From Prisoner to Pioneer of Egypt - Genesis 41:1-42:38

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Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, yet without you no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Tzofnat-Paneach. So any of you name any of your kids Tzofnat-Paneach? It's one of those biblical names that just has lost popularity. Suffi here, Suffi.

That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.

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Okay, I was, uh, I was about to say is one of the beauties of, of getting immersed in the text is that you really leave your present life and its troubles and so on, and you enter into the world again of the Torah. And it's a wonderful feeling. It's transporting when you go back into the story. I was thinking now about, we're gonna go back to Jacob tonight. And, you know, as Jacob gets older, I feel I'm getting older. It's a funny thing to say, but that's how much you live this stuff through. Jacob's not a kid anymore whom they have to find a wife for. Okay, we're up to what, chapter 41? Joseph has been very successful, was successful, as you recall, in interpreting two of Pharaoh's ministers' dreams. You recall the last part was the being forgotten by the cupbearer. All right, chapter 41. After 2 years' time, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, when out of the Nile there came up 7 cows, handsome and sturdy, and they grazed in the reed grass. But presently 7 other cows came up from the Nile close behind them, ugly and gaunt, and stood beside the cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly, gaunt cows ate up the 7 handsome, sturdy cows, and Pharaoh awoke. You know, it's— is there anybody in this room who does not know the interpretation of the dream? Because I— you don't? Can you figure it out?

Dying.

Okay. We'll give you, give you 20 seconds. Because if you can, it's gonna be very distressing. I, I have to tell you, uh, you know, on the other hand, what I was thinking, all of us who know it, it seems so logical, right? Well, of course we know what it means. So your life depends on it and Pharaoh has called you in. Ugliness consumes goodness. Ugliness consumes goodness. Off with his head. That's the way it worked in those days. I was just curious, cuz I, you know, those of us who know it, so it so makes sense that you, uh, you just wonder if anybody else could've figured it out. It would be interesting though, wouldn't it? To give to 100 people this dream and who don't really, don't know the sequence and ask them if any of them could figure it out. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time. Remember what we've said? When do dreams matter? When they come twice. He fell asleep and dreamed a second time. 7 ears of grain, solid and healthy. By the way, you were not that far off. That's why there was no torture involved. 7 ears of grain, solid and healthy, grew on a single stalk. But close behind them sprouted 7 ears, thin and scorched by the east wind, and the thin ears swallowed up the 7 solid and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke. It was a dream. Next morning his spirit was agitated, and he sent for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men, and Pharaoh told them his dream. Told them his dreams, but none could interpret them for Pharaoh. The, uh, words for Pharaoh are very important here. It doesn't mean that none offered an interpretation. It means that none of them could interpret it for Pharaoh's satisfaction. You get the difference? Now, that's very interesting too. How could Pharaoh know who's right?

Have—

but on the other hand, isn't it true when— I'm sure many of you have had dreams and And the truth is, without involving God and prediction, our dreams are, are interpretable often. Sometimes they're not. And you have a hunch, don't you? When somebody, when maybe a therapist or a friend has hit right on, you know what? That's right. That clicked. Apparently Pharaoh had that ability too, cuz it's a very interesting thing. Why didn't he trust his magicians' interpretations? But that's what it means. When it says that none of them could interpret them for Pharaoh, the chief cupbearer finally woke up. He spoke up and said to Pharaoh, I must make mention today of my offenses, which is interesting. In Hebrew, it's actually my sins. I must make mention of my sins. All of a sudden, he remembers the sin of ingratitude, you recall, I spoke about that, and of just forgetting what a fellow prisoner asked you to do. Once Pharaoh was angry with his servants and placed me in custody in the house of the chief steward together with the chief baker. We had dreams the same night, he and I, each of us a dream with a meaning of its own. A Hebrew youth was there with us, a servant of the chief steward, and when we told him our dreams, he interpreted them for us telling each of the meaning of his dream. And as he interpreted for us, so it came to pass, I was restored to my post and the other was impaled. Thereupon, Pharaoh was immediately convinced by this. After all, it's one of his biggest aides. Sent for Joseph and he was rushed from the dungeon. Before I tell you what happens there, let me read to you on verse 8, None could interpret them for Pharaoh. The failure of the Egyptian professional dream interpreters has a significance that reaches far beyond the immediate story. This incident, the first clash recorded in the Bible between pagan magic and the will of God, constitutes a polemic against paganism. Which those of you, the handful of you who are with me since Genesis 1 recall, that's what Genesis 1 is most about. The polemic against paganism in Judaism, that God does it, not magic and not the false gods and so on. This is a polemic against paganism. The same motif recurs in the contest between Moses and Aaron and the court magicians of Egypt in Exodus. You know that later, where they throw down their staves and Aaron throws down his staff, and they all turn into serpents, but Aaron's serpent eats their serpents. But this is an even more dramatic case because here it is Pharaoh himself acknowledging that my magicians are inferior to the one God who sends his interpreter. As you know, Judaism understands itself, its self-definition, is a war against magic, a war against idolatry. I spoke, I believe, somewhat on this. Did I? Good. So I will just repeat to say to you, God is in charge of the universe. Magic holds that God is not in charge of the universe, that there are demons, that there are voodoo-type things that you can do. And people still believe in a lot of that. Judaism's war against the pagan idea is not over. But that is what we have here. Who's right, the magicians or the monotheist? Well, Pharaoh sends for Joseph, verse 14, and he was rushed from the dungeon. He had his hair cut and changed his clothes, and he appeared before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I've had a dream, but no one can interpret it. 'Now I've heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning.' Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, 'Not I. God will see to Pharaoh's welfare.' It's clear now in Joseph's life he has no role in this whatsoever. He is merely a mouthpiece for the one God who gives him these definitions, these interpretations. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile.' Now it's interesting, Why doesn't the Torah just say, and then Pharaoh recounted his dreams? And the answer to that, I do not know. There are times when I pose questions that I don't have an answer to, and this is one of them. Because there is nothing in the story. Often when the Torah recounts twice, as I've showed other times, the second version is important to relate to you because it, it omits or adds important things. He adds stuff, but I don't know what its importance is. Namely, its importance is namely his feelings. Be that as it may, he does repeat it, or the Torah repeats it. I was standing in my dream, I was standing on the bank of the Nile when out of the Nile came up 7 sturdy and well-formed cows and grazed in the reed grass. Presently there followed 7 other cows, scrawny, ill-formed, and emaciated. He exaggerates a little more than the dream that, you know, he adds more adjectives. Never had I, and then his interpretation, never had I seen their likes for ugliness in all the land of Egypt. Maybe it's to humanize the account that the Torah gives the second version. And the 7 lean and ugly cows ate up the first 7 cows, the sturdy ones. Ugliness ate up goodness. Only kidding. But when they had consumed them, but when they had consumed them, one could not tell that they had consumed them, for they looked just as bad as before. Uh, that's also added. And I awoke. In my other dream, I saw 7 ears of grain, full and healthy, growing on a single stalk. But right behind them sprouted 7 ears, shriveled, thin, and scorched by the east wind. And the thin ears swallowed the 7 healthy ears. I have told my magicians, but none has an explanation for me. Notice, not none has an explanation. None has an explanation for me. And Joseph said to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same. God has told Pharaoh what he is about to do. The 7 healthy cows. Here you go, sir. The 7 healthy cows are 7 years, and the 7 healthy ears are 7 years. It is the same dream. The 7 lean and ugly cows that follow are 7 years, as are also the 7 empty ears scorched by the east wind. They are 7 years of famine. It is just as I have told Pharaoh. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. Immediately ahead are 7 years of great abundance in all the land of Egypt. After them will come 7 years of famine, And all the abundance in the land of Egypt will be forgotten as the land is ravaged by famine. No trace of the abundance will be left in the land because of the famine thereafter, for it will be very severe. As for Pharaoh having had the same dream twice, it means that the matter has been determined by God and that God will soon carry it out. Accordingly, and this is very interesting, All of a sudden, Joseph stops interpreting the dream and giving Pharaoh advice. That is a man of deep faith to be taken out of the dungeon and tell Pharaoh what to do. Do you understand what is going— you might have missed that. It is an extraordinary moment. Now let me tell you what to do, Pharaoh. It's incredible. Shows the absolute certitude that Joseph has that this is from God. It's like, I can't help but say the following. Accordingly, let Pharaoh find a man of discernment and wisdom and set him over the land of Egypt. And let Pharaoh take steps to appoint overseers over the land and organize the land of Egypt in the 7 years of plenty. Let all the food of these good years that are coming be gathered, and let the grain be collected under Pharaoh's authority as food to be stored in the cities. Let that food be a reserve for the land for the 7 years of famine which will come upon the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine.' The plan pleased Pharaoh and all his courtiers. Isn't that interesting? Now, why does Pharaoh believe this interpretation? Again, I gave you the, the the, the simple notion that we all have, not all, but many of us have a sense when someone has told us a good explanation of one of our dreams. Yeah, that sounds right. I think the other thing is that Pharaoh liked the fact that it was a macro interpretation and not a micro interpretation. Pharaoh is, this is my own theory. I have no basis and any previous, so I take full responsibility. Pharaoh is half God, remember, in Egypt. When Pharaoh has a dream, it isn't like you have a dream, oh, it's really about my relationship with my mother. You understand? I mean, that's not what goes on in Pharaoh's mind. When I think, I think big. And he is given an interpretation that is big. What you, oh, oh, half god, have dreamed is about the fate of Egypt. Oh, that makes sense. And not only that, but this guy filled with Jewish chutzpah has solutions. People love solutions. He not only interpreted, he even told me what to do about it. This is my kind of guy. This thing makes a lot of sense. That's what I think resonated, both factors. There was a, oh yes, this, the Midrash, the rabbis in ancient times, they would, they wrote Midrash, which is, it's impossible in English to explain the term, but it is like a commentary to fill in the gaps of the Torah. So in Bereshit Rabbah, one of the One of the Midrashic sources. This is what Rabbi Yehoshua in the name of Rabbi Levi said. This was— he gave one of the interpretations that the Egyptians gave, the Egyptian magicians gave to Pharaoh. They interpreted it for him, but their interpretations failed to convince him. For example, the 7 goodly cows signify 7 daughters that you will father. The 7 evil-looking ones that you will bury 7 daughters. You see that? And that was not grand. That was too, as I said, micro, too Pharaoh-oriented. That's 7 daughters. 7. This, that God has a message for me about 7 daughters. Gimme a break. That's what I think was going on here. This sounded to Pharaoh, because otherwise we have no textual knowledge. Why did Pharaoh reject his own magicians and take a Jewish a Hebrew slave's word for it. It's up from the dungeon. Also, Joseph probably oozed confidence and charisma. I don't think there's any question about that. Certainly Mrs. Potiphar felt that way. So he gives this suggestion to Pharaoh, and tells him what to do. Verse 37: The plan pleased Pharaoh and all his courtiers. And Pharaoh said to his courtiers, 'Could we find another like him, a man in whom is the spirit of God?' Now, by the way, there's a whole problem here in how does Pharaoh talk about God if Pharaoh is God? And it's a serious problem. The only answer that I read that made sense was that we're not, we're talking about a leader who was not Egyptian, but who was part of the Hyksos, Hyksos, whatever they're pronounced, who had dominated Egypt at about that time in history. Because the notion of a god above me, Pharaoh, was somewhat foreign to the typical Pharaoh. So who is the god that Pharaoh's talking about? This may have been a Hyksos Pharaoh. Okay, just wanna tell you, that that is a question that historians or biblical scholars have dealt with, and it's a good question. Could we find another like him, a man in whom is the spirit of God? So, so Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is none so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my court, and by your command shall all my people be directed. Only with respect to the throne shall I be superior to you. Now notice, how did verse 39 begin? Pharaoh said to Joseph. How does verse 41 begin? Pharaoh further said to Joseph. I will point out in a moment why. See, I put you in charge of all of the land of Egypt. And removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph's hand, and he had him dressed in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in the chariot of his second in command, and they cried before him, 'Avrech!' By the way, the number of translations for this word, which is not Hebrew, Avrech, in the Torah, is so large that I'm not going to bother telling you what it means. It means everything from leader in one ancient Near Eastern language to Hebrew from berech, which is knee, meaning we bow to you. The basic, to this day, they just don't know. It's obviously an ancient term of some salutation to a leader. And that's what they call, just in case you wanted to know, 'cause it's written there. Thus he placed him over all the land of Egypt. What does verse 44 begin with? Pharaoh said to Joseph, third time. What do you find out about that? Joseph doesn't say a word. Exactly. Joseph is absolutely silent. Why is he absolutely silent? Sarna offers the rather human response. He's slightly dumbstruck. I mean, can you imagine in one day being taken out of a dungeon and then make, made second in command of Egypt? That's a very, you know, it's really a rags to riches With the speed of which has never been otherwise witnessed. That's probably the reason. He probably said, what? It was, you know, he just, his mouth was open. Or for all we know, he was sitting there going, well, that makes perfect sense. Of course, when God's with you, anything happens. Who knows? But it does make sense that he had nothing more to say. Remember, anything he had said thus far was basically God's words in his mouth. It wasn't Joseph speaking. To react to Pharaoh now would be Joseph speaking. Get the difference? You're a lot more confident in life when you think you're doing God's work than when you don't think you're doing God's work. Take it from those who think they're doing God's work. I don't know why you're laughing. I'm just— if you know anybody who thinks that, you should ask them. I really didn't expect your reaction. Pharaoh, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, yet without you no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh then gave Joseph the name Tzofnat Paneach. So any of you name any of your kids Tzofnat Paneach? It's one of those biblical names that just has lost popularity. Suffy here, Suffy.

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Very funny thing about, you know, I read like 5 different commentaries on the Torah to prepare for these, uh, classes. It is so funny sometimes how all of them give you with absolute certitude a totally different answer. Every one that I looked at said, well, sofnat panach in ancient Egyptian means, and they all gave a different one. It is so funny. I would read it. There's a different one in the Anchor Bible, different one in Hertz's. There's a different one in Sarna. There's a different one in Plaut. And they all said in ancient Egyptian, this is what it means. So I don't have a clue, frankly. According to the Targum, which is one of the oldest Jewish translations, it means revealer of hidden things. Plaut says it means God speaks, he lives. All right. And let's see, he says it means revealer of hidden things. Did I say that one already? Oh yeah. Oh, 'cause he takes it from Targum. That's correct. So it depends if you take which translation, but anyway, it meant something grandiose. So now listen, it's very important though what happens here. Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Tsafnat Paneach. He gave him special clothing. He shaved him like an Egyptian. He gave him Egyptian, the highest ranking pharaonic jewelry to wear. And he now gives him a wife, Asnat, the daughter of Potipharah, who's a priest. Of own. Now, you don't— no, no, that's actually a modern Hebrew name that is used in Israel. Osna. It doesn't sound nice in English. I understand. I mean, you know, well, what are you going to do? We have funny names in English that, you know, but anyway, at this point, what is Joseph? Joseph to every person in Egypt is Egyptian, speaks Egyptian, looks Egyptian, married Egyptian. Egyptian name.

It's—

remember what I said to you last week? We have, in the case of Joseph, a paradigm of Jewish history where, where, you know, where Jews take on the names of the civilization they live in. They, they become leaders in those civilizations, and yet they have another identity in addition. Not that there is a dual loyalty, that they're disloyal to the place. The guy saves Egypt, for God's sake. That's, that's pretty loyal. But that's not the only thing that they are beneath the Egyptian name, Egyptian wife, Egyptian clothing, Egyptian jewelry, Egyptian ranking is a Hebrew, which is interesting. How much of, of him though is Hebrew is an interesting question. We'll find out partially, only partially in a moment. Thus Joseph emerged in charge of the land of Egypt. I mean, that sentence is awesome. Joseph emerges in charge of the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Leaving Pharaoh's presence, Joseph traveled through all the land of Egypt. Notice we don't have a single word of reaction from Joseph the entire time. I guess he probably left saying thank you. And there is an assumption, you know, that, that, that he certainly got more for interpreting Pharaoh's dreams than he did for the cupbearer's dream. During the 7 years of plenty, the land produced in abundance, and he gathered all the grain of the 7 years that the land of Egypt was enjoying and stored the grain in the cities. He put in each city the grain of the fields around it. So Joseph collected produce in very large quantity, like the sands of the sea. Until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. Before the years of famine came, Joseph became the father of two sons whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, bore to him. Joseph named the firstborn Menasheh. By the way, those who are traditionally inclined in Judaism, fathers bless their sons on Friday night with this, with the blessing of being like the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. Here's where they're mentioned. Uh, first, Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, which means— and this is interesting, this is very interesting— what does the name mean? God has made me forget completely my hardship and my parental home. Well, that's, that's a— it's, it's, it's almost a bitter— it's almost a self-hating Think about it. That's why I said to you, how much of a Hebrew is left under this Egyptian exterior? To name your child, God has made me forget my home, my ancestors, is a very powerful statement that I want to forget it. So listen to what Plaut says on this particular issue. The forgetting, of course, was only on the surface. In his everyday existence. His past would not and could not go away. He would have been more than human if he did not think how someday he would let his brothers know of his great position, put them to shame, and arouse their envy. But why did he not communicate with his father? It's a very good question, the plow. The guy is the head of Egypt. His father did him no harm. His father loved him, remember? Loved him too much. It's understandable that he wants to forget his brothers, but why, Plaut asks, doesn't he communicate with his father Jacob? Why did he not make inquiry through Pharaoh's subordinates in Canaan whether Jacob was even still alive? This failure hints at a severely strained relationship between son and father. Jacob doubtlessly loved Rachel's firstborn son with a fierce and possessive love. Right? That's Joseph. He saw in Joseph, as he would later in Benjamin, a surrogate for Rachel, his dead wife. It is altogether possible that the ornamented tunic, remember that? The beautiful tunic that he gave Joseph, Jacob gave Joseph, may have served to feminize young Joseph. I've discussed this with you, who according to a Midrash curled his hair and painted his eyebrows. The boy must have suffered deep agony in this intense relationship. And when he was separated from his father, he must have found it easier to suppress the memory of Jacob than to face it with maturity. Isn't that interesting? Otherwise, how do you account for this? You name your firstborn child, God has made me forget my ancestors. I mean, that is a very That's a powerful statement. I don't wanna remember. I am very happy being Egyptian. Who knows? Who really knows? It was an Egyptian monotheist, not necessarily an Egyptian Hebrew. Certainly believed in God very deeply, but he didn't know that he had an Israelite role to play necessarily. All he knew was that he had dreams that his brothers would bow down to him. Remember? That doesn't have anything to do with anything Jewish, anything Israelite, anything Hebrew per se. The name of that firstborn son really shakes you up when you think about what— where he is at. The second he named Ephraim, meaning God has made me fertile in the land of my affliction. He was afflicted there because he had been so in prison so long, apparently 12 years. Okay? So he has one son named, thank you for forgetting my miserable Hebrew past. And the second son is, thank you for making me happy in the miserable place I'm now in.

Yeah.

I mean, think about it. This is, this is a man who has suffered. He has not had a happy lifetime when you think about it prior to being brought out of the dungeon. And the kids' names reflect that. Hold the questions, please. Don't forget it. I don't want you to forget it. I just want to get through the, the material. All right. Uh, 53. The 7 years of abundance that the land of Egypt enjoyed came to an end, and the 7 years of famine set in, just as Joseph had foretold. There was famine in all lands, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. The ancient Near East has a famine, but not Egypt. Very relevant to what's gonna happen with Jacob. Who was not in Egypt, who's in Canaan. And when all the land of Egypt felt the hunger, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph, whatever he tells you, you shall do. Uh, I don't have an answer to this question. Why didn't it say that Pharaoh said, go to Tzofnat Paneach. Right? Isn't that an interesting question? Anybody have an immediate answer? Shorter. I like that. I like that. Pharaoh had a very slow stenographer who kept saying, will you call him Joseph? I can't get sof mat paneach down. Maybe they're, uh, the Torah is adumbrating the fact that the most important thing is still that he's a Hebrew and not— Yes, the Torah may very well be simply, uh, you're right, Adam rating the fact that he is still a Hebrew. The problem is that it seems to be quoting Pharaoh, not describing what he said. You have an answer? That it was just a ceremonial name. Oh, that's interesting. That, uh, that is an inter— that may very well be. I like that, you know, better than the stenographer. Accordingly, when the famine became severe in the land of Egypt, Joseph laid open all that was within and rationed out grain to the Egyptians. The famine, however, spread over the whole world. It's an interesting thing. You know, what does the whole world here mean? You know, either you hold that anything outside of the ancient Near East didn't exist for the Torah, or it's just a way of saying everywhere. Or everyone. Because the truth is in many languages, French, Spanish, Arabic, the term the whole world just means everybody. Meaning, you know, everybody. If I'd say everybody here, todo el mundo in Spanish, right? Which means the whole world. Does that mean I think there's nothing outside of this room? So that's, you know, one possibility. I don't know the answer to that one either. It's, But it does raise a question.

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So all the world came to Joseph, uh, uh, to pro— in Egypt to procure rations rations, rations, for the famine had become severe throughout the world. Chapter 42. When Jacob saw that there were food rations to be had in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you keep looking at one another? Jacob has garnered his strength once again and has become a leader. He has now taken charge. And this is a real swipe at his sons. You just sit there and dawdle. We're starving. Get up and do something. Now I hear, he went on, that, uh, there are rations to be had in Egypt. Go down and procure rations for us there that we may live and not die. Uh, it's, uh, it's an interesting phrase, by the way, that we may live and not die. It does seem a bit redundant, right? I mean, either so that we won't die or so that we will live. Uh, it, it, it's probably added for dramatic effect. But the other possibility is this too, uh, to, to, uh, ancient Hebrew thought, severe poverty was like death. And so what, whereas they might actually, uh, live, he wanted it to make clear, we will really die. We'll not just be in poverty, we may in fact really die. If we don't, uh, if we don't have, uh, this food. So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to get grain rations in Egypt, for Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers since he feared that he might meet with disaster. Now that, yeah, that, that, that's, that, there's trouble on two parts here. What does this mean? He feared he might meet with disaster. And, uh, why didn't he send Benjamin? According to Plaut, he has a negative view of that. I don't remember where it is, but the negative view was, is that we have a relationship here of favoritism to Benjamin, just as Jacob had shown favoritism to Joseph. Jacob, by that interpretation, after all, you send, you see, you send your 10 other sons on a dangerous mission. That's fine. But you don't send your Benjamin. Benjamin is the other child of Rachel. And of course the baby, and by now he's older, but I mean the baby He's still the youngest. And the implication can be, it's not necessarily so, and I'll tell you why in a moment, but it can be that he is using Benjamin as his Rachel substitute the way he used Joseph as his Rachel substitute. And that there was again, once again, a favoritism in the family. The argument against that is the explanation the Torah gives for his not sending Benjamin. And that is he doesn't trust the other 10. But now to show you how complex it gets, why doesn't he trust the other 10 with regard to Benjamin? Precisely because he did the same thing with Benjamin that he had with Joseph. So you see, both facts are, I think, are correct. He did show favoritism to Benjamin just as he had to Joseph, and he had darn good reason to fear that the brothers were as resentful of Benjamin as they had been of Joseph. And the last time he sent all the kids away, they came back minus one. Isn't that interesting? So both are probably true. Of course he feared something will happen given the way he's treating Benjamin. And in the light of what was done to Joseph, he has very good reason to worry about what might happen. It's, uh, you know, I— the Torah is, and, and, or Jacob's thought process is being diplomatic. When it says, lest, you know, lest he feared that he might meet with disaster. I mean, if we spelled it out, lest his brothers do the same thing again. But remember, the last time in Jacob's mind, it was disaster that met Joseph, not the brothers doing something, or at least not obviously so. They came back and said that animals had killed him. Remember? With the bloody tunic. So it's fair for Jacob to say, "Lest the disaster take place." All I'm saying is, for about the 20th time in Genesis, we have a dysfunctional family represented. I need to say this again for those of you who were not with me all of Genesis. I think there is a very powerful statement being made here. Family life is very difficult. And never, ever, ever romanticize the past. If the patriarchs of the Jewish people had such botched up family lives, you don't have to feel that bad that your kid sees a shrink every day. I mean that in, in all, in all honesty. I, I, I've said this throughout Genesis. The truly functioning, the truly healthful, no ambivalencies, everything is just loving and warm family exists in theory, only really in theory. Family life is the most powerful and intimate place in the world. And there's pain and, you know, whether it's favorites and jealousies, rivalries, sexual matters, whatever it might be. And I have, as I've gotten older and more aware of humanity and more aware of the Torah, it is, it has been for me a source of great respect for this book, for this Torah, that it doesn't portray Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's family lives as beautiful. Portrays them as normal. And normal has beauty and normal has ugly and painful. It's part of the reason, as I've said, and I only repeat because a lot of you have not been with me throughout Genesis, it is the sort of thing that makes me believe in the authenticity of the Torah. A number of you are Christians, and if you know me, which is why you're here, you know my deep, deep regard for Christianity. So I make the following comparison only for educational, not for better or worse than reasons. A, a, to the, to the classic Christian, Jesus is perfect and the ideal Christian involves himself or herself in imitating Jesus. We don't have that in Judaism. We do not have that in our Bible. There is no perfect individual to emulate. There are individuals to emulate certain of their characteristics of, maybe Jacob's leadership and maybe Jo— uh, Isaac's humility and study and Abraham's, uh, vision and Moses's leadership abilities. But, but the, the, the, they're flawed. And I'm not giving a better or worse thing here. I am merely stating though that for us, For us Jews, it is a comforting fact. It is not an upsetting fact. It is for me a comforting one. Well, if they did that much and they had those flaws, then I, with my flaws, can also achieve something in my life. That's what it teaches me. That, that's what I infer from the imperfections of these people, that, uh, that Sarah would leave Abraham after the near sacrifice, the binding of Isaac, makes sense. And as I show, and there is no other way to read the text, that marriage broke up after Akeidat Yitzchak, after the binding of Isaac. And who could blame her? My husband went to slaughter my child, and I'm going to hug him when he comes back? Hi, honey. How was the trip? It is a powerful and difficult thing. On the other hand, if it weren't for Abraham, the world would still be engaged in pagan nonsense. This man's vision of one God in the universe to whom you obey has been, has saved the world in my opinion, in the opinion of hundreds of millions after. That's why, by the way, it is not uncommon too for women to, to have to put up with some men who have visions, musical, artistic, literary, moral, political. And they, that, that drummer, uh, beats and they have that drum. And the woman more likely because of the way men and women differ. And I don't think this is a terribly, uh, um, controversial statement. Women are intrinsically more micro-oriented, men more macro-oriented. Both are equally necessary. I don't blame Sarah one bit for what she did, but he's thinking of this great issue of monotheism and she's thinking of my son, and that's male, female, and you need both. If they both thought of monotheism, You'd have no sons left. Nobody would take care of the world. But if you only thought of sons, nothing would've ever been created to progress. That's a yin and a yang. It's a pull between male and female that is necessary. It's part of the tension of life that makes our world possible. But Jacob has this problem, and I think the Torah's pretty clear about that, that he wouldn't send Benjamin on this trip is a statement about his parenting, a statement about his relations with the other 10 kids, probably in some way. And it is also intrinsically related to how Joseph will react to them. Because I think most of you know the story, so I don't think I'm giving away the plot. There's a very real question: why does he do what he does? That is Joseph. When he sees his brothers? A major part of the answer, I think, though not at all the whole answer, is because Benjamin is missing and he wonders, what are these guys up to? Have they really changed? Because that has puzzled all the commentaries from ancient times to modern. Why is Joseph so mean to his brothers when they meet him? And my answer is because Benjamin was missing. He had real good reason to suspect them, as we shall see. Verse, verse, verse, verse 5. 42:5. Thus the sons of Israel were among those who came to procure rations, for the famine extended to the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was the vizier of the land, in Hebrew, master. Shalit, ruler, who's the ruler of the land. It was he who dispensed rations to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed low to him with their faces to the ground. It's, uh, even if you don't ascribe the slightest divine element to the Torah, you have got to acknowledge a mastery, a literary mastery that is awesome. The way in which the, the, the words recapitulate. Remember his dream? His dream was in the Hebrew words were the same as here. They will bow down to me and touch the floor. He recognized them. I tell you, I don't think in, uh, in the, in the world perhaps This is a complex machine, Mark.

No, no, no.

Oh, it does. It's not at all complex. It's about the simplest machine I've ever seen in my life. Well, I've retracted that quickly. In all of world literature and stories, the story of Joseph and his brothers just has to be unsurpassed. And, uh, it is, is deep sadness in me that, uh, we have produced a generation in America that doesn't know any of these stories. I don't know if you heard on my radio show about a week ago, I asked— I don't even remember if it was a man or a woman, uh, but I, but I asked the caller about this, who was— I think it was a woman. It was quite a woman. Yeah, right. It was quite well-educated and intelligent. And I asked her, who was Job? Never heard of him. Never heard of it, him, her. I asked, I mean, some Aaron, never heard of Aaron. I mean, it's just incredible. None of these things are familiar. Joseph and his brothers. I mean, who was the great man? Thomas Mann, right? Wrote the great novel on Joseph and his brothers. It was Western society, just, these were common things. You just spoke about it. It was part of life today. I mean, there is no question more kids in America today know Beavis and Butt-Head than Joseph and his brothers. I mean, that's a statement. I mean, as a kid, I knew silly things too, but we all knew basic. This is, I don't care if you're an atheist, this is the stuff that shaped the Western mentality. It's very sad anyway. And the story itself is just so powerful. Don't you relive it now? I mean, what would you do if you were Joseph? Did you ever— I'm, I'd like a show of hands. Did you ever have an opportunity in life where you were truly wronged, not just hurt, but wronged by someone or some people, and then many years later they had the opportunity to witness your massive victory? Did any of you ever have that? Not yet. She's working on it. I like that. The not yet approach. I like that. You're working on it. You're dreaming about it. None of you have ever had that, uh, had that chance? You did. You did. Oh, some of you did. What did you do?

Look, yeah, I ran into this person who had made a fool of me, a teacher, but I was 5th grade, and I got the opportunity to see her at my graduation in college. And she had always made out like I would never come out. Right. She looked at me and she said, wow, you look really good. And I, you know, and I didn't say anything because I wasn't going to say anything.

Right.

But it had hurt me and caused me a lot of pain for many years.

Right. She was— you may not have— I don't think you all heard, right? She had been quite hurt by a teacher in the 6th grade who constantly told her she would amount to nothing. And then next time she saw her, and it was obviously scarred you, and then it was at your college graduation and where she happened to be, and you felt like gloating, but you said nothing because now you don't mean anything to me. Let's put it this way. It takes a very rare human to have something like that. And being told you will never get to college is not as bad as being sold into slavery. I mean, let's keep perspective here. I mean, I tell you, it is really, it's an incredible thing. You have to be superhuman not to go that old incredibly obnoxious thing that all kids do, nyeh nyeh nyeh nyeh. That's really, uh, there's a Midrash that says that's what Joseph did, but it is not a, it's not a well-known Midrash. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he acted like a stranger toward them and spoke harshly to them. Now, why did he speak harshly? This is the, uh, this is, uh, a real puzzle. To the Jewish tradition and to others. Indeed, there are, it is implied, I don't know this to be a fact, I'd be curious if any Christians here know this to be so, that this is an example given in some Christian apologetics of the Jews' penchant for vengeance rather than charity. It is in one of the things I read that was referred to, I don't know if that is factually correct. But it is an interesting question. Why was he rough on them? Why didn't he see his brothers and go— I mean, he is totally in the driver's seat. He can do whatever he wants, but he doesn't. There are a number of theories. I gave you mine. I believe the absence of Benjamin triggered off in him, these guys haven't changed a bit. And he will concentrate on bringing Benjamin, by the way. That's what he will— the test will revolve around that. But what others have said is that he was testing them and that he wanted them to see, to see if they repent. Be that as it may, we'll go into those other theories. It's very dramatic here. So he was rough with them and he asked them, Where do you come from? And they said, from the land of Canaan to procure food. For though Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Recalling the dreams that he had dreamed about them, Joseph said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the land in its nakedness. Now this is a tough one. What does it mean? What is the relationship between part 1 of that sentence and part 2? Recalling the dreams he had dreamed about them, Joseph accused them of being spies.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

Here is one theory I will read to you. It is from the Ramban or Nachmanides, who writes: The text states that when Joseph saw his brothers, he remembered his dreams and noted that not one of them had been properly fulfilled on this occasion, since he understood from the first dream where we were binding sheaves, that all his brothers had to first bow down to him. The second dream alluded to a second occasion on which the sun, moon, and 11 stars, i.e., his parents and brothers, would bow down to him. Noting that Benjamin was absent at this first meeting, he schemed to bring Benjamin along and thus affect the realization of the first dream, where just the brothers, all 11 of them, would bow down to him. You understand what Ramban wrote, writes 800 years ago? He is saying he remembered his dream. What is the dream? 11 brothers bow down to me. There are only 10. So this is not fulfilling the dream. I have to have the dream take place. I, however, have a challenge to Ramban. This is my challenge. I wrote it in this book as I read this. But if Joseph was just interested in fulfilling dreams, he also must have understood that his brothers were only doing God's will in selling him.

Ooh.

That's my, that's my answer against Nachmanides' argument that all he was interested in is, is getting the dreams fulfilled. If it's all dream fulfillment as God predicted, then he has to hold that his brothers are totally exonerated. Would he be the master of Egypt and they bowing down to him if they had never sold him? Of course not. So, tuffy, huh? Consequently, did not reveal his identity to them and asked them to bring his father along and so on. Otherwise, we would have to include, if this were not the real explanation of Joseph's conduct, that Joseph committed a grave sin, inflicting pain on his father and allowing him to suffer an unnecessarily prolonged bereavement for him and Shimon, the brother who was left there, Simeon. For even if we agree— this is still Nachmanides, the Ramban— for even if we agree that he wished to make his brother suffer, he should at least have had pity on his father's old age. But Joseph carried out everything in the appropriate manner in order to fulfill the dreams, knowing that they would really come true. You know what you have here? It's almost darling. And Nahmanides doesn't want to believe anything bad about Joseph. I mean, Joseph is one of the revered Jews of Jewish history. He's not writing about Harry Schwartzbaum. He's writing about Joseph. And so he's trying to find in any way possible a way of reconciling Joseph's conduct with Joseph's greatness. And the human was not something they wanted to fully focus on in rabbinic literature. However, Listen to this. This explanation of Ramban was strenuously opposed by later commentators, including Rabbi Isaac Arama in his work, Akedat Yitzchak. And listen to what he writes. This is so typically Jewish, the rabbis yelling at each other. I am astonished at Ramban's explanation. I mean, you have no— you don't understand. I mean, the Ramban is one of the most revered figures in Jewish history. And you have this other Jew coming later, going, I'm astonished. How could he believe that? That Joseph did what he did in order to make his dreams come true. What did this benefit him? And even if it profited him, he should not have sinned against his father. As for the dreams, leave it to God who sends them to make them come true. Oh, it's a great line, isn't that? I mean, you know, let God do it. God sends you the dream, let God realize it. That's his answer to Nachmanides. You know, give me a break. The guy is up there, he heard his father, you know, And, you know, so that's his argument against it, the hurting, because he still hurt his father even if the dreams were true. But then she, Nehama Leibovitz, who brought these things together, she says, we may certainly repudiate our Amah's suggestion to leave it to God to fulfill the dreams that God communicates to man. And she's right. That is true. It is our task. Otherwise, we are just robots. We have to fulfill the dreams that God puts in us, which is a beautiful thing for all of you to think about. 'Cause it's not just, you know, brothers bowing down. We all have dreams when we, especially in our younger part of life. And, but it's, it's, and they may have been put there by God, but it is our task to try to fulfill them and not sit back on our bed and say, well, God, you'll handle it. So the Ramban's idea that he wants to fulfill the dream makes sense. The problem is though, how could he hold the brothers guilty if it's only the dream issue? That's what my question is when they played an instrumental role in the dream by selling him. But it shows you how difficult question it is. Why did Joseph act the way he did? I still think it's, uh, it's, I think it's partially revenge, by the way. Let me, let me make that clear. There is no question in my mind I would do it.

Okay?

If I had been sold into slavery and just spent 12 years in a dungeon, I would not go, hey, it's all forgiven, guys. I'm Den. I would not do that. Okay? It would take a better person than me to have done that. I wouldn't kill them. I wouldn't hurt them. I'd rub it in. That's what I'd do. I'd rub it in. And that's what he did. He rubbed it in. I don't think that's the only thing at all. I think, again, the absence of Benjamin is critical here. Absolutely critical. Had there been all 11, I'm not sure, or certainly all 11 and Jacob, I don't think he would've given them nearly as hard a time. Okay? He still might've dragged it out a drop, but nothing like this. Benjamin becomes the be-all and end-all here. Let's go on. What am I up to?

Any—

sorry?

10.

10. Thank you. So he says, you're spies, you've come to see the land and it's nakedness. 10. But they said to him, no, my Lord, truly your servants have come to procure food. This is how, this is the ruse that Joseph uses. This is the, to get them to go back and bring Benjamin, this spy nonsense. We are all of us sons of the same man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies. And he said to them, no, you have come to see the land in its nakedness. He really drew it out. And they replied, we, your servants, were, were, listen now, we, your servants, were 12 brothers, sons of a certain man in the land of Canaan. The youngest, however, is now with our father, and one is no more. Isn't that touching?

Good. Yeah.

I think the thing is, yes, one is no more because basically we sold them into slavery, didn't we?

Yeah.

Now that is not added, of course. One is no more. And they're being very honest. They really are honest. They don't know what happened to Joseph. They didn't say one died. Isn't that interesting? The line that they gave their father, they didn't use here. And one was eaten by wild animals. Nope. One is no more. We just, we don't know. Didn't say he died. Can you imagine Joseph listening though? I mean, the drama here. But Joseph said to them, it is just as I have told you, you are spies. By this you shall be put to the test. Now, before the test, I wanna read to you one other thing on why this, uh, why he acted this way, Joseph. This is, uh, this is from Yes. Again, from Nachmanides, based on the laws of repentance in Judaism.

Na—

Nachmanides, or Ramban, adds another idea here. Not just the dream one, but he wanted to arrange that they could truly repent, which is very sweet. It's all— but listen to why. It's a fascinating insight into Judaism. How do you repent? Isn't that an interesting question? How does a person repent? Here is the answer in the code of Jewish law from Maimonides. Actually, yeah. And based on the Talmud. Okay? What constitutes complete repentance? He, and here's the answer. He who was confronted by the identical thing wherein he transgressed and it lies within his power to commit the transgression, but he nevertheless abstained and did not succumb out of repentance and not out of fear or weakness. How so? Example: if he had relations with a woman forbidden to him and he was subsequently alone with her, still in the full possession of his passion for her and his virility unabated, and in the country where the transgression took place, if he abstained and did not sin, this is a true penitent. Isn't that terrific? It's part of the reason I'm in love with Judaism. It's so real. And all the conditions had to be met. I mean, if the guy is now 96 and he's with the same woman, we don't call him a penitent. We call him oiverbukl, which is Yiddish for over the hill. That, okay, you know, now it's a very, very power— in other words, so now what is Nachmanides' point here based on this, this code of Jewish law? His interest was in having them repent. How do you repent according to Jewish law? By undergoing the identical circumstance in which you sinned and now not doing it. So, In other words, a man must be confronted by the same temptation to which he had previously succumbed. If he stands the test and resists, he has proved his mettle. How could this be affected in the case of Joseph and his brothers? Whatever affection they might show to their brother in Egypt now would be no indication of their true remorse, right? That would not be remorse. He's too powerful. Of course they're going to show Joseph. If he comes out and says, "I'm Joseph," they'll all kiss him. But that doesn't show penitence. It shows that they have a brain on their head. Okay, the guy's the head of Egypt. With Joseph as the vice regent of Egypt, they could in any case do him no hurt, and whatever they would do would constitute a reform prompted by fear and weakness. How could Joseph test them and give them the possibility of achieving true repentance? Indeed, Joseph arranged everything appropriately, as Ramban had observed. He had to arrange for his other brother Benjamin the son of his mother Rachel, and like him the beloved of his father, to be brought into a similar situation. This time the brothers would find themselves really faced by a valid excuse for leaving their brother to his fate. For how could they fight the whole Egyptian Empire? If in spite of that they would refuse to go back to their father without Benjamin— this happens later, that's why it's a little confusing to you, this happens later, but I had to read you now because he's arranging it now. But if in spite of that, they would refuse to go back to their father without Benjamin and would be willing to sacrifice their lives, as indeed Judah indicated in chapter 44, only then could the brothers be considered true penitents and Joseph would be able to make himself known to his brothers and the game would be over. It's a very interesting theory that he wants— it's in line again with what I said. The basic thing is that that Benjamin is not present, but it is on a higher nobility plane, this idea. Will they really repent? Have my brothers really changed? That's the question. If you don't like the word repent, have they changed? Are they the old slimebags that I knew a couple of decades ago? Okay, what the verse? Who's my verse man? He got lost. Okay. Yeah, about. About I knew. I wanted to know exactly.

Okay.

Joseph.

All right.

We were your servants. Remember he said that. Now Joseph said to them, it's just as I've told you, you were spies. He accused them again. Verse 15. By this shall you be put to the test. This is what Joseph is saying to the brothers. This will test whether or not you're spies. Unless your youngest brother comes here, by Pharaoh, you shall not depart from this place. He's swearing by Pharaoh. That's a, that's a very high swear for an Egyptian. Let one of you go and bring your brother while the rest of you remain confined. The original statement is one of you leave and all the rest of you stay here as, uh, hostages. That your words may be put to the test, whether there is truth in you. Now, the joke of course is here that that doesn't really test whether they're spies. Why is that a test of whether they're spies? Spies have brothers. The whole point is to get Benjamin. That's the, that's what should be obvious to us, the reader. It's not obvious to them. They may be thinking, well, this is a very weird test to see if we're spies. But hey, if the vice-regent of Egypt says it, we'll do it. But for us, it's clear all he wants is Benjamin. This doesn't make sense as a test. While the rest of you remain confined, that your words may be put to the test, whether there is truth in you, else by Pharaoh, you are nothing but spies. Instead of by God, by Pharaoh. And he confined them in the guardhouse for 3 days. On the 3rd day, Joseph said to them, Do this and you shall live, for I am a God-fearing man. That was the ultimate statement of a person who is honest. If you are honest men, let one of you brothers be held in your place. He changed, he changed the rules. In your place of detention while the rest of you go and take home rations for your starving households, but you must bring me your youngest brother, that your words may be verified and that you may not die. And they did accordingly. They said to one another, Alas, we are being punished on account of our brother, because we looked on at his anguish, yet paid no heed as he pleaded with us. This is why this distress has come upon us. Uh, you'll see in a moment, they, they spoke in their language, Hebrew, Canaanite, whatever it would be, and obviously thought that Joseph didn't understand them, as you'll see in a moment. But there is a very powerful thing going on here. They don't think Joseph understands them. Therefore, Joseph has the beginning of glimmerings of repentance. What do they mumble? Look at what has happened to us. We are being punished for what we did to our brother. But they add a detail here that you never saw before in the sale of Joseph. It gives me the chills to tell you that because the detail is very important. We paid no heed as he begged us. That was never mentioned during the sale earlier that he begged them not to sell him, which adds not only to the horror of what they did, it also adds to understanding why he's so angry at them. When you beg people not to hurt you, it's worse than even not when they hurt you, especially your brothers. That's quite a little detail that is sneaked in here, isn't it? Then Reuben, Reuben, Reuben spoke up and said to them, Did I not tell you, do no wrong to the boy? But you paid no heed. Now comes the reckoning for his blood. And now he learns something that he may have not known then, that Reuven, the oldest brother, had in fact pleaded them not to kill him, pleaded with them not to kill him. And now he says, I told you that, and now we are being punished for that. They did not know that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter. Between him and them. They had been speaking their language, of which, of course, he knew perfectly, uh, to the, uh, but, uh, he acted as if he only knew Egyptian. He turned away from them and wept. And the scene is just, it's, it's just incredible when you think about it. But he came back to them and spoke to them. Why did he weep, by the way? It's an interesting question. Why did he weep? What did they say that made him weep? This is not a question I have an answer to. Anybody have an idea? Maybe, maybe what Reuben, Reuben said, maybe that's what made him weep. Cuz he didn't weep before Reuben said, you know, by the way, there's a, there's, I, I, I, before I'm shown to be wrong, let me tell you why a part of me believes what I just said to be true. Uh, my friend Joseph Telushkin often puts it, he says, I, he says he finds it far more likely that he will cry at immense goodness than an immense evil.

That's because of what you—

Yes. Listen, if you saw Schindler's List, the odds are if you cried, and you probably did, you did at the end.

No, you didn't. I didn't.

No atrocities. You didn't cry at the atrocities, probably. You cried when they put the, when you saw the people who he saved, their families putting stones on his grave marker.

Exactly.

Goodness does cause you to cry more, especially as you get older in life. And so I think when he heard, oh my God, he tried to save me, I'm overwhelmed. Now rebut that.

Yes. I was actually hearing that his brother remember in vain.

Oh, you think so? You think it's the cruelty? You think what? The brothers—

They were beginning to be penitent.

Well, wait, that it's so vivid, the scene came back to him. But I just have to add It does appear that the weeping follows Reuven's statement, not the brothers' statements. Yes.

It's all God's divine plan. You have to deal with the implications. And if you find that you have to forgive brothers—

Yeah, you would follow Nachmanides, uh, uh, huh? Sorry? A disciple of Nachmanides in the back of the room. Lauramides. Yes.

That they still carried vividly in their mind what they had done to him. Not this, that it was 11 years later and the first thing they thought about was what they did to him.

That's interesting. Did you all hear that? That the first thing they thought of when they were in trouble here was that, uh, was him. In other words, it's still very much on their minds. These guys are racked by what they had done. That would be moving, yes. Yeah, this first inclination that any of his brothers actually loved him, he might not have believed that until— Ah, that now all of a sudden he feels that the brothers might have loved him. I think, I'm not sure, I mean, it could be. The text doesn't fully suggest that, but it could be, yes.

Pent up rage all those years, knowing what the brothers did to him.

Yeah.

Now for the first time, he hears that, uh, there was a sentiment among the brothers to spare him, not to do this.

Right, so you agree with me, the Ruven statement.

He has to feel a degree of guilt and shame, and that leads to tears. Just as Schindler has to think back on his experiences, that he could have done even more. Oh, if he had, yeah, he'd have to feel some guilt and shame and he cried.

Okay. All right. Anyway, it's an interesting question. Why did Joseph weep? It's the sort of thing, you know, you have an essay contest on and, you know, in college or something. Why did Joseph weep? Uh, uh, uh, anyway, we, you heard various, uh, interpretations. Mine, mine is still based on the Reuven statement. Uh, let's go to, uh, 23. Oh yeah, they did not know Joseph and stood them. 24. He turned away and wept. That's what we're up to. But he came back to them and spoke to them, and he took Simeon from among them, Shimon, and had him bound before their eyes. Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, return each one's money to his sack. This is a very interesting part of the story. And give them provisions for the journey And this was done for them. So they loaded their asses with rations and departed from there. Donkeys, donkeys. And they moved their asses out of Egypt. I tell you, the Torah is really, you know, it's hip. As one of them was opening his sack, to give feed to his ass, uh, to his donkey, to his mule at the night encampment, he saw his money right there at the mouth of his bag. Remember, they had paid money for the rations. Now they open up their bag, their money is there. And he said to his brothers, my money has been returned. It's here in my bag. Their hearts sank and trembling, they turned to one another saying, What is this that God has done to us? Now, it's very interesting. Why would your heart sink if you found your money back in your wallet after you just bought something? There are two possible reasons. That's right. One is we're being set up to be shown to be spies. Yeah, that's, that's one. I mean, okay. The other though is this is, is what they said. Uh-oh, this is a miraculous act. We're playing part of a divine drama here. That's what they said here. What is, what is this that God has done to us? They're starting to sense in some form that something is, uh, larger than life going on. When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had befallen them, saying, the man who was lord of the land spoke harshly to us and accused us of spying on the land. We said to him, 'We are honest men; we have never been spies. There were 12 of us brothers, sons by the same father, but one is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in the land of Canaan. But the man who is lord of the land said to us, "By this I shall know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take something for your starving households and be off."' And bring your youngest brother to me that I may know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will then restore your brother to you and you shall be free to move about in the land. Now, can you imagine Jacob's reaction to this? Every time his sons go out on a trip, the guy loses one of them. No wonder it starts out with, what are you sitting around doing nothing for? And he probably thought at the end they should only do nothing. I should be the one to go on these trips. I mean, poor guy, the blundering. It's like, which son won't return? And they continued the story as they were emptying their sacks there. In each one's sack was his money bag. This is not continuing telling the story, but this continuation of the story. They probably all saw it already, or they may not have, because when Shimon, or excuse me, not Shimon, when Levi, they say, did it, whatever, whoever it was, opened his money bag and saw money, they probably all looked, but maybe they didn't. At any rate, when they and their father saw their money bags, they were dismayed. Dismayed is terrible English. The Hebrew is they feared. I don't know why they use dismayed. Vayirahu is clear. It's they got scared. And I don't blame 'em, as we understand, like they're absconding with provisions that they didn't pay for from there, or because miracles have taken place. All of a sudden, the, the very money they took outta their bag is now in their bag. By the way, in telling the story to their father, uh, they, uh, they made it a little, uh, easier. I just want you to know, for example, they didn't mention the death threat. Look at verse 33. It says, "The man who was the lord of the land said to us, 'By this shall I know that you're honest men: leave one of your brothers with me and take something for your starving households and be off.'" That's not what Joseph had said to them. Look at verse 18, just to give you an idea. This is an interesting time of repetition of a story. In verse 18, it says, "Joseph said to them, 'Do this and you shall live.'" Right? In other words, it was a death threat and they did not recount that death threat to Jacob. Just thought you might find that of interest. Verse 36. And their father Jacob said to them, it is always me that you bereave. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more. And now you would take away Benjamin. These things always happen to me, which is a very moderate response. I mean, you know, I, you know, for losing sons every time that kids travel, Then Reuben said to his father, you may kill my two sons. Reuben really comes out as a noble type, you know that? From all of this stuff. Reuben said to his father, you may kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care, that is Benjamin, and I will return him to you. But Jacob said, my son must not go down with you, for his brother is dead. And he alone is left. If he meets with disaster on the journey you are taking, you will send my white head down to Sheol in grief. Sheol is a toughie. Sheol is generally understood as the place where the dead reside. In other words, you'll send me to death in grief if they kill him, which is another way of saying these are the two sons I really care about. If Shimon dies, that's sad, but if Benjamin dies, I'm finished. Isn't that interesting? I mean, this is really not good. This is not good parenting, to use a late 20th century word in case you watch this in the 21st century. Uh, I have a question. A, uh, a, who knows, right?

Who knows? Who knows?

On tomorrow's Sunday Fireside Chat.

In North Korea, everything's about America, right?

Everything horrible.

And in Colombia, exactly the same thing. Everything is like a problem with America and white men.

Do you have a theory? And you may not. It's not an easy question. Do you have a theory as to why there's so much America hatred in America?

I don't. Why?

Right. Well, it's very— it's a very difficult question. How do you grow up in the freest country in the world and hate it? Mm-hmm. It— there's no purely rational answer, actually, and I've studied this question my whole life. But you and I have spoken once before, or twice before, on the radio and in person, and we both independently came to realize that these are all substitute religions.

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Which is my— that I do believe.— their sort of empty souls that need something to believe in, and anti-Americanism has become their religion.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. Go to lifeaudio.com to find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network, including shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.

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