S1E12: Parashat The Landlord

Loneliness for Remy, HR violations for Schmidt, and JUSTICE FOR JULIA. Elul the month, Shofar the ram horn, and self-reflective mindfulness. Quick question—are people inherently good or bad? No pressure, but the Yetzer HaRa and Yetzer HaTov really want to know, and one of them can do a handstand. He's got a point.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Paint over that mural of a sexually charged zero gravity tea ceremony and consider the goodness of humanity. It's Parashot Landlord this week on Jew Girl. Hello and welcome to Jew Girl, a New Girl podcast for the Jew Curious, in which I make my brother watch my favorite TV show New Girl for the first time and learn some stuff about Judaism. My name is Robin.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

My name is Jay. And you can tell because I have a tattoo on my arm that says, Hi, my name is Jay.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I love that so much. Such a good gag.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Right. Yeah, that was immediately at the top of my list for favorite things.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Okay, firstly, I want to say thank you to whoever wrote the recaps on the New Girl Wiki. I just want to put that out there because I use that so heavily when I write these recaps, and I've never thanked them formally. So thank you, whoever you are, good good citizen. And let's go to the recap. So in this episode, the loft gets a visit from the creepy landlord Remy. Just when we were like, where's the landlord and all this? So they get a visit from the creepy landlord Remy after Jess, in an attempt to request repairs, goes to win him over and accidentally reveals that they have one too many roommates living there. He ends up deciding it's fine as long as they get rid of the weird mural that Schmidt painted in his old closet of a sexually charged zero gravity tea ceremony, and Jess cajoles the landlord into making some repairs while he's there, and then invites him to dinner to thank him. Under all this, Nick and Jess have been in an ongoing debate over whether people are inherently bad, which is Nick's opinion, or whether everyone is good inside if you give them the chance to be, which is what Jess thinks. Remy, the landlord, becomes the centerpiece of this disagreement, with Nick insisting he's terrible and just wants to sleep with Jess, and Jess instead believing the best. Turns out Remy does want to sleep with her and thinks the dinner with her and Nick is leading up to a threesome, but Jess still refuses to admit people are bad, and she ends up sort of playing chicken with Nick as they supposedly prepare to have a threesome rather than admit she's wrong. It's kind of confusing to describe, but uh it eventually reaches the point where Nick is supposed to kiss her to get things started, and she throws him off and she admits defeat instead. As Winston, meanwhile, is painting over the closet mural, he discovers Schmidt's list of New Year's resolutions from 2007, and they tease Schmidt over such gems as find out where Winston gets his sparkle, then steal it. And lastly, Schmidt is getting a lot of mixed signals from his boss Kim, who may or may not be trying to hit on him. But apparently Schmidt has a history of misinterpreting normal things as sexual advances. But anyway, she does say normal work stuff in confusingly provocative ways. And he does want to get with her, but isn't sure how to make the actual move. So Cece tells him just to go for it. And so he very dramatically does, finally, by running across a parking garage to kiss her before then getting tackled by security guards who think something else is going on. But the next day he tells her that he's had a thing for her ever since he was the husky kid in the mailroom, and he proves it by reading one of those 2007 New Year's resolutions that was about her. So that was this episode. Let's uh pass around the feeling shtick, Jay. Tell me, how do you feel? What are your thoughts, predictions, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I have a lot of feelings for this episode. I really liked it. I was laughing a lot. This was a very good episode. So let me just rattle things off. In the cold open, the guy with the gun and Jess saying that maybe violence is the only way he knows how to express himself, right? So funny how she manages to just like start being like, sorry about Nick, and like the guy diffuses, he's like, oh, he's like caught off guard and he drives away. I love that she, as Nick says, outcrazied a guy with a gun. I also absolutely called the threesome joke as soon as that scene started and the three of them were on the couch. Something about just like that shot in the composition, and also maybe the shirt that Remy was wearing, I don't know. I was like, oh my goodness, they're gonna have a threesome or like talk about it. It's gonna be a joke. I didn't realize how important of a joke it was gonna be for the episode, but I was so glad that I was right about that. And I called it from a mile away. And also for Remy having never had a threesome, he certainly was very good at like talking to all of them into being relaxed and like coaching them through the beginning. And you know what I mean? Yes, yeah. So, anyways, this show also very much wants Nick and Jess to be together so badly because the fact that he's like, you two start, right? And we're like, oh, are Nick and Jess about to start making out? The show wants them to be together. I am convinced now that they are endgame. But also, what about Julia? We hear nothing about Julia, and and I totally forgot that Nick was so down. He was like, he's like, all right, sure. They're like playing chicken with this threesome, right? And he's like, he's like, yeah, all right, I guess we're gonna do this because you won't admit that you're wrong, Jess. But like, he is a girlfriend. That's what happened last episode. Did we just forget about that so that we could hammer the audience over the head with the whole Nick and Jess thing? It's like, was he about to cheat on Julia with Jess and Remy, the landlord? I mean, he was so confident that Jess would back down before it got to that, I guess. I guess so. But also, deep down, I think Nick wants it. All right, next thing. Why did Schmidt go back inside the apartment after he left, pretending to be a French person that didn't live there? And like, bye, you know? Why did he go back in and behind a chair? That's just like the like, just leave for like an hour, go somewhere else. Also, how did he get back in so quickly? Yeah. Exactly, right? How to do that, anyways? But he had to do it for plot, I guess. Also, that painting in the back of the closet is was like crazy and so unexpected. Like, wait, what? Not just for the content, but how well the illustration is, too. I'm like, did the did the production team just like find this somewhere and just put it in the closet? Just wanted to use it. Did they have this commissioned for the show? I have no idea. All right, I know I've been talking a lot, but I'm gonna rattle off just a big list of favorite moments. Ready? Gonna speedrun this. Okay. Those weren't even the favorite moments. I mean, all that was great, but all right. Remy, the landlord, carving a broom into a spear. Yes, same. Him saying the he has a tattoo on his arm that says, Hello, my name is Remy. Yep, same. Seeing a kid play young Nick get pushed into a bush. Not the pushing into the bush part, but the fact that we get to see a glimpse of young Nick, uh, like a lot of the other characters. I like when we have flashbacks to their childhood. We also get that flashback of an even younger Jess, not played by the usual actress, who gets candy from that band, the white van, because that's how reality works in Jess's world, that you actually can accept candy from Strangers of Vance.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

I loved when Nick said to Remy that he wouldn't drink the homemade alcohol because, quote, someone needs to be sober to fight you later, unquote. And finally, I love when Remy was recounting his past heartbreak and mentioned blacking out and coming to in the woods soaked in animal blood, which is what prompts Nick to suddenly bond with him on an emotional level and hug him because of his own heartbreak with Caroline. So good. Such a good episode.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Oh, it really was, wasn't it? And I love the whole Schmidt pretending to be the foreign visitor, Hollywood. And then he's like, train to Panama all sold out.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Must be Mardi Gras.

unknown 7:47

What does that even mean?

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And then, oh my god, during the little menage a tois scene when he puts on that song by Rusted Root, the Send Me on My Way song. And and he's like just starts playing the invisible bongos, and she's like aggressively dancing while he's and then he starts leaping around and playing the air flute. Exactly. I just love that whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

They got such a good actor to play their landlord.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

They really did. He's great, yeah. It's such a good episode. There's so much funny, funny stuff in there. I love it. I'm glad you thought so too.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

But is there anything you'd like to drop some coins in the tsadaka box, the douchebag tzadaka box over this week?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

I just said Schmidt for again assuming sex with people. I I mean in his defense, his boss does want to hook up with him. Right. But she also is just saying some things like the end of the episode that are not innuendos or suggestive, and he's just misinterpreting them. So I don't know if he's a I don't know if he's a douchebag for that, but you know. It walks the line. In that like montage of things, he's like a jerk.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

Exactly. And along those lines, I wrote down CeCe giving the terrible advice to just take what he wants and not ask for permission. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

It ends up working out for him, fortunately, because it is mutual, but it's like that's not always great advice. Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

And it's not great to send a message that it's like always emasculating to ask for consent, which is kind of what she's suggesting by that line. Very true. Very true. Also, I guess we could say there's some weird power dynamics with the landlord hitting on her, but anyway, it's all just funny games in this episode, fortunately.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah, I I I put a lot of suspension of belief in for this episode. Yeah. I guess we could also say Nick literally demonstrating the bad behavior he condemns about breathing on a woman's neck, showing her how to do something from behind, and then like, you know, he's condemning the landlord and then immediately does it to Jess.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Like, he has to prove his point. He's gotta prove his point.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Well, a little bit of quick trivia for this week. Kim is Jewish. Who's Kim? Jillian Wigman, the boss. Oh.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Uh yeah, shows how observant I am with names.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

Oh, okay. Her father was Jewish by birth and her mother was Jewish by conversion. Isn't that fun? Oh wow. Well, let's move on to the segment, if you'd like, called Observant Jews. And this, of course, is the segment in which we find out if we two Jews observed any Jewish jokes this episode, or if we observe that elusive episode bear. Did you catch any Jewish jokes or Jewish content this week, Jay?

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Not that I noticed.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

Yeah, me neither.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

I don't think there was any this week. You're safe. You're safe this time.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

And how about a bear?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

I did not catch a bear, but I really, really wanted there to be a bear on the wall in the landlord's basement office.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

That would have been so good. Yeah. Yeah, the only thing I guess I caught was Elijah the fridge bear. I don't even know if it was actually there or if I just wrote it down assuming he was there at some point. But I think I think he probably was.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

I don't know. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

So with that, I guess we can move right on to the next segment, which I like to call Schmidbitz, because this is where I give you some juicy little tidbit about Judaism that is inspired by something that Schmidt, our canonical Jew of the Loft, said or did this episode. And this week we're gonna talk about New Year's resolutions. It's inspired by his whole New Year's resolution list. Oh nice. And it's not uh entirely analogous, but it's the thing we're gonna talk about is similar to New Year's resolutions. And we're going to talk about the month of Elul. E-L-U-L. Elul or Elul, depending on if you're speaking with a Yiddish accent or a Hebrew accent. Yiddish is always putting the emphasis on the first syllable. So anyway, we're gonna talk about Elul and Teshuva along with that. So Elul is a month, the last month of the Hebrew calendar, and it leads up to the new year, Rosh Hashanah. So the year itself, the new year kicks off with this span of time from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur that is all focused on judgment, the idea of judgment. So Yom Kippur actually means day of atonement, and there is this idea around this time that God is taking stock of your year or your life or whatever, and writing names down in the book of life to determine who will live through the upcoming year, which is troubling theology for many. If you are someone who really uh if you're someone who believes in like a conscious being tallying up your good deeds and deciding if you deserve another year of life, it's a little intimidating. Um, but from a less literalist perspective, you know, I find it to be a reminder, more a metaphorical reminder that we just don't know what the next year will bring. And any day might be our last day. And, you know, how does holding that realization at the forefront of your mind for a season change your outlook and how you live your life and how you interact with others? So anyway, at some point I'll do a whole episode, I'm sure, on Young Kippur, because there's a lot of interesting stuff about it. But back to the month that's leading up to this time. So alul. As a consequence, alul, that's right. As a consequence of all this, the month leading up to this time is felt to be a season of reflection and introspection and looking back and taking stock of the year, you know, seeing where you may have fallen short. In other words, it it calls us to undertake what's known as an accounting of the soul, which in Hebrew the phrase is feshbone nefesh, an accounting of the soul. It's kind of like, you know, in ancient Egypt when you're like weighing your heart against the feather or whatever on that scale, you're accounting for your soul.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

So you gotta become mindful before God decides to write your name down or not.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Which speaking of, if you're interested in this like who will live and who will die thing, I mean not that you are, but there's a really awesome song by Leonard Cohen called Who by Fire. And it's actually just like quoting parts of the liturgy, which is like, who by fire will die and who by water and who in this. So like it's a really ominous song. It's really cool. You should listen to it. Anyway, anyway. So one of the key words and ideas during this month of Alul is to Shuva, which literally means returning, although it is often translated as repentance. But you know, because it literally means returning, it's also sort of thought of as a returning to your truest, deepest self, you know. A lot of people journal or meditate on how they feel the state of their core self is at this time. So a lot of reflection in that way. And actually, speaking of being sort of mindful and woken up to mindfulness in your life, the shofar or the shofar, um, depending on, you know, shofar or shofar, it's a ram's horn, like a literal rams horn, a horn from a ram, the animal. Okay. It's it's it's blown like a horn every morning, except for Shabbat. But like during all of Elul, every single morning except Shabbat, the shofar is blown. It's like it's like really. And the idea is you're waking up your soul. Like it, it's to jolt you into awareness, to jolt you into mindfulness in the present moment. It's really cool to listen to. I really like it a lot because it really is like woo, you know, it gives me the tingles.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Wow. Um, do you have one?

SPEAKER_02 15:16

Uh yes, we do, but I can't say it's kind of like a low, low quality one. I can't say I've ever gotten a sound out of it.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

But I won't ask you to try to play it.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Yeah, it would be like, it would just be me blowing through it, really.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

You gotta do it like a trumpet, you know, you gotta, I can't do it. But I'll learn someday, maybe. And uh during a Lulu to continue, there's also this whole practice of actually literally apologizing to people that you feel you may have slighted or done wrong to. Oh wow. In order to make it right for the new year, make amends, um, sort of bring closure to all that wrongdoing, give yourself a fresh start to the new year, you know? Nice. So for me at least, you know, it's not exactly New Year's resolutions, but this whole season of reflection naturally does lead to resolutions, for me at least, for lack of a better term, for the new year. I mean, obviously, if you're thinking about where you feel you fell short, if you're not wanting to repeat those habits and actions going forward, then you're kind of setting resolutions for yourself. So that's a little tidbit about Jewish New Year resolutions during the month of Elul.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

I love that. That's great. It's good stuff, right? We're here for mindfulness and self-reflection.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

We really are. We really are. It's a nice time.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

And goat horns.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Yeah, I know. Ram horns. You'll hear a real one. And not just have to go off of me making that noise. Well, shall we move on to a little drosh on a a different but related theme?

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Drosh it up.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Drosh it up. Here we go. Well, this week I am going to talk. Actually, let me back up.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

This week you're not gonna talk.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

This week I'm gonna mime in this audio medium. I've chosen to mime my whole drosh. And Jake just has to describe it to you. Describe what you see. Let me back up though, and say that if I were writing a dissertation on this episode, the correct theme that actually connects best to all plot lines is intentions. Okay, like misreading the intentions of the landlord, trying to sort out the boss's intentions, the landlord misreading Jess and Nick's intentions in the whole dinner, Schmidt's New Year's resolutions. That's the real one. I'm not doing that because I didn't feel like talking about intentions. Okay. Although there is like, there is a word in Judaism that is used to talk about intentions a lot, kavana. But it's used to refer to like heartfelt intention while you pray and stuff like that. I was like, boring. I didn't want to do that. I wasn't feeling it's this is freaking our podcast. I can do whatever I want. So I went with a theme that is not wholly unrelated, but it is the theme of whether people are inherently good or bad. Nice. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I just like I called the threesome joke, I called in my head that that would be the theme because of how you you used that wording in the intro recap.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Ah yes, you're so clever. How observant.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Observant jeweler. We woo-woo!

unknown 18:15

That's right, it's the show.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

So so what does what does Judaism have to say about whether people are inherently good or bad?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Well, I'll tell you, you're gonna like this. You're gonna like this. Actually, let's first do a quick, you know, recap of where it is in the episode. Sure. So it doesn't really connect to Schmidt's plot line, although maybe you'll be able to think of the way it does. Maybe we'll revisit that at the end, okay? Okay. But obviously the idea of inherently good or bad, big part of the major plot line. Jess and Nick are arguing the whole time over whether, you know, deep down you're good if you just give them the chance to be, or if some people are just bad. Starts with that guy in the parking spot, brandishing the gun, so funny, backs down when Jess gestures apologetically and nicely, continues with the landlord, that all the guys warn about just being a terrible person who actually does want to just sleep with Jess. As Nick has been insisting, fortunately, that whole thing plays out, at least mostly in like a genuine misunderstandy way, rather than a sexual assaulty way.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah. I think you could also argue he didn't, the landlord didn't just want sex. It's that all of the clues that Jess, all the interactions with Jess were leading him to maybe understandably think that that's that he was being invited into this sort of situation.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

Yes, yes, he legitimately assumes right that all the clues are pointing towards that. So yes, absolutely, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Beyond that, he almost connects with them really nicely on an emotional level, you know? Yeah. Talking about heartbreak. No, he really does companionship.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

He really does. And all things considered, it's a pretty wholesome interaction all around. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

He could have been a worse landlord. He could have been worse. He's not great, but he could have been worse.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

But he could have been worse, exactly. So in Judaism, in answer to your question, let me first start off by saying that Judaism does not have a concept of original sin like Christianity does. Okay. Cool. I know they get that story from us of Adam and Eve eating the from the tree, they're not supposed to, but that original sin and the need for like salvation because of it, that is not Judaism's takeaway from that story. Okay. Great. Instead, Judaism has the idea that every person balances inside themselves both inclinations towards goodness and inclinations towards doing wrong. And that's what I'm gonna talk about. So these these two inclinations, they've got terms and uh the evil inclination is called the Yetzer Hurrah. I'll put that in the chat for you. And ra means bad or evil. You may remember that actually from I in hurrah, the evil eye. I'm sure you memorized that Hebrew phrase immediately after we talked about the evil eye that one time. Oh, of course. Anyway, so that's the Yetzer Hurrah.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I was gonna say Yetzer, I hardly know her. I don't know. Dumb joke.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Oh, those jokes always get me. I'm always doing those when it doesn't even make sense to do.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

I'm doing it all over the place. That's great. The good inclination, on the other hand, is called the Yetzer Hatov. Tov means good. Like Mazaltov. Mazal Tov. Okay. Or Shana Tova, if you've ever said Happy New Year. Tova being the feminine of Tov.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

What does Yetzer mean?

SPEAKER_02 21:35

That means like inclination. The inclination. So an inclination towards bad or the inclination towards doing good. So some say a better way of thinking about them. It's not good and evil. It's also translated as evil, yetzer hurrah, the evil inclination. But some people say that's not actually the best way to think of it. It's better to think of something like the altruistic inclination. As the good inclination, which is concerned with empathy and others versus the self-focused inclination that's focused on acquisition of property and pleasure seeking and security for yourself. So instead of just good and evil, it's sort of altruistic versus self-focused, which is what leads to the rabbinic conclusion that the yetzer harrah, the evil inclination is not actually something to eliminate because it's actually necessary and not wholly bad. In fact, there's this Midrash in the Talmud telling the story of someone managing to catch the yetzer harrah, the evil inclination, and lock it up. And consequently, society grinds to a halt. Oh wow. Um these yeah because these self-focused drives are necessary for a society to society itself. The desire to acquire and assert and you know be secure, that's all necessary to work. Lust, if you will, creates families. There's a quote in the Talmud, actually. It says, So it's quoting Genesis. This quote is quoting Genesis. In Genesis it says, and behold, it was very good. So the Talmud will just take a phrase like that, which is like talking about something else, and the the rabbis will be just like, this is talking about this, actually, did you know? So, like as a sort of deeper meaning. So they say, and behold, it was very good. And the commentary in the Talmud says, This refers to the Yetzer Hera, the evil inclination. But is the Yetzer Herah, is the evil inclination indeed very good? And then it says, Were it not for the Yetzer Hera, a man would not build a home or marry a woman or have children or engage in business. So the whole rabbinic idea is that it's all about just channeling it. It's all just about how you channel that impulse, how you restrain it, maybe, how you moderate it. You know, you can't let it be the only motivating factor in your life. But you're not trying to get rid of it. These two you need both of them.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

It sounds to me like the Yetzer Hurrah within itself has a spectrum from like being stealthy and and greedy and just like egotistical and not focused on others, but also on the other side, maybe maybe a less evil side, just like want, right? Like I'm thinking of Buddhism and like the Four Noble Truths, and like the desire and and and all suffering stems from want, but at the same time, wanting things is not necessarily bad. It's very natural. Animals want things, right? You want food, you want water, you want shelter, you want security, you know, like there are things being a multicellular organism that you need and therefore are like evolved to want from your environment and stuff in order to persist. Right. And I like life. So on one hand, I kind of have to like the idea of wanting, right? I can't fully sacrifice it because I'm not looking to achieve a Buddhist enlightenment, I suppose. But you know what I mean? Like so maybe the yes or hurrah seems to be encompassing both of those, right? Like want and just like less positive traits about like selfishness. Does that does that sound accurate? Like, would you say both those things kind of fall within the yes or hurrah?

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. It's all it's a spectrum, right? It becomes one thing at one end of the spectrum, at the other end of the spectrum, it's another thing. I actually love the connection to Buddhism that you're drawing. I'm a little bit of a jubo myself. I'm sure we'll talk about that someday. Um but you know, right, in Buddhism, there's this idea that like attachment is the root of suffering, right? And but at the same time, it's like, well, we need to still exist in the world. And that's sort of what this is saying, too. It's like there's degrees of you know, the impulse, how it that wasn't well phrased. You phrased it better than I did, but I really love that connection that you're drawing there. I think it's absolutely right on everything you said.

SPEAKER_00 26:13

Thank you. Thank you. I'm curious, are we going to be talking about the Yetzer Hatov?

SPEAKER_02 26:18

You know, I didn't write down much about the Yetzer Hatov, other than, I mean, it's it felt to me a little bit self-explanatory, like, oh, you know, the impulse to do good things. Sure. We all know about that and how that's good too. You know, I wanted to more explain, since I figured you might not be familiar with the idea of a Yetzer Hra being not so bad after all, you know? Sure, sure. Um, so I thought that would be a richer vein to tap. But yeah, Yetzer Ratov. I mean, do good things too, right? Do good things too. And, you know, this reminds me about the Buddhism thing. Judaism, at least mainstream Judaism, is not all about, you know, disattach. Is that a word? Detach from everything from life. Judaism is actually a very embodied practice, it's very concerned with pleasure on earth, happiness, family, like the actual concrete, tangible life around you. It's not just all spiritual and you know, bodiless nirvana, um, which I actually really like at one level. Even if on another level I totally like thinking about how all of life is empty space and what is there at the root of existence except emptiness. And that's a whole different topic that I actually will talk about sometime in regards to the nature of God, I'm sure. Exciting. But yeah, do good. I don't know how I got there from Yetzer Hatov, but like do good things because we do exist on the planet and with community, and so you gotta do good. You gotta give to charity, you gotta do good deeds, you gotta be nice to your fellow men, you gotta. Did you know that the golden rule is not just in Christianity's domain? I mean, maybe that's self-evident because like obviously a lot of cultures are gonna, but Hillel, Hillel, remember our dude Hillel? Yeah, there's a famous Talmudic story about Hillel where somebody asks him to teach the entire Torah while standing on one foot, and Hillel's response is that which is hateful unto you, do not do to your friend. This is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and learn. That's uh That's great. That's his response, which is just so badass. So anyway, we we said it too, like around the same, you know, a little before, a little before somebody else said it too.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

I have actually spent a lot of time thinking about the golden rule in my life, because uh that's who I am. And I think that it almost needs a second part to it in a modern context. And I want to know what you think of my second part. I don't think I've ever actually said this out loud to anyone. Because if you say the golden rule to someone who you disagree with or whatever, right? Like the only retort I think they could ever give is like, say you're judging someone for something, right? And someone says to you, like, hey, well, you know, like don't judge them that harshly, right? Like, do onto others as you'd have them do onto you. And they were like, Oh yeah, but like if I were them, I wouldn't be doing this, right? Or I would welcome the punishment. And I think that the addendum that the golden rule almost needs is like, do onto others as you would have them do unto you, and recognize that other people are different on some level and have different lived experiences. And that's okay. You have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and recognize that like there are other cultures and other beliefs, right? And like you have to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and recognize that what you think you would want them to do to you if you were them is not actually what you would want done to you, and that's why they don't want it done to them now. Like, as long as they're not destroying your life and you can coexist, that's like the thing, you know? And I feel like the being able to coexist component isn't always as conveyed in just the simplified golden rule as maybe it used to be.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Yeah, that's interesting. No, yeah, I really I like uh I like hearing your thoughts on that. That's really interesting. You know, some people do think this is a little tidbit about Yetzer Hatov if you if you do want a little extra. I didn't include this because it makes it sound like a little too much original Cine for me, but it's it's just one thought that the Yetzer Hatov arrives in someone's life when they have reached adulthood, which is you know, their bar bat mitzvah age, to join their Yetzer Hera, which has been sort of, you know, they're well acquainted with the Yetzer Hera because kids don't know any better, right? But then as you age, you become more attuned to the Yetzer Hatov, where you you are, you know, more capable of reflection on how you want to act. So that's a tidbit about the Yetzer Hatov, I guess. Sort of sort of like the birth of conscience.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Oh, I like that. Maybe in the future we'll be able to draw a a spectrum parallel to Yetzer Hatov, too.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Oh, I guess we'll see. So I don't know. Can we actually draw any sort of connection to Schmidt's plot here? I I wasn't thinking in terms of him, but like are his two inclinations, his Yetzer Hurrah and his Yetzer Hatov, like, are they competing in this storyline? Maybe when he's like, you know, waffling back and forth about how to interpret Kim? I don't know. I I don't really know.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

You have any thoughts? Yeah, I uh I guess you could say that like he's really walking the line between being pulled by both the hurrah and the toe, right? Like uh because you know, it's like every other thing she says, he's like, oh, she is being suggestive right now, and then it's like, oh no, she really just wants me to file these papers and I gotta be a good employee. And he's just like going back and forth all the time. He has a lot of internal angst and struggle around the whole situation. So yeah, he's he's being tug-award.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

That's right. That's right. And it's also, you know, he's a lesson in balance and moderation of the Yetzer Hatov. If if we're calling, you know, being sexually entangled with your boss uh a raw, yet's or ha, rather, like uh he's it's good for him. Like it's actually working up for him because she, you know, it's mutual. She wanted him to sort of go for it. That could have broke real bad when Cece's like, just take what you want. That could have been real bad, a real negative manifestation of like a very bad impulse, an impulse towards bad.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

But turns out he was an impulse towards good for her, at least, you know, worked out for her. So I don't know, maybe there's something there.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

I wonder if anyone has ever done those like two angels, one on each shoulder, like one's a demon, one's an angel for good and bad, whispering in your ears, right? And name one of them Yetzer Hera and the other one Yetzer Hato.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

That would be a great deep cut if you ever saw like those characters and that those were their names. That would be cool. Because then you'd be like, I know what that's referencing. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Like in Emperor's New Groove when he's like, I can do this, then he does a hand stand, and the other one's like, oh no, he's got a point. Which rock's like, what does that have to do with no no, he's got a point. Uh that's my favorite movie.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Okay. Next we'll do a listening, a podcast on the Emperor's New Groove and Judaism. That's after we've exhausted my favorite TV show.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

The Emperor's New Jews.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

The Emperor's Jew Groove. That's what it would be. You just replaced the word new with Jew in everything we do, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

You're right. You're right. The Emperor's Jew Groove. That'd be a great like uh holiday special or something.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

That's our oh, that should have been our April Fool's episode where we did a whole episode as if that were the podcast premise. Nothing to do with New Girl.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Oh, that'd be funny. We'll save that. We'll save that in the back of our brands for uh for something in the future.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Yeah, yeah. You know, Nick and Jess, in terms of yet's or hurrah, yet's a hot toe, I don't know. I sort of read this note down that, like, at least Jess might actually be guided at the end more by her evil inclination. Because, like, even though she's arguing for the goodness of everything, she might be guided by the yetzer hurrah a little bit because she's leading Remy on in a misleading way while having entirely different intentions, right? Like, and she's being stubborn and unable to admit that she might be wrong. Maybe the roles have sort of, you know, interestingly swapped a little bit where she's arguing for everyone, you know, that yetzer hatov being the overriding thing, the inclination towards good being the big thing. And then she's actually sort of dipping, unfortunately, into the yetzer hurrah in in trying to prove her point. Oh, true.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah. She doesn't have the ability to admit she's wrong, and that's like definitely like a pride point, you know, like early, or that's her pride getting the better of her. Right. She's almost using the Yetzer Hurrah as a tool to benefit her Yetzer Hatov objective of helping everyone in the loft by getting things fixed in the apartment.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Exactly. Yeah, great point. Great point. But that doesn't work out for her.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Doesn't work out for her, and the lights in the kitchen blow out, and they're not gonna go get the landlord to fix anything now.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

But what about those aliens in the sexually charged zero gravity tea ceremony? Where are they on the getzer hurrah, getzer Hatope Spectrum, you know?

SPEAKER_01 35:41

That's what we'll be thinking about this week as we reflect on these themes.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

And on that note, I want to thank everybody for listening. Um, if you want to get in touch with us, you can do so at jugirlpodcast at gmail.com. And join us next time when Rusted Root is gonna be on singing that song on Mo Way. Just a whole time.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

That's the whole episode. Join us next time when Julia finds out that Nick and the landlord and Jess uh kind of almost were gonna have a threesome.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Where is Julia? Justice for Julia!

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Justice for Julia. Tune in next time when Jess talks down the Yetzer Hurrah when it pulls out a gun.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Tune us next time when she attacks it. She attacks the Yetzer Hurrah with a broomstick sharpened to a point.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

Join us next time when Jess captures the Yetzer Hurrah and uses it as a tool of evil for all of her optimistic wishes and wins.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

She captures it in a box and society stops societying. Like in that mid-run.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Just destroy of worlds.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Tune in next time, everybody, when we will finally steal Winston's sparkle.