WEBVTT

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Shabbat Shalom, everybody! It's terrific to be with you today. It is November 22nd. We are in the week of Pashat.

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tall dots, Rabbi Rachel, take us where we go.

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Before we begin, is anyone dedicating our learning this morning?

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To the healing of anyone in particular, let's lift up those names. Cheryl, I see your hand.

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I'm going to lift it up for my… Brother-in-law, Ian Wittenberg, who we understand is… In an ambulance, or did not make it.

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Thank you.

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I just got the call. So, Ian, very sweet, sweet person.

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Thank you. Rachel, I saw your hand.

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But you're muted.

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Yes, uh, this is my mom's 12th yacht site, so… I'd just like to thank you for allowing.

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Absolutely, and we have others here this morning who are observing a yard site, so we'll close today with Mourner's Cottage.

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A dedication in her honor, and thank you.

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I see Corinne's hand.

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Thank you, thank you.

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Yeah, and healing for Ligia and Magdalena. His dad and husband, uh, is first yard side today, Rezus.

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Natalie, I see your hint. And then Delia.

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Um, Robert Mendelson, my brother-in-law, who's recovering.

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Thank you.

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Delia, did you have someone? You're muted.

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Dennis Faber, who's recovering from treatment. Um, for tongue cancer.

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And Marie Neal, who just had surgery for lung cancer.

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Thank you. And Debra, I see your hand.

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Lifting up all of their souls,

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In our hearts, in our consciousness, as we make a blessing for our learning.

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This morning, Baruch Atta Adonai.

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Asher Kidshanu Ba Mitzvotz Ivanu lasoq bedivrei Torah,

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Blessed are you, Adonai our God, source of all being. You make us holy and connecting command, and you command us to busy ourselves to immerse ourselves.

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In words of Torah.

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So, this week we're in Toldote, and we're actually going to begin at the very beginning of the Parsha.

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Um, start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start.

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You'll see here two themes that we have seen before.

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One of them is infertility, which is a recurring…

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Human theme and comes up in Torah a lot.

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The other is…

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complicated family dynamics.

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And we'll get into that as we see.

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Who's about to be born, and what's going to happen to them?

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The other thing I want to say is that this is the very beginning of the story of Yaakov.

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Who will eventually become Yisrael, one who wrestles with God.

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And that's from whom we get our name, the people Israel.

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So, while all of Torah is our story, in a deep way,

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This feels to me like…

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The beginning of a thread that leads directly.

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To us and to who we are, and who we are becoming.

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And I cannot wait to see where these verses take us. So, we have chunked the Torah into 5 little bits this morning.

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Can 5 people step up and read them aloud?

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And these are the generations of Yitzchak, son of Avraham. Avraham begot Yitzchach,

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Yitzhach was 40 years old when he took Krivka, daughter of Betul the Aramean from Padan Aram.

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Sister of Love on the Aramean, as his wife.

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Yitzak pleaded to Yudhay Vavhe in front of his wife.

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For she was barren. Yudhave responded to his plea, and his wife Rivka conceived.

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The children scampered within her, she said. If so, why am I this?

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And when to inquire of Yudhave.

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Two nations are in your innards, two peoples will issue from your bodies separately.

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When people will be mightier than the other. In the older shall serve the younger.

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Her days to give birth were fulfilled, and behold.

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Twins were in her innards.

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The first emerged entirely red. Like a hairy mantle. They named him.

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Isav. Rough. After that, his brother came out, his hand holding the eel of Aesop.

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They named him Yaakov. heel holder. Yitzhak was 60 years old at their birth.

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When the boys grew up, Isop became a skillful hunter.

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A man of the field, and Yaakov became a mild man, sitting in the tents.

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Yitzakt Isov because he had a taste for game.

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Oh, man.

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All right, thank you.

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So, what pops for us reading these verses this morning?

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And Rabbi David, you'll annotate?

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What jumps out at us? What says Darshani? Explain me?

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Is that very last sentence? Is that just a…

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Is that just a question of translation? Why is it loved in past tense and loves in present?

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So glad you noticed that immediately, thank you, your check's in the mail.

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Well, it helped…

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That is…

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Sorry.

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Actually, what the Hebrew says.

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I have never seen it translated that way before.

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In all my 50 years of…

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existence, but that is actually what it says.

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So, for those of us who are taking my Hebrew series,

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This is what?

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Yitzhak did, by Yehav.

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Here's the valve that flips it from future tense to past tense.

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And, oh hevet!

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Which is exactly the word I would use to say,

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Anne or hevet Atta, I love you.

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Present tense!

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It really is what it says.

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Utcha, thank you, Adam.

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Thank you, Adam.

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correction to my speech in the chat box.

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Whoops.

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So what else? This is… this is definitely weird. What else?

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Deanna?

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So, why… Does it say in 21-22?

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If so, why am I this?

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And what is that in the Hebrew? Where is that?

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Im… Kane. If so…

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Llama. Z, whoops, Llama.

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Y, Z, this, anarchy.

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Aye!

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If so, why this eye?

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It's very Yoda.

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To or not do, there is no try.

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part that…

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I can't but help think of. our present-day conflict among brothers.

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Conflict among brothers.

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I see hands from Deanna and Susan.

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Well, going back to that final line. I'm just struck that right away, and this comes up in other parts of Torah.

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there's favoritism. One parent loves one child more, the other parent loves the other child more.

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Yeah, absolutely. Any family therapists in the room?

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outcomes of that.

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Complicated family dynamics, for sure.

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Mm-hmm.

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I know they're a psychotherapists in the room, I'm not gonna call you out, but you know who you are.

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Oh, hands are popping everywhere.

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Yaha, nobody has any feelings about this.

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Susan David Brett.

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Um, I was just going back to, um… Verses 21-22, the question, if so, I am this.

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I've never seen the word scampered in a translation. Scampered almost has a, um… like a very positive, upbeat effect, and I usually see it.

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bustled, fought, yeah.

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Um, as, you know… They were struggling… Yeah. Yeah, so that, um… So that Rivka… was feeling pain or, you know, why, why.

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Why is this happening to me, or something like that.

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Yep, if you look in your favorite translations, you will see struggled,

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fought…

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But the straight-up translation of the word really is camper.

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I wouldn't have said I knew how to say scamper in Hebrew, but…

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Yup. Oh, gosh. Deanna David Brett.

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Not Deanna, David Brett.

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Well, on the assumption, as we are continually told that

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Alright, that was an error.

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Everything here is intentional. I will just point out another inconsistency.

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Two people will issue from your body separately, and then

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Yaakov came out holding the heel of…

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Yeah…

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Esau, which is not exactly separate.

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Mmm…

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Yeah, very good.

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Uh-huh.

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As we go through these,

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And I'm David, just because you've offered, I'm going to start here.

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Something pops out as you talk about something that pops out. Ooh, I just made a…

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kid-popping-out pun, sorry.

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As stuff pops out,

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Maybe add a sentence about what you make of it, what your midrash is of that. So what's your Midrash of that?

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Um, my mid…

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If you have one.

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Well, it's… it is… I assume that

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It's not as separate as it might appear, and that there is a relationship between them.

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Which, presumably is played out in…

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in their lives that… that isn't yet apparent.

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Yeah, maybe so.

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Maybe so.

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Brett drop some knowledge.

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I don't think I'm dropping knowledge. Um…

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But a couple of things. One is…

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Similar to what David just said.

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It specifically… the text says one people… one people will be mightier than the other, the older shall serve the younger. That doesn't necessarily mean…

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that… it's not telling us which one is mightier.

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Or how do we even… it just says who's of service to whom.

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And we can assume that.

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the person who's of service is less mighty, but it doesn't specifically say that.

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Um, I was also curious why it mentions Rivka's name.

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Rivka's age, excuse me.

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earlier, right? Am I…

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Yes. Doesn't say she was 42 or something?

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It tells us that Yitzchak was 40,

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Oh, okay.

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when they married, and uh…

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Oh, so it took 20 years, so we don't… so we don't know how old…

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She was, we know how old he was, which is…

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Well, what about her, also? I'm curious.

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And then finally, the last line, it just made me think of A Mother's love never dies.

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Hmm…

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like, the love was unconditional, whereas

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did, at some point, Gitzcock stopped loving?

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pace off. Maybe we don't know why.

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Right.

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is, you know, foreshadowing, but…

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The love didn't continue.

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Right? One of… one of them is past tense, one of them is present tense.

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Um…

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And what does that say about what persists and what doesn't?

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Cheryl?

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Just a little… not really punished, but… struck me that.

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Lisa had a taste. for game.

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And I'm wondering if taste is really… what it says, as opposed to… Inclination.

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So the Hebrews says…

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Kitzi Yad Bapiv. Because he had

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Literally, the hunt in his mouth.

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Okay, so that was you saying that, because that's kind of a pun.

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Maybe so.

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It's funny. You know, he liked… he liked hunting also, that's why his.

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Father loved him, but to say a taste for games.

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Yeah, this is… this is JPS.

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But legit. So…

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Oh, okay. I wouldn't put it past you, though.

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Is it really a taste? Yeah?

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Uh-huh.

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Rachel's got a hand up?

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Rachel?

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It's…

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Yes, thank you. Uh, I would just like to put my… devar into the pot, and say that children, especially.

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Unborn children are… very much responding to their.

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Mother and their father as well. So, I feel like we… it would be interesting to put them… the children, as a reflection.

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of their parents. Because children are, we are reflection.

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Of our parents.

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I also… I want to uplift… Corinne said in the chat, what are the spiritual meanings of holding on to the other twins' heel?

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What's that about?

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And I also note that, um,

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But Rachel just said, uh…

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Adding this to the pot, which is a lovely little foreshadowing. Some of us may remember later in this Parsha, there's a whole story with a pot of lentils.

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and a birthright, and a blessing.

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So, a little more, maybe, unintentional punnery.

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Cheryl…

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You know, I was thinking that we know later on about the holding on his heel, but um… That could have so easily gone differently. Like, you… You hold on to a heel, either to fight your way to the forward position.

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To pull one back, or you are… which, you know, we know.

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Ultimately, is going on, but… But it could also be a younger brother.

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Albeit by moments, holding on and being pulled along.

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Yeah, I'm holding your hand, I'm following you.

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As, like, you know. Yeah, yeah, you know.

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two very different kinds of connection.

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So… Mm-hmm.

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Traditionally, our ancestors being our

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ancestors read this as Yaakov knew the birthright was really properly his, and he was trying to work that out in utero.

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Well, you know, there's… in utero, we know all the Torah there is to know, we just forget it at birth, because that angel baps us right here.

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And we did… and all the knowledge disappears, but that's why sometimes when you're studying Torah, you have this feeling of deja vu, like, oh, I feel like I knew that.

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It's because you knew it in the womb. Meredith has a hand up.

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Good morning, everybody. Um, I, um, am stuck on…

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If so, why am I this?

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So, I'm, like…

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That's kind of like the foreshadowing of what she's going to do

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When she…

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fools Isaac,

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And, um…

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you know, has Jacob, uh, bring him the, uh, stew?

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So, she has a role.

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And so, she's carrying these two nations, but she also

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Besides that, she's also going to be instrumental in this.

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Uh, I don't know what you want to call it.

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like a debacle. I don't know what it is.

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Well, so, so notice, right? There's…

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some of the energy in the room does a debacle

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Nowhere here does it say it's a debacle, but…

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because some of us know this text, and…

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This is a Genesis story of two people, and we know those two peoples, and

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you know, there's some of this going on,

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That's the lens through which we read this.

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Anybody have a sense of difficulty in life that

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shapes how we see things.

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Anyone? Anyone?

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Didn't think so.

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really excuse my French. But another effin' opportunity for growth.

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And good Shabbos.

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Uh-huh. I will share that…

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This is one of my favorite, and I know I say this far too often to be taken seriously, but this here, if so, why am I this?

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is really one of my favorites. It's the first time

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in Torah that anyone.

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asks why.

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It is meaningful that it's Rivka.

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.000
a woman, and not only does she ask why,

00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:50.000
And she goes to…

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:51.000
That's an answer!

00:19:51.000 --> 00:19:55.000
Right. Um, notice how she inquires.

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:58.000
Lidrosch.

00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:59.000
It's good, Bob, hey.

00:19:59.000 --> 00:20:02.000
Anybody see a, um…

00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:10.000
Anything there in that word, maybe?

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:13.000
It's just not going to highlight the way I want it to.

00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:14.000
Iris has a hand.

00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.000
Hi, Iris.

00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:24.000
Ah, thank you. Um, it rings, I believe it's related to.

00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:25.000
Oh, that's a neat idea.

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:27.000
head rose? I'm not sure, but that's what comes…

00:20:27.000 --> 00:20:28.000
Yeah, that would be… yup, I'd…

00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:29.000
I…

00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:33.000
Yeah. It's not probably the same route, but… Thanks to me.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:40.000
So, good… that's a… that itself would make a really cool mid-rush that I would love to see us play with.

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.000
That the Aleph of Rosh, Raesh Aleph-Shin, fell off.

00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:46.000
Where'd the olive go? That'd be a story.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:50.000
Yeah, right? So, check out Dalid Ray Shin, Cheryl, save us.

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:53.000
That's our root.

00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:54.000
Yeah, it's literally Drosh.

00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:55.000
It is exactly like Drush.

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:56.000
It's, like, drosh. Drush.

00:20:56.000 --> 00:20:58.000
It is Josh.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:20:59.000
So…

00:20:59.000 --> 00:21:00.000
She goes to…

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:01.000
Right, right.

00:21:01.000 --> 00:21:02.000
Yeah.

00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:04.000
She goes to Midrashgad, or to ask God to Midrash this.

00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.000
Mm-hmm.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:06.000
Okay. Yeah.

00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.000
Yeah, yeah, and it can be understood in two different ways, because, again, if you're taking the Hebrew class, Lidrosh,

00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:18.000
at Donai. So, Adonai is the direct object of Lidrosh.

00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:28.000
So, colloquially in English, we would say, and when to ask God, when to inquire of God, when to, you know, storytell with God about, why am I this?

00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.000
Let's leave aside that she's not this.

00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:35.000
There were things happening to her,

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.000
But it is so all-encompassing that she conflates what's happening

00:21:39.000 --> 00:21:41.000
with identity.

00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:42.000
Anyone? We do.

00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:46.000
Which is a thing we do all the time.

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:52.000
Yup. But it also can be read! I am going to Midrash,

00:21:52.000 --> 00:21:53.000
God!

00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:54.000
God.

00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:55.000
So something happens to us,

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.000
Mm-hmm. Okay.

00:21:58.000 --> 00:22:01.000
And we don't know what to make of it!

00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:08.000
And so we go ahead, and we start

00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:09.000
Right.

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.000
Anyone… anyone have any feels about… yeah, I'm… oh, here come all the hands. There are so many hands! Oh!

00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:16.000
Okay, I have a hand, but I can't figure out how to put it up.

00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:17.000
I asked…

00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:18.000
Oh, okay, so wait, wait, wait. I saw, like, 5 different hands, uh…

00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:19.000
Okay. I'll wait, I'll wait.

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:25.000
Yep. And I want to lift up in the chat, Elma is asking, to what does if so refer?

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:32.000
Beautiful. The children, probably the thing that came immediately before, the children scampered within her.

00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.000
Uh, but you can make anything you want, because Joan's going, yeah, no, not so fast. Oh my gosh, there were so many hands.

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.000
If so, that's in je, if this.

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:41.000
Yeah, Im came. Im came. If so.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:46.000
Inca, in case. If so, Lama Z, why this?

00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.000
Me.

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:53.000
Right. All right, I've lost all the hands. Can everybody, like, raise your hand if you want to have your hand raised?

00:22:53.000 --> 00:23:01.000
Okay, I thought I had… okay, so, ah, Joan Iris Delia.

00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:09.000
If you start at the beginning of 212. right in front of his wife, he says to God.

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:16.000
She's not getting pregnant. Which is what they used to do years ago when they didn't.

00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:20.000
Know exactly why. She wasn't getting pregnant.

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:28.000
And then she says, if I can't get pregnant, then why do I have these two little ones running around inside of me?

00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:32.000
Uh… wait, if we know I'm barren…

00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.000
Why am I feeling a quickening?

00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:38.000
Nice.

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:39.000
Ooh!

00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:41.000
Yeah, and why are you blaming me?

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:45.000
Hang on to that, Joan! Actually, let's do it now.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:51.000
Isaac pleaded to Adonai for the sake of, or in front of, his wife.

00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:57.000
Because Akara, Baron,

00:23:57.000 --> 00:24:04.000
This next word.

00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:09.000
This guy over here.

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:10.000
Anybody with any Hebrew want to read it?

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.000
5… In… Ine, there's no foul episode.

00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:19.000
So, that's a VOV, not a nun.

00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:20.000
Right. Yeah, that's a problem.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:23.000
Hmm. Hey.

00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:24.000
So, let's say there was no…

00:24:24.000 --> 00:24:25.000
Oh, Eve? If…

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:35.000
worn here. What would you read it as?

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:36.000
Oh. Ooh.

00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:37.000
Okay.

00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:38.000
Who? Who?

00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:39.000
Hey!

00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:40.000
Which means…

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:41.000
P in English.

00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:42.000
Oh.

00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:43.000
Ah.

00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:44.000
Who, which is H-E.

00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:45.000
Because HE was barren.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.000
Mm-hmm.

00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.000
In Hebrew,

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.000
This is an ambiguous

00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:57.000
pronoun.

00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:00.000
Sometimes, he in Hebrew,

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.000
Which means she, which is very confusing for English speakers,

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:08.000
is written this way.

00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:10.000
And when it is,

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.000
It begs the question of what the pronoun is, because

00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:19.000
Torah doesn't have vowels.

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:24.000
Well, it clearly was he was barren, because she winds up getting pregnant, so it was clearly him.

00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:30.000
Oh, it's clearly!

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.000
Yup.

00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:35.000
Yeah, so, Joan…

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:40.000
Don't blame me. It was that guy.

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:48.000
Maybe this is another example of where the old story got

00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:51.000
Patriarchied.

00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:54.000
We saw this with Abraham. Abraham!

00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:58.000
You know? Sarah can't have a baby, you kidding?

00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:00.000
But…

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:06.000
Zohar goes and says, well, maybe it wasn't actually her, maybe it was him.

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:08.000
After all, Sarah…

00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:12.000
When at the birth lapsed and said, who would believe?

00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:17.000
that a child would be born of Abraham's old age.

00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:25.000
And suddenly all the things we associate that we think we know that are so clear…

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:32.000
Great look, great looking, Joan. Great looking. Who was next?

00:26:32.000 --> 00:26:35.000
Joan and then deal… no, Iris and then Delia.

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:36.000
Thank you.

00:26:36.000 --> 00:26:37.000
Mm-hmm.

00:26:37.000 --> 00:26:38.000
Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:47.000
Yeah, thank you. So, when Susan mentioned scampered, I had noticed that as well, and to me.

00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:48.000
Mm-hmm.

00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:52.000
That's a whole different energy, and… Um, and also with identity.

00:26:52.000 --> 00:26:57.000
when Rebecca had not. Had a pregnancy, regardless of.

00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:01.000
You know, whose infertility challenges, there might have been.

00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:08.000
I think it's part of identity to then… become pregnant and to understand.

00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:15.000
That there was actually so much about being pregnant in different ways. She was pregnant with.

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:21.000
the future and, you know, in some sense. And the potency of that.

00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:29.000
is enlivening, but maybe also. Making one pause and think about, and that was partly why the.

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:33.000
the midrashing happened. For her with God.

00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:40.000
To try and understand. Um, and also… If so, why am I this?

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:53.000
Because I think she knew. What was, um, the potency and, you know, how pregnant she was in many ways.

00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:54.000
Beautiful.

00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:56.000
About the future and carrying out a mission.

00:27:56.000 --> 00:28:00.000
And there's a way in which some of that, I think, can be…

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:03.000
experienced anytime, anyone.

00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:07.000
becomes pregnant, because what…

00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:09.000
you never know what the future…

00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:14.000
of this child is gonna hold, and what is it that you're bringing into the world.

00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.000
And I think it's easy to…

00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:21.000
to almost over-identify with…

00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:24.000
with that, and with that sense of…

00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:28.000
of destiny, and of, you know, I'm carrying…

00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:35.000
what's to be?

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:36.000
Delia had a hand.

00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.000
Thank you.

00:28:37.000 --> 00:28:42.000
And back to, um, DeRoche. Because I didn't count it myself.

00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:50.000
But I was told that the two very. center words, if you counted all the words of the Torah, are Darash Darrosh.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:29:04.000
Inquiringly, he required, he inquired, and it was. When Moses asked, um, Aaron why he didn't do the sacrifices after his son were killed.

00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:05.000
I didn't know that.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:12.000
So to have that the very center. of our Torah, and at the same time have a woman be the first to ask why, and aren't we.

00:29:12.000 --> 00:29:22.000
The people who argue with God. We, you know, it's what… it's what my friends who were not Jewish go, really? You're allowed to be angry at God and argue?

00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:23.000
If we sure are.

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:26.000
So… we sure are.

00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:30.000
Right, we're the… and… and how do we get that name of the people who…

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.000
argue with God, or wrestle with God, arguably from Yaakov.

00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:35.000
Who becomes Yisrael?

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.000
Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:42.000
Yeah. What else wants to come forward here?

00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:48.000
It might help if you can see it, and then we'll do some text.

00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:54.000
Corinne is noting in the chat, God has a sense of humor from barrenness to twin birth.

00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.000
From unity to duality amongst the twins,

00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:01.000
And that the power struggles in the spiritual realm are so real,

00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:05.000
And sometimes challenges are here for a purpose.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:08.000
To redirect us to a higher purpose.

00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:15.000
Thank you for that.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:18.000
Yeah. There's so much here, and it's…

00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:24.000
Even all the more so that we are named for one of these guys.

00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:29.000
Which, of course, says something about who we prioritize and who we value.

00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:32.000
And there's a whole different story.

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:38.000
of… the story of the children of Esav told by the children of Asaph.

00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:44.000
would be very different, probably, than the way we tell it.

00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:50.000
This is great. Anyone else?

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:52.000
Hello, iPhone!

00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:56.000
Whoever just raised their hand, your iPhone,

00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:00.000
Please tell us who you are.

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:02.000
Thank you.

00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:11.000
Um… Uh, I was trying to process for myself.

00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:23.000
Why two of our matriarchs were barren. And there was something about that, that, um, was making me uncomfortable.

00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:29.000
Um, I was thinking that. from a spiritual perspective.

00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:34.000
that it was… telling us something about the.

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:41.000
As above, so below, that's. something from that barrenness.

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:51.000
Hachi and I, with something higher, spiritually. Um, so I was kind of stepping away from.

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:58.000
The literal interpretation that we're doing. And trying to understand it from.

00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:06.000
A spiritual perspective. Why… why tell us that something was barren?

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:12.000
from two of our matriarchs. And then something gives birth.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:18.000
Um, for me, it has something to do with the spiritual process of what's needed.

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:24.000
Um, any of the rabbis would speak to that, I'd appreciate that. There's something.

00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:28.000
very deep there from me, from a spiritual perspective.

00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:30.000
So as the man, I'm gonna speak first about giving birth.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Oh, hush.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:35.000
Ellen Roof, thank you for that.

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:40.000
I mean, yes, I think… I think… so, Sarah is barren,

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:50.000
Rivka is barren. We're going to see later that Rachel also initially is barren. So all three of the four mothers

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:51.000
And there are also four mothers, we'll get to that.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:54.000
And…

00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:56.000
are barren, initially.

00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.000
Which can be a literal

00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:03.000
Story writes someone… someone that can't conceive.

00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:11.000
but is also always a spiritual story, and that's what I hear you pointing to, is that there's something about…

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:19.000
not being able to bring forward into the world what you feel called to bring forward, and what's the spiritual work

00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:21.000
that's necessary.

00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:26.000
to be able to not be blocked, to be able to…

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:30.000
bear fruit, whether that's creative

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:33.000
or spiritual or emotional, right?

00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:34.000
Right.

00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:40.000
That can happen in a whole lot of ways. It does not just have to be about a physical womb and a physical fetus.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:43.000
Right. What… the only thing I…

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:45.000
possibly add to that.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:48.000
is a trajectory over time.

00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:55.000
Because if you look over the arc of the generations…

00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:02.000
there were fertility issues, I won't even attribute them to the women.

00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:03.000
Because our…

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:04.000
Right, remember Zohar doesn't necessarily… it says maybe the issue was Abraham.

00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:08.000
Right? And so maybe it's Abraham, maybe it's Isaac.

00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Right? And suddenly…

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:17.000
in a very short amount of time. There's going to be a baby race.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:22.000
And suddenly, everybody's giving birth all the time.

00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:26.000
Well, not everybody.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:29.000
She did end up, yes, but…

00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:30.000
Those are the foremothers.

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:33.000
Rachel ended up, Leah, Bilha, Zilpa, you know, right, so all these folks are now giving birth.

00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:42.000
One way that I understand that arc is that it isn't, and it isn't, and it isn't, and then it is.

00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:47.000
So, what spiritually does that suggest to us? Is it…

00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:53.000
it's not time, but maybe it will be, or it's not going to happen this way, but it'll happen this way.

00:34:53.000 --> 00:35:06.000
Or… in every instance, there's an opening to God. It isn't only the opening of the womb, or for those of us who do not have wounds,

00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:13.000
It started out as the opening of the penis, literally the unblocking…

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:17.000
of the penis. That had to happen.

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:26.000
So if we pull this out of its physical context, you can see a common theme emerging, notwithstanding gender,

00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:30.000
And that becomes the story of the 12 tribes of Israel.

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.000
We come all from that.

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:42.000
See, hands from Natalie and from Joan, and then maybe we'll duck into some new texts.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:46.000
I wanted to talk about 2728, about…

00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:49.000
Esauff became a skilled hunter, a man of the field.

00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:54.000
Presumably, someone who can find food is incredibly valuable to his community.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:55.000
Mm-hmm.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:56.000
Mm-hmm.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:01.000
And Yaakov becoming a mild man sitting in the tents, um…

00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:07.000
We don't know what he's doing there, but I think it presages, maybe, intellectual pursuits.

00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:10.000
And, um…

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:20.000
And we know that we became a culture, or maybe we even were back then, in which intellectual pursuits are favored and, um, are in fact the

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:28.000
important for survival, but I think about today, when a lot of those intellectual jobs are being replaced by AI, and…

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:29.000
Ooh…

00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:32.000
The people who are…

00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:35.000
always gonna have jobs are the people who…

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:40.000
who replace our furnaces and wire our houses and…

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:45.000
Uh, you know, use their hands. They're the Essabs of the world.

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:47.000
And without them,

00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:48.000
Beautiful.

00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:52.000
The other… the rest… the Yaakovs

00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:56.000
can't live. They can't do their intellectual pursuits.

00:36:56.000 --> 00:37:00.000
Right.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:01.000
Very sweet.

00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:03.000
That's a… that's really… that… the AI piece that you just brought forward is fa… I've never thought of it that way before. I feel like that's…

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:04.000
Yeah.

00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:08.000
That's a beautiful new insight.

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:11.000
Um, and yeah, notice Yaakov is… is…

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:14.000
maybe involved in intellectual stuff.

00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:19.000
Bear in mind that the rabbis who wrote our Midrash, by and large,

00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:22.000
didn't have the capacity to

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:24.000
hunt, or to…

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:27.000
to take up most trades?

00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:32.000
In the times and places where they were living, but learning was always open.

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:33.000
Yeah.

00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:37.000
And so learning becomes part of what we prioritize, and it becomes what creates our culture.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:38.000
Yeah, Natalie, I'll…

00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000
So, of course, we identify with Yaakov.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:42.000
Yeah, and, and…

00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:47.000
I think when, and many of us know this, when…

00:37:47.000 --> 00:37:53.000
what would become the state of Israel was being Zionified.

00:37:53.000 --> 00:37:56.000
you know, the issue of the immigration.

00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:00.000
to return to the land of Israel was happening.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:06.000
they… they needed the nuclear physicists and the learners and the head, but…

00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:13.000
There was also a sense that Jews around the world had become perceived as weaklings.

00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:16.000
And so, one of the missions of…

00:38:16.000 --> 00:38:23.000
The resettlement was to hatch a new world vision of Jews as

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:25.000
capable and strong and…

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:30.000
some of… some of what today is Israel's oomph.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:35.000
comes from that, you know, no longer are these mealy-mouthed,

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.000
you know, thin-arm, weakling peoples.

00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:47.000
you know, think about all the images you might have in your mind about 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s Israel, these STRONG people!

00:38:47.000 --> 00:38:57.000
who tilled the fields and built the houses, and…

00:38:57.000 --> 00:38:58.000
Alligators,

00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:00.000
drained the swamps with their own bare hands and wrestled 20-foot-high mosquitoes, and… right?

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.000
a totally different vision, and so I think even

00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:14.000
even the early Zionists, Natalie, were totally with you, not just in what's going to happen to the economy, but what are going to become of the children of Jacob.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:18.000
And they needed to look and act

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.000
more like some merger here.

00:39:21.000 --> 00:39:27.000
Right, what happens if the qualities we associate with Jacob and the qualities we associate with Esau

00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:31.000
are brought together into an integrated whole.

00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:32.000
How have I?

00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:33.000
But that's not quite what we get here.

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:41.000
Now, Joan, Meredith, and then we really are going to turn the page.

00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:42.000
Yeah, you're on.

00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:44.000
I know… I know… I know. I'm on.

00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:54.000
That when, uh… the Torah often leaves us not… not thoroughly aware of passage of time.

00:39:54.000 --> 00:40:04.000
people are impatient, and readers are impatient. from 19… from the first to the last of this, we've… we've got Avraham.

00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:12.000
And he had… and he had a son, and that son was 40 when he got married, which was late then, and then 60?

00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:19.000
he was… he was an old man. at his son's birth. And I think part of this.

00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:34.000
is that, um… it takes time for things… it takes time for… Um, people and communities and ideas and cultures.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:40.000
to form. much more time than it takes to have a baby.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:45.000
And, um… this to me shows that.

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:47.000
Thank you.

00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:55.000
Thank you. This is… this is amazing. Meredith, last comment on this.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.000
You know, I don't know, this just came to me, but, um, like…

00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:03.000
Yaakov was…

00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:10.000
he was… he was a mild man, and wasn't he doing something with the cattle?

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:13.000
Wasn't he, like, tending the cattle?

00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:18.000
And he was… so that relationship with the cattle

00:41:18.000 --> 00:41:25.000
is so different than the relationship that Esau has when he's killing.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:27.000
So he's killing the…

00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:33.000
you know, to have food, right? And so, who is a leader of a nation

00:41:33.000 --> 00:41:36.000
would be someone who coexists

00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:39.000
Rather than a hunter, you know what I'm saying?

00:41:39.000 --> 00:41:44.000
So, right, the tension between the hunt and the pastoral

00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:45.000
you know,

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.000
Right. Just, he had the soft skills.

00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:50.000
Beautiful.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.000
If you will. That, you know, we're talking about that really can't be replaced with AI.

00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:56.000
But anyway, that was just something.

00:41:56.000 --> 00:41:57.000
Yeah, yep, yep, yep.

00:41:57.000 --> 00:42:00.000
All right, let us…

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:06.000
Let us do the thing.

00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:09.000
So what is this about…

00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:12.000
And I think several of you went here.

00:42:12.000 --> 00:42:18.000
Most recently, Ellen Ruth. What's the relationship between this infertility and

00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:22.000
the precursor emotional and spiritual move.

00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:24.000
And we've really tried to be

00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:28.000
Midaktak, precise and Mitsan-sam, you know.

00:42:28.000 --> 00:42:33.000
self-contained here, because there's a lot going on here, and we wanted to give you little nuggets of all of it.

00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:39.000
So, David Kimchi, which some people write as kimchi, and they think he's Korean, it's not true.

00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:43.000
Uh, would someone like to read?

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:45.000
Yeah, Deanna, go.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:56.000
Hmm, Yitzak pleaded. He prayed greatly for his wife to bear, for he loved her so dearly that he did not want to take another instead of Revka.

00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:58.000
Even one of her maids, as his father did.

00:42:58.000 --> 00:43:01.000
Da-da!

00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:06.000
Therefore, he greatly continued praying until God responded to his plea.

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:12.000
Alright, so let's quickly unpack this. Let's do plot.

00:43:12.000 --> 00:43:16.000
What is, uh, the non-Korean David Kim Hee?

00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:21.000
saying about what Yitzhak thought of his…

00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:22.000
father.

00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:27.000
Yeah.

00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:33.000
That is possible. basically cheated on his… Mother?

00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:38.000
Abraham, Sarah. Sarah couldn't have a baby. Let's bring in Hagar.

00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:41.000
No problem there.

00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:44.000
I'm not gonna do that.

00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:47.000
I'm gonna stick with the one who brought me to the dance.

00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:48.000
So to speak.

00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:50.000
Gotta dance with the one that rung ya.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:53.000
Right? And so…

00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:56.000
there's a loyalty piece here.

00:43:56.000 --> 00:44:00.000
And there's also a yearning piece here.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:05.000
Because you could go and do and get the thing you want a certain way,

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:08.000
But you're not going to do it that way.

00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:14.000
You're gonna go this way and put your trust

00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:16.000
And maybe suffer.

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:20.000
And yearn, and long for.

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:21.000
But yet a tear.

00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:22.000
And maybe…

00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:29.000
I mean, really hating. In Hebrew, it's got more than just asking. It really is this…

00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:32.000
it's almost pathos.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:37.000
When's the last time anyone offered the Amidad with pleading?

00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:41.000
or any prayer with pleading.

00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:46.000
And I noticed some of us just looked away.

00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:51.000
What's in the room?

00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:54.000
I know we have about…

00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:00.000
20-ish people, other than Rabbi Rachel and me, and therefore we have about 38 different theologies.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:03.000
Oh, at least.

00:45:03.000 --> 00:45:06.000
What's in the room?

00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:20.000
There's so much in the room, no one's saying anything.

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:23.000
Joan.

00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:24.000
Icebreaker.

00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:29.000
I'm… I think immediately of patrilineal and matrilineal descent.

00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:39.000
And that says to me, uh. That if he had taken the maid.

00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:40.000
Interesting.

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:43.000
things would be different.

00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:50.000
Keep it coming, Iris.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:55.000
So, I really appreciate what you're adding to this, and I think.

00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:03.000
There was also a sense of fulfillment that. It's not… there's… life can be fulfilled, and yet.

00:46:03.000 --> 00:46:12.000
There are yearnings, as you said, and… That I think the need to feel a deeper sense of fulfillment.

00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:21.000
can cause some. conflict or tension within a person, but yet this is really coming from.

00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:22.000
Yeah…

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:27.000
It talks heart. Um, and I think that's connected with.

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:33.000
Not only as a person, of course, but seeing what is needed.

00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:38.000
for the future. Um, and yeah, I was thinking about the timing also.

00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:54.000
things happen at a certain time for a reason, and.

00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:55.000
Yeah.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:56.000
This will… will come. Um, but in the meantime, yeah, I think there's a sense of… wanting fulfillment personally, but also on a greater spiritual and, again, mission level.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:04.000
Thank you. Thank you. Two other comments here, and then I want to say something. Meredith and Menel and Ruth.

00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:07.000
Um, I want to say that…

00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:10.000
What popped up for me is the vulnerability.

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:11.000
Yeah…

00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:14.000
that, um…

00:47:14.000 --> 00:47:16.000
I'm sorry.

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:20.000
Um, that, um, Isaac was…

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:26.000
doing. I mean, not doing vulnerability, but I mean, to pray like that,

00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:30.000
To yearn like that in front of…

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:37.000
whoever, you know, Hashem or, you know, people in general, not knowing the outcome.

00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:38.000
Mm-hmm.

00:47:38.000 --> 00:47:40.000
And that is so courageous.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:41.000
Yeah, good for you.

00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:44.000
of him to do that.

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:45.000
Beautiful.

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:46.000
So…

00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:47.000
Yeah. This is not SAFE.

00:47:47.000 --> 00:47:50.000
No.

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:52.000
Yeah.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:48:01.000
Beautiful, that's exactly what I was gonna say, Meredith, thank you, you saved us time. Ellen Ruth, and oh, oh, oh, here it comes! Ellen Ruth, Amy, Deanna, we may get to more text.

00:48:01.000 --> 00:48:09.000
Uh, I'm also struck with… Um, it's like praying directly to God.

00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:16.000
And so, from that, I would surmise that unless we have a connection to God.

00:48:16.000 --> 00:48:20.000
That were barren.

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:25.000
Yay!

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:28.000
Yay! I got my money's worth!

00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:34.000
Yeah. Yeah. So, for those of you who have rabbis, hi.

00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:39.000
Um, we can't do it for you.

00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:40.000
Mm-hmm.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.000
We can't!

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:54.000
This is between you and the big cheese. This is between you and your inner spark. This is between you and the universe.

00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:57.000
Consider that the next time.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:05.000
And the next time. Bless! I have to write that down. Amy, and then Deanna, and then we're gonna move on.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:15.000
I just want to point out that infertility continues to be.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:16.000
Yeah.

00:49:16.000 --> 00:49:19.000
A huge heartache and Jewish experience. And, um, there are now prayers for fertility, there are.

00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:23.000
Yeah.

00:49:23.000 --> 00:49:24.000
Yep.

00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:27.000
rituals for women who've miscarried. That all of the intensity.

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:33.000
That were reading about here. continues to be true for people.

00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:36.000
Yeah.

00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:38.000
Yep, for the literal…

00:49:38.000 --> 00:49:39.000
barren, yeah.

00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:40.000
for couples, for women, for potential fathers. Yeah. Yeah.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:45.000
Right. For all that we're… we're, I think, wisely acknowledging that barrenness doesn't just have to be about

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:50.000
the physicality of pregnancy and birth and miscarriage and the whole thing,

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:55.000
It is also about those things, and they can be excruciating.

00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:04.000
Um, I want to lift up also in the chat that Corinne noticed… noted that spirituality is directly connected with yearning.

00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:10.000
Uh, that without vulnerability, there's no spiritual growth. And Marcia notes that he gets cock is a traumatized individual.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:13.000
And it's amazing that he would ask anyone for anything.

00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:17.000
Given that he almost became, quote, the holy barbecue.

00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:20.000
God told you to do what?

00:50:20.000 --> 00:50:22.000
To your only child, and… and…

00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:26.000
That was just last week's Torah portion. Hang on, we're going there!

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:32.000
But… but… But I have to throw in that it's also midrash that.

00:50:32.000 --> 00:50:38.000
It wasn't… yes, it could have been a trauma, but another effin' opportunity for growth.

00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:46.000
is when Isaac made his direct connection with the divine that hadn't happened before.

00:50:46.000 --> 00:50:47.000
That's another… sure.

00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:48.000
That's another midrash.

00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:58.000
Yes? How many of us have come out of a really difficult experience of whatever kind, and on the far end of it felt a greater sense of spirituality? Delia is raising all of her many hands.

00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:59.000
Julia has become…

00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:03.000
Okay, so if this might appeal to you,

00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:13.000
you… you grokking some of what Delia's talking about. We're never gonna move beyond this, and that's great. Deanna and then Cheryl.

00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:19.000
Mine is fast, just that, um, his action of.

00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:20.000
Hmm…

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:26.000
praying for all those years. and making the choice over and over again not to go a different way, not to do what his father did, not to.

00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:31.000
Take the maid. To me, is a huge sign of his faith.

00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:32.000
Hmm…

00:51:32.000 --> 00:51:35.000
Yeah. Yeah.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:36.000
Yeah.

00:51:36.000 --> 00:51:41.000
That sense of… I believe that this will work out, even if I can't see how.

00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:43.000
And…

00:51:43.000 --> 00:51:48.000
And I'm gonna hold fast to that.

00:51:48.000 --> 00:51:49.000
All of I. Hall of I.

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:52.000
And let love guide me.

00:51:52.000 --> 00:51:56.000
Uh, are we done? There was one more, there was Cheryl.

00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:57.000
It was not Cheryl. Okay.

00:51:57.000 --> 00:51:59.000
Let's keep going.

00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:00.000
We do have a lot of goodies.

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:09.000
Alright, Sforno comes along. In front of his wife, he pleaded in front of his wife.

00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:12.000
Yitzhak likes her.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:24.000
Just read it. He prayed to God that they… the kids would issue from this worthy person standing in front of him. It wasn't enough to have children.

00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:29.000
So I want to have them with her.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:32.000
But now what do we do with that?

00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:39.000
Here comes the Khiskuni, who wants it.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:43.000
Uh, he did not prey on his own behalf.

00:52:43.000 --> 00:52:47.000
As he was aware that he was not sterile,

00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:50.000
Because God told Avraham,

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.000
By Yitzhak, your seed will be cold.

00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:55.000
You're gonna have kids.

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:56.000
Porsche.

00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:58.000
Your son's gonna have kids!

00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:07.000
God said so!

00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:08.000
Right now.

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:13.000
So it can't be that! Never mind that Yitzhak wasn't there when God told Aphraham, but that's not important right now, because he already could hear, even though he didn't exist yet, but that's okay, keep going.

00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:15.000
Fourth, he was barren.

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:17.000
Why was Rivka barren?

00:53:17.000 --> 00:53:20.000
So the nations would not say that

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:23.000
Her birth, family's prayers for her,

00:53:23.000 --> 00:53:27.000
Sister, may you grow into thousands of myriads.

00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:34.000
made her fruitful. Thus it was Yitzhak's plea and God's response.

00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.000
Last week.

00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:38.000
Rivka's birth family blessed her.

00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:42.000
Her family sent her forth to marry with this…

00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:47.000
Very beautiful prayer. May you grow into thousands of myriads.

00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:55.000
May your descendants be almost as many as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the beach.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:57.000
But the rabbis…

00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:01.000
Wanting to…

00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:04.000
encapsulate

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:08.000
And defend the God of Israel.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:11.000
Needed to say…

00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:18.000
that God answered the prayer. It wasn't the blessing that Rivka got before.

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:23.000
Oh, she couldn't have possibly gotten that blessing through God. Oh, no, no, no, of course not.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:27.000
This had to come directly through the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:32.000
There's only one God!

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:36.000
And critically, our ancestors needed to explain.

00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:39.000
why she was barren at all.

00:54:39.000 --> 00:54:44.000
So, this is…

00:54:44.000 --> 00:54:48.000
to inculcate in us a sense of God's faith and capacity.

00:54:48.000 --> 00:54:55.000
How many of us buy it? Raise your hand, go for it. How many of us buy this?

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:56.000
Not seeing any hints!

00:54:56.000 --> 00:55:01.000
Do not raise all your hands at once.

00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:04.000
So let's see if other Midrashim will do this.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:08.000
Sometimes you look at a breadth of Midrash and you say, huh…

00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:14.000
What is eating our ancestors? Why are they coming up with this explanation, that explanation, some other explanation?

00:55:14.000 --> 00:55:17.000
What's bothering them?

00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:27.000
And I bet what's bothering them is what's bothering all of us. Let's go to Bereshit Raba, who wants it.

00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:31.000
Yitzhak pleaded to Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh in front of his wife.

00:55:31.000 --> 00:55:36.000
Rabbi Yohanan said he abundantly poured out prayers.

00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:38.000
Rish Lakeshish said,

00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:44.000
He overturned the decree, hence the word for pitchfork, as it overturns grain.

00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:47.000
same root.

00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:50.000
Ein Tavraish…

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:55.000
Ein Tavreish, and the word pitchfork, that his prayers should be so

00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:03.000
powerful. That our prayer should be so powerful. Some of us have used the phrase as below, so above.

00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:11.000
that our prayers shape the upper realms, and we flip over.

00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:16.000
the nature of the reality we experience, that we actually have the capacity to do that.

00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:20.000
through emotional and spiritual life.

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:23.000
that we might feel that there's…

00:56:23.000 --> 00:56:31.000
a divine decree against us. Why does this keep happening to me, or why am I… why am I this, or why am I suffering this grief?

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:33.000
But if we pour out our hearts,

00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:38.000
As Gitzhak did, we can overturn it.

00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:41.000
Corinne, and then we're gonna keep going.

00:56:41.000 --> 00:56:42.000
Because this goes somewhere fun.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:45.000
Let's go somewhere fun.

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:55.000
Yeah, hi everybody. I'm just struggling with the theology. Sometimes people pray and plead with God. It's got into a kind of transactional deal.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:56.000
Mmm…

00:56:56.000 --> 00:57:00.000
a business deal, you give me that, I'll do this, you do, I'll do this, you give me that.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:01.000
bargaining.

00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:14.000
Or at some times, yeah. Oh, sometimes they say, well, in God's time will happen, what is the theology? Jewish theology about?

00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:15.000
Again, Corinne, you ask the easy question, thank you.

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:18.000
Asking for things, not getting them. what is it?

00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:20.000
Rachel, author…

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:21.000
Odds are evens, Rage.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:25.000
Always, always!

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:26.000
Go for it.

00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:30.000
Okay, that's not odds or evens, fine.

00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:33.000
I wouldn't say, Corinne, that there's one theology.

00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:40.000
you know, just like we have joked about 38 theologies here, there are so many theologies.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:42.000
does God answer prayer?

00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:46.000
is know an answer.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:57.000
sometimes it is said that we always have our prayers answered, but we don't always get what we ask for. Some would say that God doesn't answer prayer,

00:57:57.000 --> 00:58:01.000
God hears prayer, and we need to be heard. Some would say,

00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:07.000
that the God who hears prayer is actually that part of ourselves, that

00:58:07.000 --> 00:58:13.000
Prayer transforms us, which is why the Hebrew word for prayer is reflexive.

00:58:13.000 --> 00:58:20.000
We pray ourselves that no matter what the outcome, whatever it is, that's not the point of the prayer.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:24.000
Our prayer, as some would… as, um…

00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:27.000
Oh, gosh, I'll think of the name in a moment.

00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:31.000
is to put our will

00:58:31.000 --> 00:58:37.000
at the most forefront of our consciousness and offer it up to God's Spirit, meaning holiness.

00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:44.000
intending that the, quote, will of God's Spirit, meaning holiness, in its love and co-being with us,

00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:50.000
would align with us. And so, even as we ask for and pray ourselves,

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:59.000
the one who hears prayer is wanting itself, herself, himself, with us, and thereby we interbecome

00:58:59.000 --> 00:59:07.000
it doesn't change necessarily the outcome… outcome of what we pray for the direct object.

00:59:07.000 --> 00:59:11.000
But it changes us.

00:59:11.000 --> 00:59:18.000
It's the kind of time of preparedness, kind of getting ready to.

00:59:18.000 --> 00:59:19.000
Yeah, and pray for the highest outcome, and then give me the…

00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:23.000
to accept whatever is gonna happen.

00:59:23.000 --> 00:59:31.000
Give me the grace to accept what is.

00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:34.000
Oh, sometimes we expect the best, and we…

00:59:34.000 --> 00:59:36.000
I mean, we pray for the best, and

00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:45.000
Like, on Shabbat, it is said we pray for healing, as if healing already is on the way, because we don't ask for things on Shabbat, traditionally. So what if we prayed with that chutzpah?

00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:48.000
And we bear in mind that healing doesn't always mean cure.

00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:50.000
Mean cure. Yep.

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:53.000
Right? When someone is…

00:59:53.000 --> 01:00:01.000
is chronically ill and will not recover. We still pray for healing, but we have to mean by that something other than

01:00:01.000 --> 01:00:05.000
May their cancer miraculously disappear.

01:00:05.000 --> 01:00:07.000
So then what is the nature of…

01:00:07.000 --> 01:00:10.000
of the healing that we're praying for.

01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:15.000
Yep, there's a lot going on in the chat box here, and this is… this is really the whole point of this. What does it mean to pray for?

01:00:15.000 --> 01:00:17.000
Just in the interest of time.

01:00:17.000 --> 01:00:18.000
Yeah, move us forward.

01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:21.000
We're gonna jump through a few things very quickly.

01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:26.000
And I'm not even gonna read all of this, I'm just gonna sort of say it, and then we'll move on to the next page, Rach, if you can pick it up then.

01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:27.000
Yeah.

01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:30.000
Um, so in front of his wife,

01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:35.000
Why is it that only Yitzchak is praying here?

01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:39.000
And so the Midrash brings

01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:43.000
her into it. So it's not just, hey, I wanna…

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:50.000
get kids with her. Now, she comes in and says, I want to have kids with him.

01:00:50.000 --> 01:01:01.000
Midrash giving voice to the voiceless. Where is Rivka in this? We're gonna replace Rivka into the story. So not just he is pleading, but she is.

01:01:01.000 --> 01:01:03.000
And so important was it?

01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:10.000
to manifest this, to expand the story of God's miracle.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:18.000
Rav Yudan says, in the name of Raish Lakesh, she didn't have a uterus!

01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:23.000
And therefore the Holy Blessed One made one for her.

01:01:23.000 --> 01:01:29.000
Everyone raise your hands, you believe this, right?

01:01:29.000 --> 01:01:30.000
No?

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:33.000
Well, what does it mean to believe this?

01:01:33.000 --> 01:01:37.000
Everyone's got this, right?

01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:43.000
Is anyone surprised by the assertion that God magically made her a uterus?

01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:48.000
Or perhaps that she didn't have a uterus.

01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:53.000
what do we generally call people who don't have a uterus in today's world?

01:01:53.000 --> 01:01:57.000
Not that it was surgically removed, but that there wasn't one in the first place.

01:01:57.000 --> 01:02:02.000
Cheryl looks… you're muted, but I think you're saying a man.

01:02:02.000 --> 01:02:04.000
So, let's…

01:02:04.000 --> 01:02:07.000
Move to our next text.

01:02:07.000 --> 01:02:12.000
Somebody want to read the one titled, Toldote Trans, Tracing a Trans Lineage

01:02:12.000 --> 01:02:16.000
through the Torah.

01:02:16.000 --> 01:02:17.000
Surprise!

01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:20.000
Any take…

01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:30.000
described as the Arab, maybe. However, that word, every… Uh-huh, is written without the final pay.

01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:33.000
Allow it to be read as… The R slap.

01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:40.000
Carol, we can't hear you. I don't know why, but I mean, it's very.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:41.000
I think, Delia, I think you may be too far from your microphone.

01:02:41.000 --> 01:02:43.000
Oh, okay, wait.

01:02:43.000 --> 01:02:45.000
Odelia, I'm sorry, I thought it was Cheryl.

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:50.000
And somehow my picture reversed, and so I had to remove myself. It was looking at a chair, so I'm here.

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:51.000
Okay, try that again. Now we can hear you.

01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:58.000
Okay, sorry. In… into Nak, Rivka is described as a Na'ara maiden.

01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:03.000
However, that word, every time it's used for her, is written without the final hey.

01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:10.000
Allowing it to be read as na'ar, lad. This is almost definitely a grammatic.

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:15.000
A grammar quirk arising from the fact. that the hay sequence for the work.

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:21.000
suffix for words that end with a. Are developed over time into NOC was.

01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:25.000
Was developed over time as Tanakh was being canonized.

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:31.000
But since other places in Tanakh do use the hay, and Rifke never has the hay.

01:03:31.000 --> 01:03:46.000
Never has the hay used for her. We can see a transmasculinity.

01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:47.000
Mmm…

01:03:47.000 --> 01:03:53.000
in her ladness, which is what I was saying when they, when they, um… When they, uh, consulted her, the oracle of her mouth, that she was not… and I didn't have the background for it, but this is giving it to me.

01:03:53.000 --> 01:03:59.000
That she was not a woman or a man. She was.

01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:00.000
for… yeah.

01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:01.000
Both. And she was the oracle.

01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:04.000
Beautiful, right? In many cultures, that's one of the ways that oracles are understood.

01:04:04.000 --> 01:04:05.000
So…

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:06.000
Right.

01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:12.000
So, part of what I love here, we've been saying all along that the project of Midrash is giving voice to the voiceless.

01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:15.000
And throughout a lot of our history,

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:20.000
the voices of those who are trans or gender non-conforming have not

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:23.000
been lifted up, and this…

01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:25.000
lifts up those voices.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:30.000
Right, also noteworthy that Avraham… the Avram and Sarai got…

01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:36.000
an extra letter, extra spirit, something extra added that, hey…

01:04:36.000 --> 01:04:38.000
to their name, which is maybe…

01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:42.000
you know, now we know that as a feminizing move.

01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:46.000
Um, I also love the fact that this text notes, okay, this is a grammar quirk.

01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:52.000
We can look at it on this level and know, eh, probably the reason her name doesn't appear that way is that…

01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:59.000
Hebrew grammar evolves, and it was different early in Torah than it is… than it became later.

01:04:59.000 --> 01:05:06.000
But even if we know it's a grammatical quirk, we can still hang an interpretation on it. It can still open the door to a different understanding.

01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:12.000
Right, and for more on this, when we send you the text, you see how that one is… how that line is blue? It is a link.

01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:15.000
to the whole source sheet on this.

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:18.000
And there's a lot of goodies there.

01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:20.000
it's super awesome.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:33.000
Somebody want to read the Dear Shuni text from Hagit Rappel?

01:05:33.000 --> 01:05:36.000
Just unmute and dive in.

01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:40.000
And Isaac appealed to God in his wife's presence, for she was barren.

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:52.000
He would stand in his corner and pray, and she would stand and pray in hers, and they were not answered, because their prayer was divided, not flowing from one spring.

01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:57.000
The Holy Blessed One saw their distressed and opened up their eyes.

01:05:57.000 --> 01:06:04.000
Isaac and Rebecca stood face to face, he in the presence of his wife, and she in the presence of her husband.

01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:09.000
They removed the partitions between their hearts and saw eye to eye.

01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:13.000
Rebecca saw Isaac's splendor, but also his flaws.

01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:19.000
He does not dig wells like his father Abraham did, but merely preserves them.

01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:24.000
And Isaac saw his partner in marriage. Her beauty and purity of heart.

01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:27.000
But also her flaws, the suffering of her barrenness,

01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:34.000
The pain of the words people use to speak about her, a daughter of evil and a sister of evil, too.

01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:40.000
They took upon themselves to live in love in togetherness, in peace, in friendship.

01:06:40.000 --> 01:06:50.000
And some say it was from that wave of mercy that their son Jacob drew the strength to roll that big stone off the top of the well.

01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:56.000
And Rebecca could conceived.

01:06:56.000 --> 01:06:57.000
Moving a barrier.

01:06:57.000 --> 01:07:02.000
Right, so all of this takes place in the invisible space between that first clause at the top in italics,

01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:10.000
And the bottom clause in italics. That's one verse. Isaac appealed to God in his wife's presence, for she was barren, and Rebecca conceived.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:13.000
All of this unfolds.

01:07:13.000 --> 01:07:19.000
Right there. Right, removing the barrier of the well, of course, that's a…

01:07:19.000 --> 01:07:25.000
That can be a fertility image, it can also be an image for the flow of Sheffa, of abundance, of holiness.

01:07:25.000 --> 01:07:26.000
All of that's encoded here.

01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:32.000
Sometimes… sometimes the work of spiritual life is to identify…

01:07:32.000 --> 01:07:36.000
the stone on top of the well.

01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:42.000
Because we all sometimes have them.

01:07:42.000 --> 01:07:43.000
And then…

01:07:43.000 --> 01:07:44.000
The block that needs to be cleared.

01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:46.000
Right.

01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:51.000
And again, your rabbinic MCs can…

01:07:51.000 --> 01:07:57.000
do some stuff around this, but we can't do it for anyone. We sometimes can't even do it for ourselves!

01:07:57.000 --> 01:07:59.000
We need another.

01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:04.000
Tune in to my illness and Healing series if you're taking it.

01:08:04.000 --> 01:08:07.000
That may be a hint about what's happening on Tuesday.

01:08:07.000 --> 01:08:13.000
So this is described as not a lack in either one of them. It was something in the marriage.

01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:14.000
Something between them.

01:08:14.000 --> 01:08:21.000
It's still needed. To complete before they could… Make a baby and raise children.

01:08:21.000 --> 01:08:22.000
Yeah.

01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:23.000
Beautiful, thank you, Amy.

01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:26.000
Beautiful, Amy. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

01:08:26.000 --> 01:08:29.000
Alright, let's scamper and ask why we're this.

01:08:29.000 --> 01:08:32.000
The children scampered, and she asked, why am I this?

01:08:32.000 --> 01:08:35.000
And went to inquire.

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:38.000
Oh, Rashi.

01:08:38.000 --> 01:08:40.000
Oh, Rashi!

01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:43.000
What's bothering Rashi?

01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:46.000
Somebody want to read Rashi?

01:08:46.000 --> 01:08:50.000
This is so Midrash. Literally.

01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:52.000
go for it.

01:08:52.000 --> 01:09:01.000
this verse says, Darshani, explain me. It is hidden what scampering is, and why it is written.

01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:06.000
If so, why am I this? The rabbis explained scampering.

01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:07.000
Wei Rotzetzu.

01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:15.000
Various Rotetu. as running Ratzah, that when she passed the doors of Torah.

01:09:15.000 --> 01:09:21.000
academies, Shem and Evia. Yaakov ran to convulse to come out.

01:09:21.000 --> 01:09:27.000
And when she passed a pagan door. You stop convulsed to come out.

01:09:27.000 --> 01:09:29.000
Oh, Rashi.

01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:32.000
I hear some laughing on Cheryl's part. Anyone else find this a little funny?

01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:35.000
Uh, yeah.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:36.000
What's bothering Rashi?

01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:40.000
Yeah, she…

01:09:40.000 --> 01:09:42.000
Everything bothers Rashi.

01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:43.000
Apparently.

01:09:43.000 --> 01:09:44.000
He just… He needs a nap.

01:09:44.000 --> 01:09:55.000
He needs a mommy. So what's… what's… what's going on here?

01:09:55.000 --> 01:09:56.000
So, what is… what does Rashi maybe saying about

01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:59.000
I got nothing. I gotta sit here.

01:09:59.000 --> 01:10:01.000
these two…

01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:06.000
Fetuses, the people they will grow to be, the peoples that will…

01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:11.000
Stream for… flow from each of them. What are his assumptions about Yaakov and Asov here?

01:10:11.000 --> 01:10:15.000
Or what mission is he on?

01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:17.000
Yep, Natalie has a hand.

01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:18.000
Yeah.

01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:19.000
Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing, that it's like he's trying to…

01:10:19.000 --> 01:10:21.000
Oh, Yakov's good, Yisov's not.

01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:28.000
Um, give a reason why what happens later happens later. Why is…

01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:31.000
Why is the blessing given to, um…

01:10:31.000 --> 01:10:32.000
The Yaakov.

01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:34.000
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:41.000
There's a little counter-xenophobia here.

01:10:41.000 --> 01:10:43.000
We're the good guys, they're the bad guys.

01:10:43.000 --> 01:10:47.000
And we get to say that because we're the good guys, because we say so.

01:10:47.000 --> 01:10:49.000
Well, because we're the heroes of our own story.

01:10:49.000 --> 01:10:55.000
And thus story, because it's Torah, because God told me, because Abraham wore a black hat, didn't you know?

01:10:55.000 --> 01:11:00.000
And they had Torah academies back in the days of Isaac and Rebecca.

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:06.000
Anybody notice that? Once you pass the doors of the yeshi vote, basically, of Shem and Ever.

01:11:06.000 --> 01:11:08.000
So, you know, there were this…

01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:16.000
Competing yeshivas in town, or here's the yeshiva that these guys run, just like the yeshiva down the block from the rabbis who are riding the Midrash.

01:11:16.000 --> 01:11:20.000
So there must always have been yeshivas.

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:24.000
Narrator, there were not always yeshivas.

01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:27.000
But this is how they're…

01:11:27.000 --> 01:11:31.000
reading the source text through what is

01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:33.000
their surrounding.

01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:37.000
Abraham Lincoln said, don't believe everything you read on the internet, amen.

01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:46.000
Midrash is playing with time because there's something so important, at least in Rashi's understanding.

01:11:46.000 --> 01:11:50.000
And it's this.

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:53.000
So we're gonna have to reclaim this text in some way.

01:11:53.000 --> 01:11:58.000
Because I don't think anyone on this call is comfortable leaving it here.

01:11:58.000 --> 01:11:59.000
Joan, and then let's see if we can do just that.

01:11:59.000 --> 01:12:01.000
Unfortunately, we're gonna do that.

01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:07.000
Why did they use the word convulsed? What does it really mean?

01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:08.000
mid-par case.

01:12:08.000 --> 01:12:10.000
Alright.

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:19.000
in Hebrew, I had a look it up myself. Literally does mean, you know, I'm getting out!

01:12:19.000 --> 01:12:20.000
I'm not sure I can do that again.

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:23.000
No, don't hurt yourself.

01:12:23.000 --> 01:12:27.000
Right? Literally to convulse out, not to have a seizure.

01:12:27.000 --> 01:12:36.000
But… this was the word he knew to just have the most energy I can to get out of there.

01:12:36.000 --> 01:12:37.000
Well, because I… I…

01:12:37.000 --> 01:12:38.000
How was she trying to get out?

01:12:38.000 --> 01:12:40.000
Well, let me out of this womb. I want to go study Torah right now, let me out!

01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:43.000
No, I want to go be an idolater, let me out!

01:12:43.000 --> 01:12:45.000
Those are my homies! Let me out!

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:48.000
What homies…

01:12:48.000 --> 01:12:50.000
There's no Tory yet.

01:12:50.000 --> 01:12:54.000
There's notoria to study in the yeshiva, and…

01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:58.000
a pagan door? What is that even?

01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:02.000
But Rashi's on a mission, and he's not getting this from nowhere.

01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:04.000
He's pulling this out of Older Midrash.

01:13:04.000 --> 01:13:05.000
It's also…

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:06.000
So there's this project afoot.

01:13:06.000 --> 01:13:09.000
It's also noteworthy that

01:13:09.000 --> 01:13:14.000
A service is said to be the ancestor, the forebearer of…

01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:17.000
other peoples who later went on to be our enemies.

01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:18.000
And maybe it shouldn't be.

01:13:18.000 --> 01:13:22.000
So, we have to have a reason for why those guys hate us and we hate them.

01:13:22.000 --> 01:13:25.000
And it must be that they're descended from an idolater.

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:27.000
Of course.

01:13:27.000 --> 01:13:29.000
Why did… why would we ever have thought of anything else?

01:13:29.000 --> 01:13:38.000
The counter xenophobia here gets very complicated, but we have to name it, because the story of Jacob and Asaph

01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:44.000
has given rise to or been used to justify so much of that for us not to name it would be disingenuous.

01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:49.000
doesn't mean we have to buy it. It does mean we have to work with it.

01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:50.000
So we have a…

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:51.000
Amy Natalie.

01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:56.000
Sorry. It always, even as a child.

01:13:56.000 --> 01:14:04.000
It always seemed unfair to me. That Yakov came out on Aesop's energy. It was like.

01:14:04.000 --> 01:14:13.000
And so, you know, he's holding on to his brother, and his brother's pushing out, which of course is not what this version is saying, but.

01:14:13.000 --> 01:14:15.000
Mm-hmm.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:21.000
Right?

01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:22.000
Yeah,

01:14:22.000 --> 01:14:23.000
The Parsha is saying, and it, you know, it gives me a bit of a cringe, because later the two nations.

01:14:23.000 --> 01:14:24.000
Sure. Okay.

01:14:24.000 --> 01:14:25.000
Right.

01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:29.000
Um, and I… I hate to say it, but it, you know, um, I'm sure.

01:14:29.000 --> 01:14:31.000
Mm-hmm.

01:14:31.000 --> 01:14:36.000
If I was reading this through the lens of the current crisis.

01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:51.000
It's… it's like, um… It's like… the Israelis coming in, you know, the land getting settled in the 1880s, and you could.

01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:52.000
So it…

01:14:52.000 --> 01:14:53.000
make a whole case. For the other people were there first.

01:14:53.000 --> 01:15:05.000
I just want to note that traditionally, ASAP is seen as the ancestor of the Edomites, who on earth are the Edomites. It's another ancient kingdom that we didn't have good relations with.

01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:09.000
And he's also understood as the ancestor of ancient Rome.

01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:16.000
A lot of these Midrash are being written when Rome is occupying Jerusalem and slaughtering

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:19.000
Rabbis! All those… martyrs!

01:15:19.000 --> 01:15:24.000
So… maybe one of the things going on here is the need

01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:31.000
to show that Asav was evil from the start, because we know he's going to go on to give birth to the Roman Empire.

01:15:31.000 --> 01:15:35.000
Which, as we speak, is oppressing us.

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.000
Again, this is not exegesis. This is now

01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:45.000
Eisegesis. We are reading, not we, our ancestors were reading their needs

01:15:45.000 --> 01:15:48.000
into the Midrash, and

01:15:48.000 --> 01:15:53.000
to text and pulling out of it, therefore, the meaning that they needed.

01:15:53.000 --> 01:15:55.000
And that is some of the…

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.000
the layering that we have to pierce

01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:02.000
and redeem.

01:16:02.000 --> 01:16:03.000
So I'd like to… I'd…

01:16:03.000 --> 01:16:05.000
And we're gonna try to do some of that this time and next time, and we're running out of time.

01:16:05.000 --> 01:16:07.000
See, I'd like to keep going a little if we can.

01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:11.000
All right, so very quickly…

01:16:11.000 --> 01:16:16.000
If so, why am I this?

01:16:16.000 --> 01:16:22.000
And some people said, what's the… if thus, if so, what's the so?

01:16:22.000 --> 01:16:26.000
Some people, you know, the text says because the kids are fighting.

01:16:26.000 --> 01:16:28.000
But here, the Ibn Ezra,

01:16:28.000 --> 01:16:39.000
Who's a mystic, by the way, says… No, it's actually, you know, everybody else's pregnancy's easy.

01:16:39.000 --> 01:16:42.000
Why do I have dragons trying to come out of my body?

01:16:42.000 --> 01:16:45.000
What is this? And so…

01:16:45.000 --> 01:16:47.000
If you…

01:16:47.000 --> 01:16:50.000
Um, and I'm going to include the guys here in particular.

01:16:50.000 --> 01:16:53.000
But if y'all…

01:16:53.000 --> 01:17:08.000
had a wild thing happening in your body, and you thought that for other people, this is so straightforward, what's the first thing you would do?

01:17:08.000 --> 01:17:10.000
go to the doctor?

01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:11.000
Probably go to a doctor.

01:17:11.000 --> 01:17:19.000
Okay, so the OBGYN Society hadn't been created yet, so what's the… what's the next thing you might do?

01:17:19.000 --> 01:17:20.000
Or a midwife. You would start talking with people.

01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:24.000
Or a midwife.

01:17:24.000 --> 01:17:27.000
Go for it!

01:17:27.000 --> 01:17:28.000
Great!

01:17:28.000 --> 01:17:29.000
Pocket experts.

01:17:29.000 --> 01:17:32.000
So, the Midwife Society doesn't exist either yet, but…

01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:42.000
I bet other women do, who wants to read?

01:17:42.000 --> 01:17:47.000
courage.

01:17:47.000 --> 01:17:51.000
Go ahead. Ah.

01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:57.000
Ibn Ezra wrote that she asked the other woman if they had the situation, and they said no.

01:17:57.000 --> 01:18:02.000
So she said, if so, if the way and custom of my pregnancy is different.

01:18:02.000 --> 01:18:14.000
But this impermissibly would render the text incomplete. To me, the correct view is that she said, if it be so with me, why am I in the world?

01:18:14.000 --> 01:18:15.000
What is Rambam saying here?

01:18:15.000 --> 01:18:17.000
would that I should die or never existed.

01:18:17.000 --> 01:18:21.000
You know, some of us who

01:18:21.000 --> 01:18:30.000
are difficult prayers, because we have this concern about, you know, what if we pray and the answer is no?

01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:35.000
Or what if we pray and the answer is

01:18:35.000 --> 01:18:38.000
And what, uh, right? So…

01:18:38.000 --> 01:18:43.000
Ibn Ezra, the mystic, mind you,

01:18:43.000 --> 01:18:48.000
develops a midrash by which Rivka doesn't ask

01:18:48.000 --> 01:18:50.000
God at ALL!

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:52.000
She's asking the other women.

01:18:52.000 --> 01:18:59.000
Let's just ask the other women. I'm just gonna keep God out of this. And Ramban, Nachmanides…

01:18:59.000 --> 01:19:01.000
Says, you can't.

01:19:01.000 --> 01:19:05.000
This is a violation of Midrashik code.

01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:11.000
Because it says she went to inquire of God. You can't read that out.

01:19:11.000 --> 01:19:18.000
Some folks have asked me, and Rabbi Rachel are, is there any limit to the stories we can tell? Here's Ramban saying, yes, there is, you can't violate Torah!

01:19:18.000 --> 01:19:21.000
You can't edit God out.

01:19:21.000 --> 01:19:26.000
You can't take thought out of it, but you can't take the words of Torah out.

01:19:26.000 --> 01:19:32.000
So you've got to go right into it. If this be the case, why am I in the world at all?

01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:47.000
Better with this pregnancy, with dragons coming out of me, that I should die, better I should never have existed. I just wanna die.

01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:50.000
There are some feels in the room now.

01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:55.000
I gotta say, hearing that, I wonder a little bit whether she was struggling with postpartum depression.

01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:56.000
For prepartum depression.

01:19:56.000 --> 01:20:00.000
Well, that happens too.

01:20:00.000 --> 01:20:02.000
Just for time, we're gonna… yep.

01:20:02.000 --> 01:20:04.000
Yep, let's keep this moving.

01:20:04.000 --> 01:20:06.000
Yep. Um, so…

01:20:06.000 --> 01:20:12.000
let's go there! She's gonna have to ask God, because Torah says that she had to ask God, so let's ask God. But how do you ask God?

01:20:12.000 --> 01:20:16.000
I guess Cooney says something a little different, right? He says, well, she went to ask the prophets.

01:20:16.000 --> 01:20:19.000
Wait, who?

01:20:19.000 --> 01:20:26.000
She did really go to Ask God, she went to talk to the prophets, so that they could tell her what God…

01:20:26.000 --> 01:20:28.000
was thinking.

01:20:28.000 --> 01:20:29.000
That's not a detective.

01:20:29.000 --> 01:20:33.000
Have many of you ever asked a prophet?

01:20:33.000 --> 01:20:35.000
A dear friend.

01:20:35.000 --> 01:20:38.000
clergy. Oprah.

01:20:38.000 --> 01:20:42.000
The Psychic Friends Network.

01:20:42.000 --> 01:20:46.000
Have any of you opened yourself to a different kind of knowing?

01:20:46.000 --> 01:20:48.000
And didn't call it God, but…

01:20:48.000 --> 01:20:53.000
Still felt the need to… yeah, a few of you are going, yeah.

01:20:53.000 --> 01:20:56.000
Yeah. Yeah.

01:20:56.000 --> 01:20:59.000
I'm worried I might miscarry.

01:20:59.000 --> 01:21:03.000
And that worry impels you.

01:21:03.000 --> 01:21:08.000
Literally or symbolically.

01:21:08.000 --> 01:21:13.000
Bersheed Ramba, she went to inquire of Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh.

01:21:13.000 --> 01:21:19.000
Were there synagogues and study halls in those days? Did she not only go to the Academy of Shem and Ever?

01:21:19.000 --> 01:21:22.000
whoever they are.

01:21:22.000 --> 01:21:28.000
This comes, rather, to teach that anyone who receives the face of a Torah scholar, anyone who welcomes a Torah scholar,

01:21:28.000 --> 01:21:31.000
It is as though they receive the face of Shekinah.

01:21:31.000 --> 01:21:36.000
So, maybe the way she went to inquire of God was she went to inquire of Shem and Evar.

01:21:36.000 --> 01:21:39.000
Because they were Torah scholars.

01:21:39.000 --> 01:21:42.000
And if you meet a Torah scholar with open heart,

01:21:42.000 --> 01:21:44.000
You're receiving God.

01:21:44.000 --> 01:21:47.000
So, congratulations, you are all…

01:21:47.000 --> 01:21:50.000
Shakhina givers.

01:21:50.000 --> 01:21:54.000
Because you're all Torah scholars.

01:21:54.000 --> 01:21:59.000
Why do all of these midrashim exist?

01:21:59.000 --> 01:22:04.000
All four of them.

01:22:04.000 --> 01:22:09.000
They are so utterly inconsistent.

01:22:09.000 --> 01:22:12.000
They exist trying to explain that phrase that we were pondering.

01:22:12.000 --> 01:22:22.000
Yeah… why so much effort?

01:22:22.000 --> 01:22:26.000
We could have just had one answer and okay.

01:22:26.000 --> 01:22:35.000
Why is so much effort here?

01:22:35.000 --> 01:22:36.000
Yeah.

01:22:36.000 --> 01:22:38.000
in different times, that's number one, right, from when these came up, and.

01:22:38.000 --> 01:22:42.000
I think it is a natural place for our.

01:22:42.000 --> 01:22:48.000
teachers, um, and we as a people to question.

01:22:48.000 --> 01:22:51.000
And look at it within the time that we are living.

01:22:51.000 --> 01:22:57.000
And each of us, in the time that we are living, are on different spiritual levels and.

01:22:57.000 --> 01:23:03.000
And so… There's always going to be some question.

01:23:03.000 --> 01:23:10.000
Of everything, because, I mean, that's the joke, right? Two Jews, 30 opinions, so… or however many.

01:23:10.000 --> 01:23:21.000
Um, so… I… I think it's important also, because there are going to be people in their communities.

01:23:21.000 --> 01:23:22.000
Yeah.

01:23:22.000 --> 01:23:26.000
That are asking questions. And this is their role in society.

01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:34.000
To… flesh out. And help people connect more.

01:23:34.000 --> 01:23:35.000
Yeah. And really, that's what this is about.

01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:38.000
To the faith.

01:23:38.000 --> 01:23:42.000
we're, um… Iris, is it on this?

01:23:42.000 --> 01:23:48.000
Okay. Iris, and then one last text, and then we're gonna end, and there's something we need to do together.

01:23:48.000 --> 01:23:56.000
It's very quick. I think it's… About exploring our relationship with God.

01:23:56.000 --> 01:23:57.000
Beautiful.

01:23:57.000 --> 01:24:03.000
Boom! Congratulations, you just won the privilege of reading the last text for today. We're not going to get to the rest, but we'll tell you what's there.

01:24:03.000 --> 01:24:04.000
I'm going to embiggen this for you.

01:24:04.000 --> 01:24:10.000
Okay. Yes. Yeah, thank you, so I could see this. I can't see the whole thing.

01:24:10.000 --> 01:24:14.000
Okay, hang on.

01:24:14.000 --> 01:24:15.000
Okay.

01:24:15.000 --> 01:24:19.000
The children… whoops, that just went away, sorry. Thank you for this. The children's scampered within her.

01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:25.000
This scampering was when she passed the entrance of the Midrash of Shem and Eber.

01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:29.000
Yakov convulsed to come out. And Aesop restrained him.

01:24:29.000 --> 01:24:32.000
And when she passed the entrance of a pagan house.

01:24:32.000 --> 01:24:37.000
That stuff comes convulsed to come out. and Yaakov restrained him.

01:24:37.000 --> 01:24:43.000
Rivka did not reason this matter this way, but thought she had one fetus and her.

01:24:43.000 --> 01:24:49.000
family that wanted to come out, whether. For Abed Midrash, or for a pagan house.

01:24:49.000 --> 01:24:56.000
If so, God forbid. then were there two authorities? So she said, why am I so?

01:24:56.000 --> 01:25:03.000
If my pregnancy is, like. pagan women, what is my advantage over them?

01:25:03.000 --> 01:25:08.000
If, God forbid, there are two authorities. So she went to inquire.

01:25:08.000 --> 01:25:14.000
Of autonomy, meaning to inquire after the existence of God, and what God really is.

01:25:14.000 --> 01:25:20.000
And isn't that really every time we pray?

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:21.000
So here's a meta…

01:25:21.000 --> 01:25:23.000
Yeah.

01:25:23.000 --> 01:25:27.000
Midrash. It takes a Midrash, it takes a bunch of Midrashim,

01:25:27.000 --> 01:25:31.000
And tells a Midrash about the Midrash.

01:25:31.000 --> 01:25:32.000
you know, is this Midrash?

01:25:32.000 --> 01:25:35.000
really a midrush about us.

01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:41.000
Right, and that's what a MetaMid Rash is gonna do. It's really gonna take that mirror,

01:25:41.000 --> 01:25:44.000
And turn it around.

01:25:44.000 --> 01:25:46.000
So that it faces us.

01:25:46.000 --> 01:25:49.000
She went to inquire of God.

01:25:49.000 --> 01:25:52.000
Not she went to inquire of God about her thing,

01:25:52.000 --> 01:25:57.000
She went to inquire about God. In that understanding,

01:25:57.000 --> 01:26:01.000
It doesn't matter what the thing is.

01:26:01.000 --> 01:26:10.000
It may be what impels us, it may be what animates us, it may be what we yearn for and the power of our yearning.

01:26:10.000 --> 01:26:16.000
But spiritual life, emotional life, the very fact that you're here, the very fact that Rabbi Rachel and I are here,

01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:18.000
is that we feel called.

01:26:18.000 --> 01:26:22.000
To inquire after the existence of God and what God really is.

01:26:22.000 --> 01:26:29.000
And whatever that answer is going to be will shape how we experience whatever it is we brought.

01:26:29.000 --> 01:26:32.000
to the table of that relationship.

01:26:32.000 --> 01:26:35.000
In this understanding…

01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:37.000
The story of Rivka.

01:26:37.000 --> 01:26:41.000
is the progenitor of everyone!

01:26:41.000 --> 01:26:44.000
Who has ever yearned for the sacred?

01:26:44.000 --> 01:26:49.000
to inquire of what's it all about?

01:26:49.000 --> 01:26:55.000
Whether it's because I have a dragon in my belly or whatever else.

01:26:55.000 --> 01:26:59.000
And that's why I personally just love, I adore this!

01:26:59.000 --> 01:27:05.000
There's more here, and what we're not gonna get to today is some of the women's commentary.

01:27:05.000 --> 01:27:10.000
Um, but I'm gonna put the materials in the chat box.

01:27:10.000 --> 01:27:15.000
And we'll upload, of course, the video and the annotated PDF. There's a bunch of…

01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:22.000
What's funny is we generated a source text for today, and then some bonus materials at the end on love.

01:27:22.000 --> 01:27:27.000
Um, and we didn't even get through the source text, much less the bonus materials, but that's great. This gives you

01:27:27.000 --> 01:27:30.000
Stuff you can study on your own this afternoon for Shabbos.

01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:33.000
And we commend it to you. It does some pretty fun stuff.

01:27:33.000 --> 01:27:38.000
Yeah, so before we shift gears to

01:27:38.000 --> 01:27:42.000
schmoozing and talking about whatever just came up for us. I'm mindful.

01:27:42.000 --> 01:27:45.000
that at least one of us is observing a yard site today?

01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:49.000
And so we're going to close our learning with Mourner's Cottage.

01:27:49.000 --> 01:27:54.000
There's actually an old custom of closing more… closing learning with a Kaddish.

01:27:54.000 --> 01:27:56.000
It originated as a way of…

01:27:56.000 --> 01:28:00.000
Sanct… it's a way of sanctifying all of the learning that we've just done.

01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:05.000
And… and our… the open hearts that we brought to that learning.

01:28:05.000 --> 01:28:10.000
So I'm going to share my screen.

01:28:10.000 --> 01:28:12.000
And if everyone can…

01:28:12.000 --> 01:28:18.000
Come, um, onto the screen and show us a face, it would be really meaningful.

01:28:18.000 --> 01:28:22.000
For those of us who are saying Kaddish, if it's possible and comfortable.

01:28:22.000 --> 01:28:31.000
To be physically seen.

01:28:31.000 --> 01:28:33.000
If it is your custom to rise…

01:28:33.000 --> 01:28:35.000
Feel free to rise.

01:28:35.000 --> 01:28:43.000
in body or spirit as we praise God's name in remembrance.

01:28:43.000 --> 01:28:47.000
And please join me. And if you're not mourning,

01:28:47.000 --> 01:28:49.000
Join us in the amens.

01:28:49.000 --> 01:28:56.000
And show that you're present for those who mourn.

01:28:56.000 --> 01:28:58.000
Or main.

01:28:58.000 --> 01:29:07.000
the Cholbeit Israel,

01:29:07.000 --> 01:29:14.000
But Agala Uzman Kariv vi Imru,

01:29:14.000 --> 01:29:17.000
Play alum, or a male.

01:29:17.000 --> 01:29:24.000
Yet Barak, vista Bach.

01:29:24.000 --> 01:29:25.000
Viet Halal…

01:29:25.000 --> 01:29:27.000
Amen. Yay, she may rabba Mevarakhli Alamu Nay Almaya.

01:29:27.000 --> 01:29:30.000
She made the kudusha.

01:29:30.000 --> 01:29:31.000
Leila mean kol birchetta vesirata.

01:29:31.000 --> 01:29:38.000
Rihu.

01:29:38.000 --> 01:29:47.000
Amain.

01:29:47.000 --> 01:29:48.000
Ose Shalom Bimramov.

01:29:48.000 --> 01:29:57.000
Amen.

01:29:57.000 --> 01:29:58.000
The Imru, a main.

01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:01.000
I mean…

01:30:01.000 --> 01:30:04.000
May all who mourn be comforted.

01:30:04.000 --> 01:30:08.000
And may the souls of those whom we remember.

01:30:08.000 --> 01:30:11.000
continue to rise high and…

01:30:11.000 --> 01:30:14.000
be, uh, get the beta for us, a shining light.

01:30:14.000 --> 01:30:18.000
And help us to experience the sacred.

01:30:18.000 --> 01:30:23.000
Through the light that never, ever goes out.

01:30:23.000 --> 01:30:27.000
For those of you who are going to come offline,

01:30:27.000 --> 01:30:38.000
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Hodu Sameach, which is the ancient desert practice of blessing someone with a good thanksgiving.

01:30:38.000 --> 01:30:51.000
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, or if you are for Shirami, or you want to come into our illness and Healing series, that resumes Tuesday, 7pm, uh, through Share on me. You can get on the website.

01:30:51.000 --> 01:30:53.000
Next Saturday,

01:30:53.000 --> 01:30:56.000
is going to be regulatory Torah study.

01:30:56.000 --> 01:30:57.000
And…

01:30:57.000 --> 01:30:58.000
We will be here, so if you're around to come learn with us.

01:30:58.000 --> 01:31:03.000
bring your turkey tetrachloride, and we look forward, uh…

01:31:03.000 --> 01:31:08.000
to spending a lovely Shabbat with you, it's gonna be a lovely, lovely Torah portion.

01:31:08.000 --> 01:31:14.000
Uh, so thank you, everybody. I'll stop the recording, and we will stay on. Aziz and Shabbos, everybody.

01:31:14.000 --> 01:31:15.000
Good Shabbos friends.

01:31:15.000 --> 01:31:19.000
Okay.