Reading is interpretation, just like filmmaking is interpretation.

It's really impossible to be a completely objective interpreter who just

approaches the text without filling in the gaps or asking questions and it's okay to do that.

The rabbis have been doing that for a long long time.

Oh my gosh, think about if you're trying to make a movie, but your bad guy can't cuss.

Your bad guy's like, shoot darn my word. Like, I'm not going to believe this bad guy is that bad.

Like, he's kind of funny, you know?

So it's like, I can't tell a story if you don't let me paint the black.

I like to talk about kind of faith as a wall or faith as a tether.

One kind keeps you from exploring. It's like based on fear and then the tether point is actually

when you're more secure and it actually invites you to explore because you know you have that tether point.

Unless just part of Jewish tradition that you can turn a word over and think about what it means

or wonder if maybe Noah should have protested when God said go kill everybody.

Why did these writers shape this the way they did?

What were they trying to say? That's a question of curiosity.

And the answer is to that they really stem out of a creative curiosity to sort of like put these

pieces together, which I think true scholarship is, it's actually acts of creativity.

You're creating meaning somehow from these texts.

Well, I do believe we need more women in church leadership.

We know from research that diversity is good for us.

When we have a diverse group, we make better decisions.

The group comes to better conclusions.

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