Do You Believe In Miracles?

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.

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Transcript

Transcript

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Good morning! Good morning! Alright, for anyone who has not already done this, I invite you to join me.

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In taking a moment to breathe, to… become, uh… well, I was gonna say, sit up as straight as you can, but… whether you're standing, or sitting, or lying, whatever position allows you to feel sort of like you can breathe most deeply.

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And feel most, um, alert. Kind of alert and activated, but also relaxed, not like you're exerting, but just like you're… You know, if you're sitting up, your spine is just sitting… One vertebrae on top of the next, so that they can all support one another and support your head.

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And you can take a deep breath. Exhale, become really present. Good morning, good morning.

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So we wrap ourselves in tradition and blessing. Baruch Atta Aronai, Asher kitsana, vanu.

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Lahita Tef Betsitzit.

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Alright. Alright, so here's this tune, here's this tune I wanted to share with you.

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The… composer of this tune is Hillel Tigue.

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Who is the Chazan at Ikar? In Los Angeles.

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And… It takes a lot to, um… I was gonna say displace, to create an alternative.

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To Sheffa Gold's OZ Vizimrad Yah, which everybody loves. But this is… this is a strong contender, so… Let's see… Yeshua.

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Shua. I'd try that.

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Whoa!

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Yeshua.

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Okay, the words, you can see them on your screen, but anyone who's listening later and you can't see them, OZ is my strength.

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Vazimrat Yah is God's song, as inspiration, is grace.

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Whoa.

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I invite you to put in the chat this morning what these words mean to you.

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It's actually… OZ is my strength. It says, God is my strength in my song, but it's… well, you can understand it a lot of ways, but OZ, my strength, Vizimrat Yah, God's song.

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Will be, for me. A savior.

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Alright, one last time. Oziva, Zimrah.

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Ozzy vazim Rahia.

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I'm just reading these little… responses here… I'm strengthened by the song of the divine every day, my breath… is strength and connects me to God, helps me reach for courage, strength, mmm, as my mom weathers a challenging time with her health.

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Indeed, indeed. Alright, um, Ann Merle.

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Do you wanna take it away and take us into a little bit of, um… of embodied blessings of the morning.

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Yeah.

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Wait, Ann Merle, you, uh, you put us on mute so we can see you. Ah, there you go, there you go.

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Oops, okay. Okay. So everybody, Mishkan is grounded.

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Judaism. That's what I take to be… The bottom line truth of what we're doing here.

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And I want you to… I want to let you know that we can expe… band our breath. We can learn to take more breath in.

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And so, I want to… you to imagine that your torso, your trunk, is like a big backpack.

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Full of breath, and we're going to take in Little by little, and expand our ribs, so this is… That one point, kind of technical, but at one point really spiritual. So first.

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Taken a little bit of breath as you can. Take in a little more!

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Take in a little more! Now, imagine you are so full of breath, full of joy. The more breath, the more joy.

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And then take in just a little more. And if you can exhale out long and slow through your nose. If you can, through your mouth is okay, too.

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You've just physically banded, and simultaneously.

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Spiritually expanded. It's the same thing! So now we're gonna do the opposite.

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We're going to take all the breath out.

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And then we're gonna fill up little by little. Inhale.

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Inhale… Inhale, expand, feel the ribs expanding, feel the joy expanding.

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And again, out long and slow.

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Just one more time, inhale, bring the breath in. Bring more feel!

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These muscles, these ribs coming out. And then exhale.

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Now, as we go through the singing and the song, let's… Feel your capacity for joy expanding.

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It's amazing! Thank you, Lizzie!

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Thank you, Anne Merle. As usual.

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Energized, and awake. Alright, well, with this.

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I will invite people To, uh… let's see, oops, I… This was on the wrong screen here.

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Find ourselves… let's find ourselves at Barcel. So if you're able to stand, wonderful, um, you can join us in Baruch Hu.

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From whatever position you're in, standing or sitting. I'm going to stand.

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Face east, and feel your knees being a little limber, you can bend them, you can bend your waist.

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And he is then our waist, and we come back up, as we say.

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God's name, Baruch Huet, Adonai HaMevorah.

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Baruch Adonai HaMevorah! Ah, Leo Lam Va'er!

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Baruch. O sea shalom!

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Ou vorait etacolle. Or hadash al-Zion Ta'ir.

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Baruchatonai, hameor oat. Blessed are you, the creator of all of the lights.

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The greater lights, the smaller lights, the lights that we can see, the lights that we can't see.

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Alright, we are loved by a great, unending, powerful, abundant. All-encompassing love.

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Take a moment to… if you're wearing a tallit. Can sort of wrap it around yourself, and… Remind yourself that this talus is a… It's like a physical embodiment of that love.

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But if you're not wearing one, that's okay. And just think about all of the hands that have wrapped you in love?

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I found this, uh, well, hang on, I'm gonna go back to this poem here. Oh, can you see this?

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For love? Yeah? Okay. Um… Let's see… this is a Rami Shapiro.

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I think this one's in the Reconstructionist Sea Dure. That's just… it's a beautiful one.

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Um… We are loved by an unending love.

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We are embraced by arms that find us even When we are hidden from ourselves, we are touched By fingers that soothe us.

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Even when we are too proud for soothing. We are counseled by voices that guide us.

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Even when we are too embittered to hear. We are loved by an unending love.

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We are supported by hands that uplift us even in the midst of a fall. We are urged on by eyes that meet us.

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Even when we are too weak for meeting. We are loved by an unending love.

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Embraced, touched, soothed, counseled. Hours are the arms.

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Ours are the fingers, the voices. Ours are the hands, the eyes, the smiles.

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We are loved by an unending Love by Ruch Atta Arunai.

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There are a… Gather the four corners of our tzitzid, hold them over our eyes.

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Let me say, with a full breath, embodying all of the oneness.

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But we're somehow connected to in this moment, and at every moment.

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Yisrail… I don't know why… Hello, hey, no!

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I don't know…

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The Hayu had Varim.

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Bashivitacha, of Shok Becha, of Kumecha. Ukshar Tamlot Aliadacha.

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The Hayuletafot.

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Uvihishare. Move forward to Mihamocha.

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So the prayer where we're… Remembering crossing the sea.

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And making it through hard things, things that we thought we could not do, and then… Miraculously did and did together.

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So, we'll take this moment for a healing. Prayer to set that intention.

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And if you want to put folks' names in the chat.

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For people you're thinking about, or say their names out loud.

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Meredith, Sherry… Aiden.

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Ellen's mom.

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Everyone on your lists here.

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Friend Laura. When he got leap.

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Yumiyahu, Asher, and Miriam. Everyone in our community.

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Struggling with just physical health. Mental health, struggling with fertility.

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Struggling to stay pregnant. Struggling in recovery… striving… May our prayers help every single one of you and of them.

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Find success, find strength. Find vision.

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Fella.

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Blessing Father.

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Ooh, for daisy no math.

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Kedo. He's right about all the time.

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I don't know, Yisrael, God. Yisrael, I-I-I

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So we're getting into the part of the Torah that, if you start reading it literally.

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It can become… challenging, and it sort of makes you realize, well, it's a good thing that for thousands of years, the Torah has not been read literally, it's been read, um, metaphorically.

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Um, and… You know, the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, well, that's talking about money, it's not talking about, you know, poking out somebody's actual eye.

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You know, somebody gathering sticks on Shabbat, you don't kill that person, even though the Torah describes, you know, taking that person out and putting them to death. No, no, it's just a way of expressing that, you know, let's take Shabbat seriously, everybody, and let's do it together.

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So that we can build a community where we understand that productivity and making money and doing things is not the be-all and end-all of being a human being, but actually Being a human being, and… Um, just existing, you know? Like, the challenge of just existing and celebrating our mere

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Exalted existence is the challenge, and so, um, if we can't do that.

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If we can't do that, maybe it's like. Maybe the Torah's saying, it's like!

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It's like you're dead, you know? It's like… if you can't do that, then you may as well… but they're not saying, actually, take somebody out and stone them to death.

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Um, but we're in the book of Numbers now, in the place where we're beginning to orient ourselves the Israelites are orienting themselves toward entering the land of Israel.

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Um, and last week, actually, somebody wrote me an email. They said, I read this week's tour portion, and there's so much, like.

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You know, go in there and destroy their idols and kill them, and how are we supposed to read this today And my answer was like, oh, well, good thing nobody's read Torah literally in thousands of years, right? Like, no, you know, the… that kind of triumphalist, militaristic.

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Dominant language, domineering, dominant. Um, I, you know, for those of us, I mean, I just… like, it kind of, um… makes us very uncomfortable. However.

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Um, this is the first time in 2,000 years when there's been even the opportunity to read Torah, literally, in a way that would make any sense.

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Relative to the words on the page, and the idea of going into the land of Israel and exerting dominance, or defending the land.

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Um, and so I, I just, I want a name that we're not in an either-or type place. Like, for 2,000 years, Jews had to read this stuff Um, metaphorically.

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Any of the stuff about going into the land of Israel, because that wasn't a possibility.

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Um, and now, it is. However, Jews have, well, not even 2,000… 3,000 years of practice of reading Torah metaphorically and for its spiritual and moral messaging, and not for its… Military advice. So, um… As we read Parshat Shlah Chacha.

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Um, and we look at and discuss the question of. What was it about this generation? What was it about their orientation.

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Toward, um, toward the land, or toward whatever the land metaphorically represents.

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Why was it that they were not able to go inherit it?

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They were poised, they were ready, they were the, um, they were the… the newly freed from the land of Egypt Right? They were traversing the desert, they were pointed toward the land of Israel. They were ready to go in

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This was their future. And, um… And as we will see, as we read here, um… it ends up not being their future.

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Um, so, why was that? What was it that they did?

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Or what was their orientation that made it such that God said, no, no, I don't think so, not you?

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So, um, here we are, Parshat Shalach Lecha. Alright. So first, I'm gonna do a little bit of summarizing here, because it's long First, God says to Moses.

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Saying, Send agents. Shalachlecha and Ashim. Kenan.

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Go send spies agents to scout out the land. Which I'm giving to the Israelite people, send one participant from each of their ancestral tribes Each one a chieftain. So people who are respected chiefs of every single tribe.

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So Moses picks out people. Each one being men of consequence.

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They articulate all their names here, names, names, names, names, names. You can see them from the different tribes.

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When Moses sent them to scout the land of Canaan, he said to them.

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Go up. Go up. Here, let's see. Um, Aloo! So now, if you've ever wondered why is, like, going to Israel called making Aliyah? It's an aloo!

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Z. The Negev. Um… go up to the land. It was, you know, it was a literal going up, like an ascension.

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Um, but that's how it's referred to in the Torah, too. Go up to the land.

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Um, into the Negev, and onto the hill country. See what kind of country it is.

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Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak? Few or many as the country in which they dwell, good or bad? Are the towns in which they live, open or fortified? Is the soil rich or poor? Is it wooded or not?

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Take pains to bring back some of the fruit of the land.

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Now, as it happened, it happened to be the season of the first ripe grapes.

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That's funny, I kind of envision Moses being like, I've heard the grapes are really good, and they're in season, so can you bring some back?

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You know? Um, like, it's… Like, not about… what we're gonna see is they bring back these enormous grapes, but I kind of envision Moses just being like, oh, you know, they're in season, bring them back. Okay, so they went up, they scouted the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rechov.

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To Lehobama, um, or Levo Chamat. Um, they went up into the Negev. They came to Hevron.

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Where lived? Ahiman, Shezai, and the Taumai, and the Anakites. Now, Chevron was founded 7 years before Tzuan of Egypt. This is actually interesting, again, Chevron remains a town.

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In the greater land of Israel, in the West Bank, in what Palestinians would call Palestine, where Jews feel a deep sense of connection, and we have biblical history, but also 200,000 Palestinians live.

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So even at this time, when the Israelites were going into the land, there were people there, and there were people there even including in Um, the cities with biblical history, even as far back as the Bible.

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They reach the Wadi Eshkol, and there, they cut down with a single cluster of grapes. It had to be born on a carrying frame by two of them!

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Because the grapes are so enormous, and pomegranates and figs. The place they were was named Wadi Eshkol because of the cluster that the Israelites had cut down there. At the end of 40 days.

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They return from scouting the land. They went straight to Moses and Aaron, and the whole Israelite community.

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At Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. And they made their report to them, and to the whole community as they showed them the fruit of the land.

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And this is what they told them. We came to the land that you sent us to. It does indeed flow with milk and honey, and here is its fruit.

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However, the people who inhabit the land are powerful, and their cities are fortified and very large. Moreover, we saw the Anakites there. Anakites Amalekites dwell in the Negev region, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites inhabit the hill country and the Canaanites dwell by the sea along the Jordan.

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Caleb hushed the people before. You can… you can imagine the people are all of a sudden like, what? What? Like, this… I thought this was supposed to be a land without people! For us, a people without a land, and the people are all talking to each other. Caleb, hush the people!

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Before Moses, and said, Let us go up by all means!

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And let us gain possession of it. We shall surely overcome it. We can do it!

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But the other men, who had gone up with him said, we cannot attack that people. It is stronger than us.

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Ki Hazakumi menu! It's just interesting, also, in English, it's people, plural.

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In the Hebrew, it's singular, like, they are one unit, they will get us one unit, it is stronger than us.

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Who, Mimenu. Um, they spread calumnities among the Israelites about the land they had scouted, saying.

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Oh, colonies, I'm not good at that word. Um, they basically, they spread rumors and, you know, said, no, it's bad, the country we traverse and scouted is one that devours its settlers!

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All the people we saw, they're of great size. We saw Nephilim, and the Anakites, and that are part of the Nephilim, and we looked like grasshoppers to ourselves!

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And so must we have looked to them, and the whole community broke out into loud cries, and the people wept all night, and the Israelites railed against Moses and Aaron. If only we had died in the land of Egypt!

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The whole community shouted at them. Or if only we might die right here, in this wilderness! Why is God taking us to this land only to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be carried off. It will be better for us to go back to Egypt, and they said one to the other, let's go back to Egypt!

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And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before the assembled congregation of Israelites.

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Only Joshua, son of Nun, and Caleb, son of Yehuna, said.

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No, we can do it! They rent their clothes, and they exhort the whole Israelite community, the land we traverse and scouted is a good land.

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If pleased with us, God will bring us into that land that flows with milk and honey and give it to us. Just don't rebel, have no fear!

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Then of the people in that country, they are our prey for their protection has departed from them, but God is with us. Have no fear of them.

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The whole community threatened to pelt them with stones. The presence of God appeared in the tent of meeting to all the Israelites and said.

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How long will this people spurn me, and how long will they have no faith in me despite all the signs I have performed in their midst. I will send pestilence down and disown them.

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I will make a great nation of you. Far more numerous than they, and Moses was like, when the Israelites from whom's missed you brought them up, hear the news, then they'll say to the other inhabitants of the land, oh, this god, you know, he took them out of Egypt.

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Um, in order to… in order to slay them in the wilderness here. Don't do it, don't do it. God, you're slow to anger, abounding in kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression.

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Remember this? Rav Chesed Behmet, all of that stuff. Visiting iniquity upon the parents and children of third and fourth generations.

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Pardon the iniquities. We say this on Yom Kippur. God, your your, um, your, your, um, your chesed, your loving-kindness, is so big.

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Just forgive them for all of this complaining and whining and faithlessness.

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That they have exhibited. And forgive them, and God says, okay, salakti, I've forgiven them.

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But nevertheless, as my presence fills the whole world. None of these people involved who have seen my presence and the signs that I've performed in Egypt and in the wilderness who have tried me these many times and disobeyed me.

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They shall not see the land that I promised on oath to their fathers.

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None who spurn me shall see it. I'll stop there. That was a lot of Torah.

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But, alright, let's see. Let's… yeah, right, alright, so we've got a few little notes in the chat here.

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Eshkol. I'm having grapefruit after this. Good, go enjoy. I love grapes so much, just imagining these grapes that are so big, you had to carry them on a frame.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.000
What will the neighbors say? Ouch, yes, this is powerful. When I was in Israel.

00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:54.000
Um, let's see… right, this was a phrase I learned about Zionism, that Israel was a land for a people Um, for people without a land, and that… This is… has never been true, not even since the Torah.

00:28:54.000 --> 00:29:08.000
Um, oh, very interesting, and so Martin's just observing, like. There have been people here since the Torah, so saying this is less of a political statement, but actually just minimizing the humanity of the people who have always lived there.

00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:18.000
Um, and I see this happening on all sides. Yes. So, reactions to this, like, what you see here, but also, like.

00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:25.000
What was it, especially if we're reading this metaphorically, especially if, as Jewish people have been reading this.

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:35.000
You know, for thousands of years, the promised land is a spiritual state, or, you know, because for however many thousands of years, this In order to make sense of this.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:45.000
We… we… it wasn't about a physical thing. Replace, but it was about people who dramatically and devastatingly disappointed themselves and God.

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:54.000
What was so problematic? What are we… What are we being warned not to do here?

00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:59.000
Oh, Sandy Sufine, yes, a people… a land for a people for a people without a land. Thank you.

00:29:59.000 --> 00:30:02.000
Mary, go for it.

00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Yeah, it was just… it's really interesting to be in the midst of, um.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:21.000
Watching… so… many of my families that I work with, they… They picked up their quadriplegic kids, and they literally crossed a jungle to get here.

00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:27.000
Um, and many of those families are packing up to go back right now.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:28.000
Yes.

00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:36.000
Um, and… and I heard… I overheard a discussion Um.

00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:45.000
From another volunteer saying to one of the families that they'll never get to see, like, the America that we knew.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:46.000
Yes.

00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:55.000
That we know, um, if they go back now. Um, and… I think that… they're okay with that.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:06.000
Um, and it always… I guess now, in this situation, that it makes me think about, like, how many Israelites must have gone back.

00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.000
Mmm…

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:21.000
Like, literally said… I don't… I don't… I… like, so… for context, many of these families never had healthcare. Like, they had quadriplegic kids.

00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:29.000
Who never had G-tubes, who never got medical… Um, equipment that they needed.

00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:37.000
And… that's why they came here. Um, and yet, like, that's the reality that they're willing to go back into.

00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:52.000
Um, because… this reality is just so… hard. Um, and so it makes me think about all the Israelites who must have gone back.

00:31:52.000 --> 00:32:03.000
Thank you. Yeah. Um, I'm gonna pause the discussion, we will continue, but first we'll say Kadish Yatom, Warner's Kaddish, because I want to make sure we do that.

00:32:03.000 --> 00:32:07.000
As close to 8.30 as possible. But this discussion is not over.

00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:12.000
Um, because I'm genuinely curious about your thoughts on this.

00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:32.000
Alright, so hold, please. Kadish… shh… Um… Um, for whom, this morning Are we saying Kaddish? I saw Sandy Sufian here.

00:32:32.000 --> 00:32:49.000
So, Joan Curlow and Barry Koss.

00:32:49.000 --> 00:32:59.000
David Sufan. Is there anybody who would like to lead us in Kaddish this morning?

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:00.000
I was trying to do that, but I couldn't finish typing.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:06.000
Sergio Carlo.

00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:14.000
Cheryl Rosenberg, Mickey and Marie Schiffman. Ellie, I noticed that Sergio is a name I haven't seen here.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:18.000
With the same last name as Joan, is there… is there a story?

00:33:18.000 --> 00:33:22.000
He's my uncle, my dad's older brother passed away this year.

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:26.000
Did he resemble? I see.

00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:30.000
My other uncle passed away about a month ago. Carlos.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:32.000
Carlos. Oh, what a year. What a year of, uh, what a year of death for your family. My goodness, and loss.

00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:37.000
Thank you, Lexi.

00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:39.000
Thank you, Lizzie.

00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:48.000
Yeah. Um… Gerson by Josef Varivka. Oh…

00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:53.000
I'm sorry for your loss. Um, I see Bonnie and your husband there.

00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:55.000
Um… Yeah.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.000
Thank you. David? We buried him yesterday. Thank you. He was a good man.

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:05.000
Oh, David, I'm sorry for your loss. Yeah…

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:12.000
Kind, loving, 98 years old, Holocaust survivor. But yeah, you know, 10 great-grandchildren.

00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:13.000
Oh my god. Amazing. Amazing, what a life.

00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.000
Rosh Hashem.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:24.000
Um, and then also for Michelle Kaufman, who we buried yesterday, Jacob, uh, Jacob Kaufman's mom.

00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:32.000
Um, would you like to lead us, David? In Khadicia's home?

00:34:32.000 --> 00:34:39.000
Maine.

00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:40.000
Okay, alright. No worries, it's fine.

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:46.000
I know I… I don't want to lead. I'm too frazzled by leading your congregation. You guys can continue I don't have my glasses, so I'm… I'm… Um, yeah.

00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:49.000
Eat cada, bid Kadash Merabah.

00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:54.000
Amen.

00:34:54.000 --> 00:35:02.000
Okay? But Agala, Uvisman Kariv, Amen.

00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:03.000
Amen. I'll follow along.

00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:04.000
Amen Yehe…

00:35:04.000 --> 00:35:05.000
Thanks, maybe by McDonald's. Well, one little money on them.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:13.000
Ulame Almaya.

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:14.000
We had had Darvy at Halevi at Halal Shemay, Takura Shah, Bari.

00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:17.000
And Maya.

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:24.000
Mm-hmm.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.000
Amen…

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:26.000
Amaze.

00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:27.000
I mean…

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:28.000
I mean…

00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:29.000
Amazing.

00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.000
Imru Ame. Hey, Shlama, Rabba mean Shamaya. Ameen.

00:35:31.000 --> 00:35:32.000
Amazing.

00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:33.000
Man…

00:35:33.000 --> 00:35:34.000
I mean…

00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:41.000
Let's say shalom Bhim Romav. Shalom.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:42.000
Amen.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:45.000
Through, I mean…

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:56.000
Oh… Sending you a lot of love, David, so you're in… you're in shiver right now, and… For everybody who's… and Sandy as well.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:05.000
I guess today, Sandy, would be your last… Day of Shiva, right? Oh, she can't, uh, she couldn't figure out how to unmute.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:07.000
Well, there are a lot of people.

00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:10.000
Yeah. Alright, well, uh, last… Last Friday, yeah.

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:15.000
Thank you, Rabbi Lindsay. Bye now. Thank you.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:16.000
Thank you.

00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:17.000
Thank you.

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:28.000
Right? Bye now, lots of love, lots of love. Alright, anybody who's got ongoing thoughts on this Parsha, I'm actually genuinely curious about them.

00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:30.000
Yeah, Glenn.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:40.000
Um, well, I… you know, you… You said to think about this metaphorically. I mean, the… the… Parsha itself is pretty straightforward and says.

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:53.000
God says you didn't believe that I had… could do all these miracles, and… So that's pretty straightforward, but I guess if… If we take God out of it, and it's about people who didn't believe in themselves.

00:36:53.000 --> 00:36:54.000
Yeah, ooh!

00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:57.000
You know, it's about people who didn't have the… courage, and they're facing the unknown. It's absolutely the unknown.

00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:00.000
Nice.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:03.000
Yes.

00:37:03.000 --> 00:37:18.000
And they're, you know, and they didn't have the courage to face that unknown, and… And, you know, maybe it's even facing the future. We all face the unknown, because every day we wake up to, you know.

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:23.000
The unknown, as we learned Friday morning last week, when we woke up.

00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:24.000
Yeah.

00:37:24.000 --> 00:37:33.000
And we have a new reality, and um… So, it's about having the faith in yourself, and in your community.

00:37:33.000 --> 00:37:39.000
Really, because it is about a community. Um, who doesn't have the faith in themselves.

00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:46.000
Yeah, I mean, the line that they say, it is just so… it's, like, so incriminating, just to your point.

00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:52.000
We looked like grasshoppers to ourselves, and we must have looked that way to them, too.

00:37:52.000 --> 00:38:05.000
You know? Um, it's like, um, revealing their subconscious, because usually people don't give you that. Usually, when people are, um, behaving in ways that are, like, passive-aggressive or just aggressive-aggressive.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:18.000
They're not saying the subtext, which is. I feel insufficient. I feel like I'm not enough, and I have to perform you know, whatever this is, whatever drama I'm doing, it's because I actually don't feel like I'm enough.

00:38:18.000 --> 00:38:30.000
Um, and I don't feel strong, and I feel weak, and I have to exert control, and so I'm gonna do… but they're just saying it. They're like, we're terrified, and we feel small, and I'm sure They think we're small, so let's not do any of this. Um.

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:35.000
And they're paralyzed by fear, let's just turn around and go back. Let's go back to the bad place.

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:50.000
And imagine in our minds that it's better than where… than… then, you know, where we're going. Last week, last week on Friday night, this was part of… Um, part of what I talked about was exactly the kind of, uh… we studied this in the Parsha as well.

00:38:50.000 --> 00:39:01.000
The, um, the lure… of going backward, you know, both in time, I mean, like, obviously, locationally, Egypt is backward, but also going back in time.

00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:14.000
As a kind of, like, emotional refuge. But it's an illusion, because you cannot go back in time. It's not a thing. There's not a time machine anybody's discovered that can actually send you back in time.

00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:26.000
And so, to live there, and to try to lure people back is a trap that actually… it… necessarily means you will die in the wilderness, instead of getting to the Promised Land.

00:39:26.000 --> 00:39:40.000
Um, anyway, thank you, thank you for saying that. Um, and Larry and Gail, every time you speak, it's… I know it's just you over there, maybe it's you and Larry, but because you and Larry have a joint Zoom account, I always assume you and Larry are speaking with one voice.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:50.000
Maga, right? Marriott saying we could, or we could trust that they could not handle this reality, and not, oh, overlay moral failing on them.

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:55.000
Fair enough. So, right, what they're saying is we can't handle it, we can't go forward, we'd rather go back.

00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:00.000
Period. It's not a moral failing, it's just they're stating what's true.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:13.000
And maybe it's right, like, it's often Right? The next generation that is able to kind of, like, take the conditions and run with them in a way that Um, that this generation's just being clear, we can't do.

00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:26.000
It troubles me that this justifies, ah, being an aggressor military in the name of God. It doesn't describe protecting their land, but taking land occupied by other people. So, this is an interesting dimension of reading Torah, now that there is a state of Israel.

00:40:26.000 --> 00:40:34.000
Because for 2,000 years, um. Like, what you just wrote, Bonnie, wouldn't have made any sense.

00:40:34.000 --> 00:40:42.000
Right? Like, people occupying, like, we're dispossessed, living in lands all over the, you know, living all over the world.

00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:54.000
Um, and now we really have to contend with this.

00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:02.000
Any other, um… Alright, let's see. Uh, Emmett, I was always taught that this was a slave mentality, not sure what to think about it now.

00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:07.000
Interesting. Oh, and Emmett had to… Emmett had to pop off.

00:41:07.000 --> 00:41:13.000
God is human and flexible. Interesting. Morris, say more?

00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:19.000
I think… That's an interesting aspect here.

00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:24.000
I mean, Moses was able to just… persuade God to change His mind.

00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:29.000
Now, what the devil? What is that all about? But in any case, that's what the Bible is.

00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:41.000
Well, it's not the first time. This is not the first time God has been disappointed in this people, and wanted to, you know, do away with them, and Moses says, God, God, take a deep breath, basically.

00:41:41.000 --> 00:41:43.000
You know, which, by the way, last week we talked about this.

00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:50.000
You know, Moses is at the end of his rope last week, and God says, let me give you 70 elders to distribute the work.

00:41:50.000 --> 00:42:00.000
And it seems that by this week's tour portion, that strategy of helping Moses regain his breath and his composure and his sense of spaciousness has worked!

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:05.000
And so now Moses is back in the position of being able to talk God down from God's…

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:14.000
You know, kind of extreme emotion, right? So anyway, go on

00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:16.000
Where'd you go, Morris? Where'd you go? Oh.

00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:23.000
I'm here, I… at least I can be here. I'm not sure I have too much more to say.

00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:24.000
I mean, the Bible is filled with inconsistencies. That's part of the nature.

00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:29.000
Great.

00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:36.000
That's what makes it so intriguing. The New Testament is much more consistent, has a monotonic quality to it.

00:42:36.000 --> 00:42:40.000
The Mayo Bible, the Hebrew Bible. Does not have a monotonic quality.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:48.000
And it's really interesting that the Christian's decided to include the Hebrew Bible in there. That was not a given.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:56.000
And there are many reasons for that. But I think it just reflects the range, depth.

00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:08.000
Different views. In the Hebrew Bible. I mean, who the devil entered this thing? Who put in the… Book of Job, and uh… you know, that sort of thing, and Ecclesiastes.

00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:15.000
Uh, they hadn't been on steroids or something. I'm not quite sure how that all worked out. In any case, I think this is part of that.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:30.000
Okay.