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R. Rachel: Good evening, happy Tuesday, everybody. It is the 4th of August, 2026.

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R. Rachel: It's the 21st day of of. The moon is waning.

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R. Rachel: And we are here for Session 2 of Worth a Thousand Words.

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R. Rachel: Today, we'll be returning briefly to Unatana Tokhev.

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R. Rachel: Which was last week's subject.

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R. Rachel: And then we're gonna take a deep dive into the shofar service. So here is our roadmap for today.

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R. Rachel: We'll start with a little recap of where last week took us.

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R. Rachel: This will be a review for some folks, and new for others.

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R. Rachel: We will… Talk about what it means for an image to work in us, to do something in us.

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R. Rachel: and white.

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R. Rachel: This is something that we're aspiring to at this time of year.

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R. Rachel: And, then we'll move into the end of Uttana Tokaf, And talk shofar.

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R. Rachel: Let's… Let's move forward.

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

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R. David (he/him(): For all of us who are dedicating our learning to healing.

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R. David (he/him(): We lift up the names in our hearts for healing and wholeness.

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R. David (he/him(): For our souls, that we are waking up after perhaps a little bit of slumber.

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R. David (he/him(): It's part of what this is all about.

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R. David (he/him(): And dedicating our learning to the flow of holiness in the world.

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R. David (he/him(): Blessed are you, Adonai, our God, sovereign of all time and space, who makes us holy in connecting command.

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R. David (he/him(): Commanding us to busy ourselves in words of image.

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R. Rachel: Amen.

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R. David (he/him(): So these were some of the images.

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R. David (he/him(): of… Part 1 of Unatana Tokaf.

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R. David (he/him(): We saw last time there were so many images of ascent.

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R. David (he/him(): To a throne. A scent.

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R. David (he/him(): Into the ethereal realms.

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R. David (he/him(): We saw angels at attention. We met the shepherd.

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R. David (he/him(): who counts us and sees us under the staff, one by one. We… Saw the book.

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R. David (he/him(): Of our acts that reads from itself.

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R. David (he/him(): we… Saw the movement.

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R. David (he/him(): From judgment to mercy.

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R. David (he/him(): The flow of… Spirit into love and kindness.

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R. David (he/him(): And we also saw some images, not of awe, but of fear for some people, that Unatana Tokif can evoke.

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R. David (he/him(): some of that dread and woe that a number of us were raised with. We didn't know that Unatukaf

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R. David (he/him(): actually evoked grace.

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

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R. David (he/him(): Because we're so used to the tune that goes like this.

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R. David (he/him(): But the images are not necessarily that.

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R. David (he/him(): And so we invited you to spend some time with these images.

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R. David (he/him(): And see if you could feel yourself into not all of them, maybe, because there's a lot happening.

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R. David (he/him(): But maybe just some.

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R. David (he/him(): So in that spirit, I'm going to mute myself and see.

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R. David (he/him(): What was it like experiencing images generally?

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R. David (he/him(): And… Particularly these images of Unatana Tokaf, let's just harvest whatever there is to harvest.

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R. Rachel: So what was this like for you guys this week?

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R. Rachel: Feel free to raise a hand or just pipe up, we're a small enough group.

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Jill and Meg: Well, I just like looking at them. I went back at the… at the slide deck and…

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Jill and Meg: I just enjoyed looking at them. I really loved the purple and blue and white one. It's, like, so many different things in one, and I found it…

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Jill and Meg: I don't know, just sort of full of possibility.

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R. Rachel: What else?

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R. Rachel: What did people feel while looking at these images?

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R. Rachel: And even if you didn't manage to do it over the course of the week, there are some of them in front of us on the screen now.

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Elma Sanders: I also, not looking at the images, but the images that come through the… the text, and two things, the still small voice, I… I… I love that. I just, somehow it, it just,

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Elma Sanders: With all… everything going on around, and the noise of living, and then…

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Elma Sanders: There's a still small voice that just…

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Elma Sanders: penetrates. Just the thought of it just penetrates right deep into me. And the other image was the shepherd

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Elma Sanders: And the sheep.

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Elma Sanders: Which I didn't like.

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Elma Sanders: Because I… I felt like… Sheep are…

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Elma Sanders: They don't have much responsibility to do anything in the world, and take care of themselves and take care of the world, and we have so much responsibility, that it just… she…

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Elma Sanders: Doesn't resonate for me.

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Jill and Meg: Nope.

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R. Rachel: Thank you for being real about that. Did anyone else have responses to the sheep imagery in particular, the sheep and shepherd?

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R. Rachel: What does that feel like for… Folks in the room.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: Yeah, I'm not wild about the image dehumanizing.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: Awesome.

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R. Rachel: Hmm.

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R. Rachel: Okay.

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R. Rachel: Like, that literally the metaphor that turns us into Animals is, is…

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R. Rachel: Literally dehumanizing, in a certain way.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: What?

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: I love the feeling of, gentle group cohesiveness.

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R. Rachel: Mmm.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: that I feel of… I didn't look so much at the image, I was actually listening to the Roger Kamenetz book, and, just…

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: I said, oh yeah, I know that, grateful, grateful, grateful, just grateful, grateful.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Even looking at these images now, it's like, what a… Smorgasbord of gratefulness.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: Yeah.

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R. Rachel: Alright, so I'm seeing hands are suddenly popping. Susan, Meredith Sherrill.

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Susan Phillips: In terms of the sheep imagery, I thought of guidance and protection.

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R. Rachel: Mmm.

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R. Rachel: That's another way to feel into that image.

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R. Rachel: And it's not that one of these is correct and the other one isn't. They're both real ways that we feel.

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R. Rachel: In relationship to this image.

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R. Rachel: I want to say Meredith and then Cheryl.

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: I love sheep.

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: I just love them.

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: I love them as animals, I… I don't know. So I don't have any negative feeling about the sheep, because they're just… they're so gentle and sweet, and… I don't know. So that was… but I was really drawn to the staircase.

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: That, to me, was like, there you go. It's like, okay, you're going up, you're gonna be judged, you know, it sort of had this doom and gloom kind of, are you gonna pass muster or not? So that's…

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R. Rachel: So that gets back to the question of whether

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R. Rachel: an ascent before God asterisk, whatever that word means to us.

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R. Rachel: Is something that makes us feel doom and gloom.

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R. Rachel: Or something that makes us feel… Some other way entirely.

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R. Rachel: Alright, so many hands. Iris and then Elizabeth.

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Iris: So I love…

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R. Rachel: I'm sorry, Sherrill, I lost you. Sherrill.

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Iris: Okay, sure.

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Sherrill Cropper: I go after Iris, but usually she, like.

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Sherrill Cropper: has the same thoughts as me, so I don't know.

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Iris: Well, why don't you speak for both of us, then.

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Iris: No, you go ahead. I realize you were before me.

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Sherrill Cropper: It's fine.

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Sherrill Cropper: So…

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Sherrill Cropper: It'll come as no surprise to some of you that the book that reads itself really spoke to me.

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Sherrill Cropper: And I, I wrote a short little poem that kind of describes what it means to me.

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Sherrill Cropper: The book reads itself just makes sense to me.

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Sherrill Cropper: Don't they all?

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Sherrill Cropper: The letters sit upon, not in, the page, and so are free to roam.

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Sherrill Cropper: And welcomed into open hearts.

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Sherrill Cropper: Each letter is manifested breath.

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Sherrill Cropper: A vibration sounds its name simultaneously each word, and so creation is.

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Sherrill Cropper: Connection is.

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Sherrill Cropper: Each letter is… Black on White Fire is… Hora is.

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Sherrill Cropper: The divine is.

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Iris: Volunte.

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R. Rachel: sharing that.

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R. Rachel: You're getting hearts from some of us on the screen.

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R. Rachel: Iris, and then Elizabeth, and then Lilith.

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Iris: Thank you, Cheryl. I'm really glad that you… really glad that you spoke before me. That was very beautiful. Thank you.

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Iris: Yeah, there's several of these that I felt an affinity for, and…

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Iris: I don't want to talk for too long, so I'll just pick…

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Iris: Okay, so, like, the stairway, to me, is…

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Iris: It reminds me of the prayer, and forgive me if I don't pronounce this right, Pirke Avot? No, not it. Pikuli. Pirke Avot is something else, I know. Pichu Li.

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R. Rachel: Sorry.

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Iris: Yeah.

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Iris: I'm still… I'm still thinking here, but…

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Iris: You know, where the gates… we ask for the gates to be open, and that all righteous people can enter and

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Iris: So, and also, the light, it feels like more than…

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Iris: dying, it's about being present with the divine in our lives, so that There's that holiness feeling,

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Iris: With the light and the ascent.

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Iris: So… That's… I mean, I have other ones, but I just… I'll share that one. Thank you.

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R. Rachel: Elizabeth and the Lilith.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: I spent a lot of time also thinking about the book that reads itself.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: Because I like to think about…

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Elizabeth Yalkut: literature changing people so that when you come back to the same piece of literature, it's different because you're different, and thinking about that kind of Mobius strip and iterative change was

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Elizabeth Yalkut: just an image that really caught me. And I also spent a lot of time trying to think about, like.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: how could you visually represent a book reading itself? Because I was not super satisfied with the images that I

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Elizabeth Yalkut: had of, you know, open books, but they're passive and just sort of lying there, and how the book that reads itself is an active participant, and how would you show that visually? And I have not come up with good solutions.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, I don't know what the… I don't have an answer to that either, but…

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Elizabeth Yalkut: But it's really fascinating.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Go to bed.

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R. Rachel: What about you, Lilith?

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R. Rachel: Hang on, I think you're muted still?

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Lilith Blackmoon: Yeah, sorry, I, still don't know how to use an iPad.

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Lilith Blackmoon: I'm just gonna say it, but the image of the staircase, like…

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Lilith Blackmoon: I've seen a lot of that in Christianity work.

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Lilith Blackmoon: And for me, like, when I think of ascending towards God, I think of…

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Lilith Blackmoon: Climbing a mountain and, like, reaching the summit.

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Lilith Blackmoon: On the mountain, instead of, like, a staircase, because to me, Judaism feels like…

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Lilith Blackmoon: We're really holding our roots down to the earth.

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R. Rachel: I hear that.

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R. David (he/him(): These are fabulous comments.

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R. Rachel: Yeah, this is great.

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R. David (he/him(): This is a… this is a great start.

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R. David (he/him(): Did anyone… Who did the, quote, homework or home feel.

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R. David (he/him(): Have difficulty with it? Just… Existentially, practically.

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Elizabeth Yalkut: I did wonder if someone with aphantasia would struggle.

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R. David (he/him(): Maybe.

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R. David (he/him(): Maybe.

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R. David (he/him(): Right? People who can't visualize because they're not wired that way.

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R. David (he/him(): Right? So… but the… it's like… it's like being colorblind.

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R. David (he/him(): And looking at these images in black and white. Maybe so.

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R. David (he/him(): For sure. And yet, a lot of spiritual traditions, including our own, including Judaism, Invest in imagery.

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R. David (he/him(): Using words to depict them, because we didn't have Pictures way back when.

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R. David (he/him(): Did others have any difficulty at all entering into the image, not thinking about the image.

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R. David (he/him(): But feeling into the image.

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Donna: Rob, I, I, I did,

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R. David (he/him(): Yup.

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Donna: I… it was a lot of work.

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Donna: Because my mind is constantly going.

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Donna: And I have a lot of responsibilities in my life, so for me to sit for 5 or 10 minutes and try to

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Donna: visualize some of these images. For me, it was a lot of work. It's not easy. Even if you don't have the pictures in front of you, I was trying not to use the pictures, I was just trying to visualize on my own.

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R. David (he/him(): Sure.

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Donna: So yeah.

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Donna: It was a lot… for me, it was a lot of work.

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R. David (he/him(): I hear ya. So, it's perfectly… looking at the images is not cheating.

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Donna: Okay.

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R. David (he/him(): It's absolutely not cheating. You know, just because our ancestors didn't have art for this doesn't mean we can't benefit from trauma.

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R. David (he/him(): Buying it.

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Donna: No, but…

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R. David (he/him(): different kinds of… Please.

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Donna: No, I was just.

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R. David (he/him(): Johnny, go ahead.

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Donna: to… I know, I was just trying to exercise my mind.

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Donna: You know…

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

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Donna: Yeah, stretch it a little bit, so that's why…

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Donna: I thought about the image, but then tried to come up with my own image.

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Donna: For me. So…

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R. David (he/him(): Great.

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Donna: It's a lot of work. Which is great.

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R. David (he/him(): Yep, yep. Well, so part of this is going to be limbering up and trying it, the hope being that it will become easier

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R. David (he/him(): So that some of this will stick and inform your high holiday experience, because you're going to see, maybe not these particular images, depending on where you are.

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R. David (he/him(): But if you're at our synagogues, you will see some of these images, so hopefully it'll cue you up. But regardless, these general ideas are popping in the core liturgy, so however you experience them, this stuff will come back.

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R. David (he/him(): For those of us, For whom this is not intuitive.

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R. David (he/him(): Some thoughts again from Roger.

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R. David (he/him(): And I strongly recommend his book. I'm just finding so many wonderful things.

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R. Rachel: I ordered my own copy, for the record.

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R. David (he/him(): And mine is becoming dog-eared very quickly. He talks about savoring images.

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R. David (he/him(): Just, just linger with the word savoring. I mean, obviously, he's using a taste metaphor, but luxuriating.

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R. David (he/him(): It's, it's… it's a gift we give ourselves, and I hear Donna and some others, you know, that

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R. David (he/him(): Maybe it doesn't come intuitively. That's okay. You know things that are beautiful.

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R. David (he/him(): And we all know what it is to luxuriate in looking at something beautiful.

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R. David (he/him(): we can exercise that muscle. What it's not is intellectualizing it, because it separates us between, you know, between ourselves, and we are intellectualizing an image.

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R. David (he/him(): That's the exact opposite of what Roger is inviting us to do, and what tradition is inviting us to do. To instead say, here's how I'm experiencing the ascent, and I actually feel myself going up, and that's wonderful, scary.

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R. David (he/him(): doom and gloom, inspiring, the book that reads from itself. I'm feeling very Harry Potter, I'm scared to death of what the book is gonna say, whatever it might be, it doesn't matter. It's the fact of having the emotion, or trying to dream yourself into having the emotion.

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R. David (he/him(): So, savor, don't intellectualize. And that implies

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R. David (he/him(): I see Deliah's hands, a connection between image and imagination. One of the things that Roger talks about in his book is the idea that, especially in Western life in the 21st century, we often think that imagination is for kids, and imagination is much less real

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R. David (he/him(): The nuts and bolts facts that we can see with, you know, our own eyes.

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R. David (he/him(): The thing is, neurobiologists are learning that our eyes

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R. David (he/him(): The visual cortex of our minds that receive the images from the eye are not value neutral.

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R. David (he/him(): When we see things, the visual cortex lights up with associations of the things we think about, whether we're aware that we're thinking about them or not, and so there's no such thing, biologically, as seeing something objectively.

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R. David (he/him(): It's an incredible thing.

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R. David (he/him(): And it turns Western thought on its head.

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R. David (he/him(): But the spiritualists have known it for millennia.

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R. David (he/him(): And now the neurobiologists are catching up. What this means, there's no such thing as neutral observation, that we inherently participate in crafting image, in crafting our response to image, whether we know it or not.

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R. David (he/him(): We might as well say so.

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R. David (he/him(): And what that means is that we can figureate. Not figure 8, but figure 8, it's an old word, figure 8 ourselves into the image without fearing that we're just being childish.

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R. David (he/him(): Because actually.

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R. David (he/him(): the whole function of the image is to shape us. A few of you talked about that. That we are changed, and that's the whole point. And there's no avoiding doing that, if we're really honest about it, because there's no such thing as an objective representation.

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R. David (he/him(): If this idea Sounds familiar to some of you?

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R. David (he/him(): It appears in Tibetan Buddhism, it appears in 18th century Jewish revivalism, it appears in Hinduism, it appears in Christian thought.

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R. David (he/him(): We just haven't said so.

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R. David (he/him(): Part of this course is saying so, and then harnessing that truth

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R. David (he/him(): to dive deeper into the liturgy. So…

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R. David (he/him(): Let yourself dream. Let yourself imagine.

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R. David (he/him(): Be kids, be playful with these images. Some of them are playful, some of them are very serious, but we can approach even the playful

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R. David (he/him(): the serious with playful. Delia, and then we're gonna go on to new images.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Well, there's so many things that I want to say, I'll try to make it a little short. I've been using the word savor recently, and I loved hearing Roger say it. My motto now is, trust what is, and savor the goodness.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: But, you know, we talk about people of the book, and then it was one of the Eilberg, I think, rabbis said, yeah, people of the book, but the book is all about the body.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: So you're now just, like, expanding what we think of as the linear words into feelings, and it's… and I was going to say, till you wait till you get to the shofar to say this, but… because that's a whole other body

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: thing, but it's just so exciting to, to savor with all of you. Thank you.

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R. David (he/him(): Yep, so let's limber up trying to do that, so that when we reach the high holidays, we can draw on those

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R. David (he/him(): Impulses.

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R. David (he/him(): Let's go back to Unatan Attokv and finish up.

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R. David (he/him(): Remember the point of all of the high holidays, and while we're not going to spend a huge amount of time talking about it.

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R. David (he/him(): The journey is to do tshuva.

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R. David (he/him(): Return to God, return to our best selves, fix what we've broken where we can.

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R. David (he/him(): make the amends where we can. So here comes Unatana Tokaf.

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R. David (he/him(): Why should we go through who by fire?

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R. David (he/him(): Who buy this? Who buy that? Who buys something else?

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R. David (he/him(): Because Pirkeovo teaches us the shuv, do tshuva, repent one day before your death.

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R. David (he/him(): We just don't know when that is.

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R. David (he/him(): Most of us do not like contemplating our death.

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R. David (he/him(): Talk about emotions and images. Some of these images are like, whoa, I don't wanna…

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R. Rachel: Right?

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Donna: Roughly.

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R. David (he/him(): How many will pass And how many will be created?

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R. David (he/him(): Who will live and who will die?

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R. David (he/him(): Who will see ripe age, and who will not?

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R. David (he/him(): Who by fire and who by water?

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R. David (he/him(): Who by sword and who by beast.

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R. David (he/him(): Who by hunger and who by thirst.

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R. David (he/him(): Life earthquake.

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R. David (he/him(): And who, by plague, Who, by strangling, And who, by stoning?

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R. David (he/him(): Are you feeling any of these, or are you turning off? Who will be secure, and who will be driven?

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R. David (he/him(): Are you staying with it or recoiling? Check in with yourself.

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R. David (he/him(): Who will be tranquil?

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R. David (he/him(): And who will be troubled?

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R. David (he/him(): Who will be poor?

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R. David (he/him(): And who will be rich?

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R. David (he/him(): Who will be humbled?

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R. David (he/him(): And who will be exalted?

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lindabkramer: These are familiar words.

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

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R. David (he/him(): I will share with you that as a child and a young teenager.

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R. David (he/him(): I ran away from synagogue with these words. They chased me out of Jewish life.

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R. David (he/him(): Because I couldn't imagine a divinity that would act this way.

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R. David (he/him(): I wasn't able to understand that that's not the function of these words.

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R. David (he/him(): That the function of these words is to get us to get real with the reality that we should do tshuva one day before our death.

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R. David (he/him(): And because we do not know when that is, We should do it now.

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R. Rachel: Always time to do tshuva.

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R. David (he/him(): Right. So, how many of you felt yourselves… I see James's hand… how many of us felt ourselves recoil?

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R. David (he/him(): Any of us?

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R. David (he/him(): Yeah, I'm seeing a couple. I'm seeing a couple hands, yup, yup, yup.

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R. David (he/him(): Yup.

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R. David (he/him(): Why?

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R. David (he/him(): How many of us felt ourselves recoil, like, pull back? We felt ourselves absent ourselves, distance ourselves from these images.

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R. David (he/him(): Meredith, I saw you raise your hand. Would you like to share why?

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: It's just… it's, it seems like a threat.

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

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: Everything's ominous, it's like…

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R. Rachel: She said that.

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: It… it's not welcoming. It's like… You could…

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Meredith J. Goldsmith: You know, you might not see it, you might die by fire, you might die, you might die, you might, you might, you might. And there's nothing welcoming about it.

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R. David (he/him(): Yeah, not in this, we just had the shepherd, we just had the light, we just had the love. It's all part of the same Unatana Tokif.

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R. Rachel: Same prayer.

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R. David (he/him(): It's the exact same liturgy.

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R. David (he/him(): So, this is really shifting very quickly.

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R. David (he/him(): James and then Jill and Meg.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): I have a question related to this.

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R. David (he/him(): Please.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): many times as I've seen it.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): Analyzed it intellectually, looked at the history of it, whatever.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): The one thing that always stands out to me is… Why do I care?

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R. David (he/him(): It's…

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): It's important to do teshuva. I'm not saying that.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): But this particular passage, you know.

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lindabkramer: Yeah, for some…

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R. David (he/him(): Some of us.

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Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): What difference does that make?

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R. David (he/him(): Right, and it's a great question. I mean, I think it's THE question. What spiritual function does this liturgy serve?

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R. David (he/him(): I mean, it's here for a reason, what's it doing here?

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R. David (he/him(): And if the only reason is to make us afraid and run out of synagogue, then we're doing it wrong, or we drop it. And I've seen some communities, frankly, drop it.

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R. David (he/him(): Are there?

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R. David (he/him(): People here who have never experienced

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R. David (he/him(): Or touched? Or known someone who has touched death.

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R. David (he/him(): Probably not.

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R. David (he/him(): And we know that life is fragile and fleeting.

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

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R. David (he/him(): Precious, precious, precious.

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R. David (he/him(): Maybe.

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R. David (he/him(): This is not a conversation about God.

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R. David (he/him(): And more a conversation about the fundamental reality of life and its fragility, and its value, and its preciousness. And therefore, what are you waiting for? Why are you letting fear or something else hold me back?

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R. David (he/him(): Because there might not be tomorrow. So take the leap of faith now.

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R. David (he/him(): Take the leap of faith now. Jill and Meg, are you…

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Jill and Meg: Well, I was just going to say that,

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Jill and Meg: Until you reminded me that… that this was… this caused you to run away from Shul.

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Jill and Meg: Because I read it, and I think it's very frightening, you know, it's just, of course, you can't really read the words without hearing the tune, you know, which is so mournful.

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Jill and Meg: But it's so frightening and eerie, you know? But on the other hand…

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Jill and Meg: Yeah, but on the other hand, it just also speaks to…

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Jill and Meg: The reality of lack of control, and…

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Jill and Meg: You know, a kind of a giving up, you know?

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R. Rachel: This is a reminder of some fundamental impermanence, and some fundamental unknowability.

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R. Rachel: I do not know what the coming year is going to bring to me or my loved ones. I can't.

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Jill and Meg: Right.

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R. Rachel: no knowing.

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R. Rachel: And that is not a comfortable feeling.

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R. Rachel: when I really sit with it, that's a… that's a terrifying feeling.

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R. Rachel: And… Maybe one of the most human feelings.

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R. Rachel: that we can have. This has been human reality.

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R. Rachel: Since time immemorial.

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R. Rachel: We don't know what the next year is gonna be.

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R. Rachel: And Yom Kippur in particular, is a day to sit with that.

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R. David (he/him(): Yeah. Sherrill Delia.

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Sherrill Cropper: I have two thoughts coming up for this section, and one was.

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Sherrill Cropper: How for pretty much every single example.

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Sherrill Cropper: I was able to pull up a current current events.

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Sherrill Cropper: Example.

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R. David (he/him(): Sure.

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Sherrill Cropper: for them. I mean, even earthquake and plague, measles, and… Strangling and stoning, what's happening?

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Donna: Iraq.

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Sherrill Cropper: So many, you know, and then the other part of me wondered, If this was…

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Sherrill Cropper: really just a beautiful opportunity for Chesed.

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Sherrill Cropper: For us to sit and think about all these things that happen around us.

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Sherrill Cropper: And if we all… Not if. Because we all have the Shekhina spark.

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Sherrill Cropper: It happens to us. It's like no man is an island.

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R. Rachel: People in the world will be impacted by all of these over the coming year.

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R. Rachel: Will we allow ourselves to feel loving-kindness for them?

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R. David (he/him(): Delhia, last comment, and then I'll offer something to wrap up.

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R. Rachel: prayer.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: A lot of things, I think, when I talk, it sounds like I don't feel the depth of it.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: So, I'm just gonna try to say… It is effin' hard.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: To be in the present moment with all that goes on.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: But years… but years ago, years ago, there was someone, I don't remember his name, it was two paragraphs. The first paragraph is, you're gonna lose everything. It listed your hair, your job, your lovers, your dogs, your, you know, till you go, oh, God.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: And the second one is, so everything that's still here is so precious.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: And it is effin' hard to feel all that at the same time, but it brings you into the present moment, and that is eternity, and all… that's all that there is, and you are fully living.

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R. Rachel: There's a kind of balancing act there.

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Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: People say to me, you know, you walk… you know, so how are you?

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R. David (he/him(): Yep, yep. So you've said something really important, and I'll use it to close this piece.

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R. David (he/him(): There were a lot of services during the high holidays.

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R. David (he/him(): And some of them are not short.

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R. David (he/him(): How many of us are going to pay attention the entire time?

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R. David (he/him(): Don't all raise your hands at once, right? Our minds will go elsewhere. We'll contemplate our lives. We'll ask if we left the iron on. We'll ask if, you know, what is he thinking, and why is she wearing that, and

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R. David (he/him(): These services and the Ark of the High Holidays are an extended meditative experience, whether we call it that or not. The game is not to pay attention every second. We're not going to. Brains don't work that way.

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R. David (he/him(): But to note where we've gone and bring ourselves back, or know that this image that is captivating us, it wants to take us somewhere, go there!

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R. David (he/him(): It's more important for you to have your experience than to hang on every word.

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R. David (he/him(): So, when you feel these images take you somewhere, note it.

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R. David (he/him(): If you feel these images recoil you, ask, why are you recoiling?

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R. David (he/him(): Is there a way to re-understand and re-engage? This is… these are not penalties.

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R. David (he/him(): These are not penalties, these are statements of being.

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R. Rachel: Right, that some of us will live, and some will die. Right. And some will have this fate, and some will have that fate.

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R. Rachel: So here's the place where this prayer goes after this

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R. Rachel: deep and often uncomfortable, right? Who's gonna live, who's gonna die this way, that way, the other way?

375
00:34:31.900 --> 00:34:37.120
R. Rachel: We get this refrain, which is here on the page in the pink box in the middle.

376
00:34:37.830 --> 00:34:43.690
R. Rachel: Telling us that Teshuva, Repentance, return, turning our lives around.

377
00:34:44.730 --> 00:34:54.349
R. Rachel: Tefilah, prayer, spiritual practice, tzedakah, Which could be charity, could be good deeds, could be justice.

378
00:34:55.530 --> 00:35:04.419
R. Rachel: These three things, Teshuva, tefilah, and tzedakah, transform The severity of the decree.

379
00:35:04.930 --> 00:35:05.590
Donna: Hmm.

380
00:35:06.250 --> 00:35:10.990
R. Rachel: Now, there's an older version of this above from Talmud, from Tractate Rosh Hashanah.

381
00:35:11.320 --> 00:35:17.579
R. Rachel: Rabbi Gitzkach says, Four things will rip up a divine decree of judgment.

382
00:35:18.600 --> 00:35:19.889
R. Rachel: So imagine that.

383
00:35:20.260 --> 00:35:25.159
R. Rachel: God has somehow written with the hands that God doesn't have.

384
00:35:26.220 --> 00:35:30.220
R. Rachel: a decree Of what our year's gonna be.

385
00:35:30.740 --> 00:35:35.829
R. Rachel: But these four things say our ancestors will cause God to rip up the bad news.

386
00:35:36.070 --> 00:35:40.849
R. Rachel: And they are… Charity, or tzedakah? Justice?

387
00:35:41.680 --> 00:35:44.330
R. Rachel: Crying out in prayer, pouring our hearts out.

388
00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:49.200
R. Rachel: Changing our name… And changing our deeds.

389
00:35:50.250 --> 00:35:57.840
R. Rachel: In antiquity, it was understood that if I change my name from Rachel to something else, then maybe I can fool the angel of death.

390
00:35:58.490 --> 00:36:03.110
R. Rachel: That's why many cultures have a tradition of giving somebody a new name when they become sick.

391
00:36:03.960 --> 00:36:04.640
R. Rachel: Great.

392
00:36:05.430 --> 00:36:11.250
R. Rachel: As though somehow naming ourselves differently made us different on the inside.

393
00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:19.760
R. Rachel: But the prayer doesn't quite say what Talmud said. Talmud says, this will make God tear it to pieces.

394
00:36:20.670 --> 00:36:22.020
R. Rachel: Our prayer doesn't say that.

395
00:36:22.020 --> 00:36:22.750
R. David (he/him(): Muck green.

396
00:36:22.750 --> 00:36:27.380
R. Rachel: say that… the verdict, will be transformed.

397
00:36:29.100 --> 00:36:36.399
R. Rachel: And at the bottom of the page, you've got 3 Aramaic words, all of which can be used in this spot. It could be that it's ripping it up.

398
00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:43.110
R. Rachel: Or that it's transforming? Or we could say mamtikin, that it sweetens the decree.

399
00:36:44.430 --> 00:36:45.479
R. David (he/him(): Why is this image?

400
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:48.180
R. Rachel: slides at CBI have a little… see the little honey?

401
00:36:48.860 --> 00:36:49.820
R. Rachel: Honey?

402
00:36:50.060 --> 00:36:56.529
R. Rachel: Spoon at the bottom, that when we do these things, when we repent, when we pray, when we do what's right.

403
00:36:56.700 --> 00:36:58.120
R. Rachel: It sweetens.

404
00:36:59.560 --> 00:37:01.940
R. Rachel: What is going on inside of us?

405
00:37:02.090 --> 00:37:03.600
R. Rachel: And how we are…

406
00:37:04.130 --> 00:37:11.520
R. Rachel: responding to whatever is. I'm seeing in the chat, can we use a less ominous word than verdict?

407
00:37:11.890 --> 00:37:18.399
R. Rachel: The word literally is gazera, which means decree, like, I decree that this is what will be.

408
00:37:21.520 --> 00:37:22.380
R. Rachel: So…

409
00:37:22.640 --> 00:37:24.389
R. David (he/him(): So, let me offer this.

410
00:37:25.360 --> 00:37:30.709
R. David (he/him(): We just got done in the prior slide saying, God does not decree anything. You know, these are not penalties.

411
00:37:30.710 --> 00:37:31.160
lindabkramer: Right.

412
00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:33.679
R. David (he/him(): At the same time.

413
00:37:36.180 --> 00:37:41.309
R. David (he/him(): So many of us ask, seemingly half in jest, what did I do to deserve this?

414
00:37:43.680 --> 00:37:45.859
R. David (he/him(): We don't have to be consistent!

415
00:37:47.240 --> 00:38:00.299
R. David (he/him(): And in classical antiquity, it was imagined that divinity did do these decrees, and so the rabbis couldn't deal with that and change the words from Talmud.

416
00:38:00.670 --> 00:38:06.230
R. David (he/him(): So the liturgy would be about transforming. Transforming what?

417
00:38:06.840 --> 00:38:10.290
R. David (he/him(): Does it transform God? Well, mystically, maybe.

418
00:38:10.410 --> 00:38:14.579
R. David (he/him(): But repentance and prayer and good deeds, these act on us.

419
00:38:15.230 --> 00:38:17.270
R. David (he/him(): It's about transforming us!

420
00:38:18.530 --> 00:38:26.140
R. David (he/him(): And we use the notion, we use the fiction, perhaps, of being judged.

421
00:38:26.510 --> 00:38:34.239
R. David (he/him(): Because, let's face it, God judging us is easy. Us judging us! Now, that's hard.

422
00:38:36.450 --> 00:38:40.770
R. David (he/him(): God's gonna let us off the hook instantly on Kalnidre Knights.

423
00:38:41.670 --> 00:38:44.689
R. David (he/him(): letting ourselves off the hook now, that takes time.

424
00:38:44.690 --> 00:38:45.730
R. Rachel: Not so easy.

425
00:38:46.150 --> 00:38:47.340
R. Rachel: That's harder!

426
00:38:47.340 --> 00:38:52.629
R. David (he/him(): So, can we use another word less ominous than verdict? Absolutely! Call it self-judgment.

427
00:38:52.880 --> 00:39:02.480
R. David (he/him(): Call it… call it, the deep, dark experience of our own woe. We are about to go there, Meredith, so hang on to that.

428
00:39:03.170 --> 00:39:05.260
R. David (he/him(): But for the moment, imagine

429
00:39:06.640 --> 00:39:14.770
R. David (he/him(): What does it feel to rip something up? Imagine you've paid your last mortgage payment, and you get the note back. What do you do?

430
00:39:15.960 --> 00:39:17.059
R. David (he/him(): Well, for those of us.

431
00:39:17.060 --> 00:39:17.650
R. Rachel: who have…

432
00:39:17.650 --> 00:39:23.429
R. David (he/him(): paid student loans, and you're done. What does that rip feel like?

433
00:39:28.460 --> 00:39:29.760
R. David (he/him(): What does it feel like?

434
00:39:30.940 --> 00:39:32.130
Elizabeth Yalkut: liberation.

435
00:39:32.130 --> 00:39:33.240
R. David (he/him(): Oh, yeah!

436
00:39:33.240 --> 00:39:34.180
R. Rachel: for sure.

437
00:39:34.660 --> 00:39:46.720
R. David (he/him(): Oh, yeah. So here we've got who by fire, and who by water, and who by this, and who by that, and it's a little bit like a trance, and all these things are happening, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, and then here comes

438
00:39:47.310 --> 00:39:49.500
R. David (he/him(): Talk about getting your attention.

439
00:39:49.890 --> 00:40:02.550
R. David (he/him(): Right? Uchova for repentance. Utufilah and prayer. Utah!

440
00:40:02.670 --> 00:40:12.320
R. David (he/him(): And charity and good deeds. It just, it comes out of nowhere.

441
00:40:14.570 --> 00:40:16.889
R. David (he/him(): and says, Whammo!

442
00:40:19.660 --> 00:40:22.920
R. David (he/him(): Now you're paying attention? That's what this liturgy's trying to do.

443
00:40:24.400 --> 00:40:28.050
R. David (he/him(): And so whether we call it the liberation or ripping something up.

444
00:40:28.220 --> 00:40:31.379
R. David (he/him(): Or the music of grabbing us.

445
00:40:32.600 --> 00:40:34.949
R. David (he/him(): That's what it wants to do.

446
00:40:35.660 --> 00:40:41.020
R. David (he/him(): Remind us of our agency. It's time to act, and what are you waiting for? Do it now.

447
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:47.369
R. David (he/him(): Does that change how we experience this?

448
00:40:52.980 --> 00:40:55.100
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: You sounded like a shofar.

449
00:40:55.550 --> 00:40:57.390
R. Rachel: I was about to say…

450
00:40:57.640 --> 00:40:58.779
R. David (he/him(): funny you should say. In terms of what.

451
00:40:58.780 --> 00:41:03.280
R. Rachel: We're hearing this is going to be a beautiful shifting of gears into the shofar service in a minute.

452
00:41:03.770 --> 00:41:06.560
R. David (he/him(): Yeah, Sherrill, I saw your hand. Oh, Joan first, yes.

453
00:41:10.160 --> 00:41:10.840
Joan Green: the…

454
00:41:11.570 --> 00:41:20.069
Joan Green: The beauty of this, of course, is just what she said, that it gives us agency. Things aren't… things don't descend on us.

455
00:41:20.260 --> 00:41:22.550
Joan Green: As if we're helpless.

456
00:41:22.690 --> 00:41:23.780
Joan Green: bound up.

457
00:41:24.500 --> 00:41:33.369
Joan Green: And I think of the image of the gates, and I can hear for all the years, the gates are closing. Gates are closing.

458
00:41:33.370 --> 00:41:34.429
R. David (he/him(): Session 7.

459
00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:43.809
Joan Green: And… and… I always feel… They may be… they may say they're closing today.

460
00:41:44.670 --> 00:41:55.410
Joan Green: But I am never kept from doing the right thing and frying them open a little bit. If I didn't get through today, maybe I'll get through tomorrow.

461
00:41:55.410 --> 00:41:56.979
R. Rachel: We've got some goodies on that, too.

462
00:41:56.980 --> 00:42:00.370
Joan Green: So, so, it, it's imp…

463
00:42:00.600 --> 00:42:08.200
Joan Green: It's important that people hear this as optimistic and positive, and not as a threat.

464
00:42:09.950 --> 00:42:14.699
R. Rachel: So for me, that's the work that Transform is doing here.

465
00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:21.319
R. Rachel: Because the truth is, whatever's gonna happen to me in the coming year, and I don't know what it is, and I can't know what it is.

466
00:42:22.750 --> 00:42:24.939
R. Rachel: I can guarantee you that I will…

467
00:42:26.070 --> 00:42:31.580
R. Rachel: Surf those waves with more equanimity, and gratitude.

468
00:42:31.940 --> 00:42:41.820
R. Rachel: if I'm doing tshuva work, and if I'm praying regularly, and if I'm giving tzedakah, like, all of those things will change how I experience whatever comes.

469
00:42:42.740 --> 00:42:45.629
R. Rachel: It doesn't change what's coming, whatever that is.

470
00:42:46.390 --> 00:42:49.989
R. Rachel: Right? If I'm gonna break my leg in February, I'm gonna break my leg in February.

471
00:42:49.990 --> 00:42:50.830
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Peppa.

472
00:42:51.280 --> 00:42:52.280
R. Rachel: Right, God forbid.

473
00:42:54.410 --> 00:43:03.480
R. Rachel: But with these spiritual practices built into our lives, it can change how we feel about the thing that happens, whatever the thing is.

474
00:43:03.790 --> 00:43:07.989
R. Rachel: To me, that's the prayer… that's the power of that one word.

475
00:43:09.480 --> 00:43:16.559
R. David (he/him(): So, when this comes, Something will get your attention. Let's plant a seed right here.

476
00:43:17.340 --> 00:43:19.770
R. David (he/him(): To be snapped out.

477
00:43:20.490 --> 00:43:26.830
R. David (he/him(): To be returned to agency, to be returned to presence. And why do we get returned to presence here?

478
00:43:26.970 --> 00:43:28.520
R. David (he/him(): Because of this.

479
00:43:28.850 --> 00:43:31.310
R. Rachel: And this is the very end of the prayer.

480
00:43:31.900 --> 00:43:37.509
R. Rachel: And this sounds a lot like Psalm 90, which we'll be talking about when we get to the Yisker service.

481
00:43:37.710 --> 00:43:40.489
R. Rachel: Our origin is dust, to dust is our end.

482
00:43:40.850 --> 00:43:42.900
R. Rachel: Our sustenance is bought with peril.

483
00:43:44.030 --> 00:43:47.470
R. Rachel: And now look at these images. We are a broken urn.

484
00:43:47.780 --> 00:43:49.450
R. Rachel: withering grass.

485
00:43:49.760 --> 00:43:51.080
R. Rachel: A fading flower.

486
00:43:52.600 --> 00:43:58.859
R. Rachel: A passing shadow, a vanishing cloud, a blowing wind, settling dust, a fleeting dream.

487
00:43:59.910 --> 00:44:05.600
R. Rachel: Even if I live to be a hundred, It's an eye blink.

488
00:44:05.900 --> 00:44:08.919
R. Rachel: When held up against the age of the cosmos.

489
00:44:09.730 --> 00:44:12.210
R. Rachel: When held up against the immensity

490
00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:15.639
R. Rachel: of that source we name as God.

491
00:44:16.700 --> 00:44:18.710
R. Rachel: So, in a way, all of this is…

492
00:44:19.150 --> 00:44:24.410
R. Rachel: There's something out there much bigger than me, and I am not actually driving the bus.

493
00:44:25.730 --> 00:44:27.269
R. Rachel: And how do I feel about that?

494
00:44:28.070 --> 00:44:29.860
R. Rachel: About being a broken urn.

495
00:44:31.320 --> 00:44:37.780
R. Rachel: Yeah, I was having a conversation earlier today with a colleague about the wisdom from the disability justice movement.

496
00:44:37.930 --> 00:44:42.460
R. Rachel: That we are only ever temporarily able-bodied.

497
00:44:43.950 --> 00:44:46.820
R. Rachel: And if we live long enough, that ceases to be the case.

498
00:44:47.790 --> 00:44:50.999
R. Rachel: Everything about us is temporary.

499
00:44:51.330 --> 00:44:53.930
R. Rachel: What do we do with that? How do we live with that?

500
00:44:54.980 --> 00:44:56.670
R. Rachel: That's what this prayer is asking.

501
00:44:56.910 --> 00:44:58.149
R. David (he/him(): Why is this here?

502
00:45:01.280 --> 00:45:07.049
R. David (he/him(): The rabbis, the liturgists, the images, they were real smart. What is this getting us to do?

503
00:45:10.590 --> 00:45:12.539
R. David (he/him(): What's the positive piece of this?

504
00:45:13.920 --> 00:45:17.159
Lilith Blackmoon: Waking up and taking things for granted.

505
00:45:17.370 --> 00:45:19.979
R. David (he/him(): Yeah. What are you waiting for?

506
00:45:19.980 --> 00:45:22.620
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: But I love the image of the fading flower.

507
00:45:23.220 --> 00:45:30.330
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Because… How many people say, oh, they're fading, they're not fresh, I have to throw them out now?

508
00:45:30.950 --> 00:45:31.300
R. David (he/him(): Right.

509
00:45:31.300 --> 00:45:32.300
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: And I actually.

510
00:45:32.300 --> 00:45:34.349
R. David (he/him(): We're fading.

511
00:45:34.350 --> 00:45:44.079
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: If we have the agency to pick those flowers and put them in a vase, we almost have a responsibility to look at the beauty of the fading.

512
00:45:44.590 --> 00:45:45.330
R. Rachel: Amen.

513
00:45:45.810 --> 00:45:48.799
R. Rachel: That's a deep spiritual teaching about human life right there.

514
00:45:49.320 --> 00:45:49.790
R. David (he/him(): Boom.

515
00:45:49.790 --> 00:45:59.060
R. Rachel: I'm seeing hard hands around the room. Boom. So, shifting gears now into our new subject for today, which is going to be the shofar service.

516
00:45:59.550 --> 00:46:05.790
R. David (he/him(): Which we're going to accelerate, because I think, so far, everyone is kind of familiar with, so I'm…

517
00:46:05.790 --> 00:46:08.300
R. Rachel: We're gonna move a little more quickly through some of this.

518
00:46:08.660 --> 00:46:14.039
R. Rachel: Just quickly to get us started, what are… when… when you hear the word shofar.

519
00:46:15.260 --> 00:46:18.849
R. Rachel: Just popcorn, just unmute and share with us, or put in the chat.

520
00:46:18.850 --> 00:46:19.879
R. David (he/him(): 60 seconds, quick.

521
00:46:19.880 --> 00:46:22.080
R. Rachel: What are your feelings in the next 1 minute?

522
00:46:22.440 --> 00:46:23.690
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Energy healing.

523
00:46:23.690 --> 00:46:24.859
Elizabeth Yalkut: Big, big joins.

524
00:46:24.860 --> 00:46:26.759
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Sound, sound, sound healing.

525
00:46:26.980 --> 00:46:28.190
Susan Phillips: Awakening.

526
00:46:29.680 --> 00:46:31.669
R. Rachel: Awakening. Sitting up straight.

527
00:46:33.920 --> 00:46:36.200
Iris: Embodying awakening.

528
00:46:37.260 --> 00:46:38.849
Sherrill Cropper: Breath into sound.

529
00:46:39.450 --> 00:46:45.390
R. Rachel: Breath, sound, Call to Attention just came through in the chat.

530
00:46:48.280 --> 00:46:49.130
R. Rachel: Yes.

531
00:46:49.130 --> 00:46:50.160
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: explosion.

532
00:46:50.160 --> 00:46:51.280
R. Rachel: Explosion.

533
00:46:54.630 --> 00:46:57.250
R. Rachel: And what do we feel when we think shofar?

534
00:46:57.460 --> 00:47:01.309
R. Rachel: Imagine hearing a shofar right now. What does your heart do?

535
00:47:05.490 --> 00:47:07.400
R. Rachel: Other than smiling at the Rabbi.

536
00:47:10.410 --> 00:47:15.579
Elizabeth Yalkut: I mean, I hear one right now, and something is very wrong, because it is not the right time.

537
00:47:15.580 --> 00:47:16.569
R. Rachel: Right, so that's…

538
00:47:17.910 --> 00:47:18.300
R. David (he/him(): What weight?

539
00:47:18.300 --> 00:47:20.240
R. Rachel: Farm, maybe we could say.

540
00:47:20.310 --> 00:47:22.000
Joan Green: It startles you.

541
00:47:25.270 --> 00:47:33.969
R. Rachel: I'm seeing also in the chat, an awareness of death, of the animals whose antlers, whose horns have become chauffarot.

542
00:47:36.340 --> 00:47:40.360
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: I hate it in many synagogues when people start laughing at the end.

543
00:47:41.080 --> 00:47:42.670
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: I don't know what to do with that.

544
00:47:42.670 --> 00:47:49.510
R. Rachel: Right, so some people often, often at the end of the tequii Godola, the really long breast… Right.

545
00:47:49.510 --> 00:47:50.510
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Right.

546
00:47:50.510 --> 00:48:00.859
R. Rachel: there's a… it's a catharsis. It's like everybody's holding their breath and feeling into it, and then when it ends, yeah, it is really common for people to break out laughing.

547
00:48:01.290 --> 00:48:04.670
R. Rachel: I break out crying. Both of those are…

548
00:48:04.670 --> 00:48:05.380
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: So…

549
00:48:05.380 --> 00:48:07.830
R. Rachel: things that I see, right? There's a release.

550
00:48:15.260 --> 00:48:25.320
R. David (he/him(): So, this image, and there are more images that we're about to hit, are now going to be combined with sound.

551
00:48:27.810 --> 00:48:32.140
R. David (he/him(): And this is not by accident. Not at all.

552
00:48:33.150 --> 00:48:34.919
R. David (he/him(): So here's where this starts.

553
00:48:35.820 --> 00:48:40.390
R. David (he/him(): And if you're in Shir Ami, maybe you saw this in a column recently.

554
00:48:41.420 --> 00:48:59.350
R. David (he/him(): in Numbers 29, the high holiday series, the entire Jewish calendar is put back out there, and we're told on the seventh month, or the first day of the month, which nowadays we call it the first day of the month, because the original Jewish year began with Passover's month.

555
00:48:59.630 --> 00:49:04.420
R. David (he/him(): But you observe a sacred occasion, don't do any work, it'll be a day of charu'

556
00:49:06.870 --> 00:49:08.809
R. Rachel: A day of sounding the horn.

557
00:49:09.240 --> 00:49:11.830
R. David (he/him(): True what is true

558
00:49:12.920 --> 00:49:16.229
R. David (he/him(): It literally means alarm.

559
00:49:16.410 --> 00:49:17.910
R. David (he/him(): To key up.

560
00:49:18.210 --> 00:49:20.800
R. David (he/him(): Shivarim.

561
00:49:20.920 --> 00:49:23.220
R. David (he/him(): Truer.

562
00:49:25.990 --> 00:49:28.780
R. David (he/him(): The Hebrew word trua means alarm.

563
00:49:28.780 --> 00:49:32.980
R. Rachel: Which is why you've got some alarms in front of you on the slide.

564
00:49:33.290 --> 00:49:38.790
R. Rachel: And like Elizabeth said, yeah, if I suddenly heard a shofar blowing right now, I might be a little alarmed.

565
00:49:38.790 --> 00:49:39.160
R. David (he/him(): Right?

566
00:49:39.350 --> 00:49:41.200
R. Rachel: Am I being called into battle?

567
00:49:41.680 --> 00:49:46.929
R. David (he/him(): Right, right. And there are two kinds of alarms. One of them is like a wake-up call.

568
00:49:47.990 --> 00:49:56.610
R. David (he/him(): And that's what Maimonides described in Mishna Torah. The shofar is as if to slay. Say, sleepy ones, wake up!

569
00:49:57.540 --> 00:50:07.770
R. David (he/him(): Get up, you slumberers! It's time! Search your deeds, return in tshuva, remember your Creator. Bring! It's time! Hi there. The other alarm…

570
00:50:09.680 --> 00:50:11.359
R. David (he/him(): is about urgency.

571
00:50:11.510 --> 00:50:24.909
R. David (he/him(): Life is precious. We forget how precious. What if tomorrow never comes? What if we have no tomorrows? This task is urgent, this whole Chuba thing. It's a five-alarm fire. We are to act as if the whole world depends on it.

572
00:50:25.200 --> 00:50:27.660
R. David (he/him(): Move… Now.

573
00:50:29.350 --> 00:50:31.340
R. David (he/him(): Those are the two alarms.

574
00:50:31.600 --> 00:50:35.470
R. David (he/him(): That a shofar is invoking in us.

575
00:50:36.600 --> 00:50:44.109
R. David (he/him(): And we often sort of combine them. It's just a wake-up call, and, you know, great, that's wonderful, but there's also an urgency.

576
00:50:48.030 --> 00:50:52.489
R. David (he/him(): Which is why, traditionally, Jews don't blow shofar on Shabbat.

577
00:50:57.140 --> 00:51:03.460
R. David (he/him(): in Leviticus, speak to the children of Israel in the seventh month and the first of the month, will be to you a total Shabbat.

578
00:51:03.770 --> 00:51:06.170
R. David (he/him(): Not to blow!

579
00:51:06.310 --> 00:51:08.160
R. David (he/him(): But to remember!

580
00:51:08.470 --> 00:51:11.720
R. David (he/him(): They'll remember the true so wait a minute!

581
00:51:12.620 --> 00:51:15.190
R. David (he/him(): How are you supposed to remember the true

582
00:51:17.550 --> 00:51:19.029
R. David (he/him(): If you don't hear it.

583
00:51:22.240 --> 00:51:27.000
R. Rachel: It's a little bit like holding an image in your imagination.

584
00:51:27.600 --> 00:51:30.939
R. Rachel: When you can't see the actual thing, but you can…

585
00:51:32.050 --> 00:51:32.380
R. David (he/him(): Everybody.

586
00:51:32.380 --> 00:51:33.150
R. Rachel: Into it.

587
00:51:33.340 --> 00:51:35.579
R. David (he/him(): Right? Can everybody call up?

588
00:51:36.980 --> 00:51:39.080
R. David (he/him(): The sound of a shofar?

589
00:51:41.420 --> 00:51:45.399
R. David (he/him(): Yeah. What is the difference in your experience?

590
00:51:46.100 --> 00:51:52.879
R. David (he/him(): Between remembering the shofar, And… Literally hearing the shofar…

591
00:51:53.250 --> 00:51:57.000
R. David (he/him(): What is that experience difference like? Can someone describe it?

592
00:52:02.050 --> 00:52:03.380
Joan Green: It's personal.

593
00:52:04.140 --> 00:52:05.869
R. David (he/him(): Very personal. What else?

594
00:52:05.870 --> 00:52:07.829
R. Rachel: happening inside you.

595
00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:09.469
R. David (he/him(): Yeah, what else?

596
00:52:14.100 --> 00:52:23.209
R. David (he/him(): You have to participate in this image. You have to participate in this. You can't rely on the outsider to go… So what does that participation do?

597
00:52:24.600 --> 00:52:40.279
Elma Sanders: For me, the sound is a real sound, it's a vibration, and it is so sharp, the shofar sound, that it shakes you. Your whole body has to respond to it.

598
00:52:41.900 --> 00:52:47.219
R. David (he/him(): So what happens if we're just remembering it rather than hearing it?

599
00:52:48.230 --> 00:52:50.099
R. David (he/him(): What is that like?

600
00:52:50.790 --> 00:52:56.210
R. David (he/him(): Because for many of us, we're going to experience this on Rosh Hashanah day one, because it falls on Shabbos this year.

601
00:52:56.980 --> 00:52:57.700
Donna: No.

602
00:52:58.120 --> 00:52:59.330
R. David (he/him(): Oh!

603
00:52:59.490 --> 00:53:00.740
R. David (he/him(): Oh!

604
00:53:01.740 --> 00:53:04.800
R. David (he/him(): What's happening here? What's that like?

605
00:53:05.770 --> 00:53:09.820
R. David (he/him(): Can anyone… Maybe come up with a couple of words?

606
00:53:11.180 --> 00:53:15.360
R. David (he/him(): I have a couple of ideas, but I'm curious what yours might be. Cheryl?

607
00:53:17.930 --> 00:53:19.570
Sherrill Cropper: to ancestors.

608
00:53:19.920 --> 00:53:23.030
Sherrill Cropper: like, triggers some DNA.

609
00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:24.500
Sherrill Cropper: Christian.

610
00:53:25.490 --> 00:53:28.809
R. David (he/him(): Is it different that you remember it versus hear it?

611
00:53:32.160 --> 00:53:32.860
R. David (he/him(): Okay.

612
00:53:33.340 --> 00:53:34.899
R. David (he/him(): How might it be different?

613
00:53:35.620 --> 00:53:37.770
R. David (he/him(): Susan, I think you just unmuted.

614
00:53:39.730 --> 00:53:40.200
Susan Phillips: Nope.

615
00:53:40.350 --> 00:53:42.450
R. David (he/him(): You didn't mean to unmute.

616
00:53:42.930 --> 00:53:44.420
R. David (he/him(): Here's a suggestion.

617
00:53:46.040 --> 00:53:47.650
R. David (he/him(): It's much more subtle.

618
00:53:48.090 --> 00:53:51.829
R. David (he/him(): If you think… if you have to feel it in you without…

619
00:53:52.210 --> 00:53:55.389
R. David (he/him(): hearing it. It's much more restful.

620
00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:59.209
R. David (he/him(): it's actually more consistent with Shabbat.

621
00:53:59.770 --> 00:54:01.810
R. David (he/him(): It's much more inward.

622
00:54:02.620 --> 00:54:04.630
R. David (he/him(): Your body doesn't go, ugh!

623
00:54:04.780 --> 00:54:06.590
R. David (he/him(): In quite the same way.

624
00:54:10.660 --> 00:54:12.799
R. David (he/him(): It's a spiritual rest.

625
00:54:14.700 --> 00:54:16.700
R. David (he/him(): It's… More gentle.

626
00:54:18.320 --> 00:54:24.750
R. David (he/him(): And there's no room for laughter, because no one's gonna be laughing on the Bima with that whole.

627
00:54:25.390 --> 00:54:29.700
R. David (he/him(): You wait for how long it can go. It's a very different feel.

628
00:54:31.990 --> 00:54:34.250
R. David (he/him(): There's no alarm on Shabbat.

629
00:54:35.730 --> 00:54:41.179
R. David (he/him(): So I'll… we'll be curious what happens on Shabbat for you.

630
00:54:41.400 --> 00:54:44.439
R. Rachel: Yeah, you'll have to tell us how it is for you this year.

631
00:54:44.690 --> 00:54:54.449
R. Rachel: Because we will not be blowing shofar on the first day. We'll blow on Friday night before Shabbos begins, and we'll blow on Sunday, which is the second day.

632
00:54:55.940 --> 00:54:58.499
R. Rachel: So you can see here before you.

633
00:54:58.630 --> 00:55:07.680
R. Rachel: Another little bit of Talmud. It says, Recite before me on Rosh Hashanah verses of… Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot.

634
00:55:08.270 --> 00:55:12.219
R. Rachel: And these have become the three sections of the shofar service.

635
00:55:12.650 --> 00:55:14.609
R. Rachel: First, Malchu Yot.

636
00:55:14.810 --> 00:55:17.789
R. Rachel: Maybe you can hear in there the word Melech, king.

637
00:55:18.570 --> 00:55:21.349
R. Rachel: So that you will crown me as sovereign over you?

638
00:55:21.930 --> 00:55:27.500
R. Rachel: Sichronaut… Maybe you can hear Yiskar, Remembrance.

639
00:55:28.080 --> 00:55:32.049
R. Rachel: So that your remembrance of the covenant will rise before me.

640
00:55:33.540 --> 00:55:36.660
R. Rachel: And how will these things happen?

641
00:55:37.050 --> 00:55:45.270
R. Rachel: with shofarot, with the sound of the shofar. The shofar is a spiritual tool For doing these things.

642
00:55:45.600 --> 00:55:47.739
R. Rachel: And you can see, again, in front of you, we're…

643
00:55:48.080 --> 00:55:51.900
R. Rachel: For Mulchuyot, we've got the same image of the divine throne.

644
00:55:52.130 --> 00:55:53.820
R. Rachel: That we've been playing with.

645
00:55:54.380 --> 00:56:00.729
R. Rachel: And here are the three blessings that we say in the three parts of the shofar service.

646
00:56:00.870 --> 00:56:01.939
R. Rachel: The first one?

647
00:56:02.140 --> 00:56:06.099
R. Rachel: commands us to hear the voice of the shofar. That's in Malhuyot.

648
00:56:06.830 --> 00:56:11.009
R. Rachel: The second one blesses God who remembers the covenant.

649
00:56:11.230 --> 00:56:12.400
R. Rachel: What covenant?

650
00:56:12.790 --> 00:56:14.520
R. Rachel: Oh, the covenant with us.

651
00:56:15.320 --> 00:56:18.780
R. Rachel: Right? God who remembers our relationship.

652
00:56:19.620 --> 00:56:27.720
R. Rachel: And the third one, thanks… blesses God, who hears the voice of our true awe with compassion, with Rak Amiim.

653
00:56:28.610 --> 00:56:33.230
R. Rachel: So those are our three… Modes of shofar service.

654
00:56:34.050 --> 00:56:35.359
R. David (he/him(): And they form…

655
00:56:35.360 --> 00:56:37.949
R. Rachel: Images coming up again and again.

656
00:56:38.280 --> 00:56:40.480
R. David (he/him(): And we're gonna move through this arc.

657
00:56:40.920 --> 00:56:44.319
R. David (he/him(): Using the images that each one

658
00:56:44.580 --> 00:56:48.339
R. David (he/him(): gives us. So, 30 seconds to get us started.

659
00:56:49.080 --> 00:56:52.590
R. David (he/him(): look at The chair.

660
00:56:53.270 --> 00:57:02.540
R. David (he/him(): Saw this… Last time and again this time. The ascent… The approaching, the light.

661
00:57:03.790 --> 00:57:06.790
R. David (he/him(): That's Maul Kuyot. What does it feel like?

662
00:57:07.830 --> 00:57:10.040
R. David (he/him(): Quick. Don't think.

663
00:57:10.190 --> 00:57:11.790
R. David (he/him(): What does it feel like?

664
00:57:14.450 --> 00:57:17.620
R. David (he/him(): You're thinking, some of you are thinking, don't think, just feel, go.

665
00:57:17.620 --> 00:57:20.450
R. Rachel: The chat, I'm seeing intimidating. Great, what else?

666
00:57:20.450 --> 00:57:22.220
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: overpowering.

667
00:57:22.220 --> 00:57:23.720
R. David (he/him(): Good. Keep coming.

668
00:57:23.860 --> 00:57:25.209
Donna: Feeling awful.

669
00:57:25.210 --> 00:57:26.720
R. David (he/him(): Oh, beautiful.

670
00:57:26.720 --> 00:57:27.470
R. Rachel: Beautiful.

671
00:57:27.470 --> 00:57:27.910
R. David (he/him(): Great.

672
00:57:27.910 --> 00:57:29.949
Susan Phillips: Immersed in love and light.

673
00:57:29.950 --> 00:57:30.279
R. David (he/him(): Love it.

674
00:57:30.280 --> 00:57:31.490
R. Rachel: Love and Light.

675
00:57:31.680 --> 00:57:38.669
R. David (he/him(): Probably both of those. Notice that it's a cluster of emotions, and some of them are inconsistent. That's okay.

676
00:57:39.440 --> 00:57:41.980
R. David (he/him(): Quit, that's Malchot. Zichronot!

677
00:57:42.710 --> 00:57:44.000
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Covenant. Kindness.

678
00:57:44.300 --> 00:57:45.980
R. David (he/him(): Sadness. What else?

679
00:57:49.490 --> 00:57:50.650
R. David (he/him(): Covenant.

680
00:57:52.180 --> 00:57:53.150
Joan Green: Connectedness.

681
00:57:53.790 --> 00:57:54.610
R. David (he/him(): Sorry?

682
00:57:55.300 --> 00:57:56.370
Joan Green: Connectedness.

683
00:57:56.370 --> 00:57:57.430
R. David (he/him(): Connected!

684
00:57:57.950 --> 00:57:59.359
Iris: Yeah, relationship.

685
00:57:59.360 --> 00:58:01.750
R. David (he/him(): Relationship, probably ancestry.

686
00:58:01.750 --> 00:58:02.470
R. Rachel: meant.

687
00:58:02.470 --> 00:58:04.799
R. David (he/him(): Commitment. For us.

688
00:58:04.860 --> 00:58:06.580
R. Rachel: Trust. Trust. Right.

689
00:58:06.580 --> 00:58:09.970
R. David (he/him(): Yup, yup, yup, yup, yup. Chauffeur Road.

690
00:58:10.990 --> 00:58:13.120
R. David (he/him(): This is probably hardest to give.

691
00:58:13.120 --> 00:58:13.480
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Hmm.

692
00:58:13.480 --> 00:58:17.430
R. David (he/him(): emotion to. It's probably just raw, naked…

693
00:58:17.640 --> 00:58:19.000
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Expansion.

694
00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:19.870
R. David (he/him(): Okay.

695
00:58:21.070 --> 00:58:23.940
R. David (he/him(): Let's see if those images go.

696
00:58:31.180 --> 00:58:32.550
R. David (he/him(): Here's the idea.

697
00:58:33.340 --> 00:58:34.809
R. David (he/him(): About a scent.

698
00:58:35.440 --> 00:58:37.469
R. David (he/him(): And this comes out of Zohar.

699
00:58:37.790 --> 00:58:40.700
R. David (he/him(): When people turn from their wrongdoings.

700
00:58:41.020 --> 00:58:43.129
R. David (he/him(): When we clean up our schmutz.

701
00:58:43.880 --> 00:58:48.040
R. David (he/him(): We must sound the voice of the shofar below on Earth.

702
00:58:49.650 --> 00:58:53.729
R. David (he/him(): And the voice of that shofar is imagined to ascend

703
00:58:54.730 --> 00:58:58.920
R. David (he/him(): So that the other shofar above awakens.

704
00:59:00.780 --> 00:59:03.300
R. David (he/him(): What? What other shofar?

705
00:59:04.240 --> 00:59:09.420
R. David (he/him(): Is it… what other shofar? I mean, I'm… I'm gonna go…

706
00:59:09.900 --> 00:59:12.369
R. David (he/him(): On day 2, what other shofar, Sherrill?

707
00:59:12.660 --> 00:59:14.389
Sherrill Cropper: As above, so below.

708
00:59:14.570 --> 00:59:20.510
R. David (he/him(): As a blow, so above. As above, so below. So imagine that we blow shofar.

709
00:59:21.400 --> 00:59:26.150
R. David (he/him(): And what happens on the other side of the phone, of the phone connection?

710
00:59:28.050 --> 00:59:28.620
Joan Green: back.

711
00:59:29.720 --> 00:59:30.470
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

712
00:59:31.440 --> 00:59:37.349
R. David (he/him(): And… And the sacred blows a shofar that we hear, and that's the resonance.

713
00:59:37.890 --> 00:59:40.390
R. David (he/him(): And it evokes compassion.

714
00:59:40.830 --> 00:59:42.520
R. David (he/him(): Rather than judgment.

715
00:59:43.590 --> 00:59:50.019
R. Rachel: So this is one of the valences of the throne that we talked about last week with Unatana Tokaf.

716
00:59:50.560 --> 00:59:56.980
R. Rachel: This idea of going before God's throne and our outpourings

717
00:59:57.100 --> 01:00:02.019
R. Rachel: Shifting God from the throne of judgment to the throne of mercy.

718
01:00:02.680 --> 01:00:03.480
R. David (he/him(): doctrine.

719
01:00:04.200 --> 01:00:09.609
R. David (he/him(): That's the basic doctrine. So when you have written in the chat box, or maybe felt within yourself.

720
01:00:09.840 --> 01:00:15.520
R. David (he/him(): This feels judgy, this feels overpowering, this feels foreboding.

721
01:00:17.040 --> 01:00:21.220
R. David (he/him(): The invitation is to notice that impulse.

722
01:00:21.820 --> 01:00:26.419
R. David (he/him(): And participate in shifting the image.

723
01:00:27.290 --> 01:00:41.379
R. David (he/him(): participate in shifting the image, because the divinity of Judaism ultimately is a divinity of love. It is the shepherd that receives the… some of us don't love the whole sheep thing.

724
01:00:41.600 --> 01:00:44.039
R. David (he/him(): But receives us in love.

725
01:00:44.670 --> 01:00:48.880
R. David (he/him(): We're gonna be forgiven. We gotta do the work.

726
01:00:50.510 --> 01:01:00.419
R. David (he/him(): It's a call toward. It's not a push from, it's a call toward. So we get to participate in shifting how we feel about the image.

727
01:01:04.170 --> 01:01:05.530
R. David (he/him(): Mahal Yut.

728
01:01:05.640 --> 01:01:08.919
R. David (he/him(): Z Coronote is gonna come in a moment.

729
01:01:11.080 --> 01:01:20.250
R. David (he/him(): We'll leave this to later, it's pretty much saying the same thing. God shifts. We imagine that God shifts. Let's do Zichwanot, just to save time.

730
01:01:20.250 --> 01:01:24.599
R. Rachel: So, Zhronaut is our second piece of the Shelfar service.

731
01:01:24.790 --> 01:01:29.590
R. Rachel: And in the traditional Maksar, it says, I will remember my covenant.

732
01:01:30.220 --> 01:01:36.529
R. Rachel: with Yalkov, and with Yitzhach, and with Avraham, I will remember, and the land I will remember.

733
01:01:37.300 --> 01:01:39.369
R. Rachel: There's a 3-part move here.

734
01:01:39.740 --> 01:01:44.420
R. Rachel: We're asking God to remember the covenant, which means remembering us

735
01:01:45.390 --> 01:01:49.519
R. Rachel: Which means, remember that we are human beings with broken hearts.

736
01:01:51.000 --> 01:01:56.219
R. Rachel: And we have a lovely little passage down here that says, the matter of blowing shofar is like a broken heart.

737
01:01:57.130 --> 01:01:59.889
R. Rachel: When you listen, that's one of the things you can hear in it.

738
01:02:00.300 --> 01:02:05.769
R. Rachel: Moaning, wailing, like sick people moan, or like one wails over one's dead.

739
01:02:08.730 --> 01:02:14.949
R. Rachel: But behold, one is purified by the breaking of one's heart. This is a very, very old Jewish teaching.

740
01:02:15.360 --> 01:02:19.789
R. Rachel: That a clay vessel becomes pure when it is broken and glued back together.

741
01:02:20.210 --> 01:02:24.999
R. Rachel: And that the human heart becomes, in some way, Or pure again.

742
01:02:25.340 --> 01:02:27.440
R. Rachel: Would we allow our hearts to break?

743
01:02:29.270 --> 01:02:34.270
R. Rachel: And earlier, when we said, what does the covenant make you think of? Someone said sadness.

744
01:02:34.950 --> 01:02:39.409
R. Rachel: And I thought of this, right? Sadness that we haven't always lived up to our end of things.

745
01:02:40.160 --> 01:02:43.469
R. Rachel: Maybe sadness that God hasn't always lived up to their end either.

746
01:02:45.640 --> 01:02:47.970
R. Rachel: So all of that is built into Zhronote.

747
01:02:47.970 --> 01:02:51.200
R. David (he/him(): How many of us have heard the shofar blast?

748
01:02:51.560 --> 01:02:54.550
R. David (he/him(): felt… Brokenhearted.

749
01:02:59.710 --> 01:03:01.660
R. David (he/him(): Or inchoately sad.

750
01:03:01.990 --> 01:03:05.240
R. David (he/him(): It isn't… it isn't all happy-happy, right?

751
01:03:05.930 --> 01:03:12.080
R. David (he/him(): Had anyone heard the old Carly Simon song with the line, there's more room in a broken heart?

752
01:03:13.240 --> 01:03:15.500
R. David (he/him(): Turns out to be Rabb Nachman of Breslov.

753
01:03:17.010 --> 01:03:17.540
Donna: Hmm.

754
01:03:18.420 --> 01:03:19.199
R. David (he/him(): But it's true.

755
01:03:19.520 --> 01:03:29.530
R. David (he/him(): And so part of the wailing of the shofar is about Remembering that brokenness And our frailties

756
01:03:30.270 --> 01:03:33.260
R. David (he/him(): Can actually make more space to become whole.

757
01:03:36.860 --> 01:03:40.030
R. David (he/him(): Our frail duties make space to become a home.

758
01:03:40.210 --> 01:03:45.160
R. Rachel: I'm seeing in the chat that a broken heart is like the broken tablets placed in the ark.

759
01:03:45.700 --> 01:03:53.670
R. Rachel: Absolutely, Ellen Ruth, thank you for that. Right, there's a story that's… remember, Moshe broke the first set of tablets in despair?

760
01:03:54.420 --> 01:03:57.029
R. Rachel: But they saved them, they didn't throw them away.

761
01:03:58.930 --> 01:04:00.930
R. Rachel: Even our broken pieces.

762
01:04:01.440 --> 01:04:04.619
R. Rachel: We can save, we can hold onto, we can carry with us.

763
01:04:05.010 --> 01:04:06.910
R. Rachel: Into whatever the next year will be.

764
01:04:07.720 --> 01:04:11.450
R. Rachel: Which gets real deep real fast. A little brokenhearted is what it is to be human.

765
01:04:12.400 --> 01:04:13.450
R. David (he/him(): Especially now.

766
01:04:13.570 --> 01:04:16.810
R. David (he/him(): By the way, how many of y'all, how many of us.

767
01:04:17.330 --> 01:04:19.590
R. David (he/him(): have not been on speaking terms with God.

768
01:04:19.900 --> 01:04:22.230
R. David (he/him(): How many of us have sometimes

769
01:04:22.540 --> 01:04:24.200
R. David (he/him(): Had a little fight with God.

770
01:04:26.090 --> 01:04:30.569
R. David (he/him(): You don't have to raise your hand. If you're human, the odds are pretty good.

771
01:04:31.000 --> 01:04:33.310
R. David (he/him(): That your answer is yes.

772
01:04:33.470 --> 01:04:38.559
R. David (he/him(): Zichranot, remembering the covenant, is… and yet we're still in it.

773
01:04:40.920 --> 01:04:43.160
R. David (he/him(): Judaism is pretty honest.

774
01:04:43.790 --> 01:04:45.880
R. David (he/him(): I love that about our tradition.

775
01:04:46.830 --> 01:04:52.119
R. Rachel: We can be really mad at God and still be in relationship. Ask me how I know.

776
01:04:52.560 --> 01:04:54.119
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Well, that is a relationship.

777
01:04:54.930 --> 01:04:55.630
R. Rachel: True.

778
01:04:55.980 --> 01:04:59.859
R. David (he/him(): Right. So here come these whales.

779
01:05:01.050 --> 01:05:03.029
R. David (he/him(): It's literally called Shivarim.

780
01:05:03.330 --> 01:05:04.640
R. David (he/him(): Shattered.

781
01:05:09.310 --> 01:05:15.640
R. David (he/him(): Our hearts, our relationships, Our egos. Oh, we thought we were all that.

782
01:05:16.380 --> 01:05:18.569
R. David (he/him(): We have some cleaning up to do.

783
01:05:19.170 --> 01:05:23.370
R. David (he/him(): All of these images are finding their way in.

784
01:05:24.630 --> 01:05:29.119
R. Rachel: Here's one of the big images that will come to us over Rosh Hashanah.

785
01:05:29.410 --> 01:05:31.439
R. Rachel: This is from Midrashtan Kuma.

786
01:05:31.800 --> 01:05:36.770
R. Rachel: Where Avraham says to God, you know, when you told me to sacrifice Yitzchak, my son.

787
01:05:37.490 --> 01:05:45.419
R. Rachel: I was gonna remind you, you told me yesterday that in him would be my legacy, but I… I held back, and I didn't argue with you.

788
01:05:45.670 --> 01:05:54.239
R. Rachel: So now, Abraham says, When Yitzcock's descendants sin amidst oppression, When we miss the mark.

789
01:05:54.850 --> 01:06:03.509
R. Rachel: Let the binding of Yitzkak be your remembrance. God, remember this terrible story we tell every day on the second day of Rosh Hashanah.

790
01:06:03.790 --> 01:06:08.939
R. Rachel: Where Abraham takes his son up a mountain and ties him, and is about to slaughter him.

791
01:06:09.650 --> 01:06:15.550
R. Rachel: And in this story, he's saying, alright, God, so imagine that as though it had really happened, and forgive

792
01:06:16.020 --> 01:06:17.360
R. Rachel: our descendants.

793
01:06:18.460 --> 01:06:22.040
R. Rachel: And God says in response, okay, you had a turn, now it's my turn.

794
01:06:22.650 --> 01:06:26.319
R. Rachel: I know that in the future, Yitzhak's descendants will screw up.

795
01:06:27.060 --> 01:06:33.310
R. Rachel: If they want me to find something to their credit, And remember, for their advantage.

796
01:06:34.050 --> 01:06:36.730
R. Rachel: Yutak went through, let them blow this shofar!

797
01:06:37.190 --> 01:06:40.089
R. Rachel: So God says, blow the shofar, and I will remember

798
01:06:40.470 --> 01:06:42.930
R. Rachel: To see you guys from the side of mercy.

799
01:06:43.600 --> 01:06:46.680
R. Rachel: And Avraham says, what shofar? And God says, turn around.

800
01:06:47.780 --> 01:06:51.139
R. Rachel: And he turns around, and there's the ram caught in the thicket.

801
01:06:52.430 --> 01:06:57.810
R. Rachel: Which is the moment in the story of the binding of Isaac, when we realize that Isaac is gonna survive this.

802
01:06:58.370 --> 01:06:59.859
R. Rachel: Because here's the ram.

803
01:07:00.190 --> 01:07:03.089
R. Rachel: And of course, the shofar that we blow now

804
01:07:04.150 --> 01:07:08.139
R. Rachel: Either represents, or in some way mystically is.

805
01:07:08.520 --> 01:07:12.719
R. Rachel: The horn of that ram who got caught, who saved its hawk.

806
01:07:13.270 --> 01:07:14.420
R. Rachel: In the time before time.

807
01:07:15.230 --> 01:07:27.759
R. David (he/him(): For those of you who have learned Midrash with us, this is classical Midrash. This is the sacred storytelling tradition that fills in… you know, this dialogue doesn't appear in Torah, but

808
01:07:28.630 --> 01:07:32.919
R. David (he/him(): it happens at the end that all those words of Torah come back.

809
01:07:33.260 --> 01:07:50.279
R. David (he/him(): And Abraham lifts his eyes and looks and hears a ram. And his ram horns are caught in the thicket, and we read that. And Abraham goes and gets the raham and sacrifices it instead of Isaac, and that's where we get the shofar from.

810
01:07:51.840 --> 01:07:53.960
R. David (he/him(): Why do we care about this?

811
01:07:54.670 --> 01:07:57.499
R. Rachel: Why is this an image we're calling to mind?

812
01:07:57.860 --> 01:07:59.210
R. David (he/him(): Maybe because of this.

813
01:08:00.640 --> 01:08:07.080
R. Rachel: Here you have 3 famous Classical paintings of… The Binding of Isaac.

814
01:08:09.220 --> 01:08:10.110
Donna: Beautiful.

815
01:08:12.130 --> 01:08:16.870
R. Rachel: And the questions that these bring up for me, and that the sound of the shofar brings up for me.

816
01:08:17.399 --> 01:08:19.749
R. Rachel: One, how does it feel to be bound?

817
01:08:20.329 --> 01:08:26.459
R. Rachel: How does it feel to be stuck, to be constricted, to be… Trapped in something.

818
01:08:27.499 --> 01:08:32.209
R. Rachel: Take a moment and imagine a time when you have felt really trapped, tied up.

819
01:08:32.839 --> 01:08:35.369
R. Rachel: There's just nothing you can do, you are stuck.

820
01:08:36.709 --> 01:08:38.229
R. Rachel: Clench your body.

821
01:08:38.809 --> 01:08:45.049
R. Rachel: In that feeling of stuckness, of being bound, of being constrained, remember what that feels like?

822
01:08:46.699 --> 01:08:47.799
R. Rachel: And then let go.

823
01:08:48.759 --> 01:08:52.939
R. Rachel: And remember of what it feels like to not be bound anymore.

824
01:08:54.089 --> 01:08:55.959
R. David (he/him(): Participate in the image, everyone.

825
01:08:55.960 --> 01:08:56.760
R. Rachel: cassover?

826
01:08:57.000 --> 01:08:58.109
R. David (he/him(): Participate.

827
01:08:58.310 --> 01:09:00.780
R. Rachel: This is the journey of our spiritual year.

828
01:09:01.270 --> 01:09:04.600
R. Rachel: This is the journey that the sound of the shofar evokes.

829
01:09:05.840 --> 01:09:09.500
R. Rachel: being bound like Isaac at the top of the mountain.

830
01:09:10.240 --> 01:09:15.540
R. Rachel: And then being miraculously against all odds. We don't know how it happened.

831
01:09:16.020 --> 01:09:16.899
R. Rachel: Released.

832
01:09:18.550 --> 01:09:19.929
R. Rachel: And we live another day.

833
01:09:23.450 --> 01:09:30.460
R. David (he/him(): How many of you are able to feel in your body Imaginate yourself.

834
01:09:31.859 --> 01:09:32.720
R. David (he/him(): Right?

835
01:09:33.229 --> 01:09:43.330
R. David (he/him(): into feeling bound. It doesn't have to be tied up on an altar, it doesn't need to be at God's command, it's not about that. It's about feeling stuck, freighted.

836
01:09:44.890 --> 01:09:49.299
R. Rachel: Hey, please… Do this imagining in a way that is safe for you.

837
01:09:49.300 --> 01:09:49.640
R. David (he/him(): for you.

838
01:09:49.640 --> 01:09:52.750
R. Rachel: A1 is… Feeling activated.

839
01:09:52.750 --> 01:09:54.290
R. David (he/him(): And stay with us.

840
01:09:54.290 --> 01:09:55.499
R. Rachel: Then don't do that.

841
01:09:55.500 --> 01:09:55.970
R. David (he/him(): Go do it.

842
01:09:56.620 --> 01:09:58.199
R. David (he/him(): Don't do it, absolutely not.

843
01:09:58.870 --> 01:10:05.909
R. David (he/him(): move into the image in the way that works for you. Everyone has a feeling of what it feels like to be stuck.

844
01:10:06.930 --> 01:10:15.759
R. David (he/him(): The move is our schmutz, our missteps, our broken relationships, our broken promises.

845
01:10:17.890 --> 01:10:20.010
R. David (he/him(): Are those ties that bind?

846
01:10:20.210 --> 01:10:21.780
R. David (he/him(): And not in the way that we want.

847
01:10:21.780 --> 01:10:23.169
R. Rachel: Not in a good way, right?

848
01:10:23.170 --> 01:10:26.940
R. David (he/him(): Right, right, right. So… Now release.

849
01:10:29.950 --> 01:10:33.920
R. David (he/him(): What is that? I'm watching if you actually exhale.

850
01:10:36.370 --> 01:10:37.030
R. David (he/him(): Right?

851
01:10:40.390 --> 01:10:45.340
R. Rachel: So when we hear the binding of Isaac this year, when we hear the shofar this year.

852
01:10:48.650 --> 01:10:51.260
R. Rachel: This is the button that is meant to be pushed.

853
01:10:51.580 --> 01:10:54.599
R. David (he/him(): That's what this is. The tight and the let go.

854
01:10:54.850 --> 01:10:58.590
R. David (he/him(): The tight and the let go, because we need to learn

855
01:10:58.870 --> 01:11:03.899
R. David (he/him(): Let go again, because we've been holding on so tight, and

856
01:11:04.760 --> 01:11:09.590
R. David (he/him(): Anyone really like being bound up by our schmutz and our yuckies?

857
01:11:10.360 --> 01:11:11.160
R. David (he/him(): No.

858
01:11:11.890 --> 01:11:14.269
R. David (he/him(): It's not so easy just to let it go.

859
01:11:14.480 --> 01:11:16.940
R. David (he/him(): We actually have to do the work to clean it up.

860
01:11:17.090 --> 01:11:20.379
R. David (he/him(): But… We need the collective image

861
01:11:20.750 --> 01:11:24.930
R. David (he/him(): The experience of sometimes our body's wisdom

862
01:11:25.410 --> 01:11:29.769
R. David (he/him(): cueing us, oh yeah, I actually can do this. I actually can let go.

863
01:11:30.070 --> 01:11:39.990
R. David (he/him(): Oh, it actually feels good to release. Wouldn't it be great if I went and made that happen with this person, or my self-judgment, or whatever it might be?

864
01:11:40.890 --> 01:11:44.120
R. David (he/him(): The image is trying to get us to do that.

865
01:11:44.450 --> 01:11:50.880
R. David (he/him(): And so is the Torah story, and so is the chauffeur sound. And so are these images.

866
01:11:51.940 --> 01:11:59.869
R. Rachel: Yeah, Elma's noting in the chat, that's the laughter some of us have at the end of that long shofar blast, is a feeling of cathartic release.

867
01:12:00.060 --> 01:12:00.590
R. David (he/him(): Yes.

868
01:12:00.750 --> 01:12:01.470
R. David (he/him(): Yes.

869
01:12:01.700 --> 01:12:02.590
R. David (he/him(): Yes.

870
01:12:03.850 --> 01:12:05.690
R. David (he/him(): Absolutely, Elma, very good.

871
01:12:06.080 --> 01:12:15.859
R. David (he/him(): It isn't just laughing at whoever can hold the note the longest. It's something more, right? And, you know, and it's a joke, but it's no joke, right? It's this… it's this…

872
01:12:15.990 --> 01:12:23.150
R. Rachel: In the same way that bodywork, therapeutic body work, getting a massage, can lead to laughing and crying.

873
01:12:23.580 --> 01:12:32.110
R. Rachel: For no apparent reason, Because the… because stuff gets locked up in us, in our fascia, in our tissues.

874
01:12:32.350 --> 01:12:37.979
R. Rachel: And… With the right kind of vibration, It all comes bubbling out.

875
01:12:39.600 --> 01:12:45.260
R. Rachel: Chauffar is a kind of… oral massage, in a way, right? The sounds.

876
01:12:45.260 --> 01:12:46.150
R. David (he/him(): about that.

877
01:12:46.420 --> 01:12:49.020
R. Rachel: Doing something in us, physically.

878
01:12:49.020 --> 01:12:49.940
R. David (he/him(): I love that.

879
01:12:50.980 --> 01:12:59.499
R. David (he/him(): Is there anything that wants to be said here, or asked here? Because we're going to move from Malchut, Zichranot, and then the last one.

880
01:13:00.800 --> 01:13:01.200
Joan Green: I…

881
01:13:01.200 --> 01:13:01.560
R. David (he/him(): shown.

882
01:13:01.770 --> 01:13:09.240
Joan Green: I wonder… What that poor child, had… in his…

883
01:13:09.480 --> 01:13:11.600
Joan Green: Backpack for the rest of his life.

884
01:13:12.700 --> 01:13:16.609
R. Rachel: There is a lot of midrush that asks exactly that question.

885
01:13:17.040 --> 01:13:24.480
R. Rachel: What did this experience do to Isaac, and how did it shape him, and what did he carry with him for the rest of his days?

886
01:13:24.870 --> 01:13:30.490
R. Rachel: And you will be maybe not surprised to know that the Madrasic tradition has at least 30 different theories.

887
01:13:31.160 --> 01:13:32.909
Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Including positive ones.

888
01:13:32.910 --> 01:13:37.370
R. Rachel: Yeah, no, some of them are… some of them are beautiful, and some of them are terrible, and it's all the.

889
01:13:37.370 --> 01:13:38.740
Elizabeth Yalkut: Only 30?

890
01:13:39.060 --> 01:13:41.200
R. Rachel: Oh, here, alright, probably more than 30.

891
01:13:42.200 --> 01:13:46.389
R. Rachel: Gotta be at least 40, which is rabbinic for lots.

892
01:13:47.650 --> 01:13:48.340
R. David (he/him(): Sherrill.

893
01:13:52.760 --> 01:13:57.999
Sherrill Cropper: I can only take this section about Isaac.

894
01:13:58.380 --> 01:13:59.420
Sherrill Cropper: The binding.

895
01:14:00.880 --> 01:14:02.290
Sherrill Cropper: Not literally.

896
01:14:03.360 --> 01:14:06.110
Sherrill Cropper: because… Literally.

897
01:14:07.780 --> 01:14:12.679
Sherrill Cropper: This is the kind of thing that turned me away from Judaism earlier.

898
01:14:13.970 --> 01:14:20.960
Sherrill Cropper: This was not my understanding of a divine Anything?

899
01:14:22.360 --> 01:14:23.590
Sherrill Cropper: And…

900
01:14:23.590 --> 01:14:24.530
R. Rachel: Shamati.

901
01:14:25.260 --> 01:14:31.700
Sherrill Cropper: Yeah, only by… Some years now of studying, Harsha.

902
01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:35.969
Sherrill Cropper: from different… looking at it from different ways. Am I…

903
01:14:36.280 --> 01:14:41.770
Sherrill Cropper: Even watching it now, I get, like, a catching in my throat, and I have to move my…

904
01:14:41.770 --> 01:14:42.310
R. Rachel: So…

905
01:14:42.750 --> 01:14:48.210
Sherrill Cropper: heart, I have to shift it to find the alternate understanding.

906
01:14:48.640 --> 01:14:56.269
R. Rachel: In both of our shuls, on second day Yom Kippur, there will be some kind of Torah study or discussion of this passage.

907
01:14:56.710 --> 01:15:02.610
R. Rachel: And I want to say, this passage could itself be all 7 weeks of our runway to the high holidays.

908
01:15:02.950 --> 01:15:12.489
R. Rachel: Right? There's so much here, and so much… so many ways it can… places it can take us, and I'm gonna invite us to resist the temptation to…

909
01:15:12.490 --> 01:15:13.050
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

910
01:15:13.120 --> 01:15:19.590
R. Rachel: To go too far in that direction, but this is a story that… Pushes a lot of buttons.

911
01:15:19.960 --> 01:15:22.240
R. Rachel: It installed some of the buttons.

912
01:15:22.240 --> 01:15:36.489
R. David (he/him(): Yeah, participate in the image, sometimes by shifting it. This is not necessarily a story about a divine reward and punishment. It can be metaphorical for how does it feel to be tied up.

913
01:15:37.180 --> 01:15:38.969
R. David (he/him(): How does it feel to be stuck?

914
01:15:39.090 --> 01:15:40.509
R. David (he/him(): How does it feel?

915
01:15:42.100 --> 01:15:43.650
R. David (he/him(): Insert your own.

916
01:15:43.870 --> 01:15:46.359
R. David (he/him(): And then… the release.

917
01:15:46.560 --> 01:15:59.830
R. David (he/him(): We do the same thing with Tashlik, we do the same thing with the shofar. We do the same thing with the goats, the scapegoat that we send out on Yom Kippur, stay tuned. It's the same move!

918
01:16:01.050 --> 01:16:08.490
R. Rachel: Because the sages of our tradition knew that not everybody learns, or grows, or experiences in the same way.

919
01:16:08.590 --> 01:16:19.720
R. Rachel: And, you know, some of us are kinetic learners, some of us are more intellectual, some of… right? We learn in different modalities, and so our tradition helps us make this move over and over.

920
01:16:20.670 --> 01:16:22.769
R. David (he/him(): Ellen Ruth, and then we'll do Chauffeur Road.

921
01:16:29.370 --> 01:16:34.859
Ellen Ruth Topol: I'm wondering about the idea of ancestral trauma.

922
01:16:34.960 --> 01:16:39.740
Ellen Ruth Topol: And how what happened with Isaac impacts on us.

923
01:16:40.280 --> 01:16:45.470
R. Rachel: Absolutely. That's a huge, deep… Question, and it's very real.

924
01:16:46.830 --> 01:16:48.329
R. David (he/him(): So what do we do with it?

925
01:16:49.290 --> 01:16:55.090
R. David (he/him(): Well, if these images are inviting us in.

926
01:16:56.410 --> 01:16:59.839
R. David (he/him(): We can remember that we've all inherited

927
01:17:00.090 --> 01:17:03.440
R. David (he/him(): A whole… a whole book of images.

928
01:17:03.600 --> 01:17:08.939
R. David (he/him(): We actually started today talking about how the visual cortex is not neutral.

929
01:17:09.490 --> 01:17:13.730
R. David (he/him(): Because it has these images, built in.

930
01:17:14.590 --> 01:17:23.649
R. David (he/him(): Whether because we're human, or because we've heard these stories, or because we've had experiences, and the mind remembers them, and so the eye, so to speak, is not neutral.

931
01:17:25.540 --> 01:17:30.509
R. David (he/him(): Right? The I… the eye with the… you have both senses of the word.

932
01:17:31.700 --> 01:17:41.920
R. David (he/him(): So part of our work in this era of Judaism might be releasing, naming and releasing some of our ancestral trauma. So here it is, everybody!

933
01:17:43.010 --> 01:17:47.130
R. David (he/him(): There it is, staring us straight in the hem eye.

934
01:17:49.130 --> 01:17:52.710
R. David (he/him(): And the story doesn't end with being tied up.

935
01:17:52.890 --> 01:17:55.240
R. David (he/him(): It ends with being released.

936
01:17:58.030 --> 01:18:01.440
R. Rachel: Which is what the journey of the high holidays are for.

937
01:18:01.760 --> 01:18:04.020
R. David (he/him(): Right, so to be continued on that one.

938
01:18:04.020 --> 01:18:05.680
R. Rachel: deeper into Yom Kippur.

939
01:18:06.620 --> 01:18:08.809
R. David (he/him(): So… Chauffeur wrote.

940
01:18:10.240 --> 01:18:14.850
R. David (he/him(): Shauffa wrote, is the culmination.

941
01:18:15.160 --> 01:18:18.570
R. David (he/him(): It's the experience of standing at Sinai.

942
01:18:21.670 --> 01:18:27.730
R. David (he/him(): And the Machser… The tradition invokes Exodus 20.

943
01:18:29.610 --> 01:18:35.930
R. David (he/him(): Which is… The encounter at Sinai that includes the Ten Commandments.

944
01:18:36.460 --> 01:18:40.540
R. David (he/him(): The sound of the shofar became increasingly louder.

945
01:18:41.130 --> 01:18:43.930
R. David (he/him(): The sound of the shofar.

946
01:18:44.220 --> 01:18:48.889
R. David (he/him(): at Sinai, who was blowing shofar? None of the people.

947
01:18:50.070 --> 01:18:53.840
R. David (he/him(): Moshe spoke, and God answered him in a voice.

948
01:18:54.680 --> 01:19:00.039
R. David (he/him(): And the next thing we know is the Ten Commandments. And all the people saw the sounds.

949
01:19:01.170 --> 01:19:10.299
R. David (he/him(): They had synesthesia. Their mind-heart got scrambled. They saw the sounds.

950
01:19:10.870 --> 01:19:22.049
R. David (he/him(): The etazopidim, and the lightning, the flames, and they… and we saw the sound of the shofar, and the mountains smoking, and the people saw and were shaken, and stood from afar.

951
01:19:26.730 --> 01:19:29.800
R. David (he/him(): Why is this image here?

952
01:19:30.380 --> 01:19:33.450
R. David (he/him(): What is it trying to get us to do and feel?

953
01:19:33.560 --> 01:19:36.039
R. David (he/him(): You're designing a religion from scratch.

954
01:19:36.290 --> 01:19:38.100
R. David (he/him(): What purpose does this serve?

955
01:19:39.090 --> 01:19:44.910
R. David (he/him(): Other than Jewish Greatest Hits. What is this doing for us? What might it do for us? Tell me.

956
01:19:45.070 --> 01:19:47.450
R. David (he/him(): Make it up. You will be correct.

957
01:19:48.970 --> 01:19:50.499
R. David (he/him(): Why is this here?

958
01:19:51.390 --> 01:19:53.280
R. David (he/him(): What is this trying to get us to feel?

959
01:19:54.880 --> 01:19:56.040
R. David (he/him(): What do you feel?

960
01:20:01.460 --> 01:20:02.320
R. David (he/him(): Iris.

961
01:20:03.120 --> 01:20:04.660
Iris: There's so much to feel.

962
01:20:05.340 --> 01:20:05.780
R. David (he/him(): Yes.

963
01:20:05.780 --> 01:20:23.620
Iris: The energy of what's happening with all the synesthesia and shofar, it's a very powerful energy, so I think that is a way of waking us up as well, and

964
01:20:23.710 --> 01:20:30.549
Iris: Giving a path for connection through that energy that we each can take in and…

965
01:20:30.840 --> 01:20:34.460
Iris: That whole, you know, the flow of it.

966
01:20:35.590 --> 01:20:36.850
Iris: So, that's one.

967
01:20:37.230 --> 01:20:38.670
R. David (he/him(): Yeah, that's one. Susan.

968
01:20:39.500 --> 01:20:42.260
Susan Phillips: Yeah, vibrational resonance.

969
01:20:42.870 --> 01:20:46.060
Susan Phillips: To feel it all through your body, yeah.

970
01:20:46.060 --> 01:20:46.760
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

971
01:20:47.030 --> 01:20:47.770
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

972
01:20:48.140 --> 01:20:48.860
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

973
01:20:51.170 --> 01:20:58.869
R. David (he/him(): The senses are scrambled. The mind cannot mind.

974
01:20:59.830 --> 01:21:10.400
R. David (he/him(): We can't brain our way through this. We are so taken with it, this is the ideal, that…

975
01:21:10.750 --> 01:21:14.160
R. David (he/him(): our thoughts… Release.

976
01:21:14.830 --> 01:21:23.009
R. David (he/him(): And we are just raw, our naked souls, experiencing the fullness of…

977
01:21:33.640 --> 01:21:35.620
R. David (he/him(): Ellen Ruth, and then Iris again.

978
01:21:35.970 --> 01:21:37.720
R. David (he/him(): And we have one more slide for today.

979
01:21:38.180 --> 01:21:42.619
Ellen Ruth Topol: It's shaking us out of our ordinaryness.

980
01:21:43.010 --> 01:21:43.730
R. David (he/him(): Yes, sir.

981
01:21:43.730 --> 01:21:46.449
Ellen Ruth Topol: This ain't an ordinary day.

982
01:21:46.760 --> 01:21:50.950
Ellen Ruth Topol: That's right. And I wonder if it also…

983
01:21:51.320 --> 01:22:02.050
Ellen Ruth Topol: is… has something to do with the cells in our body that are kind of being readjusted. And then I'm also thinking about the right and left hemisphere.

984
01:22:02.630 --> 01:22:04.120
Ellen Ruth Topol: Of our brain.

985
01:22:04.600 --> 01:22:06.140
R. David (he/him(): This is not a lockout.

986
01:22:06.140 --> 01:22:13.419
Ellen Ruth Topol: That weren't there before that are helping us engage with the hire.

987
01:22:16.980 --> 01:22:17.700
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

988
01:22:19.040 --> 01:22:22.399
R. David (he/him(): That's right. We can't intellectualize this.

989
01:22:23.560 --> 01:22:31.239
R. David (he/him(): Any effort to do so is bound to… well, I won't say fail, because we can think our way into any boxes we want.

990
01:22:33.020 --> 01:22:36.549
R. David (he/him(): The idea is to lose that.

991
01:22:36.830 --> 01:22:44.049
R. David (he/him(): To let it be… Yeah. Iris, and then one more idea.

992
01:22:44.050 --> 01:22:44.900
R. Rachel: Last slide.

993
01:22:44.900 --> 01:22:46.659
Iris: So, thank you. This is…

994
01:22:47.050 --> 01:23:02.049
Iris: Someone I know has kind of helped to remember, helped us remember what remember can mean. So in this situation, it's re-membering, like reconfiguring, re-feeling connected.

995
01:23:02.420 --> 01:23:03.130
R. David (he/him(): Yes.

996
01:23:04.120 --> 01:23:07.929
R. David (he/him(): And we saw that last time, that religion…

997
01:23:08.250 --> 01:23:08.920
Iris: Oh, yeah.

998
01:23:08.920 --> 01:23:11.859
R. David (he/him(): ligate, reconnect. Right.

999
01:23:12.140 --> 01:23:14.709
R. David (he/him(): Would four people like to read this?

1000
01:23:15.090 --> 01:23:17.390
R. David (he/him(): This is a famous story.

1001
01:23:18.260 --> 01:23:25.979
R. David (he/him(): about the brokenness, the brokenheartedness that actually holds everything. Can four people, maybe, who haven't spoken much today.

1002
01:23:27.030 --> 01:23:28.880
R. David (he/him(): Choose to come forward and read.

1003
01:23:30.300 --> 01:23:37.420
David Green: Rabba'al Shem Tov told Rabbzev Kitsis to learn the secret meanings behind the shofar blasts.

1004
01:23:38.170 --> 01:23:42.530
David Green: For Rabbi Zeb was to be his shofar player on Rosh Hashanah.

1005
01:23:43.070 --> 01:23:48.949
David Green: Rabbi Zev learned the secret meanings, wrote them on a slip of paper to look at during the service.

1006
01:23:49.120 --> 01:23:50.799
David Green: And put it in his pocket.

1007
01:23:52.320 --> 01:23:59.599
Donna: When the time came to blow chauffeur, he searched everywhere for the slip of paper, but it was gone.

1008
01:23:59.630 --> 01:24:13.639
Donna: And he did not know on what meanings to focus. He was greatly saddened, broken-hearted, he wept bitter tears, and blew the chauffeur blots without concentrating on their secret meetings.

1009
01:24:14.390 --> 01:24:14.900
Jill and Meg: Okay.

1010
01:24:14.900 --> 01:24:15.850
Eliyahu Ner HaDarshan (Cincinnati, Ohio): That's the word, the best.

1011
01:24:16.450 --> 01:24:32.200
Jill and Meg: Afterward the Baal Shem Tov said to him, In the palace of the king are many rooms and apartments, and there are different keys for every lock, but the master key is the axe with which it is possible to open all the locks on all the gates.

1012
01:24:33.180 --> 01:24:38.550
Meredith J. Goldsmith: So it is with the shofar, the secret meanings are the keys.

1013
01:24:38.950 --> 01:24:54.889
Meredith J. Goldsmith: Every gate has its own meaning, but the master key is the broken heart. When a person truly breaks their heart before God, they can enter into all the gates of all the rooms of the Holy Blessed One.

1014
01:24:55.720 --> 01:25:01.680
R. David (he/him(): Elma writes in the chat box, this sounds like scream therapy.

1015
01:25:04.860 --> 01:25:07.799
R. David (he/him(): Okay, I can see that.

1016
01:25:08.760 --> 01:25:09.090
R. Rachel: Get it.

1017
01:25:09.090 --> 01:25:10.680
R. David (he/him(): What's the broken heart?

1018
01:25:11.170 --> 01:25:13.519
R. David (he/him(): And why does… why does… why is this an axe?

1019
01:25:17.170 --> 01:25:18.550
R. David (he/him(): BOOM!

1020
01:25:22.130 --> 01:25:22.900
R. David (he/him(): Joan.

1021
01:25:23.240 --> 01:25:24.550
Joan Green: receptive.

1022
01:25:24.850 --> 01:25:27.350
Joan Green: You're receptive when you're broken open.

1023
01:25:28.310 --> 01:25:29.590
Joan Green: It hurts.

1024
01:25:29.970 --> 01:25:36.930
R. David (he/him(): It can. It can. And frankly, that's one of the reasons for this series, so that…

1025
01:25:37.270 --> 01:25:41.970
R. David (he/him(): The journey between now and then should lber us up.

1026
01:25:42.380 --> 01:25:44.890
R. David (he/him(): And maybe it won't hurt so much.

1027
01:25:45.810 --> 01:25:47.169
R. Rachel: Open our hearts.

1028
01:25:49.390 --> 01:25:58.850
R. David (he/him(): There's vulnerability, yes, yes. Sherrill, last comment, and then we're gonna do a recap, and invite you into an exercise for next time.

1029
01:25:59.960 --> 01:26:04.460
Sherrill Cropper: I've been having a hard time with this whole broken heart.

1030
01:26:04.600 --> 01:26:06.280
Sherrill Cropper: idea. And…

1031
01:26:06.280 --> 01:26:06.890
R. David (he/him(): Okay.

1032
01:26:07.160 --> 01:26:08.910
Sherrill Cropper: It's… come to me.

1033
01:26:09.020 --> 01:26:14.520
Sherrill Cropper: I mean, obviously, you brought me to Kintsugi, but it's come to me that

1034
01:26:17.690 --> 01:26:20.889
Sherrill Cropper: We have to defend ourselves so well.

1035
01:26:21.240 --> 01:26:27.819
Sherrill Cropper: We have become so well defended internally because of external stuff.

1036
01:26:28.250 --> 01:26:28.880
R. David (he/him(): Yeah.

1037
01:26:28.880 --> 01:26:33.399
Sherrill Cropper: that it's… Back open, not break open.

1038
01:26:34.680 --> 01:26:39.280
Sherrill Cropper: Not broken-hearted, but… open-hearted.

1039
01:26:39.560 --> 01:26:40.369
R. David (he/him(): I love it.

1040
01:26:41.170 --> 01:26:41.930
R. David (he/him(): That's right.

1041
01:26:41.930 --> 01:26:47.230
Sherrill Cropper: And that feels better to me, like the… Safety pin.

1042
01:26:48.700 --> 01:26:51.250
Sherrill Cropper: It's kind of useless, and… and…

1043
01:26:51.400 --> 01:26:58.380
Sherrill Cropper: I get, I get it, I get what it is there, but I would prefer the gold kitsugi, you know?

1044
01:26:58.380 --> 01:27:01.940
R. David (he/him(): Make your change. Make your change. Change the industry.

1045
01:27:01.940 --> 01:27:03.850
R. Rachel: That image in your mind?

1046
01:27:04.300 --> 01:27:06.369
Sherrill Cropper: Yes, yes, and…

1047
01:27:10.300 --> 01:27:11.440
R. David (he/him(): Change the image.

1048
01:27:11.440 --> 01:27:21.579
Sherrill Cropper: It just feels like… We should be woken every day. It's kind of… Yes, we get this opportunity.

1049
01:27:22.060 --> 01:27:26.689
Sherrill Cropper: Yes. Like, it's Rosh Hashanah, and then…

1050
01:27:26.790 --> 01:27:29.730
Sherrill Cropper: You've got some time before Yom Kippur comes, but…

1051
01:27:29.860 --> 01:27:32.990
Sherrill Cropper: It's not very long, so you have to have the…

1052
01:27:33.260 --> 01:27:34.110
R. Rachel: Good.

1053
01:27:34.340 --> 01:27:37.989
Sherrill Cropper: Right. We have to turn our hearts, turn our minds.

1054
01:27:38.990 --> 01:27:43.829
R. Rachel: All of us in this room are to be spending these 7 weeks thinking about these things.

1055
01:27:44.120 --> 01:27:44.840
Donna: Hmm.

1056
01:27:45.040 --> 01:27:48.200
R. David (he/him(): It's home feel, it's not homework.

1057
01:27:48.200 --> 01:27:49.000
R. Rachel: things.

1058
01:27:49.000 --> 01:27:50.770
R. David (he/him(): Right? So, for some of us.

1059
01:27:51.310 --> 01:28:06.879
R. David (he/him(): Dealing with our schmutz really is an experience of brokenheartedness. Okay. For some of us, it's an experience of open-heartedness. For some people, the key just, yep, it opens, it's the time of year, great. Some of us need an axe.

1060
01:28:09.090 --> 01:28:13.020
R. Rachel: Some of us might find that it's different at different times.

1061
01:28:13.580 --> 01:28:20.729
R. Rachel: There have been times in my life when I've come to the high holidays and felt like my heart was literally in pieces on the floor.

1062
01:28:23.620 --> 01:28:25.680
R. Rachel: come to the high holidays feeling like…

1063
01:28:25.940 --> 01:28:30.739
R. Rachel: My heart has a nice little knob, and I can open the door, and it's easy, and nothing hurts.

1064
01:28:31.800 --> 01:28:33.990
R. Rachel: It's the same bee, it's the same heart.

1065
01:28:36.000 --> 01:28:39.470
R. Rachel: But it doesn't always feel in the same way.

1066
01:28:41.730 --> 01:28:48.449
R. David (he/him(): What I love about the images is that they speak to different people in different ways, recognizing that we are diverse.

1067
01:28:48.860 --> 01:28:51.389
R. David (he/him(): That this is describing a whole people.

1068
01:28:52.550 --> 01:29:02.320
R. David (he/him(): not just, you know, the images according to GARP, or the images according to Joan, or Cheryl, or Meg, or Linda, or Tenzin.

1069
01:29:02.450 --> 01:29:04.110
R. David (he/him(): Right, or rabbis.

1070
01:29:04.210 --> 01:29:04.990
R. David (he/him(): Right?

1071
01:29:07.130 --> 01:29:15.989
R. David (he/him(): These stories and the images are… they're normative in the respect that they carry these whole clusters of different meanings. You don't have to have all of them.

1072
01:29:16.200 --> 01:29:20.079
R. David (he/him(): The invitation is to experience some of them.

1073
01:29:21.300 --> 01:29:25.500
R. David (he/him(): Whether it's going to be the felt sense of awe and wonder.

1074
01:29:26.870 --> 01:29:29.050
R. David (he/him(): Or the felt sense of approach?

1075
01:29:29.440 --> 01:29:37.500
R. David (he/him(): Or the felt sense of the alarm? It's time for the alarm! Do this now! Wake up!

1076
01:29:37.800 --> 01:29:43.029
R. David (he/him(): Or the felt sense of being stuck? Or the felt sense of being released.

1077
01:29:43.370 --> 01:29:47.979
R. Rachel: The more we feel into these images.

1078
01:29:49.050 --> 01:29:56.250
R. David (he/him(): the more alive they will be, the more they'll be able to give us When we reach them.

1079
01:29:56.500 --> 01:30:01.240
R. David (he/him(): So, for the week ahead, Look at these images.

1080
01:30:04.250 --> 01:30:05.180
R. David (he/him(): Practice feeling.

1081
01:30:05.370 --> 01:30:09.020
R. Rachel: For next week. Our home feel, our opportunity.

1082
01:30:09.820 --> 01:30:11.820
R. Rachel: Couple of things. One of them is…

1083
01:30:12.380 --> 01:30:14.569
R. Rachel: Go back through the shofar images.

1084
01:30:15.010 --> 01:30:22.719
R. Rachel: The images of Malchuyot, of sovereignty, of the throne of mercy, of Zichrunot, remembering the covenant.

1085
01:30:23.700 --> 01:30:28.100
R. Rachel: Imagining being bound, imagining what it feels like to be let go.

1086
01:30:28.740 --> 01:30:35.429
R. Rachel: And Shofarot, Revelation, Sinai, And this thing about a broken or opened heart.

1087
01:30:36.620 --> 01:30:45.159
R. Rachel: There is another slide after this one that you'll see in the slide deck that has two short quotes that we think are powerful and beautiful. They look like this.

1088
01:30:45.340 --> 01:30:50.809
R. Rachel: Both from contemporary folks, please read them on your own time and see where they take you.

1089
01:30:51.960 --> 01:30:58.379
R. Rachel: Next time, we will begin by harvesting the imagery, this imagery.

1090
01:30:58.690 --> 01:31:01.189
R. Rachel: See where you are with it in a week.

1091
01:31:02.040 --> 01:31:05.260
R. Rachel: And then we're gonna spend next week on Avinu Malkinu.

1092
01:31:06.630 --> 01:31:15.520
R. Rachel: Both as we have received it in tradition, where does it come from, what does it do, how does it work, what are the images, what do they do on us?

1093
01:31:16.050 --> 01:31:17.469
R. Rachel: And then the question of.

1094
01:31:18.230 --> 01:31:24.800
R. Rachel: what it might look like to say it on Shabbat, and why normative Jewish tradition doesn't.

1095
01:31:25.650 --> 01:31:26.590
R. David (he/him(): What we do with that.

1096
01:31:26.590 --> 01:31:29.750
R. Rachel: Can we… what can we do with the images?

1097
01:31:30.060 --> 01:31:33.599
R. Rachel: To make this feel real for us in the ways that we need it to.

1098
01:31:54.600 --> 01:32:18.230
R. David (he/him(): I'm watching the looks on your faces. Already it feels different. We're gonna walk through the words, we're gonna walk through those

1099
01:32:18.230 --> 01:32:21.980
R. David (he/him(): images. A few of you just tiered Up.

1100
01:32:23.730 --> 01:32:32.029
R. David (he/him(): and all the associations we bring, the schmaltz, the… the whole thing. The whole thing.

1101
01:32:32.460 --> 01:32:32.970
R. Rachel: So…

1102
01:32:32.970 --> 01:32:34.690
R. David (he/him(): Thank you for being with us.

1103
01:32:35.010 --> 01:32:38.450
R. David (he/him(): We will stay on, as we often do.

1104
01:32:38.870 --> 01:32:43.800
R. David (he/him(): to talk about stuff that wants to be talked about.

1105
01:32:44.000 --> 01:32:45.230
R. Rachel: Whatever's in the room.

1106
01:32:45.940 --> 01:32:47.050
R. David (he/him(): Thank you for being with us.

1107
01:32:47.050 --> 01:32:48.220
R. Rachel: Being here, guys.

1108
01:32:48.440 --> 01:32:59.090
R. David (he/him(): And if anyone wants to talk about anything of these experiences privately with us, reach out to us! This is a very important time in our journey toward the high holidays.

1109
01:32:59.550 --> 01:33:01.810
R. David (he/him(): So, we're here for all of it.

1110
01:33:02.280 --> 01:33:07.349
R. David (he/him(): Please do. For now, we're going to say Happy Tuesday, everybody.

1111
01:33:07.660 --> 01:33:10.450
R. David (he/him(): And we'll stop the recording and stay on.