WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:07.000 Shabbat Shalom, everybody! It is November 29. We have… 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:14.000 moved into the middle part of the Hebrew month of Kislev, Miracle Month, heading toward Chanukkah. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:20.000 Are there any blessings for healing that we are holding in our hearts? 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.000 As we dedicate our learning today. Yes, Linda? 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.000 Um, I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I belong to this Jewish Family service group in Greenwich. 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:38.000 And yesterday, I learned that… and it's a healing. 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:49.000 service, basically, that we have every Friday. And I may have mentioned it to you, Rabbi, but. 00:00:49.000 --> 00:00:50.000 MJ. 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.000 The rabbi, um… MJ Newman's granddaughter, Sophie. 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:59.000 is 8 years old, in the hospital in Washington, D.C. 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:04.000 With a terrible… significant illness. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:09.000 So I want to dedicate this. Healing, prayer. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.000 Thank you. Thank you for Sophie. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:11.000 We should pay it to her. 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.000 Others today. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:20.000 I would like to ask for healing prayers for me. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.000 I'm going to go in for surgery in 5 days to have a total hip replacement. 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:25.000 Oh. 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:30.000 Um, so, yeah, any… any kind of healing prayers. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Yeah. 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:39.000 For my heeling and my swift return to. Regular life, better life, without pain. 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:40.000 Can you hear that song, so maybe for healing hands. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000 Uh, would be very appreciated. 00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:44.000 Elma and Nancy. 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:45.000 Thank you. 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:50.000 Um, I would like to ask for prayers for… 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.000 And it brings… and it's choking me up again. 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.000 Um, this young man… 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:59.000 in North Adams that worked at Stop and Shop. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000 That just freaked out and killed his parents, and I just… 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:05.000 Oh my gosh. 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:11.000 And then burn the house down. It's just been eating at me so much, just because I knew his face. 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:14.000 from going to stop and shopping, it just… 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:15.000 has been very hard for me, too. 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:19.000 Hmm… 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:20.000 for grace. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:21.000 digest. So, thank you for letting me share that. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:33.000 For grace and wholeness amidst the brokenness. Ugh, what a terrible, terrible thing. I'm so sorry to hear this. Nancy and then Delia, and if everybody else can put in the chat box. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:39.000 Um, I just want to say I'm 8 weeks post-hip surgery, and you wouldn't even know it. 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:40.000 I mean, like, nobody would know that I have a new body part. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000 Oh. You're welcome. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:46.000 Woohoo! 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:49.000 So… Onward and upward. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:50.000 All right, you guys will dance soon. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:53.000 Good. If you need any, uh, whatever, I'm here, as you know. 00:02:53.000 --> 00:02:56.000 Amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:57.000 So I just wanted to give something happy today. 00:02:57.000 --> 00:02:58.000 Um… 00:02:58.000 --> 00:02:59.000 Thank you. Thank you, you're inspiring, Nancy. Thank you. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:00.000 Happy, yes. Delia, please, and then everybody in the chat box. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.000 Thank you, I appreciate that. 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:08.000 Delia, you're unmuted, you can go. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:15.000 Yeah, um, yes, continued healing for Dennis Faber and, um, Marie Neal, both healing from cancer. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.000 Ah, hell Levi, thank you, I'll add Masha Huvya Batlea. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:25.000 All right, for them, for everyone whose names we hold in our hearts… 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:34.000 For Shabbat light of healing, Baruch Atta Adonai, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.000 Blessed are you, Adonai, our God. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.000 Sovereign of the world of healing. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:44.000 Who made us holy in God's connecting command. 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.000 And commanded us to busy ourselves in words of Torah, in words of light. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.000 Shabbos, everyone. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.000 This is an awesome Torah portion. In prior years where we've learned together, some of us, 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:01.000 We've focused on the Sulam. 00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:07.000 with the latter of Jacob with angels ascending and descending. It's how. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.000 Jacob mett… 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:14.000 the god of creation, the god of… 00:04:14.000 --> 00:04:18.000 transformation. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.000 We are curating today a bit of a different piece. 00:04:23.000 --> 00:04:31.000 And it's about Jacob meeting Rachel. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:35.000 Thank you, Adam Sulam is a musical scale, it truly is. It's a ladder. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:39.000 Yep. So this is Jacob meeting Rachel. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.000 As we read… 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.000 these four chunks. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:50.000 Consider if there's an overarching theme. 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:56.000 Consider what work Midrash would do. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:00.000 Consider how you are being read. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.000 In these words. 00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:15.000 So we'll try to narrow some of our questions. Can we have 4 people to do what we do? 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:21.000 The musical scale is silent today. Can four people please unmute? 00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Yaakov said to them, 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Do you know Levon, son of Nechor? 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.000 And they said, we know him, and there is his daughter, Rachel. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:33.000 Coming with the flock. 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:37.000 He said, It is yet daylight, too early to gather the animals. 00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000 What are the flock and take them to pasture? 00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.000 But they said we cannot until all the flocks are rounded up. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:47.000 The stone is rolled off the mouth of the well, 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:55.000 Water the sheep. 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:59.000 While he was still speaking with them, Raquel came with her father's flock. 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:10.000 For she was its shepherd. When you are called Raquel, daughter of his uncle, I thought it was Laven, whichever it is, with the flock of his uncle. 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:16.000 LaVon. Yakov went and rolled the stone off the mouth of the well and watered the flock of his uncle. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Or even. Then Yaakov kissed Rachael raised his voice, and cried. 00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:35.000 Yarkov told Rachel that he was her father's kinsman, and he was Rivka's son, and she ran and told her father. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.000 two people whose last names are not… yeah. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000 I'm hearing your persistenceous levonne ran to greet him. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:46.000 Embraced him, kissed him, and took him into his house. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:52.000 Yaakov told Levan. All that happened, and when Von said to him. 00:06:52.000 --> 00:07:03.000 You are truly my bone and flesh. When Yakov stayed with… Hold on, a month's time, Levonne said to Yaakov, just because you are kin. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:15.000 Should you serve me for nothing? Tell me what shall your wages be? 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:25.000 Someone from CBI. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.000 LaVon had 2A, the name of the older one was Leia. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000 The name of the younger was Rachel. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:34.000 Leah had soft eyes. 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:37.000 Bachel was shapely and beautiful in sight. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:47.000 Yaakov loved Rahel and said to Levan, I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter. 00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:49.000 After this, there's… 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.000 a little bit of a switcheroo at the chuppa. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:56.000 He marries Leia. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:57.000 And another 7 years for Rachel. 00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:58.000 Nope. 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:00.000 I know a whole bunch of kids. 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:04.000 a whole bunch of kids. A whole bunch of kids. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:06.000 So many kids. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:11.000 But at this moment of encounter… 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.000 Is there an overarching theme? 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:15.000 What work does Midrash need to do? 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:18.000 How are you being read? 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:25.000 I'll ask Rachel to… Rabbi Rachel to moderate, and I shall take notes. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.000 So what's… what's popping for us in this… 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.000 section of Torah, what calls to us? 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Why was… why did he have to work? I thought usually brides bring dowries. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:41.000 Why was that opposite? 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Okay, so why… why does he have to serve? What's that about? 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:53.000 What else? 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:55.000 Nancy? 00:08:55.000 --> 00:09:00.000 Well, I was doing some studying, um… 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 Yep, you just muted yourself, my dear. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:08.000 Anyway, we were talking about. Soft eyes. 00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:14.000 Leah had soft eyes. And it could have been… from a number of things. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:22.000 What does that mean? Was she crying? Um, so I… it's not like I have an answer, but… soft eyes. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:26.000 Soft eyes is a really interesting phrase, isn't it? And… 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:35.000 Is it… is it… is it a softness in her gaze? Is it… do you see it when you look at her? Is it in how she looks at others? 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.000 Is it vulnerability? Is it because she's been crying? 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:48.000 All great possibilities. What else? 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:51.000 Meredith. 00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:59.000 I thought it's interesting that it said, Rachel came with her father's flock for she was its shepherd. 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:03.000 I had never… that was interesting. 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:04.000 Right, yeah. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.000 That's unusual. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:06.000 Mm-hmm. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.000 for a woman to be the shepherd. 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:14.000 Right, we associate being the shepherd, the one who leads the flock, with being 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:22.000 Probably male, right? So maybe there's a role reversal here. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:23.000 What else? 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:28.000 If I… I find it interesting that, um. He kisses Raquel. 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.000 Mm-hmm. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:35.000 Right. Right from the start. There's… 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:39.000 something between them. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:42.000 And what exactly is it, and what is he feeling? 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:45.000 What is she feeling? 00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:46.000 I think there's also something about family, you know, like, he recognizes this person. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:51.000 I'm… 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:55.000 recognized before his family, and he's marrying into 00:10:55.000 --> 00:11:01.000 Mmm, okay, recognition, family, 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:08.000 Is there an issue around her being the younger daughter and having a suitor? 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:09.000 Mm-hmm. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:12.000 Before her older sister. I don't know what the cultural norms were in this particular situation, but in some cultures. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.000 Yes, you do. 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:17.000 Yes, you do. You've nailed it. 00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:18.000 Their daughter has to marry first. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:24.000 Right, and how many… and in how many stories from how many, you know, even fairy tales and folktales, we get 00:11:24.000 --> 00:11:27.000 the older one has to marry first, 00:11:27.000 --> 00:11:33.000 Right? So, also, think about the pairs of brothers we've seen thus far. 00:11:33.000 --> 00:11:37.000 Right? Abraham's sons. 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:40.000 um, Isaac's sons, and who… 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:43.000 Right? The oldest is always supposed to inherit, 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:46.000 The oldest keeps not inheriting. 00:11:46.000 --> 00:11:49.000 So, maybe there's something… 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:56.000 I mean, there's a bigger theme here that is also gonna impact the women. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:01.000 So, as you mentioned, um, that Yaakov kissed Rachel, 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:03.000 Um, notice what else? 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:09.000 is going on. He kisses her, and then… 00:12:09.000 --> 00:12:11.000 Then raises his voice. 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:13.000 And then weeps. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:21.000 Right? What's up with that? 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:24.000 Thoughts, questions? 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:31.000 Oh, Iris, I see your hand. 00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:35.000 Sorry, I'm on a different device, and I'm a little slower with that today. 00:12:35.000 --> 00:12:39.000 Um, so I appreciate all of that, and I'm wondering… 00:12:39.000 --> 00:12:41.000 what it means when… 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:46.000 Levonne said to Yaakov that you are truly my bone and flesh. 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:51.000 that, um, relationship of family and… 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:56.000 that sort of… that popped for me, um, Adam and Eve. 00:12:56.000 --> 00:12:58.000 And… that… 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.000 Beautiful. 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:01.000 Yeah… sink. 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:04.000 Right, this one is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:07.000 Yeah. 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.000 It all sounds so dysfunctional. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:15.000 I think we should write dysfunctional somewhere on here in big letters. 00:13:15.000 --> 00:13:16.000 Not just about this Parsha, right? 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.000 Okay. Oh. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:23.000 I mean, think back on all the stories we've seen so far. 00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:24.000 How dysfunctional is all of this? That is the… maybe that's what's gonna bug Rashi. 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:30.000 Right. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:33.000 Also about the kiss, it's like… 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.000 raised his voice, and he cried. It feels like it was… 00:13:37.000 --> 00:13:41.000 ordained, or some message he had been given. 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 messages before, too. 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:46.000 I can't remember her name now, I'm sorry. 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:49.000 The young girl who just left. 00:13:49.000 --> 00:13:52.000 And went to meet her. 00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:53.000 other information. 00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.000 Right? Rivka… Rivka just leaves home, 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:56.000 And goes to marry Isaac out of nowhere, has never met him, but is confident that it's the thing to do. 00:13:56.000 --> 00:14:07.000 Yeah. 00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 I'm also… my mind keeps going back to that first. 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:20.000 Paragraph 5 through 8. That there's a procedure, there's an order in which things have to happen. This can't happen until that happens first. 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.000 Mmm… 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:30.000 And I wonder if that… is a metaphor for other things that are going to happen here in this. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:31.000 I love that. I love that. Right, you… we can't take them to pastor until… 00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:32.000 Story… 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:34.000 Yeah. 00:14:34.000 --> 00:14:40.000 The flocks are rounded up, and the stone is rolled away, and we water the sheep. There's an order to things. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:44.000 Which, of course, our ancestors are about to mess with. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.000 Corinne, I see your hand. 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:59.000 Um, that deal kind of… in exchange for the work he'll do, wait for 7 years. He sets the. 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:08.000 The margin, the kind of, you know, I worked for 7 years, why not ask for wages and ask to marry Rachel anyway? 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:10.000 Straight away, why wait 7 years? I don't know. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:14.000 Mm, mm-hmm. 00:15:14.000 --> 00:15:19.000 Helmus noting in the chat, if you write stories about normal things happening, meh. 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:23.000 Stories are written about unusual things that happen. 00:15:23.000 --> 00:15:32.000 That's true, and there may be some… I mean, a lot of this may feel a little unusual to us and to the original tellers of this story. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:35.000 Iris, is your hand up again, or still? 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:36.000 Um, it's up again, if that's okay. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:37.000 So I… 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:38.000 Yeah. 00:15:38.000 --> 00:15:43.000 Um, so yeah, kind of connecting the bone and flesh with 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:47.000 Adam and Eve and creational aspects. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:50.000 So, I always connect the 7 years with… 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:52.000 creation, and that is… 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.000 7 days of creation. I love that. 00:15:53.000 --> 00:15:57.000 I'm sorry. Seven days, yeah. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:01.000 Yeah, thank you. With creation, and also how that… 00:16:01.000 --> 00:16:04.000 relates to things happening at a certain… 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:09.000 time that… when we talked about last week, that timing is so important. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:14.000 Um, so I think there's a flow in how this is… 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.000 evolving to support that. 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:20.000 Um, generativity. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:24.000 I love that, right? There's a flow to what is evolving here, 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:28.000 There's generativity, it's kind of… there's maybe a second creation. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:29.000 Yeah. 00:16:29.000 --> 00:16:31.000 7 years for the… 00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:34.000 Seven days for the seven spherote, right there. We have a lot of sevens. 00:16:34.000 --> 00:16:35.000 Yeah. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:41.000 Cheryl. 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:47.000 It's not… I'm not sure it's directly here, but… I'm interested always in names and what they mean. 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:49.000 Mm-hmm. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:57.000 And one would think that Levon. Which, I mean, in places you see him as Levan the Deceiver. 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:07.000 But his name, Lavon, actually means, like, white or brilliant, and, like, almost a purity, so that. 00:17:07.000 --> 00:17:10.000 All right, anybody remember what Yaakov's name? 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:11.000 has been rendered as what we rendered it as last week. 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:15.000 is kind of surprising to me. Um… 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:18.000 The heel grabber. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:22.000 As he grabbed his brother's heel on the way out of the womb. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:25.000 So we have a heel grabber, we have, um… 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:29.000 Levonne, whose name seems to mean white or brilliant. 00:17:29.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Anybody here happen to know what Rachel means? 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:38.000 Yep, sheep. You. 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:39.000 EWE. 00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:40.000 Jeep, isn't it? 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:41.000 something God. 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:43.000 I was, um, startled when I learned that. 00:17:43.000 --> 00:17:44.000 As a child, named Rachel. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.000 Hmm. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.000 Uh, that my name means sheep. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:50.000 So… 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:53.000 I will pay a CBI congregant almost anything. 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:59.000 just once to call her Rabbi Yu. 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:03.000 Just one. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.000 Yeah. 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:11.000 They also had another… Thing, which was, um… Yaakov seems to set the whole timing. 00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:20.000 Out of sync when… He moves the… Um, rock off the well, off the mouth of the well. 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:29.000 Because apparently they're supposed to gather them, they're supposed to go out and eat water and heat. 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:34.000 that it wasn't happening like that, so he… not takes off. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:42.000 The rocks, so that she will come and water the sheep, and there's just something about it that feels contrived to me. 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:44.000 That it was out of sync of the usual timing. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:48.000 things are happening somehow out of order. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:49.000 Mm-hmm. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:54.000 And the well is the place where it's happening. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.000 Or the mode by which it's happening, 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:04.000 This is the second time we've seen, you know, shepherds watering their flocks, and the drawing of water at a well. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:10.000 And this all turns… all feels significant. Joan, what are you thinking? 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:18.000 I think that this talks about opportunity. And the fact that if it doesn't happen. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:21.000 naturally, you have to. shepherded. 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.000 Mmm… 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:36.000 to make it work. And, um, I… the stone rolling off the mouth of the well, you know, you can picture that they… They had a heavy stone, it was a big deal. You had to work. 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:40.000 To… to have the opportunity to water the sheep, and. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:51.000 when it doesn't work out. That… that the, um, the woman he has his eye on is the younger, or is the older. 00:19:51.000 --> 00:20:07.000 he bargains. Um, to… and it doesn't work out for him immediately, obviously, so he bargains, right? Is it true that he has to wed the. 00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:08.000 Mm-hmm. 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.000 older, but it was the younger he wanted. And so, he is bargaining. 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:14.000 Love it. 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:22.000 and end the fact that. We often bother… we often bargain. 00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:28.000 with, um… we bargain because. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:34.000 we see something that. is… is important to us. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Um, Leia had soft eyes. Um, which to me means she was soulful. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:55.000 And, um… And Raquel, they talk about her being shapely and beautiful in sight, which we all know goes just so far. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.000 And I think that's meaningful in this. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:04.000 Alright, so I… that soulful is… that's a lovely interpretation of soft eyes. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:09.000 Right, the only thing that it tells us about Rachel is that she's beautiful. 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:13.000 And that Yaakov loves her. 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:22.000 And remember, love, we've encountered previously in the story of Isaac and Rivka as well. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:24.000 Iris? 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:29.000 Yeah, I think it was Cheryl who said that Leban means white and pure. 00:21:29.000 --> 00:21:33.000 And, to me, that feeds into the deception. 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.000 There is, you know, intergenerational deception, and… 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.000 When, you know, someone's name is White, you may… 00:21:41.000 --> 00:21:45.000 expect that there would be goodness. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:48.000 But instead, it's teaching us that we have to… 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.000 be aware, and… 00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Um, you know, pay attention and make a discernment. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:55.000 So… 00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.000 I love that, right? And we've seen some deception already in our Torah story. 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.000 Corinne. 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:09.000 Yeah, what's coming up to my mind is, like, pastoral life is the fertile ground where people meet. 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:19.000 Because with Moshe and his. And several rounds, I forgot the name of his wife, they all met by the well, and there was a kind of. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:31.000 Uh… it was the camels, I think. They didn't let her… them take the water and the, it's a whisk around the well and. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:39.000 It's kind of meeting place for exchange, for encounters, and it's very symbolical that. 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:49.000 It seems like Yakov is a new Moshe, or… I don't know… This is a kind of similarity between their encounters. 00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:51.000 I love that. Yeah. 00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:52.000 That's beautiful. Meredith? 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000 Yep. 00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:00.000 I don't know if this is, uh, significant, but… 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.000 In 1315, 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:08.000 The last line, just because you are kin, should you serve me for nothing? 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:11.000 So, I don't know what is the… 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:13.000 you know, the, uh… 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:22.000 protocol? Like, is that important? It's not important. This idea of servitude and wages and… 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:29.000 I don't know. Because then that gets folded into, you know, I'll work for 7 years, and then I'll marry Rochel, so… 00:23:29.000 --> 00:23:31.000 I don't know. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:34.000 Right. 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:43.000 Anything else arising? 00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:46.000 I don't… 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:53.000 Egyptian with an N. 00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:55.000 Yes, yes. 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:58.000 Raquel. Raquel! 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Please. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:01.000 Uh, may I speak? I'm sorry. Rachel here. Uh, um… Yes. Oh, thank you. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Um, I just feel like I'm very sensitive to the women and what the women might be feeling in this whole. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:15.000 Mm-hmm. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:25.000 Exchange and this whole dynamic. You don't hear it, and we don't… but we're so occupied with what we are given on the page. 00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.000 Yeah. 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:28.000 Right, what's… what's not on the page? 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:31.000 But I do feel a sensitivity to. The women… 00:24:31.000 --> 00:24:34.000 Yeah, to what's not on the page. It's not just the women, but. 00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:46.000 It's what's not on the page here. Because I have to hear that, you know, she's shapely, and this one isn't. I mean, I just… that whole thing is really not. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:47.000 Right. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:52.000 For us. It's for somebody else, and I don't know who, but… 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:57.000 Right, the… what we get here about Rachel is that she was beautiful, 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:05.000 Which might matter to her, a beautiful in whose eyes, might not matter to her. The story that she might tell might be a different one. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:08.000 What was she thinking and feeling when this guy she's never met 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:12.000 Kisses her by the well. 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:13.000 Right? 00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:17.000 But we also got that she was a shepherd, which gives a lot of responsibility and weight to her skills. 00:25:17.000 --> 00:25:24.000 True. True. You're right. I take that back. We get that she is both… she's beautiful, and she's a shepherd. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:26.000 So, one of those is about… 00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:29.000 who she is in the world, but we still don't get any of her 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:30.000 internal life. 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.000 Hi, how are you? 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:36.000 I'm your… I'm your family, 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:37.000 Nice to meet you! 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:40.000 Right. I mean… 00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:42.000 And her beauty is not what she feels. This is what. 00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:45.000 Mhm. 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:46.000 It's coming from the outside. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:50.000 You know, Zuck is feeling, or whatever, whoever wrote this is feeling, yeah. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:51.000 Thank you for raising that. 00:25:51.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Yeah, so, so, so, so, so if we can, just let's stay with this for a second. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:02.000 Because this is the work of Midrash. I see Cheryl, I see Joan, we'll get there, and then we're gonna do some text. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.000 Be Rafael for a second. 00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:07.000 Everybody be Rocco. 00:26:07.000 --> 00:26:09.000 You've just come in, 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:14.000 with the sheep. This guy you have never seen, 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.000 Who has heard nothing. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:21.000 Rolls the stone off the mouth of the well. 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Water is your flock. 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:26.000 comes to you, 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Gives you a wet one on the face. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:33.000 And then starts to sob. 00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:42.000 Before Yaakov tells Rahel that he was her father's kinsman and all the things… 00:26:42.000 --> 00:26:48.000 What is Rachel thinking and feeling? 00:26:48.000 --> 00:26:53.000 Just, let's have it. 00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:54.000 And does it matter? 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:56.000 probably a lot of things. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:59.000 Probably a lot of 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:00.000 But I think I would be thinking… 00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.000 alarm. 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:03.000 UTF. Why is this man? 00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:05.000 Uh-huh. 00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:06.000 kissing me. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:08.000 Aha. Aha, that's why I put an asterisk here, underlined so it goes back to this. Yup. 00:27:08.000 --> 00:27:12.000 Right. 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:16.000 In the chat, we're getting, this guy is unhinged! 00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:19.000 Uh-huh. 00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:23.000 Uh-huh. Keep it comin'! 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:29.000 You have a complete stranger came up to me in my workplace and kissed me out of nowhere, I was 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:32.000 have some choice words? 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:34.000 alarming. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:38.000 Yeah, just… just call it out. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:43.000 But in the day, it… To me, it's as if he has. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:54.000 come and found some family. then… and maybe in the day, that was such an important thing, and people maybe were so far apart that. 00:27:54.000 --> 00:28:04.000 when… when he kissed Raquel, it was. you know, it wasn't a… a kiss of passion as much as it was. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:14.000 that he was just thrilled to meet her. And… and he had never met her before, and he was her father's kinsman, and they're cousins, correct? 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:18.000 We have a Rachel doesn't… Rochell doesn't know that yet. 00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:22.000 I know that, but. he… he knows it. 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:27.000 And so he's just delighted to meet her. I don't know how he knows. 00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:34.000 how he knows that it is Rachel, but it's perhaps about family. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:44.000 Um, that he's very excited to meet her, and of course, in the day, and still, first cousins are allowed to marry, there was just a ruling. 00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:51.000 And I think it was in Rhode Island. That no longer were first cousins allowed to marry. 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:53.000 And I have an aunt and uncle who are. 00:28:53.000 --> 00:29:00.000 first, or I had, who were first cousins. So maybe this is initially about. 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:05.000 being with family again, and then, of course, it follows that. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:06.000 Mm-hmm. 00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:07.000 Shaddachim. Mm-hmm. So, what kind of kiss is this? 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.000 Shiraks are made. 00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:13.000 This is, uh, this is, uh, so pleased to be here with you. 00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:17.000 Right, so what I'm hearing in this… we're… 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:23.000 We may not all be imagining the same kind of kiss, and Torah doesn't say. 00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:30.000 Right? Is it the kiss of, I'm here with family, thank God? Is it the kiss of, I've just met my true love at the well? 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.000 Is it something else entirely? We don't know. 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:37.000 All right, I want to try something, just for giggles, then we're going to go to Cheryl Jones, we'll do some text. 00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:48.000 Everybody, please turn on your camera if you can. I'm going to do a quick show of hands, and you've got to vote. There will be no non-voting in this election, okay? 00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:55.000 Your choice is this is what kind of kiss is this? Option 1 is going to be… 00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.000 Finally, I have found my family. 00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:05.000 Booby, how you doing? Number two… now, we're gonna vote, I just want everybody to have the option. 00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:11.000 Number two is, how you doing? 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:19.000 Number 3 is neither of those, but I don't know what. Okay, option one is platonic, option two is 00:30:19.000 --> 00:30:20.000 Not. 00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:26.000 something else. And option 3 is neither of those, but I don't know what. Alright, option 1, vote. 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:30.000 Raise your hand. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6… 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:35.000 6… 7… okay. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:42.000 All right, how you doin'? 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:48.000 All right, nobody here thinks this is a sexual kiss. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:51.000 Nobody. One, Deanna does, okay? 00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:55.000 And I don't know what this is, but it's neither of those. 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:58.000 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:03.000 5… yeah, that adds up, okay. Very, very interesting. 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:05.000 That is interesting. 00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:15.000 Okay, last comments. Cheryl and then Joan, and then we've got some fun text. 00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:22.000 So I want to thank. Raquel, for bringing up what she did, because. 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:32.000 it really gave me a sense. To go back and think about, you know, like, my family and other families of girls that I know, and. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:37.000 The sibling relationship, which is not really discussed here. 00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:46.000 Um, we've talked about older sibling. older daughter needing to be married first, but… but there's a lifetime. 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:55.000 Of if soft eyes means not as attractive, it was something nice to say about her, but really it's. 00:31:55.000 --> 00:32:04.000 Meaning, not as attractive as Rachel. Um, then… Rachel, I think. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:08.000 That there's a lot here behind the scenes, that this. 00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:17.000 She obviously is the one who has to stay in the house and do the housework and do all of that stuff because she's not outside of the home. 00:32:17.000 --> 00:32:22.000 Um, which may be fine with her. I mean, she may not like the sun and working with sheep. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:28.000 But… but there's a lot to be said about sibling relationships. 00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.000 Um… and how she has been growing up. 00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:36.000 Again, someone who everyone has always thought of as absolutely stunning. 00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:37.000 We've seen sibling rivalries among brothers. We don't yet know what the relationship between the sisters is going to be. 00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:46.000 Um… Yes, and… 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:56.000 But we can see that one is considered not as attractive as the other, and so we know that had to impact something of them growing up. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:57.000 Mm-hmm. 00:32:57.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Mm-hmm. 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:02.000 We don't know if there were other suitors in the past, or who else is around there, and what may have gone on between them. 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:10.000 Yeah, uh, I was gonna say last comment, Joan, but we may have had a substitution of greens, I'm not sure. 00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:15.000 Well, I do have my hand up. I don't know about Sean. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:18.000 You started this entire discussion by saying, 00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:21.000 You know, after we read the four paragraphs, 00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:24.000 Think of overall themes. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:25.000 Uh-huh. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:28.000 And yet, I don't know that I've heard any. 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.000 And so I want to just suggest one before we… 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:33.000 Please do. 00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:34.000 Good. 00:33:34.000 --> 00:33:35.000 Before we go… before we go further, it… 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:36.000 Uh-huh. 00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:41.000 We've noted that there seem to be a lot of random occurrences, and some of them 00:33:41.000 --> 00:33:47.000 awkward and not… and somehow contrived, and there's also been reactions 00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:51.000 Like, the crying on several occasions. 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:57.000 And it just seems to me consistent with some kind of 00:33:57.000 --> 00:34:02.000 divine guidance, some sort of preordained, and the people 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:05.000 who are reacting, and… 00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:07.000 and who are… 00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:09.000 And who are, um… 00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:15.000 you know, who are parties to all this just somehow have a sense of it. 00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:21.000 You know, that they're… that they have a feeling that this is what's meant to be, somehow. 00:34:21.000 --> 00:34:23.000 Beautiful. Perfect. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:24.000 Beautiful. 00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:30.000 Because otherwise, you have a lot of random… 00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:31.000 Uh-huh. 00:34:31.000 --> 00:34:32.000 actions and a lot of funny reactions that don't really tie together. 00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:36.000 Right, right. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:37.000 So, here are a couple of observations. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:40.000 Hmm. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:42.000 V's… 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:46.000 dozen-ish sentences, Sukim. 00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:49.000 They are really wet. 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:52.000 You've got the well. 00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:54.000 You've got the crying. 00:34:54.000 --> 00:34:58.000 You've got the kissing, as it happens 00:34:58.000 --> 00:35:00.000 the Hebrew to 00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:03.000 to water something. 00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:08.000 is the same root as to KISS. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:11.000 Water something is almost to right… 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:14.000 To weep. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:21.000 Right, and to kiss is the same root. 00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:23.000 water. Kiss. 00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.000 Weep. 00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:29.000 Who is it that mentioned… 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:33.000 Hello? 00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:37.000 There's a lot of literal flow here. 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:44.000 The subject matter on its face is things that flow for 200, and the answer is… 00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:49.000 tears, water, kisses is the same. Right, right, all that. 00:35:49.000 --> 00:35:50.000 the heart. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:52.000 Yeah, and then you've got the whole… 00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:58.000 well thing. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:00.000 wells, water… 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.000 flow… these are all… 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:07.000 symbolic metaphors for 00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:11.000 or someone call it out. 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:12.000 Life. Keep going. 00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.000 I've been experiencing. 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.000 call it out. 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:20.000 The divine… 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:21.000 Feminine, shachina. 00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:22.000 It's the Divine Feminine. 00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:23.000 Mm-hmm. 00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:29.000 often portrayed as something that flows, a well of water, something that's 00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:33.000 From deep below. 00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:34.000 Yeah, Deanna, please. 00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:40.000 May I say something, Rabbi? Um, what I was saying before about things having to happen in a certain order. 00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:47.000 The order is the water comes first. The plaque has to be watered first. 00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:50.000 the stone has to be taken off the well so that the water can come out. 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:53.000 Right, right. And so if, if… 00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:01.000 If the water is emblematic of the divine feminine, the flowing, the rock has to be removed from 00:37:01.000 --> 00:37:03.000 It's… it is the… the rock is… it's the block to what needs to flow. 00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:07.000 Of course. 00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:11.000 Which is… 00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:12.000 emotions… 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:13.000 Emotions, love it. Sustenance, God. 00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.000 emotions. 00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:18.000 For instance, 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:19.000 cervical openings, penalty… 00:37:19.000 --> 00:37:21.000 Relations. Relationship. 00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:25.000 Right, fertility, right, we get into fertility imagery as well. 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:28.000 So we're not in circumcision land, but… 00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:30.000 Right? 00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:33.000 The metaphor is there. 00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:36.000 Hold on to that. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:43.000 So you got that piece. You also have some gender pieces here. A number of us commented that 00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:46.000 The… the man! 00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:51.000 is undertaking some more… 00:37:51.000 --> 00:37:54.000 I don't like to… 00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:57.000 essentialize emotions between genders, but… 00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:00.000 Here's someone who is… 00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:01.000 But the text does. 00:38:01.000 --> 00:38:03.000 But the text probably does, right? At the time when this was written, 00:38:03.000 --> 00:38:07.000 Nobody was talking about gender essentialism. 00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:11.000 And it was probably presumed that men and women did certain things. 00:38:11.000 --> 00:38:14.000 And weeping might not have been… 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:17.000 The men's bailiwick. And yet… 00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:20.000 Right, so Yaakov is… 00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.000 doing the rolling of the, you know, and… and… 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:25.000 doing the servile stuff, and… 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:28.000 crying, and… 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:29.000 Rachel's the shepherd. 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:34.000 I mean, who did we see watering all the animals in the Yitzkhok story? 00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:37.000 Rivka. Rivka did the watering. 00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:39.000 of all the camels, and now here we've got… 00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:42.000 Yaakov doing the watering. 00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:43.000 There's a reversal going on here. 00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.000 Bringing the flow. 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.000 There's a reversal here. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:54.000 So there's some gender pieces, there's some flowy pieces, there's also some power. 00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:58.000 pieces here. 00:38:58.000 --> 00:39:09.000 And all above it, behind it, underneath it, is David's sense that there's something sacred going on. 00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:14.000 This is not GQ magazine, it's Torah. So, let's see what happens. 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:20.000 If we put all that together. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:23.000 This first page… 00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:25.000 For the most part, is 00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:28.000 one Midrash after another. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:35.000 of why Yaakov cried, why Yaakov wept. There was a question in the chat box, is it cried or wept? 00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:41.000 In Hebrew, the word is the same. 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:48.000 So, consider why it was so important, even before we get into the Midrash, why was it so important? 00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:52.000 that our ancestors suss out why Jacob was crying. 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:59.000 that they would have one Midrash after another after another after another. What was at stake? 00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:03.000 Call it out, yeah, John. 00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:21.000 It's… you have cried in the text, but to cry out is… you could use the ex… the word exclaimed, or shouted, or it doesn't… I don't think it necessarily means he wept. 00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:24.000 Uh-huh. 00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:29.000 I'm just gonna say, Joan, I had that same thought, and I put it in the chat, and Adam. 00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:36.000 Said that the actual word here. Um, means… Wept. 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:39.000 Right, in modern Hebrew, we would say, um, 00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:40.000 I would cry. 00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:42.000 You know, that… 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:43.000 But that word wasn't… wasn't really there yet. 00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:44.000 Nope, but not, not in those days. 00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:47.000 Sorry. 00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:50.000 Right. So, what's at stake here? 00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:58.000 Why does our ants… why do our ancestors, like, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… and we only curated 7, 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:00.000 And if there could have been more. 00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:09.000 There were more. We just didn't want to spend all the time on weeping. Why? What's at stake? 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:12.000 If there were no, like, jumping-out answers, let's start. 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:14.000 Let's start with Rashi, who wants it? 00:41:14.000 --> 00:41:24.000 What's bothering Rashi? 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:29.000 Rocker wept, for he foresaw by the Holy Spirit. 00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:35.000 But Raquel would not enter the grave with him. 00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:40.000 Another manner, he wept, because he came with empty hands. 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:49.000 He thought Eliasa. My father's servant had with him rings, bracelets, and necklaces. 00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:50.000 What? 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:52.000 While I have nothing with me. 00:41:52.000 --> 00:41:55.000 But the second one sort of makes sense. 00:41:55.000 --> 00:42:03.000 Right? He's remembering that when his… when Eliezer went to get his mother Rivka, he brought gifts. 00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:04.000 And Yaakov doesn't have gifts to give. 00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:07.000 Yeah. 00:42:07.000 --> 00:42:18.000 To me, the one that makes me go, what? Is the moment he saw this beautiful woman with her sheep, his first thought was, oh no, we're not gonna be buried together? 00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:24.000 And it is true, right? The cave of Machpelah, which we have seen, 00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:26.000 that Abraham got, 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:32.000 Abraham and Sarah were buried there. Isaac and Rebecca were buried there. 00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:34.000 Jacob and Leah were buried there. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:35.000 But not Rafael. 00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:38.000 Not Rachel. 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:39.000 She died in a different place and is buried in a different tomb. 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:43.000 Not working. 00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:56.000 And so Rashi is putting into Yaakov's tears, I know you're not going to be buried with me, and already I'm crying, never mind I haven't said a word to you, never mind any of that! 00:42:56.000 --> 00:42:57.000 It's a little wild. 00:42:57.000 --> 00:42:59.000 Why, why, why? Why? Why? 00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:00.000 has a hand up. 00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.000 What is… why, Meredith? 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:05.000 Darn! 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.000 Oh, I can't answer that, but what I want is… what I want to say is that tears 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:15.000 I have so many… it's like a kaleidoscope. It's… 00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:16.000 Yeah. 00:43:16.000 --> 00:43:21.000 can express so many different emotions. It could be anger, grief, joy, 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:27.000 Sadness, and so it's not surprising that the, um… 00:43:27.000 --> 00:43:31.000 Rabbis had so many interpretations 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:34.000 of his crying out. 00:43:34.000 --> 00:43:35.000 So… 00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:37.000 So, so maybe that's exactly the point. 00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:38.000 Right. 00:43:38.000 --> 00:43:44.000 that, you know, actually there's not such a big deal here. We don't know why, and… 00:43:44.000 --> 00:43:48.000 We know from human experience that tears can mean many things, and so… 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:55.000 people are going to disagree, and let's have it all out there. 00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:56.000 Guilt! 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:58.000 I think it's guilt. Yeah, I think he feels so good. 00:43:58.000 --> 00:43:59.000 In Judaism? 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:01.000 Yeah. 00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:02.000 Why don't Linda say more? Why do you think he feels guilty? 00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:05.000 I'm sorry, I… 00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:07.000 Or what is the guilt for? 00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:13.000 As he says, immediately, he's aware now that he is not going to be. 00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:26.000 in the same grave with her. This is not going to be ultimately what he wanted, and now he has guilt because he hasn't brought any gifts with him. 00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:27.000 Okay. 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:31.000 He doesn't have anything to… offer. And… I guess it turns out that. 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:39.000 Now, her father is… Is he using him as a… a slave, as a worker, as a… 00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:47.000 Oh, fascinating. You didn't bring me gifts? Alright, booby, you wanna play? Hmm… 00:44:47.000 --> 00:44:48.000 Very interesting, Marcy. 00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:50.000 Ah, here we go. 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:51.000 And then we're gonna speed through this. 00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:56.000 Well, doesn't we have enough to already be guilty about? 00:44:56.000 --> 00:45:01.000 Yeah. 00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:02.000 Hello. 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:12.000 Given his behavior. So, well… Where's our… where's our therapist? He could just be projecting all this onto this poor woman who's, you know, a shepherd minding her business, and here comes this guy. 00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:18.000 dragging the guilt of having done so many. terrible things, and. 00:45:18.000 --> 00:45:25.000 now he's crying? He's in her face. Now he's crying. She doesn't… he hasn't even said hello. 00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:26.000 Is he on some list somewhere? 00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:35.000 Mmm, kind of. Yeah, so I think, you know, he has enough problems that he could actually sit down and go to therapy without. 00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:36.000 dragging her into this. 00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:49.000 Okay, so you use the word projection. I'm gonna use that. Um, there's a whole fiddler on the Roof song about it, you know how it goes? 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:50.000 That's definitely how it goes. 00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:55.000 There's a lot of projection. That's exactly how it goes, right? There's a lot of projection here. 00:45:55.000 --> 00:46:00.000 Right. And Midrash is always going to be some of that. We've seen that when we read ourselves into it, we're projecting ourselves onto… 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:08.000 We… what we see in the text has something to do with what lenses we're bringing and with what… what our stuff is. 00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:11.000 Right. And for Yaakov, especially. 00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:16.000 Why? Because Yaakov is all… we already know that Yaakov is kind of a… 00:46:16.000 --> 00:46:18.000 a heel. 00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:20.000 I yuck, a yuck, a yuck. 00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:21.000 is what his name says. 00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:26.000 And we… and we know there's a lot at stake. 00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:28.000 in Yaakov. 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:31.000 Yaakov is going to become Israel. 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:32.000 whom we are named for. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.000 And that's us. 00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:36.000 Yaakov is gonna have… 00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:39.000 A lot of children. 00:46:39.000 --> 00:46:42.000 It is through 00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:44.000 Rachel… 00:46:44.000 --> 00:46:51.000 that one in particular will be very influential. His name is… 00:46:51.000 --> 00:46:54.000 Joseph? 00:46:54.000 --> 00:46:56.000 And but for this… 00:46:56.000 --> 00:46:59.000 Our ancestors would not have gotten to Egypt. 00:46:59.000 --> 00:47:04.000 Tune in to all the partial that follow in the Joseph narrative. So this 00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:08.000 moment. 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:12.000 is one of those where everything… 00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:17.000 sort of comes to a singularity, and if this didn't happen, the rest of the story couldn't. 00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:31.000 We would not have gotten to Egypt, we would not be enslaved, there would never be a Moses, we would never be there, we would never get out, we would never be liberated, we would never have Torah, we wouldn't be here. 00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:34.000 So, there's gonna be some projection. 00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:39.000 Because this is a big moment. We've got prophecy, we've got Guilty Thought Projection. 00:47:39.000 --> 00:47:44.000 Rashi is doing some Bereshit Rabba here, this first paragraph is telling the story. 00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:51.000 of the bracelets and the necklaces. I don't even have a nose ring, I've got nothing. 00:47:51.000 --> 00:47:52.000 Here's what… 00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:56.000 And also, he's referring… he's referencing Berishit Rabo with the… the piece with the grave. 00:47:56.000 --> 00:47:59.000 Right? And same thing here. 00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:05.000 Rachel's gonna later say to Leia, because they're both gonna marry him. Oh, there's nothing dysfunctional here. 00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:11.000 That is why he will lie with you tonight. He will lie with you, not with me. 00:48:11.000 --> 00:48:17.000 Fine, you be buried in the grave with him. 00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:19.000 Or… 00:48:19.000 --> 00:48:23.000 hell of eyes that I should be buried in the grave with him, but I won't be. 00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:27.000 Right? Is it… is it angry? Is it plaintive? It… right? We don't know. 00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:30.000 We don't know! We don't know! 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.000 Alright. How about this one? Who wants this? Sorry. 00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:44.000 this other, other, other, other matter. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:45.000 someone who hasn't had a chance to read yet, maybe. 00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:53.000 Somebody read. 00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:55.000 Because he saw people listening. 00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:57.000 to each other, because he kissed her. 00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:00.000 Saying, did this one come to renew? 00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:02.000 goodness among us, for since… 00:49:02.000 --> 00:49:06.000 time that the world had stricken. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:08.000 generation, the nations. 00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:14.000 stood and distanced. 00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:17.000 What? 00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:22.000 So I'm seeing David go. 00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:25.000 what is this? 00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:28.000 Well, now you have two votes for… 00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:30.000 It was a lewd kiss. 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:31.000 Okay. 00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:34.000 So, I mean, maybe this is acknowledging that one way to read it 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:37.000 would be Eros. 00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:39.000 Right. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:42.000 And… and you can't… 00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:47.000 read this text without acknowledging at least the possibility that there… 00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:52.000 that that was what was going on. 00:49:52.000 --> 00:49:57.000 Can I… did I spell the word disapprobation correctly? No, I did not. 00:49:57.000 --> 00:50:01.000 Right? So he's crying because… 00:50:01.000 --> 00:50:04.000 people are looking at him funny. 00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:09.000 So now he's a heel again. 00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:16.000 Okay, try again. The Sporno! 00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:28.000 I just want to note in the chat, Cheryl is asking, why did he leave? Remember that he left fleeing from his angry twin brother after stealing the blessing and the birthright? 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:34.000 Yes, but there was not an implication that he was leaving to find a wife, so why would he leave with gifts? 00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:35.000 Legit. 00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:38.000 No, I mean, except to the extent that anyone's 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:40.000 life trajectory. 00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.000 in this… in those days would have been… 00:50:44.000 --> 00:50:45.000 go and find a wife. 00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:48.000 It's a legit question. It's a totally legit question. 00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:52.000 They're all legit questions. Yep, yep, yup. 00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:53.000 Yup. Alright, why is… 00:50:53.000 --> 00:50:56.000 Sorno and the Redoc are going to say some different things. 00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:57.000 Yeah, let's keep going. 00:50:57.000 --> 00:50:59.000 Oh. 00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:00.000 Yet. 00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:10.000 Because… because he did not merit to marry. marry equaling raise her in his youth. 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:12.000 That by now, he would have grandchildren. 00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:24.000 Thank God I finally found you. I haven't been married for so long. I could have been happy all of these years, I could have had children, I could have had grandchildren already. 00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:31.000 Right? This is relief. By the way, the Hebrew word to marry… 00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:34.000 has a connotation. 00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:40.000 of Uplift. 00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:45.000 plus set. 00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.000 Not to raise like I'm going to raise you from a child. 00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:50.000 Except maybe it does. 00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:51.000 We'll get there. 00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:57.000 Who wants the next one? 00:51:57.000 --> 00:51:59.000 Tears of joy from great love from the heart. Yaakov Wood. 00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:01.000 Of course! 00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:09.000 Right, so the redok is a romantic here, right? He looks at this and he says, this is a love story, guys. 00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:18.000 He wept because he loved her so much. 00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:21.000 Yeah, it's the next one with Verbenu Bakia. 00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:23.000 That's gonna go somewhere very interesting. 00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:37.000 That's gonna go somewhere very different. Who wants it? 00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:38.000 Kitana. 00:52:38.000 --> 00:52:45.000 Yakov kissed Raquel and wept. Torah refers to Rahel as… Patana, younger and small. 00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:46.000 Ew. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:49.000 He was a minor and not yet suitable to a husband. 00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:57.000 So, Levonne was unworried to give his flocks to her instead of his adult daughter, Leia. 00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:04.000 Already suitable to a man. who might molest her. 00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:19.000 She might get molested. It might also be said that this kiss was a kiss on her head or shoulder, for it was not written that it was on her mouth. 00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:20.000 Leia was the older daughter. 00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:22.000 And thus not sexual. 00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:27.000 In this Midrash, Leia is… 00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:31.000 You can't send Leia out with the sheep, because… 00:53:31.000 --> 00:53:34.000 Some guy might take advantage. 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.000 But nobody's going to take advantage of the kid. 00:53:37.000 --> 00:53:40.000 So Rachel is a kid here. 00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:43.000 She may be a beautiful kid, but she's a… 00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:45.000 kid. So… 00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:50.000 How many of you, again, thought that this was a… a… 00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:51.000 not sexual kiss? 00:53:51.000 --> 00:53:53.000 Most of them. 00:53:53.000 --> 00:54:05.000 Does this now go some way to explaining why he had to wait 7 years? 00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:08.000 Hmm… 00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:09.000 And not a sexual kiss, comma. 00:54:09.000 --> 00:54:11.000 And also not a sexual kiss. 00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:16.000 Yet. Because they are destined for each other. 00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.000 And Katana, right? 00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:18.000 Right. 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:24.000 can mean that she is small, that she's a child, could also just mean she's the younger of the two sisters, right? 00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:29.000 I have an older sister, that makes me the younger one. I'm 50. 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:33.000 We don't know. It doesn't say. 00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:37.000 Well, she… then she also runs to tell her father as soon as it happens. 00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:38.000 Daddy, Daddy, look what happened! 00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:41.000 Like a trial. 00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:46.000 Right. This is very different now. 00:54:46.000 --> 00:54:49.000 Um, and I'm noticing some of the women 00:54:49.000 --> 00:54:53.000 have subtly turned away from the camera. 00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:57.000 What are we feeling? 00:54:57.000 --> 00:55:06.000 I can guess, but I don't want to. 00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:12.000 Well, I'd like to say that in following up on Cheryl, because Cheryl and I chime or. 00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:19.000 Our wind chimes together, is that if he was going to see his uncle. 00:55:19.000 --> 00:55:24.000 He would have prepared, if he were thoughtful, he would have prepared gifts. 00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:27.000 And I do think that we're seeing the character of Yaakov. 00:55:27.000 --> 00:55:28.000 Yeah. 00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:34.000 Some way in which he's kind of… not too thoughtful, not too caring of anyone else but himself, perhaps. 00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:37.000 He's a heel. 00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:39.000 He's a heel who's gonna be transformed. 00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:40.000 Little bit of a heal. 00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.000 Perhaps so. And then he has to learn, he has 7 years of struggle. 00:55:44.000 --> 00:55:45.000 Only to become 14. 00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:48.000 There's actually gonna have 14 years of struggle. 00:55:48.000 --> 00:55:49.000 Nancy. 00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.000 14, yeah. 00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:57.000 But if he was fleeing, and maybe I'm not remembering the Torah. 00:55:57.000 --> 00:56:05.000 Properly. But if he was fleeing. he would just leave. He wouldn't have gifts. He wouldn't… he was just… going, getting away, or am I missing something? 00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:06.000 You're not missing anything! 00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:08.000 No, you're not. 00:56:08.000 --> 00:56:09.000 It's this… 00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:16.000 So, that's why he wouldn't have… Anything with him, why would he have anything with him if, you know, if he said, you know, get out of here. 00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:17.000 And then he gets there and thinks, oh, I wish I had thought to bring. 00:56:17.000 --> 00:56:26.000 You just don't. Right, exactly, but if you're told, or if you're feeling, I have to leave. 00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:31.000 You just… go. 00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:32.000 But is it? 00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:33.000 Right, but that's like an impulsive act. He does have choice. 00:56:33.000 --> 00:56:36.000 But is it? When… 00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:40.000 But he took his brother's birthright, I mean, you know. 00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:48.000 Okay, so let me make it both harder and easier, and then I want to invite us to get to the Ellen Frangle, and then I want to spend some time with us on Zohar. 00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:52.000 Because this is going to be super cool. 00:56:52.000 --> 00:56:55.000 When else in Torah have our 00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:08.000 has… has there been a departure? 00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:09.000 Everywhere. 00:57:09.000 --> 00:57:10.000 Oh, okay, I've got Lech Lecha. Um, they took stuff and went, so they took stuff. 00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:13.000 Oh. 00:57:13.000 --> 00:57:15.000 Okay, um… 00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:18.000 more people than that. 00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:19.000 Lots more people. 00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:20.000 No. Noah. 00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:23.000 Lots more people than that. 00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:24.000 Lots more people than that. 00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:28.000 Noah. 00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:30.000 Exodus! Right. 00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:31.000 So, you know, get the hell out! 00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:32.000 Exodus. 00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:33.000 Adam and Eve. 00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:38.000 Oh, but by the way, take some dolphin skin and some gold, and… 00:57:38.000 --> 00:57:39.000 Right. 00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:44.000 And anything you might need just in case God tells you to build a Mishkan along the way. 00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:51.000 when God, in the story, wants the people to have stuff, 00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:55.000 the good stuff. So one must wonder why. 00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:00.000 Why was Yaakov empty-handed? 00:58:00.000 --> 00:58:03.000 Because otherwise, he would not have been… 00:58:03.000 --> 00:58:06.000 working for 7 years, 14 years. 00:58:06.000 --> 00:58:09.000 And if that had not happened, there would not be an opportunity 00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:14.000 One thing needs to happen so that the next… so that the next, so that we can wind up with us. 00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:16.000 Right. Right. 00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:22.000 Right. Leah had to be in the picture, otherwise there couldn't have been 12 tribes. 00:58:22.000 --> 00:58:23.000 Right. 00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:24.000 12 tribes. Well, I'm Bilhanzilpa, too. Let's… 00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:25.000 Uh-huh. 00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.000 The Handmaidens also, there are… we have four foremothers. 00:58:29.000 --> 00:58:35.000 Yes, we do. Meredith, and then Ellen Frankel. 00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:38.000 Um, you know… 00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:42.000 In keeping with the feminist 00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:44.000 vein here. 00:58:44.000 --> 00:58:46.000 I mean, here he is, he… 00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:48.000 He just kisses her! 00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:49.000 I know! 00:58:49.000 --> 00:58:52.000 And that's… and that's… that's okay? 00:58:52.000 --> 00:58:57.000 Is there anywhere in Torah where a woman does that? 00:58:57.000 --> 00:59:03.000 Like, spontaneously is overcome, and for whatever reason, 00:59:03.000 --> 00:59:04.000 There… there are… 00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:05.000 and kisses a guy? 00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:06.000 I mean, no. 00:59:06.000 --> 00:59:08.000 Like, out of… 00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:09.000 No, the answer is no. 00:59:09.000 --> 00:59:13.000 I don't know, like, oh, I'm overcome, I want to kiss you? No way! 00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:14.000 There are… 00:59:14.000 --> 00:59:15.000 So, I don't think that's… 00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:21.000 I don't know. 00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:22.000 Great. 00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:24.000 There are women who are overcome by emotion and speak or pray or go directly to God, but that is a little different than… 00:59:24.000 --> 00:59:25.000 I'm gonna plant one on ya. 00:59:25.000 --> 00:59:27.000 Kissing. Yeah. 00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:35.000 Uh-huh. Do you feel better if it's sort of a paternal awe? Hi, little girl, kind of kiss? 00:59:35.000 --> 00:59:37.000 I feel different. 00:59:37.000 --> 00:59:38.000 So, there's Rabbeinu Bakhyat. 00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:40.000 Yes, I guess, but a woman should be able to do that, too. 00:59:40.000 --> 00:59:41.000 Whoops. I will fix that. 00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:42.000 Well, bring our techs back! 00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:43.000 I will fix that. I don't know what just happened. 00:59:43.000 --> 00:59:45.000 I want to get to Ellen Frankel. 00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.000 Yep, so… so… let me, let me sort of go to my own… 00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:55.000 question what's at stake here? What's at stake here is the character of Jacob. 00:59:55.000 --> 01:00:00.000 Is he what we would call today a sexual felon? 01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:02.000 Is he skanky? 01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:04.000 Is he a heel? 01:00:04.000 --> 01:00:09.000 Is he a prophet? 01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:10.000 Is he just a guy in love? 01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:18.000 Is he a healed… is he a heel when his story begins, and maybe not by the time it ends? 01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:19.000 Right. 01:00:19.000 --> 01:00:20.000 Does he have a broken heart? 01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:23.000 Is she selfish? Is he… you know, what is he? 01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:26.000 As he swept up in… 01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:28.000 the purity of holy love. 01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:30.000 We do not know. 01:00:30.000 --> 01:00:35.000 And it's really important to our ancestors to suss this out, because 01:00:35.000 --> 01:00:41.000 everything is gonna depend on this guy. 01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:50.000 And so the very fact that he cries, which is not a thing we've yet seen in Torah, 01:00:50.000 --> 01:00:52.000 creates this window 01:00:52.000 --> 01:01:02.000 of pouring out all… whether it's projection or hope, or yearning, or whatever it is. 01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:05.000 Of course, we're really asking the question not just who is Jacob, but who is Israel? 01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:06.000 But who are we? 01:01:06.000 --> 01:01:09.000 And therefore, who are we? 01:01:09.000 --> 01:01:11.000 Let's look at the Ellen Frankel. 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:13.000 Let's get there. I'm gonna embiggen this. 01:01:13.000 --> 01:01:15.000 And then at the Zohar. 01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:18.000 Yeah, Rachel, Rabbi Rachel, Rabbi Yu, would you please? 01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:20.000 Alright, so Ellen Frankel. 01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:26.000 Our daughters ask. Both Eliezer and Jacob meet brides at a well, how do their meetings compare? 01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:32.000 Our mother's answer. When Avraham's servant Eliezer devises a test to identify the right 01:01:32.000 --> 01:01:36.000 wife for Yitzkok. He's looking for the following qualities. 01:01:36.000 --> 01:01:41.000 kindness to strangers and to animals, beauty, modesty, and loyalty to family. 01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:43.000 He finds them all in Rebecca. 01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:48.000 But when Jacob comes to the same well years later, 01:01:48.000 --> 01:01:57.000 He finds himself replaying Rebecca's script, not Eliezer's. So instead of waiting for a young woman to approach him, he comes forward to meet her. 01:01:57.000 --> 01:02:01.000 Instead of her watering his animals, he waters hers. 01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:05.000 When he reveals himself to her, it's not Rachel, but he who weeps. 01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:09.000 Yet the very qualities that made Rebecca the perfect wife for Isaac 01:02:09.000 --> 01:02:13.000 turn out to be liabilities to Rachel's husband-to-be. 01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:21.000 Jacob's generosity, friendliness, and family feeling make him easy prey for Levon's shrewdness. 01:02:21.000 --> 01:02:23.000 Wiley Rebecca explains. 01:02:23.000 --> 01:02:28.000 By keeping Jacob home by my side, schooling him in the traditional ways of women, 01:02:28.000 --> 01:02:33.000 I raised my smooth-skinned, sweet-smelling boy as my daughter. 01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:37.000 Shielding him from the harsher ways of men. 01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:43.000 In this way, I set Jacob up to play the woman's role in the family drama. 01:02:43.000 --> 01:02:50.000 Leah and Rachel retort, and how Levon exploited your 01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:54.000 Whoa! 01:02:54.000 --> 01:02:59.000 feelings, thoughts. There may be some gender bending here. 01:02:59.000 --> 01:03:07.000 Maybe, possibly. 01:03:07.000 --> 01:03:10.000 So remember that we've seen that A sub… 01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:12.000 Loved to hunt, he was out 01:03:12.000 --> 01:03:17.000 hunting and in the fields, and Yaakov was… 01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:21.000 Stayed home in the tents with Mom. 01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:23.000 So Ellen Frankel is… 01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:26.000 reading that as… 01:03:26.000 --> 01:03:30.000 He was the daughter. He was the girl. 01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:36.000 He played the role of the girl. 01:03:36.000 --> 01:03:37.000 Hmm… 01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:40.000 And women are exploited, necessarily. I… the way… terrible. 01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:47.000 In the context of patriarchy, women are often exploited, and say, if he's… 01:03:47.000 --> 01:03:50.000 womanish in these ways. 01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:53.000 If he's a sensitive New Age guy, 01:03:53.000 --> 01:03:57.000 That's why he gets exploited by his father-in-law. 01:03:57.000 --> 01:04:01.000 Cheryl, I see your hand. 01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:06.000 I have this weird… comparison come to me. 01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:13.000 Of the IDF versus the very religious who won't go into service. 01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:15.000 Boy. 01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:16.000 the tension, right, between the outward 01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:19.000 I don't… I don't know. Where that came from, but it was… 01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:21.000 outward, maybe, warlike, maybe fighting versus the inward reflective. 01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:26.000 Mm-hmm. 01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:30.000 And remember the Midrash that said that every time Rivka walked past 01:04:30.000 --> 01:04:31.000 A house of study. 01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:32.000 Exactly. 01:04:32.000 --> 01:04:34.000 Y'all Cove wanted to jump out and learn? 01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:36.000 From the books, and Asaph… 01:04:36.000 --> 01:04:39.000 Wanted to jump out? 01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:45.000 At the house of idolatry. Zohar is going to take us somewhere a little different. 01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:46.000 I'm gonna… 01:04:46.000 --> 01:04:48.000 I'm gonna… Rabbi David, take this one. 01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:54.000 Yeah, uh, Rachel Radansky, are you trying to come in here? 01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:58.000 No, you're not. Um, but there's an iPhone coming in. 01:04:58.000 --> 01:05:00.000 Oh, okay. iPhone. 01:05:00.000 --> 01:05:01.000 Um, unlabeled iPhone. 01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:05.000 Not right now, I'd rather go on, but… 01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:06.000 Hi! 01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:07.000 Hi. 01:05:07.000 --> 01:05:10.000 Hi, Rob. Hi, David. Alan, Ruth. I keep on having this problem. 01:05:10.000 --> 01:05:15.000 I'm getting a narrative. of human beings. 01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:22.000 This is, uh, Tara. Where is my connection to the higher, to God, to spiritual. 01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:23.000 Here it comes! 01:05:23.000 --> 01:05:24.000 That is exactly where 01:05:24.000 --> 01:05:26.000 And these narratives. That's why it keeps on coming up for me. 01:05:26.000 --> 01:05:27.000 That is… that's exactly… 01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:35.000 And I'm really uncomfortable. And sort of takes me away from Judaism. 01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:36.000 Hang on! Here it comes! 01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:40.000 Hang tight. That's exactly what our Zohar… 01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:42.000 that we've put next, I think, is going to do. 01:05:42.000 --> 01:05:46.000 Okay, so first we have to distinguish this kiss. 01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:51.000 from other kisses. 01:05:51.000 --> 01:05:59.000 Yaakov kissed Rachel and wept. Why did he weep? That's our question. Because the intensity of his attachment to her overpowered him, and he found relief. 01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:04.000 We've seen that already. While it is written elsewhere, 01:06:04.000 --> 01:06:08.000 when Asaph and Jacob get back together, 01:06:08.000 --> 01:06:09.000 That's next week. 01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:13.000 to bury Yitzhak, 01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:17.000 Asaph kissed Yaakov and they wept. 01:06:17.000 --> 01:06:24.000 So why is this kiss with Rachel different from the kiss with Asaph? 01:06:24.000 --> 01:06:27.000 If you look at any Torah, 01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:28.000 Any Torah. 01:06:28.000 --> 01:06:30.000 You will end me Torah. 01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:34.000 You will see little dots. 01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:36.000 over the word, 01:06:36.000 --> 01:06:38.000 And he kissed him. 01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:41.000 This is Asav kissing. 01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:42.000 Jacob. 01:06:42.000 --> 01:06:47.000 These are not trope markings, they are not vowels, they are not any… 01:06:47.000 --> 01:06:49.000 Not like anything else. 01:06:49.000 --> 01:06:50.000 Right? They're co… 01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:52.000 They're just weird, and they're always there. 01:06:52.000 --> 01:06:56.000 Right, they are called Masoretic dots, and those dots… 01:06:56.000 --> 01:06:58.000 are added for meaning. 01:06:58.000 --> 01:07:03.000 Usually to say that the word doesn't mean what we think it means. 01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:04.000 Uh, it… 01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:05.000 You keep using that word. 01:07:05.000 --> 01:07:10.000 Yeah, in Zohar, because their spirits actually didn't attach. 01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:14.000 These are enemy kisses. 01:07:14.000 --> 01:07:20.000 Because abundant or an enemy's kisses in Proverbs. Kisses of true love connect spirit to spirit. 01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:22.000 But not kisses of not. 01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:26.000 True love, which are merely spiritless 01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:31.000 Wind. The Book of Song… A Song of Songs opens with the saying, 01:07:31.000 --> 01:07:36.000 A let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. 01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:40.000 Yashkini Minishikot Pihu. 01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:44.000 And those kisses attach spirit to spirit. 01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:45.000 So, 01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:52.000 And notice the capital letters, which are intentional, right? Capital letters don't exist in the Hebrew, but they do in English. 01:07:52.000 --> 01:07:55.000 This is Song of Songs. 01:07:55.000 --> 01:07:58.000 Song of Songs, and if you've never read it, you should. 01:07:58.000 --> 01:07:59.000 Oh, it's extraordinary. 01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:02.000 Yup, it's… it allegorizes up 01:08:02.000 --> 01:08:05.000 heteronormative love. 01:08:05.000 --> 01:08:08.000 as between God and the people. 01:08:08.000 --> 01:08:12.000 And so God is doing the kissing. 01:08:12.000 --> 01:08:15.000 I'm gonna say that again. 01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:19.000 God is doing the kissing. 01:08:19.000 --> 01:08:25.000 quick. How many people are grossed out? 01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:28.000 Oh, come on! 01:08:28.000 --> 01:08:33.000 Deborah is going, yes, I am, but I'm not going to raise my hand. Okay, one! 01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:37.000 Okay. Hang on! 01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:40.000 It's beautiful. 01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:41.000 And I… 01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:43.000 Songs, like Song of Songs is beautiful. It's… it's so… Moving and rich in. 01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:45.000 And I… I want to say it can always… 01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:50.000 be more than one thing at a time. Everything in Torah can, so it can be 01:08:50.000 --> 01:08:53.000 beautiful love poetry. 01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:54.000 about human beings, 01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:55.000 Imagery. 01:08:55.000 --> 01:08:58.000 and beautiful love poetry between us, 01:08:58.000 --> 01:08:59.000 And God. 01:08:59.000 --> 01:09:02.000 Okay, so with that… 01:09:02.000 --> 01:09:06.000 Knowing that there's so much at stake here, in this moment, 01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:10.000 Here's where Zohar goes. 01:09:10.000 --> 01:09:13.000 Try to read this with your heart. 01:09:13.000 --> 01:09:16.000 And not with your left brain. 01:09:16.000 --> 01:09:25.000 Because trying to read Zohar with your left brain… 01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:28.000 When this spirit of love… 01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:30.000 enters the palace. 01:09:30.000 --> 01:09:33.000 of love. 01:09:33.000 --> 01:09:37.000 Yearning for the supernal kisses is aroused. 01:09:37.000 --> 01:09:39.000 Of which it is written, Yaakov. 01:09:39.000 --> 01:09:45.000 kissed Rachel. 01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:48.000 Before I say anything else… 01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:50.000 What are people? 01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:55.000 feeling. Don't keep reading, you're cheating. 01:09:55.000 --> 01:10:01.000 When the spirit of love enters the palace of love yearning for the supernal kisses is arouse. 01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:06.000 of which it is written, Yaakov kissed Rachel. Are there any emotions in the room? 01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:08.000 I mean, she's a child. 01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:09.000 Maybe. 01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:11.000 Maybe. 01:10:11.000 --> 01:10:17.000 Maybe. 01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:18.000 Yeah… 01:10:18.000 --> 01:10:20.000 to the Palace of love. And how then. 01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:22.000 Okay, full of, uh, yeah. 01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:25.000 really what it says. 01:10:25.000 --> 01:10:28.000 Great love. 01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:29.000 And this is divine love. 01:10:29.000 --> 01:10:32.000 Great love. 01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:35.000 Whatever that means. 01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:39.000 Thus are kisses of supernal love duly brought forth. 01:10:39.000 --> 01:10:45.000 They are the start of the awakening of all supernal love, attachment, and union. 01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:48.000 What is… 01:10:48.000 --> 01:10:55.000 The thing that brings the kisses of supernal love? 01:10:55.000 --> 01:11:00.000 Yearning. 01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:02.000 Yearning. 01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:08.000 Such is the start of the awakening of all supernal love. 01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:13.000 an attachment, and union, and Cheryl. 01:11:13.000 --> 01:11:28.000 So, it feels to me, reading this. That kisses… Between humans are touching of skin to skin. 01:11:28.000 --> 01:11:29.000 Hmm… 01:11:29.000 --> 01:11:31.000 Kisses supernal kisses. Would be the touching of spirit to spirit. 01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:32.000 But it said, yeah. 01:11:32.000 --> 01:11:36.000 So when we say, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. 01:11:36.000 --> 01:11:39.000 Mouth. 01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:43.000 It is… Mouth is where breath. 01:11:43.000 --> 01:11:50.000 Right. 01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:54.000 Yeah. 01:11:54.000 --> 01:11:55.000 Which is why Deborah went ew. 01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:58.000 And words, and all of that come. So, it's not necessarily… lust, which would be the human place, but this… This, um… Yes. 01:11:58.000 --> 01:11:59.000 Right. 01:11:59.000 --> 01:12:01.000 But… but this is not that. 01:12:01.000 --> 01:12:09.000 Right. Right, right, right. And that is why Song of Songs begins with the words. 01:12:09.000 --> 01:12:16.000 Which is rendered here in Aramaic. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. 01:12:16.000 --> 01:12:17.000 Can you say that in the Aramaic? 01:12:17.000 --> 01:12:28.000 No. The Geenkacherutter de Tuschbachter desiratai. 01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:31.000 Oh, Aramaic. 01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:32.000 Yashkani is the Hebrew, let him kiss me. 01:12:32.000 --> 01:12:36.000 Kami. 01:12:36.000 --> 01:12:39.000 But all of that, like, tushbachatav and echemata, 01:12:39.000 --> 01:12:40.000 Yeah, it's Aramaic! 01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:43.000 That's Aramaic. 01:12:43.000 --> 01:12:48.000 Alright, so who is this he who kisses? 01:12:48.000 --> 01:12:55.000 He is who is hidden within the supernal concealment. 01:12:55.000 --> 01:12:58.000 Thank you. 01:12:58.000 --> 01:13:02.000 God. 01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:10.000 What does it mean to be hidden within the supernal concealment? 01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:17.000 And how can God be hidden in the supernal concealment? Did God create the supernal concealment? So God would be concealed? 01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:21.000 Visit thisIsZohar. 01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:22.000 Okay. 01:13:22.000 --> 01:13:30.000 This is Zohar, so that means in sof. So that means in self. There is no… Individualization there. 01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:31.000 an infinitude of God. 01:13:31.000 --> 01:13:33.000 It's conce- it's unknowing. 01:13:33.000 --> 01:13:36.000 the interbeing… 01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:39.000 Make me one with everything. 01:13:39.000 --> 01:13:41.000 Make me one with everything. 01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:44.000 Can then the most recondite… 01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:46.000 Recondite? 01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:49.000 Meaning, least known, 01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:53.000 Be the fount of kisses? 01:13:53.000 --> 01:13:58.000 kiss that which is below? How can you be kissed by something and you don't know? 01:13:58.000 --> 01:14:02.000 Right. As above, so below, right? Below is… 01:14:02.000 --> 01:14:03.000 us here. 01:14:03.000 --> 01:14:05.000 where we are, right? It's our world. 01:14:05.000 --> 01:14:07.000 It isn't… it isn't necessarily orthogonal, up, down, right. 01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:11.000 up and down. Right. 01:14:11.000 --> 01:14:12.000 Come and see! 01:14:12.000 --> 01:14:16.000 Takaze, says Zohar. Lean in, everybody. We're gonna tell you what's up. 01:14:16.000 --> 01:14:21.000 The most hidden, the least known, the most recondite is beyond cognition. 01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:25.000 Thank goodness. But reveals of himself. 01:14:25.000 --> 01:14:32.000 A tenuous and veiled brightness, shining only along a narrow path which extends from 01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:36.000 him. 01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:41.000 And this is the brightness that irradiates, that illuminates everything. 01:14:41.000 --> 01:14:47.000 What does this start to sound like suddenly? 01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:48.000 Tantra? Yes, what else? 01:14:48.000 --> 01:14:51.000 Tantra. 01:14:51.000 --> 01:14:53.000 Think Torah. 01:14:53.000 --> 01:15:01.000 Think Startup Torah. As Marcie… Marcy is yelling at the screen and doing this. 01:15:01.000 --> 01:15:04.000 Uh-huh. 01:15:04.000 --> 01:15:05.000 That's a great idea. 01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:06.000 Could it be the burning bush. That, uh, illuminates, but doesn't consume. 01:15:06.000 --> 01:15:07.000 rate solid? 01:15:07.000 --> 01:15:10.000 I love it. 01:15:10.000 --> 01:15:11.000 Yeah, this is creation. 01:15:11.000 --> 01:15:15.000 Uh-huh. His creation. 01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:16.000 This is creation. 01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:22.000 All of creation is just this tenuous and veiled brightness. 01:15:22.000 --> 01:15:25.000 That illuminates everything. 01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:31.000 I want to note Meredith's question in the chat box. 01:15:31.000 --> 01:15:37.000 But how do we arrive at the Palace of Love? Is it a destination? 01:15:37.000 --> 01:15:39.000 Oh boy, our mystics have a lot of thoughts about that. 01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:43.000 Hold, hold on, let's, let's move through this, and then let's see. 01:15:43.000 --> 01:15:46.000 If we can do this. 01:15:46.000 --> 01:15:50.000 So this is the starting point of all esoteric mysteries. 01:15:50.000 --> 01:15:55.000 itself, no longer Himself, being unknowable. 01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:59.000 It is sometimes indiscoverable. 01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:01.000 sometimes discoverable. 01:16:01.000 --> 01:16:03.000 Thank you, Zohar. 01:16:03.000 --> 01:16:07.000 But even were it, wholly indiscoverable. 01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:12.000 Even if we had no answer to Meredith's question. 01:16:12.000 --> 01:16:16.000 The impulse to the ascending of kisses 01:16:16.000 --> 01:16:18.000 still depends on it. 01:16:18.000 --> 01:16:22.000 It is precisely the seemingly unknowable. 01:16:22.000 --> 01:16:25.000 That is to… 01:16:25.000 --> 01:16:30.000 spark our yearning, and it is the yearning that begins. 01:16:30.000 --> 01:16:33.000 Our yearning reaches out. 01:16:33.000 --> 01:16:35.000 and magnetizes. 01:16:35.000 --> 01:16:37.000 In some way. 01:16:37.000 --> 01:16:43.000 Remember, lightning doesn't start from the cloud. It actually starts from the ground. 01:16:43.000 --> 01:16:47.000 If you put it in slow motion, and that brings 01:16:47.000 --> 01:16:51.000 a filament, and then BOINK! 01:16:51.000 --> 01:16:53.000 And because God is veiled the Song of Song… 01:16:53.000 --> 01:16:54.000 That's our yearning. 01:16:54.000 --> 01:16:58.000 Yep, yep, yep. The Song of Song also begins… 01:16:58.000 --> 01:17:10.000 veiled. Let him kiss me, to him who was veiled. And if so, as much depends on these kisses, lots depends on these kisses, what does Yaakov doing here? 01:17:10.000 --> 01:17:13.000 Surely this led him kiss me. 01:17:13.000 --> 01:17:15.000 He who is hidden above. 01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:18.000 Wait a second. 01:17:18.000 --> 01:17:21.000 Hold on. 01:17:21.000 --> 01:17:27.000 Who's kissing whom? 01:17:27.000 --> 01:17:33.000 You are all, like, leaning forward, waiting for this. So call it out, everybody! Who's 01:17:33.000 --> 01:17:36.000 kissing whom? 01:17:36.000 --> 01:17:41.000 What are the possibilities? 01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:44.000 the divine is kissing Jacob, and… 01:17:44.000 --> 01:17:45.000 The divine is kissing Jacob, 01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:46.000 That's one. 01:17:46.000 --> 01:17:48.000 And maybe also Rachel, but… 01:17:48.000 --> 01:17:51.000 The vine is kissing Rachel through Jacob, 01:17:51.000 --> 01:17:52.000 You're Jay, go. 01:17:52.000 --> 01:17:56.000 Keep going. 01:17:56.000 --> 01:17:58.000 thought… oh. 01:17:58.000 --> 01:18:01.000 Anybody, it could be you, Iris. You've got all the kisses. 01:18:01.000 --> 01:18:10.000 Yeah. Well, that is… that spark, you know, in a way of moving forward again on the mission, and… 01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:13.000 Feeling a connection with that, and… 01:18:13.000 --> 01:18:16.000 Feeling it in your heart and living it. 01:18:16.000 --> 01:18:18.000 feeling it, living it. Uh-huh. 01:18:18.000 --> 01:18:24.000 Uh-huh. There's a way to read this in which Jacob has now become gay. 01:18:24.000 --> 01:18:25.000 Okay. 01:18:25.000 --> 01:18:30.000 there's a way to read this in which Rachel has just become a boy. 01:18:30.000 --> 01:18:37.000 There's a whole bunch of possible gender bending here. 01:18:37.000 --> 01:18:41.000 Let him kiss me, he who is hidden. The hiddenness itself. 01:18:41.000 --> 01:18:44.000 kisses. 01:18:44.000 --> 01:18:48.000 The great mystery of spirit. 01:18:48.000 --> 01:18:52.000 needs to be a little mysterious, otherwise it's very left-brainable. 01:18:52.000 --> 01:18:54.000 And if we can left-brain it, 01:18:54.000 --> 01:18:59.000 Then it ain't Zohar. 01:18:59.000 --> 01:19:02.000 And we can put it in a box. 01:19:02.000 --> 01:19:05.000 and shrink it down to size. 01:19:05.000 --> 01:19:13.000 There's an element of divinity that by its nature must be unknowable by the left brain. 01:19:13.000 --> 01:19:16.000 And I think we all intuit that. 01:19:16.000 --> 01:19:19.000 just saying it with left-brain words. 01:19:19.000 --> 01:19:20.000 Well, which are all that we have. 01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:21.000 forces… 01:19:21.000 --> 01:19:25.000 Right. And so the brain is going… 01:19:25.000 --> 01:19:28.000 eh, what's going on here? 01:19:28.000 --> 01:19:32.000 And now the question is asked directly. 01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:37.000 How can this kiss come if we don't understand? 01:19:37.000 --> 01:19:41.000 How do we do it? asks Meredith. 01:19:41.000 --> 01:19:45.000 Over Ma. How? 01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:47.000 Let's see if this answer works. 01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:50.000 By the flow of that upper light. 01:19:50.000 --> 01:19:53.000 To which all colors connect. 01:19:53.000 --> 01:19:55.000 And join in it. 01:19:55.000 --> 01:19:57.000 Such is Yaakov. 01:19:57.000 --> 01:20:01.000 As we said, that Yaakov's cleaving 01:20:01.000 --> 01:20:05.000 cleaving, like, like, suction cupping his soul to something, yeah? 01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:07.000 Unity. 01:20:07.000 --> 01:20:09.000 did cleave to the king… 01:20:09.000 --> 01:20:12.000 creating all. 01:20:12.000 --> 01:20:18.000 why is Zohar using king here? Because there's gonna need to be a… 01:20:18.000 --> 01:20:23.000 Queen. Thus it is written, Song of Songs, with the kisses of his mouth. 01:20:23.000 --> 01:20:33.000 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Kisses are greater than wine. That's where it comes from. 01:20:33.000 --> 01:20:37.000 And this is for the sun. 01:20:37.000 --> 01:20:41.000 The male god illuminating the… 01:20:41.000 --> 01:20:43.000 female God. 01:20:43.000 --> 01:20:47.000 Remember, the function of Zohar in its day 01:20:47.000 --> 01:20:50.000 was to rescue Judaism. 01:20:50.000 --> 01:20:54.000 from the patriarchy in some respects. 01:20:54.000 --> 01:20:59.000 By the radiance of those supernal lights as kisses. 01:20:59.000 --> 01:21:05.000 Which he gathers and passes to the moon by uniting in, not within, 01:21:05.000 --> 01:21:09.000 Her. Who is her? 01:21:09.000 --> 01:21:13.000 Shekinah. Well… 01:21:13.000 --> 01:21:16.000 flow. The kisses. 01:21:16.000 --> 01:21:18.000 Oh, water. 01:21:18.000 --> 01:21:21.000 And where, from whence comes that light? 01:21:21.000 --> 01:21:23.000 from the… 01:21:23.000 --> 01:21:29.000 wine. Which Sohar means to be talking about as a spiritual intoxicant. 01:21:29.000 --> 01:21:35.000 Again, something that flows, which is the joy of all joys. 01:21:35.000 --> 01:21:39.000 This is what Elohim Chaim, the living God, means. 01:21:39.000 --> 01:21:42.000 A living God is not somewhere upstairs. 01:21:42.000 --> 01:21:45.000 A living God is one that enlivens that. 01:21:45.000 --> 01:21:49.000 flows, that brings joy. 01:21:49.000 --> 01:21:53.000 by which this wine gives life and joy 01:21:53.000 --> 01:22:00.000 to all things. 01:22:00.000 --> 01:22:04.000 This is my note. This is Torah's first kiss. 01:22:04.000 --> 01:22:08.000 Other than between a parent and child. 01:22:08.000 --> 01:22:11.000 and everything else, as we've just talked about. 01:22:11.000 --> 01:22:14.000 comes from this. 01:22:14.000 --> 01:22:20.000 So, in a sense, it's another creation story. 01:22:20.000 --> 01:22:23.000 But it's also one that centers 01:22:23.000 --> 01:22:29.000 yearning, and we're out of time, so we're going to stay with this. There is a bonus text here. 01:22:29.000 --> 01:22:34.000 For the rationalists among us, from Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed. 01:22:34.000 --> 01:22:38.000 about the philosophers. And it talks about 01:22:38.000 --> 01:22:45.000 How, as we age and our passions diminish, we actually become more able 01:22:45.000 --> 01:22:50.000 to experience the spiritual flow, because our bodies aren't getting in the way. 01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:53.000 So much. 01:22:53.000 --> 01:23:02.000 So I commend this to you. But let's stay with Zohar for a minute. 01:23:02.000 --> 01:23:06.000 yearning is where this whole thing started. 01:23:06.000 --> 01:23:09.000 Often we feel… 01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:13.000 in spiritual life, and Rabbi Rachel, you've probably experienced this with 01:23:13.000 --> 01:23:18.000 your flock also. 01:23:18.000 --> 01:23:24.000 I'm yearning for something, and I'm not getting it, and therefore I'm doing it wrong. 01:23:24.000 --> 01:23:26.000 I… 01:23:26.000 --> 01:23:32.000 need healing, I have believed, but it isn't working out. 01:23:32.000 --> 01:23:40.000 And therefore, I'm doing it wrong, or God sucks, or there is no God. 01:23:40.000 --> 01:23:45.000 I'm sure we've all experienced some version of that. 01:23:45.000 --> 01:23:49.000 What Zohar is… what I understand Zohar to be saying, 01:23:49.000 --> 01:23:51.000 is that the yearning 01:23:51.000 --> 01:23:56.000 galvanizes a search. 01:23:56.000 --> 01:24:00.000 And if we can purpose our yearning 01:24:00.000 --> 01:24:02.000 As if. 01:24:02.000 --> 01:24:05.000 It is bringing through… 01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:09.000 or approximating, approximating, bringing closer to 01:24:09.000 --> 01:24:13.000 the divine kisses. 01:24:13.000 --> 01:24:19.000 Then our yearning is never for naught, it's never in vain. 01:24:19.000 --> 01:24:21.000 that the search… 01:24:21.000 --> 01:24:25.000 to reveal the concealed. 01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:31.000 is the whole point of spiritual life. And this understanding, we can understand ourselves as the moon. 01:24:31.000 --> 01:24:35.000 All of us, the moon, 01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:42.000 That is lit when we're lit. 01:24:42.000 --> 01:24:45.000 And sometimes it's dark. 01:24:45.000 --> 01:24:47.000 The moon is not always visible. 01:24:47.000 --> 01:24:52.000 To us. God's presence is not always palpable. 01:24:52.000 --> 01:24:54.000 To us. 01:24:54.000 --> 01:24:59.000 And that this is hard-baked into the nature of reality. It isn't a… 01:24:59.000 --> 01:25:00.000 punishment. It isn't a… 01:25:00.000 --> 01:25:02.000 Not because we're doing it wrong. 01:25:02.000 --> 01:25:05.000 It isn't God being cruel. 01:25:05.000 --> 01:25:10.000 It isn't evidence that God doesn't exist. It's just the nature of living in a… 01:25:10.000 --> 01:25:15.000 dualistic binary world of human limitations. 01:25:15.000 --> 01:25:20.000 But sometimes we'll get it, and sometimes we won't. 01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:23.000 So what do we do? Spiritual practice. 01:25:23.000 --> 01:25:25.000 Spiritual practice. 01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:28.000 is… 01:25:28.000 --> 01:25:33.000 the work of seeking grace. 01:25:33.000 --> 01:25:37.000 As it has been said, grace is an accident, and… 01:25:37.000 --> 01:25:42.000 The purpose of spiritual life is to become accident-prone. 01:25:42.000 --> 01:25:49.000 I want to lift up in the chat, Deanna mentions the moon also does not generate its own light. Moonlight is a reflection of the sun. 01:25:49.000 --> 01:25:50.000 Exactly. 01:25:50.000 --> 01:25:52.000 And in this metaphor, 01:25:52.000 --> 01:25:57.000 The Kadosh Baruch Hu the Ein Sof god, 01:25:57.000 --> 01:26:06.000 That transcendent aspect of God is the Son that shines, that streams into creation and into us. 01:26:06.000 --> 01:26:09.000 And… sometimes we merit… 01:26:09.000 --> 01:26:11.000 to reflect that light. 01:26:11.000 --> 01:26:12.000 The source of light. The source of light. 01:26:12.000 --> 01:26:15.000 But we don't make our own light. 01:26:15.000 --> 01:26:16.000 It's like, we don't make our own souls. 01:26:16.000 --> 01:26:18.000 That's right. 01:26:18.000 --> 01:26:19.000 Right. 01:26:19.000 --> 01:26:23.000 They come to us from beyond. 01:26:23.000 --> 01:26:28.000 And so to the recipient of kisses. 01:26:28.000 --> 01:26:31.000 So what if we… 01:26:31.000 --> 01:26:35.000 conducted our spiritual lives. 01:26:35.000 --> 01:26:40.000 in search of those divine kisses, and maybe ever so often receiving them. 01:26:40.000 --> 01:26:44.000 And channeling them. 01:26:44.000 --> 01:26:49.000 Suddenly, this story is not just about 01:26:49.000 --> 01:26:52.000 Rachel and Jacob. 01:26:52.000 --> 01:26:56.000 But about a flow. 01:26:56.000 --> 01:27:03.000 And it is flow that makes everything else in the story possible. The fact of the story possible. 01:27:03.000 --> 01:27:09.000 in any way you want to understand those words. 01:27:09.000 --> 01:27:12.000 So too are spiritual lives. 01:27:12.000 --> 01:27:15.000 So I want to thank especially Ellen Ruth, 01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:18.000 for chiming in, where's God in this? 01:27:18.000 --> 01:27:19.000 Mm-hmm. 01:27:19.000 --> 01:27:24.000 This is getting too brainy for me. 01:27:24.000 --> 01:27:27.000 And suddenly, everything gets refracted. 01:27:27.000 --> 01:27:29.000 Whether it's about gender, 01:27:29.000 --> 01:27:32.000 power, or all the rest. Now, 01:27:32.000 --> 01:27:38.000 It isn't to take away from Deborah, who had a eww moment, and it isn't… 01:27:38.000 --> 01:27:42.000 to take away from Meredith, who said, 01:27:42.000 --> 01:27:45.000 Wah! 01:27:45.000 --> 01:27:48.000 how. It's not to take away from any of that. 01:27:48.000 --> 01:27:50.000 The story is always all of these. 01:27:50.000 --> 01:27:52.000 all of this. All of it. 01:27:52.000 --> 01:27:54.000 Right. 01:27:54.000 --> 01:27:57.000 all of it. And we get to move. 01:27:57.000 --> 01:28:00.000 pivot. 01:28:00.000 --> 01:28:07.000 Based on what we, as a generation, we as a community, we as each of us individually, 01:28:07.000 --> 01:28:12.000 may need the light to show us. 01:28:12.000 --> 01:28:17.000 So, on this Shabbat… 01:28:17.000 --> 01:28:20.000 Let us bless each other with flow. 01:28:20.000 --> 01:28:24.000 We started out, you know, yearning for healing. 01:28:24.000 --> 01:28:30.000 May that healing come through. 01:28:30.000 --> 01:28:32.000 May our yearning… 01:28:32.000 --> 01:28:35.000 galvanize us to rise. 01:28:35.000 --> 01:28:39.000 And search, and receive… 01:28:39.000 --> 01:28:42.000 May the one who hears… 01:28:42.000 --> 01:28:44.000 And the one who sources. 01:28:44.000 --> 01:28:48.000 Turn to us who yearn. 01:28:48.000 --> 01:28:53.000 kiss us with the kisses of the mouth. 01:28:53.000 --> 01:28:59.000 And in that merit, may we move into a Shabbat of sweetness. 01:28:59.000 --> 01:29:04.000 Because it turns out okay for Rachel and Yaakov in the end. 01:29:04.000 --> 01:29:06.000 It does. It does. 01:29:06.000 --> 01:29:09.000 Tune in next week. 01:29:09.000 --> 01:29:13.000 Where the story of Jacob will lead into the story of Joseph. 01:29:13.000 --> 01:29:15.000 Yisrael. 01:29:15.000 --> 01:29:18.000 Yisrael, and we're gonna meet. 01:29:18.000 --> 01:29:20.000 Eventually, Joseph… 01:29:20.000 --> 01:29:24.000 And he's gonna wear a Technicolor Dreamcoat. 01:29:24.000 --> 01:29:28.000 And Elvis will sing the story of Pharaoh. 01:29:28.000 --> 01:29:35.000 All wonderful things will come, and suddenly it will be Chanukah. We're gonna stay online for a bit, because… 01:29:35.000 --> 01:29:41.000 This stuff can be pretty deep, and I see that there are some things on the faces that maybe want to be shared. 01:29:41.000 --> 01:29:44.000 So I'll stop the recording. Shabbat Shalom. 01:29:44.000 --> 01:29:45.000 And Shabbos, everyone. 01:29:45.000 --> 01:29:53.000 And we'll see you again. Thanks for being with us.