S1E18: Parashat Fancyman Part 2

What do Harold and Jumar, Ludwig Göransson, Miriam, and Paddington Bear all have in common? They're all in this wild ride of an episode! Well, somewhat. MAKE SOME SPACE for the infinite primordial light of the universe.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Put on the soundtrack to Wicked and contemplate the primordial infinite light and the absence of God in human affairs. It's ParaShot Fancy Man 2.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Wait, it's ParaShot Fancy Man Part 2. Do I need to do the whole thing over? Or can I just It's ParaShot Fancy Man Part 2 this week on Jew Girl.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Friends, welcome to Jew Girl, a New Girl podcast for the Jew Curious, the show in which I make my brother watch my favorite TV show, New Girl, for the first time while learning some stuff about Judaism. My name is Robin.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

My name is Jay. From Bob Dylan to someone Dylan. They're both Dylan.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I now see why you said you had to look it up because you didn't fill in that it's Dylan Thomas, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I did not. I I wrote someone Dylan because I totally skipped and I was like, oh yeah, I'll go back and figure out what name they said. Totally forgot to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

I'll go back and get this reference. My guess is Dylan Thomas.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Yeah, no, I I think you probably read it as Dylan Thomas. And that was two weeks ago. We had a little break. Oh, we took a little break, everybody. So I completely forgot the context.

SPEAKER_03 1:21

That's great. I, lucky for you, was an English major. This was like a test of my English majorness and the fact that I've seen this episode probably several times. But yes, it's Dirk in his in his poetry lecture, and he's quoting Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas. You know, don't go gentle, do not go gentle into that good night or whatever. Anyway, this is all to say. It's been a while since we've watched this episode, folks.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Yes. So we're gonna see how we do.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

And also, by the way, Jay, it's episode 18. Pop quiz! Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Do you remember why we like 18?

SPEAKER_01 1:57

We do.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

The number auspicious in Judaism.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

We do, thankfully, because it was from the previous episode, and it is most recent in my mind from editing. It is, of course, that Jews like to give money in increments of 18 as like a good luck thing.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Ding ding ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

And I think it's because when you add up the letters of life, it equals 18. Is it life?

SPEAKER_03 2:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

It's life. Hi, that's right. And it comes up in lots of contexts, not just the money thing. We were just talking about it in the context of the money thing. But yeah, 18. Very auspicious. Very good job. Ding ding ding d-ding ding. You won pop quiz because people win quizzes. That's how it works. Hop, hop, hop. Okay, we're gonna recap here, and we're both gonna be hanging on my every word to refresh our memories about this episode.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Maybe we shouldn't be admitting so freely that it's been a couple weeks since we've watched this episode, but here we go, everybody. If anyone's been following our release schedule, they know it's been a couple of weeks. They know what's up.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Okay, so fancy man, Russell. He pats Jess on the back during their first date instead of kissing her. Remember that?

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Well wow. I do remember that.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

And Jess worries that she blew it by being too young and unsophisticated for him. Their second date is even more awkward and ends really abruptly, although we later find out it's just because he had to bring his daughter her inhaler.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

Right. Meanwhile, Nick's college friend Dirk, a real creep of a professor who sleeps with the students. Yeah, he's crashing at the loft. And when Jess returns dejected from that bad second date, she finds them throwing a lecture after party at which Nick is hitting it off with undergrad ladies because they find his bartending sexy. Jess declares that she's gonna die alone and 30 sucks, and then she gets drunk and starts playing flip cup with the college kids. Russell shows up to clear things up with Jess, somehow ends up giving drunk Nick, Dirk, and company a ride somewhere. And during a moment, this is funny, I wrote this after having watched the episode. This is me not remembering. Like, I just don't understand why he's driving them anywhere. But anyway, they're driven he's driving them somewhere. And during a moment of being sort of alone with Jess, he and Jess have a heart-to-heart about how he's just nervous because he's been out of the dating game for a long time. In the world of Winston, Shelby is going to Mexico for a bachelorette party. And Winston misguidedly assures her it's okay for her to go because it'll give them both some space. So she's obviously offended. And when Dirk helps Winston realize why it's a misleading thing to say, Winston hops in the car to chase after Shelby. Schmidt's car, I believe, uh hops in the car to chase after Shelby and prove his devotion. But plot twist! Schmidt and Cece are naked in the backseat or trunk thing of the car. Schmidt has been struggling with Cece being pretty controlling and a little dismissive of his agency in their whole situationship. And so in negotiating that whole dynamic, she agreed to do his quote fantasy location number three, which apparently is the car. So they are hiding in the back seat and listening to Winston sing along with the wicked soundtrack when Shelby calls Winston and reveals that she's actually back at the loft doing the same sort of romantic gesture. And Winston U-turns to cross the border back into the US. He is stopped at the border and asked to explain the two naked people hiding in the trunk, and he cannot. He is dumbfounded. And Schmidt and CeC plead for him to keep the secret. Exciting ending. Exciting stuff here.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

I remember the episode much more clearly now. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

Yeah, yeah, right. How did you feel about it? Let's pass around that feeling shtick and uh yeah, tell me your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah. Their kiss is interrupted by Nick screaming. Jess and Russell, their kiss is interrupted by Nick screaming. As we all know, Nick obviously destined for Jess. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But I thought it was interesting. That, you know, he's having her nice moment with Russell, but nope. Nick interrupts it from off-screen with a scream. Off-screen with a scream.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

Off screen with a scream.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

My other big feeling for this episode is that I absolutely love that that is how CeCe and Schmidt get found out is by Border Patrol stopping and opening the trunk and Winston having no idea that they're back there and naked. So that's just like perfect. Great writing. Good job. It is such a good reveal. Such a good reveal. And I am curious to see if he keeps this secret or not, because I imagine he will not. As he said himself, shaking his head, he cannot ex- nothing can explain that.

unknown 7:09

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 7:10

I have a few favorite moments here, uh, but since so much time has passed since I wrote these notes, I don't know the context. So here's another pop quiz for you. How about I read these off and you tell me if you know what the joke was, okay? Perfect.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Yeah, yeah, bring it on.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I'll start with the ones I do kind of remember.

unknown 7:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Jess asks Russell if he was upset when the Beatles broke up. Which plays into my idea. Russell's not 42.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

I think he said, doesn't he say something like I was four or I was eight or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 7:50

He either says he was like four, or I guess he probably doesn't say he wasn't born, but maybe. Also passing air back and forth until we die was a quote from the episode. Yes. What is the context for that?

SPEAKER_03 8:03

The context is that Winston is explaining how much he does not want space with Shelby. He's like, I want the opposite of space.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

I want to be standing so close to you that the air you breathe out, whatever you just said, that's that's the context. They're passing air back and forth until we die. Thank you. That makes a lot, that makes a lot of sense. I have another one that says, someone left your face beautiful. I don't know if that was like a retort. It sounds like a retort, right? Like, someone left blah blah blah. Yeah, well, someone left your face beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Left your face beautiful. My guess is that it's when somebody was drunk and might actually not be an insult retort, but a drunken thing that someone says, maybe one of the to one of the college students, or maybe the college student says it to somebody, or Dirk. I feel like this is a drunk line, but yeah, I don't remember exactly. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

I also have another one, and this is this is next level funny, Robin, because I don't know if it's a typo or if it was intentional. It says Harold and Jumar. And I don't know. Jay and Kay are right next to each other on the keyboard. So I might have meant Harold and Kumar. I didn't put this in the Jewish joke section. That's for way later in the episode, right? So I have to imagine it was just a typo. Good context clue deduction there, Jay.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

I think it's a typo.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

I think it's a typo. And I think that because I have in my trivia section that Schmidt mentions Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, and I guess Nick, Jake Johnson, is in one of the sequels, one of the Harold and Kumar sequels.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

So I think it's probably just a straight Kumar there, not a not a Jew girl Easter egg. Why would I have written that down as a favorite moment? I can't imagine anything being funny enough for me to have just written Harold and Kumar and like know what the joke was and be like, oh, that was great in the episode when they said Harold and Kumar. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

This is an insane premise. The fact that neither of us can remember these jokes well enough. This is like those podcasts where they like get drunk and tell ghost stories or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Or like drunk history or something.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

It also doesn't help that, like, I don't know if you had a long work day, I had a long work day, so I'm like so tired right now. There's everything is just funny on like an extra level. So, anyways.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Oh, I got it. I googled it. I Googled it. It's um it's Schmidt's name for Cece's breasts. He calls them Harold and Kumar. Or she calls them that. No, he calls them Carolyn.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

That's why it's funny. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

See if I'd remembered. I I wouldn't have needed more context, I suppose. So funny. Also wild for him to call that that. Yes. Yes, it is.

unknown 10:56

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Do you have any other uh feelings that you want to share or your favorite moments?

SPEAKER_03 11:02

I've got a few. Most of mine are self-explanatory, I think. Okay. My favorite moments here. First one is when Nick tells Jess that Dirk is getting his PhD in poetry, and Jess says, that sucks for poems.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yes. That was so good.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

When, oh yeah. Yeah. Somehow somebody throws around the term secretary.

unknown 11:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:25

And Schmidt is like, a sex receptionist answers calls all day. A secretary does scheduling, light filing, basically runs the office. I think he's pushing back against you know, Stacey telling him to just answer phones or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

So funny.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

He's got agency, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Right. Good for you, Schmidt. He has a job description in his head for what sex criteria is. You know, he's like, there's a difference. There's a difference, yeah. Get it right. Put some respect.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Respect, yeah. And then also, lastly, when Nick is talking about the college girls and he says, look at them.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

They don't know what saved by the bell is, and they've never felt pain.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

That's just a really good line if you're old like me and knows that saved by the bell is an old show. Okay, I don't even know if you're old enough to remember Saved by the Bell. Probably not, actually, now that I've said that.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

I know it's a show. I didn't really watch it.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Oh, you don't know what Saved by the Bell is and you've never felt pain. So that was the good stuff. Do you have any coins to drop in the douchebag Sadaka box this episode and penance for our douchebaggery?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

100%. Yeah. Like jumped out. It didn't even jump out at me. It like punched me in the face in this episode. The whole character of Dirk is just oh yes. A huge problem.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

I literally wrote everything about Dirk. That was what I wrote down.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Yeah. Everything about Dirk. Obviously, him preying on underage women, his like students. Like so, so problematic.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Not technically underage.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

It's not. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I misread my you're right. I wrote undergraduate. I meant undergraduate. Yes. Not underage.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Still super, super creepy and douchebaggy.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yes. Douchebaggy. Right. I I walked us too far and now I have to walk us back a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Yeah, it's a little too far. That becomes the illegal, the illegal box that we have to.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

It's the police box that we're the blue thing and we're calling the police on him if that were the case. But yes, douchebag Sadaka box, uh him being a creep to the undergrads.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

Yeah, so if we can just if we can just shove Dirk inside the Sadaka box, I don't know if I don't know if he's worth any money. I don't know if we can actually uh you know donate him for charity. His PhD in poetry is certainly not worth anything. Certainly not.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

I say as an English major, everybody, that was not me throwing shade.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

I mean it obviously wasn't. No, charities would probably be happy if we if we kept this guy away from them. True. And then Nick. He's a little sidekick douchebag in this episode for playing into Dirk's predatory practices.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Accurate.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Dirk is the real reason why we did we didn't get to this episode for two weeks. We were just so distraught by the character of Dirk.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

And it's why we are having trouble remembering specifics, is because we just had to wipe our mind clean of this jerk, you know? Like, ugh, couldn't keep him in our brain. Repress, repress.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Had to scrub our repress, repress cerebral cortexes with soap after all.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Exactly. I also wrote down, just as a little end note, not that Cece is anywhere near dirk. I don't even want to put her in the same segment, but she is using sex a little manipulatively. I will say that. I don't remember how or why, I just wrote that note down, so she must have been. I do remember, I do remember that she's totally like, you know, dangling Schmidt at the end of a string and thinking that she can do whatever and taking away all his agency and being a little dismissive of him. I do remember those. I do remember that vibe.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

You remember that vibe? It was there.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah, yeah. I do want to say that for as bad as Dirk is, Martin Starr, great actor. Good job. Oh. Martin Starr. I recognized him right away because I used to watch Silicon Valley. I never finished it, but I used to watch Silicon Valley. I want to say that my wife pointed out he was also in Freaks and Geeks, I think. I'm not gonna check it. But if you Google this actor, you can find out uh what else he's been in.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

To your own damn research audience.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Why would why would we, the producers of this podcast, do choose to listen to any research ahead of time?

SPEAKER_03 15:44

This reminds me, every time we're not recording the episode, I think about how I should always be throwing in disclaimers that I am not an expert on Judaism. I am not an expert on Newgirl. I barely Google successfully. No, that's not true.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

But you're an expert. You're an expert. You're certainly an expert in Newgirl. You've watched it enough times.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Well, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

And I think you are expert enough in Judaism.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

No, I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. See, that's what we disclaimer, disclaimer. Don't listen to Jay. He's not an expert on experts. Exactly. Expert on experts, that's funny. Enthusiast. How about that? You know, sometimes all you need is a good enthusiast. Yeah. A well, well-read, educated enthusiast. That's right. A Jew thusiast, as you might say.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

A Jew thusiast, that is what I am, yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Harold and Jumar. Do you have any other trivia for me?

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Not other than the Harold and Jumar quote.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Well, I also want to point out another thing that our Eagle Eye fan, my wife, noticed in the credits of this episode. Oh yeah. Presumably the credits of all the episodes, but we only just noticed it. Lucky number 18 is that the score for this show, with exceptions, right? There was another person who helped, and also Zoe De Chanel, right, with the theme song. But the score, generally speaking, was by Ludwig Gorensen. Does that name name mean anything to you?

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Oh, Ludwig Gurens. Yeah, I love Ludwig Gunn. No, I don't know anything. Tell me.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

He did Black Panther. He did the Mandalorian theme.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Oh, dang.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

He did the Oppenheimer music.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Oh my gosh. What's he doing on New Girl?

SPEAKER_01 17:34

He did well, this is very early. This is 2010 we're talking about, right? He also did Sinners. Very good movie if you haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Oh yeah. I have, in fact.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Right?

SPEAKER_03 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

And Tenant. Those were the notable ones I figured I would mention here.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

Cool. Oh, good for him. Getting his little start on Newgirl. I don't know that he got a start on New Girl.

unknown 17:54

Good for him!

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Yeah, good for New Good for New Girl, really, I guess. Good for New Girl. Yes, good for New Girl. Yeah, he's a he's a very talented composer. My wife's favorite composer. Wow. Followed very closely by Hans Zimmer, of course, as a close second. Of course.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

That's a name I've heard.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Apologies to Ludwig. Was that his name?

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Well, he he's gonna be on the he's gonna be on the podcast actually. So uh you can apologize to him in person, then.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

I will. It'll be extremely embarrassing. Well, that was a fun production fact, Jay. Do you have any more? Do you want to bring us over to the Oive Edit Bay?

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Oive, I do, because there is a big continuity issue in this episode.

SPEAKER_03 18:45

Oh dear, oh dear, what is it?

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Oh no. The mural of the sexy space tea party isn't in the back of the closet anymore. It's just full on in Winston's wall of his room. There's a shot in his room and it's just like huge and behind him.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

You're right. And also, wasn't the whole thing about that that the landlord was making them paint over it too?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

So either they removed the wall from the closet, because we're not we're not gonna break the diegesis here and pretend like it's a set, right? No, it's just uh obviously it's an apartment. So they either ripped out the back wall of his closet and chose to somehow extend it and paint extra sides to it and and make it the main wall for his room, or what else? Or they took a picture and then they recreated it and they painted it themselves on the wall of Winston's room and actually covered up the one in the closet. I don't know. What do we think? What what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Gotta be that. Gotta be that. I think they loved it so much that we're like, all right, landlord, we'll paint over that one, and then they just projected a new version onto the wall, had a mural day. There you go. Where's the mural day episode? You know? That's good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

That is good stuff. I love a mural. Love a good mural. We love a mural. I feel like I see so many on buildings that I'm like, there should be more murals in the world, you know? Every building with a blank wall, put a mural on it.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Legally mandated.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Legally mandated.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

Legally mandated murals.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

But maybe not of sexy space tea parties.

SPEAKER_03 20:27

Oh, don't you love it though?

SPEAKER_01 20:29

I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm like, the producers of the show now breaking the fourth wall. They loved that painting so much. They were like, well, we can't get rid of this. We have to put it somewhere. It's so true. In the loft.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

We cannot lose this.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

We cannot lose this artwork. It is so good. So now we gotta keep our eyes out. If they film in Winston's room again, we gotta see. We gotta keep an eye out for it.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Gotta do a mural watch. And you know what else we're gonna keep an eye out for, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 20:56

We're gonna be observant Jews. Boop-a-doop doop doop. That's the exact music I use for it. How do you know? Is it? I have to assume. I have to assume it is.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

Welcome to Observant Jews, the section in which we find out if we two Jews observed any Jewish jokes this episode, or the elusive episode bear or bears. Yep, those are the two things we are also trying to be observant and watch for. So Jewish jokes or content. Jay, did you find anything?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Aunt Frida at Seder. That's right. But again, I don't remember the context.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

It's when CeC puts on a suit jacket. It's when they have the Sex Critery conversation. And she's wearing like a, I don't know, shoulder pad 80s kind of a blazer suit jacket. And he's like, if you're gonna seduce me, don't dress up like my Aunt Frida at Seder. Right. Which is funny. Right, right, right. I also included, even though it's not real. Really? But it kinda is. Uh, one of the college girls' names is Miriam, which is an extremely Jewish name. You ever meet a Miriam? She's probably Jewish. Uh it's the Hebrew way to say Mary. Good eye, good ear.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Catching that.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Thank you. Thank you very much. Miriam was uh Moses' sister. Neat. Fun fact. Okay. It's not that fun, I guess. How about a bear? Rahra. How about a bear?

SPEAKER_01 22:27

That's fun. Yes, they were listing famous cartoon bears right at the top of the episode.

SPEAKER_03 22:34

That's right. Strong bear start to the episode.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Strong bears.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Characters with tops but no bottoms. Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, and pretty much any kind of bear except for Yogi, because that's naked with a tie.

unknown 22:46

Good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

And that leads me very nicely into the Schmid bit of the episode. Are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

I'm so ready.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

Schmid bits, of course, dear listeners, are when I tell Jay a little tidbit about Judaism based on something that Schmidt said or did this episode. And this episode we are in fact talking about when Schmidt lists off those bears because we are talking about Paddington Bear and kind. Okay? Follow me here. The story of Paddington Bear is, of course, about a little walking-talking bear from Peru who is adopted by a London family after being found lost and alone at Paddington Station in London. It turns out, as confirmed by the author of the books, Michael Bond, that the story was inspired by the children of the Kinder Transport. Do you know about Kinder Transport, Jay?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

It sounds like transporting kindergarten children, like in a wagon or like biking, or like everyone hold on to the rope and we're gonna walk down the street.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Would that it were so whimsical? It's gonna be depressing. It's about a Holocaust thing. Okay, so I mean your etymology was correct. It is about transporting children. Okay. Um so yeah, it's literally German for transport, children's transport.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Oh no, oh no.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

But it was a rescue operation. It's okay. I mean, it's like almost a positive version. It was a rescue op of an element of the Holocaust. It was a rescue op, yes. So it was a rescue operation carried out after Kristallnacht, leading up to World War II. Of course, things were getting bad for Jewish people in Germany. So Kristallnacht happens, and then this operation is carried out in which almost 10,000, mostly Jewish children, were evacuated from Nazi-occupied Europe and brought to Great Britain and placed in British foster homes and hostels and schools and farms, I guess. Oh wow. But it is a very sad and tragic fact, as you can imagine, that most of these children never saw their parents again, often being, in fact, the only people in their families to survive the Holocaust. Which, by the way, the Holocaust sometimes is called the Shoah. If you if you ever hear that phrase, that is a pretty Jewish way to say it because it translates to catastrophe or disaster. So in some Jewish circles, the Holocaust is called the Shoah. Okay. So the author of the Paddington series, Michael Bond, he remembers seeing these Jewish refugee children in uh Reading Station, I think is not Reading Station, right? Reading Station in London in the late 1930s. He saw the kids of the kinder transport coming into England. Oh wow. Before he died, he was interviewed and described those memories. He said they all had a label around their neck with their name and address on, and a little case or package containing all their treasured possessions. And then decades later, he would write a little story about a bear meeting people who become his British foster parents at a train station carrying a suitcase and with a little tag around his neck that says, please look after this bear. Thank you. Which is very sad. And apparently, also there's a character in the stories, Mr. Gruber, who is an antique dealer with whom Paddington spends a lot of time, who the book seemed to suggest is a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi-occupied Europe. And apparently that character was actually inspired by Michael Bond's literary agent, Harvey Una, who was a Jewish refugee. Um, Bond, the author, he described his agent as, quote, a lovely man, a German Jew, who was in line to be the youngest judge in Germany when he was warned that his name was on a list. So he got out and came to England with just a suitcase and 25 pounds to his name. Wow. Very sad. Bummer of a Holocaust schmidmit for you, Jay, but there, those are the connections between Paddington Bear and Judaism. Oh boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

I had no idea. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

Yeah, interesting, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Big wow.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

There's um, if you go to London ever, they have little statues, or at least a statue, um, at one of the train stations that represents it shows a bunch of kids coming with their suitcases, but you know, just the kids. Wow. Just the kids. Very sad.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

I can't believe I didn't I didn't know about this.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

Yeah. Maybe you learned it and it's just all the horror of the Holocaust is what sticks in one's mind, you know? Probably. Well, follow me and let's go somewhere a little more positive and bright. And uh let's let's do a draw, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 27:27

Okay. This week I'm gonna be riffing on the idea of we need some space. Okay? Okay. We need some space. So, Winston, of course, in the episode, he is suggesting that Shelby and he could do with some space in the relationship. Now, he doesn't mean to suggest it in that way, kind of a throwaway line because she's going to Mexico, and he's like, Oh yeah, we'll both have some space, right? But then that kicks off the whole Winston plot. Very fun, very exciting. Also, we are dealing with age gaps, a different kind of space. We're dealing with age gaps between Jess and Russell. We are dealing with age gaps between Nick slash Dirk and all the college girls. And crucially, we are dealing with the social distance that those age gaps put between them all. So Jess is worrying that she's not close enough to Russell's stage of life and she starts panic talking about how their bodies are decaying. And on the other hand, Dirk and Nick, I would argue, are not worrying enough about the space between their stages of life and the undergrads. Snaps to that. Yeah, right. And then also sticking up for Schmidt here, Schmidt is trying to create a little bit of space, I would say, by trying to maintain his autonomy and agency against CC being so domineering. Oh, yeah, that's right. Because he's like trying to get work done and he's like telling her no, basically. Like, no, I really have to focus on this. And she's like, nah, brah. You know what I mean? Like, really not respecting his boundaries, his space, his needing to do other things and not just like drop everything for her. Right. So those are some areas I see, uh, you know, we need some space coming up in the episode. And in the Judaism corner here, we're gonna be talking about space in our relationship with the divine. Okay, with God. And we're gonna talk about this Jewish Kabbalistic uh concept, concept from Kabbalah, mystical Judaism, called Tsimzum.

SPEAKER_01 29:41

Sim card. Sim card. The Sims for that's good. Okay, Sim.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Sim. So imagine God as a primordial infinite light. Okay, that's like the starting premise here. Okay. God as the primordial infinite light. In fact, there's a Hebrew phrase for this, or ein sof, which literally means light without end. Or ain sof. Okay. So sort of like the totality of reality, right? Just infusing ev it is everything. And the idea is that in order to make other stuff that's uh kind of not God or to let creation exist, come into existence, this God light thing needed to contract. It needed to retract a bit of its infinite self to create a quote vacant space to make room for creation for stuff. And so that is what's referred to as simtum because that means contraction or retraction. Okay. So the idea is, you know, this infinite, all-infusing presence contracts itself back in some way to allow finite reality to exist alongside it or within it or however you want to think of it. It's God shrinking back some of itself. Okay. By the way, soapbox here, doop, doop, doop. Where is the Bible translation that is calling God an it? Do you know what I mean? There's all these motions to like make things different genders. I want to like degender the whole thing. I need a translation that is just God is it, uses the universe. Because if you hear the way people talk about the universe, like, oh, the universe didn't want me to do this, you know, or like, oh, I'm, I hope the universe brings me blah, blah, blah, blah. It's all that's just how people used to say God, you know what I mean? Like, it's just when it was just when God was the vernacular, now it happens to be the universe. So, anyway, where is the Bible translation that's an it and uses a lot of universe synonyms for God? Anyway, clip clop clop, getting off my soapbox.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

I uh no, that's a great point. I suspect that as we understand more about the nature of reality and competing ideas and spaces for holding what we learn about the world through science, with people still wanting a space for religion. I imagine that, you know, if if using the pronoun he has lasted for however many thousands of years now, that using it could last for many tens of thousands in the future instead. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. Fabric of the universe sense.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Like Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

You can't argue that reality doesn't exist, really, right?

SPEAKER_03 32:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

I think therefore I am. There is something. You could say it's all an illusion or it's all fake, but that's still something, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

So this idea of Simpson contracting, contracting a bit of itself, yes, so that other things can exist alongside infinity. So some people like this idea, and if they like it, they toss around the idea that it could be an explanation for non-omnipotence, you know, as as well as free will. By the way, have you ever heard of the problem of evil in philosophy? Problem of evil?

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Uh, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 33:20

It's not a Jewish idea.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

My guess is yes, but how about you say it so that I don't just list a different thing?

SPEAKER_03 33:26

Yeah, let me tell you about the problem of evil. So I think this is traced back usually to the ancient Greeks, but it is discussed in the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People, which was written by a rabbi, Rabbi Harold Kushner. Okay. So um the idea about the problem of evil, the argument goes like this. Imagine a triangle. Okay, now we're talking about the theoretical nature of God.

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Sure, the holy trinity.

SPEAKER_03 33:52

The holy trinity. It's a plot twist. We're this is a Christian podcast after all. No, no, no, no. In one corner of the triangle, you've got omnipotence.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Okay, like the idea that God would be if there were God all powerful. I just said if there were God. It's clear I don't really like super believe in God, right? Okay, so no, no, no. I mean I do, you know, it all depends on what you mean by God. Whatever. In one corner, God, omnipotent, all-powerful, omnipotent, okay, like can do anything. In another corner, we have omniscience, all knowingness, knows everything. Okay. And then in the last corner, we have omnibenevolence, which in other words means a fully good, loving entity. Okay. Goodness. So Rabbi Kushner's argument, um, which is sort of what resonates with this idea of God retracting part of itself, limiting itself to allow life to do life, is that God is actually not omnipotent. He takes away that end of the triangle. He's like, you can't have all three things. You need to pick two. And the one that he takes away is omnipotent, not all powerful. God can't do everything in this in this rabbi's mind. There's an interview in which he phrases his philosophy this way, talking about his grappling with some tragedies in his life. He says, The theological conclusion I came to is that God could have been all powerful at the beginning, but he chose to designate two areas of life off limits to his power. He would not arbitrarily interfere with laws of nature, and secondly, God would not take away our freedom to choose between good and evil. So I don't know. That's just one thing that reading about the idea of Simpson made me think about. I remember hearing that once. Sure. Even though I'm sort of drawing that connection, I don't think other people necessarily are, but whatever. But, you know, God intentionally withdrawing part of itself in deference to creation, in deference to natural order so that life can exist. Not just being like completely puppet mastering and all-consuming, you could say giving humanity and the fabric of reality some space.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Am I right?

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Give me some space from your all-omnipotent powers.

SPEAKER_03 36:08

Even though I also personally do like to think of God as the fabric of reality, as you said. So that's a little bit. But whatever. There's many ways to think about and explore the ideas of the universe, man, and God and the divine and the source, whatever you want to Can I yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Can I muse on that triangle for a second?

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Please do. Please do.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

The uh omnibenevolent thing. That is the weak link in my mind. Not to say that uh I'm not taking a stance on whether God has any of these things or all of these things or a combination of these things, but in what you're saying, right? All powerful can do anything. That's that's very clear uh cut and clear. The power to to know anything, also cut and clear. Any question that could be asked could be answered in in a way, right? Even if it took a bazillion years to answer. Omnibenevolent is crazy subjective to what groups perceive as moral, going back many episodes to the idea of like relative morality, right? Of it being different across different groups and different times. I wonder if in the future any religious group that really believes in a god strongly, I wonder if they would actually adapt that enough. Maybe not to say that God isn't omnibenevolent, but that our understanding of what that third pillar is really isn't quite full. Because we would be like, oh, cancer is awful, right? Like, like it's a terrible thing, right? Like it shouldn't exist if there was a God that was all powerful and everything, you know, and and was omnibenevolent, then they would just they would be able to give and I it the the omni-knowing thing, it's like, oh, does God not know that you have cancer? He's all powerful and he's all benevolent, but he just doesn't know that you have cancer, so he can't help you, right? Like that's not the case, right? That feels pretty weak. But anyways, sorry, what I'm really trying to say is I wonder if there would be like eventually, and I'm talking very far in human history, if we get that far, that uh I wonder if like there'd be a shift to thinking more like, well, if there is a god, and again, maybe this is just a little too whimsical fabric of the universe, like not strong god language, soft god language.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

That's a good phrase. Is like, well, it's all part of life. You know what I mean? Like life has its ups and its downs, and the omni-benevolent pillar isn't just what we think is good for us, it's what's good for the natural cycles of the universe, like you were talking about, right? The laws of physics dictate currently that cancer can exist, right? And it's and it's just life trying to do its thing, even though it doesn't help us, you know. It's like we see it as broken, but it's just the way that physics works, right? And maybe the omnibenevolence will just morph into omni uh consistent or something, right? Like something more based in sort of a holistic like yin and yang almost, right? Like good and bad is encapsulated in whatever that third pillar evolves into.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

What do you think about this music? Do you think I'm crazy?

SPEAKER_03 39:14

No, yeah, no. I think I think that's good musings. And I also think that a lot of people who maybe do believe in a slightly more not anthropomorphized, but like active agent having agency having God.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Sure. You can say anthropomorphized. I like that.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

Well, but not that they probably don't actually think of him as a dude in the sky, right? But like if they think of a god taking action in people's lives or like orchestrating anything to any extent. Like an interventionist god. Right. Interventionist, that's the word. They probably already would say, like, well, we don't really know what the goodness is, you know, because bad things obviously do happen, but they still might they'll believe, well, there's a bigger plan, or like, you know, it seems bad, but might end up being good, or you know, it's just it's good to have laws in the universe, even, you know, like it's good to let the universe unfold as it naturally would with order. I don't know, you know, there's lots of different ways. I think even with the people who would argue for omnibenevolence, because obviously, if you like read any of the textual musings on God in the Tanakh in the Bible, there are a lot of themes of like goodness, goodness. And also I would say, interestingly, I mean, I find this kind of woo-woo and strange too, but those people who are dropping acid, Jay, everybody's talking and taking, you know, taking the mushrooms. Everybody talks about how they commune with the universe, and you know what the universe is? Love. It's just an all-suffusive, all-encompassing, all-pervasive love. And that's what I'm like, all right.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

Yeah, that's the ones who don't have a bad trip.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, the universe is hate, man. It's all hate.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

I think there's something, maybe not on a divine level, but there's totally something to like ego death. You know what I mean? Like some mind-altering state that gives you a slightly more third person perspective on yourself and your life. Yeah. Neat.

SPEAKER_03 41:16

So anyway, there's this other thing called hesterpanim.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Join us next time when we drop acid.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah, so there's this related concept that I'll just mention before we wrap up called hesterpanim, which means the hiding of the face. Um, it's an idea of like the concealed God. Okay. It is a phrase that appears in the Torah. And then the sages latched onto it as a framework for exploring God's absence in history. Because the rabbis were looking around and they're like, well, I don't really see God doing stuff anymore. Like maybe he did in the book, but I don't know. He doesn't seem to be doing stuff anymore. So they came up with this, you know, they latched onto this Hesterpaneme, the hiding of the face, um, God concealing himself. By the way, it is fairly standard Jewish theology that the age of prophecy, when God was supposedly, you know, speaking to humanity directly, ended around the uh 5th or 4th century BCE. Um, that's around the time of the final prophets in the Tanakh in the in the Bible. Sure. And the Talmud, this is an interesting thing I found. I liked this quote. The Talmud says that when the temple was destroyed, prophecy was, quote, was taken from the prophets and given to fools and children. Which is kind of an interesting idea, I thought. I don't know. No more prophecy for the prophets. Now the only people who will ever prophesy are kids and fools. Interesting. Whimsical, you know? Yeah. Anyway, Histophonem is the idea that God is withdrawn from the world, concealed from the world, and and from participation in history. So as you can imagine, going back to the kinder transport, this absence of God idea is also discussed a lot in connection with the Holocaust for obvious reasons.

SPEAKER_00 42:59

Right?

SPEAKER_03 43:00

A lot of Jews are like, you know, where is God in history? If you would let this happen. But you'll also hear Hester Panim connected to the book of Esther, in which God's name is never mentioned once through the whole thing. But, you know, the hand of God can be seen throughout the narrative, they say, as if the concealed God is working behind the scenes. So Hesterpanim. Hidden God, retracted God, concealed God. Give us some space, God. Also, God's old if if he's been hanging around as the primordial goo of existence, and we're super young. So that's an age gap.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Huge age gap.

SPEAKER_03 43:35

Yeah, age gap. The biggest. It all came back around. Age gap. So I've been thinking about the episode after all this insane stuff that I just talked about. Um, I was thinking a lot about I was thinking about relationships and retracting a bit of yourself for the other person to exist.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 43:55

Like it's kind of the opposite of what Schmidt currently. Wants. He wants to be the wind the air the air that she exhales to be the air that he inhales until they die back and forth die. So that's not really letting the other person exist in their own self, in their own space, right? Cece, I would say, could do with a little tsimtuming, you know, to let Schmidt have some room to like do his work, to have some agency in the relationship, God forbid. I think that, you know, she should retract a little bit. I did write. Is she retracting a bit of her omnipotence when Schmidt when she lets Schmidt choose fantasy location number three? Is that a gesture of shrinking back a little bit to have, I don't know, is that enough? I don't know. How do we feel about how Schmidt? I mean, maybe you don't remember how Cece and Schmidt's dynamic played out this episode, but I remember being put off by it. I remember being like, Cece, you're being a little bit of a a jerk here. Or the space between Jess and Russell, if you'd like to talk about that instead, how how consequential that age gap is.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Um, I think I think Cece, you have a point there. Cece needs to give Schmidt space to be the adult that he is, right? He's uh he's a real business-y office guy who's like got, I don't know, these like big boy responsibilities that he takes very seriously, right? And it's like it's his livelihood, he's very proud of it or whatever. Like gotta make room for that. And I mean, Russell just needs to give Jess enough space for the the other like seven seasons or however many are left. Seven seven to nine seasons, something like that. Uh I think I think if you can give her just just enough that, then she'll catch up in age uh to to be his forty-two years old. It's extremely old, and they'll be the same age, because that's how aging works. And then for Winston and Shelby, uh they they don't need space in the same way that we were talking about. Or not not in the way that was like accidentally meant, you know, or or received as like, sure, in any healthy relationship you need time to like have alone time and stuff like that. And and that's just what Winston meant. And so they just need to communicate better.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

Yeah, they do. They're like and yeah, you're right. They're like in that early relationship thing where it's like, no space. We m I want you to be all encompassing primordial, infinite life, light of the universe, and me not be separate at all, right? Right. And only only with time will they need to still remember that they're own people again. It's nice. It's nice that they're in the no space phase. Good for Winston, good for Shelby. Well, this has been a wild ride. Thank you, Jay, and thanks everyone out there for listening. You can email us at JewGirlpodcast at gmail.com. Write in and tell me everything I got wronged and how mad you are about all the theology I just tossed around this episode. But hey, I invite you to join us next time when we will see Paddington Bear playing book up with college kids.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Join us next time when anthropomorphized God, self-described with a name tag and all, shows up to tell Ludwig Gorenson how he is his favorite composer just above Punk Zimmer.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Tune in next week when we will write the screenplay for Harold and Jumar.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Join us next time when we are getting our PhD in poetry. Sucks for poems.

SPEAKER_01 47:38

Join us when Russell admits that he was alive when the Beatles broke up and that he was really distraught.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

Join us next time when Russell admits that he's 87 years old and is smuggling people on acid in the back of a car over the border.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Join us next time when Russell admits that he was the original drummer in the Beatles before Ringo and before Peter Best.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Before Pete Best 2.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Justice for Pete Best.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

Why'd you quit, Russell? Justice for Pete Best.