WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.810 --> 00:00:09.350 R. Rachel: Good evening, everyone, and Happy New Month of September! 2 00:00:09.430 --> 00:00:26.999 R. Rachel: Hard to believe that here we are, but here we are. Welcome to Worth A Thousand Words, Session 6. Tonight, we'll be doing a little bit of recap of last week, and then delving deep into the prayers of Yiskar, the memorial prayers. 3 00:00:27.020 --> 00:00:34.030 R. Rachel: That we might say 4 times a year, or that we might only associate with Yom Kippur, depending on… 4 00:00:34.180 --> 00:00:41.579 R. Rachel: what our own personal traditions have been. So today, here's our roadmap. We will begin with a quick recap of last week. 5 00:00:41.930 --> 00:00:53.670 R. Rachel: look at the images and the imaginal journey of the Avoda service, the afternoon service, in which we recount what the ancient high priest of old used to do on this day. 6 00:00:54.730 --> 00:01:02.650 R. Rachel: And we'll harvest some images, we'll talk a little bit about Teshuva, and then we will shift gears. Most of our class today will be about Yiskar. 7 00:01:03.010 --> 00:01:07.199 R. Rachel: And I'm really looking forward to seeing where that takes us. 8 00:01:07.410 --> 00:01:10.799 R. Rachel: And, where we deeply, most deeply need to go. 9 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:12.300 R. Rachel: So, with that… 10 00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:23.659 R. David (he/him): Yeah, so as we… as we go into Yisker, you're gonna see 3 pieces. We're not gonna do everything. What we're not gonna do is a Psalm that maybe many of us know from Psalm… 11 00:01:23.830 --> 00:01:32.500 R. David (he/him): 121. I'm S-I-N-I-L-Hare, I lift my eyes to the mountains. 12 00:01:32.710 --> 00:01:44.739 R. David (he/him): from where my help comes, from other night, maker of heaven and earth, and God, you know, the maker of Israel, neither slumbers nor sleeps. We're not going to focus on that, or other liturgies, but we easily could have. 13 00:01:45.250 --> 00:01:54.199 R. David (he/him): So we're going to be looking at two particular Psalms, the Cory Yiskra Liturgy and Elmale, which is something we say in the context of death. 14 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.529 R. David (he/him): I would invite us to offer up 15 00:02:00.690 --> 00:02:09.229 R. David (he/him): This blessing over our own nishamot, our own souls, And the souls… 16 00:02:09.330 --> 00:02:12.569 R. David (he/him): Of those who we are most likely to hold. 17 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:14.869 R. David (he/him): at the time of Yisker. 18 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:24.420 R. David (he/him): And we will see later on how those souls and the calling Of them stays with us. 19 00:02:27.450 --> 00:02:30.349 R. David (he/him): Baruch Atta Adonai Haullam. 20 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:38.079 R. David (he/him): Blessed are you, Adonai, our God. 21 00:02:38.230 --> 00:02:40.420 R. David (he/him): Sovereign of all time and space. 22 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:43.800 R. David (he/him): Who makes us holy in connecting command. 23 00:02:44.660 --> 00:02:49.030 R. David (he/him): and commands us to busy ourselves in words of Torah. 24 00:02:49.690 --> 00:02:50.150 R. Rachel: And they… 25 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:59.090 R. David (he/him): This day is the week before the week before Rosh Hashanah. We're coming all the way up here. 26 00:03:00.820 --> 00:03:06.070 R. David (he/him): Into the place of strength, into the place of boundaries. 27 00:03:07.010 --> 00:03:11.360 R. David (he/him): On our way to love, and being created anew at Rosh Hashanah. 28 00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:14.280 R. David (he/him): So with that, please open your heart. 29 00:03:15.570 --> 00:03:22.930 R. David (he/him): Open your soul, Maybe you haven't heard… This in a little while. 30 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:38.010 R. David (he/him): Yay! 31 00:03:38.350 --> 00:03:49.240 R. David (he/him): Yaidai, da-da-da-da-da-da-da 32 00:04:10.280 --> 00:04:13.699 R. David (he/him): Anyone feel anything move? Anything stir? 33 00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:19.340 R. David (he/him): Seeing a couple of hands. 34 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:20.079 Donna: Yeah. 35 00:04:20.450 --> 00:04:21.230 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 36 00:04:23.790 --> 00:04:24.510 R. David (he/him): Whew! 37 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:28.499 R. David (he/him): Okay, these were some of the core images. 38 00:04:28.850 --> 00:04:32.360 R. David (he/him): That we invited you to return to for home feel. 39 00:04:33.130 --> 00:04:35.300 R. David (he/him): We made the basic move. 40 00:04:35.780 --> 00:04:38.890 R. David (he/him): From our own inner schmutz. 41 00:04:40.310 --> 00:04:46.900 R. David (he/him): And maybe some of the giants that we make of our own missteps, our own chet? 42 00:04:47.110 --> 00:04:48.980 R. David (he/him): Our own need to do tshuva. 43 00:04:49.440 --> 00:05:00.949 R. David (he/him): and move that image onto the traditional images of the Avoda service, of purifying purging the altar. 44 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:10.940 R. David (he/him): The altar that contained the remnants of all of the stuff, of the chickens, and the goats, and the 45 00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:13.680 R. David (he/him): Stuff of all the year. 46 00:05:13.830 --> 00:05:15.230 R. David (he/him): to purge it. 47 00:05:15.650 --> 00:05:17.390 R. David (he/him): For some of us. 48 00:05:17.830 --> 00:05:37.129 R. David (he/him): This sense of purge makes all the sense in the world. For some of us, it doesn't come naturally. For some of us, the move between our inner stuff and the physicality of the old way of doing it, that movement made all the sense in the world. For some of us, it needed a bit 49 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:38.640 R. David (he/him): Of a shift. 50 00:05:38.940 --> 00:05:44.249 R. David (he/him): So we invited you, To be with some of these images. 51 00:05:45.150 --> 00:05:54.339 R. David (he/him): And to shift From the inner schmutz to the ultimate destination, of the high holidays. 52 00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:57.219 R. David (he/him): Which is to feel like this. 53 00:05:57.670 --> 00:05:58.970 R. David (he/him): on screen. 54 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:02.130 R. David (he/him): like… 55 00:06:03.610 --> 00:06:17.730 R. David (he/him): the rainbow in the sky, so is the Kohen at the end of this. Like… like the love, like the stars of the sky, like the beautiful sunset, that clear, that bright, that affirming, that alive. 56 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:26.879 R. David (he/him): that sometimes we just don't feel in our day-to-day living. That some of us were even surprised to hear was even part of our tradition at all. 57 00:06:29.010 --> 00:06:32.760 R. David (he/him): And to use that invitation to say, hey. 58 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:43.630 R. David (he/him): This is our destination. If we put in the work, if we purify ourselves, if we try to make right. And that meant getting in with these images. 59 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:50.749 R. David (he/him): So that the Avodas service in the mid-afternoon of Yom Kippur could take us there, and encourage us to do it. 60 00:06:50.920 --> 00:06:52.329 R. David (he/him): Between now and then. 61 00:06:52.780 --> 00:06:59.019 R. David (he/him): So all of that… Sort of a high-order, quick 2-minute summary. 62 00:06:59.250 --> 00:07:01.540 R. David (he/him): And now we want to invite you 63 00:07:03.690 --> 00:07:08.019 R. David (he/him): To perhaps share with us some of what came from your own home field. 64 00:07:08.750 --> 00:07:09.620 R. David (he/him): I'm gonna go… 65 00:07:10.130 --> 00:07:16.400 R. Rachel: So from our last week of spending time with those images and everything they represent. 66 00:07:17.330 --> 00:07:26.059 R. Rachel: What are some of the emotions in the room, and how did it support our tshuva journey, our journey of repentance and repair? Lilith, I see your hand. 67 00:07:26.960 --> 00:07:31.500 Lilith Blackmoon: Yeah, can you actually go back to the previous slide? 68 00:07:33.020 --> 00:07:37.820 Lilith Blackmoon: Cause there was an image on there that was speaking to me. 69 00:07:38.590 --> 00:07:39.990 R. Rachel: Hang on, we're working on it. 70 00:07:39.990 --> 00:07:45.129 Lilith Blackmoon: Yep, perfect, thank you. So, the one on the bottom left. 71 00:07:46.490 --> 00:07:55.790 Lilith Blackmoon: to me, like, so I listen to very heavy rock music, and that kind of looks like an album cover, I would see. 72 00:07:55.790 --> 00:07:56.260 R. Rachel: Hmm. 73 00:07:56.260 --> 00:08:07.609 Lilith Blackmoon: And I know for most people, it's not a peaceful thing, but actually, science backs it up that listening to heavy music 74 00:08:07.610 --> 00:08:19.340 Lilith Blackmoon: is a cathartic release of that emotion, whether you want to express it or not. And I kind of relate that to the image of 75 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:27.389 Lilith Blackmoon: Like, the cleansing, and sometimes it's just, like, brutal, and you wanna, like, cringe? 76 00:08:27.940 --> 00:08:31.910 Lilith Blackmoon: But sometimes that's what, like, helps flush out… 77 00:08:32.100 --> 00:08:34.280 Lilith Blackmoon: What needs to be flushed out? 78 00:08:34.510 --> 00:08:46.020 R. Rachel: Thank you for that. Alright, so the felt sense of catharsis from some of those… some of those images of the animal with the… with the priest's head… hands on top. 79 00:08:46.410 --> 00:08:49.319 R. Rachel: And the sacrifice that is coming. What else? 80 00:08:56.890 --> 00:09:00.899 R. Rachel: Did anyone particularly struggle with the home feel this week? 81 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:09.780 R. Rachel: Or feel resistance to doing it. 82 00:09:15.670 --> 00:09:17.270 R. Rachel: Iris, I see your hand. 83 00:09:19.030 --> 00:09:23.889 Iris Barten: Yeah, thanks. I didn't really feel resistance. 84 00:09:24.520 --> 00:09:34.669 Iris Barten: And… the center… photo on the left that we looked at quite a bit last time. This was feeling… 85 00:09:35.020 --> 00:09:43.600 Iris Barten: Feeling it in my gut, and understanding some of why that was being done. 86 00:09:43.860 --> 00:09:48.450 Iris Barten: And also, one of the lingering questions was. 87 00:09:48.750 --> 00:09:57.560 Iris Barten: What do they do? What are they doing with the little urns of… not so little urns of blood, is that what they use to put on the… 88 00:09:58.060 --> 00:10:02.140 Iris Barten: On the bark, or the tabernacle, or the, you know… 89 00:10:02.850 --> 00:10:05.290 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: So, but… Go ahead. 90 00:10:05.290 --> 00:10:06.800 Iris Barten: But I also just wanted to say… 91 00:10:06.800 --> 00:10:07.470 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: band. 92 00:10:09.060 --> 00:10:26.730 Iris Barten: I felt kind of a sense of peace, in a way, looking at these. So before the catharsis, for me, I felt… well, I don't know if I really had the catharsis completely yet, but I felt more of a sense of peace and calm and centering that I… 93 00:10:27.370 --> 00:10:33.370 Iris Barten: I needed, and I still do, you know, to feel myself really going through this process. 94 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:36.360 R. Rachel: Thank you for that. 95 00:10:37.780 --> 00:10:38.490 Iris Barten: Welcome. 96 00:10:40.150 --> 00:10:40.860 R. Rachel: What else? 97 00:10:44.130 --> 00:10:44.950 R. Rachel: Joan. 98 00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:53.070 Joan Green: There's something about the… The prominence of hands and many of 99 00:10:53.320 --> 00:11:03.370 Joan Green: the, photographs. And in the one that was… that we… we were just talking about, R. 100 00:11:05.110 --> 00:11:11.010 Joan Green: the… I'm reminded of the koshering of meat, and how the blood is removed. 101 00:11:11.010 --> 00:11:12.720 R. Rachel: to plumbing. 102 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:16.170 Joan Green: And it… it makes me, 103 00:11:17.040 --> 00:11:26.279 Joan Green: I don't know at what time this would have been, and I don't know if it made a sacrifice ready. 104 00:11:26.280 --> 00:11:26.640 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Hmm. 105 00:11:26.640 --> 00:11:35.729 Joan Green: to remove the blood. The blood, of course, is the life that would have been in the animal, and what it meant 106 00:11:35.940 --> 00:11:39.020 Joan Green: To them, if they were sacrificing 107 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:57.669 Joan Green: a bloodless animal rather than one with blood. So, really, that's two thoughts, but the prevalence of hands, we… that's what we do with. That's… that's action for humans. We do with our hands. Even… even the… 108 00:11:57.880 --> 00:12:00.710 Joan Green: Person, at the very top. 109 00:12:01.660 --> 00:12:04.269 Joan Green: We've all done that. Head in your hands. 110 00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:14.320 Joan Green: And… It's to say, what… what can I do? You know, Gavald, what can I do? 111 00:12:14.350 --> 00:12:22.600 R. Rachel: Right. Well, what can we do? That's really the question. And appropriately, I'm seeing a lot of hands right now. Delia and then Cheryl. 112 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:45.269 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Well, I had a big catharsis of feeling unbelonging after last session. Who knows what it has to do? Maybe I'm just the upper left, person, but being able to share it in an email, a very, like, I don't even know if that email made any sense to, with Rabbi Rachel. 113 00:12:45.430 --> 00:12:52.680 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: released it. And my goodness, all kinds of wonderful connections have been flooding in since. 114 00:12:52.680 --> 00:12:53.570 R. Rachel: Whoa. 115 00:12:53.570 --> 00:12:54.890 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: So, 116 00:12:54.890 --> 00:12:55.770 R. Rachel: Marvelous. 117 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:03.319 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Yes, I just wanted to share that, that we don't know how this class works, but it works in strange and wondrous ways. 118 00:13:04.740 --> 00:13:06.950 R. Rachel: The universe works in strange and wondrous ways. 119 00:13:07.230 --> 00:13:10.389 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: We're… yes, and we're a part of it, thanks. 120 00:13:10.820 --> 00:13:12.970 R. Rachel: Cheryl, where did this take you? 121 00:13:17.460 --> 00:13:27.070 Sherrill Cropper: A lot of these photos also felt like they were looking out away from us into The future lore. 122 00:13:27.510 --> 00:13:30.470 Sherrill Cropper: Into the distance, and it felt… 123 00:13:31.480 --> 00:13:36.969 Sherrill Cropper: Contra-intuitive to tshuva being something to do inside. 124 00:13:38.430 --> 00:13:42.229 Sherrill Cropper: Even… Somebody outside of us. 125 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:45.419 R. Rachel: Thank you for that. 126 00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:51.210 R. Rachel: It's a tension between looking inward and facing outward. 127 00:13:56.850 --> 00:13:59.959 R. Rachel: Are there other things that need to come forward? 128 00:14:06.460 --> 00:14:08.429 R. David (he/him): Has this helped anyone? 129 00:14:08.760 --> 00:14:10.069 R. David (he/him): Do tshuva. 130 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:21.550 R. David (he/him): Or is this some nice experience we're having wildly… the Tuva time is happening. 131 00:14:26.080 --> 00:14:29.600 Lilith Blackmoon: I don't know, Rabbi Rachel, do you think I did tshuva? 132 00:14:29.870 --> 00:14:33.059 R. Rachel: We certainly had some good tshuva conversations today. 133 00:14:35.540 --> 00:14:41.009 R. David (he/him): So if that applies to you, Lilith, and then I see a bunch of hands coming. 134 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.049 R. David (he/him): How did it help? Do you have a sense? 135 00:14:44.850 --> 00:14:49.090 R. David (he/him): Or is it Delia's, like, I don't know how this course is working, but something's happening here. 136 00:14:49.950 --> 00:14:57.169 Lilith Blackmoon: Well, there were some topics that came up last week that resonated with personal things that I'm 137 00:14:57.380 --> 00:15:05.130 Lilith Blackmoon: Dealing with, including… A little headbutting with a new boyfriend. 138 00:15:05.520 --> 00:15:24.260 Lilith Blackmoon: And I reached out to Rabbi Rachel, and we had a really great, in-depth conversation about the choices I make and, you know, what that says for me and the moral standing that I have that reflects outward to other people. 139 00:15:27.700 --> 00:15:28.290 R. Rachel: Beautiful description. 140 00:15:28.290 --> 00:15:28.820 R. David (he/him): Nice. 141 00:15:28.820 --> 00:15:29.480 R. Rachel: Thank you. 142 00:15:30.120 --> 00:15:30.770 Lilith Blackmoon: Thank you. 143 00:15:31.050 --> 00:15:36.429 R. David (he/him): Nice. Meredith, I see your hand, and who else did I see? Was it Joan? 144 00:15:37.350 --> 00:15:39.209 R. David (he/him): No, it wasn't Joan. Okay, Meredith. 145 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:44.919 Meredith (she/her): I… To be honest. 146 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:58.259 Meredith (she/her): I haven't… I didn't do the home view, or whatever you want to call it, not homework, home feel. I didn't do it, but I was thinking about… 147 00:15:58.550 --> 00:16:01.829 Meredith (she/her): Like, what… what is Chuva worthy? 148 00:16:02.750 --> 00:16:03.940 R. Rachel: Like… 149 00:16:03.940 --> 00:16:13.749 Meredith (she/her): you know, like… So, I'll just leave it at that. Like, what, what is Chuva Worthy, and 150 00:16:14.300 --> 00:16:17.349 Meredith (she/her): Yeah, without going into details of… 151 00:16:19.310 --> 00:16:23.040 R. Rachel: So, what, what are our, what are the, the, the missteps? 152 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:28.530 R. Rachel: Relationally, personally, that are worthy of a teshuva process, of… 153 00:16:28.750 --> 00:16:29.280 Meredith (she/her): Ranges. 154 00:16:29.280 --> 00:16:30.300 R. Rachel: repair work. 155 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:31.360 Meredith (she/her): Right. 156 00:16:31.640 --> 00:16:32.530 R. Rachel: Sure. 157 00:16:34.740 --> 00:16:37.999 R. David (he/him): So, these are very different reactions. 158 00:16:38.970 --> 00:16:40.260 R. David (he/him): And you know what? 159 00:16:40.710 --> 00:16:50.870 R. David (he/him): It's proving something about the nature of image-based liturgy. It's gonna land differently for different folks in different ways at different times. 160 00:16:51.010 --> 00:16:54.010 R. David (he/him): That is evidence that it's doing it right. 161 00:16:54.260 --> 00:16:55.959 R. David (he/him): At the collective level. 162 00:16:56.800 --> 00:17:02.859 R. David (he/him): To the question of… Like, how does this actually support tshuva? 163 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:10.230 R. David (he/him): One of the things that I have found… this is just personally me not instructing, just sharing my own experience. 164 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:14.810 R. David (he/him): these destination images. 165 00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:24.170 R. David (he/him): Of the love, and on the right, the love, the light, the rainbow, Like… 166 00:17:24.829 --> 00:17:29.559 R. David (he/him): reminding me that, yeah, David, not Rabbi, David. 167 00:17:30.020 --> 00:17:32.400 R. David (he/him): I can feel that way again. 168 00:17:34.030 --> 00:17:40.979 R. David (he/him): And maybe reminding me a little bit, just because this is how brains work, that I have felt that way before. 169 00:17:44.120 --> 00:17:47.429 R. David (he/him): Encouraging me that it is possible to get there. 170 00:17:49.210 --> 00:17:54.650 R. David (he/him): But it ain't gonna happen by itself. So it's a little bit like… you know. 171 00:17:55.350 --> 00:18:05.920 R. David (he/him): someone calling to me from the finish line, saying, you can do it, you can do it, you really can! You really can! I see Wendy holding her hand up. Is it on this, Wendy? 172 00:18:08.020 --> 00:18:10.299 R. David (he/him): you're saying something, you know… 173 00:18:10.300 --> 00:18:11.120 wendy: feelings. 174 00:18:12.010 --> 00:18:14.510 R. David (he/him): Oh, so you've… you've had that experience. Okay. 175 00:18:14.660 --> 00:18:15.530 R. David (he/him): Right? 176 00:18:15.990 --> 00:18:16.530 Linda Kramer: Nope. 177 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:21.629 R. David (he/him): And especially for those of us who have had a whole year this year. 178 00:18:22.560 --> 00:18:23.120 Linda Kramer: Yeah. 179 00:18:25.430 --> 00:18:30.090 R. David (he/him): That this process, whatever it is, can actually land us in a place 180 00:18:30.870 --> 00:18:33.929 R. David (he/him): And to hold this as our hoped-for destination. 181 00:18:35.130 --> 00:18:39.569 R. David (he/him): Can shape everything we experience about the time between now and then. 182 00:18:40.490 --> 00:18:49.600 R. David (he/him): Do we have to understand how? Not necessarily. Does it necessarily gonna map to exactly what the Kohane did back then? Doesn't have to. 183 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:52.059 R. David (he/him): Linda, I see your hand. 184 00:18:53.360 --> 00:18:54.590 Linda Kramer: No, I didn't raise mine. 185 00:18:54.590 --> 00:18:58.400 R. David (he/him): You didn't. I'm really getting it wrong today. See, I've got Shuva what to do. Meredith! 186 00:18:59.820 --> 00:19:03.299 Meredith (she/her): I did… I was struck, Rabbi. 187 00:19:03.410 --> 00:19:08.350 Meredith (she/her): With what you said last week, that you do it now. 188 00:19:09.260 --> 00:19:12.290 Meredith (she/her): Like, we're supposed to be doing it now. 189 00:19:12.730 --> 00:19:17.579 Meredith (she/her): And so that's been gnawing at me, because I don't think most people know that. 190 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:20.500 Meredith (she/her): So, it's kind of like… 191 00:19:20.620 --> 00:19:27.270 Meredith (she/her): If you were to do it, they'd be like, what? It's not time yet. It's not Yom Kippur. 192 00:19:27.420 --> 00:19:30.040 R. David (he/him): You know, so… It's exactly time. 193 00:19:30.370 --> 00:19:39.469 R. Rachel: Some of us have, right, just, some of us have the notion that teshuva work happens on Yom Kippur, or maybe that it happens during the 10 days between the two holidays. 194 00:19:39.470 --> 00:19:40.680 Meredith (she/her): Right, right. 195 00:19:40.680 --> 00:19:51.129 R. Rachel: which are called the Aseret Yemet Shuva, the 10 days of Teshuva, so it's reasonable that we would think that. And yet, tradition actually says we should start a month before that, ideally. 196 00:19:51.980 --> 00:19:55.610 R. David (he/him): So that when we… so that when we come to Rosh Hashanah. 197 00:19:55.610 --> 00:19:56.860 R. Rachel: We've already done some work? 198 00:19:57.490 --> 00:19:58.830 R. David (he/him): We're finishing it up. 199 00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:04.610 R. David (he/him): And so Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur is really the, what haven't you done yet? 200 00:20:05.700 --> 00:20:07.480 R. David (he/him): Rather than starting from zero. 201 00:20:07.480 --> 00:20:12.129 R. Rachel: If we haven't done it yet, if we get to Rosh Hashanah and we're just now starting. 202 00:20:12.530 --> 00:20:13.880 R. Rachel: That's okay, too. 203 00:20:14.250 --> 00:20:14.710 R. David (he/him): Yeah! 204 00:20:14.710 --> 00:20:18.069 R. Rachel: There is work we can do with whatever time we've got. 205 00:20:18.280 --> 00:20:22.439 R. Rachel: But it's one of those things where the more of yourself who pour into it, the more you're gonna get out of it. 206 00:20:22.760 --> 00:20:24.359 R. Rachel: Cheryl, I see your hand. 207 00:20:29.240 --> 00:20:39.019 Sherrill Cropper: I'm move to say it again because of what Meredith just shared, which is… You know, it… 208 00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:49.919 Sherrill Cropper: coming from a Buddhist background, where you're literally saying tshuva every day before you go to sleep, because we don't know when we're going to wake up, or if we're going to wake up. 209 00:20:50.330 --> 00:20:57.720 Sherrill Cropper: And I have been told in conversations about this with Rabbi David that there is a daily prayer. 210 00:20:58.190 --> 00:21:00.820 Sherrill Cropper: That, when you're doing it. 211 00:21:01.550 --> 00:21:10.610 Sherrill Cropper: In, you know, in Judaism, when you're doing it, that is what you're doing, because we don't know moment to moment. We could be doing it 212 00:21:10.840 --> 00:21:16.989 Sherrill Cropper: the minute something happens, and we're… that my belly barometer goes off, and I'm like, oh, I need to just… 213 00:21:18.580 --> 00:21:22.990 Sherrill Cropper: Fix this right now, because in the next moment. 214 00:21:23.190 --> 00:21:26.129 Sherrill Cropper: I could have a heart attack. Who knows? So… 215 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.000 Sherrill Cropper: Is there a name for that? 216 00:21:30.340 --> 00:21:31.590 Sherrill Cropper: actual… 217 00:21:31.940 --> 00:21:32.480 R. David (he/him): Nope. 218 00:21:32.940 --> 00:21:33.910 R. David (he/him): It's… 219 00:21:33.910 --> 00:21:40.210 R. Rachel: In some contexts, it's the same Vidui prayer we say 5 times during Yom Kippur. 220 00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:40.800 Linda Kramer: Yep. 221 00:21:41.180 --> 00:21:47.230 R. Rachel: which we say during Yom Kippur. Both of those are part of daily liturgy, but most of them. 222 00:21:47.230 --> 00:21:47.740 Sherrill Cropper: Don't have a. 223 00:21:47.740 --> 00:21:50.639 R. Rachel: Daily liturgical practice, so we never learned that. 224 00:21:51.260 --> 00:21:52.110 Sherrill Cropper: Right. 225 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:53.350 Sherrill Cropper: Right. 226 00:21:53.900 --> 00:22:13.680 Sherrill Cropper: So I just wanted to share that, because Meredith had said what she said, that there is something that is available to us. I mean, it's… it's a lot to add to your day for most people. I mean, I haven't incorporated it, I'm slowly trying to do my… my thing, but but I do say not 227 00:22:14.230 --> 00:22:21.500 Sherrill Cropper: in Hebrew, or not with the prayer, you know, if I hurt anybody, you know, before I go to sleep, because 228 00:22:22.050 --> 00:22:30.619 Sherrill Cropper: you know, I might not wake up. And I don't always remember, but I think it doesn't have to be in Hebrew, and it could just be something we just… 229 00:22:31.630 --> 00:22:34.339 Sherrill Cropper: Aspire to adopt. 230 00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:38.440 Sherrill Cropper: You know, so thank you, I just… 231 00:22:38.670 --> 00:22:39.640 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 232 00:22:39.930 --> 00:22:40.670 R. David (he/him): Yeah? 233 00:22:42.770 --> 00:22:45.510 R. David (he/him): Exactly. What else wants to come? Linda, now I see your. 234 00:22:45.510 --> 00:22:51.129 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Because that's… it's the bedtime Shema. I keep saying Shema in the chat, and it changes it to Shiah. 235 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:53.630 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: But it's the bedtime Shema. 236 00:22:53.630 --> 00:23:02.969 R. David (he/him): Shia works for me, but that's right. It's part of the bedtime Shema practice, if you have that. It's not just saying Shema, there's actually a liturgy that goes with it. 237 00:23:03.190 --> 00:23:08.509 R. David (he/him): But it doesn't have to be liturgical. It can be going through your day and resolving… 238 00:23:08.730 --> 00:23:17.060 R. David (he/him): to change behavior, and go to the person you've possibly heard and try to make amends. Even so, we still have to purge 239 00:23:18.840 --> 00:23:21.180 R. David (he/him): Because some schmutz still stays. 240 00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:24.080 R. David (he/him): Okay. 241 00:23:25.010 --> 00:23:27.160 R. David (he/him): Now I see Linda's hand. 242 00:23:29.320 --> 00:23:36.970 Linda Kramer: So… I'm basically in a similar place with Sherrill in that I do this every night. 243 00:23:37.580 --> 00:23:37.990 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 244 00:23:37.990 --> 00:23:39.450 Linda Kramer: Along with the… 245 00:23:39.690 --> 00:23:50.080 Linda Kramer: In back of my mind, there's always that point that you've made over and over, that we are living our lives as if it's the last day of our lives. 246 00:23:50.430 --> 00:23:52.980 Linda Kramer: And that's where I have… 247 00:23:53.280 --> 00:24:00.650 Linda Kramer: First, I think of all the things that I'm grateful for, and then I think of all the things that I would like to be grateful for. 248 00:24:01.020 --> 00:24:04.739 Linda Kramer: And that's how I blend into that tshuva. 249 00:24:05.270 --> 00:24:13.809 Linda Kramer: Yes. But I feel like I'm doing… like, maybe I'm doing this since last December. I don't feel as if… 250 00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:19.579 Linda Kramer: It's just this particular time, because that doesn't give me enough time. 251 00:24:21.410 --> 00:24:26.350 R. David (he/him): Yeah, and which begs a really great question. So, what do I need this for? 252 00:24:27.900 --> 00:24:30.740 R. David (he/him): And, and I think one answer is… 253 00:24:31.010 --> 00:24:40.929 R. David (he/him): something ancestral about this time of year. Another might be, you know, the hole really is greater than the sum of its parts. To know that 254 00:24:41.230 --> 00:24:43.799 R. David (he/him): Judaism writ large. 255 00:24:44.320 --> 00:24:52.170 R. David (he/him): you know, all the Yidin are in synagogue, or… or just having these… 256 00:24:52.780 --> 00:24:57.930 R. David (he/him): Important conversations within themselves, or praying, or call it what you will. 257 00:24:59.720 --> 00:25:01.329 R. David (he/him): All at the same time. 258 00:25:01.930 --> 00:25:03.370 R. David (he/him): That's powerful. 259 00:25:05.880 --> 00:25:10.690 R. David (he/him): It connects us in different ways, so it's not… a substitute for. 260 00:25:11.870 --> 00:25:13.240 R. David (he/him): In either direction. 261 00:25:17.310 --> 00:25:20.510 R. David (he/him): Is there anything else that wants to come here? Because we're about to shift gears. 262 00:25:20.510 --> 00:25:21.550 R. Rachel: gears, yeah. 263 00:25:28.570 --> 00:25:29.600 R. David (he/him): Yeah, Iris. 264 00:25:32.340 --> 00:25:38.900 Iris Barten: Well, I know you want to move on, so I'll be brief. The image and the upper right corner 265 00:25:39.530 --> 00:25:47.300 Iris Barten: me is… it's very moving because there's light and hands. I mean, I know I was talking about the hands as well. 266 00:25:47.820 --> 00:25:53.210 Iris Barten: and the sky is behind it. There's a lot of metaphorical… 267 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.390 Iris Barten: Imagery that brings up feelings for me. 268 00:25:56.860 --> 00:26:08.720 Iris Barten: So having the hands together the way it is, with the light between them, feels like light is coming to me from the divine, and so that's helping to think about… 269 00:26:09.250 --> 00:26:11.109 Iris Barten: True Brah. 270 00:26:11.110 --> 00:26:11.720 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 271 00:26:12.000 --> 00:26:14.930 Iris Barten: I don't know, I have a couple other thoughts, but… That's it. 272 00:26:14.930 --> 00:26:19.209 R. David (he/him): So bring that image, whether it's on screen where you are or not. 273 00:26:20.370 --> 00:26:25.310 R. David (he/him): The Avoda service is ultimately about light, the shift from darkness to light. 274 00:26:26.610 --> 00:26:27.360 Iris Barten: Okay. 275 00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:31.479 R. David (he/him): James, you might be the last one. 276 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:36.260 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): So, and I said this chokingly in chat. 277 00:26:36.700 --> 00:26:40.409 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): I've been doing Teshuba now for, like, over 2 years straight. 278 00:26:40.640 --> 00:26:45.599 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Okay, the whole, I'm about to die thing kicked it off, and, well, I just haven't stopped. 279 00:26:46.090 --> 00:26:51.400 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): But, I'm not gonna lie, I feel kind of like that first picture. 280 00:26:51.940 --> 00:26:56.070 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Because I am just, like… Huh. 281 00:26:56.410 --> 00:27:00.060 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): I'm so… tired. 282 00:27:00.700 --> 00:27:04.220 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): At this point, and I'm so overwhelmed at this point. 283 00:27:04.670 --> 00:27:07.869 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): And, you know, I've hit the… I've hit the point where 284 00:27:08.160 --> 00:27:11.950 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): I'm starting to get the people that don't want to hear it, don't have an interest. 285 00:27:12.730 --> 00:27:14.680 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): And I'm ready to take a break. 286 00:27:15.370 --> 00:27:20.559 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): And like I said, it's regardless of the time of year, but that's just kind of where I'm at now with all this. I'm just like… 287 00:27:22.980 --> 00:27:23.670 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): You know. 288 00:27:24.290 --> 00:27:25.020 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 289 00:27:25.650 --> 00:27:27.829 R. David (he/him): And so the flip side is… 290 00:27:28.170 --> 00:27:34.860 R. David (he/him): There are certain things in Jewish tradition, in spiritual tradition, that we would say. 291 00:27:34.860 --> 00:27:35.480 R. Rachel: Hmm. 292 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:40.370 R. David (he/him): There's no… there's no measure for. There's no sufficiency for. 293 00:27:41.110 --> 00:27:46.840 R. David (he/him): Is there ever such a thing as enough introspection? Is there ever enough 294 00:27:47.070 --> 00:27:51.149 R. David (he/him): Love, care, prayer, call it what you will. Arguably, no. 295 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:56.990 R. David (he/him): So… Does that mean we're screwed? No. 296 00:27:56.990 --> 00:27:58.040 R. Rachel: Arguably, no. 297 00:27:58.380 --> 00:28:05.630 R. David (he/him): No, because the basic bargain of Yom Kippur is this. Do as much as you can 298 00:28:06.830 --> 00:28:10.409 R. David (he/him): And the miracle is that that will be sufficient. 299 00:28:11.990 --> 00:28:16.619 R. David (he/him): So, for those of us who are tired of doing tshuva. 300 00:28:17.390 --> 00:28:27.200 R. David (he/him): Maybe the flip becomes Dear God, help me feel a sense of sufficiency and forgiveness and purification. 301 00:28:28.610 --> 00:28:32.950 R. David (he/him): So that… I don't continue to feel weighted down. 302 00:28:33.170 --> 00:28:38.500 R. David (he/him): by the… illimitableness of this. 303 00:28:38.790 --> 00:28:41.859 R. David (he/him): Because we're all imperfect, and we all have what to fix. 304 00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:47.399 R. David (he/him): That we can actually accept the images that are now on the far right. 305 00:28:47.750 --> 00:28:50.110 R. David (he/him): Dear God, and that's the miracle! 306 00:28:50.850 --> 00:28:53.600 R. David (he/him): Alan Liu talks about this. It's never enough! 307 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:56.180 R. David (he/him): And the miracle is that it is. 308 00:28:57.750 --> 00:29:05.289 R. David (he/him): So we may not all have the exact same prayer here, but the Avodas service is giving us that opportunity. 309 00:29:05.850 --> 00:29:07.549 R. David (he/him): To say, okay, enough. 310 00:29:09.230 --> 00:29:10.000 R. David (he/him): purged. 311 00:29:13.500 --> 00:29:18.029 R. Rachel: And James is asking in the chat, no, but when do we take a break? And my flip answer. 312 00:29:18.030 --> 00:29:19.660 R. David (he/him): Sukkot. Sukkot. 313 00:29:20.140 --> 00:29:27.510 R. Rachel: season of our rejoicing, and we'll… we can talk about that after class, for those who want to stick around. 314 00:29:27.510 --> 00:29:29.819 R. David (he/him): Yeah, it becomes the season of our joy. 315 00:29:31.790 --> 00:29:33.590 R. David (he/him): Alright, let's switch gears. 316 00:29:33.590 --> 00:29:35.300 R. Rachel: So we're gonna shift gears. 317 00:29:36.730 --> 00:29:40.379 R. Rachel: And we're gonna have some images to help us with that. 318 00:29:41.850 --> 00:29:44.899 R. Rachel: So the two things that you see in front of you right now… 319 00:29:45.500 --> 00:29:47.719 R. David (he/him): Ana just did something really important. 320 00:29:48.930 --> 00:29:52.409 R. David (he/him): Donna just did something really important. Everybody hear that big exhale? 321 00:29:55.590 --> 00:29:56.240 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 322 00:29:57.060 --> 00:30:03.249 R. Rachel: And I want to honor the fact that some of us on this call have loved ones buried in the cemetery that you see in front of you. 323 00:30:04.380 --> 00:30:12.079 R. Rachel: And so let's name that and hold it in our hearts with tenderness. That's the CBI Cemetery in the hills of Clarksburg. 324 00:30:14.810 --> 00:30:21.269 R. Rachel: And… This is our scene change into Yiskar, and the candles that you see at the top are… 325 00:30:21.800 --> 00:30:27.669 R. Rachel: Memorial candles, which many of us will light before Col Nadre. 326 00:30:28.430 --> 00:30:42.769 R. Rachel: One has to be done before the holiday begins, and the candles will burn for the 20… most of the 25 hours of the fast. And as we are concluding naillah at the end of the day, which will be the subject of next week's class. 327 00:30:42.910 --> 00:30:45.410 R. Rachel: The candles are beginning to gutter. 328 00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:47.210 R. Rachel: And get ready to go out. 329 00:30:47.900 --> 00:30:55.980 R. Rachel: So this becomes another place where the light is there, and it crests, and then it's fading, and that helps us get where we need to go. 330 00:30:58.550 --> 00:31:02.529 R. Rachel: So we're gonna take a deep dive into Yaskar, into remembrance. 331 00:31:03.950 --> 00:31:07.570 R. David (he/him): As we do, As we do. 332 00:31:09.280 --> 00:31:12.539 R. David (he/him): It feels important to say a couple of very quick things. 333 00:31:12.660 --> 00:31:16.420 R. David (he/him): One of them is that we are going to have many fewer slides now. 334 00:31:19.390 --> 00:31:22.560 R. David (he/him): To make more space for whatever needs to come. 335 00:31:23.830 --> 00:31:29.829 R. David (he/him): Because the experience of remembering a loved one is the experience of remembering a loved one, and 336 00:31:30.370 --> 00:31:33.569 R. David (he/him): You do not need us to tell you what that is. 337 00:31:37.150 --> 00:31:40.279 R. David (he/him): Where we would invite you to come in. 338 00:31:42.320 --> 00:31:44.200 R. David (he/him): Additionally, is this. 339 00:31:45.550 --> 00:31:47.760 R. David (he/him): What is this doing here? 340 00:31:48.650 --> 00:31:57.480 R. David (he/him): Why is this here? Why is Yom Kippur including this? How does this help us do Yom Kippur? 341 00:31:58.100 --> 00:32:02.290 R. David (he/him): Or is this just an opportunity to remember our loved ones and be morbid? 342 00:32:02.820 --> 00:32:04.860 R. David (he/him): I hope the answer is not the latter. 343 00:32:04.860 --> 00:32:05.900 R. Rachel: Should be no. 344 00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:08.489 R. David (he/him): Right. So let's start. 345 00:32:08.700 --> 00:32:10.320 R. David (he/him): Before I go, Cheryl. 346 00:32:13.950 --> 00:32:20.500 Sherrill Cropper: I'm… A little bit in awe of… The pictures that are here. 347 00:32:21.180 --> 00:32:26.510 Sherrill Cropper: because it is… I mean, I'm… the selection you have made… 348 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:31.880 Sherrill Cropper: really has touched me. It's the book that sounds of itself. 349 00:32:32.370 --> 00:32:46.080 Sherrill Cropper: It is creation of something that also can break. It is the sound that wakes us up. It's the gates that never close. It's flowers from the sound that we hear. 350 00:32:46.300 --> 00:32:51.489 Sherrill Cropper: It's recognizing that we are not perfect, and can say I'm sorry. 351 00:32:52.090 --> 00:33:00.400 Sherrill Cropper: doing tshuva is such a loving gift on both sides, and remembering where we come from. I'm… 352 00:33:00.530 --> 00:33:03.350 Sherrill Cropper: So moved by this slide. 353 00:33:03.780 --> 00:33:06.970 R. Rachel: Thank you, Cheryl, the check's in the mail. 354 00:33:08.040 --> 00:33:14.549 R. Rachel: And I'm seeing that Iris is not seeing all of this, right? I don't know how your screen is set up, Iris. There should be… 355 00:33:14.670 --> 00:33:34.089 R. Rachel: four little images going up and down, either margin, and then two big images in the middle, one of which is candles, and one of which is the cemetery. Okay, I'm sorry, I don't know how to tell you to adjust that, but hopefully when you return to the slides during the week, you'll be able to see the whole images as we put them forward. 356 00:33:34.820 --> 00:33:40.860 R. David (he/him): The materials you're seeing right now is a direct quote from Gates of Repentance, which is. 357 00:33:41.250 --> 00:33:43.840 R. David (he/him): What our synagogue uses. 358 00:33:44.150 --> 00:33:51.289 R. David (he/him): At Shir Ami. Everybody, now it's more than one person. What you may want to do is make sure that 359 00:33:51.590 --> 00:33:56.130 R. David (he/him): The screen for Zoom fills your entire computer. 360 00:33:59.560 --> 00:34:01.510 R. David (he/him): We can't do that for you. 361 00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:08.020 R. Rachel: Also, for now, you should hopefully be seeing the words approaching Yisker at the top, and then there's. 362 00:34:08.020 --> 00:34:08.350 Donna: some. 363 00:34:08.350 --> 00:34:12.079 R. Rachel: Hebrew and some English, and a candle in the bottom right. 364 00:34:13.330 --> 00:34:14.150 R. Rachel: Hopefully… 365 00:34:14.159 --> 00:34:15.769 R. David (he/him): If not, we're gonna read it to you. 366 00:34:16.370 --> 00:34:19.570 R. Rachel: Yeah, would, would someone who can see it like to read? 367 00:34:20.940 --> 00:34:24.709 R. Rachel: Just to unmute and read for us. Read the first paragraph. 368 00:34:24.710 --> 00:34:31.099 Meredith (she/her): Our days are like grass. We shoot up like flowers that fade. 369 00:34:31.239 --> 00:34:35.179 Meredith (she/her): And die as the chill wind passes over them. 370 00:34:35.600 --> 00:34:40.189 Meredith (she/her): Yet your love for those who revere you is everlasting. 371 00:34:40.310 --> 00:34:44.989 Meredith (she/her): Your righteousness extends to all generations. 372 00:34:47.659 --> 00:34:48.929 R. Rachel: The second part. 373 00:34:50.520 --> 00:34:54.530 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Beloved, I yearn only to be near you. 374 00:34:55.040 --> 00:34:57.739 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Though at times, I seem remote. 375 00:34:58.340 --> 00:35:01.459 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Beloved, I cannot find the way unaided. 376 00:35:01.790 --> 00:35:05.250 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Teach me the faithful service you would have me do. 377 00:35:05.620 --> 00:35:09.640 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Show me your ways. Guide me. Lead me. 378 00:35:09.760 --> 00:35:12.650 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Release me from the prison of unknowing. 379 00:35:13.080 --> 00:35:15.649 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: while I still can make amends. 380 00:35:19.940 --> 00:35:21.350 R. Rachel: Someone else want to pick up? 381 00:35:22.060 --> 00:35:23.620 R. Rachel: Do not despise. 382 00:35:28.310 --> 00:35:30.759 Sherrill Cropper: Do not despise my lowly state. 383 00:35:31.190 --> 00:35:33.560 Sherrill Cropper: Before I grow so weak. 384 00:35:33.830 --> 00:35:44.109 Sherrill Cropper: So heavy with mortality that I bend and fall, and my bones, brittle with age, become food for moth and worm. 385 00:35:44.360 --> 00:35:47.270 Sherrill Cropper: Be my health. Oh, be my help. 386 00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:51.889 Sherrill Cropper: Where my forebears went, there I, there go I. 387 00:35:52.070 --> 00:35:52.940 Sherrill Cropper: Yes. 388 00:35:53.110 --> 00:35:54.130 Sherrill Cropper: I know it. 389 00:35:54.450 --> 00:35:56.679 Sherrill Cropper: Their resting place is mine. 390 00:35:57.530 --> 00:35:58.130 Donna: Hmm. 391 00:36:03.770 --> 00:36:04.729 R. David (he/him): What do you see? 392 00:36:14.560 --> 00:36:15.960 R. David (he/him): What images? 393 00:36:16.780 --> 00:36:18.140 R. David (he/him): And what emotions? 394 00:36:21.690 --> 00:36:23.919 R. Rachel: Put it in the chat, or raise a hand. 395 00:36:39.380 --> 00:36:40.869 R. Rachel: Delia, I see her hand. 396 00:36:44.500 --> 00:36:47.720 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: This might be considered a strange… 397 00:36:47.840 --> 00:36:53.940 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: response, but what came to me was The deliciousness of yearning. 398 00:36:54.950 --> 00:36:59.320 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: The beauty of… holding something… 399 00:36:59.830 --> 00:37:05.400 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: That has been so dear and so close, and in the yearning, you get to feel it again. 400 00:37:10.710 --> 00:37:12.040 R. Rachel: What's the best foot about you? 401 00:37:15.810 --> 00:37:35.160 Elizabeth Yalkut: I'm really struck by the last couple of lines. It reminds me so much of the bit in Ruth, where Ruth and Naomi become a family, and it feels like a really interesting resonance for me, and… 402 00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:37.920 R. Rachel: Beautiful. 403 00:37:38.110 --> 00:37:40.009 R. Rachel: Where you go, I will go. 404 00:37:40.380 --> 00:37:41.479 Elizabeth Yalkut: Your people will be notified. 405 00:37:41.480 --> 00:37:44.170 R. Rachel: I will die, I will die, and there I will be buried. 406 00:37:48.530 --> 00:37:57.929 R. Rachel: Absolutely, I'm seeing in the chat from Cheryl, life is short, and having an able body and mind is also short. Be the best we can, while we can. 407 00:37:58.990 --> 00:38:00.590 R. Rachel: Iris, I see your hand. 408 00:38:06.290 --> 00:38:13.309 Iris Barten: So I'm feeling the continuity of generations, so we often think about the door, the door. 409 00:38:13.670 --> 00:38:17.159 Iris Barten: As people, you know, going forward, and this… 410 00:38:17.290 --> 00:38:22.320 Iris Barten: Is, in a sense, it's going forward, but in a different way of nesting. 411 00:38:23.480 --> 00:38:24.360 Iris Barten: Let's do it. 412 00:38:24.600 --> 00:38:26.250 Iris Barten: where we are. 413 00:38:26.530 --> 00:38:30.199 Iris Barten: As humans, who will all pass away. 414 00:38:31.530 --> 00:38:32.300 R. Rachel: Terrill. 415 00:38:32.560 --> 00:38:34.520 Iris Barten: Kind of the door of the door. 416 00:38:36.310 --> 00:38:37.120 R. Rachel: Yeah. 417 00:38:37.120 --> 00:38:38.400 Iris Barten: And also. 418 00:38:39.490 --> 00:38:47.329 Iris Barten: For me, a little bit, it was going back and forth of, are we speaking to our loved ones, or are we speaking to ourselves? 419 00:38:47.330 --> 00:38:48.480 R. Rachel: Marcel. 420 00:38:48.760 --> 00:38:51.209 Iris Barten: You know, about this process. 421 00:38:51.640 --> 00:38:53.899 R. David (he/him): Yeah. Who's the beloved down here? 422 00:38:56.180 --> 00:38:56.930 Iris Barten: Yeah. 423 00:38:57.020 --> 00:38:59.680 R. David (he/him): It's deliciously ambiguous, right? 424 00:38:59.940 --> 00:39:03.890 Iris Barten: Yeah, well, it could be the divine energy, yeah. 425 00:39:07.220 --> 00:39:08.060 R. David (he/him): Right. 426 00:39:08.510 --> 00:39:13.819 R. David (he/him): Right, it could be God, it could be our ancestors, it could be… yup, yup. 427 00:39:15.750 --> 00:39:16.450 R. David (he/him): Yup. 428 00:39:17.860 --> 00:39:19.220 R. David (he/him): What else do you see? 429 00:39:22.640 --> 00:39:27.919 R. David (he/him): We're gonna use this conversation to unpack all of Yisker, so take another minute with it. 430 00:39:28.960 --> 00:39:31.829 R. David (he/him): What images are being floated up to you? 431 00:39:38.110 --> 00:39:38.910 R. David (he/him): Joan? 432 00:39:41.360 --> 00:39:49.580 Joan Green: the… The… The fact that Sweet. 433 00:39:50.670 --> 00:39:54.260 Joan Green: Might assume that people learn from 434 00:39:54.530 --> 00:39:57.590 Joan Green: Mistakes made in the past. 435 00:39:57.910 --> 00:40:02.869 Joan Green: So that, you know, at some point, everyone knows how to do… do it. 436 00:40:03.400 --> 00:40:13.770 Joan Green: Whatever it is, whatever it is. And yet, when you look at this cemetery, and you think of people who have died, and I think of my parents. 437 00:40:14.760 --> 00:40:21.439 Joan Green: And people, often you hear people say they did their best, and we understand that 438 00:40:22.320 --> 00:40:28.690 Joan Green: We don't come into life Knowing how to do stuff. 439 00:40:29.090 --> 00:40:31.420 Joan Green: We all start from the beginning. 440 00:40:32.170 --> 00:40:34.930 Joan Green: And we all make mistakes. 441 00:40:35.370 --> 00:40:36.920 Joan Green: Along the way. 442 00:40:37.930 --> 00:40:43.890 Joan Green: And… So, in a way, and I think of what James was saying. 443 00:40:44.670 --> 00:40:47.890 Joan Green: The effort that we make through our lives 444 00:40:48.870 --> 00:40:51.640 Joan Green: Is fi- we're finally given a break. 445 00:40:51.920 --> 00:41:03.040 Joan Green: Death is the time when We could take a big breath, and… And… and stop… trying… 446 00:41:03.270 --> 00:41:07.680 Joan Green: Hard to do the right thing, because We've done our bit. 447 00:41:07.860 --> 00:41:13.160 Joan Green: They've done our bit already. Everyone has a point at which they've done their bit. 448 00:41:13.510 --> 00:41:19.660 Joan Green: And how successful they've been isn't really the point if they've made the effort. 449 00:41:20.700 --> 00:41:21.460 R. David (he/him): Okay. 450 00:41:23.030 --> 00:41:23.830 R. David (he/him): Okay. 451 00:41:24.090 --> 00:41:31.860 R. David (he/him): Notice a few literal images right here. Our days are like… Similarly. 452 00:41:32.660 --> 00:41:33.670 R. David (he/him): grass. 453 00:41:34.870 --> 00:41:42.330 R. David (he/him): We shoot up like… Similarly, flowers that fade and die as the chill wind pass over them. 454 00:41:43.470 --> 00:41:45.850 R. David (he/him): Compared to the Eternal. 455 00:41:47.230 --> 00:41:48.710 R. David (he/him): That is everlasting. 456 00:41:50.870 --> 00:41:53.030 R. David (he/him): I may come back in a little bit, Elizabeth. 457 00:41:54.380 --> 00:42:08.130 Elizabeth Yalkut: If… so, looking at the sentence that starts, before I grow so weak, that also really makes me think of the experience of caring for my grandparents in the last years of their life, and how 458 00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:27.699 Elizabeth Yalkut: Vulnerable it is, and how very physical an experience nursing is, both for the person being cared for, and the person, or ideally, people, many people, doing the caring, and just how much it makes you aware of the body. 459 00:42:29.270 --> 00:42:31.850 Elizabeth Yalkut: And it's many ways. 460 00:42:32.040 --> 00:42:33.160 Elizabeth Yalkut: a failing. 461 00:42:36.500 --> 00:42:37.190 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 462 00:42:37.890 --> 00:42:40.710 R. David (he/him): So, look what you've just done, as a group. 463 00:42:43.410 --> 00:42:45.330 R. David (he/him): What's the point of Yisker? 464 00:42:46.030 --> 00:42:48.719 R. David (he/him): Where you go, I will go, I'll be buried there. 465 00:42:49.710 --> 00:42:51.269 R. David (he/him): This is my future. 466 00:42:51.390 --> 00:42:52.619 R. David (he/him): Life is short. 467 00:42:53.720 --> 00:42:58.009 R. David (he/him): Do what you can, we all need mistakes, we all… we all make mistakes, we all do tshuva. 468 00:42:58.150 --> 00:42:59.910 R. David (he/him): We get ourselves yearning. 469 00:43:02.260 --> 00:43:03.570 R. David (he/him): What are you waiting for? 470 00:43:06.720 --> 00:43:12.780 R. David (he/him): What does this do for… our high holiday experience. Suddenly, it's about connection. 471 00:43:15.010 --> 00:43:17.259 R. David (he/him): Maybe it's also about urgency. 472 00:43:20.980 --> 00:43:22.259 R. David (he/him): What are you waiting for? 473 00:43:28.850 --> 00:43:30.320 R. David (he/him): Also, please. 474 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:33.870 Joan Green: I'm sorry, can I suggest that… 475 00:43:34.300 --> 00:43:39.469 Joan Green: We needn't feel like we're on the spot. 476 00:43:39.710 --> 00:43:45.229 Joan Green: Being judged for how successful We think we are. 477 00:43:46.240 --> 00:43:55.549 Joan Green: If you move into the… if you move into your gut and your soul, And you become even aware 478 00:43:55.860 --> 00:44:05.669 Joan Green: that you make errors, and aware that there's someplace to go where you can ask for forgiveness. You've done something huge. 479 00:44:07.380 --> 00:44:12.079 R. David (he/him): Yeah, and for those of us who are more likely to forgive people who are dead. 480 00:44:14.350 --> 00:44:17.970 R. David (he/him): Can we bring some of that ethic to people who are living? 481 00:44:18.790 --> 00:44:22.330 R. David (he/him): Can we bring some of that ethic to ourselves? 482 00:44:25.030 --> 00:44:27.559 R. David (he/him): This gets real deep, real fast, Ellen Ruth. 483 00:44:30.720 --> 00:44:41.220 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: Some of us… Have not waited for Yom Kippur to have these feelings. 484 00:44:41.580 --> 00:44:48.740 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: When I was 4 years old, my mom had a stillborn, and I learned about death. 485 00:44:49.350 --> 00:44:52.570 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: And so, I've been thinking about these things. 486 00:45:00.030 --> 00:45:01.350 Donna: Thank you. 487 00:45:01.350 --> 00:45:04.319 R. David (he/him): Ellen Ruth, we can no longer hear you for some reason. 488 00:45:06.010 --> 00:45:09.550 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: That's because I stopped saying anything. 489 00:45:09.770 --> 00:45:11.369 R. David (he/him): In which case, we heard correctly. 490 00:45:11.370 --> 00:45:17.660 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: I'm not gonna say anything more than that. It's like, for me… 491 00:45:18.020 --> 00:45:37.399 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: It's like, oh my god, it's Yom Kippur, I have to do all this stuff! But for me, I do it 365 days a year. It's always in my mandala, my consciousness, my being, my approach to life. I don't wait for this time. 492 00:45:38.310 --> 00:45:38.870 R. David (he/him): Great. 493 00:45:39.360 --> 00:45:40.300 R. David (he/him): Okay. 494 00:45:41.130 --> 00:45:43.150 R. David (he/him): Look what you've discussed already. 495 00:45:43.290 --> 00:45:44.330 R. David (he/him): Take it in. 496 00:45:47.930 --> 00:45:49.929 R. David (he/him): That there's a reason Miss is here. 497 00:45:54.660 --> 00:46:02.899 R. David (he/him): There are people who, I am told, cry exactly once a year. I am not one of those people, but there are people who cry once a year. 498 00:46:05.260 --> 00:46:07.190 R. David (he/him): And it's Yiskar on Yom Kippur. 499 00:46:08.530 --> 00:46:15.190 R. David (he/him): There are other people who just, for whatever reason, as part of their process, they haven't cried, they haven't felt 500 00:46:15.530 --> 00:46:19.599 R. David (he/him): A profound sense of any kind of depth, for whatever reason. 501 00:46:23.360 --> 00:46:28.170 R. David (he/him): But now they're talking about Mortality. 502 00:46:28.950 --> 00:46:35.470 R. David (he/him): and people who might be profoundly beloved who are no longer with us. And suddenly, the heart is opening in different ways. 503 00:46:41.380 --> 00:46:43.580 R. David (he/him): Those may be some of the reasons why. 504 00:46:43.980 --> 00:46:45.890 R. David (he/him): Yisker is here at all. 505 00:46:46.330 --> 00:46:50.790 R. David (he/him): So let's see how the images of Yisker Line up. 506 00:46:51.240 --> 00:46:53.659 R. David (he/him): With some of what you brought forward. 507 00:46:53.930 --> 00:46:55.109 R. David (he/him): Let's see if it works. 508 00:46:56.370 --> 00:46:59.050 R. David (he/him): Here's some basic history. 509 00:46:59.990 --> 00:47:02.640 R. David (he/him): Where does GISCO come from? 510 00:47:05.250 --> 00:47:06.840 R. David (he/him): Torah is super cool. 511 00:47:08.050 --> 00:47:09.479 R. David (he/him): Says the rabbi. 512 00:47:10.230 --> 00:47:14.310 R. David (he/him): When we approach Yisker, we have just come through. 513 00:47:15.840 --> 00:47:23.339 R. David (he/him): the… last Torah portion of the year that we would traditionally offer in a synagogue. It's called Ha'azinu. 514 00:47:23.900 --> 00:47:32.900 R. David (he/him): And it comes from the first Hebrew words of the Torah portion. Give ear, oh heavens! Give, Ozed, give ear, and I will speak. 515 00:47:33.300 --> 00:47:36.059 R. David (he/him): Who is the I who was speaking here? Anyone know? 516 00:47:37.580 --> 00:47:39.239 R. David (he/him): It's the end of Torah. 517 00:47:43.280 --> 00:47:44.149 R. Rachel: Not a trick question. 518 00:47:47.510 --> 00:47:49.520 R. David (he/him): Who does a lot of the talking in Torah? 519 00:47:51.180 --> 00:47:52.520 R. Rachel: Especially at the end. 520 00:47:55.900 --> 00:47:58.330 R. Rachel: Clue, you might associate him with Passover. 521 00:48:02.080 --> 00:48:03.589 R. Rachel: Iris, you had a hand up. 522 00:48:04.530 --> 00:48:05.450 R. David (he/him): Someone! 523 00:48:05.700 --> 00:48:08.249 Iris Barten: I was thinking it's Moses, although I know 524 00:48:08.970 --> 00:48:10.070 Iris Barten: You know, he gives a lot. 525 00:48:10.070 --> 00:48:10.950 R. Rachel: It's Moses. 526 00:48:11.560 --> 00:48:15.319 R. David (he/him): Of course it is. And what he's doing here is giving his swan song. 527 00:48:17.180 --> 00:48:19.820 R. David (he/him): This is his last hurrah. 528 00:48:20.500 --> 00:48:21.969 R. David (he/him): Before his death. 529 00:48:25.420 --> 00:48:27.990 R. David (he/him): And we always reach this Torah portion. 530 00:48:29.090 --> 00:48:31.860 R. David (he/him): right before we do, Yisker. 531 00:48:32.900 --> 00:48:33.580 R. David (he/him): ways. 532 00:48:34.920 --> 00:48:39.960 R. David (he/him): For I proclaim the name, I am calling God the Rock. 533 00:48:41.100 --> 00:48:47.239 R. David (he/him): Atsur Tameim Pa'alo, the rock whose Actualization is perfect. 534 00:48:47.600 --> 00:48:50.449 R. David (he/him): Whose ways are just, the faithful never false. 535 00:48:51.550 --> 00:48:56.400 R. David (he/him): God is like an eagle rustling, rousing its nestlings, gliding down to them. 536 00:48:57.020 --> 00:49:04.149 R. David (he/him): And Moses is telling the peeps, and this is how God spread wing and bore your ancestors on God's own limb. 537 00:49:04.800 --> 00:49:11.380 R. David (he/him): Did God actually take the shape of an eagle? No, it's all… simile. 538 00:49:12.010 --> 00:49:12.920 R. David (he/him): like. 539 00:49:16.660 --> 00:49:17.819 R. David (he/him): Stay tuned! 540 00:49:17.980 --> 00:49:19.889 R. David (he/him): Because those images are gonna come back. 541 00:49:21.500 --> 00:49:25.790 R. David (he/him): Why do we do Yiska from antiquity into the Crusades? 542 00:49:27.500 --> 00:49:30.610 R. David (he/him): Who wants to read the little bit in yellow? It's from Midrash. 543 00:49:38.440 --> 00:49:41.109 R. David (he/him): Maybe someone who hasn't had a chance to speak or read yet. 544 00:49:43.380 --> 00:49:53.750 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): Atone for your people, Israel, whom you redeemed, Yud-Heh-Bove-Heh. Deuteronomy 21.8. Atone for your people, Israel, are the living, whom you redeemed are the dead. 545 00:49:53.950 --> 00:50:07.720 James Nerlinger (Cincinnati, Ohio USA): From here, we learn that the living redeemed the dead. Thus, it is our custom to Yiskorify the dead on Yom Kippur to make tzedakah for them. 546 00:50:10.230 --> 00:50:13.059 R. David (he/him): the original derivation of Yisker. 547 00:50:13.800 --> 00:50:17.009 R. David (he/him): Was everyone needs to do tshuva? 548 00:50:18.020 --> 00:50:20.870 R. David (he/him): Except the dead can't anymore. 549 00:50:23.190 --> 00:50:26.599 R. David (he/him): And so, the dead need us to do it for them. 550 00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:36.050 R. David (he/him): Now, this in modern parlance might land a little hard. 551 00:50:36.170 --> 00:50:40.430 R. David (he/him): If the people who are no longer with us in your life 552 00:50:40.550 --> 00:50:43.329 R. David (he/him): are people who needed to do tshuva. 553 00:50:49.140 --> 00:50:51.119 R. David (he/him): But that is with us, too, at Yiskar. 554 00:50:54.600 --> 00:50:57.300 R. David (he/him): This… Basic ethic. 555 00:50:57.590 --> 00:50:59.199 R. David (he/him): is the source. 556 00:51:00.890 --> 00:51:04.209 R. David (he/him): But it's only where Yisker began. 557 00:51:04.250 --> 00:51:21.050 R. David (he/him): Because over time, the rabbis that put the liturgy together came to understand that while, in terms of Jewish law, maybe this is sort of what we're doing, actually it's the other way now, because we know that our destination is wherever they are. 558 00:51:22.420 --> 00:51:23.380 R. David (he/him): And that… 559 00:51:23.910 --> 00:51:42.330 R. David (he/him): Torah and all of Jewish tradition is really telling us, repent one day before you die, do tshuva one day before you die, and several of you have very eloquently said, well, when is that? We don't know. So here comes Yisker to remind us as if we needed reminding. What are you waiting for? 560 00:51:44.720 --> 00:51:45.809 R. David (he/him): What are you waiting for? 561 00:51:47.950 --> 00:51:57.820 R. Rachel: Bear in mind that the whole of Yom Kippur feeds into this. Yom Kippur is a day of rehearsal for our death. 562 00:51:58.280 --> 00:52:07.870 R. Rachel: Some of us have a custom of wearing all white, like the shrouds in which we will be buried. Some people actually pray in a kittel, the white… 563 00:52:08.110 --> 00:52:13.600 R. Rachel: Overcoat in which they will actually, literally be buried. 564 00:52:15.140 --> 00:52:20.239 R. Rachel: So all of Yom Kippur is leading us into this recognition. What are you waiting for? 565 00:52:20.910 --> 00:52:21.410 R. Rachel: The timing. 566 00:52:21.410 --> 00:52:26.120 R. David (he/him): We're not eating. Dead people don't eat. For those of us who can safely… 567 00:52:26.120 --> 00:52:26.830 R. Rachel: fast. 568 00:52:26.830 --> 00:52:30.659 R. David (he/him): Right? There's a whole piece about that. But it all feeds that, right? Cheryl. 569 00:52:35.040 --> 00:52:40.459 Sherrill Cropper: about making tzedakah for them, because it feels to me… 570 00:52:40.830 --> 00:52:51.919 Sherrill Cropper: that sometimes we are told that, because it's easier to do something for those that are past than to do it for ourselves, but the truth is that making tzedakah 571 00:52:52.420 --> 00:52:56.679 Sherrill Cropper: It's something for our own spiritual self, right? 572 00:52:58.150 --> 00:53:02.059 R. Rachel: I would say it's… and I would say it's an AND rather than an OR. 573 00:53:02.420 --> 00:53:04.469 Sherrill Cropper: Oh, that's good, thank you. That works. 574 00:53:04.470 --> 00:53:07.070 R. David (he/him): both hands. This is not a substitute. 575 00:53:08.680 --> 00:53:10.860 R. David (he/him): No, we gotta do it for ourselves. 576 00:53:12.750 --> 00:53:19.500 Sherrill Cropper: But, you know, we… we feel maybe more committed if we're saying we're doing it on behalf of 577 00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:22.200 Sherrill Cropper: A parent, or a grandparent, or a child. 578 00:53:22.200 --> 00:53:23.790 R. David (he/him): Whatever gets us to move. 579 00:53:24.050 --> 00:53:26.950 R. David (he/him): Move, it's time, what are you doing? What are you waiting for? 580 00:53:27.290 --> 00:53:29.730 Sherrill Cropper: Midrash Tankuma? 581 00:53:30.010 --> 00:53:33.619 Sherrill Cropper: Ozzinu is where? Located where? 582 00:53:33.620 --> 00:53:37.880 R. David (he/him): It's in Midrashtan Chumah. The Parsha is Ha'azinu, this is the first 583 00:53:38.160 --> 00:53:40.719 R. David (he/him): part of the Midrash on this portion. 584 00:53:41.790 --> 00:53:42.440 Sherrill Cropper: Okay. 585 00:53:42.660 --> 00:53:44.760 R. David (he/him): There's a whole Midrash called Midrash Tanchumah. 586 00:53:46.010 --> 00:53:46.950 R. David (he/him): Yeah, Linda. 587 00:53:47.610 --> 00:53:49.950 Linda Kramer: I feel like… 588 00:53:54.540 --> 00:53:59.209 Linda Kramer: Some of my ancestors or my husband may rest in peace. 589 00:53:59.910 --> 00:54:02.049 Linda Kramer: are part of my tuva. 590 00:54:03.100 --> 00:54:03.710 R. David (he/him): Hmm. 591 00:54:04.080 --> 00:54:06.390 Linda Kramer: ZVA that should have been done. 592 00:54:07.450 --> 00:54:11.359 Linda Kramer: That wasn't, but has impacted me. 593 00:54:11.740 --> 00:54:16.900 Linda Kramer: And so, I look at it, Oh, so… a connection. 594 00:54:17.460 --> 00:54:18.190 R. David (he/him): Yes. 595 00:54:18.190 --> 00:54:20.229 Linda Kramer: a necessary connection. 596 00:54:20.650 --> 00:54:21.240 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 597 00:54:21.590 --> 00:54:23.200 R. David (he/him): So let's keep connecting. 598 00:54:26.180 --> 00:54:32.240 R. Rachel: This is the… Silent Yiskir prayer that is at the heart of the Yizkir service. 599 00:54:34.590 --> 00:54:41.510 R. Rachel: This is the point in the service where we'll invite us to go into silence. Some of us may be under a tallit. 600 00:54:42.050 --> 00:54:47.030 R. Rachel: And… Pray this prayer. May God remember the beloved soul of… 601 00:54:49.160 --> 00:54:51.619 R. Rachel: Whoever it is that we're remembering. 602 00:54:52.050 --> 00:54:59.719 R. Rachel: who've gone to their eternity. For the assent of their souls, I pledge acts of tzedakah, of justice and charity in their memories. 603 00:55:00.110 --> 00:55:07.000 R. Rachel: May their souls be bound in the bonds of eternal life. May they rest in the perfect joy of your presence. Amen. 604 00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:11.629 R. Rachel: And then the part at the bottom is our own addition. 605 00:55:12.770 --> 00:55:16.650 R. Rachel: Is that… Is present in both of our shuls. 606 00:55:17.360 --> 00:55:24.220 R. Rachel: Recognizing that not all relationships are sweet ones, and not all of those whom we remember. 607 00:55:24.790 --> 00:55:27.150 R. Rachel: Are people who treated us well. 608 00:55:27.560 --> 00:55:32.949 R. Rachel: Some of us may be remembering… Folks who harmed us greatly. 609 00:55:34.180 --> 00:55:36.690 R. Rachel: And that's an important part of Yisker, too. 610 00:55:37.240 --> 00:55:40.260 R. David (he/him): failed us, or… Dot, dot dot. 611 00:55:40.260 --> 00:55:42.180 R. Rachel: Or, o'er, o'er. 612 00:55:42.180 --> 00:55:43.839 R. David (he/him): So what images are here? 613 00:55:48.340 --> 00:55:51.690 R. Rachel: What images do you see? Just raise a hand or put it in the chat. 614 00:55:54.920 --> 00:55:57.710 R. Rachel: It's a very short little prayer. What are the images? 615 00:56:08.540 --> 00:56:11.619 R. David (he/him): We're inviting you to feel the words, maybe literally. 616 00:56:12.040 --> 00:56:16.859 R. Rachel: Seeing in the chat, a scent of souls, bound in the gaunt. 617 00:56:17.660 --> 00:56:25.369 R. Rachel: There's something about souls, whatever those are, ascending. There's something about souls, whatever those are, being bound. 618 00:56:27.540 --> 00:56:30.280 R. Rachel: I'm seeing love, I'm seeing rest. 619 00:56:33.390 --> 00:56:35.310 R. Rachel: What else we got? What else do we see here? 620 00:56:37.780 --> 00:56:38.760 R. Rachel: Fire? 621 00:56:50.140 --> 00:56:53.319 R. Rachel: Yep, your presence, God's presence. 622 00:56:53.600 --> 00:56:54.780 R. Rachel: is an image. 623 00:56:55.760 --> 00:57:00.230 R. Rachel: Not that we know what that looks like, or whether it can look like anything, right? But… 624 00:57:00.970 --> 00:57:03.180 R. Rachel: In our minds, it's an image. 625 00:57:05.330 --> 00:57:09.050 Donna: Rabbi Rachel, I'm having trouble raising my hand. 626 00:57:09.050 --> 00:57:10.030 R. Rachel: Sorry, Donna, yes. 627 00:57:10.030 --> 00:57:26.149 Donna: Sorry, I'm technically challenged, but in that passage, may they rest in the perfect joy of your presence. I think especially if you've lost children or babies. 628 00:57:26.160 --> 00:57:33.389 Donna: And as a mother or father, you can't be with them, so it gives me comfort. 629 00:57:33.620 --> 00:57:40.789 Donna: To know that there… whatever spiritual presence is there, is there for those 630 00:57:41.040 --> 00:57:45.829 Donna: you know, children, because I can't, or people can't be with them. 631 00:57:45.830 --> 00:57:47.859 R. Rachel: Yeah, absolutely, thank you, that's beautiful. 632 00:57:47.860 --> 00:57:48.520 Donna: before. 633 00:57:49.230 --> 00:57:50.740 R. Rachel: There's a sense of accompaniment. 634 00:57:50.740 --> 00:57:51.220 Donna: Okay. 635 00:57:51.220 --> 00:57:53.910 R. Rachel: God, asterisk, whatever that means. 636 00:57:53.910 --> 00:57:54.260 Donna: Sure. 637 00:57:54.720 --> 00:57:56.320 R. Rachel: is accompanying. 638 00:57:57.320 --> 00:58:00.079 R. Rachel: It's providing the perfect joy of that presence. 639 00:58:01.320 --> 00:58:04.739 R. Rachel: So here are 3 little teachings on Yizger. 640 00:58:05.890 --> 00:58:07.910 R. Rachel: Somebody want to read the one in pink? 641 00:58:11.200 --> 00:58:12.240 R. Rachel: Linda. 642 00:58:14.150 --> 00:58:19.000 Linda Kramer: My teacher, Rabbi Zalman Shakta Shalomi. 643 00:58:19.160 --> 00:58:25.539 Linda Kramer: May his memory be a blessing. Used to speak of Yitzka as a holy Skype call. 644 00:58:26.200 --> 00:58:31.850 Linda Kramer: An opportunity to go inside oneself, perhaps straight beneath one's tart. 645 00:58:32.110 --> 00:58:37.080 Linda Kramer: And call up the memory of the person one has lost, and imagine them. 646 00:58:37.200 --> 00:58:44.590 Linda Kramer: And say whatever it is that one most needs to say to that person right then and there. 647 00:58:45.070 --> 00:58:45.670 Donna: Hmm. 648 00:58:45.670 --> 00:58:47.829 R. Rachel: That's one approach to Yasker. 649 00:58:48.300 --> 00:58:50.820 R. Rachel: And I love this one. Go under your tallit! 650 00:58:51.690 --> 00:59:00.810 R. Rachel: see the person in front of you, like you're on a Zoom… we would now say a Zoom call, right? We don't use Skype anymore, but 15, 20 years ago, Skype was the thing. 651 00:59:02.650 --> 00:59:06.869 R. Rachel: How about the one from Brant Rosen, the one highlighted in yellow? Any takers? 652 00:59:07.390 --> 00:59:27.170 Elizabeth Yalkut: The Day of Atonement is the spiritually rawest time of the Jewish calendar. It is the time in which we acknowledge our mortality and look into the coming year with a potent emotional mix of awe and trepidation. The tenor of Yiskor for Yom Kippur thus resonates with the pain and uncertainty that inevitably comes with grief. 653 00:59:27.720 --> 00:59:38.709 Elizabeth Yalkut: In the juncture between a year past and a year yet to come, we allow ourselves to dwell in that in-between place, between the past we know and the future we have yet to experience. 654 00:59:39.040 --> 00:59:39.859 R. Rachel: Thank you. 655 00:59:40.330 --> 00:59:46.819 R. Rachel: It's a… It is worth just noting quickly, he says the tenor of Yiskar for Yom Kippur 656 00:59:47.170 --> 00:59:52.649 R. Rachel: That's because traditionally there are 4 times a year when we say Yizger, and this is only one of them. 657 00:59:53.490 --> 01:00:02.079 R. Rachel: And I know that for many of us, this is the only one we grew up with. And when we think of Yisker, this is the one we think of. Maybe not the other three. 658 01:00:05.440 --> 01:00:08.939 R. David (he/him): The second one that we just read, to me, conjures up, 659 01:00:10.230 --> 01:00:15.140 R. David (he/him): a metaphor with the entire journey of Tshuva. 660 01:00:16.860 --> 01:00:20.400 R. David (he/him): we come into Yom Kippur feeling one way. 661 01:00:20.900 --> 01:00:24.849 R. David (he/him): And Yom Kippur aspires to take us into feeling a different way. 662 01:00:25.960 --> 01:00:30.610 R. David (he/him): Whether it's from exhaustion, or… Radiance. 663 01:00:32.050 --> 01:00:34.050 R. David (he/him): There's this in-between place. 664 01:00:35.350 --> 01:00:38.959 R. David (he/him): And for some of us, Yusker is exactly that in-between place. 665 01:00:40.130 --> 01:00:45.639 R. David (he/him): Depending on exactly when your… when a YSCR is done, different communities do it at different times. 666 01:00:46.560 --> 01:00:50.500 R. Rachel: Alright, at CBI, it happens at the end of the morning service. 667 01:00:51.120 --> 01:00:54.120 R. David (he/him): At Shirami, it happens in the late afternoon. 668 01:00:55.050 --> 01:00:57.969 R. Rachel: But I think it can serve that purpose in either location. 669 01:00:57.970 --> 01:00:59.340 R. David (he/him): Either one, right. 670 01:01:01.870 --> 01:01:02.580 R. David (he/him): Number 3. 671 01:01:04.180 --> 01:01:06.899 R. Rachel: Somebody want to read number 3 from Rabbi Pam Wax? 672 01:01:10.410 --> 01:01:11.000 Barbara: As is… 673 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:11.670 R. Rachel: Barbara? 674 01:01:11.880 --> 01:01:30.050 Barbara: As it is the day when we ask forgiveness from God, it is appropriate that this Yiskor is when we also ask forgiveness of our beloved dead, or offer it to them. Consider what we need to forgive our beloved dead for, or what we need to ask forgiveness for. 675 01:01:30.530 --> 01:01:31.110 R. Rachel: Thank you. 676 01:01:32.620 --> 01:01:35.809 R. Rachel: So this is this wisdom from Rabbi Pam. 677 01:01:36.240 --> 01:01:53.939 R. Rachel: is that we may need to make tshuva with those who are no longer here. And believe it or not, our tradition says that is entirely possible. If I need to make tshuva with my mother of blessed memory, and I didn't do it while she was alive, I can do it after she's gone. That's a whole other conversation, we can talk about that after. 678 01:01:53.940 --> 01:02:00.189 R. David (he/him): Better, you shouldn't wait, but if you remember, and now's the time, Mazel Tov. 679 01:02:01.600 --> 01:02:09.440 R. Rachel: And what do we wish they had done tshuva for with us before they died? Because that may be a thing, too. 680 01:02:10.680 --> 01:02:12.029 R. Rachel: This is the time for that. 681 01:02:13.480 --> 01:02:25.859 R. David (he/him): These are permissions for you. I'm gonna call on Joan in just a second. These are permissions for you, because we're about to walk through a couple of traditional psalms that come in at the time of Yisker, and they're gonna key up 682 01:02:26.480 --> 01:02:29.960 R. David (he/him): With their imagery, some of this stuff. 683 01:02:30.940 --> 01:02:34.720 R. David (he/him): the invitation is at Yisker. 684 01:02:35.030 --> 01:02:36.820 R. David (he/him): Maybe you're holding a rock. 685 01:02:37.850 --> 01:02:40.630 R. David (he/him): Maybe you're sitting there under a tallit. 686 01:02:40.780 --> 01:02:43.420 R. David (he/him): Maybe you're sitting there following along. 687 01:02:43.600 --> 01:02:45.739 R. David (he/him): Maybe you're trying to stay awake. 688 01:02:45.990 --> 01:02:53.190 R. David (he/him): Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you're feeling a whole flood of emotions, you can't even tease them apart. 689 01:02:54.690 --> 01:02:57.179 R. David (he/him): All of those are a right way to do it. 690 01:02:59.180 --> 01:03:08.260 R. David (he/him): And the invitation is to bring into Yisker what you need Yisker to B. 691 01:03:09.110 --> 01:03:14.260 R. David (he/him): It is not different than all of the images we've looked at 692 01:03:14.760 --> 01:03:25.929 R. David (he/him): all this time, where you interact with the image, and you make it real, and your experience deepens and heightens the experience. It's not different with Yisker. 693 01:03:26.590 --> 01:03:28.580 R. David (he/him): All the more invitation. 694 01:03:30.240 --> 01:03:31.750 R. David (he/him): to take Yisker. 695 01:03:32.770 --> 01:03:34.460 R. David (he/him): Make it yours. 696 01:03:36.490 --> 01:03:38.559 R. David (he/him): Shown, and then we're gonna flip a slide. 697 01:03:40.080 --> 01:03:50.350 Joan Green: Elizabeth just said, Something… Close to what I thought 3 times about bringing up. 698 01:03:51.580 --> 01:03:57.870 Joan Green: And because it's negative, I was taught to try never to be negative. 699 01:03:58.820 --> 01:04:05.529 Joan Green: And I think there are times for it. So my question is, what are we taught 700 01:04:06.160 --> 01:04:09.310 Joan Green: When we are dealing with something that we've… 701 01:04:09.630 --> 01:04:13.340 Joan Green: Have a very hard time forgiving. 702 01:04:15.460 --> 01:04:18.890 R. David (he/him): Can we bring that into the after chat? 703 01:04:19.460 --> 01:04:25.300 R. David (he/him): Because if we… if we address that here, we're not going to do the rest. 704 01:04:25.300 --> 01:04:28.600 R. Rachel: Really big one, and I really want to talk about it. 705 01:04:28.850 --> 01:04:29.250 R. David (he/him): Me too. 706 01:04:29.250 --> 01:04:30.010 R. Rachel: Happy to see. 707 01:04:30.010 --> 01:04:31.409 Elizabeth Yalkut: Stick around for the act. 708 01:04:31.410 --> 01:04:33.929 R. Rachel: We have a lot to… we have a lot on that. 709 01:04:34.310 --> 01:04:36.619 R. David (he/him): Awesome. Ellen Ruth, is it on this? 710 01:04:39.850 --> 01:04:46.419 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: I don't know. You'll tell me if it's not on the topic, I'll be quiet. 711 01:04:46.770 --> 01:04:50.639 R. David (he/him): Well, don't be quiet, we just may need to hold it for about 20 minutes. 712 01:04:50.880 --> 01:04:51.820 R. David (he/him): But tell me. 713 01:04:53.900 --> 01:04:55.750 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: You want me to hold it? I'll hold it. 714 01:04:55.750 --> 01:04:59.459 R. David (he/him): Tell us what… tell us what it is, and then we'll know how to… 715 01:05:02.760 --> 01:05:06.350 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: I… I have two ques… two questions. 716 01:05:07.110 --> 01:05:15.099 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: One is my experience this evening? Is that this conversation is triggering me. 717 01:05:15.670 --> 01:05:18.270 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: And making me really uncomfortable. 718 01:05:18.940 --> 01:05:19.390 R. David (he/him): Okay. 719 01:05:19.390 --> 01:05:25.039 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: And the second thing is, it feels so intellectual. 720 01:05:25.360 --> 01:05:30.370 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: that when the moment comes that I'm at Yom Kippur. 721 01:05:30.770 --> 01:05:39.119 Dr Ellen Ruth Topol: I feel like I'll be in my head instead of my presence in that moment, sacred moment. 722 01:05:39.120 --> 01:05:39.680 R. David (he/him): P… 723 01:05:39.950 --> 01:05:52.799 R. David (he/him): So, the triggering, if you need to ring off and take care of yourself, do so. The intellectual discussion is so that we can now go into these images right now. 724 01:05:53.860 --> 01:05:56.810 R. David (he/him): This is Psalm 90. 725 01:05:57.860 --> 01:06:00.570 R. David (he/him): Or at least an excerpt from it. 726 01:06:02.660 --> 01:06:07.440 R. David (he/him): We invite you to experience these images. 727 01:06:09.450 --> 01:06:12.270 R. David (he/him): Rabbi Rachel, can you and I just do this? 728 01:06:13.180 --> 01:06:15.980 R. David (he/him): Eternal God, you have been our refuge. 729 01:06:16.230 --> 01:06:17.960 R. David (he/him): in all generations. 730 01:06:18.810 --> 01:06:27.330 R. Rachel: Before the mountains were born, or earth and universe brought forth, from eternity to eternity, you are God. 731 01:06:27.330 --> 01:06:30.509 R. David (he/him): Stop there, everybody. This is classic liturgy. 732 01:06:30.930 --> 01:06:35.319 R. David (he/him): What… what are the images? What is the emotion that's being invited? 733 01:06:36.080 --> 01:06:38.550 R. David (he/him): Or the experience that's being invited. 734 01:06:47.140 --> 01:06:48.890 R. Rachel: Just put a word in the chat. 735 01:06:51.260 --> 01:06:52.500 R. Rachel: Or say it aloud. 736 01:07:00.350 --> 01:07:01.190 R. David (he/him): Iris. 737 01:07:02.500 --> 01:07:09.630 Iris Barten: There was… The eternity of the divine, and… 738 01:07:09.860 --> 01:07:12.029 Iris Barten: How we are a part of that. 739 01:07:12.760 --> 01:07:13.220 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 740 01:07:13.220 --> 01:07:16.819 Iris Barten: And also, the mountains are, you know, symbolic. 741 01:07:17.380 --> 01:07:20.010 R. David (he/him): Of what? What's the mountain saying to you? 742 01:07:21.350 --> 01:07:28.670 Iris Barten: Their strengths and… They're facing upward, and… 743 01:07:28.780 --> 01:07:34.340 Iris Barten: You know, they may have a little erosion, but they basically stay a mountain unless. 744 01:07:34.340 --> 01:07:34.790 R. David (he/him): What's that? 745 01:07:34.790 --> 01:07:45.559 R. Rachel: Eternity, right? What do we bring to the cemetery, traditionally? If you're going to visit a Jewish cemetery to see someone's grave, what do we bring? Do we bring flowers? 746 01:07:45.900 --> 01:07:46.250 Donna: No. 747 01:07:46.250 --> 01:07:46.890 Iris Barten: Wow. 748 01:07:46.890 --> 01:07:55.390 R. Rachel: We bring rocks, right? Which, because a rock is as eternal as anything we can find. 749 01:07:55.510 --> 01:07:57.370 R. Rachel: A rock is a piece of a mountain. 750 01:07:58.080 --> 01:08:00.309 R. David (he/him): It's strength in hand. 751 01:08:01.210 --> 01:08:01.919 R. Rachel: And that is what 752 01:08:02.410 --> 01:08:09.809 R. Rachel: our congregations, we pass out little pebbles at the start of Yisker to hold in our hands during this service. 753 01:08:10.790 --> 01:08:17.330 R. David (he/him): For a thousand years in your sight are as butt as but as yesterday when it has passed. 754 01:08:17.520 --> 01:08:19.429 R. David (he/him): Or as a watch in the night. 755 01:08:19.990 --> 01:08:23.829 R. Rachel: You sweep us away. We are like a dream at daybreak. 756 01:08:23.979 --> 01:08:32.030 R. Rachel: We come and go like grass, which in the morning shoots up, renewed, and in the evening fades and withers. 757 01:08:32.560 --> 01:08:34.160 R. David (he/him): Images, emotions. 758 01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:49.970 Elizabeth Yalkut: That's my face. 759 01:08:50.450 --> 01:08:51.450 Elizabeth Yalkut: Stops. 760 01:08:51.450 --> 01:08:52.460 R. Rachel: Cats. 761 01:08:52.460 --> 01:08:54.099 Elizabeth Yalkut: Stop being on my face. 762 01:08:54.859 --> 01:08:56.769 R. David (he/him): Okay, Elizabeth, I'm gonna mute you for a second. 763 01:08:59.560 --> 01:09:00.270 R. David (he/him): Oh my gosh. 764 01:09:01.029 --> 01:09:02.590 R. David (he/him): You sweep us away. 765 01:09:03.859 --> 01:09:10.290 R. Rachel: Which in the morning shoots up, and in the evening withers. How brief we are. 766 01:09:12.149 --> 01:09:12.930 R. Rachel: Great. 767 01:09:14.029 --> 01:09:15.860 R. Rachel: Even if we get a long time. 768 01:09:16.010 --> 01:09:17.309 R. Rachel: How brief we are. 769 01:09:20.109 --> 01:09:23.199 R. David (he/him): The number of our years may be many or few. 770 01:09:23.899 --> 01:09:29.519 R. David (he/him): Yet vain toil fills their span, for it is soon ended and we fly away. 771 01:09:30.099 --> 01:09:32.509 R. David (he/him): So teach us to number our days. 772 01:09:32.769 --> 01:09:35.169 R. David (he/him): That we may grow wise in heart. 773 01:09:36.470 --> 01:09:42.119 R. Rachel: Let your servants understand your ways, and your children see your glory. 774 01:09:43.100 --> 01:09:44.780 R. David (he/him): Images, emotions. 775 01:09:58.320 --> 01:10:01.399 R. Rachel: If you want to page us forward one, we'll see some images. 776 01:10:01.660 --> 01:10:02.270 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 777 01:10:02.700 --> 01:10:09.610 R. David (he/him): So, there are a couple of really good Buddhists on this call. I have not heard anyone talk about impermanence. 778 01:10:13.870 --> 01:10:18.919 R. Rachel: Who are the servants and who are the children? Alright, that's a question. 779 01:10:21.050 --> 01:10:22.380 R. David (he/him): Here are some images. 780 01:10:22.380 --> 01:10:23.730 R. Rachel: Here's some images. 781 01:10:25.690 --> 01:10:27.410 R. David (he/him): The eternity before? 782 01:10:28.270 --> 01:10:35.160 R. David (he/him): The mountains of strength and solidity reaching up, The bottom is the life. 783 01:10:35.160 --> 01:10:43.769 R. Rachel: Flourishes in the morning, and by the evening it is withered, and it blows away like a tumbleweed, because that's a human life. 784 01:10:47.390 --> 01:10:52.680 R. Rachel: This is one of our oldest… these are some of our oldest… images. 785 01:10:53.090 --> 01:10:56.410 R. Rachel: Of eternity and impermanence. 786 01:10:56.960 --> 01:10:57.609 R. David (he/him): And he comes. 787 01:10:57.610 --> 01:11:02.490 R. Rachel: The cosmos, the mountains are forever. We are a blade of grass. 788 01:11:03.650 --> 01:11:04.820 R. Rachel: You know, a little sprout? 789 01:11:06.190 --> 01:11:07.300 R. Rachel: And then we're gone. 790 01:11:07.700 --> 01:11:14.820 R. David (he/him): And this, because it's Psalms, this is not a bunch of rabbis sitting in a room crafting a liturgy. 791 01:11:16.290 --> 01:11:18.600 R. Rachel: This is gonna be very old. 792 01:11:19.390 --> 01:11:21.990 R. David (he/him): Either 2,500 years. 793 01:11:22.470 --> 01:11:23.110 R. Rachel: or longer. 794 01:11:23.110 --> 01:11:29.420 R. David (he/him): Or… or longer. If you credit my namesake, King David, with writing them, it's about 3,000 years. 795 01:11:30.440 --> 01:11:33.079 R. David (he/him): This is old-school Jewish. 796 01:11:36.970 --> 01:11:41.200 R. David (he/him): Especially in a place where Water was hard to come by. 797 01:11:41.930 --> 01:11:45.920 R. David (he/him): So… We come up in the morning. 798 01:11:47.190 --> 01:11:49.249 R. David (he/him): And the next thing we know, we're dry. 799 01:11:49.960 --> 01:11:51.460 R. David (he/him): Why is this here? 800 01:11:52.280 --> 01:11:54.290 R. Rachel: Why are we doing this on Yom Kippur? 801 01:11:56.150 --> 01:12:00.589 R. David (he/him): You've already said why. We're just connecting image, liturgy, and purpose. 802 01:12:00.710 --> 01:12:02.009 R. David (he/him): Why is this here? 803 01:12:04.200 --> 01:12:05.220 R. David (he/him): Just call it out. 804 01:12:07.740 --> 01:12:10.170 Iris Barten: It's about relationship with… 805 01:12:10.570 --> 01:12:18.070 Iris Barten: the divine, and nature, and ourselves, and others. It's a… I think it's a contextual thing. 806 01:12:18.530 --> 01:12:20.590 Iris Barten: But in an emotional way. 807 01:12:20.810 --> 01:12:24.329 R. David (he/him): It's a conceptual thing in an emotional way. 808 01:12:24.770 --> 01:12:25.430 Iris Barten: Yeah. 809 01:12:26.010 --> 01:12:27.809 R. David (he/him): With the emotion being what? 810 01:12:29.770 --> 01:12:33.879 Iris Barten: I think the basic… well, I don't want to use the word basic. 811 01:12:34.010 --> 01:12:37.360 Iris Barten: I think love, I know that was Elma Stone. 812 01:12:37.620 --> 01:12:40.370 Iris Barten: And I feel like love is one of the… 813 01:12:42.100 --> 01:12:47.549 Iris Barten: You know, the warmest parts and what our faith teaches, so… 814 01:12:47.550 --> 01:12:48.130 R. David (he/him): Okay. 815 01:12:48.460 --> 01:12:51.129 Iris Barten: For me as well, but I'm sure there's other things. 816 01:12:51.400 --> 01:12:58.049 R. Rachel: A few of the things that you guys have already said. Where you go, I will go, and there I will be buried. 817 01:12:58.640 --> 01:13:02.140 R. Rachel: Life is short, make tshuva while we can. 818 01:13:02.860 --> 01:13:05.030 R. Rachel: What are we waiting for? 819 01:13:07.890 --> 01:13:09.500 R. Rachel: That's what this day is about. 820 01:13:11.170 --> 01:13:12.310 R. Rachel: Life is short. 821 01:13:12.690 --> 01:13:14.060 R. Rachel: What are you waiting for? 822 01:13:15.750 --> 01:13:17.620 R. Rachel: Today could be the only day we get. 823 01:13:20.240 --> 01:13:31.140 R. Rachel: Which I will say, last Yom Kippur, when I landed in the hospital with several mini-strokes during morning services, that was brought home to me in a very profound way. 824 01:13:31.140 --> 01:13:31.810 Donna: Hmm. 825 01:13:33.220 --> 01:13:36.169 R. Rachel: Ideally, we figure it out without the mini strokes. 826 01:13:39.760 --> 01:13:42.720 R. David (he/him): Now I want to ask a different question before we switch Psalms. 827 01:13:42.900 --> 01:13:50.709 R. David (he/him): Is there anyone looking at this who's having afflictive emotions? Like, this is not working for me. 828 01:13:51.440 --> 01:14:00.120 R. David (he/him): This is pulling me off my Yom Kippur squee. Elma, thank you for naming it. Why is this not working for you? What is this doing instead? 829 01:14:00.630 --> 01:14:01.730 R. David (he/him): Let's name it. 830 01:14:04.160 --> 01:14:07.070 Elma Sanders: I know this. 831 01:14:08.620 --> 01:14:15.680 Elma Sanders: I know this. I don't… I don't need to go over it 17 times and… and dwell on it. I… I know this every day. 832 01:14:15.850 --> 01:14:17.790 Elma Sanders: So it's sort of irritating. 833 01:14:18.670 --> 01:14:19.520 R. David (he/him): Okay. 834 01:14:21.070 --> 01:14:21.970 R. David (he/him): Okay. 835 01:14:22.590 --> 01:14:23.600 R. David (he/him): What else? 836 01:14:26.900 --> 01:14:36.540 R. David (he/him): There are folks who have not spoken, and that may be because we are just so profound in our presentation, but it also could be because there are some feels in the room that haven't had 837 01:14:36.690 --> 01:14:40.780 R. David (he/him): space to come out. Is there anyone for whom this just ain't working? 838 01:14:42.240 --> 01:14:43.750 R. David (he/him): It's okay to call it out. 839 01:14:47.840 --> 01:14:51.120 Meredith (she/her): Rabbi, what do you mean by, it's not working? 840 01:14:51.820 --> 01:14:53.559 Meredith (she/her): I don't understand the question. 841 01:14:53.560 --> 01:14:56.639 R. David (he/him): Is this helping your Yom Kippur experience? 842 01:14:56.980 --> 01:15:00.759 R. David (he/him): Is this helping you do tshuva? Is this bringing you closer to God? 843 01:15:04.900 --> 01:15:06.659 R. David (he/him): If the answer's yes, great. 844 01:15:09.920 --> 01:15:22.330 R. Rachel: And I think we have ample evidence just over the last 6 weeks that there is no individual prayer or component of services that works equally well for all of us. 845 01:15:23.710 --> 01:15:27.759 R. Rachel: So, it's okay if this one doesn't speak to you. 846 01:15:27.950 --> 01:15:28.830 R. David (he/him): Right. 847 01:15:29.030 --> 01:15:35.440 R. David (he/him): If it should… if that should be the case for you, either now or later, What do we do? 848 01:15:36.410 --> 01:15:41.440 R. David (he/him): We might remember what the liturgy's inviting us to do and say, okay, got it. 849 01:15:42.000 --> 01:15:46.809 R. David (he/him): Or, I don't want to be reminded of my death, I'm having enough trouble living today. 850 01:15:47.870 --> 01:15:49.880 R. David (he/him): Well, isn't that exactly the point? 851 01:15:51.530 --> 01:15:54.159 R. David (he/him): This is trying to provoke a reaction. 852 01:15:55.280 --> 01:15:59.410 R. David (he/him): Which we might experience when we hit Jonah, which we're not gonna do in this series. 853 01:15:59.410 --> 01:16:06.860 R. Rachel: from Elma, though, is not that, but I'm already reminded of all of this every day. What do I need Yom Kippur for? 854 01:16:06.890 --> 01:16:09.559 R. David (he/him): Good, so move on, she says. 855 01:16:10.780 --> 01:16:12.430 R. David (he/him): So, let's move on. 856 01:16:14.680 --> 01:16:20.390 R. David (he/him): We all… probably know this psalm. 857 01:16:24.440 --> 01:16:28.150 R. David (he/him): Different translations do it a little differently, but the gist is the same. 858 01:16:31.680 --> 01:16:35.210 R. David (he/him): call out… the images. 859 01:16:36.160 --> 01:16:40.140 R. David (he/him): And the invitation that those images are making. 860 01:16:40.940 --> 01:16:42.609 R. David (he/him): The Lord is my shepherd. 861 01:16:43.140 --> 01:16:45.180 R. David (he/him): I shall not want. 862 01:16:45.900 --> 01:16:49.170 R. David (he/him): God makes me lie down in green pastures. 863 01:16:49.570 --> 01:16:55.780 R. David (he/him): God leads me beside still waters. God restores my soul. 864 01:16:56.800 --> 01:17:01.480 R. David (he/him): God leads me in right paths for the sake of God's name. 865 01:17:02.760 --> 01:17:10.689 R. David (he/him): Even when I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. 866 01:17:11.130 --> 01:17:12.500 R. David (he/him): For you were with me. 867 01:17:13.240 --> 01:17:15.740 R. David (he/him): Your rod and staff, they comfort me. 868 01:17:16.020 --> 01:17:23.920 R. David (he/him): You set a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anointed my head with oil. My cup overflows. 869 01:17:24.250 --> 01:17:29.370 R. David (he/him): Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. 870 01:17:29.890 --> 01:17:32.430 R. David (he/him): And I shall dwell in the house. 871 01:17:33.260 --> 01:17:34.929 R. David (he/him): of Adonai forever. 872 01:17:36.730 --> 01:17:37.959 R. David (he/him): We've all heard it. 873 01:17:38.360 --> 01:17:39.499 R. David (he/him): We've all said it. 874 01:17:40.670 --> 01:17:45.350 R. David (he/him): This is so funeral. This is so Yom Kippur. 875 01:17:47.020 --> 01:17:47.970 R. David (he/him): Why? 876 01:17:49.380 --> 01:17:50.970 R. David (he/him): What are the images? 877 01:17:52.500 --> 01:17:54.350 R. David (he/him): What are they inviting you to? 878 01:17:59.800 --> 01:18:01.160 R. David (he/him): Let's go line by line. 879 01:18:03.320 --> 01:18:04.550 R. David (he/him): The Lord is my what? 880 01:18:09.950 --> 01:18:12.230 R. David (he/him): What do we… we've seen Shepard before. 881 01:18:13.730 --> 01:18:15.530 R. David (he/him): What do we think of the shepherd now? 882 01:18:20.520 --> 01:18:21.450 R. David (he/him): Elizabeth. 883 01:18:24.380 --> 01:18:25.300 Elizabeth Yalkut: Oh, I'm… 884 01:18:28.770 --> 01:18:40.520 Elizabeth Yalkut: So I like the images coming up about the green pastures and the still waters and the restfulness and being cared for, but I… I still do not love… 885 01:18:40.710 --> 01:18:42.450 Elizabeth Yalkut: The sheep metaphor. 886 01:18:43.850 --> 01:18:44.769 Elizabeth Yalkut: It's still up. 887 01:18:44.770 --> 01:18:45.790 R. David (he/him): Gotcha. 888 01:18:45.790 --> 01:18:46.460 Elizabeth Yalkut: Never gonna. 889 01:18:46.460 --> 01:18:47.430 R. David (he/him): Gotcha. 890 01:18:47.590 --> 01:18:54.110 R. David (he/him): If our… so we're gonna have to shift that for you. So instead, it's about… being cared for. 891 01:18:55.310 --> 01:19:01.589 R. David (he/him): If our ancestors were ocean people, there probably would be boats and waves and dolphins. 892 01:19:01.930 --> 01:19:02.450 R. David (he/him): But… 893 01:19:02.950 --> 01:19:06.970 Elizabeth Yalkut: I feel like I can connect a lot more to ship imagery than I can to sheep. 894 01:19:07.410 --> 01:19:10.030 R. David (he/him): Ship versus sheep, in which case Jonah is. 895 01:19:10.030 --> 01:19:11.589 Elizabeth Yalkut: The vowel's gotta be right. 896 01:19:11.590 --> 01:19:14.640 R. Rachel: You'd rather… you'd rather be ship-shape than sheep shape, but yes. 897 01:19:14.640 --> 01:19:17.980 R. David (he/him): Oh, no! The catering. 898 01:19:17.980 --> 01:19:20.930 R. Rachel: The nurturing, the safety. 899 01:19:22.180 --> 01:19:29.450 R. Rachel: Right, there was a question in the chat about what's the difference between a rod and a staff, but both are shepherds' tools. 900 01:19:30.320 --> 01:19:34.359 R. Rachel: The word after Adonai in the first line is roi, shepherd. 901 01:19:37.520 --> 01:19:38.430 R. Rachel: My shepherd. 902 01:19:38.940 --> 01:19:40.259 R. David (he/him): My shepherd wrote you. 903 01:19:44.140 --> 01:19:46.189 R. David (he/him): Notice that there's been a change. 904 01:19:46.530 --> 01:19:48.540 R. David (he/him): God isn't like anything. 905 01:19:48.750 --> 01:19:49.370 R. Rachel: Right. 906 01:19:49.370 --> 01:19:50.810 R. David (he/him): We've made that change again. 907 01:19:50.810 --> 01:19:56.500 R. Rachel: simile, which we spoke about earlier, right? Simile would be, God is like my shepherd. 908 01:19:57.330 --> 01:20:00.239 R. Rachel: It's like God's restoring my soul. 909 01:20:01.150 --> 01:20:02.129 R. David (he/him): It's like my car. 910 01:20:02.130 --> 01:20:06.249 R. Rachel: Something like a right path. Not anymore. This is… 911 01:20:06.470 --> 01:20:09.939 R. Rachel: This is what it is. God IS. 912 01:20:11.290 --> 01:20:15.100 R. Rachel: Which may or may not work for us in our own personal theology. 913 01:20:15.580 --> 01:20:20.350 R. Rachel: But the Psalm is inviting us into a sense of actuality. 914 01:20:21.810 --> 01:20:24.259 R. David (he/him): By the way, what's it like to be in the… 915 01:20:25.230 --> 01:20:27.140 R. David (he/him): Valley of the Shadow of Death. 916 01:20:29.490 --> 01:20:31.759 R. David (he/him): That would be literally Yisker. 917 01:20:33.420 --> 01:20:36.979 R. David (he/him): That would be literally being on the cemetery. 918 01:20:37.230 --> 01:20:40.759 R. David (he/him): Literally, Bedside with someone who's dying. 919 01:20:42.100 --> 01:20:48.090 R. David (he/him): Or if we want to get a little bit metaphorical, We're grass. We're outta here. 920 01:20:48.630 --> 01:20:54.210 R. David (he/him): We ourselves are in the valley of the shadow of death. We're practicing for our death, it's Yom Kippur! 921 01:20:55.160 --> 01:20:56.790 R. David (he/him): Precisely now. 922 01:20:57.180 --> 01:20:58.680 R. David (he/him): Do. Not. 923 01:20:58.940 --> 01:21:00.040 R. David (he/him): Fear. 924 01:21:00.870 --> 01:21:02.899 R. David (he/him): Because I, God, am with you. 925 01:21:05.270 --> 01:21:06.560 R. David (he/him): You're not alone. 926 01:21:07.710 --> 01:21:09.029 R. David (he/him): You're not alone. 927 01:21:10.120 --> 01:21:11.500 R. David (he/him): You're not alone. 928 01:21:14.040 --> 01:21:18.350 R. Rachel: In fact, maybe even more extraordinary to me It's… 929 01:21:18.810 --> 01:21:22.599 R. Rachel: I will not fear, because I know I'm not alone. 930 01:21:23.130 --> 01:21:27.640 R. Rachel: It's not even God saying, you're not alone, I'm with you. It's us saying. 931 01:21:28.210 --> 01:21:30.710 R. Rachel: We know we aren't in this alone. 932 01:21:32.130 --> 01:21:34.190 R. Rachel: Which is a very powerful statement. 933 01:21:35.890 --> 01:21:39.240 R. David (he/him): Which, for some people in their theology, may not actually work. 934 01:21:39.990 --> 01:21:42.349 R. David (he/him): So we may need to shift it. 935 01:21:43.970 --> 01:21:44.790 R. David (he/him): So? 936 01:21:45.010 --> 01:21:49.110 R. David (he/him): Can you cue up what it's like to be held and nurtured and loved? 937 01:21:50.100 --> 01:21:53.539 R. David (he/him): Amidst… The worst of the worst. 938 01:21:53.800 --> 01:22:00.940 R. David (he/him): Or amidst our mortality, That's what Psalm 23 is inviting us into. 939 01:22:01.680 --> 01:22:03.260 R. David (he/him): as part of Yisker. 940 01:22:05.080 --> 01:22:05.860 R. David (he/him): Sherrill. 941 01:22:10.250 --> 01:22:18.750 Sherrill Cropper: I wish I knew this in Hebrew, because I will say that when I hear this, it feels Christian to me, because I've only heard it in that 942 01:22:19.730 --> 01:22:30.210 Sherrill Cropper: Many times. And so… But the part… I've really worked hard, personally, to take this in to my Jewishness. 943 01:22:30.670 --> 01:22:39.350 Sherrill Cropper: And… like, I understand, I think it was Elizabeth, I don't remember, about the shepherd part, 944 01:22:41.040 --> 01:22:50.350 Sherrill Cropper: I'm okay with that, because I recognize that in the time it was created, that was the largest way to say 945 01:22:51.880 --> 01:23:01.729 Sherrill Cropper: the most caring, In every way, supplying food and warmth, and whatever. 946 01:23:01.730 --> 01:23:03.849 R. David (he/him): Nourishment and warm as sheep. 947 01:23:03.850 --> 01:23:04.379 Sherrill Cropper: I don't hear. 948 01:23:04.380 --> 01:23:12.699 R. Rachel: And a note… Please don't cede this to Christianity, it was our poem first! 949 01:23:12.700 --> 01:23:16.989 Sherrill Cropper: And I was hesitant to say it out loud, because I knew… Okay! 950 01:23:16.990 --> 01:23:19.320 R. Rachel: You're totally allowed to feel that way. 951 01:23:19.320 --> 01:23:28.199 Sherrill Cropper: But the part I want to say is that in making this for myself, and coming from a Buddhist background where there's a daily death 952 01:23:28.420 --> 01:23:32.580 Sherrill Cropper: Recognition, so that we are not afraid when it happens. 953 01:23:33.050 --> 01:23:36.609 Sherrill Cropper: And we understand it is a natural course of events. 954 01:23:37.110 --> 01:23:40.949 Sherrill Cropper: What happens for me here… oh, I'm getting a little weepy. 955 01:23:41.480 --> 01:23:42.630 Sherrill Cropper: is… 956 01:23:43.260 --> 01:24:01.279 Sherrill Cropper: God isn't really making me do anything. God isn't leading me. God is not really restoring me. What happens in my mind is the shechina, the part of the divine that is within me. 957 01:24:01.890 --> 01:24:06.960 Sherrill Cropper: is reconnecting With all the other sparks. 958 01:24:07.320 --> 01:24:08.410 R. David (he/him): Yes. 959 01:24:08.410 --> 01:24:12.480 Sherrill Cropper: home in a way that is… has no words. 960 01:24:12.850 --> 01:24:15.779 R. David (he/him): We're gonna go about 5 minutes over. Is that okay, everybody? 961 01:24:16.290 --> 01:24:17.959 R. David (he/him): This is getting really rich. 962 01:24:18.500 --> 01:24:26.549 R. David (he/him): Yes, Cheryl, this is not a theological construct where you have to believe X. It's trying to queue up an experience. 963 01:24:26.830 --> 01:24:32.589 R. David (he/him): Right, so however you get there, just think about the experience that this is inviting you into. 964 01:24:34.180 --> 01:24:35.060 R. David (he/him): Elma. 965 01:24:38.010 --> 01:24:49.370 Elma Sanders: You, you talked about the, the Valley of the shadow of death, and how this is so Yiskor, and that kind of connection, but that's the only 966 01:24:49.490 --> 01:24:54.340 Elma Sanders: certain sort of negative line in the whole thing. Everything else is 967 01:24:54.340 --> 01:25:10.140 Elma Sanders: really nice, positive stuff that God is doing for us. And I have to say that I always have pictured this… I picture David, a young David, a young shepherd, in the green pastures beside the still water. 968 01:25:10.140 --> 01:25:10.940 R. David (he/him): his heart. 969 01:25:10.940 --> 01:25:17.120 Elma Sanders: I totally picture him out there in nature, and with his flock, and that… 970 01:25:17.260 --> 01:25:22.240 Elma Sanders: It's… it's, like, 94% positive, and then… 971 01:25:22.670 --> 01:25:27.320 Elma Sanders: in the shadow of death, and it's so… there's so much other positive stuff that that becomes… 972 01:25:27.580 --> 01:25:32.590 Elma Sanders: Not unbearable, not difficult, because everything else is so good. 973 01:25:33.200 --> 01:25:39.059 R. David (he/him): So, experience number two. We've had experience number one, which is Psalm 90. 974 01:25:39.190 --> 01:25:46.860 R. David (he/him): Which is, we're grass. Here we go. Psalm 23, it's… Somehow, it's… it's okay. 975 01:25:47.300 --> 01:25:48.669 R. David (he/him): Here's the third one. 976 01:25:49.760 --> 01:25:51.700 R. David (he/him): These are some of the images we're gonna leave you with. 977 01:25:51.700 --> 01:25:59.599 R. Rachel: images from Psalm 23, and you'll have a lot of chance to look at them this week in our home feel, if you're so inclined. 978 01:25:59.600 --> 01:26:01.230 R. David (he/him): Some of them are repeats. 979 01:26:02.510 --> 01:26:09.299 R. David (he/him): Because we've seen, sorry, Elizabeth, we've seen the shepherd and the flock, sorry. 980 01:26:09.300 --> 01:26:19.669 R. Rachel: But some are not, right? My cup… my cup runneth over, as my mother used to say. That one's new. And the table… the set of table for me is also new. 981 01:26:21.110 --> 01:26:22.940 R. David (he/him): Some of this is very parental, right? 982 01:26:26.350 --> 01:26:26.900 R. Rachel: Here's the next. 983 01:26:26.900 --> 01:26:27.880 R. David (he/him): Then… 984 01:26:29.160 --> 01:26:43.019 R. David (he/him): And then we chant, and the music is El Mali. El Mali, I'm not gonna sing the whole thing, and the music is from another world. 985 01:26:43.530 --> 01:26:44.879 R. David (he/him): Read the English, someone. 986 01:26:52.870 --> 01:26:59.750 Donna: God, full of compassion, dwelling as uplift and within, grand perfect rest. 987 01:26:59.880 --> 01:27:11.800 Donna: Under your sheltering presence with the holy and pure, who shine with heavenly splendor to the souls of our dear ones who have gone to there forever. 988 01:27:11.950 --> 01:27:15.429 Donna: May their rest be in a garden of paradise. 989 01:27:15.550 --> 01:27:31.600 Donna: Power of compassion. Please shade them in the shadow of your wings forever. Bind their souls in the bonds of eternal life. May Adanoi be their inheritance, and may they rest in peace, and let us say Amen. 990 01:27:33.110 --> 01:27:37.310 R. David (he/him): I already see a hand. Same question we always ask. 991 01:27:37.680 --> 01:27:41.279 R. David (he/him): What are the images? What are the emotions? 992 01:27:50.590 --> 01:27:52.070 R. David (he/him): What are the images? 993 01:27:52.530 --> 01:27:53.829 R. David (he/him): Go line by line. 994 01:27:59.050 --> 01:27:59.960 R. David (he/him): What do you see? 995 01:28:12.970 --> 01:28:16.519 R. David (he/him): We can start talking, but you've heard us talk enough today. 996 01:28:16.520 --> 01:28:19.650 R. Rachel: Some images for you, but we want to know what you see here first. 997 01:28:22.790 --> 01:28:24.310 R. Rachel: Not a trick question. 998 01:28:34.260 --> 01:28:37.430 Donna: I see everyone together in God's presence. 999 01:28:38.280 --> 01:28:39.570 Donna: I see. 1000 01:28:39.890 --> 01:28:43.760 Donna: To humanity. 1001 01:28:44.700 --> 01:28:47.110 Donna: in God's presence. 1002 01:28:47.110 --> 01:28:48.430 R. David (he/him): Great, what else do you see? 1003 01:28:54.460 --> 01:28:59.050 R. David (he/him): Who is this God that has sheltering wings, and we talk about it not once but twice? 1004 01:29:00.780 --> 01:29:02.620 R. David (he/him): Who has sheltering wings? 1005 01:29:03.030 --> 01:29:07.759 R. David (he/him): In the shadow of your wing, in the shadow of your presence, in the shade. 1006 01:29:09.340 --> 01:29:11.030 R. David (he/him): What does that remind you of? 1007 01:29:14.570 --> 01:29:18.580 R. Rachel: I'm seeing trees and garden in the chat. 1008 01:29:18.820 --> 01:29:21.859 R. David (he/him): Trees and garden, that's very Psalm 23. 1009 01:29:22.820 --> 01:29:26.470 R. David (he/him): Leaves me beside still waters and the eternal garden. Yeah, sure. 1010 01:29:31.360 --> 01:29:36.370 Elizabeth Yalkut: It's also very Bereshy, the… it's the Garden of Paradise, specifically. 1011 01:29:36.370 --> 01:29:44.910 R. David (he/him): Sure, sure, that's literally where it comes from. Big Gun Aden in the Garden of Paradise, in the Garden of Eternity. It's literally what it is. Gun Aden. 1012 01:29:45.800 --> 01:29:47.159 R. David (he/him): That's… that's Hebrew. 1013 01:29:47.780 --> 01:29:49.310 R. David (he/him): What else do you see? 1014 01:29:54.570 --> 01:29:57.210 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Shakina's… Shakina's wings. 1015 01:29:58.600 --> 01:29:59.230 R. David (he/him): Yeah. 1016 01:29:59.700 --> 01:30:02.260 R. David (he/him): Right. So, whose wings? 1017 01:30:02.640 --> 01:30:03.690 Deliah@DeliahRosel.com: Shakinas. 1018 01:30:03.970 --> 01:30:07.219 R. David (he/him): And what have we seen today that already has wings? 1019 01:30:07.410 --> 01:30:12.310 R. David (he/him): Moses says to people, God was for you like an eagle. 1020 01:30:12.910 --> 01:30:13.560 Donna: Duane. 1021 01:30:13.560 --> 01:30:14.970 R. David (he/him): Lifting you up. 1022 01:30:15.510 --> 01:30:17.350 R. David (he/him): on eagles' wings. 1023 01:30:19.950 --> 01:30:26.599 R. David (he/him): So here comes an image of divinity. Of course, God is… God does not an airplane make. 1024 01:30:27.910 --> 01:30:34.699 R. David (he/him): But here's this uplift. Here is this, like, maternal instinct of sheltering baby birds. 1025 01:30:37.230 --> 01:30:39.119 R. David (he/him): What does it feel like to be sheltered? 1026 01:30:41.880 --> 01:30:44.070 R. David (he/him): What does it feel like to be protected? 1027 01:30:46.680 --> 01:30:48.119 R. David (he/him): Meredith and then Elma. 1028 01:30:49.580 --> 01:30:52.790 R. David (he/him): And then we're gonna… Give you some homework, or home feel. 1029 01:30:53.020 --> 01:31:01.410 Meredith (she/her): I'm struggling with this, because, I'm thinking, 1030 01:31:02.310 --> 01:31:08.480 Meredith (she/her): my beloveds who are not here anymore, and I'm thinking, they're good. 1031 01:31:08.830 --> 01:31:14.300 Meredith (she/her): They are at peace. They are no longer suffering. 1032 01:31:15.040 --> 01:31:23.330 Meredith (she/her): And this is, like… Maybe not. Maybe they're… so why are we doing this if. 1033 01:31:23.330 --> 01:31:25.050 R. David (he/him): Who's suffering, Meredith? 1034 01:31:25.510 --> 01:31:27.269 R. Rachel: Where is their suffering here? 1035 01:31:28.090 --> 01:31:37.010 Meredith (she/her): No, I'm saying the suggestion is we have to pray for their keys, and, and they're… 1036 01:31:37.010 --> 01:31:39.430 R. David (he/him): Some say so. Some say so. 1037 01:31:39.430 --> 01:31:43.659 R. Rachel: I would understand it differently. I would say… 1038 01:31:44.850 --> 01:31:49.270 Meredith (she/her): They rest in peace. Why aren't they resting in peace right now? 1039 01:31:49.270 --> 01:31:51.470 R. Rachel: It doesn't say that they're not. 1040 01:31:52.320 --> 01:31:52.850 Meredith (she/her): Okay. 1041 01:31:53.390 --> 01:31:54.070 R. David (he/him): So that's one… 1042 01:31:54.070 --> 01:31:55.600 R. Rachel: It says that they are. 1043 01:31:57.740 --> 01:31:58.740 R. Rachel: It's so… 1044 01:31:58.740 --> 01:31:59.390 Meredith (she/her): Okay. 1045 01:31:59.800 --> 01:32:16.120 R. David (he/him): So, but, so Rabbi and I are going to have a moment. If they are, we need to confirm that. If they're not, we need to pray that they are. And we can't actually know, but they're not mourning for their own death, they're fine! Who misses them? 1046 01:32:16.410 --> 01:32:17.270 R. David (he/him): We do! 1047 01:32:17.270 --> 01:32:18.709 Meredith (she/her): I do. 1048 01:32:18.710 --> 01:32:19.310 R. Rachel: So who… 1049 01:32:19.310 --> 01:32:20.339 R. David (he/him): Here we are, I'm. 1050 01:32:20.340 --> 01:32:21.250 R. Rachel: sheltered. 1051 01:32:21.620 --> 01:32:22.780 R. David (he/him): Who needs to be sheltered? 1052 01:32:23.300 --> 01:32:23.790 Meredith (she/her): We do. 1053 01:32:23.790 --> 01:32:24.740 R. David (he/him): We do! 1054 01:32:24.740 --> 01:32:25.899 Meredith (she/her): Oh, I see. 1055 01:32:25.900 --> 01:32:29.770 R. David (he/him): Right, but we're really good at projection, aren't we? 1056 01:32:32.310 --> 01:32:35.899 R. David (he/him): How many of us have said it's easier to pray for somebody else than pray for ourselves? 1057 01:32:38.480 --> 01:32:44.059 R. David (he/him): There it is. Right, a number of us have said that just today. So here we are, praying for other people. Who are we praying for? 1058 01:32:46.490 --> 01:32:47.990 R. Rachel: We're also praying for us. 1059 01:32:47.990 --> 01:32:48.650 Donna: Oops. 1060 01:32:49.120 --> 01:32:50.370 R. Rachel: We're the mourners. 1061 01:32:50.550 --> 01:32:51.859 R. Rachel: We're the ones who mourn. 1062 01:32:53.110 --> 01:32:53.740 R. Rachel: Fair enough. 1063 01:32:53.740 --> 01:32:55.470 R. David (he/him): The best way for us to do that. 1064 01:32:55.630 --> 01:32:59.170 R. David (he/him): Sometimes it's to pray for others, so may my mother. 1065 01:32:59.630 --> 01:33:01.640 R. David (he/him): Be held in the bonds of eternal life. 1066 01:33:08.370 --> 01:33:12.649 R. David (he/him): Right? Elma. And then we're gonna give you some homework. Thanks for staying on. 1067 01:33:12.650 --> 01:33:13.660 R. Rachel: Wrap up to do. 1068 01:33:14.520 --> 01:33:18.569 Elma Sanders: I really like that 3 words, grant perfect rest. 1069 01:33:18.570 --> 01:33:19.210 R. Rachel: Hmm. 1070 01:33:19.210 --> 01:33:37.449 Elma Sanders: Because I think that… I feel like that applies to… grant perfect rest to me in my life. Grant perfect rest to those who are departed. I don't… I won't have to worry about them. I want them to rest, and I want to be able to rest. What more can you ask? 1071 01:33:37.640 --> 01:33:38.200 Elma Sanders: Yeah. 1072 01:33:39.350 --> 01:33:51.740 R. David (he/him): Amen. Total, total, amen. So, for some of us, this is gonna be, you know, we're praying for our loved ones. For some of us, we're using our loved ones as an opportunity to pray for our loved ones, as a way of praying for ourselves. 1073 01:33:51.740 --> 01:33:52.380 Meredith (she/her): Hmm. 1074 01:33:53.000 --> 01:34:02.160 R. David (he/him): If you believe in the old Yisker, where we're praying for the souls of our loved ones who can't pray for themselves to do tshuva, now we're doing that. 1075 01:34:02.160 --> 01:34:03.439 R. Rachel: Doing it for them. 1076 01:34:04.590 --> 01:34:06.819 R. Rachel: That's one theology. 1077 01:34:07.390 --> 01:34:16.360 R. David (he/him): or we're doing it for ourselves, and using their love, their memory, their example, their… the fact of their eternity. Remember, we're all like grass. 1078 01:34:16.810 --> 01:34:18.209 R. David (he/him): as the impetus. 1079 01:34:20.400 --> 01:34:21.789 R. David (he/him): They're all correct. 1080 01:34:24.180 --> 01:34:26.489 R. David (he/him): The question is, what does this do for us? 1081 01:34:27.610 --> 01:34:30.869 R. Rachel: Here are some of the images that we see in El Male. 1082 01:34:31.440 --> 01:34:36.629 R. Rachel: And you'll get a chance to spend time with these this week, if you wish, as well, right? 1083 01:34:36.630 --> 01:34:37.510 R. David (he/him): Did you get it, right? 1084 01:34:38.670 --> 01:34:45.810 R. Rachel: The Garden of Eden, That sense of being held and protected, and receiving perfect rest. 1085 01:34:46.890 --> 01:34:54.179 R. Rachel: Next up is the one I really wanted us to get to, because to me, this is the most important piece we've got for today. 1086 01:34:55.120 --> 01:35:01.470 R. David (he/him): So, we'll walk you through this very quickly, but probably you already understand this. Where did we start? 1087 01:35:01.740 --> 01:35:04.340 R. David (he/him): What is the move of Yisker? 1088 01:35:05.620 --> 01:35:07.190 R. David (he/him): There's a sense of yearning. 1089 01:35:08.720 --> 01:35:15.960 R. David (he/him): Whether we're yearning for life, or our loved ones, or to be guided, or… or just the felt sense of… 1090 01:35:16.510 --> 01:35:25.029 R. David (he/him): We don't even know what it is, but everyone who's had a sense of loss knows that that is a heart-opening and closing and opening thing. 1091 01:35:25.240 --> 01:35:33.709 R. David (he/him): So let's open the heart. Boom! That's what it is. The core liturgy of Yisker. We pledge to do better. 1092 01:35:33.920 --> 01:35:39.739 R. David (he/him): We pledge to act in their names. We pledge to act in our names. 1093 01:35:40.110 --> 01:35:42.610 R. David (he/him): To act justly and charitably. 1094 01:35:45.650 --> 01:35:51.160 R. David (he/him): We're reminded by Psalm 90 that the eternal lasts forever, and we don't. 1095 01:35:51.980 --> 01:35:54.539 R. Rachel: In case we might have forgotten. 1096 01:35:54.540 --> 01:35:56.299 R. David (he/him): So what are you waiting for? 1097 01:35:58.470 --> 01:36:01.040 R. David (he/him): And then we see Psalm 23. 1098 01:36:02.200 --> 01:36:06.770 R. David (he/him): That the pathway really is one of love and peace, and… 1099 01:36:07.100 --> 01:36:14.269 R. David (he/him): Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, but some of us may need to make a couple of jumps and moves to get there. Okay. 1100 01:36:15.680 --> 01:36:16.989 R. David (he/him): And then El Mali. 1101 01:36:18.030 --> 01:36:20.720 R. David (he/him): We pray for perfection, for completion. 1102 01:36:20.890 --> 01:36:24.269 R. David (he/him): For the felt sense of comfort and safety. 1103 01:36:24.600 --> 01:36:25.949 R. Rachel: Perfect rest. 1104 01:36:27.370 --> 01:36:29.130 R. David (he/him): Because we need this. 1105 01:36:29.650 --> 01:36:32.059 R. David (he/him): to do the tshuva work. 1106 01:36:32.830 --> 01:36:37.529 R. David (he/him): to finish the tshuva work, because if it's gonna be too painful. 1107 01:36:39.250 --> 01:36:40.680 R. David (he/him): Some of us can't do it. 1108 01:36:41.620 --> 01:36:44.129 R. David (he/him): So we're offered images of comfort. 1109 01:36:44.550 --> 01:36:47.779 R. David (he/him): We're offered images that open our hearts up. 1110 01:36:48.480 --> 01:36:51.000 R. David (he/him): Because maybe they've been a little bit closed. 1111 01:36:51.100 --> 01:36:52.190 R. David (he/him): Okay. 1112 01:36:52.850 --> 01:36:55.250 R. David (he/him): That's the move that Yasker's making for us. 1113 01:36:56.010 --> 01:36:56.619 R. Rachel: And I want. 1114 01:36:56.620 --> 01:36:57.179 R. David (he/him): And that's why… 1115 01:36:57.180 --> 01:36:59.030 R. Rachel: It's another both-and. 1116 01:36:59.270 --> 01:37:05.839 R. Rachel: Because this can be about our loved ones who are gone, or our not-so-loved ones who are gone. 1117 01:37:06.800 --> 01:37:11.659 R. Rachel: And also about us ourselves at the same time. It's not anymore. 1118 01:37:13.920 --> 01:37:16.299 R. Rachel: So here are some images to look at. 1119 01:37:18.130 --> 01:37:25.110 R. Rachel: Our temporariness, the protection, The abundance of our cup overflowing. 1120 01:37:25.240 --> 01:37:27.860 R. Rachel: The still waters. The Garden of Eden. 1121 01:37:30.080 --> 01:37:31.450 R. David (he/him): within the wings of Shehina. 1122 01:37:32.170 --> 01:37:33.989 R. David (he/him): We invite you to look. 1123 01:37:35.380 --> 01:37:36.450 R. David (he/him): FEEL. 1124 01:37:39.090 --> 01:37:43.950 R. David (he/him): Feel into these. Feel into your humanity. Are you fading grass? 1125 01:37:44.490 --> 01:37:46.920 R. David (he/him): Or are you, chip off the old block? 1126 01:37:47.870 --> 01:37:49.520 R. David (he/him): Is God the shepherd? 1127 01:37:49.630 --> 01:37:50.830 R. David (he/him): Sorry, Elizabeth. 1128 01:37:51.220 --> 01:37:55.350 R. David (he/him): Is God the indwelling presence? Is God the mother bird? 1129 01:37:56.110 --> 01:38:02.170 R. David (he/him): what do you… it doesn't matter. Don't get trapped in the head. Get trapped in… get into the heart. 1130 01:38:02.710 --> 01:38:07.629 R. David (he/him): Because this moment of death and life is about ultimate spirituality. 1131 01:38:07.780 --> 01:38:22.789 R. David (he/him): What are we aiming for? Protection, ease, besides the still waters, the overflowing cup. It's a little bit like those end images of the Avo Da service, with the big rainbow, and the big have a good day sign, and I feel so awesome. What are we going for? 1132 01:38:23.730 --> 01:38:28.819 R. David (he/him): Feel how these can aid your tshuva journey. 1133 01:38:29.330 --> 01:38:30.729 R. David (he/him): What are you waiting for? 1134 01:38:31.930 --> 01:38:36.230 R. David (he/him): And… Deepen your Yisker experience. 1135 01:38:36.760 --> 01:38:40.470 R. David (he/him): Because Yisker is going to be… in… 1136 01:38:40.870 --> 01:38:49.839 R. David (he/him): 10, 11, 19, 18 days? 19 days, 20 days? It's not too long. 1137 01:38:50.780 --> 01:38:53.060 R. David (he/him): So that's where we'll start next time. 1138 01:38:53.810 --> 01:38:56.340 R. David (he/him): And then we will do Ni'ila. 1139 01:38:56.700 --> 01:39:01.160 R. David (he/him): Which is the closing of the gates, that last, very sensitive… 1140 01:39:01.330 --> 01:39:04.450 R. David (he/him): The end service, which is very thin. 1141 01:39:05.290 --> 01:39:09.559 R. David (he/him): And then we'll invite folks to stay on for a mini 1142 01:39:09.980 --> 01:39:14.920 R. David (he/him): Shlichot, to open our gates, because next week. 1143 01:39:15.210 --> 01:39:15.910 R. Rachel: We will be only. 1144 01:39:15.910 --> 01:39:16.829 R. David (he/him): Tuesday we meet. 1145 01:39:16.830 --> 01:39:17.479 R. Rachel: from Rosh Hashanah. 1146 01:39:17.480 --> 01:39:20.830 R. David (he/him): And then Friday is Rosh Hashanah. 1147 01:39:22.980 --> 01:39:28.830 R. David (he/him): So, with that, we're gonna always, we say to you, Go ahead, Rabbi Rachel. 1148 01:39:28.830 --> 01:39:44.110 R. Rachel: The last thing I want to say is just in case I'm not able to be here next week because of the Jewish Federation Board meeting to which I've called, I want to say just what a joy it has been to be learning with all of y'all, and wish everybody here a Shana Tova. 1149 01:39:44.110 --> 01:39:44.749 R. David (he/him): Okay, I can't. 1150 01:39:44.750 --> 01:39:49.010 R. Rachel: wait for our next learning endeavor. God willing, soon. 1151 01:39:49.390 --> 01:39:49.880 Linda Kramer: Thank God. 1152 01:39:50.900 --> 01:39:59.049 R. David (he/him): So, for all of us, I'm gonna say thank you for being with us. There are a couple of things that have wanted to come forward. 1153 01:39:59.720 --> 01:40:09.669 R. David (he/him): And we're gonna take those up now. The materials will be online very, very shortly. Thanks for staying a few extra minutes today, and we will stay on. 1154 01:40:10.070 --> 01:40:10.790 Linda Kramer: Thank you.