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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 Denisprager dot com.

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Speaker 2: God created it for people. The purpose of creation was people.

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Speaker 2: The purpose of it all was that we would enjoy

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Speaker 2: what God has given to us, that we would lead

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Speaker 2: good and holy lives. And what did we do. We

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Speaker 2: didn't lead good lives. We hurt each other constantly. What

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Speaker 2: bothers God is how we act toward each other. I

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Speaker 2: have made this point in each episode. What bothers God

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Speaker 2: most is when we mistreat each other. We cannot mistreat God.

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Speaker 2: By the way I think I gave you the analogy

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Speaker 2: of a parent. The most painful thing for a parent

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Speaker 2: is to see the children hating each other. Parents can do.

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Speaker 2: It's not pleasant, but parents can deal better with bad

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Speaker 2: feelings from the child to the parent than a bad

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Speaker 2: feelings of the children with one another. What a mother's

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Speaker 2: always doing? Did you call your brother, did you call

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Speaker 2: your sister? Did you send a card? Did you remember

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Speaker 2: their anniversary? I mean it is a very common thing

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Speaker 2: for parents to do that we care how our kids

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Speaker 2: treat each other. If we do, can you imagine, as

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Speaker 2: it were, how God would feel quote unquote with regard

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Speaker 2: to this. So God destroys the world and saves one person.

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Speaker 2: Why is the one person saved? Should be obvious because

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Speaker 2: this person was good, that's all, Not because this person

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Speaker 2: prayed well. I mean you would think that God might

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Speaker 2: have saved the person Noah, Noah, because Noah prayed well

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Speaker 2: or sacrificed well. No because Noah was a good human being.

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Speaker 2: I contrasted that with contemporaneous accounts in the ancient ere

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Speaker 2: East where they all had flood stories, and again somebody

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Speaker 2: was saved by the gods. However it was for utterly

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Speaker 2: capricious reasons. Handsome did well for the gods? And why

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Speaker 2: did they destroy humanity? You remember the one of the

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Speaker 2: episodes that I read to you from a one of

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Speaker 2: the epics, I don't remember if it was the epic

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Speaker 2: of Giliemischer or another, wherein the gods said, you know what,

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Speaker 2: humanity is making too much noise. Let's destroy it. Very

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Speaker 2: different from humanity is hurting each other. We are now ending.

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Speaker 2: We are now at chapter nine, verse eighteen Genesis, wherein

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Speaker 2: we are coming to the end of the Noah story.

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Speaker 2: Noah is now on land, the flood is over, and

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Speaker 2: let's read. I'll read it to you. I don't do

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Speaker 2: every single verse, but when the story is told, it's necessary.

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Speaker 2: The sons of Noah came out of the ark were

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Speaker 2: shem Ham and Yaffith, or shem Ham and Jaffith, if

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Speaker 2: that's the way of the English of Yafith has been anglicized.

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Speaker 2: Ham being the father of Canan. It keeps mentioning that

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Speaker 2: Ham was the father of Canan. Of Canaan. The reason

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Speaker 2: is obvious. Canan is where the Jews are entering, and

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Speaker 2: the Jews are warned constantly, don't act like the Canonites.

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Speaker 2: Remember what I told you. Those who've been with me

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Speaker 2: from Genesis one to one, remember that you must understand

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Speaker 2: more than anything else, the beginning of Genesis, and for

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Speaker 2: that matter, the purpose of Judaism as the destruction of polytheism,

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Speaker 2: because polytheism keeps humanity down intellectually and most important, morally

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Speaker 2: and theologically. Remember, multiple gods is multiple moralities. One god

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Speaker 2: is one morality ethical monotheism. The desire is to destroy

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Speaker 2: the practices of the pagan world. Therefore, the villain of

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Speaker 2: the story as it will now be related is Ham

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Speaker 2: and who is he? The father of Canan? Of Canaan. Now, remember,

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Speaker 2: the world emanates from Noah and his children, right, because

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Speaker 2: these are the survivors. These are the only people in

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Speaker 2: the world. So therefore the world. Now, all the nations

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Speaker 2: come from these nations. Obviously the Jews would come from

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Speaker 2: Shen Or so that's where you get Semite from, from

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Speaker 2: the name Shen. Shemites are Semites. Okay, the three these

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Speaker 2: were the three sons of Noah, and from these the

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Speaker 2: whole world branched out. That's the next verse. Noah, the

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Speaker 2: tiller of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. Now,

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Speaker 2: if I have done anything with you, I hope, I

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Speaker 2: hope that I have shown you that the way I

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Speaker 2: was taught to study Torah as a child in Yeshiva

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Speaker 2: is the best way to study not just Bible, but

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Speaker 2: an art. Whattle in your newspaper, Always ask why are

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Speaker 2: these words chosen? Now? Why is it told that he

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Speaker 2: was the first to plant a vineyard? You'll see, or

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Speaker 2: you might not see, but I'll show you. If you don't,

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Speaker 2: somebody showed me. So don't feel bad if you don't

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Speaker 2: come up with it yourself. I didn't. But just remember

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Speaker 2: you should ask yourself that question. Why doesn't it just say, Noah,

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Speaker 2: the tiller of the soil planted a vineyard. Why does

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Speaker 2: it say was the first ever to plant a vineyard?

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Speaker 2: You see, that's the way to ask the question. Always

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Speaker 2: ask why couldn't it have been in a simpler way?

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Speaker 2: Why add that detail? All right? He drank of the

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Speaker 2: wine and became drunk, and he uncovered himself within his tent.

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Speaker 2: Ham the father of Knaan. It's almost it actually is

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Speaker 2: somewhat funny, the way it keeps knocking you over the head.

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Speaker 2: In case you forgot in the last three sentences, we

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Speaker 2: want to remind you Ham is the father of Canan.

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Speaker 2: Those miserable no goodness, I mean, it is not subtle.

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Speaker 2: There is no subtlety in this particular instance. So once

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Speaker 2: again it's mentioned. Ham the father of Canan, saw his

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Speaker 2: father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem

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Speaker 2: and Yeffet took a cloth, placed it against both their backs,

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Speaker 2: and walking backward, they covered their father's nakedness. Their faces

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Speaker 2: were turned the other way so that they did not

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Speaker 2: see their father's nakedness. When Noah woke up from his

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Speaker 2: wine and learned what his youngest son had done to him,

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Speaker 2: he said, cursed be Canaan, the lowest of slaves, shall

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Speaker 2: he be to his brothers, And he said, blessed be

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Speaker 2: the Lord, the Guard, the God of Shem. Let Canaan

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Speaker 2: be a slave to them. May God enlarge Yafeth and

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Speaker 2: let him dwell on the tens of Shem, and let

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Speaker 2: Canaan be a slave to them. Noel lived after the

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Speaker 2: flood three hundred and fifty years lit the days of

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Speaker 2: Noah came to nine hundred and fifty years. Then he died.

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Speaker 2: This is the last episode in Noah's life. Very very

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Speaker 2: famous episode and not an easy one at all. I

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Speaker 2: wish they were easy. I would be able to go

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Speaker 2: faster when I prepared the course. There are a lot

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Speaker 2: of questions here which you may not realize at all

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Speaker 2: when you first read it. But here's one I would

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Speaker 2: like to ask you. Noah's naked Canaane season excuse me

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Speaker 2: Ham season one of his three sons and tells his brothers.

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Speaker 2: Brothers moved backward not to see the father's nakedness and

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Speaker 2: cover the father while backward so as not to see

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Speaker 2: him what happened. There is so much confusion here here is.

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Speaker 2: Let me give you some of the questions. First of all,

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Speaker 2: what was Ham sin that he gets this horrible, horrible curse?

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Speaker 2: That's one. Here's another one. It said in verse twenty four,

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Speaker 2: when Noah woke up from his wine and learned what

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Speaker 2: his youngest son had done to him, What did his

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Speaker 2: son do to him? It doesn't say a word. There

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Speaker 2: is not a word in the text about what Hand

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Speaker 2: did to his father. Next question, how did he find out?

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Speaker 2: What did he find out? And how did he find out?

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Speaker 2: Here's another killer for you, which you wouldn't realize to ask,

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Speaker 2: probably if you read it twenty times. On the twenty

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Speaker 2: first you might go, why did he curse Kanan and

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Speaker 2: not Hand? Isn't that odd? Where he says twenty five

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Speaker 2: he saw what his youngest son had does timmy said,

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Speaker 2: cursed b Kanaan? But it was ham who did it,

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Speaker 2: whatever it was. So we don't know what was done.

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Speaker 2: We don't know how Noah found out about it, and

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Speaker 2: we don't know why he cursed his grandson instead of

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Speaker 2: his son who did what. We don't know that he

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Speaker 2: did other than that it's clear. Now do you see

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Speaker 2: what I mean? Isn't it amazing how many puzzles there

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Speaker 2: are in the story. There are so many puzzles in

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Speaker 2: the story that there are biblical scholars who hold that

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Speaker 2: it doesn't tell you the whole story, that in fact,

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Speaker 2: in ancient Israel, they had a larger story, but it

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Speaker 2: was so terrible that they didn't want to put it

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Speaker 2: in the Torah, that God didn't want to depending you know,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to get into that issue at all,

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Speaker 2: but that the Torah didn't want it included. For example,

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Speaker 2: there are those who say that it was very clear

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Speaker 2: what Ham did, and it was probably incestuous, probably some

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Speaker 2: sexual violation in some way, which was awful. Perhaps he

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Speaker 2: castraight at his father, which is even more incredible, because

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Speaker 2: even if it had been a sexual act, how would

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Speaker 2: his father know? Nobody saw? Are you with me? How

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Speaker 2: would It's a real puzzle, how would no one know

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Speaker 2: what Han did to him? So? What did he do

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Speaker 2: to him? By the way, the answer to there is

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Speaker 2: no great answer to this question. There are some answers

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Speaker 2: to the question, but there is no absolute answer to

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Speaker 2: the question. The puzzle remains to this day, what exactly

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Speaker 2: it is?

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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 Prager's timeless wisdom.

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Speaker 2: There are three possibilities about what Ham did. It could

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Speaker 2: be only a matter of seeing his father naked, meaning

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Speaker 2: his genitals. That's the particular issue, because the other sons

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Speaker 2: didn't look. That's the implication. But then how did no

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Speaker 2: one know what had been done to him? Three possibilities.

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Speaker 2: One his other sons told him right, That is one possibility. However,

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Speaker 2: what is the problem with that, which would seem to

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Speaker 2: be very obvious. The problem with that is that the

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Speaker 2: sons then would have shamed the father terribly if you

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Speaker 2: were If you are a father and your son sees

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Speaker 2: you drunken and naked, and you are deeply embarrassed by

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Speaker 2: that which you ought to be, and you are another

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Speaker 2: child of that father, would you tell your father you

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Speaker 2: know you were in a drunken stupor naked and our

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Speaker 2: brother saw you. And in light of the fact that

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Speaker 2: they are so blessed, it doesn't fully make sense that

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Speaker 2: they would have been the ones to have told him that.

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Speaker 2: That's how he would have found. That's no service to

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Speaker 2: your father there are times in life when ignorance is bliss.

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Speaker 2: Not often, I generally think, but I think times there are.

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Speaker 2: Let me ask you. I'll take a we're in a

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Speaker 2: voting mood tonight, I'll take a vote. You're in a

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Speaker 2: drunken stupor one of your kids sees you. Would you

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Speaker 2: want the other kids to tell you that you had

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Speaker 2: been seen like that? Raise your hand? Would you have

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Speaker 2: wanted your other kids to tell you had been seen

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Speaker 2: like that? You're a kid, not a father, right, that's okay.

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Speaker 2: I just want to make sure that's the only one

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Speaker 2: who voted that way. Could he's a kid? Are you

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Speaker 2: a father? You'd like to have known? Okay? Out of this,

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Speaker 2: there are one hundred and thirty people here, two people.

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Speaker 2: Three people voted yes. Four. I mean it's even if

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Speaker 2: twenty did, it would be a tiny number of you.

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Speaker 2: The vast majority of us would not want to know that.

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Speaker 2: We would want to retain our parental dignity, and knowledge

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Speaker 2: makes dignity lost. Sometimes, if the trived falls in a

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Speaker 2: forest and nobody hears it, the question of whether it

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Speaker 2: fell in the forest or not is really a philosophical one.

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Speaker 2: If nobody heard it, if it's just not seen or

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Speaker 2: talked about. Then the shame is not nearly that great.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know. At first reading this, I thought

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Speaker 2: that the sons had told the father that what Ham

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Speaker 2: had seen and how wonderful they were, And Dad, Ham

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Speaker 2: saw you told us. But while he looked and didn't

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Speaker 2: cover you, we your beloved kids did. I mean, all

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Speaker 2: things considered, it doesn't even sound that noble, does it.

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Speaker 2: The snitching, the embarrassing of the father and then taking

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Speaker 2: all the credit. That's why, well, let me so anyway,

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Speaker 2: that's option number one about what Ham did. Option number two,

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Speaker 2: Ham did something much more serious, and that is how

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Speaker 2: no one knew what had been done. But the Tora

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Speaker 2: doesn't say what. And the reason we have reason to

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Speaker 2: argue that he did something more serious to his father

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Speaker 2: is because in Leviticus, in the third book of the Torah,

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Speaker 2: in chapter eighteen, the word for sexual intercourse is lo

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Speaker 2: tigalt rvat do not expose the nakedness of and then

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Speaker 2: it lists relatives. That's the wording that you have here

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Speaker 2: in Noah, where his nakedness was exposed. So Tora word

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Speaker 2: on occasion Tora wording for the sexual act is see

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Speaker 2: that the sexual nakedness, if you will, of somebody, so

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Speaker 2: that argues that he did more to his father than

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Speaker 2: merely look at him. Okay, but we don't have roof

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Speaker 2: of it. And third, which might be by the way,

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Speaker 2: which might be the way he found out. This is

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Speaker 2: my own thought. He found himself covered by a coat

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Speaker 2: which he hadn't put on, and realized that others had

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Speaker 2: covered him. It doesn't take too much a detective work

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Speaker 2: to figure out that if you go to bed in

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Speaker 2: one way and make up another way, somebody has intervened.

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Speaker 2: Does that make sense to you? That strikes me because

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Speaker 2: the first one of the sons telling him doesn't bear

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Speaker 2: credit to the sons at all. I think he saw

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Speaker 2: what happened and probably asked questions. Otherwise he still had

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Speaker 2: to have isolated who did what or just assume it, or,

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Speaker 2: as I would have to say, maybe something even worse happened.

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Speaker 2: And you know, Greek tragedy is filled with the patch,

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Speaker 2: with a patricide and with a desire to castrate your

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Speaker 2: father as primal as primal things, so that you become

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Speaker 2: the strong male. Who knows? Who knows? If that may

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Speaker 2: not have been a factor, I don't know. I truly

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Speaker 2: don't offer it as definite, but who knows. Something must

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Speaker 2: have happened. By the way, Would it be bad enough

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Speaker 2: it was just sight? Would it be bad enough just

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Speaker 2: to have seen your father naked? I mentioned to you

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Speaker 2: last week a writer, and ironically it was in the

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Speaker 2: June nineteen ninety two issue of Commentary, which usually writes

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Speaker 2: about cultural affairs, politics, etc. But it had an article

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Speaker 2: seeing the nakedness of his father by a professor who

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Speaker 2: was not a professor of religion, Leon Cass, who writes

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Speaker 2: that the nakedness alone is definitely the issue, and that

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Speaker 2: is that the issue here, according to him, is whether

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Speaker 2: or not you retain a you retain parental dignity, and

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Speaker 2: that in the creation of the world, Remember, the world

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Speaker 2: is being recreated through Noah, God. The Torah wanted it

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Speaker 2: clear at the outset that if you mess around with

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Speaker 2: parental authority, you are subverting the basis of civilization. That

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Speaker 2: is leon Cass's argument. I'll read a little, I'll read

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Speaker 2: a little to you. He writes, there is something let's see.

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Speaker 2: Oh sorry, well, I'll tell you that. Here is the

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Speaker 2: line that really gives it away. To put it sharply,

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Speaker 2: Ham's viewing and telling is metaphorically an act of patricide

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Speaker 2: and incest, of overturning the father as a father without

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Speaker 2: disturbing a hair on Noah's head, Pam engages in father killing.

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Speaker 2: It's a very interesting thesis and one that I don't

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Speaker 2: discount at all what he did, HANMD. The sin that

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Speaker 2: Hann did was not the looking, it was the telling.

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Speaker 2: He destroyed his father's dignity to all the other children.

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Speaker 2: That's why he said it's metaphorically father killing. And that's

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Speaker 2: the reason the curse on him is so terrible, the

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Speaker 2: fact that that is what he did, as he writes,

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Speaker 2: without disturbing a hair on his head. Now on that basis, incidentally,

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Speaker 2: this is his theory, is that that is why Noah

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Speaker 2: cursed Canaan rather than hand. What he did was you

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Speaker 2: destroyed me as a father, or in his words, you

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Speaker 2: unfathered me to my children. I will unfather you to

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Speaker 2: your child. Makes a lot of sense. If this new

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Speaker 2: interpretation from this leon cast makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 2: Does anybody have a problem with it? Is it clear

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Speaker 2: to you that that is what has happened. Parental authority

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Speaker 2: has been shaken and he believes he writes further, because

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Speaker 2: this is a political journal after all, that that is

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Speaker 2: a basic root of many of the ills of our

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Speaker 2: society today, the destruction of parents as parents. And look,

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Speaker 2: we certainly know in parts of our society. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to play games here. Where it is

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Speaker 2: particularly afflicts black life, where you have six out of ten,

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Speaker 2: seven out of ten children often born without a father,

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Speaker 2: and the results are tragic. The results are tragic. Where

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Speaker 2: it happens in white life, Hispanic life, the results are tragic.

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Speaker 2: But by the way, you don't have to see it

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Speaker 2: as obviously as that, as he points out, and it's

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Speaker 2: an interesting theory. He says, even when parents just act

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Speaker 2: to be their children's pals, they have given up parental authority.

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Speaker 2: He takes this further. It's a very let me review

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Speaker 2: his last paragraph. Modern times have produced a third human type,

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Speaker 2: neither tyrant nor philosopher, who is also deaf to authority.

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Speaker 2: His point is that if you don't have a parent

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Speaker 2: as an authority, civilization collapses. That is where we get

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Speaker 2: authority from in this world. And by the way, the

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Speaker 2: Ten Commandments bears witness to that biblical belief. That is

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Speaker 2: why honoring your mother and father. Honoring your father and

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Speaker 2: mother is in the Ten Commandments, because if parental authority breaks,

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Speaker 2: everything breaks. To use Freudian terms, God and your father,

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Speaker 2: at least in the Western tradition, are very intimately related.

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Speaker 2: God a is seen as our father who art in

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Speaker 2: heaven to Jews into Christians and too Muslims. So you

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Speaker 2: have that clearly, but also has been pointed out to me,

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Speaker 2: first by an Orthodox rabbi and then by a psychiatrist.

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Speaker 2: The way in which you see God is very, very

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Speaker 2: related to the way in which you see your father.

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Speaker 2: And I must tell you that I have asked this

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Speaker 2: question of numerous people. I would say that it probably

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Speaker 2: bears an accuracy percentage of ninety percent nine out of

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Speaker 2: ten people. And I wouldn't be surprised if nine point

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Speaker 2: nine out of ten people for them, it is true

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Speaker 2: unless they undergo tremendous self change in which they had

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Speaker 2: a view of God as to Father as their father.

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Speaker 2: But change. For example, if your father is absent from

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Speaker 2: your life, there is a very good chance God will

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Speaker 2: be absent through a non issue in your life. If

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Speaker 2: your father is authoritarian, you'll probably have an authoritarian image

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Speaker 2: of God. If you love your father. There is a

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Speaker 2: very good chance you will love God. That's very interesting

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Speaker 2: stuff that's going on in these few verses, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Why Remember, Remember, you've got to ask the question when

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Speaker 2: you read the Bible. Why does it put this story here?

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Speaker 2: The man lift three, one hundred and fifty years after

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Speaker 2: the flood. This is all they wanted a report. That's

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Speaker 2: the only thing that happened in three hundred and fifty years.

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Speaker 2: He never had a July fourth, you know, a cookout.

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Speaker 2: Nothing never went bowling the entire time. There's nothing else

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Speaker 2: to report. Well, then it's got to be pretty darn significant,

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Speaker 2: doesn't it If the only event after the flood that

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Speaker 2: it reports to you As he gets drunk, lies naked,

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Speaker 2: as kids see him, and they get cursed for it.

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Speaker 2: The one who saw well then obviously castes on to something.

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Speaker 2: The removal of parental authority, and in the Western world

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Speaker 2: in particular, fathers. Not that fathers are more important than mothers.

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Speaker 2: Mothers and fathers have different roles. Father's role is the

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Speaker 2: civilizing role, the disciplinarian, the authority. Mother's role is love

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Speaker 2: and nurturance. It's just the way it works out. Ask

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Speaker 2: single mothers what it's like the discipline a child as

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Speaker 2: compared to having a father around. It's just no comparison.

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Speaker 2: And when fathers abdicate that role, they abdicate what they're

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Speaker 2: being a father about. That's not to say fathers can't

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Speaker 2: be loving and should be loving. You can always take

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Speaker 2: anything to an extreme and become authoritarian. But that and

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Speaker 2: I have to salute this Leon Cass. He made this

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Speaker 2: story to me the clearest of any of the of

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Speaker 2: the philosophers and commentators that I had read on it.

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Speaker 2: You know what, Please write them down, folks. Okay, I

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Speaker 2: will take him. I just I just want to take

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Speaker 2: him at it. But do please write them down, because

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Speaker 2: I will ask for questions, and then you will have

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Speaker 2: forgotten this is the story. Anyway. Let me read to

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Speaker 2: you just this last paragraph I said from Cass. Modern

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Speaker 2: times have produced a third human type, neither tyrant nor philosopher,

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Speaker 2: who was also deaf to authority, and who knows neither

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Speaker 2: awe nor reverence democratic man. For him, all hierarchy is suspect,

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Speaker 2: all distinctions odious, all claims on his modesty or respect.

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Speaker 2: Confining last names and even familial titles like uncle or

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Speaker 2: are much too formal. Honor and respect, Fear in awe,

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Speaker 2: and filial piety seem increasingly vestiges of an archaic world.

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Speaker 2: Sets utterly demystified. Is now sport and chatter. Nakedness is

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Speaker 2: no big deal. Severed now from their source in what

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Speaker 2: is truly venerable, the customs of respect and modesty become anemic,

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Speaker 2: increasingly petrified. They crumble beneath the avalanche of equality, explicitness,

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Speaker 2: and the quote right to be myself unquote. We are

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Speaker 2: all pals now, but we should not be so self deceived.

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Speaker 2: The sins of unfatherly fathers are still being visited on

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Speaker 2: the suns. Canaan will still and again be cursed to

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Speaker 2: live like a pagan. If you need a monument, just

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Speaker 2: look around. H I get the chills when I read it.

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Speaker 2: You understand too, why Canaan is cursed. If your father

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Speaker 2: is unfatherly, you are cursed. It's a curse. It's not fair.

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Speaker 2: Life's not fair. The genesis is not about fairness. It's

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Speaker 2: about reality. When we see constantly if you cheat, cheating

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Speaker 2: comes back. If you act in a certain way, it

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Speaker 2: will affect your children. It does. It's not fair, but

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Speaker 2: it's true. Unfatherly fathers, fathers who have been demystified, who

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Speaker 2: have been naked in front of their kids, expose naked,

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Speaker 2: lose it and it can be lost. You can lose

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Speaker 2: your fatherliness and just become. As he writes in another paragraph,

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Speaker 2: another male powerful stuff in this story, and it resonates

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Speaker 2: as I said, because why else would the Torah take

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Speaker 2: the time out to tell you one story? Or Noah dies?

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Speaker 2: I think that that put it together as well as

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Speaker 2: it's been put together again. Okay, by the way, you

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Speaker 2: will notice another very interesting thing which I find impressive

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Speaker 2: in the Torah. Here. You will notice in verse twenty

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Speaker 2: seven you notice a fascinating thing. Ham commits the sin.

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Speaker 2: Remember what the sin is. The sin is the telling

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Speaker 2: of the brothers defathering their father. Okay, at least as

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Speaker 2: I'm understanding it, Ham is not cursed and Shen is

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Speaker 2: not blessed. Look at verse twenty seven. Blessed be the Lord,

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Speaker 2: God of Shed. Isn't that interesting? Now? Why would that be?

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Speaker 2: I think we figured out why the grandson's cursed in

401
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Speaker 2: Ham's case, But why is God blessed and not Shen

402
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Speaker 2: blessed in the case of Shen. Two possibilities, One that

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Speaker 2: he is giving credit to the fact that Shen believes

404
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:36,640
Speaker 2: in God and therefore acted the way he did. Okay,

405
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Speaker 2: And there is another one. Remember who do the Jews

406
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Speaker 2: come from Shen? Okay that all the Semites come from

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00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 2: from Shemites. Okay. Canaan is, as it were, the antithesis

408
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Speaker 2: of what the Jews should be, the pagan, the polypheist,

409
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Speaker 2: the doer of evil, etc. No sexual morality, no ethical morality, etc.

410
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Speaker 2: But I think here is a very touching thing that

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Speaker 2: the Torah wants to give the credit for Shem's good act,

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Speaker 2: not to Shen, but to God. There is a constant

413
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Speaker 2: vigilance in the Torah, and I will show you another

414
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Speaker 2: example today and by the time we get to Deuteronomy

415
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Speaker 2: in twenty six, I will show you in Deuteronomy where

416
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Speaker 2: it is where it is absolutely just written right out.

417
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Speaker 2: The Torah wants Jews to understand that it is not

418
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Speaker 2: they who are special. It is God and the Task

419
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Speaker 2: that are special. The Jews are merely carriers of them.

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Speaker 2: And that is why there's no blessing of Shen. Less

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Speaker 2: a reader infer from it that God has favorites in

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Speaker 2: this world. Isn't that powerful? It's the God of Shem,

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Speaker 2: who's blessed, not Shen. Just as you notice I've told

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Speaker 2: you until now there are no Jews. The Jewish Bible

425
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 2: begins without Jews. And Noah is Azadik a righteous person,

426
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,560
Speaker 2: and Shem too, and they're not Jewish. There is not

427
00:30:26,960 --> 00:30:32,960
Speaker 2: a sentilla in the Torah of chauvinism, of Jewish chauvinism,

428
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:38,000
Speaker 2: your Jews. Therefore you're better a Jew who holds that

429
00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 2: has no basis in the Torah. The Torah goes out

430
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,280
Speaker 2: of its way to block that thinking. It is God

431
00:30:47,280 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 2: who is special, it is the task that is special.

432
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 2: And here too, because the world is beginning here, this

433
00:30:53,200 --> 00:30:56,280
Speaker 2: story is important. This is in some ways more important

434
00:30:56,280 --> 00:30:59,320
Speaker 2: than Adam and Eve their progeny. You're destroyed. We're not

435
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:03,000
Speaker 2: the children of Adam. Where the children, at least from

436
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:07,400
Speaker 2: the stories, sake from Noah and his children. That's why

437
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 2: all every word here is so critical in how the

438
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 2: Torah sees the world. Okay, so Noah then dies, poor God,

439
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 2: you know, And it might be by the way, it's

440
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:23,720
Speaker 2: I'm just thinking of it now, really reading it again

441
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 2: for god knows how many a time. Maybe it's not

442
00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:32,360
Speaker 2: coincidental that Noah died right after the story. Who knows,

443
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 2: maybe it not his will to live. And when you

444
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:39,240
Speaker 2: live as long as he did, why wouldn't he go on?

445
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 2: It's not he lived quite quite a few years nine

446
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,760
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty. Okay, Chapter ten, I am not going

447
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:50,400
Speaker 2: to read to you. I'm simply going to tell you

448
00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 2: what's in it. Chapter ten known as the Tables, the

449
00:31:55,280 --> 00:31:59,400
Speaker 2: nation tables of the genealogical tables, the table of Nations,

450
00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 2: and it is it really is just an attempt to

451
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 2: tell you what happened to the children of Noah's children,

452
00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 2: Who begat who? Who begat who? And so on? But

453
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 2: the one that continues in the story is the children

454
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 2: of shen. Okay, by the way, it is decrive seventy nations,

455
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:23,840
Speaker 2: because in the Torah idea of the world, there are

456
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,920
Speaker 2: seventy nations in the whole world. That is the way

457
00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,000
Speaker 2: it is described. If you wish to read it on

458
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:31,920
Speaker 2: your own, obviously, feel free to. But it's really almost

459
00:32:32,080 --> 00:32:35,920
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly simply a delineation of names and the nations that

460
00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:47,080
Speaker 2: came from them. Okay, Chapter eleven. Chapter eleven is the

461
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 2: last pre Jewish story, the last universal story of the Torah,

462
00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,640
Speaker 2: and it is an absolute crap up. The more you

463
00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:04,240
Speaker 2: read it, just like just like the Noah's story what

464
00:33:04,360 --> 00:33:06,680
Speaker 2: the drugun is, the more you read it, the more

465
00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,480
Speaker 2: confused you get it. I if you would have asked

466
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 2: me before I started preparing these courses what happened, I

467
00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:15,640
Speaker 2: would have said as follows, because I mean I practically

468
00:33:15,680 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 2: knew it by heart. They are only I think nine verses.

469
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:22,440
Speaker 2: I think nine verses. It's nothing. I'd learned it from

470
00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:26,720
Speaker 2: a child, since being a child, and it's basically, Oh,

471
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,240
Speaker 2: these people wanted to build a thing make war with God.

472
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:32,440
Speaker 2: God got angry and spread them around the world. That

473
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:34,960
Speaker 2: is how I understood it. I asked my wife today,

474
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 2: I said, what did the people who built the Tower

475
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:38,840
Speaker 2: of Babel do wrong? Oh? They wanted to make war

476
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:42,640
Speaker 2: on God. That's what I thought. That's what everybody you

477
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 2: would ask who goes the story will answer, that's what

478
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:51,719
Speaker 2: they did wrong. There isn't the slightest intimation of it.

479
00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:55,000
Speaker 2: God isn't even mentioned in the building of the Tower

480
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 2: of Babbel. So let's read the Tower of Babel's story

481
00:33:57,760 --> 00:34:00,880
Speaker 2: and see what is exactly there. Everyone on earth had

482
00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 2: the same language and the same words, and as they emigrated.

483
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 2: As they migrated from the east, they came upon a

484
00:34:09,359 --> 00:34:12,920
Speaker 2: valley in the land of Shinar and settled there by

485
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,520
Speaker 2: the way where what is it migrating from the east

486
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:17,800
Speaker 2: in the east is where that Noah's ark had landed.

487
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 2: Get it. That's why we're continuing the story. People have

488
00:34:21,279 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 2: been migrating since Ararak, which is in modern Armenia, and

489
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 2: moving westward, okay, into the valley of Shinar, which is

490
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 2: I believe in Mesopotamia. If they could locate it correctly

491
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:40,000
Speaker 2: and settled there, they said to one another, come, let's

492
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:44,240
Speaker 2: make bricks and burn them hard. Bricks served them as stone.

493
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:47,480
Speaker 2: This is a parentheses It's interesting. It's not often in

494
00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:52,080
Speaker 2: the Torah, but he has a parenthetical statement. Bricks served

495
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,960
Speaker 2: them as stone. And bitumen. Does anybody know what bitumen is?

496
00:34:56,719 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 2: Or is it bitumen or bitumen? Huh? Well, it's like

497
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:06,400
Speaker 2: cole and is it pronounced bitumen or bitumen? Thank you,

498
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 2: it's not one of those things that come across daily.

499
00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 2: You know that you have your dose of bitumen today.

500
00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,800
Speaker 2: And bitumen served them as mortar. And they said, come,

501
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:22,319
Speaker 2: let us build bild a city. By the way. Everybody

502
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:26,799
Speaker 2: forgets that part they didn't really build a tower. They

503
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,479
Speaker 2: built a city. We're gonna come back to that, because

504
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,600
Speaker 2: that's key. Come, let us build a city and a

505
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,480
Speaker 2: tower with its top in the sky to make a

506
00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 2: name for ourselves, or else we'll be scattered all over

507
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:45,919
Speaker 2: the world. By the way, if you think that that's

508
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 2: a non sequitur, you're absolutely right. We'll make a name

509
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,719
Speaker 2: for ourselves and won't be scattered. Let us want to

510
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,239
Speaker 2: do with the other. We'll build a building that its

511
00:35:56,480 --> 00:35:58,760
Speaker 2: towers up to the sky, make a name for ourselves

512
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:01,799
Speaker 2: that makes sense and won't be scattered. What does that

513
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 2: have to do, well, we'll find out. The Lord came

514
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:09,880
Speaker 2: down to look at the city and tower. Remember you

515
00:36:09,920 --> 00:36:14,279
Speaker 2: see that little hint here They didn't. From now on,

516
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:16,400
Speaker 2: the best for you to remember is the city and

517
00:36:16,520 --> 00:36:20,239
Speaker 2: tower battle. Never just say the Tower of Babel, because

518
00:36:20,239 --> 00:36:23,640
Speaker 2: it's not accurate. It's the city and tower that's the

519
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 2: issue here. You will find fascinating. At any rate. The

520
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 2: Lord came down to look at the city and tower

521
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: that man had built. And the Lord said, if it's

522
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 2: one people with one language for all, this is how

523
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:38,399
Speaker 2: they have begun to act, then nothing that they may

524
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:41,360
Speaker 2: propose to do will be out of their reach. Let's

525
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:44,560
Speaker 2: then go down and confound their speech there, so that

526
00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 2: they shall not understand each other's speech. Thus the Lord

527
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,840
Speaker 2: scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth,

528
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:58,279
Speaker 2: and they stopped building the city. Notice does let's say

529
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:03,960
Speaker 2: stop building the tower, stop building the city? So what

530
00:37:04,360 --> 00:37:08,480
Speaker 2: switch exactly ticked God off? And why would God get

531
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 2: ticked the city building? That is why it was called babel,

532
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,239
Speaker 2: which I'm sure makes total sense to you. That's why

533
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 2: it was called babel because is there the Lord confounded

534
00:37:20,640 --> 00:37:23,640
Speaker 2: the speech of the whole earth? Because an Hebrew confound

535
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:29,000
Speaker 2: is balal and this is let's say, now bavel, So

536
00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 2: you have bavel and balal and. So it's a play

537
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,680
Speaker 2: on words. And you'll understand why there's a play on

538
00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:38,760
Speaker 2: words here, because there's another intent in this story. Confounded

539
00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:40,560
Speaker 2: the speech of the whole earth, and from there the

540
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:44,840
Speaker 2: Lord scattered. Lord scattered them over the face of the

541
00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:52,400
Speaker 2: whole earth. Okay, got a lot of problems. Number one,

542
00:37:52,880 --> 00:38:01,160
Speaker 2: what did they do wrong? These poor folks? Set as follows. Hey, guys, listen,

543
00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:05,040
Speaker 2: let's build a tower that goes up into the sky.

544
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:08,000
Speaker 2: Is that exactly a sin? Or any of you aware

545
00:38:08,080 --> 00:38:11,120
Speaker 2: in the infinite number of Jewish laws, thou shalt not

546
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:14,920
Speaker 2: build a tall building. I am unaware of it. Not

547
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,759
Speaker 2: only that, you will say, well, but why did they

548
00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,040
Speaker 2: want to do it? Because and I'm back now with

549
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 2: you on verse four, to make a name for ourselves.

550
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,640
Speaker 2: So you'll say, uh huh, that was their sin. They

551
00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 2: wanted a name for themselves. Well, let me tell you something.

552
00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 2: In Judaism and in Tora Judaism, making a name for

553
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:39,680
Speaker 2: yourself is not considered a sin. All right, Humility is

554
00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:45,960
Speaker 2: a virtue, but modesty isn't, which is certainly Jews live

555
00:38:46,040 --> 00:38:48,719
Speaker 2: up to. Jews are not the most modest ethnic group

556
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:55,720
Speaker 2: in human life. If you complement the Jew, they normally

557
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:58,800
Speaker 2: ask you for more. If I have it on religion

558
00:38:58,840 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 2: on the line. Ten years of meeting people of different backgrounds,

559
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 2: you know, can generalize after a while. Jews have a

560
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:08,520
Speaker 2: fairly good sense of self. Whereas if I compliment the

561
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:12,319
Speaker 2: Protestant minister or the Catholic priest, Oh no, Dennis, no, not,

562
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 2: what are you talking about? Not at all? And constant,

563
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:17,120
Speaker 2: you know, a denial. They don't want to think well

564
00:39:17,120 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 2: of themselves. It's the sin of pride and so on

565
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 2: this sin, there is no sin of making a big

566
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 2: name in Judaism. In fact, which you will find particularly interesting,

567
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 2: please look at twelve two.

568
00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:36,080
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

569
00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:45,200
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

570
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:49,879
Speaker 2: When God blesses When God blesses Abraham, which we're gonna

571
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,680
Speaker 2: come to tonight, he even says to him, I'm gonna

572
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 2: make you a great nation, and I will make your

573
00:39:55,880 --> 00:40:04,479
Speaker 2: name big. Right, So what's so terrible? That's exactly that's

574
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 2: exactly what they wanted. They wanted a big name. And

575
00:40:08,160 --> 00:40:11,840
Speaker 2: God promises Abraham a big name. A God las shameka,

576
00:40:11,920 --> 00:40:15,959
Speaker 2: I will make your name big. Okay. Now it's too

577
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:18,439
Speaker 2: close to one another for it to be a big

578
00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:22,080
Speaker 2: sin to w want a big name. And by the way,

579
00:40:22,239 --> 00:40:24,719
Speaker 2: let's say they wanted a big name and they were

580
00:40:24,760 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 2: in that regard, they were arrogant. Okay, we want a

581
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:30,879
Speaker 2: big name. For that. God decides to give them all

582
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 2: these other languages and and and in effect destroy the endeavor.

583
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,239
Speaker 2: It's a. It's a. It's again just as complex and

584
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:44,120
Speaker 2: difficult as the as the Ham story of the Hand

585
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:48,399
Speaker 2: story with with Noah. Anyway, what is their sin? It's

586
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:52,319
Speaker 2: certainly not fighting with God. Please, does anybody there see

587
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:54,920
Speaker 2: even a hint that they were fighting with God and

588
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:57,360
Speaker 2: building the thing up to the heavens? If you do

589
00:40:57,560 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 2: say it that, I'll take you see a hint of

590
00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:09,080
Speaker 2: that where uh huh, Well, you were the one person

591
00:41:09,120 --> 00:41:16,319
Speaker 2: who did vote that natural suffering, so I think you

592
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 2: have it in for God. I that's very cute answer.

593
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 2: There's no basis for that, but it's a cute answer. Yes,

594
00:41:34,560 --> 00:41:37,680
Speaker 2: all right. It's an interesting thesis where he says, it's

595
00:41:37,719 --> 00:41:39,719
Speaker 2: one thing for God to give you a big name,

596
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:42,439
Speaker 2: but it's a sin for you to want a big name.

597
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 2: I can't imagine, I'm off the top of my head

598
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 2: something that is sinful for us but okay for God

599
00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:51,920
Speaker 2: in this regard. In other words, God could give you

600
00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:54,239
Speaker 2: a big name, but if you give you a big name,

601
00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:57,439
Speaker 2: I think there is a problem with the big name here,

602
00:41:57,760 --> 00:41:59,840
Speaker 2: But I don't think that it has to do with

603
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 2: fighting God. That's what my question was. Can you find

604
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:07,120
Speaker 2: something with the traditional understanding you all got in Sunday

605
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:10,640
Speaker 2: School or Hebrew school of fighting God? It isn't there. Okay,

606
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:13,480
Speaker 2: I'll just move ahead and tell you it isn't there.

607
00:42:13,760 --> 00:42:16,920
Speaker 2: God isn't even mentioned. Now, by the way, that's not

608
00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 2: insignificant that God isn't mentioned. The entire glory is human glory,

609
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:28,720
Speaker 2: my friends. The Tower of Babel story might as well

610
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 2: have been done in the Soviet Union during socialist realism's period.

611
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,360
Speaker 2: It might as well have been done in Nazi Germany

612
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:44,880
Speaker 2: in the celebration only and Albert Spear's architectural grandeur celebrating

613
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:49,840
Speaker 2: the great physique of the human being, the aryan physical person.

614
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 2: When you glory man alone, there's no problem with glory

615
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 2: in the Torah. There's problem with glory to man without God.

616
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:07,640
Speaker 2: That's why contrary to making war on God, the whole

617
00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:14,120
Speaker 2: point is they ignored God. They are building a tower

618
00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:19,719
Speaker 2: of glory to themselves. We're great, and you've seen it all.

619
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:21,600
Speaker 2: You know what. By the way, I will tell you

620
00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,800
Speaker 2: from my own perspective, this is so this is so relevant.

621
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:32,160
Speaker 2: It's frightening. I am convinced that the arts have sunk

622
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 2: in the Western world as secularism has enlarged. When Bach

623
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:40,000
Speaker 2: wrote his pieces, he wrote for the glory of God

624
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:44,400
Speaker 2: most ie. On most of his manuscripts, there was a

625
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 2: sense of I'm writing music to sump to the glory

626
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:52,040
Speaker 2: of something beyond man. Yes, the glory of man. There

627
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:54,680
Speaker 2: is no problem in Judaism with the glory of man.

628
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:59,239
Speaker 2: We are God's greatest creation. You should see yourself as glorious.

629
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 2: You should see the arts as glorious. But when they

630
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:07,560
Speaker 2: are removed from God entirely, that's bad news. When it's

631
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:11,560
Speaker 2: only for the glory of man, when it's humanism as

632
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:16,040
Speaker 2: opposed to any religiosity, that's a problem. That's not the

633
00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:19,320
Speaker 2: only problem, by far. I just wanted to disc events

634
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:21,759
Speaker 2: with the issue of where the issue of God comes in.

635
00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:24,520
Speaker 2: They're not making war on God, not in a direct sense.

636
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:26,160
Speaker 2: They didn't say, let's build a big one so we

637
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:28,959
Speaker 2: could go up to the skies and battle God. God

638
00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 2: was irrelevant. In fact, it would be better to battle God.

639
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 2: Religion is far healthier in a place where there are

640
00:44:37,320 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 2: people angry at God than in a place where people

641
00:44:40,280 --> 00:44:45,600
Speaker 2: ignore God. If I may speak about contemporary America for

642
00:44:45,680 --> 00:44:48,759
Speaker 2: a moment, that's the worry that religious people like myself have,

643
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:52,359
Speaker 2: not that they are people angry at God. It's that

644
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:55,800
Speaker 2: God is a non issue. You can't even say God

645
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:58,480
Speaker 2: bless you with a high school reunion at a high

646
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 2: school graduation. Excuse me, I know all the arguments, and

647
00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:06,279
Speaker 2: I don't want to get into constitutional arguments, constitutional or not.

648
00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 2: The fact is the statement in America today is outside

649
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 2: of your home and your church or synagogue, ignore God

650
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 2: if you think society is healthier for it. The Tower

651
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,960
Speaker 2: of Babbel story is here to tell you, no, that's

652
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 2: not what is wanted. Glory to man's creations is fine.

653
00:45:31,800 --> 00:45:35,520
Speaker 2: Bereft of any sense of God. It is not fine.

654
00:45:35,680 --> 00:45:37,719
Speaker 2: I tell you. If they would have said, let's go

655
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:41,000
Speaker 2: up and battle God, God wouldn't have been nearly as annoyed.

656
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 2: Good You take me seriously. I want people who want

657
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 2: to fight me. Who fights him? In a few sentences,

658
00:45:48,680 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 2: in a few chapters from now does an Abraham? The

659
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 2: whole thing is he fights with God? Of course God

660
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:59,879
Speaker 2: wants you to fight with him. They ignored God. That's

661
00:45:59,920 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 2: the sin, and it's not the only sin. We've got

662
00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,719
Speaker 2: a lot more here. It's a lot heavier, just like

663
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:09,720
Speaker 2: the Noah story is with the unfathering of fathers. Now,

664
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 2: let's go back. There is another battle going on in

665
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,520
Speaker 2: the Torah here. Why did I keep telling you the

666
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:23,280
Speaker 2: major battle of Genesis the early the chapters till now

667
00:46:23,480 --> 00:46:27,839
Speaker 2: against polytheism in Mesopotamia. I'm sure every one of you

668
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:30,080
Speaker 2: has seen a picture of what is called a zigarot.

669
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 2: Those were the great, great palaces built in Mesopotamia for

670
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:39,319
Speaker 2: the gods. If you can picture it, it's a lot

671
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:43,680
Speaker 2: of steps built like a mountain, because in the ancient world,

672
00:46:43,760 --> 00:46:47,120
Speaker 2: mountains were where the heavens and the earth met. Okay,

673
00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:50,319
Speaker 2: so they were replicas of mountains where you could meet

674
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 2: God as it were. There is here a sense of humor.

675
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 2: Most people reading Genesis do not crack up. I fully

676
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 2: appreciate that. I always going to kick parenthetically about when

677
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:05,239
Speaker 2: people speak about composers having a sense of humor. Did

678
00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:08,279
Speaker 2: you see how funny Heiden was in that courtet? And

679
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:10,279
Speaker 2: I feel like an idiot whenever I read that. I

680
00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:13,840
Speaker 2: didn't never laugh during a Heiden courtet. I could understand.

681
00:47:13,880 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 2: You'll miss the humor here, but there is. I'll show you.

682
00:47:17,080 --> 00:47:21,640
Speaker 2: Part of the humor is a deep, deep mockery of

683
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:26,279
Speaker 2: Babylonian religion taking place here. The biggest mockery of all

684
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 2: is and this is it really is funny when you

685
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:33,680
Speaker 2: think about it. Most people know the word babel, which

686
00:47:33,719 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 2: is the same as Babylonia in Hebrew from the tower,

687
00:47:38,880 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 2: from this story about God confounding all of them? What

688
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 2: was done here? First of all, please look at okay,

689
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:57,640
Speaker 2: please look at verse five. Verse five says God came down,

690
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:05,479
Speaker 2: and God said, hold on lips, Oh excuse, Yeah, God

691
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 2: came down, look at the city and tower that man

692
00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:13,120
Speaker 2: had built. Actually, in Hebrew, it's even more irreverent that

693
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:20,000
Speaker 2: children of man built nothing's in other words, not In

694
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:24,600
Speaker 2: other words, what is happening here is in Mesopotamian religion.

695
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:29,560
Speaker 2: Who was it held built the greatest of the ziggurats,

696
00:48:30,320 --> 00:48:35,680
Speaker 2: the gods themselves. Remember this stuff is very old. This

697
00:48:35,840 --> 00:48:40,160
Speaker 2: is three thousand plus years old. You have to put

698
00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:42,759
Speaker 2: yourself in the reader's mind then, not just today. I

699
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:47,160
Speaker 2: think both are correct. At that time for somebody to

700
00:48:47,200 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 2: be told people built those ziggorots that the Messopotamians say

701
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 2: that God's built was incredible, It was heretical. This was

702
00:48:56,560 --> 00:49:00,000
Speaker 2: heresy in the world of its day. God comes down

703
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 2: and looks at the building which people built, which human beings,

704
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,160
Speaker 2: children of people built. Alight, I kind of joke. This

705
00:49:11,320 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 2: is just built by children. Joke number one, as it were,

706
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 2: or put down number one of polytheism. People built it

707
00:49:19,120 --> 00:49:22,360
Speaker 2: the gods. Put down number two. It's a play on

708
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 2: the word Babylon, meaning mixed up. The toy gives Babylon

709
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:30,839
Speaker 2: the name mixed up. Okay, play number three. Remember I

710
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:34,000
Speaker 2: told you about the parenthetical statement about bricks. Let's look

711
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:36,799
Speaker 2: at that one again. They said to one another, cove,

712
00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:40,319
Speaker 2: let's make bricks and burn them hard. Now here's the

713
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 2: parenthetical statement. Bricks served them as stone, and bitumen served

714
00:49:44,640 --> 00:49:48,960
Speaker 2: them as mortar. There are two things here one two

715
00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 2: an Israeli slash Canaanite writer. This is strange because they

716
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 2: build things from stone, so it's a parenthetical statement. They

717
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:01,319
Speaker 2: built things differently. But there was another intent here. Who

718
00:50:01,360 --> 00:50:04,640
Speaker 2: was to laugh at it? You're gonna build a tower

719
00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 2: up to the skies out of out of mortar and clay.

720
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:14,200
Speaker 2: Who are you kidding? That is put down number three

721
00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:19,920
Speaker 2: of these great massive Mesopotamian achievements. There is more here

722
00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,760
Speaker 2: in regard to what is being done about the religion,

723
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:28,000
Speaker 2: but those are the primary ways of saying to the Jews,

724
00:50:28,200 --> 00:50:34,520
Speaker 2: don't take this polytheistic stuff seriously. Next, what was their sin?

725
00:50:35,280 --> 00:50:39,600
Speaker 2: I argued that one of their sins is glory to man.

726
00:50:40,040 --> 00:50:43,480
Speaker 2: There is no man, only not to God as well. Okay,

727
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:48,200
Speaker 2: that is my inference from reading this. But what are

728
00:50:48,320 --> 00:50:51,880
Speaker 2: the direct sin? Remember I told you what keyword to

729
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:55,279
Speaker 2: look up every time it mentions the tower? What else

730
00:50:55,320 --> 00:51:06,040
Speaker 2: does it mention city? Okay? Now, okay? Eleven four? They said, come,

731
00:51:06,120 --> 00:51:08,719
Speaker 2: let's build a city and a tower with its top

732
00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:12,440
Speaker 2: in the sky to make a name for ourselves. Then

733
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:14,800
Speaker 2: I told you, didn't it seem like a non secular

734
00:51:14,880 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 2: followed or else will be scattered all over the world.

735
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:25,200
Speaker 2: What does that refer to? They can't refer to the tower.

736
00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:28,080
Speaker 2: What does the tower? How will the tower prevent them

737
00:51:28,080 --> 00:51:30,920
Speaker 2: being scattered all over the world? So what does it

738
00:51:30,960 --> 00:51:36,600
Speaker 2: refer to? Right? Cities keep you from being scattered? Ah?

739
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:39,640
Speaker 2: But what did God say to Adam and to Noah?

740
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:44,640
Speaker 2: What was the first thing? God said? Be fruitful and

741
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:53,200
Speaker 2: multiply and what and fill the earth? Oh, this is

742
00:51:53,480 --> 00:51:58,440
Speaker 2: what appears to be another sin in what they had done.

743
00:51:58,719 --> 00:52:04,320
Speaker 2: They didn't want to move around. God said, be fruitful.

744
00:52:04,520 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 2: They did, but they wanted to stay in a city.

745
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:13,719
Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson and Natrah don't like cities. Oh, it is

746
00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,600
Speaker 2: clear about that. It is absolutely clear This is one

747
00:52:16,640 --> 00:52:18,560
Speaker 2: of a number of places which, in the course of

748
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:21,240
Speaker 2: the time you will see there is a deep bias

749
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:24,360
Speaker 2: against cities, the belief that a lot of miserable stuff

750
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:27,480
Speaker 2: happens and goes on in cities, which I suspect all

751
00:52:27,480 --> 00:52:30,080
Speaker 2: of us would agree with. There are certainly advantages to

752
00:52:30,120 --> 00:52:33,200
Speaker 2: cities in some ways, much better shopping and a whole

753
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:39,840
Speaker 2: host of things, But there are massive moral disadvantages to cities.

754
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:44,160
Speaker 2: Anonymity means that you can act much worse. Well, what

755
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:46,520
Speaker 2: was my wife was just telling me about when you

756
00:52:46,560 --> 00:52:51,000
Speaker 2: say hi to farmers? Why was it you say hi

757
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:57,759
Speaker 2: to a farmer? I'm sorry, Yeah, you wave to a

758
00:52:57,760 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 2: farmer in the field, He and his kids, whoever out there,

759
00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:02,640
Speaker 2: will all stop, put down and go and wave back

760
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:06,160
Speaker 2: to you. If you wave to somebody in la you'll

761
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:10,040
Speaker 2: be arrested, and there may be a good reason to

762
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:12,920
Speaker 2: do it. Can you imagine waving to somebody on the

763
00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:16,680
Speaker 2: street tonight as you drive full It is inconceivable they

764
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:21,040
Speaker 2: would run away. But if you wave in rural areas,

765
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,719
Speaker 2: an equavance of Bars told us of a trip that

766
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:29,160
Speaker 2: he had made through in my wife's home state, Kansas,

767
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:33,120
Speaker 2: where his car broke down. He needed a part. I

768
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 2: believe it was. The next car stop asked him what

769
00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:41,120
Speaker 2: it was, and drove fifteen miles to get it and

770
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 2: brought it back. Just the sort of thing you get

771
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:48,839
Speaker 2: in la and in New York. If you stop, they

772
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,839
Speaker 2: just take your carburetor. Well, you're very grateful that you're

773
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:57,680
Speaker 2: around to tell the story afterwards. I'm only exaggerating slightly.

774
00:53:57,800 --> 00:54:00,960
Speaker 2: I'm not saying we should destroy cities. I am saying, though,

775
00:54:01,000 --> 00:54:05,240
Speaker 2: that there is very good moral reason to worry about cities,

776
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:09,760
Speaker 2: and that is what the torrist preoccupation is. They built

777
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:13,120
Speaker 2: the city. But I have more to this problem. There's

778
00:54:13,160 --> 00:54:16,120
Speaker 2: so much going on here. They speak one language, they

779
00:54:16,160 --> 00:54:19,360
Speaker 2: all have a common tongue, and then God diverse flies

780
00:54:19,440 --> 00:54:25,799
Speaker 2: the tongues. Why. I have a theory. God had said,

781
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:28,399
Speaker 2: go and fill the earth. They were not to live

782
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 2: in one place. People should spread out. Perhaps this is

783
00:54:32,480 --> 00:54:35,200
Speaker 2: an argument against congestions and cities. Let me read to

784
00:54:35,239 --> 00:54:39,720
Speaker 2: you from Gunther Ploud's commentary on the on the Torah.

785
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:46,000
Speaker 2: This related to the previous interpretation, is one that sees

786
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:49,280
Speaker 2: the city as the center of the account and all

787
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:53,200
Speaker 2: else is secondary. You hear that everybody here knows it's

788
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:55,600
Speaker 2: the tower of Babel story, and he's saying that there

789
00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:58,640
Speaker 2: is an interpretation of this story where that's totally secondary.

790
00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:02,520
Speaker 2: It's the building of the city that's primary. The tower

791
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 2: is merely the embodiment of the city, and when the

792
00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:10,600
Speaker 2: story closes, it speaks only of the city. A brief

793
00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:15,080
Speaker 2: notation reveals the whole purpose of the Babbel story Genesis

794
00:55:15,080 --> 00:55:19,440
Speaker 2: eleven eighty, and they stop building the city mulgion, no

795
00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:23,520
Speaker 2: mention of the tower. This understanding reflects most clearly a

796
00:55:23,600 --> 00:55:28,799
Speaker 2: pervasive Biblical motif. The city is the ultimate expression of

797
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:34,240
Speaker 2: man's presumption. Babel was the city, and to the anti

798
00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:38,200
Speaker 2: urban tradition of the Bible, its downfall appeared as a

799
00:55:38,239 --> 00:55:43,400
Speaker 2: proper divine judgment. Babyl referred, of course to Babylon, but

800
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:49,319
Speaker 2: it also symbolized all empire building, corruption, arrogance, craving to

801
00:55:49,440 --> 00:55:54,280
Speaker 2: erect monuments, desire for fame. It meant a turning away

802
00:55:54,360 --> 00:55:58,760
Speaker 2: from what were considered the primary occupations of man, agriculture

803
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:02,640
Speaker 2: and attending of flocks. Farmers and nomads fill the earth,

804
00:56:02,800 --> 00:56:06,160
Speaker 2: i e. They live close to it and its creatures.

805
00:56:06,560 --> 00:56:10,680
Speaker 2: City dwellers flee from the earth. Babel was an alienation

806
00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:13,520
Speaker 2: of man from the simple life, and it is no

807
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:18,719
Speaker 2: accident that the Bible next turns to Abraham, a semi nomad,

808
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:23,239
Speaker 2: as the source of all future blessings. This resonates, I

809
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:26,479
Speaker 2: note deeply with my wife, who's probably thrilled to find

810
00:56:26,880 --> 00:56:30,399
Speaker 2: biblical justification for her belief that we are far too

811
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:35,560
Speaker 2: far from the land. Listen to this one. With the

812
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:38,880
Speaker 2: city as its critical object, The Babel story has a

813
00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:45,759
Speaker 2: particularly contemporary ring. Western urbanized man also struggles with his

814
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:50,120
Speaker 2: estrangement from God. He too reaches for and appears to

815
00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 2: achieve powers formally ascribed to God. One may therefore find

816
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:59,400
Speaker 2: in the Babel tale a suggestion that ever greater urbanization,

817
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:04,360
Speaker 2: coupled with a concentration on technology and a reaching toward

818
00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 2: outer space as a step toward further conquests, leads man

819
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,120
Speaker 2: not to unity but to division. To put it in

820
00:57:11,239 --> 00:57:15,240
Speaker 2: other terms, will modern man drive God into deeper hiding

821
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:20,320
Speaker 2: and further dramatize his eclipse, or will his actions call forth,

822
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:23,120
Speaker 2: as they did in ancient days, a God who will

823
00:57:23,120 --> 00:57:27,040
Speaker 2: come down and look and then confound man again. Isn't

824
00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 2: it true? Isn't it true that the modern Western world

825
00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 2: is an urban technological marvel where God is absent. It

826
00:57:38,440 --> 00:57:41,760
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be. I love I love my city,

827
00:57:41,960 --> 00:57:49,720
Speaker 2: and I love technology, but but I am religious in

828
00:57:49,800 --> 00:57:53,600
Speaker 2: spite of it, and by the way, often have to

829
00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:57,520
Speaker 2: think about rejecting it. For example, it is part of

830
00:57:57,520 --> 00:58:01,280
Speaker 2: the reason that technology in religious Jewish life is rejected.

831
00:58:01,680 --> 00:58:04,920
Speaker 2: On the Shabbah, it is the day in which you

832
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,000
Speaker 2: can return to the ideal of closeness to the earth,

833
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:12,600
Speaker 2: closeness to the world, non technological marvel. What it means

834
00:58:12,640 --> 00:58:16,120
Speaker 2: to be a human being. I read an article on

835
00:58:16,160 --> 00:58:18,720
Speaker 2: the Wall Street Journal about two years ago where they

836
00:58:18,720 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 2: are the developing and if you live to a normal lifespan,

837
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:25,000
Speaker 2: you will probably see this as I will probably see it,

838
00:58:25,760 --> 00:58:29,560
Speaker 2: where you will be able through artificial intelligence with computers

839
00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:34,040
Speaker 2: actually feel your way through a building, through a room.

840
00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:37,680
Speaker 2: You'll be able to move people around. Do you understand

841
00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:42,800
Speaker 2: what I'm saying? You will be able through touch simulate reality.

842
00:58:42,920 --> 00:58:45,200
Speaker 2: I am worried that at a given point, if people

843
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:49,480
Speaker 2: are addicted to television, which is unidimensional, what will happen

844
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:52,880
Speaker 2: when there's artificial intelligence and you could just play all

845
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 2: day with your There are people who play all day

846
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:58,800
Speaker 2: with computers. Now what will be then, And I'm totally

847
00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:01,720
Speaker 2: pro computer. But by the way, it is one of

848
00:59:01,720 --> 00:59:03,760
Speaker 2: the reasons I am so avid about a day of

849
00:59:03,800 --> 00:59:07,000
Speaker 2: the week away from technology. It is what keeps me

850
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:12,240
Speaker 2: sane and human. The technology does not. When I sit

851
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:15,200
Speaker 2: at the computer, I have to remember to bless God

852
00:59:15,760 --> 00:59:20,560
Speaker 2: and not the inventor of the personal computer. You see,

853
00:59:22,000 --> 00:59:26,480
Speaker 2: these are very important lessons here, how technology and urbanization

854
00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:30,680
Speaker 2: can make you human centered rather than God centered in

855
00:59:30,720 --> 00:59:34,000
Speaker 2: your life. It's not so much a danger when you

856
00:59:34,080 --> 00:59:37,200
Speaker 2: see a cow give birth. What do you say when

857
00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:41,919
Speaker 2: a cow give birth gives birth? Aren't people great? Of course?

858
00:59:41,960 --> 00:59:44,440
Speaker 2: Not when you play with your computer, you say, aren't

859
00:59:44,440 --> 00:59:47,640
Speaker 2: people great? When you see a big building, you go,

860
00:59:47,760 --> 00:59:51,080
Speaker 2: aren't people great? When you see a cow give birth? Go?

861
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:59,480
Speaker 2: Isn't God great? Big difference, big difference. That's what happened here.

862
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:05,200
Speaker 2: The tower is nothing. It's just an expression of it all.

863
01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:08,760
Speaker 2: We love technology. That's why you have this thing. Let

864
01:00:08,760 --> 01:00:11,400
Speaker 2: me tell you how they build it. That sentence, it's

865
01:00:11,400 --> 01:00:14,600
Speaker 2: so atypical of the Tora is really concerned with how

866
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:20,400
Speaker 2: you build monuments. But they love techn technology in those days,

867
01:00:20,560 --> 01:00:22,720
Speaker 2: and we love technology in our days. And I don't

868
01:00:22,760 --> 01:00:27,880
Speaker 2: have a problem with technology. I know it's danger. I

869
01:00:28,040 --> 01:00:34,160
Speaker 2: know it's danger. German companies could build cyclone B gas.

870
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:38,520
Speaker 2: What was he used for? Not very godly means in

871
01:00:38,600 --> 01:00:42,560
Speaker 2: gasing millions of Jews in others, right, But the technology

872
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:48,960
Speaker 2: was there. It's a double edged sword. And this comes

873
01:00:48,960 --> 01:00:51,440
Speaker 2: from a person who has a four to eighty six computer.

874
01:00:52,240 --> 01:00:55,320
Speaker 2: Thirty three mega hurts and I'm upping it to fifty

875
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:59,600
Speaker 2: mega hurts. But I have my day of the week

876
01:00:59,880 --> 01:01:03,440
Speaker 2: which is for God, and there ain't no computer on.

877
01:01:06,120 --> 01:01:12,080
Speaker 2: It is a day devoid of the technological wonders. Something

878
01:01:12,360 --> 01:01:14,880
Speaker 2: to think about. It means a lot to me. It

879
01:01:14,920 --> 01:01:17,560
Speaker 2: doesn't mean a lot to everybody who observes it because

880
01:01:17,560 --> 01:01:20,080
Speaker 2: they haven't thought it through. But it means a lot.

881
01:01:21,040 --> 01:01:31,120
Speaker 2: Not done at all with this. The people began, the

882
01:01:31,160 --> 01:01:35,280
Speaker 2: people who caused this whole little problem of technology and urbanization.

883
01:01:36,600 --> 01:01:41,200
Speaker 2: Why did they have They had a common language. Now,

884
01:01:41,720 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 2: isn't that interesting? They had a common language. They all

885
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:51,520
Speaker 2: spoke the same language. I assumed that the vast majority

886
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:53,640
Speaker 2: of you, if not every one of you, would hold

887
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:55,400
Speaker 2: that it would be a beautiful thing if there was

888
01:01:55,440 --> 01:02:01,200
Speaker 2: only one language in the world. I'm not sure. Let

889
01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:08,400
Speaker 2: me read to you something from a traditional Jewish commentator, Sepherno.

890
01:02:10,680 --> 01:02:14,440
Speaker 2: The real crime of the builders was that they tried

891
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:20,000
Speaker 2: to impose one religion on mankind. This is an ortho traditional.

892
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:26,160
Speaker 2: The Torah doesn't trust people. In case you missed the

893
01:02:26,240 --> 01:02:29,880
Speaker 2: past sessions, God looked at what he created and got

894
01:02:30,000 --> 01:02:35,160
Speaker 2: very sad. Why because we have a pretty strong will

895
01:02:35,240 --> 01:02:40,720
Speaker 2: towards doing things bad and so on. Okay, very suspicious

896
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:43,960
Speaker 2: of human beings. And I am very suspicious of human beings.

897
01:02:43,960 --> 01:02:47,080
Speaker 2: I don't walk around suspicious and paranoid, but I just

898
01:02:47,160 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 2: know what people are capable of doing. But do you

899
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:54,160
Speaker 2: know what people are capable of doing? The worst unified people,

900
01:02:56,040 --> 01:03:00,720
Speaker 2: I have said, and it always goes against the grain

901
01:03:00,800 --> 01:03:03,280
Speaker 2: of the clergy, even though I agree with them on

902
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 2: so many issues. I will sometimes raise the issue on

903
01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:11,480
Speaker 2: the radio of would you like to see the world

904
01:03:11,640 --> 01:03:18,720
Speaker 2: hold your religion? And the priests and the minister say yes.

905
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:21,840
Speaker 2: The Rabbi says it's I would like it, but it's

906
01:03:21,880 --> 01:03:25,520
Speaker 2: not important, which is fair or even I wouldn't like it,

907
01:03:25,520 --> 01:03:29,600
Speaker 2: it's not necessary because it isn't necessary. In Judaism's goal

908
01:03:29,680 --> 01:03:31,240
Speaker 2: is not that the world be Jewish. It's that the

909
01:03:31,240 --> 01:03:33,920
Speaker 2: world be ethical. Monothiest is that the world believe in

910
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:39,000
Speaker 2: the God who demands ethical behavior. But for Christianity and Islam,

911
01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:42,920
Speaker 2: it is an ideal that the world be one religion.

912
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:47,240
Speaker 2: It's not believe it or not from this reading of

913
01:03:47,320 --> 01:03:51,040
Speaker 2: this commentator and in other places they'll show you later.

914
01:03:51,480 --> 01:03:56,280
Speaker 2: God's ideal. God wants to be God of all human beings.

915
01:03:56,920 --> 01:04:00,400
Speaker 2: But it isn't necessarily good if there's only one way

916
01:04:00,480 --> 01:04:05,320
Speaker 2: to come to him, because when people speak the same language,

917
01:04:05,800 --> 01:04:08,480
Speaker 2: they can do a lot of bad things to other people,

918
01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:14,240
Speaker 2: because as soon as you dissent from the language, you

919
01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:19,640
Speaker 2: are a dissenter, you are a heretic. I think I

920
01:04:19,640 --> 01:04:24,760
Speaker 2: have said this frequently. Why were democracies almost always the

921
01:04:24,840 --> 01:04:29,120
Speaker 2: product of Protestantism rather than Catholicism in the Christian world

922
01:04:29,680 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 2: the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, whereas South and Central

923
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:39,640
Speaker 2: America didn't develop democracies, in some cases not until today

924
01:04:40,040 --> 01:04:43,440
Speaker 2: and in most cases not until recently. It's not an

925
01:04:43,480 --> 01:04:46,040
Speaker 2: anti Catholic statement, God forbid. But there's got to be

926
01:04:46,040 --> 01:04:49,000
Speaker 2: a reason. It's not a coincidence. I think that the

927
01:04:49,000 --> 01:04:54,919
Speaker 2: major reason is Catholicism is unified Protestantism. There are enough

928
01:04:54,960 --> 01:05:00,160
Speaker 2: denominations in Protestantism to keep you counting forever. It is

929
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,840
Speaker 2: one of the glories of Protestantism. And that is why

930
01:05:03,840 --> 01:05:07,120
Speaker 2: in my own religion, Judaism, I glory in the number

931
01:05:07,160 --> 01:05:10,680
Speaker 2: of denominations. I don't look for the day when all

932
01:05:10,800 --> 01:05:13,720
Speaker 2: Jews are Orthodox, or all Jews are Conservative, or all

933
01:05:13,800 --> 01:05:16,360
Speaker 2: Jews are reform. I think it would be a tragedy.

934
01:05:17,480 --> 01:05:21,040
Speaker 2: Aside from it, it wouldn't work because if no. First

935
01:05:21,080 --> 01:05:24,640
Speaker 2: of all, there's never such a thing as all. Usually

936
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:29,480
Speaker 2: it means most what happens to the others, they're finished.

937
01:05:31,080 --> 01:05:38,400
Speaker 2: I don't trust humans with power because, as it says Altiftkhu,

938
01:05:38,480 --> 01:05:42,280
Speaker 2: being a devimed van adamsha in Lotushua in the Psalms,

939
01:05:42,400 --> 01:05:48,480
Speaker 2: don't believe in princes, in politicians, in human beings who

940
01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:52,600
Speaker 2: can save you. It's my argument to the Ross Parrot people.

941
01:05:54,560 --> 01:05:57,960
Speaker 2: It's a great idea to reject Washington, but all you

942
01:05:58,120 --> 01:06:02,520
Speaker 2: did was look for another Washingtonian. The place to save

943
01:06:02,560 --> 01:06:08,560
Speaker 2: America is at home. None in Washington's politics. Be a

944
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:12,280
Speaker 2: big brother, be a big sister, join a synagogue or

945
01:06:12,360 --> 01:06:15,640
Speaker 2: church group to help people. But people don't think like

946
01:06:15,680 --> 01:06:20,520
Speaker 2: that it's all grandiose putting faith in people. Well, I

947
01:06:20,560 --> 01:06:22,880
Speaker 2: can't believe in Bush or I can't believe in Clinton,

948
01:06:22,920 --> 01:06:27,000
Speaker 2: so I'll believe in Parole. That's nonsense. It doesn't matter

949
01:06:27,000 --> 01:06:32,480
Speaker 2: who the PIO is, it's nonsense. Don't believe in people.

950
01:06:33,120 --> 01:06:38,160
Speaker 2: Don't believe in people power, believe in diversity, because the

951
01:06:38,160 --> 01:06:46,760
Speaker 2: more centralized power, urbanized, technological, centralized power, the more it

952
01:06:46,880 --> 01:06:52,520
Speaker 2: is skeptical and God will have to scatter them. Maybe

953
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:55,600
Speaker 2: it wasn't the punishment that they got all different languages.

954
01:06:56,000 --> 01:06:59,720
Speaker 2: Maybe it's a blessing. I think it's a blessing, all

955
01:06:59,760 --> 01:07:02,360
Speaker 2: the languages of the world. It comes with the price.

956
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:05,440
Speaker 2: I can't talk to a lot of people except through

957
01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:08,680
Speaker 2: an interpreter. But it comes with a great great benefit

958
01:07:09,240 --> 01:07:16,040
Speaker 2: different culture richness, human variegated richness. Do you really feel

959
01:07:16,040 --> 01:07:18,440
Speaker 2: as if you've visited a foreign country if you go

960
01:07:18,480 --> 01:07:22,240
Speaker 2: to Cana or if you go to Australia or England. Oh,

961
01:07:22,320 --> 01:07:24,400
Speaker 2: there are some foreign customs, like they drive on the

962
01:07:24,400 --> 01:07:28,240
Speaker 2: wrong side of the road. But I lived in England

963
01:07:28,280 --> 01:07:32,560
Speaker 2: for a year. Of course I felt very much at home,

964
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:39,440
Speaker 2: except for the weather. Absolutely, you want to go to

965
01:07:39,520 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 2: a foreign place and see other ways of living. You

966
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:44,440
Speaker 2: go to a place where they speak a different language.

967
01:07:45,720 --> 01:07:50,160
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a good thing. I don't trust anybody

968
01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:55,720
Speaker 2: who wants world government. It's a big movement among secular people,

969
01:07:56,400 --> 01:08:01,360
Speaker 2: among secular humanists, the movement one world, one government. They

970
01:08:01,480 --> 01:08:04,840
Speaker 2: scare the living daylights out of me. I don't want

971
01:08:04,920 --> 01:08:07,880
Speaker 2: the UN to have the power that these people wanted

972
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:10,440
Speaker 2: to have. I don't trust it. I don't trust the

973
01:08:10,520 --> 01:08:19,000
Speaker 2: United Europe. I don't trust United anything. I trust diversity,

974
01:08:19,080 --> 01:08:24,120
Speaker 2: trust pockets of power. I don't trust religion alone with power.

975
01:08:24,400 --> 01:08:26,759
Speaker 2: That's why I believe in separation of church and state

976
01:08:27,040 --> 01:08:31,400
Speaker 2: in America and in Israel. If religion had all power,

977
01:08:31,639 --> 01:08:34,720
Speaker 2: it would misuse it. That is why it's important to

978
01:08:34,760 --> 01:08:41,120
Speaker 2: have strong religion, strong government, strong schools, strong different religions,

979
01:08:41,320 --> 01:08:46,559
Speaker 2: strong unions, strong companies. The more pockets of strength in

980
01:08:46,560 --> 01:08:50,240
Speaker 2: a society, the better. That's what's going on here. Believe

981
01:08:50,280 --> 01:08:53,560
Speaker 2: it or not. I read to you from a traditional,

982
01:08:53,920 --> 01:08:58,880
Speaker 2: totally traditional source. God scatters them. Now I got another

983
01:08:59,000 --> 01:09:07,559
Speaker 2: lesson for you. What is there then? What I wrote?

984
01:09:08,520 --> 01:09:12,439
Speaker 2: It would self absorbtion and full of thin buildings for

985
01:09:12,520 --> 01:09:16,920
Speaker 2: no reason. A stept to make the high buildings, buildings,

986
01:09:16,960 --> 01:09:20,519
Speaker 2: just to make the name for themselves. Making a name,

987
01:09:20,600 --> 01:09:22,880
Speaker 2: as I said earlier, is not a problem in and

988
01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:27,400
Speaker 2: of itself. Remember God promises at the Abraham. The question

989
01:09:27,680 --> 01:09:34,240
Speaker 2: is a name for yourself for what? Very relevant to

990
01:09:34,360 --> 01:09:40,320
Speaker 2: Americans desire for fame. The number of Americans who don't

991
01:09:40,400 --> 01:09:43,840
Speaker 2: care why they would be known so long as they're known.

992
01:09:44,640 --> 01:09:50,560
Speaker 2: From John Lenning's murderers, to others who do horrible things,

993
01:09:50,840 --> 01:09:52,920
Speaker 2: to the people who went on the Gun Show to

994
01:09:53,000 --> 01:09:58,479
Speaker 2: make fools of themselves. The biggest desire among millions and

995
01:09:58,640 --> 01:10:02,200
Speaker 2: millions of Americans is not to do good, but to

996
01:10:02,320 --> 01:10:06,120
Speaker 2: be known. To make a name for myself or that

997
01:10:06,200 --> 01:10:09,679
Speaker 2: Andy Warhol said sixty five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes,

998
01:10:10,200 --> 01:10:16,760
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes of immortality. That's the problem. It's good to

999
01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:20,120
Speaker 2: want to make a name for yourself. The question is

1000
01:10:20,520 --> 01:10:26,080
Speaker 2: as but a name for yourself as an end in itself.

1001
01:10:26,320 --> 01:10:30,360
Speaker 2: That's what they wanted there with their power. This God

1002
01:10:30,439 --> 01:10:34,080
Speaker 2: doesn't care for make a name for yourself doing something good.

1003
01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:41,000
Speaker 2: And finally, my other final lesson is there is a

1004
01:10:41,160 --> 01:10:50,160
Speaker 2: very good thing in in diversity. God diversifies them and

1005
01:10:50,200 --> 01:10:54,080
Speaker 2: sends them away from the city. Do you remember what

1006
01:10:54,200 --> 01:11:01,479
Speaker 2: God said. God makes this great announcement about leaving your parents.

1007
01:11:01,520 --> 01:11:10,599
Speaker 2: Do you remember that? And therefore alva da vakia. Therefore

1008
01:11:10,600 --> 01:11:16,599
Speaker 2: a man shall leave as a father and mother, sometimes

1009
01:11:16,600 --> 01:11:19,479
Speaker 2: a mother for a fellow to do it directly. Mother

1010
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:21,880
Speaker 2: flings to his wife and makes all be is one's last.

1011
01:11:21,920 --> 01:11:24,479
Speaker 2: Remember how I thought it. You can't cling to a

1012
01:11:24,560 --> 01:11:29,439
Speaker 2: woman until you leave your parents. So long as you're

1013
01:11:29,439 --> 01:11:33,679
Speaker 2: still Mamma's boy, you can't see a man. You've got

1014
01:11:33,680 --> 01:11:37,200
Speaker 2: to grow up. The book of Genesis is about growing

1015
01:11:37,280 --> 01:11:41,599
Speaker 2: up much more than it's about us. Judy Ism is exodus,

1016
01:11:41,640 --> 01:11:48,679
Speaker 2: Leviticus numbers and dudonomy. Genesis is growing up. You can't

1017
01:11:48,720 --> 01:11:53,040
Speaker 2: grow up till you leave what's cometes? You know what

1018
01:11:53,080 --> 01:11:57,960
Speaker 2: they were with one language in one city, to dand

1019
01:11:58,360 --> 01:12:07,200
Speaker 2: comfort ladies and gentlemen. I will offer you as a

1020
01:12:07,280 --> 01:12:12,120
Speaker 2: thesis that all culture and civilization worthy of the names

1021
01:12:13,000 --> 01:12:18,840
Speaker 2: that we consider to be higher culture eminate from interacting

1022
01:12:19,400 --> 01:12:25,200
Speaker 2: with the other with the difference. There is no question

1023
01:12:25,360 --> 01:12:28,960
Speaker 2: a part of the Jews growth as such a dynamic

1024
01:12:29,000 --> 01:12:32,960
Speaker 2: culture was because it was located in the crossroads of

1025
01:12:33,000 --> 01:12:38,520
Speaker 2: so many civilizations, whereas the Japanese stayed the same century

1026
01:12:38,920 --> 01:12:43,120
Speaker 2: after century after century, and they had to be pride

1027
01:12:43,280 --> 01:12:48,200
Speaker 2: open to the world, and the same with other places.

1028
01:12:48,240 --> 01:12:52,040
Speaker 2: It's not anti Japanese. The statement. Any place that would

1029
01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:55,280
Speaker 2: be isolated from the other would be like that, and

1030
01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:59,240
Speaker 2: nobody wants to come with the other. It's uncomfortable. You

1031
01:12:59,479 --> 01:13:03,880
Speaker 2: want to stay home where it's comfy, where they all

1032
01:13:03,920 --> 01:13:07,920
Speaker 2: speak the same language and say the same thing. That's

1033
01:13:07,960 --> 01:13:11,240
Speaker 2: the first sentence of the statement. It's not just that

1034
01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:15,240
Speaker 2: they spoke the same language. It's so powerful. It says

1035
01:13:15,680 --> 01:13:22,080
Speaker 2: safar haats, varima, sadim and the same things. That's what

1036
01:13:22,160 --> 01:13:24,599
Speaker 2: they loved about each other. They all said the same thing.

1037
01:13:26,760 --> 01:13:30,560
Speaker 2: That was that what a great life, same city, same language,

1038
01:13:30,800 --> 01:13:37,760
Speaker 2: same words. God, is that comfortable? Is the ultimately politically

1039
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:43,200
Speaker 2: correct world? It was Stanford, there was It wasn't bablouis

1040
01:13:43,240 --> 01:13:48,639
Speaker 2: Stanford where you have a few words you're allowed to say,

1041
01:13:48,840 --> 01:13:57,080
Speaker 2: and that's it. That's comfortable. Genesis and Judaism at its

1042
01:13:57,160 --> 01:14:03,760
Speaker 2: best is against comfort. It's for growing up, and they

1043
01:14:03,920 --> 01:14:08,240
Speaker 2: ain't the same. You've got a choice in life, friends,

1044
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:15,120
Speaker 2: you either grow up or stay comfortable. Most people want

1045
01:14:15,200 --> 01:14:19,920
Speaker 2: to be comfortable. They don't want risks. This is certainly

1046
01:14:19,960 --> 01:14:22,840
Speaker 2: true in America today. If it's got a risk, the

1047
01:14:22,920 --> 01:14:26,760
Speaker 2: FDA should ban it. If it's got a risk, then

1048
01:14:26,800 --> 01:14:30,280
Speaker 2: I have to sue if something goes wrong. I will

1049
01:14:30,280 --> 01:14:32,639
Speaker 2: not take risks. I will not pay for any options

1050
01:14:32,680 --> 01:14:36,519
Speaker 2: I make. I will not make a choice. That is

1051
01:14:36,600 --> 01:14:40,200
Speaker 2: the movement towards the more powerful government, so that I

1052
01:14:40,240 --> 01:14:44,080
Speaker 2: am taken care of from cradle to grave. But what

1053
01:14:44,200 --> 01:14:52,000
Speaker 2: does it produce? It produces boring people. I was with

1054
01:14:52,080 --> 01:14:56,200
Speaker 2: a Danish woman in Washington. She was interviewing me at

1055
01:14:56,200 --> 01:14:59,040
Speaker 2: one of the papers. I said, why did you move?

1056
01:15:00,040 --> 01:15:07,120
Speaker 2: I said, because it's more interesting in America. That's true,

1057
01:15:07,880 --> 01:15:13,200
Speaker 2: because it's so diverse, and because you can fail. If

1058
01:15:13,200 --> 01:15:16,960
Speaker 2: you want to build a civilization with no risk, no

1059
01:15:17,080 --> 01:15:21,240
Speaker 2: cutting of ties to comfort, you can, but you won't

1060
01:15:21,240 --> 01:15:25,679
Speaker 2: be fully human. You will be taken care of in body,

1061
01:15:26,360 --> 01:15:31,599
Speaker 2: but you will die in spirit. You need the chance

1062
01:15:31,800 --> 01:15:37,760
Speaker 2: of risk, you need the chance of cutting off. That's

1063
01:15:37,800 --> 01:15:41,640
Speaker 2: what we gotta do. It's twice now in the first

1064
01:15:42,080 --> 01:15:49,800
Speaker 2: twelve chapters of the Genesis that it's telling you don't

1065
01:15:49,800 --> 01:15:54,960
Speaker 2: get comfortable. Leave your parents. Now what is it here?

1066
01:15:56,400 --> 01:16:01,800
Speaker 2: Leave the city, leave the same language. And what's the

1067
01:16:01,960 --> 01:16:08,519
Speaker 2: first thing? God says to Abraham, leave it all, Leave

1068
01:16:08,560 --> 01:16:13,600
Speaker 2: your father, leave your upbringing, leave your geography, leave everything.

1069
01:16:14,920 --> 01:16:18,280
Speaker 2: You can't be my man if you're going to be

1070
01:16:18,360 --> 01:16:25,600
Speaker 2: comfortable at home. The first words of God to Abraham,

1071
01:16:25,760 --> 01:16:28,240
Speaker 2: and that's the purpose of Genesis up till now, is

1072
01:16:28,280 --> 01:16:32,479
Speaker 2: to lead you to God in Abraham is get out

1073
01:16:32,479 --> 01:16:37,400
Speaker 2: of here, leave your father, leave your roots, go be

1074
01:16:37,520 --> 01:16:42,200
Speaker 2: a man. It's tough to be a man. And I

1075
01:16:42,320 --> 01:16:46,240
Speaker 2: obviously include woman totally in the idea. It's not a

1076
01:16:46,280 --> 01:16:50,880
Speaker 2: genital based statement. It's tough to be a grown up.

1077
01:16:51,479 --> 01:16:56,280
Speaker 2: That's better, I guess, Peter Pan. We all want to

1078
01:16:56,320 --> 01:17:01,599
Speaker 2: stay young and comfortable, say the same things, and think

1079
01:17:01,640 --> 01:17:07,080
Speaker 2: the same things, and feel comfy. And that's not what

1080
01:17:07,120 --> 01:17:12,920
Speaker 2: it was. Genesis is about growing up. That's the incredible

1081
01:17:12,960 --> 01:17:18,280
Speaker 2: story of the city and Tower of Battle, rather different

1082
01:17:18,680 --> 01:17:28,120
Speaker 2: than I learned it as a kid. To bed. All right,

1083
01:17:28,479 --> 01:17:35,200
Speaker 2: we are up to eleven. Ten. Took time out, Remember

1084
01:17:35,240 --> 01:17:38,400
Speaker 2: I told you what chapter ten was, the Table of

1085
01:17:38,520 --> 01:17:41,920
Speaker 2: Nations that came from Noah. Took time out to give

1086
01:17:41,960 --> 01:17:47,720
Speaker 2: you the last three abrahamick story, the story of the

1087
01:17:47,760 --> 01:17:53,080
Speaker 2: City and Tower of Babel. And now in chapter eleven,

1088
01:17:54,760 --> 01:17:57,880
Speaker 2: right afterwards it continues, this is the line of Shen,

1089
01:17:58,560 --> 01:18:00,800
Speaker 2: because this is the only line that matters. The other

1090
01:18:00,840 --> 01:18:03,439
Speaker 2: ones don't matter. Just as you remember, we only learned

1091
01:18:03,439 --> 01:18:08,000
Speaker 2: the line of Abel, and so on. Ex is me

1092
01:18:08,040 --> 01:18:10,600
Speaker 2: not the line of Abel. He had no line. We

1093
01:18:10,920 --> 01:18:17,679
Speaker 2: learned the line of of Set exactly exactly the lines

1094
01:18:17,720 --> 01:18:20,759
Speaker 2: that matter leading to Noah. And here the lines leading

1095
01:18:20,760 --> 01:18:24,160
Speaker 2: to Abraham er what matter. So here we have the

1096
01:18:24,240 --> 01:18:31,679
Speaker 2: lines from Shen, the son of Noah, to Terraf, which

1097
01:18:31,720 --> 01:18:38,240
Speaker 2: you will find at the chapter eleven, verse thirty two.

1098
01:18:38,479 --> 01:18:41,840
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

1099
01:18:47,360 --> 01:18:51,520
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

1100
01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:55,040
Speaker 2: The days of Taraff came to two hundred and five years.

1101
01:18:55,479 --> 01:18:58,200
Speaker 2: And oh but let me tell you before excuse me,

1102
01:18:58,280 --> 01:19:01,760
Speaker 2: let's do here thirty one, Chapter eleven, verse thirty one.

1103
01:19:01,840 --> 01:19:05,880
Speaker 2: Taraf took his son Abram. First mention of Abraham, who

1104
01:19:05,960 --> 01:19:09,280
Speaker 2: is known now as Abram gets a name changed. Later,

1105
01:19:11,120 --> 01:19:15,040
Speaker 2: Taraff took his grandson Abram, his grandson loathed for a lot,

1106
01:19:15,640 --> 01:19:20,439
Speaker 2: as it's anglicized, the son of Haran, and his daughter

1107
01:19:20,479 --> 01:19:24,839
Speaker 2: in law Sarai. That's Sarah's name before her name was changed.

1108
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:29,040
Speaker 2: She's married to Abram, the wife of his son Abram,

1109
01:19:29,160 --> 01:19:32,000
Speaker 2: and they set out together from Or of the Chaldeans,

1110
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:36,880
Speaker 2: which is in about modern Iraq, to the land for

1111
01:19:36,960 --> 01:19:39,760
Speaker 2: the land of Canan. But when they had come as

1112
01:19:39,760 --> 01:19:44,320
Speaker 2: far as Haran, they settled there. The days of Taroff

1113
01:19:44,400 --> 01:19:47,200
Speaker 2: came to two hundred and five years, and Taraff died

1114
01:19:47,240 --> 01:19:55,920
Speaker 2: in Haran. The next sentence, I'll never forget when Leonard

1115
01:19:55,960 --> 01:20:00,320
Speaker 2: Bernstein gave a lecture on Beethoven at Harvard. I think

1116
01:20:00,360 --> 01:20:06,040
Speaker 2: it's the unanswered question. But I heard him say, all

1117
01:20:06,080 --> 01:20:10,040
Speaker 2: of music was changed with the first chord of the

1118
01:20:10,080 --> 01:20:14,439
Speaker 2: Third Symphony of Beethoven. All of a sudden you have

1119
01:20:15,200 --> 01:20:21,040
Speaker 2: the relatively calm and ordered world classical and Baroque and

1120
01:20:21,120 --> 01:20:24,439
Speaker 2: Rococo music. And then all of a sudden in the

1121
01:20:24,479 --> 01:20:31,320
Speaker 2: third Symphony. Mmmmmm, God, he eat up through the land

1122
01:20:31,360 --> 01:20:35,439
Speaker 2: that I will show you. See he had stopped in Haran.

1123
01:20:37,680 --> 01:20:40,080
Speaker 2: If God wasn't pleased with that, he shouldn't have stopped.

1124
01:20:40,640 --> 01:20:46,040
Speaker 2: Get up and go leave everything by the way. Guess

1125
01:20:46,080 --> 01:20:50,680
Speaker 2: how old Abraham was when God told him to move on.

1126
01:20:53,880 --> 01:20:56,519
Speaker 2: I would assume most people would think he was a

1127
01:20:56,520 --> 01:21:04,920
Speaker 2: young or young middle aged man. Seventy five seventy five

1128
01:21:05,520 --> 01:21:07,400
Speaker 2: I have something to say about that in a moment.

1129
01:21:08,160 --> 01:21:11,000
Speaker 2: But this is the point that I wanted to make,

1130
01:21:11,280 --> 01:21:17,800
Speaker 2: or I did make earlier. This is the only way

1131
01:21:17,840 --> 01:21:21,880
Speaker 2: to grow is to get up. By the way, it's

1132
01:21:21,920 --> 01:21:24,640
Speaker 2: a problem. Does that mean your kids should move to

1133
01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:28,720
Speaker 2: New York Milwaukee? I'm serious, it is a problem. I

1134
01:21:28,760 --> 01:21:33,400
Speaker 2: don't have the answer. I can tell you, though, that

1135
01:21:33,560 --> 01:21:37,200
Speaker 2: all of you moved to California. I would say, the

1136
01:21:37,240 --> 01:21:41,120
Speaker 2: percentage of you born here is very, very small. I'll

1137
01:21:41,120 --> 01:21:44,120
Speaker 2: never forget. This was one of the priceless calls in

1138
01:21:44,200 --> 01:21:48,519
Speaker 2: ten years of radio. A woman calls up, said, you

1139
01:21:48,560 --> 01:21:52,360
Speaker 2: know a Dennis. I went back home to Indiana, and

1140
01:21:52,439 --> 01:21:54,599
Speaker 2: I'd say this woman, I was about thirty five, forty

1141
01:21:54,640 --> 01:21:57,840
Speaker 2: years old. I went back home to Indiana, Dennis, and

1142
01:21:58,080 --> 01:22:02,200
Speaker 2: I saw the family and the life back there, and

1143
01:22:02,479 --> 01:22:06,800
Speaker 2: it's really better. You know, everybody knows each other and

1144
01:22:06,840 --> 01:22:11,440
Speaker 2: it's just a beautiful thing. So after she waxed euphoric

1145
01:22:11,520 --> 01:22:16,400
Speaker 2: about it, I said, I'm just curious, why'd you move?

1146
01:22:17,640 --> 01:22:22,280
Speaker 2: I said, Wow, my mother totally ruled my life. And

1147
01:22:22,320 --> 01:22:25,120
Speaker 2: then she goes in as if she forgot every word

1148
01:22:25,200 --> 01:22:28,519
Speaker 2: she had just said about how miserable it was back

1149
01:22:28,560 --> 01:22:34,160
Speaker 2: in Indiana. I started laughing, don't you hear what you're

1150
01:22:34,240 --> 01:22:39,280
Speaker 2: saying to You're right, I've forgotten that she had forgotten

1151
01:22:39,320 --> 01:22:43,439
Speaker 2: why she moved. I'm not saying everybody has to move.

1152
01:22:44,560 --> 01:22:51,400
Speaker 2: I don't. My kid moves, I'll kill him. But but

1153
01:22:53,360 --> 01:22:57,880
Speaker 2: it's a very tough issue. It's tough emotionally. But we

1154
01:22:58,120 --> 01:23:01,680
Speaker 2: are supposed as parents not to raise our children. We're

1155
01:23:01,720 --> 01:23:07,680
Speaker 2: supposed to raise adults. That's a tough thing for a

1156
01:23:07,760 --> 01:23:11,360
Speaker 2: parent to swallow, because if they are adults, they leave.

1157
01:23:12,200 --> 01:23:16,200
Speaker 2: That's the way it works. The adults don't stay home.

1158
01:23:17,360 --> 01:23:20,200
Speaker 2: And if the kid does stay home to a certain age,

1159
01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:26,080
Speaker 2: you're not so thrilled. It's not the way the order

1160
01:23:26,120 --> 01:23:31,519
Speaker 2: of the universe was made to be. And so with

1161
01:23:31,680 --> 01:23:37,960
Speaker 2: the ultimate unique individual, Thus far Abraham, the statement is made.

1162
01:23:38,680 --> 01:23:43,680
Speaker 2: Get up and start anew leave to the place that

1163
01:23:43,800 --> 01:23:47,200
Speaker 2: I will show you. Here's the sixty four thousand dollars

1164
01:23:47,240 --> 01:23:54,880
Speaker 2: question of the whole Torah. Why did God pick Abraham?

1165
01:23:54,920 --> 01:24:00,960
Speaker 2: And if you know that you're better than me? I

1166
01:24:01,080 --> 01:24:04,080
Speaker 2: have been battling with this issue as long as I

1167
01:24:04,160 --> 01:24:09,000
Speaker 2: have been thinking about this stuff, which is my whole life.

1168
01:24:09,200 --> 01:24:12,880
Speaker 2: You know that the Jewish tradition also battles with it

1169
01:24:13,720 --> 01:24:17,200
Speaker 2: to the extent that when I was a kid, I

1170
01:24:17,280 --> 01:24:20,760
Speaker 2: didn't learn Torres straight from the I learned it from stories,

1171
01:24:20,840 --> 01:24:22,920
Speaker 2: as most kids do early. You don't go straight to

1172
01:24:23,000 --> 01:24:27,320
Speaker 2: the source. He gets Bible story books. Well, unfortunately, And

1173
01:24:27,360 --> 01:24:32,240
Speaker 2: I say that with I say that understanding what I'm saying.

1174
01:24:33,240 --> 01:24:38,559
Speaker 2: In traditional Jewish education Orthodox Jewish education, they put in

1175
01:24:39,000 --> 01:24:45,000
Speaker 2: rabbinic agadog legends of the rabbis in with the Torah story,

1176
01:24:45,080 --> 01:24:48,760
Speaker 2: and you don't know which is legend. And legends are

1177
01:24:48,880 --> 01:24:54,639
Speaker 2: very very deeply powerful and worthwhile they're just not literally true,

1178
01:24:54,800 --> 01:24:58,719
Speaker 2: they are ways of understanding the text, filling in the gas.

1179
01:24:59,120 --> 01:25:02,639
Speaker 2: There's no greater gap in the Torah than the gap

1180
01:25:02,680 --> 01:25:06,800
Speaker 2: between Tarak lived two hundred and five and God said

1181
01:25:06,840 --> 01:25:11,040
Speaker 2: to Abrahm get out of your father's land house, etc.

1182
01:25:12,520 --> 01:25:15,200
Speaker 2: It's almost like, hold on, I don't know, you know,

1183
01:25:15,240 --> 01:25:18,920
Speaker 2: you look at the numbers. It's missing. Where is the

1184
01:25:19,080 --> 01:25:20,840
Speaker 2: miss Okay? Why did he Why did he pick Abra?

1185
01:25:20,920 --> 01:25:24,559
Speaker 2: Why not? Why not noth or why is enough or

1186
01:25:24,560 --> 01:25:28,240
Speaker 2: the father of Judaism and the father of Monotheism? Why

1187
01:25:28,760 --> 01:25:37,000
Speaker 2: why Abraham? So I have some thoughts. Thought one, the

1188
01:25:37,040 --> 01:25:42,919
Speaker 2: text is silent now, but not afterwards. We learn about

1189
01:25:43,200 --> 01:25:47,160
Speaker 2: Abraham later, and the more you know about him, the

1190
01:25:47,160 --> 01:25:50,400
Speaker 2: more you have an understanding as to why he might

1191
01:25:50,400 --> 01:25:53,240
Speaker 2: have been picked. Okay, we'll talk about that when we

1192
01:25:53,280 --> 01:25:56,559
Speaker 2: get to it. It's the opposite, by the way, with Moses.

1193
01:25:57,840 --> 01:26:01,719
Speaker 2: God picks Moses, but you know exactly why God picks

1194
01:26:01,760 --> 01:26:07,719
Speaker 2: Moses after his terrific three things that he does, which

1195
01:26:07,880 --> 01:26:12,360
Speaker 2: killing the Egyptian, helping the girls and uh and uh

1196
01:26:12,520 --> 01:26:16,280
Speaker 2: oh and getting in when two Jews are arguing and

1197
01:26:16,439 --> 01:26:19,760
Speaker 2: dropped stopping the fight. In other words, you find out

1198
01:26:19,840 --> 01:26:26,080
Speaker 2: things about him, but you know nothing nothing about Abram.

1199
01:26:26,120 --> 01:26:30,160
Speaker 2: Now you also, by the way, know why God chows

1200
01:26:30,160 --> 01:26:32,800
Speaker 2: Noah says, cause he was at Sadik. If it we

1201
01:26:32,960 --> 01:26:35,599
Speaker 2: just would have said one sentence, and God saw that

1202
01:26:35,600 --> 01:26:39,000
Speaker 2: Abram was at Sadik a righteous man and then said leave,

1203
01:26:39,240 --> 01:26:43,120
Speaker 2: we'd have no question says nothing. The silence has to

1204
01:26:43,120 --> 01:26:49,120
Speaker 2: be deliberate. So this is my thought. Why did God

1205
01:26:49,200 --> 01:26:54,719
Speaker 2: choose the Jews is a similar question. It's not because

1206
01:26:54,760 --> 01:26:59,320
Speaker 2: of intrinsic merity. In fact, the Torres says, as I

1207
01:26:59,520 --> 01:27:03,800
Speaker 2: decided earlier. That Toras says, it is not because of

1208
01:27:03,920 --> 01:27:10,840
Speaker 2: anything you did that I have chosen you. Therefore, too,

1209
01:27:12,439 --> 01:27:16,080
Speaker 2: I think that we can understand why there is a

1210
01:27:16,320 --> 01:27:22,559
Speaker 2: sensitive arbitrariness in choosing a If Abram were a truly

1211
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:27,200
Speaker 2: righteous person and the Jews come from Abraham, the Jews

1212
01:27:27,240 --> 01:27:31,559
Speaker 2: could have said we're better than non Jews because we

1213
01:27:31,720 --> 01:27:37,120
Speaker 2: come from the best ancestor. And I am convinced. I

1214
01:27:37,240 --> 01:27:40,040
Speaker 2: never read this anywhere, but I am convinced that that

1215
01:27:40,200 --> 01:27:45,480
Speaker 2: is the reason that he is simply picked. Nothing positive

1216
01:27:45,640 --> 01:27:49,640
Speaker 2: is said about nothing is told about him. He's a

1217
01:27:49,720 --> 01:27:54,840
Speaker 2: human being who was chosen could be totally randomly as

1218
01:27:54,880 --> 01:27:58,960
Speaker 2: far as the text is concerned. That is how deeply

1219
01:27:59,120 --> 01:28:01,559
Speaker 2: I already showed it to you earlier. When Shem is

1220
01:28:01,600 --> 01:28:05,160
Speaker 2: not blessed only God. Is that that Torah doesn't want

1221
01:28:05,240 --> 01:28:10,360
Speaker 2: Jews to think they're intrinsically better than anybody. Isn't that

1222
01:28:10,400 --> 01:28:14,280
Speaker 2: something we're told that Noah was good because the whole

1223
01:28:14,360 --> 01:28:18,759
Speaker 2: world comes from Noah. But the Jews come from Abraham,

1224
01:28:19,120 --> 01:28:22,320
Speaker 2: and no Jew can never walk around. Our ancestors are better.

1225
01:28:23,160 --> 01:28:28,640
Speaker 2: No way, he was picked for no reason whatsoever. Is

1226
01:28:28,720 --> 01:28:32,840
Speaker 2: exactly what the Torah is bending backward to say to us.

1227
01:28:34,479 --> 01:28:38,080
Speaker 2: I love that, I love the idea, and I love

1228
01:28:38,160 --> 01:28:42,640
Speaker 2: the Torah for doing it. The total loathing of the

1229
01:28:42,720 --> 01:28:48,439
Speaker 2: idea of any intrinsic superiority or inferiority of any group,

1230
01:28:50,640 --> 01:28:57,880
Speaker 2: because there is no more evil doctrine than racial supremacy, none,

1231
01:28:58,600 --> 01:29:01,320
Speaker 2: because it means that the people who are not a

1232
01:29:01,400 --> 01:29:07,560
Speaker 2: member of your race can never change. They are intrinsically bad.

1233
01:29:09,760 --> 01:29:14,200
Speaker 2: Whether it is white racism, black racism, or any racism.

1234
01:29:15,040 --> 01:29:20,080
Speaker 2: It is the worst possible idea. You are intrinsically inferior,

1235
01:29:20,200 --> 01:29:27,000
Speaker 2: I may therefore destroy you. Auschwitz was impossible without racial

1236
01:29:27,080 --> 01:29:34,360
Speaker 2: anti semitism. Regular anti semitism didn't produce extermination. You need

1237
01:29:34,520 --> 01:29:39,400
Speaker 2: racial anti semitism to produce it. Check my book Why

1238
01:29:39,439 --> 01:29:42,360
Speaker 2: the Jews Like a big chapter on what the difference

1239
01:29:42,400 --> 01:29:47,720
Speaker 2: between Nazi antisemitism and all previous anti semitism was. In

1240
01:29:47,880 --> 01:29:52,960
Speaker 2: all previous anti semitism, if a Jew converted to the

1241
01:29:53,040 --> 01:29:58,120
Speaker 2: anti semis thinking, he was accepted the next day. But

1242
01:29:58,280 --> 01:30:03,200
Speaker 2: in racial anti semitism that you can never change. That

1243
01:30:03,320 --> 01:30:05,840
Speaker 2: is why it is so dangerous when you have a

1244
01:30:06,000 --> 01:30:12,000
Speaker 2: Jeffreys teaching black racism. That melanin determines the content of

1245
01:30:12,040 --> 01:30:16,680
Speaker 2: your character, the amount of skin melanin that determines your

1246
01:30:16,720 --> 01:30:21,280
Speaker 2: blackness or whiteness, because you can never change, and therefore

1247
01:30:21,280 --> 01:30:24,320
Speaker 2: you have nothing to do. Just as the different race

1248
01:30:24,439 --> 01:30:29,519
Speaker 2: can never be good, you can never be bad because

1249
01:30:29,520 --> 01:30:33,360
Speaker 2: of your ranks. It undermines everything God wants in this world,

1250
01:30:34,800 --> 01:30:41,479
Speaker 2: that values be supreme, that people be better. That's why

1251
01:30:41,560 --> 01:30:50,360
Speaker 2: I am convinced nothing is said about Abraham. Next question,

1252
01:30:55,040 --> 01:30:59,679
Speaker 2: how did God speak to Abraham? This I'll conclude tonight.

1253
01:31:01,640 --> 01:31:07,480
Speaker 2: How did God speak to Abraham? And by the way,

1254
01:31:08,240 --> 01:31:12,840
Speaker 2: it helps look at the questions slightly differently of why

1255
01:31:12,840 --> 01:31:16,959
Speaker 2: did God choose Abraham? Why did God speak to Abraham

1256
01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:20,920
Speaker 2: and not his brother Knackho, I would argue the following.

1257
01:31:22,000 --> 01:31:28,120
Speaker 2: God speaks to those who are capable of hearing. If

1258
01:31:28,160 --> 01:31:31,639
Speaker 2: there is an intrinsic worth to Abraham, it is totally

1259
01:31:31,720 --> 01:31:34,719
Speaker 2: to be inferred. It is not stated by the Torah.

1260
01:31:36,160 --> 01:31:41,559
Speaker 2: Here was a person who could hear God say leave

1261
01:31:42,120 --> 01:31:48,160
Speaker 2: everything comfortable at the age of seventy five. Most people

1262
01:31:48,400 --> 01:31:51,880
Speaker 2: don't hear those things, and if they hear it, they

1263
01:31:51,880 --> 01:31:55,400
Speaker 2: would check their hearing. They would go to a psychiatrist.

1264
01:31:58,240 --> 01:32:03,320
Speaker 2: Does God speak to people? I can't answer it absolutely

1265
01:32:03,400 --> 01:32:07,320
Speaker 2: yes or no, but it strikes me that God does

1266
01:32:07,360 --> 01:32:12,160
Speaker 2: speak to people. And the question can we hear I

1267
01:32:12,200 --> 01:32:14,599
Speaker 2: would say to you it is very analogous to music.

1268
01:32:15,840 --> 01:32:20,920
Speaker 2: When I play Heiten favorite for the last five years,

1269
01:32:21,880 --> 01:32:25,879
Speaker 2: the dogs are often around me in the house. To dogs,

1270
01:32:27,200 --> 01:32:33,840
Speaker 2: they hear it too. Dogs have very good here. I

1271
01:32:33,960 --> 01:32:38,320
Speaker 2: don't think they hear Heiden. They hear noise from the speakers.

1272
01:32:42,680 --> 01:32:45,120
Speaker 2: I would say that a lot of us are like that.

1273
01:32:45,280 --> 01:32:51,120
Speaker 2: We hear noise or static or nothing. But if you

1274
01:32:51,160 --> 01:32:54,519
Speaker 2: can really really listen, maybe you can hear God in

1275
01:32:54,560 --> 01:32:57,800
Speaker 2: your life. That's how I would have to argue on

1276
01:32:58,439 --> 01:33:02,800
Speaker 2: this basis. I would also argue one other thing that

1277
01:33:02,840 --> 01:33:08,960
Speaker 2: God will particularly directly speak to not everyone, the same

1278
01:33:10,360 --> 01:33:13,360
Speaker 2: as a dear friend of mine, a Catholic former priest,

1279
01:33:13,439 --> 01:33:17,599
Speaker 2: once said to me, God is not a democrat. Small, deep, small.

1280
01:33:17,920 --> 01:33:23,200
Speaker 2: He was not making a looking message. God does not

1281
01:33:23,400 --> 01:33:26,920
Speaker 2: get voted in. God does not vote, have people vote

1282
01:33:27,000 --> 01:33:31,880
Speaker 2: what he should do. He picks as he wishes, and

1283
01:33:32,160 --> 01:33:38,240
Speaker 2: he picks certain people for certain roles. And if you

1284
01:33:38,320 --> 01:33:42,599
Speaker 2: are going to affect many, you are picked. By the way,

1285
01:33:42,800 --> 01:33:45,719
Speaker 2: you will know that even if you're an atheist. Jonas

1286
01:33:45,760 --> 01:33:52,360
Speaker 2: Salk was picked by Genes to find the polio vaccine right.

1287
01:33:52,520 --> 01:33:55,280
Speaker 2: That's not democratic. Why didn't he pick me? Why didn't

1288
01:33:55,320 --> 01:33:59,840
Speaker 2: Jeans pick me? Didn't work out? Picked somebody else. And

1289
01:33:59,920 --> 01:34:02,880
Speaker 2: believe me, you are all happy as I am that

1290
01:34:02,960 --> 01:34:05,919
Speaker 2: at least somebody was chosen for the role of finding

1291
01:34:06,560 --> 01:34:16,680
Speaker 2: the polio vaccine. So God spoke two more verses, and

1292
01:34:16,760 --> 01:34:21,040
Speaker 2: we're done. Twelve three mere, justreat him in English. I

1293
01:34:21,080 --> 01:34:23,000
Speaker 2: will make of you a great nation, and I will

1294
01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:26,000
Speaker 2: bless you. I will make your name great, and you

1295
01:34:26,040 --> 01:34:29,360
Speaker 2: shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you,

1296
01:34:29,600 --> 01:34:32,879
Speaker 2: and curse him that curses you, and all the families

1297
01:34:32,880 --> 01:34:38,160
Speaker 2: of the earth shall bless themselves by you. And Abraham

1298
01:34:38,200 --> 01:34:41,360
Speaker 2: went forth as the Lord had commanded him, and went

1299
01:34:41,400 --> 01:34:44,920
Speaker 2: with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he

1300
01:34:45,040 --> 01:34:51,759
Speaker 2: left Haram. A few words on these sentences, and we're done. First,

1301
01:34:55,600 --> 01:34:58,880
Speaker 2: God challenges Abraham's faith a number of times in Genesis.

1302
01:34:58,920 --> 01:35:03,600
Speaker 2: This is the first. Leave everything you're comfortable with and

1303
01:35:03,680 --> 01:35:07,200
Speaker 2: go where. I tell you need a lot of faith

1304
01:35:07,240 --> 01:35:10,320
Speaker 2: in God that you're hearing God in order to leave

1305
01:35:10,360 --> 01:35:13,799
Speaker 2: everything that you're comfortable with and just move on. Especially

1306
01:35:13,840 --> 01:35:17,000
Speaker 2: when you're seventy five, it's easier to move on and

1307
01:35:17,080 --> 01:35:20,400
Speaker 2: hear God and leave roots. When you're and seventy five,

1308
01:35:22,680 --> 01:35:24,920
Speaker 2: I will bless those who bless you, and curse those

1309
01:35:24,920 --> 01:35:28,120
Speaker 2: who curse you. Excuse me, and curse him who curses you.

1310
01:35:29,000 --> 01:35:33,200
Speaker 2: Ones in plural, ones insigular. I would argue to you

1311
01:35:33,320 --> 01:35:35,639
Speaker 2: that that is exactly what has happened in history. Those

1312
01:35:35,640 --> 01:35:37,759
Speaker 2: who have blessed the Jews have been blessed by God,

1313
01:35:38,200 --> 01:35:40,040
Speaker 2: and those who have cursed the Jews have been cursed

1314
01:35:40,040 --> 01:35:45,240
Speaker 2: by God. I would say that generally speaking, very few

1315
01:35:45,320 --> 01:35:49,920
Speaker 2: Jews believe in, but Evangelical Christians nearly all believe them.

1316
01:35:50,920 --> 01:35:54,200
Speaker 2: God bless them. I will never forget when Jerry Fowell

1317
01:35:54,280 --> 01:35:56,920
Speaker 2: said during the Arab boil embargo after the on Kipper

1318
01:35:57,000 --> 01:35:59,639
Speaker 2: War in nineteen seventy three, I heard it with mine

1319
01:35:59,680 --> 01:36:05,960
Speaker 2: own years on television when people were buckling under on

1320
01:36:06,160 --> 01:36:09,120
Speaker 2: the under the Arab oil embargo and worried, where will

1321
01:36:09,160 --> 01:36:11,680
Speaker 2: what will happen? We won't navely use our cards or

1322
01:36:11,760 --> 01:36:16,000
Speaker 2: up the gold without oil, And he said to his

1323
01:36:16,200 --> 01:36:22,040
Speaker 2: church on television. I almost memorize that it's virtually like this.

1324
01:36:23,240 --> 01:36:29,000
Speaker 2: I will much sooner and happily ride a bicycle than

1325
01:36:29,080 --> 01:36:31,800
Speaker 2: give in to the Arab oil embargo. And I will

1326
01:36:31,840 --> 01:36:38,320
Speaker 2: tell you, my fellow Christian's wife and excited Genesis twelve three,

1327
01:36:38,960 --> 01:36:42,160
Speaker 2: I will bless those who bless you, and curse him

1328
01:36:42,240 --> 01:36:45,960
Speaker 2: that curses you. And that, my dear friends, has been history.

1329
01:36:48,200 --> 01:36:52,800
Speaker 2: You know why you know about Babel because of the

1330
01:36:52,960 --> 01:36:57,919
Speaker 2: Tower of Babel? Is that a joke? The strongest country

1331
01:36:58,160 --> 01:37:01,479
Speaker 2: in the ancient dearies? That five and how do you

1332
01:37:01,560 --> 01:37:04,719
Speaker 2: know about it, by and large from this tiny group

1333
01:37:04,760 --> 01:37:07,639
Speaker 2: of Jews who wrote about it later. The bigger joke

1334
01:37:07,720 --> 01:37:11,560
Speaker 2: is Pharaoh. The only reason that Pharaoh is a household

1335
01:37:11,560 --> 01:37:15,639
Speaker 2: word is because the Jews made him a household word,

1336
01:37:16,240 --> 01:37:20,320
Speaker 2: the group you wanted to get rid of. This fanny

1337
01:37:20,360 --> 01:37:23,200
Speaker 2: little group is the only reason everybody in the world

1338
01:37:23,320 --> 01:37:27,360
Speaker 2: heard of Pharaoh. Today, only Egyptologists would have ever heard

1339
01:37:27,400 --> 01:37:30,040
Speaker 2: the name Pharaoh. And you know, those who were interested

1340
01:37:30,360 --> 01:37:34,400
Speaker 2: in ancient Egypt. The Jews put Pharaoh on the map,

1341
01:37:34,760 --> 01:37:37,760
Speaker 2: but as a bad guy, not as a demi god,

1342
01:37:37,800 --> 01:37:43,640
Speaker 2: which he thought he was Nebkadnezzar. The only way you

1343
01:37:43,720 --> 01:37:49,040
Speaker 2: know about him Jewish history and in the modern times,

1344
01:37:49,960 --> 01:37:55,240
Speaker 2: the Nazis cursed the Jews. Germany was virtually leveled in

1345
01:37:55,280 --> 01:37:59,240
Speaker 2: good parts of it, divided four let's see, what was

1346
01:37:59,280 --> 01:38:03,559
Speaker 2: it forty five almost fifty years, forty five years divided,

1347
01:38:04,120 --> 01:38:07,320
Speaker 2: find it very difficult to assimilate its other half. Now

1348
01:38:08,240 --> 01:38:13,479
Speaker 2: the name Germany will be for generations the first thing

1349
01:38:13,560 --> 01:38:16,800
Speaker 2: many people will associate it is still Hitler in the Holocaust,

1350
01:38:17,360 --> 01:38:20,040
Speaker 2: no matter how many nice German, and there are plenty

1351
01:38:20,080 --> 01:38:22,720
Speaker 2: of nice Germans there will be. It has been a

1352
01:38:22,760 --> 01:38:28,400
Speaker 2: cursed name, a cursed name Spain for five hundred years.

1353
01:38:28,400 --> 01:38:33,600
Speaker 2: Spain was the leader of Europe at the time that

1354
01:38:33,680 --> 01:38:37,759
Speaker 2: had expelled the Jews, and it sank for five hundred

1355
01:38:37,840 --> 01:38:42,799
Speaker 2: years after the expulsion. The King of Spain just mentioned

1356
01:38:42,800 --> 01:38:51,120
Speaker 2: that not this Jew. The Soviet Union, communist anti Semitism

1357
01:38:51,520 --> 01:38:56,160
Speaker 2: the most prolonged attempt to destroy Judaism in any one period,

1358
01:38:56,960 --> 01:39:02,800
Speaker 2: from nineteen seventeen to nineteen ninety. And boy am i

1359
01:39:02,960 --> 01:39:06,639
Speaker 2: proud I wrote in the Russian edition of my book

1360
01:39:06,680 --> 01:39:12,719
Speaker 2: the Nine Questions people ask about Judaism years ago, I wrote,

1361
01:39:12,920 --> 01:39:17,639
Speaker 2: And it's in Russian And it was in Russia. When

1362
01:39:19,360 --> 01:39:24,880
Speaker 2: when Marxism will be studied as a twentieth century totalitarian aberration,

1363
01:39:25,880 --> 01:39:29,160
Speaker 2: Jews will still be living Judaism. I have no idea

1364
01:39:29,240 --> 01:39:32,280
Speaker 2: what happened so soon. But I had no doubt that

1365
01:39:32,360 --> 01:39:36,320
Speaker 2: it would happen, that the Jews would survive the Soviet Union.

1366
01:39:37,400 --> 01:39:42,799
Speaker 2: It was cursed. And I'll give you one more contemporary example,

1367
01:39:43,240 --> 01:39:48,240
Speaker 2: the Arab world. The most anti Semitism today is to

1368
01:39:48,520 --> 01:39:51,719
Speaker 2: an organized fashion is to be found in the Arab world.

1369
01:39:52,400 --> 01:39:55,040
Speaker 2: It is the only part of the world today not

1370
01:39:55,080 --> 01:40:00,280
Speaker 2: moving to democracy. And I swear to you as life

1371
01:40:00,320 --> 01:40:05,639
Speaker 2: goes on, the two are intrinsically related. If they make

1372
01:40:05,680 --> 01:40:09,880
Speaker 2: peace with Israel, they will be unleashed forces of democratization

1373
01:40:10,080 --> 01:40:15,800
Speaker 2: in their own world. You cannot be You cannot hate

1374
01:40:15,840 --> 01:40:20,160
Speaker 2: the Jews and run a good society. Ever happened, it

1375
01:40:20,240 --> 01:40:27,400
Speaker 2: will not happen. So it's come out true. Through you,

1376
01:40:27,479 --> 01:40:30,400
Speaker 2: all the families of the earth will be blessed. Not

1377
01:40:30,600 --> 01:40:35,160
Speaker 2: through you, your families will be blessed, Abraham, all the

1378
01:40:35,200 --> 01:40:40,439
Speaker 2: families of the earth. The Jewish role is entirely a

1379
01:40:40,600 --> 01:40:44,880
Speaker 2: universal one. Make me God known to the world, and

1380
01:40:45,040 --> 01:40:48,680
Speaker 2: through you all humanity will be blessed. I am not

1381
01:40:48,840 --> 01:40:54,559
Speaker 2: just the Jews God. By the way, it was a

1382
01:40:54,560 --> 01:40:57,720
Speaker 2: big act of faith. Imagine how Abraham felt at the

1383
01:40:57,720 --> 01:40:59,960
Speaker 2: age of seventy five hearing that'll be a big nation

1384
01:41:00,040 --> 01:41:04,880
Speaker 2: and he had no kids. It wasn't like he was

1385
01:41:04,880 --> 01:41:08,519
Speaker 2: married to a forty five year old excuse me, thirty

1386
01:41:08,520 --> 01:41:20,000
Speaker 2: five twenty five year old? She was his contemporary final word.

1387
01:41:21,200 --> 01:41:23,439
Speaker 2: He was seventy five when God gave him the call.

1388
01:41:24,840 --> 01:41:26,519
Speaker 2: May I tell you. One of the things that I

1389
01:41:26,560 --> 01:41:31,639
Speaker 2: find singly, uniquely annoying as I speak to people all over,

1390
01:41:33,160 --> 01:41:35,400
Speaker 2: it's when an older person will come over to me

1391
01:41:35,479 --> 01:41:38,960
Speaker 2: and say the following. I really like what you said.

1392
01:41:40,040 --> 01:41:42,240
Speaker 2: But if it's the youth that has to hear you

1393
01:41:43,040 --> 01:41:48,519
Speaker 2: because we're too old change, let me say publicly to

1394
01:41:48,600 --> 01:41:52,320
Speaker 2: any older person who feels that, if you ever meet me,

1395
01:41:52,880 --> 01:41:58,160
Speaker 2: please don't say that. I find it depressing and contemptible.

1396
01:41:59,320 --> 01:42:02,120
Speaker 2: I find it depressing because I intend on getting old,

1397
01:42:03,080 --> 01:42:05,040
Speaker 2: and if I will not be able to change when

1398
01:42:05,040 --> 01:42:08,120
Speaker 2: I am old, I ask God publicly to remove me

1399
01:42:08,439 --> 01:42:11,439
Speaker 2: at the age I can't change any longer, because then

1400
01:42:11,560 --> 01:42:15,600
Speaker 2: all I will be doing is consuming and relieving myself.

1401
01:42:17,320 --> 01:42:20,919
Speaker 2: I find it contemptible because it is an anti human statement.

1402
01:42:21,720 --> 01:42:24,400
Speaker 2: It means that you're an animal who was simply a

1403
01:42:24,400 --> 01:42:29,639
Speaker 2: little more sophisticated. Animals can change, and the elderly can change.

1404
01:42:30,000 --> 01:42:33,479
Speaker 2: Now what you're telling me, why do you think it

1405
01:42:33,600 --> 01:42:36,720
Speaker 2: said that Abraham was seventy five? What's the point in

1406
01:42:36,800 --> 01:42:41,200
Speaker 2: saying the verse after he's told to leave everything? Of course,

1407
01:42:41,240 --> 01:42:45,599
Speaker 2: it's never too late. The rabbis of the town would

1408
01:42:45,640 --> 01:42:48,559
Speaker 2: say the same thing, you know, when he became Jewish

1409
01:42:48,600 --> 01:42:53,120
Speaker 2: officially circumcised age of ninety nine, quite a time ago.

1410
01:42:53,360 --> 01:42:58,120
Speaker 2: Undergo circumcision, and they did not have local anesthetics in

1411
01:42:58,160 --> 01:43:03,360
Speaker 2: those days. And the town Wood says, it's to teach

1412
01:43:03,720 --> 01:43:06,760
Speaker 2: that no one should ever say I'm too old to

1413
01:43:06,840 --> 01:43:11,960
Speaker 2: become a Jew. It's never too old. What kind of

1414
01:43:12,120 --> 01:43:15,200
Speaker 2: nonsense I will say this. I am convinced that a

1415
01:43:15,200 --> 01:43:18,080
Speaker 2: person of seventy five who says it's too old to change,

1416
01:43:18,439 --> 01:43:22,080
Speaker 2: was in capable able to change at thirty five. I

1417
01:43:22,240 --> 01:43:25,120
Speaker 2: don't believe that you could lead a life capable of

1418
01:43:25,160 --> 01:43:27,840
Speaker 2: growth and then one day stop being capable of it.

1419
01:43:28,439 --> 01:43:32,640
Speaker 2: I find that it is not logical, and things not

1420
01:43:32,760 --> 01:43:36,400
Speaker 2: logical don't happen. That is a great lesson.

1421
01:43:38,120 --> 01:43:42,400
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit Dennispragger

1422
01:43:42,479 --> 01:43:46,000
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1423
01:43:46,040 --> 01:43:50,680
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's rational Bibles,