Was he crazy? Or just JEWISH?

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.

This is my quest, to follow that star. >> No matter how hopeless, no matter how far. You guys understand this? All right, let me explain to you. Don Quixote is a novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Miguel de Cervantes was the Spanish Shakespeare. He wrote the first novel in what we would consider modern Spanish, and it is a story of a hero named Don. Don means like mister. Quixote. Don Quixote is a madman, or is he? He thinks he's a knight who's battling dragons, but really he is chasing windmills. He has a squire named Sancho Panza who is this weird guy who decides to hang around and tag along with him and enable his fantasy. He's trying to rescue this princess Dulcinea, who's actually a lady of ill repute, but he doesn't understand that or refuses to accept that. He's this comical farcical character who is noble in his idealism, but sort of tragic in how deluded he is. Okay? That's Don Quixote. Now, there's a theory. Basically, I got to tell you something. When Messiah comes, we'll find out how much of Spanish culture was driven by crypto-Jews. But there are a lot of important figures of Spanish culture who were probably Jewish. And basically after 1492, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, which was the Spanish expulsion, a lot of Jews went into hiding. So, the theory is that Cervantes was a crypto-Jew or the descendant of crypto-Jews. Don Quixote in medieval Spanish would be pronounced Don Quixote. What is Quixote? Well, it has a double meaning actually. Quixote in Aramaic

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00This is my quest, to follow that star. >> No matter how hopeless, no matter how…
2. 1:03doesn't understand that or refuses to accept that. He's this comical farcical character who is noble…
3. 2:06means truth. The truth-teller. Also though, it's ki Ki is the kaf dimion. It's the prefix…
4. 3:08from the other side. What does that mean from the other side? Okay, so you could…
5. 4:13two different reference points of reality. So, Don Quixote is the archetypical Jewish figure who's in…
6. 5:15But who is crazy? The world or Don Quixote? Okay, so then they made this Broadway…
7. 6:17To right the unrightable wrong. That's the power of teshuvah. Of true repentance. That zedonus naaseh…
8. 7:19Completely righteous are those without sin. The penitents have sin. And they come back, and they…
9. 8:21what it is. To dream the impossible dream, to fight the unbeatable foe, to bear with…
10. 9:21unreachable? How could it be unreachable if you reach it? This is called paradox. Paradox. That's…

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