Even If We Don't Understand

I was not raised as an observant Jew that was not my background my first encounter with Orthodox Jews was I was doing academic research I fell into a Shiva doing academic research I had to eat view Orthodox Jews that's we find them there was one rapping in the building who I really got excited about I asked him a question and he must have known that I was you silly a Harvard educated and so he answered in perfect American University and the answer he delivered was so deep and it was so relevant I was I was just thrilled so I thought maybe got lucky so I asked him some more questions and every time I asked him a question I got something that was an intellectual stake and all my questions had essentially the same format which is rabbi why do I have to keep this myth so why do I have to keep that ones until one morning when I asked him one of those questions and he looked across the table and he smiled you keep asking the wrong question our mantra is we don't understand it why would any intelligent Orthodox Jew even if he believed it confess that we do it even if we don't understand that didn't he realized in that moment I was gonna lose complete and total respect for him fast for the whole movie about ten years I'm here in Jerusalem I found enough of value or facts community to continue my pursuit one day I'm teaching my class unenthused a heritage a Russia live and that day's class was I'm giving in to a rational request for some reason people who s think that you should not cooperate with your spouse's irrational requests because it's like giving in to insanity and I had to explain to the group that a human being is not a cerebrum and that people have psychological needs they have emotional needs we give in to a rational request unless it's self-destructive or destructive we give in to a rational equation we take care of our spouse so I'm giving this whole lecture about giving in to a rational request and there's a knock on the door Hadassah the secretary from downstairs comes up urgent message from your wife she hands me a folded piece of paper I open up the piece of paper please double underline on the way home from work can you pick up two bags of seaweed so I call us this piece of paper I stick it into my pocket I finish giving my class on giving into a rationale requests I walk into a Michael if I said could I please have a couple bags of see which what he said to me you gotta go into the health food store in the middle of town so I said fine I love this lady to pieces and I know that there's certain things that she loves but this never occurred to me fine I get off the bus I go into the health food store I said can I please have a couple bags of see what he said I'm so sorry I just sold my last two bags so don't worry there's a health food store another few blocks and I was out the door I'm sprinting then I come barreling into the next house sorry he puts the two bags of seaweed on the untamed why anything else I said no oh look at that and on the counter he's got these trays and the trays are filled with different kinds of carob bars I said you know what actually I'll take three of these and I'll take three of these I don't take three of these three of these and I'll take three of these he wraps it all up in a bag he hands it to me hi I grabbed a bag okay I take a change I walk out as I walk out of this I go back down the block they go into the flower store no not red roses I need yellow roses gonna put a lot of that white proof stuff in there yeah no not pink lavender ribbon you get the whole thing and go back to my house Shawn opens the door and I said I know why did I do that she never told me why she wanted to see me so why did I buy it for her the answer is not that I don't care why she wants to see me because when you love somebody you want to crawl around inside their head and discover everything about them so I'm dying to know why I don't want seaweeds I'm not gonna refuse to buy it for it till she can just afraid to me I love her so she says she wants seaweed that's enough for me when that rabbi looked across the table with a big smile and said don't you understand we do it even if we don't understand it it's not that he forgot that I was UCLA Harvard it's that he mistakenly thought that even though I had been to UCLA in Harvard I might still have a heart left he was talking relationship I was talking philosophy [Music]