Massachusetts, Virginia, Mississippi, Michigan, Virginia, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Oregon, Samoa, Northern, Mariana, US, Virgin, Ireland, state, flag, order, arms, and now we invite you to join the staff of Recruit Training Command in welcoming the graduating divisions with your applause as they enter Midway Ceremonial Grill Hall and are announced in the following order. Ladies and gentlemen, you may be seated. Thank you. Divisions, right section leaders, fall out and collect outer garments. For the remainder of the review, no one will be permitted to pass in front of the review stand. And we ask this as a courtesy to our reviewing officers. Photography is certainly encouraged, but we ask that you remain seated and off the trail deck. The photographers you will see on deck throughout the review are the official photographers of Recruit Training Command. Division commanders, left or right, face, hooray, rest. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'm Lieutenant Jessica Morales, Recruit Training Command's Master of Ceremonies. I would like to welcome you to today's pass in review. Today, you will see 12 divisions comprised of 958 sailors participating in their graduation ceremony and soon join the most powerful navy in the world. Please draw your attention to the unit position at center deck. There is a review commander in staff. The review commander is responsible for conducting the graduation ceremony. Today's review commander is the Seaman Recruit Matthew Whitaker from Cocoa Beach, Florida. Let's give them a hand, folks. Performing today is the state flags unit on their eighth week of training, the staff unit on their ninth week of training, and the triple threat unit on their tenth and final week of training. These units are comprised entirely of recruits. During their night of arrival, recruits are placed into divisions of 88 personnel and assigned division commanders. Recruit division commanders form the backbone of recruit training and are key individuals in the life of every recruit. Division commanders must serve as counselors, disciplinarians, administrators, and military leaders. Above all, they must show themselves as outstanding examples of military bearing, appearance, attitude, and behavior. Each division also has a recruit chief petty officer. This senior recruit supervises the divisional staff positions and leads the division in the absence of their division commanders. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce the graduating divisions, their division commanders, and recruit chief petty officers. As I introduce each division, they will raise the competitive flags that they have earned throughout their training. As I introduce each recruit chief petty officer, the flag representing their home state will also be raised. Please hold your applause until all introductions have been completed. I will be starting from their right division. Three, two, five. Commanded by petty officer first class, Austin Martin, petty officer first class, Eric Rao, petty officer first class, David Garcia, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Colton Fulcher from Cabot, Arkansas. Division three, two, seven. Commanded by chief petty officer, Ryan Hordesuela, petty officer first class, Dustin Hunter, petty officer first class, Eva Simpson, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Braden Nun from Apache, Oklahoma. Division three, two, eight. Commanded by senior chief petty officer, Thomas Reed, petty officer first class, Alvin Kemibor, petty officer first class, Ashley Halsey, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Jaden Haga from Shehalis, Washington. Division three, two, nine. Commanded by chief petty officer, Paschen Richmond, petty officer first class, Bradley Walker, petty officer first class, Luis Negón-Velez, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Aiden Pimentel from Corpus Crispi, Texas. Division three, three, zero. Commanded by chief petty officer, Gunnar Kaisel, petty officer first class, Randy Smith, petty officer first class, Monito Niebonis, and their recruit chief petty officer, Airman Apprentice, Shia Lamani from Tampa, Florida. Division three, three, one. Commanded by petty officer first class, Edward Andrew, petty officer first class, Raith Smith, petty officer second class, Roxanne Lewis, and their recruit chief petty officer, Airman Nick Sablon from Guyatna, Guam. Division three, three, two. Commanded by senior chief petty officer, Jerica Johnson, petty officer first class, Thomas Jordan, petty officer first class, Drew Furnison, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Apprentice, Taylor Brown from Marion Arkansas. Division three, three, three. Commanded by chief petty officer, Kyle Jacobson, petty officer first class, Randall Brulloch, petty officer second class, Kevin Leone, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Robert Wolfe from Sufferita, Arizona. Division three, three, four. Commanded by petty officer first class, Daniel Jeffrey, petty officer first class, Portland Stewart, petty officer second class, Bobby Kinchin, and their recruit chief petty officer, Seaman Apprentice Jacob Killian from Grace Lake, Illinois. Division three, three, five. Commanded by petty officer first class, Dennis Akin, petty officer first class, Justin Medores, petty officer second class, Andrew Nickel, and their recruit chief petty officer, Airman Apprentice Tyron Walden from Orlando, Florida. Division three, three, six. Commanded by senior chief petty officer, Larry Abram, petty officer first class, Peter Looters, petty officer second class, Eric Velez, their recruit chief petty officer, Airman Apprentice Jacob Reeves from Carrier Mills, Illinois. Division nine, four, one. Commanded by chief petty officer, Dane Walton, petty officer first class, Jordan Mock, petty officer second class, Anthony Thomas. And their recruit chief petty officer, Airman Apprentice Laney Brown from Monroe, Ohio. After the commanding officer and staff of recruit training command, we congratulate these division commanders and recruit chief petty officers on a job well done. You will see the ceremonial side boys, both send an honor guard, take their places for arrival honors. This time on our tradition is our formal greeting to this morning's reviewing officer. When requested by the announcer, please stand for the arrival honors, marching on of the colors to the national anthem and the invocation. As a reminder, military guests shall remain covered throughout the entire graduation ceremony. Ladies and gentlemen, one final note. As befitting the importance of this occasion, our ceremony is conducted in a formal manner. However, we do encourage you to participate in today's graduation ceremony by letting your applause show these sailors just how proud of them you are. Once again, welcome aboard. Will the guests please rise and remain standing for the arrival of the official party. Recruit training command arriving. Order. Navy recruiting command arriving. Arms. The guests may be seated. Will the guests please rise, present arms. Order. Arms. Chaplain Nozawa will offer this morning's invocation. Let us pray. Gracious God, what a wonderful day that we can gather together to celebrate the accomplishment of the Navy's finest sailors who just completed 10 weeks of Navy boot camp. There have been some challenges along the way, physically, mentally, and spiritually going through rigorous training. These men and women are standing here today with honor, courage, and commitment. Are we thanking God? There's been much effort put in for all of us to be here. Recruit division commanders worked hard to train the recruits shaping the future of the Navy. All the staff and instructors poured their knowledge and skills into these sailors so we can continue to be an agile force. Without their fast support of families near and far, these sailors will not be standing here today. It truly has been a team effort which is what we're going to leave as United States Navy. Graduation only means the another beginning of a new chapter onto the next stage. May you continue to be with each one of us here so we can continue to serve our country with a sense of mission. And may this graduation ceremony be pleasing to your eyes. Amen. At this point, the commanding officer would issue orders and instructions to the unit commanders. Then the unit commanders would face about and relay the information to their divisions. Today's events show how orders are passed through the chain of command. Divisions, read the sailor. I present the graduating divisions. Request permission to commence the review. Very well, I'll commence the review. Aye, sir. I'm pleased to welcome families in France to our graduation ceremony and look forward to sharing this momentous occasion with you. With us today is our review officer, we're at the Lex Walker Commander Naval Recruiting Command. I cannot thank all of our visitors enough for your continued support and I'm sure your sailors are grateful for your encouragement throughout their training. I would also like to welcome all of the veterans in that audience and thank them for their service to our country. Would all of our veterans please stand and let's give them a round of applause. Division 941 graduates today, they are the triple threat unit providing recruit choir, drill team and band. Please join me in giving them and the 11 other graduating divisions here today a round of applause for their outstanding performances. This is where our Navy heritage meets the future and where these young men and women enter the profession of arms. The staff of Recruit Training Command is dedicated to providing the United States Navy with basically trained, physically fit and smartly disciplined sailors such as those standing here this morning. These sailors have successfully completed 10 weeks of the man and recruit training. They have earned the right to wear the uniform recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom. They and others like them serve as a bedrock of our naval forces and they will join other sailors around the world to give our Navy its combat edge and enable us to help keep this nation secure. This training group is ready to graduate and serve in the world's most powerful Navy. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you 958 of the newest and sharpest sailors in the United States Navy. Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. Recruit Training Command's competitive system among individual recruits and divisions promotes teamwork, attention to detail and pride and accomplishment. Divisions performing above standards throughout their training are awarded recognition flags in the five mission areas. Academic achievement, military drill, compartment readiness, applications and physical fitness. These flags are carried as a visible symbol of their division's success. Each flag indicates that your sailors individually and as teams met performance standards in one or more mission areas. A division that excels in every phase of training qualifies for the battle efficiency on a division recognition and is awarded the Battle E honor flag for this exemplary achievement. Division three, three, five has earned this honor today and we congratulate them on to now present this week's individual awards and he will be joined on the drill deck by our commanding officer, Captain Brooks. For achieving the highest overall academic score during recruit training, Seaman Apprentice, Caroline Nelson, Division 331 from Cleveland, Ohio, has earned the Academic Excellence Award, which is sponsored by the Lake Devines Chapter of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Seaman Apprentice, Nelson, receives a letter of commendation from the commanding officer. Well done, sailor. For having displayed extraordinary qualities, that's expressing the American spirit of honor, initiative and loyalty. Seaman Christian Kiefer, Division 331 from St. Louis, Missouri is awarded the Navy League Award, which is sponsored by the Navy League of the United States. Seaman Kiefer is presented with a commemorative plaque and a letter of commendation from the commanding officer. Well done, sailor. Airman Alliance Moreno, Division 333 from Mission, Texas is the winner of the United Service Organization Award for best exemplifying the spirit of intent of the word shipping. Airman Moreno is given a commemorative plaque for the United Service Organization. Well done, sailor. Seaman Mike Wynn, Division 328 from Shoreline, Washington is the recipient of the Military Order of the World Wars Award of Merit. This award is presented for meritorious performance during recruit training. Seaman Wynn is presented with a commemorative plaque from the Military Order of the World Wars. Well done, sailor. The Military Offers Association Leadership Award is presented to Seaman Apprentice Aidan Branko, Division 333 from Lakeville, Massachusetts for demonstrating exceptional tenacity and professionalism. Seaman Apprentice Branko is awarded a letter of commendation from our commanding officer. Well done, sailor. Seaman Brayden Nunn, Division 327 from Apache, Oklahoma is the recipient of the Navy Club of the United States of America Military Excellence Award for best exemplifying the qualities of enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military bearing, and teamwork. This award places him at the pinnacle of today's newest sailors. He is awarded a flag letter of commendation. Seaman Nunn, the staff of recruit training command salutes you as the finest of this group of graduates. Well done, sailor. Divisions up to... It is appropriate to recognize such outstanding individual accomplishments by these sailors with a round of three cheers. The adjutant will lead all graduating divisions in three cheers for this morning's award winners. I have the distinct pleasure this morning of introducing our reviewing officer, Rick Admiral Lex Walker, Commander of Navy Recruiting Command, a native of New York City Commission in 1994. During his illustrious career, he served at sea as engineer officer aboard USS Cole and USS Leite Gulf, Executive Officer of USS Buckley, Commanding Officer of USS Stockdale and as Commodore of the Starter Squadron 7. Rick Admiral Walker's short tours include Deputy for Congressional Affairs at U.S. European Command, Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy and as Deputy Chief of Legislative Affairs at the Navy Office of Legislative Affairs. Prior to his current duties, he served as Commanding Officer Surface War for our school's command. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a warm Recruiting Command welcome to Rick Admiral Walker. Good morning and thank you for that introduction. I'm humbled to stand here before you today. Welcome to this wonderful and important event.  It is a great privilege to be here today as we welcome our newest sailors into the world's finest Navy. As the commanding of Navy Recruiting Command, I know firsthand the hard work and long hours that went into recruiting each and every one of these sailors. I also know the hard work that they did to prepare for and then tackle the challenges of recruit training command. And it is my honor to watch these efforts come to fruition as they graduate and begin the careers that attracted them to the Navy and ultimately place them here before you today. I'd like to recognize all of the family and friends assembled here and those watching online. None of us who have served or who are currently serving could have done so without your love, encouragement and support. You played a critically important role influencing and shaping your sailor into the fine American standing before you here today. This role will continue as they progress through their Navy career and I thank you for your love, understanding and dedication into the future. These new sailors also couldn't have made it this far without the incredible staff here at Recruit Training Command. These hand selected sailors worked extremely hard to transform recruits into the elite sailors you see here today. They are truly forged by the sea. To the Navy's newest who stand here before us, first and foremost, I want to say congratulations and thank you. I know that you had many options available and you chose to enlist in our Navy which has made even better today because you are joining our ranks. The demands of leaving home and completing Recruit Training Command have challenged you mentally, physically and emotionally. This ultra-realistic training is designed to mimic the challenges you face in the fleet and ensure you are prepared to successfully conquer every challenge that comes your way. You have repeatedly proven yourselves worthy of donning the uniform that identifies you as a member of the United States Navy. You answered the call to serve your country and have dedicated your talent and ability to a cause greater than any one of us. Today we celebrate you, not only for what you've accomplished over the past several weeks, but also for what you will accomplish in your career. You are truly embarking on a wonderful journey. I see the world at your fingertips just like it had been for me at the beginning of my career over 30 years ago. Never forget this moment, where you came from and who helped you get here. Share your experiences with your friends and family, encourage them to be active participants in your journey, and continue to make them just as much a part of your future as they were a part of the road that led here. You've chosen to serve our country at a time when it is most needed, when America must have a strong naval presence around the world. By graduating today, you are taking on the responsibility of defending our nation as part of the finest Navy in the world, the United States Navy. Always be proud to call yourself a United States Navy sailor. You have earned not only my respect, but the respect of all Americans everywhere. Let me be the first to say, welcome aboard shipmates. The graduating divisions, and he will be joined on the drill deck by our commanding officer, Captain Brooks. Please remain seated until your graduates have been placed on Liberty. Please join me in one more round of appreciation for our wonderful musicians of Navy band, section managers, fall out and retrieve outer garments.


New Year's Eve is a time for looking back on the year past and in a moment I want to talk about all that 1983 meant to America, but first I want to mention the topic of my radio talk two weeks ago, drunk driving. A drunk or drugged person at the wheel of a car isn't a driver, that person is a machine of destruction. So let's enjoy all the wonderful celebrations that go with New Year's Eve, but please when we drive, let's drive sober. 1983 was the 207th year for our Grand Ole Republic. Though the year had its measure of hardship and even tragedy, it was a time when we Americans acted with courage, self-confidence, and vigor. We had reason to feel glad. America was on the men, and as our economy regained strength, we watched the progress of a sparkling recovery, one of the strongest recoveries in 20 years. I said from the beginning it would take time for our economic program to work. You can't cure 25 years of failed economic policies overnight. And yes, we had some hard months at first, but 1983 saw our patients pay off as our program took hold. On this New Year's Eve, the prime interest rate is 11 percent, about half of what it was when we took office. Inflation for 1983 is running at only 3.2 percent, about a quarter, what it was just three years ago. Housing starts are running 60 percent higher than on this day last year. 1983 saw the stock market reach new highs as it pumped vast new funds into the economy and raised the value of pension funds where millions of working Americans have their savings. During 1982, American manufacturers sold 5.8 million new cars. This year they've sold 6.7 million. As our basic industries and agriculture gained new strength, American ingenuity and enterprise are creating whole new industries. Industries like robotics and bioengineering. Just a few years ago, home computers were unheard of. At the end of 1982, American companies had sold some 2.5 million home computers. This year, the figure is expected to climb to 7.5 million. This is one of the seasons when we Americans fly the most to visit family and friends because there's nothing like being home for the holidays. Well, the deregulation of the airline industry has increased competition and helped push fares down. And deregulation of banking is helping millions. In 1983, for the first time, everyday savers and small businesses received marked interest rates earning three and a half billion dollars in additional income. The best news of all, on New Year's Eve 1982, 100.8 million Americans had jobs. But today, the figure has climbed by 3.6 million at all time high for our nation. All this means that in 1983 it was easier to pay bills, put children through college, buy homes, or borrow the money to start a new business than it had been in many years. Once again, the American economy has begun to reward fresh ideas and good hard work. Just as 1983 saw our economy recovering, it saw a new sense of purpose in our armed forces and foreign policy. In the military, morale has soared. Some pundits used to claim we could only attract recruits when our economy was weak. But now, even with a strong economy and growing opportunities in civilian life, our armed forces are attracting more and better qualified recruits than ever. There's one statistic that shows just how dramatic the turnaround has been. If 1979, Air Force retention rates had continued. Three out of four pilots would have left the service after their first tours. In 1983, better than three out of four stayed in. Morale has improved partly because we've given our men and women in uniform better pay and better equipment. But I just have to believe the courage of our soldiers and Marines in Lebanon and Grenada has a lot to do with it. And as we celebrate the new year, I wonder whether you would all join Nancy and me in setting aside a moment to remember those who, in 1983, gave their lives in the cause of freedom and to pray for the brave young men spending this day so far from home. In foreign policy this year, we've given firm support to democratic leadership in Central America. In Grenada, we set a nation free. In Asia, our trip to Japan and Korea further stretched in our partnership with those nations. In Europe, 1983 saw the NATO alliance pass through harsh trials, but the alliance has emerged more firmly united than ever, more ardent in the cause of freedom and peace, more dedicated to the path of deterrence and dialogue. In Lebanon, the road to peace has brewed long and hard. But there has been progress that would have been impossible without our Marines and the other troops in the multinational peacekeeping force. Representatives of all Lebanese factions agreed in Geneva to recognize the government of President Amin Jamal and talks have begun to broaden the government's base. It isn't easy, progress is painfully slow, but progress is being made. 1983 was a good year for America. If all of us keep pulling together, we can make 1984 even better. Happy new year and until next week, thanks for listening and God bless you all.


Do we try to get there sooner or later? Or should we just try to get there sooner? We had 12 judges from around the world each answer three basic questions. We want to see that the teams have something that works to remove carbon, but doesn't also have any other types of detrimental effects for the environment. Technologies and ideas look great at very small scale, and they just start to break down when you get to that gigatone scale. So how have you addressed that? OK, you've got your costs down, but what are you really doing to make sure that that CO2 is actually staying out of the atmosphere for a significant amount of time? The teams that are really succeeding, they really understand what the real challenge is for their technology, and they at least have a plan to address that challenge. They've actually selected you as one of the 15 milestone players. Woo! That's amazing! As excited as we are to talk about these 15 winners of the prize money and the top 60 and all the teams that have put in fantastic ideas, in some ways this is just the beginning. Yay! Awesome! What a nice Wednesday morning surprise. This competition is still open. We actually know there are many other groups that haven't registered or signed up that we suspect might want to jump in over the next year or two because they're doing great stuff, and frankly the grand prize is going to be still up for grabs.


I want to begin by saying that the Talmud is not a book, in much the same way that art is not a painting and music is not a song, Talmud is not a book. We don't read the Talmud, we experience the Talmud, we encounter it, we engage it, but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. The Talmud isn't a book. It's actually comprised of 37 tractates, composed of 2,711 pages, and normally bound into 20 volumes like this. The Talmud has provoked incredibly strong reactions, both positive and negative. In 1842, King Louis IX of France ordered the confiscation of all volumes of the Talmud in his country. In June of that year, 24 wagon loads containing 12,000 volumes were burned in Paris. For his efforts, the church canonized him as a saint in the year 1297. He is Saint Louis. Over the next 500 years, there were numerous burnings of the Talmud, mass burnings in many cities such as Toulouse in England, in Rome, and in Poland. And beginning in the 16th century, there were many books, many works that were published attacking the Talmud. These attacks have continued up until the very present time. Now, these written volumes are not very easy to find. However, because of the internet, these very crude attacks have inspired numerous articles and videos that are extremely popular on the worldwide web. If you want to search any Google search or a YouTube search for the word Talmud, usually many of the first findings on the first page of these Google searches will turn up odious titles like The Truths about the Talmud, or the Sick Evil Jewish Talmud, or the Satanic Talmud, or the Talmud on its dark side, or the Jewish Talmud exposed. And what these authors have done basically is in much the same way that many non-Jewish authors have manhandled the Jewish Bible. They've also tried to ransack the Jewish Talmud from material that they thought was scandalous, that they thought made Jews look bad. And basically all of these attacks are based upon purposeful, misquoting of the Talmud, mistranslating, and usually simply quoting out of context and ignoring what the Talmud is actually teaching. Now, aside from all of these ugly attacks on the Talmud, there is another side to the story. And many have seen the Talmud very positively. For example, in 1931, Hermann Strach, who was a German Christian scholar, published a very positive 360 page overview introduction to the Talmud in Midrash. He was someone that wasn't just cherry picking the Talmud for embarrassing quotes. He was someone that seriously studied it.  He saw it as a very positive kind of book, even though, theologically, he didn't agree. We know that modern Koreans have been drawn to the Talmud since the mid-1970s. And books containing collections of stories from the Talmud are extremely popular in Korea. Some people estimate that just about every home in Korea has one of these digests of Talmudic stories. Now, when I first came to Toronto in 1991, I served as a Jewish chaplain at the University of Toronto. And one of the groups that I facilitated was a weekly Jewish meditation and spirituality circle. One of the regular attendees went on to become a reform rabbi and wrote the following. From the first moment that I encountered the Talmud, I have found traditional text study more spiritually gratifying than any other religious practice. And I had a lot to compare it with. I was raised Tibetan Buddhist by parents who were cultural Jews. They exposed me to meditation, to chanting, to yoga postures, Hindu devotions, and spiritual pilgrimages all before the age of six. I enjoyed all of these activities, but it wasn't until I encountered the Talmud and began studying it in my early 20s that I felt a sense of spiritual fulfillment. In 2013, Ruth Calderon became a member of the Israeli Knesset. The topic of her inaugural speech was her long-time relationship with the Talmud. That was the entire focus of her very moving inaugural speech at the Knesset. She described growing up in a secular home, in a secular society, and feeling a void. And then she said, when I first encountered the Talmud and became completely enamored with it, its language, its humor, its profound thinking, its modes of discussion, and the practicality, humanity, and maturity that emerged from its lines, I sensed that I had found the love of my life, which I had been lacking. Calderon described how she became a serious student of the Talmud, ended up obtaining a doctorate in Talmudic literature at Hebrew University. She studies Talmud every single day, ended up founding two institutions for Israelis, secular and religious Israelis that can come together and study the Talmud. Some of these programs have been replicated here in North America. And then she concluded her remarks with a profound and moving exposition of a Talmudic passage to the entire Knesset. If you get a chance to see her speech or read a transcript of it, I recommend it very highly. Today was Yom HaZikaron, the Israeli Memorial Day, which commemorates and remembers the fallen soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces, as well as victims of terror in Israel. On March 6, 2008, eight students at the Merakaz Harav Yashiva in Jerusalem were brutally murdered. Doron Maharetah was 26 years old at the time. He was the only non-teenager in the group. Doron was raised in Ethiopia and didn't have a very strong Jewish education. After immigrating to Israel, he had a strong desire to attend the Merakaz Harav Yashiva. But because he didn't have a strong background in Talmud, he was turned down. He was not accepted. So he said to the administration, not willing to give up so quickly, if you won't let me study here, at least allow me to wash dishes in the mess hall. And so for the next one and a half years, he washed dishes but spent every spare moment in the study hall. And he would ask students what they were learning and spent his evenings and Shabbatot immersed in the Talmud. One day he asked the head of the Yashiva to test him. The Rosh Yashiva smiled and tried to gently dismiss Doron, but Doron wouldn't move. And he forced the Rosh Yashiva into a Torah discussion. About a topic in the Talmud. The very next day Doron became a full-fledged student in the Yashiva. Three weeks before he was killed, he completed the entire Code of Jewish Law with most of its commentaries, which is an accomplishment that many, many senior rabbis still probably have not completed during their lifetime. Now Talmud study requires an immense amount of dedication. Kids get introduced to Talmud study in school at about the age of ten, and as they get older they devote an increasing amount of time to studying Talmud. In post high school Yashivas, they devote about six to ten hours a day to studying Talmud. Many men who get married continue studying full time after their marriage in a Kolel, which is basically an advanced Talmudic seminary for married men. They're like post graduate fellows and they receive a stipend to allow them to devote themselves exclusively to Torah studies. There are about ten such Kolels just here in Toronto. Working people also try to devote their time to studying the Talmud. In 1923 Rabbi Mayor Shapiro launched a worldwide initiative where he proposed that every single person in the world study the same page of Talmud each day. Now at this rate of studying one page a day, you'll finish the entire Babylonian Talmud in about seven and a half years. We are now in the thirteenth cycle since Rabbi Shapiro began his program, and each year the number of participants grow. I attended the celebration of the completion of the eighth cycle of the Talmud at the Felt Forum of Madison Square Garden in New York City back in 1982. That gathering attracted well over 5,000 people. However, the major American gathering for the completion of the twelfth cycle, which was held in August of 2012, was held at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and drew about 100,000 participants. And there were obviously smaller gatherings all throughout the world. Here in Toronto at the Sony Center downtown there were 3,000 people who attended. Now a page of Talmud is called a DAF, and the daily page is called DAF Yomi, the daily page. There are many hundreds, if not thousands, of DAF Yomi classes, both live and online that take place throughout the world. Since everyone is studying the same page of Talmud, you can be traveling almost anywhere in the world and find a class to attend, and they will be on the same page that you were studying wherever you came from. Here in Toronto there were at least 30 such classes taking place at various locations throughout the city every single day of the week. In New York City, train commuters decided to use their time travel to work to study the DAF Yomi. In 1991, the 751 train out of Long Island Railroad going from Farakoway to Manhattan began a DAF Yomi class. They have since completed the entire Talmud three times. Now with that very long introduction, let's now try to understand what the Talmud is and what the Talmud isn't. I once heard a story about a man who sent his son to a tailor to make a jacket for him, and he sent the son with his measurements. The son took the measurements to the tailor, and the tailor said you can come back in a week to pick up the jacket. The son did that, and then the son took the jacket back to his father, and the father tried it on, and he got very upset. He said this is ridiculous, it doesn't fit. So the father went back to the tailor with his son and complained, and he said to the tailor, this jacket doesn't fit. And the tailor said, could you please put it on? And the man proceeded to put it on, and the tailor says, well now I know what the problem is.  And so often we approach a subject with preconceptions that really make it difficult for us to understand the subject correctly. The incorrect, the incorrect but widely held assumption is that the Talmud is basically a commentary to the Bible. And this model sees the Talmud as secondary and supplementary to the Bible, but sees the Bible as primary, like Shakespeare as opposed to literary analysis of Shakespeare. Clearly Shakespeare is primary, and if you read a scholarly analysis of Shakespeare, that's secondary. And so that's how people normally see the Talmud. It is a commentary and analysis of the Bible, but what's primary is the Bible, the Talmud is secondary and supplementary. Now as we'll soon see, the Talmud is basically the repository of Judaism's oral Torah, and we'll try to clear that up in the coming minutes. But seeing the oral Torah as subsidiary to our written Torah is faulty. Actually the exact opposite is the case. Let me try to explain why the oral law is actually primary and not secondary. Number one, I'll share two reasons. First of all, the oral Torah preceded the written Torah. It wasn't as if there was a written Torah, and then as an afterthought, the oral Torah comes around. The oral Torah actually precedes the written Torah that we have today. The teachings that God revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago were communicated by God orally to Moses, and then Moses to the people through their 40 years in the desert. The written text of the Torah that we have, the five books of Moses, were only composed and presented to the Levites and priests at the end of the 40 years in the desert, before the nation entered the land of Canaan. And the written text of the Torah that we have basically serves to confirm and anchor the oral teachings that had been transmitted to them. So one reason why the oral Torah is primary is that it actually came first. But there's a second reason. The written Torah actually came, not only second, it came to supplement the full oral revelation that had been received. Rabbi Shem Shem Mahfal Hirsch explained that the written Torah is basically the lecture notes of the oral Torah. Let's understand this. Imagine if you go to a lecture at a university, and after the lecture you walk by the podium where the professor stood, and you see their note cards on the lectern, on let's say a little three by five cards. Now what is primary? The notes on those little cards or the lecture that you heard? Obviously the lecture is primary. The notes are really supplementary or secondary to that. The notes are not the lecture. Again, the notes are not the lecture. They don't contain all the information that is conveyed by the professor. As a matter of fact, if all you had were the notes, if you didn't come into the lecture and you came in after the lecture was over and you picked up those notes off of the lectern, you wouldn't understand those little three by five cards of the professor. The professor would understand those notes because they're going to help him deliver the lecture. But you coming in with just those notes will not understand what they mean. Furthermore, let's think about this together. How is information usually imparted? How do people really learn anything? Can you imagine someone who purchased all the books, all the textbooks that are studied in a medical school? Someone goes to medical school for four years, buys a whole shelf full of medical textbooks. And imagine someone does the same thing. Someone just purchases all those textbooks that a medical student will study during their four years in medical school. And that's all they do, they read those textbooks and study them very seriously. Would they be able to then function as a doctor? Just because they read those textbooks? There's much more to education than reading texts from a book. Written communication alone is actually very limited. Most of the things that we learn in life are not just through reading and instruction manual. Usually, if you're trying to learn a skill, you need to see it being done. You need to actually try it. You need to be able to ask questions. There's almost no one on the planet that I know that learns how to use a computer by reading a manual for the computer. They have someone show them, they ask questions, they do trial and error, they play around with it. But we don't usually learn anything by just reading a manual. So Jewish children learn the basics of Judaism by experiencing it in their homes. Throughout Jewish history, Jewish kids don't really learn the basics of Judaism by having their parents or teachers hand them a book. They learn the basics and the most important lessons of Judaism by osmosis because it's lived in their homes. They learn through experience. And children have already celebrated Shabbat and Passover for years in their home. Before they study the laws of those holidays in the Bible. Furthermore, God himself relied upon formative spiritual experiences to communicate these most important ideas to his people. Again, this is important to understand. God did not simply communicate important truths to us by writing them in a book and having us read those passages in the book. God relied primarily upon having the people of Israel experience certain things. Our understanding that God exists and his nature is rooted not in text that we read, but in the embryonic experiences of the people of Israel, of our history. So for example, in the very first of the Ten Commandments, God says, I am a Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery. Our knowledge of God is rooted in the experience of the Exodus from Egypt, is rooted in the experience of going through the desert where we became electrically aware of God's presence through our interaction with him. And that's why when Moses asked God prior to the Exodus, he said, God, if the Jewish people want to know who are you, what's your name? And God says to Moses, I will be what I will be. What God is saying is if you want to know me, you'll see, you'll experience me. I will be what I will be. I can't give you a word for who I am. You need to experience me. And throughout the Bible, therefore, God directs the Jewish people primarily to remember these formative events. The instructions of God is rarely make sure you read the text. Make sure you read the memo. What God is constantly saying is never forget that you were slaves in Egypt. Never forget how I took you out of Egypt.  Never forget how you stood at Mount Sinai and you heard the voice of God. Remember these formative events in your history and teach them diligently to your children. The Bible doesn't say hand your kids a book. It tells parents to personally explain these truths to their children and then to ground these truths in experiential events like observing the Shabbat and holidays. Now, one way of viewing the relationship between the written Torah and the oral Torah is that the written text is like a zipped or compressed file. Our written Torah, the five books of Moses, is like a compressed or zipped file containing the general contents of God's revelation. But it's very clear that when you read the written text of the Torah that it needs to be unzipped. There is an entire mountain that exists beneath the tip of the iceberg that is the written Torah. In other words, the written Torah is one side of the proverbial coin. When you hold that coin, it testifies itself to the fact there's another side and that other side to the written Torah is the oral Torah. Let's just look at a few examples and I can share with you thousands. Number one, the Torah we have, the written Torah, is clearly a legal code. It contains hundreds of commandments, things that we're obligated to do, things that we're prohibited from doing. And there are many times penalties for violating the laws of the Torah. That's clear, important question. At what age does a person become responsible and culpable for violating the laws of the Torah? Can a six-year-old child be punished for violating the Sabbath? Can a ten-year-old child be punished for eating a cheeseburger? What age does a person become responsible for observing the Torah? The Torah doesn't say it's not written anywhere in the Torah. Well, how do we know? This was explained to us in the oral part of the Torah. In the book of Numbers chapter 29 verse 1, we're told in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy convocation, you shall not do any laborious work, it shall be a day of sounding or blowing for you. That's all the Torah says about our Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. All were told on the seventh month, the first day, it's a holy day, you have to have no laborious work done and it's a day of blowing or sounding. It doesn't even tell you what this holiday is celebrating. What is it for? What's it about? What does it mean to blow something? What are we blowing or sounding? It doesn't say. None of the details are provided in the Torah. It sort of is a pregnant passage which screams out more information is needed. That information is provided in our oral Torah, which explains that what you're going to blow is a horn, a ram's horn. And we're told exactly what to blow. You don't blow the Star Spangled Banner or O Canada. There are certain notes that you're supposed to blow and all of those instructions are explicated in the oral Torah. In Leviticus chapter 23 verse 27, the next holiday, we're told on the tenth day of the seventh month, ten days later, shall be a day of atonement.  Now what does that mean to afflict yourself? How does a person afflict themselves? Some people might afflict themselves by not having coffee in the morning. Or maybe they afflict themselves by not having sugar to put in their coffee. Or maybe they would afflict themselves by listening to classical music. Some people find that irritating. Maybe some people would find it irritating to sit with a life insurance salesman for two hours. But what does it mean to afflict yourselves? The Torah doesn't describe what is to be done. The written text just says it's a day where you have to afflict yourselves. And yet the oral Torah explains exactly what that means. We fast, we don't eat, we don't drink, etc. Leviticus chapter 23 verses 39 to 43 describes the festival of Tabernacles, Sukkot. In verse 40 we're told, take a pre-eats hadar. It's not clear how to translate that. Is pre-eats hadar a beautiful fruit of a tree or the fruit of a beautiful tree? And at the end of the day what is it referring to when it says take the pre-eats hadar? Apple, pear, kiwi, what are we supposed to take? It's not in the Torah. And then we're told to take that with branches of date palms, widows and myrtle leaves. But take it and do what? The Torah just says take them. What do you do with them? For what purpose? None of that is explained about this incredibly important holiday. And then in verse 42 we're told you shall dwell in booths for seven days. Well how do you construct a booth exactly? Are there rules? And then if it says to dwell in the booth for seven days can you leave for a few minutes? Can you go for a walk? Can you go to work? Or it seems to say you have to dwell in the booth for seven days. So what are the laws of this holiday? We're not told in the written text. In Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 8 this is the passage of Shma Yisrael. It says you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm and they will be as totafot between your eyes. Bind what as a sign on your arm? What exactly does that mean? And what in the world are totafot? If you read the text of the Bible these are unexplainable. It doesn't mean anything. And yet the oral Torah explains these are our phylacteries and we're told exactly how to make them. They're made out of leather. They have to be square. There are certain parchment scrolls inside. Again all of the details are missing from the written text. Deuteronomy chapter 12 verse 21. It basically says you don't need to come to the holy temple in order to be able to eat meat. You can actually be told to eat meat wherever you would like. The only thing is you have to slaughter the animal as I have commanded you, God says. The text of the Bible, the Torah, written Torah says you have to slaughter the animal as I have commanded you. And yet you could look through the entire Bible from top to bottom. You won't find any instructions on how to slaughter an animal. So what does it mean when it says slaughter the animal as I have commanded you? Where are those instructions? Where are they found? They're found in the oral Torah. The Torah prohibits doing any milacha on the Sabbath. There are about 12 times the Torah prohibits doing milacha on the Sabbath. For example in Exodus chapter 31 verse 15. And we're told that if you do milacha on the Sabbath, it's a capital crime, a capital offense. The problem is what does this mean? Don't do milacha. It doesn't mean work. The word for work in the Bible in Hebrew would be avodah. The Torah doesn't say don't do avodah. And even if it did by the way, what would that mean? Even if the Bible said don't do avodah, what does work mean? Does it mean don't go to work? Does it mean don't do something which is strenuous? Does it mean don't do something which physicists were defined as work in physics if you move a object over force, moved over a distance is work. So picking up this Talmud and moving it across the room would be work in terms of physics. What does it mean don't do any work? Even that's not clear. But at least the word is understood. You know we have a handle on the word work. But the word milacha has no other places in the Bible that it's used. So what does the Torah mean when it says you cannot do milacha on the Sabbath? What is included in that prohibition? And we have to be so careful because if we do milacha, there can be a death penalty, theoretically. It's not explained in the written text, but it is found very clearly explicated in the oral Torah. Let me chapter 14 verse 21. Lo sivashel gidi bechalev imo or bechalov imo. If you open up a Torah scroll, you'll see there are no punctuation marks. There are no dots. There are no vowel markings. So the word chetlamin bet can be read as chalov, milk, or chalev, fat. So are we told not to boil a kid in its mother's milk or in its mother's fat? So the actual reading of the Torah itself we wouldn't know without an oral explanation. Exodus chapter 25 verse 9 and Numbers chapter 8 verse 4 tell us that Moses was shown a diagram, was given a vision of what the tabernacle was to look like. When God gave the instructions to how to build a tabernacle in the desert, the Torah tells us that it was done by Moses according to the vision that was shown him by God. It's very difficult just to write a few paragraphs like the Torah has and think that you can actually put together a mishkan, a tabernacle. It's not so simple. So in order to communicate it to Moses, clearly God actually showed him a vision. I don't know of any Bible that contains pictures or diagrams. So clearly there is information that was given to Moses that was not written in the Bible itself. And these are just a few examples. On one level, the oral Torah gives all of the details that are not contained in the brief general descriptions found in the written Torah. One of the simplest ways, it's not really the most accurate way, but one of the simplest ways of understanding the oral Torah is that it's the details about all of the commandments that are found in the written text that are not fleshed out in the text itself. Now the word Torah means instruction or teaching. The written Torah, if you pick up five books of Moses, the written Torah is like a table of contents of Jewish living. That's what the written Torah is. It's like a table of contents. But the full exposition only appears through the oral Torah. However, on another level, the written Torah and the oral Torah work hand in glove together. And what they do together is to provide a stereoscopic richness that you would not get if you only had one of them. Let me give you an example. If you pick up the written text of the Torah, it says in three different places, in discussing the laws of causing bodily injury to someone, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot. That's what the Torah says. Very clearly, three different places, if you cause bodily harm to someone, it's an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot. Now why is it that for the entire period of Jewish history, since we became a people and left Egypt, why is it that no Jewish court ever handed out, never imposed that kind of punishment? Why is it? The Torah says it very clearly and yet no Jewish court ever chopped off someone's hand or ripped out someone's eye. The reason is because the oral Torah that we have explained that this was not the actual penalty that was to be imposed. The oral Torah taught that if you chop off someone's hand, you must monetarily compensate them for five things. Number one, the medical treatments they're going to have to pay for, that's going to be on your tab. Number two, they're lost wages. If they're injured and they can't work for six months, you have to pay them for their back wages. Number three, the court will assess the value of the limb that you injured. Don't ask me how that's done, but they might say that an eye is worth $200,000, a hand $100,000. Whatever their assessment is, you have to pay them for the value of the limb that you hurt. Number four, you have to pay them for the pain that you caused them in the injury and also the court will assess how much the pain is worth. And number five, you have to pay for the embarrassment they feel as a result of the injury. That's the actual practice in Judaism. And it's clear that there are at least three reasons, three major problems with carrying out the literal penalty that is written in the Torah. Again, the Torah says an eye for an eye. There are at least three problems with that.  That's the least of our problems. Number two, it certainly would not help the victim. If someone's eye is poked out and the court pokes out the eye of the attacker, the victim is not benefiting by that punishment. And number three, it would not be equitable. If the court penalizes the attacker by doing exactly what he or she did to the victim, it would not be a fair kind of punishment.  What if the victim was a fully-sighted person and the attacker pokes out one of their eyes? But the attacker was someone that only had one eye to begin with, a one-eyed attacker. And now the court's going to poke out their one remaining eye. Well, that's not fair because the victim can still see pretty well out of one eye. But with no eyes left, the attacker can't see at all. Or imagine that the victim was an opera singer and they had their hand chopped off. But the attacker was an airline pilot or a surgeon or a pianist. So the victim is still able to function and be a productive member of society missing one hand. The attacker, if the court imposes that kind of tit for tat penalty, will no longer be able to function in the profession that they were doing. So for those three reasons and possibly more, to impose the same penalty that the attacker inflicted on the victim is just ridiculous. And that's why the Torah says in the oral Torah, you do not poke out someone's eye. Rather, the attacker has to pay monetary compensation. Of course, there's a very obvious question now. If that's the intention of God, if the intention of God all along was that the attacker pay money, then why didn't the written text of the Torah just say that? Why didn't the text of the Torah just say money for an eye, money for a hand, monetary compensation for a foot? And I believe the reason is that if the Torah had written that, it would have been incredibly crass. It's like saying if you rip out someone's eye, write a check. Really? That's really an appropriate penalty. That really somehow is justice. Someone rips off someone's arm and they just write a check and everything's hunky-dory. Everything's fine. So the written Torah protests and the written Torah says, no, because saying a check for an eye would not convey, it would not convey how absolutely horrible the crime was. It would seem to trivialize the disgusting action of the criminal.   However, as we saw for the court to do this, it would be barbaric and it wouldn't help the victim and it wouldn't be equitable. So the oral Torah teaches that in practice, the attacker pays compensation for the five things we've discussed. So what happens here is that the written Torah and the oral Torah complement each other to provide a much richer understanding and teaching than just having a single-dimensional written Torah. What the written text does is it states what the person deserves on a visceral level.  The oral Torah modifies this and delineates what is done on a practical level. Now what may have been the reason for transmitting the Torah both in written and oral components than just having it all written in one big book? It's a very fair question. Why didn't God just put everything in a book? Why have some of it oral, some of it written? What I want to do is share several possible reasons, but there are many more. Number one, the oral Torah is vast. The laws of the Sabbath alone contain thousands of details. The written Torah, any written Torah, could not possibly encompass everything of the oral Torah. The oral Torah contains conceptual principles and rules that could then be applied by scholars to any situation that would arise. But you can't put every possible situation that may arise in a book. The Torah was given 3,000 years ago. There were no microwave ovens back then. There was no technology like we have now. So for the Torah 3,000 years ago, to have the laws of everything that will ever happen in history is just not possible. Number two, a written text can always be misinterpreted. You know, there's a famous story, I'm not sure if it's a true story, but there's a famous story told about a big meeting in communist Russia in the early days of the Communist Party where Stalin has been having a huge feud with Trotsky. And at this big conference, Stalin gets a telegraph from Trotsky. And Stalin picks it up and he reads it and he's very happy. What does the telegram say? It says, Dear Stalin, you were right. I was wrong. I should apologize. And Stalin was thrilled. Someone comes over to Stalin and says, you know, sir, your Excellency, you're not really reading that telegram properly. What it really says is, Dear Stalin, you were right. I was wrong. I should apologize. The same exact words. But how do you understand those words? And so the truth is any written text can be misinterpreted. What the oral Torah does is it's transmitted from teacher to student. If the student has any questions about the text, they can ask this teacher to clear up anything that's ambiguous.  There's a built-in system of quality control when you have an oral Torah. Number three, a written Torah can always be put on a shelf and forgotten about. When I was a kid, I received a world book encyclopedia. I rarely opened it unless I was trying to look up something in those pre-Google days. But normally I wasn't reading my encyclopedia. An oral Torah cannot be left on a shelf. It demands constant engagement with a teacher on an ongoing and regular basis. Number four, the Torah is not just information. It's not just data. It's a way of life. We don't just learn data from a teacher. When you have a teacher, you learn values from the teacher. The teacher is a living model of Torah values. You can't fully learn the ethos of the Torah from reading books. You just will not get everything from a book. A teacher is a living Torah. And when you personally experience the kindness of a teacher, their sensitivity, it impacts much deeper than the words of a book. A student learns by seeing their teacher pray, by seeing their teacher eat, by seeing their teacher's commitment to Torah study. And these are very vital lessons that are only possible through a dynamic personal interaction with the teacher. Number five, the oral Torah is not a neatly laid out code or encyclopedia of law. It's not an encyclopedia. It's not a code. The oral Torah is a discussion, a conversation, a debate, an analysis. It seeks to understand the law, not just to know the law. It seeks to understand the conceptual principles underlying the laws, more than the simple facts themselves. And so the oral Torah requires a lot of work and effort to understand and figure out more than a written text would. The oral Torah is very difficult and a written text is very straightforward. So what happens with an oral Torah is it produces a much greater engagement and attachment to the Torah than a written text word. And finally, number six, an oral Torah prevents Torah from being co-opted and usurped by others. We know what happened to our written Torah. Others laid claim to the written Torah, claiming that they are the only ones that understand it properly, claiming that they are its only rightful heirs, and claiming they are the real children of Israel. That's what happened with our written Torah. If everything we had was put into a book, our entire Torah could be purloined. And so to prevent that, what God revealed to us was not something that you could just put into a book. Only people who were engaged with it on a personal level have it. Now the oral Torah was supposed to remain oral, transmitted from teacher to student, and so it was for about 1,500 years. But then our political situation changed. Our Holy Temple was destroyed in the year 70. We lost sovereignty over the land of Israel, and tremendous persecution of our people ensued. It made it virtually impossible for people to have the peace of mind necessary to study and to maintain a vast oral Torah. So around the year 200 of the common era, around the year 200, Rabbi Yehuda HaNusi, Judah the Prince, published a highly, highly condensed version of the oral Torah that we call the Mishnah. It is composed primarily of case law. You look at the Mishnah, it's basically lots of cases. And it's designed as a mnemonic, as a tool to allow us to keep our memory intact, to allow us students to derive the basic concepts and to memorize all of the oral Torah. The Mishnah is organized into six orders that are comprised of 63 tractates. The first of these orders is called Zareem seeds. It discusses the agricultural laws in the land of Israel and the laws of prayers and blessings. The second order is called seasons, discussing the Sabbath and holidays. The third order is called women, discussing family law, marriage, divorce, etc. The fourth order is called damages. It discusses civil law, court procedures, torts, business law, lost and found, etc. The fifth section, the fifth order is called sacred things, discussing the sacrifices in temple service. And the sixth order of the Mishnah is called purity, discussing the laws of ritual purity and impurity. Now the Mishnah itself was studied, debated, analyzed and discussed for hundreds of years. And the extremely concise nature of the Mishnah, however, was not sufficient to guarantee the survival of the oral Torah. So eventually two different compilations of the sages unzipping and analyzing the Mishnah were published. These are called the Talmud or we call it the Gamara. There was a version of the Talmud that was completed in the land of Israel around the year 350 of the Common Era. And it is called usually the Jerusalem or the Palestinian Talmud. Scholars in Babylonia published their Talmud around the year 505 of the Common Era. The Babylonian Talmud is considered the more authoritative and is the version that is normally studied because there were more scholars living in Babylon. The conditions in Babylon were much easier because in Israel still at that time there was tremendous persecution.  So it's considered to be of a higher quality. Now the Talmud is a vast literature and it contains the following as a summary. The Talmud contains the explanations of laws that are found in the written Torah. I went through some of those before that were revealed by God to Moses. The Talmud contains the derivation of laws using the principles of interpretation that were revealed to Moses. The Talmud contains intense discussions and analysis of these laws to arrive at their conceptual underpinnings. The Talmud contains, in addition to all of these laws that are considered to be literally from God, the Talmud contains protective enactments of the rabbis, which had the basis in the authority given to them by scripture, by God, to enact such legislation. However, these rabbinic enactments did not have the status of biblical law. They had to be very clearly taught as a rabbinic enactment. As an example, just to make it clearer for you. If you read in the five books of Moses we saw before it says, you cannot do any milacha on the Sabbath. What does that mean? The oral Torah, which again was given before the written Torah, explains that milacha is defined by 39 different conceptual categories of activity. One of these 39 types of activity is writing. Writing. You could be writing with a pen, with a pencil, with a crayon, with a quill pen. Whatever you're writing with, writing is considered a violation of biblical law. The rabbi said, you know what, we're so used to carrying around pens and pencils, even though the Torah doesn't say you can't carry around a pencil or pen on the Sabbath. The rabbi said, you know what, let's be smart and we are going to prohibit people from handling things they're not allowed to use on the Sabbath. So on the Sabbath the rabbi said, don't handle pens.  The Bible said you cannot have sexual intercourse with certain people. We just read about it last week on Shabbat, we'll be reading it again this week on Shabbat in Leviticus chapter 20. It didn't say you cannot hug and kiss these people. The rabbi said, if you're not allowed to sleep with someone from the Bible, we're going to recommend you don't hug and kiss them and even be in a locked room together with them. So the rabbis had the authority to protect the Torah with their rabbinic legislation. In addition, the Talmud contains positive enactments of the rabbis, such as their recommendation that before we eat bread we wash our hands, or lighting Shabbat candles, or instituting the Halladay of Hanukkah. All of these are rabbinic enactments. And finally, about one-tenth of the Talmud is composed of what is called agadata, which is non-legal material in the Talmud we had. One of our lectures last spring dealt with this section of the Talmud called agadah, and it's a non-legal part. It discusses philosophy and mysticism, etc. Now we're faced with one final problem for tonight. By committing the oral Torah to writing, warrant all of the vital advantages that we discussed for having an oral Torah lost. I discussed before many advantages of having an oral Torah. So by committing our oral Torah to writing, didn't we lose that? Paradoxically, the oral Torah was never lost. Even after it was committed to written form. Because the genius of the sages, who composed the Talmud, was to compose it in such a way that it still never lost its oral nature, its oral character, and still it requires a teacher tethered to the tradition. Because you can't judge the Torah from its own perspective. Because you can't just read the Talmud. It's not a book of information. It doesn't present data to us. You are basically thrown into the middle of a discussion, taking place with scholars living over many centuries. And the style of the Talmud is chaotic. It's purposely intricate and involved. And it's this style that preserved its oral nature. After all, the Kutskerebi observed that the sages who composed the Mishnah and the Talmud didn't violate the prohibition of recording the oral Torah in written form. There was actually a prohibition against committing the oral Torah to writing. And the Kutskerebi said they never violated that prohibition. Because the depth of the oral Torah can never be contained in a book.


So, I will talk about corona and the digitization of money. So why do I make this link? Well, first of all, we know now or we see that corona is really a catalyst for the digitization of the economy. We are experiencing this right now in this conference, which would otherwise, and other times, have taken place physically in Munich. The digitization in the context of corona is also affecting our payments. We're already seeing now that payments with paper money are declining. People don't want to accept as much paper money as before because they're afraid it may carry the virus and electronic payments are rising. So it's just an acceleration of a trend that has already started. And corona, or rather say the fallout of the pandemic, is also a catalyst for a change in our money system as we know it. Look at the soaring government debt and look at how much of it is parked on central bank balance sheets. Look at interest rates. They were already on decline before, but corona is clearly accelerating the process. If you look at the US rates have come down even further. So this pandemic is a catalyst for change, for digitalization, for the change in our money system. Now, what we are seeing here is creating problems. Soaring government debt is creating problems. Huge central bank balance sheets could create problems. The end of interest could create problems. Now what I'm trying to argue here, and I shall see how convincing I will be with the feedback that you gave me. I would actually argue that digitization is a solution to these problems. So at least helps to deal with these changes that we are seeing here, soaring government debt and the end of interest. Digitization allows to come back on an old plan of 100% money, which I will explain in the course of this presentation. It will also allow to depoliticize monetary policy, bring back the interest and facilitate, of course, payments. So this is my agenda. Let's start with why 100% money? Well, when you look at what our present money system is doing, then when you think a little bit deeper about it, you will realize that it's actually contributing to investment boom bust and credit boom bust cycles. Recall that in our present monetary system, our fiat money system, money is created through credit extension. The central banks manage the interest rate at which credit extension takes place. Banks use the central bank interest rate, the rate at which they can obtain reserve money from the central bank. They use this as a base on which they then put the credit rates they charge customers. The central bank tries to find a rate and influence with this, the market rate in the credit market, that is equal to the natural rate, the natural rate being defined as the interest rate that equals investment and savings. But since the central banks lack complete knowledge and complete information to identify where the natural rate is and hence can put the market rate where that is, they lack this knowledge and the ability to do so, they tend to put the market rate below or above the natural rate. So they make errors and as they make errors, they introduce economic instability. Look at the case where the market rate is put below the natural rate. There's a tendency for the central bank to do that because of course central banks want to be nice to the real economy and induce growth. When the market rate, we see credit extension accelerating, investment is being funded. The economy goes into an upswing and eventually enters a boom phase. Now when the economy is in boom times, prices rise, central banks to their mandate raise the interest rate and some of the investment that has been funded with the expectations of their low rates will not any longer look viable. We move from the investment boom to the investment bust. Investment drops below savings, the central banks get afraid, they cut rates, they cut them below the natural rate in order to bust and then once they think the economy recovers, they try to come back again to normal. I try to move the market rate to the natural rate but see that this will create another temporary downturn in the credit cycle or could create so they lower the rate again and so on and so forth. We call the period from 2004-5 up to the corona pandemic. We have seen exactly that happening and the Federal Reserve has not really managed after the financial crisis to come back to a normal level of interest rate. So credit money creates economic instability. Now look at this. This is the history of the United States from 1929 to 2008 where what I've done here is I've plotted real private domestic demand. This is this broken line as you can see from 1928 onwards and then I calculated the credit impulse defined as the change of credit flows relative to GDP. And you can see how especially in unusual times such as during the stock market crash of 1929 and then later on in the financial crisis how this financial cycle played out in between. We had also financial cycles as credit boom bust cycles but they were of small magnitude and not realized or recognized as such. Okay so we talked about why 100% money? Answer 100% money is a way to overcome the instability of the credit money that introduces cycle and I will show how 100% money is created in a moment. So why 100% digital money for EMU for the European Monetary Union? Why a digital euro? Well let's just take stock of where we are in EMU. The fact is that EMU is just a cash union. Only the bank notes issued by the ECB are of uniform credit quality throughout the euro area. They are signed by the respective ECB President Mr Draghi until recently now Madame Lagarde and they are of uniform credit quality. The bank money, the money created by the credit extension of the banks differs not only from bank to bank that we can overcome with a national deposit insurance. So it differs actually across countries because the euro area countries which ensure the money created by the bank have a different varying financial capacity to rescue the banks when they are in trouble and therefore to rescue the money that they have created. So because of this incomplete building that we have people have pushed to come up with a common deposit insurance EDIS in addition to a single supervisory mechanism for banks and a single restructuring mechanism for banks. But EDIS is quite complicated because it actually links the liability of in the end different governments together because let's say if we have a common deposit insurance and banks in some country go bust then basically taxpayers in another country may have to come up to make good for the money that would be destroyed. If these banks would be taken out of the market. So EDIS is a problem and as long as we have this problem we have no full EMU we only have a cashier. Now let's see what we can do when we digitalize the euro. My point is that we can basically do away with the instability that is associated with the credit money system that I talked first about and we can also complete European monetary union. Three steps we need to do to get there. Now let me explain these three steps to you with a very simple framework and a very simple framework of balance sheets. When you look at the upper balance sheet you see a balance sheet of commercial banks. They have cash, they have loans to non-banks, they have deposits, they have non-banks, they have savings equity. We have a balance sheet of central bank that has foreign reserves, it has given credit to banks, it has cash and it has cash deposits of banks. You will see that these balance sheets that I've put up here are slightly different from the one that I've just explained because what we now do is we create a secure deposit. So what we do is we take out loans to non-banks and we take out those loans that have been made to governments, i.e. government bonds. We sell these government bonds from the bank's balance sheets, they can by the way, as I say this in parenthesis, buy these bonds from the public in the first place so that they have them. But we take these bonds out and sell these bonds to the central bank. So we put it here into the asset side of the central bank. The central bank of course pays for these bonds by putting reserve money into the account of the banks. So the reserve money shows up on the liability side of the central bank and it shows up on the asset side of the commercial bank. And now we use this money to cover the deposit of the non-banks. And as you can see we have now a system where basically the banks have 100% reserves on the side deposits of the non-banks. Everything is fully covered, no longer fractional reserve banking or fiat money system. So now let's have a look at how we would go about when we extend credits in the system. The side deposits would be converted into savings deposits, the savings deposits would be given on as loans. But of course the credit, the borrower gets the money, right? It gets basically the cash and puts it in his or her account and works with it. So the banks would no longer create new money for credit, but they would use the existing money to basically fund loans. Now let's go to the next step and let's consolidate the balance sheets. What we do is, as you can see here we have two positions which we can cancel out, the ones that are highlighted. And when we do this we can actually bring the deposits of non-banks down to the central bank balance sheet. This is what it amounts to, so that it looks like this, right? Rather than have a two-tiered system we now have a one-tiered system. We don't need to have the deposits of the general public seat in bank liabilities that are fully covered with bank assets that reflect against the bank liabilities. No, we can strike this out, we can cancel this out and put it down here. And now we look at how this would again work. When we do, when we save and make loans we would give these deposits that are now with the central bank over to the banks. They would give it as loans to borrowers and the borrowers of course are interested in getting the money to do something with it and would put it in their deposits. Now let's take the next step which basically is to convert the security deposit to crypto money. Why is that good? Because having all the money in a central bank account would be perhaps a bit cumbersome because a central bank would have to keep a large number of individual people's accounts. But when we convert this money into crypto money then basically it can be passed on peer-to-peer and the central bank would not have to be the central bookkeeper. And again what we now have, the crypto money is covered basically by loans to states, basically bonds that we can roll over infinitely. And we don't have to pay interest on them anyway. So we have now a cover stock. Crypto money is out there. I leave paper money in there because it's a good corrector for the temptation by central bankers or governments to introduce negative interest rates. And of course this system works like before. So we can go basically in a gradual process step by step from the existing credit money into 100% crypto money system. I call it the Eurocoin. We create the Eurocoin as an asset token. It's backed by the government bonds that are on the balance sheet of the central bank. And they put in a smart contract in which the creation of the coin is stipulated so that politicians cannot mess around with it. It's tradeable via a permissioned blockchain in order to avoid the cumbersome Bitcoin blockchain which takes a long time to process. Okay, the Bitcoin fence will now tear me apart but let's leave it at that. We have the notes that check compliance with the smart contract which is a kind of electronic watermark in the transaction like the watermark in the paper money is. Now we have to stipulate rules for the expansion of the Eurocoin volume. We can do this through the acquisition of further government bonds. But we oblige the states in the smart contract to distribute the newly created coins directly to their citizens as a cash dividend. I don't want the states to basically fund themselves for money creation. That would be modern monetary theory which I don't appreciate. But if we say that they have to pay it out directly as a money dividend to their citizens then they will have to manage their budget without being able to print money. If they breach this obligation, if they forge money, basically the ECB will no longer buy bonds from the delinquent state. And we can now stipulate that the increase in the quantity of coins is regulated by a kind of algorithm. We don't have to make it as rigid as the Bitcoin algorithm but we can basically create a committee that meets once a year and decides by which percentage point to increase the money stock. And this percent that they choose should be related to the growth rate of the productive potential of the Euro area. So we don't need central bank as so many economists with central banks. All that we need is basically a couple of people a year and see whether the Euro economy is now expanding at 1.5% or 1.4% or 1.6%. The banks get new roles. I've already showed this in the balance sheet exercise that we did before. They just take deposits and lend them on to borrowers. This is what the textbooks used to say, right? They don't create any more money, which the textbooks in the past don't explain. The banks are basically equivalent to investment fund with the first loss insurance. The equity cushion that is in the bank's balance sheet is basically protecting the depositor from a loss out of the credit activity by the banks up to just this equity cushion. If the equity cushion is used up, then basically the depositor gets the credit. It becomes the owner of the credit portfolio. I would leave the banks the possibility to create their own money by the credit extension, but I would not guarantee this by the state so that they can do it at their own risk and the depositors can actually give them money at their own risk. Now, the interesting thing is, and this was already explained in the Chicago plan in 1933, by using the government bonds as a permanent cover for the money stock, you can actually take a lot of government debt out of the market. I'll give you an example, pre-corona times. Pre-corona times, public debt in the euro area amounted to about 10 trillion. These are very rounded numbers. This only serves the purpose of an exercise to illustrate. 85% of GDP. We had side deposit in the amount of 7 trillion euros, about 60% of GDP. As I said, this is all before corona times. Now, these numbers are much bigger. We have remaining public debt in the market. If we take all the debt out of the market to cover 7 trillion euros of side deposit, we have then remaining in the market 3 trillion or 25% of GDP. Meanwhile, the ECB, of course, is acquiring many more government bonds so that additional purchases that initially seemed necessary. When I first presented this plan, where they had only about 2 trillion on government debt on the balance sheet, it becomes smaller and smaller. What would be the advantages of this architectural euro? I think that there remains a link then in the future between national budgetary sovereignty and liability because you cannot create money anymore to fund governments. The money is created basically outside the credit market. It is created by, if you want, a formula. We end the sovereign bank doom loop. You could, in this system, you could have sovereign debt rescheduling and bankruptcy of banks and money would not be destroyed. It would be there like gold, so it's possible. Of course, banks and governments may be much more cautious in borrowing because they would have to take into account that they cannot fall back on central banks or commercial banks to bring the money for them when they can't repay their debt. We have a rule-based rather than a proactive monetary policy, which basically I like. We have a dampening of the credit and investment cycles. I explained this before. We could get greater consumer benefit through currency competition because if we enter the digital era with central bank digital money, of course, we would not ban any other cryptocurrency to compete with the central bank digital money. It would be very welcome if there would be other digital currencies to compete because that would give the state and its central bank an incentive to actually produce money for the user and not for political purposes to achieve certain political ends. We could actually have international transactions and the reserve currency function of the euro much improved because you wouldn't have to go through the US dollar anymore. Once you have a digital euro that can be transferred peer-to-peer, you don't have to go through dollar payment facilities anymore. That would, of course, very much re-engraze the attractiveness for the euro as a reserve currency and an international transaction currency. I should add, and I did not do this here on this slide because I wasn't sure whether I could make it through my allotted time slot, I should add that it would also free interest again for market forces because we would not create money anymore by manipulating interest. Money would create it differently, as I explained, and the interest would basically be determined again by the savers willing to give money away for a while. The borrowers who would borrow that money from savers for certain purposes before they return it at interest. Thank you very much.


The 2020-21 season countdown is brought to you by Odds Checker, your one-stop betting hub. Welcome to Toffy TV. It is the footy show daily. We are counting down to the Premier League season. Just what, six days to go? Six days? Six days to go, Baz. And we are talking about the league positions. So we're going to... I don't know. Are we going to do every single position on this? The vital ones, the vital ones and the relegation. And we're having nothing. In one attempt. Before we begin, big thanks to Odds Checker for sponsoring the 2020-21 season countdown here on Toffy TV. Six days to go till the start of the season. And if you like a punt, Odds Checker is the only app you need for the Premier League season. Odds Checker has been a place where you can compare the odds, but now you can also bet through if you so wish to. It's like the Liverpool for betting. So make sure you check it out. The link is in the description there, your betting one-stop hub. There you go. Yeah, so let's get into it. Top four. Can you see there being any change in the top four this season? Obviously Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United were the top four last year. Can you see Arsenal or Tottenham breaking into that this season? In a word, no. I really can't. I think the top four will be the top four. I can see personally Manchester City winning the Premier League this season. They're favourites, 8-11. I think they'll win it, but I think it'll be very close. I think we might see a similar to a couple of seasons ago. It was one or two points, and I think Liverpool will have another great season. I think City will have a great season this year, I think, deal. I think the one thing without giving advice to Pep Guardiola, but don't overthink things, just let your team play and defend properly. And I think if they do that, then they're good enough to win the league. Still, as we just mentioned, in the six days to go, there's business to be done, Manchester City. Another month, isn't it? Talking about Coole Valley, apparently, and he would be perfect for them. A lot of money, but would be perfect two, three seasons, would be exactly what they want. They brought in Nathan Lachey as well. He can play a couple of positions. We're fair and torres as well. But at the back, that's been the major problem, isn't it? I mean, they do overthink it going forward. I mean, that was one of the problems in the Champions League, you could see. And technically, the brilliance. But I think where Liverpool have got the upper hand on them now is Liverpool are very machine, like Liverpool are very efficient. They defend well and the clinical when they get the chances, where it's shittier a little bit, the overplay a bit. But I just feel that Liverpool have done an incredible two seasons. I think they were brilliant last season. I just think it's difficult to do that again, especially when you've got a team as good as Manchester City. I think Liverpool haven't brought anyone in yet. And it's going to be interesting to see what they do, obviously, a lot of talk about. Tiago coming in from Bayern Munich.  Tiago is, and he would change it up for them in the field, give them something else. Maybe make them a little bit different, a bit more flexible. Where the city look like, obviously, by having the disappointment of last season. It's like they have to change a lot of things in defence. I mean, listen, he got it wrong last summer by not replacing Vincent Company. That should have been the thing straight away. They should have gone out for Culler Valley then. They should have just gone for it. And I think that would have held them off. But you're right, Liverpool just beat teams. They beat teams into submission. I always think, and I've thought this for a while, Manchester City give everybody the player chance. Now, where the teams take that chance, it was very minimal last season. It grew because more teams started to exploit those defensive problems. And as we said, Manchester City loved to overplay, over-complicate things. And I think we've seen towards the end of the season, every time they went behind, they were losing games. When they go one up, they ended up winning the game 4-5-0, no problem. When they were going to go behind and then teams just decided to sit in, they couldn't break them down. It's strange because that hadn't been a thing for Pep Guardiola's teams. Last year it did. So I think I can see City just sharing it from Liverpool. City Liverpool, Chelsea Manchester United. I think... Chelsea the big, they're the big story, this transfer window. And they brought in Cimo Verne, they brought... Looks like, at the time of saying this, they may have that deal probably in place for Cahavets. Just those two alone, 142 million or something, the numbers are right. Tiago Silver. Tiago Silver's come in on a three, they've brought Malang Sarin on a three, but he's gone out on loan. You know, you're looking around that team now. They have come in as well. Lovely left for Verne.  This big truck, they want goalkeeper, obviously they had an enquiry for Jan Oblach. I mean, they got him. But that was knockback. The look in the keeper in France, who they wanted the minute, he looks like they might be the number one. Do you think they'll be closer to Manchester City in Liverpool than they are to Manchester United? Ask them Tottenham. It depends how it goes. They look like they've got really good sign. It's got a gel. Blampard done brilliantly last season and he done really well to do what he did. You know, but it's got a gel. You know, they got to the cup final, beaten by Arsenal in the cup final. You know, but obviously Champions League was done anyway. But they came back and played the game. They got spanked in Munich, didn't they? But Blampard will have looked at that. Obviously, we saw the emergence of Pula. Shit, you're getting better and better. I know he's out for the first few weeks. Williams gone, but then Zate has come in and he's got a hold to another fit again. You know, they've got an embarrassment of riches, really. You know, loft is cheap. We saw the interiors locked down, coming back. They've got Ross Barclay doesn't really get it. You know, he's in and out. So they've got a wealth of talent there. And they've put Ben Chillwells coming as well and left back 50 million for him. So, you know. Well, that's the thing. If they bought so many and they bought wealth. You know. What's interesting is day 12 to 1, Manchester United 20, then you've got Arsenal 40 to 1 and Tottenham 66. So obviously Tottenham, people are expecting the traditional top 6 to be back. Arsenal obviously invested a little bit of money. Two new centre backs. Salab ar yn Gabriel. Bamiang, more settled. Willian, coming as well. So you've got that. Tottenham have brought in a few quality players, Huyberg and Oles Bangan. Is this awesome knocking on the top four door here? Is this what you say? Spears have got Huyberg in, haven't they? And another player that escapes my name. He'll come back to me in a minute. But obviously, I look at Arsenal, right? And if it goes well, then they could really, you know, if you've got a Bamiang in your team, he will score a lot of goals. If Salab ar yn Gabriel settled, then yet you've got two good centre backs, ball playing centre backs, you were quick. If you don't settle it could be an issue for them. The defence has been an issue for them. But you brought Tottenham down to me? Yeah, Matt Dowty's coming from Wales. He signed in for 12 million the other day. So Huyberg are interested in those options. I just want to throw this in. But the next team they've got on the list are Leeds, 200-1. Hired and Lester Wolves, Everton and Southampton, and Chiffield tonight. So what, we're in the league? I think the Buckeys are going to. I can say a few people being surprised that when Leeds don't do as well as people think they're going to do. The thing about it is I understand when a team comes up and I understand when Wolves come up because they have the real quality. I don't see that in Leeds' team. I look at Leeds and go, he's done well, he's done a good job there, and he looked like a good side in the champions here. People underestimate the gap though. Don't get me wrong, Leeds could catch a few people. Chiffield United have done it, Wolves have done it. So are we expecting Leeds and Wolves, to be knocking on the door for the top seven with Everton and Southampton, would you say? Or do you think Leicester and Wolves will drop off because of the disappointment of last season? Or do you think Leicester have got your upper league, Wolves haven't got anything? I think the only, you'd look at Leicester, and right now, without, there's still four weeks, so they could bring someone else in as well up front. But I think you look at Leicester, and you think if Vardy stops scoring, and this is essentially why they never got top four, Vardy stops scoring for them, just after Christmas, and he went on a portal. Madison was out as well, wasn't he? Vardy lost Madison, but Vardy's the main goal threat. So he stops scoring goals, he tried off of them, he fell out of top four in the end, and now it went at the last day, he still could have got it, but they were in such a good position. Don't forget they were second and in such a good position. And that was the issue for them, but Leeds aren't finishing above Leicester, I couldn't be very, very surprised if that was the case, but I think Wolves and Leicester, the way I look at it in my head at the moment, is you've got the top four, I think of the top four, this of course it could change, of course it could, but the top four, I think will be the top four, and I look at those other teams and go anywhere anyone can finish fifth to tenth with those other teams. Let's just go to the bottom, bottom three. West Brom, Fulham, Bainley, I mean these are Brighton, Ville, Crystal Palace, Westam, Newcastle, I mean where do you see those teams finishing? Again it's off, it's goals, you know for me, the Premier League you've always got a look who's capable of scoring goals, I think if you've got goals in, you've got a decent chance. Bourmouth went down because they couldn't keep the ball off the net, the Adlads who could score goals, they couldn't keep it off the other end, so therefore you'd look at the likes of Newcastle and go well they're defensively they're all right, and okay they mightn't score a lot, but defensively they're all right, so you'd expect them to be okay, Crystal Palace are another one, that you wouldn't think you'd probably have to worry about. I think Moise has to get Westam right at the back, they have to make sure they're nice and tight at the back and then they'll be okay. It's such a tough one. I think West Brom had fear for it, just because I don't know whether he can score enough goals. I think West Brom and Fulham are going to struggle. But Fulham have got mitra bit. I don't think he scores enough goals though. Nobody's a threat. I think he's also the kind of striker that in the Premier League will get pulled up for fouls left right and centre. I think he got something like 15, 16 goals last time. Be interesting, be interesting. But they're invested in that one. No, but they could go either way. They're another one who's got enough goals. Does Malpie get them enough goals at the top end of the pitch? Probably not.  But then they could go and do a bit of business in the next four weeks which saves it for them and they go. That third one's an interesting one because I don't really see anyone outstanding for that. I don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Westam and Fulham are outstanding but I don't really see anyone who's the outspirom, not Westam. Oh, yeah, that as well. I don't see anyone who's outstanding, Leeds. I think they'll probably stay up. Brighton, like you said, Sheffey is United, will he be able to repeat it or will he seem to be on to it and will he be able to push through without having too many new players? That third one's an interesting one for me. I'm struggling to breathe. If they'll do you get Ollie Watkins and I don't know just the real sort of it. If they've got him, can he get enough? Can he replicate his championship form in the Premier League? Give them an option if they get West Leeds scoring some goals this year. Jack Reelist, then they might have enough. But it's hard to predict this area and teams can have a great start and I'm sure if Sheffey is United would have had a poor start last season. And again it is that lockdown situation as well. Who suffers most without the fans and stuff. Do you go if you want all the odds on them make sure to get over to the odds checker app the link is in our description. Don't forget it's your one stop betting hub. Make sure you check that out. You've got to be 18. Don't forget 18 and gamble responsible as well. If you choose to do that. Let us know your thoughts in the comments as you think at this stage. Who's your top four and who's the three to get relegated? Let us know. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Give this video a like, subscribe if you haven't already. I'll see you later.