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Speaker 1: Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of

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Speaker 1: hours of Dennis's lectures courses in classic radio programs. Had

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Speaker 1: to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go to Dennisprager dot com.

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Speaker 2: Okay, no, yes, none, very good. Okay, my nightmare would

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Speaker 2: be a fight. Came here one day with chapter eighteen notes,

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Speaker 2: and we're in chapter twenty one, chapter twenty. Right, we're

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Speaker 2: in chapter twenty. Is that correct? Friends? Now we're in

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Speaker 2: the middle of twenty we are, if I'm not mistaken.

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Speaker 2: We were up to eight Is that correct? Verse eight?

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Speaker 2: Chapter twenty. What could it hurt to do it again? Well,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to cheat. The people to buy tapes.

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Speaker 2: They have a certain sense of DJA food. That's why

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Speaker 2: maybe you don't care. But purchasers tend to man lectures

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Speaker 2: on ethics and then sells you a tape which duplicates

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Speaker 2: the previous quote. Okay, here we go. All right, everybody

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Speaker 2: wake up. Remember where we were with this repeat episode

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Speaker 2: of Abraham telling that telling people his wife is his

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Speaker 2: sister Sarah so that he doesn't get killed and she taken. Remember, okay,

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Speaker 2: we had that with the Pharaoh and in this case,

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Speaker 2: we have it with alvi Mela right and Garar in

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Speaker 2: the place of Garar, so verse eight. Alvimela got up

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Speaker 2: in the morning. They all got up early. I just

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Speaker 2: find it so interesting. Do you have early in there?

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Speaker 2: None of them get up late in the morning. I

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Speaker 2: guess in those days he just didn't. They got up.

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Speaker 2: Alvi Emella gets up early, and he calls to all

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Speaker 2: his servants and he says, all of these things in

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Speaker 2: their ears. And you know, I always find these words

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Speaker 2: so interesting. It's like when Moses is told the burning bush.

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Speaker 2: God says, take your shoes off of your feet. Slightly redundant,

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Speaker 2: isn't it. Most people don't wear their shoes on their ears,

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Speaker 2: So why would God? Really, it's actually a puzzle to

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Speaker 2: me why God uses that terminology take your shoes off

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Speaker 2: your feet? And I'm also puzzled here. And he said

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Speaker 2: all of these words in their ears. Does anybody have

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Speaker 2: a thought? Why? It says? Do you have it all

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Speaker 2: in their ears? Now? You see that's the terrible You

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Speaker 2: don't have this literal translation. You missed the fun. And

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Speaker 2: he said all of these things in their ears anyway,

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Speaker 2: and the men, the people were greatly frightened, now as

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Speaker 2: I've noted here, or were they frightened of God or

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Speaker 2: of Avi Mella? That was? I think I may have

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Speaker 2: raised that of him, So maybe we're up to nine. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: Avimelch called to Abraham and he says, why did you

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Speaker 2: do this? What was my What was the big sin

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Speaker 2: that I did that you brought on? We mentioned this.

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Speaker 2: I remember reading this to you, all of these things

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Speaker 2: that have happened to here. And Avemelov said to Abraham,

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Speaker 2: what did you see that you did this thing? Right?

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Speaker 2: Lied about your wife? Now remember my theory on verse eleven.

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Speaker 2: And Abraham said, because I said, there's just no fear

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Speaker 2: of God in this place. My theory was that he

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Speaker 2: did not yet realize that God is universal ray Remember

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Speaker 2: that that's my theory as too as to reading this.

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Speaker 2: So I'm getting you back into where we were. And

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Speaker 2: in any event, she is in fact my sister, because

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Speaker 2: she's my father's daughter, though not my mother's, and she

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Speaker 2: became my wife. You can imagine Avemelik rolling his eyes

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Speaker 2: at that time. And so when God made me wander

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Speaker 2: from my father's house, I said to her, let this

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Speaker 2: be the kindness that you will do for me wherever

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Speaker 2: we go, say he is my brother. So Avimel took

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Speaker 2: sheep and oxen, male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham,

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Speaker 2: and he restored his wife. And to restore his wife

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Speaker 2: Sarah to him. Fifteen and Alvimelech said, here my land is,

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Speaker 2: before you settle wherever you go. And to Sarah he said, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I give you one thousand silvers to your brother. And

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Speaker 2: I am convinced, convinced this is a rare case of

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Speaker 2: sarcasm in the Torah. What Alvimella says to Sarah. Here,

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Speaker 2: I look at what I've given your brother. You see

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Speaker 2: what I'm saying. I mean, you know by now he

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Speaker 2: knows the true identity. And he calls him, and he

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Speaker 2: calls him. He's a little annoyed, Alvi melick, and I

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Speaker 2: don't blame him. God knows what he was afflicted by. Literally,

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Speaker 2: God knows. It's God to the affliction. And he says,

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Speaker 2: so let's see where am i and sir oh, yes,

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Speaker 2: sixteen A thousand thousand silvers for your brother. And this

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Speaker 2: will serve as a vindication before all who were with you,

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Speaker 2: and you are all cleared before everyone, okay. And Avraham

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Speaker 2: prayed to God, and God healed Alviimela and his wife

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Speaker 2: and his maidens or maid servants, and they all gave birth.

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Speaker 2: And why is that noted verse eighteen, which is the

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Speaker 2: end of the story, For God had closed fast every

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Speaker 2: womb of the household of Albimela because of Sarah, the

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Speaker 2: wife of Abraham. Okay, I just want to tell you

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Speaker 2: that in verse thirteen, you might notice an interesting thing

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Speaker 2: that it says the plural for God. It's one of

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Speaker 2: the rare times in the Torah that the plural is

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Speaker 2: used for God. I explained this in the very beginning.

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Speaker 2: One of God's names is Elohim. Elohim is plural, but

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Speaker 2: it's always used with a singular verb. The very first

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Speaker 2: word of the Torah in the beginning, Elohim created the

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Speaker 2: heavens and the earth. The word created is in the

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Speaker 2: singular you with me, are you? Because in English, you

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Speaker 2: know the past is the same for all created is

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Speaker 2: right plural and singular. But for example, he creates, so

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Speaker 2: Elohim creates. But what if it said Elohim create, It

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Speaker 2: would show that Elohim is plural. Here it has in

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Speaker 2: verse sixteen, in verse thirteen, when it says and when

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Speaker 2: God made me wander from my father's house. It says,

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Speaker 2: Lohim made me wander. Elohim is the plural, the plural verb.

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Speaker 2: My theory is, I've not seen this elsewhere. I may

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Speaker 2: be wrong. My theory is that in speaking to pagans

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Speaker 2: or people he presumed were pagans, using a plural for

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Speaker 2: God would have been more understandable. Okay, that's my theory.

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Speaker 2: But for those of you who were very careful to

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Speaker 2: know the syntax, it is very rare that Elohim that

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Speaker 2: the plural is used. Okay, let's go to twenty one,

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Speaker 2: and who knows what we might reach, because twenty two

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Speaker 2: is the most incredible chapter, perhaps in the entire Bible. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: let's go on here for twenty one. So we're back

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Speaker 2: to Sarah. Now. God remembered Sarah at what he had said,

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Speaker 2: and God did to Sarah exactly what he said he

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Speaker 2: would do. Sure Enough, Sarah was pregnant, and she gave

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Speaker 2: birth to Abraham, a son in his old age, at

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Speaker 2: exactly the time when God had said it would happen. Three.

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Speaker 2: And Abraham called the name of his son that was

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Speaker 2: born to him boy. It keeps adding these words because

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Speaker 2: it wants to make sure you understand it was born

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Speaker 2: to him, lest there be any suggestion that it was

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Speaker 2: Avi Melach. Remember so that after all, this is the

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Speaker 2: next segment. So it was not Avi Melech's kid, this

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Speaker 2: was Abraham's kid. Torra goes out of its way to

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Speaker 2: make that which Sarah gave birth for him. It's really

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Speaker 2: makes sure you got the idea. Yitzchok yitzchock means will

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Speaker 2: laugh or laughs. Isn't it an amazing to think it's

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Speaker 2: Abraham laughs and Jacob. That's really the way it would be.

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Speaker 2: The patriarchs of the Jewish people are Abraham laughs and Jacob.

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Speaker 2: It's a very odd name when you think about it,

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Speaker 2: and of course it's very common it's Isaac. But in

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Speaker 2: Hebrew yitzcock means to this day, if you will to

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Speaker 2: say in modern Hebrew, he will laugh who yitschk Who

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Speaker 2: yatsch hock can either be he is it is Isaac

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Speaker 2: or he will laugh the exact same word and pronunciation

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Speaker 2: and all for. And Abraham circumcised Isaac yitzchok, his son

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Speaker 2: at eight days, just as God had instructed him. Abraham

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Speaker 2: was one hundred years old when Isaac was born. Isaac,

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Speaker 2: his son was born to him, and Sarah said, God

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Speaker 2: made Now It's very interesting here. There are a lot

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Speaker 2: of ways of translating this. God made a big joke

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Speaker 2: out of me is one of them. God made me

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Speaker 2: laugh is another one there. It's not fully clear, so

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Speaker 2: we'll take the nicest one. God brought me laughter that

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Speaker 2: is possible, and laughter is to hook again. His name

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Speaker 2: is Yitzchak again, playing on the word God made me laugh.

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Speaker 2: We got laughed. And then it says, and everybody who

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Speaker 2: hears this is now, what are you have? I have

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Speaker 2: the translation, everyone who hears this will laugh with me

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Speaker 2: on account of me. Is that what you have? Now?

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Speaker 2: It's a very interesting thing. When if I said everybody

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Speaker 2: in the world is laughing on account of me, does

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Speaker 2: that sound positive or negative? Right? Doesn't it exactly? I mean,

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Speaker 2: if you heard that somebody ninety gave birth, you'd laugh too,

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Speaker 2: But I'm not sure you would only laugh for her.

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Speaker 2: You would laugh. Did you hear what happened to missus Rosenbaum?

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Speaker 2: She's ninety and look at what happened? And you know

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Speaker 2: it's a funny thing. It's a play on words here,

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Speaker 2: This laughing child causes laughter and derision. I think that

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Speaker 2: that's both. There's something of a mockery here, and then

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Speaker 2: there's like a little poem that she then has. Who

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Speaker 2: would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children?

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Speaker 2: Yet I have born a son in his old age.

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Speaker 2: She has a little in Hebrew. It's like a poem. Okay,

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Speaker 2: it's like a little diddy that she comes out with here,

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Speaker 2: because it is quite extraordinary. The child verse eight. The

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Speaker 2: child grew up and was weaned, and Abraham held a

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Speaker 2: great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned, a

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Speaker 2: big party. And Abraham was a rich man. You could

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Speaker 2: imagine what it must have been like, because in Hebrew,

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Speaker 2: which says mister Gadol, a big, a great party was

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Speaker 2: thrown on the day that that happened. Now it gets

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Speaker 2: very interesting.

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Speaker 3: Nine.

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Speaker 2: Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian who gave

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Speaker 2: birth for Abraham. She saw the son of Hagar, the

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Speaker 2: Egyptian who gave birth to Ape for Abraham. Now it

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Speaker 2: has a very tough thing. It doesn't fully make sense.

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Speaker 2: And I have really worked and worked. Some of these

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Speaker 2: verses take longer than whole chapters, it says Mitzareik back

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Speaker 2: to this play on words of ch'hok of laughter in Hebrew,

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Speaker 2: it's play, it's laugh, but it's also got a negative element.

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Speaker 2: And what truly happened here? What do you have? I

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Speaker 2: have playing? Does anyone have anything else? Making sport? Mocking?

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Speaker 2: Whose translation is mocking of the Hirsh. The Hirsh translation

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Speaker 2: is mocking. Oh that figures, because that's Hersch's way of

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Speaker 2: understanding what happened. You have Hersh two very interesting Hirsh.

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Speaker 2: I got a kick out of that. Hirsh is a

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Speaker 2: traditional Orthodox exegy, and in his translation he gives he

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Speaker 2: wants to you know, this is so classic. Hersh wants

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Speaker 2: to always put the Jewish patriarchs in the finest light.

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Speaker 2: So remember what happens later is difficult getting kicked out

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Speaker 2: of the house by Sarah right as you'll see coming

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Speaker 2: up again. It's a second time you recall. And the

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Speaker 2: issue is why. So, of course, if you follow Hirsh,

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Speaker 2: it makes more sense. Look at what this Yeshmael is doing.

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Speaker 2: He's making a mockery of everything that's happened. The Hebrew

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Speaker 2: doesn't say mocking. The Hebrew says playing or literally making

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Speaker 2: to laugh. Okay, And in the Septuagint, the oldest translation

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Speaker 2: of the Hebrew text. It said made Isaac laugh. It's

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Speaker 2: his little brother. That's what big brothers often do, right,

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Speaker 2: is make their little brothers laugh. How old this is

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Speaker 2: going to be a big issue. We know how old

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Speaker 2: he is. He's at least sixteen. I will show you

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Speaker 2: how he got the age. Ishmael is at least sixteen

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Speaker 2: years old here, and he's making his little brother Isaac laugh,

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Speaker 2: or at the very least is playing. The question, though,

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Speaker 2: is why would this infuriate Sarah? Maybe women here might

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Speaker 2: know it, Maybe they might be able to better empathize

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Speaker 2: with her particular situation. Look at the next verse because

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Speaker 2: it has to be related to the verse before it

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Speaker 2: has to be. Remember, Sarah sees the child of Hagar

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Speaker 2: playing or making laughter. Next verse, and she says to Avraham,

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Speaker 2: cast out that slave woman and her son, for the

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Speaker 2: son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance

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Speaker 2: with my son Isaac. I'm sorry, Yeah, they got back.

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Speaker 2: Well that's another issue. It's not written. Let me let

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Speaker 2: me work on this right now. Holl the questions, because

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Speaker 2: I always, you know, it gets sidetracked. Listen to this,

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Speaker 2: She says, kick out the woman and her child, so

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Speaker 2: that she does not inherit with my son, with my son. Okay.

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Speaker 2: Now remember Abraham has two sons, Sarah has one son. Okay,

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Speaker 2: this is not what we have today, a blended family.

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Speaker 2: It didn't work out quite that well. It's pretty it's

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Speaker 2: pretty different here. And what what annoyed Sarah? That's the

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Speaker 2: big question from the from the verse before. After reading

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Speaker 2: this a lot and looking into it, my belief is

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Speaker 2: not what Hirsh says. One traditional Jewish understanding is that

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Speaker 2: he was mocking what went on, Okay, that he did

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Speaker 2: something negative. There were actually some rabbinic exegetes who hold

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Speaker 2: that it's worse than that, that he actually did some

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Speaker 2: vulgar things and made to laugh. That his the mockery

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Speaker 2: he made was vulgarity in some way with the with

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Speaker 2: the two year old or in his own way that

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Speaker 2: he made. Because when the Jews at the at the

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Speaker 2: Golden Calf do wrong things, it also uses this word

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Speaker 2: of making play. It doesn't always have an innocuous interpretation

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Speaker 2: of just laughing. Okay, so what is going on here

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Speaker 2: is not fully clear. What I think it is is

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Speaker 2: simply that seeing him all that happy after the child

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Speaker 2: that she had is clearly weaned and healthy. Remember you

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Speaker 2: didn't know in those days when your child was good

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Speaker 2: whether your child would live it like dawned on her.

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Speaker 2: Wait a minute, there's competition for the inheritance, and that

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Speaker 2: dawning took place at this party and he at where

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Speaker 2: his weaning party, and she kicked them out. What's interesting here,

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Speaker 2: and I'm going to read you more about this. This

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Speaker 2: is really very interesting stuff. Eleven is that this did

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Speaker 2: not sit well with Abraham. Vayei raja da varmah ud

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Speaker 2: the ae Avraham. The thing was very evil. Vayei ra

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Speaker 2: comes from the Hebrew word rah, which is evil. The

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Speaker 2: thing appeared evil in his eyes. Remember it's an it. Now,

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Speaker 2: this is a very interesting thing. Though he's playing by

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Speaker 2: the rules. God announces the birth of Yitzchak, and that's

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Speaker 2: the miraculous birth. There's no miracle in the birth of

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Speaker 2: y Ishmael. He slept with a concubine. Big deal you

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Speaker 2: with me.

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Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Brager's Timeless Wisdom.

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Speaker 2: Abraham is playing by legal rules. Sarah is playing by

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Speaker 2: God's intent. That's the difference here. Abraham's a stickler for

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Speaker 2: the rules. I got an older son. He is just

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Speaker 2: as much my son Sarah Darling as our son together Isaac,

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Speaker 2: and he gets the inheritance, and he is just equal.

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Speaker 2: So it appeared to be wrong to him, or so

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Speaker 2: it seems pretty clear from what's in I try not

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Speaker 2: to read anything into the text, but it says and

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Speaker 2: it makes it clear. Look at what the sentence says

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Speaker 2: in verse eleven. The matter again, I can't stand these translations.

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Speaker 2: The matter rest Abraham greatly? Which is more powerful? The

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Speaker 2: matter distressed Abraham greatly? Or the matter seemed as evil

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Speaker 2: as an evil matter to Abraham. Isn't there a difference.

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Speaker 2: Distressed is an emotional distress. But vayira is the thing

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Speaker 2: here is literally the thing was evil, very evil in

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Speaker 2: the eyes of Abraham. You can't get much clearer than that. Hebrew.

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Speaker 2: And it adds al Adotte Beno about his son. You see,

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Speaker 2: just in case you didn't know what it was. It's

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Speaker 2: about his son. He regards Yeshmael as his son, and

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Speaker 2: this appeared to be evil the suggestion of his wife.

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Speaker 2: We do, not, by the way, have a sense of

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Speaker 2: a particularly modern romantic marriage with Abraham and Sarah. It's

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Speaker 2: as we go through Genesis, I will talk to you

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Speaker 2: about all the marriages. I don't think any of which

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Speaker 2: could really serve as a model for what you might

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Speaker 2: want with your spouse or with your future spouse. But

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Speaker 2: it might be a model of what you had with

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Speaker 2: your ex spouse. That I can say with some accuracy,

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Speaker 2: because they are not good in Genesis. And it gets

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Speaker 2: worse later when you see one of the most incredibly

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Speaker 2: silent yet eloquent statements of how Sarah reacted to her

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Speaker 2: husband trying to kill her son, which is pretty understandable.

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Speaker 2: So here it's an interesting thing. She t tries to

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Speaker 2: throw out her Huggar's son or his son, and then

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Speaker 2: he tries to kill her son. You understand what I'm saying.

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Speaker 2: I mean, think about it. That's what's happening here. Isaac. Yes,

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Speaker 2: when he goes later in twenty two anyway, he is

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Speaker 2: not like this. He thinks it's very wrong. And God

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Speaker 2: said to Abraham verse twelve, this should not be evil

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Speaker 2: in your eyes about the young man and about your

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Speaker 2: maiden whatever. And these are one of the most famous words.

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Speaker 2: Whenever men are given advice to listen to their wives.

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Speaker 2: In Hebrew, they quote this statement, car La gentle mari

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Speaker 2: lets a schmava cola. Everything. That's everything that Sarah tells you.

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Speaker 2: Listen to her voice. That's pretty powerful. God tells him

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Speaker 2: to listen to his wife because through Yitzchak, will your

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Speaker 2: seed be called? All right, why don't you forget Abraham.

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Speaker 2: She's right, she understands what's going on here. And I

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Speaker 2: have a lot of words to say it, because Sarah

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Speaker 2: comes out very powerfully in this episode, very powerfully. Let

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Speaker 2: me just go to the next verse and don't worry.

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Speaker 2: God says, I will also take care of the child

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Speaker 2: of the concubine of the maiden of the slave woman.

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Speaker 2: I will make him into a nation because he is

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Speaker 2: your seed. So you, Abraham, were worried about evil being done.

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Speaker 2: You see how the distress doesn't work. I God him

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Speaker 2: answering what you thought was evil. I don't do evil.

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Speaker 2: God says, he has rights and he will be a

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Speaker 2: big thing. He will be a nation as well, So

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Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about Yeshma'el. I'll take care

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Speaker 2: of him. But you must listen to Sarah now before

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Speaker 2: we go on with what happens in the episode with

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Speaker 2: Hagar and Yhmael. Let's figure out what is going on here.

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Speaker 2: Let me first read what Sarna says, God prompts Abraham

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Speaker 2: to agree. The narrator feels it necessary for God to

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Speaker 2: justify his God's actions so as to remove any suggestion

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Speaker 2: of moral taint. You see, he does so on two grounds.

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Speaker 2: The line of Abraham is to be continued solely through Isaac.

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Speaker 2: Hagar and her son will not and Hagar and her

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Speaker 2: son will not be left to an uncertain fate in

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Speaker 2: the wilderness for a great future awaits Yeshmael. There is

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Speaker 2: a delicate shift here. Sarna notes from Sarah's motivation to God's.

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Speaker 2: What was Sarah's motivation inheritance? What is God's motivation? Who

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Speaker 2: carries on Abraham's mission? You with us? You get the difference?

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Speaker 2: And he makes the point there is there's a subtle

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Speaker 2: shift here. God is saying, in effect, listen, Sarah is right,

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Speaker 2: even though the reasoning may be not that noble. You

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Speaker 2: get it. It's almost like George Bush was right to

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Speaker 2: attack Kuwait even though oil was probably the most animating factor.

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Speaker 2: A lot of times, the motive may not be pure,

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Speaker 2: and the act may be right, and that's what might

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Speaker 2: be involved right over here with Sarah. So God is

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Speaker 2: saying to Sarah, you got to listen to her. God

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Speaker 2: is concerned here, as he writes, her sole interest is

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Speaker 2: to save God her son's inheritance. I don't fully agree,

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Speaker 2: but it's probably true. God is concerned with the question

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Speaker 2: of posterity and his ultimate purposes. The fact is, though,

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Speaker 2: that Sarah is the one who is most worried. See

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Speaker 2: why Sarah is most worried. I don't only think because

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Speaker 2: of money. I think Sarah is most concerned because she

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Speaker 2: knows which child is the one that should carry on

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Speaker 2: Abraham's mission. Okay, that's my theory. I'm giving Sarah a

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Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt here. I fully acknowledge that you

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Speaker 2: could read it as purely a concern with inheritance. What

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Speaker 2: what What she worried about, which I said in verse nine,

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Speaker 2: was that Ishmael had seen himself as an equal. Anyway,

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Speaker 2: God gives this instruction to Abraham verse fourteen. And Abraham

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Speaker 2: got up early in the morning. They all got up early,

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Speaker 2: as I pointed out a few times. And he took

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Speaker 2: bread and a skin. What do you have there? I

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Speaker 2: have skin of water? What does anyone else? You all

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Speaker 2: have it? Okay? A skin of water which is holding water,

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Speaker 2: meaning and he gave it to Now this is another

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Speaker 2: very perplexing thing which took me a while. And he

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Speaker 2: gave it to Hagar and put it on her shoulder.

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Speaker 2: How many of you have? And he put the child

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Speaker 2: on her shoulder? You do you have that together with

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Speaker 2: a child? Does anybody not have? Does anybody have a

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Speaker 2: translation that does not imply that the child was put

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Speaker 2: on her shoulder? What does yours? State? Good?

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Speaker 4: On her shoulder and a child and went through away?

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Speaker 2: And is that okay? Now does it? Does that imply

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Speaker 2: and the child was put on her shoulder? As you

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Speaker 2: read it? Yeah, that's right, good, that's more accurate. Whose

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Speaker 2: is that? Oh hurts? Oh that's the old King James,

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Speaker 2: I guess if I'm not mistaken? Oh no, is that

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Speaker 2: JPS nineteen No, that's I don't know what she uses anyway,

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Speaker 2: listen if he if she put if the implication is

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Speaker 2: that she put a child on her shoulder, we are

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Speaker 2: in a very bad way in this story. The story

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Speaker 2: makes no sense because the child is sixteen years old,

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Speaker 2: and that's why it's so perplexing. I mean, who puts

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Speaker 2: six sixteen year old boys on their shoulders? Right? I mean,

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Speaker 2: think of that's ludicrous. Now listen, I gotta tell you

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Speaker 2: I begin when I read the Torah, I believe that

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Speaker 2: it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, something something

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Speaker 2: has to give. I am not going to read into it.

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Speaker 2: So something has to give, And what has to give

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Speaker 2: in this case is the incorrect translation. Here is the

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Speaker 2: Hebrew literally translated, and he gave to Hagar put on

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Speaker 2: her shoulder and the child, just like you had it there,

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Speaker 2: as if there were a comma. There were no commas

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Speaker 2: in biblical Hebrew. There's no punctuation. So that is why

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Speaker 2: what it is is he put this stuff on her

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Speaker 2: shoulder and gave her the child as well. Okay, that

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Speaker 2: is what to me is clear.

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Speaker 5: Yes?

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Speaker 2: Has that hursh oh? It's that so that's hurts? Yeah? Okay,

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Speaker 2: did you all hear that though a grown boy, he

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Speaker 2: was unable to walk because Sarah had cast an evil

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Speaker 2: eye on him? Okay, in nineteen ninety two, I find

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Speaker 2: that stuff a little tough to swallow, That's what I mean.

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Speaker 2: I rather labor over the text to figure out how

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Speaker 2: to make sense of it than add what is known

403
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Speaker 2: in Yiddish as bubba mices, which means grandmother tales. Okay,

404
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:07,240
Speaker 2: that's what I think. That that is he couldn't walk

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Speaker 2: as Sarah made an evil eye on him. Yes, that

406
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Speaker 2: he puts something on the child's shoulder, Yes, all right,

407
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 2: it very well could be. But that is also reading

408
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:30,479
Speaker 2: into it, I think, because it doesn't say on his shoulder,

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Speaker 2: it says on her shoulder. Be that as it may.

410
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Speaker 2: That's what I believe it is. The actual reading is

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Speaker 2: that he did not go on our shoulder. By the way,

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Speaker 2: do you want to know how to figure out y

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Speaker 2: Ishmael's age, Please see Genesis sixteen sixteen, Okay to show

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Speaker 2: you how this stuff has worked out, because this is

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Speaker 2: I think an important thing. How old was y Ishmael

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Speaker 2: when all of this happened? And if you will notice

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Speaker 2: sixteen sixteen and Abram was eighty six years old when

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Speaker 2: Hagar gave birth to Yhmael. Okay, that's sixteen sixteen. How

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Speaker 2: old is he when Isaac is born one hundred? What

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Speaker 2: is eighty six from one hundred fourteen? When do children

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Speaker 2: normally get weaned one or two? So he's either fifteen

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Speaker 2: or sixteen years old when this happens. Okay, there's no

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00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 2: way around it if you take the text seriously. If okay,

424
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,280
Speaker 2: I don't remember she's ninety something. I don't remember the

425
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 2: actual age. She's ten years younger than him, so she's

426
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:39,000
Speaker 2: ninety Okay. Now, therefore we have more problems with him,

427
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 2: though at sixteen, we've only resolved the one with the shoulder. Now,

428
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:55,520
Speaker 2: let's go on, what are we up to fifteen? No,

429
00:30:55,560 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 2: excuse me, fourteen. We're not finished with fourteen, right, okay?

430
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:03,960
Speaker 2: And he sends her this is Abraham sends her, and

431
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 2: she walks, and she gets and she wanders in the desert,

432
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 2: in the desert of bear Cheva, in the wilderness of

433
00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:17,600
Speaker 2: bear Cheva. Okay, she gets lost. She was given enough

434
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,640
Speaker 2: for her and her child if she knew where she

435
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:26,920
Speaker 2: was going. But she got lost. The water from the

436
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:34,440
Speaker 2: skin ended, and she sent the child, or she left

437
00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 2: the child under one of the bushes. Now, this is

438
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 2: again a difficult thing. If he's sixteen years old. Do

439
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 2: you put a sixteen year old in bushes? This part

440
00:31:47,080 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 2: really drove me crazy. Only possible thing is that, being

441
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:58,800
Speaker 2: a vigorous young male, he needed more water than she did,

442
00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 2: and that he tired first. Can anybody does that sound

443
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:11,960
Speaker 2: plausible to you? Folks? How many say? No, okay, please

444
00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 2: leave now, okay, Why isn't it plausible? Yeah? Yeah, oh

445
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:28,440
Speaker 2: oh in other words, oh so you don't find the

446
00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:32,600
Speaker 2: problematic at all? Oh, I see, watch all right, let

447
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:34,160
Speaker 2: me let me repeat what she said. She has an

448
00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:36,160
Speaker 2: eighteen year old And if they were in the man

449
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:38,880
Speaker 2: of fifteen, and if they were in the wilderness, having

450
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:44,600
Speaker 2: been sent out by Abraham and angels of God, and

451
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 2: they ran out of water, you would have said, go

452
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 2: and sit, Go and sit in the in the in

453
00:32:49,800 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 2: the leaves, in the shade. So hold on a minute. Well,

454
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,120
Speaker 2: let's look at the next verse and see if that works.

455
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:08,920
Speaker 2: She and she went and she sat by herself at

456
00:33:08,960 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 2: a distance a bow shot away, because she said, I

457
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 2: can't look upon the death of my child. And she

458
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:27,640
Speaker 2: sat across and she lifted her voice, and she cried.

459
00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:30,400
Speaker 2: It's very touching, isn't it. It's very powerful. I can't

460
00:33:30,440 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 2: watch my child die. Would you say that you would

461
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:43,960
Speaker 2: have left your child? She puts him under the bush,

462
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,560
Speaker 2: wants to be more protected. How many find this mother's conduct?

463
00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:49,440
Speaker 2: And I mean, this is truly I need your help

464
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:52,880
Speaker 2: on this. How many find this mother's conduct makes sense?

465
00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,720
Speaker 2: You could relate to it? How many don't? Okay? If

466
00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:09,600
Speaker 2: you don't, and why don't you? Why don't you right?

467
00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 2: Because she would have held and kissed him or hugged

468
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,960
Speaker 2: him while he died. What do you say?

469
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:21,719
Speaker 5: Yeah?

470
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 3: It?

471
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:24,760
Speaker 5: Yeah, I know.

472
00:34:25,000 --> 00:34:28,799
Speaker 2: Really, that's why I Why did I translate across? Yeah,

473
00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 2: a cross makes more sense. Forget You're right, it is

474
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 2: a little confusing, but forgetting that clearly she's at a

475
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 2: bow shots distance away, so that she's close, but she

476
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,439
Speaker 2: can't watch him die. Okay, I mean she, in other words,

477
00:34:40,440 --> 00:34:42,960
Speaker 2: she can't see him. Does that make sense? Let me

478
00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 2: just tell you what I would have thought. I would

479
00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:48,560
Speaker 2: think that a parent with a child who's dying would

480
00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 2: stay with the child till he died. I mean that

481
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:55,680
Speaker 2: that just strikes me as a more normative a mother's instinct,

482
00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:57,640
Speaker 2: for that matter, as a father. I would say that

483
00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 2: I've never, thank God, been in the position. I can't

484
00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 2: say exactly what I do, but tell me if the

485
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 2: why am I wrong? Why does that make why? Why

486
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,239
Speaker 2: did you vote A lot of you the other way

487
00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:09,399
Speaker 2: that what she did made sense?

488
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:15,000
Speaker 5: Yes?

489
00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,640
Speaker 2: Right? I she says, look at all the people like

490
00:35:22,680 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 2: in Somalia, where mothers would leave their kids to go

491
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 2: to find food and water. I I I would, I

492
00:35:27,760 --> 00:35:30,800
Speaker 2: would buy that totally. If that's what she did. She didn't.

493
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:48,919
Speaker 2: She went to sit down and cry. I'm sorry. Yeah,

494
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:58,239
Speaker 2: So therefore what h that she went away to cry

495
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:13,120
Speaker 2: and then came back. That's what you're saying. Uh huh oh,

496
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:16,399
Speaker 2: that's interesting. One second, No, no, but no, no, no,

497
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 2: I I it. It wouldn't work. It It doesn't imply

498
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:24,239
Speaker 2: that she came back to him. Yeah, it's right, and

499
00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 2: it's true. Better sitting thus afar listen. I don't want

500
00:36:27,120 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 2: to belabor the point, but I am very curious. I'll

501
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:31,839
Speaker 2: tell you why. First of all, I want to know

502
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 2: what this reflects about Hagaritz. I'm very interested to know that.

503
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:37,520
Speaker 2: I think it's important. It's important for a lot of reasons.

504
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 2: First of all, the entire Muslim world dates itself back

505
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,200
Speaker 2: to Ishmael. I mean, this is not an insignificant character

506
00:36:43,280 --> 00:36:46,680
Speaker 2: in history. It's significant. Number two, I have to deal

507
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:50,760
Speaker 2: with the issue of his age. See if the child well,

508
00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,960
Speaker 2: except at any age, I guess the conduct seems odd.

509
00:36:54,440 --> 00:36:59,680
Speaker 2: Although let's assume this when she puts the child down,

510
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:03,640
Speaker 2: he's unconscious. Is that a fair assumption? You don't put

511
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 2: your child down and he's conscious. She didn't say go

512
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:08,640
Speaker 2: and sit there, although I guess it does in some way.

513
00:37:08,640 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 2: It's that she sent him no and Hebrew one minute

514
00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:20,400
Speaker 2: what verse in order left? It says she left the

515
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 2: child in English, but in Hebrew no vatashleyled means she

516
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:31,160
Speaker 2: sent the child as if she went over and plopped

517
00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:34,520
Speaker 2: him down in the reeds in the leaves. Okay, it

518
00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 2: would seem to me that he had lost his ability

519
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,839
Speaker 2: to walk or control himself at this time. It makes

520
00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 2: perfect sense if he's five years old, but we're But

521
00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 2: if the tourists to make sense here, he's sixteen or fifteen.

522
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:51,719
Speaker 2: I just want to know if this conduct makes sense.

523
00:37:51,719 --> 00:37:55,000
Speaker 2: If it does, I'll move on. I I it bothers me.

524
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:58,319
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sense to me or the tourists trying

525
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 2: to say something about Hagar now the child. Wait, how

526
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:09,920
Speaker 2: many of you agree with me the child is not

527
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:15,960
Speaker 2: fully conscious here? Oh? None of you? Oh well, that's great.

528
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:19,120
Speaker 2: I love when my presumptions are accepted by no one

529
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,600
Speaker 2: cour of you out of two hundred and eighty. Wait,

530
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:25,040
Speaker 2: a second. All right, how do you see it? She said,

531
00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:28,719
Speaker 2: go and sit down there in so long ish? Why

532
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:32,920
Speaker 2: do you think happens? Explain it to me. I'm dead serious. Yes,

533
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,280
Speaker 2: she's not in good shape. We acknowledge that. That's correct.

534
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 2: So oh, I see she's not thinking rationally. That's interesting.

535
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 2: You're making a face.

536
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 6: Yes, So.

537
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:08,400
Speaker 2: All right, who God answered will deal with in a minute.

538
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:17,279
Speaker 2: Right now? I want to figure out her conduct. Oh,

539
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:20,000
Speaker 2: what does mean? They're dying? She says, I can't watch

540
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:26,319
Speaker 2: him die? All right, it's possible. Let me What do

541
00:39:26,360 --> 00:39:55,799
Speaker 2: you say? Is it says I can't I the mother

542
00:39:56,000 --> 00:40:06,719
Speaker 2: can't bear to see my child die? You mean if

543
00:40:06,719 --> 00:40:09,040
Speaker 2: she can't bear it that moment, you're saying, and it

544
00:40:09,080 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 2: implies that she might bear it later. Is that what

545
00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:20,239
Speaker 2: you're saying? I just want to understand, and I could

546
00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:23,000
Speaker 2: answer you that what pen This was my inclination. What

547
00:40:23,239 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 2: parent will just abandon the child in it as it's dying?

548
00:40:29,920 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 2: But she's saying it's dying. She says it's dying. Okay,

549
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:35,560
Speaker 2: let me take a final vote. I mean, it's the

550
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,640
Speaker 2: truly one revelatory last thought, because I know that this

551
00:40:38,920 --> 00:40:45,480
Speaker 2: is a fascinating thing and I don't have an answer. Yes,

552
00:40:45,800 --> 00:41:01,920
Speaker 2: does that? Yes? Well, this this drives me crazy. I

553
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:06,520
Speaker 2: won't even repeat it because these these these tapes go

554
00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,439
Speaker 2: to people of all different backgrounds. Thank God, that's such

555
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:15,120
Speaker 2: an ethnocentric. Chauvin's notion that mothers of other groups love

556
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: their kids less. I just find I find that. I

557
00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:21,080
Speaker 2: admit that I find the conduct difficult. But to say

558
00:41:21,120 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 2: that therefore, let me take one final vote. Can if

559
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,160
Speaker 2: you were a mother, could you see yourself acting like this?

560
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:34,160
Speaker 2: Would you raise your hand? Okay? If you couldn't see

561
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:37,960
Speaker 2: yourself acting like this, would you raise your hand? All right,

562
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,719
Speaker 2: it's more or less fifty fifth. Well now it's about

563
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,279
Speaker 2: sixty forty that you couldn't see yourself. Okay. It's a

564
00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:48,359
Speaker 2: difficult thing. And if somebody can come up with something

565
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:50,640
Speaker 2: next week or drop me a line, I would be

566
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,799
Speaker 2: very interested. I find it difficult. I don't know what

567
00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 2: it means anyway. Look, the truth is the actor in

568
00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:01,160
Speaker 2: this thing. The dramatist is God, and he comes in

569
00:42:01,160 --> 00:42:04,719
Speaker 2: in seventeen And whoever you made that point, gentleman over there,

570
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:07,880
Speaker 2: I think wearing the yamuka that God heard the kid,

571
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,719
Speaker 2: and that's what comes up next, and God heard the

572
00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:17,520
Speaker 2: voice of the kid. Now, this is very interesting. Who

573
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 2: made you made that point that God didn't hear her cry?

574
00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:22,839
Speaker 2: But his cry pretty good. I had not thought of that.

575
00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 2: That's a very good point.

576
00:42:24,719 --> 00:42:25,800
Speaker 3: And that.

577
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:33,000
Speaker 2: May tell you something about what God thought of the action.

578
00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 2: That may be an implicit rejection of her conduct. Yes,

579
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 2: only because you could be going be delirious if you're

580
00:42:46,160 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 2: very thirsty. I had at once, I had not a

581
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:49,840
Speaker 2: seven up for two hours.

582
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:50,239
Speaker 5: Uh.

583
00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:59,520
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, well, God heard the voice of the kid

584
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:01,680
Speaker 2: and then went to Hagar. What was he gonna do?

585
00:43:01,760 --> 00:43:06,440
Speaker 2: Go to the kid? No? No, no, he heard it,

586
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:09,959
Speaker 2: says he heard. Let's read the words. And God heard

587
00:43:09,960 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 2: the voice of the boy, and a a an angel

588
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 2: of God called to Hagar from these from the heavens.

589
00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:23,560
Speaker 2: By the way, as a Sarana points out, interestingly, an

590
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:27,319
Speaker 2: angel's voice from the heavens will save both of Abraham's

591
00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:34,960
Speaker 2: sons from death. Interesting, isn't it? Just like this is

592
00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:38,279
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen at the binding of Isaac. Never say

593
00:43:38,320 --> 00:43:40,600
Speaker 2: sacrifice of Isaac, because he was never sacrificed.

594
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:41,839
Speaker 5: Uh.

595
00:43:42,040 --> 00:43:44,560
Speaker 2: And he said to her, that's the angel of God.

596
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:50,080
Speaker 2: What is well? Mala, how do you have it? What

597
00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 2: troubles you has here? What's with you is literally what's

598
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:59,640
Speaker 2: with you? Hagar, don't be afraid because God heard the

599
00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:07,560
Speaker 2: voice of the boy who is there? Okay again, now

600
00:44:07,640 --> 00:44:11,000
Speaker 2: I gotta go back here. Yeah, listen, it's very interesting.

601
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,239
Speaker 2: It's like it's it's twice in the verse that God

602
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,480
Speaker 2: didn't hear her voice. Your point is, I think extremely important.

603
00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:23,760
Speaker 2: I think the implication is a real little dig at Hagar,

604
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:27,279
Speaker 2: we heard his voice, but not your voice. The other

605
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:31,000
Speaker 2: possibility is, of course, which is less noble as it were,

606
00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:36,640
Speaker 2: that God heard the child's voice and not Hagar's voice,

607
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:41,520
Speaker 2: because yeshma alas who counts, not Hagar in this particular instance.

608
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 2: By the way, if you think that's cruel sounding or

609
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 2: less noble sounding, as I said earlier, remember something. You

610
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 2: always have to ask the question why does God intervene

611
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:55,279
Speaker 2: in anybody's life in the Bible. After all, look at

612
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,399
Speaker 2: all the mothers who lost children since Hagar and God

613
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:00,480
Speaker 2: didn't do a thing for them, right at least in

614
00:45:00,520 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 2: that regard, All right, I think the answer is that

615
00:45:04,160 --> 00:45:08,440
Speaker 2: God doesn't intervene all the time. God doesn't intervene in

616
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 2: everybody's life all the time either, and perhaps doesn't intervene

617
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:16,239
Speaker 2: in some people's lives. Ever, Certainly the Jewish view from

618
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 2: my monodies is not that God intervenes in every everybody's

619
00:45:19,520 --> 00:45:23,760
Speaker 2: life all the time, that God intervenes in some people's lives.

620
00:45:24,160 --> 00:45:26,959
Speaker 2: Those who reach out to God are more likely. Those

621
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,880
Speaker 2: who live a God based life are more likely to

622
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,120
Speaker 2: have God touch them. If you reach out, you may

623
00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:36,000
Speaker 2: get touched. Is one thing, and a second thing is

624
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:40,720
Speaker 2: those who have a role to play historically will be touched.

625
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 2: Abraham had, Isaac had, Jacob had and Yeshmael had a

626
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,880
Speaker 2: role Hagard. Didn't you get it because you could really

627
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,000
Speaker 2: ask why it's not fair? Why did God care about

628
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:55,120
Speaker 2: Hagar when his son was suffering, but not about ten

629
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,719
Speaker 2: thousand other Egyptian women at the very same time whose

630
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 2: children were suffering. Are you with me? So the operative

631
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 2: element is God. Here's the voice of that which will

632
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,760
Speaker 2: have a role in history, y Ishmael. That may bother

633
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 2: you because you all want to think that God touches

634
00:46:11,880 --> 00:46:14,759
Speaker 2: everybody's lives equally. But as a dear Roman Catholic friend

635
00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,840
Speaker 2: of mine wants put it beautifully, God is not a democrat,

636
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:21,520
Speaker 2: small d small d. It's clearly not a democrat, big D.

637
00:46:21,640 --> 00:46:23,880
Speaker 2: I mean, I have no doubt about that. But uh,

638
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:29,919
Speaker 2: he's a libertarian the uh no, no, I don't. I'm

639
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:33,359
Speaker 2: just joking the but God is not a democrat. That's

640
00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 2: and it's very important to remember that God does not

641
00:46:36,600 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 2: run the world by vote. He is not, nor is

642
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 2: he an egalitarian in that sense. I mean the very

643
00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:45,719
Speaker 2: notion that he has chosen a people for a specific thing.

644
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,120
Speaker 2: Why did he choose a people? It's not it's not

645
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 2: he got In fact, it was about that that the

646
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 2: Roman Catholic made the point. It was a caller on

647
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,360
Speaker 2: one of my when I was doing religion on the

648
00:46:54,400 --> 00:46:56,759
Speaker 2: line and said, you know what is this? Why did

649
00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:59,399
Speaker 2: God choose the Jews under the Roman Catholic priests says,

650
00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:04,040
Speaker 2: because he's not a democrat. That was when he answered it.

651
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:06,359
Speaker 2: God does what he wants. He doesn't take a straw

652
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:11,800
Speaker 2: uphole before acting. Uh. And so please understand that God

653
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 2: has has visions for while we'll be with this planet,

654
00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:18,759
Speaker 2: and that some people will play a role in it.

655
00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,640
Speaker 2: That is apparently the issue here, or the other issue

656
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 2: is that what she did did not earn a response. Okay,

657
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:32,799
Speaker 2: I still think obviously, contrary to some of you, that

658
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:36,880
Speaker 2: the more natural motherly instinct. And she obviously loved her child,

659
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:38,840
Speaker 2: she couldn't bear to see him die. And I'm not

660
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 2: sitting here dumping on her. If there's one thing I

661
00:47:41,040 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 2: never do, it's judge people who have endured things that

662
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 2: I have never endured. Judgment of Hagar whatsoever. Here, I'm

663
00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 2: merely talking about what seems to me to have been

664
00:47:51,080 --> 00:47:54,759
Speaker 2: a more primal response of a parent, that to hold

665
00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:57,440
Speaker 2: your child who is dying, rather than to leave it

666
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:00,600
Speaker 2: because you can't face it. I'm not judging her. I'm

667
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,680
Speaker 2: merely stating what I think might be the more primal

668
00:48:04,239 --> 00:48:08,959
Speaker 2: maternal instinct. Who knows, maybe God judge was judging her.

669
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:11,520
Speaker 2: That's why I'm telling you this part is difficult. I'm

670
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:14,760
Speaker 2: just being totally honest with you, and remembering his age

671
00:48:14,760 --> 00:48:18,560
Speaker 2: and so on is also complex. A lot of times

672
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:20,560
Speaker 2: you might think sixteen year old boy would send his

673
00:48:20,640 --> 00:48:23,239
Speaker 2: mother away, you know, he would be the he might

674
00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 2: be the strong one at that point and say, Ma,

675
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,480
Speaker 2: you sit down and you go in the shade. But

676
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:35,480
Speaker 2: who knows. Anyway, eighteen, come lift up the boy and

677
00:48:35,680 --> 00:48:39,160
Speaker 2: take and hold your hand with his because I will

678
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 2: make him a great nation, all right with me, I

679
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:50,480
Speaker 2: will make him a great nation. Sarna notes that that

680
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:53,600
Speaker 2: God promises that Hmael will be a great nation, but

681
00:48:53,640 --> 00:49:01,000
Speaker 2: does not promise territory. Abraham Seed is promised territory and

682
00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 2: great nationhood, just the point that Sarna wished to make.

683
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:09,839
Speaker 2: Okay nineteen Then God opened her eyes and she saw

684
00:49:09,880 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 2: a well of water. It's a miraculous thing here, obviously

685
00:49:12,760 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 2: that she saw. Well, she went and filled the skin

686
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:19,440
Speaker 2: with water and let the boy drink. God was the boy,

687
00:49:19,480 --> 00:49:26,080
Speaker 2: and he grew up, and he dwelt in the wilderness

688
00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:28,840
Speaker 2: that as the boy did, of course, and became a bowman.

689
00:49:30,239 --> 00:49:33,719
Speaker 2: He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother

690
00:49:33,760 --> 00:49:35,880
Speaker 2: got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

691
00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:39,399
Speaker 2: And as we all know, all sons love when their

692
00:49:39,440 --> 00:49:43,719
Speaker 2: mothers choose their wives. And that's the next sentence, and

693
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:48,200
Speaker 2: Ishmael was thrilled with his mother's choice. Verse twenty one

694
00:49:48,280 --> 00:49:53,920
Speaker 2: and a half. Verse twenty two is an entirely new story,

695
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:57,560
Speaker 2: which is just one of those riddles as to why

696
00:49:57,600 --> 00:50:01,080
Speaker 2: it's there. And I'll try to go through it with

697
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,880
Speaker 2: some speed. At that time, Alvimelach and Fihol chief of

698
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 2: his troops said to Abraham, and he explained, let me

699
00:50:08,560 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 2: read to you, Sar and his explanation for this story

700
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:15,640
Speaker 2: Abraham's encounter with Alvimela. This new story, which ends chapter

701
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:20,320
Speaker 2: twenty one, is reported with such an economy of detail

702
00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:24,319
Speaker 2: that the background is obscure. Clearly, it is told not

703
00:50:24,440 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 2: for its own sake, but for other reasons. It projects

704
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 2: a fresh image of the patriarch. Now that his life's

705
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:35,279
Speaker 2: dream is fulfilled and his posterity assured, he possesses a

706
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:39,680
Speaker 2: new sense of confidence. No longer does he exhibit timidity

707
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:44,160
Speaker 2: and evasiveness in dealing with royalty. He negotiates as an equal.

708
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:47,759
Speaker 2: That's the point that he, Sarna says this story is

709
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:53,359
Speaker 2: Abraham now knows that he is fulfilled, and he is

710
00:50:53,440 --> 00:50:57,920
Speaker 2: not timid with royalty, negotiates as an equal. Moreover, Abraham

711
00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:00,719
Speaker 2: reaches a new stage in his relationship to the Promised Land.

712
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,880
Speaker 2: He makes his first acquisition a well at bear Cheva,

713
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:07,360
Speaker 2: and his rights are acknowledged and guaranteed by the king. Okay,

714
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:11,279
Speaker 2: you will find, by the way, in this story a

715
00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:21,920
Speaker 2: fascinating little thing. Okay. Here in this story, both of

716
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 2: Emelach's name and Abraham's name are each mentioned seven times.

717
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 2: I have not pointed this out thus far in Genesis,

718
00:51:32,280 --> 00:51:36,680
Speaker 2: but the number seven is throughout the book. Thus far

719
00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:43,520
Speaker 2: things appear seven times, appear by multiples of seven, the

720
00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:49,279
Speaker 2: seven days of creation. Seven is of overwhelming importance in

721
00:51:49,360 --> 00:51:55,920
Speaker 2: the Torah. And you have here just another example. In

722
00:51:56,000 --> 00:51:59,120
Speaker 2: this little thing about Avimelak and Avraham, each name is

723
00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 2: mentioned seven times. And I'm not done with the fascination

724
00:52:02,719 --> 00:52:06,040
Speaker 2: with the number seven. In Hebrew, the word seven is

725
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:11,720
Speaker 2: who knows Cheva? What is the name of the well

726
00:52:12,520 --> 00:52:18,800
Speaker 2: and the city bear Va, which really means well, number seven. Okay,

727
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 2: that's another seven. Also it says a couple of times

728
00:52:23,719 --> 00:52:28,520
Speaker 2: that he will take a he will take an oath.

729
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,120
Speaker 2: An oath in Hebrew is Hvoa, which has the exact

730
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 2: same root as Cheva. So it's another play on the

731
00:52:36,239 --> 00:52:41,719
Speaker 2: word seven. And then there's another one in verse twenty nine.

732
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:43,400
Speaker 2: What does it say?

733
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:53,720
Speaker 7: And Avi Melach says to Avraham, what do these seven

734
00:52:54,040 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 7: us mean?

735
00:52:55,800 --> 00:53:00,960
Speaker 2: Which you have set apart seven calves? Or what's a you?

736
00:53:01,160 --> 00:53:05,000
Speaker 2: Anybody know? Female sheep? Thank you? I was raised on

737
00:53:05,000 --> 00:53:07,440
Speaker 2: a farm, but I forgot you just have to forgive me.

738
00:53:08,200 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 2: In Flatbush, the Uh. Let me just therefore read. It's

739
00:53:12,480 --> 00:53:17,000
Speaker 2: just interesting how seven appears in just these few verses

740
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:20,319
Speaker 2: from twenty two to thirty four. Very quickly. At that time,

741
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:22,960
Speaker 2: avimelachan to be cold, chief of his troops, said to Abraham,

742
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:27,120
Speaker 2: God is with you and everything that you do. Therefore,

743
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 2: swear to me here by God that you will not

744
00:53:29,239 --> 00:53:32,160
Speaker 2: deal falsely with me or my kith and kin, but

745
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:34,040
Speaker 2: will deal with me and with the land in which

746
00:53:34,040 --> 00:53:37,360
Speaker 2: you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you.

747
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 2: And Abraham said, I swear it. Swear again is shua,

748
00:53:41,080 --> 00:53:42,200
Speaker 2: which is the seventh thing.

749
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:46,279
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.

750
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:56,359
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom, we up.

751
00:53:56,360 --> 00:54:00,359
Speaker 2: To twenty five. Then Abraham reproached Avimela for the well

752
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:04,160
Speaker 2: of water which the servants of Avimela had seized. This

753
00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 2: is one of those statements in the Torah that makes

754
00:54:07,200 --> 00:54:10,000
Speaker 2: no silence. We have no idea about what well he

755
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:12,720
Speaker 2: sees or anything. It's just out of there. The assumption

756
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:14,480
Speaker 2: is that they knew what they were talking about, but

757
00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:18,759
Speaker 2: we don't. Avimela said, I do not know who did

758
00:54:18,760 --> 00:54:20,560
Speaker 2: this you did not tell me, nor have I heard

759
00:54:20,600 --> 00:54:22,759
Speaker 2: of it until today. Neither have we heard of it,

760
00:54:23,280 --> 00:54:25,800
Speaker 2: neither the reader nor avimelf ever heard of it. Abraham

761
00:54:25,880 --> 00:54:28,040
Speaker 2: took sheep and oxen and gave them Taveimelof, and the

762
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:30,239
Speaker 2: two of them made a pack. Abraham. By the way,

763
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:32,360
Speaker 2: if you can want to count the Abrahams and avemelofs,

764
00:54:32,400 --> 00:54:35,479
Speaker 2: go right ahead. It's fun. Abraham then set seven use

765
00:54:35,680 --> 00:54:38,759
Speaker 2: female sheep. For those of you who unbelievably might not

766
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:41,360
Speaker 2: know what it means from me is proof that I

767
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:45,880
Speaker 2: dug this well. Hence that place was called bear seven,

768
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:48,759
Speaker 2: well seven with bear Heva, for there the two of

769
00:54:48,800 --> 00:54:52,279
Speaker 2: them swore an oath voa. When they had concluded the

770
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:55,760
Speaker 2: pact that bear Heva Avemelfen Fihol, chief of the troops,

771
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:58,800
Speaker 2: departed and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham

772
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:01,439
Speaker 2: planted a tamarisk at Bear Chevron invoked there the name

773
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:06,120
Speaker 2: of the Lord, the Everlasting God, the Eternal God. And

774
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:11,720
Speaker 2: Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time. Okay,

775
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:15,400
Speaker 2: so we actually get a chance to get into at

776
00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:19,719
Speaker 2: least a little bit of the most perhaps the most

777
00:55:19,800 --> 00:55:25,200
Speaker 2: extraordinary few sentences.

778
00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:32,520
Speaker 5: Okay.

779
00:55:33,719 --> 00:55:37,680
Speaker 2: In order to get into the Genesis twenty two, which

780
00:55:37,719 --> 00:55:41,760
Speaker 2: is about the binding of Isaac, I need to answer

781
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:47,160
Speaker 2: a question. I need to ask and answer a question.

782
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:55,080
Speaker 2: Does the Bible hold that something is right because God

783
00:55:55,120 --> 00:56:00,759
Speaker 2: says so? Or God says something is right because it's right.

784
00:56:02,160 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 2: You got the question. Is something right because God says

785
00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:10,880
Speaker 2: it's right? Or does God say something is right because

786
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:20,200
Speaker 2: it's right? Okay, let's take a vote. Is something right

787
00:56:20,280 --> 00:56:23,719
Speaker 2: because God says so? Or is something right and therefore

788
00:56:23,840 --> 00:56:27,719
Speaker 2: God says so something is right because God said so?

789
00:56:27,880 --> 00:56:36,440
Speaker 2: Raise your head the other way? Okay. To my amazement,

790
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:40,520
Speaker 2: the divine based idea won by a little bit. But

791
00:56:40,600 --> 00:56:44,120
Speaker 2: of course you are a select audience of monotheists, and

792
00:56:44,480 --> 00:56:48,880
Speaker 2: therefore you might be more likely to vote that way. Certainly,

793
00:56:48,920 --> 00:56:51,840
Speaker 2: if I went to UCLA and took the vote among students,

794
00:56:52,320 --> 00:56:54,480
Speaker 2: I would probably be laughed out of the room for

795
00:56:54,560 --> 00:56:58,000
Speaker 2: the first suggestion. Let alone, would I lose the vote.

796
00:56:59,920 --> 00:57:06,359
Speaker 2: It's a difficult issue, because, after all, Abraham implies when

797
00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:09,160
Speaker 2: he asks God in Sidome, which we went over with, hu,

798
00:57:09,239 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 2: shall faith call aditz loyas semi shpat? Will the judge

799
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:17,920
Speaker 2: of all the earth not do justly that justice exists

800
00:57:18,000 --> 00:57:23,320
Speaker 2: outside of God. God, how come you're not acting justly?

801
00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 2: Implies there is justice over here and God has to

802
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:36,400
Speaker 2: match it. Right, So there is an implication that there

803
00:57:36,440 --> 00:57:39,920
Speaker 2: is a standard of right and wrong and we expect

804
00:57:39,960 --> 00:57:46,080
Speaker 2: God to act accordingly. My answer to that is that

805
00:57:46,120 --> 00:57:48,160
Speaker 2: there is a standard of right and wrong, and we

806
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:51,840
Speaker 2: do expect God to act accordingly. However, God made the standard.

807
00:57:52,800 --> 00:57:55,160
Speaker 2: Were it not for God, there would be no standard.

808
00:57:56,040 --> 00:57:58,440
Speaker 2: That would be my answer in the way of not

809
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:03,000
Speaker 2: playing both sides, but truly saying, in the final analysis,

810
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:06,240
Speaker 2: good and evil exist because of God. If there is

811
00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:09,480
Speaker 2: no God, then there is no such thing as justice.

812
00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:14,840
Speaker 2: There are opinions about it, but it's not you know,

813
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:20,560
Speaker 2: it's Hitler's opinion, it's the Aztec's opinion, it's Jefferson's opinion,

814
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:25,160
Speaker 2: it's your opinion. It's all opinioned. You have to understand

815
00:58:25,200 --> 00:58:31,600
Speaker 2: that in trying to understand or answer the question, how

816
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:36,360
Speaker 2: on God's earth does Abraham, this morally sophisticated human being,

817
00:58:37,840 --> 00:58:42,919
Speaker 2: go and say, yes, I'll sacrifice my child. Okay, That's

818
00:58:43,040 --> 00:58:48,160
Speaker 2: part of what has to be understood as we approach this. However,

819
00:58:49,520 --> 00:58:54,800
Speaker 2: the first verse of Chapter twenty two answers a lot

820
00:58:54,840 --> 00:58:58,120
Speaker 2: of people's problems with this chapter because a lot of

821
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:02,720
Speaker 2: people have problems how could God command the sacrifice of

822
00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:08,840
Speaker 2: a child. And here to let all of those skeptics

823
00:59:09,760 --> 00:59:15,400
Speaker 2: understand that God never ever wanted this. You have and

824
00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 2: never forget this. Please, if you should ever come up

825
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:26,200
Speaker 2: in discussion about this subject, remember how the whole story

826
00:59:26,320 --> 00:59:32,880
Speaker 2: begins chapter twenty two, verse one. Sometime afterward, God put

827
00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:40,560
Speaker 2: Abraham to the test. In other words, in God is

828
00:59:40,720 --> 00:59:43,400
Speaker 2: making it clear that Torrah is making it clear from

829
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:48,480
Speaker 2: the outset, God never wanted Abraham to fulfill this. This

830
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:53,280
Speaker 2: was a test. Okay, it's who is this telling the

831
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:58,480
Speaker 2: reader you? Of course God would never want this. It's

832
00:59:58,480 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 2: not a question. This is a test. Now I have

833
01:00:01,440 --> 01:00:05,640
Speaker 2: to talk to you about tests. Why would God test somebody?

834
01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:10,439
Speaker 2: Does God not know how they'll act? The answer there

835
01:00:10,440 --> 01:00:13,520
Speaker 2: are a number of answers. The answer is God isn't

836
01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:16,800
Speaker 2: testing Abraham to find out g Am. I curious to

837
01:00:16,880 --> 01:00:21,000
Speaker 2: know what Abe will do. Okay, you must understand that

838
01:00:21,040 --> 01:00:24,760
Speaker 2: such a notion of God is not acceptable. God knows

839
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:27,280
Speaker 2: exactly what He's going to do, so the test is

840
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:34,920
Speaker 2: not for God. Next question is the test for Abraham. Well,

841
01:00:34,920 --> 01:00:38,880
Speaker 2: that's a tough question. Does it serve Abraham any good

842
01:00:38,960 --> 01:00:42,040
Speaker 2: or not? I don't know. It strikes me that the

843
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:46,160
Speaker 2: story is there for us, and it is there for

844
01:00:46,240 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 2: us on a number of important in a number of

845
01:00:48,920 --> 01:00:53,640
Speaker 2: important ways. One obvious one is that every human being

846
01:00:53,720 --> 01:00:59,360
Speaker 2: has his faith tested. We all do. This is a

847
01:00:59,480 --> 01:01:04,840
Speaker 2: very universal thing. You go through tragedy, you see tragedy,

848
01:01:05,120 --> 01:01:08,720
Speaker 2: you're asked, will you give up a principle or will

849
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:12,520
Speaker 2: you live according to what God, what you have felt

850
01:01:12,560 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 2: God wanted? In other words, will you compromise the most

851
01:01:17,480 --> 01:01:20,840
Speaker 2: important things in your life for the sake of God,

852
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:23,680
Speaker 2: for the sake of the principles here? Don't forget what

853
01:01:23,720 --> 01:01:24,920
Speaker 2: you have to say. I really do want to take it,

854
01:01:24,960 --> 01:01:28,120
Speaker 2: but I don't want to lose strand of thought. These

855
01:01:28,200 --> 01:01:31,920
Speaker 2: are This makes this thing universal. A. We're all tested. B.

856
01:01:32,080 --> 01:01:34,400
Speaker 2: We're all tested in a different way, and that is

857
01:01:34,480 --> 01:01:37,880
Speaker 2: when we give up principles for the sake of expedients.

858
01:01:39,160 --> 01:01:42,720
Speaker 2: So the test here is not for Abraham's sake, and

859
01:01:42,800 --> 01:01:45,560
Speaker 2: it is not for God's sake. It is for our sake.

860
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:49,560
Speaker 2: And of course again it is a test. God does

861
01:01:49,600 --> 01:01:53,920
Speaker 2: not want this to happen. But Abraham doesn't know this?

862
01:01:55,960 --> 01:02:02,320
Speaker 2: Oh is that true? That is a riddle. Does Abraham

863
01:02:02,480 --> 01:02:06,520
Speaker 2: really think that God wants it? You will find as

864
01:02:06,520 --> 01:02:09,320
Speaker 2: we read it that you might there is one source

865
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:13,360
Speaker 2: or not source. But there is one piece of statement

866
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:16,600
Speaker 2: that might lead you to think that Abraham knows that

867
01:02:16,680 --> 01:02:20,400
Speaker 2: this is only a test. However, is that he did

868
01:02:20,440 --> 01:02:23,720
Speaker 2: not know it? And I make that assumption on these grounds.

869
01:02:25,720 --> 01:02:32,040
Speaker 2: Human sacrifice to the Gods was universal. God asked Abraham

870
01:02:32,120 --> 01:02:37,920
Speaker 2: to do something that everybody did. You have to you

871
01:02:37,960 --> 01:02:41,080
Speaker 2: have to recognize that it wasn't like asking you today

872
01:02:41,520 --> 01:02:44,959
Speaker 2: today it would be and God spoke to Mark Rosenbaum

873
01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:49,680
Speaker 2: and said, give up thine mercedes. Okay, that would be

874
01:02:49,720 --> 01:02:54,080
Speaker 2: an equivalent today. Take the Mercedes that you loved, your

875
01:02:54,160 --> 01:02:59,360
Speaker 2: only Mercedes, the Mercedes that you speak of, and and

876
01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:03,680
Speaker 2: blow it up, okay, or trade it in for a camera.

877
01:03:03,840 --> 01:03:06,800
Speaker 2: You know, a camaro, not a comack. What is it,

878
01:03:06,800 --> 01:03:11,680
Speaker 2: the toyota, a toyota camr right, Okay, that would be

879
01:03:11,720 --> 01:03:14,240
Speaker 2: that would be a difficult thing for the modern jew

880
01:03:14,280 --> 01:03:19,880
Speaker 2: to do. Okay. In those days, instead they were they

881
01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:25,040
Speaker 2: sacrificed kids. The task here was that this is what

882
01:03:25,320 --> 01:03:27,520
Speaker 2: was given this is the thing he loved, this is

883
01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:30,720
Speaker 2: what he lived for, and he's asking to give it up.

884
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:34,280
Speaker 2: The issue here is will you give it up to me? God?

885
01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:37,760
Speaker 2: I God ask you? You know you say, well, God,

886
01:03:37,760 --> 01:03:40,040
Speaker 2: ever say that today? God says that Jews hole that.

887
01:03:40,120 --> 01:03:43,560
Speaker 2: God has said that to Jewish parents ever since Abraham.

888
01:03:44,000 --> 01:03:48,000
Speaker 2: Any Jew who raises a child was a Jew, given

889
01:03:48,080 --> 01:03:51,480
Speaker 2: the number of Jews slaughtered in history, has done what

890
01:03:51,560 --> 01:03:55,880
Speaker 2: Abraham has done, been prepared to sacrifice as children for God.

891
01:03:56,720 --> 01:03:58,920
Speaker 2: And I don't get into homiletics much. This is not

892
01:03:59,000 --> 01:04:01,880
Speaker 2: a nice rabbinic sort of speech. There's a lot of

893
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:06,360
Speaker 2: truth to it, given the amount of slaughter of Jews

894
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:09,120
Speaker 2: and history. To raise a child as a Jew is

895
01:04:09,160 --> 01:04:13,560
Speaker 2: to reenact in some ways what Abraham was forced to reenact.

896
01:04:14,280 --> 01:04:17,760
Speaker 2: Jeseph resonated to this all the time. Will you have

897
01:04:17,800 --> 01:04:21,680
Speaker 2: a child and give it up? Israelis feel it all

898
01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:27,640
Speaker 2: the time. So, and obviously not just Jews. Do any

899
01:04:27,800 --> 01:04:30,000
Speaker 2: parent in the United States who sent the child to

900
01:04:30,080 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 2: World War two? Will you sacrifice your child for freedom

901
01:04:33,600 --> 01:04:40,000
Speaker 2: and democracy, for Judeo Christian values? Right, So, don't think

902
01:04:40,040 --> 01:04:41,840
Speaker 2: that this is the sort of thing that we can't

903
01:04:41,840 --> 01:04:44,400
Speaker 2: relate to the idea of sacrificing a child for a

904
01:04:44,480 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 2: principle is very common, all right. So after these things,

905
01:04:52,640 --> 01:04:59,800
Speaker 2: God tests Abraham and he says to Abraham, and he

906
01:04:59,880 --> 01:05:04,320
Speaker 2: said to him, Abraham, and he says, he named me.

907
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:08,720
Speaker 2: It's very it's so powerful the literature, literary part here

908
01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:11,080
Speaker 2: that I get the chills as I read it to you.

909
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:18,080
Speaker 2: He says, he named me. Here I am, and this

910
01:05:18,280 --> 01:05:22,400
Speaker 2: hemany were. It has become very resonant in among Jews

911
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:25,400
Speaker 2: as a statement of okay, I am ready to do

912
01:05:25,520 --> 01:05:30,240
Speaker 2: what I'm called for in any here I am. And

913
01:05:30,280 --> 01:05:33,520
Speaker 2: now it's just so powerful. He says, Take your son

914
01:05:34,760 --> 01:05:40,120
Speaker 2: and look at how God rubs it in your favorite one, Isaac,

915
01:05:40,720 --> 01:05:46,880
Speaker 2: whom you love, and go to the land of Mariah

916
01:05:46,960 --> 01:05:51,240
Speaker 2: and offer him there as a burnt offering on one

917
01:05:51,360 --> 01:05:54,400
Speaker 2: of the hills or mountains that I will point that,

918
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:58,640
Speaker 2: I will tell you. I mean, it makes it clear.

919
01:05:58,680 --> 01:06:02,360
Speaker 2: You know, it's not Ishmael, who's gone by now anyway,

920
01:06:04,040 --> 01:06:07,640
Speaker 2: But whether he was or not, it's take Isaac, the

921
01:06:07,640 --> 01:06:13,720
Speaker 2: one you love, the specific Isaac so early next morning

922
01:06:15,600 --> 01:06:20,440
Speaker 2: again early right, which it means that he rushed to

923
01:06:20,520 --> 01:06:23,320
Speaker 2: do it. And that's what it really says. He rushed

924
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:27,840
Speaker 2: to do it, to fulfill it. By the way, rarely

925
01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:33,720
Speaker 2: is silence so eloquent as no comment on Abraham's part,

926
01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:42,960
Speaker 2: not humane, not what he argues for the slime of Sidome,

927
01:06:44,560 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 2: but for his own son. He says nothing, because here

928
01:06:51,440 --> 01:06:55,360
Speaker 2: is not an issue of justice. There there was an

929
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:59,720
Speaker 2: issue of justice. Here is an issue of faith. That

930
01:06:59,880 --> 01:07:03,640
Speaker 2: is how he sees it. You get the difference. And

931
01:07:03,800 --> 01:07:07,040
Speaker 2: also it is here where he is being told to

932
01:07:07,080 --> 01:07:11,760
Speaker 2: give something up. There it was God doing something. Here

933
01:07:11,840 --> 01:07:13,800
Speaker 2: it is he who has to do the giving up.

934
01:07:15,080 --> 01:07:18,240
Speaker 2: And of course children were regarded as possessions moral as

935
01:07:18,280 --> 01:07:20,200
Speaker 2: so the issue will well, what does Isaac have to

936
01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,520
Speaker 2: say about it doesn't really rise, even though you'll see,

937
01:07:24,240 --> 01:07:27,200
Speaker 2: you'll see how he is. We don't get much about

938
01:07:27,200 --> 01:07:32,040
Speaker 2: Isaac in the tour anyway. So he got up early

939
01:07:32,040 --> 01:07:38,120
Speaker 2: in the morning, and he settled his donkey, and he

940
01:07:38,200 --> 01:07:46,360
Speaker 2: took the two attendant boys and Isaac his son, and

941
01:07:46,520 --> 01:07:52,200
Speaker 2: he split the wood for the offering, got up and

942
01:07:52,400 --> 01:08:06,120
Speaker 2: went verse six. So Abraham took the wood of the offering,

943
01:08:06,320 --> 01:08:13,040
Speaker 2: and he put it on Isaac his son, and he

944
01:08:14,040 --> 01:08:24,800
Speaker 2: took in his hand the fire and the knife, and

945
01:08:24,920 --> 01:08:31,840
Speaker 2: they and they walked the two of them together these words,

946
01:08:31,880 --> 01:08:35,000
Speaker 2: and they walk the two of them together. Vya fushnehem

947
01:08:35,040 --> 01:08:39,840
Speaker 2: yafdav is also so pointed. Can you imagine walking with

948
01:08:39,920 --> 01:08:43,040
Speaker 2: your son, whom you love, whom you're going to kill?

949
01:08:43,880 --> 01:08:46,479
Speaker 2: And it's just it's overwhelming that the two of them

950
01:08:46,520 --> 01:08:48,760
Speaker 2: walk together. And here is the only time we have

951
01:08:48,880 --> 01:08:57,200
Speaker 2: dialogue in the Torah between Isaac and Abraham. Isaac says

952
01:08:58,120 --> 01:09:03,599
Speaker 2: to Abraham, his father, said, my father, And he said,

953
01:09:04,520 --> 01:09:08,960
Speaker 2: hen ami my son. Here I am my son. And

954
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:13,960
Speaker 2: he said, here is the fire and the wood. So

955
01:09:14,120 --> 01:09:20,639
Speaker 2: where is the sheep for the burnt offering? Verse eight?

956
01:09:21,240 --> 01:09:26,960
Speaker 2: And Abraham said, God will see to it that there

957
01:09:27,080 --> 01:09:33,439
Speaker 2: is a sheep for the offering, my son. And the

958
01:09:33,520 --> 01:09:39,000
Speaker 2: two of them walked together. Is that dramatic again, the

959
01:09:39,120 --> 01:09:46,479
Speaker 2: same words, It gets heavier the walk nine. And they

960
01:09:46,520 --> 01:09:52,280
Speaker 2: came to the place which God told him, and Avraham

961
01:09:52,360 --> 01:09:59,000
Speaker 2: built an altar, and he spread out the wood, and

962
01:09:59,040 --> 01:10:04,599
Speaker 2: he bounded or binded his bound. He bound Isaac, his son,

963
01:10:06,160 --> 01:10:09,679
Speaker 2: and put him on the altar on top of the wood.

964
01:10:12,320 --> 01:10:20,360
Speaker 2: And Abraham sent his hand, I'm doing it literally, and

965
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:26,680
Speaker 2: he took the knife to slaughter. The word here is

966
01:10:26,720 --> 01:10:33,880
Speaker 2: the same as slaughtering an animal srita to slaughter his son.

967
01:10:35,720 --> 01:10:40,519
Speaker 2: And a an angel of God called from the sky

968
01:10:40,800 --> 01:10:46,720
Speaker 2: and said Avraham, Avraham, and he said, he named me

969
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:53,160
Speaker 2: here I am. And he said, don't send your hand

970
01:10:54,479 --> 01:10:57,519
Speaker 2: to the boy, and don't do a thing to him,

971
01:10:58,640 --> 01:11:03,800
Speaker 2: because now I know that you are, that you are

972
01:11:04,920 --> 01:11:08,320
Speaker 2: afraid of God. What does it have to what do

973
01:11:08,360 --> 01:11:13,320
Speaker 2: you have? Good? Okay, God fearing? And you did not

974
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:21,320
Speaker 2: spare your son, your special son, from me. And Avraham

975
01:11:21,439 --> 01:11:25,559
Speaker 2: lifted his eyes and he noted a ram. He noticed

976
01:11:25,560 --> 01:11:36,240
Speaker 2: a ram with whose horns were caught in the thicket.

977
01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:43,160
Speaker 2: And Avraham went and he took the ram, and he

978
01:11:43,280 --> 01:11:48,560
Speaker 2: sacrificed it for a burnt offering in place of his son.

979
01:11:48,880 --> 01:11:57,759
Speaker 2: And Avraham called that place year Ah, which is fear

980
01:11:58,360 --> 01:12:03,439
Speaker 2: or sight, because God or will be seen. Actually not

981
01:12:03,560 --> 01:12:07,639
Speaker 2: fear will be seen, because that is where God would

982
01:12:07,640 --> 01:12:08,080
Speaker 2: be seen.

983
01:12:09,120 --> 01:12:12,400
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.

984
01:12:17,960 --> 01:12:22,080
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

985
01:12:22,360 --> 01:12:28,439
Speaker 2: What is the moral of the story. The moral of

986
01:12:28,479 --> 01:12:32,080
Speaker 2: the story is I have believed my entire life. I

987
01:12:32,120 --> 01:12:34,400
Speaker 2: have never I must say, I do not have a

988
01:12:34,400 --> 01:12:36,960
Speaker 2: different view of the story at forty four than I

989
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:41,360
Speaker 2: did at fourteen, is to teach us that God does

990
01:12:41,400 --> 01:12:48,479
Speaker 2: not want you to sacrifice children. You can never after

991
01:12:48,600 --> 01:12:52,639
Speaker 2: this say that God wants to sacrifice. If God went

992
01:12:52,800 --> 01:12:57,439
Speaker 2: to Isaac and said, Isaac, I want you to sacrifice Jacob,

993
01:12:58,720 --> 01:13:02,439
Speaker 2: he would be able to say what Abraham said about Saddam.

994
01:13:02,680 --> 01:13:06,760
Speaker 2: But God, You've already said not to do these things.

995
01:13:08,040 --> 01:13:12,000
Speaker 2: This really put an end to it in the ancient

996
01:13:12,080 --> 01:13:15,759
Speaker 2: world as far as the Jews were concerned. I want

997
01:13:15,840 --> 01:13:19,160
Speaker 2: you to be prepared to be as giving as the

998
01:13:19,160 --> 01:13:22,240
Speaker 2: Pagans are to their gods. But this is not the

999
01:13:22,280 --> 01:13:25,800
Speaker 2: way that I God want you to give over things

1000
01:13:25,800 --> 01:13:28,559
Speaker 2: to me. Do you get the difference they will give

1001
01:13:28,600 --> 01:13:32,720
Speaker 2: their children to gods. You should be as prepared as

1002
01:13:32,760 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 2: the Pagans are to be religious, but that's not the

1003
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:39,519
Speaker 2: way to be religious in my religion. That is what

1004
01:13:39,680 --> 01:13:42,599
Speaker 2: I read of it, and I read of it as

1005
01:13:42,600 --> 01:13:46,080
Speaker 2: well that the power and Jews are not comfortable with this,

1006
01:13:46,640 --> 01:13:51,200
Speaker 2: or many Jews are not the power of faith. Christians

1007
01:13:51,280 --> 01:13:57,200
Speaker 2: specialize in faith, Jews specialize in emphasizing the importance of deed.

1008
01:13:57,800 --> 01:14:03,080
Speaker 2: They're both right, both need to be emphasized. That's what

1009
01:14:03,120 --> 01:14:08,160
Speaker 2: ethical monotheism is about. It is faith is critical. Nothing

1010
01:14:08,200 --> 01:14:10,280
Speaker 2: makes sense if there isn't a God who has made

1011
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:13,640
Speaker 2: this universe and whom you rely on, and who has

1012
01:14:13,680 --> 01:14:17,600
Speaker 2: the right to dictate. Because if God can't say this

1013
01:14:17,760 --> 01:14:20,479
Speaker 2: to Abraham, how can he give the Ten commandments? Why

1014
01:14:20,479 --> 01:14:24,280
Speaker 2: should he tell you not to commit adultery? Who's he? Oh,

1015
01:14:24,320 --> 01:14:26,280
Speaker 2: I'll listen to him on adultery, but I won't listen

1016
01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:28,400
Speaker 2: to him when I don't like it. I'll listen to

1017
01:14:28,479 --> 01:14:30,400
Speaker 2: him on love your neighbor as yourself, but I won't

1018
01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:33,479
Speaker 2: listen to him and do not steal or whatever it'll be. Well,

1019
01:14:33,520 --> 01:14:36,080
Speaker 2: obviously the two would go together. But whatever it would be,

1020
01:14:37,040 --> 01:14:40,439
Speaker 2: God is the source of it all. That's what's being

1021
01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:44,200
Speaker 2: told here. You are to have faith, you have crises

1022
01:14:44,240 --> 01:14:48,360
Speaker 2: of faith, and you're supposed to pass them. Abraham passed his.

1023
01:14:49,000 --> 01:14:53,080
Speaker 2: Abraham is our patriarchal model. We are supposed to emulate

1024
01:14:53,120 --> 01:14:56,200
Speaker 2: what Abraham did, but we don't do it in the

1025
01:14:56,280 --> 01:14:59,600
Speaker 2: same way. We are supposed to have his faith, but

1026
01:14:59,720 --> 01:15:04,679
Speaker 2: we don't exercise it in this way. I'll take questions now,

1027
01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:06,559
Speaker 2: but there was something I'd like you to think of

1028
01:15:06,680 --> 01:15:09,960
Speaker 2: before the next session, and I won't comment on it. Now,

1029
01:15:10,720 --> 01:15:13,880
Speaker 2: what do you think Sarah thought of all of this?

1030
01:15:15,800 --> 01:15:19,960
Speaker 2: And I will give anybody here a bonus. I don't

1031
01:15:19,960 --> 01:15:24,800
Speaker 2: know what free tour of the new studios at KBC

1032
01:15:26,040 --> 01:15:29,080
Speaker 2: if I could ever get through them myself. They're color

1033
01:15:29,120 --> 01:15:32,720
Speaker 2: coded and you still get lost. But I will be

1034
01:15:32,840 --> 01:15:37,559
Speaker 2: impressed if you reading and not just reading the text,

1035
01:15:37,560 --> 01:15:39,840
Speaker 2: because if you read the text carefully you can find

1036
01:15:39,840 --> 01:15:43,320
Speaker 2: the answer. But without reading commentaries. And I've never seen

1037
01:15:43,320 --> 01:15:45,360
Speaker 2: a commentary with it. This was told to me orally,

1038
01:15:46,360 --> 01:15:49,000
Speaker 2: but maybe some have it. In fact, maybe Plout has it.

1039
01:15:49,080 --> 01:15:51,559
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. I would like you to figure out

1040
01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:55,320
Speaker 2: how Sarah reacted because I do believe. I don't believe.

1041
01:15:55,360 --> 01:15:58,439
Speaker 2: I know that the answer is in there. Any questions

1042
01:15:58,479 --> 01:16:00,400
Speaker 2: on this, any comments on this? Do you read it

1043
01:16:00,479 --> 01:16:08,760
Speaker 2: differently than I did? Yes? No, anything but the Sarah thing?

1044
01:16:08,880 --> 01:16:09,240
Speaker 2: Thank you?

1045
01:16:09,400 --> 01:16:24,519
Speaker 5: Yes?

1046
01:16:29,439 --> 01:16:32,280
Speaker 2: Right? But the answer, the answer is my first question.

1047
01:16:33,000 --> 01:16:36,120
Speaker 2: God is the source of right and wrong. God says,

1048
01:16:36,160 --> 01:16:38,519
Speaker 2: do not murder, But God says, I want you to

1049
01:16:38,560 --> 01:16:41,599
Speaker 2: sacrifice your child because I declare that that isn't murder,

1050
01:16:42,280 --> 01:17:17,000
Speaker 2: just as you why is it'll be right? Did accept

1051
01:17:17,000 --> 01:17:20,080
Speaker 2: the exist of God? Why wasn't he a Jew. Well,

1052
01:17:20,360 --> 01:17:24,080
Speaker 2: I guess the simplest answer is that a Jew is

1053
01:17:24,080 --> 01:17:30,360
Speaker 2: more than somebody who accepts the existence of God. It's right, well,

1054
01:17:30,360 --> 01:17:35,320
Speaker 2: a not chosen, but also not every monotheist is a Jew.

1055
01:17:35,960 --> 01:17:39,160
Speaker 2: Abraham is the father of the Jewish people and the

1056
01:17:39,200 --> 01:17:42,559
Speaker 2: father of monotheism as it passed on through the Jews.

1057
01:17:45,280 --> 01:17:49,439
Speaker 2: So oh yeah, well then the answer there is that

1058
01:17:49,479 --> 01:17:51,920
Speaker 2: God shows Abraham, which I dealt with earlier. Why did

1059
01:17:51,920 --> 01:17:53,880
Speaker 2: God choose Abraham? And the answer as we don't know,

1060
01:17:54,400 --> 01:17:57,559
Speaker 2: We only know afterwards. It would be very interesting to know,

1061
01:17:58,200 --> 01:18:02,720
Speaker 2: you know, be very interesting if God tested Alvimele. What

1062
01:18:02,800 --> 01:18:04,800
Speaker 2: if God had said, Alvimela, take the son that you

1063
01:18:04,920 --> 01:18:07,360
Speaker 2: love and bring him as an offering to me. I

1064
01:18:07,400 --> 01:18:09,040
Speaker 2: don't know what the answer would be, but that would

1065
01:18:09,080 --> 01:18:12,880
Speaker 2: be an instructive thing to have worked. Raised he might

1066
01:18:12,880 --> 01:18:17,280
Speaker 2: have passed the test. Who knows. Also, I argue another thing.

1067
01:18:17,320 --> 01:18:20,360
Speaker 2: You know, it's a very difficult thing here. Let me

1068
01:18:20,360 --> 01:18:23,719
Speaker 2: show you how difficult this is. If you were certain

1069
01:18:23,760 --> 01:18:26,600
Speaker 2: that God spoke to you, wouldn't you be prepared to

1070
01:18:26,640 --> 01:18:31,200
Speaker 2: do it too? What's the big test? Seriously? What is

1071
01:18:31,240 --> 01:18:35,320
Speaker 2: the big test? And I mean this very very openly.

1072
01:18:36,360 --> 01:18:38,720
Speaker 2: If you're certain that God is speaking to you. If

1073
01:18:38,720 --> 01:18:41,200
Speaker 2: there's no question about God speaking to you. And I've

1074
01:18:41,240 --> 01:18:43,439
Speaker 2: often said I wish God would just needs from me.

1075
01:18:44,000 --> 01:18:47,040
Speaker 2: I'm not asking for a speech. I would like a hiccup.

1076
01:18:47,560 --> 01:18:50,000
Speaker 2: Anything I will take and I'll be thrilled. Right, and

1077
01:18:50,000 --> 01:18:52,280
Speaker 2: that don't you feel that way? I mean most of

1078
01:18:52,360 --> 01:18:57,840
Speaker 2: us would love any gurgle from God and they would

1079
01:18:57,880 --> 01:19:01,920
Speaker 2: make our day, if not our week. Now, if God

1080
01:19:02,040 --> 01:19:05,080
Speaker 2: came to me and said, Dennis, this is God, Dennis,

1081
01:19:05,720 --> 01:19:08,080
Speaker 2: I want you to sacrifice your son, whom you love,

1082
01:19:09,200 --> 01:19:12,240
Speaker 2: it's a very interesting question. I mean, this is God. Well,

1083
01:19:12,320 --> 01:19:15,320
Speaker 2: God must know, that would be my answer to God

1084
01:19:15,400 --> 01:19:17,519
Speaker 2: must know what he's doing. God, the author of Do

1085
01:19:17,640 --> 01:19:21,640
Speaker 2: Not Murder, says give me your child. Well, then he

1086
01:19:21,760 --> 01:19:27,639
Speaker 2: must have a reason. That's God. Now, this is the point.

1087
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:32,519
Speaker 2: This is what I want you to understand. Maybe even

1088
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:34,880
Speaker 2: if God does appear to you, it's still a test

1089
01:19:34,960 --> 01:19:37,280
Speaker 2: you don't cease to be human. As you're pointing out,

1090
01:19:37,320 --> 01:19:40,479
Speaker 2: exactly does your love for your child diminish because God

1091
01:19:40,520 --> 01:19:43,160
Speaker 2: spoke to you and said, give me your child. That's

1092
01:19:43,240 --> 01:19:45,880
Speaker 2: part of the thing I want you to understand that

1093
01:19:45,920 --> 01:19:49,040
Speaker 2: if God appears to you, all your problems don't end.

1094
01:19:49,640 --> 01:19:51,799
Speaker 2: I think that a lot of people today think, oh,

1095
01:19:51,840 --> 01:19:54,240
Speaker 2: if I just saw one miracle, I know there's a

1096
01:19:54,240 --> 01:19:57,559
Speaker 2: God and that would be it, everything would be hunky dorry.

1097
01:19:57,640 --> 01:20:01,720
Speaker 2: Nothing's hunky dorry. Everything remains the same, all of your emotions,

1098
01:20:01,760 --> 01:20:03,920
Speaker 2: all of your passions, all of your wants, all of

1099
01:20:03,960 --> 01:20:08,080
Speaker 2: your needs. See, that's another element that you have to

1100
01:20:08,160 --> 01:20:11,479
Speaker 2: realize about this. It doesn't answer a lot for God

1101
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:16,200
Speaker 2: to appear to you. Things still go on. You still

1102
01:20:16,400 --> 01:20:19,000
Speaker 2: live in this world even if God appears to you.

1103
01:20:19,560 --> 01:20:22,280
Speaker 2: So that is a legit test, because that's one thing.

1104
01:20:22,320 --> 01:20:23,840
Speaker 2: Is a kid. I used to think, well, if God

1105
01:20:23,880 --> 01:20:26,839
Speaker 2: appeared to me, hey man, hey, that God you wanted absolutely,

1106
01:20:26,880 --> 01:20:29,439
Speaker 2: then there's no question. But you don't stop. You don't

1107
01:20:29,479 --> 01:20:32,519
Speaker 2: stop functioning in the way which you were functioning.

1108
01:20:32,560 --> 01:20:54,599
Speaker 8: Now, Yes, did you hear that?

1109
01:20:54,160 --> 01:21:00,080
Speaker 2: That's called the cynical theory of Genesis. It's the game

1110
01:21:00,160 --> 01:21:03,120
Speaker 2: of brinksmanship. She is saying that he knew that God

1111
01:21:03,200 --> 01:21:04,840
Speaker 2: was making a nation out of him, and he was

1112
01:21:04,840 --> 01:21:07,240
Speaker 2: prepared to go. I would say that playing brinksmanship with

1113
01:21:07,320 --> 01:21:12,400
Speaker 2: God is unwise because he doesn't have anything to lose. Yes,

1114
01:21:18,320 --> 01:21:20,799
Speaker 2: this is yes, this is the last session of this series.

1115
01:21:21,240 --> 01:21:25,280
Speaker 2: But it starts again in like about six weeks, isn't

1116
01:21:25,320 --> 01:21:29,639
Speaker 2: it Does it start at the end of January January

1117
01:21:29,640 --> 01:21:32,639
Speaker 2: twenty sixth. Thank you, So you just continue and I'll

1118
01:21:32,680 --> 01:21:35,639
Speaker 2: just be continuing where we are in Genesis twenty two. Yes,

1119
01:21:43,320 --> 01:21:54,720
Speaker 2: that Abraham failed the test. But I'm sorry, how did

1120
01:21:54,760 --> 01:21:56,120
Speaker 2: he fail the test?

1121
01:21:58,400 --> 01:22:08,479
Speaker 3: Oh?

1122
01:22:09,760 --> 01:22:14,519
Speaker 2: Well, all right, he failed your test, but he didn't

1123
01:22:14,520 --> 01:22:19,000
Speaker 2: fail God's test, because it says, because you didn't hold

1124
01:22:19,200 --> 01:22:21,880
Speaker 2: back from me, your son, you passed the test. The

1125
01:22:21,920 --> 01:22:26,240
Speaker 2: Angel says, See, he failed Laurie's test. I've you have

1126
01:22:26,280 --> 01:22:27,400
Speaker 2: to know that.

1127
01:22:27,680 --> 01:22:28,320
Speaker 3: Uh.

1128
01:22:29,080 --> 01:22:32,759
Speaker 2: And it's getting a little closer to the earlier question

1129
01:22:32,880 --> 01:22:53,880
Speaker 2: that I posed. Yes, he's a Jew. Yes, all right,

1130
01:22:54,000 --> 01:22:58,280
Speaker 2: that is the implication in that sense. Oh that's right,

1131
01:22:58,400 --> 01:22:58,760
Speaker 2: thank you.

1132
01:22:58,920 --> 01:23:03,560
Speaker 9: Yes, I I heard a discussion of this chapter some

1133
01:23:03,800 --> 01:23:06,760
Speaker 9: years ago, at which time it was stated that when

1134
01:23:06,840 --> 01:23:11,000
Speaker 9: this action took place, I was about forty years old.

1135
01:23:11,800 --> 01:23:16,240
Speaker 9: Now what man four years old and permit itself has

1136
01:23:16,240 --> 01:23:18,280
Speaker 9: to believe it be tied and place.

1137
01:23:18,080 --> 01:23:21,600
Speaker 2: On an older Yeah, that's a great question. I'm going

1138
01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:24,360
Speaker 2: to go into that when we talk about Isa's Isaac

1139
01:23:24,640 --> 01:23:31,040
Speaker 2: as a personality. Isaac Isaac has the burden that a

1140
01:23:31,080 --> 01:23:37,559
Speaker 2: lot of sons of great men have had, that you

1141
01:23:37,600 --> 01:23:40,240
Speaker 2: can't live up to your father, and you are in

1142
01:23:40,360 --> 01:23:45,120
Speaker 2: his shadow. And indeed he Isaac is the sandwich. Isaac

1143
01:23:45,200 --> 01:23:50,200
Speaker 2: is in Abraham's shadow and Jacob's shadow. He's shadowed by both,

1144
01:23:50,320 --> 01:23:54,519
Speaker 2: overshadowed by both his father and his child. And that

1145
01:23:54,720 --> 01:23:57,840
Speaker 2: seems to be his personality, is to lie down and

1146
01:23:57,920 --> 01:24:00,800
Speaker 2: have things happen to him. It does seem that way,

1147
01:24:00,880 --> 01:24:05,680
Speaker 2: doesn't it. You must think that, unless, of course we

1148
01:24:05,760 --> 01:24:11,360
Speaker 2: don't know the age, because look, the last time we

1149
01:24:11,400 --> 01:24:15,760
Speaker 2: met Isaac he was just weaned, so we don't know

1150
01:24:15,800 --> 01:24:17,920
Speaker 2: how old he is. I've heard the forty also, and

1151
01:24:17,960 --> 01:24:21,040
Speaker 2: I don't know on what base. I would like to know.

1152
01:24:21,120 --> 01:24:23,880
Speaker 2: If anybody can figure out for me how old from

1153
01:24:23,960 --> 01:24:27,559
Speaker 2: the text Isaac was, I would be very interested if

1154
01:24:27,600 --> 01:24:31,479
Speaker 2: you can find out a basis for that. Uh It

1155
01:24:31,720 --> 01:24:34,519
Speaker 2: it does seem that he's very young from the way

1156
01:24:34,560 --> 01:24:39,880
Speaker 2: this is written. Also, children did that? What about all

1157
01:24:39,920 --> 01:24:42,519
Speaker 2: the Aztec kids? But hey, dad, what are you doing?

1158
01:24:44,000 --> 01:24:47,400
Speaker 2: They didn't do that. Apparently they just went to be sacrificed.

1159
01:24:49,120 --> 01:24:58,800
Speaker 2: When say to you that there is nothing more hypnotic

1160
01:24:59,439 --> 01:25:04,120
Speaker 2: than love and obedience, and that love and obedience for

1161
01:25:04,200 --> 01:25:08,320
Speaker 2: a for a parent can have you lie down and

1162
01:25:08,320 --> 01:25:20,519
Speaker 2: do what your parent wants. What can I say he

1163
01:25:20,680 --> 01:25:23,000
Speaker 2: went into it to you? I mean, I don't if

1164
01:25:23,040 --> 01:25:24,599
Speaker 2: you did, tell me, let me take one more.

1165
01:25:24,680 --> 01:25:34,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, test, I don't quite see that. The implication of

1166
01:25:34,120 --> 01:25:40,240
Speaker 4: the words test means that it is only a symbolic testcase.

1167
01:25:40,320 --> 01:25:44,560
Speaker 4: When God tested Joe admitted all theosophy.

1168
01:25:45,479 --> 01:25:47,920
Speaker 2: He could not have tested him by having him kill Isaac,

1169
01:25:48,920 --> 01:25:52,200
Speaker 2: because then it would have meant that God actually demands sacrifice,

1170
01:25:53,240 --> 01:25:55,760
Speaker 2: that that it's a good thing. If God let him

1171
01:25:55,800 --> 01:25:58,000
Speaker 2: go through with it, we'd be up the creek. I

1172
01:25:58,080 --> 01:26:01,280
Speaker 2: find it very difficult to teach this Torah. I would

1173
01:26:03,320 --> 01:26:07,280
Speaker 2: the ending of this story is what enables It is

1174
01:26:07,280 --> 01:26:13,639
Speaker 2: what enabled moral monotheism to go on. Otherwise it's it's

1175
01:26:13,720 --> 01:26:17,800
Speaker 2: just another tribal religion with a monotheist paganism instead of

1176
01:26:17,800 --> 01:26:21,240
Speaker 2: a public atheist paganism. Yeah.

1177
01:26:23,000 --> 01:26:27,400
Speaker 4: But for me, the implication that your deriving.

1178
01:26:27,120 --> 01:26:28,600
Speaker 9: Of the words test needs.

1179
01:26:31,080 --> 01:26:33,800
Speaker 2: Now, the whole point of saying test is that God

1180
01:26:33,800 --> 01:26:36,800
Speaker 2: didn't want it to happen when God tests Job. First

1181
01:26:36,880 --> 01:26:40,720
Speaker 2: of all, Job is much more in the realm of

1182
01:26:40,800 --> 01:26:45,559
Speaker 2: a fable, even the Hebrew texts hold In the Talmud,

1183
01:26:45,600 --> 01:26:48,799
Speaker 2: it says Job never lived, that it's just a story.

1184
01:26:49,280 --> 01:26:54,000
Speaker 2: God doesn't make deals with Satan. In Judaism, it's not normative,

1185
01:26:54,120 --> 01:26:57,680
Speaker 2: it's it's it's a fable to deal with the perplexing

1186
01:26:57,760 --> 01:27:03,280
Speaker 2: issue of suffering in God's existence. I must tell you

1187
01:27:03,360 --> 01:27:06,160
Speaker 2: otherwise if I didn't, And that's probably why the Talmud

1188
01:27:06,200 --> 01:27:08,600
Speaker 2: said that it would be it's too difficult Jewishly to

1189
01:27:08,680 --> 01:27:11,720
Speaker 2: rationalize Satan makes it makes a bet with God. So

1190
01:27:11,760 --> 01:27:13,840
Speaker 2: God destroys all these people just to see how a

1191
01:27:13,840 --> 01:27:17,720
Speaker 2: guy would react. God plays chess with humans lives like that.

1192
01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:20,599
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a very terrible view of God. It

1193
01:27:20,640 --> 01:27:24,000
Speaker 2: has to be understood as a fable. And thank God

1194
01:27:24,040 --> 01:27:32,719
Speaker 2: it was last one. Again, why was it an angel

1195
01:27:32,720 --> 01:27:35,720
Speaker 2: instead of God himself? Because a physical being probably had

1196
01:27:35,720 --> 01:27:38,720
Speaker 2: to stop him. Then a vision couldn't do it. When

1197
01:27:38,720 --> 01:27:41,400
Speaker 2: God appeared to Abraham it was in a vision. God

1198
01:27:41,439 --> 01:27:44,840
Speaker 2: only appeared real to Moses. A vision wouldn't have stopped

1199
01:27:44,920 --> 01:27:50,800
Speaker 2: him from doing it then, as a physical being would have. Hm. Oh,

1200
01:27:50,960 --> 01:27:53,840
Speaker 2: the Angels and Genesis of all been physical. They just

1201
01:27:53,920 --> 01:27:56,960
Speaker 2: mean messengers. For Alino was a physical person who came

1202
01:27:57,000 --> 01:27:58,679
Speaker 2: and held his hands. So wait a minute, you can't

1203
01:27:58,680 --> 01:28:01,200
Speaker 2: do this, But he knew that it was a messenger

1204
01:28:01,240 --> 01:28:02,120
Speaker 2: from God.

1205
01:28:02,640 --> 01:28:06,960
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit denispragger

1206
01:28:07,000 --> 01:28:10,519
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1207
01:28:10,560 --> 01:28:14,599
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational

1208
01:28:14,680 --> 01:28:15,200
Speaker 1: Bibles

1209
01:28:19,040 --> 01:28:19,080
Speaker 5: O