The End of Genesis - Genesis 49:23-50:26 | Weekend Torah Teaching

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On today's episode of Timeless Wisdom: If the God that Judaism introduced to the world exists, not Aristotle's unmoved mover, but the God, the personal God of Judaism, the judging God of Judaism, the merciful God of Judaism, then there is an afterlife. To me, it is, it is impossible for a good God, a just God, to have created a world with so much intrinsic injustice and cruelty and not had a working of it out in some afterlife. It is impossible for me to believe that the world was created and the only reality is physical, that the human being possesses no soul that outlives our decrepit skin. It's just, uh, it's inconceivable to me on logical grounds. I can entertain atheism intellectually. I cannot entertain belief in God but no afterlife. It's a God that I, that I, that is alien to, to Judaism. But again, It's a tape you'll have to get, or an article of mine you'll have to read. I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave which is in the field of Machpelah. Remember where Abraham and Isaac and their wives are buried? Facing Mamre in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. How many of you have been with me since chapter 1? Oh, there actually are 20 or so. That's 20, maybe a dozen, 6, no, no, about 15 of you. I'm very touched by that. Do you recall how the Torah went out of its way almost hilariously to say we bought the land, the Jews bought the land? Here again it comes back at the very end of Genesis. Let nobody say the Jews got that land in any illegal way. So here it is again. Like it needs to be mentioned. The guy is dying, you know, and, and even now he writes, the one we bought, and from whom we bought it, is mentioned. It is so fascinating. The Torah is so sensitive to the possibility that anyone would accuse the Jews of having that area not totally fairly legally bought. So here, here it is again. It just— I got a kick out of it seeing it. You know, boys, The one that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There Isaac and his wife Rebecca were buried. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it bought from the Hittites. In case you missed, boys, one of you, you know, one of you was talking while I spoke. Is that funny? I mean, you know, when you, when you become aware of it, it truly, it's comical. When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons He drew his feet into the bed, and breathing his last, he was gathered to his people. It's very touching. The last chapter of Genesis is not about Jacob. I mean, you know, he could have died in the last chapter, but it's a way of saying nope, the continuum is what happens with Joseph and the brothers. The children of Israel take over now, not Israel himself. He dies in chapter 49. It's very touching that it works that way. And so we go to the final chapter in the book of Genesis chapter 50.

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.

Tonight, incidentally, in keeping with— there is a Jewish tradition that when you complete an arduous task in any of the holy works, Talmud or Torah or Prophets, you have a party. It's called a siyum. And I will introduce Alan's parents, who very, very, very generously in from Salem, Oregon, to celebrate their son's 40th. Which is remarkable since they're both 50, have decided to share refreshments with us. And even I brought many bags of M&M's just in case something had happened to the Estrin plans. So we'll have a little informality to celebrate. I really— you have no idea. For me personally, this is a very big deal. 3 years we've been doing this. 3 years. It is, it is, uh, very— huh, say it again. And we only got to chapter 49. That's right, that's right. 3 years and we only have to— listen, it took, it took about 2 weeks or 3 weeks to do chapter 1, if I'm not mistaken, right? Wasn't it quite some time? Yeah. Okay, uh, verse 23. Well, Laurie reminds me. This is why. Yes, this is why, exactly. That's a very good point. Shut up.

Okay.

You don't take a walk, do you? Yes, that's right, which is not common for me. Oh yes, when I spoke to you, was it 2 weeks ago? The context was, and it's very important to me that you not get a misapprehension of my own Judaism. What was it exactly I was discussing where kosher came up? Do you remember? Yeah, with the meat. Oh yeah, all right. Did you get the impression that I don't keep kosher? Yeah, no. You did get that. Some of you did. You go to non-kosher restaurants. Yeah, I eat in non-kosher restaurants, but I keep kosher. I mean, I just wanted for the record in case any, you know, it seems to have, uh, I wasn't clear about that. Okay, so just wanted you to know for the record. Okay, we're up to verse 23. It is Jacob on his deathbed, literally on his deathbed, and he is giving the, uh, the sons, uh, the, uh, the final blessings. Okay, 23. And I, as I said, I'm going to go through this, uh Well, we'll start with Joseph. So, right, is that what we're up to? We did 19. We did God. I don't remember doing God. I think you're wrong. Yes, I don't think we did Dan either. 13, right, 13. You couldn't— you thought your 1 was a 2. 49:13. Zivulun shall dwell by the seashore. He shall be a haven for ships. And his flank shall rest on Sidon. Issachar is a strong-boned donkey. Listen, if I read what they had here, you'd have laughed harder. Ass. I mean, you know, it's, uh, it's not the sort of thing we tend to say about our kids these days. It's not considered a blessing to call your kid a donkey, but you understand, obviously, the animal, uh, Imagery then. "Crouching among the sheepfolds, when he saw how good was security and how pleasant was the country, he bent his shoulder to the burden and became a toiling serf." Only on a few of these will I offer you some comments. In this regard, Sarna writes, "It would seem that until the final overthrow of the Canaanite city-states in the time of Deborah later on," The tribe, that's Issachar, had been content to perform corvée labor, which is like serf labor, for the local overlords in return for a quiet existence. Remember what I told you about the blessings of the tribes, of the, of the children who became the tribes, that this foretells the way they will be. Now you either believe he was telling it in the future, or it's written later and they put the words in his mouth. You choose what you want, but it does describe the reality of the tribes later on. Dan. Dan shall govern his people. In Hebrew, there's a play on words. Dan in Hebrew, which is Dan in English— Dan comes from this— means judge, uh, to judge. Uh, ladun is to judge. And so, Dan yadin amo— Dan will judge or govern his people as one of the tribes of Israel. And he writes, Sarna, these two verses may well be unconnected, the next verse being Dan shall be a serpent by the road. A viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider is thrown backward. These verses may well be unconnected, each alluding to a different situation. The first deals with Dan's status among the tribes of Israel, the second with its position vis-à-vis its enemies. Our meager knowledge of the history of this tribe and the elliptical language used here greatly complicate our understanding of the aphorisms and make it difficult to identify the historic situations behind them. Dan is the first of the concubine tribes to be addressed. This implies a position of importance, a conclusion reinforced also by its being the only such to be allocated territory between the Leah and Rachel tribes. Okay, 18. I wait for your deliverance, O Lord. Very famous phrase, incidentally, from the Hebrew, "Lishuatcha ki viti Adonai." And then we go to 19. This is, by the way, Jacob saying that, "I wait for your deliverance, O Lord." It is not clear what he is saying. Maybe it's because he sees very problematic things. It is not certain why he interrupts the blessings to say, "I wait for your salvation, O God." 19. God, will be raided by raiders. Again, in Hebrew, it is all play on words. God, G'dud, Yigudenu. Even if you don't know Hebrew, you can hear the play. But he shall raid at their heels. Asher's bread shall be rich, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a hind let loose, which yields lovely fawns. Now we go to Joseph. Joseph is a wild ass, a wild ass by a spring. Wild colts on a hillside. Archers bitterly assailed him. They shot at him and harried him, yet his bow stayed taut and his arms were made firm by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. There the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel— this very famous imagery, the Rock of Israel— the God of your father who helps you, and Shaddai— remember that name I had come across that we had talked about last time, that name of God which some say is related to breast, Shaddayim. And Shadday who blesses you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that couches below, blessings of the breast and womb. And indeed Shaddayim is there. The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my ancestors to the utmost bounds of the eternal hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the bow on the brow of the elect of his brothers. Let me read to you from Hertz on the blessings for Jacob. Hertz is the Orthodox commentator. In the dreams of Joseph, it's an interesting thing here, talking now about Joseph and referring, remember the dreams wherein the brothers bowed down to him which is what started their jealousy and rage and so on. In the dreams of Joseph, the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowed down to him. It is the stars that bowed to him and not he to the stars. This is characteristic of both Joseph and Israel. Ein mazal Yisrael, says Rabbi Yochanan. That is, uh, that is a famous phrase in the Talmud. You all heard of the term Mazal Tov. You know what Mazal Tov means literally? Good constellation. Mazal in Hebrew means constellation. It came to mean luck, which is obviously related. You know, wishing you a good constellation is wishing you good luck. But the Talmud says, 'Ain mazal yisrael.' There is no constellation for the Jewish people, for Israel. Some have obviously, in bad times, which certainly have been in Jewish history, have simply translated it, Jews have no luck, ain mazali Israel. But it literally means there is no constellation for Israel. And he continues, an Israelite— this is Rabbi Hertz— an Israelite should be ashamed to blame his star. I mean, I tell you, those of you who know my own attitudes on social, uh, philosophy or current events, would almost think that I were giving you these words. Yet these were written earlier this century by an Orthodox— the Orthodox chief rabbi of the British Empire, who wrote the Hertz Commentary. An Israelite, a Jew, should be ashamed to blame his star, his environment, or any outward circumstance for his moral downfall or his religious apostasy. Man is captain of his own soul, and wherever there is a will to Judaism, there is a way to lead the Jewish life. Isn't that incredible, that a Jew should be ashamed if he acts immorally to blame his environment or his, or his stars or anything outside of himself? And so he takes that from the notion of we don't bow down to the stars The stars bow down to us, not in an egocentric sense, but in the sense that we don't bow to stars. That is just not— that is not the way, and that is why— the Jewish way. And that is why it's his interesting Hertz interpretation in these blessings to Joseph of what Joseph first dreamed, of the stars, the moon, and the sun bowing down to him. You would think, of course, that that is terribly egocentric, and obviously there is an element of that. But there is a much larger point than Joseph's ego here. The purpose of the Torah is not to teach you about the psychopathological aspects of its, of its patriarchs. It's to teach you a basic idea: nature bows down to man, not man to nature. And this is particularly relevant in our time where there is a tremendous amount of nature worship. The basic Jewish and biblical attitude has been that God created the world, everything, for us. That is what in the very beginning of Genesis, after all, was when it says, you shall, uh, you shall rule over nature. It doesn't mean abuse it, obviously not to abuse it, that's taken for granted, but yes, to rule over it. Nature is here to serve us. To make a point that upsets a great many people when I say it on the radio, there is no purpose to nature if the human being is not there to use it, to appreciate it. There is no point to a raccoon's life. The raccoon gives birth, and then there's more raccoons, and then there are more raccoons, and there are more raccoons. But the one— the 10,000th generation of raccoon doesn't live any differently from the first generation of raccoon. Nothing has been built. It has simply gone through instinctive actions. It has— it has had sex. It has eaten. It has excreted. It has hunted. It has built. It has died. Now, by the way, a lot of people have lived like that. There is no question. And, and in this regard, Judaism was quite revolutionary in that— and I take this concept from Henry Bamford Parkes, a, a great medievalist at New York University who wrote a magnificent book on the medieval world, who was not a Jew— and he said what, what Judaism gave the world was linear history. All All other history, all other ideals were cyclical. You go around and around and around. Indeed, that's what karma is, in effect. You come back and you redo it, you redo it, you get it right and you leave, but you redo it. The idea of history moving forward is a Jewish invention, and it's what gave us a very dangerous idea namely the messianic idea. The messianic idea, the idea of a messiah who will come, uh, has— was a Jewish invention. One day the world will be redeemed, this world. Even in the highest forms of Eastern religion— and my point is not at all to say they're wrong, it's just to show you a difference— it is not the world, this world, that is redeemed. And I have deep deep respect for, for Buddhism, for example. The highest state reached is wherein you have left the world. This world is unredeemable in Eastern religion, and in all pagan religion, the concept doesn't even arise. This world is nothing except a repetition of the last generation, which is the way most cultures lived. They repeated what they did in that regard not living terribly differently, except on a higher intelligence plane, than animals. Animals don't build anything in the next generation. Here, I'm passing to you, my son raccoon, the following heritage, which I hope that you will build on. The idea is absurd, obviously. It's not that I'm anti-raccoons, please understand. I have very strong pro-raccoon sentiments. The point is not that. The point is that to ask a raccoon to do what humans do is asking you to do what a truck does. You're not a truck, and a raccoon is not a human. I don't anthropomorphize animals, and I don't, I don't mechanize human beings. The movement forward, that is, is a Jewish idea that history should move forward. Call it— it's called progress. That the next generation should be better than this generation. That is the Jewish ideal, that history has meaning, suffering has meaning, the world is moving toward something. This is all invented in this Bible. It is an idea that is, that is taken over, of course, that is, by Christianity, for which reason I am one who does support the concept of a Judeo-Christian value system, despite the fact that I fully acknowledge that there are differences, obviously, between Judaism and Christianity. But the notion of moving in a linear way— and this is not my point, this is Henry Bamford Parkes— is invented here. We are not determined by nature. That is what the Talmud is saying, "Ein mazali Yisrael." There is no constellation that determines how a Jew's fate will occur. By the way, I have no problem with you getting your, your, uh, your astrological chart read, okay? That's okay, so long as you understand it's not determinative, okay? I am not— I am probably more open to astrology than you ever would have imagined. I mean, I'm not closed-minded to any readings of the world that aren't going to cause you to either do bad or believe nonsense. Now there are those who say that this is pure nonsense, and that's okay. I'm not gonna argue on behalf of astrology. I'm just saying, I am—

I—

you can, you can be a believing Jew and still have your chart read, providing that you don't believe it determines your, your fate, especially in terms of moral freedom. Take in a moment. Moral freedom is the core idea of Judaism. You are free to do good, free free to do bad. As Hertz writes, an Israelite cannot, cannot say my environment is what caused my moral downfall. Would that America adopted this attitude today, we would have a far better society. Which is, which, and by the way, it is Jews among others who are among the leaders of those who argue that environment does determine moral moral downfall. But these are non-Jewish Jews. It is not Jews who are serious about their Judaism who believe in the moral determinacy of environment. These are Jews who have accepted some secular views which are antithetical to these views. So this is a— I just thought it when I read this preparing the chapter, I said, my God, look at how Hertz is contemporary. How— not that you cannot let your environment be held responsible for your moral downfall.

Yes. How does Judaism deal with the issue that, uh, certain institutions, people are not inculcating setting moral values as children, and therefore it seems to me their environment does have something to do.

Right. Well, how does Judaism deal with those whose moral environment did not teach them morality? Okay, the— I, I gave the answer in a much earlier chapter with Cain and Abel. This is the beauty of having the tapes. And I, my point is not to sell you a tape. My, my point is that I did deal with it very, very briefly, and I would certainly commend it to you. Uh, Cain, the Cain and Abel story, for reasons that I can't review now, uh, are to me make clear that Judaism believes that God gave universal conscience. Uh, the— you do not have to be taught that torture is wrong. It helps, but there is a Jewish belief that the most primitive illiterate knows that causing terrible suffering to an innocent is wrong. Now, if cultures have created such a world of evil that torture is declared good— and that, by the way, is why Judaism, why the Torah, would allow for the destruction of the Canaanites. You can get to a point in the Torah's view of such moral decay that it is irredeemable, that the conscience has been effectively obliterated, and therefore there is no hope.

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Two forms of evil. There's two forms of evil societies. Societies wherein the laws are moral but people violate them. And then there are societies in which the laws are immoral. The second is a society that is irredeemable. The first is redeemable. That's why Jonah was sent to Nineveh. Nineveh did not say thou shalt murder. But there was a lot of murder going on. So he comes to Nineveh. It's a great book, the Book of Jonah. You should take a look at it. And he says, 'Repent.' And they do, to his enormous surprise. They do. 'Okay, fine, good idea, thanks.' He's totally shocked. But if you'd have gone to Nazi Germany and said, 'Repent,' they would have correctly said, 'Why? We are doing what is right. We follow the Führer.' The only person who need repent in Nazi Germany is someone who was anti-Nazi. Get the difference? America has good laws but a lot of bad people in it. That is, that is therefore a society that is redeemable. But a society that calls good evil and evil good, as, as with child sacrifice, as with which Mesoamerica, uh, was, was filled with, uh, that is not redeemable. So the answer to your question is, you get to a point where the culture is so, uh, has so obliterated the conscience, it, it had no longer is justified to exist. The Torah's belief is not that we exist in order to exist. Maybe animals do, not humans. We exist in order to morally progress. If we don't, good, then we have no right to be. It sounds harsh, but in any event, that's the way, that's the way it would answer it. If you truly would have children who are, who are in a culture that has declared torture and murder and rape good, then the, the Jewish answer is the culture should, should be destroyed.

Yeah.

Towards, uh, the numerology and astrology, and their calendars have good days, bad days, and everything else, right? How would I explain the Kabbalist, though, for those that didn't hear it, if, uh, if Judaism doesn't, uh, allow for much of this belief in, in determinative, uh, outside stuff? Uh, the, the, uh, the truth is that there are many Jews who disqualify, uh, the, uh, those who believe in numerology as a determinative. That's important as a determinative. Determinative. There is tremendous belief in gematria, which is the Hebrew for numerology, among Jews, not as determinative but as a, as a secret code to studying the Torah. Okay, uh, you know, so that, that, that's big difference. Also, you should know that by Jewish tradition, you cannot study the Kabbalah till you're 40, married, have children, and already know the Torah, so that you cannot, you cannot be hoodwinked winked, as it were, by some of the more, uh, wild or esoteric stuff. Yeah. How do you explain the New Testament reference? The Apostle Paul says, 'I am in all good conscience to this day,' when he had killed— approved the murder of Stephen. Well, it's not— it's not fair to ask a believing Jew to interpret New Testament scripture. Uh, it's, it's, it's a lesson I learned a long time ago. Uh, any more than it would be fair to ask, uh, it's, it's a little fairer to ask a believing Christian because they believe in the Hebrew Bible. That's not my Bible. And, and so it's, it's really not fair to Christianity to get an answer from me. Okay, it's really worth asking a Christian scholar, a believing Christian scholar on that. I, I hate to do that because I love answering questions. I just Okay, yes.

Is it possible to blame an act on the environment and yet be guilty of that act? For example, when the children of Israel were in the desert and built the golden calf, certainly you can blame the paganism of the previous environment, but they were still guilty, and therefore God punished them.

Wait, God punished them when they did what? I'm sorry. Yeah, and why do you blame the environment for that?

Well, they lived for hundreds of years in a paganistic world, right?

Well, listen, that's right, the environment does contribute, and one would have to be a fool to deny that. If the— if I, who hold the individual ultimately responsible, obviously want to create a different moral environment, because the truth is that that's the best way to work to ensure that goodness will prevail. But in the final analysis, you are still responsible individually. So we both agree. I mean, it's, you know, I'm not hedging. It's, it's, it— to, to say that environment is powerful is one thing. To say it's responsible and you're not is another. It is powerful. That will also help you in your question, I hope. This is not a denial of the, of the, of the role of environment. Yeah, let me— I'll take this as the last one because I want to go Go on.

Is the American jurisprudence concept of innocent before proven guilty a Talmudic or a basic Torah concept or more of a secular concept?

Why do you— I'll answer it, but has something been said that leads you to ask that question? Is it related to— She asked if the concept of innocent until proven guilty is biblical or Jewish or just modern secular.

Yeah. Well, you were suggesting that the individual should take responsibility first and not blame the surroundings and the environment. And in a sense, we blame— we protect the individual and must discover evidence amongst the environment to prove this person's guilt.

No, no. One is a moral issue and the other one is a legal issue. You could be morally responsible possible and legally okay. I mean, so that's a separate— it's really separate. And yes, in Judaism you are innocent until proven guilty too, sure. In fact, there was in the Talmud, there are somewhat more stringent laws which I think are actually utopian and couldn't even be enacted. In order to find somebody guilty of, uh, of murder, for example, you need two witnesses. Plus, uh, in order to execute them, you have had to have warned the murderer before the act You know, if you do this, you'll be executed. And he had to respond, yes, I know. I mean, which is to me ludicrous. So it couldn't have been meant— I don't think could have been meant literally. It was, or it was simply a way of their saying it was so rare in Israel to have murder that we don't want capital punishment where murder is that rare. But in any event, it was very stringent. You had to find the person guilty based on evidence, or else he was innocent. Anyway, I needed to share that Hertzian view with you. It's about both about nature and about, about constellations and so on. Back to the Torah, please. We are at 27. Thank you. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he consumes the foe, and in the evening he divides the spoil. All these were the tribes of Israel 12 in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him. Then he instructed them, saying to them, I am about to be gathered to my kin. You might recall this is the term for I, I will die, and how this was a hint toward the belief in the Torah of an afterlife, that it's not just a phraseology but actually a belief I, I will not repeat this. It was a long session on afterlife belief in Judaism, which exists. I will merely state, restate the obvious: if there is a God, this is not all there is. I can never prove that there is a God. It is not provable. But it is a logical axiom that if the God that Judaism introduced to the world exists— not Aristotle's unmoved mover, but the God, the personal God of Judaism, the judging God of Judaism, the merciful God of Judaism, then there is an afterlife. To me, it is, it is impossible for a good God, a just God, to have created a world with so much intrinsic injustice and cruelty and not had a working of it out in some afterlife. It is impossible for me to believe that the world was created and the only only reality is physical, that the human being possesses no soul that outlives our decrepit skin. It's just, uh, it's inconceivable to me on logical grounds. I can entertain atheism intellectually. I cannot entertain belief in God but no afterlife. It's a God that I, that I, that is alien to, uh, to Judaism. But again, it's a tape you'll have to get or an article of mine will have to read. I am about to be gathered to my kin. Bury me with my fathers in the cave which is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave which is in the field of Machpelah. Remember where Abraham and Isaac and their wives are buried? Facing Mamre in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. How many of you have been with me since chapter 1? Oh, there actually are, uh, 20 or so. That's 20, maybe a dozen, 6. No, no, about 15 of you. Uh, I'm very touched by that. Uh, the, uh, do you recall how the Torah went out of its way, almost hilariously, to say we bought the land? The Jews bought the land. Here again, it comes back at the very end of Genesis. Let nobody say the Jews got that land in any illegal way. So here it is again, like it needs to be mentioned. The guy is dying, you know, and, and even now he— the one we bought and from whom we bought it is mentioned. It is so fascinating. The Torah is so sensitive to the possibility that anyone would accuse the Jews of having that area not totally fairly legally bought. So here, here it is again. It just They got a kick out of it, seeing it. You know, boys, the one that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial site. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There Isaac and his wife Rebecca were buried. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it bought from the Hittites. In case you missed, boys, one of you was talking while I spoke. Is that funny? I mean, you know, when you become aware of it, it truly, it's comic. When Jacob finished his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet into the bed, and breathing his last, he was gathered to his people. It's very touching. The last chapter of Genesis is not about Jacob. I mean, you know, he could have died in the last chapter, but it's a way of saying nope, the continuum is what happens with Joseph and the brothers, the children of Israel. Take over now, not Israel himself. He dies in chapter 49. It's very touching that it works that way. And so we go to the final chapter in the book of Genesis, chapter 50. Joseph flung himself upon his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. The, uh, Sarna makes the point here: the text subtly underlines the disconnection of the embalming procedure from any pagan context. Remember, that's what the pagans did. Did we Jews, monotheists, do what the pagan Egyptians did with embalming? So he says the text subtly distinguishes. But how? By having Joseph entrust the task to physicians in his service. Why is there a distinction? Who did the embalming in Egypt? The priests. See the subtle points that are made here? He got the doctors to do it. I have another thought on the fact that he got the doctors to do it. In, in the ancient world, doctors Doctors didn't know too much. I mean, let's be honest. They really had tasks like this to do. I mean, you know, if you went to a doctor in those days, their knowledge of antibiotics was very limited. So, you know, it is just funny to think this is what they do. The doctors, they embalm. Well, at least they didn't kill anybody. You know, you were already dead when you came to those doctors. So it's just, I got a kick out of that fact. But I think Sarnaz is obviously the more important one. It's not the priests who did it, so it's not a religious procedure. It's almost as if a modern Jew might have a child circumcised by a physician and not by a mohel, a circumciser, to say this is not a religious procedure, it is just a health procedure. Okay, it's an exact, uh, equivalent, though obviously I would take a different side on that one and In that case, I would want the mohel to do it. But, but at least you'd understand that's the distinction. The same exact procedure, but depending on who does it, it has a totally different meaning.

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

Verse 3: It required 40 days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him 70 days. So was it 70 plus or 40 plus 30? Is not totally clear, but not critical to our understanding. And when the wailing period was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's court, saying, do me this favor and lay this appeal before Pharaoh. My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die, be sure to bury me in the grave which I made ready for myself in the land of Canaan. Now therefore let me go up and bury my father, then I shall return. According to Sarna, these words, then I shall return, the assurance reflects an undercurrent of anxiety and hints at something of a deterioration in the situation of the Israelites in Egypt. I think there might be, just a conjecture, another hint of a slight deterioration. It is not Joseph speaking directly to Pharaoh, it is him speaking to Pharaoh's court and having them transmit the message. Though there might be another explanation for that, being contact with the dead might have rendered him, uh, non-pure enough to speak to Pharaoh, which is some of what the— some of the commentary— commentaries that I read offered. Anyway, just both, both thoughts from Son and myself. Uh, okay, verse, uh, 6. And Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father as he made you promise on oath. So Joseph went up to bury his father. And with him went up all the officials of Pharaoh, the senior members of his court, and all of Egypt's dignitaries, together with all of Joseph's household, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the region of Goshen, which is where the Jews lived. Chariots too and horsemen went up with him. It was a very large troop. Why the chariots? Because they met met with enemies. After all, they were leaving Egypt. That's the theory. When they came to Goren-Hattad, which we're not sure, uh, where that is, which is beyond the Jordan— now I'll read you something on, on that in a moment— they held there a very great and solemn lamentation, and he observed the mourning period of 7 days for his father. I'm sure many of you who are Jewish know of the, of the term to sit Shiva. Shiva is the Hebrew word 7. It's all it means. It doesn't mean mourning. To sit 7 is what sit Shiva means. It is obviously this ancient that it goes back to pre-10 Commandments, pre-Jews, Jews as Jews even times. That is how old. Apparently the Egyptians even had it, some element of sitting 7 days and, and mourning a death. So he observed Shiva. That's how old it is. It's, it's remarkable to think when you know somebody doing it now how old the tradition goes back. I don't want to spend much time on this at all, but I will tell you that, uh, it is truly to me one of the wisest policies in Judaism to have people take that 7 7-day period off, and the laws surrounding it are very wise in my opinion, where you, you basically just sit at home and people visit you. And there are even laws in Judaism about what you talk about when you visit somebody who's sitting shiva. And the basic law is you talk about anything they want to talk about. You don't raise the subject, you let them raise the subject. If they want to talk about talk about the dead, you talk about the dead person. If they want to talk about baseball, you talk about baseball. But, and by the way, I have been to homes that were sitting shiva where nothing was said. The person literally just sat there, and so did the others. If he wanted or she wanted to be quiet, she was quiet, he was quiet. And it's a very powerful thing too. It's funny because when I have been with non-Jewish friends who who have lost an immediate relative, it's only for immediate relatives. I have all, being raised in this environment, I'm always a little shaken by the speed with which my non-Jewish friends reenter normal, quote unquote, normal life. It is to me incredible. You mean you are not taking time off You've lost your mother, you've lost your father, or your child, or your sibling, and you're going back to work tomorrow? You're gonna be at the office at 9 o'clock? Please understand, it's very normal for people to do this, but being steeped in this tradition, it's inconceivable to me. And I must say, that this— there, I think there are psychological benefits to it because it doesn't allow you to be a stoic. Judaism is not stoic, stoical, uh, whereas Protestantism, for example, tends to be. A stiff upper lip is, is, uh, where you don't wear your emotions on your sleeves. In fact, you don't wear them almost anywhere in some cases, uh, where, you know, you, you who are very— now there's a great nobility to that, don't get me wrong. And in a country which has made complaining and whining an art, I think we could use a great deal of some Protestant stiff-upper-lip-ism. And Jews have certainly been in the forefront of kvetchers, which is Yiddish for complainers. So please understand that an excess of either is not healthy. But the idea that you must mourn You must take a week out, except for the Sabbath when you stop mourning, because the Sabbath must be a happy day. Even if it's the day after the funeral, the mourning period stops for 24 hours. But other than that, you just stop life. Wait a minute, I've really had a big loss here. Even if you didn't love the person, you've had a big loss, and it lets, lets people gather around you and and give you support. And, and it's a very, it's a very powerful part of, of continued Jewish practice. Okay, where, what, what verse, my friend? Hmm, 11. Oh, I want to do something on 10. There is a very interesting thing that you wouldn't think is interesting unless unless I tell you what's interesting. When they came to Goren, Goren Ha'Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held a great and solemn lamentation. All right, this is the party, right, that is going to bury Jacob. Okay, what does beyond the Jordan mean? They are going from Egypt to, uh, Israel— not yet Israel, Canaan. So what is beyond the Jordan? Clearly they did not go Egypt to Israel via Jordan. I mean, that would— it's like, it's like going like this. It's absurd. Obviously they went straight up, and the geography of the trip verifies this. So what does beyond the Jordan mean? Do you know the geography that I'm talking about? Picture Egypt, the Gaza Strip, Israel today. If you go from Egypt to Israel, you do not go around the Jordan River, which is the eastern border of the West Bank, okay, or historical Israel, or, okay, so I'm not going to get into, uh, politics here. You have Jordan on the, on the east side, and you have the West Bank and Israel on the west side. Clearly they didn't go around. So what does 'on the other side of the Jordan' mean? This is used by Hertz, the Orthodox commentator, to say, you see, This is proof that the Torah was written by Moses. Moses is, by Jewish tradition, the writer of the Torah. To Moses, before he dies, what is, what is the other side of the Jordan? Israel. He is on the eastern side of the Jordan. So he is now talking about He is talking here and saying, "Oh, where did they go? They went to the other side of the Jordan." It makes no sense any other way except to a reader who's on the eastern side of the Jordan. So that's his argument for the Mosaic authorship of the Torah. Just wanted to offer that to you as an interesting— I'm not saying it's incontrovertible. I'm merely offering to you It does mean— I mean, it is clear that to the reader then, that sentence itself is, is, is contemporaneous with the Jew on the other side of the Jordan. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense. It would have been here and they moved here if it was written by somebody in Israel. Okay, all right, uh, we go to, uh, number 11, finally. And when the Canaanite inhabitants of the land saw the mourning at Goren HaAtad, they said, this is a solemn mourning on the part of the Egyptians. That is why it was named Abel Mitzrayim. Abel is to mourn, which is beyond the Jordan. See, once again, thus his sons did for him as he had instructed them. His sons, uh, his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah. Guess what's going to be coming up, guys? It has to be the single most repeated point in the Torah. Yep, here it is. The field near Mamre, which Abraham had bought for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite. There must have been some lingering problem to have caused the massive repetition. I think we got the point the first 6 times. That is my reaction. But, uh, it is, it is charming, uh, if nothing else. After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. 15. Genesis 50:15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrong that we did him? Uh, it's a very— which is a very interesting, uh, thing. Obviously it doesn't mean when they literally saw their father was dead, they knew that he was dead, but they're saying when it, you know, now that he was dead. All of a sudden, can you imagine? This is 17 or so years later after meeting the brother, and they are now still afraid. Maybe the reason that he didn't hurt us for selling him into slavery is because Dad was still alive. Isn't it incredible how long— talk about punishment— that Joseph didn't have to do a thing for the brothers to be punished. This is about as self-evident as you can get. Uh-oh, Dad is dead, we're finished. Now he can do what he wants. He was not hurting us because Jacob was still alive. So verse 16, this is really remarkable. They sent this message to Joseph. They didn't even want to— they didn't want to appear before him in person. They sent this message to Joseph before his death. I don't know, I don't know why, but generally we say dad, right? Or our father, not your father. I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna call my brother tomorrow and say, you know what your father told me the other day? And he'll still flip out, he'll think I have, you know, I've gone nutty again. But you know, you have to realize what I mean, it is very interesting that they use that language. Uh, it, uh, it's, it strikes me as so obvious that they're reminding him, your father, to whom you owe allegiance. First, as one medieval Jewish commentator, Abravanel, pointed out, they make no petition on the basis of brotherly love or brotherly duty solely the most primal. Your father Joseph, your father, your father has asked the following, okay? Your father left this instruction: So shall you say to Joseph, forgive, I urge you, the offense and guilt of your brothers who treated you so harshly. Therefore, please forgive the offense of the servants of the God of your father. That is the other way in which they get him to try to forgive them, by invoking God. First your father, and then the God of your father. Now, before I read the next sentence, this is all baloney. The whole thing is a lie. I mean, the, you know, they made this whole scenario up. In fact, it is clear from the the blessings at the end that his whole life till he died. In other words, Jacob never knew what his sons did to Joseph. Isn't that fascinating? Because of course he would have made reference to it in the blessings. He made reference to the way they treated the Shechemites. Remember Shimon and Levi? No reference. Totally oblivious. Did not know what happened or knew and didn't want to ask. You know, like parents can suspect. All parents have this. "There is no reason to tell me, darling," is an attitude that you have, for example, perhaps to your single daughter. "I don't want to know all the details of your social life, because I will die if I find out." That is a very common fatherly and motherly thing. You know, you don't want to know everything. My suspicion is that he did not want to know. I mean, he could have you know, he could have pursued, "What exactly happened to Joseph that, you know, he turns up alive at the end of my life? Where were you? How did you get there?" We have no record of that whatsoever. He didn't ask and they didn't tell. So they make up what the rabbis called a white lie. The rest of us might call a total lie. I mean, when you manufacture something out of whole cloth, it's fair to say it's a lie. They, they made this whole thing up. But it's a very interesting thing about how the Jewish tradition deals with this lie.

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

I will go to Plaut for this one. This is different from the Catholic tradition, incidentally. This is from the Talmud. First Plaut: The brothers told Joseph about Jacob's last instructions, of which, however, nothing is recorded. Said Rabbi Elah— this is in the Talmud— a person may tell a white lie for the sake of peace. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel taught, greatest peace, for even the tribal ancestors resorted to a fabrication in order to make peace between Joseph and themselves. This is a fascinating issue which I won't spend too much time on, but it is very relevant to our understanding. Hold on. The, the Jewish tradition is very, very much context-oriented in assessing the morality of an act. I refer you to another article of mine, No Act Is Always Wrong. Prager is wrong in a past issue of my journal. Lying is not always wrong. It is usually wrong. And the same can be said about killing, about stealing, about anything, in fact, and literally anything. The context— that's not moral relativism. This is a common misconception which has played havoc with morality in our time. To say that context determines an act does not undermine moral absolutes. It's just you have to know what the absolute morality is in any given context. Here, as I said, the Jewish tradition differs from Catholic teaching. I've learned this from Catholic priests. For example, I remember this from Religion on the Line quite a number of times. Uh, when people say, what do you mean it's okay to lie sometimes? I'll say, here's my example. Example, and I've given it 100 times. A man is chasing a woman whom he, uh, whom he intends to rape, and, uh, he asks you, where did she run? I want to rape her. It would seem to me and to my religion that you have to lie to him. Tell him she ran over there. The Catholic tradition holds that in no circumstance can you tell a lie. What you can do is, is hem around the truth. Says, well, you know, it's, uh, you know, it's not easy to really know exactly, and you know, or whatever they might say. But lying is, is, is absolutely wrong and always wrong. I'm not going to— again, the point is not to say I, I have a better religion. It's only to show that there is a distinctiveness in religious treatment of certain subjects. Here is an example The Jewish tradition held that the brothers did a good thing for the sake of family peace. They're saying in the Talmud, the rabbis are saying it's okay to tell a lie. Now what they mean, of course, is that there are a hierarchy— there is a hierarchy of good in life, truth being incredibly important. The, the Torah itself says, midvar sheker tirchat, from A lie, you must, you must, from a word of lying, you must remove your— make yourself far, to be literal, put great distance between you and a lie. In fact, you mentioned numerology, you'll find this a great example of it. The words for truth and for lie in Hebrew are very interesting. The word for truth is Sheker, which is the next to last, third to last, and fourth to last words in the Hebrew alphabet. Alphabet: shin, kuf, resh. Okay, and which is actually kuf resh shin, as it happens, but they're the last three. And the word for truth, emet, is the first letter, the middle letter, and the last letter. Truth encompasses every— all, all things. The lie is a tiny, tiny bit of reality. It's just an interesting use of words, and I don't think it's completely coincidental, but who knows. Be that as it may, the Jewish tradition allows for this in cases of shalom bayit, peace in a home. Their rabbinic value of home peace is so great that you could tell a lie to keep it. Now remember, this is nothing to to do with the government, okay? This does not allow lying on macro. This is very micro, to preserve the peace of a home. It— which shows, by the way, you know, we are now becoming aware of how much, uh, for example, how much child abuse and how much wife beating there is in the world, and then for that matter, tragically, in our own society. Clearly, this has always been the human condition, tragically. That the rabbis would pick specifically shalom bayit, peace in a family, in a home, to be the thing you could lie for gives you an idea of how they loathed intra-family violence. And so it was— it gives you a lot of ideas what they built up on this. The brothers lied. You would think the tradition would have said, because the tradition has no problem in criticizing— I've told you this many times— the Jewish tradition has no problem in criticizing anyone in the Bible, from Moses to Abraham. But in this case, they defend the brothers outright on the basis that I just, uh, cited. Yep. Yes, you're right. But fine, they're trying to protect themselves, but they're also trying to protect the family. You're right, it's not, it's not a selfless act of untruth, but it's an untruth that preserves the ability of the family. I mean, what if it were true that Joseph had plans to, to, to kill them or to make them all slaves? Was it not worth their telling this? Dad said that you shouldn't hurt us, even if it is self-serving.

Yeah.

And they're actually asking for forgiveness. To save their face, they use an impersonal thing, "Your dad said," and then everyone knows what's going on. I don't think everybody knows what's going on. Oh, I'll tell you why Joseph cried in a moment. And, and to me, that proves that he didn't, uh, that he didn't fully know all the things that were going on. Or, or, or, or actually, it It might be he knew what was going on. All right, well, I'll tell you, the next sentence is he cried. I believe he cried. Others may have a different interpretation. I think he cried because he realized, you guys are still worried. 17 years you're walking around thinking that when Dad dies, I am going to hurt you, that I'm still walking around though I am the viceroy of Egypt. I'm still walking around angry at you even though I know God is the one who got me here, which is exactly what he's going to say to them. That's why he cried. I feel terrible for you. You're walking around with this awful burden. I'm bet you many of you have had that with a loved one, where after years or somehow you found out that they had a burden vis-à-vis you that you never even think about. It makes you cry. Oh my God, I wish I only knew. I could have relieved you of that burden 10 years ago, and you're still walking around with it. So that's why I think he cried. Yep. Well, in that context, if you read the next two sentences afterwards where Joseph— Joseph doesn't have to buy their lie because from his point of view he's saying, "I know you meant to do me evil, but God didn't mean it that way." He says God meant for it to all come out for good. Right. So in that context I find it real interesting. The rabbis interpreted what the brothers did as a lie for the purpose of shalom b'ayit, when it seems like a bald-faced lie for, uh, you know, self-preservation against Joseph. Well, that's what I said though. I said even if it was a bald-faced lie for self-preservation, that still is peace in the family. I mean, the fact that it isn't altruistic doesn't make it less important. It is possible to be self-serving and do the right thing. It's also possible to be altruistic and do a terrible thing. That's why I prefer capitalism, which is self-serving, to socialism, which is altruistic. The results are more altruistic among the self-serving economy than it is in the altruistic economy.

Couldn't he have cried because it brought back memories of what they had done to him?

Might he have cried because it brought back memories of what they did to him? To him. I think at this point, after about 80 years in Egypt, uh, that, uh, the guy is not walking around with the— all these scars.

Can I ask you something about the embalming, to go back for a second? They talked about the embalming in here, and from my knowledge, Jews don't—

are not supposed to embalm, right?

So I wondered—

yeah, the purpose was to preserve him only for that burial there. Also, there is no question that they adopted some of the practices of Egypt. And why don't we embalm, you know? Yeah, I, I— why don't we embalm? I don't know the, the, the general answer. I— the general, probable general answer, unless there's an absolute specific that I'm missing, would be that, uh, the, um, the body is supposed to return to the earth. The body itself. Uh, Judaism is in, in intense about acknowledging that we die. That is why it is so quiet about an afterlife even though it affirms it. The moment you talk about the next world, people filled with pain in this world will just focus on it, which unfortunately is precisely what happens in our world now. So embalming is a statement that, ah, the body will continue in this journey to the next world. That's not the way it works in Judaism. The body goes back. You're dead. Death is death. Yes. Yes, it's an interesting point. Is, is it possible that, uh, that he, that Judah got a better blessing because of, uh, uh, because Jacob knew that he had played a, this, this positive role? It's, it's possible. It's possible. And he didn't say anything. You're right, I did mention that. Uh, but there were other reasons for Judah as well. Judah did become the spokesman of the brothers and the leader. Also, depending on when exactly it was written, by that time Judah became very— by a later time, Judah was in fact the leading, uh, leading tribe. Yes. Well, we tell it all the time. I assume that if your, uh, if your daughter is going to the prom and, uh, she is overweight and she says, 'How do I look, Mom?' Uh, you're not going to say plump. Okay, I, I— why not? If you're going to be a truth teller, you have to say, 'Well, quite honestly, darling, fat.' But for the sake of preserving peace in the home and many other reasons, you're going to say you You're gorgeous, my dear. That's a perfect example. Why? Why, that's not superficial peace. Oh, there, there are, there's all sorts of things you might, uh, you might, you know, listen, I don't want to get too specific because it would end up autobiographical, because I don't know your family nearly as well as I know mine. I can tell you though, as I, I alluded to it earlier, that, that it is very, it is a very rare parent who wants to know all the details, and it's a very foolish child who tells every single detail even though they know that it is not necessary that the parent knows it, and it might hurt them. As I said about their sex life, for example, it is just not necessary to tell. Uh, there could be any number of things. Uh, kids who are— who don't follow in the exact religious ways of their parents, for for example. Do they have to announce it to them, I run my home differently than you do, Mom, you do, Dad, and hurt their feelings? There are not certain acts that you might put on to keep your parents happy when they visit, or vice versa? Oh, I think for family, I mean, it is, it is a ludicrous principle. Let it all out, totally, absolutely true. It's also ludicrous to lie about everything. That is why I, my favorite thing in the human species is common sense, which, as Mark Twain noted, is a misnomer. It is not common at all. And that's a very real— you have to know when it is foolish to just live and act. On the other hand, to let it all hang out— hey, you know why, you know, I slept with last night— I mean, your mother may not want to know, to be perfectly honest. Okay, you're, you know, you're the single daughter and you're, uh, and you know, you're sowing your wild oats. May not be the first thing that she needs to know. So that's— these are— these— and you all have— I have no doubt every single one of you has fibbed for the sake of family peace at some point. It is inconceivable to me that you haven't. And I find it touching that the rabbis use the white lie only for that. Shalom bayit, peace in the house, because And as I said, if that doesn't illustrate the antiquity, the oldness of family violence, then nothing does. Okay, so here's the brothers and the white lie idea. We are— so then he cries. What am I up to?

18.

And Joseph was in tears as they spoke. To him. And for the reason that I, I believe— you may have another reason, I think, I think mine makes sense— his brothers went to him themselves. You see, now they went directly after they got the word to him, flung themselves before him just as the dream predicted a long time ago, and said, 'We're prepared to be your slaves.' But Joseph said to them, 'Have no fear. Am I a substitute for God?' Now listen to this. Do you know, I'll give you a, uh, I will give a bubblegum cigar to anyone because I know you're all dying to have one. Anyone who can tell me when else in Genesis did somebody say the exact same words, "Am I a substitute for God?" Not Cain and Abel. With, with Sarah and Abraham. Go on, say it. She was distraught and she started blaming him for not having a baby. And he said, am I a substitute for God? What are you blaming me for? Here's a classic example of where the rabbis take context. They blamed Abraham for his outburst at his wife. Here the same words are used, 'Am I a substitute for God?' And it is a perfectly appropriate usage. Context determines everything. Everything. He is saying to them, 'Am I a substitute for God? No, I can't blame you. God, God engineered the whole thing.' God intended it for good. Besides, although you intended me harm— he had to rub it in a little bit, he is human— God intended it for good so as to bring about the present result, the survival of many people. Which is an interesting thing. The, the obvious implication would mean that it was the Jewish people, right? But it could also be Egyptians. He saved innumerable Egyptians from starvation. So it's an interesting— we don't know, we don't know exactly, even though I'm sure that the tradition would hold that it was, uh, that it was the Jewish people. And so, fear not, I'll sustain you and your children. By the way, this is another example, Sarna says, of where there's a slight deterioration hinted at between relations, uh, of relations between the Egyptians and the, and, and the Jews. He says, I will sustain you, not Egypt will. At least they use that as a hint. Take it as you will. I will sustain you and your children. Thus he reassured them, speaking kindly to them. I need to read you something about kindly. Plaut. On this, the rabbis talk in Midrash about how kindly and good Joseph was to his brothers. Here, he who shows himself merciful to his fellow men proves thereby that he is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he who is cruel to his fellow man proves that he is no descendant of theirs. It is a very interesting, uh, thing. Are there traits? Do different peoples have different traits? Now, while I always believe in the sanctity of the individual and that you can never say, "Oh, this individual is a member of this group, therefore has the following traits," that's pure racism. It is also silly to deny that different cultures produce different characteristics. And It is an interesting question. When Jews have self-defined themselves, what did they find was their best trait and what they found was their worst trait? The worst trait is, as it's continually called in the ARF, an extremely stubborn people, which is a fair statement. The positive trait that Jews assign to themselves was merciful. Rachmana benei Rachmana. Merciful children of merciful ones. Now, that every Jew is merciful, of course, nonsense. Obviously not. But it was an interesting thing of the, of the rabbis to isolate that trait. If you're cruel, somehow or other you can't really be a Jew. That's what they're saying in, in the It's so incon— if you lie, if you commit adultery, if you steal, unfortunately, we certainly won't say you're not Jewish. If you're tricky, if you complain a lot, okay, if you start a lot of different movements— that's my addition— you know, we're certainly not going to say, boy, that rules you out. But if you're seductive, if you're cruel, if you love cruelty, the Jewish self-description has been that you can't really be a Jew. And it's a touching one, and I think there is some truth to it. And I am very critical of Jews, as many of you know, but I think that there is some truth to this. It is not a You know, Israel has been at war many times. I don't think an army in history has raped and pillaged as little as the Israeli army has. It just didn't seem to be part of their constitution. I mean, there are a lot of miserable traits and so on, and I am very wary about talking like this because I so loathe any racial type of thinking, and I don't believe this is racial. I just believe that certain characteristics may be engendered. For example, Peter Singer points out, and I certainly have problems with his book Animal Liberation, he goes too far in my opinion, but he does make a point, and I don't mean this to be critical, I mean it to be descriptive, how he says, and he can't stand any religion, so he's not making a pro-Jewish point here. But he says, while he has a lot of problems with the Bible, at least the Hebrew Bible is filled with laws on how you treat animals, whereas he said the New Testament is silent on that issue. Now, to say that— I mean, Protestants founded all the societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals, and their record is beautiful in so many areas. So please, you know, don't take this at all the wrong way, but, but For example, cruelty to an animal is very alien to the Jewish consciousness. There is a story told, and even if it's not true, it is interesting that the story is so widespread, of a Jew in Poland who was taken away by the Nazis to be gassed at Auschwitz and who yelled out of his train to a neighbor, a Polish neighbor, "Don't forget to feed the chickens." Dennis Prager, that as he is boarding the train, he remembers about the animals that he left, that he had in his village. Even if apocryphal, it is a self-descriptive story. And I have resonated, because those of you who know me at all know how much I speak about the absolute critical importance of goodness. I attribute that to my Jewish upbringing, to my being steeped in Judaism in the healthiest way. There is a very unhealthy way to be steeped in Judaism, as could be for any religion, so I know that. But this massive emphasis— and by the way, I think it is so much so that a lot of Jews have taken the compassion thing and have overdone it, where the government becomes compassionate whereas the government should be just and individuals should be compassionate. But that Jewish predilection to compassion, even when I think it's misguided, as I think it is so often in political life, derives from this self-definition. You know, take it as you will, but it is, at least it's interesting to see how people define their own selves or their own religion. And that's, that's what the rabbi spoke of here. And his goodness to his brothers merits Joseph the great title of Yosef HaTzaddik, the only Jew in Judaism history who had— in the biblical history— given the title tzaddik, absolutely righteous one, is Joseph. If you don't say Moshe HaTzaddik, you don't say it about Moses. But it is said about Joseph, and it is over his goodness, and especially to his brothers. As you can see here, he cried for their pain. That's what really— that's what really is happening in the final chapter of Genesis. It's very, very touching. What verse am I up to?

22.

So Joseph and his father's household remained in Egypt. Joseph lived 110 years. Interesting. In Judaism, it's 120. You know, you say you should live till 120. In Egypt, it was you should live till 110. And so he lived the Egyptian ideal number of years. I happen to side with the Egyptian view, frankly. 120 is a little too long in my opinion. Joseph lived to see children of the third generation of Ephraim. The children of Machir son of Menasheh were likewise born upon Joseph's knees. At length Joseph said to his brothers— now it couldn't be his brothers literally, they by this point are probably dead. He was the youngest and he's 110. Benjamin. So unless— I mean, the youngest except for Benjamin, but he's younger than all of them except Benjamin, and, and he is 110. So it obviously has to be his— the, the the tribes. I am about to die. God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. So Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, when God has taken notice of you— in other words, when God is ready to take you out of Egypt— 'You shall carry up my bones from here.' The prelude for the slavery is now being set as well as the Exodus. And the final verse of Genesis: Joseph died at the age of 110 years, and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. And to which, when you finish a book of the Torah in Judaism, you say, 'Chazak, chazak, B'nei t'chazek. May we be strong and strengthen each other. And I am thrilled to death that I have finished the book of Genesis with you. Thank you very much.

On tomorrow's Sunday Fireside Chat: What I don't understand is I hate world music.

It bothers me. I feel like it's a cop-out. It's like reggae with more people, and I just don't like it. So if I was attending a college and they were going to have a world music festival, right, I would simply not leave my dorm that day, or I would go to the park and study, but I wouldn't feel threatened. And I wouldn't try to shut down the concert. I would just announce that I will not be attending because I don't agree and don't enjoy.

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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