Welcome to Voices from Zion. Together we'll explore the scriptures in their original Hebrew, wrestle with hard questions, and celebrate the beauty of what unites us. and the respect that deepens when we acknowledge what doesn't.
So welcome to the dialogue. Welcome to the wrestle. Welcome to Voices from Zion. Robbie and the Rabbi.
Well, another exciting adventure today and Uh The the voices from Zion and I got my good friend. Rabbi Heim and we are continuing this adventure. What a time of year to be in with the voices of Zion, because we're coming off Rosh Hashanah into Yom Kippur, and the redemption of Israel is all is all coming around the corner. And so what a cool time to talk about What I know many in the Christian faith would call the The Day of Atonement, I believe, is what we got coming right.
Well, that's exactly the challenge. That we need to consider. What is this day that's coming up? And I just want to stress, of course. I appreciate you're describing in terms of the redemption of Israel.
I know people refer to these days as Jewish holidays, but I really prefer to stress the biblical holy days. Because well Obviously, God is giving to Israel these days as observances That are frankly, obligatory for Israel. Uh they have messages and Everyone who believes in the Bible Inevitably. is seeking those messages. And somehow to integrate.
what these days represent. into his or her life because after all, it's the word of God.
So, I hope it's not just going to be about the redemption of Israel. I think it's a much, much broader canvas than that. Oh, and the word of God is the is The main event, right? I mean, completely by all means. And so I'm excited, actually, very excited to hear where we're going.
Okay, so Let's take it from the top, as it were, considering there are. Three Principal explicit passages in the Torah, by which I mean the five books of Moses. That Talk about this day. There's another one that speaks of it obliquely. We won't be speaking about it today, but let's focus on the main passages.
The main, the primary passage is Leviticus chapter 16. The caveat is that Most of Leviticus chapter 16. Is Describing something very specific. Which is The service Of the high priest in the holy temple. And Unfortunately.
Temporarily We don't have a high priest and we don't have a holy temple.
So Most of Leviticus chapter 16. is not directly practicable today. But From verse 29 and on. We definitely read a message that is current And it shall be a statute forever unto you in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month. And kit?
This formulation. you shall afflict your life. No. Many translations may have it afflict your souls. The Hebrew is nephesh, nafshotechem.
which doesn't carry the Transcended their spiritual connotation of soul. It's more of the life force.
So I'm rendering it as: you shall affect your lives. And shall do no manner of work. The homeborn. or the stranger or proselyte that sojourns among you.
So, we have two central themes in terms of the observance of this day. This Affliction of your lives and the desisting from work. For on this day Shall atonement be made for you? To purify you from all your sins. Shall you be purified before the Lord?
And again, the two themes that pertain to our observance: it is a Sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and you shall afflict your lives. It is a statute forever. And then again, returning to the service. Of The high priest. And Concluding verse 34: This shall be an everlasting statute unto you to make atonement for the people of Israel.
because of all their sins once in the year. And the summation, he referring to Aaron, did as the Lord commanded Moses.
So first, before we get to the observances What's this atonement business? Inevitably, I need to note The word atonement doesn't appear anywhere. That doesn't appear anywhere, of course, in the Bible, because the Bible wasn't written in English.
Okay. The word that Appears in Leviticus chapter 16 and in the other passages that pertain to this day. is Kipur, Kippurim. Kippurim for all the Hebrew experts come from the Three letter root. Kaf pairish.
And whatever atonement means, I'm not 100% sure with respect to the English, but. What's really germane for our purposes is to understand what this three-letter root means. And to do so I'd like us to embark upon A short Survey For all the places This Root appears. in the Bible before it is ever invoked. in the sense of atonement.
Is that too long a list? We have. four verses to consider. And The challenge Maybe the riddle? is to figure out What these have in common.
And what this route means. Because I'll already be a spoiler and tell you at the outset what they clearly have in common. is none of them are talking about atonement.
So Here it goes. First is Genesis chapter 6. Verse 14. This is God's commandment to Noah concerning the ark. Make you an ark of gopher wood with rooms, you shall make the ark.
and shall pitch it within and without with pitch.
So Where's the root? that corresponds to atonement. Pitch Actually, two declinations of the root appear in this verse. You shall pitch it. In the Hebrew Bechafartah, which is the same three-letter root.
As a verb? You pitch it within and without with pitch. The word for pitch is coffer. Which is The noun form. Yeah, beautiful Hebrews.
Very Scientific in this regard. It's always easy to figure out what's going on based upon the three-letter roof, but that's a three-letter roof. What does that have to do with this discussion?
Well, let's continue with our progression anytime. The second place that we encounter. This rule is in Genesis chapter 32. Context Jacob has learnt that his brother Esau is on the march toward him with four hundred men. And Jacob Fuels the heat.
of being in mortal danger. And he sends a lavish gift. to Esau to assuage his wrath. In verse 21 we read, That Jacob's giving his instructions to the messengers who are bringing this lavish gift. And in the end you say.
Behold Your servant Jacob is behind us? For he said that is this is Jacob's reasoning I will In the Hebrew, achapega. which I think most translations render as, I will appease. Him? With the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face.
peradventure he will accept me.
Now, Apez is an Aramaic translation. The literal Hebrew is Acha Parafanav. Which kind of means I will cover over. His face of wrath. And I think that's going to be relevant in our elucidating the meaning of this.
Bruce, but we're not there yet. That's it for Genesis. We move on to Exodus. And the first place that we encounter this root in Exodus. is in chapter 16.
Chapter 16. We read about The manor. And what's relevant for our purposes is The way The man that comes down is described in verse Fourteen. And when the layer of dew was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness was a Green like Flaky bare thing, different ways of translating this word mechospas. Fine.
As the hoarfrost. On the earth. Hoarfrost Kefov Also the same three-letter root. And I need to stress here. That the word for frost In Hebrew is utterly distinct from, for example, the word for snow.
Yeah. The word for ice. Each of which Is from a different route. Frost. Is k four.
And of course, you can readily consider. What is peculiar to frost as opposed to snow and ice? But before we do so. The final Illustration. The final example is Exodus chapter 25.
When we read about the instructions, For construction of the tabernacle.
So of course the first vessel that is described at length is the holy ark. The holy ark is constructed Essentially, like an open box. And you place the tablets. Inside this box, how do you cover the box? Ah, so in verse.
Seventeen, we read. You shall make an ark cover of pure gold. The dimensions of the box of the ark, two cubits and a half shall be its length. And a cubit and a half shall be its breadth. The art cover.
And where is our three letter root? The art cover. In Hebrew, kaporet. Again, the same three-letter root. The top is a suffixed.
Final letter, but the root letters again are tough peres.
So Again, the challenge, what do all these have in common?
So I think the answer is not too elusive. But they all have in common. is covering Well, in Genesis chapter 6, that's what you do with a pitch. Yeah, barewood. You want to prove it by Covering it over with pitch.
So the verb for covering it over and the pitch itself are both. From this root that means covering. In Genesis chapter 32, again, literally, I will appease him. Cover over his face of wrath.
So that's also covering. In Exodus chapter 16.
Well, again, it's frost. What's the salient feature of frost? It covers the ground. which is exactly the way it's described. Hoora Frost.
Over the earth.
So I suppose the snow and ice that can have other meanings. Snow after all could be coming down from the sky. Ice cream. Can we A yeah. Uh A lot of ice where water has frozen.
What is peculiar to frost is it covers the earth. It's a covering. And of course, Needless to add, the art cover. Is it covering?
So Having considered This the essential meaning of the root that we translate as atonement.
Now we need to ask yourselves, what is that towards document? What does entonment mean altogether? Again, I'm not sure if entonment is the best word in English for Kippoim, but. What? is the character of this day.
And I think what we need to consider in answering that question. How we need to come to terms. With the past. In particular Our messing up in the past. This is the challenge of repentance.
Repentance. Perhaps Most specifically. Literally. In the sense that I think we've already noted. We see the Hebrew word teshuvah, which is legitimately translated as repentance.
Used In describing the prophet Samuel. At the end of the first book of Samuel. In chapter seven. As A circuit judge.
So if we look at the end of chapter 7. Verses fifteen and sixteen, we read His career as circuit judge. That is And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mitzpah and judged Israel in all those places. And then the final verse of the chapter. Uteshuva to Haramata Kishambeto, his teshuva.
Most teramar. 'Cause that's where his home was.
So Tishuba is homecoming. And of course we readily appreciate that. When we come home. Wherever we have wandered. Our loving Father is always there with his arms outstretched.
ready to greet us.
So to survive homecoming. The challenge is What about all those wanderings? What about all the stuff we did? Before we Picked up ourselves by our bootstraps. and returned home.
Ideally, in principle, What? To Shuva. should entail Being able to wholeheartedly. Completely. Return to God.
And In returning to God, you know, we ask ourselves, so. What does it entail? to return to God. And The short answer is Well actually it's a trick question. It doesn't entail anything other than just Return to God.
That is There are a lot of passages we can share here in the Bible. I'd like to Try to keep it relatively brief. Start out with Ezekiel chapter 18.
Now In Ezekiel chapter 18, we read in verse 20. Pretty dire words. The soul that sins. It shall die. Hit buttons risk 21.
But if the wicked returns from all his sins that he has committed, And Keeps my statutes. And does justice and righteousness He shall surely live. He shall not die. None of his transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him. For his righteousness that he has done, he shall live.
Have I any desire? At wall? that the wicked should die. says the Lord God, and not rather that he should return from his ways and live? And again, in verse 27.
Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed and does. Justice and righteousness. He shall save his soul alive. Because he saw and turned away from all his transgressions that he had committed, he has surely lived, he shall not die. And Yeah, similarly.
In Ezekiel chapter 33. God sends the prophet. To Tell them all. Verse 11, say unto them, As I live, says the Lord God, and this is God taking an oath. He is swearing, I have no desire for the death of the wicked.
But that the wicked return from his way and live. Return you, return you from your evil ways. And Fleshing that out. The next verse? In verse 12.
The righteousness of the righteous. shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. If he returns from his righteous righteousness and embraces sin. And as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not stumble thereby in the day that he returns from his wickedness. And In verse We read again, when I say unto the wicked, you shall surely die, if he takes that as a summons, which is intended to be.
If he returns from his sin. does justice and righteousness He restores the pledge, gives back what he has taken by robbery, walks in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity. He shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done justice and righteousness.
He shall surely live.
So what does it take to return to God? Just return to God. That's it. Uh but here's the rub. That does make it.
necessarily easy. That is If I broke something. How am I going to fix it? I can't hop into a time machine and go back in time. And undo the past, can I?
Well Truth is that We really believe That that's the great gift. of repentance that God gives us, that God gives the world. And you know, we have an ancient tradition. That I think expresses this thought. In saying that God created repentance before he created the world.
Now, of course. You can't take a statement like that literally because there is no before, right? That is creating the world was creating time. But still that on some level Returning to God. Even more basic.
More essential. Than the world itself. And perhaps part of that is Just that. That When God creates the world, He creates time. And time from then on marches in only one direction.
It only goes forward, never backward. But If repentance Even more Essential. Then the world itself God says You can overcome even that arrow. Yeah, maybe they Most Telling expression. Psalm ninety which is described as a Prayer of Moses The man of God?
We read In verses three and four, You bring man to the crushing point. And say Return, you children of men. A thousand years in your side? are but like yesterday when it is passed and like a watch in the night.
So yeah, limitations of time are irrelevant. If you return, you return. But What if you can't? What if we're not ready? to really be able to make that complete transformation.
So, you know, we have this expression in English to smooth things over. Like you have something rough. And you have no way of dealing with that roughness other than Let's cover it over and move on.
So God says The ultimate goal This Ernest, wholehearted, returned. Return home. Here I am. waiting to welcome you home. But until you can do that You have This They Atonement.
of being able To simultaneously, by doing your best. to cover up What you can't yet erase. to enable you now to move forward. Because The worst thing. The greatest danger.
Is to be paralyzed by the past. I think everyone knows that what that means.
Sometimes a person does something, I think. Oh my god, I can never live this down. I'll never be able to fix it. And it can paralyze. And that's the worst thing of all because Once I'm paralyzed I can't move forward anymore.
So Ki Purim Atonement Means being able to cover it over So I can Get on with things. I can move forward. in my attempt to come back home to God. And again, we Can I jump in here? Please, all the time.
I know. All right.
So anxious to learn, and I know many are. And I've studied those words. Exactly. in the direction that you went. And It always kind of leads me back to a couple ideas.
It seemed very prevalent in the book of Genesis, especially At the fall, that Adam and Eve, the first thing they wanted to do when they got naked was to find some cover. Which they obviously used fig leaves, but God had a better cover. Which Apparently was a blood sacrifice. Um That we that's that's not not in all clear in our tradition. That is, all it says is that's why I'm talking.
Say, yeah. From your perspective. Did that have to do with cover? Um the fact that they were naked and why did God choose skins from an animal You know, just That discussion, I'm interested.
So, first, I need to note that it is indeed a different root. That is, the root kapar doesn't appear at all in that story. It is clothing, though. Not the word for cover, but rather the word for clothing. Second of all, it doesn't say that these were animal skins.
It says they were clear. Clothes of skin.
Now does that mean that it came? From animal skin, where they were clothing the skin of Adam and Eve. That's not clear in the text.
So there's no implication here that it entailed taking an animal's life in order to cover them.
Okay? Rather, it's a covering of skin, which could just as well be read as a covering of their skin. Because they are naked.
Okay. So still the word cover appears to apply.
Well, okay, but again, I'm being very rigorous in noting that there it's. Clothing rather than covering. It's a different verb. Just that simply appreciating that the text is not using the word that comes from the kaf peresh root. Right, right, right.
I I understand what What you're getting at, but it's to some extent, right? If you feel naked, I'm just talking about general sense here. If you feel naked, you're looking for.
Something And if you've got sin, the natural response, it seems like. I know my natural response. I'm just talking about my own personal experience here. That I want to hide. Right.
No, 100%. I especially want to hide from God. Uh because I don't feel like As you've talked about, with no righteousness, you have no standing. Um And so You know, the beautiful thing is you pointed out in Ezekiel, if you can come back to a point of righteousness and whatever, and no doubt That your past can Can definitely do that. Adam and Eve's past clearly.
Over the last few moments from the point in time they ate the fruit was a big problem. They sinned. They went into hiding. And now somehow or another the result of Gods direction for them at that point in time ended up being clothing. Seems to relate, but You know, again, I'm No, no, I completely agree with you.
That is, um, truth is, you know, in There is this. Comment. On That They knew they were naked. that God had given them A mitzvah. A commandment.
And they stripped themselves of this commandment because they violated it. There's in some level that was What Me them Unique. None of the other other animals. Has Holding, none of the other animals has a mitzvah. having a commandment given by God.
The glory of man. And when man sins Man strips Him or herself of that glory.
So that's the feeling of nakedness that Oh my god, what did I do? Right? Yeah. And of course, I can't help but note. That In much this vain.
Yeah. Appreciate The Epitaph, as it were. on this story. That We read in Psalm 49.
Some forty-nine. Does not in any way overtly refer to the sin of. Adam and Eve. In our tradition. The Illusion But to say is clear in that On the one hand This is Clearly speaking.
The Bestowment On man. And Then we read In verse Thirteen And Even more Sadly, in the last verse in verse 21. Verse 13. Man abides not in honour. He is like the beasts that are silenced, or alternatively, that are lost.
Um In Verse 21 Man In honour. doesn't understand. And again, likened to the beasts. that perish, that uh that are silenced. That is um Done.
Gives to Adam and Eve. through the agency of a divine command. Perhaps In the most exalted sense. What makes them unique as human beings and not Merely as animals. Because only human beings Can receive a divine command and understand it and choose to obey it.
The rub of course is that they could also choose to disobey it. And when they do that, Well They're likened to the beasts. And I should note here: you know, we're talking about the sin of Adam and Eve. In our tradition that all takes place, I think we discussed this on The day they were created. Man abides not in all.
So, yes, so there definitely is that feeling of again being stripped. I stripped myself. What am I going to do about it now? And Undoubtedly, in that regard. There is A simple if it's of the same root.
in God clothing Adam and Eve. Clothing is the hallmark of being human. And To that extent And some levels God is saying You messed up. You've made yourselves likened. to naked animals.
I'm clothing you. I still have faith in you. You're not going to be able to remain in the Garden of Eden. We've discussed this previously, I know. Oh, yeah.
But um Garden of Eden is You know, is there any relationship? Because I know in your tradition that in Russia, Shauna is not considered to be the day that Adam and Eve were created. Right. And so The fact that the day of atonement comes this fat, is there any relationship to? I I understand that it doesn't have anything to do with the The you know koof Pay rate Um Root, but but is there any relationship to the clothing of Adam and Eve to that date?
That's a fascinating proposition. I don't think so because after all, the presumption is that that very day God is already clothing them.
Okay. Yeah, I would say too. I would agree with you that it looks that way. And I'm I'm Again, just curious. I'm also very curious.
Uh uh firstly You know, and I imagine a lot of Christians would be. Um About The priestly service, the way it's described. I think in Leviticus sixteen, as you were talking about earlier, Nice. Is that he wears Only the he doesn't wear it doesn't appear he wears everything he normally wears Correct. Absolutely.
On the most basic plane, I'll say Because While The priestly garments are explicitly described. When we read the Prescription. Regarding Making the priestly garments. This is In Exodus. Um Chapter 28.
They are explicitly described. In verse two. As garments that are In Hebrew, which I'll render as for honor and for glory.
So, there is something that is glorious about the priestly garments and And that's a positive thing. It's important for us to have that Since Of the glory with which God has vested us. But to a point. When you come into the Holy of Holies You said that. honor and glory because you have to come.
in utmost humility. And Rather than these splendid garments. It's just Simple white linen garb. No. As I noted before, of course.
We don't have. They priestly garments and the priestly service or the holy temple in which it takes place today. You know where we do Use White Linen Garments. To this day. Shrouds.
But the custom is to make Burial shrouds. And and they The ceased is is closed. From Head to foot. including the covering of the entire body. Including the face.
It's all linen. By custom, white linen garments. And a part of that is also a message I think. is likewise relevant With respect to What? The high priest wears in going into the Holy of Holies.
And that is It's the great equalizer. There are no fancy shrouds. For VIPs. Everyone wears exactly the same thing. Because Whatever a person's role was in this world.
When we leave it. We each Stand directly before God. And that's the great Equalizer. We are all Humble children returning to our father. to give an accounting.
So Sure, the that that theme of garment is certainly relevant. That is It's really which gets back to the whole Day of Atonement. But one last, because I'm just curious, you know, this is personal. Curiosity. I've been Think about this.
That is that in your tradition? or in your view in any way connected to a bridal garment which is usually white. Uh i that's a good question. My initial reaction would be: Oh, goodness gracious. Um but because you are the bride of you are the bride of I've got in other words, you were in you were um What's the word?
You were engaged, so to speak, in our terminology. You were betrothed to. To God at Mount Sinai. And so, as the burial, which I did not know about the burial shroud. But I can't.
Help, but just go. That's an interesting tradition. That's a fascinating proposition. I have to tell you, I never thought about it before. But um But you're right, that is, there is that betrothal at Sinai.
And um And at some level, you know the The sojourn in this world is all temporary, it's all preparation for being ultimately reunited with God. where I leave this world. I'll also note that you know on some level There could also be a theme of humility with respect to the bridal gown. Even though they're not exactly cheap, as I'm sure you will appreciate, but still, Um It is an equalizer. That is Every Right.
goes to the wedding canopy basically wearing the same thing. Higher and lower greater and lesser or anything like that. And there's another The Tuesday is another correspondence. that inevitably comes to mind. The Two contexts This is Very deeply enshrined in our tradition, in which there is.
A fundamental precept of showing kindness. By escorting someone. We show kindness. to the bride and groom. by escorting them to the wedding canopy.
And we shall climb this. To the deceased. By escorting him up Um him or her on their way Their final journey To burial. Right? I'll also note further, actually, that um Although Nowadays, I think it is Uh Much Rarer that this is literally done.
Bygone days. Maybe not the bridal gown. But The groom Still to this day, it's very common in Jewish weddings for the groom to be wearing a white robe. Under the wedding canopy. And In bygone days, it was that white robe in which A man was buried as well.
Wow.
So again, there is that definitely that that That correspondence.
Well So I'll add further all our I I can't help but add here that That white robe By custom We were Three times A year. Really? We wear it on Rossa Sana. We wear it on Yom Kippur. And we wear it at the Passover Sedder.
Brilliant. Yeah. Well, I that is there are those who only wear it on Yom Kippur. Um my custom is I wear it on all three of those occasions. the entire day.
From Sundown on the eve of Yom Kippur through nightfall the following day.
So I I mean a Everybody is listening, his mind isn't blown at this point in time. I don't know. Mine is, I can show you, I can assure you with information I had no idea.
So that's more than beautiful. Yeah, yeah. I know that's still on every listener's mind since we started off talking about the whole idea of Yom Kippur. We talked a lot about the. the atonement the idea of atonement and that through getting started we have a lot more to talk about but Yeah, I know.
Yeah. You know, we've we've alluded to the The priest going into the Holy of Holies, but how? What is done today? I mean, as you celebrate that. Without a priest to go to the Holy of Holies, how is that?
Where are we at today? That's an excellent question. And what I'll note is that. a very significant portion of the service on the morning of Yom Kippur. recounting the entire procedure.
In that ceremony, in detail In some sense, This is A fulfillment of What we read Hosea. Chapter In Verse three When God says through the prophet, Take with you words. and turn to the Lord, say to him, Forgive all iniquity Receive us graciously. And we will offer the words of our lips. Instead of bulls.
That is We are engaging in the temple service. Where Engaging in the offering of our lips. but that the sincere offering of lips A sorry gift.
So that that Aspect of the temple service. Of course, we also. in the Torah Torah portion that is read on the morning of Biom Kippur. We read Leviticus chapter 16.
So Essentially, twice we have recensions of. this service of the high priest. That We have not Yet merited seeing restored. But yeah, on some level, I'll say that wearing the white robe on Yom Kippur. A little bit.
makes us each into surrogate high priests.
So granted, it's not the linen garment and it's not the uh The specifications that pertain to the high priest, and of course, we aren't engaging in the high priest service. It's a reminder. Reminders play a very important role in Jewish tradition. You know, from the get-go, from the Passover. Say there was just All about remembering.
I think we've Shared. In one of our earlier sessions, there's a Hasirik saying That is attributed to the founder of the Hasidic movement, Baal Shemtov, Rabbi Israel Shemtov. that um Remembrance is the key to redemption. And on the on the marriage theme, and you know, you can Because you know this stuff way better than me, but here's my understanding. from things that I've gleaned from different pictures that I think is more than beautiful.
is the eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the het. And my understanding in the het is made up of a vove that comes down. A Zion that goes up and it's covered by a hetateric, which is like. The wedding canopy. And so, the idea of the letter Zion to me, which is the seventh letter in the Hebrew, it's the sixth, seventh, and eighth letter that make up that one.
And the idea of the letter Zion, especially in the 119th Psalm, is so many of those verses have to do with the idea of remembering. And so, as the male energy comes down, the female, the bride, so to speak, is reflecting that back. Up. to God? That Remembering is a critical aspect since we all end up being, if we're in God the way we should be, united with God, we all end up being a bride.
We all end up being in that situation, and to remember Him. because unfortunately I go through my day and and I don't remember him near enough. Um That that you know, I love this talk with you because I'm thinking about God the whole time. But you know, here in about 20 minutes, I'll be out driving, and all of a sudden you go somewhere and I'm not remembering anymore, so I'm not much of a bride at that point in time. But does that all make sense?
Is that a reasonable way to look at that, or am I off the I think there definitely is credence for what you're saying, and maybe I'll add an additional dimension, and that is. I'm going to say this very guardedly. I don't consider myself in any way to be a a mystic, a Kabbalist. But There are the ten spheres of Kabbalah. and the tenths the one that is most imminent.
to us. is called Malhood. Malhut is Kingship.
So we are on some level Connecting with experiencing. God manifests in this world in terms of kingship. But you know, simultaneously The word for kingship In Hebrew, Malchut is a feminine word. all nouns in Hebrew have gender. And What Mahud essentially signifies is Receptivity.
Receptivity, first in the sense of That Whatever is flowing down into the world, so to speak, is received on this. most imminent level. And through it coming into this world.
So there's that aspect of receptivity, and at some level, if you will, symbolically. Receptivity is The feminine aspect. Everyone, male and female, has both a male and a feminine aspect to him or herself.
So, this isn't in any way intended to have any chauvinistic connotations. But still, that aspect of Malchut, the receptivity, receiving. The the spirit that God is pouring into the world. And Of course, inevitably. That theme of God's kingship.
Just so totally front and center. the 10-day period from Ross Hassana. through Yom Kippur. That there's a On the level of liturgy, I don't want to hog things down by going into the details, but this dimension of addressing God as the king. is really, really Highlighted.
And we're doing it all the time, not just on Rosh Hashani and Kippur, but on all these 10 days. There are liturgical modifications in the way we're addressing God, we're speaking to God in second person. That's the Holy King. We usually speak about him holy god, but This is a special aspect of kingship. And here we get to an additional dimension of the receptivity.
And that is, there's an Old saying in Hebrew it's not from the Bible but it is from a fairly Venerable source. There's no such thing as a king. without subjects. You can talk about God. In an utterly transcendent sense, That doesn't pertain at all.
to us and the world. You can't speak about God as king in that vein. A king is defined. in terms of relationship between the king and his subjects.
So That stress upon relating. relationship Relatedness. That's also part of speaking about Kingship. receptivity. That is such a predominant theme.
this time of year. Yes, I'm totally with you. And I Honestly You know, until I started to become more and more familiar with celebrating Passover and doing Passover Satyrs and those kind of things, and those prayers always are: Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the universe. King, you know, you say it. constantly throughout And as you begin to grasp that idea, what you just described of the relationship.
of You know, the absolute honor of serving the king of kings of king, like, man, I mean, this is, this is, this is gigantically huge. Um And I love that we are in this season. And I love that I know that we're going to miss next week, but you're going to be celebrating your Sukkot, and I'm very, very excited to. to share in all that that's in that particular festival. This has been such a a rich time for me.
And I will certainly look at the Day of Atonement in In new lights. based on but based on what I'm seeing And what you've shown me. Um but one last thing if if I if you would mind we're starting a fact today What now? We still have a bird. I don't know how much more we can we can muster in the time that we have available, there's still more that we should we should at least touch upon, at least briefly.
Yeah, well, I know a lot of Christians are like me. Like we hear words like Kabbalah and we hear Sir Froat and and those words uh are And interestingly, you know, when I was in Israel a few months ago, You know, I didn't necessarily think of Kabbalah as a bad thing, but some guy. took a red String put it around my wrist and blessed me and wanted money and stuff like this. And the tour guide goes, Oh, no, no, no, stay away from him. He's Kabbalah and I'm like, what does that mean?
Certainly the original Kabbalah was nothing about red strings and uh Or amulets of any sort. I think that's definitely an aberration. That's certainly. Should not be conflated with anything original or authentic in our tradition. Yeah, I agree with the tour guide.
I agree with Gorga that it's an aberration. I don't agree with Georgia that that's Kabbalah. I guess we'll leave that as something for our listeners and for me to enjoy at some point in time for you to kind of. Guide us through that. Those are words.
They're obviously mystical and things that You know, I suppose You know, in Christianity, there's Pentecostals that go off in one side, and there's people that go off, and I imagine the same thing in. Judaism. And so, you know, for us, it would be good at some point in time to get some grasp on.
Okay, I I must admit I don't consider myself in any way an expert on Kabbalah, but we can certainly talk about it at some other juncture. I don't mean it by an expert of it, but just framing it for, because I'm not an expert on Pentecostalism either. But If somebody is asking me, okay, how do how do I Reconcile these things. And again, something we can talk about at some future day. For right now, we get to celebrate the days that are ahead of us.
Uh together um Amazing.
So, we will leave it there for today. I am so grateful, and I'm going to think about. Um The high priest and the burial shroud and the marial garments. All those things have got me um in a really good place. Thank you.
By the way, just to note, another correspondence. Talking about the marriage ceremonies that We have an ancient tradition. That When someone gets married All of his or her sins are forgiven. Really? So it's like so indeed, and as a result, There are many communities, this is not a universal custom, but there are many communities in which the bride and groom Fast on the day of the wedding until the wedding ceremony.
as a kind of um yon ki poor. Even the the extent of using part of the Yumkee Pearl liturgy. in their prayers. before they head to the wedding canopy. Oh wow, I gotta write down all my questions because I have 5,000 just based on what we just described.
But nonetheless, we got we also again, we're still gonna have to get back to it at some point. Talking about Mm-hmm. What? the observances of Yom Kippur in terms of afflicting one's life. And in terms of refraining from work.
Mean.
So I realize we don't have time to do it right now, but I sure hope we can do it sometime because We've left an awful lot dangling today. Let's do that. We'll do that. We'll come back. Before we get to Sioux Cote, we'll finish Lank Yom Kippur.
Maybe we can move on to Sukkot when we come back. But again, thank you from... The Bible bailed in the United States, North Carolina. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, Rabbi.
Well, thank you from the Bible land. Yeah. And may God bless our fractured and broken world. with healing in this year ahead. Amen.
Amen. God bless. God bless you. We are so honored that you would join us today on Voices from Zion, Robbie, and the Rabbi. For more information about Rabbi Haim, Go to his website, zionbible studies.org.
That's Zion Bible Studies.org. Or visit me, Robbie Dillmore. at the Christian CarGuy website. That's ChristianCarGuy.com. Once again, Shalom from Jerusalem, the Holy City, God Send.
