The Divine Duel

Every weekday at 8:00 am, Mishkan Chicago holds a virtual Morning Minyan. You can join in yourself, or listen to all the prayer, music, and inspiration right here on Contact Chai.

https://mishkan.shulcloud.com/form/reg-morning-minyan-evergreen

Transcript

Transcript

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Alright. Good morning, good morning. Um… I wanted to begin this morning.

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With a tune. Whose theme is love.

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I have Varaba, it's the. Prayer that comes right before the Shema.

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Um, and…. Very often.

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Uh, we just kind of breeze right through it, or blow right through it, you know, get to the Shema, and then move right on to Via Hafta.

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But I thought I would dwell this morning. In that place of a havah, rabbah, abundant love.

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As a reminder that that is, of course. Like, who we are and what we do as Jews.

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Um, Rabbi Shaiheld wrote this book I have behind me. It's called Judaism is About Love.

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And he says one of the reasons why he wrote it.

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Is because when teaching in rabbinical school, at JTS, like conservative Movement Rabbinical School.

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He said something like…. As a teacher, he said.

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Judaism is all about God's love for us and our responsibility to give love to each other as a gift.

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That we give to God, or something like that, you know, this, like, virtuous circle of love, you know, for the divine, and love for each other, and anyway, one of the rabbinical students was like, well, that sounds awfully Christian.

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And he was like, I'm sorry, what? And the student is like, like….

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Like, what Sunday school teaches that? That's not Jewish. And he's like, I'm sorry.

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Look at these words! Um…. Look at these words! We have been loved by an unending love.

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We have been loved endlessly. Deeply, eternally.

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Pervasively, expansively, abundantly. All those words. Um….

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Because rabbah means, you know, great, expansive, it means all those things. We have been loved. And then it goes on and uses many other synonyms. You have heaped upon us.

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All of these things. Um, you've been a parent to us. You've been a teacher for us. We trust in you. Um, you help us.

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Um, you help us feel supported and nourished all of these different words I'm highlighting here. You know, we could go word by word by word, but.

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Um, I wanted to begin our day this morning. With a reminder that this is how we start.

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Life, this is how we start the day. We don't have to do anything to earn it.

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We don't have to…. We don't have to prove ourselves to get it, it just….

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Is who we are. It's just who we are. It's….

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Who we all are by virtue of existing. And so the text says.

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Like, put in our hearts the ability to…. Even understand this.

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To get it, like, open our hearts so that we could really feel it.

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La Haskil li Schmoa, like, to…. Let our minds be oriented in a way that we could actually perceive this.

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You know, this is what I talked about this past Shabbat.

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Coming off of… coming off of the discussion we had last Wednesday here.

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About the Parsha, about Shalach. How the Israelites, because of their internal mindset, they couldn't even perceive the possibilities.

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You know, of goodness beyond them. They could only perceive doom and gloom.

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They could only perceive. Failure.

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Because of their own internal orientation. So the prayer here says.

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Let us be oriented, let me be oriented so that I could perceive this love.

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So that I could learn and teach and do and uphold all of these words of Torah.

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With love, so that I could move through the world with love.

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Not motivated primarily by fear, or vengeance, or vindictiveness, or insecurity.

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But love, ahavarabah. Okay, so, um.

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So the tune that I'm going to share with you is Joshua Washowski, um, and Colleen Dieker, a beautiful duo.

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Um, and…. We're thinking about, uh, breaking it out around high holiday time, and because this minion.

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Is often the place of experimenting. With, uh, with different tunes and ideas. I want to see what you all think of this.

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Let me make sure that I'm on…. Original sound.

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Nope. Good, good, good. Alright, here we go.

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Hmm…. Alright.

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So…. Here we are. From wherever you're sitting.

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Imagine, like, wrapping up all of the, uh, prayers that we usually do.

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On the front end of services that start with Mo de Annie, I am grateful, I am alive, I am aware, I am in the presence of the infinite, and Elohai Nishama, my soul is pure, is whole, is radiant.

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You know, it's like, Jewish tradition, like, the morning prayer service is basically all affirmations, um, that, uh, you know, a mentally, a mentally, uh, and emotionally healthy person.

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Needs to hear, say, hold onto, um, in order to go through the world and respond from a place of….

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Generosity, and wholeness. I am whole. I am… I'm good on the inside. My spirit, my soul is strong.

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Is infused with God's light. I am abundantly loved! Um, so here we are before the Shema, before we get to… before we get to our affirmation of being part of the oneness that is.

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The universe that is God. Um, but I figure, let's….

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Do… let's… let's, uh…. Feel free to try… feel free to try and….

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Sing along here. Um, we'll go deeper into this. So, the first part is just these words.

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Um, a Javarabah, I have Tanu, Aronai, Elohenu, so they say Havaya, which is….

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Another word for God's name, Havaya. Like, infinite being, and then….

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They pick up at… this is part B. With, uh, you know, like, a great.

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Big, abundant, um, grace, or… yeah, um, like, like, gift you've given me. And then finally, the hiring a new habitat.

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Enlighten our eyes. Enlighten our eyes through your tradition.

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Alright, so, um, you can see that in the English transliteration down here.

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Here, and here, and here. Here. So….

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Alright. Well, I'm working on learning how to play this too, so let's see how we do here.

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I have a. Raise!

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Uh, let's see.

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Down the octave, rahah.

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Avaya. Alright, then we'll go to the middle.

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Oh, it goes on, I think. Hire a name orbiter after Habitor.

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Halftime.

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If you haven't already…. Well, put on your talus and gather it in the four corners of your tzitzi and into your… into your hand.

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To hold all of the…. Four Corners in your hand, together.

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If you want to hear a great dash. On the symbolism, the numerology of the Tsitzi, go back and watch the Shabbat service from this past week, where Ron Averbuck.

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Did his whole drash, because the Toria portion covered the paragraph that introduces the Tzitzi, and you will wear them, you will look at them, and you will remember who you are, and he talked about all the numbers of the strings, and the number of knots, and the number of windings, and how they add up to the tradition, the number of mitzvot.

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This, this, this, this, this, and then I gave a drash about how this, this, this is supposed to remind us.

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That we have a partial truth, which is very important. But it's not the whole truth, because….

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We're like… we're like a string. You know, in the collected fringes.

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Of the tsetseit that we hold in our hand, and we're a very important part, but our perspective is not the whole truth.

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And so in order to get to a wider, wider truth, the bigger truth, the real truth.

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We need each other, and we need especially the people who are on a completely different, you know, different tsetsei, different knot, different corner.

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See the world really differently. Um, if we're gonna get to the… get to the whole truth.

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So, we hold it in our hands. We say, Baruch Attar Adonai.

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Cover our eyes, hold the tsetseed over our eyes, and we say….

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Shimmer…. Yisrail….

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I don't know….

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I don't know.

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I have to… I don't know.

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Vehayu had Varim Haella.

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Who could've time? And you will love with all your heart and your soul, with all your might, and these words which I speak to you today, they shall be on your heart.

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On occasion, you should open your heart and let them in.

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You should repeat them to your children when you sit in your home, when you walk on the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

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You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be symbols between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

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Yeah. So this is… this is that paragraph, and it… I should really… I should do the citation here. It comes….

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Comes from this past week's Parsha, um, Deuteronomy, toward the end of chapter 15.

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And Moses… and God spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the Israelites, and instruct them to make themselves fringes.

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On the corners of their garments for all time, and have them attach a little quart of blue to the fringe of each corner.

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You can learn from Ron about the, uh, very specific snail that the blue dye came from.

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That, you know, doesn't exist anymore, except in a very specific place, and so now they have to create it either artificially or import that snail, and so most, most seats just look like mine, they're just white.

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Um, but anyway, you're supposed to look at the fringe. That shall be your fringe. Look at it! Uritemoto! And remember….

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All of the mitzvot of God, observe them so that you do not follow your heart and your eyes and your humanly urges.

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Usually, this is understood as, like, alright, this will keep you on the straight and narrow, but the way that I understood this was like.

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So that you won't follow your heart and eyes, your heart and eyes alone.

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In your humanly urges, meaning, like. You feel insecure, you feel fear, and therefore you think that that is reality, that is truth.

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It's a part of the whole truth. It's not… it's not insignificant, but it's not the whole truth.

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Um, and so that's what you're reminded of when you see all these fringes. They're a very important little string.

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But you're not the whole tsetsei. This is how you remember to keep all my commandments and be holy. I am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

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I am your God. And I should say, I'm saying this now, I didn't even really completely put together that whole idea last Shabbat.

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And it was a 25-minute sermon. So, you know, we all learned something. We all grow.

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Um, alright, this is a moment to pray for those in our community who need healing. Thank you, Sandy! Yes, humility.

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Exactly, exactly, exactly. Um, like a real spiritual humility.

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Um, I want to do Micha Mocha as our healing prayer, as I often do.

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Um, who is it that you know in your world, in your life.

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That needs to be reminded that they can cross. The Red Sea, that they can cross through on dry land, that they can arrive at the other side of something harrowing.

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Uh, and be met with joy, be met with relief. Um, so thinking about everybody in this minion.

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And then looking at the names beginning to populate this chat, folks who are in your world.

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One by one by one by one…. Alright.

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Alright. Alright, as I begin to sing this, I want to invite you from your computer screen to actually, like, read the names of all the folks.

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Who are here, um, you know, who are here in the chat.

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Um, which awakens all of their angels, you know, to attention.

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Um…. And sending them healing.

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Mikamocha. Nora to heal, Lord.

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Oh, se fella. You're right to healer.

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I don't, I am in love Leil, I'm bad.

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Kendall, she's throwing.

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Sending rifua Shalema. To every one of the folks I'm seeing on the list here, I don't want to attempt to read them, because I can't actually scroll fast enough.

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Um, and speak fast enough to be able to not miss a person, um, but I've seen them all come up, and I hope that one by one by one.

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You actually were able to mention every single one of them out loud.

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Refresh Lima, sending them each a speedy. And complete healing and recovery.

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And a sense of real support and love. Okay. Going to turn.

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To a little Torah study this morning. Alright, here we are.

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Deep in the wilderness. Into Parshat Korach.

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And I… before…. Well, so you got the words right in front of you. I feel like what I should just preface this by saying is….

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The Israelites now…. Really, like….

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They just… they're…. They're feeling hopeless and defeated and sad.

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Like, after… after the…. Experience of the spies going into the land, scouting it out, coming back with this report.

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Scaring everybody and saying, oh my gosh, it's so, you know, like, we won't survive, we're, you know, we shouldn't do it.

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Um, then they all say, oh, we can't do it, and then God says, you don't believe, like, after all of this, you don't… you don't trust me, you don't believe, you don't believe in yourselves, you don't believe in me, like, forget it, fine. You won't go, you know? It's, like, I compared it to the parent who, you know, basically says to the kid.

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Um, you know what? If you believe you're gonna fail, you're gonna fail. Like, if you… like, if you won't eat this food that I'm putting right in front of you.

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Then, like, I'm taking it away. And God, in a moment, I think, of, like, real disappointment and frustration.

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Takes away from the Israelites the future they have been marching toward, even though they were scared. We talked on the Minion about last.

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Last week about how it was…. Totally understandable, actually, from a sort of, like.

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Trauma-informed, um, you know, longitudinal look at where they've been and what they've seen, like, it makes sense that they were feeling as scared as they were feeling.

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Uh, but they are… they are kind of punished for it, or… or another way to see that is like the….

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The karmic or natural consequence of their fear was that they couldn't do the thing they didn't think they could do.

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Nonetheless, those same Israelites. Are now continuing to wander the wilderness, and there is a feeling, I think, of pervasive.

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Despair and hopelessness. Um, and… and here, against that backdrop.

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Emerges Korach. Now, Korach, the son of Itzar, the son of Kohat, the son of Levi.

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So, this guy from the tribe of Levy. Betook himself. So, that word is kind of a funny word, but uh….

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The Kachorach, you know, took himself, along with Datan and Aviram, the sons of Eliav.

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And Owen, the son of Peleach, all of these people, the sons of Reuven.

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To rise up against Moses, together with 250 Israelites, chieftains of the community.

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Chosen men in the assembly, men of repute. Coach gets together with the elites of the community. They combine against Moses.

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They formed a union, they formed a group, they formed a party, they, you know, like, the Kahal, they organized themselves.

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Against Moses and Aaron, and said, You have gone too far!

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For all the community is holy. All of them, and God is in their midst.

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Why do you raise yourselves above God's congregation?

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When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. And then he spoke to Korach, and all of his company, saying.

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Okay, come morning, God will make known who is God's and who is holy by granting direct access, the one whom God has chosen will be granted direct access.

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Do this. You know, Moses basically describes, like, a bake-off. You take your fire pans, I'll take my fire pans, and the candidate who God chooses will be the Holy One.

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You have gone too far, sons of Levy. Moses says further, Hear me, sons of Levi! Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel set you apart from the community and gave you direct access to perform the duties of God's tabernacle?

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To minister to the community and serve them. He's talking about the fact that, um, what Meredith just mentioned here, that they are from the tribe of.

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Levy. They are Levites. They are… they work directly with the implements of the temple. They wash the feet and the hands of the Kohanim. They're directly involved in all of these different things that are.

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Supposed to bring them closer to God, and yet, here they are, um, they want more.

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Ostensibly on behalf of all the people. Um, by criticizing Moses and saying, you, Moses, have gone too far, you raise yourselves up against… above all the other people.

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So Moses says, Truly, it is against God that you and your company have banded together.

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Uh, for who is Aaron that you should rail against him? You know, like, what did Aaron ever do to you? Moses sent for Datan and Aviram, sons of Eliav.

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But they said, no, no, no, we're on Korach's team, not yours anymore, we're not coming.

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Is it not enough that you brought us from a land of milk and honey to die in the wilderness?

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That you would lord it over us. Even if you had brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey and given us possession of the fields and the vineyards.

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Should you gouge out the eyes of those involved, we will not come. There's, like, such an escalation here of….

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Everybody's feelings and, um, exaggeration of. What is happening, and Moses was so aggrieved, he said to God.

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God, don't pay attention to them. I have…. I haven't taken the ass of any one of them, and by that he means donkey, nor have I wronged any one of them, God says to Korach, tomorrow. You and all your company appear before God. You and they and Aaron.

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You'll take your fire pan, you'll lay incense on it, you'll bring the fire pan before God, 250 fire pans, you and Aaron also bring fire pans.

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And they all took their fire pan, they laid incense on it, it took place at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

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And Moses did the same thing. Korach gathered the whole community in the presence of God, they appeared, and God spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Stand back, that I may annihilate them in an instant.

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But they fell on their faces, and they said, oh God.

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Source of the breath of all flesh. Look, when one member sins.

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Will you be wrathful on the whole community? And God spoke to Moses and said, Speak to the community, and said, you, like, move back, withdraw from the abodes of Korach, Datan, and Aviram.

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Moses rose and went to Datan and Aviram, and the elders of Israel, following this, such, like, this….

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Yes, what you just wrote here, Noah, uh, the divine band of, um, the larger band in a divine duel loses. This is so intense, but it's like a… this is like Game of Thrones stuff.

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He addressed the community, saying, move away from the tents of those wicked men, and touch nothing that belongs to them, lest you be wiped out for their sins.

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So they withdrew from the abodes of Korach, Tatan, and Aviram. Now, Datan and Aviram, they came out, they stood at the entrance of their tents with their wives.

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They're adult children, their grandchildren, their little ones. And Moses said, By this you will know that it was God who sent me to do all these things.

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I didn't come up with this. Like, none of this is my devising.

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I didn't come up with this. If these people die a normal human death.

00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:09.000
You know, if their lot is humankind's common fate. Then it was not God who sent me. But if God brings about something unheard of.

00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:16.000
So that the ground, for example, opens up its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol.

00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:21.000
Then you will know. That all of those involved have spurned God.

00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:26.000
And scarcely had he finished speaking all these words when the ground underneath them.

00:29:26.000 --> 00:29:44.000
Burst asunder, and the earth opened its mouth. And swallowed them up with all their households, all Korach's people, all their possessions, and they went down alive into Sheol with all that belonged to them. The earth closed in over them, and they vanished from the midst of the congregation.

00:29:44.000 --> 00:29:48.000
And then everybody freaks out. And a fire goes forth from God.

00:29:48.000 --> 00:29:55.000
Consuming the 250 contestants that had offered the incense. And that is the end of the chapter.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:30:00.000
Scene. Now…. What I would like to do, what I would like to do.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:05.000
Um, is read and study. Rabbi Jonathan Sachs's.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:12.000
Um, like, one of his… he has about 7 different commentaries on this particular Parsha. Most of them.

00:30:12.000 --> 00:30:17.000
Focus on this particular incident. I mean, the Parsha's a long Parsha, other stuff happens in it.

00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:26.000
But, this is maybe the most interesting. Um, I see already people are, uh, beginning to populate the chat with questions and thoughts.

00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:32.000
Because it is 8.32, we're first gonna say Kaddish. And then we're gonna come back to discussing.

00:30:32.000 --> 00:30:38.000
So… pause. Um, pause, pause the Torah discussion.

00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:45.000
We are going to make sure we say Kadish Yatom. Which we can say on the heels of having learned something.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.000
So we've already learned a little thing, and we'll keep learning.

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:59.000
So… the people were saying Kaddishvor this morning, Teresa Owen, Barry Koss.

00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:08.000
Joan Curlow, David Sufian. Janine's husband. Okay?

00:31:08.000 --> 00:31:16.000
Anybody else saying God is sure this morning?

00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:25.000
Is there anyone who would like to lead us in Kaddishito, Merner's Scottish?

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:27.000
I can do it.

00:31:27.000 --> 00:31:31.000
Alright, it's all you, girl.

00:31:31.000 --> 00:31:33.000
Actually, Mayor God.

00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:34.000
I mean….

00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:40.000
I mean….

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.000
I'll get you started, and I'll… because we're coming around me.

00:31:44.000 --> 00:31:45.000
Amen. Yeah, hey Shay Rabban.

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:46.000
Agala Vismat Kari, Andrew, and May.

00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:47.000
Amen. Yehe Rabam Barakhli.

00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:49.000
Maya.

00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:56.000
I'm a ma'am, I, uh….

00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.000
Be it Hadar, be it Calab, be it Calab, Dakota, breathe.

00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:02.000
She mentioned Brecher. The early importance such as….

00:32:02.000 --> 00:32:06.000
The airline had time, and Sheraton.

00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:07.000
If I have an FMata…. Tommy Rambi Almavi Muru.

00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:11.000
Shiruta, Tush Bechata, and Bamata. Don may run, damn, Motheru, or me.

00:32:11.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Okay. Tamaya.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:13.000
I mean….

00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:14.000
Amen. Neheesh Lamaraba means her Maya, Bahi, Israel, Amen.

00:32:14.000 --> 00:32:21.000
Hey, Shlana Ravan.

00:32:21.000 --> 00:32:23.000
Holy Israel. Yeah, well.

00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:24.000
We are so shavani, they are called Israel. They are college retail.

00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:25.000
Ose shalom. Elena Helpool Yisrael.

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.000
Amen.

00:32:29.000 --> 00:32:31.000
Amen.

00:32:31.000 --> 00:32:32.000
I mean….

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:33.000
Amen.

00:32:33.000 --> 00:32:39.000
Amen, amen, he is the pronam, livrakha. May their memories be blessings.

00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:46.000
Um…. Alright, well, before I, uh, before I turn back to Rabbi Jonathan Sachs.

00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:51.000
Any comments? Questions, observations about.

00:32:51.000 --> 00:32:59.000
The chapter we read here. Just the straight shot Torah. Shot means, like, simple, superficial.

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:06.000
What it says.

00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:13.000
I just, um, and maybe I missed this, but I'm not sure what the original reason is that Korach is resisting.

00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:14.000
Moses.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:22.000
Ah, here it is. You, Moses, have gone too far. The whole community is holy. All of them.

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:28.000
And God is in their midst. Why do you raise yourself up above God's congregation?

00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.000
So basically, this guy Korach, who, by the way, is from the same tribe.

00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:37.000
As Moses, it's not that, you know, Moses even is saying, like, I'm in a better tribe than you.

00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:43.000
But Korach is like, you are positioning yourself like you matter more than the rest of us, and you don't.

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:47.000
God's with all of us. Do you see that?

00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:55.000
Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, that I understand, but…. What comes before that? I mean, what… what….

00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:01.000
Um, is it because they're not allowed to go in to….

00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:11.000
The Holy Land, or what… what instigates this. Um… feeling.

00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Such a good question.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:17.000
I think what… I think, is this what you're saying, Sandy? I think it was that, um….

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:23.000
They were feeling desperate that Moses is saying, keep going, we're going towards this promised land.

00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.000
And I think Korach and his group are saying. Like, who are you to know.

00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:33.000
Where to go and what the plan is. You're not above all of us.

00:34:33.000 --> 00:34:41.000
Well, and then… and then, of course…. They don't end up… like, it's actually really interesting. The thing that all the Israelites have been.

00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:50.000
Worried about the whole time. Like, they're… they're concerned that they would just… that they were brought out of the land of Egypt to die in the wilderness.

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.000
That basically, like, God and Moses were just taking them out of Egypt.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:01.000
To kill them, you know? Like, the… basically, they're anxious mind, the worrying about the worst-case scenario.

00:35:01.000 --> 00:35:05.000
It's actually now coming to pass. You know? Because….

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.000
After last week's Torah portion, God is like, you know what?

00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:15.000
Forget it. Like, I can't bring you guys here. Like, you will get devoured. You're not ready.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:21.000
And so, their worst fear is coming to pass, but here they are. They're still alive, they're still in the wilderness.

00:35:21.000 --> 00:35:25.000
And so, Sandy, I think…. Just to your point, it's like.

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:34.000
You know how sometimes. There's an underlying sentiment of a feeling that's not particularly healthy or even true.

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:39.000
But in moments of…. Social upheaval, or….

00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:45.000
You know, um… whatever, people are scared, people need a reason to….

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:51.000
You know, somebody to blame, then all of a sudden, those unhealthy and untrue but.

00:35:51.000 --> 00:36:03.000
You know, real feelings bubble up to the surface. You know? Like, I remember Aziz Ansari was on Saturday Night Live right after Trump got elected.

00:36:03.000 --> 00:36:11.000
The first time, and he was just like, look, it's not like, as a brown man, it's not like I don't know that racism exists in this country, it's just that it was quiet before.

00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:15.000
And now, because of this guy, all of a sudden, it's, like, out here in the open!

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:22.000
I don't like it, you know? I feel sort of like maybe Korach is giving voice to something that a lot of people have felt, which is like.

00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:28.000
Who died and Moses gets to be in charge? Why not me? Maybe I could have done a better job.

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:32.000
You know? Does that make sense? Does that… what do you think about that?

00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:39.000
Yeah, it makes some sense to me. I…. Um, e-.

00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:47.000
Makes some sense to me, but they're deciding not to… they're the one… are they… are these the same people that have decided not to go in?

00:36:47.000 --> 00:36:48.000
Well, they never… yes. Yes, it is those people, but….

00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:52.000
That they wanted to turn around?

00:36:52.000 --> 00:37:10.000
Like, I don't know if you would say they decided. It was like, that you're right, they did decide, right? The spies came back, the spies said, oh, the land, it's beautiful, but it's very scary, and we shouldn't do it, and then the rest of the people said, okay, we should not do it, you know? Like, a kind of infection of fear, a contagion of fear spreads.

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:11.000
And so they did decide on some level, but also it was a little bit, um….

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:14.000
Right.

00:37:14.000 --> 00:37:20.000
Like, you might say, like, emotionally coerced. Because they were, you know, fed propaganda.

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:21.000
Ah. And they feel abandoned.

00:37:21.000 --> 00:37:26.000
And, and, right, and so now here they are.

00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:29.000
And mad… yeah, lots of… lots of emotions. I mean, I'm guessing, right?

00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:35.000
Uh-huh. Okay. I have to chew on this, because….

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.000
I just have to… I think there's something missing between last week's.

00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:40.000
Hmm… mhm.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:48.000
Parsha, and this week's Parsha. But I'm a historian, so I'm….

00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:49.000
Yes. Yes, totally.

00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:54.000
It… it… I have to find those kind of links. Does that make sense? And so I feel like there's something missing here.

00:37:54.000 --> 00:37:55.000
Well, so here… here's what I'll say, and… because I want to, like, come back to Korach, but….

00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:00.000
In between.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:12.000
Um, back in the previous Torah portion. The, um, after, you know, after God makes God's big declaration, like, these people aren't going in.

00:38:12.000 --> 00:38:19.000
Um, da-da-da-da-da-da…. Then all of a sudden, the people kind of….

00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:25.000
They're like…. They're sort of like, well, wait, hang on!

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:31.000
Maybe we could, like, we could change. Um, look at this, right? So, um….

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:45.000
So God says. Alright, thus I will do to the wicked band that is banded together against me in this very wilderness, they will die and be finished off. This is, you know, God after, like, a long screed about how the people were unfaithful.

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:53.000
As for the agents, the spies, whom Moses sent to scout the land, who came back and caused the whole community to muster against him by spread.

00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:59.000
Columny is about the land, who spread such… what is this word, calumnies?

00:38:59.000 --> 00:39:04.000
I don't know. I mean, basically, like, you know, lies, rumors about the land. They… those people died.

00:39:04.000 --> 00:39:15.000
Of plague. Of those involved in scouting out the land, only Joshua, son of Nun and Kalev, son of Yephune, survived. When Moses repeated these words to all the Israelites.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:23.000
They were overcome with grief. So it's an interesting, like, that's an emotion we haven't… we haven't named.

00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:31.000
But there's grief. Um, they were overcome with grief. And this is the same word that we use for.

00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:37.000
A mourner, wit ablu. Ha'am, od. They were in Aveilut.

00:39:37.000 --> 00:39:45.000
These people. These people were grieving. They were mourners. And so early the next morning, they're fighting force set out to crest the hill of the country, saying.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:51.000
We're prepared! We can go! We'll go! We were wrong! You know, they changed their mind.

00:39:51.000 --> 00:39:57.000
Um, Ki Chatanu! This is… and that's… and that's Yom Kippur language. We have sinned! We were wrong!

00:39:57.000 --> 00:40:03.000
And Moses says, why… why are you transgressing God's command? This won't succeed either. Like, God made… now….

00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:11.000
There have been consequences for what. You did before. This is not a good new pla- you can't go back and undo history.

00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:16.000
Don't go up. You will be routed by your enemies. God is no longer in your midst.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:22.000
So, and this is interesting, does this actually help fill in, Sandy, some of what felt like it was….

00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:23.000
Missing? Oh, why? Why? That's great, why?

00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:34.000
Yes, absolutely, yes, this fills it in.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:40.000
Um…. I….

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.000
I just knew that there was a story that was missing between.

00:40:44.000 --> 00:40:52.000
Between the earlier one and the… and this one. Um, I think it's because….

00:40:52.000 --> 00:40:58.000
Moses is saying, almost like, it's…. You know, this is a done deal.

00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:04.000
And, um, you're stuck where you are. And so then they resist Moses.

00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:11.000
The messenger, rather than themselves, right? They don't…. They want… right? I feel like that's….

00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:16.000
Yeah, that seems… that seems… that's… that's great. I love that. I love that as….

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:29.000
Kind of an… it's… yes, like, and maybe there has been kind of a low-level simmer of jealousy the whole time, but now he's done something that they can point to and say, like, basically, he's the one holding us back.

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:35.000
He's the one who says that we can't go in. Like, we're ready! We've been ready! You know, and….

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:42.000
Right? I think that's great. Um, anyway, now we're gonna move back here. Um….

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:50.000
Emmett, what was it that the rabbis said, lol?

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:51.000
Unmute.

00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:58.000
Yeah, sorry, I was in the chat. Um, yeah, well, the rabbis basically had this entire.

00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:04.000
Mythology about Koach, that he… in which they show him as, basically.

00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:10.000
A rabbi who's arguing with Moses about, you know, the whole, uh, you know.

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:16.000
You should put Hallett in the tzitzi, but what if the whole Talit istilet? Is that… you know, and it's like….

00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:22.000
They basically saw Quala as trying to take over from Moses.

00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:25.000
It's more complex than that, but uh…. That's, uh, that's what I remember.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:34.000
Basically trying to, like, gotcha him. I mean, I feel like, oh my gosh, how much of this, you know, now happens in our, um, like, in the way that.

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:43.000
Politics gets played out in the public square, that… I mean, and you're right, there's the Talmud, and you probably know more about this than I do, Emmett.

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:52.000
Um, the rabbis kind of describe these little scenarios, like the vignette of, like, what is Korach actually doing and saying that challenges Moses?

00:42:52.000 --> 00:43:06.000
You know, what are the particular little halachic. Loopholes and arguments that he's challenging him with. Right, like, we just learned the whole law about the Titzit, and here's, you know, Korach being like, well, it says you should do a thread of Tehiled, but what if the whole thing is Techelet? Then do you still have to do the thread?

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:18.000
You know, and it's like doing a gotcha kind of thing with Moses to, like, catch him in saying the wrong thing, so maybe, you know, he shouldn't be the leader if that's what he says. Um, seeing a lot of this right now.

00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:26.000
Um, with the New York mayoral race, but just pick your race, and that's what… and that's what, you know, each team will do to the other.

00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:33.000
Um, and yeah, and so that's what Korach is doing. So, anyway, I will… I'm just gonna move over to….

00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:39.000
Rabbi Sachs here, because this tends to be…. What I'll say is, pre-Trump.

00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:45.000
When America felt… you know, when America felt like a reliable democracy, um, I think.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:50.000
Everyone I knew, you know, in liberal circles at least, really had a lot of sympathy for Korach.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:57.000
Like, he seemed like a guy. Who was voicing something that, like, almost like a, you know, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, like.

00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:09.000
You know, a guy who is saying to the king, or about monarchy, or about, you know, a system in which it really is not fair that there is somebody who kind of perpetually gets to be in charge, like.

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:14.000
Like, we should be in a democracy, we're all holy. The tradition, the Jewish tradition.

00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:19.000
Has never understood Korach that way. They have always understood him through the lens of.

00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:23.000
You know, the consequence of his actions, the punishment that befalls him, which….

00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:31.000
Reflects his motives. He was not in this. For democracy. He was in this for his own personal gain and power.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:41.000
And I think post-Trump. It is now easier to see that, to sniff that out. Now, um, Jonathan Sachs wrote this particular commentary.

00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:48.000
In… let's see, they released it first in $57.75, so that was about, mmm, like, 10 years ago.

00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:55.000
And then, again, $57.82. Uh, like, 4 years, 3 years ago.

00:44:55.000 --> 00:45:02.000
Um, so, he says. What was wrong with the actions of Korach and his fellow rebels?

00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:14.000
On the face, what they said was true and principled. Right? And we read this. You've gone too far, all the community is holy, every one of them, the Lord is with them, why do you set yourselves up above the Lord's people?

00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:19.000
They had a point. God summoned the people to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:25.000
That is, every… a kingdom, every one of whose members was some kind of priest!

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.000
In a nation where every member was holy. And Moses had himself said.

00:45:29.000 --> 00:45:35.000
Wood that all God's people were prophets, and wood that the Lord would place His Spirit on all of them.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:45.000
That was 2 weeks ago, when, like, somebody came out and tattled on two guys that were prophesying in the camp, thinking Moses would be upset about it, but instead Moses was like, oh my god, I wish everybody.

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.000
Would be in touch with God. Like, it would take the burden off my shoulders.

00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:57.000
So these are radically egalitarian sentiments. Why, then, was there a hierarchy with Moses as leader and Aaron as high priest?

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:02.000
What was wrong with Korach's statement was that even at the outset.

00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:06.000
It was obvious that he was duplicitous. There was a clear disconnection.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:11.000
Between what he claimed to want. And what he really sought.

00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:15.000
Korach did not seek a society in which everyone was the same, even the priests.

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:22.000
He was not, as he sounded, a utopian anarchist seeking to abolish hierarchy altogether.

00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:27.000
He was instead mounting a leadership challenge. As Moses' later words would indicate.

00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:32.000
He wanted to be high priest himself. He was Moses' and Aaron's cousin.

00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:38.000
Son of Yitzhar, the brother of Moses and Aaron's father, Avram, or Amram.

00:46:38.000 --> 00:46:43.000
And therefore, it felt unfair. That both leadership positions had gone to a single family within the Klan.

00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:47.000
He wanted to claim it equally. What he wanted was power.

00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:56.000
That was the stance of Korach the Levite. But what was happening was more complex than that. There were two other groups involved, the Reuvenites, Datan, and Aviram, they formed one group.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:01.000
250 Israelite men, the leaders of the community chosen from the assembly, men of repute, were the other.

00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:08.000
They, too, had their grievances. The Reuvenites were aggrieved that as descendants of Jacob's firstborn, they had no special leadership roles.

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:17.000
According to Ibn Ezra, 250, quote, men of rank were upset that after the sin of the golden calf, leadership had passed from the firstborn within each tribe.

00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:23.000
To the single tribe of Levy. That doesn't feel fair. It's like, you know, they….

00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:31.000
Chose a presidential candidate without a primary, or without a, you know, whatever. They didn't go through the process that would have enabled everyone to feel.

00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:36.000
That it was fair and transparent. That's how they felt. Um….

00:47:36.000 --> 00:47:42.000
They were an unholy alliance, bound to fail. Their claims conflicted. If Korach achieved his ambition of becoming high priest.

00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:52.000
The Reubenites and men of rank would have been disappointed. Had the Reubenites won, Korach and the men of rank would have been disappointed. Had the men of rank achieved their ambition, Korach and the Reubenites would have been left dissatisfied.

00:47:52.000 --> 00:47:59.000
The disordered, fragmented narrative sequence in this chapter is a case of style mirroring substance.

00:47:59.000 --> 00:48:08.000
This was a disordered, confused rebellion whose protagonists were united only in their desire to overthrow existing leadership.

00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:14.000
None of this, however, unsettled Moses. What caused him frustration was something else altogether.

00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:27.000
The words of Datan and Avi Ram. Right? When they say, it's not enough that you brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert. Did you notice that? They referred to Egypt as the land of flowing with milk and honey.

00:48:27.000 --> 00:48:38.000
Like, just, you know, sort of revisionist history about Egypt. Um, what is more, or rather, maybe Egypt was a land flowing with milk and honey. I don't think the Israelites experienced it that way.

00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:46.000
But, okay, what is more? You have brought. You have not brought us to a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards.

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:50.000
Do you think you can pull the wool over our eyes? We're not coming up.

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:58.000
So, the monumental untruth of their claim, Egypt, where the Israelites were slaves and cried out to God to be saved, was not a land flowing with milk and honey.

00:48:58.000 --> 00:49:01.000
The crux of the issue for Moses. What's going on here?

00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:05.000
The sages defined it as, in one of their most famous statements.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:11.000
Alright, before I go on, I just wanna…. You know, see if there's anyone who has any….

00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:19.000
Comments or, you know, wanting to expand on anything. That we've read so far.

00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:22.000
I would just say that usually in history. You don't just find somebody that.

00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:25.000
Yes.

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:31.000
Says they want to be high priest. There's a…. There's a history behind.

00:49:31.000 --> 00:49:37.000
Um, there's a… there has to be a story behind Korach as.

00:49:37.000 --> 00:49:42.000
Stirring the pot even before this. So, I don't know if we find that, um, here, but….

00:49:42.000 --> 00:49:46.000
Yes.

00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:51.000
Um, yeah, even before he would say he wanted to resist.

00:49:51.000 --> 00:50:00.000
Or take the leadership from Moses, there had to have been several years in which he was stirring the pot beforehand. Does that make sense?

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:10.000
Yes, totally. And I think, um…. What the rabbis in the Talmud and the Midrash do is, like, paint the picture of what that looked like.

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:14.000
Um, but I think, I think that's right. Like, the Torah is almost….

00:50:14.000 --> 00:50:22.000
It's like CliffsNotes, or…. You know, a high-level, not summary, but it's just there's… it's like the tip of the iceberg.

00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:28.000
And everything you're describing that I think is exactly… like, it has to be there, because there has to be a bigger story.

00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:33.000
The Torah isn't necessarily showing us. Um, but you have to infer it.

00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:41.000
And then the question is like, well, what is the tradition passed down? People have been reading this story for thousands of years. What is a tradition passed down and say was Korach's motivation?

00:50:41.000 --> 00:50:51.000
Um, Emmett, you had something you wanted to say. I'm also seeing, uh, Eric Wilson here in the chat reminds me of the MAGA coalition bringing together Christian Zionists and anti-Semites.

00:50:51.000 --> 00:51:10.000
Big Pharma and anti-vaxxers, the only thing they have… the only thing they have in common is being wrong. What they would probably say is, like, the only thing they have in common is they don't like the way they're being regulated, or they don't like the way that the administration or status quo thus far has treated them, and so as long as they can be part of the coalition to unseat.

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:15.000
Whatever has happened, so then they'll be in the position to claim whatever.

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:21.000
You know, claim whatever spoils they want to claim, which, in fact, are going to be at cross-purposes at some point.

00:51:21.000 --> 00:51:24.000
And we're beginning to… we're beginning to see a little bit of that now.

00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:30.000
Um, and then Meredith, the take of the Reuvenites is interesting how it switched from the firstborn.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:35.000
Of each tribe to the Levites, they were expecting some leadership and got none, yeah.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:38.000
Um, yes, okay, Emmett, what were you gonna say?

00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:49.000
Uh, I was just gonna push back, as, uh. Chief Rabbi and Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sachs has a vested interest in the status quo, so….

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:59.000
Much as I love, love, love his insights into Torah, I get a little squirrely when he starts talking about politics. And, um….

00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:04.000
Yeah, I mean, I would think more about the people of the French Revolution, who were also a motley.

00:52:04.000 --> 00:52:20.000
Crew of people with different interests and their only. Uh, they're only, uh….

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:21.000
I was just gonna say, the American Revolution, too.

00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:26.000
Thing that united them was the fact that they were feeling oppressed. And so, uh, I mean, you could argue that the people who started your country were not exactly united in their interests, and I mean, some of them were slaveholders, some of them were not, you know? The seeds of what's happening now were probably sown then.

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:30.000
Right. Yes.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:37.000
So, I mean, it's… it's… I just find he's being just a tiny bit disingenuous, but….

00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:39.000
To… yeah.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:45.000
Thank you. I mean, I think that's a great, um…. That's… it's important to point that out, like.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:52.000
Any revolution, any political, any successful political. Movement is going to have to be.

00:52:52.000 --> 00:53:01.000
A coalition of different, you know, different groups that at some point may actually be at cross-purposes on other issues.

00:53:01.000 --> 00:53:08.000
But I guess the question is, in terms of the structure of the society, like the structure of government, the structure of how choices are made.

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:14.000
Can they… can they at least. Get together on that level. I'm thinking also, you know, for example, of, like.

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:20.000
The State of Israel, you know, what they could do was write a declaration of Independence that described.

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:36.000
The aspirations that they actually all could agree on, but then they could not agree on a constitution, because some of the folks were like, well, but I mean, isn't the Torah our Constitution? And some people are like, no, absolutely not. Have you read Torah? Like, there's nothing constitutional about it.

00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:45.000
But, like, of course it does have a holy place in the, you know, a Jewish state, but also, like, ugh, I don't know, that's not a… that's not a document you would govern by. And….

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:55.000
75 years later, like, the state of Israel doesn't, you know, it's still writing what it calls, like, basic laws, you know, what we would call the Constitution.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:06.000
And in America, our Constitution continues to need to be honed and refined, because, like, the people who created the country at the beginning could agree on large structures of how government should look and work.

00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:13.000
Checks, balances, you know, bicrameral legislature, you know, executive, etc, all the different branches.

00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:19.000
And… like…. The… some of the principles or content.

00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:27.000
Of what is being governed. Uh, like, we're still in disarray about. Um….

00:54:27.000 --> 00:54:31.000
And I think one of the things that's scary now is the feeling that.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:40.000
We're also, like, the agreement about how government should even be structured, how leadership should be structured, is slipping away. Like, that's the thing.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:45.000
That, you know, so, you know, Emmett, I love the pushback.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:55:00.000
And then the question is, like, is Korach…. Is what he's doing challenging, you know, like a… he's like a legitimate challenger, you know, he's just another politician coming and saying, you know, I disagree, I disagree with this guy's policies, this guy's leadership.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.000
Or is he saying, I, you know, I basically want to scrap.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:09.000
The way that we have been governed thus far, and institute a new.

00:55:09.000 --> 00:55:17.000
System of governance, um. You know, that will be more just, and it will not, in fact, be more just, which I feel like.

00:55:17.000 --> 00:55:25.000
That resonates for me and what's happening in our country in this moment. Um, Ricky, what were you gonna say?

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:30.000
Yeah, well, as people were talking. It made me think.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:35.000
From a funny point of view, it's like, uh…. Korach is the Aaron Burr in this situation.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:37.000
Mmm!

00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:46.000
But, no, going even further, I mean, for me, my always… the way I've always heard it interpreted is it's just about power, you know? Core offers.

00:55:46.000 --> 00:55:47.000
You know, why do you get this and I can't be?

00:55:47.000 --> 00:55:49.000
No.

00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:56.000
But independent, I, like, sort of stepping back in the context of this whole thing that I've been struggling with over the last couple weeks, too, with.

00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:03.000
This portion, like last week, you know? The spies go out, they look at the land.

00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:13.000
Come back…. But beyond that, the idea that, okay, now we have to go attack these people. This is our land, this has been given.

00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:21.000
You know, somehow, in history, or…. This… it's a holy war, you know, that God has said that this is your land.

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:25.000
And you get there, and maybe you came from there way back when….

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.000
And yet, there are people living there, but you need to rise up against them.

00:56:29.000 --> 00:56:35.000
And, you know. Maybe the people that said, well, they're giants.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:40.000
Maybe they're seeing it as, like, hey, wait, maybe we shouldn't go in and attack those people.

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.000
And take over this section. And then it's just… it's like this whole cycle, right? Of, like.

00:56:44.000 --> 00:56:50.000
Okay, at what point is it like, well, my family should be able to go back to Poland, and….

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.000
You know, in the 80s, when my… one of my distant cousins went.

00:56:54.000 --> 00:57:01.000
Saw the house that his family came in, and they're like, don't tell him that that was the house you lived in, because….

00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:08.000
You know, these people will get…. It was like, look, we don't want the house back, we just want to see where our history was.

00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:15.000
Um, you know, this, this whole continuing cycle. And that disturbs me, because here it is, deep in our texts.

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:18.000
Yes. Yes.

00:57:18.000 --> 00:57:23.000
Although, we are a war…. The warrior clan.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:29.000
Coming in to take over places that…. How are you? It's a holy war, it's a jihad. I mean….

00:57:29.000 --> 00:57:33.000
From our point of view, which maybe I'm… I don't know, that's what I'm struggling with.

00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:34.000
God bless you.

00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:40.000
Yeah. No, I'm glad… I'm glad you said that. I feel like, you know, when we begin to get to this section of Torah.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:48.000
Um, you know, start numbers and Deuteronomy. I feel like this is where our conversations go every single time, because….

00:57:48.000 --> 00:57:53.000
Well, this is what the Torah has said for thousands of years and described.

00:57:53.000 --> 00:57:59.000
And until about 100 years ago. It was all metaphor.

00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:05.000
Right? Like…. Like, people weren't bothered by the….

00:58:05.000 --> 00:58:12.000
Description of, you know, uprooting their pillars, smashing their idols, you know, because….

00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:19.000
It was about…. For example, well, like, if idols and….

00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:27.000
You know, pillars are about worshiping something that's not God, then, you know, okay, like, if I have an addiction.

00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:40.000
If I, you know, if I worship, you know, or basically will make sacrifices for alcohol, or drugs, or gambling, or whatever, I have to take out all of the reminders and things that bring me to do, you know, to quote-unquote worship, that, like.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:47.000
I'm just using that as an example. It… because there was not even a context to imagine.

00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:53.000
Jews, like. Uprooting and displacing people in the Land of Israel.

00:58:53.000 --> 00:59:02.000
It was, like, not a political movement that was happening. Until it was a political movement that was happening, and now, of course, like, fast forward 100 years.

00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:15.000
You know, Israel has nuclear weapons, uh, and, uh, what do you call it, uh, borders to defend, you know, enemies and people who live there and who lived there when Israel, you know, was being created and when Jews were moving there. And now, all of a sudden, all of these.

00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:20.000
Um, things that we've been talking about from a spiritual lens have become literal.

00:59:20.000 --> 00:59:30.000
Have become, like, are completely literal, um, in a way that, like, I don't know, I asked the same question of an Orthodox rabbi when I was in college, and I said, like.

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:33.000
Does this not disturb you to read? And he said, look.

00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:41.000
3,500 years ago, 4,000 years ago, whenever this was written. It was written about a specific time and place.

00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:55.000
Specific tribes that no longer exist. So none of these meets vote and descriptions of, you know, going into the land and displacing this person and this person, you know, wiping out this tribe or that tribe or the, you know, the Amalekites or whatever, he said they don't exist anymore.

00:59:55.000 --> 01:00:09.000
So, the… so it's like, you can't literally follow this. First of all, you're not supposed to literally follow anything in the Torah, everything, you know, has its interpretation that makes it the tradition we actually practice, and not biblical Judaism.

01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:14.000
But he said, like, you can't. So, it's dangerous and wrong to interpret Torah literally.

01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:25.000
You know, reading these texts about. Displacement, you know, domination, because all these tribes don't exist anymore. Um, and to read it that way is to distort and misunderstand Torah.

01:00:25.000 --> 01:00:29.000
Um, but the problem is, I think you're right, Ricky. People still read it.

01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:36.000
Um, you know, like, fighting a…. Holy War is prescribed.

01:00:36.000 --> 01:00:43.000
Right here. Um…. And then it just depends on who your rabbi is that's telling you that this war is a holy war.

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:51.000
Um, and it's…. And it's really, like… I mean, Netanyahu was using the language of, um, you know, and….

01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:55.000
Like, battle commanders, IDF… IDF commanders were using the language of Amalek.

01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:03.000
To describe, um…. You know, to describe… I mean, what they'll say is they were describing Hamas, like a terrorist organization.

01:01:03.000 --> 01:01:10.000
You know, bent on killing Jews, but at the end of the day, it's pretty easy to confuse that with literally every person in Gaza.

01:01:10.000 --> 01:01:17.000
Um, and if you're willing to use that language to describe another people.

01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:25.000
It gets pretty ugly pretty fast. Um, so let me just… I want to just wrap up what….

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:31.000
This guy, um, talks about, I'm not gonna read down to the complete end of the whole thing.

01:01:31.000 --> 01:01:34.000
Um, but I did want to get to the point that he makes here.

01:01:34.000 --> 01:01:41.000
Um, so…. Argument is the lifeblood of Judaism.

01:01:41.000 --> 01:01:50.000
You know, like, us being able to have an argument, for Emmett to be able to say, like, I don't like what he says here, and for, you know, somebody else to be like, I… yeah, I think he has a point.

01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:55.000
Um, so in the Mishnah, it says, any argument for the sake of heaven will endure.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:01.000
But an argument that's not for the sake of heaven will not endure. What's an example of an argument for the sake of heaven?

01:02:01.000 --> 01:02:06.000
When Hillel and Shammai disagree, you know, they're trying to get to the truth.

01:02:06.000 --> 01:02:14.000
They're trying to get to what God really said. What… how are we supposed to live? How are we supposed to observe Torah? What's an example of an argument not for the sake of heaven, they say?

01:02:14.000 --> 01:02:19.000
Korach. The dispute of Korach and his company. Why?

01:02:19.000 --> 01:02:25.000
Because… I'm gonna, I'm gonna just…. Move right down here.

01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:31.000
What made the argument of Korach and his co-conspirators different from that of the schools of Hillel and Shammai.

01:02:31.000 --> 01:02:37.000
Rabinu Yonah offers an example, an explanation. The argument for the sake of heaven is one about truth.

01:02:37.000 --> 01:02:40.000
An argument not for the sake of heaven is about power.

01:02:40.000 --> 01:02:46.000
And the difference is immense. In a contest for power. If I lose, I lose. But if I win.

01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:51.000
I also lose, because in diminishing my opponents, I've diminished myself.

01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:53.000
In an argument for the sake of truth, if I win, I win.

01:02:53.000 --> 01:02:58.000
But if I lose, I also win. Because by being defeated by the truth.

01:02:58.000 --> 01:03:05.000
Being defeated by the truth is the only defeat that's also a victory. I'm enlarged. I learned something I didn't know before.

01:03:05.000 --> 01:03:11.000
We don't like learning things that way, we like women. But it's like, uh, I think Maya Angelou said, like.

01:03:11.000 --> 01:03:17.000
You know, I… like, I…. I never make a mistake, either… either I….

01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:23.000
Either I do the thing right, or I learn. You know? Um….

01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:29.000
Moses could not have made a more decisive indication for the miracle for which he was asked and granted. The ground opened up and swallowed his opponents.

01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:34.000
Yet this did not end the argument. It diminished the respect in which Moses was held.

01:03:34.000 --> 01:03:41.000
So the next day, everybody comes to Moses and complains to Moses and Aaron, and they say, you killed God's people!

01:03:41.000 --> 01:03:52.000
You know? Like, in a conversation about power, then everybody comes and says, you know, and they're trying to prove that they're right, they're arguing within the context of the argument about power, now all of a sudden, like, they've done.

01:03:52.000 --> 01:04:02.000
They've done something wrong next. Um…. Moses needed… that Moses needed to resort to force was a sign that he had been dragged down.

01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:06.000
To the level of the rebels. This is what happens when power.

01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:12.000
Not truth, is at stake. One of the aftermaths of Marxism.

01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:19.000
Um, persisting in such movements as postmodernism and post-colonialism is the idea that there is no such thing as truth.

01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:25.000
There's only power. The prevailing discourse in a society represents not the way things are.

01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:33.000
But the way the ruling power, the hegemon. Wants things to be. All reality is socially constructed to advance the interests of one group over another.

01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:38.000
The result is a hermeneutics of suspicion in which we no longer listen to what anybody says.

01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:44.000
We merely ask, what is the interest they are trying to advance? Truth, they say, is merely a mask worn to disguise.

01:04:44.000 --> 01:04:53.000
The pursuit of power. To overthrow a colonial power. You have to invent your own discourse, your own narrative, and it does not matter what is true or false.

01:04:53.000 --> 01:04:58.000
All that matters is that people believe it. Um….

01:04:58.000 --> 01:05:05.000
So interesting. Alright, um…. I'm not gonna finish the whole thing down to the bottom, because I feel like this is the….

01:05:05.000 --> 01:05:09.000
Framework he's setting out, or this is the critique he's offering.

01:05:09.000 --> 01:05:15.000
Um, and I kinda… I wanna, like, wrap up our conversation with… with that question, like, does this….

01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:21.000
Feel right? Does it feel like…. Maybe, you know, what Amit said? Well, maybe he's also….

01:05:21.000 --> 01:05:35.000
Like, I don't know, do you believe this?

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.000
Because I think what he's saying is there… there is such a thing.

01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:43.000
As truth. There is, you know?

01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:48.000
It may mean we have to listen a lot harder, you know, getting back to the tzitzit we talked about earlier.

01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:52.000
We have to listen a lot harder, you know, to different sides and narratives.

01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:57.000
But perhaps there's…. You know, not just.

01:05:57.000 --> 01:06:03.000
Their narrative and my narrative, and Narray the Twain shall meet, and so therefore, it really is just about who gets to win.

01:06:03.000 --> 01:06:09.000
Because we're never gonna agree. He's saying, like, there is a truth to be found.

01:06:09.000 --> 01:06:15.000
Um, and we can't just decide. That it's, you know, that, um….

01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.000
We are going to let ourselves be ruled by whoever is….

01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:31.000
Whoever's more powerful. More powerful in disseminating information and propaganda, and then more powerful in terms of force.

01:06:31.000 --> 01:06:38.000
Hmm, I'm reading what you just said. My grandmother used to say that there's their truth, and our truth, and the actual truth is somewhere in between.

01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:43.000
Yeah, I'm, like, remembering the story about the rabbi, and he's like.

01:06:43.000 --> 01:06:53.000
In a retirement home or something, and the problem is, like, without the rabbi, the people don't know, what… what were we supposed to do? And we say the Shema, are we supposed to stand when we say the Shemar? Are we supposed to sit when we say the Sheman?

01:06:53.000 --> 01:06:57.000
They go to the rabbi and they say, rabbi, are we supposed to stand when we say the Shema? And he goes, yes.

01:06:57.000 --> 01:07:02.000
But then the other guy is like, wait a second, now we're supposed to sit when we say the shaman. He goes, yo, you're right, too.

01:07:02.000 --> 01:07:06.000
And then the, you know, one of the… like, a third person nearby says, well.

01:07:06.000 --> 01:07:13.000
He can't be… if he's right and he's right. They can't both be right. And he says, oh, you're right, too.

01:07:13.000 --> 01:07:16.000
You know?

01:07:16.000 --> 01:07:22.000
I think it's just… it's… it's…. A typical critique of postmodernism.

01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:23.000
Which is that…. You get to the point of complete relativism.

01:07:23.000 --> 01:07:28.000
Mmm….

01:07:28.000 --> 01:07:33.000
Which leads to nihilism. That's a typical….

01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:38.000
I think that's what he's doing here. Um….

01:07:38.000 --> 01:07:45.000
In academic circles, that is a… is a critique of postmodernism.

01:07:45.000 --> 01:07:46.000
Um.

01:07:46.000 --> 01:07:53.000
Right. Right. And what's the response? What's the kind of, you know, the reasonable rejoinder to that?

01:07:53.000 --> 01:07:59.000
Good question. I have to remind myself, what is the response?

01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:03.000
Um….

01:08:03.000 --> 01:08:07.000
Is it something like there is a truth?

01:08:07.000 --> 01:08:10.000
The response by postmodernists? They… they would….

01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:13.000
Yeah, that are sort of like… right.

01:08:13.000 --> 01:08:23.000
They… yeah, they would say that embedded in any, um. Articulation of truth is a power relationship.

01:08:23.000 --> 01:08:24.000
Yes.

01:08:24.000 --> 01:08:30.000
Right? And so, understanding the power relationships. Behind, um….

01:08:30.000 --> 01:08:35.000
You know, any. Truism, or truth….

01:08:35.000 --> 01:08:43.000
Truth statement is important for the production of that truth. So the… the….

01:08:43.000 --> 01:08:52.000
The…. Response is more about process.

01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:53.000
Yeah.

01:08:53.000 --> 01:08:59.000
Like, how does power get produced? Um, and understanding that process is just as important as the outcome.

01:08:59.000 --> 01:09:06.000
I think that's the…. I would have to go back to them all the responses by postmodernists.

01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:07.000
Yeah….

01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:12.000
But… but yeah, like…. And I… yeah, I mean, I was….

01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:19.000
I was trained in postmodernist Foucaudian thinking, so…. Um….

01:09:19.000 --> 01:09:21.000
It makes sense to me. To focus on that production.

01:09:21.000 --> 01:09:25.000
Mm-hmm.

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:28.000
Joan Scott has a really good article about this. Um, but you still need to have.

01:09:28.000 --> 01:09:35.000
Mmm.

01:09:35.000 --> 01:09:36.000
Mm-hmm. I also… I also think that the stuff down here about discourse and narrative.

01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:41.000
Evidence. It can't just come out of the sky.

01:09:41.000 --> 01:09:47.000
Where he takes this is… and I didn't want to get into this specifically, like, debating.

01:09:47.000 --> 01:09:52.000
How this applies to the conversation about Israel. But where he takes this is, like, basically.

01:09:52.000 --> 01:10:00.000
Israel's haters come along and say, like, oh, you have a narrative that's not the correct narrative. The correct narrative.

01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:07.000
There's the Palestinian narrative, the Israeli narrative is not the correct narrative, and basically the more powerful country.

01:10:07.000 --> 01:10:14.000
And space has been dominating what the narrative is, and if we actually listen to the powerless voice.

01:10:14.000 --> 01:10:20.000
We would see that we need to deconstruct the entity that has been forcefully.

01:10:20.000 --> 01:10:27.000
You know, providing a narrative that reinforces a status quo that is unjust.

01:10:27.000 --> 01:10:32.000
Um, and…. But the truth is, you know, this is something we talk about all the time, like.

01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:40.000
Yeah, the Jews have a narrative that includes, like, a history of oppression, persecution, Holocaust, displacement.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:50.000
No country in the world, you know, being a space where Jews could find refuge or be safe, and coming to their ancient homeland, where, you know, to Ricky's point, from 15 minutes ago.

01:10:50.000 --> 01:11:05.000
Where they have been praying and talking about. For 2,000 years. And, like, it's like an indigenous people, like, one of the only stories in the entire world history of an indigenous people returning to its homeland, that it's been exiled from by a colonial power.

01:11:05.000 --> 01:11:13.000
You know, it was after 2,000 years, but there you have it. And, like, we're entitled to that safety and relationship with a country and a land.

01:11:13.000 --> 01:11:20.000
That is our, you know, that is our. Our history, and a place where we are rooted authentically and indigenously.

01:11:20.000 --> 01:11:37.000
And Palestinians are like, cool, cool, like. All of that is true for us, and we were here when you got here, and there were more of us, and you, like, exiled and displaced us, and made us move violently and, you know, made us leave with our hands above our heads and displaced us once, and now you're doing it again, and….

01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:43.000
Um, like, we're sorry for what happened to you over there, but that we didn't do that to you.

01:11:43.000 --> 01:11:45.000
Like, we didn't, you know, we didn't subject you to all those things.

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:50.000
Um, and it's like, their narrative is also true from their perspective, and….

01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:55.000
You know, and, like, the Jewish one is true, like. Both of them are true. That's the bigger truth.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:56.000
Right? Yes.

01:11:56.000 --> 01:12:02.000
But both of them also obscure. Those narratives also obscure both of them, obscure certain facts.

01:12:02.000 --> 01:12:08.000
So, I mean, this is where revisionist history of Palestine, uh.

01:12:08.000 --> 01:12:15.000
Comes in, right? Like, Elon Pape and…. Benny Moore… Benny Morris now has switched, but Benny Morris.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:25.000
Um, who show that Palestinians didn't flee. That… which is a Zionist narrative, that the… that they all fled.

01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:31.000
Some of them fled, but many of them, you know, they show with evidence from the Israel State Archives.

01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:32.000
That many of them were actually. Uh, kicked out, right? So….

01:12:32.000 --> 01:12:37.000
Right. Oh, yes.

01:12:37.000 --> 01:12:46.000
So the… each narrative obscures. Because the Palestinian narrative also obscures certain things. That's what happens with nationalist narratives.

01:12:46.000 --> 01:12:47.000
Um…. Oh, yeah.

01:12:47.000 --> 01:12:56.000
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, well, and so then, it's like, this is what I… this is what I spoke about on Shabbat a little bit this past week, is like.

01:12:56.000 --> 01:13:01.000
So then, is the value of truth. Even a value worth.

01:13:01.000 --> 01:13:16.000
Prioritizing in the hierarchy of values if you're trying… if what you're trying to do is create safety for your children and grandchildren to go to school and, um, you know, be able to worship, play in the street, go to the park, you know, all the kinds of things that.

01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:21.000
You know, a society wants to be able to guarantee for itself, its children, its grandchildren.

01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:26.000
So then maybe attaining the truth. Is not actually, like.

01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:31.000
It can't be the goal, because you're always going to have.

01:13:31.000 --> 01:13:37.000
Um, competing senses of truth, or what everybody's gonna have to do is expand their lens.

01:13:37.000 --> 01:13:43.000
In a way that is really uncomfortable. Taking in the truth of the, like, the discordant truth.

01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:59.000
Of the narrative that's not their narrative, understanding that, um. That we're just gonna have to coexist with these kind of competing narratives and prioritize peace, or prioritize, you know, nonviolence, or whatever it is, and that's gotta be a higher priority than truth.

01:13:59.000 --> 01:14:06.000
Um, in the way that here, Korach is basically prioritizing power, um, and… and just find and articulate.

01:14:06.000 --> 01:14:11.000
Like, what's the thing that actually we want to pursue? You know, we say, like, in the Torah, it's like.

01:14:11.000 --> 01:14:12.000
Yeah. Well, I think this goes back to the Titzit, uh….

01:14:12.000 --> 01:14:17.000
Right? Something like that?

01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:18.000
Hmm….

01:14:18.000 --> 01:14:28.000
Josh, right? That the one string is one narrative. And you're not seeing the entire narrative, right?

01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:35.000
And so, you… you have to accommodate and try to understand all the other narratives to be able to.

01:14:35.000 --> 01:14:43.000
Constructs something that's. Maybe not the truth, but reaching closer to a… a truth.

01:14:43.000 --> 01:14:47.000
I think it goes back to the tzit thing.

01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:57.000
And then I'm just reading what Meredith wrote here. I think part of it is just being okay with being uncomfortable that someone else's truth conflicts with your truth.

01:14:57.000 --> 01:15:00.000
I'm not placing a value on one's own truth as the truth.

01:15:00.000 --> 01:15:06.000
Um, well, and yeah, Lisa's gotta go. I think this is, like, a good stopping place. This is a good, uh, place to….

01:15:06.000 --> 01:15:11.000
Put a pin in the discussion. Um, and thanks everybody who stuck around till the….

01:15:11.000 --> 01:15:16.000
That are in. Good little Torah study. Um, good provocation.

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:17.000
Good… good, um, machlokit Lasheim Shamayim, right? Argument for the sake of heaven?

01:15:17.000 --> 01:15:19.000
Thank you.

01:15:19.000 --> 01:15:22.000
Thank you.

01:15:22.000 --> 01:15:24.000
Thank you so much. Nice to see you, too.

01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:26.000
Yeah, lots of love. Nice to see you, Sandy. Bye, everybody.

01:15:26.000 --> 01:15:32.000
Thank you, Karen. Bye-bye