WEBVTT 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:09.000 Shabbat Shalom, everybody, and happy November! It is the 10th day of Cheshvan. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:11.000 in Parshat Lech Lacha? 00:00:11.000 --> 00:00:17.000 We're coming into the first history of the people who would become 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:22.000 the Yidden, the children of Israel, the children of Ishmael, all of that 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.000 post-prehistory. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.000 Opening up into the light of this Shabbat. 00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.000 The light of the letters… 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000 The light of revelation. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:49.000 We offer up our blessing over learning baruch, Atta Adonai. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:01:00.000 Blessed are you, Adonai, our God, Sovereign of the world, who made us holy in connecting commands, and commanded us to busy ourselves in words of peace. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.000 So, uh, hi everyone! 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:03.000 Momain… 00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:06.000 Hi, everyone. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:11.000 We're gonna start with the story of Avram and Sarai. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:20.000 Today, who are not yet Avraham and Sarah, but they will become Avraham and Sarah. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:22.000 But before we do, 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:28.000 We wanted to remind us of a few things that bear on 00:01:28.000 --> 00:01:31.000 The entire Midrashik project. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.000 For some of us, this is our first time looking at Midrash. For others of us, this is… 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.000 older hat. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 go over a couple of things, things that actually will 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000 They are very directly on what we're learning today. 00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:51.000 Rabbi Rachel, would you like to take it away, please? 00:01:51.000 --> 00:02:01.000 Sure. So we're going to start with a little piece of Talmud. Is there anyone here who wants to read this first quote? 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:10.000 Just pipe… just pipe up. Talmudirashalmi. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:14.000 Rabbi Pinklas said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Lachish. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.000 The Torah that the Holy Blessed One gave Moshe. 00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:23.000 was given from white fire inscribed by black fire. 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:29.000 It was fire mixed with fire. Hewn from fire, given by fire. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 Thank you. 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:35.000 So, this is the origin of the… 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:38.000 famous idea that Torah is… 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Right, it's Blackfyre written on white, both the ink and the parchment are fire. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:53.000 Both are sacred, both are part of the revelation. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:55.000 Anybody want to read? 00:02:55.000 --> 00:03:07.000 Midrashtanhumah, and then we're going to talk about how these work together. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.000 Any takers? 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:16.000 Wisdom founded the earth. When the Holy Blessed One created the world. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:22.000 God consulted Torah, then created the world. How is Torah written? 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:31.000 with Blackfire on white fire. As in, his locks are curled as black as a raven. 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:40.000 What is his locks are curled? On each curl of Torah depends heaps and heaps of law. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:47.000 It is written, do not profane my holy name. 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.000 That's a chet. 00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:52.000 Yep. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:55.000 But change, hay? But… 2… Hey. Profound… profane to praise. 00:03:55.000 --> 00:04:05.000 and you destroy the world. Let every breath. 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:06.000 Hey to shit. 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.000 Praise God. But change… to… praise to her thing, and you destroy the world. 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:14.000 Alright, so what jumps out at us about this passage? 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:19.000 What's weird here? What's surprising? 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.000 Started on each gloomy. 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:28.000 So, when God created the world, this sounds like it's the very beginning of creation, right? 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.000 God consulted what now? 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.000 How can God consult… 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:43.000 Torah before a world exists in which Torah could have been revealed. 00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:52.000 So, there seems to be, somehow, God was able to look into the Torah before there was a Torah to look into. 00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:01.000 This suggests, maybe, that Torah is something beyond what we receive or what we know in this world. 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:06.000 There had to be something for God to look into. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.000 What do we make of the… 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:15.000 His locks are curled and black as a raven. Joan, I see your hand. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:19.000 I would just like to comment first on what you just said, if I can, Rabbi Rachel. 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:20.000 Please do. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:30.000 that if… that… We… I would assume that God had the intent and the knowledge to. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:40.000 put the Torah forth. Then, as far as the curls are, what occurred to me was… Curls change. 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:50.000 They are infinite. And so, you would say, well, this… and I would say there's… there isn't a finite number of. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.000 of the amount of law, and it can change all the time. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:06:03.000 That's beautiful. I love the… I love the idea of the ever-spiraling curls. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 I think another way… David, I see your hand. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:11.000 It's a different point. I'm not sure if this is a mistake, or if it's… 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:15.000 a challenge. The, uh… 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:17.000 That depends on whether we like it or not. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Chris, I mean, it says change het to hay, and you destroy the world, and then it says… 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:25.000 change hay to hat, 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:27.000 and you destroy the world. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:28.000 Yep, not a mistake. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:30.000 Both. Not a mistake. Okay. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:37.000 So, the Hebrew too profane? You will not profane. Yech hallelu. 00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:46.000 Do not profane my holy name, but if you take that chedd, where is it? 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:50.000 If you change this to… 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.000 Tehalilu? 00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:58.000 With a hay, it will say, don't praise my name! 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:06.000 But in Psalm 150, it says, you know, 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:14.000 Let every breath praise God! But if you change the hay in Hallel to Hallel, 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:16.000 Into achat, it becomes tich. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:18.000 Every breath curses God! 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.000 Let every breath curse God! 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:22.000 like, God forbid. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:27.000 So, details matter, and look at the difference between a hey and a chet. 00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:29.000 So, here's your head. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.000 a little open. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.000 Right, there, we've got both of them right there, and then… no, they were both right there! 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.000 And it was her. And he was a little guy. 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.000 Right? Sorry. There it is. So… 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:47.000 You just did. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Sure, but we'll go with that. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:55.000 I don't know how to raise hand. Okay, um… Uh, teaching from, um, uh… God. Just flew out of my head. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:56.000 There's a couple of those. Keep going. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:08:03.000 the Orthodox rabbi turned FlexiDocs. Okay. It'll, it'll, it'll come to me. The, um… The het is closed and stops the flow of energy. 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:04.000 Yep. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.000 Whereas the hay allows things to go through. and up again. So the Yod-Hevav, hey. 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:16.000 written vertically allows that divine energy to come through the hay and go back, but if you close it. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:17.000 Hold on to that idea. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:18.000 Oh, spoken like a practition… spoken like… 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.000 you stop the connection. Gershen Winkler. Gershen Winkler. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:22.000 Oh, that… that… sure. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:23.000 Yep. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:24.000 Spoken like a practitioner of Tai Chi. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:25.000 Everybody's physically see that, that the hay has an opening? 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:31.000 Yeah. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:32.000 Alright, so hang on to that. That might come in handy in… 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.000 Yes. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:39.000 you know, about a half page. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Somebody want to… or any other questions about the passage we just looked at? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:56.000 I would just like to add that the pass… The curls on certain, you know, Orthodox Jews, Hasidim. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.000 Uh, it may have a reference here, I'm just wondering about that. Yeah, interesting. 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:05.000 Oh, I love that. So, I have always understood the… 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:10.000 I've focused on the black as a raven part of that quote, and thinking, oh, we're talking about the ink. 00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:15.000 Blackfire on white fire, that's the ink on the parchment. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:21.000 And so I focused on the Raven Black ink. 00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:22.000 Spiral, curls, heh. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:27.000 But I love that we're going around through this spiral about the curls. Maybe it really is all about Jewish hair. 00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Um, alright, anyone to read? 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:32.000 I didn't hear the last thing you said, uh, Rabbi Rachel. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:33.000 The spiraling of the curls… 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:36.000 The spiraling of the curl. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:41.000 You think of the spiral of a shofar, think of the spiral of Jewish time. 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:49.000 Right? There's an openness to a spiral, rather than the closedness of a circle. A spiral just keeps going. 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:54.000 Which is a lovely way to think about the madragic process. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:09:57.000 Anybody want to read to us from Rabbi Michael Strassfeld? 00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:02.000 He's contemporary. 00:10:02.000 --> 00:10:07.000 This is… this is our last one, I think, before we go into our actual Torah text. 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:09.000 oh, I'm seeing in the chat, spiral of our heritage DNA, that's beautiful. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:13.000 Mmm. 00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:15.000 spiritual DNA. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:32.000 The challenge of modernity. There is a statement in the Talmud, Yeshalim, Yerushalayim, that describes the Torah. Talmud, your Rushalayim, that describes the Torah as being black fire written on. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:38.000 Whitefire. Over the centuries, this phrase has been explained in a variety of ways. 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:42.000 They all begin with an image of the fire you can see. 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:47.000 The black fire, and the fire you can't see, the white fire. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:54.000 One interpretation is that the Black Fire is the letters of the written Torah, and the white is the oral Torah. 00:10:54.000 --> 00:11:00.000 For Jewish mystics, the white fire is the hidden meaning of the Torah that. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:10.000 lie beneath the written text. Again, for Jewish mystics, the white fire is the hidden meaning of the Torah that lies beneath. 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:16.000 the written text. I want to suggest a new interpretation for our time. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:19.000 The white fire is the larger world around us. 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Without the white spaces, the Torah cannot be read without the white fire, the Torah would be lacking a large context. 00:11:29.000 --> 00:11:32.000 Thank you. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:37.000 So, the statement in the Talmud, Yerushalmi, is the one that we… 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:39.000 began with at the top, right? 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:43.000 White… white fire inscribed with black fire. 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.000 And this hyperlinks to something we began the year with, that 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:53.000 The old Torah is continually generating. Or… 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:55.000 Depending on what you believe. 00:11:55.000 --> 00:11:59.000 was created with creation, and we just keep finding it. 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:03.000 But the fact that we keep finding it, 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:06.000 In our time, through our times, 00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:09.000 is part of what makes Midrash 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:13.000 That white fire that continually burns, that… 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:17.000 It is the responsibility of every generation. 00:12:17.000 --> 00:12:23.000 as we talked about from the DEGL on day one, 00:12:23.000 --> 00:12:26.000 map the Torah to its own experience. 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.000 to continue to find relevance. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:39.000 and uplift those moral themes, and include the excluded, and connect text to text, and fill in gaps, all those midrashic functions, for our 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.000 Times. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:50.000 The fact that this happens to come from Michael Strassfield, who is masculine, happens to bring in 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.000 A form of inclusive thinking that's been around for centuries. 00:12:55.000 --> 00:13:04.000 So, for those of us who might have been raised with the proposition that this is what the text means in Judaism means X, 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.000 That itself is a new idea. 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:11.000 in Jewish life. And it comes from a guy called the Khatam Sofair. 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:14.000 In the 1700s. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Which, in Jewish time is practically yesterday. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:19.000 Yesterday. Totally yesterday. 00:13:19.000 --> 00:13:22.000 It's also worth bearing in mind that the… 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:29.000 Things that look old and traditional to us were also themselves at one time new. 00:13:29.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Yeah. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:38.000 Right? So there's nothing about antiquity that makes something necessarily more sacred, and nothing about newness that makes something necessarily 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:42.000 less holy. The whole of Torah… 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:46.000 requires both the white fire and the black fire. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:50.000 the page and the words, the received tradition, 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.000 And the tradition that we're still receiving now. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:59.000 I see Cheryl's hand, and then we'll do some Torah. 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:07.000 I really love this section. That the white fire is the larger world around us. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 Without the white spaces, the Torah cannot be read. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:16.000 it feels to me like what we are always saying is that. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:21.000 having mindfulness. means that we find Torah into everything. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:27.000 If you can… if you're… It's like I'm paying attention. 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:34.000 And I see… Nancy will get this… the birds… outside my window. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:42.000 Um, at the feeders. There you go. Um… I can find Torah everywhere. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:47.000 And then the trick is to be able to be open to that. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:15:01.000 And then to identify what about Torah, what about our history, what about… Our morality and ethics that create us as a people. 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:02.000 Beautiful. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:03.000 Yeah. 00:15:03.000 --> 00:15:04.000 Um, can I find in every moment? 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:05.000 Alright, shall we do a little tour? 00:15:05.000 --> 00:15:06.000 Yep. With the un… 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.000 Also, welcome, Heather, good to see you. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.000 Yep, with the understanding that 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:13.000 Uh, mainly for time. 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:16.000 We have done a little bit of cutting. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:23.000 Just to keep this a little shorter. So this is actually Genesis 17, 1 through 17, with some skips in there. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:34.000 We need 4 people to do what we do. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:42.000 When Avram was 99 years old. God appeared to Avram and said to him, I am El Shaddai. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:50.000 Walk before me and be blameless. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and make you very numerous. 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:54.000 Avram fell on his face, and God spoke to him further. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:57.000 As for me, this is my covenant with you. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.000 You will be the father of a multitude of nations. 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Your name will no longer be called Avram. Your name will be Avraham. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:10.000 And I will make you father of a multitude of nations. 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:21.000 I will make you greatly fertile. I will make nations of you, kings will issue from you. 00:16:21.000 --> 00:16:24.000 Somebody want to read our next paragraph? 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:25.000 I will keep… 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:26.000 I will… Go ahead. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.000 I will keep my covenant between me and you. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:34.000 And your offspring after you and their generations as an eternal covenant, 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:38.000 To be God to you and your offspring to come. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:45.000 God said to Avraham, You and your offspring after you and your generations will keep my covenant, 00:16:45.000 --> 00:16:50.000 This will be the covenant between me and you and your offspring after you to keep. 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:56.000 Each male among you will be circumcised. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:17:04.000 You will circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. And it will be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:10.000 And 8 days, every male among you will be circumcised in all your generations. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:23.000 Thus will my covenant be in your flesh as an eternal covenant. 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:31.000 God said to Avraham, of your wife Sarai, her name will no longer be called Sarai. Sarah will be her name. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:37.000 I will bless her, and I will give you a son from her, I will bless her so she gives rise to nations. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:42.000 kings of peoples will be from her. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.000 Black fire on whitefire. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.000 Haze. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:51.000 letters that matter. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:54.000 things that open. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:56.000 Check out… 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.000 how this text reads. 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:10.000 You… 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:12.000 Delia. 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:21.000 For the first time. Um, adding the hay. 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:22.000 God put the flow. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:24.000 um, God put the flow in the process. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:25.000 Who? 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:28.000 the possibility, the opening for the flow, if you choose to take it. 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:34.000 Who put the flow in the flow, we flow, we flow. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.000 Okay, uh… 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:37.000 Nancy. 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:39.000 Yeah. 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:44.000 Um, I was gonna note the same thing, but I'm glad someone else did. But also. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:51.000 what… I'm sort of caught in the first, uh, the third line, be blameless. 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:59.000 Not sure what that's all about. I mean, is this an open… you know, to do anything you want. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:04.000 So, intriguingly, the word there is tamim. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:10.000 Which can… could also mean pure or wholehearted, or whole. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:17.000 Um, it's the word that's used to describe an offering that is whole enough to be offered. 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:21.000 It's also the word used to describe Noah. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Who we may remember from last week is not exactly 100% perfect, necessarily. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Right. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:30.000 So, there's an open question, why is this the word that is being now applied to Avram? 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.000 Hmm, okay. Thank you. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:37.000 Every translation is a mid-run. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:45.000 By the way, for those of us who, um, attended a school in Boston, 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.000 Um, the… 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.000 Yale… 00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:58.000 moniker in Hebrew isumim, which is sort of like the 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.000 The dice that were thrown, 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:09.000 from the high priest, but it can also be read as Orim Vitamim, um, light and tamim. 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:16.000 Um, Tom is simple, like, the simple son, what does he ask? 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:17.000 And that may… 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:20.000 Are you saying that people who went to Yale are simpletons, Rabbi David? 00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:26.000 I see Diana's hand. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:28.000 Spoken like Amlus Mach of Harvard. Deanna. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:33.000 Just making a joke for a Saturday morning. 00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:42.000 Um, well, this is a question… that I'm sure has been answered many ways, but… I'm curious. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:51.000 why God chose to make circumcision. of the male be the covenant. 00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Okay, this is one of those moments, everybody, where… 00:20:55.000 --> 00:21:02.000 The rabbis are going to do that special magic that we do. The special magic that we do is we 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:12.000 Repeat the question that was just asked, but we do it as rabbis. And suddenly, the very fact that we've asked the question opens up 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:19.000 opens up… opens up a whole… 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:23.000 So, Rabbi Rachel, would you like to try it, or would you like me to do it? 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:24.000 Oh, be my guest. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.000 Oh, sure, my… 00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:28.000 This feels very gendered suddenly. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.000 How could it not? 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:32.000 Putting a hat on it. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:33.000 Why… why? Why… why would 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.000 God makes circumcision. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.000 The sign of the covenant. 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.000 Oh, I have so many thoughts, but I see Joan's hand. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Um, Rabbi David, you've often… you have referred to, uh, circumcision of the heart in many times in the past. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.000 Which is, uh, which is… an opening to receive. 00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:03.000 And you have to be open. to receive what. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:13.000 what God is going to… give you to carry forth. 00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:14.000 Yeah, go… 00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:15.000 Oh, I would have said the other way around. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:17.000 Well, a heart is a bit difficult. to circumcise, so… 00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:22.000 But I hear you. Right? It's difficult to get directly to the heart. 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:29.000 Exactly. So, that might have just, you know. served the purpose. And besides which. 00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:32.000 That would represent, um. the future generations, so it would be apt. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:36.000 Mm-hmm. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:38.000 Mm-hmm. 00:22:38.000 --> 00:22:39.000 It's something we're also talking about… 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:41.000 Oh, good! Somebody who's a boy! 00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:47.000 Oh, I see a hand from a boy. James? 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:50.000 I honestly hate this subject. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:51.000 Sorry, man. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:52.000 Why? 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 I know. Because I'm a boy. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:00.000 Um, in Kabbalah, um, to carry on what Joan is saying. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:05.000 It is thought that the foreskin is a barrier, 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:08.000 And I know there's a Hebrew word for this, please don't ask me, I can never remember. 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:09.000 We will tell you in just a moment. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:12.000 Um, but by removing it, 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.000 You clear the path for the flow of Sheva. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:20.000 Whether or not that's really the case, I don't… 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.000 No, but that is what is taught in Kabbalah. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.000 And the reason is right here. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:36.000 Unablet! 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:43.000 L is literally to block. 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:45.000 Tubi Shavats. 00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.000 the trees for 3 years will have, uh, 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.000 fairskins. 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:53.000 As it were. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:58.000 is as it were. It's blockage, it's a block, it's a prohibition. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:02.000 It's exactly as… 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:09.000 the catalystic tradition is bringing forward, and this is why. The world means that literally. 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:14.000 So, let's see, we've got the flow through the open hay, 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:23.000 And the flow through… Delia, save me. 00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:24.000 You need to unmute, friend. 00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:31.000 Yep, you're muted. 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:32.000 As opposed to what? 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:38.000 Well, I was… oh, um, this may be off the charts, but… Exactly, exactly. But the vagus nerve. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:39.000 Yep. 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:46.000 which we're all talking about. actually is not often understood, goes all the way down to the genitals. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:51.000 Um, so if we talk about vagus nerve as a calming mechanism. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:59.000 for being able to receive divine energy. somehow, I just had that thought. 00:24:59.000 --> 00:25:00.000 Love that. I want to, um, also lift up from the chat… 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:03.000 I'm gonna leave it there. 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:08.000 Corinne has mentioned circumcision removal and cutting to… whoop! 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 My thing's scrolled away to feel the lack. 00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:16.000 to feel a lack, and it's the lack that drives the individual to seek the Creator. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:21.000 Cheryl is noting the… we're talking here about the flow of seed to create future generations. 00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Ooh, and James notes the vagus nerve is severed from the heart in a heart transplant. 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:30.000 I did not know that, and that is… 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:31.000 Yep. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:39.000 Longest nerve in the body. So there's clearly something here about embodied experience, about blocks to the flow of spirit. 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:47.000 Right? And note that the letter that's being changed here is a letter of openness, a letter with 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:53.000 space for flow to come through, rather than a letter that is closed. 00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Or a letter that isn't there at all. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:00.000 Right, right. So, now let's zoom out a little 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.000 Why is this relevant? 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:05.000 to… 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:11.000 the shift from prehistory to history. Prehistory is, you know, Adam, chava, 00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:14.000 with no, uh, flood… 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:21.000 new generations, begat, begat, begat. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Go forth. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:25.000 Get out. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.000 To a land that I will show you. And I will 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:31.000 make you. 00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.000 A mighty nation. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:36.000 Kings will come from you. 00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:39.000 But we know the story well enough to know 00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:44.000 that having kids was not so… 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:50.000 Easy. Amy. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:27:03.000 Well, if all of a sudden they're leaving, and they're going out, and they're going away. 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:04.000 This is the start of peoplehood. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:08.000 But they still need to be a people. It would be… Most impactful. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:14.000 Yeah. 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:15.000 Love that. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:17.000 to actually change themselves. their bodies. 00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:25.000 So that they can't, uh… they can't drift off. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.000 Well, and remember here, there's no tribe to drift away from. 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.000 from the tribe? 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:32.000 They're starting over. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:37.000 Right? But I think your point is really deep. Something's gotta change here. 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:39.000 So, that's one piece. 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:41.000 Now, trigger alert! 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.000 This is all about having kids. 00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:48.000 Alright? For some of us, that's a thing. For some of us, that's not a thing. 00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:52.000 There's a lot of feelings around that, so… 00:27:52.000 --> 00:28:00.000 With all of those in the room. Cheryl. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:08.000 Um, this section always triggers me to remember people I know who have left their homes to come here. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:12.000 My mom worked with and then became friends with. 00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:16.000 a single mother from Russia who came here with two daughters. 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:26.000 And, um, my dad's… Second wife was… came here from Cuba, like, days after the revolution. 00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:37.000 And I always think to myself, the mindset that one must have. 00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:38.000 Right. 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:48.000 to leave every single thing one knows. Um, and at least they had, like, you know, television or radio, they kind of had an idea of what they were going to, but in here. 00:28:48.000 --> 00:28:54.000 The government has no idea. People… you know, there maybe were nomadic tribes, but. 00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:03.000 Like, others, you had… If you were born your generations, they've stayed, they whatever, and here. 00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:16.000 God is speaking to him directly. Also, did this happen again? Since… you know, only… this is the first time we're hearing this other than the Garden of Eden, right? And then we don't hear it again till… 00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:22.000 Moses, or I could be wrong, but… A direct communication. 00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:27.000 from… somewhere. something… is life-shaped. 00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:30.000 Mm-hmm. So there is… there is direct 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:35.000 shocking. You know, like, what… what is… in his spirit. 00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:36.000 Yeah. 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:39.000 His soul, this man. that he has chosen. 00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:41.000 Right. So… 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:45.000 Right. And there's a lot of… how did… 00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.000 Why did Ga'a Avram receive that call? 00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:58.000 And while we're not focusing on it here, there's a lot of Midrash that Avram figured out monotheism. 00:29:58.000 --> 00:30:05.000 He figured out monotheism by himself, by discerning within himself, and then it's like Moses 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.000 sees the burning bush, and THEN God shows up. 00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:14.000 And says, Moshe, Moshe. 00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:16.000 And that's where the Midrash is trying to 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:22.000 map to. He figured it out. The idols didn't talk. 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:28.000 Terrah, his father, would bring food for the idols, and the idols just sort of sit there, 00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:33.000 Therefore, not so much, right? 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:34.000 Midrash. Midrash! 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:41.000 And that's… but that's not a story that's in Torah, by the way. A lot of us feel like we remember hearing that story as kids, that he broke his father's idols. It's from Midrash, it's not from Torah, it's… 00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:47.000 Right. We're not told in Taurus, just boom. So, I'm gonna zoom out again. 00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:52.000 Why is all of this relevant? 00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:54.000 to… 00:30:54.000 --> 00:30:57.000 progenitors. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:02.000 Wasn't so easy to have kids. In fact, we're told later in Torah, 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:04.000 Sarah couldn't. Have. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:10.000 Children. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:13.000 What's going on here? 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:16.000 is the classical understanding, therefore, is that Sarah 00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:25.000 couldn't have children. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:27.000 that in the chat, that her name also changes. 00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:28.000 Yeah? 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:29.000 Yeah. 00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:35.000 And so she also has, and I think you have it here, 1517, she receives, um. 00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:36.000 She gets a hay. 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:38.000 hay as well, and so both of them have the flow. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:44.000 Right? But who's changed here? Who's, like… I mean, there's the… there's the metaphysical change, which we're 00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:47.000 about to talk about, but then there's the physical… who got changed? 00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:52.000 Who's getting physically changed here? Is it the barren woman? 00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:54.000 This is not a trick question. 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:58.000 Does circumcision apply to the barren woman? 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:01.000 we should be shaking our heads no, right? 00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:02.000 Right? That's not a thing we do. 00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:03.000 Right. So there's something weird here. 00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:06.000 Hopefully not. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:11.000 Right? There's something that… this can't just be… 00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:15.000 First of all, it can't just be physical. 00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.000 And it can't just be about her womb. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:21.000 Because her womb is not actually being addressed. 00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:25.000 Right. And so, centuries 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:31.000 of male-driven explanations for why 00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:36.000 Sarah couldn't have children. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:40.000 Amy, you got it. 00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:41.000 You got it. 00:32:41.000 --> 00:32:42.000 Yeah. 00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:48.000 So… so, his flow… had to be unblocked. 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:56.000 In order for it to have children. Um, and then… then God, who actually talks to Sarah. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:57.000 Hmm? Yep. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:33:05.000 And she laughs. Um, he's… he's then saying, you will, but he's not saying. 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:12.000 you know, I'm putting a baby in you. It's… it's… he's saying, no, that he's… he's ready now. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:14.000 Uh-huh. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:17.000 And I want to lift up in the chat, um… 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:26.000 Susan noted, from Sheffa Gold in accepting upon ourselves the covenant, the agreement to walk with God in simplicity and open-heartedness, 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:31.000 Tamim. We also take on the mitzvah of the circumcision of our hearts. 00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:39.000 Which y'all also landed on, too. The challenge is to continually cut through the layers of distortion and defense, 00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:42.000 that lie upon the heart, so we can receive reality. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:48.000 Right. Uh, Delia, and then I want to grab the questions at the bottom before we 00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.000 take a deep dive. 00:33:50.000 --> 00:34:03.000 I just have to add an… okay. In the Talmud, Rabbi Shimon asked, how did Abraham learn about God? And the answer that he gave is, God gave him two kidneys, and they gushed forth Torah and wisdom. 00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:12.000 And the heart… mystically rests on the kidneys, so all of this… fits together, and I couldn't help myself. 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:13.000 Love it. 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:24.000 I had a throw-out question. Why is it that, um, that the flow… is this… how we say that women are already connected to Ghana and men on it, why do they need to have a part cut off? 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:31.000 That could be cut off. We couldn't have any parts cut off. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:39.000 I also want to just name that as the mother of a Jewish son, 00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:41.000 This can be an extremely difficult mitzvah 00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:46.000 for women to encounter also. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:47.000 Yeah. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:51.000 Not to say that I understand what it's like to be a man in this room at this time, I do not. 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:55.000 But to say that this can be charged and… 00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:56.000 Yeah. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:34:59.000 brings up a lot of stuff. 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:01.000 in a lot of different directions. 00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:04.000 Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. 00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:07.000 Rachel. 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:09.000 Not me, the other one. 00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:20.000 I'm sorry, um, that… I know you want to move on, but I just want to say, uh, share that Avram is 99 years old. 00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:28.000 And if we look at… these are the… we were looking at early human civilization here, or early human life. 00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:37.000 Aren't we? I mean, I think… This is before Torah, or this is God, you know, God consulted the Torah. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:41.000 What did you say is that this is a 99-year-old man. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:48.000 who may be having a hallucination. He may be having some kind of relationship. 00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:59.000 with something… that is in him, and he thinks it's… God, or calling it God, and now it's a covenant, and now you're gonna circumcise. 00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:06.000 And then we come into, you know, the traditions, and people just follow along with this. 00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:11.000 And I just find it very fascinating that there's an evolution of the mind. 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:24.000 And yet, we… and now we're applying our contemporary mind on top of it, and then we circumcise our children, and then we… follow all of these rules and so forth, so I just wanted to add that into the… 00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:31.000 Yep, we're gonna pick that up very, very shortly. Hang on to that, too. 00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:33.000 So notice something. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:39.000 First Parsha. 00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:43.000 All the animals get names. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:48.000 he, you know, Isha, because you came from Ish, 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:50.000 when you have a… 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:51.000 Because… 00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:54.000 Here are M. Kolkhai, mother of all that live. 00:36:54.000 --> 00:37:01.000 Right? Who is Noah's wife, we're not told the Midrash goes into Naam. 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:03.000 now we've got the renaming 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:10.000 of Avram and Sarai into Avraham and Sarai. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.000 Why are names and naming 00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:17.000 so pivotal to the first three. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:24.000 Torah portions. 00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:28.000 They're not just things we happen to curate. 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:38.000 Their core. 00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000 Anyone have a thought? Oh, Joan. 00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:42.000 I see Jones. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:48.000 Because you… you take on a role. or responsibility. 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:53.000 in the story going forward. 00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.000 Okay, Deanna. 00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:00.000 And then Rachel. 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.000 My understanding, and please correct me if I'm wrong, Rabbis. 00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:09.000 is that each Hebrew letter has a particular vibration. 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:16.000 So… your name has a particular vibration. If it gets changed, your vibration gets changed. It's your very existence. 00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:19.000 Okay. Hang on to that. 00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:22.000 Yeah, yeah. 00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:25.000 Um, Rachel. 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.000 Um, I'd like to, uh, come… 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:37.000 make a comment on your question, in that, isn't early peoples, aren't they just seeing themselves? 00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:43.000 that it isn't… and again, I'm sticking with this… this idea that the mind is not as developed. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:54.000 There isn't that self-reflection that we do, that we're putting onto these texts, that are… early people, maybe that's all they could see is themselves. 00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:56.000 I don't… I don't know, I'm just playing with that. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:00.000 Well, all of this is fair game. 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:01.000 I mean… 00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Anyone here ever heard of a tradition of changing a name upon illness? 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:08.000 I'm seeing a lot of heads nodding, right? 00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:09.000 Mm-hmm. Yep. Yep. 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:12.000 Hang out to that! 00:39:12.000 --> 00:39:13.000 Alright. 00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:15.000 We… I went looking for 00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:22.000 A one-paragraph text that would say all of these things about the letter H that we wanted y'all to know. 00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:29.000 And I could not find one anywhere, so this one, it's unattributed, this is the anonymous voice of tradition. 00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:36.000 And y'all have touched on some of this already, right? You have foreseen what was going to be 00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:40.000 in the chat, forgive me, David, can you take this? I have to run… I will be right back. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.000 Yep. Okay, so the anonymous, uh… 00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:47.000 The Stam Rabbi Rachel. This letter, hey, 00:39:47.000 --> 00:39:57.000 Uh, so who, who was it? It was, it was Diana. So, Aleph is one, Bed is two, Gemil is 3, Dalit is 4, Hay is 5. 00:39:57.000 --> 00:39:59.000 So, the letter H 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:03.000 has the value of 5 in Gematria, which is Jewish 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:06.000 you know, Rumorology 101. There are many forms. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:11.000 And this can represent Torah as well. Why? 00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:16.000 There you go. It's also the letter that appears twice in the Tetragram. It's in Yud, 00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:21.000 Bob, right? One for… now, what's this? Bina. 00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:27.000 called the Upper Mother or Higher Shekhina. And the other representing Malchut, or the 00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:31.000 perish, Shafina. Would someone who has this 00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:36.000 Uh, Delia James, Cheryl, want to throw this out? 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:38.000 I didn't know that I was gonna be possible. 00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:45.000 Um, one is the… the upper one is the quote-unquote hand of God, and the lower one is our… our hand on this earth. 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.000 There you go. So… 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:54.000 If you've studied with me before, especially if you've worked with Zohar, you've seen 00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:05.000 Upper Jerusalem and Lower Jerusalem. There's the Upper Torah, the perfect Torah up there, and then there's the best we could do here. There's Lower Jerusalem, which is the actual city, and then there's the Upper Jerusalem, 00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.000 mythic, the perfect, the platonic form. Bina… 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:14.000 is one of the first energy centers, Kabbalistically, in the pinball down. 00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:24.000 of creation. Malchut is the bottom one that we associate with Shekinah, what Reb Zalman would have called 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:34.000 And so when we say Yud-Heh-Vav, hey, we're speaking about a God that is both transcendent, far away, complete, total, and imminent, right here, 00:41:34.000 --> 00:41:36.000 call. 00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:41.000 Both and. So we got that going on. 00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:44.000 Grammatically, the letter H often marks a 00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:51.000 Feminine word, if you're taking, uh, any of the Hebrew classes with either of us. 00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:59.000 tends to be feminine, and it's also the sound of breath. Arthur Raskow, who just passed, Sirconoli Rachha. 00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:05.000 said that Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, it's not actually letters, it's really just… 00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:08.000 Yo… 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:13.000 represents, therefore, the Holy Spirit, the Ruach HaKodesh. 00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:21.000 So, this letter, hey, that you associated already with openness, because it's different from the chat, which is closed, 00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:25.000 is loaded. 00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:34.000 We have either it is loaded, or we have loaded onto that hay. So much power, so much symbolism. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:36.000 And it ain't for nothing. 00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:44.000 That's the letter that Avram and Sarai got. 00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:47.000 So, with that background… 00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:53.000 Let's go. 00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:58.000 This is from the Yerushalmi. This is the Jerusalem Thomas. 00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:00.000 The Palestinian Talmud. 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:03.000 Not the Babylonian Talmud. 00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:07.000 But it got picked up in some of the major commentaries, including Shizkuni. 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:13.000 And I'm gonna walk us through this one, because it wants some commentary. 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:15.000 Rob Huna, 00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:23.000 Says in the name of Rabbacha, which already is funny, because one of them's a hey and one of them's a chet. 00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:25.000 The Yud… 00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:30.000 Little weird, right? Olive gamble, doll it, hey Bob, sein, hat, tet, 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.000 Good. 10. 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:37.000 Which the Holy Blessed One, God, lifted from our mother 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Sarah. 00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:42.000 Because her name used to be Sarai Yi with a Yud. 00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:46.000 So that year is taken from Sarah, 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:49.000 And given half back to Sarah, 00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:55.000 And half to Avram. Thank you, Vanna White, Rabbi Vanna White. There you go. 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:57.000 So, 5 for Sarah, 5 for Avram. 00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:00.000 adds up to 10, and that's the good. 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:01.000 Rabbushaya says that the youth says, hey now, 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:06.000 Wow. 00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:13.000 This is Midrash, ascends, bows down before the Holy One of blessing, and says, 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:20.000 Master of the worlds, you uprooted me from this righteous woman! 00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:23.000 If, by the way, 00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:25.000 whether Dalid stops you in the kitchen? 00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:27.000 After session? 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.000 Let me know. 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.000 Holy Blessed One says, 00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:40.000 In the past, you were the last letter of a woman's name. 00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:42.000 Sarai… 00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:47.000 On your life, I'm gonna make you the first letter of a man's name. 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:53.000 And in numbers 13, that's what comes. There's this guy, Hoshea, 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:57.000 And Moses calls him Yehoshua. 00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:02.000 And that is how Joshua got his name. 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:09.000 That happens here. 00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:16.000 What's going on? 00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:22.000 Why is this here? Remember, humans wrote this. Why did they write it? 00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:28.000 Deanna? 00:45:28.000 --> 00:45:33.000 but I just want to… get some clarification. 00:45:33.000 --> 00:45:49.000 I'm understanding this last part as meaning that. hey, don't feel bad, you were in a bad spot before, a lowly spot at the end of this woman's name. 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:50.000 There are two… 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:56.000 But I'm gonna give you this exalted place in front of a man's name. Am I correct that that's the… 00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:57.000 Yup. 00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:01.000 That is cert… that is certainly one way to read the text that we just saw, and you are not alone in reading it that way. You've gone from last to first, and also you… 00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:04.000 were attached to a woman, but now I'm gonna attach you to a man. 00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:05.000 What's… uh-huh? Uh-huh. 00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:10.000 Which might suggest something about how the authors of this text viewed 00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:11.000 gender differences. 00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:15.000 Uh-huh. This is complex. 00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.000 This is complex. What else do you see? Why is this here? 00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:24.000 Not why did we select it? Why did humans write this? 00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:26.000 Joan? 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:35.000 It reminds me of the story of Adam. And the rib taken from him to make a woman. 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:40.000 And in this case, it acknowledges. That man comes from woman. 00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:47.000 From her? came… he got his… 00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:51.000 Beautiful! I was hoping someone would go there, because at… on the 00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:53.000 Looks like… 00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:57.000 On one hand, we can read this sort of misogynistically. 00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:03.000 But there's another way in which it's a repair to the Adam story. 00:47:03.000 --> 00:47:06.000 Everybody see that? 00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:07.000 I'm gonna take your rib, and you're just gonna become, you know, 00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:10.000 Mm-hmm. 00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:12.000 You came for me! 00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:16.000 Me, Tarzan, Eugene. 00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:18.000 Now, Sarah's 00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:24.000 Yud is helping to heal Avram. 00:47:24.000 --> 00:47:25.000 to heal both of them. 00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:30.000 make him float, right, and flowify both of them. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.000 Yeah! Yeah. That's extraordinary. 00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:37.000 Isn't it? 00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:38.000 What else do you see? 00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:42.000 And both of these are always already present in the text. 00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:44.000 What else do you see, if anything? 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:47.000 Cheryl. 00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:51.000 I'm not saying something I've seen, I just want… well. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:56.000 I didn't know if the word righteous was the same as the other righteouses we've been seeing. 00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:01.000 Yeah. That's a decade. 00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:02.000 She's a… she's a Tzadik, she's a Tzadakhet. 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:13.000 Um, but… Okay. Um… But it's not the NOAA righteous or the previous. 00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:14.000 That was Tamim. 00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:15.000 One, we looked at for Avram, correct? 00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:18.000 Be cool, dude. 00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:24.000 Um, but I… I mean, first, Joan, that was brilliant. 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:30.000 And I… I guess when I… I know this happens all the time, but for this. 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.000 time, it shocked me for some reason, and I don't know why. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:46.000 Um, that the repair is done in numbers. And we're still in Genesis. 00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:47.000 Uh-huh. 00:48:47.000 --> 00:48:49.000 I know we reference, like, Psalms and songs, songs, and… but for some reason, it's like. 00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:55.000 It took so long. to do this repair. 00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:01.000 This, this repair. Now, remember… 00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:06.000 No, no, no, this is… it's… all square in Midrash and Midrash. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:11.000 My first response is, there's no before or after in Torah. 00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:14.000 I mean, hey, a world in which the good 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:15.000 Right? Right. But understand… 00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:18.000 That's so helpful! Thank you. Yeah. 00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:25.000 Why are we look… I mean, tell me about this Yahushua guy. 00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:35.000 Who's Yahushua? Who's Joshua? 00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:37.000 Also, yes, excellent. 00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:38.000 Yes. 00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:39.000 of… none. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:40.000 So maybe you're just… 00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:41.000 Yes. 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:43.000 Did Josh… was Joshua with… one with the trumpet? 00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:48.000 Joshua thought the Battle of Jericho, Jericho. 00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:49.000 Why do we fight the Battle of Jericho? 00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:50.000 But how did he get to fight the Battle of Jericho? 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:55.000 Yeah. Exactly. 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:56.000 No. 00:49:56.000 --> 00:49:59.000 Does Moses get to lead the children of Israel across the river and into the land of promise? He does not. 00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:00.000 Joshua… 00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:03.000 No. No. 00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:04.000 He's the one who crosses over. 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:05.000 No. What thing? 00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:12.000 Without a child from Sarah, there's no Jewish people. Without Joshua leading them, 00:50:12.000 --> 00:50:13.000 There's no land of promise. 00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:16.000 There's no Jewish people. 00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:20.000 So, did the Yud from Sarai wait until… got added to Yeshua? 00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:22.000 Yes. 00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:23.000 Yes! 00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:25.000 Okay. And I don't know what… I don't know what Bin Nun means. 00:50:25.000 --> 00:50:26.000 the son of Nun. 00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000 Good afternoon. 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:32.000 Son of… okay, son of none, thank you. I thought it was Ben, not Ben. That confused me. 00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:36.000 Alright, um, the tech… here it's been with a… with a theory… 00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:39.000 Um, but it's the same word. 00:50:39.000 --> 00:50:40.000 Yep. So, this is actually saying… 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:43.000 Okay, thanks. 00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:46.000 that Yahushua… 00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:52.000 The leader of the Israelites after Moses? 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:59.000 could do so only from this very Tikkun. 00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:02.000 This is a powerful text. 00:51:02.000 --> 00:51:08.000 It's saying, in essence, look, somebody else who got his name changed! 00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:12.000 The main change positioned him to 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:15.000 Lead. 00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:21.000 I want to lift up in the chat, James is noticing the Yoda's also the first letter of the Tetragrammaton. 00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:22.000 Yeah, uh-huh. 00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:25.000 So, why does it even need to be elevated? 00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:28.000 It's a great question. 00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:31.000 I mean, first we have to imagine here the… 00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:35.000 The spirit of Yud, the quintessence of Yud, 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.000 Going and talking to God and bowing down before God. 00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:41.000 So, like, the letter itself… 00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:47.000 being a person is already an enormous stretch of consciousness. 00:51:47.000 --> 00:51:49.000 And yeah, I love your point that 00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:54.000 that the yard was, in some ways, already at the top. 00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:06.000 Uh-huh. So, just because something seems a certain way doesn't mean it is. Just because you think you know who you are, 00:52:06.000 --> 00:52:07.000 doesn't mean you can't change. 00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:10.000 I mean, you do. 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:20.000 And just because you think one piece of history is over here by itself in a little eddy, uh-uh, it may come back. 00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:23.000 And top may not necessarily always be the best. 00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:26.000 Great. And then… 00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:27.000 And therefore, 00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:29.000 We need to be grounded. 00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:31.000 Someone now go to Bereshit Rabba. 00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:36.000 This is our classical compendium of Midrash. 00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:41.000 Avram said, To me, you have not given offspring. 00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:47.000 Rabbashimul bar… Rabbi Yitzhak said, Avram told God. 00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:50.000 The stars say that I will not have children. 00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:57.000 God said to me, as you say. Avram will not beget, but Avraham will beget. 00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:03.000 Sarai will not beget, but Sarah will beget. 00:53:03.000 --> 00:53:07.000 But wait! 00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:09.000 I'm… Avram. 00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:13.000 Work with me here. I'm Avram. I know me. 00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:16.000 Get inside this, friends. 00:53:16.000 --> 00:53:20.000 Get inside this. Avram says, Hey God, I don't have kids. 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.000 I don't… I'm not that person. 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:31.000 God says to him, yes, it's as you say. 00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:34.000 What is this trying to tell us about 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:40.000 How we know ourselves and character. 00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.000 I see Marcy coming in. 00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:51.000 I just want to make sure there's space for everyone. 00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:57.000 Marcia, are you…? 00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:02.000 you're having a little difficulty unmuting. Let me see if I can help you. 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:06.000 Yes, perfect, go for it. 00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:07.000 Yes, go for it. 00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:09.000 Can you hear what I'm saying? 00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:10.000 Yes, yes. 00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:16.000 You can here? Oh, okay, because… I can't care. 00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.000 Hmm. 00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:28.000 It's a state of mind. And… It's like, who… idea of, of, uh… having faith. 00:54:28.000 --> 00:54:36.000 And… going to… it's… well… Basically, we're talking about. 00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:40.000 neuroplasticity. and rewiring. 00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:58.000 your brain to see yourself. in a different way. And the whole point… Back to the beginning, is… Lekla, go to yourself. 00:54:58.000 --> 00:54:59.000 Yes. 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:01.000 Now, who is that self? It is a new… self. One that you are reinventing. 00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:08.000 Yes. 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:09.000 He's… yeah… 00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:14.000 through the guidance of someone who sees you. another way. And, to top it off. 00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:15.000 Mm-hmm. 00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:25.000 God gets all these names! So, it shows how… based on our perspective. 00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:26.000 Oh, gorgeous. 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:27.000 God will change as well. And it's hard to tell. 00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:34.000 Who's changing first? And who's changing in reaction? to, as above, so below. 00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:40.000 As below, so above again. the covenant, and our. 00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.000 ability to influence each other. as thought partners. 00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:45.000 We have come… yeah, we have come a long way from the alphabet. 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.000 Essentially. That's all I got. 00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.000 Beautiful. 00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:58.000 James, and then we'll move on. 00:55:58.000 --> 00:56:00.000 So, as we've said before, 00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:02.000 the Hebrew letter hay. 00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:05.000 It sounds like Brett, and it's a breathy… 00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:13.000 letter. Um, and it's representative of the breadth, in this case, the breadth of life, the breadth of the divine spirit. 00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:15.000 By adding it to the name, 00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.000 God is essentially breathing 00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:22.000 the Divine Spirit into Avram and Sarai. 00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:23.000 Yeah… 00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:24.000 And… 00:56:24.000 --> 00:56:29.000 Which takes us back to Eden when God breathes the breath of life into the first human beings. 00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:38.000 Which is exactly what I was gonna say, this is kind of another creation, this is another, uh, another beginning, another genesis. 00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:43.000 And, of course, the transformation, you take on a new name, et cetera, et cetera. 00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:45.000 We see all of that coming together here. 00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:47.000 And here it is! 00:56:47.000 --> 00:56:53.000 James, congratulations, you just won yourself some Talmud. 00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:55.000 Uh, which were we at? Rabbi Yetzuk? 00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.000 Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 16b. 00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:05.000 Rabbi Yitzhak said, four things rip up judgment on a person. They are charity, crying out in prayer, 00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:08.000 changing one's name and changing one's deeds. 00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:11.000 Charity, as in… 00:57:11.000 --> 00:57:14.000 Proverbs 10-2. Charity delivers from death. 00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:18.000 crying out in prayer, as in Psalms 10728, 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:23.000 They cry out to God in their trouble, and God brings them out of their distresses. 00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:26.000 Changing one's name, as in… 00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:28.000 January 1715. 00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:33.000 Sarai, your wife, will… you will not call her name Sarai, Sarah. 00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:36.000 will be her name, and Genesis 17, 16. 00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:39.000 I will bless her, and I will give you a son from her. 00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:42.000 changing one's deeds, as in… 00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:47.000 Jonah, 310, God saw their deeds and repented the evil. 00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:50.000 This is the backstory. 00:57:50.000 --> 00:57:54.000 for the Unatana Toquef. 00:57:54.000 --> 00:57:56.000 During the high holidays? 00:57:56.000 --> 00:58:15.000 The words change ever so slightly. 00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:18.000 Does it literally rip up a decree by God? 00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:26.000 The rabbis had a problem with that, so they couldn't say it. So they changed the words, um, 00:58:26.000 --> 00:58:29.000 I can't even say it. 00:58:29.000 --> 00:58:32.000 La Crea, but to do Kriya? 00:58:32.000 --> 00:58:33.000 Right. 00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:38.000 Instead, Ma'a veering to transform. 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:43.000 Do we really think that charity delivers us from death? 00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:49.000 No. But it can change how we experience what comes. 00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:54.000 Shuvat Fila and Saddaka can change who we are in the world, and therefore how we receive 00:58:54.000 --> 00:58:56.000 Whatever it is that's coming down the pike. 00:58:56.000 --> 00:58:58.000 Right. 00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:03.000 But it can also deliver us from the death of being dead in the living moment. 00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:05.000 Mm, mm-hmm. 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:10.000 So, it depends on what we mean by death, and it changes on what we mean by deliver. 00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:17.000 Right. So this is… this is also… the text goes on to talk about someone's sick, what do you do? 00:59:17.000 --> 00:59:20.000 you change their name. 00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:23.000 someone, uh, converts. 00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:27.000 They change their name. 00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:31.000 by Rachel and I were ordained. 00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:33.000 Each of us… 00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:40.000 change in our name. 00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:45.000 Because we were marking something on ourselves. 00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:50.000 And every time we see our Hebrew names now, we know. 00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:52.000 what we did. And we had a whole thing. 00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:53.000 We are not who we were. 00:59:53.000 --> 00:59:59.000 Right. 00:59:59.000 --> 01:00:02.000 Unless you think, by the way, that this is some… 01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:06.000 Um, only a New Age thing. 01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:09.000 It is not… 01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:12.000 I have right here. 01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:15.000 venerable art scroll orthodox 01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:20.000 Sidur, and if you go to the very back, 01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:25.000 Was there a prayer for changing somebody's name and illness? 01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:26.000 Love that. 01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:28.000 It is literally the last page. It's like, let's just… we'll put that in the 01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:30.000 back over there. 01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:32.000 But they couldn't cut it out of the book. 01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:36.000 It's right in there. 01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:37.000 Because we still need it. 01:00:37.000 --> 01:00:39.000 Right? 01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:42.000 Okay! 01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:45.000 How is this feeling, by the way? Does some… 01:00:45.000 --> 01:00:50.000 You know, we're really telescoping very narrow here on a letter here and a letter there, but 01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:52.000 from those letters are coming 01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:57.000 a lot of things. 01:00:57.000 --> 01:01:04.000 showing up today could not have been more perfect for me. This has completely opened. 01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:06.000 the door to the connection I have been craving. 01:01:06.000 --> 01:01:09.000 Oh, good, good, good, good, good. 01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:10.000 All about the openings! 01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:11.000 Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:13.000 All about the opening. Speaking of… 01:01:13.000 --> 01:01:16.000 Um… 01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:21.000 But anybody who hasn't read like to read? Because now we're gonna go to Zohar. 01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:31.000 So, if you thought we were weird before, just wait. 01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:36.000 courage. 01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:41.000 Until Avraham was circumcised, the word of Yot-Thape came to Avram, 01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:45.000 in a vision. This is the secret of the covenant. 01:01:45.000 --> 01:01:48.000 After his circumcision, immediately, 01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:51.000 Yurevave appeared to him at the trees of Manrah. 01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:54.000 When Avraham was circumcised, 01:01:54.000 --> 01:01:56.000 round with a holy crown. 01:01:56.000 --> 01:01:59.000 We enter the covenant on which the world is based, 01:01:59.000 --> 01:02:01.000 And so the world was established. 01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:07.000 As in, but from my covenant I had not set the limits of heaven and earth, 01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:11.000 And these are the generations of heaven and earth. 01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:13.000 Bihivaram, in their creation. 01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:15.000 Read it as in… 01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:17.000 hey, God created them. 01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:26.000 We will now unpack these very strange words. 01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:31.000 wasn't very clear we could just move on? 01:02:31.000 --> 01:02:32.000 Sorry, say again? 01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:37.000 Okay. Or is it just so clear that everybody's got it and we can move on? No? Okay, good. 01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:40.000 Alright. 01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:44.000 God has not actually shown up. 01:02:44.000 --> 01:02:46.000 for Avraham yet. 01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:51.000 Because Avraham hasn't been Avra. 01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:54.000 All of this has been in visions. When someone said he's 99… 01:02:54.000 --> 01:03:00.000 It also begs the question of what it would mean for God to show up. 01:03:00.000 --> 01:03:06.000 Alright? But, you know, God, you know, Avron had a vision. He's 99 years old, and, you know, 01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:17.000 God bless, right? But this is the secret of the covenant. After his, quote, circumcision, we read in Genesis 18, the beginning of the next Torah portion, 01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:19.000 And God appeared. 01:03:19.000 --> 01:03:25.000 Adonai appeared, Vayera Adonai, to him at the trees of Mamre. 01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:32.000 Momray is the… it's a place, but it comes from the Hebrew word 01:03:32.000 --> 01:03:38.000 To make scene… 01:03:38.000 --> 01:03:41.000 Why is… why trees? 01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:45.000 Help me! Trees! Trees! 01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:48.000 Think Zohar! Think woo-woo. 01:03:48.000 --> 01:03:51.000 Trees. 01:03:51.000 --> 01:03:56.000 Several of you are going like this, very knowingly. 01:03:56.000 --> 01:03:59.000 Right? So, Avaha… 01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:00.000 after his circumcision has new life. 01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:04.000 true of life. 01:04:04.000 --> 01:04:12.000 And a vision of God actually appearing. Now, Zohar is being a little cute. 01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:17.000 David James… 01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:21.000 Keep a straight face, if you can. 01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:29.000 When Avraham was circumcised, 01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:36.000 Alright, that did not even take one second, James. That just… it ended. It ended right there. 01:04:36.000 --> 01:04:40.000 Crowned with a holy crown, 01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:43.000 This is what it is. 01:04:43.000 --> 01:04:44.000 says. 01:04:44.000 --> 01:04:46.000 This is exactly… 01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:48.000 the… 01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:51.000 inappropriate joke you think it is. 01:04:51.000 --> 01:04:55.000 Hey, I kept a straight face before when I read it, so you gotta give me some credit. 01:04:55.000 --> 01:04:56.000 I do give you props for that. 01:04:56.000 --> 01:05:08.000 Okay, uh, okay. Okay. And not to be even-cuter, but the anatomical name for it is corona, which means literally 01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:11.000 Yeah. 01:05:11.000 --> 01:05:14.000 But the world is established 01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:17.000 fished by Crown. 01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:19.000 Crown is not… 01:05:19.000 --> 01:05:22.000 you know, David James, hi. No. 01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:25.000 It… the crown is really Keter. 01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:33.000 The highest level of energies, which is also called Ainssof, limitlessness, infinitude, 01:05:33.000 --> 01:05:38.000 would say dependent or rising, where everything flows into everything else. 01:05:38.000 --> 01:05:40.000 We enter our… 01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:45.000 Even God enter is. 01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:48.000 How could that be? 01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:53.000 Jeremiah, but for my covenant, there will be no limits to heaven and earth. 01:05:53.000 --> 01:05:57.000 In Genesis 2, 01:05:57.000 --> 01:06:01.000 It begins. 01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:05.000 Behibar Am. 01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.000 If you're taking my Hebrew class, you know the following. 01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:11.000 But… means… 01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:14.000 In. 01:06:14.000 --> 01:06:21.000 The arm at the end is there. 01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:24.000 This is a hefiel verb, it means to make 01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:26.000 array. Created. 01:06:26.000 --> 01:06:30.000 to make created in their creation. 01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.000 And what? The Zohar is saying is, 01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:37.000 to make a little 01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:41.000 space right here between the hay 01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:43.000 B. In. 01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:46.000 K, in the letter H, 01:06:46.000 --> 01:06:51.000 Baram. God created them. 01:06:51.000 --> 01:06:54.000 In the letter, hey, God created me. 01:06:54.000 --> 01:06:58.000 them. One more time. 01:06:58.000 --> 01:07:06.000 In the letter, hey, God created them. 01:07:06.000 --> 01:07:08.000 Everyone please un… 01:07:08.000 --> 01:07:15.000 mute. 01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:17.000 Some of you are laughing. Yeah. 01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:22.000 This is a device that 01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:26.000 is used, but… 01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:28.000 Why is Zohar going here? 01:07:28.000 --> 01:07:37.000 In hay, God created them. 01:07:37.000 --> 01:07:44.000 James, you called this another Genesis moment. 01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:47.000 It's a breath of life. It's the breath. 01:07:47.000 --> 01:07:49.000 Yep. 01:07:49.000 --> 01:07:50.000 Alright, Cheryl, what are you missing? This is important. 01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:58.000 Sorry, I'm missing something. 01:07:58.000 --> 01:07:59.000 Okay. The Hebrew word 01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:02.000 Can you just repeat what you said before? I've got some background stuff going on here, and I… I… like… What is in hay, Godfrey? Yeah, can you go back a minute? Thanks. 01:08:02.000 --> 01:08:07.000 Yeah. In the Hebrew, Behibaram, 01:08:07.000 --> 01:08:11.000 Literally in their creation. 01:08:11.000 --> 01:08:14.000 But the Zoho is saying, 01:08:14.000 --> 01:08:17.000 Pretend like there's a space 01:08:17.000 --> 01:08:24.000 Whoop! Don't pretend that. But there's a space where my cursor is. See that? 01:08:24.000 --> 01:08:28.000 But in the letter H, 01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:33.000 God created them. 01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:37.000 In the letter, hey, buy that letter hay. 01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:41.000 God created them. 01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:47.000 So the whole heavens and the earth, everything we know, the whole creation, 01:08:47.000 --> 01:08:51.000 was created in this letter, or with this letter. 01:08:51.000 --> 01:08:53.000 with this, hey, 01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:56.000 that we were talking about before, that… 01:08:56.000 --> 01:09:01.000 means and represents all of these different things. 01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:03.000 God created creation 01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:06.000 with breath. 01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:08.000 Uh-huh. With breath? 01:09:08.000 --> 01:09:12.000 With energy, with that Binamalchut, feminine, by the way, 01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:15.000 So all of you who maybe grew up in a world 01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:20.000 where God was, you know, the magic friend in the sky with the long male beard. 01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:23.000 Uh-uh! This is… 01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:27.000 a feminine quality God. 01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:33.000 And if, for the universe, and the heavens and the earth, and the covenant, so too for Avra… 01:09:33.000 --> 01:09:37.000 Harmon Sarah. 01:09:37.000 --> 01:09:42.000 God literally recreated them. 01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:45.000 Marcia's saying Creation Part 2. 01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:49.000 Yeah. Yeah. 01:09:49.000 --> 01:09:56.000 But also look, I just noticed, maybe, um. The H in Avraham is in the middle. 01:09:56.000 --> 01:10:00.000 Um, and the H and Sarah is at the end. 01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:06.000 And Avrahan may represent the transcendent, and that. kind of male vision. 01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:13.000 Um, cranial brain, and Sarah is the, um… The empiric brain. 01:10:13.000 --> 01:10:16.000 from the Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh vertically. If that made sense. 01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:17.000 Mm-hmm. 01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:21.000 As James likes to say, there's a unification, a balance, 01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:32.000 Right? You said something earlier in chat about this being a balancing and a unity. 01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:38.000 I see Joan's hand. 01:10:38.000 --> 01:10:45.000 I see it as an open womb. in Sarai, being open. 01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:51.000 to what her husband can now give her. the world goes on. 01:10:51.000 --> 01:10:53.000 Beautiful. 01:10:53.000 --> 01:10:55.000 Opening in the hay is the open womb. 01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:57.000 And of course, 01:10:57.000 --> 01:11:01.000 While the presenting piece of this is children, 01:11:01.000 --> 01:11:07.000 Children are the metaphor for a future. 01:11:07.000 --> 01:11:10.000 And anything new. 01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.000 So is not the moral of this story that… 01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:23.000 a constant openness to what is new, a constant openness to what is flowing, a constant openness to what may be becoming. 01:11:23.000 --> 01:11:26.000 And by that, we are recreated. 01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:33.000 Anew in every moment. 01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:37.000 In… in God's goodness. 01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:39.000 And every day. 01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:46.000 Remaking creation. 01:11:46.000 --> 01:11:49.000 Rachel James. 01:11:49.000 --> 01:12:00.000 Yes, I'd like to understand how we can have an experience of this. 01:12:00.000 --> 01:12:02.000 Uh-huh. 01:12:02.000 --> 01:12:03.000 Yeah… 01:12:03.000 --> 01:12:07.000 Beyond our intellect. Because we're speaking here about knowledge, about… in the language, and knowing that… But where is it in our experience? 01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:10.000 V. 01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:11.000 check is in the mail. 01:12:11.000 --> 01:12:13.000 question I have. 01:12:13.000 --> 01:12:17.000 Rachel Radansky. 01:12:17.000 --> 01:12:20.000 Because look what's next! 01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:29.000 Would you honor us, please? 01:12:29.000 --> 01:12:33.000 Would you like me to end small in it? 01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:34.000 Oh, sorry, how about that? 01:12:34.000 --> 01:12:38.000 Um, it's a little bit large, um… Yeah, because I can't see the whole… There we go, thank you. 01:12:38.000 --> 01:12:48.000 Express, love, uh… Rabbi Nachman, when God added the Hebrew letter He. 01:12:48.000 --> 01:12:54.000 to a, um, some name. It changed his destiny for the better. 01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:59.000 But, like a computer program functions according to the input letters and symbols. 01:12:59.000 --> 01:13:07.000 The letters and the name of a person or object contain spiritual energies that control and influence. 01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:16.000 His and its destiny and nature. The letter HE… activates the spiritual energies of joy. 01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:21.000 Joy enables the soul to flourish, grow, and reproduce. 01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:26.000 Therefore, Avram whose name lacked the letter He was unable to produce. 01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:29.000 children. 01:13:29.000 --> 01:13:39.000 I love this focus on joy, which is very breast love, if you've studied chassidut, different schools of chasidism have different focuses, and 01:13:39.000 --> 01:13:41.000 The breast lovers are often… 01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:44.000 Singing and dancing. Um… 01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:47.000 Joy is a core part of their practice. 01:13:47.000 --> 01:13:49.000 And so the idea that the letter, hey, 01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:53.000 represents joy. It activates joy in us. 01:13:53.000 --> 01:13:58.000 That's the breath of God flowing through us. That's what enables us to rejoice. 01:13:58.000 --> 01:14:03.000 How does one… how does that happen? 01:14:03.000 --> 01:14:07.000 is what I hear, uh, Rachel, to be asking. 01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:13.000 How does one find joy? 01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:21.000 find joy through this hay. 01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:30.000 By increasing the flow in whatever way you can, on whatever level. 01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:31.000 or the small… or the shorter answer is practice. 01:14:31.000 --> 01:14:33.000 That's a good answer. 01:14:33.000 --> 01:14:39.000 is… say again? 01:14:39.000 --> 01:14:42.000 James, I see your hand. 01:14:42.000 --> 01:14:43.000 So I'm gonna go a little Kabbalistic again here. 01:14:43.000 --> 01:14:45.000 practice. 01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:48.000 Um… 01:14:48.000 --> 01:14:50.000 the breath, the hay. 01:14:50.000 --> 01:14:53.000 Uh, this is the Sheffa. 01:14:53.000 --> 01:14:55.000 This is… it's the vehicle. 01:14:55.000 --> 01:14:57.000 for the flow. 01:14:57.000 --> 01:15:01.000 of divinity. And… 01:15:01.000 --> 01:15:03.000 It comes through the Sephirot, 01:15:03.000 --> 01:15:07.000 And it goes into Bina, or, I'm sorry, into Shahina. 01:15:07.000 --> 01:15:10.000 Which is the womb. 01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:12.000 And from that womb, 01:15:12.000 --> 01:15:15.000 It is passed on to us. 01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:20.000 And the reverse is true as well. The Shekinah acts as kind of a go-between. 01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:23.000 between divinity, between the Ain Self, 01:15:23.000 --> 01:15:27.000 Uh, the limitless unknown, and unknowable. 01:15:27.000 --> 01:15:29.000 And us. 01:15:29.000 --> 01:15:33.000 So, when you think about that flow that's happening, 01:15:33.000 --> 01:15:37.000 And you apply it to what we've been looking at here. 01:15:37.000 --> 01:15:42.000 Um, what I think we discussed last week about the RUCH, 01:15:42.000 --> 01:15:45.000 Which is also a part of all this, the spirit. 01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:49.000 Um, I think that kind of brings it all together. 01:15:49.000 --> 01:15:53.000 And it kind of makes sense with the Sheffa and where we need to focus. 01:15:53.000 --> 01:15:58.000 Because once you are able to feel that flow, once you're able to experience it, 01:15:58.000 --> 01:16:01.000 that is traditionally what is thought to bring 01:16:01.000 --> 01:16:05.000 joy. And we see this not only in Judaism, 01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:09.000 But in many other spiritual practices, especially those from the East, 01:16:09.000 --> 01:16:13.000 As they experience things like, uh, samadhdin, 01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:15.000 And similar such things. 01:16:15.000 --> 01:16:21.000 Um, that joy comes from experiencing that flow from the divine. 01:16:21.000 --> 01:16:23.000 As it comes down to us and through us. 01:16:23.000 --> 01:16:27.000 Or as it simply goes through us, depending upon how you look at it. 01:16:27.000 --> 01:16:32.000 Beautiful. Right, there's something about flow, about that flow state. 01:16:32.000 --> 01:16:40.000 Right? You ever been in that flow state where it just sort of feels like the reed is aligned with the river and everything is unfolding as it should? 01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:48.000 Um, it can be… it can be a physical sensation, it can be metaphysical, it can be emotional, it can be spiritual, it's all of the above. 01:16:48.000 --> 01:16:53.000 It's flowing through us, rather than being blocked 01:16:53.000 --> 01:16:59.000 I see Corinne's hand, and then we're gonna skip the Esther Frankel and move on toward the end, because I want to get to the… 01:16:59.000 --> 01:17:03.000 Um, we just, once again, we tried so hard to prepare less this week, 01:17:03.000 --> 01:17:05.000 And we still prepared too much. 01:17:05.000 --> 01:17:10.000 Corinne, um, what's on your mind? 01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:11.000 Still teaching? 01:17:11.000 --> 01:17:13.000 Yes, quickly, um, as you said, uh, works create worlds. 01:17:13.000 --> 01:17:22.000 Um, but my… my question is, if we are being constantly created and recreated by our words, by the Torah, we learn. 01:17:22.000 --> 01:17:30.000 together, and each and every word. So, uh, God's creation has not entered. He said He created everything. 01:17:30.000 --> 01:17:34.000 In 6 days, and he rested. So, creation is ongoing. 01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:42.000 does it go on after death, kind of? Our soul goes through another… stage, or… I don't know. 01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:47.000 That's a beautiful question. So, I like to tell my congregants, there's a book 01:17:47.000 --> 01:17:51.000 of, um, Jewish ideas about death, and it is this thick. 01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:56.000 I don't know if you can see me, I'm holding my fingers, like, inches apart. It's huge. 01:17:56.000 --> 01:18:03.000 Because over the last 3,000 years, we have had so many different understandings and beliefs about death and the afterlife. 01:18:03.000 --> 01:18:10.000 And it… to sum up, yes, there are absolutely Jewish traditions that will hold… that do hold. 01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:12.000 that after death, 01:18:12.000 --> 01:18:15.000 There can be a new creation, there can be a rebirth, there can be a… 01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:16.000 Yep. 01:18:16.000 --> 01:18:19.000 a returning and trying again. 01:18:19.000 --> 01:18:23.000 Yep, and one of those, I'll just make very brief mention. 01:18:23.000 --> 01:18:25.000 Uh, is where the sole… 01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:28.000 traverses… 01:18:28.000 --> 01:18:32.000 From that lower hay to that upper hay. 01:18:32.000 --> 01:18:36.000 lower shechina to the upper shechina. 01:18:36.000 --> 01:18:41.000 That is a story for another day. 01:18:41.000 --> 01:18:44.000 But let… just to let you know that it is, um… 01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:47.000 gets there. 01:18:47.000 --> 01:18:48.000 For sure there. 01:18:48.000 --> 01:18:49.000 Rabbi Rachel. 01:18:49.000 --> 01:18:59.000 Does anybody want to read to us from Jewish Women's Archive just some little tastes of other classical Midrash about this 01:18:59.000 --> 01:19:02.000 Let her hay in this transformation. 01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:04.000 Yeah, Deanna. 01:19:04.000 --> 01:19:09.000 The rabbis explain that initially, Sarah was a princess. 01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:19.000 Sarai, over her people. While now, she will be a princess over all the inhabitants of the world, Sarah. 01:19:19.000 --> 01:19:25.000 in an additional explanation, because Sarai performed good deeds. 01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:31.000 God added a large letter to her name, and she would now be called Sarah. 01:19:31.000 --> 01:19:36.000 The rabbis determined that whoever now called Sarah by her former name. 01:19:36.000 --> 01:19:43.000 transgressed a positive command. 01:19:43.000 --> 01:19:49.000 I'm gonna scroll it just a little bit, thank you. 01:19:49.000 --> 01:19:52.000 Next paragraph, anyone? 01:19:52.000 --> 01:19:57.000 After God changed. 01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:04.000 After God changed Sarai's name. God further said, I will bless her. 01:20:04.000 --> 01:20:07.000 Indeed, I will give you a son by her. 01:20:07.000 --> 01:20:13.000 I will bless her. The rabbis understand that the first blessing. 01:20:13.000 --> 01:20:16.000 was that she would give birth to a son. 01:20:16.000 --> 01:20:25.000 And the second, that she would have milk. According to another… Exegis Jesus? 01:20:25.000 --> 01:20:26.000 You got it. 01:20:26.000 --> 01:20:31.000 I'm not sure how to say that. God… God bless Sarah by forming a womb for her. 01:20:31.000 --> 01:20:37.000 In a third view, the blessing did not focus slowly on the issue of birth. 01:20:37.000 --> 01:20:42.000 But extended to her entire being, which became young again. 01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:51.000 The Mitrash adds that Sarah conceived that very same year. 01:20:51.000 --> 01:20:54.000 So, what is the Midrash playing with here? 01:20:54.000 --> 01:20:56.000 the hay, it… 01:20:56.000 --> 01:21:02.000 is a symbol of her transformation from someone working 01:21:02.000 --> 01:21:05.000 Locally, with her own people, to someone whose impact… 01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.000 could be global, right? Going from the intimate, 01:21:09.000 --> 01:21:11.000 to the communal. 01:21:11.000 --> 01:21:18.000 Um, I love the idea that the hay is a large letter as opposed to the yud, which is very physically tiny, right? From a little letter, 01:21:18.000 --> 01:21:23.000 to a big hay. That God is adding expansiveness. 01:21:23.000 --> 01:21:30.000 to her name, to match the inner expansiveness. 01:21:30.000 --> 01:21:33.000 And then this gets really interesting to me. 01:21:33.000 --> 01:21:36.000 Um, there's a midrash that says she didn't even have a womb. 01:21:36.000 --> 01:21:39.000 To begin with, that she was born without a womb. 01:21:39.000 --> 01:21:47.000 And that the transformation is that God literally gives her a womb in which 01:21:47.000 --> 01:21:48.000 To bear a child. 01:21:48.000 --> 01:21:56.000 By the way, anybody spend a lot of time looking at the letter H lately? 01:21:56.000 --> 01:21:57.000 This morning, I think we all have. 01:21:57.000 --> 01:21:58.000 Oh, cool! So, let's look at a letter H. 01:21:58.000 --> 01:22:01.000 Oh. 01:22:01.000 --> 01:22:03.000 Um, now, I'm not… 01:22:03.000 --> 01:22:07.000 an OBGYN? 01:22:07.000 --> 01:22:11.000 Yeah. Who's the baby? 01:22:11.000 --> 01:22:16.000 to hey, and it's got a dot in it. 01:22:16.000 --> 01:22:22.000 Yeah, I just heard someone say it's a baby. 01:22:22.000 --> 01:22:23.000 That's also true. 01:22:23.000 --> 01:22:32.000 Right. Yeah, that… that… it's called a mapique, it's a grammatical symbol to say you really have to pronounce that hey. 01:22:32.000 --> 01:22:38.000 That's the hay of hays, and it has a baby in it that can come out. 01:22:38.000 --> 01:22:39.000 Hay of haze forever. Alright. 01:22:39.000 --> 01:22:43.000 through the canal. 01:22:43.000 --> 01:22:47.000 So the last text that we have here, um… 01:22:47.000 --> 01:22:49.000 I will read, and then… 01:22:49.000 --> 01:22:51.000 We'll shift gears into just 01:22:51.000 --> 01:22:52.000 Shmooze. 01:22:52.000 --> 01:22:55.000 Losing, chatting, seeing what the spring's up for us. 01:22:55.000 --> 01:23:04.000 Your name shall be Abraham, for I make you the father of a multitude of nations. As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name. 01:23:04.000 --> 01:23:07.000 shall be Sarah. 01:23:07.000 --> 01:23:09.000 Maybe we misunderstood. 01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:12.000 Maybe God was laughing. 01:23:12.000 --> 01:23:17.000 These new names will bring you laughter, like the sun you haven't yet had. 01:23:17.000 --> 01:23:21.000 Though his story won't be all that funny. 01:23:21.000 --> 01:23:24.000 The voice of God can shatter cedars. 01:23:24.000 --> 01:23:26.000 Or dance sweetly with their branches. 01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:32.000 God inhaled deep and added breath to our ancestors' names, 01:23:32.000 --> 01:23:38.000 Reminding us we're like the trees breathing in what they breathe out. 01:23:38.000 --> 01:23:43.000 God said, O humanity, you forget to breathe. 01:23:43.000 --> 01:23:48.000 I see how anxiety clenches around your chest like a knot that binds you. 01:23:48.000 --> 01:23:59.000 If I put breaths in your names, will you remember who you are? 01:23:59.000 --> 01:24:06.000 we are like trees breathing in what they breathe out is an idea I learned from Rabbi Arthur Waskozzi for Nolivaracha. 01:24:06.000 --> 01:24:10.000 Who just left this life last week. 01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:16.000 And this is a very new piece of Midrash, because it didn't exist until this year. 01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:18.000 So thank you all. 01:24:18.000 --> 01:24:21.000 For taking it in. And with that… 01:24:21.000 --> 01:24:26.000 Let's take the texts off the screen and just see each other and see where all of this has brought us. 01:24:26.000 --> 01:24:29.000 I'm gonna say just one thing. 01:24:29.000 --> 01:24:35.000 My name does not have a hey in it! 01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:41.000 In Blackfyre… 01:24:41.000 --> 01:24:45.000 The point, I think, is a universal one. 01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:52.000 It's one necessary for the creation of our people. It's one that got imputed to the creation of our people. 01:24:52.000 --> 01:25:00.000 But it's also one for all of us, the question that Rachel Radansky asked, you know, how do I do this? 01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:09.000 is for all of us, hay or no hay. So, the first thing we need to do is understand that we are a walking hay. 01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:14.000 All of us, every single one of us. 01:25:14.000 --> 01:25:19.000 Again, if we lean into joy and breathing and pleasure. 01:25:19.000 --> 01:25:24.000 you know, not to be, you know, locker room about this, but I think… 01:25:24.000 --> 01:25:25.000 it ain't for nothing. 01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:26.000 part of the subtext here, too. 01:25:26.000 --> 01:25:31.000 But that's part of the subtext here, too. 01:25:31.000 --> 01:25:38.000 I mean, there's a reason this isn't circumcised the foreskin of your heart yet, 01:25:38.000 --> 01:25:42.000 We are embodied beings. 01:25:42.000 --> 01:25:43.000 Just saying. 01:25:43.000 --> 01:25:52.000 And Cheryl is also noting in the chat that breathwork is such a common spiritual grounding practice across faiths. Yes, it absolutely is. 01:25:52.000 --> 01:25:53.000 I think there is no coincidence there. 01:25:53.000 --> 01:26:02.000 For sure. 01:26:02.000 --> 01:26:09.000 So you access joy. You have to… If this is the self. 01:26:09.000 --> 01:26:18.000 And this… the ego… You have to open up a little bit. You can't clutch your ego and access joy. 01:26:18.000 --> 01:26:28.000 They… they're… that's impossible. And, um… By letting go, you sort of can be a part of. 01:26:28.000 --> 01:26:43.000 Something larger you can be a part of. other people. 01:26:43.000 --> 01:26:44.000 Absolutely. 01:26:44.000 --> 01:26:48.000 And you find people who let you be a part of them, which could be sexual union, but it could also be… Many of the relationships, and it occurred to me when Rabbi Rachel was talking about. 01:26:48.000 --> 01:26:56.000 The mother and the bris, is that mothers clutch their babies very tight. 01:26:56.000 --> 01:26:57.000 To learn, we'll let go. 01:26:57.000 --> 01:27:04.000 And then you have to let go. the baby, and maybe you never… get to hold it as tight again. 01:27:04.000 --> 01:27:10.000 Because you've also given the baby to the Jewish people, and the energy of that. 01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:11.000 Oh, that's beautiful. I had not thought of that in that way, thank you. 01:27:11.000 --> 01:27:15.000 Alright, so I'm gonna shut up. All appearances to the contrary, I can. 01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:24.000 And right, in the same way that this text is about conception and childbearing, but it's also about something much, much bigger. 01:27:24.000 --> 01:27:27.000 whether or not we have 01:27:27.000 --> 01:27:30.000 conceived or not conceived. 01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:36.000 wanted to, tried to, never thought about it. Wherever we are in that tapestry, 01:27:36.000 --> 01:27:40.000 The piece with the breath and the opening. 01:27:40.000 --> 01:27:45.000 is what's universal. 01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.000 What else is coming up? 01:27:49.000 --> 01:27:55.000 I think also something for myself, and to share with others, is that. 01:27:55.000 --> 01:28:00.000 You know, to appreciate… my life, and to appreciate our life. 01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:10.000 At every moment is maybe also what we're talking about today. It's like an appreciation, and… giving value. 01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:15.000 Beautiful. Hakarata Tov, recognizing the good, finding the joy. 01:28:15.000 --> 01:28:24.000 As the spiritual practice that enlivens us. I see James's hand. 01:28:24.000 --> 01:28:27.000 So, something that was in the, uh… 01:28:27.000 --> 01:28:31.000 Uh, the Ellen Frankel piece that we skipped over today. 01:28:31.000 --> 01:28:33.000 The name Yitzhak. 01:28:33.000 --> 01:28:36.000 We've been talking a lot about Yud. 01:28:36.000 --> 01:28:37.000 Hmm… 01:28:37.000 --> 01:28:41.000 And… there it is in Sarah's son's name. 01:28:41.000 --> 01:28:43.000 What a surprise! 01:28:43.000 --> 01:28:48.000 Beautiful. Right, and Yitzkok means laughter. 01:28:48.000 --> 01:28:56.000 Right, so there's a… there's a… there's another piece of joy. 01:28:56.000 --> 01:29:02.000 On a practical note. Can… do you send out this text that I can print out? 01:29:02.000 --> 01:29:08.000 Mm-hmm. Um, we can send you the link to the Soul Spa 01:29:08.000 --> 01:29:09.000 Yep. 01:29:09.000 --> 01:29:11.000 web page where you can download the PDF that we were just working with, that Rabbi David has now marked up. 01:29:11.000 --> 01:29:12.000 Yep, yep, and it's also in the chat box, Delia. 01:29:12.000 --> 01:29:14.000 Yeah. That's too much for me, the chat box. 01:29:14.000 --> 01:29:17.000 Okay. 01:29:17.000 --> 01:29:21.000 Alright, we'll send it to you. 01:29:21.000 --> 01:29:22.000 Cheryl? 01:29:22.000 --> 01:29:28.000 Thank you. 01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:36.000 I am still very much… in the Blackfire, Whitefire mode. 01:29:36.000 --> 01:29:47.000 Um, it really feels to me… poignant in what is written. 01:29:47.000 --> 01:29:52.000 in my experience of life. every moment. 01:29:52.000 --> 01:29:58.000 that… and then going back to how all of that is harm. 01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:05.000 And every moment is a creation of my experience of that moment. 01:30:05.000 --> 01:30:06.000 my chaplaincy supervisor used to call the lived Torah of human experience. 01:30:06.000 --> 01:30:12.000 So, I think… 01:30:12.000 --> 01:30:22.000 I love that, yeah. I think I need to focus on this a little more. It's… it's like when, um… You know, we say that it was discovered. 01:30:22.000 --> 01:30:30.000 in science, that simple observation changes. what exists there. 01:30:30.000 --> 01:30:40.000 Um, in molecules and atoms, and… it feels like that's a piece, that my experience. 01:30:40.000 --> 01:30:46.000 is writing something different than your experience, of the same experience. 01:30:46.000 --> 01:30:54.000 Um, and yet, in the sharing of it. is something very spiritual. 01:30:54.000 --> 01:30:55.000 And that every… 01:30:55.000 --> 01:30:56.000 So, I'll have to work on that a little bit. 01:30:56.000 --> 01:31:00.000 Yeah, and that every moment… 01:31:00.000 --> 01:31:07.000 is a, hey, every moment is incubating what comes next. That notion of 01:31:07.000 --> 01:31:10.000 dependent arising time. 01:31:10.000 --> 01:31:14.000 actually does flow, it does not stop. 01:31:14.000 --> 01:31:18.000 And therefore, if this moment sucks… 01:31:18.000 --> 01:31:19.000 Good news! Gonna change. 01:31:19.000 --> 01:31:20.000 Something else. 01:31:20.000 --> 01:31:26.000 No, for real, you know, what tears up a decree? 01:31:26.000 --> 01:31:30.000 Changing the name, giving charity. 01:31:30.000 --> 01:31:33.000 Prayer. Changing your deeds. 01:31:33.000 --> 01:31:36.000 It's nothing is fixed. 01:31:36.000 --> 01:31:46.000 at the spiritual level, nothing is fixed. If I take my, be careful or you will end up in my sermon mode, 01:31:46.000 --> 01:31:50.000 and I smash it, it will in fact be smashed. 01:31:50.000 --> 01:31:54.000 Except in the alternate universe where maybe it wasn't. 01:31:54.000 --> 01:31:57.000 But what I feel about it, what it means… 01:31:57.000 --> 01:32:00.000 That will flow. 01:32:00.000 --> 01:32:02.000 opening ourselves up to that flow. 01:32:02.000 --> 01:32:07.000 Essentially, hatifying ourselves. 01:32:07.000 --> 01:32:08.000 is the work. 01:32:08.000 --> 01:32:11.000 Hmm… is… is… is the calling, is the opportunity, and… 01:32:11.000 --> 01:32:17.000 I think that's part of what Shabbat is, right? 01:32:17.000 --> 01:32:26.000 the feminist of Shabbat, that flow through. 01:32:26.000 --> 01:32:31.000 for the first time that I changed my name to Delia, specifically with an H at the end. 01:32:31.000 --> 01:32:36.000 from Robin, which has an N at the end, kind of like the Chet. 01:32:36.000 --> 01:32:38.000 Ooh! 01:32:38.000 --> 01:32:46.000 when I… when I change… when… yeah, when I had a spiritual awakening in my mid-20s, but… Wow, thank you. 01:32:46.000 --> 01:32:47.000 Yeah, so what we do here is, um, we bless everybody, uh, we stop the recording, 01:32:47.000 --> 01:32:53.000 Yeah. 01:32:53.000 --> 01:32:56.000 And then folks who want to stay on, because we are at time, 01:32:56.000 --> 01:33:02.000 We'll stay. So, to Cheryl and Hadebra and H-Jones, 01:33:02.000 --> 01:33:04.000 and then, uh, Susan. 01:33:04.000 --> 01:33:07.000 Blessings for a Shabbat of… 01:33:07.000 --> 01:33:14.000 flow of joyful flow, and we'll catch you back here next time. Shabbat Shalom, I'll stop the recording here. 01:33:14.000 --> 01:33:20.000 Bat Shalom, everybody.