Will You Sweep Away The Innocent With The Guilty?

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

Transcript

Transcript

0:03  
All right. Good morning, everybody.

0:08  
I love this. Erin and Melissa are cooking in Oregon, so they have the camera off. But I love that. I love that vision, and I wish that we could, I wish that we could share breakfast with you. Welcome everybody. I'm going to invite us all to settle into whatever space you're in, if it's a chair, if you're walking, if you're laying down, to just take a moment to be still

0:38  
and feel your breath rising and falling in your chest.

0:46  
Just easy breathing. Maybe you're breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.

0:54  
Maybe you're breathing in a different kind of way as a matter just notice your breath rising and falling in your chest

1:11  
and feel your body resting on whatever surface it's resting on. I'm sitting on something, so I'm just feeling

1:21  
all my weight sitting right on my little toes and grateful for this cool, ergonomic chair I'm sitting on that's forcing me to sit up straighter. But however it is that you're sitting or laying or standing to feel your body connecting with the surface that it's on,

1:40  
and then noticing that that surface is probably on top of another surface, on top of another surface that's on top of the earth.

1:50  
And so feeling connected to the earth, the ground beneath us,

1:56  
just as you breathe

2:02  
and knowing this connection is there all the time,

2:07  
and when our minds start to race,

2:10  
our hearts start to beat quickly, this is a place we can always come back to.

2:15  
And I wanted to start this morning with a tune I think I've shared in this space before,

2:24  
very simple

2:27  
and let me share sound.

2:31  
This is the musician ally Halpert.

2:37  
Song is called, I'm not alone. Now. Can you see this? Can you see somebody who looks like she's about to start singing? Yes, all right, beautiful. Now, tell me, this has been my issue before. If I try to make it full screen, then you stop being able to see it. Can you see it? Now?

2:58  
Yes or no, yes, yeah, great,

3:03  
full screen.

3:05  
Yeah, it's not full screen, but it's not full screen. That's right, wacky. That is so very strange to me. I don't, all right, I don't totally understand why that is the way that it is. But we'll just, we'll just play it.

3:20  
Okay,

3:25  
I'm not alone,

3:27  
I'm not alone, I'm not

3:30  
alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone,

3:34  
I'm not alone, I'm

3:38  
not

3:39  
alone,

3:41  
I'm not alone, I'm not alone,

3:47  
I'm not

3:52  
alone, I'm not alone, I'm not

3:54  
alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone. I forgot for a minute who I belong to

4:02  
the mama Earth, the

4:03  
wind and rain, the beauty and the pain.

4:10  
I'm not alone.

4:12  
For me, the world was created.

4:17  
I'm not alone.

4:19  
To death. I will return. I'm not alone,

4:25  
I'm not

4:27  
alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm

4:37  
not alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone. I forgot who I belong to.

4:47  
And who I belong

4:52  
to. I'm not alone. For me, the world was created. I'm

4:56  
not alone.

5:00  
All to dust I will turn

5:09  
Oh.

5:44  
Wow, I'm not alone,

5:47  
I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm not alone,

5:57  
I'm not alone, I'm not alone, I'm

5:59  
not alone, I'm not alone. I

6:01  
forgotten who world

6:18  
was

6:20  
created

6:22  
to die. I'm not alone to

6:26  
dust. I will return. I forgot

6:29  
who I belong to, the mama Earth, the wind and rain, the beauty and pain.

6:40  
I'm not alone. For me, the world was

6:45  
created.

6:47  
I'm not alone. To dust. I will return.

7:00  
Highly recommend

7:03  
going and finding on Spotify or just, you know, getting going down the YouTube rabbit hole of rising song Institute fellows, people and songs,

7:15  
they're moving and inspiring, and a great reminder that in these times we make music, that's one of the things that we do to pick ourselves up and keep ourselves going. I think that song, wait, did I just okay? I thought I just X out of zoom. That song was written during COVID, and the way that they first put that together was Allie recorded the I'm not alone, piece alone. And then put it, you know, her thing in the ear. And then got on the, got on the zoom with a knot, and then she put the thing in her ear. And then they were able to make music together. And then they put out, and then they put out the, you know, the combined thing, like we all got, you know, those mash up videos of all the little faces in the boxes,

8:01  
but just a reminder of how we find creativity and resilience in music,

8:07  
in these moments and in these times. And I know that's why we show up here, too. So I'm happy to see you all this morning. Welcome.

8:18  
How are folks doing?

8:22  
So Ricky says, right? Deborah saxmans, who's one of the leaders of the rising song Institute, we're going to be here on Thursday night. I hope there are still tickets, and people should go if they're here in Chicago. 100% Thank you, Ricky, yeah. How folks doing?

8:40  
Oh, that's so good. Leah Hari writes, it's good to feed your recommendation algorithm positive spirit fueling content so it recommends more content like that instead of rage fuel. So good, so good.

8:55  
All right, people saying, I'm tired at work, charting. Susan comes in waves, Fair enough. Fair enough. My mantra has been, nobody gets to steal my joy. So my first answer, when people ask me, you know, how are you doing? And I feel like in our circles, the response, the requisite first response is sort of, you know, like some shrug, looking down, well, you know,

9:21  
how should we be doing, you know, something like that. And of course, I understand where that comes from, but that is not my first response. It's not, I'm actually, my body's healthy. I'm doing great. Thank you. Now,

9:34  
like, you know, should we talk, like, talk about what, you know, what's on everybody's mind, okay? But also, we don't have to, like, we can talk about other things too, and we should. And it occurs to me that over the course of 1000s of years, you know, Jews have, Jews have kept knocking around books like reading, books like deciphering, getting deeply into arguing over books that have absolutely nothing to do with reality. You know, like whole sections of the Talmud are.

10:00  
About the temple service, you know. Like the temple service, what the priests, the high priests, would do in the temple, you know. And at that point, the temple hadn't existed for hundreds of years, then 1000 years, then 1500 years. But like you go into yeshiva today, there will be people arguing about what the high priest does in the temple on Yom Kippur and and all other manner of things that have to do with like the ancient land of Israel, or the ancient temple, or, you know, biblical law.

10:29  
And I used to think like, well, you know, that's just Jews sort of flexing our, I don't know, our mental, you know, like our synapses, so like to keep them in good working order. But I actually think we have developed a preternatural ability, over the years to survive, and one of the ways we survive is actually by healthy distraction. Healthy distraction sort of to lay Ari's point, and one of those is the intellect, flexing the intellectual muscles to know how to argue, to investigate, to look somebody else in the eye and say, really, that's how you see it explain. So that's one of the reasons why we study Torah, and we're going to this morning. But of course, first we'll do a little bit of singing. Where's my there it is. All right.

11:19  
I want to start here with chiviti.

11:23  
You'll notice I've got a little bit of a sniffle here, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of you do too. But guess what? On zoom, it's not contagious.

11:33  
Shiviti.

11:38  
Have a

11:40  
ya

11:44  
la

11:46  
neg Deen

11:50  
Tommy

11:55  
shivati,

12:01  
neg, Deen,

12:03  
Tommy,

12:08  
hab, I am,

12:15  
I have

12:17  
ahava,

12:42  
Shi, Viti, over on your screen, you can sing the other part, and it makes Pretty harmony.

12:53  
Tammy.

12:58  
Shi Viti,

13:11  
Tammy

13:31  
I have

13:39  
a

13:41  
VA

13:53  
one of the things that

13:56  
astute readers of text, especially Hebrew text, will do

14:02  
is notice when there are words and letters that look out of place or rearrange or like they might have meant something else in a different order, but in this order they mean this. But so they don't just mean two different things. They mean those two different things, but connected somehow. And so obviously have a Yeah, which you know, we're translating as the one, but is, you know, it's sort of like being is Rafa ya as an experience. But anybody notice what, what the letters of this word are in a different order,

14:34  
right? Ricky, I see you nodding, so why don't you unmute and tell us?

14:38  
Yud, hey, Vav, that's right, you had Hey, Vav, Hey. Which is

14:47  
Shem Hashem, it's God's name. It's the unpronounceable name. It's the unpronounceable name. We can't say it, you know? It's one of those things, actually, the rabbi's Dad, how was that? Was one of the things the high priest said in the Holy of Holies.

15:00  
Is, you know, God's actual name, and did that on behalf of the people trying to expiate their sins. But nobody knew how it was said. They argued about it. And now, of course, we don't have a high priest, and so nobody knows how to say the name. However, if you rearrange the letters, it's still God's name, just in a different form and in a way that you can actually pronounce Hava ya

15:21  
and I've talked, I've talked with us about this, the version of yud, hey, Vav, Hey. That we actually can kind of visualize is when we think about it as parts of our body, you know. So the yud as you're breathing in, like, imagine hitting the back of your throat, like the guttural, yeah, like that. But there's, if there's no vowels, you can't really say it, but, you know, that's where it hits. And so you envision you'd

15:47  
as you breathe in, it's like hitting the back of your throat. And then you'd Hey, Hey, is your shoulders and arms. You know, you can sort of see that right here in this Hey shoulders and arms hanging down. And then, and also, that's the exhale. That's the literal sound the exhale makes.

16:09  
Vav is your spine,

16:12  
connecting all of you, connecting earth and heaven.

16:15  
You again. You can't say that without any vowels. And then,

16:21  
and then hey, your your pelvis and legs. And we can walk around the world. Maybe you can't say God's name, but you can embody God in the way that you walk, in the way that you breathe.

16:33  
And so by rearranging the letters here, we made it so that you can shivati place. Have I Yeah, the one God, but in a way that you can actually say we suddenly made God more accessible. Le negdi, Tamid, in front of my face, facing me. It's actually there's a confrontational kind of implication here. Negged, if you speak modern Hebrew, neged means against but lynegdi like facing me, confronting me. Tamid, always, always, always, always, always

17:02  
so just I want us to remember that in moments when we feel confronted by challenge, God is present, maybe in a different form, but very, very present,

17:13  
and We can breathe into it, and

17:22  
that helps us get through it really does. All right. I want to read a little bit. Oh my gosh, there's been so much chatter in the chat,

17:33  
loving everything you're saying, just for the benefit, for the benefit of the people who are listening later on the podcast, I'm just going to read

17:41  
out loud. Irene says, speaking of the Talmud, don't forget about the discussion on black cats and black magic. There's a lot of weird stuff in there too. You guys, you could go back to a to a contact high from last year at around this time,

17:56  
Steven did a Halloween episode about, I want to say ghosts or magic or something weird. That was just totally a departure from talking about October 7, which had been, you know, for the past three weeks when Halloween rolled around. Go find that little episode. But yes, it's true. The Rabbi's talked about all kinds of weird, magical things. Julia said finding small things to do to make immediate impact in the local community is helpful. X, grocery store has a sale on pantry staple. Example, the grocery store is a sale on pantry staples, grabbing extra and donating to a local food pantry. Yes, oh, that's beautiful, Julia, and any of us could do that this morning, I reminded myself of pier. Keith. Vote. I'm not required to finish the work, but it's not okay to walk away from it. That's right. That's right. Lo alecha Moore, you don't have to finish it,

18:49  
but you can't walk away. Rebecca's at work, and I share with it the community health nursing students that you teach. Oh, that's on your wall at work. Yes, it's so important. It's such an important thing to remember. I feel like at least one of every Rabbi's high holiday sermons basically amounts to that. Mine was this year COVID. But you know, like you can't do everything. Do something

19:16  
beautiful. Oh, I love what you said here. But Ricky, the eternal present have a YA means the timeless reality of the eternal present. Michael, I translate havaya as the continue, continual unfolding of the Divine. I think it's, you know, I just keep saying, like, Judaism always felt like kind of a luxury, or just kind of a nice thing to have in good times, and then in times when things get hard. You actually lean in and it catches you, and the community catches you. And all of these ideas that are like nice ideas, flowery ideas, interesting ideas, in good times suddenly become life saving ideas, the idea that God has not gone anywhere.

19:55  
You know,

19:57  
God didn't change. I mean, God, God might be a little.

20:00  
Sad God might be up there, out there, going, Oh, my God, my people, my human people, like I had such high hopes for you, you know. But God's still there, you know. And we can still talk to her,

20:13  
it him, they

20:15  
all right. So let's see when I was talking about, when I was talking about wordplay, I wanted to look a little bit at the Parsha.

20:27  
And this week's tour portion

20:30  
is such a good one and such an intense one. This is the one that we read sections of on the High Holidays, and it begins with God appearing to Abraham right after Abraham has circumcised himself, and Abraham sitting at his tent and recovering, and, you know, talking to God. And then all of a sudden, these three strangers show up and promise Abraham that he will, in fact, become a father. And Abraham's like, yeah right. And Sarah's in the other room, like, yeah right. But they say no, for real, you really will. And then they leave. And here's the next story that happens

21:22  
here, right? This is actually good, the agents, they're an ashem people, but they're also sort of seen as as angels. Malachim, they got up

21:35  
from there, and they looked down toward Sodom, towards Saddam and Abraham walking off with them to see them off hola Imam Lish to send them off in the direction of Sodom.

21:52  
And God says, at that point, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

22:00  
That's ominous since Abraham has become a great and populist nation. And all since Abraham is to become a great and populist nation, and all the nations of the world will bless themselves by him, I've singled him out that he may instruct his children in the ways of God, doing what is sadaqah um mishpat, just and right. Oops, go away, just and right. But I just wanted you to see this here, said a cow mishpat. La sote mishpat,

22:31  
in order that God may bring about a to Abraham what he has promised him. And so God says to Abraham,

22:39  
sa akat Sado, the outrage, the outcry of Sodom is so great, and their sins so grave.

22:49  
Stop it, and their sins so grave. I am going to go down there and see whether they have acted all together, according to this outcry. This sa AKA, this is important. Saka, so you can see the letters right there. I'm sorry about how Safari keeps doing that, but I just wanted you to notice that word there. Sorry, I in coof.

23:09  
I will go down in there and see if they have wick acted altogether as wicked as the outcry that has reached me. It's interesting. It's sort of like God can't see it. God can only hear that. Something sounds like it's awfully wrong down there, some like awfully cruel, awfully terrible, and God has to go down there and see it for God's self.

23:27  
And if not, I will, I will take note the agents, the people who are walking away, went to Sodom, and Abraham remains standing before God. And Abraham said, and you've probably heard this story before, will you sweep away the innocent along with the guilty. That's

23:43  
interesting, right? Abraham's first question is, like, it's not well, like, How bad is it, or what is it that they did, right? What are some other things Abraham might have asked that are not this? Go ahead and unmute if you

23:58  
want. Right? God, go ahead. Yes, Eric, sorry. How are you gonna do that? Oh, yeah, love it. How are you going to do that? When you say, sweep away. Like, what? What is that? What does that mean,

24:12  
right?

24:16  
God, actually, at this point, does He say,

24:20  
you know, I don't even think God insinuates

24:26  
that God is going to destroy the towns. It's almost like Abraham knows it. Look at this, right? I will go down and see whether they've acted altogether, according to the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will take note. But it seems like Abraham just assumes that God will sweep away the innocent along with the guilty, God actually hasn't, at this point said God's going to, you know what God's going to do, so, right? Like, what? What is it exactly you're planning on God? Would have been another question. Yeah,

24:53  
we all there. What it is that they did? Like, yes, it was grave and great and grievous and horrendous.

25:00  
Yes, but what was it so that Yeah? Repeat it, yes,

25:07  
yeah,

25:09  
yeah, right. Okay. Any other questions Abraham might have asked before, just assuming God is going to completely destroy the towns with everyone in them, which God has not said, but interestingly, Abraham assumes, like, that's what's about to happen the people of stone and Gomorrah, like, really that much worse than everyone else.

25:28  
I mean, we could go down, we could go down a rabbit hole, which, which we might have to later, because reading about what Sodom and Gomorrah was like, you know, what is it that they did? And it's in, you know, in the mid rush. It's pretty terrible. It's pretty cruel, you know, it's like, it's, it's mean and terrible to your family and to strangers and, you know, and they're very specific examples of that. What that cruelty looks like, that I actually think, would be very instructive for us now in a time when cruelty to family and strangers alike is becoming the norm,

26:06  
so we should look at that. But yes, God hasn't said what they did, but it seems like it's pretty bad, but we don't know. And is it much worse than everybody else

26:15  
asked about. Might have said, What about my nephew? My nephew and his family lived there. What are you going to do for them, right? Yeah, and maybe Abraham doesn't want to, like play favorites, and so that's why he's asking this question, assuming that Lot and his family are innocents, what you're going to sweep away the innocence along with the guilty? What if there are 50 innocent people in the city, parentheses, including my nephew and his family, will you then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of 50 who are in it. And God, oh. And Abraham goes on, I love this. He says, khalila, it would be an embarrassment to you, but you know, they translate it here as far be it from you to do such a thing to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that the guilty and innocent fare alike, Far be it from you. But again, khalilacha, you would be an empty vessel, you know, like it's, it's really Abraham is, is speaking quite harshly to God. Here you the one who supposed to judge the earth fairly. Has shofate, Koha are it's lo ya say mishpat, like the true Judge of the Earth is not going to judge justly. Then God says, okay, okay, okay, okay. You're right, you're right, you're right. If I find 50 people within the city, I will forgive the whole city. I will not destroy the city. And then Abraham the Yan, Abraham the yomair, he named not a whole tea, LITTLE BEAR, el Adoni, anuchi, a Farve a fair here, I venture to speak to you, my lord, me who I'm, just Dustin ashes. But what if there are only 45

27:48  
like not 50, but 45 you know? And so and so it goes, and God says, I won't destroy for the 45 oh, but forgive me. I just, I have to go on God. But you know, I'm nobody, I'm nothing. I'm Dustin ashes. What if there are only 30? God says, I won't destroy for the sake of 30. Okay, all right, 20. And now finally 10. And God says I will not destroy for the sake of 10.

28:11  
And at that point, Abraham sort of feels like I'm not going to push my luck anymore. Maybe he thinks to himself, If we can't find 10 good people in the city, I can't, you know, like I can't even argue on behalf of the City myself. You know, I'm not going to do this for for Lot and his children. I'm going to assume that lot has a, you know, a minion he dives with, and they're all and they're all good, and there have to be at least 10, and if there aren't 10, I'm not going to keep arguing. He finishes speaking, Abraham departs, God departs, and,

28:38  
and we learn the fate of the story later.

28:42  
Okay? Any Yeah, it sounds like Bob Barker bargaining on the prices, right? Oh, child. Could sick day at home? Yes. Bob Barker, may his memory be a blessing. Okay, so, any comments on this before I I'm gonna scroll very quickly to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. I mean, you you could, you know, reading it. You could just interpret it as God said, I will not destroy for the sake of the 10 and then the very next sentences, and then God just left. So, you know, maybe Abraham wasn't finished speaking. Maybe God decided he just had conversation. That's true, actually, right? Vales, Adonai ka share, Kei lalabraham, it really, it does say, like God was done talking to Abraham,

29:30  
as opposed to Abraham had finally made his last point. So that's really good. God is like, Okay, enough, I got the point. I'm leaving and Abraham returns to his place. Maybe that's that's some great close reading.

29:44  
Okay, oh, wait. Can't hear you. Can't hear you. Speak up. Get closer to the mic. Can you hear me? Now? Is that better? Okay, yes, better. I'm struck that God Abraham doesn't say to God, have you given them a warning? Have you told.

30:00  
Um, you're acting evil, evilly, shape up, or you're going to have consequences. Yeah, right. It seems awfully. It seems like awfully, not like God to not give people the opportunity to make Teshuva before destroying them,

30:20  
right? Like, as we learn on Yom Kippur, although right in the in the Jonah story on Yom Kippur, right, God sends Jonah there to give the people a warning, and then, in fact, they change, because we would rather have people change and become better than destroy them.

30:37  
That said, there are many times when people make grave mistakes, and there are punishments for those mistakes.

30:43  
So, all right, the Talmud seems to fight against this with all the capital punishment limitations. Aaron says, yeah, no, it's true. I mean, look, also, let's remember this is Bible. This is the oldest strain of you know, this is like the the ground layer of Jewish tradition on top of this, get laid all of the values that we now know. For example, you don't kill somebody for making a mistake. You know, like you have a justice system. It's not that God meets out punishment left and right. In fact, the kind of conversations where you have God talking to a person about what to do in the world, that's kind of that's biblical. We don't that's not how we create laws anymore. Is Abraham teaching, Hashem, it sure seems that way. And then right Lexi feels like a stage of development in the relationship with God, starting to negotiate and engage. Yeah, I love that. So I was gonna say betrayal, a bit of betrayal, and struggling with Abraham, because he left his homeland for this guy, for God, he got circumcised, which is pretty painful for God, he's doing all this so painful for Abraham. Yeah, for Abraham, right now, now this God, like, where does it end? Like, do I want this relationship? I just think he's just, like, trying to figure this all out, the betrayal, sorry, the betrayal that Abraham feels by God, this kind of strange presence that's like, leave your home and cut off your foreskin, and you're gonna have a child, I promise. I know you're 100 years old, but like, really, I swear. Oh, also, I'm about to destroy a whole town full of people. And Abraham's like, scratching his head, like, what is this God? What is this God who says that they are for justice and righteousness, right? I mean, now we've been introduced to those words to describe who God is, but I think you're probably right. Abraham's like, what on earth? What is justice and righteousness? If it looks like this, Leah Ari writes, it seems like a point of real growth on God's part. The last time God had these sort of feelings was the people of the flood. That's a great point, right? And so kind of plucked Noah and Noah's family, and was like, All right, you live on an ark with a couple of animals while I destroy humanity and try again. And God has promised that God's not going to destroy all of humanity. However, there is something corrupt, like a corrupting influence in Saddam that seems like, almost like God has to do some kind of surgical strike, so to speak, to make it go away. And Abraham is like, Yeah, but isn't there another way? So let's see. All right, the messengers get to Saddam. There's this like crazy incident there, which gives you a sense of who the people of Saddam are. They come out. They want to rape the guests that are staying in the house, and lot protects them, and lot offers to go like put his daughters out on the stoop instead, so the townspeople will rape them instead of these strangers. So on the one hand, he's being nice to the strangers, but on the other, he's putting his daughters on the chopping block.

33:38  
Make whatever connections you want to make to modern day politics.

33:44  
And

33:46  
after all of this, here we go. These guys in the house basically say, God's going to destroy the town, and you need to go. So everybody goes, and this is where

34:01  
then this is where Lot's wife looks back and turns into a pillar of salt. Right? Remember this, this part God rains down Sodom and Gomorrah, the sulfurous fire of God, out of heaven, annihilating those cities and the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground. By the way, geologically, people look at this story and make the connection to the Dead Sea, you know, ah, this whole area where, like, salt has covered, you know, nothing can grow. The vegetation is completely dried out. And, you know, the whole land is completely filled with salt. That must be kind of the this is the origin story of that region of land. Lot's wife looks back thereupon, turns into a pillar of salt. And the next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before God, having this conversation with God, looking at the area where Sodom and Gomorrah was and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a kiln. And thus

34:56  
it was when God destroyed the cities of the plain and annihilated the cities.

35:00  
Lot dwelled, and God was mindful of Abraham and removed lot from the midst of the upheaval. Okay, so I want to, I want to pause there and

35:11  
and pick up

35:14  
what's his name, Rabbi shy held.

35:19  
What happens later in the Parsha, of course, is

35:25  
Oh my gosh. Then there's this whole thing where lot's children think they're the only people left on earth, and so his daughters have sex with their dad so that they can repopulate Earth. And then they create these two tribes. Fine.

35:37  
Then Abraham has to go down to Egypt with Sarah and tell Pharaoh that, or tell the king that Pharaoh's his sister, not his wife. There's that whole thing that happens.

35:47  
And then we this is where we pick up. It's quiet,

35:53  
and hear you. All done. I will be leaving in one minute, unless you hear somebody talking. I'm talking Megan's AI note taker, Otter,

36:00  
we're talking um. This is where we pick up on Rosh Hashanah, this section right here, God took note of Sarah and did what God had promised, which was help her conceive a child, and she gives birth to Isaac, who you could say, you know, I love, I love the way that, you know, they translate this here, which is

36:23  
for everyone will laugh with me. But I think Sarah's very insecure, as we learn later, I think she's worried everyone will laugh at her because she's so old, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children? I've born a son in his old age,

36:40  
and the child was weaned, and Sarah saw the son whom Hagar, the Egyptian had born to Abraham, playing with Isaac, mitza Shek. So same word as Isaac's name, oops, same word as Isaac's name. Isaac's name is Yitzhak, and

36:56  
Ishmael is mitza Hek, playing with laughing, with being funny with Isaac the rabbi's have a lot of conversation about what that is too, like, is that some Rabbi's think what she saw was something that was like, some kind of unforgivable thing, you know, like, like sexual assault, or something like that big brother to younger brother. But some just think, you know, they were playing the way brothers do, but Sarah didn't like it, and so she says, Cast out that slave woman. I don't want her and her son inheriting along with my son Isaac.

37:31  
I'll post in the I'll post in the in the chat, or in our slack. My sermon from two years ago where I talked about this, and I talked about, like, scarcity mindset and the the instinct to protect our people, to protect who we have by driving other people out and essentially treating the stranger in one way, while treating ourselves a different way, and positing. Because the very next thing that happens after all of this, after Abraham drives out Ishmael and Hagar is, is this the akedah This, by the way, all in this week's parsha. So much the akedah. God says to Isaac, take your son up a mountain and kill him,

38:12  
right? And then, of course, we know he doesn't actually kill him. God doesn't want him to do that. It was just a test. But it kills Sarah, like, just the idea of it, the notion of it gives her a heart attack. She dies. This is the last we hear of her.

38:26  
And so my

38:28  
thesis is that this parsha is trying to tell us that the thing that you are willing to do to somebody else's kid,

38:36  
you should expect to happen to your own child, because that's what we see here, right? God asks Abraham to or Sarah asks Abraham, basically to sacrifice, to send out Ishmael into the wilderness. And he does. And so the test is, are you going to do that to your own child too? And Abraham does. So I put this out here. I mean, there's Yes. Ricky said, there is so much in this portion. There's a lot in this portion, hot. No pun intended. There is, there is both a lot and a lot.

39:06  
So here's what, here's what Rabbi shy held says, and this, I guess our Minion this morning was learning, and then we're going to do Keith Tom and wrap it up. What's

39:18  
the connection between the two parts of Genesis 18, the announcement that Abraham and Sarah will soon have a child

39:25  
and the divine human exchange over the fate of Sodom. The first part of the chapter is concerned with the wondrous fact this is at the very beginning that Abraham and Sarah will finally have a child together. And the second part insists that this blessing comes with a challenge. God is concerned that Abraham quote, instruct his children to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is just and right. Remember, we saw that said, aka mishpat, our covenant with God is not just about having children, it's about the kind of children we have. Abraham has promised a son, but he must raise him with a passion for what is.

40:00  
Zedek, um mishpat, good and just the continued flow of divine blessing depends on it. The Torah wants us to know that it's not just prophets who must step forward. What is true of Abraham and Moses ought to also be true of us as well. Earlier in this earlier in this chapter, Rabbi hel describes the places where Moses also argues with God on behalf of people, on behalf of the Jewish people,

40:26  
even the children of Prophets, as the Talmud calls us, must argue for justice and plead for mercy. If, following Abraham's example, Jews are asked to argue with God. How much more the how much the more so are we called to speak up in the face of human injustice, as the Talmud startlingly puts it, and this is in a quote from the Talmud, whoever is able to protest against the transgressions of his own family, and does not do so is held responsible for the transgressions of his family. Whoever is able to protest against the transgressions of his people, the transgressions of the people of his community and does not do so, is held responsible for the transgressions of his community. Whoever is able to protest against the transgressions of the entire world and does not do so is held responsible for the transgressions of the entire world.

41:18  
If Sodom is characterized by a TSA, aka an outcry Abraham and his descendants must evince said DACA righteousness, the subtle wordplay serves to teach us that the Jewish people are in the world, at least in part, to embody a radical alternative to the brutal cruelty of Saddam we are charged never to go along to get along in the face of injustice. We are challenged by God to speak up.

41:50  
And with that, looking at the time, we are going to say Kaddish, both on the learning and for everyone who you're remembering this morning. So

42:03  
let's just take a moment to hear the names or see the names of the people you're remembering this

42:12  
morning. Mark nur love, Nancy Pryor, Nathan Pollock,

42:19  
Jacobson. Nancy Jacobson, Sylvia herring, Alan herring, Andrew Clark, Joan curlow, I'm

42:29  
pretty sure my own grandfather's yard site is right around now. Leonard wax, may his memory be a blessing.

42:39  
Max Pildes, you

42:42  
would anybody like to lead us in Kaddish this morning? Marilyn Hirsch, lish,

42:53  
I can lead if you'd like, all right to join.

42:58  
Thank you. Oh, wait, hang on. Let me

43:01  
pray a book. I know it's okay. You, you know I've got you. Here we go. I know

43:07  
you. Skadel via Rabbi Amen beyond who say, Bucha, the whole base Israel, but agala of his man, Carib, the emrou, amen,

43:30  
you spar, you should back. Visport, our vis, Raman, vis, no se, Visa, dark, Visa led, visala, she made the Bucha,

43:41  
the ILA Mira. Rabbi Shamaya, Bucha

43:51  
Elena via call, yes, sir, el vmru ame o se shalom, vim ramov, who ya asses, shalom. Elena, via call, yes, call your Fauci veil, the emru. Amen. Thank you. Irene,

44:15  
want to close out with a little music, because we got little on the front end and spent so much time studying that went by so quickly I had no idea.

44:29  
Let's see.

44:36  
I need to start lower. Let's see.

44:41  
Oh, se shalom, BIM, Rabbi,

44:45  
who ya I say, shalom. Ale,

44:58  
nut.

45:16  
Shalom.

45:20  
Shalom. Shalo

45:24  
A little,

45:26  
ya say, shalo

45:29  
ya say,

45:32  
shalo

45:40  
a little, Vibram, oh, Say

45:51  
Shalom.

45:54  
Who ya? I say Shalom.

46:01  
Oh, say SHA

46:05  
Ooh,

46:11  
I'm not gonna keep going, because clearly my morning voices had it.

46:16  
I'll just play the chords. You can sing the rest. Maybe I'll sing an octave down. Let's see if I can

46:22  
Yasi Shalom. Ya say, Shalom, shalom, ladle yashalo.

46:33  
Ya

46:37  
say, Shalom, shalom a little. Ya call your I will happily stay on with anybody who wants to reads about read read about the dirty, nasty sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, because they're very creative and very troubling.

47:02  
But I'll pause the recording here. I.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai