> 01:07:38.839
Amy V: The third commandment warns us not to take God's name in vain.

806
01:07:39.070 --> 01:07:49.769
Amy V: We have always urged people to avoid taking vows whenever possible, since the consequences of failing to fulfill them can provoke God's wrath.

807
01:07:50.250 --> 01:08:05.179
Amy V: Although Jews no longer generally regard vows within such a theological framework, we still recall their authority, Ich Yom Kippur, when we symbolically annul them in the Kol Nidrei prayer.

808
01:08:05.550 --> 01:08:13.259
Amy V: Of course, we vow our allegiance to God every day when we acknowledge God's unity in our prayers.

809
01:08:19.540 --> 01:08:30.889
Jill Schneiderman: Our daughters ask, if vows were once so vitally important, why does the Torah forbid dependent daughters and married women to take vows upon themselves?

810
01:08:31.390 --> 01:08:45.629
Jill Schneiderman: Sirachbat Asher, the historian, answers, In those days, women were generally subordinate to men's authority and possessed little or no economic power. Thus, a woman could not give away what did not belong to her.

811
01:08:45.720 --> 01:08:54.919
Jill Schneiderman: her father's or husband's property, or even take an oath to restrict her own already limited freedom by becoming a Nazirite, for instance.

812
01:08:54.920 --> 01:08:59.229
R. David (he/him): Someone who personally, specifically self-restricts.

813
01:08:59.779 --> 01:09:07.299
R. Rachel: Things like abstaining from haircuts and grape products and

814
01:09:08.449 --> 01:09:11.299
R. Rachel: Popcorn. Alcohol, which is great product, yeah.

815
01:09:11.300 --> 01:09:13.319
R. David (he/him): Yeah, Meredith.

816
01:09:15.670 --> 01:09:19.640
Meredith (she/her): Another question I have when I wrote it in the chat.

817
01:09:20.359 --> 01:09:22.889
Meredith (she/her): is weird as Kavanaugh.

818
01:09:23.180 --> 01:09:27.400
Meredith (she/her): Fit in to vows and.

819
01:09:29.279 --> 01:09:30.509
Meredith (she/her): I don't know if it has.

820
01:09:30.510 --> 01:09:32.809
R. David (he/him): No, no, that's the question, right?

821
01:09:32.810 --> 01:09:35.700
R. Rachel: Havana, intention, right? Right.

822
01:09:36.250 --> 01:09:40.180
R. David (he/him): We do the best we can, and for the rest, there's komnidre.

823
01:09:40.450 --> 01:09:44.149
R. David (he/him): But if we make a vow and we don't care and we don't try.

824
01:09:44.590 --> 01:09:49.300
R. David (he/him): Komnidre isn't gonna help That's the basic gist.

825
01:09:49.460 --> 01:09:56.360
R. Rachel: I would presume that any vow must have kavanah. If there isn't kavanah, you're not really vowing.

826
01:09:58.090 --> 01:10:00.620
Meredith (she/her): But there's no mention specifically.

827
01:10:00.910 --> 01:10:01.689
R. David (he/him): Not here.

828
01:10:01.690 --> 01:10:06.049
Meredith (she/her): Not here, you know, like, it's an… it's… it's understood.

829
01:10:06.230 --> 01:10:07.819
R. David (he/him): It's understood. That's.

830
01:10:07.820 --> 01:10:11.649
R. Rachel: I think so. The vow was made with intention and with Kavanagh.

831
01:10:12.270 --> 01:10:16.659
R. Rachel: Nobody says, I do, under the chuppah, and doesn't really care.

832
01:10:17.770 --> 01:10:19.250
R. Rachel: At least I sure hope not.

833
01:10:21.790 --> 01:10:27.180
R. David (he/him): So, it's something about the woman vowing As…

834
01:10:27.610 --> 01:10:30.580
R. David (he/him): You know, you can't give away something that's not fully yours.

835
01:10:30.820 --> 01:10:34.720
R. David (he/him): We can't give away something that's… Not fully our own, right?

836
01:10:36.090 --> 01:10:37.750
R. Rachel: And in antiquity.

837
01:10:37.850 --> 01:10:47.869
R. Rachel: for instance, women couldn't own most of their… property belonged to the husband or the father. So a woman could not make a vow, like, I will give you half of everything I own.

838
01:10:48.290 --> 01:10:53.160
R. Rachel: Because she can't. She doesn't actually have ownership of it. That's just the way the old system worked.

839
01:10:53.490 --> 01:10:54.640
R. David (he/him): That's the old system.

840
01:10:54.640 --> 01:10:57.349
R. Rachel: It took a long time for modernity to get much better, right?

841
01:10:57.980 --> 01:11:01.189
R. David (he/him): So what did our ancestors do to this?

842
01:11:02.940 --> 01:11:04.380
R. David (he/him): IRIS is it on this?

843
01:11:04.630 --> 01:11:12.509
Iris: Yeah, quick. As far as identity, the part about not having the freedom to become a Nazarite.

844
01:11:12.830 --> 01:11:13.190
R. Rachel: Anything.

845
01:11:13.190 --> 01:11:17.590
Iris: That really spoke to me about choosing your identity.

846
01:11:18.250 --> 01:11:19.020
R. Rachel: Oh.

847
01:11:19.020 --> 01:11:24.499
R. David (he/him): There's actually something really important about not giving away our liberty.

848
01:11:24.710 --> 01:11:27.939
R. David (he/him): So what did our ancestors do with this?

849
01:11:28.640 --> 01:11:39.570
R. David (he/him): Here's the short answer. They did with this what our ancestors did with capital punishment. The conditions became so precise that they could never be followed.

850
01:11:40.790 --> 01:11:42.139
R. David (he/him): And so what are we gonna do?

851
01:11:42.140 --> 01:11:51.570
R. Rachel: Typically the move that our ancestors make when they encounter something in Torah that feels wrong or unethical to them, they find ways to constrict it.

852
01:11:52.380 --> 01:11:55.629
R. David (he/him): So let's start with Mishnah. We're not going to do the whole

853
01:11:57.760 --> 01:12:01.629
R. David (he/him): But just a little bit so you can get a taste. Who wants to read from Mishnah?

854
01:12:09.730 --> 01:12:11.459
R. David (he/him): It's English. Be brave.

855
01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:16.560
Diana Rico: These are vows that the husband or father could restrain.

856
01:12:16.730 --> 01:12:22.349
Diana Rico: Things for which there is affliction of soul, such as, I will bathe, or I will not bathe.

857
01:12:22.680 --> 01:12:26.289
Diana Rico: I will adorn myself, or I will not adorn myself.

858
01:12:26.470 --> 01:12:36.600
Diana Rico: Rabbi Yose said, those are not vows of affliction. These are vows of affliction. She says, the fruit of the world is banned to me.

859
01:12:36.640 --> 01:12:52.099
Diana Rico: Of course he can restrain this, but the fruit of this country is banned to me. He cannot restrain, because he can bring her fruit from another country, unless he does not have the means to do so, in which case he can restrain this.

860
01:12:53.710 --> 01:12:54.280
R. David (he/him): What?

861
01:12:58.290 --> 01:13:01.620
R. David (he/him): And this is supposed to be law, and this is supposed to be clear. So, help.

862
01:13:04.730 --> 01:13:11.220
R. Rachel: By the way, notice that things like bathing and adorning ourselves are things we Don't do on Yom Kippur.

863
01:13:11.890 --> 01:13:13.080
R. Rachel: Traditionally.

864
01:13:13.760 --> 01:13:14.440
R. David (he/him): Mmm.

865
01:13:14.960 --> 01:13:16.680
R. David (he/him): So what's going on here?

866
01:13:18.020 --> 01:13:24.269
R. David (he/him): We're talking about the putative masculine power to restrain a woman's capacity to bow.

867
01:13:26.860 --> 01:13:28.690
R. David (he/him): It can't be a trivial thing.

868
01:13:30.390 --> 01:13:34.479
R. David (he/him): It has to be something that profoundly afflicts the soul.

869
01:13:35.200 --> 01:13:38.190
R. David (he/him): Like, I'm never gonna have fruit again.

870
01:13:41.940 --> 01:13:43.560
R. David (he/him): That can be stopped.

871
01:13:43.720 --> 01:13:49.130
R. David (he/him): Because you're not allowed to give up your liberty, you're not allowed to give up your capacity to enjoy.

872
01:13:49.430 --> 01:13:55.790
R. David (he/him): But if the woman says, the fruit of this particular country is banned to me, she's not saying.

873
01:13:56.280 --> 01:13:58.530
R. David (he/him): You can never, I'm never going to have fruit

874
01:13:58.710 --> 01:14:05.359
R. David (he/him): The husband, the father says, all right, I'll get you fruit from I'm not joking

875
01:14:06.070 --> 01:14:11.290
R. David (he/him): So suddenly, suddenly, what this is about is becoming much smaller.

876
01:14:13.650 --> 01:14:16.650
R. Rachel: Well, and this is where professor, this is where Francis Landy goes.

877
01:14:16.650 --> 01:14:17.210
R. David (he/him): Yep.

878
01:14:17.210 --> 01:14:21.300
R. Rachel: His explanation makes it very clear. Somebody want to read Francis Landy?

879
01:14:23.540 --> 01:14:25.149
R. David (he/him): We're going to make this very small.

880
01:14:27.780 --> 01:14:29.799
R. David (he/him): Jill, I think you were going to read before.

881
01:14:30.770 --> 01:14:32.449
Jill Schneiderman: Oh, sure. Ahem.

882
01:14:33.340 --> 01:14:39.540
Jill Schneiderman: Mishnah Nedarim 11-1 debates, what exactly counts as afflicting the nephesh?

883
01:14:39.540 --> 01:14:40.070
R. David (he/him): soul.

884
01:14:40.420 --> 01:14:48.179
Jill Schneiderman: So, whereas the anonymous position suggests it applies to mundane activities, such as putting on jewelry or bathing.

885
01:14:48.310 --> 01:15:05.909
Jill Schneiderman: Rabbi Yose suggests it is only serious self-abnegation, such as refusing to eat any produce, ostensibly because this would affect her health. Moreover, based on the concluding verse, 17, that adds the phrase, between a man and his wife.

886
01:15:06.000 --> 01:15:16.879
Jill Schneiderman: The Talmud adds that vows that a husband may also annul vows that interfere with marital relations, such as abstaining from makeup or sex.

887
01:15:16.880 --> 01:15:18.190
R. David (he/him): Yeah, that's convenient.

888
01:15:18.190 --> 01:15:29.280
Jill Schneiderman: Therefore, according to rabbinic interpretation, any vow that does not afflict her nephesh or her marriage cannot be annulled by her husband. They are her business alone.

889
01:15:29.780 --> 01:15:34.490
R. David (he/him): And thus began the shrinking of this.

890
01:15:35.920 --> 01:15:45.070
R. David (he/him): Into something that really was about the woman's relationship with her life, her health, or somebody else.

891
01:15:45.880 --> 01:15:49.120
R. David (he/him): And even that would become smaller.

892
01:15:49.440 --> 01:15:50.840
R. David (he/him): and smaller.

893
01:15:51.000 --> 01:15:52.389
R. David (he/him): And smaller.

894
01:15:52.770 --> 01:15:55.090
R. David (he/him): Until it was almost not there at all.

895
01:15:57.150 --> 01:15:58.260
R. David (he/him): Why did that happen?

896
01:16:00.050 --> 01:16:07.120
R. David (he/him): And the midrash, the, I'm sorry, the, the law was not by a panel of female rabbis. These were guys.

897
01:16:09.090 --> 01:16:10.470
R. David (he/him): Why did this happen?

898
01:16:12.210 --> 01:16:13.349
R. David (he/him): Why did this happen?

899
01:16:13.590 --> 01:16:15.760
lindabkramer: Was it a lack of education?

900
01:16:16.750 --> 01:16:17.490
R. David (he/him): By whom?

901
01:16:18.790 --> 01:16:27.290
lindabkramer: by the priests and the rabbis, or whoever it is that's helping to write all of this. They were the ones who

902
01:16:27.460 --> 01:16:30.479
lindabkramer: Kept saying they were in charge.

903
01:16:30.670 --> 01:16:34.050
lindabkramer: They decided… They spoke,

904
01:16:34.410 --> 01:16:43.160
R. Rachel: I would imagine, actually, the contrary, that because they were the ones In charge.

905
01:16:43.480 --> 01:16:47.509
R. Rachel: And doing all of this learning and studying, they concluded that

906
01:16:48.250 --> 01:16:51.260
R. Rachel: What the source text said wasn't fair.

907
01:16:51.540 --> 01:16:52.540
R. Rachel: to women.

908
01:16:53.250 --> 01:17:01.320
R. Rachel: And so they had to find a way to fix that, but they couldn't say, well, it's not in the Torah, because it is in the Torah, we just saw it.

909
01:17:01.580 --> 01:17:02.080
lindabkramer: Yep.

910
01:17:02.340 --> 01:17:05.809
R. Rachel: So they came along to say, well, how can we…

911
01:17:06.230 --> 01:17:08.040
R. Rachel: How can we make this more fair?

912
01:17:09.360 --> 01:17:15.380
R. Rachel: And the answer they came up with was, well, we'll… Limit it further and further.

913
01:17:17.530 --> 01:17:19.599
R. David (he/him): To the point that it's almost gone.

914
01:17:20.340 --> 01:17:22.270
R. David (he/him): And of course, nowadays it is.

915
01:17:23.250 --> 01:17:25.040
R. David (he/him): So what's going on here?

916
01:17:26.080 --> 01:17:27.670
R. David (he/him): Someone want to read?

917
01:17:36.510 --> 01:17:38.390
R. David (he/him): Quiet group today.

918
01:17:39.930 --> 01:17:41.330
R. David (he/him): Quiet croup.

919
01:17:41.940 --> 01:17:43.320
R. Rachel: Not mostly.

920
01:17:43.320 --> 01:17:43.970
R. David (he/him): Help us.

921
01:17:43.970 --> 01:17:45.559
Ellen Ruth Topol: Matt, Matt, Matt.

922
01:17:45.560 --> 01:17:46.090
Meredith (she/her): Okay.

923
01:17:46.090 --> 01:17:49.650
Ellen Ruth Topol: Makut opens with laws concerning valor.

924
01:17:49.650 --> 01:17:52.769
R. Rachel: We're actually on the one before that, Ellen Ruth.

925
01:17:53.920 --> 01:18:02.530
Ellen Ruth Topol: Oh, I'm sorry, this is blocking. While all of Torah is meant to be understood on a literal level.

926
01:18:02.650 --> 01:18:12.419
Ellen Ruth Topol: Each passage also has an eternal message on a more abstract, psycho-spiritual level.

927
01:18:13.120 --> 01:18:21.360
Ellen Ruth Topol: Hasidic teachings explain that all of us have a blend of masculine and feminine traits.

928
01:18:21.560 --> 01:18:29.200
Ellen Ruth Topol: There is part within us that makes vows, and a part that can overrule vows.

929
01:18:29.760 --> 01:18:40.849
Ellen Ruth Topol: According to Hasidic teachings, These two parts correspond to the attributes of bina, which is feminine.

930
01:18:41.010 --> 01:18:44.010
Ellen Ruth Topol: And Hokuma, which is masculine.

931
01:18:44.810 --> 01:18:52.530
Ellen Ruth Topol: To distill in brief, Hokuma is an idea, and Bina is its development.

932
01:18:53.260 --> 01:18:58.729
Ellen Ruth Topol: Hokkaido is the big picture, and Bina is the details.

933
01:18:59.070 --> 01:19:08.410
Ellen Ruth Topol: This is why the absolution of vows takes place only within the context of relationship.

934
01:19:09.100 --> 01:19:14.329
Ellen Ruth Topol: Guaranteeing that there is a balance of energies.

935
01:19:14.540 --> 01:19:24.770
Ellen Ruth Topol: And through the bond between Hokama and Bina, we draw down the highest divine energy into our midst.

936
01:19:24.910 --> 01:19:31.790
Ellen Ruth Topol: And make our home and our world into a true Dara?

937
01:19:31.930 --> 01:19:35.520
Ellen Ruth Topol: A place… Where God can dwell.

938
01:19:39.640 --> 01:19:44.020
R. David (he/him): Lest anybody think for half a second that this is from.

939
01:19:44.740 --> 01:19:49.400
R. David (he/him): Some extreme left-wing woo-woo.

940
01:19:50.910 --> 01:19:56.999
R. David (he/him): you know… people dancing around a fire. This is from the Lababaja Rebbe.

941
01:19:58.440 --> 01:19:58.990
lindabkramer: You know.

942
01:20:02.870 --> 01:20:08.579
R. David (he/him): So there's something very deep hiding in plain sight here.

943
01:20:09.710 --> 01:20:26.199
R. David (he/him): That komnidre, the utter complete release, also has to be a blend of these masculine and feminine traits, that it all comes together, it's a unification, it is the pinnacle of all unity.

944
01:20:26.770 --> 01:20:27.990
R. David (he/him): From which…

945
01:20:28.230 --> 01:20:37.199
R. David (he/him): absolution, unity, forgiveness, repentance, renewal of spirit can come. I mean, honestly, it's the only place where it can come from, right?

946
01:20:40.000 --> 01:20:40.550
lindabkramer: It.

947
01:20:41.410 --> 01:20:42.580
R. David (he/him): Remember that.

948
01:20:43.620 --> 01:20:45.370
R. David (he/him): If you go for carbonitrate.

949
01:20:45.780 --> 01:20:54.340
R. David (he/him): You may have to bring some of that yourself. There isn't going to be a sign that says, this is the unification of masculine and feminine energies.

950
01:20:55.680 --> 01:21:00.280
R. David (he/him): This is the unification of all things from which all renewal dust flows.

951
01:21:01.790 --> 01:21:05.860
R. Rachel: Which is not to say that it's flowing from the person who's chanting, by the way.

952
01:21:06.870 --> 01:21:08.020
R. David (he/him): Absolutely not.

953
01:21:08.020 --> 01:21:14.210
R. Rachel: Just to be clear, it's, it's flowing, right? The, the melody, this is a conduit.

954
01:21:15.330 --> 01:21:16.430
R. David (he/him): Through, through, through.

955
01:21:16.430 --> 01:21:17.950
R. Rachel: The flow comes through.

956
01:21:18.460 --> 01:21:19.030
R. David (he/him): True.

957
01:21:21.540 --> 01:21:25.569
R. David (he/him): We've had a very, very wonderful discussion.

958
01:21:25.570 --> 01:21:25.980
R. Rachel: Okay.

959
01:21:25.980 --> 01:21:30.539
R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, we're gonna do some skipping, I think. Which of these do you think.

960
01:21:30.540 --> 01:21:33.760
R. Rachel: Skip. I'm happy to skip. We've done the.

961
01:21:34.510 --> 01:21:35.530
R. Rachel: and.

962
01:21:39.980 --> 01:21:41.689
R. David (he/him): Why don't we do this one?

963
01:21:41.860 --> 01:21:42.920
R. Rachel: Yeah, sure.

964
01:21:42.920 --> 01:21:48.930
R. David (he/him): And this will be our last one, and then we'll close out the book of Numbers. Someone want to read? We have three readers.

965
01:21:50.360 --> 01:21:50.920
lindabkramer: Thank you.

966
01:21:52.240 --> 01:21:56.150
R. David (he/him): It's on the same theme of this not actually being about what it's about.

967
01:21:56.930 --> 01:21:59.599
Meredith (she/her): Is it this one? Every mitzvah?

968
01:21:59.600 --> 01:22:00.900
R. Rachel: Every mitzvah. Yeah.

969
01:22:00.900 --> 01:22:05.270
Meredith (she/her): Every mitzvah in the Torah has a spiritual parallel.

970
01:22:05.840 --> 01:22:09.710
Meredith (she/her): And this law about vows is no exception.

971
01:22:10.200 --> 01:22:13.289
Meredith (she/her): We each have an inner and an outer will.

972
01:22:13.490 --> 01:22:19.090
Meredith (she/her): We each harbor a deep desire to be refined, modest, content.

973
01:22:19.620 --> 01:22:27.959
Meredith (she/her): chaste, devout, generous, kind, gentle, pure, godly, and spiritual.

974
01:22:28.200 --> 01:22:41.080
Meredith (she/her): Yet, on an external dimension, we seek gratification and indulgence. We don't want to be impeded in our pursuit of pleasure, enjoyment, and satisfaction.

975
01:22:42.670 --> 01:22:44.050
Meredith (she/her): Should I keep going?

976
01:22:44.920 --> 01:22:47.129
Meredith (she/her): Or no. Do you want me to keep reading?

977
01:22:47.330 --> 01:22:48.040
Meredith (she/her): Yep.

978
01:22:48.040 --> 01:22:48.530
R. David (he/him): Sure.

979
01:22:48.530 --> 01:22:49.500
Meredith (she/her): Yeah, yes.

980
01:22:50.230 --> 01:22:52.079
R. David (he/him): Yes, and then Nancy will jump in.

981
01:22:52.080 --> 01:22:54.489
Meredith (she/her): Oh, Nance, go ahead, Nance, go, go.

982
01:22:54.490 --> 01:23:00.329
Nancy Goody: The relationship between these two dimensions is analogous to that of husband and wife.

983
01:23:00.600 --> 01:23:11.100
Nancy Goody: The inner will, our spiritual and emotional dimension, is analogous to the wife because women tend to be gifted with spiritual and emotional intelligence.

984
01:23:11.650 --> 01:23:22.589
Nancy Goody: Our outer will, our maternal and tactile dimension, is analogous to the husband because men are often gifted with brute physical strength and an indominable drive.

985
01:23:25.750 --> 01:23:26.770
R. Rachel: Last reader.

986
01:23:29.290 --> 01:23:36.089
lindabkramer: We have thus flipped the chart. The vow was never for the wife. The inner wills benefit.

987
01:23:36.210 --> 01:23:41.190
lindabkramer: Our internal selves never needed a vow to behave this way.

988
01:23:41.340 --> 01:23:45.570
lindabkramer: Vow was for the husband, the outer wills benefit.

989
01:23:45.950 --> 01:23:51.530
lindabkramer: Once the external self adapted to the rhythms of the inner self.

990
01:23:51.690 --> 01:23:55.189
lindabkramer: The vow became unnecessary and obsolete.

991
01:23:55.710 --> 01:23:58.969
lindabkramer: The husband has, in effect, an old…

992
01:23:59.880 --> 01:24:05.439
R. Rachel: So I wanna name the fact that in paragraph two, that word analogous is doing a lot of work.

993
01:24:08.350 --> 01:24:12.150
R. Rachel: What I understand him to be saying.

994
01:24:12.670 --> 01:24:15.570
R. Rachel: Is that this isn't about gender.

995
01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:19.929
R. Rachel: It's not about human relationships or power.

996
01:24:20.440 --> 01:24:26.859
R. Rachel: It's about that within us, That yearns to be our best self.

997
01:24:27.220 --> 01:24:30.989
R. Rachel: And that within us which falls prey to…

998
01:24:31.340 --> 01:24:34.960
R. Rachel: Not being our best self and you know.

999
01:24:35.580 --> 01:24:40.000
R. Rachel: Sitting down with a beer and scrolling Facebook all evening instead of studying Torah.

1000
01:24:40.270 --> 01:24:40.900
lindabkramer: Okay.

1001
01:24:41.780 --> 01:24:43.160
R. Rachel: Or whatever.

1002
01:24:43.310 --> 01:24:44.549
R. David (he/him): How did you know?

1003
01:24:45.650 --> 01:24:48.369
R. Rachel: It says, Mr. Gluten Free.

1004
01:24:49.360 --> 01:24:50.980
R. Rachel: Right. So.

1005
01:24:51.990 --> 01:24:57.680
R. Rachel: I invite us to overlook, or to notice and then set aside

1006
01:24:57.930 --> 01:25:05.899
R. Rachel: this particular author's kind of unconscious sexism, saying, well, you know, women have emotional intelligence and men are strong. Okay, fine, man.

1007
01:25:06.490 --> 01:25:10.219
R. Rachel: What I hear him to be saying is that we all have.

1008
01:25:11.040 --> 01:25:12.360
R. Rachel: The pull…

1009
01:25:12.680 --> 01:25:21.830
R. Rachel: to make good vows, and we all have the pull to fall into crummy ones that don't serve the soul, and don't serve God.

1010
01:25:22.010 --> 01:25:25.439
R. Rachel: And what this is about is those 2 parts of.

1011
01:25:25.910 --> 01:25:27.710
R. Rachel: Our own souls.

1012
01:25:27.850 --> 01:25:32.370
R. Rachel: Learning… From each other, learning to work with each other, so that

1013
01:25:32.560 --> 01:25:35.589
R. Rachel: This side is helping to uplift that side.

1014
01:25:37.830 --> 01:25:40.910
R. David (he/him): And that we rectify our actions.

1015
01:25:41.290 --> 01:25:48.100
R. David (he/him): With our intentions, with our values, with our communities, with our relationships.

1016
01:25:49.820 --> 01:25:53.939
R. David (he/him): That is what this is about. That's always what this has been about.

1017
01:25:55.180 --> 01:26:02.340
R. David (he/him): So what have we done here? We've whacked at The facial meaning.

1018
01:26:03.350 --> 01:26:05.129
R. David (he/him): Using both?

1019
01:26:05.580 --> 01:26:10.299
R. David (he/him): The text itself to shift the law as law.

1020
01:26:10.960 --> 01:26:14.670
R. David (he/him): To the point that it barely exists, but it's got to have meaning, right?

1021
01:26:15.040 --> 01:26:18.150
R. David (he/him): So, the meaning has now become symbolic.

1022
01:26:18.830 --> 01:26:26.450
R. David (he/him): And not just from, from Team Wuwu, from core Jewish life that what this is about is not what it looks like it's about.

1023
01:26:26.820 --> 01:26:29.799
R. David (he/him): Even though, when we first read it.

1024
01:26:31.420 --> 01:26:37.949
R. David (he/him): Some of you called it gray, some of you shrunk in your screen, you felt much better when we shifted the gender of it.

1025
01:26:39.910 --> 01:26:42.840
R. Rachel: Well, there's an alienating quality.

1026
01:26:43.170 --> 01:26:43.790
R. David (he/him): Yeah.

1027
01:26:43.790 --> 01:26:48.880
R. Rachel: Passages like this, when you… When we just read them on their face, and it does feel…

1028
01:26:48.880 --> 01:26:49.290
R. David (he/him): I could.

1029
01:26:49.290 --> 01:26:52.420
R. Rachel: What about us, if any us that includes me in it?

1030
01:26:52.440 --> 01:26:53.140
R. David (he/him): Right.

1031
01:26:53.340 --> 01:26:54.180
R. David (he/him): Right.

1032
01:26:54.180 --> 01:26:54.720
R. Rachel: ish.

1033
01:26:54.940 --> 01:26:57.400
R. David (he/him): These. That.

1034
01:26:57.700 --> 01:26:59.130
R. David (he/him): All that!

1035
01:26:59.310 --> 01:27:01.849
R. David (he/him): is actually what God commanded in the first place.

1036
01:27:02.770 --> 01:27:04.879
R. David (he/him): That is the basic move.

1037
01:27:04.920 --> 01:27:22.180
R. David (he/him): That's the basic move, right? It's the same principle as God of Torah intended for the daughters of Salafachad to inherit, so why give it the other way first? To arouse our moral agency. Why did God in Torah speak of capital punishment?

1038
01:27:22.180 --> 01:27:27.150
R. David (he/him): to arouse our moral agency to whack it. Same thing here.

1039
01:27:27.840 --> 01:27:29.949
R. David (he/him): And we have to say.

1040
01:27:30.550 --> 01:27:38.610
R. David (he/him): As the book of Numbers ends, these are the mitzvot and laws that the Eternal commanded by Moses' hand to the children of Israel.

1041
01:27:39.000 --> 01:27:41.870
R. David (he/him): That this was what it was all along.

1042
01:27:42.900 --> 01:27:43.570
R. David (he/him): Okay.

1043
01:27:44.570 --> 01:27:45.860
R. David (he/him): So I'm going to…

1044
01:27:45.860 --> 01:27:55.370
R. Rachel: We haven't yet reached the ones that our descendants and their descendants are going to come to. The way this is going to be interpreted in the year…

1045
01:27:55.950 --> 01:27:59.150
R. Rachel: 3,000 on the secular calendar.

1046
01:28:00.260 --> 01:28:04.549
R. Rachel: Those were also commanded by God through Moshe. We just don't know it yet.

1047
01:28:05.850 --> 01:28:07.229
R. Rachel: That's what I love.

1048
01:28:10.470 --> 01:28:12.699
R. David (he/him): So I'm gonna read the last line.

1049
01:28:14.850 --> 01:28:20.030
R. David (he/him): That means we're going to close the book of Numbers, and next week we'll open up the book of Deuteronomy

1050
01:28:25.970 --> 01:28:44.260
R. David (he/him): Ele ha mitzvot ve'ha mishpatim. A shared ziva adonai, the Yad Moshe Elenei Yisrael. Be'aru votmo'av Ali Yarden Yerecho.

1051
01:28:44.260 --> 01:29:08.969
R. David (he/him): Let us be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other. Be strong, be strong, and strengthen each other.

1052
01:29:10.940 --> 01:29:16.060
R. David (he/him): Shabbat Shalom, everyone! We close the Book of Numbers.

1053
01:29:16.060 --> 01:29:16.420
R. Rachel: Nope.

1054
01:29:16.420 --> 01:29:20.580
R. David (he/him): of quick announcements next week.

1055
01:29:20.770 --> 01:29:28.559
R. David (he/him): will be the last Soul Spa for the year 5786. And we are…

1056
01:29:28.560 --> 01:29:31.240
R. Rachel: Already planning towards Soul Spa 57.

1057
01:29:31.240 --> 01:29:33.290
R. David (he/him): 5787.

1058
01:29:33.290 --> 01:29:33.910
R. Rachel: Just there.

1059
01:29:33.910 --> 01:29:37.749
R. David (he/him): Which will be a whole different way of doing this.

1060
01:29:38.190 --> 01:29:45.900
R. David (he/him): Cheryl Cropper has sent a message to everyone inviting folks, if you wish to continue past next week.

1061
01:29:47.130 --> 01:30:05.339
R. David (he/him): to please be in touch with her. Your midrash is midrash, right? We've seen that for 2 years if you've been studying with me, a whole year if you've been studying with me and Rabbi Rachel, so please feel free. It's a really wonderful thing that the relationships among you are creating.

1062
01:30:05.380 --> 01:30:07.389
R. David (he/him): And that does not need to stop.

1063
01:30:07.650 --> 01:30:08.839
R. David (he/him): There will be…

1064
01:30:08.840 --> 01:30:18.329
R. Rachel: why we are stopping our Saturday morning commitment is that right after Tisha B'Av, we're going to begin co-teaching a Tuesday evening class.

1065
01:30:18.500 --> 01:30:30.899
R. Rachel: on the images of High Holiday Prayer, and each week of that class, of the seven weeks of the reverse Omer between Tisha B'Av and Rosh Hashanah.

1066
01:30:31.020 --> 01:30:35.009
R. Rachel: We'll delve into a different prayer of the High Holiday Liturgy.

1067
01:30:35.010 --> 01:30:35.530
R. David (he/him): the spirit…

1068
01:30:35.530 --> 01:30:41.950
R. Rachel: Images. And what do those images do in us and how do we work with them spiritually?

1069
01:30:41.950 --> 01:30:57.640
R. David (he/him): You in us, yep. There also will be, online programs for Tisha B'Av, one with Rabbi Rachel's community, one with my community, and all of that information we will recirculate. So, with all of that.

1070
01:30:58.080 --> 01:31:07.029
R. David (he/him): And the happy birthdays to Corinne and to Cheryl. We wish you a Shabbat Shalom.

1071
01:31:07.270 --> 01:31:10.389
R. David (he/him): Of rectifying inner and outer.

1072
01:31:10.840 --> 01:31:18.440
R. David (he/him): And turning the corner into the season of meaning, we're going to stay on and stop the recording. We'll see you next week. Shabbat Shalom.

1073
01:31:19.470 --> 01:31:19.870
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