WEBVTT - Jacob's New Name - Genesis 35:1-35:29

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<v Speaker 1>Life Audio on today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.

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<v Speaker 2>You'd think if you had met God, God would not

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<v Speaker 2>have to reintroduce himself to you. Think about it, right,

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<v Speaker 2>If God spoke to me, said, Denist, you remember me,

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<v Speaker 2>don't you? No? I just don't. I've been so involved

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<v Speaker 2>with my work, I just don't remember. It seems silly,

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<v Speaker 2>doesn't it. Think about it for a moment.

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<v Speaker 1>That's coming off on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome

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<v Speaker 1>to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours

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<v Speaker 1>of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to

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<v Speaker 1>purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to Dennisprager dot com.

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<v Speaker 2>Kyle, I have good news and I have bad news.

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<v Speaker 2>The bad news is the uh, there is nothing terribly

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<v Speaker 2>rich in today's chapter. The good news is I can

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<v Speaker 2>come up with anything. There's a lot of truth to

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<v Speaker 2>what I just said, and it's a little disturbing. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>anybody have any thoughts on the rape of Dina? How

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<v Speaker 2>did she get out of the house? Jacob Brown a

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<v Speaker 2>very liberal home. Listen, if you had ten kids, you're

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<v Speaker 2>going to keep an eye on all of them. I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>it's or is that eleven at that time, the only daughter.

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<v Speaker 2>That's right? No, you know what the truth is. It

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<v Speaker 2>is an interesting point because she did a very look,

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<v Speaker 2>it's hard to keep him down on the farm. I mean,

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<v Speaker 2>if she obviously had an independent personality. That was that

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<v Speaker 2>was what I said, was the implication of that very

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<v Speaker 2>first verse, that she went out to see the women

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<v Speaker 2>of the land. On the other hand, on the other hand, too,

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<v Speaker 2>remember in Semitic society, women are allowed to go to

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<v Speaker 2>other women. That is not in itself a terribly audacious act.

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<v Speaker 2>They don't have to stay in the tent or the

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<v Speaker 2>home all day every day. They but normally they should

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<v Speaker 2>be accompanied by a man if they leave the house

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<v Speaker 2>and they're single. That's true. So that part, I mean

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<v Speaker 2>it would have been what would have been incredible was

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<v Speaker 2>and Dina went out to see the men of the land.

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<v Speaker 2>This would have been quite extraordinary.

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<v Speaker 3>Yes, Seshion of conniving Jews us the conniving, And I

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<v Speaker 3>remembered that I was sweavering. Are Jews paying the price

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<v Speaker 3>today because of Jacob's sons?

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<v Speaker 2>Right?

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<v Speaker 3>The sins of Jacob's sons being so denied, Is that

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<v Speaker 3>the beginning of something that that's happen thought of.

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<v Speaker 2>A Yeah, it's a very interesting questions. The jew pays,

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<v Speaker 2>Do Jews pay the price for this conniving reputation that

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<v Speaker 2>the Bible itself really applies to our patron rearchs, or

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<v Speaker 2>at least some of them, or at least Jacob. It's funny.

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<v Speaker 2>The rabbis actually said yes. The rabbi said that, in fact,

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<v Speaker 2>we did pay. The Jewish people did pay a price

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<v Speaker 2>later for it. It is an interesting thing you should raise,

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<v Speaker 2>and its that is unfortunate. The fact of the matter

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<v Speaker 2>is that you know, you know, I am no apologist

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<v Speaker 2>for anybody, and I mean for nobody in the Bible

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<v Speaker 2>and for no ethnic group. But everybody connived, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>it was non conniving is a very rare thing in

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<v Speaker 2>human affairs. What is not it is not remarkable that

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<v Speaker 2>Jacob ever connived, or that his sons did. What is

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<v Speaker 2>remarkable is that the Holy Book of that people should

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<v Speaker 2>admit it and not defend it. That's what's remarkable. That

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<v Speaker 2>Jews would act not so beautifully is not remarkable. Jews

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<v Speaker 2>are human. The remarkable thing, and I've said this on

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<v Speaker 2>a number of occasions, is that our Holy Book would

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<v Speaker 2>in fact acknowledge this and this is unique. As I said,

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<v Speaker 2>the New Testament portrays only beautiful Christians, the the the

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<v Speaker 2>Quran beautiful Muslims. But the Torah does not only portray

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<v Speaker 2>beautiful Jews. It portrays beautiful non Jews as frequently as

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<v Speaker 2>it does beautiful Jews, and ugly Jews as frequently as

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<v Speaker 2>ugly non Jews. It's not a fan, it's not a

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<v Speaker 2>Jew fan the Torah. And we've paid a price, ironically

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<v Speaker 2>for that honesty. I want to welcome you to the

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<v Speaker 2>class pleasure to pleasure to have you, Yes, is even

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<v Speaker 2>more right. She says that the semi stupidity was actually

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<v Speaker 2>more remarkable than the conniving of Gruven and his brothers,

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<v Speaker 2>not necessarily. Did you remember what he promised them all

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<v Speaker 2>this wealth for a couple of days of pain? Do

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<v Speaker 2>you know what people will do for money? I mean, listen,

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<v Speaker 2>what do we all do for money? And I don't

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<v Speaker 2>even mean I don't mean immoral things. They didn't do

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<v Speaker 2>anything immoral. You know. It's like would would you would

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<v Speaker 2>you like to lick a thousand envelopes? No? But if

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<v Speaker 2>I gave you ten thousand dollars, the envelopes would taste

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<v Speaker 2>like chocolate, Sundays. I'm sorry. Oh okay, all right, had

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<v Speaker 2>you been a Chacham male, you would not have offered

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<v Speaker 2>your organ. Okay, what can I say? Yes, Because, like

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<v Speaker 2>you pointed out a la suite, they had to be

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<v Speaker 2>in the first place.

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<v Speaker 4>Or when they when they asked for her hand in.

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<v Speaker 2>Marriage, they had her. They had physical possession of her.

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<v Speaker 2>And like the point out last week too, nothing Jacob,

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<v Speaker 2>and there's nothing Jacob and the Stanley could have done

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<v Speaker 2>about it. And when Scheckham promised, yet you can have

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<v Speaker 2>all their goods, you might not have been like you

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<v Speaker 2>could have taken it if you wanted to. Yes, And

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<v Speaker 2>that's actually the defensive love and not Simeon going and

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<v Speaker 2>killing all the people in that village. That was the

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<v Speaker 2>only way they did get into that. Yes, thank you

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<v Speaker 2>for making that point. Where's the couple who made that

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<v Speaker 2>point at the end of the last session. Yeah, you

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<v Speaker 2>had me thinking for two weeks. This couple over here,

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<v Speaker 2>the ones necking in the eighth row, they are They

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<v Speaker 2>came over afterwards and noted a very good point that

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<v Speaker 2>Dina was still in their possession and the implication is

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<v Speaker 2>that this was the only way they could have saved

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<v Speaker 2>her if that is true. It does offer a defense

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<v Speaker 2>for what is otherwise abominable conduct. I mean, if someone

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<v Speaker 2>kidnapped your doors her and would not let her go

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<v Speaker 2>under under peaceful conditions, you would not be wrong in

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<v Speaker 2>making war upon her captors. That's that's true. If that's

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<v Speaker 2>if that's indeed the case, it's a big if, but

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<v Speaker 2>it's not. It's not an incomprehensible if the text is

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<v Speaker 2>quiet on that and you were right in pointing that out,

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<v Speaker 2>and you're and you're saying that it gets you obviously

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<v Speaker 2>think well of people in it had not to do

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<v Speaker 2>with it. But if they would have killed Chef and

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<v Speaker 2>his father, the people who are guilty of it, or

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<v Speaker 2>Chef the whole day would have killed anyway by the village.

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<v Speaker 2>Because it seems that when you believe, oh no, no,

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<v Speaker 2>what's once they started the deal. That's why I said that.

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<v Speaker 2>I don't believe it's right to blame the two who

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<v Speaker 2>did the killings, Levy and Shimohn. It's not right to

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<v Speaker 2>blame them. Everybody connived in this, because what were they

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<v Speaker 2>going to do? Circumcise them and then and then just

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<v Speaker 2>leave them in that condition, except there is one other

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<v Speaker 2>possible They would circumcise them, take Dina and run away.

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<v Speaker 2>But once these guys recuperated, they would be angrier than

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<v Speaker 2>ever and would have killed the would have killed the family,

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<v Speaker 2>Jacob's family. So the plot from the beginning involved killing.

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<v Speaker 2>The only question is you're what you two wrote raised

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<v Speaker 2>and you raised is was that the only way to

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<v Speaker 2>save her? I hope all of you who were not

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<v Speaker 2>here last week are are you know you're coming in

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<v Speaker 2>the middle of a of a soap opera as it were.

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<v Speaker 2>I hope it's somewhat clear. Very simply, Jacob's daughter, Dina

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<v Speaker 2>was went out and was taken by a schrem and

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<v Speaker 2>uh and she was she was raped, and she was

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<v Speaker 2>kept and but he, the rapist, fell in love with

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<v Speaker 2>her and really did fall in love with her. And

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<v Speaker 2>we had a whole thing on that about how can

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<v Speaker 2>you fall in love with somebody you rape? And and

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<v Speaker 2>it was an interesting thing in and of itself. But

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<v Speaker 2>but that totally notwithstanding, The plot was use let's tell

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<v Speaker 2>them that, oh, yes, we will give you her for

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<v Speaker 2>a daughter, for a wife, just in order to do that,

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<v Speaker 2>in order for us to intermarry we the children of

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<v Speaker 2>Jacob and you schemites, You've got to circumcise your men.

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<v Speaker 2>While they were circumcised and in pain from the healing

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<v Speaker 2>that they were, they were killed and Dina was taken away. Okay,

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<v Speaker 2>that's that's basically what happened, and that's what we're talking about.

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<v Speaker 2>Let me just take a couple of more and then

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<v Speaker 2>I can proceed with today. Yes, sort of all the

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<v Speaker 2>same lines. But the moment that the that they deceived

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<v Speaker 2>their own people in order to circumcize them, that to

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<v Speaker 2>me says that they were no, they were no good mix.

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<v Speaker 2>They didn't keep their end of the bargain anyway by

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<v Speaker 2>promising the Jewish goods.

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<v Speaker 3>And I mean they didn't.

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<v Speaker 2>The children of Jacob didn't keep their bargain. You're saying

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<v Speaker 2>all thees didn't because they said in order to get

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<v Speaker 2>the men, in order to get all they all. That's

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<v Speaker 2>a yes they made with Jacob. So the moment they

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<v Speaker 2>entered into de sit with their own people, that's a

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<v Speaker 2>good point, very good point. Well, not only that smart

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<v Speaker 2>them screwed by the very people who initially it's a

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<v Speaker 2>biblical word. Actually no, the uh, it's a very very

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<v Speaker 2>it's an interesting point. Remember that Schem goes back and

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<v Speaker 2>makes this deal says to his people, all the things

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<v Speaker 2>that they'll get if only they undergo circumcision. Now, he

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<v Speaker 2>would have been in trouble. You see if they if

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<v Speaker 2>they went through with the deal, then they would have

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<v Speaker 2>come back and said, okay, well, where's all the stuff

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<v Speaker 2>you promised uff from the children of Jacob. And then

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<v Speaker 2>the children of Jacob would say, why did you promise them?

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<v Speaker 2>We never made that promise. So they were a corrupt crowd. Yes,

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<v Speaker 2>in fact, it's tell you it's there's a certain interesting

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<v Speaker 2>thing for me personally, because I had really until last

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<v Speaker 2>week and now seen it in a more negative light.

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<v Speaker 2>You're changing my mind. But it's interesting if that's the case,

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<v Speaker 2>that if my mind is being changed, I assume some

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<v Speaker 2>of yours are also. And I recall too that with

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<v Speaker 2>the conniving on the birthright, I also, in the course

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<v Speaker 2>of time, found that there was more to justify what

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<v Speaker 2>Jacob had done. So listen, conniving back to your whereas

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<v Speaker 2>it is back to conniving for a minute. This is

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<v Speaker 2>a large moral issue generally. I wrote an article for

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<v Speaker 2>my journal, which is outside and which you can subscribe

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<v Speaker 2>to and should. I wrote an article a while ago

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<v Speaker 2>and the title was no act is always wrong, because

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<v Speaker 2>I had come to realize in the course of all

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<v Speaker 2>my years on radio that a big part of the

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<v Speaker 2>reason I would often have moral differences with callers was

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<v Speaker 2>over this issue.

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<v Speaker 1>This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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<v Speaker 1>Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

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<v Speaker 2>For example, capital punishment just I'm not going to the

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<v Speaker 2>issue was here, not to make the case for it,

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<v Speaker 2>but I want to explain what I realized was happening.

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<v Speaker 2>I'm for capital punishment for murder. So people would call up,

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<v Speaker 2>and the usual argument, a, how can two wrongs make

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<v Speaker 2>a right? How can you say killing is wrong and

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<v Speaker 2>then kill It's like telling your kid not to slap

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<v Speaker 2>another kid and slapping your kid. And I would make

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<v Speaker 2>all sorts of arguments and so on, and then I

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<v Speaker 2>realized after a few years that what was happening was

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<v Speaker 2>people were measuring the morality of an act by the

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<v Speaker 2>act and not by its context. Killing is not always wrong,

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<v Speaker 2>not biblically, not morally period as you know. Well, I

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<v Speaker 2>can't assume it. But if you've heard me for more

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<v Speaker 2>than two weeks at any given stretch, you've heard me

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<v Speaker 2>correct people about the Ten Commandments, It does not say

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<v Speaker 2>thou shalt not kill. That's an incorrect translation. It's thou

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<v Speaker 2>shalt not murder. Killing is permitted, murder is not murder,

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<v Speaker 2>is immoral killing. In other words, there's moral killing and

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<v Speaker 2>immoral killing. So too, there is moral everything and immoral anything.

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<v Speaker 2>There's moral lying and immoral lying, immoral ying. You will know.

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<v Speaker 2>But what's MORA lying? Example I always give man is

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<v Speaker 2>chasing a woman wants to rape her and says says

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<v Speaker 2>to me the bystander, sir, could you tell me where

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<v Speaker 2>this woman ran to I'd like to rape her. You

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<v Speaker 2>would all acknowledge that I would be morally bound to lie.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh she went there? When in fact she went there right.

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<v Speaker 2>Spies for the Allies against the Nazis lied every day?

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<v Speaker 2>Was there lying wrong? Their lying was incredibly moral. Context

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<v Speaker 2>determines the morality of an act. My friends, there were

0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:22.840
<v Speaker 2>sometimes that good people have to connive. The world is

0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.400
<v Speaker 2>not composed of angels. The world is composed of often

0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:32.240
<v Speaker 2>very sordid types. And the more evidence you are correctly

0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:37.160
<v Speaker 2>giving me about the sordidness of the Schemites, the more

0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.720
<v Speaker 2>the conniving of the of the of the children of

0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:47.200
<v Speaker 2>Jacob makes sense. Conniving is not is a moral. All

0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:51.480
<v Speaker 2>acts are a moral. The context determines it. And you

0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.240
<v Speaker 2>may say that this is moral relativism, but it's not.

0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:59.920
<v Speaker 2>Moral relativism is not the same as context determines morality.

0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.040
<v Speaker 2>Moral relativism is that what's good for you is good

0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:05.800
<v Speaker 2>for you, and what's good for me is good for me,

0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:10.640
<v Speaker 2>but nobody else. That's not the case. In that context.

0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.680
<v Speaker 2>The act is wrong for everybody. In that context, the

0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:19.280
<v Speaker 2>act is right for everybody. That's what moral absolutes mean.

0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:22.080
<v Speaker 2>That's why I don't like the word absolute. I never

0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.760
<v Speaker 2>use it. The word is a universal morality. It's either

0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:31.000
<v Speaker 2>relative morality or universal morality. But absolutes, the term used,

0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.520
<v Speaker 2>doesn't mean that something is always wrong. Nothing is always

0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.560
<v Speaker 2>wrong even and I hate to say this because I

0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:41.160
<v Speaker 2>am so opposed to it, and I would be for

0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:45.120
<v Speaker 2>its universal banning. But in theory, even torture can be

0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:51.400
<v Speaker 2>morally justified. If a terrorist were to place a bomb

0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.440
<v Speaker 2>here and was caught, and it was going to go

0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.280
<v Speaker 2>off in ten minutes, and everyone in this room were

0:15:57.280 --> 0:15:59.640
<v Speaker 2>to be maimed and murdered as a result of this

0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.400
<v Speaker 2>terror or is bomb, would you feel it was wrong

0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:05.040
<v Speaker 2>to torture him to find out where it was, to

0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:10.880
<v Speaker 2>diffuse it. No mm, some people would so. Well, some

0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:13.160
<v Speaker 2>people think that it would be all right. Well, killing

0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:14.920
<v Speaker 2>won't help when they're dead, they can't tell you where

0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:19.920
<v Speaker 2>the bomb is. But my only point is context determines morality.

0:16:20.120 --> 0:16:22.320
<v Speaker 2>It's all I want to say on the conniving as well,

0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.280
<v Speaker 2>and that may be something that should be learned from

0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.440
<v Speaker 2>this book. You have to judge the act depending on

0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.720
<v Speaker 2>its context. It makes moral judgment more complex. It's very

0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.560
<v Speaker 2>easy to just say killing is wrong, thank you. So

0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:38.400
<v Speaker 2>I don't have to grapple with the issue of do

0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:41.640
<v Speaker 2>we bomb Iraq. I don't have to grapple with capital punishment.

0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:43.920
<v Speaker 2>I don't have to grapple with when it's self defense.

0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.240
<v Speaker 2>It's easy to say killing is wrong. It's easy to

0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.240
<v Speaker 2>say lying is wrong. The trick in a moral life

0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.400
<v Speaker 2>is to find out when it is wrong. Yes, then

0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.040
<v Speaker 2>what were the brothers who were taking.

0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.000
<v Speaker 3>Dina after back?

0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:05.960
<v Speaker 2>You know? Was even though she was so, what was

0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:06.560
<v Speaker 2>the liberation?

0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.480
<v Speaker 3>And the sea was in court? Would go out to

0:17:10.760 --> 0:17:14.000
<v Speaker 3>where there was to be the enemies, and he raised

0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:15.560
<v Speaker 3>where was bruthers?

0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.159
<v Speaker 2>How come they did this? They see how under the

0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.000
<v Speaker 2>steam right, you might have they they they were all

0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.879
<v Speaker 2>out in the fields working. In fact, if you recall,

0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.359
<v Speaker 2>that was the story. So they're not. I mean, you can't.

0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.399
<v Speaker 2>What kind of do you wanna be guarded all the

0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:39.040
<v Speaker 2>time by your brother? It's I suspect that was coming out.

0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:43.040
<v Speaker 3>And again that guys, But what about where were they read?

0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.640
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, there might have been an element of relinquishment

0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:47.800
<v Speaker 2>of duty and so on. That's true, but I think

0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.760
<v Speaker 2>overwhelmingly it was it was the issue of our woman

0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:55.680
<v Speaker 2>was taken and that was the primary. Just two more

0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.040
<v Speaker 2>and then I got to really, uh continue, Yes, if

0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:01.560
<v Speaker 2>I heard you correctly last week, I thought you said

0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.440
<v Speaker 2>that Jacob when he was dying condemned. Yes, that's correct.

0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.680
<v Speaker 2>That's what bothers me about embraces. That is right, except

0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:12.080
<v Speaker 2>that the conniving Kay, because Jacob, who had a better

0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:15.800
<v Speaker 2>perspective on the situation than we do, yes, himself judge

0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.000
<v Speaker 2>this very good point too, That, of course, is the

0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:24.560
<v Speaker 2>whole problem. Jacob does call them warriors in the negative

0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.080
<v Speaker 2>sense of the word later you'll see in chapter forty nine,

0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.960
<v Speaker 2>and if he judges them negatively, then he must have

0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:34.400
<v Speaker 2>known more. My only argument not against it. My argument

0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:37.760
<v Speaker 2>would be that what he knew was that there were

0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.040
<v Speaker 2>other options. That's what I would suspect is the issue.

0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:48.240
<v Speaker 2>The Schechemites are not angelic, that's clear, okay, But there

0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.960
<v Speaker 2>might have been other options available to get Dina other

0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:56.119
<v Speaker 2>than mass murder or mass killing. And that is what

0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.159
<v Speaker 2>I think Jacob is probably referring to. We don't know

0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.520
<v Speaker 2>what they might have been. But I mean, for all

0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.080
<v Speaker 2>we know at the UH when they came and said,

0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.040
<v Speaker 2>you know, my son is in love with your daughter,

0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.680
<v Speaker 2>we let's intermarry. Maybe Jacob, maybe they could have said,

0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.639
<v Speaker 2>I'm sorry, that's not the way we work it. First

0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.600
<v Speaker 2>you ask for our daughter, then you sleep with her.

0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.320
<v Speaker 2>You don't sleep with her first. It's a strange ritual

0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.479
<v Speaker 2>in our family, but that's the way we like it.

0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.680
<v Speaker 2>Ask first, sleep later. And and maybe that would have worked,

0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.280
<v Speaker 2>you see, And we don't know that. And the truth is,

0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.159
<v Speaker 2>by Jewish law, you must always seek peace before you

0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:39.160
<v Speaker 2>make war. You cannot make war without first seeking peace.

0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.040
<v Speaker 2>So that would be the argument to me, that would

0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:46.159
<v Speaker 2>that would substantiate the negative assessment of Jacob.

0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.280
<v Speaker 4>Yeshemites than Israelizing.

0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.040
<v Speaker 3>Yes, So if they wanted the land, why didn't they

0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:53.639
<v Speaker 3>just take it.

0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:59.480
<v Speaker 2>Why did they wait for this bargain? Well, I see

0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.320
<v Speaker 2>it would probably be better for the Shremites to have

0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:05.600
<v Speaker 2>a peaceful assimilation of the smaller group than to make

0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:06.240
<v Speaker 2>war on it.

0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:09.119
<v Speaker 3>But the land was not such a major deals with

0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:10.520
<v Speaker 3>them that they weren't after it.

0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.120
<v Speaker 2>Well, it wasn't so much Jacob's land. Jacob didn't own

0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:18.080
<v Speaker 2>any land there. Jacob was a sojourner. But Jacob had

0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:22.520
<v Speaker 2>material wealth, and Jacob had sons who could then become

0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.040
<v Speaker 2>part of them and add to their power. I think

0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:30.080
<v Speaker 2>they wanted the sons, and of course Schrem wanted wanted

0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.639
<v Speaker 2>Dina what's her name, which is, of course, in effect

0:20:32.640 --> 0:20:35.200
<v Speaker 2>what the Torah does to her. I gotta take it later.

0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.640
<v Speaker 2>Please forgive me, because I feel I'm cheating you if

0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.240
<v Speaker 2>I take too many, too much time on the questions,

0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:43.320
<v Speaker 2>but I don't take at the end of the session.

0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:47.080
<v Speaker 2>So please understand this is all before, but don't forget

0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.720
<v Speaker 2>what you wanted to ask. We're up to chapter thirty five.

0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:55.240
<v Speaker 2>Thirty six is not terribly interesting, so we're going to

0:20:55.280 --> 0:20:58.320
<v Speaker 2>do thirty five and thirty six, and I have one

0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:02.000
<v Speaker 2>major theme today. The one advantage of the chapters that

0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:07.280
<v Speaker 2>don't have inherently fascinating details. Is it enables me to

0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.080
<v Speaker 2>talk about a larger issue that is hinted at in

0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.280
<v Speaker 2>the text, And you'll see in a moment what I mean.

0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:19.040
<v Speaker 2>Chapter thirty five as it were, we now resumes resume

0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:24.320
<v Speaker 2>Jacob's journey into Canaan. God said to Jacob, because we

0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:26.960
<v Speaker 2>took off for chapter for the rape of Dina. God

0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:31.800
<v Speaker 2>said to Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and remain

0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:36.080
<v Speaker 2>there and build an altar to the God who appeared

0:21:36.119 --> 0:21:39.320
<v Speaker 2>to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.

0:21:40.280 --> 0:21:43.639
<v Speaker 1>This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.320
<v Speaker 1>Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:57.679
<v Speaker 2>Okay, number one, Jacob has to move on after what

0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:02.560
<v Speaker 2>his family did to the Chemites. Better move with great speed. Okay,

0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:06.359
<v Speaker 2>you must understand he did not need a divine call

0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.560
<v Speaker 2>at that moment, but there is a divine call anyway.

0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.480
<v Speaker 2>Interesting thing in this sentence is that God identifies himself

0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:19.000
<v Speaker 2>to Jacob. Isn't that you think if you had met God,

0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.800
<v Speaker 2>God would not have to reintroduce himself to you. Think

0:22:22.840 --> 0:22:25.240
<v Speaker 2>about it? Right? If God spoke to me, so denist

0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:27.920
<v Speaker 2>you remember me? Don't you. No, I just don't. I've

0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:31.120
<v Speaker 2>been so involved with my work, I just don't remember.

0:22:32.080 --> 0:22:34.879
<v Speaker 2>It seems silly, doesn't it. Think about it for a moment,

0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:37.719
<v Speaker 2>you remember who I am. I am the one who

0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.760
<v Speaker 2>appeared to you when you were fleeing from Esau. So

0:22:40.880 --> 0:22:45.080
<v Speaker 2>what could that mean? What could that possibly mean? That

0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:48.240
<v Speaker 2>God would reidentify himself. I mean he is the creator

0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:52.280
<v Speaker 2>of the heaven and earth of the universe. All right,

0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:54.680
<v Speaker 2>So one of these rare times, I'm gonna call one person. Yes,

0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.080
<v Speaker 2>what do you think it means? New beginning? What does

0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:04.800
<v Speaker 2>that mean? New beginning? This mess that happened it? Yeah,

0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:07.320
<v Speaker 2>but again it would imply that Jacob would forget I'll

0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:11.720
<v Speaker 2>try one other. Yes, sorry, I'm coming to save you again.

0:23:12.119 --> 0:23:15.520
<v Speaker 2>Very good point. That's the hint that I'm coming to

0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:17.520
<v Speaker 2>save you. I save you event I'll save you. Now,

0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:19.760
<v Speaker 2>that's right. I think there is a great deal of

0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:22.080
<v Speaker 2>truth to that. I think there is another thing, and

0:23:22.119 --> 0:23:24.480
<v Speaker 2>I accept that totally. I do. I think it's a

0:23:24.560 --> 0:23:27.920
<v Speaker 2>very fine point. I think that there is another point here, though.

0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:33.879
<v Speaker 2>You have to understand because and it's very difficult to

0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:40.040
<v Speaker 2>God is brand new at this time in history. You see,

0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:42.960
<v Speaker 2>even if you're an atheist in this room. You know

0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:48.159
<v Speaker 2>exactly what I mean more or less when I say God, Oh,

0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:51.040
<v Speaker 2>the God of the Bible, Oh that invisible God, Oh,

0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:52.959
<v Speaker 2>the one who created the heavens and the earth. Are

0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.639
<v Speaker 2>people who believe that the one who rewards good and

0:23:55.720 --> 0:23:59.840
<v Speaker 2>punishes evil, Oh that one. You know exactly what I'm

0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:04.320
<v Speaker 2>mean if I say God, but not then we are

0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:09.239
<v Speaker 2>talking about people. And I beg you to try to

0:24:09.280 --> 0:24:13.800
<v Speaker 2>put your mental state in this ancient Near Eastern world

0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:22.159
<v Speaker 2>where gods were totems, amulets, animals, rivers, rocks, trees. So

0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:25.480
<v Speaker 2>you have to understand. I have to remind you who

0:24:25.560 --> 0:24:32.600
<v Speaker 2>God is. You can easily forget, even even Moses later

0:24:33.119 --> 0:24:36.800
<v Speaker 2>asks my favorite, my favorite line in the Torah, when

0:24:36.960 --> 0:24:41.200
<v Speaker 2>Moses says to God, who are you? What's your name?

0:24:42.200 --> 0:24:44.479
<v Speaker 2>You remember that? I mean at the burning bush? It's

0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:48.879
<v Speaker 2>it's extraordinary. Who will I say to the Jews sent me?

0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:53.240
<v Speaker 2>They don't remember who you are? You know? And then

0:24:53.320 --> 0:24:57.880
<v Speaker 2>God gives him a terrifically you know, just an empirically based,

0:24:58.440 --> 0:25:03.440
<v Speaker 2>clear fourth right answer. Tell him I am who I am?

0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:09.359
<v Speaker 2>Sent you? Oh, no problem. That's my favorite line in

0:25:09.359 --> 0:25:12.720
<v Speaker 2>the Torah. It is it is actually funny. Tell him

0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:15.320
<v Speaker 2>I am sent you. Oh you know. Can you imagine

0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:17.679
<v Speaker 2>if you somebody came to your door, who's there? I am?

0:25:17.720 --> 0:25:24.679
<v Speaker 2>Who I am? Oh you. It doesn't give you a

0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:29.400
<v Speaker 2>great deal of data. It gives it. The truth is,

0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:32.320
<v Speaker 2>when I taught Exodus, I showed it. It gave a

0:25:32.359 --> 0:25:34.840
<v Speaker 2>great deal of information about God in the deepest sense.

0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:37.920
<v Speaker 2>But that's a separate issue. The point here is this

0:25:38.080 --> 0:25:44.320
<v Speaker 2>God needs to keep saying to the first Monotheists who

0:25:44.400 --> 0:25:47.480
<v Speaker 2>God is, who he is, And pardon me for the

0:25:47.560 --> 0:25:50.520
<v Speaker 2>he I'm just uncomfortable, not because I'm male. I'm just

0:25:50.600 --> 0:25:54.360
<v Speaker 2>uncomfortable because he she gives it gender stuff and he

0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:57.040
<v Speaker 2>is more neuter. And so please understand, I don't believe

0:25:57.040 --> 0:26:01.119
<v Speaker 2>God has has testicles. No, No, it's important that you

0:26:01.240 --> 0:26:05.080
<v Speaker 2>understand that. I I obviously don't. You have to hold

0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:12.040
<v Speaker 2>your questions for later, otherwise I'll never I'll ever get through. Yeah,

0:26:12.160 --> 0:26:14.680
<v Speaker 2>the well, I'll look at the Hebrew to make sure.

0:26:16.000 --> 0:26:20.719
<v Speaker 2>And the Hebrew literally is and make there an altar

0:26:20.920 --> 0:26:24.520
<v Speaker 2>to the God who appeared to you when you fled

0:26:25.440 --> 0:26:28.560
<v Speaker 2>from the face of esaw your brother. That is the

0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:33.879
<v Speaker 2>literal translation. Okay, if you have a different one. You know,

0:26:33.880 --> 0:26:36.280
<v Speaker 2>I can't imagine how different. The Hebrew's not complex in

0:26:36.280 --> 0:26:39.320
<v Speaker 2>this case. But anyway, this is God. So I think

0:26:39.359 --> 0:26:41.520
<v Speaker 2>both I saved you, then I'll save you now he's

0:26:41.560 --> 0:26:46.720
<v Speaker 2>worried after what happened with Schrem and God is reidentifying

0:26:46.800 --> 0:26:49.920
<v Speaker 2>who he is because is it just a clarifying thing?

0:26:50.040 --> 0:26:52.920
<v Speaker 2>Because I can't take questions during the middle of this.

0:26:54.440 --> 0:27:00.120
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know you write or say when you write.

0:27:01.520 --> 0:27:06.359
<v Speaker 2>Himself. He grins that he will go to Hid. That

0:27:06.480 --> 0:27:12.560
<v Speaker 2>is correct law to do when you go right back

0:27:12.760 --> 0:27:17.920
<v Speaker 2>the wrong right. He has to still fulfill his pledge.

0:27:22.520 --> 0:27:24.840
<v Speaker 2>It's a good quote. We don't know if God is

0:27:24.880 --> 0:27:27.680
<v Speaker 2>reminding him or not, whether he would have remembered remember

0:27:27.720 --> 0:27:29.639
<v Speaker 2>his pledge to go A lot of you didn't take it,

0:27:29.760 --> 0:27:31.479
<v Speaker 2>but you still may have read the Bible even if

0:27:31.480 --> 0:27:34.840
<v Speaker 2>you didn't take my class. I don't assume that this

0:27:34.960 --> 0:27:37.280
<v Speaker 2>is the only time any Jew has ever seen the Torah.

0:27:37.800 --> 0:27:41.040
<v Speaker 2>Uh so uh. But that is the famous statement where

0:27:41.160 --> 0:27:43.120
<v Speaker 2>where he makes this deal with God as it were,

0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:45.640
<v Speaker 2>and now he has to fulfill it, which is which

0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:50.240
<v Speaker 2>is here in Baithelle. Okay, let me continue. Please verse two.

0:27:50.760 --> 0:27:53.640
<v Speaker 2>So Jacob said to his household and to all who

0:27:53.640 --> 0:27:59.200
<v Speaker 2>were with him. Rid yourselves of the alien or foreign

0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:05.640
<v Speaker 2>gods in your midst, Purify yourselves and change your clothes. Come,

0:28:05.720 --> 0:28:08.040
<v Speaker 2>let us go up to Bethel and I will build

0:28:08.080 --> 0:28:10.000
<v Speaker 2>an altar there, and I will continue in a moment.

0:28:10.520 --> 0:28:13.720
<v Speaker 2>It's this that I want to deal with in great detail,

0:28:14.720 --> 0:28:19.479
<v Speaker 2>major theme of today. This is the first time in

0:28:19.520 --> 0:28:23.720
<v Speaker 2>the Torah that a contrast is made between the God

0:28:23.760 --> 0:28:28.800
<v Speaker 2>of Israel and other gods. This is very important. It's

0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:32.000
<v Speaker 2>about as important a theme as the Torah, as Judaism,

0:28:32.640 --> 0:28:36.760
<v Speaker 2>as what we call the Judeo Christian world has. This

0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:42.600
<v Speaker 2>monotheistic God is distinct, and so the first thing that

0:28:42.720 --> 0:28:47.000
<v Speaker 2>Jacob does is get rid of the false or foreign

0:28:47.080 --> 0:28:50.600
<v Speaker 2>gods in his midst that were obviously picked up from

0:28:50.640 --> 0:28:54.600
<v Speaker 2>the Schemites, or at least that's so we infer. Now,

0:28:55.760 --> 0:28:57.840
<v Speaker 2>I want to talk to you about an issue right

0:28:57.880 --> 0:29:02.960
<v Speaker 2>now that every one of you knows. But I wonder

0:29:03.000 --> 0:29:06.440
<v Speaker 2>how many of you have ever asked the question why

0:29:06.680 --> 0:29:12.800
<v Speaker 2>you all know that Judaism, Christianity, the Bible consider monotheism

0:29:13.480 --> 0:29:18.280
<v Speaker 2>infinitely superior to paganism. But I wonder how many of you,

0:29:18.360 --> 0:29:22.760
<v Speaker 2>if I gave you an exam, could write Why Why

0:29:22.920 --> 0:29:25.760
<v Speaker 2>is one god, the one God of the Bible, more

0:29:25.840 --> 0:29:30.680
<v Speaker 2>important than the multiple gods of paganism? What's wrong with

0:29:30.760 --> 0:29:34.640
<v Speaker 2>two or seven, or one hundred or a million as

0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:38.560
<v Speaker 2>in some ways of understanding Hinduism? And I want to

0:29:38.600 --> 0:29:44.040
<v Speaker 2>deal with right now what monotheism? Not ethical monotheism that

0:29:44.080 --> 0:29:49.560
<v Speaker 2>I've made the case for in my whole life. I

0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:53.840
<v Speaker 2>just want to deal with the ramifications of monotheism. Why

0:29:54.080 --> 0:30:00.360
<v Speaker 2>is the Bible so intent upon destroying other gods? Taught

0:30:00.400 --> 0:30:04.320
<v Speaker 2>the first chapters of Genesis, I showed that the major

0:30:04.440 --> 0:30:08.960
<v Speaker 2>theme was that one God created the universe. And to

0:30:09.400 --> 0:30:14.880
<v Speaker 2>constantly take swipes at pagan ideas? What's wrong with being

0:30:14.920 --> 0:30:20.200
<v Speaker 2>a pagan? Incidentally, it's very relevant because we have modern

0:30:20.240 --> 0:30:25.040
<v Speaker 2>pagan ideas today. There are many, and you will see

0:30:25.040 --> 0:30:30.000
<v Speaker 2>some of them hinted at when I go through this list. Okay,

0:30:33.160 --> 0:30:38.080
<v Speaker 2>in no order of importance, let me give you number one.

0:30:38.480 --> 0:30:42.480
<v Speaker 2>Number one I got from a book long out of print,

0:30:43.160 --> 0:30:46.040
<v Speaker 2>but if you can ever find it, it's truly one

0:30:46.080 --> 0:30:49.880
<v Speaker 2>of the important books. The Divine Order, Western culture in

0:30:49.880 --> 0:30:54.000
<v Speaker 2>the Middle Ages and the Renaissance by Henry Bamford Parks,

0:30:54.640 --> 0:31:00.560
<v Speaker 2>who was a professor at the New York University. I'd

0:31:00.600 --> 0:31:04.280
<v Speaker 2>like to read to you something that changed one of

0:31:04.320 --> 0:31:08.160
<v Speaker 2>the most seminal things I ever read, that made me

0:31:08.200 --> 0:31:13.720
<v Speaker 2>realize the profundity of Judaism and of monotheism. This is

0:31:13.760 --> 0:31:20.800
<v Speaker 2>a non Jew writing a professor. Judaism repudiated the cyclic

0:31:21.040 --> 0:31:27.280
<v Speaker 2>view of history held by all other ancient peoples and

0:31:27.400 --> 0:31:31.400
<v Speaker 2>affirmed that it was a meaningful process leading to the

0:31:31.440 --> 0:31:37.160
<v Speaker 2>gradual regeneration of humanity. This was the origin of the

0:31:37.160 --> 0:31:42.760
<v Speaker 2>Western belief in progress, which has gradually been secularized. I'll

0:31:42.760 --> 0:31:46.720
<v Speaker 2>explain all this and become a kind of substitute religion,

0:31:47.720 --> 0:31:54.680
<v Speaker 2>but retains elements of its prophetic origin. Natural law, ethical monotheism,

0:31:54.760 --> 0:31:57.920
<v Speaker 2>and the coming of the heavenly kingdom have been the

0:31:57.960 --> 0:32:03.640
<v Speaker 2>basic elements of the Western view of life. This is

0:32:05.160 --> 0:32:14.160
<v Speaker 2>this is what was the first revolution, or in what

0:32:14.280 --> 0:32:17.800
<v Speaker 2>Judaism brought to the world. Let me explain what linear

0:32:17.960 --> 0:32:23.480
<v Speaker 2>versus cyclic history is. Any of you who know karma,

0:32:24.280 --> 0:32:26.320
<v Speaker 2>and many do, and that's why I told you there

0:32:26.400 --> 0:32:31.280
<v Speaker 2>is a rejuvenation of many of the ideas that Judaism repudiated.

0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:33.760
<v Speaker 2>This is not to say that people who believe in

0:32:33.800 --> 0:32:37.200
<v Speaker 2>it are bad. Please understand, I am talking about a

0:32:37.280 --> 0:32:41.920
<v Speaker 2>distinctive Jewish belief, and I guess this needs a word

0:32:42.000 --> 0:32:46.160
<v Speaker 2>or two. We are so today worried about making judgments

0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:50.360
<v Speaker 2>as if every culture must be regarded by every other

0:32:50.480 --> 0:32:55.840
<v Speaker 2>culture as equally desirable. If you believe in your religion,

0:32:56.440 --> 0:32:59.600
<v Speaker 2>you must believe that there is something more desirable about

0:32:59.640 --> 0:33:03.240
<v Speaker 2>your life religion. When I meet a Christian who believes

0:33:03.240 --> 0:33:07.160
<v Speaker 2>that Christianity is the way to God, I am not hurt,

0:33:07.480 --> 0:33:11.080
<v Speaker 2>I am not insulted. I have no I do not

0:33:11.160 --> 0:33:14.960
<v Speaker 2>look down upon this person. It makes perfect sense. Why

0:33:15.040 --> 0:33:18.720
<v Speaker 2>commit yourself to Jesus Christ if you don't believe that

0:33:18.760 --> 0:33:23.840
<v Speaker 2>there is something inherently particularly true about it. I wouldn't

0:33:23.880 --> 0:33:26.760
<v Speaker 2>be a Jew, a religious Jew, if I did not

0:33:26.840 --> 0:33:34.200
<v Speaker 2>believe there was something particularly true about Judaism. It makes

0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:38.680
<v Speaker 2>no sense. It's not like a car well, I like Buick,

0:33:38.720 --> 0:33:42.480
<v Speaker 2>and you like olds, and you know, but they all

0:33:42.480 --> 0:33:46.080
<v Speaker 2>get you there anyway. This is what the common parlance

0:33:46.080 --> 0:33:49.080
<v Speaker 2>today is. Oh, all religions are just different roads to

0:33:49.120 --> 0:33:52.640
<v Speaker 2>the same thing. It's a little true, but it's not

0:33:52.800 --> 0:33:56.400
<v Speaker 2>fully true. And anyway, since you spend your whole life

0:33:56.400 --> 0:34:00.760
<v Speaker 2>on the road, a different road is very important. The

0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:03.560
<v Speaker 2>road does matter you would rather be on a six

0:34:03.640 --> 0:34:06.280
<v Speaker 2>line super highway with a little traffic than on a

0:34:06.280 --> 0:34:12.200
<v Speaker 2>gravel road behind a horse that kept polluting. Right, So,

0:34:12.320 --> 0:34:15.160
<v Speaker 2>even if it were only different roads, that would be

0:34:15.200 --> 0:34:18.800
<v Speaker 2>in itself significant. But there is more than different roads.

0:34:20.880 --> 0:34:24.320
<v Speaker 2>Those of you who know karma, what is the basic

0:34:24.400 --> 0:34:27.919
<v Speaker 2>knowledge that we have, those who know anything about it?

0:34:27.920 --> 0:34:34.280
<v Speaker 2>It is that you will, in the next life suffer

0:34:34.360 --> 0:34:38.680
<v Speaker 2>the consequences of what you heerd or didn't learn in

0:34:38.760 --> 0:34:42.880
<v Speaker 2>this life, so that you come back. You keep returning.

0:34:44.200 --> 0:34:47.600
<v Speaker 2>You may make moral progress, but it is still a cycle.

0:34:47.800 --> 0:34:52.040
<v Speaker 2>That's what's called cyclic. It's a cycle. And once you

0:34:52.160 --> 0:34:58.000
<v Speaker 2>have reached your enlightenment in Buddhist terms, you're gone, but

0:34:58.160 --> 0:35:03.880
<v Speaker 2>the world itself does not progress. Your task is to

0:35:03.960 --> 0:35:07.319
<v Speaker 2>reach enlightenment after all of these cycles and go on

0:35:08.440 --> 0:35:12.799
<v Speaker 2>in other cultures that are most of which are now gone.

0:35:12.920 --> 0:35:17.880
<v Speaker 2>It's even more cyclical. It is merely every generation repeats

0:35:18.440 --> 0:35:21.799
<v Speaker 2>that which happened in the previous one. You and I

0:35:21.880 --> 0:35:24.200
<v Speaker 2>don't even know about that. You and I are so

0:35:24.480 --> 0:35:28.239
<v Speaker 2>used to the term progress. Well, next generation will have

0:35:28.280 --> 0:35:31.800
<v Speaker 2>a cure for cancer, that's the way we think. Next

0:35:31.840 --> 0:35:35.480
<v Speaker 2>generation will have less poverty. Next generation there will be

0:35:35.560 --> 0:35:39.799
<v Speaker 2>fewer wars. Right. The reason you think that way is

0:35:39.880 --> 0:35:43.560
<v Speaker 2>one hundred percent as a result of Judaism and of

0:35:43.600 --> 0:35:47.760
<v Speaker 2>course a Christianity which took the idea into the Western world.

0:35:48.640 --> 0:35:53.279
<v Speaker 2>That's what Bamford Parks is talking about here, that Judaism

0:35:53.480 --> 0:35:55.840
<v Speaker 2>gave to the world. And a look at his words,

0:35:55.880 --> 0:36:03.560
<v Speaker 2>this is of an understating historian. Judaism repudiated the cyclic

0:36:03.640 --> 0:36:10.520
<v Speaker 2>view of history held by all other ancient peoples. It

0:36:10.680 --> 0:36:16.280
<v Speaker 2>was totally alone in history in saying that history should

0:36:16.440 --> 0:36:24.240
<v Speaker 2>move forward, not repeat itself in each generation. In Native

0:36:24.239 --> 0:36:29.399
<v Speaker 2>American life, it would repeat itself in Mayan. In all

0:36:29.480 --> 0:36:33.960
<v Speaker 2>of the cultures of the Western hemisphere, generally speaking, that

0:36:34.120 --> 0:36:36.400
<v Speaker 2>is what happened. That is why there isn't much of

0:36:36.440 --> 0:36:40.000
<v Speaker 2>a need to create a written language in many cultures.

0:36:40.600 --> 0:36:43.560
<v Speaker 2>A written language is necessary because you have to learn

0:36:43.600 --> 0:36:46.080
<v Speaker 2>from the past to develop something to give to the future.

0:36:46.480 --> 0:36:48.680
<v Speaker 2>But you don't have to give anything to the future,

0:36:48.760 --> 0:36:53.279
<v Speaker 2>as it were, if you're only repeating the present. And

0:36:53.320 --> 0:36:55.799
<v Speaker 2>that is what Judaism came into. A world where you

0:36:55.880 --> 0:37:00.719
<v Speaker 2>repeated the present and the next generation. The idea that

0:37:00.960 --> 0:37:06.840
<v Speaker 2>history must move forward is Jewish and as he says,

0:37:09.840 --> 0:37:13.160
<v Speaker 2>This was the origin of the Western belief in progress,

0:37:13.200 --> 0:37:17.440
<v Speaker 2>which has gradually been secularized and become a kind of

0:37:17.640 --> 0:37:21.879
<v Speaker 2>substitute religion. Listen to what he gives his examples. Both

0:37:21.920 --> 0:37:26.560
<v Speaker 2>the liberalism of the eighteenth century Enlightenment and the Marxism

0:37:26.600 --> 0:37:31.680
<v Speaker 2>of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries looked forward to a

0:37:31.800 --> 0:37:37.960
<v Speaker 2>kingdom of freedom, still recognizably derived from the promises of Jeremiah,

0:37:38.200 --> 0:37:42.520
<v Speaker 2>of the Hebrew Jewish prophet Jeremiah. The idea that history

0:37:42.560 --> 0:37:48.359
<v Speaker 2>should move forward came from this book. The second thing

0:37:48.440 --> 0:37:53.120
<v Speaker 2>he notes is that history has purpose and meaning. The

0:37:53.200 --> 0:37:57.360
<v Speaker 2>idea that history has purpose, that this world has purpose,

0:37:58.120 --> 0:38:02.040
<v Speaker 2>is Jewish. That doesn't mean only Jewish, because the daughters

0:38:02.040 --> 0:38:07.560
<v Speaker 2>of Judaism adopted it specifically Christianity and Islam, so it

0:38:07.640 --> 0:38:11.520
<v Speaker 2>isn't uniquely Jewish. It was uniquely Jewish, and if it

0:38:11.560 --> 0:38:14.400
<v Speaker 2>weren't for Judaism, it wouldn't have developed. My point is

0:38:14.440 --> 0:38:16.960
<v Speaker 2>not to convince you how great Judaism is. It is

0:38:17.000 --> 0:38:21.160
<v Speaker 2>to make it clear why Judaism opposed non monotheism, why

0:38:21.200 --> 0:38:25.680
<v Speaker 2>it opposed paganism. Okay, because this is the first reference

0:38:25.719 --> 0:38:28.560
<v Speaker 2>in the Torah to the rejection of other gods, That

0:38:28.640 --> 0:38:30.520
<v Speaker 2>is why it is so important, and that's why I've

0:38:30.560 --> 0:38:36.799
<v Speaker 2>taken this time out in this chapter. The idea that

0:38:36.960 --> 0:38:44.120
<v Speaker 2>history should move forward comes from monotheism. It's linear, not cyclical.

0:38:44.800 --> 0:38:52.799
<v Speaker 2>Number two an invisible god. Monotheism gave us the ability

0:38:52.840 --> 0:38:59.200
<v Speaker 2>to cultivate abstract thinking. When you believe in paganism, you

0:38:59.320 --> 0:39:02.200
<v Speaker 2>don't have that distract thinking. There's a god of thunder,

0:39:02.520 --> 0:39:05.359
<v Speaker 2>a god of lightning, a god of river, and there

0:39:05.440 --> 0:39:07.480
<v Speaker 2>is a great deal of magic, which I will come

0:39:07.520 --> 0:39:11.440
<v Speaker 2>to in a moment. What monotheism said is that the

0:39:11.480 --> 0:39:19.880
<v Speaker 2>world is ruled by knowable, rational, non capricious law. God

0:39:20.239 --> 0:39:23.840
<v Speaker 2>rules the universe. God is a god of justice, a

0:39:23.880 --> 0:39:27.440
<v Speaker 2>god of mercy, a god of truth. The world is

0:39:27.680 --> 0:39:33.479
<v Speaker 2>ruled by this God. The gods of ancient man were

0:39:33.560 --> 0:39:36.640
<v Speaker 2>totally different. Do you remember? I keep asking you that,

0:39:36.760 --> 0:39:40.600
<v Speaker 2>But it's foolish because most of you weren't here. But

0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:44.480
<v Speaker 2>if you saw the tape, perhaps you will remember. I

0:39:44.840 --> 0:39:53.040
<v Speaker 2>contrasted the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgemish with the Noah story.

0:39:53.280 --> 0:39:57.560
<v Speaker 2>When who's the hero there? Utnah pitched him, who's our

0:39:57.640 --> 0:40:01.160
<v Speaker 2>hero Noah? Why is Noah? Saying both of them have

0:40:01.239 --> 0:40:05.160
<v Speaker 2>flood stories? Noah's saved because he's a good human being, right,

0:40:05.280 --> 0:40:08.560
<v Speaker 2>the only righteous man in his generation. Why is it

0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:13.960
<v Speaker 2>Nah pitched him saved because he's handsome. The God liked

0:40:14.000 --> 0:40:17.480
<v Speaker 2>the way he looked. He just the gods of the

0:40:17.600 --> 0:40:23.839
<v Speaker 2>ancient world were created in the image of man. It's

0:40:23.880 --> 0:40:27.960
<v Speaker 2>the antithesis of the Torah. The Torah holds that man

0:40:28.080 --> 0:40:32.200
<v Speaker 2>is created in God's image. In paganism, the gods were

0:40:32.239 --> 0:40:36.000
<v Speaker 2>created in man's image. They had the lusts that people did.

0:40:36.360 --> 0:40:39.359
<v Speaker 2>They had the envies and jealousies that people did. They

0:40:39.360 --> 0:40:43.240
<v Speaker 2>had the wars that people did. They had everything we had,

0:40:43.600 --> 0:40:49.240
<v Speaker 2>just they were bigger. It was miserable human beings writ large.

0:40:49.480 --> 0:40:52.040
<v Speaker 2>That is what was the case in the ancient world.

0:40:52.600 --> 0:40:56.840
<v Speaker 2>That this is a total rejection of that God is perfect.

0:40:57.560 --> 0:41:03.480
<v Speaker 2>God transcends all of these human frailties, and God rules

0:41:03.520 --> 0:41:09.719
<v Speaker 2>the world on the basis of justice, mercy, compassion truth. Therefore,

0:41:10.400 --> 0:41:14.680
<v Speaker 2>as I said, you can also develop you can develop

0:41:15.800 --> 0:41:21.200
<v Speaker 2>abstract thinking because this God is invisible. When you believe

0:41:21.400 --> 0:41:26.040
<v Speaker 2>that everything is visible, all the gods are the Sun God,

0:41:26.400 --> 0:41:31.600
<v Speaker 2>the frog God, the hawk God, the tree God. Then

0:41:31.880 --> 0:41:35.080
<v Speaker 2>the idea that there are forces that cannot be seen

0:41:35.160 --> 0:41:40.759
<v Speaker 2>which is the basis of modern science, is foreign to you.

0:41:40.760 --> 0:41:44.960
<v Speaker 2>You have to believe that there are invisible forces in

0:41:45.080 --> 0:41:50.160
<v Speaker 2>order to start developing abstract capabilities of thinking. It's not

0:41:50.280 --> 0:41:53.880
<v Speaker 2>coincidental that the world that developed science as we know

0:41:54.000 --> 0:41:57.640
<v Speaker 2>it is the Western world. It's not Judaism alone or

0:41:57.680 --> 0:42:03.719
<v Speaker 2>Christianity alone. After all, the Church rejected Galileo. Absolutely, you

0:42:03.840 --> 0:42:07.239
<v Speaker 2>also needed Greek thinking, you needed them all. But the

0:42:07.280 --> 0:42:14.600
<v Speaker 2>mixture of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome is what gives us

0:42:14.600 --> 0:42:17.120
<v Speaker 2>the Western world as we know as we know it.

0:42:17.520 --> 0:42:20.880
<v Speaker 1>This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.

0:42:26.400 --> 0:42:31.120
<v Speaker 1>Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

0:42:31.560 --> 0:42:38.080
<v Speaker 2>Number three Monotheism and excuse me one second logistic thing

0:42:38.120 --> 0:42:42.799
<v Speaker 2>Ian connect trouble you for water? I'm sorry, thank you

0:42:42.880 --> 0:42:50.600
<v Speaker 2>very much. Number three Judaism and Judaism with its monotheism,

0:42:51.280 --> 0:42:56.239
<v Speaker 2>loathes magic. In fact, later in the Torah you are

0:42:56.320 --> 0:42:59.400
<v Speaker 2>to put a Some of you who know Yiddish know

0:42:59.520 --> 0:43:04.239
<v Speaker 2>the word machshefa. Your father may have called his mother

0:43:04.280 --> 0:43:06.839
<v Speaker 2>in law of that on occasion. That may be where

0:43:06.880 --> 0:43:11.040
<v Speaker 2>you know the word from machshefa in the Torah is

0:43:11.200 --> 0:43:15.440
<v Speaker 2>a sorceress, or if in some ways a witch, but

0:43:15.520 --> 0:43:23.720
<v Speaker 2>a magician. Judaism loathes magic voodoo. It is the antithesis

0:43:23.760 --> 0:43:32.800
<v Speaker 2>of Judaism. Why in magic, irrational and capricious forces control

0:43:32.880 --> 0:43:36.880
<v Speaker 2>the world, and so does man. If I do the

0:43:36.960 --> 0:43:40.279
<v Speaker 2>following things to the following image of you, something will

0:43:40.320 --> 0:43:45.720
<v Speaker 2>happen to you. That is totally unacceptable to Judaism. God

0:43:46.160 --> 0:43:51.440
<v Speaker 2>alone controls the world. You can control your life, but

0:43:51.480 --> 0:43:58.200
<v Speaker 2>you cannot use divination. Whatever uses anything else ascribes power

0:43:58.320 --> 0:44:02.640
<v Speaker 2>to anything but God his idol worship. In Judaism, Judaism

0:44:02.680 --> 0:44:10.000
<v Speaker 2>is radical monotheism. God alone rules the world, which means,

0:44:10.040 --> 0:44:14.280
<v Speaker 2>by the way, that therefore we have tremendous power. Because

0:44:14.320 --> 0:44:18.680
<v Speaker 2>since irrational forces don't rule the world, we people are

0:44:18.800 --> 0:44:23.640
<v Speaker 2>very powerfully empowered. We can do a great deal, and

0:44:23.719 --> 0:44:26.920
<v Speaker 2>it's only up to our One choice is whether or

0:44:26.920 --> 0:44:29.200
<v Speaker 2>not we wish to acknowledge that God is part of it.

0:44:29.560 --> 0:44:32.400
<v Speaker 2>That's why I recall my brother, who was a physician,

0:44:32.880 --> 0:44:37.400
<v Speaker 2>was honored. My brother is an Orthodox Jew and a physician,

0:44:38.320 --> 0:44:41.960
<v Speaker 2>and he was honored by an Orthodox hospital in Israel

0:44:42.800 --> 0:44:45.840
<v Speaker 2>for medical work he had done. And he showed me

0:44:45.920 --> 0:44:51.440
<v Speaker 2>his speech. Thank you so much. He showed me his speech.

0:44:54.680 --> 0:44:59.399
<v Speaker 2>He began as follows. He cited a Talmudic source which

0:44:59.440 --> 0:45:05.239
<v Speaker 2>I never had been familiar with, which says Tove schevardof

0:45:05.280 --> 0:45:09.799
<v Speaker 2>eim Legaehnom, the best of the doctors go to Hell.

0:45:13.560 --> 0:45:16.560
<v Speaker 2>It's a remarkable statement for the Tumult to make. He'd

0:45:16.560 --> 0:45:20.960
<v Speaker 2>think the worst doctors go to help. Not true. Why

0:45:20.960 --> 0:45:23.440
<v Speaker 2>did the best of doctors go to hell? Because there

0:45:23.520 --> 0:45:27.000
<v Speaker 2>is no person in the world more likely to see

0:45:27.080 --> 0:45:30.799
<v Speaker 2>himself as a God than a great doctor. A bad

0:45:30.840 --> 0:45:34.200
<v Speaker 2>doctor is unlikely to see himself as God. He may

0:45:34.200 --> 0:45:39.359
<v Speaker 2>become a lawyer, but he does not see himself as God.

0:45:40.120 --> 0:45:45.560
<v Speaker 2>But that is a problem, because the moment a doctor

0:45:45.680 --> 0:45:49.759
<v Speaker 2>begins to attribute his healing powers to himself and not

0:45:50.000 --> 0:45:54.320
<v Speaker 2>as a vehicle of God, then he's an idol worshiper,

0:45:54.640 --> 0:45:59.080
<v Speaker 2>except the idolis himself, the worst possible thing. In an

0:45:59.080 --> 0:46:03.160
<v Speaker 2>otherwise miserable film, which I commented on on my radio

0:46:03.200 --> 0:46:06.839
<v Speaker 2>show today, you can see this dialogue on doctor as

0:46:06.880 --> 0:46:09.759
<v Speaker 2>God in the movie Malice. That is exactly what the

0:46:09.840 --> 0:46:14.480
<v Speaker 2>doctor gives a very eloquent little soliloquy on why he

0:46:14.600 --> 0:46:16.480
<v Speaker 2>is God, not least of which is because he went

0:46:16.520 --> 0:46:19.960
<v Speaker 2>to Harvard Medical School. And there is some truth to

0:46:20.440 --> 0:46:21.920
<v Speaker 2>that view, and by the way, it is a very

0:46:21.960 --> 0:46:26.760
<v Speaker 2>possible thing if you save people's lives daily or even weekly.

0:46:28.000 --> 0:46:30.600
<v Speaker 2>It is a very understandable thing unless you have a

0:46:30.760 --> 0:46:33.760
<v Speaker 2>very deep belief in God as the source of healing,

0:46:34.400 --> 0:46:37.520
<v Speaker 2>that you can see yourself gradually in God like terms.

0:46:38.800 --> 0:46:42.400
<v Speaker 2>Magic is as I said earlier than number three, it

0:46:42.480 --> 0:46:45.600
<v Speaker 2>is rejected, and it is a major part of pagan

0:46:45.719 --> 0:46:48.960
<v Speaker 2>ideas to this day, as in voodoo rites in some

0:46:49.080 --> 0:46:54.399
<v Speaker 2>Third World countries. It is utterly unacceptable to Jewish monotheism.

0:46:54.440 --> 0:46:57.319
<v Speaker 2>It implies that there are forces other than God that

0:46:57.440 --> 0:47:02.239
<v Speaker 2>rule the world. Number four one God means that the

0:47:02.280 --> 0:47:07.880
<v Speaker 2>world is unified. It is unified in many ways. One

0:47:07.960 --> 0:47:14.600
<v Speaker 2>is morally. One God means one morality. Two gods is

0:47:14.640 --> 0:47:20.239
<v Speaker 2>two moralities, and multiple gods are multiple moralities. That's pretty obvious.

0:47:21.080 --> 0:47:25.479
<v Speaker 2>Which God will you listen to? Even in Zoroastrianism, which

0:47:25.560 --> 0:47:28.680
<v Speaker 2>was a highly advanced religion and continues to be so,

0:47:28.920 --> 0:47:31.520
<v Speaker 2>but it is obviously much smaller because you cannot convert

0:47:31.520 --> 0:47:35.120
<v Speaker 2>to Zeroastrianism. You had a God of good and a

0:47:35.160 --> 0:47:39.320
<v Speaker 2>God of evil. That is why. By the way, Isaiah

0:47:39.360 --> 0:47:42.919
<v Speaker 2>forty five point seven makes a statement that is very

0:47:42.920 --> 0:47:46.520
<v Speaker 2>difficult to even state, and that is that God is

0:47:46.560 --> 0:47:48.440
<v Speaker 2>the source of both good and evil in the world.

0:47:51.200 --> 0:47:56.640
<v Speaker 2>This is unacceptable, incidentally, to one small but well known

0:47:56.640 --> 0:48:00.759
<v Speaker 2>movement in Judaism, reconstructionism, that holds that God is only

0:48:00.800 --> 0:48:04.480
<v Speaker 2>the source of good, and that is one of the reasons.

0:48:04.560 --> 0:48:07.359
<v Speaker 2>With all respect, so many find people who are in

0:48:07.400 --> 0:48:11.120
<v Speaker 2>that movement, but with all respect to them, it is

0:48:11.160 --> 0:48:17.560
<v Speaker 2>why I consider the movement outside theologically outside. I never

0:48:17.840 --> 0:48:20.839
<v Speaker 2>read a jew out of Jewish life, God forbid, but

0:48:20.920 --> 0:48:27.240
<v Speaker 2>the idea is very non normative. God is the source

0:48:27.280 --> 0:48:31.520
<v Speaker 2>of everything, including evil in this world. That doesn't mean

0:48:31.560 --> 0:48:35.480
<v Speaker 2>that if you murder someone, God has made you murder

0:48:35.520 --> 0:48:40.040
<v Speaker 2>the person. But God has made murder possible. God has

0:48:40.080 --> 0:48:44.520
<v Speaker 2>made everything possible, including torture and rape and murder, and

0:48:44.600 --> 0:48:48.360
<v Speaker 2>you name it. There is one God. The universe is

0:48:48.560 --> 0:48:52.040
<v Speaker 2>unified by this God. Morally means there's one moral will.

0:48:52.840 --> 0:48:58.200
<v Speaker 2>It also means scientifically, if you have a god of

0:48:58.560 --> 0:49:03.520
<v Speaker 2>rain and a God of sun, then there is no

0:49:03.640 --> 0:49:09.120
<v Speaker 2>possibility for science to develop because clearly what makes it

0:49:09.280 --> 0:49:12.880
<v Speaker 2>rain is the God of rain. There's no one governing

0:49:13.000 --> 0:49:16.120
<v Speaker 2>law in the universe like laws of climate or laws

0:49:16.160 --> 0:49:19.520
<v Speaker 2>of physics. No, there's a god of rain, and if

0:49:19.560 --> 0:49:23.239
<v Speaker 2>you propitiate the god of rain, you'll get rain. You

0:49:23.280 --> 0:49:26.560
<v Speaker 2>don't have that in Judaism because the exact same God

0:49:26.800 --> 0:49:31.279
<v Speaker 2>makes it rain and makes it not rain, so you

0:49:31.320 --> 0:49:34.919
<v Speaker 2>can't have that. It's not possible. Droughts come from God

0:49:35.000 --> 0:49:40.520
<v Speaker 2>and floods come from God. Therefore, science is possible because

0:49:40.600 --> 0:49:43.960
<v Speaker 2>there is one governing body of law in the world.

0:49:44.680 --> 0:49:49.840
<v Speaker 2>This is all made possible outside of paganism. Pagan societies

0:49:49.920 --> 0:49:53.919
<v Speaker 2>didn't develop science, They didn't develop much of anything. They

0:49:53.920 --> 0:49:58.080
<v Speaker 2>were capable. I acknowledge of certain achievements, as we know

0:49:58.200 --> 0:50:02.080
<v Speaker 2>from some of the Stonehenge and so on. I appreciate

0:50:02.160 --> 0:50:06.400
<v Speaker 2>that fact, but in the ways in which the West developed,

0:50:06.440 --> 0:50:11.479
<v Speaker 2>clearly there's no pagan competition as it were. Now, of course,

0:50:11.480 --> 0:50:14.560
<v Speaker 2>you can use science to then make gas chambers. So

0:50:14.719 --> 0:50:17.640
<v Speaker 2>obviously this is not a moral This doesn't mean it's

0:50:17.719 --> 0:50:22.120
<v Speaker 2>morally superior. It simply means that intellectually, if you still

0:50:22.120 --> 0:50:25.080
<v Speaker 2>believe that a god of this must be propitiated to

0:50:25.160 --> 0:50:28.239
<v Speaker 2>cause this, you're not going to look for a unifying

0:50:28.320 --> 0:50:33.840
<v Speaker 2>law of physics or anything else. Number five. It means

0:50:33.840 --> 0:50:37.400
<v Speaker 2>that the universe has meaning. That's was Henry Bamford Park's

0:50:37.480 --> 0:50:41.080
<v Speaker 2>point that history moves towards meaning, and the universe has it.

0:50:41.960 --> 0:50:45.640
<v Speaker 2>This one god has one meaning. We may not know

0:50:45.760 --> 0:50:48.920
<v Speaker 2>exactly what that meaning is. That's a separate issue in

0:50:48.960 --> 0:50:52.600
<v Speaker 2>any event, but it means there is meaning to this world.

0:50:52.680 --> 0:50:55.319
<v Speaker 2>It is not the chaos that it seems to be.

0:50:55.640 --> 0:50:59.640
<v Speaker 2>Pagan life is chaotic as contrasted to this. Well, we

0:50:59.640 --> 0:51:02.239
<v Speaker 2>don't even know what the gods will do in Paganism.

0:51:03.400 --> 0:51:06.080
<v Speaker 2>Maybe if we make love well enough. After all, as

0:51:06.120 --> 0:51:09.200
<v Speaker 2>I wrote in my paper on homosexuality, you had you

0:51:09.320 --> 0:51:14.759
<v Speaker 2>had homosexual or at least bisexual gods in Egypt and uh,

0:51:15.160 --> 0:51:18.759
<v Speaker 2>and they found papyri which would describe about placing my

0:51:18.920 --> 0:51:23.800
<v Speaker 2>pallus between Oh God, I forgot, forget which one your buttocks?

0:51:24.480 --> 0:51:28.080
<v Speaker 2>And can you imagine that in Judaism placing placing your

0:51:28.080 --> 0:51:32.160
<v Speaker 2>penis between God's buttocks. And it's it's it's it's inconceivable,

0:51:32.200 --> 0:51:38.960
<v Speaker 2>literally inconceivable. That type of god is a chaotic world

0:51:39.040 --> 0:51:41.880
<v Speaker 2>because they're capricious. Oh, if I make love to that

0:51:41.960 --> 0:51:45.040
<v Speaker 2>God well enough, have sex with it enough, slaughter enough

0:51:45.160 --> 0:51:49.000
<v Speaker 2>children for him, slaughter enough virgins, make enough wars, conquer

0:51:49.120 --> 0:51:53.880
<v Speaker 2>enough slaves, give enough sacrifices, then I'll propitiate the gods.

0:51:54.719 --> 0:52:01.520
<v Speaker 2>The world is chaotic. The monotheistic world is ordered. Number six,

0:52:04.120 --> 0:52:09.759
<v Speaker 2>one God means one humanity, a critically critically important thing.

0:52:10.600 --> 0:52:14.920
<v Speaker 2>If there's one God, we all come. That God is

0:52:15.120 --> 0:52:18.480
<v Speaker 2>our all of our father or parent if you like.

0:52:20.640 --> 0:52:24.360
<v Speaker 2>And that is a very basic doctrine incidentally in Judaism,

0:52:24.560 --> 0:52:28.719
<v Speaker 2>that we have all one father. Only if we all

0:52:28.760 --> 0:52:32.560
<v Speaker 2>have one father, are we all brothers and sisters? If

0:52:32.600 --> 0:52:36.600
<v Speaker 2>we have multiple parents, then we're not all brothers and sisters.

0:52:36.719 --> 0:52:39.320
<v Speaker 2>At best, we're cousins. And that's only on the assumption

0:52:39.360 --> 0:52:44.759
<v Speaker 2>that the gods are related. So one humanity is very

0:52:44.840 --> 0:52:50.280
<v Speaker 2>much dependent upon one parenthood of a god. Number seven.

0:52:51.840 --> 0:52:56.759
<v Speaker 2>Monotheism gives you holiness. Paganism did not have the concept

0:52:56.800 --> 0:53:03.759
<v Speaker 2>of the holy. That is why I am convinced that

0:53:03.960 --> 0:53:08.880
<v Speaker 2>you have all of these chapters thus far. With the

0:53:08.920 --> 0:53:14.879
<v Speaker 2>miserable sexual behavior of the nations around Israel. I don't

0:53:14.920 --> 0:53:18.600
<v Speaker 2>mean the nation, I don't mean the country Israel. I

0:53:18.640 --> 0:53:21.840
<v Speaker 2>mean the land of Israel and Israel as the family

0:53:21.880 --> 0:53:26.400
<v Speaker 2>of Jacob. Remember all the stories of Abraham having to

0:53:26.440 --> 0:53:29.440
<v Speaker 2>lie or thinking had to lie about his wife saying

0:53:29.480 --> 0:53:31.960
<v Speaker 2>she's a sister because otherwise they'll kill me because she's

0:53:31.960 --> 0:53:34.480
<v Speaker 2>a beautiful woman, and just sleep with her. Why did

0:53:34.560 --> 0:53:37.520
<v Speaker 2>they get all these stories? As I explain then and

0:53:37.560 --> 0:53:39.799
<v Speaker 2>now with the rape of Dina, look at the way

0:53:39.880 --> 0:53:44.840
<v Speaker 2>pagan society lived. This is the way they behaved. The

0:53:44.960 --> 0:53:49.120
<v Speaker 2>concept of the holy that humans just shouldn't behave that

0:53:49.160 --> 0:53:54.520
<v Speaker 2>way humans are above animals is all from monotheism. To

0:53:54.600 --> 0:53:57.520
<v Speaker 2>behave like an animal in paganism is terrific, because half

0:53:57.600 --> 0:54:02.279
<v Speaker 2>the animals were gods. Emulating animals was quite all right.

0:54:03.560 --> 0:54:06.000
<v Speaker 2>And when I say that we are returning to paganism

0:54:06.040 --> 0:54:08.479
<v Speaker 2>in some of our thought today, animals is a big

0:54:08.520 --> 0:54:13.080
<v Speaker 2>part of it. The notion that we are distinct from

0:54:13.120 --> 0:54:17.480
<v Speaker 2>animals is utterly a Jewish one carried on again by

0:54:17.520 --> 0:54:21.200
<v Speaker 2>Christianity and Islam. It is not a Pagan one. That

0:54:21.320 --> 0:54:24.279
<v Speaker 2>is why so many dances were done with animals, so

0:54:24.440 --> 0:54:27.400
<v Speaker 2>much so you would go in the guys of animals.

0:54:27.680 --> 0:54:31.880
<v Speaker 2>Animals were so often revered. Indeed, in parts of Hinduism,

0:54:31.960 --> 0:54:37.680
<v Speaker 2>tragically the lowest caste was treated worse than cows. Cows

0:54:37.719 --> 0:54:43.200
<v Speaker 2>you had to feed because cows had holiness, But the

0:54:43.280 --> 0:54:48.920
<v Speaker 2>cast the underclass, the untouchables, no obligations towards them didn't exist.

0:54:50.000 --> 0:54:52.319
<v Speaker 2>This is not to put down all of Hinduism. There

0:54:52.360 --> 0:54:55.319
<v Speaker 2>is much beauty in Hinduism, and many beautiful people like

0:54:55.400 --> 0:54:59.080
<v Speaker 2>Mahatma Gandhi come from it. It is merely to say, though,

0:54:59.640 --> 0:55:01.800
<v Speaker 2>that the the idea that we are to be utterly

0:55:01.960 --> 0:55:06.560
<v Speaker 2>separate from animals is a Jewish monotheistic idea, and it

0:55:06.640 --> 0:55:13.480
<v Speaker 2>is not well received in post Christian America. One day,

0:55:13.719 --> 0:55:15.680
<v Speaker 2>when I have the time, I will write a book

0:55:15.719 --> 0:55:19.880
<v Speaker 2>on what post Christian America means, because we are living

0:55:19.920 --> 0:55:22.799
<v Speaker 2>in it, and we are living with the consequences. And

0:55:22.880 --> 0:55:26.320
<v Speaker 2>this is a jew speaking but it has been largely

0:55:26.360 --> 0:55:29.680
<v Speaker 2>a Christian country, and I have no problem in noting that,

0:55:29.719 --> 0:55:31.840
<v Speaker 2>and I am unhappy about the fact that it is

0:55:31.880 --> 0:55:35.839
<v Speaker 2>ceasing to be because I know that it was the

0:55:35.960 --> 0:55:39.160
<v Speaker 2>carrier of the values that I care about. Call it

0:55:39.280 --> 0:55:41.799
<v Speaker 2>Christian or Judeo Christian, it doesn't matter to me all

0:55:41.840 --> 0:55:45.280
<v Speaker 2>that much. What matters to me is that these monotheistic

0:55:45.360 --> 0:55:49.240
<v Speaker 2>values of holiness are carried on and they're not being

0:55:50.080 --> 0:55:54.560
<v Speaker 2>where there is increasingly a concern for animals. I mean,

0:55:54.600 --> 0:56:01.080
<v Speaker 2>I'll give you one example among many people, truly, among

0:56:01.120 --> 0:56:07.680
<v Speaker 2>many sophisticated Americans today, there is a greater concern for

0:56:07.880 --> 0:56:13.160
<v Speaker 2>the life of a baby seal than there is for

0:56:13.280 --> 0:56:16.200
<v Speaker 2>the life of a human embryo of a human fetus.

0:56:18.480 --> 0:56:20.719
<v Speaker 2>I'm not talking at all about the issue of women

0:56:20.760 --> 0:56:22.840
<v Speaker 2>in abortion. Please put it out of your minds. That

0:56:22.960 --> 0:56:26.680
<v Speaker 2>is not the issue I'm addressing. I'm addressing the simple,

0:56:27.200 --> 0:56:32.000
<v Speaker 2>difficult issue of where there is more passion and concern

0:56:33.280 --> 0:56:38.839
<v Speaker 2>attended to dedicated to, And the answer is frequently an

0:56:38.920 --> 0:56:42.360
<v Speaker 2>animal one. And the more radical you get in the

0:56:42.400 --> 0:56:45.680
<v Speaker 2>animal rights movement, the more you have, in fact, the

0:56:45.800 --> 0:56:49.359
<v Speaker 2>belief that we, as the head of what as an

0:56:49.400 --> 0:56:53.720
<v Speaker 2>Earth first said humans are a cancer on the earth.

0:56:55.080 --> 0:57:00.840
<v Speaker 2>Animals are better. Anybody thinks that, By the way, I

0:57:01.000 --> 0:57:04.680
<v Speaker 2>suggest to you to invest ten dollars or fourteen dollars

0:57:04.760 --> 0:57:08.280
<v Speaker 2>I think with postage and handling in the time life

0:57:08.440 --> 0:57:12.880
<v Speaker 2>video series on animal life. I forgot the name of it.

0:57:13.200 --> 0:57:16.800
<v Speaker 2>I'll remember for you next week. But if any of

0:57:16.840 --> 0:57:20.680
<v Speaker 2>you ever start romanticizing how animals treat each other, I

0:57:20.720 --> 0:57:23.640
<v Speaker 2>beg of you to get this series of videos. See

0:57:23.680 --> 0:57:28.360
<v Speaker 2>for example, what the killer Whales, which are so adorable,

0:57:28.400 --> 0:57:32.400
<v Speaker 2>and now films where this boy makes friend with killer whale.

0:57:32.800 --> 0:57:35.120
<v Speaker 2>Killer whale is nicer than half the humans you'll ever

0:57:35.160 --> 0:57:39.440
<v Speaker 2>meet in your life. They don't show you killer whales

0:57:39.840 --> 0:57:44.360
<v Speaker 2>in the wild who take baby seals and throw them

0:57:44.400 --> 0:57:48.760
<v Speaker 2>around like a football before they actually kill it. They

0:57:48.880 --> 0:57:52.200
<v Speaker 2>just toss it, this terrified little seal around as a

0:57:52.240 --> 0:57:56.680
<v Speaker 2>game among themselves, and then they kill it. Wouldn't get

0:57:56.680 --> 0:57:59.760
<v Speaker 2>that out of Hollywood because Hollywood has many pagans in it,

0:58:00.440 --> 0:58:03.120
<v Speaker 2>and and I and I say that descriptively even more

0:58:03.160 --> 0:58:07.600
<v Speaker 2>than critically, where where you have this romanticization of the

0:58:07.800 --> 0:58:10.080
<v Speaker 2>of the animal world, just like they did in the

0:58:10.080 --> 0:58:14.400
<v Speaker 2>pagan world. Now, I'm not telling you that animals are bad.

0:58:14.480 --> 0:58:16.960
<v Speaker 2>I don't think animals are good or bad. The whales

0:58:16.960 --> 0:58:21.040
<v Speaker 2>that throw around the seal are not bad anymore than

0:58:21.400 --> 0:58:25.880
<v Speaker 2>hammers that that build that build gas chambers in Nazi

0:58:25.920 --> 0:58:30.320
<v Speaker 2>Europe were bad. It's it's that's the hammer is neutral.

0:58:30.360 --> 0:58:35.080
<v Speaker 2>An animal is neutral. German shepherds can save your life

0:58:35.120 --> 0:58:39.680
<v Speaker 2>where they can eat the chew Jews in Auschwitz. So

0:58:39.760 --> 0:58:44.680
<v Speaker 2>I don't have I don't have a romantic or negative

0:58:44.760 --> 0:58:47.720
<v Speaker 2>view of animals, and have a few in our home.

0:58:48.360 --> 0:58:50.600
<v Speaker 2>I like them, but I know their place and they're

0:58:50.600 --> 0:58:56.760
<v Speaker 2>not me Judaism made this very clear. Paganism didn't. There

0:58:56.840 --> 0:59:00.520
<v Speaker 2>is a distinction between you and the animal. You can't

0:59:00.560 --> 0:59:03.840
<v Speaker 2>behave like an animal. You have to behave like God.

0:59:04.360 --> 0:59:07.320
<v Speaker 2>But to behave like God, and Paganism was to behave

0:59:07.440 --> 0:59:08.120
<v Speaker 2>like an animal.

0:59:08.920 --> 0:59:19.080
<v Speaker 4>That's the difference. Those are why this is so important.

0:59:19.680 --> 0:59:22.280
<v Speaker 2>And this is the first time in the Torah that

0:59:22.320 --> 0:59:27.880
<v Speaker 2>there is a mention of other gods to be removed. Okay,

0:59:28.000 --> 0:59:33.080
<v Speaker 2>I can continue as Jacob said to his household and

0:59:33.120 --> 0:59:36.080
<v Speaker 2>to all that were with him, rid yourselves of the

0:59:36.120 --> 0:59:39.640
<v Speaker 2>alien gods in your midst purify yourselves, and change your

0:59:39.680 --> 0:59:55.080
<v Speaker 2>clothes one minute. Please just want to find okay verse three, Come,

0:59:55.160 --> 0:59:58.360
<v Speaker 2>let us go up to beth El, and I will

0:59:58.360 --> 1:00:01.520
<v Speaker 2>build an altar there to the God who answered me

1:00:01.560 --> 1:00:05.520
<v Speaker 2>when I was in distress. See that's who he's identifying.

1:00:06.000 --> 1:00:08.400
<v Speaker 2>If he said to his kids and will build an

1:00:08.440 --> 1:00:12.400
<v Speaker 2>altar there to the invisible and knowable divine author of

1:00:12.440 --> 1:00:16.720
<v Speaker 2>the universe, his kids would have asked what grapes he

1:00:16.800 --> 1:00:22.040
<v Speaker 2>had recently made into wine, you understand. Indeed, and indeed

1:00:22.120 --> 1:00:24.160
<v Speaker 2>Jacob would not have been able to speak like that.

1:00:24.280 --> 1:00:27.520
<v Speaker 2>In my opinion, this is still the god that the

1:00:27.640 --> 1:00:30.600
<v Speaker 2>Jews are meeting is a very personal one. Look at

1:00:30.640 --> 1:00:34.720
<v Speaker 2>what God did for me, I must tell you. I

1:00:34.840 --> 1:00:39.960
<v Speaker 2>consider that an early and somewhat primitive view of God,

1:00:40.680 --> 1:00:43.760
<v Speaker 2>the God of look at what God did for me?

1:00:44.800 --> 1:00:50.440
<v Speaker 2>This too is worth an excursus, as Sarna always uses

1:00:50.480 --> 1:00:55.600
<v Speaker 2>the term. I will just be very brief. If your

1:00:55.760 --> 1:00:59.360
<v Speaker 2>God is a god that you primarily relate to as

1:00:59.440 --> 1:01:03.280
<v Speaker 2>what God did for you, to me, you don't believe

1:01:03.320 --> 1:01:06.280
<v Speaker 2>in God as much as you do a celestial butler.

1:01:08.640 --> 1:01:12.920
<v Speaker 2>And there is a very very serious problem in believing

1:01:13.000 --> 1:01:15.360
<v Speaker 2>in a celestial butler. And I will tell you exactly

1:01:15.400 --> 1:01:19.040
<v Speaker 2>what it is. If things go wrong for you, you'll end

1:01:19.120 --> 1:01:26.280
<v Speaker 2>up an atheist, not to mention very bitter. The more

1:01:26.600 --> 1:01:29.479
<v Speaker 2>your definition of God is look at what God does

1:01:29.520 --> 1:01:34.800
<v Speaker 2>for me, the less prepared you are for tragedy, because

1:01:34.840 --> 1:01:37.680
<v Speaker 2>what are you going to say? Then he thinked out

1:01:37.720 --> 1:01:41.919
<v Speaker 2>on me? Does that mean that God plays no role

1:01:41.960 --> 1:01:44.200
<v Speaker 2>in your life? I don't believe that either. I do

1:01:44.320 --> 1:01:47.240
<v Speaker 2>believe God plays a role in our lives or can

1:01:48.120 --> 1:01:51.240
<v Speaker 2>how specifically is a debate in Jewish history which I

1:01:51.240 --> 1:01:56.560
<v Speaker 2>won't get into now, But certainly this is not the

1:01:56.600 --> 1:02:00.600
<v Speaker 2>God that the God of who did these things for

1:02:00.720 --> 1:02:03.480
<v Speaker 2>me is a very early view of God, a very

1:02:03.520 --> 1:02:16.240
<v Speaker 2>personal one that judaism arises above. Eventually, okay, one moment, please, okay.

1:02:17.480 --> 1:02:19.880
<v Speaker 2>They gave to Jacob all the alien gods that they

1:02:19.960 --> 1:02:23.400
<v Speaker 2>had and the rings that were in their ears see

1:02:23.440 --> 1:02:27.120
<v Speaker 2>their return to paganism. You see all the men with

1:02:27.240 --> 1:02:31.200
<v Speaker 2>ear rings in our time, and Jacob buried them under

1:02:31.240 --> 1:02:36.000
<v Speaker 2>the terebinth, which is which was a holy tree in

1:02:36.040 --> 1:02:40.120
<v Speaker 2>those days, that was near Shechem. As they set out,

1:02:40.160 --> 1:02:42.960
<v Speaker 2>a terror from God fell on the cities round about,

1:02:43.480 --> 1:02:45.680
<v Speaker 2>so that they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.

1:02:45.720 --> 1:02:48.240
<v Speaker 2>In other words, God placed the fear in them from

1:02:48.280 --> 1:02:52.640
<v Speaker 2>attacking for this small group of the sons of Jacob.

1:02:53.000 --> 1:02:56.000
<v Speaker 2>Thus Jacob came to lose, that is beth L in

1:02:56.080 --> 1:02:58.640
<v Speaker 2>the land of Canan, he and all the people who

1:02:58.680 --> 1:03:01.040
<v Speaker 2>were with him. There, he built an altar and named

1:03:01.040 --> 1:03:05.600
<v Speaker 2>the site l beth L, that's God, the house of God.

1:03:05.960 --> 1:03:08.960
<v Speaker 2>He's as it were, giving it a newer name, for

1:03:09.040 --> 1:03:12.000
<v Speaker 2>it was there. The reason that he gives it a

1:03:12.040 --> 1:03:14.640
<v Speaker 2>newer name is beth L was holy the Pagans too,

1:03:15.440 --> 1:03:18.840
<v Speaker 2>so he wanted to rename it. It's like old Bethel,

1:03:19.160 --> 1:03:22.680
<v Speaker 2>And now the new Bethel. It's of L, the real God.

1:03:23.040 --> 1:03:26.600
<v Speaker 2>You with me, because beth L means beth L means

1:03:26.680 --> 1:03:30.600
<v Speaker 2>house of God, So literally l Bethel is God house

1:03:30.640 --> 1:03:33.080
<v Speaker 2>of God. For it was there that God had revealed

1:03:33.120 --> 1:03:35.080
<v Speaker 2>himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother

1:03:38.080 --> 1:03:45.480
<v Speaker 2>verse eight, which is a real toughie. What's it doing there? Deborah,

1:03:46.040 --> 1:03:51.680
<v Speaker 2>Rebecca's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel,

1:03:52.120 --> 1:03:57.360
<v Speaker 2>so it was named alone Bahut. Now you normally people

1:03:57.360 --> 1:03:59.720
<v Speaker 2>don't crack up when they read the Torah, and I

1:04:00.360 --> 1:04:05.640
<v Speaker 2>will explain it doesn't. It doesn't make sense. Who cares

1:04:06.360 --> 1:04:10.920
<v Speaker 2>when the wet nurse of Rachel died? Excuse me, of

1:04:10.960 --> 1:04:15.200
<v Speaker 2>Rebecca died. Think about it for a minute. We don't.

1:04:15.240 --> 1:04:18.320
<v Speaker 2>We don't hear almost ever when when the women die.

1:04:19.160 --> 1:04:22.200
<v Speaker 2>So of all the women to tell us this epochal

1:04:22.240 --> 1:04:27.800
<v Speaker 2>event that she died is the wet nurse of of Rebecca.

1:04:28.640 --> 1:04:32.040
<v Speaker 2>And the truth is a lot of them don't understand

1:04:32.120 --> 1:04:36.400
<v Speaker 2>it either. A lot of the commentary commentaries they ask

1:04:36.560 --> 1:04:39.040
<v Speaker 2>why is this even mentioned. I'll give you three reasons

1:04:39.040 --> 1:04:41.760
<v Speaker 2>that Sarna gives because I had no answer at all.

1:04:41.800 --> 1:04:48.800
<v Speaker 2>I'll give you his one. The presumption seems unavoidable that

1:04:48.920 --> 1:04:52.600
<v Speaker 2>traditions about Deborah, which would make the context of the

1:04:52.680 --> 1:04:57.320
<v Speaker 2>present notice intelligible, were widely known to reader and narrator

1:04:57.400 --> 1:04:59.920
<v Speaker 2>alike in Biblical times, but they weren't included in the

1:05:00.800 --> 1:05:06.000
<v Speaker 2>That's important. Remember this document is three thousand plus years old,

1:05:07.320 --> 1:05:11.680
<v Speaker 2>so you have to understand they understood stuff that we

1:05:11.800 --> 1:05:15.520
<v Speaker 2>clearly don't understand. Obviously, there were references to things that

1:05:15.560 --> 1:05:18.320
<v Speaker 2>made a whole Oh really, that's what happened to Rebecca,

1:05:18.360 --> 1:05:22.960
<v Speaker 2>who dun da Whereas you don't have any daddas about Rebecca.

1:05:23.080 --> 1:05:25.960
<v Speaker 2>We don't know anything except that she was basically the

1:05:26.640 --> 1:05:33.680
<v Speaker 2>wet nurse here on behalf of Rebecca, I mean Deborah.

1:05:33.680 --> 1:05:35.960
<v Speaker 2>Excuse me, We don't know anything about Deborah except that

1:05:36.600 --> 1:05:42.280
<v Speaker 2>so they had these things about Deborah earlier. Reason number two,

1:05:42.760 --> 1:05:45.240
<v Speaker 2>He writes, there may be a deeper purpose as well,

1:05:46.120 --> 1:05:50.520
<v Speaker 2>with the purging of Idolatry and the arrival at beth El,

1:05:51.400 --> 1:05:56.520
<v Speaker 2>the contacts with Mesopotamia. Where did we meet Deborah? We

1:05:56.600 --> 1:06:03.360
<v Speaker 2>met her once. We met her in Mesopotamia when Isaac

1:06:04.160 --> 1:06:07.440
<v Speaker 2>went with the mess when the messenger was sent in

1:06:07.560 --> 1:06:10.840
<v Speaker 2>order to get Isaac a wife. Remember that, No, but

1:06:10.960 --> 1:06:15.000
<v Speaker 2>that's what happened. And they were sent to Mesopotamia because

1:06:15.960 --> 1:06:20.480
<v Speaker 2>they were not to get a wife from the Canaanite women.

1:06:21.600 --> 1:06:24.560
<v Speaker 2>So they went to Mesopotamia. And that's where The only

1:06:24.600 --> 1:06:28.640
<v Speaker 2>other time is chapter twenty nine, when we met when

1:06:28.640 --> 1:06:36.280
<v Speaker 2>we met Devora Deborah, so she's from Mesopotamia. Now, this

1:06:36.480 --> 1:06:40.600
<v Speaker 2>is a way of saying, with Deborah's death, contacts with

1:06:40.720 --> 1:06:45.080
<v Speaker 2>pagan Mesopotamia are severed. Not an interesting point that Sarna

1:06:45.120 --> 1:06:47.919
<v Speaker 2>makes see from a sentence that none of us would

1:06:47.960 --> 1:06:50.840
<v Speaker 2>have ever given a minute's thought to would have talked

1:06:50.880 --> 1:06:58.880
<v Speaker 2>to our friend during Shule while it was read. Okay, oh,

1:06:58.880 --> 1:07:01.000
<v Speaker 2>those are the two Those are the two reasons. Okay,

1:07:01.000 --> 1:07:08.280
<v Speaker 2>we go on by the way alone. Bahut means tree

1:07:08.320 --> 1:07:12.720
<v Speaker 2>of crying. Verse nine. God appeared again to Jacob on

1:07:12.800 --> 1:07:20.680
<v Speaker 2>his arrival from Padana. RAHMANI blessed him. God said to him,

1:07:20.720 --> 1:07:24.760
<v Speaker 2>you whose name is Jacob, you shall be called Jacob

1:07:24.840 --> 1:07:28.320
<v Speaker 2>no more, but Israel shall be your name. Thus he

1:07:28.400 --> 1:07:36.480
<v Speaker 2>named him Israel. Now, what's the most obvious question. No, no,

1:07:36.720 --> 1:07:41.120
<v Speaker 2>that's not the most odd second most obvious question, that's right.

1:07:41.160 --> 1:07:44.120
<v Speaker 2>Why is this repeated? He already got renamed Israel? What

1:07:44.200 --> 1:07:46.520
<v Speaker 2>does God not know of it now. This is a

1:07:46.520 --> 1:07:50.040
<v Speaker 2>classic example of where a lot of the scholars who

1:07:50.080 --> 1:07:53.360
<v Speaker 2>believe in the documentary hypothesis, which is nearly all of them,

1:07:53.400 --> 1:07:58.960
<v Speaker 2>I need to be intellectually honest and tell you that

1:07:59.040 --> 1:08:04.560
<v Speaker 2>it is almost universally held among secular scholars that the

1:08:04.640 --> 1:08:11.680
<v Speaker 2>Torah is composed of basically four original documents redacted or

1:08:11.800 --> 1:08:17.040
<v Speaker 2>edited by a redactor or editor later jep and d

1:08:17.160 --> 1:08:22.880
<v Speaker 2>there called Jehovah Elohim, priestly and deuteronomic. And this to

1:08:22.960 --> 1:08:26.040
<v Speaker 2>them is a classic example why repeat it? It must

1:08:26.040 --> 1:08:29.719
<v Speaker 2>be from the other tradition which they kept in. Those

1:08:29.760 --> 1:08:32.160
<v Speaker 2>of us who think that it's more complex than that,

1:08:33.400 --> 1:08:38.519
<v Speaker 2>and who are more religiously oriented, will just answer as indeed, Sarna,

1:08:38.560 --> 1:08:41.840
<v Speaker 2>who is a scholar and religious though not orthodox Jew,

1:08:43.160 --> 1:08:47.320
<v Speaker 2>says that there is another reason why it's repeated, and

1:08:47.360 --> 1:08:49.599
<v Speaker 2>it makes perfect sense to me. Listen to what he writes.

1:08:50.280 --> 1:08:52.880
<v Speaker 2>Jacob's name has changed to Israel for the second time

1:08:53.720 --> 1:08:57.479
<v Speaker 2>in chapter thirty two. It was not God personally, but

1:08:57.600 --> 1:09:02.800
<v Speaker 2>an angelic being you made the pronouncement. You see, that

1:09:02.880 --> 1:09:07.120
<v Speaker 2>makes perfect sense. It's I God who wants your name Israel,

1:09:07.520 --> 1:09:11.160
<v Speaker 2>not just an angel or messenger that makes perfect sense.

1:09:11.200 --> 1:09:13.920
<v Speaker 2>You didn't need two documents here. It may have just

1:09:14.040 --> 1:09:19.559
<v Speaker 2>simply been that. Moreover, there's another reason why it's repeated.

1:09:19.560 --> 1:09:22.599
<v Speaker 2>According to Sarna, it was made on the other side

1:09:22.680 --> 1:09:29.400
<v Speaker 2>of the Jordan, not in the land of Israel. See therefore,

1:09:29.439 --> 1:09:32.600
<v Speaker 2>the new name Israel needs to be confirmed and validated

1:09:32.640 --> 1:09:37.040
<v Speaker 2>by God himself in the promised land. The fact that

1:09:37.080 --> 1:09:40.240
<v Speaker 2>God is said to appear again quote unquote, and that

1:09:40.320 --> 1:09:42.840
<v Speaker 2>remarkably no rationale for the new name is given here

1:09:43.320 --> 1:09:46.519
<v Speaker 2>shows a dependency on the earlier narrative. In other words,

1:09:47.439 --> 1:09:50.080
<v Speaker 2>the very fact is it's not a second story. It

1:09:50.160 --> 1:09:52.720
<v Speaker 2>depends on your knowing the first story to make this

1:09:52.840 --> 1:09:56.000
<v Speaker 2>part intelligible. Now if you don't know the first story,

1:09:56.120 --> 1:10:01.400
<v Speaker 2>very quickly, Jacob has this dream that there are messengers

1:10:01.520 --> 1:10:04.280
<v Speaker 2>or angels of God going up and down from the earth,

1:10:04.760 --> 1:10:09.160
<v Speaker 2>up like a ladder, which is really the old Mesopotamian

1:10:09.200 --> 1:10:13.880
<v Speaker 2>shape of ziggurats of the holy places, up from the

1:10:13.920 --> 1:10:17.000
<v Speaker 2>sky and back down again, and he wrestles with an

1:10:17.000 --> 1:10:22.160
<v Speaker 2>angel or wrestles with a man it's not totally clear,

1:10:22.680 --> 1:10:27.759
<v Speaker 2>and is wounded. But Israel was given his name. Israel

1:10:27.880 --> 1:10:30.200
<v Speaker 2>means which is the name of the Jewish people Jews

1:10:30.240 --> 1:10:35.040
<v Speaker 2>a much later name from Judah. Israel means struggle or

1:10:35.080 --> 1:10:41.439
<v Speaker 2>fight with God. Yes, rah al Al is God yras

1:10:41.520 --> 1:10:46.559
<v Speaker 2>to fight. And as I said when I taught that chapter,

1:10:46.640 --> 1:10:51.559
<v Speaker 2>then that does personify the Jewish people a people that

1:10:51.600 --> 1:10:55.479
<v Speaker 2>fights with God, which I like, the problem with the

1:10:55.560 --> 1:10:58.759
<v Speaker 2>Jewish people today is that it ignores God, not fights

1:10:58.760 --> 1:11:09.280
<v Speaker 2>with God. Big problem. Okay. And thus he named them

1:11:09.320 --> 1:11:11.360
<v Speaker 2>Israel verse eleven. And God said to him, I am

1:11:11.400 --> 1:11:15.519
<v Speaker 2>el Shadai, it's another name of God. Be fertile and

1:11:15.640 --> 1:11:19.679
<v Speaker 2>increase a nation. Indeed, an assembly of nations shall descend

1:11:19.680 --> 1:11:25.040
<v Speaker 2>from you, kings, shall issue from your loins. I have

1:11:25.200 --> 1:11:28.960
<v Speaker 2>not yet received an answer on what it means an

1:11:29.000 --> 1:11:32.880
<v Speaker 2>assembly of nations will descend from you. I thought only

1:11:32.920 --> 1:11:36.680
<v Speaker 2>one nation. Now does it mean that each one of

1:11:36.760 --> 1:11:40.320
<v Speaker 2>the sons is going to be a separate nation. They

1:11:40.360 --> 1:11:44.720
<v Speaker 2>became separate tribes, but of one nation? What does it mean?

1:11:44.760 --> 1:11:47.120
<v Speaker 2>Does anybody know? What does it mean when God blesses

1:11:47.240 --> 1:11:50.720
<v Speaker 2>Jacob that an assembly of nations will come forth from you?

1:11:53.240 --> 1:11:59.280
<v Speaker 2>Anybody have an I don't have an answer, probably to

1:11:59.360 --> 1:12:04.439
<v Speaker 2>Muslims and Christians, but there they don't consider themselves nations.

1:12:04.479 --> 1:12:08.639
<v Speaker 2>They consider themselves religion. So even there it wouldn't be yes,

1:12:10.040 --> 1:12:13.040
<v Speaker 2>half the lost tribes and they you know, if they

1:12:13.080 --> 1:12:20.240
<v Speaker 2>fell being from gasting all different. Yeah, but that's ex

1:12:20.280 --> 1:12:24.280
<v Speaker 2>post facto that this is not an anticipation of the

1:12:24.439 --> 1:12:27.840
<v Speaker 2>of the tribes being lost. I'll tell you what is

1:12:27.880 --> 1:12:30.559
<v Speaker 2>the one possibility that I that I have thought of.

1:12:30.640 --> 1:12:35.960
<v Speaker 2>It might be a hint for the fact that all

1:12:36.120 --> 1:12:39.840
<v Speaker 2>of the nations that will come from you, can not

1:12:39.880 --> 1:12:45.559
<v Speaker 2>only mean the obvious of well, the Jewish nation, but

1:12:45.760 --> 1:12:49.479
<v Speaker 2>all the nations that will affirm me as God will

1:12:49.479 --> 1:12:54.160
<v Speaker 2>do so as a result of coming from you. That

1:12:54.160 --> 1:12:58.040
<v Speaker 2>that strikes me as a very real possibility, because there

1:12:58.080 --> 1:13:01.680
<v Speaker 2>is a deep universalist streak in the Torah and in Judaism.

1:13:02.040 --> 1:13:05.160
<v Speaker 2>Remember when God blesses Abraham, the first monotheist, what he

1:13:05.240 --> 1:13:10.360
<v Speaker 2>says vi vard hubercha call me dam through you, all

1:13:10.479 --> 1:13:13.040
<v Speaker 2>the families of the earth will be blessed. There is

1:13:13.120 --> 1:13:15.799
<v Speaker 2>no notion in the Torah that only Jews get blessed

1:13:15.880 --> 1:13:19.280
<v Speaker 2>because because of the Jewish knowledge of God. The purpose

1:13:19.320 --> 1:13:21.360
<v Speaker 2>of the Jewish knowledge of God so that the world

1:13:21.400 --> 1:13:26.800
<v Speaker 2>knows God. So the assembly of nations is assembly of

1:13:26.840 --> 1:13:31.400
<v Speaker 2>monotheistic nations, not Jewish nations. That's how I would I

1:13:31.439 --> 1:13:34.200
<v Speaker 2>would read it, and I don't like to read into text,

1:13:34.880 --> 1:13:38.800
<v Speaker 2>but it strikes me given that it already says. It

1:13:38.880 --> 1:13:44.080
<v Speaker 2>says a nation and an assembly of nations. The nation

1:13:44.439 --> 1:13:49.080
<v Speaker 2>is the Jewish nation, the Hebrew nation bene Israel. But

1:13:49.240 --> 1:13:54.200
<v Speaker 2>it's distinctly saying, and an assembly of nations. Thanks to

1:13:54.320 --> 1:13:59.080
<v Speaker 2>your knowing me and my blessing you, an assembly of

1:13:59.200 --> 1:14:02.720
<v Speaker 2>nations that know me will come into this world. That's

1:14:02.760 --> 1:14:06.960
<v Speaker 2>exactly what happened. All nations that are monotheistic are so

1:14:07.040 --> 1:14:11.720
<v Speaker 2>because of this book. Okay, sound plausible to you, It

1:14:11.800 --> 1:14:14.920
<v Speaker 2>sounded to me. I checked with a dear friend who's

1:14:15.560 --> 1:14:17.679
<v Speaker 2>an Orthodox scholar, and since he didn't have an answer,

1:14:17.760 --> 1:14:24.120
<v Speaker 2>I think in mind was good. Number twelve The Land

1:14:24.400 --> 1:14:27.000
<v Speaker 2>Verse twelve. The land that I signed to Abraham and Isaac,

1:14:27.040 --> 1:14:29.719
<v Speaker 2>I assigned to you and to your offspring to come.

1:14:30.520 --> 1:14:35.080
<v Speaker 2>Will I assign the land? The one distinctive thing for

1:14:35.200 --> 1:14:40.240
<v Speaker 2>Jews is the land of Israel. Everything else is universal,

1:14:40.600 --> 1:14:47.320
<v Speaker 2>but the land is very Particularist thirteen, God parted from

1:14:47.439 --> 1:14:50.240
<v Speaker 2>him at the spot where he had spoken to him.

1:14:50.600 --> 1:14:52.360
<v Speaker 2>That reminds me of a phone call I got today

1:14:52.360 --> 1:14:58.200
<v Speaker 2>on my radio show which a guy calls up and

1:14:58.800 --> 1:15:02.680
<v Speaker 2>he is obviously a well educated guy, and telling me

1:15:02.720 --> 1:15:05.679
<v Speaker 2>that he felt that he wanted to challenge me because

1:15:05.720 --> 1:15:08.800
<v Speaker 2>I believe in God and he thought that the notion

1:15:08.880 --> 1:15:14.759
<v Speaker 2>of God as creator was scientifically untenable and illogical. He said, okay,

1:15:15.479 --> 1:15:21.000
<v Speaker 2>what's your alternate thesis? And then he started giving some

1:15:21.080 --> 1:15:24.880
<v Speaker 2>scientific stuff and then said, and I'll tell you, it's

1:15:25.320 --> 1:15:29.400
<v Speaker 2>also quite clear that the God whom people believed in

1:15:29.400 --> 1:15:32.719
<v Speaker 2>in the Bible were extra terrestrials who said they were God.

1:15:36.640 --> 1:15:38.880
<v Speaker 2>So you know, it's one of those moments that I

1:15:38.960 --> 1:15:41.400
<v Speaker 2>have to tell my engineer to prepare, to prepare the

1:15:41.479 --> 1:15:47.120
<v Speaker 2>Twilight Zone theme for I said, you know, I fully

1:15:47.160 --> 1:15:50.040
<v Speaker 2>appreciate that you would feel that it's not logical that

1:15:50.120 --> 1:15:53.599
<v Speaker 2>I believe in God. It's okay, I can live with that,

1:15:54.360 --> 1:15:58.960
<v Speaker 2>but that you then offer as your logical alternative extra

1:15:59.120 --> 1:16:03.000
<v Speaker 2>terrestrial is a bit too difficult for me to take.

1:16:03.120 --> 1:16:07.000
<v Speaker 2>It was really one of the funniest calls without anybody laughing,

1:16:07.479 --> 1:16:11.400
<v Speaker 2>that I had ever had. But just reminds me now

1:16:11.720 --> 1:16:15.160
<v Speaker 2>when I see that, you know, God speaking to what

1:16:15.200 --> 1:16:17.839
<v Speaker 2>it says here God parted from him at that spot.

1:16:18.080 --> 1:16:20.400
<v Speaker 2>It made me think, oh, it's an extra terrestrial who

1:16:20.560 --> 1:16:26.080
<v Speaker 2>just took off verse fourteen. And Jacob set up a

1:16:26.120 --> 1:16:29.080
<v Speaker 2>pillar at the site where he had spoken to him,

1:16:29.120 --> 1:16:32.599
<v Speaker 2>a pillar of stone, and he offered a libation on

1:16:32.640 --> 1:16:36.599
<v Speaker 2>it and poured oil upon it. Jacob gave the sight

1:16:37.600 --> 1:16:39.880
<v Speaker 2>where God had spoken to him the name of beth L.

1:16:40.360 --> 1:16:50.599
<v Speaker 2>They set out from beth L. One second they set

1:16:50.600 --> 1:16:53.000
<v Speaker 2>out from Bethel. But when they were still some distance

1:16:53.080 --> 1:16:57.759
<v Speaker 2>short of e Frat, Rachel was in childbirth, his beloved Rachel,

1:16:58.600 --> 1:17:01.599
<v Speaker 2>and she had hard labor. When her labor was at

1:17:01.640 --> 1:17:05.960
<v Speaker 2>its hardest, the midwife said to her, have no fear,

1:17:06.080 --> 1:17:11.120
<v Speaker 2>for it is another boy for you. As Sarna writes,

1:17:11.240 --> 1:17:15.240
<v Speaker 2>Rachel is comforted in her death agony by the knowledge

1:17:15.360 --> 1:17:18.880
<v Speaker 2>that God answered the prayer she had uttered after the

1:17:18.920 --> 1:17:22.559
<v Speaker 2>birth of Joseph. May the Lord add another son for me?

1:17:25.160 --> 1:17:31.439
<v Speaker 2>And the obvious should not be belabored, but sons mattered more.

1:17:32.439 --> 1:17:36.479
<v Speaker 2>It is one of the welcome, deeply welcome shifts of

1:17:36.600 --> 1:17:40.240
<v Speaker 2>contemporary life that that is not the case in many families,

1:17:40.920 --> 1:17:44.080
<v Speaker 2>but certainly in that world, and in too much of

1:17:44.120 --> 1:17:51.479
<v Speaker 2>the modern world it continues to be the case. But

1:17:51.640 --> 1:17:54.920
<v Speaker 2>as she breathed her last for she was dying. She

1:17:55.080 --> 1:18:02.919
<v Speaker 2>named him Ben One. His father called him ben Yamin.

1:18:03.200 --> 1:18:05.639
<v Speaker 2>I'm giving you the Hebrew so you'll realize how close

1:18:05.680 --> 1:18:08.200
<v Speaker 2>it is to what she named him. She named him

1:18:08.200 --> 1:18:12.720
<v Speaker 2>Ben one, he named him Ben Yamin. I'll explain that.

1:18:14.520 --> 1:18:21.800
<v Speaker 2>Four explanations for Ben Yamin or Benjamin. Jacob either reinterprets

1:18:21.960 --> 1:18:27.519
<v Speaker 2>Ben one, which is the son of my sorrow. That's

1:18:27.520 --> 1:18:31.080
<v Speaker 2>the name that Rachel gives as she's dying to the boy.

1:18:31.160 --> 1:18:35.960
<v Speaker 2>The son Ben is son one my sorrow. Jacob either

1:18:36.000 --> 1:18:41.160
<v Speaker 2>reinterprets Ben one or replaces it by a more auspicious name. Two,

1:18:41.640 --> 1:18:44.719
<v Speaker 2>the meaning could be the son of my right hand

1:18:45.120 --> 1:18:48.920
<v Speaker 2>Yemen in Hebrew means right, so Ben Yamin would be

1:18:48.920 --> 1:18:52.160
<v Speaker 2>the son of my right, the right being a symbol

1:18:52.200 --> 1:18:57.720
<v Speaker 2>of dexterity, power protection. Third, another rendering is son of

1:18:57.800 --> 1:19:02.679
<v Speaker 2>the South, that is, the unborn to the South. Such

1:19:02.720 --> 1:19:06.040
<v Speaker 2>a meaning, suggested by Rashi, finds analogy in the Mari

1:19:06.280 --> 1:19:11.000
<v Speaker 2>texts ancient world of the Mari, which refer to tribal

1:19:11.040 --> 1:19:15.680
<v Speaker 2>confederations of Dumu, mess Yamina, sons of the South, Southerners,

1:19:16.160 --> 1:19:19.800
<v Speaker 2>and so on. A third possibility put forth by Raschbaum,

1:19:20.439 --> 1:19:25.400
<v Speaker 2>the one I subscribe to for whatever it's worth, and

1:19:25.479 --> 1:19:28.280
<v Speaker 2>it shouldn't be worth too much in this instance. I'm

1:19:28.320 --> 1:19:32.040
<v Speaker 2>not an entomologist. It just makes the most sense to me.

1:19:33.320 --> 1:19:41.720
<v Speaker 2>Is Yamin is Yamim, which means days, so that his

1:19:41.880 --> 1:19:45.320
<v Speaker 2>name is the sun of my days. I'm an old

1:19:45.400 --> 1:19:48.479
<v Speaker 2>man and he's the son of my days. That has

1:19:48.479 --> 1:19:51.880
<v Speaker 2>struck me as the most logical. I guess he just

1:19:51.920 --> 1:19:54.920
<v Speaker 2>didn't want to have a child walking around with the

1:19:55.040 --> 1:19:58.280
<v Speaker 2>name son of my sorrow. I mean, I don't want

1:19:58.320 --> 1:20:00.320
<v Speaker 2>you to think he was being a nice to his

1:20:00.400 --> 1:20:03.920
<v Speaker 2>dying wife, but you have to understand it's a burden

1:20:04.000 --> 1:20:06.679
<v Speaker 2>to walk around with such a name. What is your name,

1:20:06.800 --> 1:20:09.439
<v Speaker 2>son of my mother sorrow? Oh, good to meet you

1:20:13.680 --> 1:20:17.679
<v Speaker 2>over us. Rachel died. She was buried on the road

1:20:17.760 --> 1:20:22.200
<v Speaker 2>to Efrat, which is now Bethlehem. Over her grave, Jacob

1:20:22.320 --> 1:20:27.919
<v Speaker 2>set up a pillar. It is the pillar at Rachel's

1:20:27.920 --> 1:20:32.760
<v Speaker 2>grave to this day. Israel journeyed on and pitched his

1:20:32.920 --> 1:20:40.800
<v Speaker 2>tent beyond mighdhal Adir, And here is one of the

1:20:40.800 --> 1:20:45.759
<v Speaker 2>strangest verses in the Torah verse twenty two. While Israel

1:20:45.880 --> 1:20:51.679
<v Speaker 2>stayed in that land, Reuben went out and lay with Bilha,

1:20:52.360 --> 1:20:59.720
<v Speaker 2>his father's concubine and Israel found out. It is strange

1:20:59.800 --> 1:21:03.400
<v Speaker 2>for one thing, because it's very very important and you

1:21:03.640 --> 1:21:08.200
<v Speaker 2>hear nothing about it. I mean, you get all these

1:21:08.439 --> 1:21:11.280
<v Speaker 2>verses with so and so begat so and so beget

1:21:11.360 --> 1:21:16.120
<v Speaker 2>so and so something incredibly important. The firstborn sleeps with

1:21:16.160 --> 1:21:19.559
<v Speaker 2>his father's concubine, and that's all you get. And the

1:21:19.640 --> 1:21:23.280
<v Speaker 2>Hebrew is very dramatic because the sentence does not end

1:21:23.320 --> 1:21:28.400
<v Speaker 2>with a period in Hebrew. In the Torah. The Torah

1:21:28.479 --> 1:21:31.839
<v Speaker 2>is actually written with no punctuation. It's got no periods.

1:21:31.880 --> 1:21:35.800
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't even have vowels. It's difficult to read, but

1:21:35.920 --> 1:21:41.760
<v Speaker 2>it does have an ancient pronunciation system of vowels and

1:21:42.760 --> 1:21:47.400
<v Speaker 2>cantillation musical signs, and one of the signs is called

1:21:47.520 --> 1:21:53.040
<v Speaker 2>sof passuk, which means and diverse. You don't have that

1:21:53.400 --> 1:21:57.759
<v Speaker 2>like that here. You have it ending at a comma

1:21:59.120 --> 1:22:01.840
<v Speaker 2>in a way to tell you there's a lot more,

1:22:02.280 --> 1:22:06.519
<v Speaker 2>but we're not telling you. That is exactly how the

1:22:06.560 --> 1:22:09.320
<v Speaker 2>Hebrew is. It does not end with the period. It

1:22:09.439 --> 1:22:12.559
<v Speaker 2>ends with an etnata. For the handful of you who

1:22:12.600 --> 1:22:19.720
<v Speaker 2>know Hebrew cantilation, it says Ruvene went and slept with

1:22:20.080 --> 1:22:26.920
<v Speaker 2>Bilha his father's concubine. Now why is that important Rubn's

1:22:27.640 --> 1:22:32.000
<v Speaker 2>All of this leads to the conclusion that Ruveine Ruven's

1:22:32.040 --> 1:22:35.920
<v Speaker 2>bid to promote his mother's rights is at the same

1:22:36.000 --> 1:22:40.639
<v Speaker 2>time a calculated challenge to his father's authority. He did

1:22:40.680 --> 1:22:46.559
<v Speaker 2>not want Bilha to take over for his mother. For

1:22:46.640 --> 1:22:54.479
<v Speaker 2>his his mother Rachel's writes, that's the ostensible reason. It

1:22:54.520 --> 1:23:00.000
<v Speaker 2>follows her death right. So excuse me. His mother is Leah.

1:23:00.680 --> 1:23:04.960
<v Speaker 2>I'm sorry, Rachel dies. Leah is living. He doesn't want

1:23:05.080 --> 1:23:11.000
<v Speaker 2>Bilha to usurp his mother Leah's rights. Get it, that's

1:23:11.080 --> 1:23:15.599
<v Speaker 2>the ostensible reason. All that are left now are Leah

1:23:15.640 --> 1:23:19.519
<v Speaker 2>and Bilha, not Ley and Rachel. So he doesn't want

1:23:19.560 --> 1:23:23.760
<v Speaker 2>bill haa to concubine to take his mother Lea's rights. Remember,

1:23:23.800 --> 1:23:26.000
<v Speaker 2>he was very devoted to his mother Lea. If you

1:23:26.080 --> 1:23:28.760
<v Speaker 2>recall when he brought man Drake so that she could

1:23:28.760 --> 1:23:32.680
<v Speaker 2>become fertile. It's a very touching story earlier in Genesis.

1:23:33.600 --> 1:23:39.840
<v Speaker 2>By violating Bilha, Ruvein makes sure that she cannot supplant

1:23:40.240 --> 1:23:45.439
<v Speaker 2>or even rival his mother's position of chief wife now

1:23:45.439 --> 1:23:51.559
<v Speaker 2>that Rachel is dead. But it wasn't all on behalf

1:23:51.640 --> 1:23:55.360
<v Speaker 2>of mommy Leah. It was very much on behalf of himself.

1:23:55.840 --> 1:24:00.760
<v Speaker 2>It was a calculated challenge to his father's authority. His

1:24:00.840 --> 1:24:05.280
<v Speaker 2>move is more political than lustful, right Sarna. The summary

1:24:05.400 --> 1:24:09.280
<v Speaker 2>account in this verse hides an attempt to usurp the

1:24:09.360 --> 1:24:14.479
<v Speaker 2>leadership of the Israelite tribes. Its failure is reflected in

1:24:14.600 --> 1:24:17.640
<v Speaker 2>Jacob's rebuke when he blesses his children at the end

1:24:17.640 --> 1:24:22.880
<v Speaker 2>of his life, in which he removes Ruvein from hegemony.

1:24:23.200 --> 1:24:28.160
<v Speaker 2>Hegemony over the tribes. He understood because it says by

1:24:28.280 --> 1:24:34.000
<v Speaker 2>Ishma Yusra al Israel heard what happened. So this rubens

1:24:34.080 --> 1:24:37.639
<v Speaker 2>quite a calculating guy. And we'll find more calculations later

1:24:37.680 --> 1:24:40.719
<v Speaker 2>with regard to Joseph, which we'll get to next time.

1:24:42.439 --> 1:24:53.280
<v Speaker 2>Just finish the chapter now. The sons of Jacob, we're

1:24:53.320 --> 1:24:57.800
<v Speaker 2>twelve in number, the sons of Lea Ruvein, Jacob's firstborn

1:24:58.120 --> 1:25:01.960
<v Speaker 2>shim On levy Huda, y Sahar, and Zvulun, the sons

1:25:01.960 --> 1:25:09.400
<v Speaker 2>of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bilh Rachel's maid,

1:25:09.920 --> 1:25:14.559
<v Speaker 2>right whom we just had slept with by Ruvain Doun

1:25:14.840 --> 1:25:18.839
<v Speaker 2>enough Tali, enough Tali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's

1:25:18.920 --> 1:25:21.200
<v Speaker 2>maid got in as share. These are the sons of

1:25:21.280 --> 1:25:24.920
<v Speaker 2>Jacob who were born to him in Padana Ram, which

1:25:24.960 --> 1:25:30.439
<v Speaker 2>is not fully true. Benjamin wasn't, but little literary license

1:25:30.520 --> 1:25:34.360
<v Speaker 2>never hurt anybody, and Jacob came to his father Isaac

1:25:34.400 --> 1:25:40.880
<v Speaker 2>at Mamre at Kiriyat ab Arba, now Hevron, where Abraham

1:25:40.920 --> 1:25:44.719
<v Speaker 2>and Isaac had sojourned. Isaac was one hundred and eighty

1:25:44.800 --> 1:25:48.720
<v Speaker 2>years old when he breathed his last and died. He

1:25:48.840 --> 1:25:52.840
<v Speaker 2>was gathered to his kin. Remember that last time. This

1:25:52.920 --> 1:25:57.280
<v Speaker 2>is an intimation of the afterlife in the Torah. He

1:25:57.439 --> 1:26:00.040
<v Speaker 2>was gathered to his kin means he went back to

1:26:00.120 --> 1:26:04.280
<v Speaker 2>his relatives who had died. And I gave a very

1:26:04.360 --> 1:26:07.200
<v Speaker 2>long talk. Then it's on tape, so I won't belabor

1:26:07.240 --> 1:26:13.280
<v Speaker 2>it now that Judaism emphatically believes in an afterlife, but

1:26:13.439 --> 1:26:16.240
<v Speaker 2>why the Torah was silent on it. I also spoke

1:26:16.280 --> 1:26:20.160
<v Speaker 2>about if you missed it in ten seconds, because the

1:26:20.200 --> 1:26:23.439
<v Speaker 2>moment you talk about the afterlife, people don't value this one.

1:26:24.800 --> 1:26:30.040
<v Speaker 2>It was Judaism's genius to get Jews preoccupied with this life.

1:26:30.320 --> 1:26:33.960
<v Speaker 2>And like all blessings, it came with a curse. A

1:26:33.960 --> 1:26:38.200
<v Speaker 2>lot of Jews became only preoccupied with this life. Hence

1:26:38.280 --> 1:26:42.280
<v Speaker 2>Jews became the fathers and mothers of all the isms

1:26:42.320 --> 1:26:46.560
<v Speaker 2>to change society because more than any other religious group,

1:26:46.880 --> 1:26:51.479
<v Speaker 2>Jews were this world oriented. But if you're to this

1:26:51.600 --> 1:26:57.680
<v Speaker 2>world oriented, you become a revolutionary because you realize that

1:26:57.720 --> 1:27:00.400
<v Speaker 2>if you don't make the world better now, you will

1:27:00.400 --> 1:27:04.120
<v Speaker 2>not live to see a better world, because when you die,

1:27:04.200 --> 1:27:10.080
<v Speaker 2>that's it. That is why secular revolutionaries are so often frightening,

1:27:11.439 --> 1:27:15.719
<v Speaker 2>because they believe that if they don't have the revolution now,

1:27:16.880 --> 1:27:20.799
<v Speaker 2>they will die before a better world comes about. Whereas

1:27:20.840 --> 1:27:24.000
<v Speaker 2>if you believe in another world, then you realize you

1:27:24.000 --> 1:27:26.800
<v Speaker 2>don't have to fix up this world perfectly. You try

1:27:26.800 --> 1:27:28.479
<v Speaker 2>to make it a little better, which is the only

1:27:28.520 --> 1:27:31.120
<v Speaker 2>way that works, and that you will have your just

1:27:31.240 --> 1:27:35.920
<v Speaker 2>reward in the afterlife. The problem with believing in the afterlife,

1:27:35.960 --> 1:27:39.120
<v Speaker 2>because that's a blessing that has occurs too, is that

1:27:39.160 --> 1:27:41.840
<v Speaker 2>you can say, well, why bother with this world, I'll

1:27:41.920 --> 1:27:45.559
<v Speaker 2>just go to the afterlife, which is a factor in

1:27:45.640 --> 1:27:49.840
<v Speaker 2>a number of groups that ignore this world or worse,

1:27:50.680 --> 1:27:54.000
<v Speaker 2>really worse, those who think that it's emitstv to kill

1:27:54.000 --> 1:27:57.000
<v Speaker 2>yourself in the name of your God, like some of

1:27:57.040 --> 1:28:01.040
<v Speaker 2>the radical Muslims, for whom it is a the greatest

1:28:01.080 --> 1:28:05.120
<v Speaker 2>possible thing is to die for Allah. And you never

1:28:05.200 --> 1:28:07.800
<v Speaker 2>have anywhere in Judaism that the greatest thing you can

1:28:07.840 --> 1:28:12.120
<v Speaker 2>do is to die for hushan nowhere if you have to.

1:28:12.600 --> 1:28:14.960
<v Speaker 2>But it's not considered the greatest thing at all. The

1:28:14.960 --> 1:28:18.040
<v Speaker 2>greatest thing is to live for God, not die for God.

1:28:18.920 --> 1:28:23.439
<v Speaker 2>It's a very very real problem. He was gathered to

1:28:23.479 --> 1:28:25.719
<v Speaker 2>his kin in ripe old age, and he was buried

1:28:25.760 --> 1:28:31.519
<v Speaker 2>by his sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau is a decent guy,

1:28:32.640 --> 1:28:37.439
<v Speaker 2>just not the right guy to carry on Monotheism. And

1:28:37.479 --> 1:28:41.679
<v Speaker 2>it's very important to remember next time. I have two

1:28:41.680 --> 1:28:44.240
<v Speaker 2>things to say. One the next meeting is not two

1:28:44.240 --> 1:28:48.719
<v Speaker 2>weeks from now, but next Monday. Next Monday, I will

1:28:48.840 --> 1:28:54.320
<v Speaker 2>zoom through chapter thirty six because it's almost all genealogy,

1:28:54.840 --> 1:28:57.559
<v Speaker 2>and we start in the final part of the Book

1:28:57.640 --> 1:29:02.240
<v Speaker 2>of Genesis, all about Joseph and his brothers, the most

1:29:02.439 --> 1:29:07.200
<v Speaker 2>immortal story in Western literature. Thank you, See you in

1:29:07.240 --> 1:29:07.719
<v Speaker 2>a week.

1:29:09.120 --> 1:29:14.960
<v Speaker 1>On Tomorrow's Sunday fireside chat Evelyn fourteen, Newark, Ohio.

1:29:15.080 --> 1:29:18.679
<v Speaker 5>Himuster Prager and a Smiley. I have a simple question,

1:29:18.720 --> 1:29:21.879
<v Speaker 5>but I'm very curious to know the answer. Just wondering

1:29:21.920 --> 1:29:24.680
<v Speaker 5>who has influenced you throughout your life. Thank you so

1:29:24.760 --> 1:29:27.360
<v Speaker 5>much for the fireside chatter. Really helps me think through things.

1:29:27.360 --> 1:29:31.280
<v Speaker 5>Say hi to Ottaw and Snoopy for me, Snoop Otto.

1:29:32.200 --> 1:29:35.960
<v Speaker 5>Hello from Evelyn, fourteen years old, Newark, Ohio.

1:29:36.400 --> 1:29:40.120
<v Speaker 1>Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with

1:29:40.280 --> 1:29:41.080
<v Speaker 1>Dennis Prigger.

1:29:41.800 --> 1:29:44.639
<v Speaker 2>This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

1:29:45.080 --> 1:29:49.200
<v Speaker 1>Visit Dennisprager dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures,

1:29:49.240 --> 1:29:53.160
<v Speaker 1>courses in classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's

1:29:53.320 --> 1:29:59.320
<v Speaker 1>Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to

1:29:59.360 --> 1:30:01.920
<v Speaker 1>thank the team e met Life Audio for their partnership

1:30:01.920 --> 1:30:04.679
<v Speaker 1>with us on the podcast. Go to lifeaudio dot com

1:30:04.680 --> 1:30:07.799
<v Speaker 1>to find dozens of other faith centered podcasts and their network,

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<v Speaker 1>including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.