Why you relate to the penguin

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Shais Taub’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

These penguins are all heading to the open border to the right. >> This is the clip from Vera Herzog's Encounters of the End of the World, which is going viral right now. Let's watch the whole clip. It's about a minute long. >> But one of them caught our eye, the one in the center. He would neither go towards the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice nor return to the colony. Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight towards the mountains, some 70 km away. towards the mountains, some 70 km away. Dr. Anley explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains, but why? Okay, let's talk about this a little bit because uh this has captured the fantasy of the entire internet. A lot of people talking about this right now and sort of relating with the penguin and writing a narrative writing a narrative uh imposing a narrative so to speak for the penguin psychology. A lot of it has to do with a philosophy of nihilism, self-destruction, uh existential despair. Uh Herzog's own interpretation, he said that the penguin was perhaps deranged. He asks the expert if there's such a thing as insanity among penguins. >> Dr. Angley, is there such thing as insanity among penguins? insanity among penguins? >> Some people relate to it as some type of uh depression. Others others speak about um being pulled back into negative habits uh like a moth to the flame or perhaps like a penguin to the mountains. maybe to coin a new phrase. I want to speak a little bit about this from my own perspective and uh sort of weigh in and throw in my my take. If everyone's commenting on

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1. 0:00These penguins are all heading to the open border to the right. >> This is the…
2. 1:03writing a narrative uh imposing a narrative so to speak for the penguin psychology. A lot…
3. 2:34that we are souls and [clears throat] that we exist before and after our embodiment and…
4. 4:07own skin and then need to medicate again. So, it's not really addiction the way that…
5. 5:08thought onto this animal but like deep philosophical motivations which I personally I'm an animal lover…
6. 6:42want to insult anyone, but a lot of times we create a philosophical narrative to explain…
7. 8:15is, here's what I want to explain that that penchant for escape is not actual self-destruction.…
8. 9:17it's not suicidal. It's actually the organism wanting to live. It's actually saying, "I'm trying to…
9. 11:19but not be under such stress. And that is the alternative which many sensitive souls ultimately…
10. 12:53is always going to be intense and overwhelming. For some of us, social interaction is always…

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