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

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

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

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Speaker 2: Ongoing Study of Genesis. We have reached all the way

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Speaker 2: to chapter three, so you've only missed two chapters. I

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Speaker 2: hope that, my regular class, that you brought some Bibles

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Speaker 2: with you. If not, I will read the sentences anyway.

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Speaker 2: And it's not a worry one second. Please, I'm I

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Speaker 2: announced that after don't forget in the midst of the

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Speaker 2: drama of Genesis. Yes, just a.

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Speaker 3: H okay.

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Speaker 2: Now last week, no last section whenever. That was two

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Speaker 2: weeks ago. That's right, two weeks ago. You recall the

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Speaker 2: creation of women took place. By the way, I think

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Speaker 2: some A word about a subject that is often raised

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Speaker 2: is do Genesis one and Genesis two have different creation accounts?

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Speaker 2: This is one of the bases by which people frequently

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Speaker 2: speak of the what's called a documentary hypothesis.

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Speaker 3: Who wrote the Torah is.

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Speaker 2: A is one of the great ongoing riddles of both

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Speaker 2: religious and non religious people. I don't have an answer

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Speaker 2: to that, as I've often said I am intellectually open

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Speaker 2: to whatever scholars show me. At the same time, I

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Speaker 2: treat it as if it's divine, So there I allow

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Speaker 2: my intellect free reign. My intellect is always open to

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Speaker 2: reading what scholars write. On the other hand, I do

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Speaker 2: not close my religious soul to the divinity of the text.

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Speaker 2: I found music is the best analogy that I can give,

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Speaker 2: and I've given it frequently because I love music and

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Speaker 2: it's helpful. I do not find that I enjoy music

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Speaker 2: more the more I study about modulations of keys and

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Speaker 2: the use of triads and so on and various works.

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Speaker 2: There is a given point I found others may not

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Speaker 2: where in my study of music, I enjoyed the music

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Speaker 2: less the more I studied how it was written, that

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Speaker 2: I ended up seeing e flat instead of hearing a

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Speaker 2: gorgeous melody that happened to me. It may not happen

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Speaker 2: to you, but it can happen to people. And I'm

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Speaker 2: afraid that a lot of scholars of Bible see all

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Speaker 2: the notes but don't hear the music. I want to

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Speaker 2: know the notes, but I am more interested in the

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Speaker 2: final analysis in the music. Do Genesis wanted to conflict

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Speaker 2: I don't think so. To the modern mind, we write

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Speaker 2: stories as follows and January eighth, the following happened on

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Speaker 2: January tenth, This happened in February, the following happened, and

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Speaker 2: we go on.

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Speaker 3: That's how we moderns write. Now.

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Speaker 2: I have no problem with that, But that's not how

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Speaker 2: the Torah was written. But whether it is by God

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Speaker 2: or by man, that is not how people wrote in

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Speaker 2: the ancient world. It was stories without chronological interest. Generally speaking,

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Speaker 2: they would give the story and if they had another

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Speaker 2: version of the story. Whereas our mind says, look two

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Speaker 2: stories that contradict each other.

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Speaker 3: That's not how they thought.

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Speaker 2: They said, Wait a minute, reality has a great many

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Speaker 2: angles to it in some ways, that's more sophisticated. Wouldn't

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Speaker 2: you think that it would be interesting to read I

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Speaker 2: don't know about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

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Speaker 3: Let's say, and you read it, you read three stories

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Speaker 3: about it.

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Speaker 2: They each accentuated different details, Lincoln's perspective, John Wilkes booth perspective,

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Speaker 2: the country's perspective, just to make up three. Wouldn't that

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Speaker 2: be an interesting way of reading about it? I think

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Speaker 2: it would illuminate more. But then somebody will say, uh huh.

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Speaker 2: You see it couldn't have happened the way it was written,

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Speaker 2: because one story gives you this perspective and another gives

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Speaker 2: you this. For example, in one case it says, and

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Speaker 2: God created Adam male and female.

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Speaker 3: He created them.

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Speaker 2: Then in the next one you have God created Adam,

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Speaker 2: and how is the woman? She doesn't get a name yet,

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Speaker 2: how is the woman created? It was created by the way,

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Speaker 2: as I pointed out, from his side, not from his

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Speaker 2: rib from his side. So people say, you see, it's contradictory,

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Speaker 2: But why is that contradictory? One statement is I want

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Speaker 2: you to know God, or the author capital a smole

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Speaker 2: A is saying, I want you to know that the

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Speaker 2: human being is a full human, that there are male

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Speaker 2: humans and there are female humans, and they are absolutely equal.

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Speaker 2: Now in chapter two, I'll give you the details of

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Speaker 2: how it happened. There are scholars who say, you see,

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Speaker 2: it's contradictor which one do we listen to? One or

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Speaker 2: two shows that there are two different versions here. I

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Speaker 2: don't read it that way. It's not a defense of

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Speaker 2: the text so much that I'm making as a defense

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Speaker 2: of a sophisticated idea that you can get the story

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Speaker 2: and you can have two different perspectives, but they're not

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Speaker 2: contradictory in any way. Number If number one had said,

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Speaker 2: if chapter one had said God created Adam male and female,

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Speaker 2: he created them, and he created them at the exact

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Speaker 2: same moment, and he never took her from his side,

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Speaker 2: and then chapter two said that, you know what, Adam

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Speaker 2: was created and then the woman was created from his side.

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Speaker 2: So you know what, we have a contradiction. Otherwise, I

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Speaker 2: don't see it as a contradiction. Thanks Ron, I don't

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Speaker 2: see it as a contradiction. Just as more information. Remember,

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Speaker 2: Torah means teacher. It does not mean history. Torah means

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Speaker 2: it comes from the Hebrew verb lejorote, which is to teach.

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Speaker 2: If you look at it that way, I think it's

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Speaker 2: a much better way of understanding what's going on. Now.

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Speaker 2: The last thing we learned in chapter two is that.

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Speaker 3: Adam and his.

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Speaker 2: Wife were naked, but they weren't embarrassed by the fact.

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Speaker 2: Who is not embarrassed by nudity? The answer is, kids,

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Speaker 2: what I said last week and will very very basically recapitulate,

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Speaker 2: is I think you have in the story of the

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Speaker 2: Garden of Eden, and I have always believed this. I

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Speaker 2: think you have the story in the garden of Eden

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Speaker 2: of every.

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Speaker 3: One of us.

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Speaker 2: Every one of us starts out in the garden of Eden,

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Speaker 2: and we grow up. However, a lot of people want

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Speaker 2: to stay in the garden of Eden. A lot of

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Speaker 2: people don't want to grow up. In fact, the more

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Speaker 2: I grow up or the older I get, some will

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Speaker 2: debate whether I grow up that much. That's a separate issue.

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Speaker 2: You already heard I was controversial. But the more I

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Speaker 2: do get older, the more I realize that that's what

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Speaker 2: life is about.

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Speaker 3: Growing up.

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Speaker 2: And of course is every one of us who is

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Speaker 2: an adult knows. But this is one of the great

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Speaker 2: secrets that children don't know, is that getting older and

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Speaker 2: growing up have little to do with each other. It

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Speaker 2: is one of the you know what I knew I

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Speaker 2: was an adult when I met immature fifty year old,

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Speaker 2: because when you're a kid, you just think, oh, fifty

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Speaker 2: forty thirty, they're adults, they're mature because they got older.

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Speaker 2: And then as you get older, you realize that's not

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Speaker 2: true at all. There are people who never grow up,

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Speaker 2: who don't want to grow up. That's the Peter Pan

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Speaker 2: legend if you will. Women accuse a lot of men

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Speaker 2: of doing that, for which reason a lot don't want

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Speaker 2: to commit, because commitment takes it For men, in particular,

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Speaker 2: an active of renunciation of part of their childishness, of

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Speaker 2: gallivanting around the world as a kid forever, wandering from

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Speaker 2: flower to flower. It's not I'm using a be analogy. Please,

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Speaker 2: it was. Take it as an insult to women who

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Speaker 2: be compared to flowers. But that's really what is involved

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Speaker 2: in life, I am convinced is the act of growing up,

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Speaker 2: and growing up means shedding a lot of the innocence

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Speaker 2: it does. It's shedding innocence. It doesn't mean becoming coarse,

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Speaker 2: you can do that when you shed innocence, but it

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Speaker 2: does mean shedding the innocence of our childhood.

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

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

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Speaker 2: They were naked and didn't even know it. They weren't

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Speaker 2: embarrassed by it at all. Everything was natural. They had

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Speaker 2: no pain, they had no suffering, and as I pointed

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Speaker 2: out last time, they were bored out of their mind.

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Speaker 2: That is what I believe the text is in the

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Speaker 2: final analysis, really wanting to tell us that if we

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Speaker 2: could have a beautiful, beautiful life freed of all pain

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Speaker 2: in the garden of Eden, or know it all, really

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Speaker 2: have it all in the sense of understanding the nitty

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Speaker 2: gritty of life with the ultimate nitty gritty, the sexual

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Speaker 2: nitty gritty, we would opt for the pain and growing

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Speaker 2: up and non innocence over no pain and innocence. That's

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Speaker 2: what we would do. That's what I think. The story

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Speaker 2: is here to tell us not so much that Adam sinned,

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Speaker 2: though that is an element obviously, but rather that this

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Speaker 2: is what it is to be human. Listen, the only

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Speaker 2: thing that Adam was told not to do. It's amazing.

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Speaker 2: He could do anything he wanted except one thing. Eat

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Speaker 2: from the Tree of knowledge of good and bad. It's

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Speaker 2: the only thing he couldn't do. And lo and behold,

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Speaker 2: it's exactly what he did, by the way, which proves

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Speaker 2: that eating from the tree is not what gave man

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Speaker 2: the ability to choose between right and wrong. We had

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Speaker 2: that ability prior to eating from the tree. What there was, however,

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Speaker 2: was a contradistinction between two trees, the tree of knowledge

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Speaker 2: of good and bad and the tree of life. And basically,

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Speaker 2: what God is saying, and what the text is saying,

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Speaker 2: is this, human beings, you have your choice. You can

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Speaker 2: eat from the tree of immortality, or you can eat

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Speaker 2: from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. But

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Speaker 2: you can't eat from both. You want to be immortal, fine,

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Speaker 2: go ahead, but you cannot then be fully human. You

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Speaker 2: want to be fully human, then you die. That's what

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Speaker 2: God said. You eat from that tree and you'll die, Okay.

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Speaker 2: So that brings us to chapter three. Chapter three begins

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Speaker 2: with the serpent being declared or the snake, or the

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Speaker 2: serpent being declared the most cunning of all the animals,

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Speaker 2: of all the wild animals that God made. And he

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Speaker 2: said to said to the woman, which is interesting in

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Speaker 2: and of itself. This whole thing, by the way, is

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Speaker 2: very difficult stuff. That's why, as I pointed out when

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Speaker 2: I first gave it, I waited a long time to

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Speaker 2: teach this. I have taught Deuteronomy, I have taught Exodus,

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Speaker 2: and I would never touch the beginning chapters of Genesis.

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Speaker 2: It's still it's still in some ways puzzling, But I'm

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Speaker 2: trying to sort out the puzzle with you. Well, first

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Speaker 2: of all, why is the serpent used clearly. I don't

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Speaker 2: know how clearly is appropriate a word. But what we

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Speaker 2: have here again, and those of you who have been

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Speaker 2: taking this with me, no much of the beginning of

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Speaker 2: Genesis is to destroy polytheism. It's to destroy the gods

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Speaker 2: of the of ancient human beings, of ancient man. One

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Speaker 2: of them was the serpent. The serpent was a very

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Speaker 2: revered symbol, as you can see in almost all ancient pictures.

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Speaker 3: God uses the serpent.

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Speaker 2: Here to chastise him, just as by the way, all

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Speaker 2: the ten, well nine of the ten plagues against the

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Speaker 2: Egyptians were against Egyptian gods. The first plague was against

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Speaker 2: the Nile, which was an Egyptian god.

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Speaker 3: It was turned to blood.

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Speaker 2: The ninth plague was against Ra, the sun god darkness.

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Speaker 2: What most Jews and non Jews do not realize about

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Speaker 2: Judaism is that its real intent was to destroy Polytheism,

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Speaker 2: is to destroy the worship of false gods. We have

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Speaker 2: plenty of false gods today. But that brings me to

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Speaker 2: an entirely different subject, which you can get it right

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Speaker 2: outside the room afterwards. But in the meantime, this issue

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Speaker 2: here is the destruction of false gods. One of them

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Speaker 2: here being the serpent. Okay, so the serpent speaks to

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Speaker 2: the woman. First question is why didn't the serpent speak

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Speaker 2: to man? Good question, isn't it? Why didn't the serpent

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Speaker 2: go to the man? Why did the serpent go to

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Speaker 2: the woman? I don't have a complete answer, but it's

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Speaker 2: the sort of question that makes reading this stuff come alive.

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Speaker 2: When I learned this stuff as a kid in Yeshiva,

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Speaker 2: that was the way we were taught to learn, and

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Speaker 2: it's been the greatest, single, greatest vehicle of learning in

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Speaker 2: my life. I read newspaper, articles, books and Torah in

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Speaker 2: that way. Why did the author say X? And not?

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Speaker 2: Why why didn't the serpent go to Adam? Well, you

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Speaker 2: could have any number of thoughts that could come to

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Speaker 2: the mind. First is he thought he'd have a better

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Speaker 2: chance with the woman. I think that that's the most

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Speaker 2: obvious answer that one might say. Is that a put

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Speaker 2: down of women, that women are more easily talked into

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Speaker 2: the wrong thing? Well, I don't think so, in light

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Speaker 2: of how of what was done with Adam. I mean,

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Speaker 2: when you will see how Adam got to eat from

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Speaker 2: that tree, you can truly leave that text saying men

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Speaker 2: are silly putty. I mean nothing in comparison to what

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Speaker 2: the woman he put up no fight whatsoever is you'll see.

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Speaker 2: So I'm not sure it's a statement that women are

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Speaker 2: more easily changed or persuaded to do the wrong thing.

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Speaker 2: What might have been is she was not instructed Adam was.

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Speaker 2: She got it second hand. That's what I think is

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Speaker 2: going on here, Rather than so much that the woman

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Speaker 2: is a more persuadable creature than the man. That might

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Speaker 2: be it might have been an element. I don't deny it,

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Speaker 2: but I think the more obvious thing is God's instruction

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Speaker 2: of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good

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Speaker 2: and bad was given to Adam. It was not given

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Speaker 2: to his wife. I'm not saying e because we don't

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Speaker 2: know her as yet. That's the reason I'm not. I'm

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Speaker 2: not giving her the name yet. That's my that's my suspicion.

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Speaker 2: So the serpent speaks to her, and I'll read to

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Speaker 2: you from the English translation I have, which is, none

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Speaker 2: of them are great, they're just relatively good. And the

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Speaker 2: uh and he said to the woman yep.

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Speaker 3: Well it doesn't say yep, mind says yay.

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Speaker 2: Now I prefer yep yea yay half God said, didn't

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Speaker 2: God say you shall not eat of any tree of

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Speaker 2: the garden?

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Speaker 3: Already?

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Speaker 2: This is really it's priceless. It is just priceless. The

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Speaker 2: serpent is a major liar. He goes to the woman,

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Speaker 2: or it goes to the woman and says, hey, didn't

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Speaker 2: didn't God say you can't eat of any tree? He's

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Speaker 2: totally made up. Do you see the what the serpent

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Speaker 2: is trying to do here? If he would have said,

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Speaker 2: if the serpent would have said what God really said,

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Speaker 2: she wouldn't have been persuaded because she would have realized

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Speaker 2: how reasonable God's demand was. But the serpent makes up something.

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Speaker 2: Why did God say eat of all the trees? He

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Speaker 2: actually said that God eat of all the trees except

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Speaker 2: for one. Here comes the serpent and says, hey, didn't

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Speaker 2: God say don't eat from every tree in the garden?

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Speaker 2: Totally inverted what God had said. People do that all

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Speaker 2: the time. In order to get people to do something wrong,

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Speaker 2: to violate a law, they will exaggerate what the laws

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Speaker 2: are to make them seem absurd. So he's delegitimizing already.

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Speaker 2: That's another reason, by the way, that I believe that

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Speaker 2: the serpent went to the woman and not Adam, because

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Speaker 2: she didn't hear the actual directions, but rather he did

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Speaker 2: so he could confuse the serpent can confuse her. So

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Speaker 2: didn't God say, you can't eat from all the trees

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Speaker 2: of the garden. So verse two, and the woman said

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Speaker 2: to the serpent, of the fruit of the trees of

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Speaker 2: the garden we can eat. But of the fruit of

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Speaker 2: the tree which is in the midst of the garden,

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Speaker 2: God said, do not eat of it, neither touch it,

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Speaker 2: lest you die. Okay, she got it all wrong. The

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Speaker 2: only part she got right was that God said you

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Speaker 2: eat of all the trees. Why did she get wrong?

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Speaker 2: Anybody realized what she got wrong? Why did she say

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Speaker 2: here that has nothing to do with what God instructed touching?

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Speaker 2: He never said don't touch it. She got it all wrong.

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Speaker 2: It's like telephone. What we have here is that proverbial

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Speaker 2: game of telephone, wherein I tell you something, you tell

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Speaker 2: somebody else something, and by the end of it it

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Speaker 2: is unrecognizable all God said. God really is getting a

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Speaker 2: bad rap here. He sounds like he's a jerk. The

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Speaker 2: serpent makes them sound like a jerk, and so does

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Speaker 2: the woman. Don't touch it all he said was don't

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Speaker 2: eat of it, and the serpent says, you can't do

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Speaker 2: it of any of the trees. So God gets a

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Speaker 2: bad rap, as it were. Now, Also, I don't have

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Speaker 2: an answer for this, but there's a very interesting thing here.

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Speaker 2: She said the tree in the middle of the garden.

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Speaker 2: Why didn't she say the tree of knowledge of good

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Speaker 2: and bad? Interesting, isn't it? Because I'll tell you why

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Speaker 2: it's interesting. If you look at verse chapter two, verse nine,

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Speaker 2: the tree that is described as in the middle of

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Speaker 2: the garden is the tree of life. I don't have

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Speaker 2: an answer to that, but you have to admit that

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Speaker 2: that's pretty interesting. The words cannot have been, you know,

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Speaker 2: erroneously thrown in it's they're too precise. The tree of knowledge,

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Speaker 2: the tree of life is described.

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Speaker 3: As the tree in the middle of the garden.

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Speaker 2: And now she's telling the serpent we can't eat or

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Speaker 2: touch of the tree in the middle of the garden.

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Speaker 2: So she got it all wrong. She identified the tree wrong.

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Speaker 2: She said that we can't touch it, and the serpent

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Speaker 2: got wrong. As I said in his original question.

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

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis prager's timeless wisdom.

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Speaker 2: Next verse number were three. But of the fruit of

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Speaker 2: the tree, which is in the midst of the garden,

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Speaker 2: God said, do not eat of it, nor touch it,

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Speaker 2: lest you diverse four. And the serpent said to the woman,

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Speaker 2: you won't surely die.

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Speaker 3: No.

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Speaker 2: Now that's interesting. I wonder how he knew. I'm very serious.

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Speaker 2: It is an interesting question. How did he know that?

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Speaker 2: I don't have an answer, but you gotta admit it

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Speaker 2: does make it. Serpents sound fairly impressive. Maybe that's why

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Speaker 2: it's called the most cunning of the animals. Who knows,

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Speaker 2: Maybe he figured it out. What exactly will happen? Anyway,

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Speaker 2: that's what he says. For God knows that the day

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Speaker 2: you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and

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Speaker 2: you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. This is

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Speaker 2: very heavy stuff. Okay, what is the serpent doing here?

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Speaker 2: The serpent is doing something critically important for us. Remember,

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Speaker 2: you got to read it always. What do I learn

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Speaker 2: from this? Or you're not understanding what the thing was

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Speaker 2: written for? What whom is the serpent now blaming for

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Speaker 2: this law?

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Speaker 3: God?

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Speaker 2: The serpent is doing a very interesting thing. He's saying

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Speaker 2: to her, you got this law from God because God

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Speaker 2: needs the law, not because you do. Is that clear

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Speaker 2: to you? He's saying. The serpent is saying, he's afraid

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Speaker 2: the day you eat it, you'll be like him. You'll

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Speaker 2: know good and evil just like God knows. So he's afraid.

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Speaker 2: That's why he gave you the law. Miss That's what

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Speaker 2: the serpent is saying. If you would understand that, then

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Speaker 2: you would realize it's not for your sake. I can't

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Speaker 2: tell you how important this is, because a lot of

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Speaker 2: people think that laws, religious laws are given for God's sake,

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Speaker 2: and that immediately renders them. I believe unworthy of being followed.

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Speaker 2: Every law, any religious law, to be worth its salt,

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Speaker 2: has to be given.

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Speaker 3: For our benefit, not for God's benefit.

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Speaker 2: If you are told in Judaism to keep the Sabbath,

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Speaker 2: you are not told to keep the Sabbath for God's sake.

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Speaker 2: You are told to keep it for your sake. God

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Speaker 2: can't be made happy or sad, as it were, through

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Speaker 2: a law. They are given for us. This law was

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Speaker 2: given for us, not for God's sake. But the serpent

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Speaker 2: turns it around. He is worried if you do this,

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Speaker 2: So the law's not for you, madam, it's for God.

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Speaker 2: Now you know why it begins verse one, and the

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Speaker 2: serpent was very cunning. Now you realize how inverted everything is.

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Speaker 2: First it gives you a ridiculous law, don't eat from

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Speaker 2: any of the tree trees. Then he gives you. Then

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Speaker 2: when we understand the real law he gave you, it's

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Speaker 2: obvious that it's solely given for God's sake, not for

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Speaker 2: your own.

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Speaker 3: By the way, what does knowing good and bad mean?

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Speaker 2: Or good and evil? What is the tree of knowledge

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Speaker 2: of good and evil mean? The more that I have

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Speaker 2: delved into this, the more and the more I look

379
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Speaker 2: at where tov varah, good and bad are listed together

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Speaker 2: as a unit in the Bible, it generally means everything,

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Speaker 2: knowledge of everything. In other words, for we have it

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Speaker 2: in English where we would say, well, you know, he knows,

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Speaker 2: he knows the pros and the cons. If you know

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Speaker 2: the pros and the cons of something, you really know it. Well, right,

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Speaker 2: you got to know both sides. That's what it really means,

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Speaker 2: knowing both sides. That's a that would be the tree

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Speaker 2: of knowledge of both sides would probably be the most

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Speaker 2: accurate translation, not literally accurate, but in explaining what it's

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Speaker 2: what it involves. So it's the tree of knowledge of

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Speaker 2: everything of both sides. You will know, you will know

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Speaker 2: them if you eat there now.

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Speaker 3: Verse six.

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Speaker 2: Uh, by the way, just I'm sorry, I'm five. We

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Speaker 2: have here a classic presentation of the way all of

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Speaker 2: us tend to do what's wrong. First we would overstate

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Speaker 2: the prohibition, then knock the motives of the pro of

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Speaker 2: whoever prohibited it, and then realize and then say, I

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Speaker 2: won't really suffer from it. It's almost like, for example,

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Speaker 2: with drugs. With narcotics, people will say people who will

400
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Speaker 2: use it will say, well, you know, they just banned.

401
00:24:54,820 --> 00:24:57,779
Speaker 2: The government bans everything. This is just another thing that

402
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Speaker 2: they're banning. Number two, why do they knock it? Because

403
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Speaker 2: they want to deprive me of real freedom. It's not

404
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Speaker 2: for my sake, it's for the government's sake to have

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Speaker 2: more power or whatever the reason might be.

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Speaker 3: And Third, if I take.

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Speaker 2: It, I'm not going to really suffer from it, whatever

408
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Speaker 2: it is that is. We often use that type of

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Speaker 2: argument to enable ourselves to do something wrong. That's exactly

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Speaker 2: what happens here verse six. And when the woman saw

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Speaker 2: that the tree was good for food, that it was

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Speaker 2: a delight to the eyes, and that it was desired

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Speaker 2: to make one wise. She took of the fruit and

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Speaker 2: ate for the next part. It's a very interesting thing.

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Speaker 3: I think that we have here a very.

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Speaker 2: Interesting assessment of the woman. The woman is tempted in

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Speaker 2: every way. She's tempted by her eyes, she's tempted by

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Speaker 2: her appetite, and she's tempted by her mind. That's very important,

419
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Speaker 2: and I think that in some ways it makes her

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Speaker 2: look a lot better.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't merely wow.

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Speaker 2: And she was convinced by the serpent, and it looked good,

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Speaker 2: and she ate no. She thought about it. She looked

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Speaker 2: at it after hearing the arguments, and one of the

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Speaker 2: arguments for doing it. And you know the word seiko.

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Speaker 2: That word is here las guille to become sensical, to

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Speaker 2: become sensed wise. That's the word that is used. That

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Speaker 2: was one of the three things that appealed to her.

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Speaker 2: Let me tell you something. If something appeals to your eyes,

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Speaker 2: your appetite, and your mind, that's the triple threat. As

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Speaker 2: they say, it is very hard to say no to

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Speaker 2: one of them, let alone to all three of them.

433
00:26:51,580 --> 00:26:52,340
Speaker 3: Who would you.

434
00:26:53,820 --> 00:26:56,819
Speaker 2: With the promise that you actually might know everything as

435
00:26:56,859 --> 00:27:00,820
Speaker 2: a result, you wouldn't eat of it. It's an interesting question.

436
00:27:02,020 --> 00:27:05,059
Speaker 2: I think what the text is saying here. Please understand

437
00:27:05,340 --> 00:27:10,899
Speaker 2: why the woman was tempted. Okay, now she took of

438
00:27:10,939 --> 00:27:15,179
Speaker 2: it and she ate. I find this all so impressive

439
00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:19,899
Speaker 2: on her part. After all, you figure she could have

440
00:27:19,939 --> 00:27:23,139
Speaker 2: said to herself, maybe we will die when we eat it.

441
00:27:23,179 --> 00:27:28,499
Speaker 2: I'll give it to my husband first, right, he'll be

442
00:27:28,580 --> 00:27:34,899
Speaker 2: my official taster. Doesn't say that she took it. In

443
00:27:34,939 --> 00:27:38,299
Speaker 2: other words, she's stuck by her convictions. If I am

444
00:27:38,340 --> 00:27:40,580
Speaker 2: gonna eat, if I am gonna do it, I will

445
00:27:40,580 --> 00:27:43,619
Speaker 2: eat first. And it says she took from its fruit

446
00:27:43,659 --> 00:27:44,219
Speaker 2: and she ate.

447
00:27:45,979 --> 00:27:46,940
Speaker 3: She didn't die.

448
00:27:47,580 --> 00:27:51,379
Speaker 2: Now, remember it's remember God said when you eat from it,

449
00:27:51,419 --> 00:27:55,619
Speaker 2: you'll die. She obviously didn't die, so she can only

450
00:27:55,659 --> 00:27:57,340
Speaker 2: conclude the serpent's right.

451
00:27:58,659 --> 00:27:59,899
Speaker 3: That's interesting, isn't it.

452
00:28:01,540 --> 00:28:03,819
Speaker 2: I totally understand why would she would give it to

453
00:28:03,859 --> 00:28:04,940
Speaker 2: her husband after that?

454
00:28:05,260 --> 00:28:07,619
Speaker 3: It makes perfect sense. The serpent seems to have.

455
00:28:07,580 --> 00:28:10,859
Speaker 2: Turned out right. I didn't die. My eyes are opening.

456
00:28:10,899 --> 00:28:14,179
Speaker 2: The thing's delicious. I'm getting wiser and wiser and newter

457
00:28:14,260 --> 00:28:18,580
Speaker 2: and neuter by the moment. And that's terrific too, because

458
00:28:19,020 --> 00:28:24,540
Speaker 2: sex before nudity was very boring. And here we go.

459
00:28:25,139 --> 00:28:28,179
Speaker 2: So what happens. It's the end of that. And she

460
00:28:28,419 --> 00:28:30,859
Speaker 2: also gave to the man with whom she.

461
00:28:31,060 --> 00:28:38,740
Speaker 3: Was and he ate. Okay, now you have to admit.

462
00:28:40,180 --> 00:28:46,259
Speaker 2: That she comes out somewhat more impressive than he does. Here,

463
00:28:49,100 --> 00:28:54,420
Speaker 2: that was it. The serpent goes through this whole routine.

464
00:28:55,219 --> 00:28:58,580
Speaker 2: You will be wise. God is wrong. Don't you want

465
00:28:58,620 --> 00:29:01,540
Speaker 2: to know everything? She looks at the tree. It's beautiful.

466
00:29:01,580 --> 00:29:08,820
Speaker 2: She'll get wiser a whole thing. And with him he adam, Here,

467
00:29:08,860 --> 00:29:09,499
Speaker 2: here's an apple.

468
00:29:10,540 --> 00:29:13,900
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

469
00:29:19,380 --> 00:29:24,580
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

470
00:29:24,940 --> 00:29:28,180
Speaker 2: Now, now this is This is a very interesting thing.

471
00:29:28,500 --> 00:29:31,620
Speaker 2: It really is. It's actually a puzzle to me how

472
00:29:31,660 --> 00:29:35,140
Speaker 2: easily he ate? What is one to conclude from this?

473
00:29:35,219 --> 00:29:39,779
Speaker 2: There were two possibilities only either he knew what it

474
00:29:39,940 --> 00:29:44,220
Speaker 2: was a fruit from the tree of knowledge of everything,

475
00:29:45,060 --> 00:29:47,780
Speaker 2: or he didn't know what it was. Now we don't

476
00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:50,779
Speaker 2: know that doing it's a very interesting thing. It doesn't

477
00:29:50,820 --> 00:29:53,380
Speaker 2: say she didn't say, here, look, this is from the

478
00:29:53,380 --> 00:29:56,140
Speaker 2: tree of knowledge of good and bad. You'll love it.

479
00:29:56,580 --> 00:29:58,940
Speaker 2: I ate from it and look at me, I'm I'm

480
00:29:58,979 --> 00:30:03,259
Speaker 2: happy and alive, and the serpent's doing a beautiful dance

481
00:30:03,300 --> 00:30:06,380
Speaker 2: and we're all thrilled. Nothing like that happened. She just

482
00:30:06,420 --> 00:30:10,900
Speaker 2: said here, did he know? It's a very I don't

483
00:30:10,900 --> 00:30:12,819
Speaker 2: have the answer to that, but it occurred to me

484
00:30:13,020 --> 00:30:15,860
Speaker 2: studying this that that's a real question. Did he know

485
00:30:15,979 --> 00:30:20,580
Speaker 2: what he was eating? We we don't know. For shoe,

486
00:30:21,020 --> 00:30:26,219
Speaker 2: it looked different from any of the other fruit. So

487
00:30:26,380 --> 00:30:29,539
Speaker 2: now there are two possibilities. If he knew what it was,

488
00:30:32,060 --> 00:30:37,819
Speaker 2: why did he eat? Okay, on the assumption that he

489
00:30:37,900 --> 00:30:40,620
Speaker 2: knew it was from the forbidden tree, which God himself

490
00:30:40,620 --> 00:30:44,620
Speaker 2: had forbidden Adam, why did he eat from it? I

491
00:30:44,620 --> 00:30:48,940
Speaker 2: don't have an answer except to say, possibly that he

492
00:30:49,020 --> 00:30:53,940
Speaker 2: had total trust in her, or he was totally controlled

493
00:30:53,979 --> 00:30:56,620
Speaker 2: by her. It was very possible. We don't, I mean

494
00:30:56,820 --> 00:30:58,740
Speaker 2: psychologically or however.

495
00:30:59,219 --> 00:30:59,820
Speaker 3: We don't know.

496
00:31:00,660 --> 00:31:03,180
Speaker 2: But if he didn't know what it was, it is

497
00:31:03,580 --> 00:31:08,779
Speaker 2: fascinating that he took it so easily, no questions, nothing,

498
00:31:09,380 --> 00:31:12,099
Speaker 2: What if he didn't know what it was. If he

499
00:31:12,180 --> 00:31:15,779
Speaker 2: didn't know what it was, then she is an sob

500
00:31:18,180 --> 00:31:21,819
Speaker 2: see that that's important. If he didn't know what it was,

501
00:31:22,300 --> 00:31:25,100
Speaker 2: she tricked him.

502
00:31:25,300 --> 00:31:27,339
Speaker 3: Is that right 'tis a fruit.

503
00:31:29,700 --> 00:31:33,420
Speaker 2: Well, it's a fascinating issue which maybe more years of

504
00:31:33,500 --> 00:31:36,060
Speaker 2: study will lead me to one conclusion or the other.

505
00:31:36,979 --> 00:31:39,580
Speaker 2: I have to believe. Please hold it because I want

506
00:31:39,580 --> 00:31:41,140
Speaker 2: to go through. Do write it down though I want

507
00:31:41,140 --> 00:31:44,620
Speaker 2: to take questions later. Please don't forget it, and any

508
00:31:44,660 --> 00:31:46,700
Speaker 2: of you, if you have anything to say, please write

509
00:31:46,739 --> 00:31:48,459
Speaker 2: it down because I want to take stuff later. I

510
00:31:48,500 --> 00:31:50,860
Speaker 2: just don't want to stop in the middle. But that's

511
00:31:51,260 --> 00:31:55,420
Speaker 2: a very tough issue. My suspicion is he knew what

512
00:31:55,420 --> 00:32:00,140
Speaker 2: it was. The reason I do is because God wouldn't

513
00:32:00,180 --> 00:32:03,979
Speaker 2: have punished him. Otherwise God only would have punished her,

514
00:32:04,459 --> 00:32:07,299
Speaker 2: if punishment is a correct term. And last week I

515
00:32:07,380 --> 00:32:09,700
Speaker 2: noted that I don't fare if he didn't know what

516
00:32:09,739 --> 00:32:12,620
Speaker 2: it was, how could he be held culpable. So my

517
00:32:12,780 --> 00:32:15,979
Speaker 2: suspicion is he knew what it was. And look, his

518
00:32:16,020 --> 00:32:21,180
Speaker 2: wife's chewing Adam here. She's not dying, she's loving it.

519
00:32:22,180 --> 00:32:24,980
Speaker 2: And uh, I guess that's why he did it.

520
00:32:27,219 --> 00:32:28,820
Speaker 3: He was he was somewhat.

521
00:32:28,420 --> 00:32:30,860
Speaker 2: Malleable when God was talking to him. He was very

522
00:32:30,860 --> 00:32:33,380
Speaker 2: influenced by God. When his wife was talking to him,

523
00:32:33,380 --> 00:32:36,380
Speaker 2: he was very influenced by his wife. Adam basically was

524
00:32:36,420 --> 00:32:37,700
Speaker 2: whoever got to me last?

525
00:32:38,100 --> 00:32:38,820
Speaker 3: I listened to.

526
00:32:38,820 --> 00:32:48,780
Speaker 2: Him next verse and the eyes of them both were opened,

527
00:32:49,580 --> 00:32:54,780
Speaker 2: and they knew that they were naked. Now that is fascinating.

528
00:32:55,100 --> 00:32:57,620
Speaker 2: That is about as fascinating a verse as exists in

529
00:32:57,660 --> 00:33:02,660
Speaker 2: the torum. You know, you're imagine it's your first time

530
00:33:02,700 --> 00:33:05,900
Speaker 2: reading the text. I would think that the single most

531
00:33:06,020 --> 00:33:09,739
Speaker 2: curious thing in your mind, the thing you're most curious

532
00:33:09,780 --> 00:33:13,100
Speaker 2: over is what'll they learn when they eat from the

533
00:33:13,180 --> 00:33:16,019
Speaker 2: tree of knowledge of good and bad? Right to me,

534
00:33:16,180 --> 00:33:20,580
Speaker 2: that's the suspense of the story, not what'll happened to them? Well, yeah,

535
00:33:20,700 --> 00:33:22,820
Speaker 2: wattle happened to them, but not in the sense will

536
00:33:22,820 --> 00:33:25,860
Speaker 2: God kill them? But wattle happened to them. What will

537
00:33:25,900 --> 00:33:30,740
Speaker 2: be different? One thing, and only one thing is mentioned.

538
00:33:31,660 --> 00:33:37,660
Speaker 2: They discover sexuality. They knew sex. They had to have

539
00:33:37,739 --> 00:33:41,660
Speaker 2: known intercourse because they were told to be fruitful and multiply,

540
00:33:42,380 --> 00:33:45,020
Speaker 2: and that was the only way to do it. By

541
00:33:45,060 --> 00:33:48,180
Speaker 2: the way, it's a fascinating question to be able to

542
00:33:48,219 --> 00:33:54,700
Speaker 2: have intercourse without really knowing sexuality. Now animals do it though,

543
00:33:55,620 --> 00:34:00,660
Speaker 2: so an effect what they had I assume was intercourse

544
00:34:00,979 --> 00:34:05,940
Speaker 2: Allah animals, wherein you did it? It was one of

545
00:34:05,979 --> 00:34:09,580
Speaker 2: the pleasurable acts of your life. But animals don't go

546
00:34:09,700 --> 00:34:14,100
Speaker 2: around embarrassed at their nudity. It's just one of the

547
00:34:14,140 --> 00:34:16,819
Speaker 2: acts that they perform in order to procreate the species.

548
00:34:17,340 --> 00:34:19,899
Speaker 2: Was that what sex was like prior to eating from

549
00:34:19,940 --> 00:34:23,219
Speaker 2: the tree of Knowledge? I don't think there's an answer, obviously,

550
00:34:23,660 --> 00:34:27,540
Speaker 2: but it is interesting they learned their naked In other words,

551
00:34:27,620 --> 00:34:33,020
Speaker 2: they learned the sexy side and the naughty side of sex,

552
00:34:34,020 --> 00:34:37,700
Speaker 2: the bad side, the top side, because there are a

553
00:34:37,739 --> 00:34:42,900
Speaker 2: lot of sides to sex. As that great.

554
00:34:45,380 --> 00:34:46,339
Speaker 3: He just was killed.

555
00:34:46,380 --> 00:34:51,340
Speaker 2: He was a UCLA professor of psychiatry. Stolar Robert Stoler

556
00:34:52,500 --> 00:34:55,980
Speaker 2: wrote a book called Sexual Excitement. I think he was

557
00:34:56,020 --> 00:35:00,939
Speaker 2: one of the leading psychiatric thinkers human thinkers of our time.

558
00:35:00,980 --> 00:35:04,260
Speaker 2: He was killed by a speeding kid driver a couple

559
00:35:04,299 --> 00:35:08,940
Speaker 2: of months ago, and it's really it's an unbelievable loss

560
00:35:10,140 --> 00:35:14,100
Speaker 2: at any rate. Stoler wrote in this book, he wrote real,

561
00:35:14,540 --> 00:35:18,420
Speaker 2: which is why he was controversial. He actually wrote about reality.

562
00:35:19,339 --> 00:35:22,700
Speaker 2: And he wrote at the end of one chapter, I

563
00:35:22,779 --> 00:35:26,020
Speaker 2: never memorized books. I can't. I mean, I never rememorized lines.

564
00:35:26,739 --> 00:35:30,580
Speaker 2: That's not my gift to memorize. But I committed to

565
00:35:30,700 --> 00:35:36,060
Speaker 2: memorization the last two lines of one of his chapters.

566
00:35:36,100 --> 00:35:39,500
Speaker 2: One of the pre eminent psychiatrists in the world. He

567
00:35:39,620 --> 00:35:44,980
Speaker 2: was writing on male female love making, and he said,

568
00:35:45,140 --> 00:35:50,380
Speaker 2: let me see if I remember. I don't remember it exactly.

569
00:35:50,739 --> 00:35:52,780
Speaker 2: See that I committed two lines to memory and forgot

570
00:35:52,819 --> 00:35:55,700
Speaker 2: one of them, but I remember the second. The first

571
00:35:55,739 --> 00:36:02,419
Speaker 2: line was something to the effect of when people when

572
00:36:02,500 --> 00:36:10,580
Speaker 2: people have sex, it is not frequently love making too bad.

573
00:36:12,100 --> 00:36:15,380
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, in the scientific treatise about human beings,

574
00:36:15,739 --> 00:36:19,620
Speaker 2: you don't expect the writer to write too bad as

575
00:36:19,700 --> 00:36:23,779
Speaker 2: the end of the chapter. But what he was pointing out,

576
00:36:23,819 --> 00:36:25,860
Speaker 2: which I think a lot of us like to deny

577
00:36:26,100 --> 00:36:32,340
Speaker 2: in our desire to romanticize life, is the non loving

578
00:36:32,460 --> 00:36:38,180
Speaker 2: element of sex, which is a very powerful part of it.

579
00:36:38,299 --> 00:36:41,980
Speaker 2: After all, you love your child, you love your parents,

580
00:36:42,060 --> 00:36:45,339
Speaker 2: you love maybe a cousin or a friend, but you

581
00:36:45,380 --> 00:36:47,259
Speaker 2: don't want to make love to them. If it were

582
00:36:47,339 --> 00:36:51,020
Speaker 2: only love, then we would be making love to all

583
00:36:51,060 --> 00:36:53,219
Speaker 2: the people we love or want to make love to them,

584
00:36:53,420 --> 00:36:57,219
Speaker 2: but we don't. And you know how powerful non sexual

585
00:36:57,259 --> 00:37:01,060
Speaker 2: love is. You have it for your children. That's very powerful,

586
00:37:01,060 --> 00:37:06,740
Speaker 2: at least when they're young. And just joking, just joking,

587
00:37:08,259 --> 00:37:12,019
Speaker 2: and so you know the power of non sexual love.

588
00:37:14,060 --> 00:37:18,020
Speaker 2: Clearly sex is a lot more and often not even

589
00:37:18,180 --> 00:37:22,300
Speaker 2: about love. There can be very unloved having powerful sex.

590
00:37:22,980 --> 00:37:26,899
Speaker 2: And that's a very powerful force that was unleashed when

591
00:37:26,940 --> 00:37:30,219
Speaker 2: they did this, And that really, in effect is what

592
00:37:30,299 --> 00:37:36,819
Speaker 2: divides us from our innocent child childhood from adulthood. That

593
00:37:37,020 --> 00:37:41,419
Speaker 2: divides everybody that you can't help that you simply grow

594
00:37:41,460 --> 00:37:43,700
Speaker 2: into an understanding of those differences.

595
00:37:44,700 --> 00:37:45,620
Speaker 3: So that's the.

596
00:37:45,660 --> 00:37:51,540
Speaker 2: Thing they learned. They were no longer innocent, and we

597
00:37:51,620 --> 00:37:54,459
Speaker 2: all know what innocent means, and it has to do

598
00:37:55,100 --> 00:38:01,140
Speaker 2: with that big dragon in our lives which concerns our sexuality.

599
00:38:01,700 --> 00:38:07,739
Speaker 2: So what did they do. They immediately made for them

600
00:38:07,940 --> 00:38:11,900
Speaker 2: fig leaves and made them into in modern Hebrew, it's' belts.

601
00:38:12,540 --> 00:38:14,940
Speaker 2: But the assumption is that they were wider than belts

602
00:38:15,020 --> 00:38:18,460
Speaker 2: what they made for themselves. So it says, I have

603
00:38:18,580 --> 00:38:25,219
Speaker 2: here girdles. Translation is anybody aprons coverings? They're all good? Okay?

604
00:38:27,700 --> 00:38:30,259
Speaker 2: Was mini skirt? Is that what I heard from their numbers?

605
00:38:30,540 --> 00:38:32,660
Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be funny? And she made for herself a

606
00:38:32,779 --> 00:38:47,260
Speaker 2: mini skirt all right? Next next verse, and they heard

607
00:38:47,299 --> 00:38:50,899
Speaker 2: the voice of God of the Lord God walking in

608
00:38:50,940 --> 00:38:53,420
Speaker 2: the garden toward the cool of the day or the

609
00:38:54,500 --> 00:38:58,020
Speaker 2: spirit of the day, might even be better. Actually, I

610
00:38:58,060 --> 00:39:00,379
Speaker 2: think than cool of anybody have spirit of the day

611
00:39:01,779 --> 00:39:05,939
Speaker 2: or what wind of the day? Breezy time. Yeah, I

612
00:39:06,060 --> 00:39:09,060
Speaker 2: have not figured out why that was thrown in. It

613
00:39:09,140 --> 00:39:11,140
Speaker 2: might have meant more to the ancients than to us

614
00:39:11,219 --> 00:39:17,419
Speaker 2: those words. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from

615
00:39:17,420 --> 00:39:20,380
Speaker 2: the presence of God amongst the trees of the garden.

616
00:39:21,859 --> 00:39:26,580
Speaker 2: Which is almost funny to hide yourself among trees from God,

617
00:39:27,060 --> 00:39:31,419
Speaker 2: but they did. And God called out to Adam. Now

618
00:39:31,420 --> 00:39:33,379
Speaker 2: why did God call out to Adam and not both

619
00:39:33,380 --> 00:39:36,459
Speaker 2: of them? Because it was to Adam that he gave

620
00:39:36,500 --> 00:39:37,660
Speaker 2: the instructions.

621
00:39:37,700 --> 00:39:38,380
Speaker 3: God's fair.

622
00:39:39,380 --> 00:39:42,460
Speaker 2: And he says, and this is the number of rabbinic

623
00:39:42,500 --> 00:39:46,540
Speaker 2: sermons given on this verse could fill the Encyclopedia Judaica.

624
00:39:47,140 --> 00:39:50,299
Speaker 2: And God said to Adam, where art thou?

625
00:39:50,500 --> 00:39:51,140
Speaker 3: Where are you?

626
00:39:51,779 --> 00:39:51,979
Speaker 2: Now?

627
00:39:52,060 --> 00:39:54,299
Speaker 3: Of course, why do rabbis love to.

628
00:39:54,219 --> 00:39:57,780
Speaker 2: Make a sermon on that sentence, because obviously God knows

629
00:39:57,779 --> 00:40:01,540
Speaker 2: where Adam is. So the question is not for God's sake,

630
00:40:01,940 --> 00:40:05,100
Speaker 2: it's for our sake. Where are you?

631
00:40:05,100 --> 00:40:06,539
Speaker 3: You got to know where you are?

632
00:40:06,660 --> 00:40:14,219
Speaker 2: God knew where he was obviously anyway, So he answers,

633
00:40:14,299 --> 00:40:16,820
Speaker 2: I heard your voice in the garden, and I got

634
00:40:17,259 --> 00:40:22,819
Speaker 2: scared because I am naked, and I to which God said,

635
00:40:22,859 --> 00:40:26,219
Speaker 2: who told you your naked? That's really it's priceless. I

636
00:40:26,259 --> 00:40:30,020
Speaker 2: love this. You didn't happen to have eaten from that

637
00:40:30,940 --> 00:40:34,140
Speaker 2: tree that I told you not to eat from, by

638
00:40:34,219 --> 00:40:42,459
Speaker 2: any chance, So Adam said, well, in fact I did.

639
00:40:42,980 --> 00:40:45,380
Speaker 3: So what does Adam say?

640
00:40:45,500 --> 00:40:49,140
Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite lines in the entire Bible.

641
00:40:51,739 --> 00:40:57,620
Speaker 3: This woman you gave me. I didn't ask for the apple.

642
00:40:57,700 --> 00:41:00,100
Speaker 2: I didn't ask for the woman. Get the hell out

643
00:41:00,140 --> 00:41:05,500
Speaker 2: of here. Isn't that a riot? It's absolutely funny. I

644
00:41:05,620 --> 00:41:07,180
Speaker 2: did I ask for this woman.

645
00:41:07,739 --> 00:41:09,779
Speaker 3: You gave it to me, and she got me to

646
00:41:09,819 --> 00:41:12,779
Speaker 3: do it. That is why it's so priceless.

647
00:41:13,100 --> 00:41:16,180
Speaker 2: It's not only shifting blame to her. Is she shouldn't

648
00:41:16,219 --> 00:41:21,219
Speaker 2: have been born. It's worse than blaming her, it's blaming

649
00:41:21,420 --> 00:41:24,620
Speaker 2: he was blaming God. If you didn't make her, I

650
00:41:24,739 --> 00:41:27,899
Speaker 2: promise you I never would have eaten from that tree.

651
00:41:28,020 --> 00:41:29,819
Speaker 3: And he's right, he got a hand it to him.

652
00:41:30,060 --> 00:41:32,580
Speaker 2: A monkey could not have convinced him to eat from

653
00:41:32,580 --> 00:41:39,980
Speaker 2: the tree. So this woman that you made that's what

654
00:41:40,100 --> 00:41:43,740
Speaker 2: I love. It's God's fault. You know, there are people,

655
00:41:43,900 --> 00:41:46,219
Speaker 2: you know, I get angry at people, you know, blaming

656
00:41:46,259 --> 00:41:49,780
Speaker 2: government for their problems. This is the ultimate. It's God's fault.

657
00:41:52,500 --> 00:41:53,940
Speaker 2: She is the one who gave me an i ate.

658
00:41:54,100 --> 00:41:57,779
Speaker 2: So God said, now, by the way, it's interesting here.

659
00:41:58,779 --> 00:42:02,420
Speaker 2: They all tell the truth. When God asked the questions,

660
00:42:02,460 --> 00:42:04,700
Speaker 2: they all tell the truth. Did he not tell the truth?

661
00:42:04,779 --> 00:42:06,980
Speaker 2: The woman who you made gave me an i ate?

662
00:42:08,180 --> 00:42:11,700
Speaker 2: Is that absolute true? That's why God doesn't respond anymore.

663
00:42:12,900 --> 00:42:15,499
Speaker 2: He got the truth from Adam, so fine. He knows

664
00:42:15,540 --> 00:42:17,859
Speaker 2: it's true. It's a very interesting thing. So he goes

665
00:42:17,859 --> 00:42:20,819
Speaker 2: to the woman who was whom he made. And so

666
00:42:20,859 --> 00:42:22,620
Speaker 2: God says to the woman, what'd you do?

667
00:42:23,299 --> 00:42:26,020
Speaker 3: What did you do? I don't think He said, what

668
00:42:26,140 --> 00:42:28,180
Speaker 3: you do? What did you do?

669
00:42:30,620 --> 00:42:37,060
Speaker 2: And the woman said, the serpent tricked me and I ate?

670
00:42:38,339 --> 00:42:39,739
Speaker 2: Is that true?

671
00:42:40,420 --> 00:42:42,259
Speaker 3: Yes? It is true?

672
00:42:43,020 --> 00:42:48,339
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, So God again, it's very They all tell

673
00:42:48,339 --> 00:42:52,700
Speaker 2: God that you listen, the serpent trick. Nobody takes responsibility.

674
00:42:52,739 --> 00:42:55,339
Speaker 2: I mean, their character I won't speak about. But at

675
00:42:55,420 --> 00:42:58,459
Speaker 2: least they told the truth. You know, you can imagine

676
00:42:58,700 --> 00:43:00,819
Speaker 2: Adam could have said, gee, I didn't know it was

677
00:43:00,859 --> 00:43:02,899
Speaker 2: that apple. That is another reason, by the way, that

678
00:43:02,980 --> 00:43:05,739
Speaker 2: I believed that he knew what he was eating, since

679
00:43:05,859 --> 00:43:08,580
Speaker 2: with God roaming, he could have easily said.

680
00:43:09,299 --> 00:43:10,019
Speaker 3: I didn't know.

681
00:43:10,100 --> 00:43:14,339
Speaker 2: I thought it was from the Tree of the life

682
00:43:14,660 --> 00:43:18,340
Speaker 2: right or any other tree. But he didn't. He told

683
00:43:18,380 --> 00:43:20,500
Speaker 2: the truth. He was too scared to lie. Perhaps or

684
00:43:20,700 --> 00:43:23,300
Speaker 2: given credit, he told the truth. He told the truth,

685
00:43:23,339 --> 00:43:26,660
Speaker 2: and he said what it was. So I think we

686
00:43:26,700 --> 00:43:30,739
Speaker 2: can infer from that she didn't trick him. It was

687
00:43:30,779 --> 00:43:33,340
Speaker 2: simply her presence. I think he told the whole truth

688
00:43:33,339 --> 00:43:35,899
Speaker 2: and nothing but the truth. The woman gave it to

689
00:43:35,940 --> 00:43:40,980
Speaker 2: me and I ate. Okay, she said the serpent tricked me,

690
00:43:41,700 --> 00:43:45,140
Speaker 2: which is true. It's not the whole truth because she

691
00:43:45,219 --> 00:43:48,419
Speaker 2: knew what she was doing at any rate. But he

692
00:43:48,460 --> 00:43:52,660
Speaker 2: did trick her, at least that's her perception. Let's put

693
00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:55,980
Speaker 2: it this way, that the serpent misled her into believing,

694
00:43:56,380 --> 00:43:59,660
Speaker 2: into getting confused, and she ate. So God doesn't say

695
00:43:59,660 --> 00:44:02,259
Speaker 2: another word to her, just like God didn't say another

696
00:44:02,299 --> 00:44:07,419
Speaker 2: word to Adam. So God goes to the serpent, and

697
00:44:07,580 --> 00:44:10,820
Speaker 2: notice this is verse fourteen. He doesn't ask the serpent

698
00:44:10,859 --> 00:44:16,180
Speaker 2: the single question, because what's the serpent going to say,

699
00:44:17,100 --> 00:44:20,460
Speaker 2: who's the serpent gonna blame it on? There's nobody left.

700
00:44:22,660 --> 00:44:23,819
Speaker 3: It's interesting, isn't it.

701
00:44:24,060 --> 00:44:27,780
Speaker 2: That's why God didn't say to the serpent, and why

702
00:44:27,819 --> 00:44:31,780
Speaker 2: did you do it? So God says to the serpent,

703
00:44:31,859 --> 00:44:35,499
Speaker 2: because you did this, you will be cursed from of

704
00:44:35,700 --> 00:44:37,259
Speaker 2: all most pursed.

705
00:44:36,900 --> 00:44:41,339
Speaker 3: Of all the animals that exist.

706
00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:44,859
Speaker 2: You will crawl, you will walk on your belly, and

707
00:44:45,020 --> 00:44:47,500
Speaker 2: you will eat dust all the days.

708
00:44:47,259 --> 00:44:48,500
Speaker 3: Of your life.

709
00:44:49,580 --> 00:44:54,820
Speaker 2: I think clearly was to d de deify the serpent,

710
00:44:55,580 --> 00:44:57,779
Speaker 2: which is what I spoke about in all of Genesis.

711
00:44:58,620 --> 00:45:01,620
Speaker 2: And then fifteen, I will put enmity between you and

712
00:45:01,660 --> 00:45:04,819
Speaker 2: the woman and between your seed and her seed. This

713
00:45:04,900 --> 00:45:10,819
Speaker 2: is clearly an anti pagan polemic, wherein the mixture of

714
00:45:10,859 --> 00:45:15,020
Speaker 2: the human and the animal in Paganism was very great.

715
00:45:15,500 --> 00:45:19,340
Speaker 2: This is a total separation. Human is human, serpents are serpent.

716
00:45:19,380 --> 00:45:25,700
Speaker 2: There is no relationship in any way. And you'll be,

717
00:45:26,060 --> 00:45:31,980
Speaker 2: you will be. They'll bruise your head, that you serpent,

718
00:45:32,219 --> 00:45:36,540
Speaker 2: and you'll bruise their heel. Okay, Then to the woman, sixteen,

719
00:45:37,620 --> 00:45:40,500
Speaker 2: I will greatly multiply your pain and your travail and

720
00:45:40,580 --> 00:45:42,299
Speaker 2: pain you will bring forth children.

721
00:45:43,580 --> 00:45:44,459
Speaker 3: That's part one.

722
00:45:44,700 --> 00:45:48,460
Speaker 2: Now, very interesting thing here is I will multiply your pain.

723
00:45:48,500 --> 00:45:51,539
Speaker 2: In other words, she had pain for childbirth from Eden.

724
00:45:52,700 --> 00:45:55,620
Speaker 2: It doesn't say, now you will give birth and pain.

725
00:45:56,259 --> 00:45:59,779
Speaker 2: I will multiply what already exists. That that's an interesting

726
00:45:59,819 --> 00:46:02,620
Speaker 2: point that I don't think a lot of people realize

727
00:46:02,620 --> 00:46:05,739
Speaker 2: that there was pain and child birth originally. According to

728
00:46:05,779 --> 00:46:09,740
Speaker 2: the Genesis story, what happens is it will be multiplied. Okay,

729
00:46:09,819 --> 00:46:12,580
Speaker 2: now you know sex, now you know life. So I'm

730
00:46:12,620 --> 00:46:14,980
Speaker 2: not going to protect you. What God is really saying

731
00:46:15,100 --> 00:46:18,900
Speaker 2: is if you want knowledge of everything man and woman, okay,

732
00:46:19,100 --> 00:46:20,500
Speaker 2: but don't ask for my protection.

733
00:46:21,219 --> 00:46:22,780
Speaker 3: You want life on its terms.

734
00:46:22,980 --> 00:46:26,580
Speaker 2: Here you are? Are you with me? My friends? This

735
00:46:26,700 --> 00:46:31,660
Speaker 2: is critical. That's what really happened. God softened life for

736
00:46:31,819 --> 00:46:35,700
Speaker 2: us till we said, in effect, no, I want it all.

737
00:46:35,779 --> 00:46:39,099
Speaker 2: I want to know it all. And therefore, if that's

738
00:46:39,140 --> 00:46:40,900
Speaker 2: the case, God removes protection.

739
00:46:41,060 --> 00:46:42,140
Speaker 3: That's why we get mortal.

740
00:46:42,219 --> 00:46:44,700
Speaker 2: We get pained, we get hurt from each other, we

741
00:46:44,739 --> 00:46:47,700
Speaker 2: get hurt from nature, we get hurt from childbirth. We

742
00:46:47,779 --> 00:46:51,140
Speaker 2: in effect opted for that. Remember it does not say

743
00:46:51,140 --> 00:46:53,700
Speaker 2: and God said I'm going to punish you. The word

744
00:46:53,779 --> 00:46:56,660
Speaker 2: punished does not occur here, but it did occur with

745
00:46:56,739 --> 00:47:01,420
Speaker 2: the serpent, and it does occur with Adam. The woman

746
00:47:01,700 --> 00:47:06,820
Speaker 2: does not have the word curse. The serpent is cursed

747
00:47:07,259 --> 00:47:12,019
Speaker 2: to travel on his belly. Man has cursed earth, you'll

748
00:47:12,020 --> 00:47:14,500
Speaker 2: see in a moment, but the woman does not have

749
00:47:14,580 --> 00:47:18,579
Speaker 2: anything cursed. This is the consequence of what you did,

750
00:47:19,299 --> 00:47:23,740
Speaker 2: much more than it is punishment. The problem comes next.

751
00:47:24,580 --> 00:47:28,020
Speaker 2: What else will be the result of this leaving of

752
00:47:28,219 --> 00:47:33,020
Speaker 2: Eden as it were? And your desire will be to

753
00:47:33,259 --> 00:47:38,100
Speaker 2: your man or your husband, and he will rule over you. Now,

754
00:47:38,140 --> 00:47:41,779
Speaker 2: this is an interesting and very difficult segment, which does

755
00:47:41,819 --> 00:47:47,660
Speaker 2: not please feminists, but the point is free shows that

756
00:47:47,700 --> 00:47:53,099
Speaker 2: the original intent was that man and woman be totally equal, right,

757
00:47:54,380 --> 00:47:59,020
Speaker 2: which is exactly what existed beforehand. But now you have

758
00:47:59,460 --> 00:48:02,860
Speaker 2: you have, I have removed that element of my protection

759
00:48:02,980 --> 00:48:05,820
Speaker 2: as I just spoke about, and I'm gonna let nature

760
00:48:06,259 --> 00:48:09,219
Speaker 2: go its merry way. That means you have pain and

761
00:48:09,339 --> 00:48:13,660
Speaker 2: child birth, men will be dominant, But that doesn't mean

762
00:48:13,700 --> 00:48:17,739
Speaker 2: that that's God's will. You are not subverting God God's

763
00:48:17,779 --> 00:48:22,299
Speaker 2: will if you take if you take a painkiller for childbirth,

764
00:48:24,100 --> 00:48:26,060
Speaker 2: and you are not subverting God's will. If you have

765
00:48:26,100 --> 00:48:29,660
Speaker 2: an equal relationship with your husband. This is not saying,

766
00:48:29,660 --> 00:48:32,700
Speaker 2: and this is my desire that women suffering childbirth and

767
00:48:32,739 --> 00:48:33,700
Speaker 2: men rule over them.

768
00:48:34,500 --> 00:48:36,019
Speaker 3: That is not what I stated here.

769
00:48:37,540 --> 00:48:41,140
Speaker 2: It's simply saying that now that natural forces will go,

770
00:48:41,620 --> 00:48:44,459
Speaker 2: this is what will happen. But by the way, to

771
00:48:44,500 --> 00:48:48,620
Speaker 2: a certain extent there is that is what it is about.

772
00:48:49,060 --> 00:48:52,980
Speaker 2: In most cultures men have dominated women, which is not

773
00:48:53,100 --> 00:48:55,620
Speaker 2: something to be proud of. It's simply a fact of life.

774
00:48:56,100 --> 00:48:58,540
Speaker 2: But just as we can have painkillers, we can have

775
00:48:58,620 --> 00:49:03,779
Speaker 2: inequality killers. Right, the two of them are very allowable.

776
00:49:05,020 --> 00:49:08,099
Speaker 2: The other part is the tougher part, that you will

777
00:49:08,140 --> 00:49:12,899
Speaker 2: your desire, your yearning will be for your husband. This

778
00:49:13,700 --> 00:49:18,340
Speaker 2: part is much less easily subverted than the male ruling

779
00:49:18,700 --> 00:49:26,580
Speaker 2: and childbirth pain. Yearnings are not nearly as easily destroyed

780
00:49:27,299 --> 00:49:35,259
Speaker 2: as are inequalities and physical pains, and that yearning does exist.

781
00:49:36,339 --> 00:49:38,419
Speaker 2: My argument here would be that this is in a

782
00:49:38,460 --> 00:49:42,299
Speaker 2: slightly different category, much more of the unchangeable, though people

783
00:49:42,380 --> 00:49:44,899
Speaker 2: will want to change it. That's why get you see

784
00:49:44,940 --> 00:49:48,259
Speaker 2: all these books in bookstores of yes you can live

785
00:49:48,299 --> 00:49:50,939
Speaker 2: without a man, Yes you are something without a man,

786
00:49:51,060 --> 00:49:53,580
Speaker 2: Yes you don't need a man, and so on. There

787
00:49:53,700 --> 00:49:56,899
Speaker 2: is in many women nothing exists for all but in

788
00:49:56,940 --> 00:50:01,500
Speaker 2: many women. In most women a deep yearning for a man.

789
00:50:02,259 --> 00:50:04,779
Speaker 2: Now you say, well, isn't there deep yearning in men

790
00:50:04,859 --> 00:50:07,100
Speaker 2: for a woman? As I said when I gave a

791
00:50:07,140 --> 00:50:10,860
Speaker 2: course on this, it's a slightly different yearning. Women yearn

792
00:50:11,020 --> 00:50:15,180
Speaker 2: a man and men yearn for women. They're not the

793
00:50:15,299 --> 00:50:18,420
Speaker 2: exact same yearning. Don't yell at me for this, Okay,

794
00:50:18,500 --> 00:50:21,379
Speaker 2: I am the bearer of bad tidings, is not the

795
00:50:21,460 --> 00:50:25,259
Speaker 2: creator of the problem. Uh. That doesn't mean that men

796
00:50:25,339 --> 00:50:28,419
Speaker 2: cannot grow into that yearning. But that is a good

797
00:50:28,540 --> 00:50:32,940
Speaker 2: yearn If women didn't yearn for a man, men wouldn't marry.

798
00:50:34,219 --> 00:50:35,460
Speaker 3: You don't have any book.

799
00:50:35,580 --> 00:50:39,620
Speaker 2: Go to any bookstore and find me any book. And

800
00:50:40,339 --> 00:50:43,660
Speaker 2: they write books on anything. Anything that'll sell they write on.

801
00:50:44,739 --> 00:50:47,540
Speaker 2: You will never find the book how to get her

802
00:50:47,660 --> 00:50:58,300
Speaker 2: to commit? Why not? There is book after book after

803
00:50:58,460 --> 00:51:02,380
Speaker 2: book about getting him to commit? Why men don't commit?

804
00:51:02,420 --> 00:51:05,700
Speaker 2: The Peter Pan complex. Why isn't there?

805
00:51:05,779 --> 00:51:06,259
Speaker 3: What was there?

806
00:51:06,420 --> 00:51:09,299
Speaker 2: What was the why is there? The tinker Bell complex?

807
00:51:09,940 --> 00:51:11,899
Speaker 2: There should be one. There should be about women who

808
00:51:11,940 --> 00:51:16,620
Speaker 2: won't commit? Right are women who leave? Why they have

809
00:51:16,779 --> 00:51:19,499
Speaker 2: men who leave women and women who love them? There's

810
00:51:19,580 --> 00:51:23,980
Speaker 2: no book men who leave? No there isn't there is

811
00:51:24,020 --> 00:51:25,660
Speaker 2: book men to leave women and women who love them?

812
00:51:25,660 --> 00:51:27,140
Speaker 2: Why is there women who leave men and men who

813
00:51:27,140 --> 00:51:31,220
Speaker 2: love them? It happens, But that's not the issue.

814
00:51:31,299 --> 00:51:33,499
Speaker 3: That yearning is actually a good thing.

815
00:51:33,779 --> 00:51:37,739
Speaker 2: One of us better yearn or we won't ever cement,

816
00:51:38,420 --> 00:51:42,660
Speaker 2: we'll never stick together. That yearning is critical, but it

817
00:51:42,739 --> 00:51:46,180
Speaker 2: is the cause of great pain to a woman. And

818
00:51:46,259 --> 00:51:49,899
Speaker 2: by the way, that is also a statement. Remember man's

819
00:51:50,020 --> 00:51:55,460
Speaker 2: problem here becomes Man's consequence of eating is macro or macro.

820
00:51:56,219 --> 00:52:04,540
Speaker 2: Women's consequence is micro. Notice that micro is the personal

821
00:52:05,180 --> 00:52:09,620
Speaker 2: that's where women specialize. Doesn't mean they're only interested any

822
00:52:09,620 --> 00:52:11,700
Speaker 2: more than men are not only interested in the macro.

823
00:52:12,100 --> 00:52:13,980
Speaker 2: But as a talk show host for ten years, I

824
00:52:13,980 --> 00:52:17,060
Speaker 2: can tell you when I discuss micro topics on my

825
00:52:17,140 --> 00:52:22,780
Speaker 2: list is Linda, Jenny, bar and when I talk macro,

826
00:52:22,940 --> 00:52:28,779
Speaker 2: it's Ira, Tom and Joe. Because that's where they specialize.

827
00:52:28,779 --> 00:52:32,180
Speaker 2: That's why you go the old There is truth to

828
00:52:32,219 --> 00:52:35,299
Speaker 2: it that when you go to a party, men will

829
00:52:35,339 --> 00:52:40,219
Speaker 2: talk about sports, stocks, investments, and politics. Women will talk

830
00:52:40,219 --> 00:52:44,660
Speaker 2: about real life. That's why I prefer women's discussions at parties.

831
00:52:46,060 --> 00:52:48,979
Speaker 2: The macro stuff, I mean, it comes out of my ears.

832
00:52:48,980 --> 00:52:51,219
Speaker 2: I do it for a living. I rather talk about

833
00:52:51,259 --> 00:52:53,420
Speaker 2: the nitty gritty of life, the real things.

834
00:52:54,180 --> 00:52:56,259
Speaker 3: But that really is what you have here.

835
00:52:56,700 --> 00:53:03,100
Speaker 2: Her consequences are micro, his consequences are macro. The consequences

836
00:53:03,100 --> 00:53:10,499
Speaker 2: of his eating from the tree are in verse seventeen.

837
00:53:10,580 --> 00:53:13,460
Speaker 2: And to Adam, he said, because you hearkened into the

838
00:53:13,540 --> 00:53:16,779
Speaker 2: voice of your wife, in other words, as opposed to

839
00:53:16,940 --> 00:53:21,299
Speaker 2: hearken to mine. His punishment isn't because he listened to

840
00:53:21,339 --> 00:53:24,419
Speaker 2: his woman. It's because he listened to his woman and

841
00:53:24,500 --> 00:53:28,779
Speaker 2: not God. And have eaten of the tree of which

842
00:53:28,859 --> 00:53:30,819
Speaker 2: I commanded you. In other words, in other words, I

843
00:53:30,859 --> 00:53:35,020
Speaker 2: commanded you not to and you listen to her, saying

844
00:53:35,060 --> 00:53:37,340
Speaker 2: you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground,

845
00:53:37,460 --> 00:53:40,660
Speaker 2: you see, the serpent is cursed, and Adam is cursed.

846
00:53:41,020 --> 00:53:44,340
Speaker 2: But specific, to be very specific, the ground is cursed

847
00:53:44,339 --> 00:53:49,379
Speaker 2: for Adam in toil. Cursed is the ground for your sake.

848
00:53:49,460 --> 00:53:52,300
Speaker 2: In toil, shall you eat of it all the days

849
00:53:52,299 --> 00:53:55,459
Speaker 2: of your life? Thorns also and thistles it will bring

850
00:53:55,540 --> 00:53:58,299
Speaker 2: forth to you, and you will eat the herb of

851
00:53:58,339 --> 00:54:00,620
Speaker 2: the field and the sweat of thy face.

852
00:54:01,299 --> 00:54:02,060
Speaker 3: You will eat.

853
00:54:01,940 --> 00:54:06,339
Speaker 2: Bread till you return unto the ground, for out of

854
00:54:06,380 --> 00:54:10,539
Speaker 2: it where you taken for dust you are, and into

855
00:54:10,700 --> 00:54:14,860
Speaker 2: dust you will return, all for one apple.

856
00:54:19,060 --> 00:54:22,340
Speaker 3: Finally, after that, you do wonder what happened?

857
00:54:22,540 --> 00:54:26,899
Speaker 2: But you know, it's these these lacunai, these gaps in

858
00:54:26,940 --> 00:54:29,539
Speaker 2: the narrative that are always so fascinating. What did Adam

859
00:54:29,580 --> 00:54:29,980
Speaker 2: and Eve do?

860
00:54:30,100 --> 00:54:30,299
Speaker 3: Then?

861
00:54:30,940 --> 00:54:33,460
Speaker 2: You know? Did they look at each other that they embrace,

862
00:54:33,859 --> 00:54:36,859
Speaker 2: they make love? Did they get angry at each other?

863
00:54:37,859 --> 00:54:41,300
Speaker 2: Did they start hunting snakes? You know, you just wonder

864
00:54:41,339 --> 00:54:44,820
Speaker 2: what did they do? Who knows? What is the next sentence?

865
00:54:44,940 --> 00:54:48,460
Speaker 2: It almost seems like a non sequitur the next sentences.

866
00:54:49,140 --> 00:54:56,980
Speaker 2: And Adam named his wife Eve, for Eve means jerk nothing.

867
00:54:59,180 --> 00:54:59,940
Speaker 3: Can you imagine?

868
00:54:59,980 --> 00:55:05,299
Speaker 2: You know, he was so ticked off now because she

869
00:55:05,700 --> 00:55:11,739
Speaker 2: was the mother of all living things and Hebrew and Hebrew,

870
00:55:11,819 --> 00:55:15,700
Speaker 2: all these original names proved to me, and I don't

871
00:55:15,700 --> 00:55:17,660
Speaker 2: want to prove it to you if you don't feel

872
00:55:17,660 --> 00:55:21,140
Speaker 2: this way. But for me personally, the whole st is

873
00:55:21,180 --> 00:55:28,500
Speaker 2: allegorical because the names mean that Adam means earth, Eve

874
00:55:28,859 --> 00:55:33,540
Speaker 2: means life, so it's earth and life. I mean, we're talking,

875
00:55:33,819 --> 00:55:37,460
Speaker 2: I think very symbolically here. Even the names canaan Abel

876
00:55:37,660 --> 00:55:40,540
Speaker 2: means something in that way that tend to make it

877
00:55:40,580 --> 00:55:43,219
Speaker 2: an allegory, but if you wish to take them literally,

878
00:55:43,299 --> 00:55:44,779
Speaker 2: I have no problem whatsoever.

879
00:55:46,900 --> 00:55:49,100
Speaker 3: And it's very touching. Verse twenty one.

880
00:55:50,299 --> 00:55:53,700
Speaker 2: By the way, you notice there's no protest. Isn't it interesting?

881
00:55:53,739 --> 00:55:57,500
Speaker 2: There's no protest from Adam and Eve. It's not fair.

882
00:55:58,339 --> 00:56:00,700
Speaker 2: First of all, why do you think there was no protest?

883
00:56:00,779 --> 00:56:02,980
Speaker 2: One is I'll bet you they were pretty relieved that

884
00:56:03,020 --> 00:56:07,140
Speaker 2: they didn't die. That may truly be one of the

885
00:56:07,180 --> 00:56:11,100
Speaker 2: reasons that there was no protest. Another one was a

886
00:56:11,219 --> 00:56:14,620
Speaker 2: sense of yeah, well, we now our eyes are now

887
00:56:14,660 --> 00:56:16,980
Speaker 2: open and we understand what you're describing.

888
00:56:17,060 --> 00:56:18,299
Speaker 3: It's as if I were to say to.

889
00:56:18,259 --> 00:56:22,100
Speaker 2: You, you don't want to lie, no problem, you want

890
00:56:22,100 --> 00:56:24,219
Speaker 2: a driver's license. Okay, let me just tell you the

891
00:56:24,259 --> 00:56:26,979
Speaker 2: following the chance of your being killed in a car

892
00:56:27,020 --> 00:56:31,739
Speaker 2: crash or the following the number of people who who

893
00:56:31,940 --> 00:56:35,620
Speaker 2: are remained in a crash is the following. You've now

894
00:56:35,660 --> 00:56:38,259
Speaker 2: opened your eyes to driving. Let me tell you the

895
00:56:38,339 --> 00:56:41,779
Speaker 2: realities of driving. You get what I'm saying, and you're

896
00:56:41,819 --> 00:56:44,620
Speaker 2: not going to complain. You will just you'll swallow hard

897
00:56:44,940 --> 00:56:47,979
Speaker 2: and say I understand this. That's what comes with getting

898
00:56:48,020 --> 00:56:51,180
Speaker 2: a driver's license. They got a driver's license to live,

899
00:56:51,980 --> 00:56:54,540
Speaker 2: and here are the risks that come with it, and

900
00:56:54,620 --> 00:56:57,580
Speaker 2: so you don't get complaints for all we know. Incidentally,

901
00:56:57,620 --> 00:57:01,899
Speaker 2: they weren't terribly depressed. Who knows, I'm serious, We don't know.

902
00:57:02,859 --> 00:57:03,379
Speaker 3: After all.

903
00:57:03,380 --> 00:57:06,140
Speaker 2: What he did afterwards was give his wife a name,

904
00:57:06,980 --> 00:57:09,900
Speaker 2: which is very interesting. It certainly doesn't bespeak of anger.

905
00:57:11,779 --> 00:57:15,460
Speaker 2: So anyway, God made this a touching And then the

906
00:57:15,580 --> 00:57:18,300
Speaker 2: next thing is God made for Adam and his wife

907
00:57:19,740 --> 00:57:24,620
Speaker 2: garments of skin and clothe them.

908
00:57:24,660 --> 00:57:25,260
Speaker 3: Twenty two.

909
00:57:26,060 --> 00:57:31,940
Speaker 2: God said, behold, man is like one of us, knowing everything.

910
00:57:32,820 --> 00:57:35,019
Speaker 2: And now lest he put forth his hand and take

911
00:57:35,060 --> 00:57:37,660
Speaker 2: from the tree of life and eat and live forever.

912
00:57:38,620 --> 00:57:40,020
Speaker 3: Therefore God sent.

913
00:57:39,900 --> 00:57:41,740
Speaker 2: Him forth from the garden of Eden to till the

914
00:57:41,780 --> 00:57:44,939
Speaker 2: ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out

915
00:57:44,980 --> 00:57:47,820
Speaker 2: Adam or the atom the man, and he placed at

916
00:57:47,900 --> 00:57:52,820
Speaker 2: the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim and

917
00:57:52,900 --> 00:57:55,620
Speaker 2: the flaming Sword, which are like angels, with the flaming

918
00:57:55,700 --> 00:57:58,580
Speaker 2: sword which turned every way to keep the way to

919
00:57:58,660 --> 00:58:02,820
Speaker 2: the Tree of life. So it's not available to us

920
00:58:04,060 --> 00:58:06,620
Speaker 2: in the state that we are, but the tree of

921
00:58:06,620 --> 00:58:10,820
Speaker 2: immortality still exists. It's an interesting hint isn't it. It

922
00:58:10,900 --> 00:58:15,900
Speaker 2: wasn't destroyed, it's just guarded from our reach. Well, what

923
00:58:15,940 --> 00:58:19,419
Speaker 2: does that imply? You'll infer what you want. But it

924
00:58:19,460 --> 00:58:23,900
Speaker 2: is interesting, isn't it, that it's still there wherever that

925
00:58:23,980 --> 00:58:28,060
Speaker 2: may be. It's a tough thing here that God said

926
00:58:28,340 --> 00:58:30,660
Speaker 2: he'll be one of us, that man will be one

927
00:58:30,660 --> 00:58:35,580
Speaker 2: of us. This is really the lesson of the story.

928
00:58:36,860 --> 00:58:41,300
Speaker 2: We can know a lot. We human beings can know

929
00:58:41,380 --> 00:58:44,820
Speaker 2: an awful lot. The problem is when we think we

930
00:58:44,860 --> 00:58:51,419
Speaker 2: can know everything, and that is called the Greeks call

931
00:58:51,460 --> 00:58:55,459
Speaker 2: it hubris. It's a tremendous arrogance that the human can have.

932
00:58:56,300 --> 00:59:02,380
Speaker 2: We can know everything, we can play God. The belief

933
00:59:02,500 --> 00:59:05,140
Speaker 2: of the Bible is and it's one of my favorite quotes.

934
00:59:05,180 --> 00:59:11,140
Speaker 2: I believe it's from Proverbs reschid hochmayerrata Dounai. Wisdom begins

935
00:59:11,340 --> 00:59:15,540
Speaker 2: with awe of God. If you don't acknowledge that there

936
00:59:15,620 --> 00:59:18,780
Speaker 2: is something higher than you with all of your knowledge,

937
00:59:18,820 --> 00:59:22,700
Speaker 2: you'll be a fool. That's the biblical notion. I believe

938
00:59:22,740 --> 00:59:28,140
Speaker 2: it deeply that I will give one example of this.

939
00:59:28,340 --> 00:59:30,780
Speaker 2: I think the biggest fools of the twentieth century have

940
00:59:30,860 --> 00:59:35,700
Speaker 2: been secular intellectuals. Not all secular intellectuals or fools. But

941
00:59:35,820 --> 00:59:39,700
Speaker 2: the biggest fools have been secular intellectuals. They gave us

942
00:59:39,780 --> 00:59:44,740
Speaker 2: theories like communism and Marxism, they gave us arianism, they

943
00:59:44,780 --> 00:59:49,860
Speaker 2: gave us racism. It is a very very powerful lesson

944
00:59:49,900 --> 00:59:54,540
Speaker 2: to be learned, as scholars have noted. And you were

945
00:59:54,580 --> 00:59:57,540
Speaker 2: more likely to be anti Semitic in Nazi Germany if

946
00:59:57,580 --> 01:00:00,939
Speaker 2: you graduated high school or college than if you didn't go.

947
01:00:02,300 --> 01:00:05,500
Speaker 2: The Anti Defamation League has pointed out that blacks do

948
01:00:05,580 --> 01:00:08,780
Speaker 2: not have any more anti Semitic tendencies than whites, except

949
01:00:08,780 --> 01:00:11,860
Speaker 2: for one group of blacks, Blacks that go to American colleges.

950
01:00:12,860 --> 01:00:16,059
Speaker 2: Anti Semitism among them is far higher than among blacks

951
01:00:16,060 --> 01:00:20,980
Speaker 2: who don't go to college. There is a real worry

952
01:00:21,020 --> 01:00:26,459
Speaker 2: that I have of the pursuit of knowledge with no

953
01:00:26,460 --> 01:00:29,980
Speaker 2: notion of God attached. And that's the lesson that is

954
01:00:30,020 --> 01:00:33,620
Speaker 2: being taught here. You think you can know tou Verah,

955
01:00:33,940 --> 01:00:35,500
Speaker 2: you think you can know everything.

956
01:00:36,620 --> 01:00:37,580
Speaker 3: Well, if you.

957
01:00:37,620 --> 01:00:41,060
Speaker 2: Don't know that I God am higher and know more,

958
01:00:41,780 --> 01:00:45,020
Speaker 2: you will ruin your lives, which is exactly what we

959
01:00:45,100 --> 01:00:48,740
Speaker 2: do time after time with the hubris of thinking that

960
01:00:48,820 --> 01:00:53,020
Speaker 2: we can understand everything without God. That's what is talked

961
01:00:53,020 --> 01:00:56,900
Speaker 2: about in these last sentences of chapter three, and it's

962
01:00:56,940 --> 01:01:00,340
Speaker 2: the whole point of the story. You can know a

963
01:01:00,380 --> 01:01:02,860
Speaker 2: lot man, but the moment you think you're one of us,

964
01:01:03,780 --> 01:01:09,620
Speaker 2: you are doomed. And it was Marx who said man

965
01:01:09,660 --> 01:01:15,979
Speaker 2: is God. Apparently they weren't all that angry with each other,

966
01:01:16,340 --> 01:01:21,260
Speaker 2: because chapter four, verse one begins and Adam knew his

967
01:01:21,340 --> 01:01:28,660
Speaker 2: wife Eve, and she got pregnant and gave birth to Cain. See,

968
01:01:28,700 --> 01:01:33,300
Speaker 2: I told you it wasn't wasn't all that bad. They

969
01:01:34,140 --> 01:01:39,380
Speaker 2: had sex, and the way this again proves that knowledge

970
01:01:39,380 --> 01:01:43,020
Speaker 2: of good and evil has a lot to do with sex.

971
01:01:43,820 --> 01:01:47,740
Speaker 2: That the biblical word for having sex is you get

972
01:01:47,780 --> 01:01:50,580
Speaker 2: the phrase you know, well, do you know her? Biblically?

973
01:01:51,260 --> 01:01:54,540
Speaker 2: People have used that often as a joke, but it

974
01:01:56,540 --> 01:02:01,180
Speaker 2: is to know biblically is to have sex with that.

975
01:02:01,340 --> 01:02:03,700
Speaker 2: And there is a lot of There is both a

976
01:02:03,700 --> 01:02:07,220
Speaker 2: lot of truth to that and a lot of I

977
01:02:07,220 --> 01:02:11,180
Speaker 2: think relationship to the tree of knowledge of good and bad. Anyway,

978
01:02:11,220 --> 01:02:13,380
Speaker 2: he knew his wife. It's interesting it doesn't say he

979
01:02:13,420 --> 01:02:16,260
Speaker 2: slept with her, he lay with her. It sometimes does,

980
01:02:17,020 --> 01:02:19,540
Speaker 2: but that's the first time it's used. And I'm sure

981
01:02:19,620 --> 01:02:21,620
Speaker 2: it's related to the tree of knowledge.

982
01:02:23,420 --> 01:02:24,419
Speaker 3: She gave birth to.

983
01:02:25,980 --> 01:02:30,260
Speaker 2: Cain. Why because I have gotten the man with the

984
01:02:30,300 --> 01:02:31,020
Speaker 2: help of God.

985
01:02:34,340 --> 01:02:34,660
Speaker 3: Kayan.

986
01:02:35,940 --> 01:02:38,460
Speaker 2: Any of you who know Hebrew know Lee means to

987
01:02:38,580 --> 01:02:44,900
Speaker 2: buy or to acquire. Cain therefore means acquired that which

988
01:02:44,980 --> 01:02:50,900
Speaker 2: was acquired. That's how he got his name. Okay. And

989
01:02:51,020 --> 01:02:54,140
Speaker 2: she continued to give birth, and she gave birth to

990
01:02:54,180 --> 01:02:54,940
Speaker 2: his brother.

991
01:02:56,540 --> 01:02:58,979
Speaker 3: Hovel in English able.

992
01:03:00,740 --> 01:03:08,460
Speaker 2: And now hovel means it could really means nothingness.

993
01:03:09,620 --> 01:03:10,380
Speaker 3: Or vanity.

994
01:03:11,100 --> 01:03:15,420
Speaker 2: The beginning of Ecclesiastes is heavell ha aalim hakol hovel

995
01:03:17,180 --> 01:03:20,979
Speaker 2: vanity of vanities. Everything is vanity or nothing of things,

996
01:03:21,060 --> 01:03:26,020
Speaker 2: or emptiness of emptiness. So they have acquired an emptiness

997
01:03:26,340 --> 01:03:33,059
Speaker 2: for kids. And you think you've seen odd names. I'll

998
01:03:33,100 --> 01:03:37,380
Speaker 2: never forget a former US ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

999
01:03:37,420 --> 01:03:39,580
Speaker 2: I saw a letter from him in the New York

1000
01:03:39,580 --> 01:03:40,860
Speaker 2: Times about twenty years.

1001
01:03:40,700 --> 01:03:43,060
Speaker 3: Ago, Phelps Phelps.

1002
01:03:44,300 --> 01:03:46,900
Speaker 2: I just wondered, of all the names in the world,

1003
01:03:46,900 --> 01:03:50,060
Speaker 2: why his parents gave their son Phelps the name Phelps.

1004
01:03:51,500 --> 01:03:53,460
Speaker 2: So I don't.

1005
01:03:53,260 --> 01:03:54,660
Speaker 3: Know the uh.

1006
01:03:56,620 --> 01:03:59,419
Speaker 2: She gives birth to the two of them. Abel is

1007
01:03:59,540 --> 01:04:05,860
Speaker 2: a Abel Where are we we are? In Verse two?

1008
01:04:06,020 --> 01:04:08,580
Speaker 2: Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain was a

1009
01:04:08,620 --> 01:04:12,740
Speaker 2: tiller of the ground. And it came to pass after

1010
01:04:13,020 --> 01:04:18,100
Speaker 2: some time that Cain brought of the fruit of the

1011
01:04:18,140 --> 01:04:20,820
Speaker 2: ground an offering to God. By the way, one of

1012
01:04:20,820 --> 01:04:24,419
Speaker 2: the points here is the universality of sacrifice and the

1013
01:04:24,500 --> 01:04:32,340
Speaker 2: universality of prayer and belief in God. Cain brings from

1014
01:04:32,420 --> 01:04:34,780
Speaker 2: the fruit of the earth an offering to God. And

1015
01:04:34,940 --> 01:04:39,340
Speaker 2: Abel also brought an offering of the first of his flock,

1016
01:04:39,580 --> 01:04:44,620
Speaker 2: and of the fat thereof. This is truly fascinating. And

1017
01:04:44,780 --> 01:04:48,380
Speaker 2: the Lord had respect unto able and to his offering.

1018
01:04:48,900 --> 01:04:51,140
Speaker 3: What other translations do you have? And the Lord what.

1019
01:04:53,060 --> 01:05:01,100
Speaker 2: Turned to paid heed to I'm sorry received. In other words,

1020
01:05:01,140 --> 01:05:07,180
Speaker 2: God preferred able sacrifice. Okay, here's my sixty four thousand

1021
01:05:07,180 --> 01:05:09,340
Speaker 2: dollars question after I read verse five.

1022
01:05:10,540 --> 01:05:11,740
Speaker 3: But to Cain and to his.

1023
01:05:11,740 --> 01:05:15,100
Speaker 2: Offering, he had no respect, and Cain was very angry,

1024
01:05:15,580 --> 01:05:21,300
Speaker 2: and his countenance fell. Here's my question to you, How

1025
01:05:21,340 --> 01:05:29,540
Speaker 2: did Cain know that God preferred able sacrifice?

1026
01:05:30,340 --> 01:05:31,820
Speaker 3: Anybody have an answer?

1027
01:05:33,660 --> 01:05:35,700
Speaker 2: Huh?

1028
01:05:36,260 --> 01:05:36,300
Speaker 3: What?

1029
01:05:36,460 --> 01:05:40,580
Speaker 2: God doesn't pick up sacrifices, You just offer them. Unless

1030
01:05:41,780 --> 01:05:47,140
Speaker 2: smoke didn't go up. Well, that's interesting. It's very physical. Yes,

1031
01:05:49,180 --> 01:05:50,780
Speaker 2: the fire came from heaven and aided up.

1032
01:05:51,500 --> 01:05:52,300
Speaker 3: Do you see that here?

1033
01:05:54,300 --> 01:06:01,620
Speaker 2: Sorry, okay, but this is rabbinic exegesis later on, and

1034
01:06:01,660 --> 01:06:04,700
Speaker 2: that's fine, but it doesn't say it. What can you

1035
01:06:04,780 --> 01:06:10,020
Speaker 2: infer from the text just reading what I call the

1036
01:06:10,180 --> 01:06:16,980
Speaker 2: shop the text itself? Yes, okay, that's my answers. Anybody

1037
01:06:16,980 --> 01:06:21,340
Speaker 2: have another answer? That's what I believe, I'll tell you.

1038
01:06:21,420 --> 01:06:34,140
Speaker 2: I'll tell you, yes, back there. Yes, what did I

1039
01:06:34,260 --> 01:06:37,660
Speaker 2: able to ask for only on the basis of what

1040
01:06:37,900 --> 01:06:38,420
Speaker 2: is written?

1041
01:06:39,220 --> 01:06:39,540
Speaker 3: Yes?

1042
01:06:45,820 --> 01:06:48,460
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that that's true, and that's what his

1043
01:06:48,580 --> 01:06:51,220
Speaker 2: answer was. That's why Cain knew. Let me if I may,

1044
01:06:51,340 --> 01:06:56,260
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, sir. This uh what I believe, and it's

1045
01:06:56,340 --> 01:06:59,260
Speaker 2: I can't prove it, but I try to read only

1046
01:06:59,300 --> 01:07:03,060
Speaker 2: what's there without the light of thousands of years of

1047
01:07:03,220 --> 01:07:06,180
Speaker 2: various readings into it, which I appreciate, but I'm trying

1048
01:07:06,220 --> 01:07:11,939
Speaker 2: to read it anew. It seems to me that Cain

1049
01:07:12,060 --> 01:07:18,660
Speaker 2: knew because Cain knew what his brother offered, which is

1050
01:07:18,700 --> 01:07:23,540
Speaker 2: what you're pointing out, and knew what he offered, and

1051
01:07:23,580 --> 01:07:27,780
Speaker 2: as you pointed out, he knew what he felt he

1052
01:07:27,860 --> 01:07:31,060
Speaker 2: was doing it more or less ProForma or compared to

1053
01:07:31,620 --> 01:07:35,100
Speaker 2: his brother's sincerity. He felt that he was lacking.

1054
01:07:36,380 --> 01:07:37,460
Speaker 3: That's the issue.

1055
01:07:37,540 --> 01:07:41,140
Speaker 2: God doesn't need first borns or first fruits.

1056
01:07:41,660 --> 01:07:42,500
Speaker 3: That's pagan.

1057
01:07:42,980 --> 01:07:47,380
Speaker 2: God doesn't eat, so it can't be God's preference. It

1058
01:07:47,460 --> 01:07:52,740
Speaker 2: has to be here the internal devotion of the individual.

1059
01:07:53,180 --> 01:07:58,100
Speaker 2: And clearly that Cain's was greater. Cain knew it. You

1060
01:07:58,380 --> 01:08:02,900
Speaker 2: know what you feel, and sometimes not always at all,

1061
01:08:02,980 --> 01:08:07,380
Speaker 2: you can sense what another feels. My point here is this,

1062
01:08:09,260 --> 01:08:12,740
Speaker 2: and then this is now adding to this point. It's

1063
01:08:12,780 --> 01:08:17,820
Speaker 2: not written here. When you do things for a god,

1064
01:08:18,340 --> 01:08:24,420
Speaker 2: to God, sincerity is everything. When you do things for people,

1065
01:08:25,060 --> 01:08:31,380
Speaker 2: sincerity is much less important. It's one of the things that,

1066
01:08:31,540 --> 01:08:34,060
Speaker 2: in fact, I believe so deeply. It is one of

1067
01:08:34,060 --> 01:08:36,660
Speaker 2: the guiding principles of my own religious life. And I

1068
01:08:36,700 --> 01:08:41,700
Speaker 2: will explain. It says in the Torah that you give

1069
01:08:41,740 --> 01:08:47,740
Speaker 2: ten percent of your earnings to the poor, right Seduka.

1070
01:08:49,979 --> 01:08:53,820
Speaker 2: It also says in the Torah that when the Israelites,

1071
01:08:53,860 --> 01:08:57,620
Speaker 2: when the Jews built the temple, it said, let every

1072
01:08:57,780 --> 01:09:02,420
Speaker 2: Jew give whatever his heart prompts him to give. And

1073
01:09:02,500 --> 01:09:05,979
Speaker 2: I use that distinction to teach or to learn the following.

1074
01:09:07,220 --> 01:09:10,260
Speaker 2: What you do for God should come from your heart.

1075
01:09:11,019 --> 01:09:14,340
Speaker 2: What you do for human beings doesn't necessarily have to

1076
01:09:14,340 --> 01:09:17,019
Speaker 2: come from your heart. It is better to give ten

1077
01:09:17,059 --> 01:09:20,660
Speaker 2: percent of your money to charity, even if it's so

1078
01:09:20,979 --> 01:09:24,460
Speaker 2: because of the law, than to give one percent from

1079
01:09:24,500 --> 01:09:27,820
Speaker 2: your heart, because the poor need your money much more

1080
01:09:27,820 --> 01:09:31,900
Speaker 2: than they need your heart. But God needs your heart,

1081
01:09:32,380 --> 01:09:36,660
Speaker 2: not your money. And that's what the issue is here.

1082
01:09:37,820 --> 01:09:40,260
Speaker 2: The issue is that it was clear that it was

1083
01:09:40,300 --> 01:09:44,420
Speaker 2: insincere on Cain's part, and Caine knew it. Now, it's

1084
01:09:44,420 --> 01:09:47,860
Speaker 2: a very interesting thing that happens in life. If somebody

1085
01:09:47,900 --> 01:09:52,460
Speaker 2: does something better than you do, you have two possible reactions.

1086
01:09:53,300 --> 01:09:56,700
Speaker 2: Isn't that beautiful? I could learn from that, it's something

1087
01:09:56,740 --> 01:10:02,460
Speaker 2: for me to emulate. Or they should drop dead. Is

1088
01:10:02,460 --> 01:10:06,380
Speaker 2: that correct? Those are the two general possible reactions we

1089
01:10:06,500 --> 01:10:11,179
Speaker 2: have to other people's excellence or greatness in the same

1090
01:10:11,220 --> 01:10:15,019
Speaker 2: act that we have my God, that is really something

1091
01:10:15,059 --> 01:10:18,259
Speaker 2: to learn from. Or you know what, he should drop dead.

1092
01:10:18,740 --> 01:10:28,780
Speaker 2: Caine opted for the latter. We now go to verse six. Yeah,

1093
01:10:28,660 --> 01:10:31,460
Speaker 2: oh oh, And by the way, what's critical here, and

1094
01:10:31,500 --> 01:10:33,700
Speaker 2: it's right up my alley and what I've been speaking

1095
01:10:33,740 --> 01:10:39,820
Speaker 2: about in the last year. What is Cain's reaction? He

1096
01:10:39,900 --> 01:10:46,979
Speaker 2: got angry? My current theory of life is that anger

1097
01:10:47,700 --> 01:10:50,660
Speaker 2: is the most important emotion to get a hold of.

1098
01:10:51,260 --> 01:10:53,220
Speaker 2: I don't mean to suppress to get a hold of.

1099
01:10:54,180 --> 01:10:57,460
Speaker 2: Everybody in this room has anger. There is no human

1100
01:10:57,500 --> 01:11:02,300
Speaker 2: being in the world who is not angry. The questions

1101
01:11:02,380 --> 01:11:08,939
Speaker 2: are how angry and at whom we all have anger.

1102
01:11:09,700 --> 01:11:11,460
Speaker 2: My mother didn't love me enough. My father didn't love

1103
01:11:11,500 --> 01:11:13,299
Speaker 2: me enough. My brother didn't love me enough. My sister

1104
01:11:13,340 --> 01:11:15,179
Speaker 2: didn't love me enough. My husband didn't love me enough.

1105
01:11:15,180 --> 01:11:17,099
Speaker 2: My wife didn't love me enough. My kids don't love

1106
01:11:17,140 --> 01:11:21,379
Speaker 2: me enough. The government doesn't love me enough. My friends

1107
01:11:21,660 --> 01:11:24,900
Speaker 2: aren't faithful to me enough. People don't do enough for me.

1108
01:11:25,059 --> 01:11:28,420
Speaker 2: People cheat me. I get cut off when I go

1109
01:11:28,460 --> 01:11:31,740
Speaker 2: in the left lane. No people take my parking spot.

1110
01:11:32,140 --> 01:11:34,460
Speaker 2: And not only that, six million Jews were killed a

1111
01:11:34,500 --> 01:11:39,380
Speaker 2: generation ago. Okay, from the sublime, or from the ridiculous

1112
01:11:39,420 --> 01:11:42,099
Speaker 2: to the sublime, back to the ridiculous, back to the sublime.

1113
01:11:42,540 --> 01:11:46,220
Speaker 2: There are a lot of reasons to be angry. The

1114
01:11:46,380 --> 01:11:52,420
Speaker 2: question is is the anger is the anger appropriate? There

1115
01:11:52,420 --> 01:11:55,419
Speaker 2: are people, there are religious people who say never be angry.

1116
01:11:56,420 --> 01:11:59,780
Speaker 2: I get this a lot when I speak on interreligious forums, which,

1117
01:11:59,780 --> 01:12:02,700
Speaker 2: for those of you not in LA on the unhumble

1118
01:12:02,700 --> 01:12:04,860
Speaker 2: assumption that every one of you in La knows this,

1119
01:12:05,300 --> 01:12:08,259
Speaker 2: which is of course preposterous, but a lot of you do.

1120
01:12:08,380 --> 01:12:10,700
Speaker 2: Sunday nights, I speak to a priest, minister, rabbi on

1121
01:12:10,740 --> 01:12:13,900
Speaker 2: the radio every week for ten years, and it is

1122
01:12:13,939 --> 01:12:16,620
Speaker 2: not uncommon for a priest or a minister, much more

1123
01:12:16,620 --> 01:12:19,340
Speaker 2: so than a rabbi as it happens, to say that

1124
01:12:19,420 --> 01:12:24,219
Speaker 2: it is not good to have anger. I don't agree

1125
01:12:24,260 --> 01:12:27,540
Speaker 2: with that, but there is a lot of truth that

1126
01:12:27,740 --> 01:12:33,259
Speaker 2: anger is the breeder of evil that I believe deeply.

1127
01:12:35,180 --> 01:12:37,740
Speaker 2: It's very new part of me, or a new part

1128
01:12:37,740 --> 01:12:41,660
Speaker 2: of my thinking, that evil comes from anger more than

1129
01:12:41,660 --> 01:12:46,860
Speaker 2: any other one thing. The trouble is that people need

1130
01:12:46,939 --> 01:12:52,059
Speaker 2: to know what their anger is toward. Germans had a

1131
01:12:52,099 --> 01:12:56,780
Speaker 2: deep anger. A lot of psychologists hold that they are

1132
01:12:56,820 --> 01:12:59,700
Speaker 2: angry from the way they were raised, that Germans had

1133
01:12:59,740 --> 01:13:06,979
Speaker 2: a particularly severe upbringing, fairly loveless, severe authoritarian upbringing. Others

1134
01:13:07,059 --> 01:13:12,019
Speaker 2: also note the anger over losing World War One and

1135
01:13:12,059 --> 01:13:15,260
Speaker 2: that the right wing in Germany blamed their government for

1136
01:13:15,380 --> 01:13:19,780
Speaker 2: selling them short at the Treaty of Versailles. Whatever it was,

1137
01:13:19,860 --> 01:13:22,019
Speaker 2: it is clear that there was a lot of anger.

1138
01:13:23,460 --> 01:13:29,059
Speaker 2: Anger is okay if you channel it towards the appropriate source,

1139
01:13:30,059 --> 01:13:32,219
Speaker 2: so that, for example, I would say to a Jew,

1140
01:13:34,019 --> 01:13:37,059
Speaker 2: would I said this when the Prime Minister of Israel

1141
01:13:37,099 --> 01:13:41,059
Speaker 2: announced that Poles drink anti Semitism in their mother's milk.

1142
01:13:41,979 --> 01:13:46,540
Speaker 2: He is angry at Poland for the Holocaust. What he

1143
01:13:46,620 --> 01:13:52,460
Speaker 2: should be is angry at every Pole who participated in it,

1144
01:13:52,500 --> 01:13:57,740
Speaker 2: as opposed to Poland. It is good in my mind

1145
01:13:57,780 --> 01:14:00,620
Speaker 2: to be angry at those who do bad, but it

1146
01:14:00,740 --> 01:14:07,219
Speaker 2: is terrible to be angry at a group. That's where

1147
01:14:07,260 --> 01:14:12,420
Speaker 2: a lot of evil takes place, anger that is not deserved,

1148
01:14:12,820 --> 01:14:17,179
Speaker 2: and it just I don't control it. It is not

1149
01:14:17,340 --> 01:14:19,979
Speaker 2: coincidental that it says he was angry.

1150
01:14:20,019 --> 01:14:23,139
Speaker 3: Did anybody hurt him? No, he hurt himself.

1151
01:14:24,059 --> 01:14:29,580
Speaker 2: But he lashed out in his anger against Abel, who

1152
01:14:29,620 --> 01:14:36,139
Speaker 2: did nothing whatsoever to Caine, which, by the way, is really,

1153
01:14:36,180 --> 01:14:40,179
Speaker 2: in a sense much of history of persecution, certainly of

1154
01:14:40,220 --> 01:14:44,540
Speaker 2: the Jews. The Jews would live in most societies quite quietly.

1155
01:14:45,540 --> 01:14:48,339
Speaker 2: Not in the twentieth century. Jews have got a lot noisier,

1156
01:14:49,019 --> 01:14:53,139
Speaker 2: but in general Jews were very quiet, living their own lives,

1157
01:14:53,180 --> 01:14:56,260
Speaker 2: and were hurt. They were the Abels. There was a

1158
01:14:56,260 --> 01:14:59,460
Speaker 2: lot of anger around them. They did their thing. And

1159
01:14:59,500 --> 01:15:01,979
Speaker 2: it's not only Jews, who's not the only persecuted group

1160
01:15:01,979 --> 01:15:06,300
Speaker 2: in history. It's just it's the most ubiquitous. People get

1161
01:15:06,340 --> 01:15:08,780
Speaker 2: angry and they lash out at the abels around them.

1162
01:15:09,620 --> 01:15:14,580
Speaker 2: That happens all the time. The kid who cheats in

1163
01:15:14,660 --> 01:15:17,300
Speaker 2: class is very likely to be angry at the kid

1164
01:15:17,300 --> 01:15:20,019
Speaker 2: who doesn't cheat in class, and does well be your

1165
01:15:20,099 --> 01:15:23,339
Speaker 2: real anger at them? Why didn't you stoop to my level?

1166
01:15:23,860 --> 01:15:28,939
Speaker 2: There's an anger. In fact, there's a book out for

1167
01:15:29,260 --> 01:15:33,780
Speaker 2: ordinary men or ordinary people I don't recall, and it's

1168
01:15:33,820 --> 01:15:38,460
Speaker 2: about a group of Germans who murdered eighty thousand Jews.

1169
01:15:40,019 --> 01:15:45,099
Speaker 2: And before the war, they were postman civil servants. They

1170
01:15:45,099 --> 01:15:48,339
Speaker 2: were just brought in together and say, here, go kill Jews.

1171
01:15:48,660 --> 01:15:51,700
Speaker 2: Most of them aren't even anti Semitic, but they did it.

1172
01:15:52,700 --> 01:15:57,059
Speaker 2: And a big part of the reason was they didn't

1173
01:15:57,059 --> 01:16:00,540
Speaker 2: want the anger that they felt would be shown to

1174
01:16:00,580 --> 01:16:04,860
Speaker 2: them by their colleagues if they didn't participate. If you

1175
01:16:05,059 --> 01:16:08,620
Speaker 2: do good, the bad will be angry at you. It

1176
01:16:08,740 --> 01:16:12,620
Speaker 2: is a common thing in life. Anger is very tough issue.

1177
01:16:12,939 --> 01:16:17,299
Speaker 2: Causes a lot of bad stuff, And that's what God

1178
01:16:17,380 --> 01:16:21,540
Speaker 2: says to Cain in six While why are you angry,

1179
01:16:22,820 --> 01:16:23,979
Speaker 2: and why why do.

1180
01:16:23,939 --> 01:16:25,939
Speaker 3: You look sad? Number seven?

1181
01:16:27,860 --> 01:16:32,500
Speaker 2: If you do well, if you do good, won't it

1182
01:16:32,540 --> 01:16:36,139
Speaker 2: be lifted up? And if you don't do well, if

1183
01:16:36,180 --> 01:16:41,940
Speaker 2: you don't do good, sin sin sits or couches, crouches

1184
01:16:42,019 --> 01:16:46,580
Speaker 2: at the door, and you will desire it, but you

1185
01:16:46,660 --> 01:16:49,780
Speaker 2: can rule over it. Is that an effect the translation

1186
01:16:49,900 --> 01:16:53,500
Speaker 2: you all have in effect because a very tough sentence

1187
01:16:53,540 --> 01:16:59,820
Speaker 2: in Hebrew. If you get angry, it is very common.

1188
01:16:59,939 --> 01:17:04,259
Speaker 2: That's God's point here. When you get angry, the likelihood

1189
01:17:04,300 --> 01:17:08,979
Speaker 2: of your doing bad is increased tremendously. That's why you've

1190
01:17:08,979 --> 01:17:12,740
Speaker 2: got to rule over it. Evil sin is crouching at

1191
01:17:12,780 --> 01:17:18,820
Speaker 2: the door if you get angry, a bad you're doing.

1192
01:17:18,939 --> 01:17:19,939
Speaker 3: Bad is.

1193
01:17:21,500 --> 01:17:26,540
Speaker 2: Unless you control yourself. That was God's advice. God knew

1194
01:17:26,580 --> 01:17:30,500
Speaker 2: exactly what Cain would do. This is his advice, rule

1195
01:17:30,820 --> 01:17:36,820
Speaker 2: your anger, rule the desire for sin, and then ate,

1196
01:17:36,900 --> 01:17:41,179
Speaker 2: which is one of the most interesting verses. And Cain

1197
01:17:41,500 --> 01:17:46,299
Speaker 2: spoke to Abel his brother, and it came to pass

1198
01:17:47,099 --> 01:17:49,540
Speaker 2: when they were in the field, Cain rose up against

1199
01:17:49,540 --> 01:17:55,900
Speaker 2: Abel his brother and killed him. To a very bizarre sentence.

1200
01:17:55,979 --> 01:17:59,299
Speaker 2: Look at it again. And Cain spoke to Abel's brother

1201
01:17:59,820 --> 01:18:04,740
Speaker 2: and it came to pass. What did he say? Isn't

1202
01:18:04,780 --> 01:18:08,780
Speaker 2: that interesting? We don't know what he said. I guess

1203
01:18:08,820 --> 01:18:12,019
Speaker 2: he said, come with me out to the field. I

1204
01:18:12,059 --> 01:18:15,260
Speaker 2: don't know what he said, but whatever it was, he

1205
01:18:15,300 --> 01:18:17,820
Speaker 2: got up and he killed him. Did able to do

1206
01:18:17,900 --> 01:18:18,900
Speaker 2: a thing to Cain?

1207
01:18:19,340 --> 01:18:19,700
Speaker 3: Nothing?

1208
01:18:20,820 --> 01:18:25,740
Speaker 2: And he just killed him. And God said to Cain,

1209
01:18:27,380 --> 01:18:32,139
Speaker 2: just like he had said to Adam, Right, Cain, where's

1210
01:18:32,180 --> 01:18:36,660
Speaker 2: Abel your brother? And in one of the most famous

1211
01:18:36,740 --> 01:18:41,820
Speaker 2: answers in the entire Bible, Cain says, I don't The

1212
01:18:42,099 --> 01:18:49,780
Speaker 2: traditional translation is I don't know. I am my brother's keeper. Okay,

1213
01:18:49,939 --> 01:18:52,540
Speaker 2: these will be my final but they are big, big

1214
01:18:52,580 --> 01:18:59,740
Speaker 2: points this There is an incredible amount of material in

1215
01:18:59,820 --> 01:19:00,219
Speaker 2: this thing.

1216
01:19:01,820 --> 01:19:07,940
Speaker 3: Number one?

1217
01:19:08,260 --> 01:19:13,459
Speaker 2: Why didn't Cain say I killed him?

1218
01:19:13,500 --> 01:19:13,580
Speaker 3: So?

1219
01:19:16,740 --> 01:19:20,019
Speaker 2: Wouldn't that have been the most logical answer. I picked

1220
01:19:20,099 --> 01:19:23,420
Speaker 2: up a rock, bashed his head in, and he's dead. God,

1221
01:19:23,740 --> 01:19:30,500
Speaker 2: any problem? I mean, it's sincerely? Why didn't he answer that?

1222
01:19:30,540 --> 01:19:34,580
Speaker 2: Did God ever say thou shalt not murder? No ten Commandments,

1223
01:19:35,180 --> 01:19:39,620
Speaker 2: no seven Laws of the Children of Noah? Cain could

1224
01:19:39,660 --> 01:19:47,620
Speaker 2: have said, I killed them? What's the problem? I believe

1225
01:19:47,700 --> 01:19:51,460
Speaker 2: that this teaches one of the most fundamental rules of

1226
01:19:51,500 --> 01:19:54,700
Speaker 2: life and of Judaism and of the tour And that

1227
01:19:54,900 --> 01:20:03,059
Speaker 2: is the belief that revealed legislation is not necessary to

1228
01:20:03,180 --> 01:20:08,340
Speaker 2: know good from evil. We are expected to know that

1229
01:20:08,420 --> 01:20:11,460
Speaker 2: certain things are wrong just by the fact that we

1230
01:20:11,500 --> 01:20:17,299
Speaker 2: are human beings. That's why I never accept the argument, well,

1231
01:20:17,420 --> 01:20:20,900
Speaker 2: they weren't educated, How are they supposed to know that

1232
01:20:20,939 --> 01:20:25,420
Speaker 2: you don't beat children or you don't shoot children in

1233
01:20:25,500 --> 01:20:28,179
Speaker 2: the area they grow up in an area where a

1234
01:20:28,180 --> 01:20:31,620
Speaker 2: lot of kids are shot. People speaking of gang members

1235
01:20:32,340 --> 01:20:35,620
Speaker 2: will say, hell, how are they supposed to know? The

1236
01:20:35,700 --> 01:20:40,500
Speaker 2: answer is the belief written here that we have a

1237
01:20:40,580 --> 01:20:45,260
Speaker 2: conscience that just as you know you don't want to

1238
01:20:45,300 --> 01:20:48,979
Speaker 2: be killed, you know that this person doesn't want to

1239
01:20:49,019 --> 01:20:55,780
Speaker 2: be killed. That's why his answer is so important. He

1240
01:20:55,860 --> 01:21:01,139
Speaker 2: does not feign ignorance of the morality immorality of what

1241
01:21:01,220 --> 01:21:07,260
Speaker 2: he did. Okay, this is how I learn that conscience

1242
01:21:07,460 --> 01:21:10,660
Speaker 2: is implanted in the human being. According to the Bible,

1243
01:21:12,059 --> 01:21:16,139
Speaker 2: Cain knew what he did was wrong, but he gives

1244
01:21:16,580 --> 01:21:22,019
Speaker 2: a smart algy answer, g I don't know? Am I

1245
01:21:22,140 --> 01:21:28,260
Speaker 2: my brother's keeper? There are three ways to read his response.

1246
01:21:30,500 --> 01:21:37,179
Speaker 2: The Hebrew says laya datti hashomira rianofi. Literally, it can

1247
01:21:37,260 --> 01:21:41,139
Speaker 2: mean what I what you heard, I didn't know.

1248
01:21:43,500 --> 01:21:46,900
Speaker 3: Am I my brother's keeper? Or it could also be.

1249
01:21:49,220 --> 01:21:56,059
Speaker 2: I didn't know that I am my brother's keeper. There

1250
01:21:56,140 --> 01:22:00,220
Speaker 2: are three ways to read it, depending upon where you

1251
01:22:00,380 --> 01:22:07,179
Speaker 2: put the uh the accent. One is I didn't know,

1252
01:22:10,420 --> 01:22:13,820
Speaker 2: I don't I don't. Well, there are four ways. I

1253
01:22:14,220 --> 01:22:17,900
Speaker 2: don't know? Am I my brother's keeper? Just a snotty answer. Okay,

1254
01:22:18,059 --> 01:22:22,179
Speaker 2: that's one. Another one is I I didn't know that

1255
01:22:22,300 --> 01:22:26,660
Speaker 2: I'm my brother's keeper, having to do in effect with

1256
01:22:26,740 --> 01:22:29,139
Speaker 2: the act that he had just performed. I didn't know

1257
01:22:29,180 --> 01:22:34,139
Speaker 2: that that I'm responsible for my brother. Another one is

1258
01:22:34,580 --> 01:22:39,900
Speaker 2: I didn't know hashomer or I don't know am I

1259
01:22:40,180 --> 01:22:45,059
Speaker 2: my brother's keeper? You God are my brother's keeper? If

1260
01:22:45,099 --> 01:22:48,220
Speaker 2: you put the emphasis on I, it's all different. I

1261
01:22:48,260 --> 01:22:51,660
Speaker 2: don't know, am I my brother's keeper? Usually we say

1262
01:22:51,700 --> 01:22:55,620
Speaker 2: I don't know, am I my brother's keeper? But what

1263
01:22:55,740 --> 01:22:59,019
Speaker 2: if the accent is on I, am I my brother's keeper?

1264
01:23:00,220 --> 01:23:03,059
Speaker 2: Do you see all the existential things that come from this?

1265
01:23:03,300 --> 01:23:07,140
Speaker 2: You could all ask the same thing, Am I responsible

1266
01:23:07,180 --> 01:23:10,340
Speaker 2: for people? Or is God responsible for people? For those

1267
01:23:10,380 --> 01:23:12,939
Speaker 2: of you who wonder how God can allow evil, here

1268
01:23:13,019 --> 01:23:16,979
Speaker 2: is the answer. God allows evil because we are our

1269
01:23:17,019 --> 01:23:21,780
Speaker 2: brother's keepers. God, isn't anyone who's He says, why did

1270
01:23:21,820 --> 01:23:27,540
Speaker 2: God allow the Holocaust? Is asking Cain's question, you are

1271
01:23:27,700 --> 01:23:33,140
Speaker 2: my brother's keeper. Nahho, that's not true. The implication is unacceptable.

1272
01:23:34,140 --> 01:23:40,019
Speaker 2: We are our brother's keeper, not God. That's how he

1273
01:23:40,059 --> 01:23:45,540
Speaker 2: allows it. So I don't know how you want to

1274
01:23:45,580 --> 01:23:49,059
Speaker 2: read it, but it is a very interesting possibility in

1275
01:23:49,099 --> 01:23:52,979
Speaker 2: any of these directions. And the final point to be

1276
01:23:53,059 --> 01:23:57,939
Speaker 2: raised is verse eleven, verse ten, What did you do?

1277
01:23:58,140 --> 01:24:04,660
Speaker 2: God said the voice of your brother's bloods? And it's

1278
01:24:04,700 --> 01:24:07,980
Speaker 2: too bad that it doesn't translate it as bloods. It translates.

1279
01:24:07,979 --> 01:24:12,740
Speaker 2: I'm sure your translation is blood. Does anyone have bloods? Okay,

1280
01:24:13,059 --> 01:24:16,299
Speaker 2: that's where a literal translation would be very healthy of bloods?

1281
01:24:17,180 --> 01:24:25,019
Speaker 2: What translation is that? The Hebrew is the voice? I'll

1282
01:24:25,019 --> 01:24:28,939
Speaker 2: do it literally, the voice of the bloods of your

1283
01:24:28,979 --> 01:24:34,979
Speaker 2: brother are screaming at me from the earth. And here

1284
01:24:35,700 --> 01:24:41,139
Speaker 2: I think the rabbinic translation is right on. When you

1285
01:24:41,780 --> 01:24:45,620
Speaker 2: kill someone, you have not only killed them, you have

1286
01:24:45,740 --> 01:24:51,700
Speaker 2: killed all those they would that would have come from them.

1287
01:24:51,780 --> 01:24:55,059
Speaker 2: So the bloods of your brother are screaming at me

1288
01:24:55,220 --> 01:24:59,299
Speaker 2: from the earth means it's not just your brother's blood,

1289
01:24:59,540 --> 01:25:02,460
Speaker 2: but his kids that he never had, and the grandkids

1290
01:25:02,460 --> 01:25:06,259
Speaker 2: he never had, and so on and so forth. It's

1291
01:25:06,340 --> 01:25:09,620
Speaker 2: to give you an idea of how evil murder is

1292
01:25:10,780 --> 01:25:14,700
Speaker 2: what you have done when you murder, that this would

1293
01:25:14,700 --> 01:25:18,100
Speaker 2: be listed as the first sin of the human species.

1294
01:25:18,620 --> 01:25:20,900
Speaker 2: If I don't want to include the eating of the

1295
01:25:21,260 --> 01:25:22,900
Speaker 2: I guess the eating is the first, But this is

1296
01:25:22,939 --> 01:25:24,979
Speaker 2: the first that we can relate to. None of us

1297
01:25:25,019 --> 01:25:30,179
Speaker 2: can violate the trees in the garden. That's how bad

1298
01:25:30,220 --> 01:25:34,059
Speaker 2: it is. That is what you've done. When you commit murder.

1299
01:25:34,740 --> 01:25:39,299
Speaker 2: You have killed far more than that individual. And it's

1300
01:25:39,340 --> 01:25:41,939
Speaker 2: so powerful that they are screaming at me.

1301
01:25:44,540 --> 01:25:47,500
Speaker 3: You know who should be angry? God is in.

1302
01:25:47,540 --> 01:25:54,660
Speaker 2: Effect saying Abel, he's the one who's screaming. He's the

1303
01:25:54,700 --> 01:25:59,339
Speaker 2: one who should be angry. It's the victim who's angry,

1304
01:25:59,420 --> 01:26:01,820
Speaker 2: not the criminal who should be angry.

1305
01:26:02,620 --> 01:26:04,179
Speaker 3: You should control your anger.

1306
01:26:04,540 --> 01:26:08,620
Speaker 2: But he has justified anger because you murdered him. It's

1307
01:26:08,740 --> 01:26:12,340
Speaker 2: darn good lesson for our time, where we often invert

1308
01:26:12,620 --> 01:26:16,339
Speaker 2: whose anger we have sympathy with and whom we ignore

1309
01:26:16,420 --> 01:26:20,220
Speaker 2: when when that anger is unleashed. Let me take a

1310
01:26:20,260 --> 01:26:22,420
Speaker 2: couple of questions. I know that some of you had

1311
01:26:23,220 --> 01:26:25,500
Speaker 2: and if you don't, we could take it next time.

1312
01:26:25,580 --> 01:26:32,580
Speaker 3: Yes, yep, yeah, we're not up.

1313
01:26:32,460 --> 01:26:35,260
Speaker 2: To that yet, so let me take it when it

1314
01:26:35,340 --> 01:26:37,780
Speaker 2: comes up on the years. Is that we're not upright,

1315
01:26:37,820 --> 01:26:42,860
Speaker 2: it's beyond ya where we got Yes, just take five minutes, folks,

1316
01:26:42,900 --> 01:26:48,019
Speaker 2: if you could stay where you are.

1317
01:26:47,220 --> 01:26:48,780
Speaker 3: It's correct. I know.

1318
01:26:48,820 --> 01:26:51,380
Speaker 2: I don't know why people say apple. It's like a

1319
01:26:51,420 --> 01:26:53,740
Speaker 2: lot of people say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

1320
01:26:53,780 --> 01:26:58,460
Speaker 2: It never says whale, it says great fish. Maybe he

1321
01:26:58,540 --> 01:27:00,660
Speaker 2: had an apple in the great whale and that was

1322
01:27:00,820 --> 01:27:20,099
Speaker 2: you know, and they got mixed up back there. Yes, oh,

1323
01:27:20,180 --> 01:27:24,939
Speaker 2: that's in. It's an interesting question that he was present

1324
01:27:24,979 --> 01:27:25,820
Speaker 2: for the discussion.

1325
01:27:28,059 --> 01:27:32,540
Speaker 3: Yes, what verse is that? Six? Three six?

1326
01:27:33,099 --> 01:27:35,339
Speaker 2: The question was, I'll read you the verse. It's great.

1327
01:27:35,500 --> 01:27:37,019
Speaker 2: It's an interest. I have to think it through.

1328
01:27:39,340 --> 01:27:41,620
Speaker 3: Hmm uh.

1329
01:27:41,660 --> 01:27:45,420
Speaker 2: And she so she took this is eve, she took

1330
01:27:45,500 --> 01:27:49,540
Speaker 2: from the fruit fruit, and she ate and she gave

1331
01:27:49,580 --> 01:27:54,059
Speaker 2: it also to her husband who was with her, and

1332
01:27:54,099 --> 01:27:57,700
Speaker 2: he ate. So is the implication that he was with

1333
01:27:57,820 --> 01:28:04,500
Speaker 2: her during the dialogue with the serpent? Oh, well, we've

1334
01:28:04,580 --> 01:28:07,260
Speaker 2: established he knew where it came from. But yeah, but

1335
01:28:07,340 --> 01:28:10,019
Speaker 2: that would be at the very least. It's an interesting

1336
01:28:10,059 --> 01:28:15,580
Speaker 2: point because with her would seem totally redundant, not redundant, Yeah,

1337
01:28:15,580 --> 01:28:19,740
Speaker 2: redundant or superfluous. Who obviously where else is he going

1338
01:28:19,820 --> 01:28:25,860
Speaker 2: to be? Interesting point? Yes, contribute to the equation of

1339
01:28:25,939 --> 01:28:29,740
Speaker 2: sex and sin. Is that what you're basically asking? Well,

1340
01:28:29,780 --> 01:28:32,500
Speaker 2: the truth is it probably did for a lot of people.

1341
01:28:32,540 --> 01:28:37,179
Speaker 3: I don't think that that's the point. Here comes into

1342
01:28:37,220 --> 01:28:37,660
Speaker 3: the picture.

1343
01:28:37,740 --> 01:28:41,780
Speaker 2: Life changes, We're no longer innocent, and it really, I mean,

1344
01:28:41,820 --> 01:28:42,780
Speaker 2: it's primal stuff.

1345
01:28:42,900 --> 01:28:44,500
Speaker 3: Sex is the tnt of life.

1346
01:28:45,780 --> 01:28:47,580
Speaker 2: It is and it can blow things up and it

1347
01:28:47,580 --> 01:28:52,059
Speaker 2: can make the world, which it does. That's that drive.

1348
01:28:52,900 --> 01:28:55,380
Speaker 2: If you think of an asexual person, you think of

1349
01:28:55,380 --> 01:28:57,979
Speaker 2: a person with no drive, right, And if you think

1350
01:28:58,019 --> 01:28:59,900
Speaker 2: of a person with a great deal of drive, you

1351
01:28:59,979 --> 01:29:03,939
Speaker 2: automatically assume they have a strong sex component. And that

1352
01:29:04,099 --> 01:29:08,260
Speaker 2: is true. It's the dynamite of our lives. It's the dynamism,

1353
01:29:08,620 --> 01:29:11,860
Speaker 2: and it's not something we're happy to see, generally speaking,

1354
01:29:12,300 --> 01:29:15,460
Speaker 2: profoundly subside in our life. We feel life ebbing away.

1355
01:29:15,540 --> 01:29:18,780
Speaker 2: If that ebbs away, it's something people wish to preserve

1356
01:29:18,860 --> 01:29:21,019
Speaker 2: that part of them, whether they have the means to

1357
01:29:22,140 --> 01:29:25,419
Speaker 2: live it or not. As a physical issue, but having

1358
01:29:25,500 --> 01:29:29,059
Speaker 2: the drive is something everybody wants. It keeps you alive.

1359
01:29:29,820 --> 01:29:32,860
Speaker 2: So yes, I don't see it at all sinful. I

1360
01:29:32,939 --> 01:29:36,700
Speaker 2: see it as a root of a lot of sin, obviously,

1361
01:29:36,740 --> 01:29:41,099
Speaker 2: the most obvious being rape, another one being adultery, though

1362
01:29:41,180 --> 01:29:43,500
Speaker 2: that's more complex because they're all emotional and other.

1363
01:29:43,860 --> 01:29:48,140
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit dennispragger

1364
01:29:48,220 --> 01:29:51,780
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1365
01:29:51,780 --> 01:29:56,460
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.