WEBVTT - The Beginning of Exodus | Weekend Torah Teaching 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.280 Life Audio on today's episode of Timeless Wisdom. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.559 Shakespeare is a genius. In fact, I'm reading Hamlet now, 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:14.400 believe it or not. I should have read it in 0:00:14.440 --> 0:00:16.759 high school. But I'm enjoying it more now, I suspect 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:17.840 than I would have then. 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.640 I suspect I'll read Hamlet again and yet again. 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.960 But having read other plays by Shakespeare, the repeated study 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.000 does not reveal enormous new insights every time I do it. 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:34.960 I am amazed at how many new insights I learn 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.280 each time I study a chapter in the Torah. 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.240 There is a depth to it that I have found 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:43.559 nowhere else in life. 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.080 Now you can say, brilliant people wrote it. You certainly 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.840 have that prerogative. I don't believe, though, in such superhuman 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.840 abilities as I find in the depth of the words 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.800 of the Torah. So I believe that there is a 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:02.600 divine human interaction that makes it. Being that it is, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.240 to me therefore a religious text, and being that in 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:09.680 Judaism it is a religious obligation to study Torah and 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.000 unrelated texts. I wear a keypot when I teach Torah. 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.840 So that's why I always make this introductory statement. You'll 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:18.000 understand why I do it. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.280 With that, I will begin the Book of Exodus. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:27.400 That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.720 to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.080 of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:41.440 purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to Dennisprager dot com. 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:45.000 My intellect tells me that I have to be open 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.840 to serious inquiry. The Torah itself, by the way, does 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.880 not make the claim that God wrote it. If God 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.280 wrote the Torah, you would assume that God would use 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.840 the first person, for example, in the beginning to heapens 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:05.520 in the Earth, because God does use the first person frequently. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:05.800 When he speaks. 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:08.480 As to the question of why I say he and 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.400 not she or he she, I have written an article 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:13.720 on why God should be regarded as a father not 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:14.119 a mother. 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.480 It's available along with many of my other. 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.960 Writings and tapes outside. It's not a commercial. It's a fact. 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:23.400 I want you to know about that. But I have 0:02:23.600 --> 0:02:25.960 thought the issue through. I do not regard God as 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:31.280 a man, obviously. However, I have only two other choices. 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:32.080 She or it. 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.440 God is clearly not an it, and she makes God 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.280 a woman, and if I have to use a metaphor, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.480 I prefer the male metaphor. But it's solely a metaphor. 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.160 It is not a statement of nonequality. It is a 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.359 statement of many other things, which perhaps when we get 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.880 to other parts I'll get into. But having already written 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:51.600 on it, I don't want to. 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:56.960 Take your time with it. I believe that. 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:01.360 The Torah for me is different than any other book. 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.560 In other words, I do believe that the Torah is divine, 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.040 even though I intellectually do not assert that God wrote 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.640 every word. Does that make sense to you that a 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.320 book can be divine and yet God not be the 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:22.400 dictator of every word? To a secretary, a Shakespeare is 0:03:22.440 --> 0:03:25.799 a genius. In fact, I'm reading Hamlet now, believe it 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:27.760 or not. I should have read it in high school. 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:29.760 But I'm enjoying it more now, I suspect than I 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.840 would have then. I suspect I'll read Hamlet again and 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:38.120 yet again. But having read other plays by Shakespeare, the 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:43.240 repeated study does not reveal enormous new insights every time 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:46.520 I do it. I am amazed at how many new 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.520 insights I learn each time I study a chapter in 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:54.480 the Torah. There is a depth to it that I 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:57.720 have found nowhere else in life. Now you can say, 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.480 brilliant people wrote it. You certainly have that prerogative. I 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:06.840 don't believe, though, in such superhuman abilities as I find 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:09.440 in the depth of the words of the Torah. So 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.160 I believe that there is a divine human interaction that 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.360 makes it. Being that it is to me therefore a 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.120 religious text, and being that in Judaism it is a 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:24.200 religious obligation to study Torah and unrelated texts. I wear 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.360 a key pot when I teach Torah. So that's why 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:30.400 I always make this introductory statement. You'll understand why I 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:30.800 do it. 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.360 With that, I will begin the Book of Exodus. 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.360 I think we have cleared our engineering problem, Thank God, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:40.680 thank the engineer. 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.120 I don't know in which order. That's a great theological question. 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.680 That I would like to figure that one day. 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:57.520 Ah right, I hope we finished chapter one today, because 0:04:57.600 --> 0:05:02.520 Chapter one itself is so rich. Torah has varying richnesses. Obviously, 0:05:02.680 --> 0:05:08.120 some factors go much faster than others. It doesn't matter 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:16.080 what translations you use. I will do most of it 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:20.200 in English. Sometimes I'll make reference to the Hebrew only 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.560 because I know it in Hebrew better than in English. 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:24.279 That's the way I first learned it, of course. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.640 But most of you, of course don't know Hebrew, so 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:30.960 I won't relate to it often except to make a 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.320 point so that you'll understand better why I'm saying something, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.760 all right. The last we had was the family of 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:41.640 Jacob of Israel going to Egypt. 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.720 There was a famine, as you recall, and Joseph had. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:51.160 Made it quite remarkably successfully in Egypt, remarkable for his 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.239 minority status as a Hebrew, remarkable because of the fact 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.280 that he was rejected by his brothers. And the story 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.800 there is, of course one of them famous in the Torah. 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:03.919 And these are the names the Ela Shimod. 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.960 These are the names of the sons of Israel who 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:12.520 came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household, 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.800 the Ruvein Altstulman Hebrew Ruvein Shimond Levy and Yehuda is 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:22.240 Satars Vulun and Benjamin or Vinyamin, dn Nafpali God and Asher, 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.040 and all of those coming out of the thigh. 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.400 Literally, let's see how they have it here. 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:33.360 Jacob's issue were seventy Joseph being already in Egypt. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:34.599 Joseph died. 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.560 So this is now how we This is simply setting 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:41.400 the stage for the most important event in Jewish history 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.680 for all of Judaism revolves around the slavery and the 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:51.560 liberation and the gating of the of the Torah or 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:56.640 the Ten Commandments at Sinai. This is the central Jewish experience. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.640 Christians here will relate. There is a central experience in 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.479 each religion. The central experience, of course, the death and 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.280 resurrection with Jesus for a Christian. 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:06.560 The difference. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.359 There are many differences in the central Jewish and central 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.680 Christian experiences, but one obvious difference is that the Jewish 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:18.160 centrality happened to the whole people, whereas the Christian centrality 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:23.280 happened essentially to one who is Man God. In Christian theology. 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.480 You will make of it what you wish. I am 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.960 not a usually a better or worse believer. They're simply 0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:33.640 different approaches, but the central events are different and help 0:07:33.720 --> 0:07:36.440 make them different religions and God blessed differences. 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:37.840 I am not one who. 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.440 Believes all religions are the same with the little variations 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.840 of rhetoric, they have certain deep similarities, and that is 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:46.640 a good thing, but they are not the same. If 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.160 they were the same, we would all be interchangeable. I 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.600 think it is a great thing that we have many religions, 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.320 as it happens, and I think God is happy with 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.720 that fact. I think God wants us to worship one God, 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.000 but not necessarily be members of one religion. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.040 And certainly that is the Jewish belief. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:03.920 The Jewish belief is that the world should come to 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.480 one God, but not necessarily all convert to Judaism. 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:13.280 It's a painful conversion in any event, and Judaism is 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.520 not into pain. The Uh. 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.720 These are then the the the children of Israel coming 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:28.480 into UH, into Egypt, and Joseph and all his brothers 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.120 and that entire generation die. 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.400 That's verse six, verse seven, and Uh. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:41.439 The Uh and the children of Israel were fertile and prolific. 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.480 They multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.080 was filled with them. A few points on this. On 0:08:48.160 --> 0:08:54.640 this verse, the the words for what the Jews did 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.400 in Egypt in Hebrew are the same words as the 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:04.439 creation words about multiplying and spreading along the land. The Sarna, 0:09:04.559 --> 0:09:08.120 whom I will make many references to the Great Professor Nahamsarna, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:11.440 who has a two volume commentary, One Genesis on One 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:17.319 Exodus On published by the Jewish Publication Society, notes in this. 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.400 Regard about the how for. 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:27.560 Judaism Israel is a new humanity, just like the world 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:29.360 was created anew by God. 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.640 In the beginning, the same verbs are used. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.960 Again for how the Jews multiplied, as if a new 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:41.040 creation is taking place, and indeed, in Judaism, the Jewish 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:46.080 view is that, in effect, the Jewish people and Judaism 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.040 represent a new creation. To summarize again an article I 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.280 have written that I commend to you simply titled why 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:57.600 are there Jews? The Jewish belief is that God wants 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.559 the world to be good. The sick desire of God 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.960 is that God wants the world to treat each other well. 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.760 And I'll prove it to you. It's a funny word 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:09.280 to use, but. 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:11.520 I'd like to prove it to you to the extent 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.800 that you can accept that God is our parent. I 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.160 ask every one of you who is a parent, a question, 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.360 what hurts you the most if your child is mean 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.679 in any way to you, or your child is mean 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.960 to a sibling. I think the vast majority of parents, 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.240 and I speak as a parent. Are much more interested 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.719 ultimately that our children love each other than that they 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:38.760 love us. It's expected they leave us. That's the way 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:41.560 of the world. That our children will grow up. We 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.320 hope they'll always love us. It's a great bonus in life, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.320 needless to say, and it certainly beats their hating us. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.800 But the deepest pain from when they are at home, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.160 or let's put it this way, the deepest joy. Forget 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.440 the pain part is when if you see your kids 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.400 hug each other, you feel you've your job. Well, if 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.440 your kid didn't hug you much, but hug another sibling 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:08.360 a lot, you would have felt successful as a parent, 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:10.840 Whereas if they hug you a lot but didn't hug 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:15.199 each other at all, you would not feel nearly as successful. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:19.400 Imagine then, God, who doesn't need any hugs like we 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:20.160 need hugs. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:21.800 God doesn't need anything. 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.760 Imagine then, how God feels when his children mistreat each other, 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.160 when not only don't they hug, but they torture and 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.520 they murder and they rape. Imagine how God feels. Then 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:37.960 That's how I believe it is understandable. It is not 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:43.720 merely an odd or even folks. The idea of Judaism 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.400 that God's deepest concern is that people treat each other decently. 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:52.000 We understand it through the metaphor of our own parenthood, 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.240 that we want our children to treat each other decently. 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:58.520 Now, if that's God's greatest demand, how did God go 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:00.040 about doing it? 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:07.960 Very briefly, God first tries through creating conscience, simple conscience 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.840 that every human being, according to the Biblical view, every 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:12.040 human being has an. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:13.679 Elemental notion of right and wrong. 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:18.640 That even primitives who murdered in some part of them 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:21.959 knew that it was wrong, but they simply justified it 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:24.360 through whatever means. Oh, I do it for the nation, 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:26.920 I do it because it feels good. I do it 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.160 because of my religion wants child sacrifice, whatever. Clearly, Then 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:36.560 conscience fails. Then God tries something else. God reveals seven 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.840 basic moral laws to Noah after the flood, and why 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:41.560 did the flood come? 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.640 Because people were bad? All right? 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:46.840 Then God tries again, and then we fail again. The 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:50.280 world is filled with evil all over again. Then, according 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.920 to Judaism, God tries a third attempt to have the 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.040 world be good. Incidentally, what you have is you will 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.880 understand this. Christianity believes in a fourth to tenth, and 0:13:02.760 --> 0:13:06.600 Islam believes in the fifth to tenth, and if you 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:10.600 will in a in a different fifth attent, Mormons would 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:18.400 believe in a specific revelation through Joseph Smith. So that 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:23.640 every every religion emanating from Judaism believes that God has 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:28.160 made another attempt through it to fix this miserable thing 0:13:28.240 --> 0:13:32.800 called humanity, which is really what it is about. He's 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:34.920 got to fix it didn't work. If it worked, who 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.640 would need the next revelation. That's what Islam holds. Islam 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.080 holds the Jews corrupted it and the Christians corrupted it 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.280 even more, and therefore Muhammad had to come to set 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.920 the record straight. And you have that essentially, that is 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.480 what Christian belief of the New Israel is. The old 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.240 Israel has gotten it wrong in not understanding what the 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:57.840 new Israel. 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:01.040 The new the new covenant of the heart. We don't need a. 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.599 Covenant of the flesh is a basic Christian doctrine. 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.440 The Jews, can you have this covenant of the flesh, 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:08.800 but really, now it's of the heart. 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.640 Anyway, Judaism believes in this third attempt, the third attempt 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:16.560 being the Jews. The Jews are God's third attempt to 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.240 make the world good. Why the Jews not because they're 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.200 better than anybody else. In fact, that Toa goes out 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:22.000 of its way to say. 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:24.520 The Jews aren't better than anybody else, and that the 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:27.520 proof of Judaism's greatness is precisely that God shows a 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.640 group that isn't particularly distinguished, that was a bunch of 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:32.000 slaves wandering in the desert. 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.480 If I can make them good, then you see the 0:14:34.520 --> 0:14:38.280 power of my recipe. That's the idea. If they can 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.000 influence the world. Clearly, the idea is good there. It's 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.360 not merely that they're powerful. 0:14:44.360 --> 0:14:47.240 So that is this new humanity idea. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.000 With now the Jews going to become Jewish for the 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:55.120 first time until now the Jews are Hebrews. They become, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.640 as we understand, the Jews, though the term isn't used 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:02.280 in the Torah. In other words, advocate or devotees of 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:06.760 Judaism at Sinai. That's when the Jewish religious experience begins. 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:11.040 And so this is why Sarna speaks of this new 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.760 humanity as it were of the Jews in Egypt. The 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:22.480 final words of verse seven are and the earth filled 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:26.320 with them in the Jews, the Hebrews were kept in 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:31.720 one area in Egypt called Goshen. But so this statement says, 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.800 the Jews did not stick to Goshen. 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.040 The Jews were going all through Egypt. You get it? 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:42.160 That is why again, will the more you study with me, 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.000 the more you realize the way to study Scripture. 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.640 I think it's the way to read newspaper articles. For 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:48.040 that matter. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:49.800 Why I read so slowly. It's a curse and a 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:52.200 blessing because this is the way I was thought to learn. 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:56.520 And that is I always ask why does it use 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.040 those words and not others? Why does it say and 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.360 the earth was filled with them? And the answers understood 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.480 by commentators is to show that they went all over, 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.240 They lived all through Egypt. They didn't stick only to Goshen, 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:12.880 where they were a living. 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.800 This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.080 Now back to more of Dennis Brager's timeless wisdom. 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:31.200 Then comes one of the most well known verses in 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:31.840 the Torah. 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:35.920 It is of tremendous profundity, and I. 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:41.320 Want to explicate it for a moment. However, I just 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.560 realized I want to make a point. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.000 Be I'll talk about I'm going to make the point next. 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:50.360 I'll do that a lot. Forgive me. There are so 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:51.920 many points I want to make. I don't know which 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:52.680 verse to make it. 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:59.600 On verse eight, a new king arose on Egypt who 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.920 did not know Joseph. 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:05.000 This is this is. 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:12.639 This is a phenomenal, a phenomenal statement. What had Joseph done, 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.040 even true or not true? In other words, historically verifiable 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.240 was not the issue. But in the story of the Tory, 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:24.520 he saved Egypt, he saved its life vayatamlakadash. But a 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:30.720 new king arose who didn't know Joseph. This verse describes 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:32.639 what I have come at mid age. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:35.680 At forty six is middle of middle age. 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.240 I have come to believe is the ugliest human trait 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:41.959 in gratitude. 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.399 It is one of the most common, and I think 0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.880 outside it, I mean absolute pure cruelty, which is pretty rare. Actually, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:56.359 the most ubiquitous ugly trait is ingratitude. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:00.560 Harry is he arises the new king aro who did 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:04.879 not know Joseph. In other words, I owe nothing to 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:12.080 this group that saved my country. This, incidentally, is really paradigmatic, 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.280 not only of most people's lives. I am sure every 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:20.480 one of you has had a scarring experience within gratitude. 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.119 What does one would put it, no good deed goes unpunished? 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.280 Is that the way it's stated. You know, it's a 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.560 very cynical statement, but there's a lot of truth to it. 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.600 And I will use. 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:37.640 One contemporary example which is painful for me to use, 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:41.879 and it is not an anti any group statement, but 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.920 I would but using a Jewish parallel in the contemporary era, 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.680 when I hear Black anti semitism, I think of this 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:54.399 of this verse. Now, this is most Blacks are not 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:57.760 anti Semitic, And that's not my point. My point is 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.879 only to illustrate a given point view Jews were, And 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.560 anyone who knows me knows I am not a Jewish chauvinist. 0:19:06.480 --> 0:19:09.720 I am deeply critical of many Jewish policies, et cetera, 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:10.200 et cetera. 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:14.239 But I try to be fair and I'm not going 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:16.040 to bend over backwards to be unfair. 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.000 The fact of the matter is that Jews played a 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.440 phenomenally disproportionate role in the Civil rights movement, from those 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:27.159 who died in it to those who founded founded the NAACP, 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:30.639 who were its leading advocates in court. That it was 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.359 Jewish lawyers primarily who argued civil rights legislation in the 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:41.240 fifties before the US Supreme Court, and that now it 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.639 has almost come to haunt the Jews. There is almost 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.720 a resentment of that fact on the part of black nationalists, 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.800 not the general black community, but black nationalists. I only 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.040 use that as an example to show you how history 0:19:56.119 --> 0:19:59.560 repeats itself. It's almost as if a new leader arose 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.120 in the civil rights community who didn't know and then 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.480 fill in the name of various Jack Greenberg, Okay, to 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:08.080 give one prominent lawyer. 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:08.840 For the NAACP. 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.000 And it happens with any given group. But here is 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:21.480 a contemporary example. There is another interesting etymological point here. 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.440 I think there is a slight tore dig at the Pharaoh. 0:20:26.520 --> 0:20:29.320 Here at the king of Egypt, it says, and a 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:34.399 new king arose on Egypt. I think there's an implication 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.000 that the guy is a tyrant, not only a tyrant 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.320 visa v the Jews, but a tyrant visa v his 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:45.200 own people. Okay, because the Hebrew normally would have stated 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:49.560 by Jakamela kadash BIMs Ryan, a new king arose in Egypt, 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:51.240 not on Egypt. 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:52.720 You see what I mean? 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.520 What is the what do you have in your over Egypt? 0:20:56.520 --> 0:20:58.840 There you go, that's a perfect example. Over Egypt. 0:20:58.840 --> 0:21:02.800 That's right. A new king arose over Egypt exactly, which 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:04.199 is what he was. He was a tyrant. 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.040 In fact, he was regarded as a god. The Pharaoh 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.000 was a god to Egyptians. And he said to his 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:17.680 nation or to his people, this is verse this is 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:18.280 verse nine. 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:18.679 Thank you. 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:26.679 Here, look this nation, the children of Israel, is very big. 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:31.400 And let's see how he and much too numerous for us. 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:40.000 Okay, literally, it's too big and strong, bigger and stronger 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:45.280 than us. Now here is an interesting use of words. 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:49.840 You very rarely get the notion I'm ben Israel, the 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:54.320 nation of the children of Israel. It is extremely rare usage. 0:21:55.520 --> 0:21:58.040 There are two words for nation, and this is a 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.760 subject very dear to my heart. Any of you who 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:04.639 know me from my radio work will know in a 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:10.280 moment there are two words in the Torah in Hebrew 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:15.800 for nation, am and GOI. Now all of you probably 0:22:15.840 --> 0:22:18.840 heard gouy and you think it's the Yiddish or Jewish 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:20.040 word for non jew. 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:21.880 He's a guy, right, She's a guy. 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:24.600 The truth of the matter is that is of course 0:22:24.680 --> 0:22:28.600 popular Jewish expression he's a guy is he's a non Jew. 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:32.119 Goi is not in any way a negative term. It 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:36.000 only means nation. In fact, the Jews are commanded by 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:40.280 God in Leviticus to be a goi kadosh, to be 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:45.520 a holy goy. When Isaiah says nations shall not live 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:51.160 sword against nation, it's lo issa goi el goyere uses 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:55.520 the word goi. Okay, so there's no pejorative intent. The 0:22:55.560 --> 0:22:59.000 word am is different from the word goi, and the 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:01.720 different is am is blood. 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:04.160 There are two. 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:06.520 Words for nation, and I wish we all had it. 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.720 In Hebrew, goy and am Am means blood ties, nation. 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:16.560 Goi means nation, but not based necessarily on blood ties. 0:23:18.359 --> 0:23:18.719 Okay. 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:23.800 The Jewish dream is that, in fact, the world not 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:27.120 be based on blood ties. It is, indeed, I think, 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.920 the only dream ultimately that will save humanity, given the 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:36.520 horrors of blood. Historically, blood is the greatest blood beliefs 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.120 are the greatest source of cruelty in history, because if 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:44.040 you are not my blood, you're not valuable. That is 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:48.399 the way in which people have generally lived. If you 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:51.760 read about the way in which, for example, of course, 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:55.400 the Germans perfected it with racism. If you're not Arian, 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.159 you're not human, you are a lesser human, you're an 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:02.880 untermens an under man. The Japanese believed that of other Asians. 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:07.240 It's only coming out now the atrocities directed by the 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:12.240 Japanese government. Not every army has atrocities, but directed by 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:19.159 the nation against Koreans and against Chinese in particular, in 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:24.560 the twentieth century. The medical experiments performed on Chinese by 0:24:24.640 --> 0:24:29.480