BaMidbar: Truth Like a Desert

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Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, produced, and performed by Kalman Strauss.

Transcript

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to this half hour dose of weekly Jewish spirituality. Jews have a tradition of praying three times a day and at Mishkan. We have a daily virtual minion at 8am Central to get your day started. folks join us from across the country and across the world as we begin each day with words and songs of gratitude, inspiration, healing and Torah. Without further ado, I invite you to breathe a little deeper, connects a little more with yourself with God with Torah with this community and with the world around you, wherever you are, whatever your timezone. Good morning. Good morning friends. As you can see, my background is not AI generated. And it is not my usual space where I dive in. I am at a little retreat center in New Hope Pennsylvania, at the concluding conference of the Jewish emergent network. So it's about to be 9am Here 8am Chicago time 6am If you're tuning in from California, seven if you're tuning in from Colorado, sometime in the afternoon, if you're tuning in from Europe or Israel and just getting a little bit of a taste of what it feels like to do this Chicago time minion not on Chicago time. And to be surrounded by nature, because it's a beautiful day here. And the birds are chirping and the answer marching and the spiders are spinning. And we're here praying, we're here praying, celebrating all of it in our little place in the magical universe that we inhabit for this fleeting moment. I guess I'm feeling poetic this morning. I didn't bring my guitar with me. So this will be a this will be an unplugged man, man. Which I know it mostly is for us and it's beautiful unplugged is beautiful. I actually just spent the last 45 minutes davening with the other rabbis and executive directors down in a little nook in the tree is no guitar lots of beautiful harmony. So from your screen feel free to add your voice and make beautiful harmony.

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I am so grateful to be alive and to be awake this morning. I'm grateful that my eyes open to let in the light. I'm grateful that I can see your faces, the faces of those of you who I can see. And for those of you whose names I can see, I'm happy that you're here too and I'm happy to see that I'm happy to be able to hear the birds chirping I don't know if it's coming through in the in the computer microphone if you can pick it up, but I hope it is just a little bit. Thanks. Wow. Oops. And I'm sorry, are different ways of entering into into prayer that feels more conversational. You know, like, we'll use the words in the seashore to help wake those thoughts up inside of us. But thanks. Like thanks. Thank you God. Thank you God, like thanks for what? No begin to wake up inside of ourselves. Like what we're feeling gratitude for. Wow. Wow. Like, wow, who planted these trees? When were they planted? How old are they? I'm in a town where apparently, Washington crossed the Delaware River here. Like I went for a run this morning on the Delaware River. Like I'm in a town full of American history. Like every other little house here is named after some founding father or somebody who wanted to be a founding father the Airbnb up the street is the Aaron Burr house. Anyway, wow. Wow. Like I stand in awe of all of that history and also all of the history that is not told the houses that aren't named for all of the Native Americans that used to live here and don't have houses named after them. Wow. the bigness of that the intensity of that to hold all of that walking around just I wonder if these trees remember all of that. How so we're in the we're in the gratitude and wow section of our morning davening feel free to feel free to drop into the chat here. What you're what you're both going thanks and wow for this morning. First thing we say thanks for is for the fact that we woke up this morning that our eyes could tell the difference between darkness and light. And our bodies know the difference between nighttime and they give thanks for our circadian rhythms that drive us and hopefully keep us awake during the day for the feet that move us the eyes that help guide us or the ears that help guide us the words the communication that helps connect us all right, we'll do these together

by real data and an eye on them he no matter how well am I sharing the time this says leaving now to have clean Vainio movie and Lila

if anybody wants to unmute and like hit up and I mean after all of these that would be fun then we can have a little bit of back and forth

by ricotta I don't I don't know man I start with Chessani bits Elmo

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should go I think you know bless it is the one who made me in your image who made all of us all of us in your image by ricotta I don't I don't even matter assignees name bless it is the one who made me a Jew or who can connected me to the Jewish people making me a god wrestler.

I broke a tie I don't I know no matter how well I'm sure it's not a bad story and

it is the one who made every single one of us free by

rule attached I don't I owe him and I sell them podcast every one who opens our eyes and helps us see new things and have insight into the world. My room attire I don't I know in America I'm Ibtihaj Rumi

and then just take a moment to give thanks for with every article of clothing you're wearing right now. I'm just I don't know I'm going out on a limb and assuming even if you're off camera, you're wearing something and if you're not, that's okay give give give thanks for an article of clothing you've got in the closet. But this morning I'm giving thanks for this pink scarf that I got at a store in Brooklyn in the train station a couple months ago on a trip to New York and there was this cute little, little hidden store with all kinds of treasures and I never wear pink And so I'm just I'm feeling gratitude for for this scarf that I'm wearing here for color I never wear in a place that I very rarely go. All right, excited to hear what you're all what you're all giving what you're all grateful for this morning in terms of your fashion, you know, Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Ha Olam, my tear our supreme blessing. Are you the one who freeze the captives? I mean, who raised the cactus? I mean, I mean and who helps us also redeem captives who helps us release what is bound what is tight in our bodies and in the world. So take a moment to stretch your tight bodies in whatever direction you feel like you need to stretch

federal Hurtado, Nio in America AMS, okay, Google beam,

main and if you're able to take a forward fold, if you're standing, to just go over as much as you can, if you're sitting just go ahead and release maybe your neck, whatever it is, that helps you find that like, feel the release, you know, like really let go before coming back up again. You know, hang into it, release into it, relax into it. No, feel your feet firmly on the earth or your body on whatever surface it's on really finding stability there. By real Hatha I

don't I don't even remember how that I'm a real kohara. So I'll have my

blessing as the one who lays the earth flat over the tumultuous waters for us that look at that

and I know no matter how that I'm sure Sally coals are key.

That is the one who helps us take care of all of our needs individually and collectively. Iruka Todd and I are here I'm gonna kind of that I'm a theme. It's

it got there.

One who helps us take the steps that we need to take?

I don't I Oh, hey, no, man. That's how it was Darius or ale big hoorah.

Less, it isn't one who gerdts us with strength.

By Rakatan. I don't even want to show that I'm Oteri Sir Albert T Farah.

The one who crowns us with beauty and dignity. Take a moment to stand up straighter. Feeling like Oh, yeah. Right. My head is a portal for the divine for light to flow in to infuse my whole body and I wear a crown all the time. And an invisible shining crown. helps me feel connected to that which is beyond me. And it also helps me stand up a little straighter have better posture because I want to keep my crown on

viral cutout and I owe you no matter how that kind of sanely Yeah, if Nicola. Oh,

bless it is the one who gives strength to the weary. And now I'm going to take us right into the bar who. And again, this is a little back and forth here. I'm going to turn and face east, which admittedly, I have absolutely no sense of direction. Here. I am in a gazebo. It's trees all around. And I don't know which way is this? So I am going to you guys I know this is a question discussed in the Talmud. And I don't know what they say. But if you were the Tom, if you were the rabbi's of the Talmud right now having a conversation about if you don't know which way is east, how should you decide which way to face? Okay, go

look up. Look where the sun is coming from.

That's,

that's a that's actually the sun. That's a great idea. Okay,

good point, especially in the morning. Right?

Right, no matter where you are in the world. That's brilliant. Now, I will say it's cloudy here and I have no idea which way the sun is coming from but I have in general, it's sort of over there. So we'll just make our best effort. Well, it's your brilliant Yeah. Oh, I love what you said Eric toward the most beautiful site available. Yeah. All right, here we go. Oh, can we all face in that direction. And of course if you're listening to this later, you know on the train or wherever you might be listening to this. orient your heart, to face to face, new possibility to face the rising sun to face Jerusalem. To face the potential and possibility that is yet unborn in every day.

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i don't i No he no matter how old I am, yo tear or overhaul OSHA Jose Shalom will re enter call me Iran. La Habra HMI moved to vonderheide dash to the home to meet my savory she ate or her Dasha Do you have any scheduled data Mahira little row by row Hurtado Anna? Tara I met oh I have our rubber I have to handle i don't i Elohim halacha delivered to Malta Elina vino Malkin ofour Ivo Tina Shabbat Shubha tilam Dame who came can to connect with London who have been wherever aka man and rock femoral femme or lino, you

compassionate parent, sovereign ruler, encircle us in a womb us with mercy and compassion placed inside of our hearts the ability to discern, to be able to tell one thing from another, to understand, to have wisdom to listen to teach, to study, to observe, to protect, to do to be an upstander for all of the words of the Torah bit I have ah with love and that bet bit ahava I actually I wanted to look at this right before we go into the Shabbat of course because we have this in our blessing down at the bottom here to bid I have with love well that's usually how we translate it so hold that thought for a moment we'll get there I have that is love there is a preposition usually meaning in but hold

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guys. Hi Nora by ties no Nike love any smicha Nike love any smell love your shoe. I

gather the four corners of our seats seats. Like Susanna pointed out anywhere on the globe where you are. You walk in one direction far enough you're bound to bump into everyone else who's looking for someone and we gather our seed seed from the four corners of the earth. Gathering ourselves from all of the places this morning where people are praying from davening these words connecting with these sentiments better Hava in love.

They have again to the shalom Arabic and photo RS were totally fine you'll come up with artsy new to pull your shoe out the Thai vulnerable higher Temecula Mila Schoenberg karaf. Tiana wishing Fahad go Silva EMET the whole doubtless out Lea said I have Iruka tattoo and I have a fair bit mo use thread that I have

All right, so here's my question for you. How do you want to translate this bet by Ruha Tyrone I bless it Are you the one habit Claire the one who chooses the MO in your people through your people because notice there's a bit there too bit amo Israel bit I

have and

you know what feel free to translate you know prepositions can mean multiple things. They can mean toward they can mean in they can mean inside of but I want I want to invite you to be creative here you know all the prepositions that you know at in toward how should we translate these bets have a Claire but mo use er l but I have that this is usually translated who chooses your people Israel in love. So what do we do with this? What do you want to do with this this morning?

Continually loving people, as opposed to the because you say Go in peace push along, meaning you're gonna keep going on peace. However, when you encounter someone who's passed away or more, you say listen, I'm like, Go in peace. But that's it. You're not going anywhere else.

So continuously being in a state of I have a love. Yes. Is that right? Beautiful, beautiful. And then Susanna, you said among Hubble Claire, but I'm only Sir Albert. Have I among your people and among love Do you want to expound

Well imagine we're all flowers and we're in a garden. And the garden is a is a flowering of love we are ourselves potentially a flowering of love and so I'm imagining being among each other and among beauty

Oh, that's beautiful. Thank you. I think that's I think that's a beautiful image to then go into the Shema describing the great oneness that all of our blossoming flowers are in and among connected to the earth to each other and to this world for a brief moment how blessed we are to be part of that oneness

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all right, I want to do a little juxtaposition here. I want to do a juxtaposition of this word EMET, which is part of our daily davening. There's a whole section in between the Shema and me Homolka or redemption prayer that focuses on the idea of truth. And so we say, I taught you this song once before. I'll just do it quickly now because then we're going to study a little Torah. And we'll and will study Torah, in, in support and in prayer for people in our community who need healing. So that's what our learning will be dedicated towards. So in a moment, we'll we'll also dedicate our learning but just to open it up with this. That's with this tune.

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that way, it's even a convocation Damn, they are Shyvana and mine are who's because he might even not even arrive or dare me to come. We could withdraw via fire hides a virus. I let

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and Matt VFC vana con Vica yam they are sharp and a man that I hope this IV that might even not even arrive at zero me to kind of go bow toe via that of Isaiah, Eileen or they all Lamba

true and upright and correct and straightforward and reliable and beloved, and dear and nice and lovely. But also fearsome and mighty and sweet and good and beautiful. Is this word for us for all time, says our tradition, there's many more paragraphs of that Emmet section. But we're just going to start with this, I want to start with the idea of truth of something that is objectively true, which like, you know, maybe took classes in college that are like, there's no such thing as objectivity. You know, everything is is dependent and context dependent, depending on who you are, when you're looking and whether somebody's looking in the first place, things change, depending on whether they're watched. Okay, so the tradition posits an idea of truth of EMET. You know, there's a an Aleph at the beginning TAF at the end. So the first and last letters of the alphabet meme in the middle, literally the first the middle and the last everything. There's there is there is the tradition says an idea that somehow encompasses what is what is real in this world. And yet, and yet, we open up this week's Torah portion. Suzanna says scientifically replicable. Yeah. Here we are at the beginning of Parship a midbar. Be it a bear out or nail no chef Bamidbar see nice, but oh hell mo a aid that had Lakota Shashi vicia Nahusha. Need let's state me Arutz meats rhyme lay more, on the first day of the second month, in the year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, God spoke to Moses, but made Barsi night in the wilderness of Sinai saying fascinatingly, Bamidbar is the word that the tradition decides, is the defining word of this Parshat, and this book of the Torah, but midbar. Right, could have been a lot of things. Of course, what happens right after this is they take a census of the whole Israelite community. And when the Greeks read this book, and assign names to all of the books in the Torah, the name that the Greeks gave this parsha was not Bamidbar in the wilderness, it was numbers, or whatever Greek for numbers is, because they thought rather than Bamidbar, rather than the defining quality of wilderness, they looked at numbers and thought, that's the defining quality of this book. That's the idea we want to hone in and hold on to, there's a kind of certainty in numbers there is a you know, maybe a scientific replicability in numbers, there is an objectivity in numbers. Where as Bamidbar is wilderness, it is bewildering, it is openness, it is space, and so and so right and Noah, Noah is commenting that also you know that the discrepancy between like the Greek reading and the the Israel, Jewish reading of Exodus is also different. It's different in almost every book, except for brief Shiite Genesis. Okay, so I want to look at a commentary from Rabbi pol Glick, who is, he's came, he's kind of a mystic, and he's deeply informed by Jewish mysticism. He also reads a lot of Hindu and Buddhist mysticism. So we're not going to have time to read his whole, his whole parsha commentary here. But here we are, here's a picture of the desert. So just take a moment and feel yourself at the edge of the desert, in this desert, for people who are hearing this later, and maybe not seeing the screen, it is a rocky craggy, it's probably it is probably the wilderness of Sinai. This is what the wilderness of Sinai looks like. This is what the wilderness down in southern Israel in northern Egypt, that it's just lots of not huge mountains, but kind of expansive, you know, endless cascade of indistinguishable, reddish looking, short little mountains, clouds and just endless space. Why was the Torah given at Sinai, asks the Midrash they respond, whomever does not make themselves ownerless and abandoned, like a desert cannot acquire the wisdom of Torah. Whoever does not make themselves ownerless and abandoned, like a desert cannot acquire the wisdom of Torah. A desert is a place of desolation and emptiness, little moves or makes a sound. If we want to receive the Word of God, we need to enter into an inner desert. We need to find the place of stillness and emptiness inside of ourselves where the living God dwells. So I want to just invite us to take a moment before I'm going to I'm going to pick up three quarters of the way down this parsha. But to take a moment to close your eyes if you feel comfortable doing that. And just breathe. And see if you can find one square centimeter of openness and emptiness inside of yourself right now. And just and just focus there and breathe into it and see if you can try to expand that place of inner owner lessness emptiness in which the living presence the divine can be found. could sneak in maybe it's in the back of your calf muscle. Maybe it's in the space between the ball and socket of your hip. Maybe it is, you know, down underneath your belly button in your diaphragm where you breathe. Maybe it's in your chest as your lungs, expand and deflate. Maybe it's like right below your throat. Maybe it's in your head, maybe there's like one square centimeter of openness and emptiness in your, in your head that you can envision. We tend to be so filled most of the time. With anxieties, worries, excitement, any manner of physical sensation and emotion, trauma that we're holding on to feelings that we're holding on to hurt feelings, joyful feelings, gratitude, any number of things that we might be walking around with new love, heartbreak that comes with us everywhere, and colors the way that we see and experience the world. And the tradition says, what would it look like to find within yourself a space that is not yet claimed. I'm going to take us down to the bottom of his commentary I can send I can drop the link for this commentary in the in our Slack channel. This is going to take us into a discussion of the Omer going into Shaveh vote, which we are now a week away from less than a week away from Okay. Here we go. So this is like I told you, he's got a couple religious influences. So here we go. Sri Ramana compares the mind of the average person to a room full of junk.

These people are like a man who fills all the rooms of his house chock full of unnecessary junk, and then complains that there's no room for keeping his body in it. In the same way, they fill the mind with all sorts of impressions. And then they say there's no room for the self, you know that capital S God in it. If all the false ideas and impressions are swept away and thrown out what remains is a feeling of plenty. And that is the self itself that is a sense of the Divine. The reason we cannot find God is because our mind is full of thoughts and desires. If we can learn to empty the mind, then God's living presence will immediately present itself. There are 49 days between the holy day of Passover and the holy day of Shabbos. Seven times seven weeks. This period is called the Omega. The Omega is a time of preparation. During the seven weeks from Passover to Shavuos. We strive to steal the mind to stop the whirlwind of constant thought and desire so that we can perceive the presence of God within. In the teaching of the Ireenie Rabbi Isaac Luria, the experience of yahood, the divine connection and inner revelation. That's what we're actually trying to achieve when we're when we're referencing the head live of angel in the eye of Arab prayer before going into the Shemitah. We're talking about divine union. So it's followed by a period of Ybor or just station. And this is a time for integrating our spiritual revelation. It is an opportunity for solitude and reflection, where we solidify the place of stillness inside of us, then we are ready to be born into the world of activity and experience without losing our link with God. Sri Ramakrishna compares this inner work to the process of making butter. To get butter for milk. You must let it set into curd in a secluded spot. If it is too much disturbed. The milk won't turn into curd Next you must put aside all other duties sit in a quiet spot and turn it and only then do you get butter. Further by meditating on God and solitude the mind acquires knowledge, dispassion devotion, but the very same mind goes downward when it dwells in the world. Which you know most of us can't help most of the time. The world is water and the mind milk if you pour milk into water, they become one you cannot find the pure milk anymore, but turned the milk into Curt curd and turn it into butter. And then when the butter is placed in water, it will float. And so precise spiritual disciplines in solitude I mean, let's say solitude like also what we are doing here together. Help us obtain the knowledge and love. Obtain the butter of knowledge and love and even if you keep that butter in the water of the world, the two will not mix the butter will float. First we need to build up place of calm and tranquility inside of us and then we can enter the world while holding that inner stillness, interacting with others from our own Mishkan our own spiritual sanctuary. The blessing that precedes the Shema, we recite the words of a hot air in a new Victoria Taha, we sang these words this morning. enlighten our eyes with your Torah. These words our heartfelt prayer to God to illuminate our consciousness to fill our eyes with God's divine sight. The Indras section of the Zohar describes the nature of this divine site using a phrase taken from Psalm 121 has show Mary Israel Loja noon volition, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. God's all seeing eye the Zohar tells us is constantly looking out over the world. God observes everything that is happening in the myriad of planes in the manifest universe, God's divine gaze pierces through the veils of material reality to see the hearts of all of us and angels. And this is the nature of the sight of the boundless consciousness of the white fire that underlies all that exists the white fire, that is the parchment on which the Black Fire of Torah is inscribed. It is the vision of the vast expanses of the desert, of an emptiness, which is full of God. This shadow, it shall be at a festive meal with family and friends, and be at an all night Tikun or study session. And also take some time to be in the desert, to be in the place of stillness where the internal God dwells. If you had names for healing, that you want to dedicate that learning to go ahead and put them in the chat, and we'll send our love and our prayer and the energy of our learning their way. When I'm going to do I'm gonna do this, this prayer for all of their health and healing roof No, I don't I have an Earth Day.

Hoshi a new version of a Shia kita he Latino atta for Allah Forscher Lima likoma Cuttino camellia for fenit Amanda monitor barrel attack I don't I refer her lay a mo Israel bless it. Are

you the one who heals all of our people, the people among our Jewish people, but all of our people, the people who you are thinking about and holding this morning, refreshed the mat every single one of them. I mean, and I wasn't I wasn't on all of minion last week. But, Glen, I heard that last week Wednesday concluded the period of saying Kaddish for your mom.

Yes, it did.

And yet here you are.

I said last week that I felt like this was a gift from my mother to discover this Minion

oh my god that's so meaningful.

I love it was a gift to us

from your mother that you are here in all the ways so then this morning as we go into Khadija tome into mourners Kaddish Is there anybody who you are praying for you collectively? Anybody whose name you want to say or put in the chat? Sylvia herring. Well, I will stand and say mourners Kaddish for all of the people whose names we haven't said. And for anybody who does not have somebody to say Kaddish for them. Nathan Pollack made all of their memories be blessings.

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they'll call your straight table V Imro.

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say Shalom Demerol Ma. Who says Shiloh, Malay No, they go east Roy And they're cool you're straight A me yeah Sasha along yes it's shot long child on my lane Oh alcohol is throwing ya Sasha along. Shalom yes is shalom Shiloh Molina Alcoy che Teva yah say Shalom yah say Shalom SHA llama lane on alcohol USRowing ya say Shalom ya say shalom, sha Allah Molina o alkyl USRowing yah say shalom, yah say Shalom shahada home money, I call you Stroh. And now call yo che Teva V Mo. And me.

And so now, for anybody who wants to say for another five minutes, maybe I am curious how we square the insistence that there is truth and it is something that is beautiful, lovely. Why is, you know, all those words that we sing about in the, in the davening I could go back and find them all, you know, like 20 different words to describe, you know, fearsome, awesome, lovely, nice, powerful, which is truth. And then that the desert should be our paradigm like the unknown, bewildering, open, unclaimed. unformed desert is where we discover God. How do we square that?

Never experienced like a desert, barren this, but more in all. Wait, Ricky,

what do you mean?

Yeah, I'm just thinking about like, a couple of deserts theory. Well, you said that it was like, the desert is this barren land. But I mean, one image is going in the Sinai desert. A lot like the other two Dahab just driving through the desert or going to where it supposedly is. And, you know, there's just these huge mountains and the beauty of it for being in Colorado, or being in the high desert, where the red rocks, inspiration. So I find that to be a place where I can, for the ones, the universe.

And I'll just read some of the things I saw in the chat here, we start by getting rid of our technology, right? The deeper you go into the wilderness, the less of a sell signal you get. And at some point, it's just you in the elements.

You need a certain emptiness to find truth.

So, so this is something I've been I mean, thank you, Morris. And I think that's like, what the Midrash is trying to get at, like, yeah, truth is out there. But like, empty yourself first, be like the desert, because otherwise it's just gonna be, you know, it's gonna be, you're gonna bring your own self to the facts. And then it's not truth anymore. It's your opinion, or whatever. But it's like, no, no. The truth is out there as as what was that the X Files always started with? Getting rid of the self chatter and Galen let Garrett and Gail says, right, we think the desert is empty, but it really isn't. Right? It's actually the when you go out into the dead, it's not empty. But I wonder if it's like, but you become a little less certain. You become a little more open. Each one of us it's like the it's like the kid that says, you know, that says to his father, like I have to go out into the field. And his dad says, Why are you going out into the field every day when it's time to pray? And the kid says, Well, you know, I'm, that's where I'm going to talk to God. And the father says, Yeah, but don't you know, God's the same everywhere, pray in shul. And the kid said, God may be the same everywhere. That I'm not. Right, but I'm not

wrong on that. Just because you're open to new ideas. And I'll never forget when I was a mitzvah Ramon, which is the desert, we were praying, and I found a seashell. Like, wow, I mean, a

seashell in the middle, right? Because then you show

a real seashell. It was hidden because I was getting a little bored of the prayer, you know, but I was just like, oh my gosh, I found a seashell. And I called my sister up. I said, fantasy show. She goes well, you know, we did have a flood many, you know, 1000s of years ago.

Right? And just to be clear, right? You're in the middle of the desert. Right? And you find a seashell. Not because somebody dropped it bit because like, hundreds of 1000s of years ago, this was a beach, you know. And so like the idea of truth and constancy is actually the awareness of things in constant motion, but like, constant being on a scale that is way, way longer. And yeah, just, you know, more expansive than most of us will ever experience in our lifetimes. I've been thinking a lot about the idea of certainty, like what we think we know. And you know, because over the past eight months, I've heard from a lot of people who want to hear me their rabbi speak with a lot more certainty. That reflects, of course, their opinion, you know, and what's amazing about it, of course, is like, I get people over here, I'm like, this is on my right hand, I get people over here on my left side, who really, really wants to hear the level of certainty that they feel reflected by me. And it's, I mean, it's an interesting thing, because actually, you know, even the things that we think that we know, we don't really, totally know. But I've been thinking about this sort of, you know, the access of we think of like, left to right, but, but maybe the more important access is the is the axis of absolute certainty, to openness to new ideas, you know, open mindedness, like absolute certainty down here, and then up here, like a real heathcare Ness, like the desert, like an openness. And so, Tim, Tim urban, wrote a book called, what's our problem? And, and in this, he talks about some of the yes, okay, the left to right access, but much more importantly, the the axis of certainty. And then down here at the bottom one is basically a religious fundamentalist, whether or not you're religious about the idea that you are certain about, but there is absolutely no evidence that could change your mind, about the situation, no matter what somebody throws at you, no matter what you are presented with, it doesn't matter, you will think what you think and you will figure out a way to justify whatever opinion it is that you already hold, and the sort of perspective they you know, and so, and then the further up you go, you could imagine, like, right above that is kind of the opinion of the lawyer who's like, okay, it's their job to figure out the argument to, you know, justify their client. But truthfully, they could also be swayed the other way, if their client was the other client, you know, it's like the job of the and so there's a conscious justifying, that's going on there. But which means that there's also a kind of flexibility go further up. And it's like, sort of like a sports fan, like, you know, you live in Boston. So you, you know, so you wrote for the Celtics, but maybe you moved to Chicago, and now, you know, you're a Chicago and so now you wrote for the bulls. But the idea being that you can actually change your mind, you are open to new things. But that said, like, when you commit, you commit, like you root for your team. But then finally, further up, he's like, and then there's the scientist. And the scientist has a hypothesis. The scientist has an opinion, based in, you know, study and research and you know, replicability and all of that, but the end of the day, it's a hypothesis and sciences always open to being renewed, refreshed, revised, you know, things that were true 50 years ago, we actually know are not true. And the scientist has to be open, in fact, in fact, yearns to be challenged, so that they can either refine, or disprove and, you know, create a better theory, because their ultimate goal is truth. It's not being right. And so I think about that, you know, that sort of that kind of truth, that kind of yearning for what's what's actually you know, what's actually true instead of just what justifies the thing we already think, or the team we already root for. And I think when the tradition is asking us to go into that place of being open, and yet also saying that it's not just an infinite openness of infinite possibilities and nothingness, like there's nothing that's true at all, there, actually there is something there that we have to be open to discovering. And then when we get that that's The MFE it's even a Han vaca Yan via Charlotte and manga who have a view of the beloved, the beloved truth the nice the fearsome the grand it's not the little truth down at the bottom. It's the it's the truth arrived out by hard won wisdom and confirmation over time and space and different kinds of people realizing the same, the same divine truths. I love what you just said Diana, and as is Susanna in the chat when someone sneezes in your house. You don't say God bless you. You say science.

We sure do.

That's hilarious. I love it. That's great word to the wise everybody. All right, lots of love. Happy 43rd Day of the Omar. Thank you. Thank you. You've been listening to contact high up production of Mishkan Chicago. If you were inspired or informed by this episode, please leave us a five star rating on Apple podcasts so that others can encounter our work. And if you appreciate what Mishkan is doing, I invite you to join as a builder or make a donation on our website at Mishcon chicago.org