Speaker 1: Life Audio on today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Shakespeare is a genius. In fact, I'm reading Hamlet now,
Speaker 2: believe it or not. I should have read it in
Speaker 2: high school. But I'm enjoying it more now, I suspect
Speaker 2: than I would have then.
Speaker 3: I suspect I'll read Hamlet again and yet again.
Speaker 2: But having read other plays by Shakespeare, the repeated study
Speaker 2: does not reveal enormous new insights every time I do it.
Speaker 2: I am amazed at how many new insights I learn
Speaker 2: each time I study a chapter in the Torah.
Speaker 3: There is a depth to it that I have found
Speaker 3: nowhere else in life.
Speaker 2: Now you can say, brilliant people wrote it. You certainly
Speaker 2: have that prerogative. I don't believe, though, in such superhuman
Speaker 2: abilities as I find in the depth of the words
Speaker 2: of the Torah. So I believe that there is a
Speaker 2: divine human interaction that makes it. Being that it is,
Speaker 2: to me therefore a religious text, and being that in
Speaker 2: Judaism it is a religious obligation to study Torah and
Speaker 2: unrelated texts. I wear a keypot when I teach Torah.
Speaker 2: So that's why I always make this introductory statement. You'll
Speaker 2: understand why I do it.
Speaker 3: With that, I will begin the Book of Exodus.
Speaker 1: That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
Speaker 1: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 2: My intellect tells me that I have to be open
Speaker 2: to serious inquiry. The Torah itself, by the way, does
Speaker 2: not make the claim that God wrote it. If God
Speaker 2: wrote the Torah, you would assume that God would use
Speaker 2: the first person, for example, in the beginning to heapens
Speaker 2: in the Earth, because God does use the first person frequently.
Speaker 3: When he speaks.
Speaker 2: As to the question of why I say he and
Speaker 2: not she or he she, I have written an article
Speaker 2: on why God should be regarded as a father not
Speaker 2: a mother.
Speaker 3: It's available along with many of my other.
Speaker 2: Writings and tapes outside. It's not a commercial. It's a fact.
Speaker 2: I want you to know about that. But I have
Speaker 2: thought the issue through. I do not regard God as
Speaker 2: a man, obviously. However, I have only two other choices.
Speaker 3: She or it.
Speaker 2: God is clearly not an it, and she makes God
Speaker 2: a woman, and if I have to use a metaphor,
Speaker 2: I prefer the male metaphor. But it's solely a metaphor.
Speaker 2: It is not a statement of nonequality. It is a
Speaker 2: statement of many other things, which perhaps when we get
Speaker 2: to other parts I'll get into. But having already written
Speaker 2: on it, I don't want to.
Speaker 3: Take your time with it. I believe that.
Speaker 2: The Torah for me is different than any other book.
Speaker 2: In other words, I do believe that the Torah is divine,
Speaker 2: even though I intellectually do not assert that God wrote
Speaker 2: every word. Does that make sense to you that a
Speaker 2: book can be divine and yet God not be the
Speaker 2: dictator of every word? To a secretary, a Shakespeare is
Speaker 2: a genius. In fact, I'm reading Hamlet now, believe it
Speaker 2: or not. I should have read it in high school.
Speaker 2: But I'm enjoying it more now, I suspect than I
Speaker 2: would have then. I suspect I'll read Hamlet again and
Speaker 2: yet again. But having read other plays by Shakespeare, the
Speaker 2: repeated study does not reveal enormous new insights every time
Speaker 2: I do it. I am amazed at how many new
Speaker 2: insights I learn each time I study a chapter in
Speaker 2: the Torah. There is a depth to it that I
Speaker 2: have found nowhere else in life. Now you can say,
Speaker 2: brilliant people wrote it. You certainly have that prerogative. I
Speaker 2: don't believe, though, in such superhuman abilities as I find
Speaker 2: in the depth of the words of the Torah. So
Speaker 2: I believe that there is a divine human interaction that
Speaker 2: makes it. Being that it is to me therefore a
Speaker 2: religious text, and being that in Judaism it is a
Speaker 2: religious obligation to study Torah and unrelated texts. I wear
Speaker 2: a key pot when I teach Torah. So that's why
Speaker 2: I always make this introductory statement. You'll understand why I
Speaker 2: do it.
Speaker 3: With that, I will begin the Book of Exodus.
Speaker 2: I think we have cleared our engineering problem, Thank God,
Speaker 2: thank the engineer.
Speaker 3: I don't know in which order. That's a great theological question.
Speaker 1: That I would like to figure that one day.
Speaker 2: Ah right, I hope we finished chapter one today, because
Speaker 2: Chapter one itself is so rich. Torah has varying richnesses. Obviously,
Speaker 2: some factors go much faster than others. It doesn't matter
Speaker 2: what translations you use. I will do most of it
Speaker 2: in English. Sometimes I'll make reference to the Hebrew only
Speaker 2: because I know it in Hebrew better than in English.
Speaker 3: That's the way I first learned it, of course.
Speaker 2: But most of you, of course don't know Hebrew, so
Speaker 2: I won't relate to it often except to make a
Speaker 2: point so that you'll understand better why I'm saying something,
Speaker 2: all right. The last we had was the family of
Speaker 2: Jacob of Israel going to Egypt.
Speaker 3: There was a famine, as you recall, and Joseph had.
Speaker 2: Made it quite remarkably successfully in Egypt, remarkable for his
Speaker 2: minority status as a Hebrew, remarkable because of the fact
Speaker 2: that he was rejected by his brothers. And the story
Speaker 2: there is, of course one of them famous in the Torah.
Speaker 3: And these are the names the Ela Shimod.
Speaker 2: These are the names of the sons of Israel who
Speaker 2: came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household,
Speaker 2: the Ruvein Altstulman Hebrew Ruvein Shimond Levy and Yehuda is
Speaker 2: Satars Vulun and Benjamin or Vinyamin, dn Nafpali God and Asher,
Speaker 2: and all of those coming out of the thigh.
Speaker 3: Literally, let's see how they have it here.
Speaker 2: Jacob's issue were seventy Joseph being already in Egypt.
Speaker 3: Joseph died.
Speaker 2: So this is now how we This is simply setting
Speaker 2: the stage for the most important event in Jewish history
Speaker 2: for all of Judaism revolves around the slavery and the
Speaker 2: liberation and the gating of the of the Torah or
Speaker 2: the Ten Commandments at Sinai. This is the central Jewish experience.
Speaker 2: Christians here will relate. There is a central experience in
Speaker 2: each religion. The central experience, of course, the death and
Speaker 2: resurrection with Jesus for a Christian.
Speaker 3: The difference.
Speaker 2: There are many differences in the central Jewish and central
Speaker 2: Christian experiences, but one obvious difference is that the Jewish
Speaker 2: centrality happened to the whole people, whereas the Christian centrality
Speaker 2: happened essentially to one who is Man God. In Christian theology.
Speaker 2: You will make of it what you wish. I am
Speaker 2: not a usually a better or worse believer. They're simply
Speaker 2: different approaches, but the central events are different and help
Speaker 2: make them different religions and God blessed differences.
Speaker 3: I am not one who.
Speaker 2: Believes all religions are the same with the little variations
Speaker 2: of rhetoric, they have certain deep similarities, and that is
Speaker 2: a good thing, but they are not the same. If
Speaker 2: they were the same, we would all be interchangeable. I
Speaker 2: think it is a great thing that we have many religions,
Speaker 2: as it happens, and I think God is happy with
Speaker 2: that fact. I think God wants us to worship one God,
Speaker 2: but not necessarily be members of one religion.
Speaker 3: And certainly that is the Jewish belief.
Speaker 2: The Jewish belief is that the world should come to
Speaker 2: one God, but not necessarily all convert to Judaism.
Speaker 3: It's a painful conversion in any event, and Judaism is
Speaker 3: not into pain. The Uh.
Speaker 2: These are then the the the children of Israel coming
Speaker 2: into UH, into Egypt, and Joseph and all his brothers
Speaker 2: and that entire generation die.
Speaker 3: That's verse six, verse seven, and Uh.
Speaker 2: The Uh and the children of Israel were fertile and prolific.
Speaker 2: They multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land
Speaker 2: was filled with them. A few points on this. On
Speaker 2: this verse, the the words for what the Jews did
Speaker 2: in Egypt in Hebrew are the same words as the
Speaker 2: creation words about multiplying and spreading along the land. The Sarna,
Speaker 2: whom I will make many references to the Great Professor Nahamsarna,
Speaker 2: who has a two volume commentary, One Genesis on One
Speaker 2: Exodus On published by the Jewish Publication Society, notes in this.
Speaker 3: Regard about the how for.
Speaker 2: Judaism Israel is a new humanity, just like the world
Speaker 2: was created anew by God.
Speaker 3: In the beginning, the same verbs are used.
Speaker 2: Again for how the Jews multiplied, as if a new
Speaker 2: creation is taking place, and indeed, in Judaism, the Jewish
Speaker 2: view is that, in effect, the Jewish people and Judaism
Speaker 2: represent a new creation. To summarize again an article I
Speaker 2: have written that I commend to you simply titled why
Speaker 2: are there Jews? The Jewish belief is that God wants
Speaker 2: the world to be good. The sick desire of God
Speaker 2: is that God wants the world to treat each other well.
Speaker 3: And I'll prove it to you. It's a funny word
Speaker 3: to use, but.
Speaker 2: I'd like to prove it to you to the extent
Speaker 2: that you can accept that God is our parent. I
Speaker 2: ask every one of you who is a parent, a question,
Speaker 2: what hurts you the most if your child is mean
Speaker 2: in any way to you, or your child is mean
Speaker 2: to a sibling. I think the vast majority of parents,
Speaker 2: and I speak as a parent. Are much more interested
Speaker 2: ultimately that our children love each other than that they
Speaker 2: love us. It's expected they leave us. That's the way
Speaker 2: of the world. That our children will grow up. We
Speaker 2: hope they'll always love us. It's a great bonus in life,
Speaker 2: needless to say, and it certainly beats their hating us.
Speaker 2: But the deepest pain from when they are at home,
Speaker 2: or let's put it this way, the deepest joy. Forget
Speaker 2: the pain part is when if you see your kids
Speaker 2: hug each other, you feel you've your job. Well, if
Speaker 2: your kid didn't hug you much, but hug another sibling
Speaker 2: a lot, you would have felt successful as a parent,
Speaker 2: Whereas if they hug you a lot but didn't hug
Speaker 2: each other at all, you would not feel nearly as successful.
Speaker 2: Imagine then, God, who doesn't need any hugs like we
Speaker 2: need hugs.
Speaker 3: God doesn't need anything.
Speaker 2: Imagine then, how God feels when his children mistreat each other,
Speaker 2: when not only don't they hug, but they torture and
Speaker 2: they murder and they rape. Imagine how God feels. Then
Speaker 2: That's how I believe it is understandable. It is not
Speaker 2: merely an odd or even folks. The idea of Judaism
Speaker 2: that God's deepest concern is that people treat each other decently.
Speaker 2: We understand it through the metaphor of our own parenthood,
Speaker 2: that we want our children to treat each other decently.
Speaker 3: Now, if that's God's greatest demand, how did God go
Speaker 3: about doing it?
Speaker 2: Very briefly, God first tries through creating conscience, simple conscience
Speaker 2: that every human being, according to the Biblical view, every
Speaker 2: human being has an.
Speaker 3: Elemental notion of right and wrong.
Speaker 2: That even primitives who murdered in some part of them
Speaker 2: knew that it was wrong, but they simply justified it
Speaker 2: through whatever means. Oh, I do it for the nation,
Speaker 2: I do it because it feels good. I do it
Speaker 2: because of my religion wants child sacrifice, whatever. Clearly, Then
Speaker 2: conscience fails. Then God tries something else. God reveals seven
Speaker 2: basic moral laws to Noah after the flood, and why
Speaker 2: did the flood come?
Speaker 3: Because people were bad? All right?
Speaker 2: Then God tries again, and then we fail again. The
Speaker 2: world is filled with evil all over again. Then, according
Speaker 2: to Judaism, God tries a third attempt to have the
Speaker 2: world be good. Incidentally, what you have is you will
Speaker 2: understand this. Christianity believes in a fourth to tenth, and
Speaker 2: Islam believes in the fifth to tenth, and if you
Speaker 2: will in a in a different fifth attent, Mormons would
Speaker 2: believe in a specific revelation through Joseph Smith. So that
Speaker 2: every every religion emanating from Judaism believes that God has
Speaker 2: made another attempt through it to fix this miserable thing
Speaker 2: called humanity, which is really what it is about. He's
Speaker 2: got to fix it didn't work. If it worked, who
Speaker 2: would need the next revelation. That's what Islam holds. Islam
Speaker 2: holds the Jews corrupted it and the Christians corrupted it
Speaker 2: even more, and therefore Muhammad had to come to set
Speaker 2: the record straight. And you have that essentially, that is
Speaker 2: what Christian belief of the New Israel is. The old
Speaker 2: Israel has gotten it wrong in not understanding what the
Speaker 2: new Israel.
Speaker 3: The new the new covenant of the heart. We don't need a.
Speaker 2: Covenant of the flesh is a basic Christian doctrine.
Speaker 3: The Jews, can you have this covenant of the flesh,
Speaker 3: but really, now it's of the heart.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Judaism believes in this third attempt, the third attempt
Speaker 2: being the Jews. The Jews are God's third attempt to
Speaker 2: make the world good. Why the Jews not because they're
Speaker 2: better than anybody else. In fact, that Toa goes out
Speaker 2: of its way to say.
Speaker 4: The Jews aren't better than anybody else, and that the
Speaker 4: proof of Judaism's greatness is precisely that God shows a
Speaker 4: group that isn't particularly distinguished, that was a bunch of
Speaker 4: slaves wandering in the desert.
Speaker 2: If I can make them good, then you see the
Speaker 2: power of my recipe. That's the idea. If they can
Speaker 2: influence the world. Clearly, the idea is good there. It's
Speaker 2: not merely that they're powerful.
Speaker 3: So that is this new humanity idea.
Speaker 2: With now the Jews going to become Jewish for the
Speaker 2: first time until now the Jews are Hebrews. They become,
Speaker 2: as we understand, the Jews, though the term isn't used
Speaker 2: in the Torah. In other words, advocate or devotees of
Speaker 2: Judaism at Sinai. That's when the Jewish religious experience begins.
Speaker 2: And so this is why Sarna speaks of this new
Speaker 2: humanity as it were of the Jews in Egypt. The
Speaker 2: final words of verse seven are and the earth filled
Speaker 2: with them in the Jews, the Hebrews were kept in
Speaker 2: one area in Egypt called Goshen. But so this statement says,
Speaker 2: the Jews did not stick to Goshen.
Speaker 3: The Jews were going all through Egypt. You get it?
Speaker 2: That is why again, will the more you study with me,
Speaker 2: the more you realize the way to study Scripture.
Speaker 3: I think it's the way to read newspaper articles. For
Speaker 3: that matter.
Speaker 2: Why I read so slowly. It's a curse and a
Speaker 2: blessing because this is the way I was thought to learn.
Speaker 2: And that is I always ask why does it use
Speaker 2: those words and not others? Why does it say and
Speaker 2: the earth was filled with them? And the answers understood
Speaker 2: by commentators is to show that they went all over,
Speaker 2: They lived all through Egypt. They didn't stick only to Goshen,
Speaker 2: where they were a living.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Brager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 2: Then comes one of the most well known verses in
Speaker 2: the Torah.
Speaker 3: It is of tremendous profundity, and I.
Speaker 2: Want to explicate it for a moment. However, I just
Speaker 2: realized I want to make a point.
Speaker 3: Be I'll talk about I'm going to make the point next.
Speaker 3: I'll do that a lot. Forgive me. There are so
Speaker 3: many points I want to make. I don't know which
Speaker 3: verse to make it.
Speaker 2: On verse eight, a new king arose on Egypt who
Speaker 2: did not know Joseph.
Speaker 3: This is this is.
Speaker 2: This is a phenomenal, a phenomenal statement. What had Joseph done,
Speaker 2: even true or not true? In other words, historically verifiable
Speaker 2: was not the issue. But in the story of the Tory,
Speaker 2: he saved Egypt, he saved its life vayatamlakadash. But a
Speaker 2: new king arose who didn't know Joseph. This verse describes
Speaker 2: what I have come at mid age.
Speaker 3: At forty six is middle of middle age.
Speaker 2: I have come to believe is the ugliest human trait
Speaker 2: in gratitude.
Speaker 3: It is one of the most common, and I think
Speaker 3: outside it, I mean absolute pure cruelty, which is pretty rare. Actually,
Speaker 3: the most ubiquitous ugly trait is ingratitude.
Speaker 2: Harry is he arises the new king aro who did
Speaker 2: not know Joseph. In other words, I owe nothing to
Speaker 2: this group that saved my country. This, incidentally, is really paradigmatic,
Speaker 2: not only of most people's lives. I am sure every
Speaker 2: one of you has had a scarring experience within gratitude.
Speaker 2: What does one would put it, no good deed goes unpunished?
Speaker 2: Is that the way it's stated. You know, it's a
Speaker 2: very cynical statement, but there's a lot of truth to it.
Speaker 3: And I will use.
Speaker 2: One contemporary example which is painful for me to use,
Speaker 2: and it is not an anti any group statement, but
Speaker 2: I would but using a Jewish parallel in the contemporary era,
Speaker 2: when I hear Black anti semitism, I think of this
Speaker 2: of this verse. Now, this is most Blacks are not
Speaker 2: anti Semitic, And that's not my point. My point is
Speaker 2: only to illustrate a given point view Jews were, And
Speaker 2: anyone who knows me knows I am not a Jewish chauvinist.
Speaker 2: I am deeply critical of many Jewish policies, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera.
Speaker 3: But I try to be fair and I'm not going
Speaker 3: to bend over backwards to be unfair.
Speaker 2: The fact of the matter is that Jews played a
Speaker 2: phenomenally disproportionate role in the Civil rights movement, from those
Speaker 2: who died in it to those who founded founded the NAACP,
Speaker 2: who were its leading advocates in court. That it was
Speaker 2: Jewish lawyers primarily who argued civil rights legislation in the
Speaker 2: fifties before the US Supreme Court, and that now it
Speaker 2: has almost come to haunt the Jews. There is almost
Speaker 2: a resentment of that fact on the part of black nationalists,
Speaker 2: not the general black community, but black nationalists. I only
Speaker 2: use that as an example to show you how history
Speaker 2: repeats itself. It's almost as if a new leader arose
Speaker 2: in the civil rights community who didn't know and then
Speaker 2: fill in the name of various Jack Greenberg, Okay, to
Speaker 2: give one prominent lawyer.
Speaker 3: For the NAACP.
Speaker 2: And it happens with any given group. But here is
Speaker 2: a contemporary example. There is another interesting etymological point here.
Speaker 2: I think there is a slight tore dig at the Pharaoh.
Speaker 2: Here at the king of Egypt, it says, and a
Speaker 2: new king arose on Egypt. I think there's an implication
Speaker 2: that the guy is a tyrant, not only a tyrant
Speaker 2: visa v the Jews, but a tyrant visa v his
Speaker 2: own people. Okay, because the Hebrew normally would have stated
Speaker 2: by Jakamela kadash BIMs Ryan, a new king arose in Egypt,
Speaker 2: not on Egypt.
Speaker 3: You see what I mean?
Speaker 2: What is the what do you have in your over Egypt?
Speaker 2: There you go, that's a perfect example. Over Egypt.
Speaker 3: That's right. A new king arose over Egypt exactly, which
Speaker 3: is what he was. He was a tyrant.
Speaker 2: In fact, he was regarded as a god. The Pharaoh
Speaker 2: was a god to Egyptians. And he said to his
Speaker 2: nation or to his people, this is verse this is
Speaker 2: verse nine.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Here, look this nation, the children of Israel, is very big.
Speaker 3: And let's see how he and much too numerous for us.
Speaker 2: Okay, literally, it's too big and strong, bigger and stronger
Speaker 2: than us. Now here is an interesting use of words.
Speaker 2: You very rarely get the notion I'm ben Israel, the
Speaker 2: nation of the children of Israel. It is extremely rare usage.
Speaker 2: There are two words for nation, and this is a
Speaker 2: subject very dear to my heart. Any of you who
Speaker 2: know me from my radio work will know in a
Speaker 2: moment there are two words in the Torah in Hebrew
Speaker 2: for nation, am and GOI. Now all of you probably
Speaker 2: heard gouy and you think it's the Yiddish or Jewish
Speaker 2: word for non jew.
Speaker 3: He's a guy, right, She's a guy.
Speaker 2: The truth of the matter is that is of course
Speaker 2: popular Jewish expression he's a guy is he's a non Jew.
Speaker 2: Goi is not in any way a negative term. It
Speaker 2: only means nation. In fact, the Jews are commanded by
Speaker 2: God in Leviticus to be a goi kadosh, to be
Speaker 2: a holy goy. When Isaiah says nations shall not live
Speaker 2: sword against nation, it's lo issa goi el goyere uses
Speaker 2: the word goi. Okay, so there's no pejorative intent. The
Speaker 2: word am is different from the word goi, and the
Speaker 2: different is am is blood.
Speaker 3: There are two.
Speaker 2: Words for nation, and I wish we all had it.
Speaker 2: In Hebrew, goy and am Am means blood ties, nation.
Speaker 2: Goi means nation, but not based necessarily on blood ties.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: The Jewish dream is that, in fact, the world not
Speaker 2: be based on blood ties. It is, indeed, I think,
Speaker 2: the only dream ultimately that will save humanity, given the
Speaker 2: horrors of blood. Historically, blood is the greatest blood beliefs
Speaker 2: are the greatest source of cruelty in history, because if
Speaker 2: you are not my blood, you're not valuable. That is
Speaker 2: the way in which people have generally lived. If you
Speaker 2: read about the way in which, for example, of course,
Speaker 2: the Germans perfected it with racism. If you're not Arian,
Speaker 2: you're not human, you are a lesser human, you're an
Speaker 2: untermens an under man. The Japanese believed that of other Asians.
Speaker 2: It's only coming out now the atrocities directed by the
Speaker 2: Japanese government. Not every army has atrocities, but directed by
Speaker 2: the nation against Koreans and against Chinese in particular, in
Speaker 2: the twentieth century. The medical experiments performed on Chinese by
Speaker 2: the Japanese were identical in many ways, identical. It's frightening
Speaker 2: when you read about it. And this is all new
Speaker 2: to me. It just has come out, and it's new
Speaker 2: to most people to what Mengola, the Nazi doctor did
Speaker 2: in the Nazi death camp of Auspitz, of concentration camps.
Speaker 2: And that is because of the belief that the Chinese
Speaker 2: and other non Japanese people are not real, They're not
Speaker 2: our blood.
Speaker 3: That is the way Pharaoh addresses the issue.
Speaker 2: Our blood nation is threatened by their blood nation.
Speaker 3: Do you understand how the day difference.
Speaker 2: That's why the word am is used here and not good.
Speaker 2: It is not merely a simple political threat. The purity
Speaker 2: of us Egyptians is threatened by this other blood group,
Speaker 2: the children of Israel. All right, that's very important, especially
Speaker 2: in understanding Jew hatred historically. That's why he doesn't say
Speaker 2: we are threatened by the children of Israel. We are
Speaker 2: threatened by the am of the children of Israel, which
Speaker 2: brings me to the point, a very critical point here
Speaker 2: of the roots of anti Semitism, of jew of Jew hatred.
Speaker 2: Anti Semitism is a terrible word. It means anti against
Speaker 2: the Semi, but it's never what it meant. It always meant,
Speaker 2: since the term was coined in the late nineteenth century
Speaker 2: by wilhil Maher, a German, anti Semi had always meant
Speaker 2: anti Jewish jew hatred is a better term than anti Semitism.
Speaker 3: At any rate, I have come.
Speaker 2: I wrote a co authored a book on anti Semitism
Speaker 2: called Why the Jews, and I have only realized in the.
Speaker 3: Last few months that I would actually.
Speaker 2: Revise the book, which is not typical. I generally don't
Speaker 2: write until I've really felt I have formulated something. I
Speaker 2: would pay more attention to the blood issue in the
Speaker 2: I would keep the book exactly as it is, the
Speaker 2: roots of anti the root or the reason for anti Semitism,
Speaker 2: but I would add This the reason that Hitler so
Speaker 2: hated the Jews. There were many reasons that we discussed,
Speaker 2: but what distinguished him was a belief in blood. Jews
Speaker 2: are ultimately the world's polluters of blood purity. If you
Speaker 2: are into the purity of blood, the Jews are your
Speaker 2: quintessential enemy, because wherever the Jews are, they assimilate in
Speaker 2: part and yet stay Jewish in part. So they're part
Speaker 2: of you, but they're not totally part of you, because
Speaker 2: they're not your blood. Even if they fully give up
Speaker 2: their identity, as many German Jews did, it didn't matter
Speaker 2: to Hitler because they became That was why they were
Speaker 2: regarded as even more dangerous. The Jew who looked Jewish,
Speaker 2: lived Jewish and state isolated did not threaten Hitler as
Speaker 2: much as the assimilated Jews threatened Hitler. The assimilated Jew
Speaker 2: was the ultimate polluter of German purity. If you believe
Speaker 2: in the purity of a nation, the Jews are the ultimate,
Speaker 2: as I said, the quintessence of the opposition to you,
Speaker 2: because Jews are all over the place. It's the only
Speaker 2: nation in effect that is all over the place. Now,
Speaker 2: of course, there are you know, I mean there were
Speaker 2: Ugandans in different places. The world has changed today, but
Speaker 2: historically the only nations to keep its identity and still
Speaker 2: be all over were the Jews. Listen, weren't there other nations?
Speaker 2: Weren't there Agagites and Mesopotamians and Gilgemites and Thekkadians.
Speaker 3: Where are they? What happened to them?
Speaker 2: They weren't exterminated, They assimilated, They became whatever they were.
Speaker 3: But the Jews stayed a.
Speaker 2: Nation and still assimilated, still became parts of others. This
Speaker 2: is what Father's Pharaoh, and this is what Father Hitler.
Speaker 2: Look at this group. They are all over the place.
Speaker 2: This Ambineusrael. It could have been Hitler speaking in verse nine.
Speaker 2: This Israelite nation is all over the place, and we
Speaker 2: have to do something about it. He doesn't like the
Speaker 2: fact that Jews are all over Egypt, maintaining their identity
Speaker 2: and yet being a part of the of Egyptian life.
Speaker 2: He was interested in I'm in blood nation, purity, you
Speaker 2: with me. And this has been historically a factor in antisemitism.
Speaker 2: It's not the only factor by any means. Christian anti
Speaker 2: Semitism was not racist. Christian anti semitism was theological. You
Speaker 2: deny Christ, you are ultimately Christ killers. By denying Christ,
Speaker 2: in every generation, you rekill Christ, as some church.
Speaker 3: Anti semi held.
Speaker 2: And so however, if you become Christian and give up Judaism,
Speaker 2: you're fine with us. But you could never give up
Speaker 2: being Jewish to a racist because you can't change your blood,
Speaker 2: you can change your theology.
Speaker 3: That is why. Incidentally, and I'll always.
Speaker 2: Have a couple of incidental thoughts that I think are
Speaker 2: worth offering. Incidentally, that is why Christianity could never have
Speaker 2: produced the Holocaust.
Speaker 3: Whatever roots the.
Speaker 2: Holocaust may have in fifteen hundred years of Christian anti semitism,
Speaker 2: Christianity would never have called for racist anti semitism, let
Speaker 2: alone for the extermination of the Jews, because as bad
Speaker 2: as a Christian antisemit might have been, as much as
Speaker 2: He hated you on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: If Thursday you affer in Christ, you were a brother
Speaker 3: in Christ. Woll unto you. If you practice Judaism secretly,
Speaker 3: which is what the Inquisition was about.
Speaker 2: But if you truly converted, and truly even included by force,
Speaker 2: you were fine. You could not convert being Egyptian. In fact,
Speaker 2: to make this point more clear, it is very important
Speaker 2: that God said to the Jews to be a goi
Speaker 2: kadosh and not an am kadosh. You remember the difference
Speaker 2: between goy and am am is blood based. If God
Speaker 2: had said to the Jews in Leviticus, you shall be
Speaker 2: a holy am for holy nation, it would mean that,
Speaker 2: in effect, you are to be holy, but you can
Speaker 2: only be holy within the blood tiese of Jews. The
Speaker 2: very fact that goi is used means you are to
Speaker 2: be a holy nation, but anyone of any blood may
Speaker 2: join your nation. Indeed, Jews, the Jewish nation was unique
Speaker 2: in precisely that fact. It took converts. You couldn't convert
Speaker 2: to being Greek. You couldn't convert to being Egyptian. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine? I mean, the thought is ludicrous a black
Speaker 2: showing up in Alexandria saying I'd like to be Egyptian.
Speaker 3: What are you talking about? You're not Egyptian.
Speaker 2: It's no more than you know, I'd like to be
Speaker 2: a woman if you're a man or a vice.
Speaker 3: Ever, today that's doable. But and then it wasn't.
Speaker 2: Only the Jewish nation in antiquity, and only even to
Speaker 2: very recently allowed people to become members of it who
Speaker 2: were not blood members and who were full members.
Speaker 3: This, incidentally, is the parallel between the Jewish people and the.
Speaker 2: American people, because America too couldn't care less about your
Speaker 2: blood the day you become American. If your name is
Speaker 2: Vachinski or Gonzali's or O'Connor or Schwartz, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2: You're American, and the father of your nation is George Washington.
Speaker 3: That is why. So to a convert.
Speaker 2: To the Jewish people is called to the Torah as
Speaker 2: ben or bot the son or daughter of Avraham, of Abraham,
Speaker 2: I was born a Jew.
Speaker 3: But one who is not born a Jew and.
Speaker 2: Who converts has Abraham as his father as much as
Speaker 2: I do. There is no difference whatsoever, And the proof
Speaker 2: is Abraham converted. So it is literally like America is
Speaker 2: a nation of immigrants, the Jews are a nation of converts. Now,
Speaker 2: of course, Christianity is a religion of converts. Islam is
Speaker 2: a religion of converts. But there is a difference. Judaism
Speaker 2: is also a nation. That's the difference. It's the only
Speaker 2: nation of converts except for America, at least till the
Speaker 2: modern time. In Canada, to a large extent, it's different,
Speaker 2: and it's a fascinating issue, which is to me, the
Speaker 2: greatest issue in the world today.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Frager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 3: How much emphasis do people place on blood?
Speaker 2: It all became clear to me only, I mean, it
Speaker 2: was always part of my thinking, but it all became
Speaker 2: clear to me with this horrible issue of baby Richard.
Speaker 2: How could justices take a four year old from his family?
Speaker 2: The answer simple. They believe in blood. It's not complex.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the legal decision. It was a blood based decision.
Speaker 2: Blood reigns supreme Those five prevailing justices in the Illinois
Speaker 2: Supreme Court represent most of humanity. Most of humanity believes
Speaker 2: that blood is everything. Blood is the ownership of children.
Speaker 2: Blood is whom I love, Blood is whom I have
Speaker 2: obligations to. Blood is whom I regard as fully human.
Speaker 2: And in its worst forms, which is not uncommon, you
Speaker 2: get Nazais and Japanese fascism, and that's what we fought.
Speaker 2: In case anybody didn't know what the Allies were fighting
Speaker 2: in World War Two, to think that if Japan and
Speaker 2: Germany had won the fate of humanity would be very
Speaker 2: different because the two most powerful nations on Earth would
Speaker 2: have believed solely in blood, not in goodness, that there
Speaker 2: were no moral values. There are only blood values. Moral
Speaker 2: values only pertain to those who share my blood. So
Speaker 2: back to here is the problem of Jewish assimilation. Jewish
Speaker 2: assimilation is in fact a problem for host peoples.
Speaker 3: It's the old issue of dual loyalty. Well what are you?
Speaker 3: Are you an American or are you a Jew?
Speaker 2: This is an old question, and the fact of the
Speaker 2: matter is Jews are both. Now there is no problem
Speaker 2: with that, unless you want to make a problem with that.
Speaker 3: Why it is? Why would they conflict.
Speaker 2: As whenever I'm asked it, which is very rare, but
Speaker 2: if it's ever posed, I would.
Speaker 3: Yes, are you first a Christian or an American? I
Speaker 3: pray that you are guided by Christian values first?
Speaker 2: That you do you would criticize your country if it
Speaker 2: were immoral. I just saw a picture in the latest
Speaker 2: issue of Time magazine of a Serbian Orthodox priest with
Speaker 2: Serbian leaders at a service.
Speaker 3: I would. Unfortunately, the priest, I.
Speaker 2: Suspect did not speak about Serbian atrocities in Bosnia. I
Speaker 2: suspect he merely blessed the leaders and sent them on
Speaker 2: their way. What that, ironically, what he was doing was
Speaker 2: being unfaithful to his religion. His religion does not hold
Speaker 2: that blood is more important than God, but it is
Speaker 2: very common to do so. Blood can overshadow everything for
Speaker 2: all of us. Our religious values, I believe should come
Speaker 2: before national blood based values. But Jewish assimilation is a
Speaker 2: problem because the Jews would be plentiful, do well as
Speaker 2: they were in Egypt, and yet retain their distinct identity, which,
Speaker 2: by the way, even if they wanted to give up,
Speaker 2: they couldn't because the Egyptians wouldn't let them. So the
Speaker 2: Jews are in a double BND here. It's like, as
Speaker 2: we wrote in our book about fifteen years ago, when
Speaker 2: Jews assimilate, they're called a fifth column or you know whatever,
Speaker 2: and if they don't, then they're called insular tribal. It's
Speaker 2: like the Jews have, you know, if they assimilate, their
Speaker 2: a threat and if they don't assimilate, their tribal and
Speaker 2: you know, parochial and provincial. So what is the Jews
Speaker 2: supposed to do exactly? And it has been a dilemma
Speaker 2: throughout Jewish history. That is why Zionism was founded. Let
Speaker 2: the Jews normalize and live in their own country like
Speaker 2: every other nation.
Speaker 3: Get it. Israel is not in the nation. Israel is
Speaker 3: a country.
Speaker 2: It was founded so that the Jewish nation could live there,
Speaker 2: like the Hungarian nation lives in Hungary, like the Latvian
Speaker 2: nation lives in Latvia. Okay, let's normalize it, because clearly
Speaker 2: the world is not ready.
Speaker 3: Hertzel said the founder of Zionism.
Speaker 2: In effect, the world is not ready for having an
Speaker 2: other in its midst. Egypt was not ready to have
Speaker 2: an other in its midst. We have no inkling that
Speaker 2: the Jews were disloyal or you know, bothering them in
Speaker 2: any way. All right, So now that's verse nine, verse ten.
Speaker 2: Let us deal shrewdly with them. The Hebrew is the
Speaker 2: Hebrew is. Let's oversmart them. Let's outsmart them actually, so
Speaker 2: that they may not increase.
Speaker 3: Otherwise, in the event.
Speaker 2: Of war, they may join our enemies in fighting against
Speaker 2: us and rise from the ground. Rise from the ground is,
Speaker 2: according to the scholars of commentary, a phrase which is
Speaker 2: what it is from Hebrew, literally rise from the ground.
Speaker 2: They don't know it's an old idiom, and they are
Speaker 2: not fully certain what it represents, Okay, just for your interest,
Speaker 2: but it could simply mean and they'll come up from
Speaker 2: the earth and they'll rise against us, which is very
Speaker 2: very possible. Anyway, he says to his people, let's outsmart.
Speaker 2: Let's outsmart this nation lest he increase in som Hirsh
Speaker 2: makes the point that it is the leader who starts
Speaker 2: the malicious campaign against the Jews, not the people.
Speaker 3: It's ay. The interesting point.
Speaker 2: We have no words that the Egyptians themselves were unhappy.
Speaker 2: The anti the extermination campaign and slavery campaign against the
Speaker 2: Jews is led by Pharaoh. Okay, however, and this will
Speaker 2: be more important. You can't achieve evil solely from the leaders.
Speaker 2: This will be a critically important part of chapter one,
Speaker 2: as you'll see verse eleven. Now look at this all right,
Speaker 2: Listen carefully. They set cast masters over them to oppress
Speaker 2: them with forced labor, and they built garrison cities for Pharaoh.
Speaker 3: Pete domen Ram says.
Speaker 2: But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased
Speaker 2: and spread out, so that the Egyptians came to dread
Speaker 2: the Israelites. Now it is the Egyptians themselves. I want
Speaker 2: to show you a point, and then I'm going to
Speaker 2: come back to these verses. I want to show you
Speaker 2: the word they three times, verses eleven, thirteen, and fourteen.
Speaker 2: In eleven, they set task masters over them to oppress them.
Speaker 3: In thirteen.
Speaker 2: They made them perform, ruthlessly, they made life better bitter.
Speaker 2: Excuse me for them with harsh labor and I guess yeah.
Speaker 3: One third, that's right. Excuse me.
Speaker 2: The Egyptians there were three four cases. Eleven they set
Speaker 2: task masters, thirteen the Egyptians ruthlessly imposed fourteen they made
Speaker 2: them perform and ruthlessly they made life bitter for them
Speaker 2: three days.
Speaker 3: And the Egyptians. What is the point? Who starts off
Speaker 3: the campaign Pharaoh? Right? But who makes it work? The people?
Speaker 2: This is of enormous significance for how evil triumphs in
Speaker 2: this world. It's the preoccupation of my life, the problem
Speaker 2: of evil.
Speaker 3: And I'll never.
Speaker 2: Come to full satisfaction in figuring out an answer, but
Speaker 2: at least I have more data, or at least more theories.
Speaker 2: And my latest theory is that by and large, there
Speaker 2: are not many evil people.
Speaker 3: Most mass evil.
Speaker 2: Mass evil has been performed by normal people, not by
Speaker 2: evil people, which is, by the way, more disconcerting than
Speaker 2: if it were done by evil people. Eifman is more
Speaker 2: terrifying than Hitler. The existence of monsters, a Stalin, a Hitler,
Speaker 2: a Charles Manson is frighteningly part of.
Speaker 3: The human condition.
Speaker 2: Okay, if, however evil, This is an important point. If
Speaker 2: evil were restricted to evil people, there would not be
Speaker 2: a lot of evil in the world, because there's just
Speaker 2: a small percentage of humanity that is truly evil. I
Speaker 2: want to hurt people today. I love hurting people. Okay,
Speaker 2: that is very rare. The great majority of mass evil,
Speaker 2: as opposed to individual monsters, is done by ordinary people.
Speaker 3: I was just talking on the radio this week.
Speaker 2: Yesterday, in fact, about the Eifman's children.
Speaker 3: Any do happen to catch that? Just testing to see
Speaker 3: if you listen, Thank you, thank you, good fascinating thing. Iiman.
Speaker 3: Eichmann is the architect of the Holocaust.
Speaker 2: Iichman made sure the shipments of Jews to the death
Speaker 2: camps took place. Eifman had a wife, had kids. He
Speaker 2: had four kids, four boys. One of them is a
Speaker 2: profound anti Nazi. His name is Ricardo and is a
Speaker 2: Spanish name because he was born in Argentina.
Speaker 3: Where Eichmann had fled after the war.
Speaker 2: He is he feels disgraced by his father's name, etc.
Speaker 3: Etc. He's truly a good person.
Speaker 2: And it was a fascinating article describing the children, and
Speaker 2: I had made the point by the way back to
Speaker 2: blood again, how important is blood when you have children
Speaker 2: who are so different. One of the most most grotesquely
Speaker 2: evil people in history has a beautiful child. One of
Speaker 2: the most beautiful people in history. Andre Sakharov, the great,
Speaker 2: great giant, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Soviet dissident. One of
Speaker 2: his children was a member of the Communist Party and
Speaker 2: supported Rezhnev, who oppressed his father.
Speaker 3: Okay, so so much for blood, so to speak.
Speaker 2: Okay, so if any of your kids turned down not
Speaker 2: so great, feel you have some comfort.
Speaker 3: Look at Sakharov at any rate.
Speaker 2: Eifman was not a monster. Eichman did monstrous things. Eifmlan
Speaker 2: was an accountant. In fact, his son, who hates him,
Speaker 2: is quoted as saying, no, it's not his son, it's
Speaker 2: the Israeli who captured him. Is quoted in this article
Speaker 2: as saying, and I believe it fully. Eifman had no
Speaker 2: hatred of Jews. He simply had a job to do.
Speaker 2: I believe that I've studied the man, I've studied what
Speaker 2: he said, and it's true. Had it been Albanians, he'd
Speaker 2: have run the cars through Auschwitz for Albanians just as methodically.
Speaker 3: He had a job.
Speaker 2: That is why Hannah Arnt in her book on Eifman,
Speaker 2: subtitled it the banality of evil. That concept that evil
Speaker 2: is done by banal people, mediocrites, simple normal people is
Speaker 2: what is the revelation in her idea. That's what happens here.
Speaker 2: The monster can be said to be Pharaoh. Is the
Speaker 2: average Egyptian a monster. We have no reason to believe
Speaker 2: that they simply though went along, they did it. That's
Speaker 2: how evil mass on a mass basis. On an individual basis,
Speaker 2: it's a monster, but on mass basis it's done. Average
Speaker 2: Egyptian with a Pharaoh who said I want you to
Speaker 2: all take care of all Israelites who have scurvy would
Speaker 2: have done that too. If the furer Hitler would have said,
Speaker 2: I want you to know bank German history. We have
Speaker 2: Jews in our midst so that we could enjoy a
Speaker 2: slightly different culture in our midst to make us Germans
Speaker 2: it love theater even more and love literature even more,
Speaker 2: they would most would have gone along with that.
Speaker 3: Most Germans who voted for Hitler.
Speaker 2: Did not do so because of anti Semitism, believe it
Speaker 2: or not.
Speaker 3: They did for economic reasons.
Speaker 2: He promised this, I promised, you know, all sorts of
Speaker 2: economic promises, with many of which he delivered on incidentally,
Speaker 2: and he wanted to undo the Versailles Treaty, which many
Speaker 2: Germans felt was an embarrassment for them and humiliating. He
Speaker 2: didn't campaign on an antisemitic platform. This These were things that,
Speaker 2: in studying the Nazi rise to power, were really that
Speaker 2: could shake you up. And yet look at how many
Speaker 2: collaborated or did nothing with regard to this incredible thing
Speaker 2: called the Holocaust.
Speaker 3: And here is why.
Speaker 2: It goes out of its way the Biblical record in
Speaker 2: three verses to say they they they the Egyptians. By
Speaker 2: the way, there's another reason, because chapters later you may wonder,
Speaker 2: why is why are the Egyptians punished? Why does God
Speaker 2: punish the Egyptians and not only Pharaoh. It's setting the
Speaker 2: record for you to understand that God is just by
Speaker 2: doing this as well, I almost never ever jump ahead,
Speaker 2: but I need to show you that so you will
Speaker 2: understand what happens later. But this repeated use of the
Speaker 2: word they and the collective guilt.
Speaker 3: Collective guilt not.
Speaker 2: Because we just lump everybody together, but because they collectively
Speaker 2: did bad things is what is being stated here, and
Speaker 2: it is it is a scary scenario. How many Americans
Speaker 2: would go along with such a regime?
Speaker 3: How many anybodies? I'm asking it of a country I love?
Speaker 3: You know? How many you know?
Speaker 2: With the with the local guy who runs your neighborhood
Speaker 2: drug store with a bad leader, what would he do?
Speaker 3: Those of you who are not Jewish?
Speaker 2: This is one of the fascinating differences in the in
Speaker 2: the way in which a Jew thinks.
Speaker 3: I suspect that most Jews ask.
Speaker 2: Themselves a question that I often ask, and that is,
Speaker 2: how would this person act under a Holocaust type condition?
Speaker 3: Right? How many Jews have thought about that in their lives? Okay,
Speaker 3: it's not remarkable.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we never talked about this, and
Speaker 2: yet it's part of what you think about, you know,
Speaker 2: because in our guts we know that normal people took
Speaker 2: part in this.
Speaker 3: But there is an even.
Speaker 2: More remarkable parallel to the Holocaust coming up with regard
Speaker 2: to evil in a moment.
Speaker 3: Verse.
Speaker 2: So hold on, we are The last was eleven. Now
Speaker 2: another thing in eleven. They set task masters over them
Speaker 2: to oppress them. The word in Hebrew for oppression is
Speaker 2: actually the same as to torture them. Note it means
Speaker 2: literally to make you suffer.
Speaker 3: Okay, oppress is not as strong as the Hebrews.
Speaker 2: And it's a fast insight again that the Torah is
Speaker 2: making with one word.
Speaker 3: You would think that the tour would have said tests.
Speaker 2: Task masters were set over the Israelites in order to
Speaker 2: make them work, right, that's what a task master is for. No,
Speaker 2: there was a sadistic element. Task masters were set over
Speaker 2: them in order to make them suffer. That part of
Speaker 2: what was done, which it's eerie, the parallels to the Holocaust.
Speaker 2: It was not enough of the Germans to murder the Jews.
Speaker 2: They had to make them suffer. The great majority of
Speaker 2: the six million Jews died naked. It's a point I've
Speaker 2: never seen anybody make, and yet it's there on the record.
Speaker 2: Naked in the gas chambers and naked when machine gun
Speaker 2: did pits, which is the way the vast majority of
Speaker 2: Jews were murdered. It wasn't enough. You had to be humiliated,
Speaker 2: you had to suffer. It was important that in the
Speaker 2: trains they'd be squeezed together in no water.
Speaker 3: Given that is what is stated.
Speaker 2: Either evil has very often a sadistic element to it.
Speaker 2: That's what the taskmasters were there to do, to make
Speaker 2: them suffer in their work. And they built these cities
Speaker 2: for Pharaoh Pitom and Ramses. Ramses is of course the
Speaker 2: name of a pharaoh, well known to many of you.
Speaker 3: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: But the more they were oppressed, the more they increased
Speaker 2: and spread out, so that the Egyptians.
Speaker 3: Came to fear the Israelites, the Children of Israel.
Speaker 2: Thirteen again a point of almost a cruelty, not almost
Speaker 2: of cruelty. The Egyptians ruthlessly imposed upon the Israelites the
Speaker 2: various labors that they made them perform. Ruthlessly, they made
Speaker 2: life bitter for them with harsh labor at mortar and
Speaker 2: bricks and with all sorts of.
Speaker 3: Tasks in the field.
Speaker 2: Now comes what is to me one of my I
Speaker 2: GET top ten favorite stories in the Bible.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Frager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 2: I think often in musical terms, because I love music very,
Speaker 2: very deeply. In romantic music, there is there is almost
Speaker 2: a recipe tension, tension, tension release. Beethoven is the master
Speaker 2: of that. Is that is that correct?
Speaker 3: Ended it?
Speaker 2: You now have very depressing It's all been depressing now right,
Speaker 2: and now all of a sudden there is Wait a
Speaker 2: minute before you, the reader gets too down on humanity,
Speaker 2: before you generalize that all Egyptians are slim, that the
Speaker 2: world is composed only of miserable human beings. We'd like
Speaker 2: to tell you a story verse fifteen. The King of Egypt.
Speaker 2: Very important that it says that. It's to make it
Speaker 2: clear the greatness of what is going to be described.
Speaker 3: Now that what happens is a reaction.
Speaker 2: To the King of Egypt, who can't get higher of
Speaker 2: that on earth.
Speaker 3: The King of Egypt spoke to now.
Speaker 2: Here is the translation is absolutely critical because the story
Speaker 2: loses men's power by the usual translation. How many of
Speaker 2: you do not have Hebrew midwife, but have something or
Speaker 2: have something else?
Speaker 3: Does everybody have Hebrew midwives? Yes? M what do you have?
Speaker 3: What words do you see? Verse fifteen?
Speaker 2: There Hebrew midwhile you're using Hertz.
Speaker 3: Anybody using a.
Speaker 2: Different you're using JPS JPS.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Even Sarna, who uses JPS, which says Hebrew midwives, acknowledges
Speaker 2: what I think is the only possible reading, except that
Speaker 2: Hebrew allows you grammatically to understand.
Speaker 3: It either way.
Speaker 2: In Hebrew, the words mi al do tebriote can be
Speaker 2: either the Hebrew midwives. That is possible grammatically correct, equally
Speaker 2: grammatically correct the midwives of the Hebrews. That's very, very different, okay,
Speaker 2: And I think it is profoundly clear. I think it's
Speaker 2: unassailable that these are Egyptian, or at least.
Speaker 3: Not not Hebrews.
Speaker 2: They may be of another Semitic group because of their names,
Speaker 2: but they are not Hebrews. And I will explain why
Speaker 2: in a minute, so that real translation should be. In
Speaker 2: verse fifteen, the King of Egypt spoke to the midwives
Speaker 2: of the Hebrews, one of whose name was Shifra, and
Speaker 2: the others the other Puah, saying, when you deliver the
Speaker 2: Hebrew women, look at the birth stool. If it is
Speaker 2: a boy, kill him. If it is a girl, let
Speaker 2: her live. The midwives, fearing God, did not do as
Speaker 2: the King of Egypt had told them.
Speaker 3: They let the boys live.
Speaker 2: It's obvious to me that they're not Hebrew the midwives.
Speaker 2: First of all, do you think he is going to
Speaker 2: call the Hebrews to destroy their own children? It's much
Speaker 2: less likely. It's possible, but it's much less likely. And
Speaker 2: the proof is the way in which it's described what
Speaker 2: they did, which is the quintessential universal, not specifically Jewish
Speaker 2: formula for a righteous non jew The person feared God,
Speaker 2: those of you took Genesis with me, and even those
Speaker 2: of you who did not take Genesis with me, since
Speaker 2: I don't believe that only those who took Genesis with me.
Speaker 3: No Genesis will recall.
Speaker 2: That when Abraham is afraid about how his wife Sarah
Speaker 2: will be treated, the language he uses is there is
Speaker 2: no fear of God in this place. Fear of God
Speaker 2: is the Torah, or biblical formula for moral decency, which
Speaker 2: I will explain. I won't do it in full detail
Speaker 2: because I did it already in Genesis. Why did they
Speaker 2: not listen to the King of Egypt because they feared God?
Speaker 2: Now there's another proof to it. There are two primary
Speaker 2: words for God in the Torah, Jehovah and Elohim.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: The first is God's proper name, so to speak, and
Speaker 2: is specific to the Jews.
Speaker 3: It's a personal name, as it were.
Speaker 2: Elohim is the god of the universe, as it were,
Speaker 2: everybody's god, Okay, And.
Speaker 3: That's the term for fear of God. The term is.
Speaker 2: Fear, fear of losing one's microphone. It is fear of Elohima.
Speaker 2: That is what the girls, the women. I say them
Speaker 2: of girls, because I think of midwives, is very young.
Speaker 2: But there's no reason to think that these That's what
Speaker 2: these women had. They feared God. And that is the
Speaker 2: moral attribution of non Jews. Judaism holds that if you
Speaker 2: fear God, that you Let's put it this way, if
Speaker 2: you don't fear.
Speaker 3: God, they will be moral chaos.
Speaker 2: Dostayevsky put it in Brothers Karamaza, where there is no God,
Speaker 2: all is permitted. That is his way of saying what
Speaker 2: exactly what the Torah is saying. Unless there is a
Speaker 2: sense that I owe God obedience more than I owe
Speaker 2: the King of Egypt, more than I owe the fearer
Speaker 2: of Germany, more than I owe the President of the
Speaker 2: United States, then they will not good will never prevail.
Speaker 2: These midwife feared God. You see, that is one of
Speaker 2: the among the reasons. I am convinced that they're not Jews,
Speaker 2: because that's the terminology used for the universal goodness.
Speaker 3: But there's another one.
Speaker 2: When Moses later saves the remember he well, don't remember,
Speaker 2: maybe you never read it, but there is a story
Speaker 2: coming up that Moses goes out and sees a Hebrew
Speaker 2: slave being beaten, and he remembers that this is and
Speaker 2: it says it is one of his brothers. If these
Speaker 2: midwives had saved the Jews because they were Jewish, it
Speaker 2: would have said, and these midwives could not do this
Speaker 2: to their to their um, or to their people, or
Speaker 2: to their brothers, or to their sisters. There is no
Speaker 2: nothing of that. It is purely universal morality. We fear God,
Speaker 2: not Pharaoh, and that's.
Speaker 3: What we will do.
Speaker 2: That is why only that idea can save the world
Speaker 2: from evil. In my opinion, the belief that God's law
Speaker 2: is higher than man's law, and that therefore I fear
Speaker 2: God to do wrong, even if I get punished by humanity,
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: I don't want to be but ultimately it is God
Speaker 3: whom I answer to.
Speaker 2: That is why these midwives are powerful, powerful stories. But
Speaker 2: there is many more reasons and I am hinting other
Speaker 2: things to come by telling you two of the reasons
Speaker 2: I told you earlier in my preface about my feeling
Speaker 2: about the Torret being divine. One of the reasons that
Speaker 2: I believe it is divine and not merely human is
Speaker 2: if that it was only human, it would have been
Speaker 2: much more pro Jewish than it is. The Hebrew Bible
Speaker 2: is profoundly critical of Jews and profoundly emphasizing of moral
Speaker 2: greatness among individual non Jews.
Speaker 3: It is so unique among.
Speaker 2: Biblical different Bibles to do that that I have to
Speaker 2: believe that either the Jews were superhuman, which I don't
Speaker 2: believe for a minute since I have lived with them
Speaker 2: much of my life, or that there is a divine
Speaker 2: element here.
Speaker 3: That there are two.
Speaker 2: Remarkable elements about this staggering moral heroism of these women.
Speaker 3: A they're not Jewish, be their women.
Speaker 2: And you are going to see repeated non Jews and
Speaker 2: women as moral heroes in the stories of the Exodus.
Speaker 2: It is actually a running through theme Jews as villains,
Speaker 2: non Jews.
Speaker 3: As heroes, and women as heroes.
Speaker 2: The opposite of typical chauvinism, of male chauvinism out of
Speaker 2: national chauvinism the absolute antithesis.
Speaker 3: And here is the first of.
Speaker 2: Those examples of the midwives to the Hebrews. More proof
Speaker 2: to me that they are not, that they are not
Speaker 2: Hebrews themselves, is coming up.
Speaker 3: We are at verse eighteen.
Speaker 2: So the King of Egypt summoned the midwives and said
Speaker 2: to them, why have you done this thing? Letting the
Speaker 2: boys live? The midwives said to Pharaoh, because the hebrew
Speaker 2: women are not like the Egyptian women.
Speaker 3: They are vigorous.
Speaker 2: Before the midwife can come to them, they've already given birth.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Now, my other proof here is that they are not
Speaker 2: Hebrews is they talk about Hebrews in the third person.
Speaker 2: If they were Hebrews, they would probably say, look, we're
Speaker 2: not like you, our women. There's no sense of that.
Speaker 2: You Pharaoh and we midwives are both talking about the
Speaker 2: Hebrews as a different group. But now comes to me
Speaker 2: one of the most remarkable points of all that can
Speaker 2: easily elude you in your first two hundred and.
Speaker 3: Six readings of the sentence.
Speaker 2: Are any of you that's surprised that Pharaoh didn't kill them?
Speaker 2: Doesn't this slightly crack you up? And this is the
Speaker 2: King of Egypt. You disobey the King of Egypt's orders.
Speaker 3: And guess what happens. He calls you in and he says,
Speaker 3: how come that is the last thing in the world
Speaker 3: you expect? You expect? And Pharaoh sent three emissaries to
Speaker 3: slit their throats. Ah.
Speaker 2: Well, but I think there is a bigger lesson. Yes,
Speaker 2: they mean they took care of Egyptians as well. It
Speaker 2: may very well be, although I suspect he could have
Speaker 2: found out the midwives in Egypt they're blood. That's possible.
Speaker 2: Although that is very possible. And you don't kill you
Speaker 2: your own blood, that is very possible, That's correct. I
Speaker 2: suspect though, that there is something else here which gives
Speaker 2: me again a Holocaust parallel.
Speaker 3: And the blood element is related to that. Your point
Speaker 3: is well taken.
Speaker 2: One of the most depressing facts of the Holocaust is
Speaker 2: that those Germans who did not, who refuse to take
Speaker 2: part in it, were not killed. I say it's depressing,
Speaker 2: not that I wanted them killed. It's depressing because then
Speaker 2: it makes you wonder why didn't Moore refuse? I mean,
Speaker 2: I know most people are not moral giants, but the
Speaker 2: worst step could happen to you if you were a
Speaker 2: soldier and you refuse to work at Auschwitz, they sent
Speaker 2: you to fight the Russians, which is not exactly heaven.
Speaker 2: I believe me, I acknowledge that. But it is also
Speaker 2: not torture. It is also not I will murder your family.
Speaker 2: It is also not I will murder you. I mean
Speaker 2: not all German soldiers died fighting the Russians. And that
Speaker 2: was and that was in the case of a soldier.
Speaker 2: In other words, if you refuse to work in the
Speaker 2: Holocaust in Germany, you worked somewhere else, maybe less pay,
Speaker 2: but you didn't get killed, your family wasn't killed, and
Speaker 2: there was a It's an eerie parallel right here. They
Speaker 2: refused Pharaoh and Pharaoh and Furer. I'm not playing on
Speaker 2: words at all, but Pharaoh and the Furer have equal power.
Speaker 2: The obedience in Egypt is to Pharaoh. The obedience in
Speaker 2: Nazi Germany was to Hitler, and they said no, and
Speaker 2: all the great That's why I remember I emphasized that
Speaker 2: it had the word.
Speaker 3: The key of Egypt. And what does the king of
Speaker 3: Egypt say to them or do to them? Why didn't
Speaker 3: you do what I said?
Speaker 2: You're almost like a plaintive husband honey, I asked you
Speaker 2: to do something. You know, it's it's it's it's almost
Speaker 2: funny to think of the Great Father, Great King of
Speaker 2: Egypt's reaction when his major order is simply subverted. It's
Speaker 2: almost as if he's curious and he buys the answer.
Speaker 3: That's what's even more remarkable. He buys the all.
Speaker 2: I see they give birth before they even show up. Okay,
Speaker 2: have a nice day. That's an effect what goes on here,
Speaker 2: And it's it's it's really it shakes you up a
Speaker 2: little bit. You certainly expect something more dreadful to happen
Speaker 2: to these women. Uh. This, by the way, a one
Speaker 2: commentator notes, is the first act of moral civil disobedience
Speaker 2: recorded in history. And this is the only way in
Speaker 2: which good will ever take place. Is if you all
Speaker 2: listen to God and not the orders of bad humans.
Speaker 2: It's the only way good will prevail. And since I
Speaker 2: view the Torah as ultimately a document preoccupied with the
Speaker 2: issue of good and evil, that is how important it is.
Speaker 2: Moral is the central everything in the Torah and in Judaism,
Speaker 2: and the great moral question, or one of the great
Speaker 2: moral questions, is will you fear God or fear man.
Speaker 2: In our time, the term fear of God has gone
Speaker 2: out of out of use, but literally, in my parents' generation,
Speaker 2: it was very common to hear of a man or
Speaker 2: a woman this who was particularly decent, described as a
Speaker 2: God fearing person. If you were described today as God fearing,
Speaker 2: you would be regarded, probably as a right wing kook.
Speaker 2: That's what people would think you were being described as. However,
Speaker 2: if you were described as fearing loss of tenure at Harvard.
Speaker 3: That would be understandable.
Speaker 2: If you were regarded as fearing loss of partnership in
Speaker 2: a law firm, that is understandable. But fear God, you're
Speaker 2: a kook. Well we've changed, and I don't think that
Speaker 2: God wants us to walk around quaking in fear of him.
Speaker 3: That is not the desire. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: we do fear.
Speaker 2: And really the question in life is not whether we
Speaker 2: will have any fear, it's.
Speaker 3: Whom or what will we fear.
Speaker 2: And ultimately, the truly free human is the one who
Speaker 2: fears God and not man. And that is why the
Speaker 2: term used for decency in the Torah is fear of God.
Speaker 2: It's the universal term. We draw close in chapter one
Speaker 2: as we continue, and this ironically.
Speaker 3: To read you now, which is a.
Speaker 2: Temporary happy ending in a not terribly happy book, or
Speaker 2: at least one that certainly alternates happiness and unhappiness, is
Speaker 2: the most troubling part of the chapter for me. And
Speaker 2: you would think it's the least It should be the
Speaker 2: least troubling. Twenty and God dealt well with the midwives,
Speaker 2: and the people multiplied and increased in greatly, greatly, and
Speaker 2: to twenty one. And because the midwives fear God, he
Speaker 2: established households for them.
Speaker 3: Okay, why do I find it difficult?
Speaker 2: Because we do not generally see moral people rewarded in
Speaker 2: this life. In life, most of the people who resisted
Speaker 2: Hitler did not have large families established for them by God.
Speaker 2: They were shot and put on meathooks by Hitler's gestapo.
Speaker 2: This is a part of the Torah that simply I
Speaker 2: have no answer to. I don't know what to do
Speaker 2: with it. You know, I don't have answers for all
Speaker 2: these dilemmas. It's one of my dilemmas because it is
Speaker 2: not infrequent that you have this description of God showing
Speaker 2: favor to individuals for their goodness. Maybe one of you
Speaker 2: has a way out of this, I don't know what
Speaker 2: is to be learned except that God, at least in
Speaker 2: this arena is described as very intimately involved and therefore
Speaker 2: does this rewarding. But my friend, the reward of good
Speaker 2: in this world is the good you have done. I
Speaker 2: do believe in an afterlife, which is a separate issue.
Speaker 3: And I've spoken on that in Genesis.
Speaker 2: But I think we can all affirm that God does
Speaker 2: not appear to bless.
Speaker 3: In this life all.
Speaker 2: Those who do good. He certainly seems to bless some
Speaker 2: who do good.
Speaker 3: And the only.
Speaker 2: Way out I have on this is really via the
Speaker 2: great greatest Jewish philosopher, my monody, the Rambam, who who
Speaker 2: spoke of the issue known in Hebrew as hashkahafrati divine
Speaker 2: supervision of the individual. How much does God really get
Speaker 2: involved in an individual's.
Speaker 3: Life and among his answers? And I find it.
Speaker 2: Satisfactory is that God doesn't get involved in every individual's life.
Speaker 3: That God get involved.
Speaker 2: God gets involved in the lives of individuals who get
Speaker 2: involved with him a and b as, particularly if they
Speaker 2: are involved in something larger that God has plans for. Clearly,
Speaker 2: the midwives met both criteria, and that simply may be
Speaker 2: the answer. Having told you of the dilemma that I have,
Speaker 2: it is a good answer to me. It is just
Speaker 2: it is not the answer if your question is, well,
Speaker 2: why did God do it for the midwives but not
Speaker 2: for and then fill in the name of somebody you
Speaker 2: know who is morally wonderful and died at fifty four
Speaker 2: of cancer.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's what I mean. I mean, right this moment,
Speaker 3: I'm thinking.
Speaker 2: Remarkably, remarkably beautiful man who is dying of cancer, a
Speaker 2: sixty two, which is not a kid, but it's certainly not.
Speaker 3: Old, and.
Speaker 2: You know, and the irony being of lung cancer, and
Speaker 2: he never smoked a cigarette in his life. But these
Speaker 2: are not answerable. I mean, obviously I'm not going to
Speaker 2: get into that. Those are not answerable. The answer, my monodies,
Speaker 2: gives the answer that a friend of mine, a former priest,
Speaker 2: always used to say, God is not a democrat, a
Speaker 2: small d. He was not arguing God was a republican.
Speaker 2: God is not a democrat, small d. And that is
Speaker 2: very important. And here is a Catholic saying, look, God
Speaker 2: didn't choose every nation, he chose one. God is not
Speaker 2: a democrat that he will reward these midwives is because
Speaker 2: they are involved in something God has plans for humanity
Speaker 2: for you with me, and so I mean that is
Speaker 2: not the official answer. It is an answer and one
Speaker 2: that I can live with. Let me read the last
Speaker 2: one and I'll try on leave five minutes for your questions.
Speaker 2: And as my general policy is that I begin each
Speaker 2: session with questions, so.
Speaker 3: That I really do ask you.
Speaker 2: If you think about anything during the week said or
Speaker 2: not set about chapter one, please please.
Speaker 3: Raise it at the beginning of next week.
Speaker 2: And verse twenty two ends on a very low note
Speaker 2: after this lovely, lovely high and that is then Pharaoh
Speaker 2: charged all his people, and that is very important. Again,
Speaker 2: all his people all see do you see how much
Speaker 2: the people are blamed in this chapter? They they they,
Speaker 2: the Egyptians, all the people you with me. It's very
Speaker 2: important because evil can't be done by a pharaoh or
Speaker 2: a hitler. They can do as much evil alone as
Speaker 2: Charles Manson did. The number of people they can get
Speaker 2: their hands on.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It is by the obedience of masses of people that evil,
Speaker 2: massive evil is accomplished. And so since the midwives aren't
Speaker 2: going to do it, He's going to go straight to
Speaker 2: the people, and Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every
Speaker 2: boy that is born, you shall throw into the nile,
Speaker 2: but let every girl live. Now, by the way, there's
Speaker 2: an obvious question here that frankly, with all my reading,
Speaker 2: I never found a particularly good answer to why the boy.
Speaker 2: There is interestingly an answer that is given midrashically, which
Speaker 2: is Hebrew legend type writing that Pharaoh was told by
Speaker 2: his sorcerers and magicians and astrologers that a savior of
Speaker 2: the Jews would be born, and he was male. I
Speaker 2: was about to be born, so you must you must
Speaker 2: throw the boys in, and that's the way, And interestingly
Speaker 2: the tradition dealt with the issue. I guess the other
Speaker 2: is that the women can cause nearly as much trouble.
Speaker 2: They could perhaps be assimilated.
Speaker 3: Uh uh and uh, and that would end the people. Uh.
Speaker 3: They can't fight.
Speaker 2: If his worry was that they'll fight against us, then
Speaker 2: you certainly get rid of the males, and you can't
Speaker 2: reproduce with only one sex anyway, I guess that those
Speaker 2: would be uh. Some of the answers any questions that
Speaker 2: done anything that uh was very did sir?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Bat with the uh with the rewards or the big
Speaker 5: of the midlife first day in one of the translation
Speaker 5: that exactly burring the midlife powers and and those are
Speaker 5: rather the usual.
Speaker 3: Life the days the way that doesveloping feel well. And
Speaker 3: he made their clients at the children which benefited. Then
Speaker 3: interact with hold on. Very interesting.
Speaker 2: So you're saying verse twenty one, uh is God built
Speaker 2: houses for the Jews, not for the midwives. Well, I
Speaker 2: will tell you he has a grammatical basis for saying that.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: He built houses for the children that the midwives saved. Right,
Speaker 2: So the reward for the midwives was that those they
Speaker 2: saved prospered. That's what you're saying, they have prospered having
Speaker 2: more work, spoken like a good late twentieth century American capitalist.
Speaker 2: The uh no, that is, I'll tell you why grammatically
Speaker 2: you have you have a basis because it says and
Speaker 2: God made for them houses or households. That them is
Speaker 2: in the masculine. It should have been la hen and
Speaker 2: it's like him. I've never seen anybody touch that. And
Speaker 2: yet you may very well be right, although it's a
Speaker 2: it's fascinating. Well, you know what, if you're right, it
Speaker 2: really certainly solves my dilemma and I hope you're right.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you why. It solves my dilemma. Remember what
Speaker 2: I said in passing what the reward of good is
Speaker 2: the good that you do? And that's exactly then what
Speaker 2: would have been their reward?
Speaker 3: And God did good for the midwives.
Speaker 2: He built households from those Israelites, from those that they saved.
Speaker 3: Is that what hurt says? There? So what does he say?
Speaker 2: So Hurts does say is the Israelites houses, But he
Speaker 2: doesn't go further and talk about that.
Speaker 3: That's how is that the reward for the women? He doesn't?
Speaker 2: Yeah, very good, I think it is. I think you're right.
Speaker 2: That's why I love learning with a small group of
Speaker 2: two hundred people. It's the it's the only way to study. Yes,
Speaker 2: two hundred heads are better than one at give.
Speaker 1: Me a deterpretation.
Speaker 5: Listen to the word of God rather than the favor
Speaker 5: and made your accents of a joke.
Speaker 1: The type of pain in our shelf.
Speaker 3: Type for the house of Delos, lots of metaphor.
Speaker 2: He has a metaphor that the house they dwelt in
Speaker 2: was a happy one because they didn't have a guilty conscience.
Speaker 2: That's metaphoric. I I guess I didn't explain to you
Speaker 2: in my preface. My first desire was to always read
Speaker 2: exactly what the text says, and then we can go
Speaker 2: that's a homily.
Speaker 3: You would have made an excellent clergyman. That is you
Speaker 3: know that, my friends.
Speaker 2: The real meaning here is you will live a happy
Speaker 2: house if you don't have a guilty conscience.
Speaker 3: So you should think about it. It's never too late.
Speaker 3: Are you an accountant? I mean, why are you know?
Speaker 2: Yes, wife would have lasts being a lead wife. Is
Speaker 2: wi that.
Speaker 3: Then it would still be like him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, she is saying that if they were, if even
Speaker 2: if there was one male midwife, then it would use
Speaker 2: the masculine for them. The problem is they didn't allow
Speaker 2: male midwives.
Speaker 3: Ever.
Speaker 2: At that time it was considered profoundly indecent to have
Speaker 2: a woman exposed in that way before a man.
Speaker 3: So that's why that wouldn't be possible. Yes, and never
Speaker 3: if you medged with you went that.
Speaker 6: So there were they would set over the cast masters to.
Speaker 2: Aid they build there. Yeah that they there is the Jews.
Speaker 2: This is not Egyptian, Okay. I when I said they loud,
Speaker 2: then I made a mistake.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 2: I misled you by reading the loud that they there
Speaker 2: with emphasis that they there is Israelites. In verse the
Speaker 2: second day in verse what was that eleven? Yes anybody else? Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2: You can read.
Speaker 3: Yes refers to buy.
Speaker 2: Any And then what is.
Speaker 3: Is i'm ever referred to for the Jews? Uh?
Speaker 2: I have to look it up in a concordance, and
Speaker 2: I will look it up for next week.
Speaker 3: It's in modern Hebrew. It is.
Speaker 2: It's called I'm Israel, not go Israel, but it's uh,
Speaker 2: but it is. It's an interesting question. I would love
Speaker 2: to find that. I'll look it up because it's easy
Speaker 2: to do. I'll just check a.
Speaker 3: Concordance every time i'm is used.
Speaker 2: In fact, take one of my trusty found pens and
Speaker 2: they write that down. Okay, let me take two more
Speaker 2: because I like to start on time and end of time.
Speaker 2: But we didn't start on time. That's why we're ending
Speaker 2: a little late. But but otherwise this will be very punctual.
Speaker 3: Yes, well, I think it doesn't make sense. Is that
Speaker 3: when you heard about it selling the house? Do yes?
Speaker 1: The killing all the uh male children and the boy, Yeah.
Speaker 3: The.
Speaker 1: House and when they kill all the male children, that
Speaker 1: doesn't there you were here as logical, and that he
Speaker 1: building houses in the lane.
Speaker 2: Yes, I I well, he is saying, and I'm repeating
Speaker 2: it for the for those who didn't hear, hear, and
Speaker 2: for the for the you and video land Uh the.
Speaker 3: You think it.
Speaker 2: It makes much more sense that he built these houses
Speaker 2: for the midwives, because in the very next sentence you
Speaker 2: have the destruction of the houses by the order of fact.
Speaker 3: Well, of course.
Speaker 2: It may clearly every male was not killed by as
Speaker 2: a result of this order, and therefore it may very
Speaker 2: well have been that those days saved hathouses built.
Speaker 3: So it is though it is possible.
Speaker 2: Listen, both are possible, and I think there may very
Speaker 2: well be a deliberate ambiguity here.
Speaker 3: You'll have a lot of that in the Toro. And
Speaker 3: I really get into deliberate ambiguity.
Speaker 2: It's one of my favorite things in life, after non
Speaker 2: fat milkshake, yogurt.
Speaker 3: Right right after that is deliberate ambiguity. All right, I'll
Speaker 3: take you privately. You're the last one.
Speaker 7: Yes, and they not say some web side and they
Speaker 7: make on the website.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the question was if it is if it let
Speaker 2: me get your question correct. If it is perable to
Speaker 2: have a nation not built on blood, then, but built
Speaker 2: on shared values, shared beliefs, commitments. Why is Judaism opposed
Speaker 2: to intermarriage. It's supposed to intermarriage for a really, I think, frankly,
Speaker 2: for a very pragmatic reason. And it's not a blood reason.
Speaker 2: If it were blood, you couldn't convert. So it has
Speaker 2: to be a different reason. And the reason is Judaism
Speaker 2: is family based, and it is extremely difficult. Look, the
Speaker 2: proof that it's not, the proof that it is not
Speaker 2: blood is that if a Jewish woman marries a non
Speaker 2: Jewish man, the children are Jewish anyway, and yet Judaism
Speaker 2: still historically opposes that marriage. So it can't be blood
Speaker 2: because it has no effect on the children being Jewish.
Speaker 2: The reason for the opposition is the way Judaism has lived,
Speaker 2: much more so than the other religion most of you
Speaker 2: know best, Christianity, which is much more individual oriented.
Speaker 3: Is my relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 2: That is the central focus of much of christian life,
Speaker 2: especially Protestant. Judaism is overwhelmingly communal and family. Try to
Speaker 2: observe the Sabbath alone and you will know essentially loneliness,
Speaker 2: honest to goodness, loneliness. Observe Shabbat with friends and family,
Speaker 2: and you will know a taste of heaven. The very
Speaker 2: same ritual practiced alone is painful, practiced with group is
Speaker 2: immeasurably joyful.
Speaker 3: And so Judaism doesn't work the other way. That's the reason.
Speaker 3: But not blood. As I said, the child is still Jewish.
Speaker 2: In the case of a woman, intermarry, thank you, bring
Speaker 2: a friend, See you next week.
Speaker 1: On Tomorrow's Sunday fireside.
Speaker 8: Chat, time for your question now, Megan tells me that
Speaker 8: I should I usually see the question in advance. I
Speaker 8: acknowledge that, but she wants me to see this one
Speaker 8: without having seen it. So this is the first time
Speaker 8: in two hundred and nine episodes of the fireside Chat
Speaker 8: that I have not seen. She wants me to react spontaneously,
Speaker 8: so I will either love or hate Megan after watching
Speaker 8: this video.
Speaker 3: Here we go, Hei.
Speaker 7: Dennis Hiatto, I just wanted to tell a little story.
Speaker 8: A while back.
Speaker 3: I was watching the.
Speaker 7: Fireside Chats, and I was watching the episode where you,
Speaker 7: Dennis give the recommendation or say that there's not really
Speaker 7: any downside to using online dating apps.
Speaker 2: And I just moved to a new town and.
Speaker 7: So I decided to give it a try, and I
Speaker 7: downloaded this online dating app specifically for Mormons, and I
Speaker 7: started swiping and met a ton of people, and after
Speaker 7: a little bit, I ended up meeting this person and
Speaker 7: we really hit it off. We became super good friends.
Speaker 7: We started dating, and we really bonded over shared values
Speaker 7: and over religion and things like that, and we fell
Speaker 7: in love, and recently, a couple days ago, I got engaged.
Speaker 3: So I just want to say thank you, thank.
Speaker 7: You for your wisdom, and thank you for in essence
Speaker 7: changing my life.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
Speaker 8: I was expecting how to say the opposite. I was
Speaker 8: respecting you said this note downside and that I was expecting.
Speaker 8: I met the guy and.
Speaker 6: He turned out to be a criminal. This really shocked me.
Speaker 6: I expected a real challenge.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. Visit Dennis Prager dot com for thousands of
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