Interpretation is Free Play - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

you I'm fighting an uphill battle tonight there's a very widespread prejudice that when you're interpreting a text there are no rules it's really a matter of free play anybody can say anything that he wants what does the text mean to you this was even dignified by titles in academia post-modernism or deconstructionism and if you are a culture or religion system bases itself on documents documents are very important it calls into question the entire foundation of your life system it's even has its own tone of voice it's a matter of interpretation anything anybody can say whatever he wants now this is utterly unserious is utterly unserious to speak like that you have to take leave of your senses let's just remind ourselves of some very simple facts about everyday living there are contract businesses sign contracts if texts don't mean anything inherently if text can be interpreted any way you want how can you ever know what the other side is going to do when they sign the contract how can you ever test if later the contract says that Peter has to deliver to PO love $15,000 on the fifteenth of each month every 15 the month he shows up in Paul's office with a box twelve fifteen thousand dollars June fifteenth he comes in for the box Paul opens it up and by golly they're 15,000 monopoly dollars in the box suppose this where's the money there's the money pulses come on you know that's not dollars is it sure it is it not believe dollars so he says come on in a tech contract says us colleges look at the side of the back it just made in the United States of America it's us but not believe dollars could that happen would it be a problem in court he interprets it to mean currency and he interprets it to me monopoly so just interpretations and each one has his own interpretation would anybody be seriously dislodged by this and we worry about how the contract will be decided in court I hope not someone is sued for libel he says George was caught breaking and entering the diamond shop and stealing the stuff George says im sue you for libel and he proves that he wasn't there and the I says oh you have to understand the diamond shop just means you were doing crossword puzzles and breaking and entering means that you put a dollar in the machine to get a coke and cuz that's what that's what brake energy means to me that's what diamond shop means to me maybe even something different to you but that's what it means to me will he get off for libel we'll be able to protect himself for libel I'd really say that you were breaking down 30 breath again three means putting the money in the machine together died to get a soda it's not gonna make it dear George I you've done something that has very much disappointed with me I never want to see you again goes with Fred this is what I'm gonna do it's the end you know she'll ever talk to me again no you understand I never means i was at supermarket and want means i was running short of subsets and see you means and III need a new picture because of the old picture is something this morning to me just it's her put it it separated and you won't have any problem you think interpreting it that way will help with the relationship and and save the relationship even just interpret differently when the text doesn't mean anything doesn't mean anything it's just how you interpreted I think that's obviously nonsense even though philosophical system want you to know one of the people who pushed us at Yale via the whole lecture department was infected with his disease at Yale about 25 years ago one of the people pushing it turned out to have a Nazi past which was verified through documents and he's the one is pushing the idea that i can use don't me anything could there be a coincidence there doc to tell me anything you can't convict by me of it lassie passed on the basis of the documents now you'll say okay but look aren't there controversies over interpretation even long-stay any controversies contributions that we aren't able to resolve doesn't that show that it doesn't have any objective rules it doesn't have any facts it really is just a matter of how you choose to do it what your opinion is nope doesn't show that because every field of human endeavor has unresolved problems problems about which there's controversy in cosmology their string theory some people think string theory is the hottest thing and it's going to be the future and let us say as we small wrote a book called not even science because any theory that can't be tested is in science so one group says it's the promise of future that means there's no right or wrong about physics physics is just whatever you happen to say cosmology is what you put rolls off your tongue and nobody right is that right doesn't sound right there are controversies of chemistry there controversies in biology any number of controversies in biology United States is has its foundational document a constitution are there controversies about the Constitution means sure does that mean it doesn't mean anything why would you jump to that conclusion for the fact that there are some difficult spots it follows that there's no verified information at all why would you say that it certainly doesn't follow so the idea that there is controversy doesn't establish that there's nothing that's that's right or wrong furthermore especially in the case of textual interpretation let's say you have a text for which there are three recognized competing well competing is prejudicial three recognized interpretations there may be a hundred suggested interpretations which everyone agrees are wrong the fact that there are three and there's no decision which one is right doesn't mean there's no agreement because there are many other suggested interpretations which everyone agrees are wrong that's also agreement then i corrected myself a moment ago if you have three interpretations it's not obvious that they're competing parodies that they're competing can I assume you've heard of Shakespeare the greatest writer the English language okay just a very place he wrote sonnets draw type of poetry read the side you look up what the scholars say say well there are two ways that we can interpret this poem and it counts for all the words and the order the chest vocabulary one way another way must one ask well which one did he have in mind which one is right isn't another possible approach would the other approach be both right he had to both in mind he planned both of them he wanted the alert and sensitive reader to pick up both of them and then he wanted to say something by juxtaposing the two interpretations well the genius like Shakespeare who is the greatest writer in the English language I think many people would be drawn to the latter opinion there are two interpretations which fully fit all of them all of the poem then he had both in mind and he wanted the reader to see both of them into we're both of them well I have a radical suggestion that the creator of the universe is not less than Shakespeare so maybe if there are several interpretations created the universe intended all of them and then are competing interpretations and they're all right there will be a special problem when when the interpreters disagree and one says the other ones wrong that will mean under those conditions there really is a controversy but not every case of multiple interpretations when you have in the Midrash multiple interpretations almost never does one speaker in the UI say he's wrong and this is the right each one just says his interpretation there's no reason to think in those cases that they can't all be corrected now I want to give you some examples having stated but I think of the general rules here I want to give you some examples of interpretations which I think could be nailed down or cases where there are multiples but you can see why there are multiples and you can see they built into the text so that this won't only be abstract these are little things and they're not meant to teach any great lessons there's the question of getting a hold of what the what the text means this is you take a look on page 145 this is Jacob's dream I want the first fragment which as I say in terms of falafel matters may be useful verse 12 he dragged to behold a ladder was set earthward and it stopped reached heavenward that is a good accurate translation now let's go through this piece by piece suppose I suggest to you that if it says that ladder was set earth word that means it was let down from heaven glad it was set earth word means it was let down from heaven you see empty anything in the fragment that I just read which why trouble you what's that how can it reach heaven words at the top is going towards Earth okay we're saying that tap is going towards Earth but how about heavenward doesn't have a word mean towards heaven so if you tell me earth word means towards Earth coming from heaven so heavyweight author mean towards heaven coming from Earth and it looks like a contradiction and if it's a contradiction you certainly can't get any clear description out of it but that's wrong that's wrong look carefully at the two phrases look at the differences between the two phrase and you should be able to figure out why there's no contradiction here at all as opposed to look at it on the page take your time beat it on the page set as opposed to know as opposed to what word you have in the page don't guess don't make it up you have the idea but we're taking the text now set is opposed to reached they're not the same verbs that's the same verbs now what about the subject of each phrase in the first phase the subject is the latter second phrase the subject is it stopped the first place is the ladder was set earthward second place was the top reached heavenward so they aren't obviously in contradiction to one another the first talks about the ladder second talks about the top the first talks about being set second talks about reaching now here's the consistent way to read it the first phrase tells you how it got put into position it got put in the position by coming down from heaven the second phrase tells you okay now let's come down from heaven how big is it somebody comes to a road and and this road signs down as yes does this road go to Tel Aviv you can say that in English right you don't mean the road is moving to Tel Aviv rolling away over 60 miles an hour you mean how far is the tar go where's the end of the tarc does it end to Tel Aviv earlier than that that's all you mean the first phrase tells you how the ladder got into position the second phrase tells you in position how far does it go could be that ladders whole length is half the distance from heaven to earth comes down from heaven lands on the earth and extends up halfway dead that could be so now it comes down from heaven and reaches the Earth but as a matter of fact once it's set up on the earth it reaches all the way to heaven no inconsistency here at all I claim you can't budge from that you can't interpret it as talking about mice or about football games all right wooden ladders as opposed to metal letters or clever with a lot has arms or whether it's only up on rosh chodesh the text says what it says it says what it says in very precise fashion all the words that you could add meanings to it good and ideas to it but this is rock solid is absolutely nothing to say ok you cannot fight without interpret I I must tell you I thought it's myself but very happy to find out that referral her she says exactly the same thing so this is not only my my speculation now on the same page the top of the page Jacob the part of a beer sheva went to a Quran he encountered the place I sweater later in the Hebrew the words are they yeah bamako righteous is two things one is that if God can mean to arrive at it can mean that and the other thing is that let's go I could mean to entreat to plead with someone to beg for something serashi brains both chuckling now I suppose I say this look we talk about a story about someone traveling he travels comes to a place close to sleep as a dream gets up in the morning keeps traveling why would you even dream of sticky in an interpretation of entreating pleading begging for something what would you do obviously in context is talking about arriving at a place and the word let's go does me to arrive at a place what would motivate you to say that it was also a meaning of pleading with and treating begging for something the answer is obvious the Tauri used in ambiguous word why did he use a word with two meetings there's a word in Hebrew to arrive your place it's like iya you would mean he arrived no the tire didn't will use a word with one meaning ears away with two meanings why would it do that doesn't that mean that it he needs to tell you that it wants both meetings on board so here now you have two meetings they're not competing at all the use of an ambiguous word indicates that both meanings are directly implied by the text there's stated in the text are you together Lee oh now take a look at verse 13 but all the Shah was standing over him and he said I am a sham God of Abraham your father god of Isaac stop there anybody will rent one ring the alarm bell who's he talking to Jacob knew I am the God of Abraham your father and god of Isaac who is Jacob's father I see so he's it a little funny for God to identify him self as got it Abraham your father and the god of Isaac without father now let's not exaggerate this the word father in Hebrew could mean father grandfather great-grandfather to the nth power the word son convened son grandson great-grandson to the nth power these are expandable terms we are called Benet yes rail mr. Ellis Jacobs other name and we 30 generations later I called today which means been a bit delayed by a baby okay so it's not shocking to call Abraham Jacob's father what's called Abraham Jacob's father and that Isaac what's in the same breath that needs some kind of explanation now there are two approaches one approach is to interpret it here as the ballot orem does and to give it a meaning here on the page there's another approach which is to look for parallels and try to say something that will make them all work together as a matter of fact this phrase here has two parallels to other parallels in jacob's life relating it to god and there is a way to make it all work take a look on page 173 your jacobs coming home from being separated from his father for 20 years and here's that brother Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men who are going to wipe him out so verse 10 he plead praise to God Jacob said God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac oh ho so here fathers applied to both so if back I 145 you want to spin a theory Jacob can't be called Isaac apical Jacob's father because he's too close because it's too young because whatever it will work cuz here 173 Isaac it's called father together later and being called father and then you can keep your fingers and you have enough fingers on page 257 this is jacob coming down to egypt chapter 46 so Israel that's Jacob set out with all that he had began to brush every birth order at sacrifice to the god I was father Isaac and Abraham left out entirely so this cries out for some kind of treatment and don't tell me was different scribes at different times living in different locales editor later put it together that's utter nonsense maybe maybe first but I would like something which is not okay let right if I tell you what I think is right there are two levels of interpretation two criteria for interpretation one is I say something which is consistent with the text nothing in the text says I'm wrong the other is that I say something for which there is positive evidence in the text I have to support what I say with positive and not just that it fits the passages I'm trying to interpret Shakespeare wrote a play called Macbeth suppose I suggested Macbeth was a transvestite a woman dressed up as a man where does it say in the plan he wasn't a transvestite doesn't say doesn't say maybe who has an extraterrestrial maybe is a miraculous frog that turned into a person nothing in the words that Shakespeare wrote imply that that's I correct but that's that's play that's frivolous play if you want to interpret a text you have to show that there's positive evidence in the text that this is right not just merely consistent by the way the principles that are using a principle straight out of science if you have a set of phenomena that you that you want to explain thinking about explanation that's merely consistent with them will not be good enough and particularly you want to do another experiment to see whether it tests true I do have to want to be able to explain what you see there's infinity of possibilities that are consistent with it with this the finite material that you had and there are principle for weaning them out being consistent isn't enough now I want you to take a look on page 23 towards the middle of the page was 20 ab de morir eval he was the first of those who dwell in tents of recap the name is brother was yuval he was the first of all and handle the harper the flute meaning they invented this sort of activity everybody came after them was following their footsteps the word in the hebrew for both first is of father when it says that at Laval was the half of all those as well intense big cattle does that mean that shepherding was done only by yeah vows biological descendants well it says that you've are with the first of all those who play the lyre na huh and what really caught harp the flute has any ol musicians with the biological descendants of you vote it means they invented this form of activity everybody else talk about them so I've in Hebrew Hebrew in the book of Genesis the book that we are interpreting write Hebrew hey Ivan in the Hebrew of the book of Genesis can mean role model paradigm originator now let's see if that meaning helps in the three passages of Jacob that we're dealing with whether it might fit when I'm telling you now is a good dishes lady one of the early facility masters page 145 what's going on Jacob is leaving the Land of Israel it's going to spend in the end 20 years outside the Land of Israel Shem is identifying himself to Jacob who am i I'm the god of your father Abraham the god of Isaac but for the next 20 years of your life Isaac can't be considered your father because Isaac was born lived and died in the Land of Israel and never left he never set foot outside the Land of Israel so if you want to look back to a paradigm who you can look to as a model of what you should do as you conduct yourself outside the Land of Israel only Abraham counts Isaac can't count so that's why God associates I've with with Abraham and not with Isaac I 173 he's coming back to the law in the biz room and he's about to have a very difficult to perhaps dangerous and unpleasant of interaction with his older brother both Abraham and Isaac lived in the land of his room and both of them had difficulties with their older brothers so Jacob says to God God of my father Abraham and father Isaac they have both fathers to me now they both fathers do the both guides to me now that's why he calls them both oh I'm page 257 this is much later Abraham and Isaac are both dead Jacob is going down to Egypt because there's a feminine Land of Israel he's discovered that Joseph his son is the Viceroy Egypt now Jacob thinks I want to go down to Egypt because of a famine what do my guides say what do my mentors say what my paradigm say well Abraham when he had a family without Egypt that's what he did so Abraham is gold he did what I want to do but Isaac there was a famine in Isaac's years also this is explicitly universes it was a famine and Isaac's years also and he wanted to go out of Egypt and God told him no you can't go down teach now since Jacob wants to go down to Egypt what's bothering him what's bothering him is what God told his father Isaac what God told his father mmm is gold and if Isaac had also go down to Egypt he wouldn't have any worries but God told his father Isaac not to go so he offers sacrifices to the god of his father Isaac tell me what should I do how do I know that's right because look at the next versus god spoke to Israel high bridges that take up take me said he right yeah and he said capital H I am the God God of your father which father will be filed in the context Isaac have no fear of descending to eat you so if God says Tim have no fear descended we know what he was afraid of was afraid Nagant a going down to Egypt why is he afraid because I told his father Isaac not to go and maybe hasn't got permission to go I'm the god of your father I'm telling you yes you should go I think you can butcher night you have three different places you have a verse in Genesis itself that tells the I've kameen paradigm role model and it fits into the three of them like hand in glove you certainly can't deny that that is an acceptable interpretation I would even say a true interpretation might be other interpretations as well you can it no one would say that if you have a true interpretation it couldn't be others but you can't have a contradictory interpretation that you can't something that says this is wrong this is too tightly it fits too tightly into the texts are we going okay now i want to show you where you can have a single text that has to vary widely differing interpretations and where they might both be true but they really totally unrelated fun back to 145 the second half of verse 12 he saw this ladder and by the way I should just remarked the interpretation of the first half where we say the ladder was put into position by coming down from heaven to earth to earth let before I'm going to just give it just a little bit a little bit of background here I want you to read 12 through 15 and tell me which word seems to be very superfluous curtain number of times and maybe we could tolerate it once but although sometimes you can erase it and we would lose any content at all how many times does behold the current in this these passages this passage read again you didn't teach you to read the university how many times it appeared everybody's convinces three four times twice in 12 once the beginning here 13 and what's the beginning of 15 right four times now behold means pay attention pay attention ok ok I'm paying attention you have to write in four times in the space of three verses muffin four verses that just seems like overkill right at the very least each phrase it gets its own behold has to contribute something of meaningfulness by itself it can't just be backdrop for the rest so if the first half of 12 gets to behold the first half of 12 is to teach me something in other words if the whole thing stopped there and he woke up he would have learned something you learn something what would he have learned the ladder between heaven and earth gets set up from heaven to earth that means connections we got a man are established by God it's not man's responsibility to climb to heaven God will reach out to him from heaven to earth unlikely have to love doll Spain Tarla tummy I think it's one of one of the great mosaics that was made Middle Ages or limited ages but it was insisting Chapel or other places which has God reaching his hand out down and man reaching his hand up and meeting in the middle no no that's not the biblical picture at least not for our Bible may be part of the hospital Christian Bible and it's certainly not the right interpretation of these verses that ladder is set from heaven to earth coming down from heaven to earth that's important to know that's important to know ok now the next phrase is behold agents of God we're ascending and descending on it the word angels is ok ok but it's redundant you don't say angels of God Angels have only one location and that's working for God and the Word malach and Hebrew though anybody here know some Hebrew my lockers related to malaha Aloha is activities action my luck is an agent not a messenger that's terribly wrong lots of malakand don't carry angel carry messages they do others say they do other things agent something that I proper eights and guys we have somehow wherever that means agents of God were sending a descending on it now just a piece of logic based on your own general knowledge anything disturb you about this SMG and DC angels agents of gun yeah it's a round trip sounds like a round trip where's the home base of the Angels presumably in heaven aren't living in Ohio and that being the case a round trip ought to be he's sending an SMD what to do now ah to introduce the next interpretation i want to make another distinction some interpretations are deduced the first half is deduced you cannot budge from it other interpretations explain if i add in some extra information I can explain what's going on here of course I'm and then adding an extra information that certainly leaves room for other interpretations maybe even competing interpretations because they'll have a deduction I have only an explanation still one shouldn't be too dismissive of it of explanations sits in science all you ever get as explanations never do you get deductions so that's why always a scientific theory could be replaced by another scientific theory it's not as solid as a deduction but it certainly is valid here's the traditional interpretation a manatee says another one that's why i say that others are possible the traditions reputation is this great people like the patriarchs had a permanent group of angels associate assigned to them angels somehow express God's presence of God's care there were a group of angels assigned to them I told you what's happening here is Jacob's leading the Land of Israel so he has a vision of what difference it makes whatever does it make with you in i delay individual outside landers answer makes a big difference because they're angels who are accompanying you inside are going to leave you they're going to be replaced by a different group he sees his angels leaving by ascending and he sees the replacements coming down that's why its ascending first and he sending afterwards to put it in modern terms once you cross the board the United States you don't only protected by the FBI are protected by the CIA what now Yusei but look you just add it in the whole piece of information which isn't in the text not even a hint it in a text that's true that's true but let's see if we can't develop for it some support there's what I said before not just being consistent but some support look up page 169 this is jacob coming back to the land Rizzo 32 chapter 32 verse 2 Jacob went on his way and agents of God encountered him Jacob said when he saw them this is a godly camp so he called the name of that place ha no you now your translator had mercy on you and here's the Hebrew word and addressed because mahanaim in Hebrew means twin camps twin cams golly boys and girls it says when he saw them this is a godly camp so he called the place twin camps that's that apiece if you see one camp why would you call the place twin cams answer because he had one camp with him he had one camp with him and now this is a second camp he had the camp of the CIA angels the externals and this is the FBI's coming to greet him and for a short period of time there's an overlap so when he sees this camp of angels he now is in the presence of two and he calls the place twin camps so that fits now I'll tell you what the song ever ever said if you put the two of them together you see that the higher angels always move first I'm 145 with ascending and descending it's the Israeli angels who are leaving him and the externals that are coming to replace them here is coming back Israeli angels come to greet him while the externals are still with him so a 169 there's an overlap while the externals are still with him the Israeli angels appear and for some time there are two camps in front okay if you always have the higher ones movie first and what's coming back the reason what the result is an overlap and I won't 45 what does it have to be again right what does it say I 145 what does it say the second after 12 is angels ages of God we're sending is heading on it and be hauled a Shem was standing over him well I was there do you think because as a gap in the Angels Israeli angels are leaving the externals haven't come to replace them he has no Angelica couple took God Himself stands over I think things work out pretty pretty well right you have a lot of information and it all of it fits this this this pattern and we're talking about hiring lower angels and angels are assigned him still i am using causeou are using something which isn't written in the text that leaves room for an alternative interpretation my Monty says that the latter is the ladder of prophecy and going higher on the ladder means having more profound prophecy more intense more revealing prophecy and profits go up and down they don't remain on one place a single prophet can have many different kinds of prophecy different times in his life so it's a model for something else neither one contradicts the other either one contradicts the other they're both acceptable deputations are we together okay now there are different types of interpretation now I will teach you something that's really I think pretty subtle and quite profound interpreting the text where the rules how do you know how to interpret a text give an example their history books history was supposed to tell you what happen if you have letters or newspaper reports or statues which are inconsistent with what the history book says the initial book is wrong we're supposed to tell you what happened this is did matter though someone reads a play by Shakespeare Antony and Cleopatra about Roman times any complaints those things never happened aunt Ida nervous of those words they imagined episode those words they weren't that place at that time what kind of bomb is this author he's writing about these it never happened that's Overstreet what will we answer him excuse me Shakespeare is not writing history he's writing literature sure the things that happened shakes was trying to teach you about human nature human character human emotions political intrigue trying to teach you about your Roman history it's a different sort of book only if you know the author intends to do and what the cultural audience is going to here with the text do you know how to interpret it okay ideally the author should tell you what he means by the text God is the author he has to tell us what he means for us to do with the text the point of that text is to communicate the question is how the truth is the context communicates on many different levels simultaneously and each level has its own method and the methods were handed down at Sinai so that people will be able to receive the communication of the text some of you may have heard of the acronym partes shadow institution salt was a four different patterns of interpretation and then there others as well and maybe at this point the word interpretation might be misleading so let me replace it by different ways in which the text communicates you could have a communication which says read the first letter of each word that's how spies communicated in wartime they coded meanings into the text sometimes by lead the first out of the first word and second letter second word and third letter the third word and that reverse it you know and then go to the 4th 5th and 6th Prince is important codes like that and what it says on the surface is meaningless or numerical values for the words or other things the author of the text has to tell you what he intends you to do with the text why am I saying this because there are people who are convinced that the text really means what it says by that i mean the meaning of the text is the literal reading of the words and syntax the grammar comparative text that's what it says all the rest is fluff all those it just made up or is the subjective all the rest just play title of tonight's lectures misinterpretation play but that's a mistake all the different methods of reading the communication of the text i valid because the author of fixed told us that they are all available indeed it might have turned out that the literal meaning of text is irrelevant it might have turned out that it's irrelevant just like in Shakespeare he said this to him he went there he killed who him none of that happened so so what something meant to tell you what happened it could have been that way no it's not true Kyle gave us a list of ways to dr. text communicates one of them is the literal meaning the text but it's no more important no more solid no more valid than more truthful than any of the other ways of interpreting or communicating yeah it means every verse has Apes at that's what it means it has a shot now that means you can't say the verse lost its shot that doesn't exclude other ways of interpreting it or other communications it just means you can't ever deny the shot of the puzzle but it has other meanings as well and the governor has three examples where it doesn't have a shot zenga mar because all Universal statements in the Rebennack corpus have exceptions all of them they all have exceptions they're meant to have exceptions this is codified in a statement or be auckland said in la medium in the clothes you don't learn from general statements and he went on to say in the venom of clothes I feel about you never go hoots if you have a statement always Abby's except for XYZ and you say well the rabbi's told us the exceptions it tells XYZ the exceptions you don't learn from that either there could be other exceptions also they didn't mention no universal statement is binding as universal there is no such thing no because I said rebenok statement I'm a logician my statements out of a big State I meant statement of the ravaged of the Talmud hey what I'm saying is that natal good try okay so now let's go back to the very beginning of the tour page 3 the first two words of the Torah contain a grammatical contradiction the first two words Arbor Rashi's borough where's ray she's mean in hebrew first nope nope so again first nope like multiple first nope okay I'm playing a trick until I give you a hint ray sheet has say fair means the beginning of the book what does her sheet mean so again correct beginning of a sheath has safer I safer is the book roshita safer's beginning of the book so Rashid means beginning of after beginning of what what sort of word or phrase has to come and now the name of a thing beginning of the century beginning of the novel beginning the symphony getting the quartet beginning of the solo music what beginning of the creation yes could be but has to have a noun but the next word in Hebrew borrows a verb it's not a now it's a verb literally it says it's his beginning of created can't say in English you can't say Hebrew just wrong and that's what rashi the second raschi is exercised by that's a long and complex and beautiful roshini where it describes his whole methodology I'm not gonna go through it so Rashi says it means beginning of creating Reed races borough beginning of creating now create Ted but create ting I you'll say but look it doesn't say creating it says create Ted and don't give me this changing the text that belongs you know on the hill over there with the phony academics but where we know the text is holy and the text says what it says so rash she says I'll prove it to you well at least I did you support for it the book that first the second verse the book of Hosea says she'll at tequilas d beer ashampoo oh sure he'll ass means beginning of just like right she's the tough at the end makes it into the of still as in the beginning of and d bear means he spoke this is beginning of the book obviously B's beginning of God's speaking it's an idiom it's an idiom in Hebrew when you have a Spiegel's together with a verb the the communication is that it's a gerund verbal noun create ting is a noun right not a verb how do you test was something now try to make it the subject of a sentence creating is fun creating is hard work creating pays well creating is no problem right creating them now they now built out of a verb that's what adjourned is but it's a noun so bra she says I tell you to read it as beginning of creating Rashi invents a critic because his motive of interpretations based on logic and therefore there could be critics the great accessory she yeah many elliptical verses verses that leave out words in the Tanakh lots and lots and lots of it and the text expects the alert reader to fill in and there's one of of Isaiah which has this very word never says Maggie May ray she's at her ease which literally translated would be he declares from the beginning of the end of what was that again he declares in the beginning of the end of beginning of what end of what's talking about God it's left out says the critic obviously you're supposed to fill in everything God declares for the beginning of everything the end of everything she was to fill in the noun well since the critic i say fill it in here to fill it in here too don't change bara into bro don't change created to creating just put it in the beginning of everything god created the heavens in the earth that works grammatically that works fine says Rashi you're right does work fine and it has a payoff of expressing a fundamental principle of Jewish religion theology in the first sentence of the thorough the God created everything from the beginning arashi says its rule it's wrong because in the next verse the Torah mentions the water where the water come from where did the water come from if you're going to read the beginning of everything God created the heavens and the earth you have no origin for the water and if you answer which I think frankly is my mind at ease answer but if you answer but earth could mean the globe including the water Rashi will tell you that five verses hence the Taurus says Eretz means you have a shot dry land God Colt the ya basha Eretz so in this passage Eretz means dry land so in this passage there's no account of the creation of water so that being the case now she says interpreted my way put in creating now look at the English which follows rushing in this case in the beginning of God's creating the heavens of the earth that's mid process does beginning of everything lots of things well happy for that like the creation of water and the deep other things but when God got around so to speak to creating heavens and earth when the earth was astonished the empty doctrines fears the deep I president have the winners that's just stage setting God said let there be light and it was like that was the first process in creating heavens and earth the whole story picks up mid process you don't go back to the beginning and if you lose an expression of this fundamental point of the Jewish religion so what we're not doubt about that it says so in the prophets it says on the oil tradition Apple does has to be everywhere arashi says it's not here okay there are memories it the other way now there's another communication in the verse which I she mentions from the rabbi's they say the word races is a code word for the Jewish people and for the Torah which it is an aversive Jeremih in a person proverbs burka me for the sake of even in liberal Hebrew literal Hebrew the book of Genesis they're coming for the sake of a vodka Sheva shiny bauble a bit Rocco bit far katana I'll serve you for seven years for the sake of Rachel younger daughter the passaic of there is base and the midre the madrasa interpretation or communication is for the sake of the Jewish people and the Torah god created the heavens and the earth and if ever visit protests but look that's not what race means this doesn't mean the church that the Torah I just let me the Jewish people so why did there's a verse in Jeremiah anniversa in Proverbs which he used the same word for the turn the Jewish people so what that's played out the worst means will tell that person to go back to first grade we're not discussing what the first means we're discussing what the verse is communicating what is God communicating to us through this verse and the answer is he's communicating through the literal meaning of the verse and his communicating through the madrasa sources on the verse and is communicating through the Kabbalistic sources underverse they are all genuine communications i'll just mention to you the Kabbalistic interpretation and i'm going to quit the bays can mean in like in time the base can mean for the sake of the base can also mean with they use a tool to do something now the Kabbalistic interpretation is this the subject of the verses unmentioned that subject ex used rashes to create a low key create god sort of that unnamed subject used regice to create a low key as it says the introduction to the Tsar what's the idea ideas I've told some of you is that we don't talk about God goes beyond all talking about we talk about his modes of action having tracks with the world he interacts with the world on the basis of many different principles whenever you see a name of God the first thing you ask in capital C terms is which principle is being as being mentioned and here the first verse tells you which verse is doing that which principles doing the job of the creation and where it came from what's its pedigree and the verse says x used why to create the principle that gave rise to our world principal garage to our world is what's communicated by the name of lo keem throughout the entire first chapter genesis is only a low key and the first verse tells you where looking proper came from there's no competition here the shot level tells you when it happened the Midrash level tells you for what purpose it happened and the Cavalier piston communication tells you who did it they're all necessary to understand they all helped to complete a picture the old work hand in hand I hope that this short discussion convinces you that interpretation is not free play you