Political Blasphemy —In Conversation With Rabbi Adi Romem

Today’s episode is a Shabbat Replay of our Virtual Friday Night service on May 16th. Rabbi Lizzi was joined by Rabbi Adi Romem, one of the first female rabbis ordained by the Hartman Institute for Israeli rabbis. Together, they discussed blasphemy, in the Torah portion and in politics.

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

Transcript

Transcript

What I thought was gonna be fun about tonight, and it's already happening, is the truth is, Rabbi Adi and I, we don't know each other so well. We spent a lunch together in Jerusalem. We were introduced by the shalom Hartman Institute, who ordained Adi and where I'm studying now, and we just had a good time talking for like two hours, and it all it takes for them, I think, for Jews, before we turn and look at the Torah portion, because for people who are listening now, this is just a treat, Adi let me know she was going to be in town for a conference with the Eye Center. And I thought, What. What a bummer that I can't show you Mishkan on a Friday night. I would have loved to have brought you and had you and maybe having you speak. But you know what? Like, let's just talk Torah. Don't prepare anything. We're just let's just do a like a public havruta over a little section of the Torah that we read this week that is, like, deeply disturbing, but also very interesting and and where there's, like, more narrative than actually there is in much of the rest of the Parsha, which is all about, like priestly purity laws. But before we talk to her,

would you? Would you just share with with the community like you are a rabbi who is a woman, which I am also, but here there are many more people like me, and it's less of a big deal.

And in the Israeli, yeah, it's right. So I wonder if you could just give us, like, just a, you know, you're the short version of, how did you, how did you become who you are in the world today?

Okay, yeah,

no. First of all, I want to say thank you for hosting me, and thank you for the Congregation for having me and being patient with my English. It's really good. You're good. I'm trying.

So how did I become a rabbi? I think I don't know. You know, sometimes you choose a profession. Sometimes the profession chooses you. Like, it's not in Hebrew, we say Mishkan like an occupation, but Schlicht is, like,

what you'd say Schlicht is, like, it's a calling. It's a calling. Yeah, I think it was a calling for me. Well, I was working in the

capital market. I was actually the head of fine, the marketing for Tel Aviv stock exchange for 10 years, that's a really big job being the head of marketing for a stock exchange. Okay, let's not talk about the salary I used to make. But, yeah, but, and I think 12 years ago, after

my family a tragedy, I lost my partner and my father in an accident, and I said, Life is too short, and I want to do what I think. I want to take everything I've learned about business, about everything I know about the world, but I want to do good in the world with that.

So I changed my profession, and actually, 12 years ago was the first time I came across a pluralistic and liberal Judaism, which I didn't know that the what?

Well, my daughter and I have a joke that it's so funny when you come to America, you understand that there are more flavors to Judaism. We kind of say that America's got the Baskin Robbins of Judaism, and in Israel, you have only two flavors. You're either orthodox or secular, and I try to be an orthodox, but I wanted to learn. I wanted to teach. I wanted the Bible, and they kept putting me in the kitchen, right? Didn't want that, right? So it didn't work out for me. So I gave up. But then 12 years ago,

I came across a reformed synagogue in Israel. That was the first time I've ever saw it. And I was,

I wasn't young then, and the first time I saw somebody counted me for minyan. Oh, my God,

I count, but it also says something about you that you were open to that and excited to see that, because I think a lot of a lot of Israelis are quite judgmental. You know, they see that and they're and they dismiss it. Oh, that's not real Judaism. Oh, they counted you in a minion. Because it's not real Judaism. It felt the most, it felt in my stomach like the real thing, yeah, and, and, I'm not sure if I, I wasn't coming judgmental to the occasion. You know, I came across a synagogue. I didn't actually see that it was different, because at work, I work, men and women are sitting together, right? So I didn't understand that was I came across something different. And then when somebody asked who needs to read the Kaddish, I raised my hand, and I was expecting the rabbi to read the Kaddish, and he said, Okay, read and thank God I'm more of a pleaser person than a sky I was sure that the building is going to collapse on my head. I was so afraid, because you didn't think.

Never heard my own voice leading a prayer, reading, yeah, out loud the prayer. I've never heard the woman's voice saying

the words of a pray. And I was saying, and I said, what just happened here? I almost fainted. And the rabbi sat and told me, you know, if there's no man that you can say they could, nobody ever explained anything to me. And I remember that day walking out the synagogue with my daughter and telling her, I think somebody stole God for me.

And the next day I resigned. Wow. The next day I quit a perfect job,

and I said, if there's another girl in Israel who doesn't know that things can be done differently, I want to be the one that chose her to do it. And so then what like fast forward? Did you immediately find the Hartman program? There's the there's the reform movements, the rabbinical school. There's a couple different like options, right? Yeah, it took me. It took me some time. I went to the HUC, the Reform Movement and the masoti, the conservative. I even tried the secular,

and then I found Hartman as a home,

which felt the most comfortable to me and

and that's what I do now, and I work mostly with teens in Israel, and social involvement or entrepreneurship with teens. And I see that my Israel and my rabbinical work your and you also run a community. I run a community in telmon, if you don't know, it's right next to Nana, okay, it's a small town. And I also do a bath Midrash and for business people, Oh, I love that. So a Beit Midrash is like a kind of study set, a study hall, because you create Jewish learning for business people, yeah, amazing. I love it. Well, should we create a little Beit Midrash here? Yala, okay. Yala, all right. So for folks who are watching or who are listening, probably more likely, I'm gonna, I'm gonna pull up the text that we're gonna be looking at here. It's from the end of this week's tour portion and lawyers. That's right. So what you have to know is you know truly where we've come from before. Just to give you like, here's a sentence of where we came from before. With each row you shall place pure frankincense to be a token offering for the bread, as an offering by fire to God and Aaron and the sons will eat all the holy food in a holy precinct, okay? It's like a bunch of stuff about priests and purity and what priests do. Okay? And then there's just this shift,

right? And it starts here. Do you want? Do you want to just read this first sentence in Hebrew, and then we'll, we'll do it in English via banish. Well, already there's

a problem. It's not a problem. No, no, it's not a problem. I just, I just want to stop, because this is the first time that the Bible refers to

a person within the population of the Israelites as Israeli. First place that they're called Israeli instead of, like, benea Israel.

Yes, she's not a part of May Israel. She's Israeli. She's an Israeli. I love that very well. I'm already that's, that's interesting. Let's like, scratch at that for a second. Okay? But you know what? What I want to point out to people who are, who are listening, is what a bay Midrash is it's different from a lecture, right it and it's different from a sermon.

It's the opportunity for two people to sit with one text and read out loud and then process together and challenge each other and interrupt each other, but like respectfully and then listening to each other and and coming to some kind of deeper awareness than what is on the page because of the interaction and so like I just thought, What a cool way for someone at home to see, you know, what Rabbi's do is not rocket science. Oh, there goes my there goes my guitar, putting a guitar on a stand, that's rocket science. But studying Torah is not rocket science.

The reason why Jews love doing this so much is because of what you're about to see. And it's just, it's, it doing it in a Harvard with a pair, it just makes it so much juicier and so much more fun. And it becomes like a real

it's, it's like a deep, deep activity. Yeah, because I'm coming here, you know, you can't see, but I have, like a big backpack on my back, all the things, all the experience I've had, all being Israeli after October 7, you know where COVID, like all my everything I've been through is writing,

yes, and it's making me see.

The text differently, and you're coming with your backpack. Yes, I've got a different backpack. Yeah, different stuff in it, yeah. And what I love about it, it's next year. I'm gonna come with a different backpack. Get more experience like reading this text after COVID changed me, and reading this text after October 7, that completely changed me.

And when two people talk about the text, sometimes you get just a little glimpse into the other person's That's right, backpack, and the way he sees the text, and you get a different approach. Yes, exactly. So I just wanted to give people a window into that, like, what I know we're gonna do this for? Well, what we'll see, we'll see. We'll see. You know, if there's a good stopping point, there will be a good stopping point. But first, all right, now, okay, all right. Seven is really

not super MAHANEY Ben Israel eat the Isha Israeli. All right, and now I'll translate there came out among the Israelites, a man whose mother was Israelite and whose father was Egyptian, and a fight broke out in the camp between this half Israelite and a certain Israelite. So presumably somebody with two Israelite parents, and this person with with one Israelite mother, the son of the Israelite woman, pronounced the name in blasphemy. And is this the first place where Hashem is used as a euphemism for God? Do you think? I'm not quite sure if it's the first but it's interesting. So you know, in in religious circles, people won't say Adonai. They'll say Hashem in in a sentence, because it's, I think they're referring the name. Somebody said God's name, God's name that you're not supposed to say. And he said no, but he didn't just say it. He cursed it, right? He used that door while he was cursing. Well, wait, hang on, wait, does it say? Does it say, is that? Is that it? But the at Hashem, the cult, the color and that means to curse, to curse with, which is important, because the translation doesn't actually say that. Okay, so he said the name in blasphemy, I guess that's for me, blasphemy, cursing God. It's, you know, I looked it up in the dictionary. It's treating something that is holy and sacred with irreverence, with with not proper, Kavod, with not proper, okay, respect. Okay. So here in English, what do you understand that he was cursing God? He was using God's name to curse the other person. That's a great question. I haven't thought about that. I assume that he was cursing God for reasons that we will see. But that's actually, that's, that's already a good question. Okay, so it says he cursed the name, he cursed God, or he said the name in blasphemy, and he was brought to Moses. Now his mother's name was Shlomit bat debri. Shlomit the daughter of debris from the tribe of Don,

and he was placed in custody until the decision of God should be made clear to them. And God spoke to Moses and said, Take the blasphemer outside the camp and let all who were in hearing distance lay their hands upon his head and let the community leadership stone him.

And to the Israelite people, say the following, anyone who blasphemes God shall bear the guilt anyone who pronounces the name of yud, hey, Vav, Hey, this unpronounceable name you are not supposed to say, shall be put to death. The Community Leadership shall stone that person, stranger or citizen having pronounced the name, shall be put to death. If any party kills any human being, that person shall be put to death. One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it, Life for life. If any party maims another, what shall be done shall be done in return, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury inflicted on a human shall be inflicted in return. One who kills a beast shall make restitution for it. The one who kills a human shall be put to death. You shall have one standard for stranger and citizen alike. I The name I yud, hey. Vav, Hey. Am your God? Moses said all of these things to the Israelites, and they took the blasphemer outside the camp, and they pelted him with stones. Hmm, what

are you interested in here?

All of it, I know it's, it's hard text, but I, you know, whenever I have listen reading this, it's, it's really problematic, yes, okay, what is it saying to me? Should I like, if somebody steals something, should I take his eye out, right? Well, okay, the part about Life for life, eye for eye, I feel like that gets resolved later when the Rabbi say, Okay, we didn't we. They didn't mean Eye for eye. They just meant the value of an eye. So it just means a person should suffer consequences. If they do damage, they should pay for it. Okay, could we put that to rest? Or do you want to talk more about? No, this is a it's but I said this.

Is a hard, very hard story, yes. And also it's like, anti climax, a big one. You think it's an anti climax? Yeah? No, because, listen, we were talking about holiness and the holidays. And, you know, it's like, if, if I will take from, I refer to business, yeah, when you build a business, first you have the dream, like I want to build, and then when you start walking, then it starts to get a little dirty. He wants a vacation. People are fighting, you know? You have to deal with the bits and the bytes. Yes. And here it's like the same when we the two portions before us. And even this portion starts with the holiness. And I think the word holy is mentioned here, the most, the many, the most, the most of any Parsha, yeah, really, yeah, holy, holy, holy. Everything is holy, okay? And then,

and then, here we are with a guy who's cursing God and fighting. And then they we have to deal with real life, yeah? Now we have to deal with real life. Then what do we do?

So, I mean, I there. I mean, what to say? So I obviously wonder about

all of the context the Torah gives for who this guy is, because it seems to matter. The Torah doesn't give us, like extra words, so the fact that it tells us he's a guy whose mom is an Israelite, whose father was Egyptian. So already there's a story there, right? Like, is the story, and one of the Midrash says that the Egyptian was actually the guy that Moses killed. Have you? Have you seen this Midrash? Yeah, I know the because it's like, because it just refers to him as an Egyptian man, which is how the other guy is referred to. So, oh, it must be the same guy. So maybe this guy has, like, has a vendetta with Moses, and so that's what he's doing. Maybe I could imagine a completely different story where it's like an Egyptian man and an Israelite woman fell in love, or maybe it was a case of rape, or, you know what? Maybe it wasn't love, right? Maybe it wasn't love, right? It wasn't love. So we don't really know exactly what the background is, but we know that now he's in the Israelite camp, like he's no longer in Egypt, right? Have you serious, the same the same faith, or the destination, that's right, well, and my understanding was like all of the people who left Egypt together, it was Israelites and it was an ere of Rav but at Sinai, everybody became like levicha. What is it like? Amicha levicha? Everybody became of one tribe. Because what? How else are you going to go through the desert? You're all adhering to this new law given at Sinai. And so here's this guy who's part of the Israelite community. And so we're saying Israelite not Jewish, because, of course, Jewish comes much, much, much later. But basically, like, he's part of the Jewish community, and they have all their little tribes, and his mother is part of the tribe of Dan, we're told, but he can't be part of that tribe, because tribes belong to your father, and he doesn't have a Jewish father, right? And so he has nowhere to be.

And so with with all of that context, now we understand he curses God. And so what, like, what I read into that, is

all he wanted was to be part of this community, and no one would let him. You don't belong here. Your mom's not, you know, your dad's not Jewish. You don't belong in the tribe of Dan. Go away. Okay, well, then maybe I'll go. No, there's nowhere for him to go. And he feels alone, and so he curses God, and he is punished for it, and he's killed. Like, there's part of me that feels like this guy is being punished for surfacing the limitations of the law as it exists.

You know what? I mean? Yeah, right. Like, sort of the Daughters of telofah, they do the same thing, except they're not stoned, you know, Moses says, no, no, no, they don't do the same thing. Oh, okay. Oh, well that, I guess they don't curse. They come to Moses don't curse. Yes, and okay, sex says he curses. So okay, so let that. This is actually a great

juxtaposition, point counterpoint, he curses and he's stoned. Daughters of slofad also discover a problem, right? They they can't inherit, because they're the laws. Don't have a rule for what happens if they don't have a brother, their father dies, they don't have a brother who's supposed to inherit. And they come to Moses, and they say here that there's a problem. And Moses says, Let me take it to God. And God says, That's a great point, and I love that story. It's such a good story, and I'm gonna fix the law. You raised an important point. This guy doesn't, he doesn't follow the chain of command. He goes into a public place and he curses.

I want to, I want to suggest a metaphoric reading for this. Okay, bring the metaphor, yeah. Metaphor like,

let's go back. I mean.

It Okay,

these rights are traveling, walking the desert, yeah, and it takes them 40 years, yeah, so,

the we just say the rabbi, the rabbi says, always say the rabbi.

You say gospel about why did they have to walk 40 years? And the answer that we usually give, or the rabbi used to give, is that the generation needed to shift right. The generation needed to change, to change, but not the generation is. It's not like

the people needed to die and new people to be born, but the state of mind needed to change. Why is that? Because they come from slavery, and while you are slave, you don't get decisions. You're a victim, yes, and you're not proactive, you're not socially involved in your community. You can't build a build a country like that, if you're a constant complaining like they which these Israelites, I feel like it's important to say, no, no, this great generation in the Torah their complaint constantly, and they're looking at God for help, and God keeps telling them, I'm trying to tell you how to do it. Yeah, it's in your own hands. It's not in the sky, but a person coming out of slavery cannot comprehend that. So he's walking them in the desert, and he's training them. He's coaching them to get decisions, to get and one of the things that

God tries to teach us, I think, in the desert, is

how to express criticism, how, and you know, and everybody who is in a

partnership married knows that complaining doesn't give you good mood in your in your house, no No complaint. And and even more, if, if you're, you know, there are times to bring up and ways to bring up things that you would like to change, right? Like you don't nag you don't. I mean, what we've learned in our house is, I don't bring things up right before bed, because then it makes it hard to go to sleep, you know? So you have to find the right time and find the right words, right? You have to do this in at workplace, but obviously in relationships. And I think it's first, I'm gonna say it's a good lesson for us today. Yeah, okay, because in Israel, you know, we complain a lot right now. And what's the thing you're complaining about the most right now? Me, personally, yeah,

well,

don't get, no, don't get me started. But you know, I don't I'm leaving a country which I feel right now, very foreign to its policy, and I don't know what to do. Yeah, I'm here for a week in America. Well, we feel the same way in America, crying. But, you know, I don't know how to be anything but Israeli, but I live in a country which I I'm not proud of. Yeah, what's happening or

so we

Yeah, I can't see myself living anywhere else, but

I feel carjacked. Yeah, yeah, you use that language when we when we talked in Israel this summer.

And actually, I we don't know what to do, but no, I won't complain. I don't want to complain because I think what the Torah stories try to tell us is,

Well, God doesn't like complaining. You know that because a few portions ago, he burned the camp just for them, complaining the entire time. That's right. So why is that? Why complaining is, or criticism is such a big deal with God? Listen, when God punishes you, punishes you hardly harshly, harshly. You know that the you did something really bad, right? So why? So let's, let's talk about it. For men, first of all, we have to say

the world was created with words, with words, yes, okay, it wasn't my, can I say to my Prime Minister, it wasn't created with wars, weapons, violence, not fireworks and not in the stock exchange. It was created with a small, gentle gesture of words right here or

and there was light. And we were created

Bethel Elohim, like we were created in his shape. How do you say that's an image? Image, Image of God. Yeah, so we cannot do everything like God. We're not godly, but we create worlds every day. Right? When I come home and my husband asked me, how was your day? And if I say it was a hard day,

I feel tired.

Tired because hard I you know, I want to go to sleep. I created a world. But if I say challenging, it's challenging. I love challenges, right? You know, I like crosswords. I like bungee jumping. So now I'm excited. And here I created a world,

and in Israel, for two years, we're fighting about one word, is it a reform? Oh, that's right, yes, or a revolution, right?

Yeah, yeah. So

words create reality.

And my mother used to say

kosher is not what you put inside your mouth. What comes out, that's what comes out. Um, so God doesn't like complaining, because complaining is not building, it's not structuring anything. It's just making bad mood. And it gives you a little glimpse, like I said with the backpack. Yes, when do we complain? We complain when we're not in charge.

Like, if I could do something about it, I would do something about it, but if I am, if I'm driving the car, I would never complain. I'm driving too, too fast. I'll slow it down. Yes, if I'm sitting next to I'll complain. And so God wants us to drive

living this world. He doesn't want us.

This is my I don't think he want if something happens, do something about it. Don't come sticking notes in my wall, do something and he doesn't like the complaining. And here we get the x so he has the first lesson is Keith on the name the scene of the complainers, which he burns the camp. Yeah. The second one is Korach. Is Korach? Well, we haven't gotten to Korach yet in the text, but yes, yeah. And the third one is this, he's cursing and he's using God while he's cursing God, or he's in Hebrew. You can read it either he's using God name while he's cursing. Yeah, well, I mean, but Okay, so now I'm going to push back a little bit, because what if he can't drive? He is not given the he's not given the permission to drive. He's saying, let me be part of the camp. No, you can't be part of the camp. Let me be part of this camp. No, you can't be part of this camp. You don't belong here. And so he's, he's driven to desperation, and so he curses out of this place of desperation. So, like, that's the way I that's the way I read it. I can honestly understand, I agree with you that I think, first of all, anytime we see a consequence of God killing somebody in the text. It's usually not because the person deserves to die, but because the text wants us to know this is really serious. This is something to pay attention to. So okay, we're paying attention.

But you know, I and I feel for this guy, because I sort of feel like he's, he's, he's, you saying I feel like I've been carjacked by my own country. I don't even, I don't know where I belong. What am I to do? What am I supposed to do? I can't, you know, they don't have an election right now, so I can't vote. I feel the same way. What am I supposed to do?

So, you know? And so I'm gonna complain, but he, but he does it in a public place. I mean, I said in a public place and listen, yeah, the text also says they're taking him out. Well, that's interesting. They take him outside the camp. That's interesting. So what do you make of they take him outside the camp and lay their hands upon his head. I think that the word would say, like, out, like, the same we read in agadar Pesach when we say oti, that's Momina clay like, or exempting oneself, taking oneself out of the community. Well. And it also says, right here, doesn't it say that? They say it's the same, the same word to describe he, he came out from the Israelites as if, like, he's sort of taking himself out of the community, yeah. And so they're saying, okay, you don't want to be in the community. We'll take you out of the community. It's, yeah, it's still very harsh. It's very harsh. It's very harsh. I mean, you mentioned, you mentioned that your town is from right next to ranana. So I, I wanted to ask you about this. And if you're like, I do not want to talk about this on Shabbat, that's fine. But so we, we here at Mishkan, but I think in lots of liberal communities around America, we recommended that on Yom hasI Karen, people tune in to the that's

my synagogue. That's my my previous synagogue, yeah, in ranana. Okay, so let me just tell, tell whoever's listening. So we recommended that people tune into the joint Israeli Palestinian memorial ceremony because it's powerful and important and beautiful and and because it's because

need a special reason. You don't need a special empathize with us within that with with other. Pain is pain, the pain is pain. No.

And Pain is pain, that's right. And so and in ranana, I mean, do you want to tell actually, what happened? Because it sounds like you know people, and you actually know very much what happened there. Well, actually, I wasn't there because I was holding the service, the Havdalah,

not avdallah, no, the service in my congregation. But so I wasn't there, but that's my old synagogue. And

people came. Many people came, and it became very violent, and the people who came, who created violence, what I mean, the way that I was reading it, the way, the reason why I'm connecting it to this is because I sensed that they felt that something blasphemous, something terrible was happening inside this synagogue, that they needed to stop. They needed to come in and basically, you know, like the equivalent of putting their hands on these people and throwing them out. They said it was very

unsensitive of us to hold such a service, service on Memorial Day, but the people who came to the service were people that had, they had lost people as well. Yeah, and I don't know it's like a thing in Israel right now that you, if you're not in one line with the

with the government, with the government, like, okay, so you can either like it, it's a private place, okay? I just maybe, maybe we should tell the congregation in Israel, where the liberal Judaism is not supported by the government in any way. We don't get synagogues. We don't get Rabbi salaries. We do it privately. Which, which is normal in America, all the religions do do religion privately in America, but in Israel, Orthodox synagogues, yeah, do take rabbinic salaries from the government. Yes, yo. So this is a private it's a private place, yeah, and it's inside, and nobody, you know, if you don't want to, don't come in. That's right. So when did they become in Israel,

like banned to think

differently? It's, it's, it's terrifying. But I think what what terrified me most, it's what I feel when I go to the Western Wall on Rosh Chodesh, the police didn't help us. So on Rosh Chodesh, like once a month, there's a women's, a women's group that just believes women should be able to pray publicly, right? Yeah, we don't break we don't burn bras. We just want to pray.

And so you, you happen to go on a day when you were attacked by religious like Orthodox people who thought they women should not do this, and they were violent, and the cops did not protect you, no

and also in Rabbi the cops, they don't, they don't come to help us. What happened that day? I actually I understood that the police drove out those protesters. And eventually, eventually, eventually, because you see people attending the ceremony, they weren't, you know, how would

you say bigger?

There were old people. They're like, Oh, they're old people like to see your grandmother getting heat. It doesn't make sense. That's right, yeah, there's something. The word blasphemy I mean in English, but I wonder if in Hebrew, it's the same thing, but it's like, what it brings up is, you are, you're a traitor, you know, like that. You've said something or done something that is worthy of a violent response, because I need to shut you down. And that's, you know, sort of what I see here, and I'm suspicious of that obviously, like the use of violence to shut down people just speaking feels biblical in a bad way, you know, like that's what we have laws for. You know, if somebody says something that is wrong and terrible and, you know, racist, whatever it is, they should be, you know, they should be tried. They should be, you know, they could be arrested, but that's actually the job of that's somebody's job to do. It's not the job of the public to jump on them and hit them and throw stones at them and throw eggs at them and, you know, like, and I feel like I'm confused by the story in the Torah, because I sympathize with the guy, but I also sympathize with the rest of the community who's like, hey, we don't like what you're saying. Be quiet. You know this, this is the first time I'm, I'm, I'm reading this. And thank you for the new perspective

as the cursor being the underdog.

Because for me, I was always reading it as he's the oppressor, because he's half and half. He's got he didn't,

how do you say transform to he didn't become like a full Israelite to Sinai.

He's still, like, got an identity. He's half in, half out. Yeah. He's like, if I'm looking at the trip from Egypt to Israel as a metaphor, he's still holding on. He's holding on to Egypt. Interesting. So I was always reading as he was the oppressor. He was still there, there, and reading it like this, it's really disturbing

us. It's interesting, right? Yeah, it is.

I was always thinking that he's cursing, you know, he's expressing his criticism in an unproductive Yeah, and that is something we metaphorically need to kill Yeah, or at least right. And so in now it would be like we need to teach people how to express themselves in ways that are productive, so that their voices can actually be heard. Yeah? Because maybe he actually does have an important message, but he needs to bring it in a way, yeah, and also effective. You see that his mother name was Shlomit, but debris, yeah? Debris in Hebrew is words, yeah, speaking yes. So I'm gonna tell you a little story about my mother, when, when I was very young. Yeah, I we are.

I have sisters. Yes, it's a full female house. So once we were we were constantly fighting when we were kids, yeah. And once my mother set us around the table and she gave each of us a toothpaste, okay, face, yeah, the Yeah, so, and she said, now it's a competition between you who can get the toothpaste out as the fastest? Okay, so, but just my mother was the second generation to the Holocaust. We don't waste stuff. We don't waste.

Really wasteful, yeah, face, but okay, really waste, yeah. And really weird, okay, but it was a contest. We did it. We took the toothpaste out, and then we my sister, I'm first. And then my mother said, now put it in, ah. And the last my sister said, No, it can't be put in back. She said, the same way your mouth works. Yes, the words come out, they cannot go back. That's right. So watch your language when you talk to each other. And I think this is the same the same lesson, good. So good. I mean, look, that's a good place to stop. There's obviously more to talk about here, but we can talk over dinner.

Thank you. Oh, thank you.

Just last my thing, yes, sometimes the portions, they come in an order, yes. So we had achremote After death, yes. Kedoshim, holy. Holy. Emo speak, yes. So chazalo, the rabbi's said that this is a lesson for us that after a person dies, or after death, always speak in holy wordshi memo.

And you know, after October 7, we're all after that. And I think the the

names of the portions they call us once again to think about what we're saying, because it's like the toothpaste. It will never come back.

I square.

Thank you for bearing with my English and thank you for the new perspective that's really, really, really crazy that.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai