The Dreamer and the Pit - Genesis 36:1-37:36

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On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.

Now you have to understand something here. I'd like to point out a very important thing here. If your brother came with this dream to you, would you answer him and say, hey, do you intend to reign over us, you and your other siblings? You'd say, what kind of pompous idiocy? Go, go back to sleep and dream your egocentric dreams and have a nice night, right? But would you be disturbed? They're disturbed. They don't make fun of him. They don't make fun of the dream. The problem here is the problem of the Jews historically.

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, let me, let me continue here. Chapter, uh, one of the Torah's less inspiring chapters. And I will run through it rapidly, do something that I do very rarely and actually skim certain parts because names can be read by those at home with their tapes of these chapters as well as anything else. Now, this is chapter 36. This is the line of Esau, that is Edom. Now, just a couple of words here. This is— this chapter is all about Esau. Jacob's brother Esau and his generations and the, and the nation that comes out of him. And why is it there at all? God made promises, after all, to Esau too. Promises were made in God's name to Esau. And it's very important, as is pointed out by a number of commentators, God is interested in non-Jews. God is not only interested in Jews. Jews have a special relationship, as it were, But non-Jews biblically have a relationship too. God cares about everybody, not just the children of Israel, but the children of Esau too. There is another interesting thing that I just want to make about, about Esau and the Jewish tradition. We see where it says that is Edom. Edom later becomes a great rival and enemy of Israel. So it's very interesting that the Jews end up having as an enemy Their brother. Forget cousin. I mean, they're cousins because they're the children of their brother, that's true. But, but it's, it's, it's the brothers who start the enmity. Started it in the womb, if you recall, when we were learning that. Uh, there is something that I draw from this particular lesson. I think that the Torah is trying to tell us something very modern, so modern that a lot of modern people are not yet ready to accept this. Blood is in everything. Values are everything. Esau and Jacob, two very, very different types from whom descend historic enemies, are not only brothers, they're twins. From twins an enmity arose. What matters in this world are your values, not your blood. What could be more a statement of that than Esau and Jacob, two twins from whom such hostility arises? It's a very important lesson in our time. It is certainly the deepest belief of my life that, that, that's what matters. That it is. And what are the ramifications? I'll give you two obvious ones. One ramification is with regard to converts. To your religion, in my case Judaism. That's the reason I've always, always felt that there is no possible difference between a convert and a born Jew. It is not—

there's—

it can't be. Once you accept these values, you are a Jew. That's it. It ends the issue. Your bloodline is as interesting to me as your as the color of your eyes. Interesting to that extent. Period. The other example is the difference between biological children and adoptive children, adopted children. There is no difference, because what makes a parent isn't biology, as we know from the vast numbers of cases of abuse and neglect, and the vast number of cases of children adopted who are loved and do well. These are two— there are an infinite number of— not an infinite, but a great number of examples of where it is values over blood. I'll give you one other. You know, people always speak about how powerful family is, and God knows I love family, absolutely. But I have always had a— I've always had the view that it is true, because people always say, listen, You would die for a family member, right? To which I always say, yes, you would die for a family member, but most people prefer to live with friends. See, you always have to fill in the rest of that sentence. Oh, I would die for a family member, but most people don't choose to stay with them forever. And it's because we choose to be with those with whom we share a great deal. On the other hand, Family has one tremendous asset, quite aside from the obvious love and emotions and protection and comfort, to the extent that they exist. It has one other thing. Believe it or not, family universalizes you. Because after all, when we choose friends, we choose people who are like us. Every one of my friends is more or less like me. I don't mean personality-wise, but, right? I mean, Why would I choose somebody utterly different to be close with? But with family, you get every conceivable form of human, right? And you have no choice but to relate to them. I mean, every one of you, every one of you could think right now of at least 3 people in your extended family whom if you didn't have in your family, you would never give the right time of day to. Is that not right? So there is a— it's a very interesting thing about family. There's a universal socializing element. You're forced to relate to people you otherwise never would. So it's a funny thing in that, in that regard. So both are important. Blood has its place, and values has an even higher place. But that is why I think that there is a great lesson here with Esau and Jacob. So now here are the generations, the lines of, of Esau, and that is Edom. Esau took his wives from among the Canaanite women, which you recall earlier the Torah was not happy with. Jacob was not happy with, and that his children were told, "Do not take wives from the Canaanites." They went to Mesopotamia. Why not from the Canaanites? Because the Bible later, the Torah later, will reveal the awful practices of the Canaanite people, from child sacrifice to a whole host of other things. It was not a culture which, uh, which the Torah had any respect for whatsoever. Okay, and then it lists the, the daughters. I'm not going to list you the daughters and the sisters and who was born to whom. Verse 6: Esau took his wives, his sons and daughters, and all the members of his household, his cattle and all his livestock, and all the property that he acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to another land because of his brother Jacob. For their possessions were too many for them to dwell together, and the land where they sojourned could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir, which by the way in Hebrew is hair. Remember him being hairy and him being red, the red from the, the red lentil soup. All of these in Hebrew, you would, you would see the, the, uh, absolute correlation of them. Remember, Esau was a hairy man, and, uh, this is, uh, it's another name for Edom. Hairy, as it were. Seir. Uh, this then is the line of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites, in the hill country of Seir. These are the names of Esau's sons. And if any of you are looking for new names for kids that you know, uh, Genesis 36 is just a gold mine, uh, for, you know, because, you know, if you're sick of Sean and Heather, this is the place to go, guys. Zepho, for example. I mean You know, I think that's great. Kenaz, my sons Kenaz and Zepho. I just, you know, it's— and you know, and then people say, oh really, where'd you get that beautiful name? Oh, it's one of Esau's kids. Very nice. Okay, then, uh, the descendants of Esau's wife Adah. Then in 15, these are the clans of the children of Esau. Again, if you love names, this is really your chapter. Then 20, these are the sons of Seir the Horite. Then 22, the sons of Lotan are listed, and the clans of the Horites. Then 31 presents a very, very big problem. Verse 31, these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. I was debating whether to point out this verse or not, but I couldn't be intellectually honest to myself if I ignored it. Without, without knowing anything of history, you don't need to know that sentence. These are the kings who reign in the land of Edom. We just went through the list of the kings, right, descending from Esau. Who ruled over Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites. When would this verse be written? What, once there are kings over Israelites, or before there are kings ever over Israelites? Raise your hand if logically, grammatically and logically, it seems after. Raise your hand if you think it would be before. Raise your hand if you're just torn, absolutely torn.

Thank you.

Okay, she raised both hands. She is very torn. This is a— this for— this is one of those verses in the Torah that present those who hold that it was all written by Moses with a problem. I don't say it's an insurmountable problem. I am merely noting that it's a problem.

Most of you raised your hand. Those of you who raised your hand.

Most of you said that logic would suggest there have been kings in Israel, and so this is saying these are the kings of the land of Edom before any of the kings reigned in Israel, right? Right. It is possible, however, to translate it or to interpret it as, you, Jacob, your line was promised kings, but before you ever got kings Esau's descendants got kings in Edom. You will have your kings one day, but you don't have it yet. That is a possible way. That is the rationale of those who hold Mosaic authorship of the Torah. For the, the vast majority of scholars who are not, who are not of the traditional Jewish view of Mosaic authorship, They say this is a classic example showing it had to be written after Moses, when the, when the Israelites were already having kings. Because the sentence would say, ah, before you ever had kings, they had kings. Because the reader would say, what kings? I don't have any kings. I don't know what this sentence means. If this was given to the Jews in, in, in, in, uh, in, in the Sinai Desert As the tradition would hold, or at least, yeah, right before they went into— even went into Israel, a Jew would say, I don't understand, what Israelite king is the text talking about? But of course it could be answered, as I said, well, you were promised them, and before the ones you were promised, they had kings. All I'm pointing out to you is one of those classic verses that those who want to undermine the traditional view— and I'm— I don't say undermine as being maliciously intended, just intellectually wish to undermine it, will point to this as an obvious one. But on the other hand, the answer is not that far-fetched. Just wanted to share that with you. It's an interesting— a very interesting little verse in that regard. Okay, so these are the names of the kings who ruled, and then that really is, uh, that is it for the rest of 36.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out-of-control inflation. People are concerned about what the future holds financially. This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion. There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals. You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA. Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines. Call AmFed Coin and Bullion, 800-221-7694, americanfederal.com. That's americanfederal.com.

Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Okay, let's go to chapter 37. 37 inaugurates one of the most famous stories in the history of the world, and certainly of the Western world: Joseph and his brothers. And I, I have the chills as I relate it to you because every one of you knows the the basics of the story. I want to tell you, preparing for this— and God, I, I spent so many hours on chapter 37— I was, I was amazed at how fascinated I was even though I knew it so well. I mean, it was as if it was all brand new again, like I would when I was a kid and learned it. And it's— I think it's a statement of the brilliance of this text that at 6 years of age I found it riveting And at 45, I find it riveting and deeper than ever. This is why it's the Torah and not just another book. And so it's something to bear in mind. It is a remarkable, remarkable chapter and a remarkable story. And if you think your family has problems, this should really be some sort of consolation to you. Let me read the prologue from Nachum Sarna, without whom I couldn't teach this course. He has been been so helpful to me. The present section and the preceding chapter— well, the rest of the Book of Genesis is devoted to the story of Joseph except for the abrupt and puzzling intrusion, which we'll do next time, chapter 38, which is another fantastic, fantastic story of Judah and Tamar, and Jacob's moving last testament, chapter 49. The present section and the preceding chapter are linked by their depiction Remember, the preceding chapter was Esau's generations, descendants. By their depiction of the contrasting fortunes of Esau and Jacob, Esau has already attained peoplehood and has established kingship and tribal territory in the hill country of Seir, to which his clan has migrated. But Jacob must go down to Egypt, where his offspring will become enslaved. After all, that was the original promise, as you recall. As foretold in the covenant God made with Abraham, your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs. So Esau gets his blessings very quickly, gets all of his kingship and peoplehood and everything. It's the, it's the Jewish people who have the, the Israelite people who have the much harder time. This same picture of contrasting destinies appears as an explicit element in Joshua's farewell speech delivered at Shechem. I gave Esau the hill country of Seir while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt. Okay, one more prologue point of Sarna. I tend not to read this much from it, but it's a critical point. Another unique feature is the outwardly, quote, secular mold in which the narrative, that is about Joseph, the rest of Genesis, is cast, the miraculous or supernatural element being conspicuously absent. God never directly speaks to Joseph. Spoke to Abraham, spoke to Isaac, spoke to Jacob. There are no direct divine revelations or communications to Joseph. He builds no altars, he has no association with cultic centers. God never openly and directly intervenes in his life. No wonder that Joseph is not included among the patriarchs. Why isn't it Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph? Why is it only Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? And that Jewish tradition restricts that category to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nevertheless, the secularity of the story is superficial, for the narrative is infused with a profound sense that God's guiding hand imparts meaning and direction to seemingly haphazard events. This is what you will see, and I will point it out as we go along. And have you not found that in your own life? Uh, I'll do— I don't do this too often. I'll do— I, I'd be curious, how many of you have experienced something which at the time seemed to be terrible in your life, and many years later it worked itself out to have been a blessing? Raise your hand if that's happened. Raise your hand if it has not happened. All right, I would say 10 to 1, practically, it has happened. It's certainly happened in my life. And like with much in life, you have a choice. You can say, well, that's the way it worked out and I'm fortunate for it. You could see the hand of God involved in it. It's your choice. That's the truth about religion in general. It's really your choice in all of life. That's what differentiated Moses and the burning bush from, from anybody else. If you'd have— how many of us would stop and stare at a bush that's burning? It, it takes a certain type of person to see God's hand in life. You really have your choice. You have your choice with all of life. Hey, evolution, you know, worked out by itself. We went from single-cell creatures to, to people. That's the way it worked on this planet. Or you could see the hand of God. God has made all of life and your own life open to either possibility, utterly, utterly depending on how you read it. Isn't that— isn't that a fascinating thing? It is completely up to you. There is no objective way to prove either way. It's the hand of God or coincidence. You can say that about human life from, from the onset of life on this planet. You can say it about the universe. Big Bang happened. It happened. We don't know why, but it happened. That's the way it happened. Or you could say that the hand of God. Likewise, in your own life, when things have turned out not at all as you expected, but in retrospect can look You can say coincidence, and I would not— I can't prove it isn't, nor can I prove it's the hand of God. But that is the point. Most people think that to be religious and see the hand of God in something is to be absolutely certain because it's so obvious. It's not. It is not so obvious. It's totally up to you. The Jews who saw the sea split could have said, because it's directly written there, "Hey, what luck! The right winds came and we really lucked out." And many of them undoubtedly probably said it later, "Boy, were we lucky about the winds and that they stopped blowing just as the Egyptians crossed." But who doesn't have that sense? There are not people in war who have felt that? "Boy, were we lucky that the, that the, the weather changed just as the enemy came." You have your choice. That's what this is about, the story of Joseph. Joseph did attribute it to God. That's why he is extraordinary. He did not contribute it to his own greatness, which when you see his ego in this current chapter, you will realize was some growth on his part. Nor did he attribute it to, uh, to coincidence. So it's infused with a profound sense that God's guiding hand imparts meaning and direction to seemingly haphazard events. When Joseph is lost, he meets, quote unquote, a man— that's this chapter— who knows exactly where his brothers are. The caravans of traders happen to be going to Egypt. The Lord is with Joseph in Potiphar's house and in prison. It is significant that the name of God comes readily to Joseph's lips at critical moments. When he is confronted by Potiphar's wife, when he interprets dreams, and when he tests his brothers. The ultimate interpretation of events is given by Joseph himself at the dramatic conclusion of the narrative. Quote from chapter 45, later: God has sent me ahead of you. God has sent me to ensure your survival on earth and to save your lives in an extraordinary deliverance. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. And incidentally, if we read today's chapter very carefully, and it's part of the reason it took me so many hours, you will see that the brothers did not in fact do it. This morning I asked my wife, who, uh, who sold, uh, who sold Joseph into slavery? Said his brothers. And I will show you they didn't. It's a fascinating chapter. Uh, 37, chapter, uh, verse 1. All right, I'm going to keep doing this because I have so many notes on this chapter, more than anyone except the very first one, I think. Okay. Now Jacob was settled in the land where his father had sojourned, the land of Canaan. This then is the line of Jacob, just as we had this then is the line of Esau in the previous chapter. Very interesting though, the way it continues. This is the line of Jacob, and what are the next words? It is about— immediately about Joseph. At 17 years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brothers. In other words, at this point, ladies and gentlemen, the Torah is saying, our Jacob will live through Joseph. Jacob is off center stage. It is now Joseph who will carry on The tradition: at 17 years of age, Joseph tended the flocks with his brother— with his brothers, excuse me— as a helper to the sons of his father's wives Bilhah and Zilpah. And Joe— okay, now this in itself needs a little explanation. Joseph's mother is who? Rachel. She has just died, so he doesn't have a mother to take care of him. So he stays with the kids, his brothers, who do have mothers. Their mothers are Bilhah and Zilpah, who until now were called concubines, but now are called wives because probably their status arose at the death of Rachel and presumably Leah. Okay, that is how— that is, that is the reason. Notice it's not no longer father's concubines but wives. That's why he is out with these brothers. Okay, there's some— there's a mother to take care of him. He's a young boy and there's a mother to take care of him. Okay, and Joseph— and Joseph brought bad reports of them to their father. The text will now, in incredibly concise form, build insurmountable tension. And unlike Beethoven, there will be no relief. It just keeps mounting. Also, we are going to get 5 reasons why he, why he created such hatred among his brothers. The first one is he was a snitch, okay? He brought bad reports of them to their father. We have no clue as to what he reported, okay? We don't know. Uh, Dan, you know what they did today? They cursed. I don't know what. They didn't do the work well. They played with girls. Who knows? We have no idea what it might have been. Reason number 2: before it even tells you the brothers' reactions, you already have it. Forget you know a thing about Joseph, you already don't like him. He's the 17-year-old punk who tells his father on his brothers. Okay, he's already not so likable. We're not done by any means. Verse 3: Now Israel loved Joseph best. Of all his sons, for he was the child of his old age. That's reason number 2, and there is a problem here. He's not his only child of his old age. Benjamin is in fact a child considerably later of his old age. Why isn't Benjamin the most loved? As it happens, Benjamin later is the most loved when Joseph disappears. But of course Benjamin is a tiny baby at this time, and as much as you can love a tiny baby, 17 years of being the child of your later years does that. It is an interesting thing, the text implies that it's inevitable that you love the child more of your later years. I don't know if that's true. I'm just telling you what the text says. Having had a child of my later years whom I adore, I do not feel it more, but maybe I started late with my earlier ones too, so who knows. At any rate, it is an interesting thing though that it says it as if it's taken for granted. All right, be that as it may, he loves Joseph the most. My suspicion is that he loved him the most because he was Rachel's son. And I'm surprised that the text doesn't say that. That would have— that would have made more sense, uh, because I'll bet that there are a lot of people who have an earlier child and later children and love the earlier one more. Hmm, it is— would seem to be obvious. He loved Rachel the most. This is the child of Rachel. And it added to that, as Benjamin later becomes his favorite, the other Rachel child. Also, how's he going to love Benjamin that much? Benjamin caused Rachel's death. So, I mean, there has to be a slight degree of ambivalence, at least at the outset of Benjamin's life. He's the, he's the killer of my wife. Obviously it's not his fault, but if it weren't for him, I'd have Rachel. Well, I don't know why. It's a very interesting— this thing, by the way, among my dear friends is a psychiatrist. Dennis Prager, who has spent years psychoanalytically studying just the Joseph story. It is truly grist for the psychological mill, uh, more than any other part of the Torah. And here is a good example. I am surprised that it said this. It's something I'll have to ask him when I see him, why it doesn't simply say, 'Cause he was Rachel, his beloved's child. Oh well. We now have the second reason Joseph is gonna be hated. Number 3 comes at the end of verse 3, "And he made him an ornamented tunic." In Hebrew, "kitonet pasim," which is not the commonly used term. Uh, let me tell you that this tunic is very important. The tunic represents— or this coat, we'll call it the Coat of Many Colors as it's best known through literature. This Coat of Many Colors is important on a number of dimensions. First of all, in the book of 2 Samuel, later in the Hebrew Bible, it specifies precisely this type of coat. Are you ready? Do you know for whom? The virgin daughters of kings. I told you this was psychoanalytically rich. Rachel, his beloved, dies, and he clothes his favorite young son, in effect, a woman's garment. And that's, that's extraordinary. And, uh, Is this his— is this the new love with the death of his wife? It seems to be, yes. I'm not implying that they had sexual relations of any type. In fact, I'm quite convinced that they didn't, only because I think there would have been even a hint of it. This is bad enough, don't get me wrong, without— but there's no need to add what isn't written. But there is a substitute love here, what he gave him. Secondly, this coat of many colors implied royalty. What could be more foolish than to give one of your children a statement— wear a statement of superiority? It was the most unwise thing a parent could do. But remember, my friends, this was not the age of post-Freudian analysis of child rearing. You have to understand that. You know, one needs to put oneself in that world. Didn't think, gee, am I doing the right thing in regard to the feelings of my other children? This is our talk. It's good talk. I'm not dumping on our age. In many ways, our age is a better age. I am not a believer in the good old days theory that everything was better. Some things were better, some weren't. This wasn't. I mean, how many parents do that today? I mean, uh, those who are aware. I'm sure there are parents who do it, but this is extraordinary. Your royalty, here is a royal robe for you to wear. And to do it to the youngest, that's worse. If he'd have given it to Reuven, to Reuben, for example, okay, all right, he's the eldest, so therefore we understand. To give it to the youngest is to smack the face, as it were, spit in the faces of all the other brothers. By the way, if you want to read the sentence, it's 2 Samuel 13:18. If you want to check on the dress worn by the virgin daughters of kings.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

Rising interest rates, stock volatility, out-of-control inflation. People are concerned about what the future holds financially. This is Dennis Prager for AmFed Coin and Bullion. There's no better time than the present to move a portion of your IRA into precious metals. You should know there's a right and a wrong way to set up your precious metals IRA. Mistakes could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars in IRS fines. Call AmFed Coin and Bullion, 800-221-7694, AmericanFederal.com. That's AmericanFederal.com.

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

We are up to verse 4. And when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of his brothers, they hated him. A word not— it's, it's used in the Bible, but, but it's only used when it's really hated. I mean, this is hatred. So that they could not speak a friendly word to him. Uh, the, uh, there were two possible explanations from the Hebrew: that they could not say a peaceful word to him— not friendly, but peaceful. The Hebrew word here is shalom, which you all know. The other, the other possibility is they could never speak to him when he tried to speak peacefully. You understand? There were two ways of reading the Hebrew. They could never speak peacefully to him, No matter how much he would try to speak peacefully, they wouldn't be able to speak to him. Either one is a possibility from the Hebrew, uh, uh, but, uh, depending on, on this very odd construction of the word to speak, dabro. So I'm just telling you the two possible ways of reading that sentence. Okay, verse 5. Once Joseph— once Joseph had a dream which he told to his brothers, and they hated him even more. The text is really extraordinary here. You, you feel the tension building. They hated him even more. He said to them, hear this dream which I dreamed. There we were binding sheaves in the field when suddenly my sheaf stood up and remained upright then your sheaves gathered around and bowed low to my sheaf. You know, who likes this kid? Is it possible to read this and think anything well of this little punk? I'm sure, right? I mean, it's very important not to jump ahead to his later life. This is a very arrogant son of a gun. I mean, it's bad enough to have such dreams, But then to tell your brothers, I mean, think about it. None of you would. It's fascinating that he would just go and tell. This is what a— but this is a 17-year-old. He had very high self-esteem. See, I see. I guess I have to point that out. This, it's very valued in these days. All right. The, um, by the way, Sarna makes the point about this dream that the agricultural content of the dream hence at what will later bring his greatness— Egypt's agriculture, that he saves it. Just an interesting point that Sarna makes. So notice, his stood up, his sheaf, and all the others not only didn't stand, they bowed to his sheaf.

Okay.

His brothers answered, verse 8, do you mean to reign over us? Do you mean to rule over us? And they hated him even more. That's a lot of hatred by now. That's 3 times he's— that says that he's hated in 5, in, in 5 verses for his talk about his dreams. Now you have to understand something here. I'd like to point out a very important thing here. If your brother came with this dream to you Would you answer him and say, "Hey, do you intend to reign over us, you and your other siblings?" You'd say, "What kind of pompous idiocy? Go, go back to sleep and dream your egocentric dreams and have a nice night," right? But would you be disturbed? They're disturbed. They don't make fun of him. They don't make fun of the dream. The problem here is the problem of the Jews historically. The Jews made a claim to the world which caused massive hatred of the Jews and which wasn't dismissed with ridicule, but rather, like Joseph's brothers, it was believed, and that is that the Jews are the chosen people. The world's reaction to the idea that the Jews are the chosen people should have been what your reaction would be if your brother or sister had such a dream. Okay, if that's what you dream, go and dream it. Go and see a therapist. If I said to you, after all, if I said to you, I want you to know my family is chosen by God, you would say, listen, I have a very, very fine psychologist that I, I think, I think you ought to take his card. That's what you would say. The world did not say that to the Jews. The problem with Jewish chosenness, so to speak, quote unquote, the problem is that the world believed it. If somebody has delusions, you don't hate them, you mock them, or even just pity them, but you don't hate them. You hate them when you believe them. That's why Jewish chosenness caused hatred. The Chinese believe they're the center of the world. The word for China in Chinese is Middle Kingdom, center of the world. The Japanese believe they get the sun before the rest of humanity. I don't know of a nation in the world that did not have a sense that it was special from all the nations on Earth. But nobody gave a hoot. Okay, the— you get the sun first, enjoy it. That— no, that is the world's view. All right, that's it. That's why the sun is on the Japanese flag. The Land of the Rising Sun, right? The first one on the Pacific. After all, they didn't know there were— there was an Atlantic. So fine, the Japanese want to believe that. You should live and be well and get the sun every day first. But that was never the reaction to the Jews. You should live and be well and think you're chosen by God. We believe it and we hate you for it. That is what is adumbrated. What is— what is— you almost have a premonition here of Jewish history with the way the brothers react to Joseph's dream. That's why I found it so important, in addition to the simple facts of the Joseph story. They knew it was true. That's why they reacted the way they did. Oh, do you intend to rule over us? And notice, notice too why they hated him. The, the language is very important. The English here— I wish the English were accurate because then it would make my point even more sharp, but it's not fully accurate. I will literally translate the end of verse 8. Vayosifu od sano'oto. And they increased more, to be redundant, but I'm doing it literally, hating him. Al chalomotav. Because of his dreams. Vi al devarav. And because of what he said. They hated him for both. Not just the dream, but for saying it. And that's really the bigger part of it. If you have those, that you announce it is what makes you so obnoxious. Forget the Jewish and chosenness right now, just back to Joseph. All right, you had those dreams is bad enough, but you don't have to tell us, little punk. And that's what really infuriated them, and very understandably. We have no reason to believe the brothers were bad, right? There was not a word implying that these brothers were bad, although we, we had some less than noble ventures earlier in Shchem, but that's beside the point. Number, number, uh, yeah, hold on, I'm looking at a note here. Ah yes, note by CERN on verse 8: Joseph's dreams are self-explanatory in contrast to those of the Egyptians who need an interpreter to extract meaning from their enigmatic imagery. Okay, it's— there is no record of an Israelite ever requiring the skill of an interpreter of dreams. Interesting point by Sarna from the, the whole Tanakh, not just the Torah, the whole, the whole Bible. Verse 9, he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers. Look, I've had another dream! To which they said, great! Oh, wonderful! Tell us, please. I added that for the recording. Look, I haven't— I've had another dream, and this time the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me. It's getting really bad with this kid at this point. But I'll tell you, if you're raised spoiled by your, by your dad, among, among the 12 of you, and you're given a royalty robe as a teenager, you're going to have these dreams. Let's look at this dream. The sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me. All right, who are the sun and the moon? Father and mother, presumably. Sarna note: throughout the Joseph narratives, dreams come in pairs in order to demonstrate their seriousness. The possibility of an idle dream was recognized by the ancients. Not every dream in the ancient world was taken as divine message, but if you had it in a pair, this was serious. So you might want to know that for your own dreams. From the literature of the Ancient Near East, we have accounts of double, triple, and even sevenfold repetition of dreams. Okay, verse, uh, let's see, verse 10. And when he told it to his father and brothers— now hold on, do you realize what this means? He told it again. The first time he just told it to his brothers. Now he told it to his father, either his father and his brothers together or just his father. We can't know exactly, but he told it again. His father berated him. Finally, Jacob really does get angry. See, Jacob can get angry, and he did. What, he said to him, is this dream you have dreamed? Are we to come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow low to you to the ground? So he was infuriated. Now, it's a very interesting thing. First of all, let me tell you what— on the words 'to the ground,' what Sarna says. Joseph did not utter this phrase. Notice that? Jacob added the words "to the ground." He just had bowed in his dream. In adding it, Jacob subconsciously echoes the manner in which he himself had made obeisance to his brother Esau. Its use here is an intimation of future developments, for it appears in the narrative each time the brothers bow to Joseph in Egypt. There's an interesting— just an interesting added words if you follow the text very carefully. Anyway, I'd like to point out in this, in this verse, why did Jacob react with the fury that he reacts? Because the Hebrew is, he was furious with him. And the, uh, I believe he did it because he was in the presence of his other sons and now realized, as it were, either what a Frankenstein he had created, or that it was true, but a terrible thing for Joseph to be saying this. And how did Jacob look? Oh my God, my favoritism has reached horrible proportions. I must show my other children that I can get angry at the spoiled youngest one. So it was very important, whatever he believed or didn't believe about the dream, it was critical for Jacob as a father to be angry with Joseph. Also though, he was— he might have been angry for his own sake. Even, "I'm gonna bow to you? All right, maybe your brothers will, but me and your mother? I mean, this is getting too much." This could have been it. This, uh, he was, he was clearly annoyed. According to Hartoum, who's an Israeli professor whose, whose Hebrew translation commentary I read for every chapter, he says that Jacob tries to dismiss the validity of the dream. After all, that his mother is dead, how can she bow down to him? That what he tried to do was say, ah, this dream is nonsense. How could your mother bow down to you? She's dead. That's his way of reading his, uh, Jacob's reaction. Verse 11. And, uh, so his brothers were extremely envious of him. Uh, it has here wrought up at him, but I don't know why, because the Hebrew was clearly were envious, jealous and envious. And there's nothing quite like hatred and envy. I think there's nothing left, is there, before you do something usually unfortunate to a person. But his father kept the matter in mind. What matter? Probably the dream. His father probably took the dream seriously too. Okay, this— it's a pair of dreams. It's to Joseph. He doesn't know, but, uh, he kept it in mind. All right. What is interesting in, uh, in 11 is it only said thus in this sentence. The anger and the jealousy of the brothers is so great they don't even say anything. As you probably know, you are much better off with yellers than you are with the silent angry ones. As I point out with our weekly mass murder now in America, the, uh, in every instance, uh, I point out the description in the newspaper is of an angry, lonely person. That's why talk show hosts never shoot anybody. We get it out, we're very happy, sleep well, we're no danger to anybody. Uh, but the people who don't let it out and have nobody to let it out to verbally, these— this can be a bad thing. The fact that they didn't even say anything, the text is suggesting, is ominous. Number 12: One time when his brothers had gone to pasture their father's flock at Shechem, which is a while away— it is about 50 miles away— That's, that's a distance. It's important because, because of what's going to happen. Israel said to Joseph, your brothers are pasturing at Shechem. Come, I'll send you to them. Now I have to wonder what was in Jacob's mind. He must know that this, that his other sons are furious with Joseph. They are now far away from home, totally outside of protection, 15 50 miles away, which is days and days' journey. He's gonna send him alone to his furious brothers? Was it wise? In retrospect, Monday morning quarterbacking, as they say, it was, it was not wise at all. On the other hand, we don't know exactly when it happened. He might have thought things had cooled off, and he might have thought, which parents always think, "Oh, if only you talk to your brother, you will get it all right." Right? Don't parents do that all the time? Call her up. This is what Jacob is doing. Go to them, talk it over, you'll see it'll be all right. Because there is nothing more painful to parents than if their children hate each other. It's okay if they hate you, but if they hate each other, it's depressing. It's a depressing thought. You love to see your children love each other. That's why, by the way, I said earlier what I— it's only partially metaphoric when I say God has been crying all the time when he sees his children hating each other. It must be a very painful thing. And we are God's children from the, from the way we look at creation. And Joseph answered, 'Hineni.' which are the 'I am ready,' the very famous words that are used. And do you— does anybody recall? I meant to look it up and forgot. Are those the— is that the word that Isaac used when his father said, 'Let's go'? I— yeah, okay. I'm convinced that there is a, a literary connection. Just as Isaac went to get slaughtered, so too now Joseph went to get slaughtered. That, that was, uh, I am convinced that that is because it so resonated in me. I— where was the last time somebody said that in his book? It wasn't a good occasion. And sure enough, uh, that was, uh, that was it. Yes, I was just looking. I don't know about the Hebrew, but in the English, um, in Genesis and also in Exodus, it's 'Here am I,' and in this one it's 'Here I am.' I don't know. Yeah, the Hebrew was the same. Hineni is Hineni. And also in the— also here, instead of calling Jacob Jacob, they call him Israel, which I think is significant. Yeah, on the differences between Jacob and Israel, keep that in mind. I want to hear what you say because people have been trying to figure it out for the last 2,000 years. Uh, no, no, I, I, I don't mean that tongue-in-cheek. It's the truth. They have been trying, and, uh, there are theories. And according to Sarna, He couldn't figure out a thing. But you may, you may do it, and I will drop him a line. All right. And I mean that. I really, you know, who knows where, where the, where the answer to that will come from.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

Uh, we go on. So he says, 'Hineni, I'm ready.' 14. Okay, I was just looking at my notes. 14. And he said to him, 'Go and see how your brothers are and how the flocks are faring, and bring me back word.' So in other words, it was a peace. As I said, it was this fatherly, parental— you know what, I bet I forgot. I better hold off on questions or I won't— but please mark it down, I need to hear it later. Uh, he wants this peaceful gesture. Go out there, ask them how they're doing. And by the way, the Hebrew is shalom again. Remember I told you they couldn't speak to him shalom? And now he says go and find out about their shalom. It's like it's a play on that word from earlier. And then bring me back word on how they're doing. So, so it's, it's a pathetic parental attempt. Go ask them, tell them you're—

you—

I'm concerned about them, and, and now you— and they will see you walk this long distance, and so on. And as I said, it's 50-mile distance to go, and it's also not easy to find them, as you will find out in a moment. So he sent him from the valley of Hebron. When he reached Shechem, A man came upon him wandering in the fields. This is very rare. A man.

A man.

That is what happened when Jacob wrestled, remember? It just— a— with this man or angel, but it was a man and an angel. But there was something divine about a man just coming up to you in the Torah, okay? It isn't, uh, Joe Semite, uh, bumping into Joseph on the road. A man came upon him wandering in the fields. The man asked him, what are you looking for? And he answered, I am looking for my brothers. Could you tell me where they are pasturing? The man said, they have gone from here. For I heard them say, let us go to Dotan. So Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dotan. Now it's an interesting thing about Joseph here. It's the first positive thing about Joseph. Joseph must have known— well, I assume that this was a risky thing. First of all, the wandering. Secondly, the brothers alone away from the father. And third, he had a very easy excuse. To go back home. I couldn't find them. And he didn't do that. Also, the sense of the, of the, uh, of the divine element of that man is that he didn't say, oh, my brothers are the following. He just said, I'm looking for my brothers. Can you imagine somebody saying to you, did you see my sister? What does your sister look like? What's her name? I'm nothing like that. Again, this stranger knew a great deal. And anyway, he said, he said, I heard them say, let's go to Dotan. And so Joseph followed his brothers and found them at Dotan. 18. They saw him from afar, and before he came close to them, they conspired to kill him. In other words, they saw him from afar and immediately, uh, conspired to, to do away with him. And this is not atypical of the way humans would work. It is much easier to conspire against people when they're not in your presence. You, you get what I'm saying? The fear was If we let him come closer and start talking to him, we might hate him less. Let's conspire now. It is much easier to hate the anonymous— not that he was anonymous, but you know what I mean, he was not present. It is always a danger with someone you really dislike that if you meet them, you'll dislike them less. So the best thing to do if you really want to preserve your hatred for somebody is never meet them. Now, I admit there are some obviously evil people who will just increase your hatred, but we're not talking about monumental evil. This is not Joseph Hitler, or Joseph Goebbels, to keep the first name precise. So they said, they said to one another, "Here comes the dreamer." That's one of the things that they hated about him, his dreams. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we can say a savage beast ate him, and then we'll see what comes of his dreams. Or are they angry about those dreams also? By the way, uh, there is a literal aspect here. If we kill him, his dreams can't be realized. It's not just that they hate him because he has egocentric dreams. Remember what I said, they believe the dream, but his dreams can't come true if they kill him. They don't want to be ruled over by this guy, and the best way to stop it is to kill him. That's very important to remember. They're not just killing him because their ego is hurt. They're killing him because they believe the dreams could be real. All right, very important. Then we'll say we'll see what comes of his dreams. That's a possibility. I don't know it for certain, but it's a possibility. 21. But when Reuben— Reuven, or Reuben— heard it, he tried to save him from them. He said— ah, this kills me, the English is so wrong. I can't believe it. One of my most important points, and the English ruins it. The Hebrew— how many have 'let us not take his life'? How many have without 'his'? Anybody have a translation without the word 'his'? You do? What does it say? Exactly. Which translation is that? Gunter Plaut, he uses the same one this— he uses— that's very odd. No, no, no, on verse 21. You went to 22. Yes, that everybody has his— kills me. Um, all right, I'll tell you what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says we will not, we will not take a life. It does not say his life. Oh, wait a minute. Nakenu.

Hmm.

We will not take him a life. Take it back, my great point, I won't even tell you. Oh God, oh well, caught red-handed. Alright, yes, I guess so. I'll tell you what I wanted to say. Ah, what the hell, I'll tell you because Yeah, right, exactly. I don't like the way it's originally written, right? Uh, the, the— I'll tell you what I wanted, what I wanted to do. I, I was thinking, where's the— because you can see it. Yes, in Aken Nu. Isn't that us? We won't— no, Aken is us. I assume the Nu is him. Lo Aken Nu. Yes, we will not hit him. Yeah, but it's biblical Hebrew, so it— I have to, I have to call up some really master linguist. This is very, this is very complex. I'll tell you what my thought was because it, it's, it's in fact adumbrated in, in verse 22. My argument is that Reuven argues on behalf of not killing, not on behalf of saving Joseph's life. There's a big difference. They so hated Joseph that the argument, "Let's not kill him," would not be as powerful as, "Wait a minute, we're killing." If you're terribly angry at somebody, that would be a much more effective argument to stop you. Hey, wait a minute, You don't want to be a killer. Not, he deserves to live. You see what I'm saying? And the reason I say that is because in 22, the next verse, because clearly they didn't react. Yes, I'm right. Look, 21, even if it is, let's not kill him, it doesn't work. His argument doesn't work. There is no response from the brothers. They want to kill Joseph. So he, he then gives a second argument. The first one doesn't work. And in verse 22, he says, shed no blood. He changes his argument from save Joseph to don't kill. And that works. That's— so my point was right, irrespective of the first It's even more right now because the first one went, "Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh." Exactly. Now you know why I got a good self-image. Even when I'm wrong, it's a great point. This is, though, this is what I am convinced of it. That is, the argument to save Joseph doesn't work, and it's so psychologically astute. Because that's what would work with us. If I wanted to kill a murderer, nobody could say, "Dennis, don't kill him." They'd say, "Dennis, Dennis, you don't spill blood. You don't do that sort of thing." And that worked. Not only that, he has a secondary thing. But we gotta do something to him. He knows his brothers. So he is going to— he offers a counter thing by which he, Reuven, as we'll learn later, will save his life. Throw him into a pit. He will later go to the pit. These are water— big water pits of the ancient times in that area. He will go to the pit later, take him out, and send him home. That's Reuven's plan, and we know it from what he does later. Okay, are you with me? But he has to tell them something else. So what does he say? Don't spill blood, okay?

Period.

Throw him into this, this, uh, pit which is in the wilderness. And I'm translating literally from the Hebrew. And don't put a hand onto him. In— oh, he does say it. Excuse me, he does tell them. No, excuse me, he doesn't tell them. I was right. This is his plan: you don't do that. And then in parentheses, because the Torah has no— I was— if I'd have done the English, I wouldn't have had this problem with you. Intending to save them, uh, him from them and restore him to his father. Okay, he says throw him in the pit. And now the Torah is telling you Reuven's plan. Okay, very clear. 23. When Joseph came up to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the ornamented tunic that he was wearing. Wanted to make it clear, this is their other source of hatred. First the dreams— we're going to get rid of the dreamer, but if we don't get rid of the dreamer We're certainly going to get rid of the tunic. I mean, it's, it's also so, so touching and interesting. So they stripped him of it and took him and cast him into the pit. We don't know what the brothers had in mind. We only know what Reuven had in mind. The Torah is silent on what the brothers had in mind. At this point.

Interesting.

It's an interesting dilemma here. What, what'll be in the pit? What will they do? The pit was empty. There was no water in it. That's a very famous Hebrew phrase. Uh, the legend is, but it did have all sorts of miserable little animals in it. But that's just the— that's the Midrash. I don't, I don't, I I guess the reason was to tell you, because they knew in those days these were all water pits, they did not throw him into a water pit.

He would have drowned.

So they threw him into a dry pit. Okay, very powerful. Next sentence, 25. Then they sat down to a meal. I mean, the ability to, to just sit down and have a meal after you've thrown your brother into a pit is, uh, is, is really— the hatred is so intense that you are capable of having lunch after you've done this. Okay? It's like, you know, when I'm for capital punishment for murder, so people frequently have called me on the radio and said, "Oh yeah, well, would you pull the switch?" I said, "Not only would I pull the switch, but I would be eating a tuna sandwich while I did it." And this is what I thought of at the time. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilad, their camels bearing gum, balm, and labanum to be taken to Egypt. Don't ask me what any of those things are. Even, even Sarna has a hard time. I love it. I love when they— you know, there are some explanations though. They're always very helpful. For example, Sarna notes, uh, that, uh what the gum here— let me read you his sentence. The term translated here gum is generally taken to be gum tragacanth, which immediately was immediately helpful to me just the other day after, after some spearmint. I had gum tragacanth. But in case you didn't know what it is, Sarna does help help explain, a sticky substance that exudes from the bark of shrubs of the genus Astragalus, which should further help you in your exploration. But just in case you don't know what that is, he continues, which is native to arid, high, mountainous regions in the Near East. As for balm, B-A-L-M, it may either be a fragrant plant or a resin which is derived, of course, from "come fora opopel bastum." It's so funny. There are times when I read— he has all these lucid explanations of human endeavors of Genesis, and then I really believe part of it is, because he is such a scholar, that scholars at certain times just need to let you know they're scholars. And I think that was one of the times. But in case you did want to know, that's where it's from. Uh, anyway, these, uh, Ishmaelite caravan is coming from Gilead. They're camels bearing these, uh, these, uh, spices or whatever. And then, uh, oh, let me tell you about the Ishmaelites. The passage suggests that the term Ishmaelite was used as an epithet a name for nomadic traders rather than in an ethnic sense. They may not have exactly been Ishmaelites, but it's a, it's a, it's a term for nomadic traders. Midianite, which we'll meet in a moment, on the other hand, indicates a specific ethnic affiliation. Okay, but they're fused and it becomes a little complex, which is the later complexity I want to get to, uh, before we leave. Uh, we are, uh, okay. Then Judah said to his brothers, what do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let us not do away with him ourselves. After all, he's our brother, our own flesh. Now, this is an interesting thing. There are again those who constantly try to find documents that there are— that the Torah is composed of 4 basic documents— say, ah, well, wait a minute, who saves him, Reuven or Judah? Clearly it's a different traditional story that was woven in. I don't find that. I think it is very possible it's one story. They hadn't decided what to do. They threw him in a pit. Now, would they leave him there to starve to death? That's possible. So Judah comes up with a new argument when he sees the fortuitous caravan of traders. The caravan of traders are as much as it were sent by God as the man who told Joseph where the brothers were. You get it? It's another fortuitous occurrence, even though it's not a happy one on the surface for, for Joseph, although it beats staying in a pit. So Judas says to brothers, what do we gain by killing him? Let's And he says, it's our brother, we can't do away with him. Our— let us not do away with him ourselves. In other words, we won't do away with him, let others do the job. Okay. And then now also on Judas' part, it might be a way— are you want him dead? Believe me, enough time with these crowd, they'll kill him. You understand? But he also might have been working to save Joseph's life. Okay, it took a lot of convincing from these two brothers to the other brothers. The next statement is— it's interesting— you— well, I have in English here, his brothers agreed. Does anybody have any other words? His— huh? His brothers were content. The literal Hebrew is his brothers heard. Just heard. It doesn't say heard him, or, or it just says they, his brothers, heard. It could simply mean they listened respectfully and had no reaction. We don't know. Or it could mean because they did then have a reaction that they did. But the Hebrew is much more ambiguous than agreed. It does not say agreed in, in the actual Hebrew.

Hebrew.

28. When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph out of the pit. They sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who brought Joseph to Egypt. Who sold Joseph into slavery? See, isn't that fascinating? It's as clear as the day is long. There is no ambiguous ambivalence or ambiguity whatsoever. And yet ask 999 of 1,000 people who know the story, who sold Joseph into slavery? His brothers. Isn't that interesting? When Midianite traders passed by, they pulled Joseph out of the pit. They saw— I mean, it's like the Torah's going of its way. If they are the ones who took him out of the pit, they are the ones who sold him. That's why I don't know about the brothers' greed, you understand? Because we don't know what the brothers would have done. It was too late. The Midianites came. That's why I had a problem with the greed. We don't know what they did. They were eating tuna. That's what I was telling you. In the meantime, these Midianites, they weren't— they didn't have lunch 10 feet from the pit. They went to eat. In the meantime, they're the ones who took him, the Midianites. Now Reuben, remember Reuben's plan, which the Torah told us was in his mind to save his brother, to take him out? When Reuben turned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, He rent his clothes. Why? It was a form of mourning which Jews to this day have. They do kriah, it's called. They tear a garment for a loved one who has died, or a close one, may not have been that loved. Uh, and he rent his clothes. Correct. I mean, what would you assume? You can't climb out. You can't climb out of the pit. He assumed he was killed, taken by an animal, and then eaten. That's what he would have assumed. Returning to his brothers, he said, the boy is gone. Now what am I to do? They were having— they were eating a distance away from the pit. That's right. No, no, they didn't have the picnic right by the— right by the pit. They ate a distance away. That's why the argument— that's why Judah said, well, let's not leave him there, he'll die. That's the— that's the implication. Or at least don't kill him, even, uh, whether it's by leaving him there or not. Then they took Joseph's tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Good old Sarna notes a, a real irony here. It was a kid that Rebecca had Jacob bring for her to prepare Isaac's favorite dish in order to deceive Isaac. And, and in 27:16, it was a kid's skin that she put on Jacob's arms to deceive Isaac. Remember what I kept telling you? The Book of Genesis is that which goes around comes around. He deceived with a kid, Jacob. Now he's going to be deceived by a kid again. That is great. That is priceless. You're wrong, but it's worth it. It's worth it. In case the tape doesn't have that for posterity, what is your name? Jeanette Mizrahi. Hold It is from that that— what is it again? "Are you kidding?" "Are you kidding?" comes from. It is now down. Who knows when these tapes will be heard, how long in history. Jeanette, I salute you. That was very cute. "Who are you kidding?" That's right. It's like my line that "smother" must come from "mother." You don't have "sfather." Your best one was the testimony and the— Oh, but that's true. Testimony is true. But you never said the other one in public. You mean what it's really from? No, how the way women swear. Oh, okay, that's true. There were things I wouldn't say in public. Sorry, folks, it's, uh, it's after 9:30, my brain ceases. I do want to finish the chapter though with you. It's, it's too, uh, it's too important. Okay. Do you understand? All right, so the boy is gonna want to— my— then they took Joseph's tunic, slaughtered a kid, and dipped the tunic in the blood. They had the ornamented tunic taken to their father, and they said, we found this, please examine it. Is it your son's tunic or not? Okay, this is a tough sentence. First of all, do you notice the way— is it your son? Their contempt for him. It's not Joseph, your son. Do you understand? I mean, there's a real, uh, anger, uh, still here. This is the way of saying to Jacob how angry they were with Jacob. Okay, now they sent the coat. How in the Hebrew is— the Hebrew is very difficult. It in the Hebrew is they sent sent the coat and they brought it to their father. Now what does that mean? It, uh, it's very difficult. I still don't know fully. Incidentally, they translate here, they had the ornament taken to their father, but their— the English is just combining two separate phrases from the Hebrew. The Hebrew is, they sent the coat and they brought it to their father. Maybe they sent it first. That's right, that is very, very possible. That's one. There is another possibility in Khartoum that vayishalhu does not mean sent, but it's also a verb used with a sword. A sword is taken out and used. They cut the— which makes more sense. They cut the tunic and brought it to to the father. That it may not be they sent, and, and since it's an Israeli professor whose Hebrew is obviously first class, he may be right. They cut the garment and they brought it to the father because it's not, it's not enough that it— if something had blood, would be odd, wouldn't it, if it wasn't torn? How does an animal bite you and not cut your clothing? So I think what the sentence really is, they cut the coat and they brought it to the father and they said, look, this is what we found. Is, is this the coat of your son or not? I mean, the fakery on their part, but it is interesting what they're doing. They set up Jacob to tell the lie. It's incredible. In fact, my friends, this will blow your mind when you read this carefully. They neither sold Joseph into slavery nor told the lie about him. The Ishmaelite traders sold him into slavery, and Jacob made up the story about what happened to him. Isn't that incredible? Look what happens. He recognized it and said, 'Ah, my son's tunic! A savage beast devoured him.' Joseph was torn by a beast. They never lied. They never sold him. They never hit him. And they never lied about him. Well, they kidded him. Oh, it's just very interesting. It's not— it's just literally story-wise fascinating how they were not the direct— we assume in both cases, I assumed all my life till I read it again now, they sold them to slavery and they told the lie because that's the lie they prepared, but they got the father to do it. It's just fascinating in the way they thought this thing through. They could have said, look, it's, it's Joseph's coat. He was torn by an animal. But they didn't. They played the whole thing to have others do their dirty work, and it worked. Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his loins, and observed mourning for his son many days. Notice in 33— oh, 33, there are 3 stages of horror that the father undergoes. Look, my son's tunic. A savage beast devoured him. Joseph was torn by a beast. First the father says, oh my God, it's my son's tunic. Then he realizes he was killed. Then he realized he was tortured. That's the way a parent would think. Oh my God, not only was he killed, he was torn apart. It's very powerful in the way a parent would react that way. 35. All his sons and daughters sought to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted, saying, no, I will go down mourning to my son in Sheol. That is where in biblical times they There was a belief that you went after death. There were very differing views on it. I will report on Sheol next time. The daughters, by the way, must mean daughters-in-law because he only had Dina, or he had more daughters later that the Torah didn't bother reporting about. But given its view of daughters, that is very possible. And 36, the Midianites meanwhile sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a courtier of Pharaoh and his chief steward. Now if the Midianites sold him to the Ishmaelites, I mean, excuse me, the Midianites and Ishmaelites, they're the same. That's right. Then that means the brothers did sell him into slavery. Ah, that's right. The ultimate responsibility is, is on, is on the brothers, obviously. But, uh, that's what happens. They sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, even though in 39, in, in, uh, in 39:1 later, it says the Ishmaelites sold him to Egypt. Now, either they're the same or what we have is the notion of ultimate responsibility. That's what the Rashbam says. Just as Joseph says later, I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into slavery. In the final analysis, the brothers are responsible even though they didn't do the selling. And in the final analysis, the Ishmaelites sold him even though it says here that the, the Midyanim did it. And that's how he goes goes to Egypt, and we will continue. Remember the date, the 15th. Thank you very much.

On tomorrow's Sunday Fireside Chat, I proudly have attended the only Jesuit high school in Minneapolis, but instead of the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, we recited Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. We study, work, and play for the greater glory of God. My school rarely had an American flag in the building. A big red flag came in 19— in 2017 when they received backlash after the volleyball team knelt during the national anthem at an away game. I truly believe my high school can be a guiding light for youth in Minneapolis, but I think it will all be in vain if it drifts away from conservative values. What do you recommend I do to help anchor my school?

God bless you.

Thank you. God bless you too.

Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. This has been 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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