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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: Do pillars of salt? That was our last adventure and

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Speaker 2: the why does it remember the loetz wife's syndrome I

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Speaker 2: spoke about for those of you going into what is

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Speaker 2: it called the golden years? Don't you love the euphemisms

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Speaker 2: for getting old? Isn't it a joke? They have a

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Speaker 2: million senior citizen Golden years? What else? Twilight, autumn of life?

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Speaker 2: It's just nobody likes the word all. There's not really

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Speaker 2: anything wrong with it. Now they don't say old, it's elderly.

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Speaker 2: Now they don't say middlele or youngle, but they do

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Speaker 2: say elderly. Be that as it may. That was the

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Speaker 2: last thing we did. Correct Mot's wife turned into a

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Speaker 2: pillar of salt. So let's since there are no questions

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Speaker 2: there are, sir, what did you pity? Let her know

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Speaker 2: what you do? Hm, an ass She has two lod two,

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Speaker 2: two families, and and perhaps she turned because she didn't

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Speaker 2: wanna go one. Hm, she hard to one but she

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Speaker 2: knew what the cause was. Well, what you.

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Speaker 1: Made last week about made to.

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Speaker 2: Decided the worst ornoster. And there are stories of people

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Speaker 2: who survive bond. What couldn't there? Why I I have

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Speaker 2: to tell you that you have persuaded me. He yes,

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Speaker 2: and and given I just right now looked in the text,

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Speaker 2: and your reading is as one hundred percent possible. H.

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Speaker 2: I don't think it's in any way reading into it.

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Speaker 2: His His argument is that Lot's wife deliberately looked back

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Speaker 2: and knew what would happen, that it wasn't Well, she

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Speaker 2: couldn't control herself, which is the way we'd normally read it. Well,

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Speaker 2: she made a mistake. She couldn't control herself, She dawdled

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Speaker 2: and got consumed in the in the uh salt eruption,

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Speaker 2: as it were. He's arguing that she knew what she

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Speaker 2: was doing, and that there are people, after all, she

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Speaker 2: has two daughters back there, and there there are people

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Speaker 2: who don't want to go forward, who don't want to

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Speaker 2: leave UH. If we're going to use the homily part,

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Speaker 2: who don't want to leave the past, who will allow

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Speaker 2: themselves to be consumed by their past, deliberately, not inadvertently,

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Speaker 2: not by and by mistake, but even not reading a

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Speaker 2: homily into it. She didn't want to leave. She wanted

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Speaker 2: she didn't want to go what would be what's next?

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Speaker 2: The unknown? That's right, it's not it's not a place

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Speaker 2: where a lot of people want to go, the unknown.

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Speaker 2: I think that it's very powerful argument, and I tell you,

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Speaker 2: the way it has it in Hebrew is very uh.

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Speaker 2: It does seem deliberate on her part. And his wife

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Speaker 2: looked back behind them, behind him. It wasn't you. There

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Speaker 2: would have been a way for the text to have said, well,

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Speaker 2: she dawdled, or or she you know, she couldn't control herself.

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Speaker 2: There are terms for that in biblical Hebrews. She couldn't

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Speaker 2: control herself, and there's none of that. It is it's

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Speaker 2: a deliberate act, which adds to the point I was making.

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Speaker 2: The lots wife syndrome is one that people will do deliberately.

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Speaker 2: I don't want to go to the unknown. I don't

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Speaker 2: want to go forward. I don't want to leave the

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Speaker 2: misery of the past for the unknown future. And he

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Speaker 2: points out the Holocaust survivors, who understandably will feel guilty.

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Speaker 2: There is a guilt for survivors imagine you lived in

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Speaker 2: a place where the whole place is being destroyed. Are

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Speaker 2: you definitely going to move forward ahead and not turned

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Speaker 2: back and not daudal? That's tough stuff, especially if you

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Speaker 2: have two kids back there. It's very understandable, and there

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Speaker 2: is a very a very deep desire obviously here to

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Speaker 2: look forward. The whole point of the Abraham story is

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Speaker 2: what will come in the future. Indeed, in that sense,

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Speaker 2: Judaism is a profoundly optimistic religion. No people has had

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Speaker 2: more reason to be pessimistic, yet Judaism is a very

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Speaker 2: optimistic religion. We're here to make the world better. By optimistic,

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Speaker 2: I don't mean that it's that Judaism holds, oh, the

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Speaker 2: world is definitely going to get better. There's no such

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Speaker 2: belief in that. Anybody who has that belief should read

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Speaker 2: a newspaper. You think Nazism is vanquished, then you have

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Speaker 2: communism and now you have resurgence of it. And I

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Speaker 2: don't want to press the panic button about Germany, but

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Speaker 2: I'm speaking on a day where people living in Germany

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Speaker 2: of Turkish descent were burned alive the firebomb by people

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Speaker 2: screaming Heil Hitler. Now I'm not saying I don't. Not

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Speaker 2: only am I not saying I would, I would hold

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Speaker 2: it to be foolish to hold that Germany is being

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Speaker 2: vanquished by Nazism. All I'm saying is that anybody who

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Speaker 2: believes that evil ends once and for all is a fool.

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Speaker 2: That's not optimism, that's silliness. This is what I mean

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Speaker 2: by saying Judaism is optimistic. I will contraint with Eastern religion.

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Speaker 2: Eastern religion is not optimistic. In Eastern religion, the ideal

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Speaker 2: is to leave this world, is to enter nibhuta nirvana,

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Speaker 2: a state of higher consciousness so high that you ultimately

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Speaker 2: leave this world and never return in any other way.

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Speaker 2: That's the That's the Buddhist ideal, which is profoundly affected

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Speaker 2: Eastern religion. Judaism doesn't hold that the ideal is to

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Speaker 2: leave the world. It holds that the ideal is to

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Speaker 2: transform the world. That there is if we if we

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Speaker 2: work at it, a brighter day ahead. Do you get

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Speaker 2: the difference the the the non thinking optimist, the feeling

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Speaker 2: optimist is, oh, there's a brighter day ahead. The the

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Speaker 2: Torah centered optimist says, if you'd work at it, there's

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Speaker 2: a brighter day ahead, whereas the Eastern religion. Eastern religionist

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Speaker 2: will say, if you work it, there are no days ahead.

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Speaker 2: If you really work at it, you just leave this mess. Okay,

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Speaker 2: That's what I mean by optimistic. So there are those who,

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Speaker 2: like Lot's wife, don't want to move ahead. They are

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Speaker 2: mired in the past, and it's understandable, but it's not

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Speaker 2: what is wanted here. Okay. Are there any other questions

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Speaker 2: or comments? Please? Actually the Hebrew is as grammatically very difficult.

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Speaker 2: The Hebrew literally is but tabait ish toau, but tabit

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Speaker 2: is to look is tow his wife. I'll do it

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Speaker 2: literally with you the literal translation, and in Hebrew the

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Speaker 2: verb precedes the subject. Okay, in at least in Biblical Hebrew,

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Speaker 2: not in modern Hebrew. But tabateistow. And she looked back

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Speaker 2: his wife may aharav. Now it should be may akareja

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Speaker 2: behind her, but it says behind him. So if that's

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Speaker 2: what you're pointing out, it is an interesting thing. So

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Speaker 2: that she was behind him when she looked back, If

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Speaker 2: that's the point you wish to make, that is grammatically

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Speaker 2: it seems to be confirmed by the grammar. So the

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Speaker 2: point then being what that she's behind him. In other words,

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Speaker 2: he didn't know she was dallying. I understand.

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Speaker 3: Behind him.

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Speaker 2: Well the prow k. Well, now I got to do

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Speaker 2: the grammar even more deliberately. The Hebrew is and she

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Speaker 2: looked back his wife from behind him. Okay, may aharav

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Speaker 2: may is from you. See. So the literal, that's why

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Speaker 2: I heard there is one. I have never seen it.

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Speaker 2: But if any of you were truly interested in studying

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Speaker 2: and don't know the best thing you can do is

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Speaker 2: have all the translations you want, but get one that's literal,

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Speaker 2: so that you know what is said in the original

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Speaker 2: as close as possible without knowing Hebrew. And that would

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Speaker 2: be an example. So she looked back from behind him,

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Speaker 2: is what the literal Hebrew is? Where So your your

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Speaker 2: argument is that if she were in front of him

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Speaker 2: and look back, he would have also looked back. Is

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Speaker 2: that what you're saying? Right? Oh? Yeah, there is no

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Speaker 2: implication that he witnessed her turning into stone. It's a

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Speaker 2: good point. I think that that. It's that's two points

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Speaker 2: already that are I think confirmed by the text. Yes

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Speaker 2: that I think it's a very good point too, which

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Speaker 2: is mayaharab from behind him, that she really which is

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Speaker 2: of course his point. She really didn't want to go

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Speaker 2: to begin with. And remember she's got two daughters there.

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Speaker 2: I think that that's a critical point here, and that's

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Speaker 2: a mother. This is a mother doing this. The father

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Speaker 2: is prepared to trudge on. Not that fathers love their

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Speaker 2: kids less, but but the bond may be different, and

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Speaker 2: so it's a it's it's an interesting point to be made,

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Speaker 2: and it would verify what I believe deeply about the text,

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Speaker 2: that there was something deep in almost every word. Yes,

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Speaker 2: just like two more because I want to go on

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Speaker 2: yet and yeah, well, it isn't suicide because she didn't

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Speaker 2: she didn't want to she didn't want to go forward.

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Speaker 2: If she didn't commit suicide, she allowed herself to get killed.

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Speaker 2: Is not the same as committing suicide. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 2: not splitting hairs on that one. It really is different. Also,

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Speaker 2: you're asking, well, if that's what the Bible says, why

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Speaker 2: doesn't it say it. If the Bible were to reveal

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Speaker 2: every single possible intent of all of its ideas, you'd

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Speaker 2: have to Chapter nineteen would take up the whole Tora. No,

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Speaker 2: you have to understand that, and then you'd have to

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Speaker 2: do that you'd have to go on from that. Well,

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Speaker 2: what does it mean in those words? It's very terse

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Speaker 2: Oh you will constantly listen. Oh no, yeah, I understand.

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Speaker 2: I don't think the point is that that. Well, let's

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Speaker 2: make people thousands of years from now think either truth

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Speaker 2: is in this case, it's actually it's pretty literal from

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Speaker 2: behind him. I'm surprised that the translation doesn't say it,

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Speaker 2: because that's what the Hebrew says, and it should have

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Speaker 2: said it. Yeah, and why she turned around? Yeah no,

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Speaker 2: I understand. Alright, let me take a final I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: come to you afterwards. Okay, thanks a lot, Yes, couldn't

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Speaker 2: get and on which episode? Oh yeah, what about the hills? Right,

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Speaker 2: he's still.

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Speaker 4: And he's basic saying Andy and he wants to go to.

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Speaker 2: But wouldn't you think that a closer town to destruction

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Speaker 2: is more likely to be destroyed than a further town.

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Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute. Maybe you're right though in the

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Speaker 2: faith part, in this way, the mountains are desolate. He

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Speaker 2: rather flee to civilization than to barrenness. I don't think

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Speaker 2: the issue is distanced. The issue is mountains versus a city.

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Speaker 2: And maybe in in right that's correct. Uh on on

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Speaker 2: uh an on nineteen Yes, because he could more easily die,

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Speaker 2: perhaps in the mountains. There I see that God will

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Speaker 2: leave the little places alone. Yeah, that's right, Well I

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Speaker 2: think he did think that money. Alright, God only destroys

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Speaker 2: biggs places, the world, Sidome, et cetera. Oh, I got you, alright,

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Speaker 2: it's it's something I'm gonna think about too, alright, let

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Speaker 2: me continue on twenty seven, nineteen twenty seven, the year

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Speaker 2: Babe Ruth hit the sixty home runs. That's how I

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Speaker 2: remember a lot of these things. Uh I, I have

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Speaker 2: no memory for numbers. I have to attach them to things. Well.

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Speaker 2: For example, love your neighbor as yourself is Leviticus nineteen eighteen.

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Speaker 2: I just think of when World War One ended, and

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Speaker 2: that's how I remember. Love your neighbor as yourself. Is

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Speaker 2: that bizarre? Yeah, looking at your face, as it's clearly bizarre.

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Speaker 2: Why don't you forget that? Okay? N twenty seven? Oh kadok,

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Speaker 2: So Abraham got up early in the morning. It's interesting

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Speaker 2: how many got up, earli is there are You'll see

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Speaker 2: it later too. When the thing we're all leading to,

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Speaker 2: which is Genesis twenty two and they and the binding

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Speaker 2: of Isaac but he got up early in the morning

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Speaker 2: and he went to the place where he had been

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Speaker 2: standing before God, and he looked over the over Sidome

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Speaker 2: and Gemorah and on all the land of the plane.

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Speaker 2: By the way, it's almost as if he had a

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Speaker 2: divine looks. That's a verb that would be attached to God.

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Speaker 2: The way he oversaw everything, overlooked everything, and he saw

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Speaker 2: that there came a smoke from the land, rising like

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Speaker 2: the smoke from an oven from a kiln. Okay, this

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Speaker 2: is these are some self explanatory sentences, so I'll just

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Speaker 2: continue with the narrative. And it was that when God

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Speaker 2: had destroyed the cities of the Plain, God remembered Abraham.

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Speaker 2: Now you have to know, because this will come up

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Speaker 2: frequently about God remembering. God doesn't forget God. It is

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Speaker 2: truly human language that's being used here. It's very important

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Speaker 2: you understand that because it says later when the Jews

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Speaker 2: are in Egypt and they're suffering, that God remembered his

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Speaker 2: covenant with their forefathers and remembered them. Did he forget

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Speaker 2: them for all those hundreds of years? You know what

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Speaker 2: kind of God is that? Oh? I see you're suffering. God,

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Speaker 2: Now I remember God me. Now, I remember so clearly.

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Speaker 2: When God remembers, it's our lingo, not God's God. God

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Speaker 2: is simply acknowledging or reasserting something. And so he sends

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Speaker 2: Lot from the midst of the upheaval upon upheaven the

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Speaker 2: in destroying the cities in which Lot had settled. Thirty

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Speaker 2: and Lot arose from Soar, and he settled in the mountain,

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Speaker 2: and the two daughters are with him because he was

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Speaker 2: afraid to settle in Soar. Does anybody have a theory

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Speaker 2: as to why he was afraid to dwell in Soar?

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Speaker 2: I guess the most obvious couple of points that would

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Speaker 2: come is one he might have been afraid of the people.

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Speaker 2: He does not seem to have brought good luck to Sidam,

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Speaker 2: and the word might have gotten around that this guy

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Speaker 2: brings destruction with him. And the other possibility is that

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Speaker 2: he thought so Are would be destroyed. Those are two possibilities.

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Speaker 2: The second one is the point that I was making

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Speaker 2: to you, that he thought a city would be a

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Speaker 2: better place to stay. But the mountains are deserted, so

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Speaker 2: he got go to the mountains. Uh. And he where

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Speaker 2: he goes, actually where he goes is to a cave.

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Speaker 2: He and his two daughters go into a cave. This

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Speaker 2: is a fascinating segment. Those of you who have been

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Speaker 2: with me from the beginning will recall that this happened

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Speaker 2: to a previous survivor and children. Different sects. You will

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Speaker 2: recall Noah and what happened with his children and what

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Speaker 2: happened with wine. Wine does not have a good name, apparently.

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Speaker 2: The biblical fear of what happens when you get drunk, apparently,

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Speaker 2: is so goes so far back in Jewish history that

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Speaker 2: it's never really stopped among committed Jews. Judaism, interestingly, is

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Speaker 2: the only religion of which I am aware, that makes

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Speaker 2: it a sin never to drink. For example, in Mormonism

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Speaker 2: and Islam, you are not permitted to drink a wine.

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Speaker 2: In Judaism you are. You must. There are times when

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Speaker 2: there is an actual obligation. You are to make kidush

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Speaker 2: on holidays and the Shabbat over wine. You are to

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Speaker 2: drink four cups of wine at these passover Satyr, and

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Speaker 2: the tradition is to drink so much on Purim that

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Speaker 2: you so lose touch of reality that you can tell

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Speaker 2: the difference between Mordecai the hero and Hayman the villain.

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Speaker 2: That's actually the way the tradition holds it. So what

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Speaker 2: Judaism is done with drinking is it's very It has

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Speaker 2: an attitude and Hebrew they say, they say about some

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Speaker 2: people haushdehu vicabdehu, suspect him and respect him. That's what

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Speaker 2: Judaism has towards wine. Be very suspicious of wine and

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Speaker 2: respect it. But respect it means it has its uses.

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Speaker 2: There are times when it is purposeful. However, obviously within

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Speaker 2: the Torah it is clearly shown when it is used

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Speaker 2: for non sacramental reasons that it does not have very

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Speaker 2: good effects. Be that as it may. It's a fascinating story,

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Speaker 2: and I will read it through more or less. I

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Speaker 2: will read it through, but I may interrupted in the middle.

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Speaker 2: It goes to the end of chapter nineteen, and you

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Speaker 2: will see one of the most brilliant parts of all

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Speaker 2: of Genesis, the concept of measure for measure. The older

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Speaker 2: one said to the younger, this is the daughter speaking.

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Speaker 2: Our father is old. In other words, we better start

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Speaker 2: moving here. He's getting older. He may die soon, and

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Speaker 2: there is not a man on earth to consort with

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Speaker 2: us in the way of all the world. In Hebrew,

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Speaker 2: there is not a man on earth to come to us,

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Speaker 2: as is the way of all the world. In other words,

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Speaker 2: in all the world men come to women. That's part

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Speaker 2: of what is understood here. There are a few meanings here.

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Speaker 2: One in all of the world men and women copulate. Also,

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Speaker 2: in all the world, men are the ones who initiate sex,

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Speaker 2: as you will see here in what I think is

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Speaker 2: unique in at least in consummating the act with Potifar's wife,

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Speaker 2: you have the attempt at seduction that doesn't work with Joseph.

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Speaker 2: But I think you have the only time where it

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Speaker 2: is the woman literally uh literally laying as you will

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Speaker 2: see the man. That and the terminology is fascinating in

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Speaker 2: the Hebrew. So in other words, what happens on all

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Speaker 2: the earth isn't happening to us. A man isn't coming

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Speaker 2: to us. So let's let's go lejal, let's go and

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Speaker 2: or go and let's give our father. Let's let's it's

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Speaker 2: so interesting the way it's put. Let's make him you

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Speaker 2: don't you see in English there is no word, there's

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Speaker 2: no verbal form. Let's make him drink. Let's drink him

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Speaker 2: almost and wine, and we will sleep with him and

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Speaker 2: from and we will make alive. I'm trying to do literally.

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Speaker 2: You will have the figurative and more poetic translations with

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Speaker 2: you or most of you have, and we will make

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Speaker 2: life and uh, and we will make seed to live

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Speaker 2: from our father. So they gave their father to drink

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Speaker 2: wine at night that night, and the older one came

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Speaker 2: and she laid her father. That is literally what the

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Speaker 2: Hebrew would be. I don't it's not meant in a

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Speaker 2: gross sense as we have in an English go get laid,

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Speaker 2: But it literally is that she laid him vattish kav.

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Speaker 2: She made him to lay, if you will. So she

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Speaker 2: laid her father and he didn't know when she lie

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Speaker 2: down or when she got up. That's very intoxicated, my friends.

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Speaker 2: You have to acknowledge. It's amazing he could do anything

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Speaker 2: under those circumstances when you think about it. But it

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Speaker 2: really shows in case women have not made peace with

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Speaker 2: the fact what men are sexually that they don't even

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Speaker 2: know what's happening and they can do it, and you

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Speaker 2: know they just you know, under any circumstance. Ah, you

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Speaker 2: put his daughter on him, he doesn't know what happened.

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Speaker 2: It's really a remarkable story when you think of it.

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Speaker 2: And again, one of the things I love about the

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Speaker 2: toy is it's not a prudish book. Boy. You don't

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Speaker 2: know what problems the rabbis had when I was a

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Speaker 2: kid in yeshiva trying to teach these sections. Half the

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Speaker 2: time they go. And let's go now to chapter twenty one,

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Speaker 2: which is the only time I woke up. That was

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Speaker 2: it what I would look at Michael Schwartz and go,

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Speaker 2: why did we skip? And that's the part that I

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Speaker 2: would immediately turn through. This was a very tough part,

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Speaker 2: you know. I mean, this is very salty stuff.

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

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

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Speaker 2: It's got incest, it's got female rape. I mean, this

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Speaker 2: is not your your your you know, this is not

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Speaker 2: your typical biblical type of literature as people might think

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Speaker 2: of it. It's fascinating though, on many levels. And I'll

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Speaker 2: come to it in a moment. Let's just finish with

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Speaker 2: the story. Thirty four. And it came to pass the

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Speaker 2: next day and the older one said to the younger one.

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Speaker 2: The older daughter said to the younger daughter, hey, I

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Speaker 2: slept slept I lied my father, or I laid him

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Speaker 2: a last night. Let's feed him wine again tonight, and

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Speaker 2: you'll go and sleep with him, and we will make

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Speaker 2: seed come alive from our father. So thirty five they

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Speaker 2: gave to drink that night too, wine to their father,

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Speaker 2: and the younger one, the younger daughter, came up and

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Speaker 2: she slept with him. It's interesting that the language is

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Speaker 2: different on what the two daughters did. I don't know

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Speaker 2: if the English is different. Do you have a different

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Speaker 2: it's between thirty three and thirty five. The younger one

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Speaker 2: went and lay with him. I see. That's the beauty

350
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Speaker 2: of seeing the original. And here the English is the same.

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Speaker 2: The first daughter laid him, the second daughter lied with

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Speaker 2: him or lay with him. There's a difference. Maybe she

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Speaker 2: was gentler, but it is it's actually very different. It's

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Speaker 2: he's the object of the verb in the first daughter's case,

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Speaker 2: and he is the object of the preposition with in

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Speaker 2: the second daughter's case. He doesn't think it matters at all.

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Speaker 2: It's just poetry. But vatish khah is not the same

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Speaker 2: as as well. Oh yes, they're both spot tishkov, all right,

359
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:26,439
Speaker 2: So you hold out it means the same if it

360
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Speaker 2: meant the same. I would assume they'd use the same language.

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Speaker 2: But maybe you're right. I'm not going to read more

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Speaker 2: into it because there is not there's no more reason

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Speaker 2: to read into it. And again here you notice, though

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Speaker 2: here that does use the identical language. And he didn't

365
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Speaker 2: know in in her lying down or in her getting up.

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Speaker 2: And the two daughters became pregnant. The two daughters of

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Speaker 2: Lok became pregnant from their father, just in case you

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Speaker 2: had any doubt, from whom it makes clear from their father,

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Speaker 2: and the older daughter gave birth to a son. His

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Speaker 2: name was Moav, and he is the father of Moav.

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Speaker 2: Up to today, it's a concept in the Torah, meaning

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Speaker 2: this exists as you read this, whatever time that would be.

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Speaker 2: There is a there is say people Moov, and he

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Speaker 2: is the father of Moav, which is the nation you

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Speaker 2: know today. That's how Moov came about. Now you might say,

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Speaker 2: given that Moov had problems with Israel, that this was

377
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Speaker 2: a way of really digging into Moov. Right, look at

378
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Speaker 2: your origins, Moov. It was low laid by his daughter

379
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Speaker 2: and the young one, she too gave birth to a son,

380
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Speaker 2: and his name was ben Ami, son of my nation literally,

381
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Speaker 2: and he is the father of the children of Ammone.

382
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Speaker 2: Until today. This notion that maybe it is because of

383
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Speaker 2: hostility or whatever, that an ignoble beginning is given over

384
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Speaker 2: to Moav and Amon is not true. And here is

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Speaker 2: a point that I would like to make. How many

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Speaker 2: of you think what the daughters did? And don't try

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Speaker 2: to give me what you think. I want the answer

388
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Speaker 2: to be, how many do you think of what the

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00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 2: daughters did was pretty much ignoble, ignoble, non noble, I am.

390
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Speaker 2: I'm trying to put it in an understated way. Okay, almost,

391
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Speaker 2: there's about half of you, I understand. Well, let me

392
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 2: put it the other How many of you think it

393
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:46,040
Speaker 2: was noble? Well, all right, not many, and the others

394
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,320
Speaker 2: are in the middle, ice at maybe five. Why do

395
00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:53,760
Speaker 2: you think it was noble? Is that all your reason?

396
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:56,800
Speaker 2: Anybody who voted have another reason. They thought that they

397
00:28:56,840 --> 00:29:06,160
Speaker 2: were the only people left. Yes, yes, I agree, I agree.

398
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 2: I think it was noble. The Jewish tradition holds that

399
00:29:09,640 --> 00:29:12,280
Speaker 2: it was noble too. I will tell you they thought

400
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,880
Speaker 2: they were the only people left in the world. God

401
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 2: had destroyed the world once and you had this problem.

402
00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 2: Maybe he did it again. Looked around them, all was desolate,

403
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 2: and they had said, remember, there's no man on earth

404
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 2: to come to us. It proceeds. They give the reason.

405
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 2: It's not g wouldn't it be nice delay our father?

406
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:33,080
Speaker 2: That's not what they said. They said there is no

407
00:29:33,120 --> 00:29:35,960
Speaker 2: man on earth to come to us. More than that,

408
00:29:36,080 --> 00:29:39,320
Speaker 2: they also got him drunk, which in this case is

409
00:29:39,360 --> 00:29:47,160
Speaker 2: a favor. He wouldn't have done it sober. Which is

410
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 2: a question. Now, is that noble or non noble? If

411
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 2: you and your daughters are the only people left on earth,

412
00:29:53,640 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 2: is it noble for you to say, hey, incest is bad.

413
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:04,520
Speaker 2: Context determines acts. My friends, if you and your daughters,

414
00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:06,680
Speaker 2: you're a male and you have daughters left, and you're

415
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:10,320
Speaker 2: the only ones on earth, is it a bigger mitzvah

416
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 2: to have life and human beings go on? Or to

417
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 2: say sorry, I prepared to see the world end because

418
00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:28,160
Speaker 2: I am not permitted to commit it. Yes. Well, first

419
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:30,120
Speaker 2: of all, it doesn't say that they didn't have other kids.

420
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Speaker 2: The world started with incest to begin with. I mean,

421
00:30:32,440 --> 00:30:36,240
Speaker 2: there's no way around that. I mean, theoretically, obviously, if

422
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,040
Speaker 2: you started with one couple, clearly the second couple had

423
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:43,120
Speaker 2: to commit incest, it's either with a parent or a sibling.

424
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 2: So presumably you had that here. I mean, they weren't

425
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,160
Speaker 2: the only people in the world left, though, so it

426
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 2: answers your question. That's right. So presumably they'd even have

427
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 2: more kids. They were probably very unhappy that the younger

428
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,760
Speaker 2: one also had a boy, for all we know. Oh god,

429
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:01,880
Speaker 2: now we have to go back to daddy, you know,

430
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:07,040
Speaker 2: Oh boy, look at him. Hey got any more wine? Honey? Yes,

431
00:31:14,600 --> 00:31:17,680
Speaker 2: you think that their motivation was for their pleasure, you

432
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 2: mean physical pleasure of a drunk father. This certainly was

433
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 2: no foreplay. He says that it was for their own

434
00:31:27,640 --> 00:31:29,920
Speaker 2: pleasure to have their own children, rather than propreate to

435
00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 2: the world normally. You know, I don't take breaks in

436
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:33,640
Speaker 2: the middle, but I know that my argument that what

437
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,320
Speaker 2: they did is noble goes against what you're most thinking.

438
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 2: So I'm handling a few questions. My answer to you

439
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,600
Speaker 2: is again clear, they're words, and we can only use

440
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 2: the text that we're given, not reading into it. They

441
00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,040
Speaker 2: did not say so that we can have a child.

442
00:31:47,400 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 2: They said so that we can create, so that we

443
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,800
Speaker 2: could make life from his seed. It was a very

444
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 2: macro as it were ideal not hey boy, I really

445
00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:01,400
Speaker 2: want a kid. No, it was we have to make

446
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 2: life here and there's no there's no man to make

447
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 2: life with us. Now, by the way, there is another argument,

448
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, are they do they do they truly believe

449
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:17,600
Speaker 2: that they are the only ones left in the world,

450
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 2: or that there is no man who's going to simply

451
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,800
Speaker 2: come to them, but there are men elsewhere. In other words,

452
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 2: is it really a belief that they are the last ones?

453
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,719
Speaker 2: And again I have to think, given their language, that

454
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,680
Speaker 2: there's no man on earth to come to us, and

455
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:37,000
Speaker 2: us the last women on earth mother died. I think

456
00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 2: that again it is this this noble idea. Let me

457
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:40,600
Speaker 2: take one or two more, because I do want to

458
00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:45,760
Speaker 2: move on you. In part, they think that they're truthful

459
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 2: and multiplying. Yes, they are thinking, oh no, no, no. I

460
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 2: think that they that it's not merely that they are following. No, no,

461
00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:02,000
Speaker 2: you can't follow the Mitzvah be fruitful and multiply through incest.

462
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 2: The ban on incest is greater than the Mitzvah to

463
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 2: be fruitful and multiply. But that they think that if

464
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 2: they don't, it's the end of the human race. No,

465
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:17,719
Speaker 2: because that one is me being fruitful and multiplying. The

466
00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 2: other is me keeping the word alive. There's a big difference.

467
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

468
00:33:32,760 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

469
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,080
Speaker 2: I think that he would I don't think that he

470
00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,360
Speaker 2: would have done it. There's a point that I want

471
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:45,239
Speaker 2: to make about load and then I'll take the last one.

472
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:50,320
Speaker 2: I'll be with you later. Yes, yes, it is presumed.

473
00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 2: This is one of the seven laws of the children

474
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 2: of Noah. Here is what I want to tell you

475
00:33:55,080 --> 00:34:04,400
Speaker 2: about loath. Loat, just like Noah, is staggeringly passive. Everything

476
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,280
Speaker 2: happens to Loate. Remember I went through the routine with you.

477
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:09,680
Speaker 2: And they picked him up and they set him down,

478
00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:12,279
Speaker 2: remember the angels, And they took him out, They told

479
00:34:12,359 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 2: him to leave, they told him where to go, they

480
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,320
Speaker 2: told him to move, They picked him up, they setted

481
00:34:16,359 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 2: him down. He does nothing. He does nothing here too,

482
00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:25,319
Speaker 2: He gets laid he is actually he his daughters make

483
00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 2: sex on him and he doesn't even know what happened.

484
00:34:30,320 --> 00:34:34,000
Speaker 2: This is a giant loat, a real giant. That's what

485
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:38,040
Speaker 2: That's very important that you realize. This loat is in

486
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:43,120
Speaker 2: some ways representative of very many people. He's not the

487
00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:47,560
Speaker 2: evil of the people of Sidon, but he's not. He's

488
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 2: not great either. He doesn't do anything much. He's there,

489
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 2: Loat is there. At least his wife dallied. She did

490
00:34:58,239 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 2: something in a sense, but he does nothing. Even in

491
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 2: this regard, it's a it's a very he's He's really

492
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:10,960
Speaker 2: one of the most developed, non important characters in the

493
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 2: Torah when you think about it, right, there's a lot

494
00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 2: about him. There's more about him in some ways than

495
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,359
Speaker 2: about Isaac, the second of the Patriot, who is a

496
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,640
Speaker 2: real enigma. What is Isaac's greatness is one of the

497
00:35:23,680 --> 00:35:26,959
Speaker 2: biggest enigmas in the Torah, which will obviously come to later.

498
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:31,479
Speaker 2: But anyway, Lote is just a very passive creature whom

499
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:38,160
Speaker 2: everything is done to him. Okay, the other thing that

500
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 2: I wanted to tell you about was the measure for

501
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 2: measure idea. Remember he had offered his daughters to the

502
00:35:46,760 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 2: men of Sidome. Isn't that fascinating? He had offered his

503
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,480
Speaker 2: daughters to the men of Sidome and he ends up

504
00:35:55,520 --> 00:36:02,920
Speaker 2: sleeping with them. It's really it's extraordinary. I mean, you know,

505
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:06,319
Speaker 2: this is what happened to him. I mean such a

506
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:11,719
Speaker 2: reverse of of what you would have expected. And this

507
00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 2: is a theme that as we live through Genesis will

508
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:21,479
Speaker 2: be the one overwhelmingly most recurring thing that things come

509
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:25,040
Speaker 2: back to you, that what you do to X will

510
00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 2: be done to you. It's not karma, but it is,

511
00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 2: and it is generally true in life that in some

512
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,720
Speaker 2: ways what we do comes back to us. It doesn't

513
00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 2: in the case of unbelievable horror or unbelievable good. Okay,

514
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:47,399
Speaker 2: generally it doesn't. We're talking about normal people and their

515
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 2: effect on them. I mean, obviously doctor Mengela, who committed

516
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:58,320
Speaker 2: heinous experiments on anesthetized human beings as if they were rats,

517
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 2: did not have that happen to him. But we are

518
00:37:02,120 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 2: not doctor Mengela's, nor are we Raoul Wallenberg's. We are

519
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 2: in that vast category of middle which goes from you know,

520
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:15,640
Speaker 2: pretty bad to pretty good, but not the giants of

521
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:19,319
Speaker 2: evil or of good. And most of the time that

522
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 2: is the way the Touris's life happening, that somehow or other,

523
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:27,360
Speaker 2: what you put out does seem to come back to you.

524
00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 2: If you lie, you'll be lied to. That certainly happens

525
00:37:31,080 --> 00:37:34,240
Speaker 2: later with Jacob as you will see as you probably know. Anyway,

526
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:38,600
Speaker 2: it's fascinating how it works there and it worked here.

527
00:37:39,520 --> 00:37:41,920
Speaker 2: These are the daughters he offered, and look at what

528
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:52,040
Speaker 2: happens anyway. That is the theme that ends chapter nineteen.

529
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 2: It's a fascinating story, and it mirrors the one with

530
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,359
Speaker 2: Noah and his sons when he was drunk, though it's

531
00:37:57,400 --> 00:38:00,960
Speaker 2: not clear there what exactly happened. If you recall I

532
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:02,719
Speaker 2: got to hold you, please write it down. I will

533
00:38:02,719 --> 00:38:05,560
Speaker 2: take it. I want to develop one final theme before

534
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 2: I go to chapter twenty that I have been talking

535
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:17,799
Speaker 2: about just briefly in the last two sessions. One of

536
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:21,840
Speaker 2: the most important theme here is treatment of the stranger.

537
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:29,920
Speaker 2: Is love of the stranger? The real greatness of Abraham

538
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 2: and the real sin of Sidome is what? How do

539
00:38:35,040 --> 00:38:38,839
Speaker 2: you know Abraham is a great person? We have met

540
00:38:38,920 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 2: one episode of true greatness for Abraham. Correct? What was it?

541
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:51,480
Speaker 2: His pleading on behalf of Sidome? Correct? Sidome is composed

542
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:56,320
Speaker 2: of people who are utterly different from him. In other words,

543
00:38:56,480 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 2: he reveals his deep love of strangers. What is the

544
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:08,239
Speaker 2: ultimate sin of Sidome? Theme? The Sodamites didn't apparently kill

545
00:39:08,280 --> 00:39:12,880
Speaker 2: each other, They killed any stranger who came bring us,

546
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,760
Speaker 2: the strangers who came to you last night, they tell load,

547
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:19,279
Speaker 2: and I'm telling you. And this is a theme that

548
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,920
Speaker 2: is truly new in my own understanding of both life

549
00:39:23,200 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 2: and of the Torah. The concept of being able to

550
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:32,520
Speaker 2: love the other the different is the single most important

551
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:38,279
Speaker 2: moral theme in life. The Japanese in World War Two

552
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:44,279
Speaker 2: were known for good treatment of fellow Japanese. They would

553
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 2: die for fellow Japanese, they would sacrifice themselves for the emperor,

554
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:55,000
Speaker 2: right as in Kamikazi flights. Their treatment, however, of the stranger,

555
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 2: forget Westerners, Asians, the rape of China. What they did

556
00:39:59,920 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 2: in China, you now know, it is now finally acknowledged

557
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,840
Speaker 2: by the Japanese government, what the Japanese did to Koreans,

558
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:10,080
Speaker 2: where they took tens and tens of thousands of Korean

559
00:40:10,120 --> 00:40:14,279
Speaker 2: women's as forced prostitutes for the Japanese army, as if

560
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 2: they were serviceable like toilets. That's how they were treated,

561
00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 2: of thousands by ten fifteen Japanese soldiers a day, just used.

562
00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:27,880
Speaker 2: It's the Asians, by the way, who fear the Japanese

563
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 2: the most. My point is not anti Japanese. My point

564
00:40:31,239 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 2: is to give you an example of a particularly cohesive,

565
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 2: homogeneous society that Japan wasn't didn't have interaction with non

566
00:40:41,239 --> 00:40:44,560
Speaker 2: Japanese till the nineteenth century. To the best of our knowledge,

567
00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:50,520
Speaker 2: it was an enclosed, hermetically sealed island. Where did civilization

568
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:55,359
Speaker 2: that affected the world come from the Middle East? The

569
00:40:55,400 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 2: Middle East is the place where people most met strangers,

570
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:04,680
Speaker 2: because of economic roots and because of the geographical location.

571
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,520
Speaker 2: The Middle East, the birthplace of Judaism, is the place

572
00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:13,400
Speaker 2: where people most met strangers. It is not coincidental. It

573
00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:16,800
Speaker 2: is not coincidental that the United States of America became

574
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:20,279
Speaker 2: the most important country of the twentieth century, became the

575
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:23,919
Speaker 2: cultural beacon. And I say that both for bad and good.

576
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:27,319
Speaker 2: It's true. It's just as true for garbage movies as

577
00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:30,800
Speaker 2: it is for the Statue of Liberty in tienan Men Square.

578
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:34,200
Speaker 2: But the United States of America is the country that

579
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:40,160
Speaker 2: is most filled with strangers. It has become a political

580
00:41:40,600 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 2: cliche to say that diversity is America's strength, but it

581
00:41:45,719 --> 00:41:51,919
Speaker 2: happens to be true. It comes with vast problems. We're

582
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:55,799
Speaker 2: all aware of that. But the problems derived from the

583
00:41:55,840 --> 00:42:00,040
Speaker 2: fact that it's difficult to love the other, to love

584
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:04,759
Speaker 2: the different. It is extraordinary that it is one of

585
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: the biggest laws of the Torah, repeated, actually repeated in

586
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 2: the Torah, not stated once the ahaftem et Tagerkimertsmitzraian. You

587
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 2: will love the stranger. You know what it is. You

588
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:22,879
Speaker 2: are a stranger in the land of Egypt. Abraham loves strangers.

589
00:42:23,120 --> 00:42:25,520
Speaker 2: The people who show up in the middle of the

590
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,400
Speaker 2: day in the desert are strangers, and look at what

591
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,320
Speaker 2: he does for them. The people of Siddom and Gomorrah

592
00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,360
Speaker 2: are strangers, and look at what he does for them. Look,

593
00:42:34,400 --> 00:42:39,960
Speaker 2: on the other hand, how sidome people treat strangers. They

594
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,359
Speaker 2: are the quintessence of evil. There is no hint that

595
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:49,239
Speaker 2: Sodomites hurt each other. Isn't that interesting, right? It would

596
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,120
Speaker 2: have been. It would have undermined in some ways my theory.

597
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:54,839
Speaker 2: If the sin of Sidame was they all hurt each

598
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,120
Speaker 2: other all the time, It doesn't speak of that. The

599
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,560
Speaker 2: example it gives is the way they treat the nun Sodomite.

600
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 2: This is the trick in life, the ultimate difficulty to

601
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:08,839
Speaker 2: go beyond the family. I've talked to you about this

602
00:43:08,880 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 2: book by Lawrence Harrison, this American both he's been both

603
00:43:13,480 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 2: a professor at Harvard and most of his life in

604
00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 2: US diplomatic core in in USAID. And he wrote this

605
00:43:20,560 --> 00:43:23,360
Speaker 2: book Whose Values, And he taught me, I mean, thanks

606
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,799
Speaker 2: to interviewing on my radio show, I learned about this

607
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,440
Speaker 2: he calls famalism. I told you about it right where

608
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 2: I didn't. Oh God, then that's great. You're in for

609
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,399
Speaker 2: a terrific notion. And how it's so beautiful. I love

610
00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:40,640
Speaker 2: when some ideas, you know, it's like you learn a

611
00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:42,440
Speaker 2: new word. All of a sudden, you see it all

612
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 2: the place. This new concept of loving the stranger comes

613
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,879
Speaker 2: into my life, and then all of a sudden things

614
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,520
Speaker 2: start falling in this guy. Lawrence Harrison asks a question

615
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:54,400
Speaker 2: in a book called I think it's called Whose Values?

616
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,080
Speaker 2: Is that? Oh darn, what's the name? Actually have it?

617
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 2: In my hunt? Who prospers? Thank you very much? Thank you?

618
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:07,360
Speaker 2: Who prospers? And his question is very simple. Why do

619
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:11,960
Speaker 2: some ethnic national groups cultures prosper and others don't. It's

620
00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:15,360
Speaker 2: a very good question. I think why did North America prosper?

621
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 2: In South America didn't? As a sample question, Okay, why

622
00:44:19,560 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 2: to Protestant Europe prosper more than Catholic Europe, and so

623
00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:26,080
Speaker 2: on and so forth. And he has many answers, but

624
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:29,560
Speaker 2: one of them is Germane to our situation. He said,

625
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 2: in the country, in the civilizations that don't prosper, you

626
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:35,600
Speaker 2: have what is traditional and throughout the world, and he

627
00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 2: calls it famalism, where you only believe in your family.

628
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 2: The only people you ultimately can trust are your family members,

629
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 2: even extended family, brothers in law and so on, but

630
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 2: still your family. Those civilizations never progressed. The civilizations rooted

631
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,840
Speaker 2: in the belief that you trust people on the basis

632
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 2: of their achievement and their values, not being family members,

633
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,120
Speaker 2: are the ones that prospered. And he said, there were

634
00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:14,080
Speaker 2: two Jewish and Protestant fascinating and it's understandable. Said in

635
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:17,200
Speaker 2: South America it was, and he shows the description from

636
00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 2: Brazilian anthropologists and so on. He shows that that was it.

637
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 2: That is where the kinship. If there's no kinship, there's

638
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:29,440
Speaker 2: no trust. Same and the same happened elsewhere. But in

639
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 2: Protestant and Jewish society, the issue was what did the

640
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:38,120
Speaker 2: person achieve, not as the person a family member, I mean,

641
00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 2: you know, it's almost a joke. Well, do you trust

642
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:43,279
Speaker 2: your brother in law? It's in our society. It's a joke, right,

643
00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 2: you tell brother in law jokes, I is coming for

644
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:48,560
Speaker 2: another loan. You hear that and adds In South America

645
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 2: you never have such an ad about the brother in law.

646
00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:53,720
Speaker 2: The brother in law is exactly who you trusted, because

647
00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:55,000
Speaker 2: he now joined the Klan.

648
00:45:55,719 --> 00:45:59,040
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

649
00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:08,560
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

650
00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:13,200
Speaker 2: The idea that you transcended family trust out into the

651
00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:17,239
Speaker 2: world is what makes progress possible. I go further. It

652
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 2: is what makes civilization possible. Nothing grows without meeting the

653
00:46:22,239 --> 00:46:28,640
Speaker 2: different when it went into the diaspora. It's a painful

654
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:33,360
Speaker 2: statement from within Judaism because it's considered a tragedy the

655
00:46:33,440 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 2: destruction of the first Jewish state and the temple and

656
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,680
Speaker 2: so on in Jewish history. But the fact is we

657
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:42,799
Speaker 2: have two talmuds in Judaism. Two that Thalma's the most

658
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,440
Speaker 2: important thing in Judaism after the Torah. We have a

659
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:50,120
Speaker 2: Jerusalem Talmut and a Babylonian Talmud. We only use one

660
00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:57,120
Speaker 2: the Babylonian. Isn't that fascinating. The talmud written by the rabbis,

661
00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:02,360
Speaker 2: written by the Jews in intercourse with non Jews, is

662
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 2: the talmud we use, not the one written in the

663
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:16,759
Speaker 2: more or less ethnocentric or homogeneous Israel. Culture progresses from

664
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:22,480
Speaker 2: meeting different people. It's painful, but my friends, it's painful

665
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:26,719
Speaker 2: to grow. Growth is painful individually and in civilization. The

666
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:31,839
Speaker 2: United States of America today is undergoing growth pains of

667
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:37,520
Speaker 2: the first multiracial democracy in the history of humanity. That

668
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:40,439
Speaker 2: is the way we can look at it. It's too

669
00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:43,720
Speaker 2: painful because we see what's going on in the middle.

670
00:47:44,080 --> 00:47:50,480
Speaker 2: The afrocentric movement is like the last gasp of those

671
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 2: who don't want to relate to the stranger in the

672
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 2: black world, like white's supremacy was for the white people. Ironically,

673
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 2: in this regard, whites have made more peace after their

674
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:06,200
Speaker 2: evils of slavery and segregation. Whites have said, Okay, you

675
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,319
Speaker 2: know what, it is a multiracial world and that's the

676
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:13,200
Speaker 2: way it ought to be. Now others have to acknowledge that,

677
00:48:14,000 --> 00:48:18,520
Speaker 2: and you're having deep, deep anxiety about that. At Duke

678
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:22,760
Speaker 2: Universe City, black students are creating a Black center only

679
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 2: for blacks. This will last, I predict one generation. It

680
00:48:28,320 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 2: is a last trust the family only gasp within segments

681
00:48:35,239 --> 00:48:37,560
Speaker 2: of the black community, just as you had that within

682
00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 2: white community, and you'll have that, and you have that

683
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,160
Speaker 2: in the Jewish community. My God, I remember I was raised.

684
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:46,759
Speaker 2: Vote for Jews. I remember that in New York it

685
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:50,319
Speaker 2: didn't matter. What didn't party was irrelevant. As a Jewish name,

686
00:48:50,760 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 2: you checked it off. Jews today laugh at that three

687
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:58,640
Speaker 2: out of the four candidates for Senate in this state

688
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,840
Speaker 2: in nineteen ninety two were Jews, and the amount that

689
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 2: it meant to Jews was virtually zero. By and large,

690
00:49:07,400 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 2: the average Jew couldn't care less if it had been

691
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:18,600
Speaker 2: Christiansen or Boxer or Hershinsen or fines didn't matter, it mattered,

692
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:21,359
Speaker 2: I'll bet to many perhaps in the older generations whom

693
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 2: Jewish names meant a lot, buy and large, though in

694
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:26,120
Speaker 2: Jewish life it didn't mean anything. What did they stand for?

695
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:30,080
Speaker 2: Was the question? It will get that way? The newly

696
00:49:30,520 --> 00:49:36,320
Speaker 2: enfranchised groups, women blacks, some of them not all, still

697
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:39,640
Speaker 2: think in the ways that my parents' generation used to think.

698
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:42,840
Speaker 2: Vote Jewish. Year of the woman I asked on the radio,

699
00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 2: why don't they be more accur what they should call

700
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:48,880
Speaker 2: it the year of the Jew. If three out of

701
00:49:48,960 --> 00:49:53,000
Speaker 2: four senatorial candidates are Jews, then it's much more accurate

702
00:49:53,040 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 2: to call it year of the Jew. But you laughed,

703
00:49:56,280 --> 00:50:01,440
Speaker 2: it's laughable. Who cares. But because women are newly enfranchised,

704
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,839
Speaker 2: they're still in that category, not all those women who

705
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:08,520
Speaker 2: buy into this of trust your own. It's still feminism.

706
00:50:08,640 --> 00:50:10,799
Speaker 2: I want a woman because he's a woman. I want

707
00:50:10,800 --> 00:50:12,560
Speaker 2: a black because he's a black. One is Hispanic because

708
00:50:12,560 --> 00:50:14,920
Speaker 2: he's a Hispanic. That's what happened to Solars why he

709
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,759
Speaker 2: lost a distinguished congressman in Brooklyn. The spanis who said,

710
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:21,440
Speaker 2: how do you have the hutzba? I don't know what

711
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:25,000
Speaker 2: the Spanish word for kutzpaz? How do you have the

712
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:28,440
Speaker 2: kutz but to run a Jew running in a Hispanic district.

713
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:32,360
Speaker 2: This will last a generation for Hispanics. Then the next

714
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:36,439
Speaker 2: group to come in will have their provincialism. And that's

715
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 2: the way it works. The Tora wants you to deprovincialize,

716
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:45,360
Speaker 2: to learn to love the other. It's the most important

717
00:50:45,400 --> 00:50:47,320
Speaker 2: thing we can learn on the face of this earth.

718
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:50,920
Speaker 2: It's important to keep your family, and this is one

719
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:53,880
Speaker 2: of the final points here. There is a fine tension

720
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:58,480
Speaker 2: here that I wish to address. There are Jews, for example,

721
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:02,160
Speaker 2: who not only bought the line that you should rise

722
00:51:02,200 --> 00:51:06,840
Speaker 2: above your birth and your family, they actually bought a

723
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:11,560
Speaker 2: hook line and sinker and said family and group mean nothing.

724
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:16,799
Speaker 2: That's wrong too. The Tora's ideal is not that you

725
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 2: don't belong to a family or that you don't belong

726
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:22,879
Speaker 2: to a group. You should belong to a family, and

727
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:28,920
Speaker 2: you should have an ethnic, national, religious identity. Judaism is

728
00:51:29,000 --> 00:51:34,160
Speaker 2: not against particularism. It is against the particular that destroys

729
00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,880
Speaker 2: the universal. But a universal that destroys the particular is

730
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:41,520
Speaker 2: also not healthy. You are not only a human being.

731
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 2: You are a man or a woman. You are a

732
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:48,359
Speaker 2: member of your family or a different family. You are

733
00:51:48,400 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 2: a Jew or a Christian, or an American or a

734
00:51:50,920 --> 00:51:55,799
Speaker 2: Dutchman or whatever that's important. You should have many identities.

735
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:58,759
Speaker 2: That is healthy. It is not good to say, as

736
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:01,759
Speaker 2: some do, I am only a human being, and some

737
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 2: go even beyond that, I am a living specie. I'll

738
00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:07,799
Speaker 2: never forget I did this with college kids when I

739
00:52:07,840 --> 00:52:11,640
Speaker 2: ran a college age program years ago for many summers,

740
00:52:12,560 --> 00:52:16,560
Speaker 2: and the first night it was at a Jewish Institute,

741
00:52:16,680 --> 00:52:19,319
Speaker 2: so one of the first nights of the month. For

742
00:52:19,400 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 2: the first years, I never liked playing these games, but

743
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:26,480
Speaker 2: this one I found interesting. I said, listen, please go

744
00:52:26,560 --> 00:52:28,840
Speaker 2: into a corner of the room. If you feel that

745
00:52:28,920 --> 00:52:32,359
Speaker 2: your first identity is go into that corner. If it's

746
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 2: male or female, and to that, if it's American, that

747
00:52:35,239 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 2: it's Jewish, that if it's human, okay. And so they

748
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:43,000
Speaker 2: divvied up into four corners more or less. But the

749
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:47,640
Speaker 2: very first year, the kids from Santa Cruz, needless to say,

750
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,239
Speaker 2: immediately said, wait a minute, where is the corner for

751
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 2: all living beings? And of course I was a newcomer

752
00:52:57,520 --> 00:53:00,640
Speaker 2: from the East, and this I felt that I had

753
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:04,520
Speaker 2: entered the twilight zone all living beans. What do you

754
00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:07,160
Speaker 2: mean you feel closer to zebras? I don't understand what

755
00:53:07,160 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 2: are you talking about? So that's right, my first identity

756
00:53:10,800 --> 00:53:13,000
Speaker 2: as a living being with other living beings. So I

757
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,840
Speaker 2: had to make a pentagon rather than a square. Okay,

758
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:19,360
Speaker 2: fifth corner all living beans. And I see this whole

759
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:22,640
Speaker 2: group rush into this corner that I had no idea

760
00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:27,800
Speaker 2: would exists all living beings. That's not healthy. Your first

761
00:53:27,840 --> 00:53:32,080
Speaker 2: identity is with bacteria, is not a good sign. Okay,

762
00:53:33,160 --> 00:53:36,840
Speaker 2: Now you say you have to understand there is a

763
00:53:36,960 --> 00:53:41,840
Speaker 2: tension here, a critical tension between the particular and the universal.

764
00:53:42,600 --> 00:53:46,000
Speaker 2: You shouldn't only have a human identity, but you shouldn't

765
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:50,480
Speaker 2: only have your provincial identity. You need both. You are

766
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:54,879
Speaker 2: first a human being, of course that's true, but that's

767
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,480
Speaker 2: not all you are. You have to have other things too.

768
00:53:58,640 --> 00:54:01,480
Speaker 2: It's like saying, first, I'm a musician. Well that doesn't

769
00:54:01,520 --> 00:54:05,040
Speaker 2: mean a thing. That's true, But what instrument do you play?

770
00:54:05,400 --> 00:54:09,640
Speaker 2: And the orchestral analogy or metaphor is perfect. You must

771
00:54:09,680 --> 00:54:13,440
Speaker 2: blend in the orchestra of humanity or humanity can't make music.

772
00:54:14,400 --> 00:54:17,880
Speaker 2: But you can't play every instrument. You have to specialize

773
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:22,280
Speaker 2: on yours. Is it Jewish? Is it Christian? Is it Muslim?

774
00:54:22,560 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 2: Is it Buddhist? Is it French? Is it American? Is

775
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:28,680
Speaker 2: it you're Aguayan? Those are instruments you play in the

776
00:54:28,800 --> 00:54:32,439
Speaker 2: orchestra of humanity. I don't wax poetics, so I don't

777
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:34,520
Speaker 2: think of this as poetry. I think of it as

778
00:54:34,520 --> 00:54:39,000
Speaker 2: a literal metaphor for how we should approach life. But

779
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 2: the but hear what is being undermined is the notion

780
00:54:45,040 --> 00:54:49,680
Speaker 2: of sticking with your own only. What again, remember the

781
00:54:49,719 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 2: story with Avraham. With Abraham when he went into Egypt

782
00:54:53,080 --> 00:54:56,160
Speaker 2: and he had to tell Sarah, tell him you're my sister,

783
00:54:56,360 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 2: tell him I'm your brother, because they'll see me, they'll

784
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:03,920
Speaker 2: kill me, and they'll take you. Right. Remember that, and

785
00:55:04,000 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 2: we're going to come to it again, by the way,

786
00:55:05,640 --> 00:55:10,319
Speaker 2: in another place called Ghirarar. Right now, what is the

787
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:16,680
Speaker 2: story all about treatment of the foreigner? Abraham is a foreigner.

788
00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:22,600
Speaker 2: They'll kill me. I'm I'm of no worth every story

789
00:55:22,680 --> 00:55:27,920
Speaker 2: in effect, that all the moral stories are about the foreigner,

790
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:31,480
Speaker 2: the stranger, and treating the person. I have one more

791
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 2: point to make in this regard, which is in our

792
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 2: time understandably controversial. I certainly don't mean it to be so.

793
00:55:39,480 --> 00:55:42,919
Speaker 2: I deeply believe that the ban in the Torah, which

794
00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:47,279
Speaker 2: is very early against incest and homosexuality, is part and

795
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,600
Speaker 2: parcel of the desire to learn to love the other.

796
00:55:52,640 --> 00:55:57,000
Speaker 2: In incest, you are loving your family again not good.

797
00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:02,359
Speaker 2: You must love from outside your family. You have to

798
00:56:02,480 --> 00:56:06,239
Speaker 2: learn to love a stranger. In effect, it's easy to

799
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:10,239
Speaker 2: love your sister or your brother. It's too easy, And

800
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:13,360
Speaker 2: it would argue it's too easy to love the same sex.

801
00:56:13,880 --> 00:56:18,240
Speaker 2: You must love to learn the opposite sex. That will

802
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:22,360
Speaker 2: cause you to grow, just as marrying outside your family

803
00:56:22,640 --> 00:56:25,480
Speaker 2: will cause you to grow as well, being able to

804
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,279
Speaker 2: relate to the stranger will cause you to grow. The

805
00:56:28,520 --> 00:56:31,480
Speaker 2: argument that some are born homosexual may or may not

806
00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:34,480
Speaker 2: be true and is irrelevant to the point that some

807
00:56:34,560 --> 00:56:37,359
Speaker 2: people may not be capable of an ideal doesn't make

808
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:41,319
Speaker 2: the ideal unworthy of being pursued. I've always found that

809
00:56:41,480 --> 00:56:45,760
Speaker 2: argument to be a non sequitur. Homosexuals are born that way,

810
00:56:46,400 --> 00:56:48,400
Speaker 2: that may or may not be so, but it's not

811
00:56:48,520 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 2: the point. There are people born in all sorts of ways.

812
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:55,160
Speaker 2: You don't drop an ideal because some people are inherently

813
00:56:55,200 --> 00:56:58,359
Speaker 2: incapable of living it. You don't condemn them for it,

814
00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:01,120
Speaker 2: but you don't hold that the ideal is no longer

815
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:05,839
Speaker 2: worth pursuing. And by the way, it's interesting. I was

816
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:10,000
Speaker 2: just I was talking to a young woman who is

817
00:57:10,080 --> 00:57:14,000
Speaker 2: part time actress, which is most people in southern California,

818
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:21,120
Speaker 2: and she was telling me about how how it's almost

819
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:26,440
Speaker 2: among many of her friends. It's like it's expected that

820
00:57:26,480 --> 00:57:30,800
Speaker 2: you will that you will have homosexual relationships. It's in

821
00:57:30,800 --> 00:57:34,880
Speaker 2: in many quarters to be gay, and that it becomes

822
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:39,520
Speaker 2: she says, for a lot, very very comfortable. It's very

823
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:44,320
Speaker 2: tough to get along with the opposite sex. The battle

824
00:57:44,360 --> 00:57:46,720
Speaker 2: between the sexes is age old, and it will be

825
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:49,720
Speaker 2: age old. It is not easy. It's easier to get

826
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:52,840
Speaker 2: along with your own There's a common myth that men

827
00:57:52,960 --> 00:57:55,240
Speaker 2: really don't know how to make friends with men. Women

828
00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:58,040
Speaker 2: are really great at making friends with women. It is

829
00:57:58,280 --> 00:58:01,240
Speaker 2: one of the biggest myths that I am aware of

830
00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:05,200
Speaker 2: in life. I actually have found more, at least in

831
00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,800
Speaker 2: my generation, more men friends with men than I have

832
00:58:08,880 --> 00:58:11,680
Speaker 2: found women friends, have had women friends, and I know

833
00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:14,720
Speaker 2: a lot of women who like men friends in some ways.

834
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:18,960
Speaker 2: It's an interesting it's it's it's very easy to get

835
00:58:19,080 --> 00:58:22,920
Speaker 2: along with your own sex. Not all of them in

836
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:26,520
Speaker 2: one room for a long time. That doesn't That's often difficult,

837
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,520
Speaker 2: but it is easy. The guy's night out is very

838
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:31,680
Speaker 2: The guy can act or all he wants. We can

839
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,560
Speaker 2: be as primitive as we want, and we are primitive.

840
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:37,320
Speaker 2: Raise a boy and you'll see it's every woman should

841
00:58:37,360 --> 00:58:40,400
Speaker 2: have the opportunity to raise a boy. It would immediately

842
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:46,080
Speaker 2: raise her husband in her eyes immeasurably. You started like this.

843
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:52,000
Speaker 2: You're a giant, you are the greatest. It's incredible. I mean,

844
00:58:52,640 --> 00:59:00,840
Speaker 2: my wife is absolutely befuddled by our son's behavior. To

845
00:59:00,920 --> 00:59:05,320
Speaker 2: a woman, it is revelatory. They're pigs. They are natural pigs,

846
00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:10,800
Speaker 2: and we have to be civilized, and when we are

847
00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:14,640
Speaker 2: with other men we don't have to be. Not that

848
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:17,320
Speaker 2: women are all that pure. Don't get me wrong either,

849
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:19,160
Speaker 2: Because I have a daughter in the house and the

850
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 2: room looked very similar to Sidom on a good day.

851
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:26,240
Speaker 2: I know that too. But she did, she grew out

852
00:59:26,280 --> 00:59:29,919
Speaker 2: of it quite naturally. It was not you know, there's

853
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:32,360
Speaker 2: just like a magic age with most girls where all

854
00:59:32,360 --> 00:59:34,959
Speaker 2: of a sudden she didn't want the room to look

855
00:59:35,720 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 2: like a stable. It just wasn't didn't correspond to her

856
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:45,160
Speaker 2: inner nature at any rate. This need to learn to

857
00:59:45,280 --> 00:59:48,400
Speaker 2: love the other and that that's what makes you grow

858
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:51,520
Speaker 2: is everything. By the way, I'll just give you one

859
00:59:51,560 --> 00:59:54,360
Speaker 2: religious I keep saying final point, but it's so important.

860
00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:57,720
Speaker 2: Every session is one point I like to make in

861
00:59:57,840 --> 01:00:01,280
Speaker 2: greater depth. I want to give you a religious example

862
01:00:01,320 --> 01:00:04,640
Speaker 2: of this that I have found in life. I have

863
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:11,440
Speaker 2: found that, overwhelmingly, with virtually no exceptions, the best religious

864
01:00:11,520 --> 01:00:16,560
Speaker 2: people I have ever met have been religious people who

865
01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:21,760
Speaker 2: have been forced to confront other religious people and irreligious people.

866
01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:30,440
Speaker 2: The most intolerant, the most closed minded of religious people

867
01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:33,960
Speaker 2: have been those who were able to live solely with

868
01:00:34,120 --> 01:00:38,640
Speaker 2: others identical to themselves. I have found this true with Jews.

869
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:40,800
Speaker 2: I have found it true with Christians. I have found

870
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:46,760
Speaker 2: this true with Muslims. You speak to Muslims in Iran,

871
01:00:47,120 --> 01:00:50,520
Speaker 2: where they're all Muslim, and you speak to Muslims in

872
01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:55,000
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, you have met very different people. You speak

873
01:00:55,000 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 2: to Jews in Borough Park, Orthodox Jews in Borough Park,

874
01:00:58,760 --> 01:01:08,200
Speaker 2: and Orthodox Jews in Memphis, and it's very different, very different.

875
01:01:08,600 --> 01:01:11,000
Speaker 2: Because the Orthodox Jew in Barol Park can live his

876
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:15,080
Speaker 2: whole life solely with other Orthodox Jews Borough Park, Brooklyn.

877
01:01:16,120 --> 01:01:18,840
Speaker 2: The Orthodox Jew in the South or in any smaller

878
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:23,200
Speaker 2: city around America or Australia or wherever it is, must

879
01:01:23,200 --> 01:01:29,400
Speaker 2: interact with others non Jews, non religious Jews, non Orthodox Jews,

880
01:01:30,240 --> 01:01:34,200
Speaker 2: and it has an incredible difference in the way they

881
01:01:34,240 --> 01:01:41,920
Speaker 2: conduct themselves. The best people are those who, in my opinion,

882
01:01:42,000 --> 01:01:47,320
Speaker 2: are those who retain their identity while immersing themselves with others.

883
01:01:48,720 --> 01:01:52,240
Speaker 2: It's no trick to lose your identity for a Jew.

884
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:56,320
Speaker 2: To assimilate, for example, is no trick. That's easy, but

885
01:01:56,360 --> 01:02:01,840
Speaker 2: then he's no longer a Jew. The task in life

886
01:02:02,000 --> 01:02:05,840
Speaker 2: is to be who you are and yet immerse yourself

887
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:09,720
Speaker 2: with others as well. That's why I often say to

888
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:12,320
Speaker 2: Jewish groups when I lecture, Jews don't know how to

889
01:02:12,360 --> 01:02:15,680
Speaker 2: deal with nice non Jews. It is a dilemma that

890
01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:18,640
Speaker 2: Jewish life does not know how to deal with. They

891
01:02:18,680 --> 01:02:20,680
Speaker 2: know how to deal with anti Semites because they've been

892
01:02:20,720 --> 01:02:23,040
Speaker 2: used to it for thousands of years. But when non

893
01:02:23,120 --> 01:02:26,280
Speaker 2: Jews are nice, Jews are highly confused. And as I say,

894
01:02:26,440 --> 01:02:30,320
Speaker 2: there are basically two Jewish reactions to nice non Jews,

895
01:02:30,800 --> 01:02:34,160
Speaker 2: the Orthodox and the non Orthodox. The Orthodox reaction is

896
01:02:34,480 --> 01:02:45,600
Speaker 2: avoid them. The non Orthodox reaction is marry them. Jews

897
01:02:45,640 --> 01:02:47,600
Speaker 2: don't know how to deal with nice non Jews. They

898
01:02:47,600 --> 01:02:49,960
Speaker 2: don't know how to stay Jewish and deal with and

899
01:02:50,040 --> 01:02:53,040
Speaker 2: deal with the non Jewish world, so they either leave

900
01:02:53,080 --> 01:02:56,960
Speaker 2: it or assimilate into it. The trick is to be

901
01:02:57,080 --> 01:03:00,160
Speaker 2: who you are and yet deal with the stranger. Then

902
01:03:00,240 --> 01:03:05,600
Speaker 2: you truly grow. That's the ultimate growth. Abraham stayed a Jew.

903
01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:09,720
Speaker 2: Abraham stayed with his covenant with God, but he cared

904
01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:18,760
Speaker 2: about miserable. Excuse me, Sodamites. That's his greatness, And DA's

905
01:03:19,360 --> 01:03:22,880
Speaker 2: the whole theme. By the way, who takes the Jews

906
01:03:22,880 --> 01:03:27,600
Speaker 2: out of Egypt? Who's the Jew? Where was Moses raised?

907
01:03:29,000 --> 01:03:32,920
Speaker 2: It took a Jew who could deal with Egyptians to

908
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:35,160
Speaker 2: take the Jews out of Egypt. By the way, it's

909
01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:37,400
Speaker 2: not uncommon. This is true in a lot of places.

910
01:03:37,640 --> 01:03:42,480
Speaker 2: Napoleon wasn't born in France. Muhammad Ali, the great Egyptian leader,

911
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:46,800
Speaker 2: was not born in Egypt, born in Albania. It's very

912
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:52,480
Speaker 2: common for some truly magnificent leaders to have been been

913
01:03:52,760 --> 01:03:58,120
Speaker 2: from outside and yet retained the identity of the inside.

914
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:02,040
Speaker 2: And that's what our task in life is. It's true

915
01:04:02,040 --> 01:04:04,960
Speaker 2: for everyone. It's true for Christians, it's true for Muslims,

916
01:04:05,000 --> 01:04:09,960
Speaker 2: for Jews, it's easy to stay with the gang, it's

917
01:04:09,960 --> 01:04:12,360
Speaker 2: easy to stay with the sex, it's easy to stay

918
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:15,480
Speaker 2: with the family. That's why, what is the first thing

919
01:04:15,560 --> 01:04:19,520
Speaker 2: God says to Abraham? What's the first thing? He said?

920
01:04:20,520 --> 01:04:28,400
Speaker 2: Get up and leave, leave your home, your family, your land,

921
01:04:29,680 --> 01:04:34,680
Speaker 2: but don't leave me. You must retain your values, you

922
01:04:34,760 --> 01:04:38,640
Speaker 2: must retain your identity, but you have to leave and

923
01:04:38,720 --> 01:04:43,120
Speaker 2: become worldly. That's our task is to become worldly and

924
01:04:43,200 --> 01:04:46,640
Speaker 2: stay who we are. That's what all of this is about.

925
01:04:47,040 --> 01:04:52,920
Speaker 2: And it's just overwhelmingly powerful when it's read that way. Okay,

926
01:04:53,000 --> 01:04:57,400
Speaker 2: any questions on this before we go to chapter twenty one. Yes,

927
01:04:58,640 --> 01:05:02,000
Speaker 2: thought that maybe that would work. It was a delaying tactic.

928
01:05:02,800 --> 01:05:05,880
Speaker 2: I mean it makes sense. I mean if somebody, it's

929
01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:09,760
Speaker 2: almost like a robber comes to your house wants gold,

930
01:05:10,320 --> 01:05:12,919
Speaker 2: and you know that there's gold hidden, you might say, look,

931
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:14,960
Speaker 2: take all the silver. I mean, it's just it's a

932
01:05:15,080 --> 01:05:18,120
Speaker 2: natural reaction. We'll take something. In other words, I won't

933
01:05:18,120 --> 01:05:20,720
Speaker 2: deprive you of the ma, but here take take the women.

934
01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:24,480
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously didn't work, but I think this it's

935
01:05:24,520 --> 01:05:27,680
Speaker 2: a natural human reaction to offer a compensation to a mugger.

936
01:05:27,880 --> 01:05:29,880
Speaker 2: I mean, those were muggers at the door, and he

937
01:05:30,040 --> 01:05:31,520
Speaker 2: just didn't shut it at them. He said, hey, wait

938
01:05:31,560 --> 01:05:46,080
Speaker 2: a minute, don't think I'm going to deprive you guys. Yes,

939
01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:52,840
Speaker 2: I have a feeling that if they were impregnated prior

940
01:05:52,880 --> 01:05:55,360
Speaker 2: to the father, the last thing they would want to

941
01:05:55,360 --> 01:05:58,400
Speaker 2: do is say, you know, it really came from Dad,

942
01:05:59,120 --> 01:06:02,960
Speaker 2: Because even to them, I am sure incest was less

943
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 2: noble than extramarital sex. I mean, remember, those are the

944
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:36,040
Speaker 2: two possibilities, premarital sex from sidome versus incest with their father. Yeah,

945
01:06:36,200 --> 01:06:38,560
Speaker 2: that's reading too much into it. I'm a big believer

946
01:06:38,600 --> 01:06:40,200
Speaker 2: in just sticking to the text. Let me take just

947
01:06:40,240 --> 01:06:54,120
Speaker 2: one more. I'm sorry, and then yeah, no, we don't,

948
01:06:54,920 --> 01:06:57,480
Speaker 2: we don't. It's the the time is not listed. It's

949
01:06:57,560 --> 01:06:59,760
Speaker 2: just clear that they had already lived in this little

950
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:02,720
Speaker 2: city of Tzar, left it and gone to this cave.

951
01:07:03,200 --> 01:07:15,400
Speaker 2: But the amount of time we don't know. Like what,

952
01:07:18,880 --> 01:07:25,200
Speaker 2: uh But Okay, I am not a woman, but I

953
01:07:25,280 --> 01:07:31,280
Speaker 2: claim some degree of knowledge being married to one. So

954
01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:34,760
Speaker 2: most women would not enjoy an act of sex with

955
01:07:34,840 --> 01:07:37,800
Speaker 2: a man who didn't know he was having sex and

956
01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:43,080
Speaker 2: moreover was their father. Okay, this is a really raunchy

957
01:07:43,160 --> 01:07:47,400
Speaker 2: woman you're describing, and we have no basis for holding

958
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:51,200
Speaker 2: that that's what they were. I believe that what it

959
01:07:51,400 --> 01:07:57,160
Speaker 2: says is what is intended. They thought the world would

960
01:07:57,280 --> 01:08:00,720
Speaker 2: end and they wanted to populate it. Let's go to

961
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:05,920
Speaker 2: chapter twenty. Abraham journeyed from there to the region of

962
01:08:05,960 --> 01:08:10,200
Speaker 2: the Negative, settled between Cadacon Schure, and he settled in Gerar,

963
01:08:11,480 --> 01:08:17,879
Speaker 2: And here we go again, and Abraham said to Sarah

964
01:08:17,960 --> 01:08:21,720
Speaker 2: his wife, or of Sarah his wife, as they're translating

965
01:08:21,719 --> 01:08:29,160
Speaker 2: it here, Uh, this is my sister. And Alvimelach sent

966
01:08:29,440 --> 01:08:34,559
Speaker 2: avimel the Mela, Avimelech, the king of Gerar, sent and

967
01:08:35,320 --> 01:08:39,000
Speaker 2: took Sarah. In other words, he sent men to kidnap

968
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:42,759
Speaker 2: her in effect. Now remember that that's very important, because

969
01:08:42,760 --> 01:08:44,880
Speaker 2: you're likely to focus on the fact that he wanted

970
01:08:44,920 --> 01:08:48,879
Speaker 2: to have sex with her, when in fact, the issue

971
01:08:49,320 --> 01:08:53,360
Speaker 2: here is really going to be one of his taking

972
01:08:53,400 --> 01:08:56,840
Speaker 2: a woman of his, just of his in effect kidnapping.

973
01:08:58,360 --> 01:09:03,559
Speaker 2: God came to Avimeleth in a dream of the night.

974
01:09:04,640 --> 01:09:08,000
Speaker 2: Why why didn't it just say in a dream? This

975
01:09:08,280 --> 01:09:13,200
Speaker 2: is more removed. God appears to people in very many

976
01:09:13,240 --> 01:09:18,000
Speaker 2: different guises. Moses is the only one where it was direct.

977
01:09:18,080 --> 01:09:20,040
Speaker 2: Don't ask me what that means, because I haven't had

978
01:09:20,040 --> 01:09:22,759
Speaker 2: the experience, but it's the only one that was direct.

979
01:09:23,200 --> 01:09:26,439
Speaker 2: In all others, it's vision, but yet even more removed

980
01:09:26,439 --> 01:09:28,880
Speaker 2: than vision is in a dream at night. That's why

981
01:09:28,880 --> 01:09:31,479
Speaker 2: he says, a dream at night and he says to him,

982
01:09:31,960 --> 01:09:35,360
Speaker 2: You're gonna die because of this woman who you took.

983
01:09:35,760 --> 01:09:37,040
Speaker 2: She's married to a man.

984
01:09:38,600 --> 01:09:53,440
Speaker 3: Okay, uh, this, this statement by God implies that Avimelech

985
01:09:53,560 --> 01:09:54,639
Speaker 3: would have slept with her.

986
01:09:55,280 --> 01:09:59,120
Speaker 2: Correct, you've taken a woman, and I want you to

987
01:09:59,160 --> 01:10:02,680
Speaker 2: know that she is married to a man. She is

988
01:10:02,680 --> 01:10:05,599
Speaker 2: what does it say, yeah, married, she's a married woman. Okay, right,

989
01:10:07,120 --> 01:10:09,360
Speaker 2: Question number one, do you know how old Sarah is

990
01:10:09,439 --> 01:10:17,599
Speaker 2: at this point? Ninety? Now that's that's quite a woman,

991
01:10:17,840 --> 01:10:24,400
Speaker 2: you gotta admit. The Jewish sources grappled with this. It's

992
01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:27,720
Speaker 2: not every day that men are kidnapping ninety year old

993
01:10:27,720 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 2: women to sleep with them, especially kings who can have anybody.

994
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:37,040
Speaker 2: So the Jewish, some of the rabbis in the tradition

995
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:41,560
Speaker 2: held this, this teaches you how beautiful she was was

996
01:10:42,800 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 2: okay for it's it's it's possible what she gave birth recently,

997
01:10:50,040 --> 01:10:52,760
Speaker 2: so or is about to give birth? Which is it

998
01:10:52,800 --> 01:10:54,559
Speaker 2: that you give birth? Or she didn't give birth yet

999
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:59,559
Speaker 2: she is about to give birth, she has announced and

1000
01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:07,760
Speaker 2: so she really got a revivified look. Apparently it is

1001
01:11:09,080 --> 01:11:12,200
Speaker 2: I have to believe that unless we go into legend

1002
01:11:12,439 --> 01:11:16,120
Speaker 2: that she was of extraordinary beauty and a man who

1003
01:11:16,120 --> 01:11:18,040
Speaker 2: could have any woman in the kingdom, which is what

1004
01:11:18,160 --> 01:11:20,920
Speaker 2: kings could happen the days to take a ninety year

1005
01:11:20,960 --> 01:11:24,160
Speaker 2: old woman. The odds are it was not so much

1006
01:11:24,880 --> 01:11:28,639
Speaker 2: the sex, although it was going to be sex, but

1007
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:32,479
Speaker 2: that it was a the way you would have union

1008
01:11:33,080 --> 01:11:38,360
Speaker 2: with another rich clan, which Abraham represented. It was probably

1009
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:45,639
Speaker 2: to consummate some sort of union with Abraham and his

1010
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:48,799
Speaker 2: plan that this was done. That's the way I read it. Otherwise,

1011
01:11:48,840 --> 01:11:52,320
Speaker 2: it's simply too difficult to imagine that she was ninety

1012
01:11:52,400 --> 01:11:56,800
Speaker 2: years old and just absolutely stunning. It's conceivable. It's just

1013
01:11:56,920 --> 01:12:01,760
Speaker 2: extremely unlikely. But whatever, whatever it is, there's another question here,

1014
01:12:03,640 --> 01:12:08,800
Speaker 2: avimele kidnaps her? Would he have kidnapped her if Abraham

1015
01:12:08,880 --> 01:12:14,200
Speaker 2: had said she was his wife? That's because and you

1016
01:12:14,240 --> 01:12:16,320
Speaker 2: will see why the question is legit. In a moment,

1017
01:12:16,840 --> 01:12:18,840
Speaker 2: God comes to him in the dream, right we're in

1018
01:12:19,040 --> 01:12:25,760
Speaker 2: three now now four Avemelech did not come come near

1019
01:12:25,800 --> 01:12:28,760
Speaker 2: to her, so he did not have sex with her.

1020
01:12:29,520 --> 01:12:33,880
Speaker 2: And he says, my lord is talking to God now,

1021
01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:38,080
Speaker 2: and this is very interesting what he says, hagoi gam

1022
01:12:38,240 --> 01:12:42,519
Speaker 2: sadik tahrog. How is it? I have a translated as

1023
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:44,479
Speaker 2: it took a while for me to figure this one out.

1024
01:12:44,479 --> 01:12:47,840
Speaker 2: The Hebrew, every word is clear, but the syntax isn't

1025
01:12:48,560 --> 01:12:51,240
Speaker 2: now I have here you slay people even though they're

1026
01:12:51,760 --> 01:12:55,320
Speaker 2: even though innocent. What else do you have? Will you,

1027
01:12:55,400 --> 01:12:57,599
Speaker 2: yeah say, will you slay someone even though they're innocent?

1028
01:12:57,680 --> 01:13:06,120
Speaker 2: Is that what you all have? Uh? What translation is that? Okay?

1029
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:09,080
Speaker 2: Righteous nature? Go on? What is it? What is all

1030
01:13:09,120 --> 01:13:17,479
Speaker 2: the words? Okay? What does what does nation mean? In?

1031
01:13:17,479 --> 01:13:23,080
Speaker 2: In Biblical Hebrew? Gui? That's the word gui gui is

1032
01:13:23,120 --> 01:13:25,560
Speaker 2: not pejorative, it's unfortunate. A lot of non Jews and

1033
01:13:25,560 --> 01:13:28,200
Speaker 2: a lot of Jews think it's pejorative. Are they're guy

1034
01:13:28,240 --> 01:13:31,920
Speaker 2: and guya means nations? In fact, Israel is told to

1035
01:13:31,920 --> 01:13:34,040
Speaker 2: be by God, to be a goi kadosh, to be

1036
01:13:34,080 --> 01:13:37,200
Speaker 2: a holy goy a holy nation. It's all goi means.

1037
01:13:37,560 --> 01:13:41,000
Speaker 2: When Isaiah says nation shall not lift sword against nation,

1038
01:13:41,439 --> 01:13:47,559
Speaker 2: loye sa goi el goiv okay, nation against nations shall

1039
01:13:47,600 --> 01:13:52,000
Speaker 2: not lift sword? Okay? So now, but what he's really saying,

1040
01:13:52,240 --> 01:13:57,719
Speaker 2: I think is are you going to slay a good

1041
01:13:57,920 --> 01:14:04,800
Speaker 2: non Jew? Whose argument is he echoing abrahams It is

1042
01:14:05,040 --> 01:14:09,599
Speaker 2: virtually the same language that Abraham used against God earlier

1043
01:14:09,640 --> 01:14:14,120
Speaker 2: with Sadam. Isn't that interesting? Now we got non Jews

1044
01:14:14,200 --> 01:14:18,559
Speaker 2: arguing with God. It's fascinating, but it's it shows the

1045
01:14:18,600 --> 01:14:21,240
Speaker 2: immediate you see of God to the biblical mind in

1046
01:14:21,280 --> 01:14:25,880
Speaker 2: the Torah. You just you, you answer God. The illogical

1047
01:14:25,920 --> 01:14:30,360
Speaker 2: thing would have been I'm quaking. I'm quaking. The Lord

1048
01:14:30,439 --> 01:14:32,919
Speaker 2: is speaking to me, and I said, Hey, wait a minute,

1049
01:14:33,080 --> 01:14:36,599
Speaker 2: you're gonna kill him innocent, non jew or an innocent nation,

1050
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:39,960
Speaker 2: because I'm the head of a nation. So that's that's

1051
01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:47,400
Speaker 2: what he's really asking, because he's not Jewish. Aavi Melch

1052
01:14:47,520 --> 01:14:54,200
Speaker 2: is not Jewish. Yes, it could be an innocent nation.

1053
01:14:54,640 --> 01:14:56,760
Speaker 2: You're right, it could be an innocent nation, but but

1054
01:14:56,880 --> 01:14:59,400
Speaker 2: it adds to the fact that it is not Abrahamic.

1055
01:15:00,520 --> 01:15:03,439
Speaker 2: It's it's just any innocent nation. Well, you're right, it

1056
01:15:03,439 --> 01:15:05,960
Speaker 2: could be that, but but the fact is that it's

1057
01:15:05,960 --> 01:15:08,600
Speaker 2: not a Jewish one. I think there is an underscoring

1058
01:15:08,640 --> 01:15:14,759
Speaker 2: of God's universal morality here that is very critical. So

1059
01:15:14,760 --> 01:15:20,040
Speaker 2: so he goes on. He's continuing his argument to God,

1060
01:15:20,080 --> 01:15:24,439
Speaker 2: his defense for himself. Hey, after all, didn't he say

1061
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:29,040
Speaker 2: to me, she's my sister, And she even said to me,

1062
01:15:29,360 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 2: he's my brother in the simplest, in the purest form

1063
01:15:35,040 --> 01:15:39,759
Speaker 2: of my heart, and with clean with my clean hands.

1064
01:15:40,160 --> 01:15:44,840
Speaker 2: I did this. It's very beautiful in Hebrew. It's with

1065
01:15:44,880 --> 01:15:46,680
Speaker 2: the purity of my heart. I mean, this is an

1066
01:15:46,680 --> 01:15:50,720
Speaker 2: honest Please, why are you gonna kill me? It's not right?

1067
01:15:51,560 --> 01:15:54,160
Speaker 2: She said, she said he's my brother, she said he's

1068
01:15:54,160 --> 01:15:54,719
Speaker 2: my sister.

1069
01:15:55,680 --> 01:16:00,880
Speaker 5: However, ladies and gentlemen, as innocent as his argument may be,

1070
01:16:01,920 --> 01:16:06,400
Speaker 5: what did he not defend himself against ten napping?

1071
01:16:09,040 --> 01:16:14,200
Speaker 2: So before you get totally taken with Avimella, please remember

1072
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:17,240
Speaker 2: he took a woman. He sent people to grab a

1073
01:16:17,280 --> 01:16:21,680
Speaker 2: woman's so far, you know that could be lost on

1074
01:16:21,680 --> 01:16:25,240
Speaker 2: anybody who reading this. You know, really, poor guy, he

1075
01:16:25,280 --> 01:16:28,439
Speaker 2: only slept with her because he kidnapped her, not because

1076
01:16:28,479 --> 01:16:32,439
Speaker 2: he knew she was married. Oh, that's okay. You realize

1077
01:16:32,439 --> 01:16:34,479
Speaker 2: a lot of world that they were living in in

1078
01:16:34,479 --> 01:16:36,280
Speaker 2: that day, that's not an issue. You could take any

1079
01:16:36,280 --> 01:16:39,439
Speaker 2: woman off the street to bed with you. But if

1080
01:16:39,479 --> 01:16:42,880
Speaker 2: she's married, that that's why. It's almost as if he

1081
01:16:42,920 --> 01:16:45,360
Speaker 2: doesn't even realize there was anything wrong in taking a

1082
01:16:45,400 --> 01:16:48,320
Speaker 2: woman off the street. Everybody who can do that is powerful,

1083
01:16:48,400 --> 01:16:55,200
Speaker 2: does that, but a man's wife that's already a separate story. So,

1084
01:16:55,800 --> 01:16:57,800
Speaker 2: and by the way, it is a separate story. We

1085
01:16:57,880 --> 01:17:01,120
Speaker 2: have every reason to believe that this guy was a

1086
01:17:01,120 --> 01:17:05,840
Speaker 2: decent guy, as decency went in those days. Okay, now

1087
01:17:05,840 --> 01:17:09,559
Speaker 2: I mean that sincerely. I will add by the way

1088
01:17:09,960 --> 01:17:17,760
Speaker 2: that the Ramdan medieval Jewish commentator holds holds Abraham a

1089
01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:22,519
Speaker 2: guilty over here, he says, is it entirely an issue

1090
01:17:22,560 --> 01:17:26,799
Speaker 2: of Abraham's suspicions. This is a very decent place Garar,

1091
01:17:27,479 --> 01:17:32,639
Speaker 2: and he attributed to them actions that were that they

1092
01:17:32,640 --> 01:17:38,160
Speaker 2: had no reason to do so. Of course, Abraham had

1093
01:17:38,200 --> 01:17:42,439
Speaker 2: just pins to Sidome, had gone through this thing in Egypt,

1094
01:17:42,920 --> 01:17:45,960
Speaker 2: so he had some reason to be suspicious. But the

1095
01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:50,799
Speaker 2: fact is that not everybody's the same. Gharar is not Egypt.

1096
01:17:51,600 --> 01:17:54,439
Speaker 2: In Egypt, we didn't have the innocence quite. Remember we

1097
01:17:54,479 --> 01:17:57,559
Speaker 2: had that story earlier in here, which is almost an

1098
01:17:57,600 --> 01:18:01,120
Speaker 2: echo of that story. It's different at any rate, he says.

1099
01:18:01,360 --> 01:18:03,880
Speaker 2: By the way, you notice what he says. He says,

1100
01:18:05,560 --> 01:18:10,679
Speaker 2: my heart blameless and my hands clean. Now, in other words,

1101
01:18:11,680 --> 01:18:15,519
Speaker 2: I didn't touch her. Neither in my heart did I

1102
01:18:15,600 --> 01:18:18,639
Speaker 2: want to take a man's husband, nor with my hands

1103
01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:22,080
Speaker 2: that I actually do anything. So both parts of me,

1104
01:18:22,600 --> 01:18:26,240
Speaker 2: my actions and my heart are clean, is his argument

1105
01:18:26,280 --> 01:18:31,000
Speaker 2: to God. So God says to him as six, in

1106
01:18:31,080 --> 01:18:38,000
Speaker 2: the dream, I also know that in blameless heart you

1107
01:18:38,120 --> 01:18:43,880
Speaker 2: did this, and so I prevented you or kept you,

1108
01:18:44,160 --> 01:18:49,400
Speaker 2: saved you from sinning against me. And that's why I

1109
01:18:49,439 --> 01:18:53,880
Speaker 2: didn't allow you to touch her. Now, how is that

1110
01:18:54,000 --> 01:18:56,559
Speaker 2: possible that he didn't allow her to touch He didn't

1111
01:18:56,600 --> 01:18:58,840
Speaker 2: allow him to touch her? Is it because of the

1112
01:18:58,920 --> 01:19:03,439
Speaker 2: dream that prevented him from touching her? So it's a

1113
01:19:03,520 --> 01:19:07,840
Speaker 2: little odd, though, you have to realize because first of all,

1114
01:19:07,920 --> 01:19:10,200
Speaker 2: the assumption is that they would have had sex and

1115
01:19:10,240 --> 01:19:13,320
Speaker 2: then he had his dream, not that he slept and

1116
01:19:13,360 --> 01:19:15,360
Speaker 2: then had it. I mean, that's the normal way that

1117
01:19:15,400 --> 01:19:20,559
Speaker 2: those things work. What prevented him from doing this? And

1118
01:19:20,600 --> 01:19:23,320
Speaker 2: the assumption is that God did a physical thing to

1119
01:19:23,400 --> 01:19:27,360
Speaker 2: him to prevent him from possibly having relations with her.

1120
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:31,680
Speaker 2: And you will see that in a moment. Seven. So

1121
01:19:31,880 --> 01:19:38,120
Speaker 2: now a return the wife of the man. And because

1122
01:19:38,240 --> 01:19:43,880
Speaker 2: now and because he is a prophet, he will pray

1123
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:47,240
Speaker 2: on your behalf and you will live. But if you

1124
01:19:47,320 --> 01:19:50,920
Speaker 2: don't return, know that you will die and everything that

1125
01:19:50,960 --> 01:19:53,600
Speaker 2: you have will die. Okay, By the way, this is

1126
01:19:53,640 --> 01:19:56,400
Speaker 2: an extremely interesting statement. First of all, it's the first

1127
01:19:56,400 --> 01:20:01,080
Speaker 2: prayer in the Bible of one person on behalf of another.

1128
01:20:02,560 --> 01:20:05,640
Speaker 2: It's an interesting just an interesting concept. It's also the

1129
01:20:05,640 --> 01:20:10,640
Speaker 2: first mention of a prophet. Nav. It's very unfortunate, incidentally,

1130
01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:13,280
Speaker 2: that the word is nav or prophet. Excuse me, it's

1131
01:20:13,360 --> 01:20:16,360
Speaker 2: very unfortunate to the English is prophet? Nav does not

1132
01:20:16,479 --> 01:20:21,800
Speaker 2: mean profit, Nave means spokesman. It would be a lot

1133
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:28,440
Speaker 2: better if the English were consonant with the Hebrew Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses.

1134
01:20:29,160 --> 01:20:33,800
Speaker 2: These are spokesmen. That's what an ave is. They are

1135
01:20:33,800 --> 01:20:36,439
Speaker 2: not prophets. When you hear the word prophet, you think

1136
01:20:36,479 --> 01:20:41,479
Speaker 2: of a soothsayer, right, a fortune teller. And that's not

1137
01:20:41,479 --> 01:20:46,160
Speaker 2: what prophets are. They're merely mouthpieces for God. Anyway, he

1138
01:20:46,280 --> 01:20:49,800
Speaker 2: is an ave, and he will pray for you. Eight

1139
01:20:52,080 --> 01:20:56,160
Speaker 2: once again, Alvimelach got up early in the morning and

1140
01:20:56,280 --> 01:21:01,519
Speaker 2: he called to all his slaves or servants servants is better,

1141
01:21:01,960 --> 01:21:06,280
Speaker 2: and he said, all these words in their ears? See

1142
01:21:06,280 --> 01:21:08,120
Speaker 2: how many of you have? That's interesting? How many of

1143
01:21:08,120 --> 01:21:13,040
Speaker 2: you have in the in their ears? How many don't

1144
01:21:13,080 --> 01:21:16,639
Speaker 2: have in their ears? See, now that's an interesting thing.

1145
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:21,040
Speaker 2: How could a translation avoid a word? You know, even

1146
01:21:21,080 --> 01:21:22,880
Speaker 2: though it's a little awkward, it should I think it

1147
01:21:22,920 --> 01:21:25,120
Speaker 2: should be there. That's that's what happens with a lot

1148
01:21:25,120 --> 01:21:29,760
Speaker 2: of those and the and the people were very afraid. Right,

1149
01:21:30,040 --> 01:21:33,840
Speaker 2: you got that and debate who are they afraid of?

1150
01:21:33,840 --> 01:21:38,599
Speaker 2: Ave emelth her God. I don't know. I must tell you,

1151
01:21:38,640 --> 01:21:41,720
Speaker 2: I don't know. Probably God, but we don't know. It's

1152
01:21:41,760 --> 01:21:44,120
Speaker 2: just there was an interesting it was an interesting question

1153
01:21:44,200 --> 01:21:52,120
Speaker 2: that occurred to me, probably both frankly. Okay. Nine, so

1154
01:21:52,240 --> 01:21:55,000
Speaker 2: Avimela called to Abraham and said to him, what did

1155
01:21:55,040 --> 01:21:57,879
Speaker 2: you do to us? And why did I sin against

1156
01:21:57,880 --> 01:22:03,000
Speaker 2: you that you brought on me and on my kingdom

1157
01:22:03,600 --> 01:22:07,200
Speaker 2: this great iniquity? Or now what do you have? This

1158
01:22:07,439 --> 01:22:12,080
Speaker 2: brought upon me? This great wat guilt? Sin? This is

1159
01:22:12,120 --> 01:22:17,000
Speaker 2: a real problem. The Hebrew was sin, yet it is there,

1160
01:22:17,600 --> 01:22:21,320
Speaker 2: and sin and guilt are not the same things. So

1161
01:22:22,479 --> 01:22:26,599
Speaker 2: that what you brought upon me, this great sin, seems

1162
01:22:27,000 --> 01:22:29,559
Speaker 2: that's the Hebrew. And it makes sense to me. You

1163
01:22:29,640 --> 01:22:32,680
Speaker 2: brought upon me to make a big sin. Are you

1164
01:22:32,760 --> 01:22:35,280
Speaker 2: with me? That that's what? Really? Apparently it is and

1165
01:22:35,640 --> 01:22:42,760
Speaker 2: guilt both are true h things that just aren't done

1166
01:22:43,360 --> 01:22:47,720
Speaker 2: you have done with me. Ten So Avi Melv said

1167
01:22:47,840 --> 01:22:51,760
Speaker 2: to Avraham. And Avi Melv said to Abraham, what did

1168
01:22:51,800 --> 01:22:56,000
Speaker 2: you see that you did such a thing. That's a

1169
01:22:56,000 --> 01:23:00,880
Speaker 2: fair question. That's ram Band's question. Why did Abraham feel

1170
01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:03,240
Speaker 2: he had to lie? What was it about the city

1171
01:23:03,280 --> 01:23:06,920
Speaker 2: of Gharar or the kingdom of Garar that made him

1172
01:23:06,960 --> 01:23:09,400
Speaker 2: think he had to lie. That's what the king of

1173
01:23:09,439 --> 01:23:12,600
Speaker 2: Garara is asking. And here is the answer. And I

1174
01:23:12,680 --> 01:23:15,439
Speaker 2: explained this when the same thing happened with the Pharaoh

1175
01:23:15,520 --> 01:23:20,040
Speaker 2: in Egypt eleven. And Avraham said, because I said, there's

1176
01:23:20,200 --> 01:23:22,760
Speaker 2: just no fear of God in this place, and they

1177
01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:25,920
Speaker 2: will kill me because of my wife. In other words,

1178
01:23:26,040 --> 01:23:29,080
Speaker 2: they'll kill me to take you. They don't take men's wives,

1179
01:23:29,280 --> 01:23:32,200
Speaker 2: but if they're widows, there's no problem. I mean, that's

1180
01:23:32,240 --> 01:23:36,760
Speaker 2: an effect what he's saying. But that's of course the point.

1181
01:23:36,800 --> 01:23:39,880
Speaker 2: He had a sense there's no fear of God here.

1182
01:23:39,920 --> 01:23:42,320
Speaker 2: Now this is a fascinating thing. And with this I'll

1183
01:23:42,320 --> 01:23:50,560
Speaker 2: have to conclude. As I've told you, not in this series,

1184
01:23:50,840 --> 01:23:54,439
Speaker 2: but in the previous ones. The Torah holds that the

1185
01:23:54,479 --> 01:23:57,599
Speaker 2: basis of morality is fear of God. That if there

1186
01:23:57,640 --> 01:24:00,479
Speaker 2: isn't a God who says thou shalt not murder, and

1187
01:24:00,760 --> 01:24:03,200
Speaker 2: you have no sense of a God who stands behind

1188
01:24:03,240 --> 01:24:05,920
Speaker 2: it to whom you're accountable that society will not be

1189
01:24:05,960 --> 01:24:09,040
Speaker 2: in good society. I fully subscribe to that. What ethical

1190
01:24:09,080 --> 01:24:13,120
Speaker 2: monotheism is about God is the source of ethics. Now

1191
01:24:13,320 --> 01:24:17,040
Speaker 2: Here is the question, what exactly did Abraham see in

1192
01:24:17,080 --> 01:24:19,280
Speaker 2: Gerar that made him think that there's no fear of

1193
01:24:19,320 --> 01:24:24,640
Speaker 2: God here? It wasn't sa Dome. And I have to

1194
01:24:24,960 --> 01:24:30,360
Speaker 2: say that the probable answer is this, he probably didn't

1195
01:24:30,479 --> 01:24:35,320
Speaker 2: yet fully realize that others could fear the God who

1196
01:24:35,320 --> 01:24:40,519
Speaker 2: had revealed himself to him. He feels himself the first monotheist,

1197
01:24:41,320 --> 01:24:46,120
Speaker 2: so he doesn't think that others could have either non

1198
01:24:46,240 --> 01:24:50,759
Speaker 2: Jews or non Abrahamics or non Monotheists could have fear

1199
01:24:50,800 --> 01:24:54,280
Speaker 2: of God. Do you get what I'm saying? That? And

1200
01:24:55,040 --> 01:24:57,519
Speaker 2: his God may not have yet been in his own

1201
01:24:57,600 --> 01:25:03,240
Speaker 2: mind fully universal. You mean others know about you? You

1202
01:25:03,320 --> 01:25:05,719
Speaker 2: get what I'm saying. That's what I think the issue

1203
01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 2: is because we haven't the slightest basis upon which to

1204
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:12,960
Speaker 2: hold that Gharar was a bad place. And we'll see

1205
01:25:13,040 --> 01:25:15,479
Speaker 2: next time that he treats him very decently, the king

1206
01:25:15,520 --> 01:25:18,160
Speaker 2: of Garar, and truly was innocent of what he was

1207
01:25:18,200 --> 01:25:21,960
Speaker 2: accused of doing. He was not quite the slimy guy

1208
01:25:22,000 --> 01:25:26,360
Speaker 2: that the Pharaoh in Egypt was. But Abraham is learning

1209
01:25:27,000 --> 01:25:30,120
Speaker 2: that God is universal and that knowledge of God and

1210
01:25:30,200 --> 01:25:32,519
Speaker 2: fear of God may be outside of my religion. And

1211
01:25:32,600 --> 01:25:35,360
Speaker 2: let me tell you something. This is a lesson that

1212
01:25:35,439 --> 01:25:39,679
Speaker 2: a lot of monotheists today don't have. There are people,

1213
01:25:39,960 --> 01:25:45,160
Speaker 2: in particular, there are some Christians and there are some Muslims. This,

1214
01:25:45,240 --> 01:25:47,720
Speaker 2: I must say, does not afflict Jews. Funny things do

1215
01:25:47,840 --> 01:25:51,040
Speaker 2: This doesn't who really don't in their heart and in

1216
01:25:51,080 --> 01:25:55,760
Speaker 2: their theology acknowledge that there are people in other religions

1217
01:25:55,920 --> 01:26:00,040
Speaker 2: who are God fearing. If you don't believe in Jesus,

1218
01:26:00,080 --> 01:26:02,519
Speaker 2: you can be all the nice things in the world.

1219
01:26:02,720 --> 01:26:05,599
Speaker 2: But if you don't affirm Jesus, how can you call

1220
01:26:05,640 --> 01:26:10,080
Speaker 2: yourself a believer. There are some Muslims, even though it

1221
01:26:10,160 --> 01:26:13,720
Speaker 2: goes against their own theology, because Muslim theology holds that

1222
01:26:13,720 --> 01:26:16,559
Speaker 2: there are Christians and Jews, and they are Monotheists. They

1223
01:26:16,560 --> 01:26:19,439
Speaker 2: are believers there it's listed in the Quran. But if

1224
01:26:19,479 --> 01:26:24,479
Speaker 2: you ask Komene, Jews are intrinsically incapable of being God fearing.

1225
01:26:25,280 --> 01:26:28,559
Speaker 2: The Jews are cursed by by their very birth, would

1226
01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:33,680
Speaker 2: be a Kromene attitude. The notion that there could be

1227
01:26:33,760 --> 01:26:37,479
Speaker 2: truly good and religious people outside of my group is

1228
01:26:37,520 --> 01:26:41,120
Speaker 2: another part of growing up, another part of what I

1229
01:26:41,160 --> 01:26:45,040
Speaker 2: said earlier, of learning about the stranger my motto. After

1230
01:26:45,120 --> 01:26:49,000
Speaker 2: ten years, I did the show on religion for ten years,

1231
01:26:49,040 --> 01:26:52,479
Speaker 2: Religion on the Line, where I moderated a priest, rabbi, minister,

1232
01:26:52,600 --> 01:26:55,479
Speaker 2: and fourth religion frequently, and I did this every week,

1233
01:26:56,640 --> 01:26:59,000
Speaker 2: and after years, I said, this is the biggest thing

1234
01:26:59,040 --> 01:27:03,919
Speaker 2: I learned. The day you meet someone of another religion

1235
01:27:04,760 --> 01:27:09,320
Speaker 2: whom you feel is at least as good, at least

1236
01:27:09,320 --> 01:27:12,519
Speaker 2: as intelligent, and at least as religious as you think

1237
01:27:12,560 --> 01:27:15,040
Speaker 2: you are, you will never be the same the rest

1238
01:27:15,040 --> 01:27:21,120
Speaker 2: of your life. Abraham had not yet met people that

1239
01:27:21,200 --> 01:27:25,120
Speaker 2: would jolt him into realizing there are year alo him,

1240
01:27:25,280 --> 01:27:30,160
Speaker 2: there are God fearers outside of my group. He just assumes,

1241
01:27:30,960 --> 01:27:34,479
Speaker 2: goes into gar gee, none of them are like this,

1242
01:27:34,960 --> 01:27:38,639
Speaker 2: And it turns out he was wrong. See in two weeks.

1243
01:27:38,720 --> 01:27:42,080
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, this has.

1244
01:27:42,000 --> 01:27:46,639
Speaker 1: Been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit Dennisprager dot com

1245
01:27:46,680 --> 01:27:50,200
Speaker 1: for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic

1246
01:27:50,280 --> 01:27:54,240
Speaker 1: radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles