In this hour‑long episode of Timeless Wisdom, Dennis Prager delivers a lecture that weaves together a theological overview of the Torah with a detailed analysis of the Exodus plagues. He begins by asserting that Genesis 1 teaches the central doctrine that God is above and controls nature, establishing a universal theme of monotheism that contrasts with the particular narrative of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. Prager explains that the particular story serves to teach a universal lesson: humanity must choose to worship God rather than nature, which he characterizes as amoral, impersonal, and unholy. He critiques pantheism and modern “nature worship,” arguing that nature cannot be moral or holy. He then outlines three purposes of the ten plagues—retributive (punishing Egypt for its crimes), coercive (forcing Pharaoh to release the Israelites), and educative (teaching both Egyptians and Jews about the true God). Prager provides a pattern analysis of the plagues, noting groups of three, forewarnings, and the unique tenth plague. He offers naturalistic explanations for the first two plagues (blood in the Nile and frogs) while emphasizing their symbolic attack on Egyptian deities. Throughout, he redefines the Hebrew term navi as “spokesperson” rather than a fortune‑teller, and he discusses the moral versus natural impulses of humans, using historical examples of violence and oppression. Prager also recommends four major biblical commentaries (Winthrop Plaut, the Jewish Publication Society, Nahum Sarna, Rabbi Dr. Hertz, and Nehama Leibowitz) for further study. Near the end, he reflects on the dysfunctional families in Genesis, the ethics of blood relations, and his personal advocacy for adoption. The episode includes two commercial breaks (AARP and Chevron) that are unrelated to the theological content.
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On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
When I taught Genesis 1, I showed the, the, the absolute centrality of the teaching that God is not in nature. God is above nature and controls nature, that that is the purpose of Genesis 1. Arguably the most important chapter in the Torah. But now that's the most important universal chapter. This is the most important, as it were, chapters specific to the Jews. There are 2 themes in the Torah, the universal and the particular. Universal is God creates the world. The particular is God takes the Jews out of Egypt. But the, but the purpose of the particular is to teach a universal lesson. Again, the greatest theme of the Torah is which will you human beings worship, God or nature? All paganism can be summarized, all polytheism can be summarized as the worship of nature. That is the reason, not because they had 55 or 100 or 10,000 gods. That it's a problem. That's a, that's a little problem. The number issue. The bigger problem by far is the adulation of, of nature. It is happening in our own time, and that's why I said it should shake you up because you would think it'll shake you up for one of two reasons. One, Because you would've thought the battle was long ago won, or 2, because a little part of you worships nature. And the truth is, it would not be surprising if you are in any way representative of modern, uh, educated Americans who are not, uh, particularly involved in, in conscious, organized monotheistic religion, especially if you're of my generation or younger. That you do have elements of nature worship left.
That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs. And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to dennisprager.com.
Okay. Uh, where was I? Yes. A very interesting— last night at this, uh, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, in the midst of this, uh, during the intermission of this really once-in-a-lifetime type concert, the, um, there were many speakers, including Rabbi Hayer, the head of the, uh, Wiesenthal Center. And, uh, Rabbi Hayer is an Orthodox Jew, and he noted, uh, in speaking about The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, uh, that considered one of the greatest, 2, 3 greatest Orthodox Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, Rabbi Soloveitchik, had said, and again, I must recall this is an Orthodox rabbi, said, uh, that the twin pillars or whatever the phrase was of, of, of Judaism was, is the holiness of the land and the holiness of the Jewish people. And he said, and if they ever come in conflict, there is no question that the holiness of the people is much greater than the holiness of the land. And, uh, and he used a good term. He said, uh, the soul of Israel is more important than the soil of Israel. And, uh, that is a, an Orthodox rabbi speaking. For, for those of us who are not Orthodox, to say that is easier, as it were. And, uh, so that, uh, the answer is yes, this is the rift. Uh, but, uh, did God give the, uh, did God give the land to Israel or did the Israeli army, the Israeli Defense Forces?
Right.
That's a legitimate question. And when God gave the land, uh, it was not intended that it have a million inhabitants. who shared, uh, a different religion than, uh, than the Jews did. So I've never utilized that. I, and I find in any event, I spoke about this with you last week, the, uh, the use of the notion of God speaking, God doing, God this is very complex in, in our age. Uh, and to utilize God, I mean, uh, let, raises a number of difficult issues. Did God really win the Six-Day War? Well, then where was God in the Holocaust? See, I don't have a problem with God and the Holocaust. I don't, I have emotional, but I don't have a theological problem because I believe that God allows people to do good and evil. And if people wish to build gas chambers, God allows that. So I have never had that theological problem. But I don't like loading all the dice in God's favor. When it's good for the Jews, God is operative. When it's bad for the Jews, God is absent. Humans killed, uh, killed Jews and humans won the Six-Day War. You can't, and likewise atheists do the opposite. Atheists say, ah, you see all the evil, it shows God doesn't exist. To which the question is, okay, if evil argues against God, then doesn't goodness argue for God? Doesn't the birth of a child, you know, the, the union of, of sperm and egg does not argue for God? Which is why I believe what people do with God and so much else in life is they simply offer evidence to support their previously held opinion. You see?
Yeah.
I never really mind disagreeing with people. The only thing that gets me angry, in case you heard my show today, it was my biannual blast. I, uh, about every 6 months I yell at somebody. Today was one of those, uh, times. And what annoyed me was not that we disagreed. I, I'd say half my callers disagree with me. It was the absence of, of logic and the, and the, uh, the offering of evidence only in support of one idea. And that is just, that's dishonest. I have opinions, you have opinions, and that's okay. If someone wants to say we shouldn't give back the land because of X, Y, and Z, that's fine with me. That's a respectable opinion. Okay. It endangers Israel. The Arabs are not democratic regimes. Uh, it's wholly, even that is okay. I, I can, I can respect that opinion though. I'm on the other side. I do not respect though this loading of the dice on the issue of God in the direction of US prejudice. I don't believe in God, so I therefore will tell you all the evil in the world, but the good doesn't argue for God. It's if you put a, a God in court, the atheist only allows the prosecution to speak. Likewise, on the other side, oh, God gave us the land. Well, I— then God gave us the Holocaust. You can't have it one way. If God gave the land in the Six-Day War, God gave Auschwitz during World War II. Okay? I don't like— I don't understand the argument that he only operates when we like the results. Okay? So does that answer your question? Oh, this is one of many because after all in Genesis is where it begins. God saying this. This is simply a restatement of God's pledge to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Yes. Right. God, that's a good kill, aren't they? So the what the gods want to present today to them we ought to have slaughtered everything in the areas that we occupy with Judaism. Yeah, well, as it happens, sir, did everybody hear his question? As it happens, Mayor Kahane would not have been terribly opposed to the reading you just offered. When he was asked by the Baltimore Jewish Times in 1985, they said, well, you want to, quote unquote, transfer, expel all the Arabs from the West Bank. And then they asked him, well, what if they don't go? To which he responded, well, shoot her. So, and I'm sure he felt he had biblical authorization to do so. It's very complex, uh, all these issues. It's, it's distressing. See, what's distressing, my friends, is, uh, when the thing you love most is used for ugliness. And I love Judaism. very deeply. And when I see it used for ugliness, it's a very painful process. As I have no doubt that, uh, not only no doubt, I know for a fact that a very good Muslim friend of mine is actually, uh, depressed.
Hmm.
I think he's entered, I don't know if he's clinically depressed. Uh, if he were, he could take Prozac and it would help. Uh, unfortunately his depression is deeper than clinical. It, it, it's, it's worthwhile. Uh, it, it, it's, it's a, a rational reaction to what he sees happening to Islam with groups like Islamic Jihad and, and, uh, and Hezbollah and Hamas. And, you know, he knows this is a religion of beauty and peace and tolerance. And, and, and look at what he sees going on in the name of Islam in the world that has results from what he loves. But it happens, whatever, whatever you believe in, it's happened to your ideal. Do you believe in humanity? Look at what the communists did in the name of humanity and progress and socialism. There is no ideal on earth, no beautiful thought that some group, forget individuals, has not made terribly ugly. And all you can do then is try to do the right thing with that ideal rather than abandon it, unless you believe that the ideal is corrupt in and of itself and must lead to the evil done in its name, which is a challenge every one of us has to ask. As a religious Jew, I've had to ask myself, are there anything, is there anything in Judaism that could in fact lead to, to doing evil? And the answer is yes, there are. But I don't abandon it any more than I abandon America because their, uh, the Dred Scott decision ruled that the Blacks weren't fully human. What you do is correct unless you believe it's born in original sin. The fascist idea is born into original sin. Certain aspects of, of, of other ideas are, and some ideas are likely to cause, uh, evil, like the belief, for example, in the value of blood. That is not, that is an idea that has so little good that comes out of it. The, the, the amount of evil that comes out of the belief in the importance of blood is so much greater than any good that comes out of it. The ownership of children on the micro and the, uh, destruction of other races in the macro. How did, how are the Serbians doing what they're doing now except for a belief that your blood is different? And yet there were Jews who believed that non-Jewish blood is different from Jewish blood, and they are not, uh, insignificantly small. So it's, uh, uh, a friend of mine, Rabbi, uh, Irving Greenberg, has a great motto. Whenever he stands up before a Jewish group, he says, uh, I don't care what denomination you're a member of as long as you're ashamed of it. It's a terrific, terrific statement. And what he's saying is, whatever group we're in, we have, we have to be humble about it, knowing that it has had a lot of corruption. There is no group without it. It's a romantic Jewish notion. Jews don't kill Jews. Yeah. By and large, since 1945, the remain— the remaining groups of, from the Holocaust survivors haven't shot each other. Uh, but in Jewish history, this was not true. Uh, in fact, uh, there is in the Jerusalem Report, there was an interesting suggestion that the rabbis declared the day that Rabin was assassinated. I actually think we could do without some of that. Yes. Oh yes. You, this gentleman wanted to know, uh, ask me, uh, what, uh, what references do I use, for example, right? Uh, to, uh, for biblical study. Uh, let me give you, uh, 4. A, a Reformed, a Conservative, and an Orthodox. Uh, and, uh, a, a 4th that is, uh, a, um, compilation of ideas. The Reformed is, uh, Rabbi Winthrop Plaut's Commentary on the Torah. And it is, these are available at Jewish bookstores, uh, generally speaking. Uh, a, a real loss to, uh, real loss to Los Angeles Jewry took place when Jack Waltz Bookstore, uh, closed. This, it was a blow. Uh, it, we, it was the best Jewish bookstore. Perhaps in the world, and I think certainly in the United States. Uh, it's very sad. Uh, there are other, uh, good ones now, but this was exceptional. At any rate, that's one. Uh, Plaut, P-L-A-U-T, Gunther Plaut, uh, The Torah, and that's the title. The, uh, the conservative, though it's not officially called the conservative, but it is de facto. Is the Jewish Publication Society Commentary on the Torah. It's also by far the most expensive, but to be honest, it's the one I use the most. Uh, and partially cuz it just is more, uh, it has more. It's 5 volumes versus 1. Uh, you couldn't put them in 1 volume. It's, they're too large. Uh, the, um, the one I'm using for Exodus. Is, uh, uh, is the thinnest, and it's Sarna, S-A-R-N-A, Nahum Sarna, who also did Genesis. It's published by the Jewish Publication Society of America, located in Philadelphia. The Orthodox is the Old Mainstay by Rabbi Dr. Hertz, H-E-R-T-Z, published by the Soncino, S-O-N-C-I-N-O Press. Uh, thousands and thousands have been stolen from Orthodox shuls in the course of, uh, You should go and buy one. He actually has withstood the test of time. His is by far the oldest, and I use all 3 with great gratitude to these men. I just mentioned the Jewish Publication Society because it just has the most commentary. Finally is Nehama Leibowitz. L-E-I-B-O-W-Y-T-Z, her studies in the books of. They're, and they're, they're not easily found. Uh, does anybody know where you could get them? House of David would have them. Great. There you go. House of David in both the Valley and in LA. And the mitzvah store would have it. That's right. Exactly. On Pico, right near my cleaners. So we may bump into each other while you're picking up Leibowitz. Uh, she is a, an immense scholar, uh, and it is very down to earth. Okay, let me go on now. Chapter 7, ladies and gentlemen.
This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
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Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
The 10 plagues are truly fascinating. They're obviously intrinsically interesting, but you don't realize how important they are. Generally speaking, one realizes how interesting blood, frogs, lice, boils, I mean, this is, this is terrific. Uh, but you know, the, uh, you don't realize what is going on till it's explained. What God is doing, what the Torah is explaining, is, is infinitely greater than the plagues. The plagues represent things. And that's what I will, uh, be trying to explain to you. First, Well, first I'll go up to 11 and then I'll tell you, uh, what it is about. Chapter 7, verse 1. God replied to Moses. This is after, again, Moses, uh, is objecting to having to go to, to Pharaoh and deal with all of this. See, I place you in the realm of God to Pharaoh. Meaning that you will give commands to Pharaoh. That is what it means. Not that you will be his God, but I just want you to understand what the, the meaning is. With your brother Aaron as your prophet. Now, this is a very important thing. It's terrible that the word prophet is the word used for the word Navi. Uh, you, you now know, you've all heard of the Jewish prophets or the Hebrew prophets, right? Jeremiah, Ezekiel, et cetera. And, uh, it's very unfortunate that the word prophet is the word chosen to explain the Hebrew for what they are. Now, here is a perfect, the perfect example to show you that it can't mean prophet as you normally understand it. Doesn't, isn't prophet in your understanding one who tells the future? That is not what Navi is. It almost has nothing to do with it. In fact, it says here, Aaron, your brother will be your prophet. Now, does that make sense to you? First of all, does Moses need a prophet? Secondly, does Moses need a, a, a fortune teller, a future, a, a soothseer, soothsayer? No, obviously not. So it can't mean that. Navi means spokesman. That is all it means. And it is said that we refer to Hebrew prophets, Hebrew spokesmen would've been accurate and give you a much better idea of what they were doing. They came as spokesmen for God. Aaron is spokesman for Moses. He is Moses' navi. Okay, you with me? That's what is involved here. And just so that you know, from now on, prophets don't tell the future. Prophets tell what God told them to tell. End of issue. You may repeat all that I command you, and your brother Aaron will speak to Pharaoh to let the Israelites depart from his land. But— this is God again reassuring Moses. Remember, Moses was told all this the last time and everything got worse. Remember? So God is reassuring him about what's gonna happen. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart. In other words, He is gonna say no to you. Don't, don't get depressed. I'm telling you, and now Pharaoh is gonna harden his heart, or I'll harden his heart. In other words, I'm telling you now, Moses, he will say no. But now God explains why God wants Pharaoh's heart hardened. That I may multiply my signs and marvels in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not heed you, I will lay my hand upon Egypt and deliver my troops, my people, the Israelites, from the land of Egypt with extraordinary punishments. Okay. There are 3 purposes For the plagues. 3 purposes. The words, the 3, in the words of Shauna, retributive, coercive, and educative. Let me explain. Retributive means to punish. One purpose is to punish the Egyptians. If, per chance, Pharaoh would have said the first day Moses came, you want the Israelites to leave? That's a good idea. After a few hundred years of slavery and, and mass killing of infants, I think you guys deserve a break. Have a nice day. There would've been no retribution. My instinct to punishing criminals definitely emanates from the Jewish part of my psyche. I have no desire to Forgive criminals. I have a desire to forgive everybody else. Just a word about that for a moment, 'cause it's an enormous subject, forgiveness. Uh, I think people don't think the issue of forgiveness through. I think they think it, uh, through emotionally more than rationally. I see strange behavior a lot where people don't forgive non-malicious acts and then believe in forgiving terribly malicious acts. We should, should punish murderers and rapists and muggers. We should punish them. They deserve to be punished. If they are apologetic, that is a good thing. It is good for their soul. It is good for society. They should still be punished. But I see, on the other hand, people will be angry at friends, won't forgive a friend who forgot to show up one day at an appointment, at a lunch, and they will carry a grudge for a year. There is no one in this room who has never been hurt by a friend. It is not possible. The very fact that we consider somebody a friend means that it will happen at some point. They missed an appointment. They said something out of line. Anything is possible. That's, that's the way it works in life. And so you get, you know, some people forgive enormous acts of maliciousness, but non-malicious mistakes are not, you, uh, not forgiven. And, uh, it's like last night I was at, at this reception. I was with, uh, an assistant, the district attorney. A woman, very, uh, very bright woman. And I, and I like her a lot. She's a very impressive person. And she was, uh, oh, how did it happen? Oh, this was the discussion. Uh, she was asking about, um, my con— having conducted the national anthem at the Hollywood Bowl with the LA Philharmonic and said, how did it go? I said, well, I, I, I think it went, I mean, you know, how could it not go well? I mean, The elephant might could play the national anthem in a coma. So, uh, the, um, what I said, interestingly, the, the New York, the, the, the LA Times music reviewer actually had a comment about it. And he said, while something to the effect I was telling you, while Prager's, uh, rendition of the national anthem was very well received by the, uh, by the, uh, crowd, uh, uh, he, he gesticulates too much. Or something like that. You know, I like, I move my hands too much in keeping a beat. So she said, which one wrote it? I said, I don't have, I don't, I don't have a clue. I don't remember. She said, you don't remember who wrote a negative thing about you? She said, I would remember it till the day I die. And it was a great little discussion about, and she said, you know, my husband is just like you. He doesn't take these things personally. But we women, you know, and it was an example of a male-female difference. Not that men don't have grudges and stuff, but I think this is an area where women have to work on themselves more naturally than men tend to. I don't, I didn't, it meant nothing to me. But in fact, it affects my wife, for example, much more than me when I'm attacked. You know, I go home and have dinner. And she is seething. He should drop dead. He's in his bed. He should have boils and frogs and blood. And, you know, and, and, you know, that's the, which is the norm. That's, that's the way it is. Uh, but, uh, the, the, the, the point being of all of this is to know when and when not to, uh, to forgive. And it all emanates from my point here. God wants Egypt punished. That's why I'm going to, that's one of the reasons I am going to strengthen Pharaoh's heart to say no with all these plagues. These punishments are, are deserved. By the way, there's a very difficult philosophical issue about how much do people get deserved? Do the people of a, of a nation deserve to be punished? For the national crimes. For example, I suspect that a lot of people are not, uh, overwhelmed with guilt at the firebombing of Dresden in World War II. I suspect that a lot of Western Europeans conquered by the Nazis, a lot of British and a lot of Americans, certainly a lot of Jews, don't walk around feeling terrible for the German civilians killed, uh, in the, in the firebombing of Dresden. Now, I'm not here to argue whether it was right or wrong. I'm here to tell you that I'm putting in modern terms the problem of who gets punished when a nation does great evil. Were there no innocent Egyptians? It's inconceivable to me there were no innocent Egyptians. Inconceivable. There is no nation in the history of the world that had no good people in it, right? Maybe Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have 10 righteous people, but they were just local cities. But to think that in all of Egypt there wasn't a single good Egyptian strikes me as inconceivable. So that, uh, this, this is a, this is a real issue. About the punishing of a people. But remember, and I pointed this out earlier, it kept speaking about the sins of Ha'am, the Egyptian nation, that they were part of the throwing of the Israelite boys into the Nile and drowning them. This was not Pharaoh and a couple of higher-ups, that it was a national supported And, uh, and, and participated in evil. With me? I just want you to think about that in case it troubles you. God wants to punish Egypt, all of Egypt, but Pharaoh ordered, et cetera, et cetera. Okay? Number 2. Remember, 3 points to the plagues. Number 2, coercive. To force Pharaoh to finally say yes.
Wow.
List your—
Today you say, okay. And number 3, educational, or educative in Sarna's words, to teach the Egyptians and the Jews. That's very, very important. The purpose of— purposes of the plagues were as much for Jews as for Egyptians. To teach The, uh, the Egyptians and the Jews, who is God? There are many things being taught by the plagues. Who is God? And we'll, I'll talk about that. And that polytheism is untrue. Each, uh, it seems that every chapter, Raises a one enormous theme that I develop at length. And, and I guess we're gonna, we're coming to that one right now. What it, what they came to teach. It is so relevant what I'm, what I will tell you that the plagues came to teach, that it will shake you up. Polytheism is untrue. I said that is all non-monothiestic religion, which means everything else except what the Hebrews believe, right? In all the world, monotheism, one God, is unique. What people don't know is why the Jewish revolution in human history From paganism, polytheism to monotheism is so enormous. It's not that we went from 56 gods to one God. That's important, but it's not the most important. It's the nature of this God that the whole change is about, the staggering difference. And that is that God rules nature. I will talk about, that's what I'm gonna talk about. Uh, talk about that now. The epic battle of the Torah is God versus nature. If I have to summarize the purpose Of the Torah, and clearly there are many. But if you forced me to say one, I would say, and I wouldn't have said this 10 years ago. A, I didn't know as much, but there's a bigger reason. I didn't realize that the battle had not been won. That's why. When I taught Genesis 1, I showed the, the, the absolute centrality of the teaching that God is not in nature. God is above nature and controls nature. That, that is the purpose of Genesis 1, arguably the most important chapter in the Torah. But now that's the most important universal chapter. This is the most important, as it were, chapters specific to the Jews. There are 2 themes in the Torah, the universal and the particular. Universal is God creates the world. The particular is God takes the Jews out of Egypt. But the, but the purpose of the particular is to teach a universal lesson. Again, the greatest theme of the Torah is which will you human beings worship, God or nature? All paganism can be summarized. Well, polytheism can be summarized as the worship of nature. That is the reason, not because they had 55 or 100 or 10,000 gods, that it's a problem. That's a, that's a little problem, the number issue. The bigger problem by far is the adulation of, of nature. It is happening in our own time, and that's why I said it should shake you up because you would think it'll shake you up for one of two reasons. One, because you would've thought the battle was long ago won, or two, because a little part of you worships nature. And the truth is, it would not be surprising if you are in any way representative of modern Uh, educated Americans who are not, uh, particularly involved in, in conscious, organized monotheistic religion is, especially if you're of my generation or younger, that you do have elements of nature worship left in the culture. The abandonment of God as defined by the Torah, because after all, God is defined by Hitler too. But the God defined by the Torah transcends nature, controls nature, and doesn't want you to worship nature. The plagues are all attacks on Egyptian gods. That's Point that you will see, and I will show you in each case how so. That is why it is so educative, the plates. They are there to teach you something. Now, why is nature, why is it bad? Not an error. Bad, as well as an error, to worship nature. What's wrong with nature? The answer comes from the following. Uh, in, uh, actually in, in, in 2 of my 3 books, the, the, the 9 Questions People Ask About Judaism, my new book, Think a Second Time, I have a chapter on God. And whenever I talk about God at any length, I offer characteristics because you always get the question, well, what do you mean by God? I say, okay, I'll tell you 4 characteristics: above nature, personal, moral, and holy. Put aside above nature, 'cause that's what I'm explaining the whole time. Nature is not personal, not moral, and not holy. That's why it's so antithetical to monotheism and, and the Jewish concept of, of God and worship. Let's start with, uh, with the first. Nature is not moral. God is. Nature couldn't care less about morality. The only law in nature is not Love your neighbor as yourself. The only law is not thou shalt not murder or thou shalt not steal. The only law is survival of the fittest. That is nature's only law. The fit shall survive. It, it has, there is no issue of morality. Now, by the way, there can't be an issue of morality. This is not an anti-nature talk. I love nature, but, but I don't worship it. Why can't there be morality in nature is because there is no freedom of choice in nature. When a, when a German shepherd bit a, a, a Jew in, in a, in concentration camps, a common form of sport to the Nazi guards. That dog was not evil any more than the guns that the Nazis used were evil. The Allies used dogs to, to sniff out hiding places of Nazis. Were those dogs saints? Maybe Saint Bernards, but not saints. It, it's, it's, we, we, we anthropomorphize animals today. And they certainly did in the past, at our peril. Aside from everything else, it's stupid. When I am constantly told, look, a parrot could say sentences, look, a gorilla could learn colors, I am fascinated. But a gorilla can't learn good and evil. Gorilla cannot sit down and say, you know, I really want to take this female. She may be having a headache. Okay? This is alien to a gorilla. It cannot be taught to one. This is the way in which, in which animals work. Animals are amoral. They're not immoral because you have, you can only be immoral if you've chosen. An animal that does bad is no more bad than a flower. It would be silly, wouldn't it, to speak of a kind tulip? So too, it's silly to speak of a kind animal. Unless it's so programmed. They may be programmed. Animals will save you if you're drowning, but that's because you fed it a lot. I have a feeling that with my dogs, if robbers came in and gave them bones, they would be their best friends very rapidly. Certainly in the case of the one that's 212 pounds. Nature. I saw, I learned all this, uh, and one of the, it was actually interestingly enough, one of the most interesting of my many trips in, in this world. And also oddly enough, a little depressing when I went on safari in Kenya and Tanzania about 20 years ago to see nature outside of a zoo. I mean, real live nature where you're the one behind the bars gives you a very different view of things. You know what most animals, at least on the plains in South Africa, spend their lives doing? Avoiding getting eaten. It's not a pleasant life. Uh, zebra and, and, uh, wildebeest or gnu, if you don't know what they are, they're the ones who attack, uh, Mufasa. Uh, some love. Does that help? Maybe it doesn't help. Okay. Well, maybe you don't have a 3-year-old. Uh, at any rate, uh, they, these poor things just are looking around constantly. Who's gonna eat me? Not a pleasant life, as I, I, I told you. And you know who gets eaten? The weakest zebra, the frailest one, the littlest baby that hasn't made it to walk fast enough. And that's why zebras are pretty strong, because all the weak ones get killed by lions. I have zero romanticization of nature as a result of that experience, but also as a result of my learning, my study, my belief in this Torah. I understand I don't worship this stuff. This is not, it's fascinating, but it isn't goblin. And the reason number one is it isn't mill. That is why my ears perk up immediately with New Age thought that God is in nature. Certainly not just New Age. It started with Spinoza. It's called pantheism, where you worship nature or God is in nature. When I'm told God is the universe, a very common statement these days, what does that mean? God is the universe. What, what, what does that mean? God is Mercury, Venus, Earth, Jupiter, Andromeda. What does that even mean? God is the universe. Then God is finite matter. Amoral finite matter. God is not the universe. God is outside of the universe. Now, your God may be inside. I'm, I can't coerce you into believing anything different. You could believe God is a postage stamp. God. It's not the God of the book that gave us God. That's the point. The book that gave us God is this book, and it's now telling you in particular, from Genesis 1 and now, God is not equatable with nature. God is not in nature. God can play with nature. That's what God does. in the 10 plagues. He plays with it sometimes, actually with a sense of humor, as we will see. There are some funny parts that come up here with the, especially with the Egyptian magicians.
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Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
Third, on the, on it not being moral, a third reason is, uh, please understand what natural means. It is natural to steal. It is natural to kill. It is natural to rape. Uh, that, you know, I know why a lot of American, well-educated Americans don't know that. Because we have fashioned, relatively speaking, such a civilized society. That many educated people have forgotten what people are really like. They really should visit Rwanda. They really should read a lot about the Holocaust. They should read about the Armenians. They should read about slavery more. It's so bizarre to me that people think that those are aberrations. You know what is an aberration? This is an aberration. That in relative security, especially the women came here tonight, not afraid of getting killed and raped or raped and killed in that order. That's incredible. In human history, that is quite remarkable. When, when armies came in, I had a book was just published on what happened in Germany when the Soviet army came in. Well, I, what was it? 2 million German women were raped. It is estimated by this scholar. That's a lot. That's a lot. Were the Soviet troops all sick? No, they were all normal and wrong. It is natural to do bad things. Why on God's earth would I then worship nature if I'm interested in goodness? It's the last thing I want to worship, nature. So reason number 1, why nature and God are antithetical in, in our, in what should be our allegiance, is the moral reason. God is moral. Nature isn't. Number 2, God is personal. Nature is impersonal. Precisely for the reason that I explained in the first, uh, part. Nature doesn't care a hoot about any of you. It cares about your species. Nature has one intent for humans as much as for animals, that the fittest survive. When the Greeks exposed sick children to die on mountaintops, They were acting naturally. They wanted only healthy, good-looking children, right? That was a natural act. Why should we be better than nature? Sickly kids die in nature. Why shouldn't we? We're part of nature. That is why, again, the modern rhetoric, hey, we're just part of nature, is so scary. Our biology is part of nature. Our soul isn't. Soulless human beings are only part of nature. Ensouled human beings are not part of nature. It is very dangerous to think of the human as only part of nature. Nature doesn't care about individual zebras, and it doesn't care about individual people. It only cares that you reproduce as many as possible. Our battle is not only whom do we worship, it's how do we live? Do you live fully naturally? Well, then you do a lot of bad things. It is fully natural for men, forgetting even rape, it is fully natural for men to inseminate as many females as possible. This is true for the mammalian and most other forms of animals.
Species.
But we don't generally highly regard a man who does that because we were trained by Judaism and then Christianity and then Islam, the, the, the, uh, the monotheistic faiths that came from this book, from this Torah, that this is not the way in which men should act. But that is the natural way It's just the wrong way if you believe that there are things higher than nature. Well, of everything you value would be worthless if you believed that nature were it and that there isn't a God above nature telling you don't act by nature. Likewise, our great battle is with our nature. If you listen to your nature and just live by it, You will do a great deal of bad things. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be in touch with your nature. It means you have to know how to channel it, not how to suppress it, how to channel it. That's where religions often make a mistake. They want us to suppress the, the, the lower parts of our nature, whereas in fact, and I don't, I should really say not religions, but religious people. Religion at its highest teaches you how to channel, not suppress. There's an enormous difference. That is why I believe that innocuous, uh, expressions of your lower parts of your nature are okay. Because what are you going to do with that lower part of your nature? Parts of my nature. If you don't think you have any lower parts to your nature, We have a problem. A, you're not terribly interesting. And that, I mean it, it would be a real problem if you don't think you have lower parts to your nature. Something has been killed in you, and it's worth, it really is worth exploring what they are. Therefore, there should be no shame in having lower, darker parts to one's nature. There should only be shame in expressing them wrong in a hurtful manner, but not in having them, thinking them, fantasizing them, talking about them, et cetera, et cetera. Third, God is holy. Nature is not holy. Do you know in, uh, in Judaism, One of the more common names of God is the Kadosh Baruch Hu, the Holy One, blessed be he. It's, uh, the word for nature in Hebrew is teva. It just occurs to me now, in, in all of my lifetime of, of knowing Hebrew and hearing it spoken, I have never heard teva kadosh. Holy nature. It, it, it's, it's, it's literally the ultimate oxymoron. It's the ultimate self-contradictory statement. Holy nature. Nature is not holy. If nature inspires in you holy thoughts, that is great. You see beautiful mountains, beautiful rivers and streams. You're walking through the wilderness in Alaska and you think, oh God, what you have done, that's wonderful. But There's a very big difference between 2 people awestruck by a beautiful natural scene. The one who says, isn't nature great? Period. End of issue. The answer is no. It, it's, it's mixed. It's a big mixed bag. And the other who says, oh, this reflects on a grand architect. Just like with the arts, the same thing with the arts. If beautiful music conjures up, uh, a, uh, a belief, uh, in God, as it did for Bach, who, who on every manuscript virtually wrote, to the greater glory of God, I write this music. That's wonderful. But if it merely conjures up, uh, a great beat and rhythm, well, then you end up with, um, Guns N' Roses. And, uh, even things of greater decay whose names I just don't know because my, my daughter has left teenagehood. I was only up on this stuff during teenagehood and now she likes nice music again. The dark years are over. Uh, my definition of holy. Incidentally, is in fact the moving to the godlike from the animal-like or from the natural. In Jewish law, whatever we share with animals, the behaviors we share with animals are the most legislated, eating and sex. You can eat like an animal, right? And by the way, that's why holy and moral are distinguishable. There is unholy and there is immoral. If you eat like a pig, you are not doing anything immoral. If you stuff your face in a bowl and lick everything in it up, you have done nothing unethical or immoral, unless there are people at the table whose appetite are lost. But that's, that's a separate issue. But you have not, but you have eaten like an animal. In Judaism, to eat like an animal is wrong because you must separate yourself from the animal. You use a utensil, you make a blessing, you, you wash before and after. See, that makes it holy. To have intercourse with everybody you want. Is unholy, even incidentally, if it's agreed to. It's immoral when not agreed to. Like, I got a call on the radio, uh, just yesterday, uh, someone telling me his, uh, he's a married guy and he has a single friend. They're in their 30s and they just went to Baja on vacation. He with his wife and the guy with his, uh, with his latest girlfriend. Who loves him, but he doesn't love her. He just loves having sex with her. And this guy is, is doing something immoral. It is not rape by any means, but it is immoral in that he is implying what is not true. If the two agree, we just like to have fun, I never call that immoral. That is unholy. And they're different. Holiness is holiness. Morality is morality. Sometimes they converge. They often don't. Religion has gotten it wrong by calling all premarital sex, for example, immoral. It isn't. If agreed to, it's, uh, it's unholy. If he tricks her, it's immoral. And if he rapes her, it's evil. Okay. Different degrees need different, need different terminology. And a lot of people are confused on this. And by the way, I'm, I'm, you know, one has to decide in one's life how much holiness one wishes to live by. I'm not here to preach to you on that. I'm here to describe to you the difference between holy and natural. The God is holy. You, you rise to it, but I could give you any number of examples. If it, to belching, okay? If someone were to belch at your table a great deal, that, or, or flatulating, I mean, all the sounds of blowing one's nose, these are all natural acts, but if you do them publicly, you're not considered fully human. Right? But they are certainly natural. If I may be vivid, which I'm known for being, I remember, this was really funny. I've never told the story, but they, they come to me, these stories. I was in an airport bathroom, God knows what city recently, and in the stall next to me, the guy was making a lot of noises. And it was very touching because after about the 4th, He said, excuse me, I'm sorry. And I, in my stall, yelled back, it's a bathroom. You do not have to be sorry. And I meant it sincerely. That's, that's, it's what you go to the bathroom to do. Uh, if he had done it in line at Delta, That's a different story. That is, that, you see, that's where you gotta know. And that is what makes civilization possible, is the, is how do we deal with the natural in us? That's all natural, but it isn't human, fully human to do that. God is holy. Nature isn't. You know why? I just wanna I want to finish this by warning you, the words it's natural don't mean a damn thing. Well, for example, when people act terribly or disgustingly, what is the most common thing you hear? Well, it's human nature. It's human nature to avoid getting involved if someone is hurt. It's human nature to join, uh, a, uh, a crowd doing a bad thing. It's human nature not to stick up for the, the little fat kid in the bunk. It's human nature. It's human nature. It's true. That's true. But it's not a defense. It's a statement of fact. God help us if we follow human nature. Natural is good in food because that's, that's all that matters. There's no moral apple. But there is a natural apple. I'm all for that. Natural and wholesome food. Then the word natural is good because it only refers to biology. But if you want nature to be more than biology, you are starting to worship it. And the greatest purpose of this book is to get you out of it. The Torah is here to give monotheism, Worship of the one God to the world. The nature of this God is first and foremost, I made nature. It's the first sentence of the Torah. And now I will fool around with nature and really show you what the difference between Egyptian religion and of course all religion in the world and Hebrew monotheism. Different take on the plagues than, than one normally associates it with. Yet I have read nothing into it. Every Jewish scholar on the plagues points to this, to, to these ideas. What, uh, what verse are we up to?
14. 5.
5. And the Egyptians shall know, see, the Egyptians shall know that I am God when I stretch my hand over Egypt and bring out the Israelites from their midst. This Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them, so they did. Moses was 80 years old and Aaron 83. When they made their demand on Pharaoh. They start their careers at a very late time. Should give some of the older members of the audience great optimism for what you can still do in life. Moses started at 83. God said to Moses and Aaron, when Pharaoh speaks to you and says, produce your marvel, you shall say to Aaron, take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh. It shall turn into, when it says here serpent, overwhelmingly scholars hold it's a crocodile, which is pretty good trick, turning a stick into a crocodile. Not that it's bad with a serpent, but this is even, even more impressive, I suspect. Uh, the reason for that, uh, aside from the etymological reasons, the reasons are this was a This was, and seen by others till the, till modern times, a trick known to magicians in Egypt, how to, uh, as it were, um, hypnotize a crocodile into absolute stick-like, uh, form. Something I would love to see, frankly, with, uh, I have, but I never have. So Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh. You'll— this is great stuff. Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded, uh, had commanded. Aaron cast down his rod in the presence of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and it turned into a serpent slash crocodile. Then Pharaoh, for his part, summoned the wise men and the sorcerers. And the Egyptian magicians in turn did the same with their spells. This is a terrific little, uh, note here with their spells. That's the operative word here, and it is part of the monotheistic Torah battle. Half, does Aaron use spells? No. The difference between the two, they both after all do the same trick, right? What's the difference? The Torah is, is profoundly anti-magic because not, not fun magicians who, you know, make elephants disappear at the magic castle against magic, uh, voodoo, that type of the belief in that because it takes away, it takes away from God's providence over the world. It means that we can invoke non-God in order to make things happen. That's why it is totally banned in the Torah. Totally banned. That's why superstition, though Jews is a great example of where Jews and Judaism Are not the same. Jews have enormous numbers of superstitions. Tell your mother you haven't had a cold in 6 months. Just, I dare you, if your mother is Jewish. Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Don't talk like that!
Fool!
Stupid! Or not walking over, any of you remember this? You can't walk over a baby, right? Won't grow. Look at me. Didn't work. And some did walk over me. Uh, that just, it, you know, we're filled with superstitions. Judaism is radically anti-superstition. Radically. Anything that has, if, if a black cat has no power, a ladder has no power, walking over a child has no power. You get it? Because you are, you are ascribing independent powers or powers to independent forces of God. No, God runs the show. Nothing else, no one else, and not nature. The operative element is they did it through sorcery. Aaron did it because of God. That's why that is so, that's the one difference. Between what the two did. Let me read to you here on, uh, the use of spells contrasts. That's what I'm just speaking of strongly with the simplicity of Aaron's act, which is unaccompanied by any incantation or praxis. The term itself suggests that the wonder belonged to the magician's conventional repertoire of tricks. In fact, to this day, Egyptian snake charmers practice the deception of turning a rod into a serpent. They are able to induce catatonic rigidity in the native cobra by exerting strong pressure on a nerve just below its head. This should not be tried by any of you should you meet a cobra, incidentally. In this state, the snake assumes a rod-like appearance and can even be handled by onlookers. Some of whom, however, have died. I, I added that. Only 1 in 10 are then bitten. The jolt it receives when thrown to the ground restores its mobility, and then everybody runs away. This is not the sort of trick I like. I like, you know, as a kid, I like tinker toys. We all have different tastes. Uh, at any rate, They, uh, this was, uh, this was, uh, they're doing it. Uh, the Egyptians doing it. Uh, we go to verse, uh, each— 12. Each cast down his rod and they turned into serpents or crocodiles, but Aaron's rod swallowed their rods. Just like it did earlier in the first trip, remember, with the rod, but didn't, uh, didn't have an, an impact. Uh, 13. Yet Pharaoh's heart stiffened and he did not heed them as the Lord had said. It is interesting. Why would God have Aaron do a, do a marvel that Pharaoh's magicians could duplicate? It's an interesting question, isn't it? And I don't have a full answer. Probably Probably to start very slowly in the repertoire of blowing Pharaoh away. This, I mean, you know, I, I would've been a little shaken if their guys without sorcery, 2 things happened. The Hebrews' trick ate my trick. It's not a little deal. And there was no incantation. So if I were Pharaoh or any Egyptian looking on, I would've, who was, wanted to be critical, in other words, be objective. I might've been a little blown away, but probably not enough to let the Jews leave. But that's the way it's, that's what God is doing, starting off his repertoire, his repertoire of tricks till it leads up to the ultimate and non-duplicable in any way. And not even explicable naturally, which we'll get to when we get to the tenth plague.
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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
14. And the Lord said to Moses, Pharaoh was stubborn Actually, Pharaoh's heart is heavy. Uh, he refuses to let the people go. Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Now let me tell you another thing about the plagues. The plagues follow a phenomenal order. There are 10 plagues. Forget the 10th. It's totally, uh, unique. The first 9 plagues follow patterns. There are a number of patterns and they go by groups of 3. First 3, second 3, third 3 plagues. And here's how they work. The first 2 of each group are forewarned. The last strikes suddenly. You get with, you're with me? There are 3 groups of 3. In each group, the first 2 plagues, Moses warns Pharaoh they're coming. In the third, no warning. And so it's almost as if, okay, it didn't work. We'll start all over. I'll warn you. I'll warn you. No warning. I'll warn you. I'll warn you. No warning. I'll warn you. I'll warn you. No warning. And then the 10th plague. Next, uh, next order to the plagues. In the first plague of each group, Moses is told to go in the morning and to station himself where Pharaoh will be. In the second of each, Moses is told to, quote, come in before Pharaoh. In other words, go to the palace and confront Pharaoh. The third comes without warning. And obviously, as I told you, in the first group, Aaron is always the agent of the plague. And in the third group, it is always Moses. I, uh, build up again. See? Okay. So sure enough, on plague 1, which is obviously the first plague of the first group of 3, verse 19. Nope. No, excuse me. Verse, uh, verse 14. And God said to Moses, Pharaoh's stubborn, refuses. Go to Pharaoh in the morning.
15.
As he is coming out to the water. Now, why does Pharaoh go out to the water in the morning? And it's presumed here every morning, right? 'Cause it doesn't say a specific day. Uh, there are 2 theories. One, to worship at the Nile. Uh, the Nile is a god of Egypt, which I will talk to you about in keeping with what I was saying earlier. And, uh, also to measure how high the Nile was. Uh, it was something that was done then. I do not know enough agriculture to know why, but I'm just telling you. Sorry? Well, for floods. Yeah. But, oh, so to be able to predict a flood. So if it's a certain level, he warns the people. Okay. Thank you. Uh, he's coming out to the water. Station yourself before him at the edge of the Nile, taking with you the rod that turned into a snake and say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, let my people go that they may worship me in the wilderness. Incidentally, remember I discussed with you why would that be the request that they worship God? The word for worship, it finally hit me, the word for worship in Hebrew is the same as the word To serve or to work. So it's like a play on words. Work for me, not work for you. Get it? You get the— it's a play. Imagine if the word worship was the same, meant the same as work. Now you understand? They'll work me, not work you. That's the point. So it, it, that's part of the insult to Pharaoh. What do you mean work for you? They can work for me. But you have paid no heed until now. Thus says the Lord, by this you shall know that I am the Lord. See, I shall strike the water in the Nile with the rod that is in my hand, and it will be turned into blood. And the fish in the Nile will die. The Nile will stink so much that the Egyptians will find it impossible to drink the water of the Nile. The first plague is against one of the gods of Egypt and certainly its most important natural resource. When I visited Egypt in 1974, Flying over Egypt is all you have to do to understand a, a significant part of Egyptian history.
Yeah.
Egypt is a desert. It is blank, gray brown from the airplane, except for this eternal green line down the center that, that goes all the way down to Central Africa, to the mountains which feed it. And it flows out into the Mediterranean. Egypt is essentially the Nile River. Okay? Think of it that way. If you play with the Nile, you play with Egypt. So God started big. Interestingly, all the plagues are natural phenomena What renders them marvelous or miraculous, though the word miracle is never used here, never. Marvels is used, not miracle, is the timing and the extent. So listen to this. This plague has been explained as the extreme intensification of a well-known phenomenon that occurs periodically in the Nile Valley. The river is fed by melting snow and summer rains that down from the highlands of Ethiopia. That's, it's, it's east central of Africa. And carry with them sediment from the tropical red earth that characterizes that region. Following from this explanation, the plague must have resulted from an abnormally heavy rainfall that led to an excessively high rise of the Nile and washed down inordinate amounts of the red Sediment.
Sediment.
The neutralization of this substance, which normally occurs in the course of the flow of the river, was now retarded so that the entire river took on a bloody hue. The, it, it is incorrect to think the Nile became blood. It became like blood. Okay? It doesn't, it's not actual blood. As a result, purple bacteria washed down from the high mountain lakes together with the particles of red earth. Disturbed the oxygen balance and killed off the fish, which produced a foul stench. Next, that's the natural— every plague has a natural explanation, but the timing, remember I, I said that, I wanna repeat it. And remember too, they come for punishment and for education. You remember all these things now? Now here comes the education and the punishment.
Okay.
The Egyptians personified and deified the River Nile as the god Hapi, to whom offerings were made at the time of inundation. The flooding itself was regarded as a manifestation of the god Osiris. It is quite possible then that the contamination of the river served to discredit Egyptian polytheism.
Right.
This is what I have stressed. Now the punishment. By commencing the series of plagues, the text suggests an underlying notion of retribution, measure for measure, for Pharaoh's iniquitous decree that all newborn males be cast into the river. There's a lot of blood in this river, Pharaoh, so we're going to make this river Like blood. All right. 19. And the Lord said to Moses, say to Aaron, take your rod and hold out your arm over the waters of Egypt. Waters. In other words, put your rod out in all directions of where there is water, not only over the Nile. Its rivers, its canals, its ponds, all its bodies of water, that they may turn to blood. There shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, even in the vessels of wood and stone, or just even in wood and stone, literally. Now, Casuto, that great Italian Jewish scholar, makes a great point here. We have almost no vessels of wood and stone from ancient Egypt. So what could this possibly be referred to? And his theory, and I think he's right, is it's referring to the Egyptian idols, which were made of wood and stone. So that the ultimate iniquity, when they, when they wash their idols, They are washing them with blood. Again, remember, playing with polytheism, playing with paganism, playing with nature. 20. Moses and Aaron did just as God commanded. He lifted up the rod and struck the water in the Nile in the sight of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and all the water in the Nile was turned into blood, and the fish in the Nile died. The Nile stank so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. Incidentally, the Nile is mentioned, uh, 7 times in this chapter. One of the many 7s that constantly reoccur in the Torah. It's almost like a signal. Uh, there's one author here. Or if you wish, one editor. But when the Egyptian magicians did the same with their spells, again, their spells, Pharaoh's heart stiffened and he did not heed them as the Lord had spoken. One of them makes a hilarious point about this. Casuto. I love Casuto. Casuto was a live wire. I like Italians in general. Uh, Casuto says. That it is, it had to have been one of the great funny moments for Moses and Aaron watching Pharaoh's magicians bring a plague on Egypt. I, I had never thought of that, you know, at all the times I read this story. Hey Moses, big deal. We could also ruin our water supply. Right? I mean, isn't that exactly what's happening here? Ah, what, what do I have? Great guys or what? Barrows comment after that. Aren't they magnificent? They too can ruin the entire water supply. Of course, there is a fascinating question here. What water wasn't blood-like that they would turn it into that? There was the full answer to that question, except to say that, uh, I mean, there are any number of answers that are given. Uh, traditionally, uh, Hertz says it's water that they dug up. They dug water was pure. Uh, the, there's another possible answer. He was told to put his rod over all the waters, but it only says he did it over the Nile. So there probably were other water supplies that he had not, that had not, that Aaron had not caused to be blood-like. In any event, uh, it's a very funny part of the story to me. that the magicians ruined their own water to show that they were great. Uh, and, uh, and by the way, oh yeah, okay. So when the Egyptian did the same thing, Pharaoh's heart stiffened and he did not heed them as God had spoken. In other words, had God predicted, right? That's important because now Mo's saying, okay, this time I'm not going to panic. God told me he's not going to let them out after this plague. Pharaoh turned and went into his palace, paying no regard even to this. And all the Egyptians had to dig round about the Nile for drinking water because they could not drink the water of the Nile. Excuse me, did I say Nile appeared 7? Nile appears 14 times in the chapter. Double 7. Finally, we see 7 again. When 7 days had passed after God struck the Nile, the Lord said to Moses, go to Pharaoh and say to him, thus says the Lord, the Let my people go that they may worship me. Here, if you refuse, remember now, this is the second of the first trio. Now he goes to Pharaoh's palace, doesn't he? Late in the morning when Pharaoh comes out and happens to be around. If you refuse to let them go, then I will plague your whole country with frogs. This is the kids' favorite. All kids love this story. That with the thought that when I learned it as a kid, I really loved it cuz I was told that frogs even hopped in Pharaoh's bed. And that just brought me a great deal of joy for some reason. 'Cause that could affect your sleep. There's no question. I, you know, frogs are the sort of thing that, you know, they don't bite, you know, except I'm not talking poisonous frogs here, but you don't want a lot of them around. Like, I mean, that's the sort of animal it is. Very cute in a little box. Not very cute when you're in the box. The Nile shall swarm with frogs and they shall come up and enter your palace, your bedchamber, and your bed. Your! Talking to Pharaoh now. Let the, your bedchamber, your, your room, your bed, the houses of your courtiers and your people and your ovens and your kneading bowls. The frogs shall come up on you and on your people. And on all your courtiers. And, uh, let me just explain that, and with that we'll conclude, uh, because we've come to the end of chapter 7. Perfect timing. During their reproductive period, frogs concentrate in particular areas such as ponds and lakes. As the Nile begins to recede in September, October, they usually mass on land. In the present circumstances, their habitat had become polluted. by the putrefying fish. So the amphibians would have been forced to invade the land much earlier than usual. But the dead fish would have been a source of infection carried by insects so that the frogs died en masse. It is possible— here we go now. Uh, this is now the educative and punitive. It is possible that this plague, like the first one, was regarded as a judgment on Egyptian polytheism. For a frog-headed goddess named Pe was the consort of the god Khnum. Egyptian men were into frog-like women for reasons we do not know. Who is credited with having fashioned man out of clay. She was associated with fertility and was thought to assist women at childbirth. Hence, the plague may have been taken as retribution for the decree ordering the midwives to kill the newborn males at birth because she was a goddess involved with birth. God knew what he was doing, ladies and gentlemen. And that brings us to the 2nd plague. And I thank you, and I look forward to seeing you at the next, uh, semester. Thanks very much. Thank you.
On tomorrow's Sunday Fireside Chat.
I am a massive advocate of adoption and have always been. It wasn't even something I needed to be talked into. I just, I didn't understand. I don't, I still to this day don't understand the mentality of blood. Does— let me ask you a question. Do you love all your blood relatives? The answer is no. I'll tell you right now, nobody loves all their blood relatives. It doesn't exist. That human hasn't been made. And there's nothing wrong with that, by the way. It's not a sin. It's not to be embarrassed by. It's the nature of things. If, in fact, if you love half your blood relatives, you're ahead of the game. I often note, because I, you know, I'm a big fan of the Bible, Just literally 2 days ago, finished the 3rd volume of my 5-volume commentary on the first 5 books. It'll be out in November, and I, I hope you'll get it because I explain things that are generally never explained. And I always note the Book of Genesis is just stories of families after the creation story. It's just stories of families. Every single family in the Bible's Book of Genesis is dysfunctional. Every single one. And I think of that as God's gift to humanity. You know what? If you have a dysfunctional family, it's normal. It's the functional family that's extraordinary.
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