Timeless Wisdom: Weekend Torah Teaching - Genesis 20:8-22:14

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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, no, yes, none. Very good. Okay, my nightmare would be if I came here one day with chapter 18 notes and we're in chapter 21— chapter 20, right? We're in chapter 20, is that correct, friends? No, we're in the middle of 20. We are, if I'm not mistaken, we were up to 8, is that correct? Verse 8, chapter 20. What could it hurt to do it again? Well, I don't want to cheat the people who buy tapes. They have a certain sense of déjà vu. That's why. Maybe you don't care, but purchasers tend to. Man lectures on ethics and then sells you a tape which duplicates the previous one. Okay, here we go. All right, everybody wake up. Remember where we were with this repeat episode of Abraham telling that— telling people his wife is his sister Sarah so that he doesn't get killed and she taken. Remember? Okay, we had that with the Pharaoh, and in this case we have it with Avimelech, right? And Gerar in the place of Gerar. So verse 8, Avimelech got up in the morning. They all get up early. I just find it so interesting. Do you have early in there? None of them get up late in the morning. I guess in those days you just didn't. They got up. Avimelech gets up early and he calls to all his servants and he says all of these things in their ears. And you know, I always find these words so interesting. It's like when Moses is told at the burning bush, God says, take your shoes, off of your feet. Slightly redundant, isn't it? Most people don't wear their shoes on their ears. So why would God— really, it's actually a puzzle to me why God uses that terminology, take your shoes off your feet. And I'm also puzzled here, and he said all of these words in their ears. Does anybody have a thought why it says— do you have it all in their ears? Oh, you see, that's the terrible— you don't have this literal translation, you miss the fun. And he said all of these things in their ears anyway, and the men, the people, were greatly frightened. Now, my— as I've noted here, or were they frightened of God or of Avimelech? That was— I think I may have raised that, so maybe we're up to 9. Anyway, Avimelech called to Abraham and he says, why did you do this? What was my— what was the big sin? That I did, that you brought on. We mentioned this. I remember reading this to you. All of these things that have happened to here. And Avimelech said to Abraham, what did you see that you did this thing, right? Lied about your wife. Now remember my theory on verse 11? And Abraham said, because I said there's just no fear of God in this place. My theory was that he did not yet realize that God is universal. Right? Remember that? That's my theory as to reading this. So I'm getting you back into where we were. And in any event, she is in fact my sister, because she's my father's daughter, though not my mother's, and she became my wife. You can imagine Avimelech rolling his eyes at that time. And so, when God made me wander from my father's house, I said to her, Let this be the kindness that you will do for me. Wherever we go, say he is my brother. So Avimelech took sheep and oxen, male and female slaves, gave them to Abraham, and he restored his wife, and restored his wife Sarah to him. 15. And Avimelech said, here, my land is before you. Settle wherever you go. And to Sarah he said, I give you 1,000 silvers to your brother. And I am convinced, convinced this is a rare case of sarcasm in the Torah. When Avimelech says to Sarah, "Here, look at what I've given your brother." You see what I'm saying? I mean, you know, by now he knows the true identity, and he calls him, and he calls him, he's a little annoyed, Avimelech, and I don't blame him. God knows what he was afflicted by. Literally, God knows, since God did the affliction. And he says, so let's see, where am I? Oh yes, 16. 1,000 silvers for your brother, and this will serve as a vindication before all who are with you, and you are all cleared before everyone. Okay? And Avraham prayed to God, and God healed Avimelech and his wife and his maidens or maidservants, and they all gave birth. And why is that noted? Verse 18, which is the end of the story: For God had closed fast every womb of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Okay, I just want to tell you that in verse 13 you might notice an interesting thing. That, uh, it says the plural for God. It's one of the rare times in the Torah that the plural is used for God. I, I explained this in the very beginning. One of God's names is Elohim. Elohim is plural, but it's always used with a singular verb. The very first word of the Torah: In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. The word created is in the singular. You with me? Are you? Because in English, you know, the past is the same for all. Created is right, plural and singular. But for example, he creates, so Elohim creates. But what if it said Elohim create? It would show that Elohim is plural. Here it has in verse 16, in verse 13, when it says, and when God made me wander from my father's house, it says Elohim made me wander. Elohim is the plural, the plural verb. My theory is— I've not seen this elsewhere, I may be wrong— my theory is that in speaking to pagans, or people he presumed were pagans, using a plural for God would have been more understandable. Okay, that's my theory. But for those of you who were very careful to know the syntax, it is very rare that Elohim, that the plural, is used. Okay, let's go to 21, and who knows what we might reach, because 22 is the most incredible chapter perhaps in the entire Bible. Anyway, let's go on here for 21. So we're back to Sarah now. God remembered Sarah and what he had said, and God did to Sarah exactly what he said he would do. Sure enough, Sarah was pregnant and she gave birth to Abraham a son in his old age, at exactly the time when God had said it would happen. 3. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born to him— boy, it keeps adding these words because it wants to make sure you understand was born to him, lest there be any suggestion that it was Avimelech. Remember, so after all, this is the next segment. So it was not Avimelech's kid, this was Abraham's kid. The Torah goes out of its way to make that— which Sarah gave birth for him. It really makes sure you got the idea. Yitzchak. Yitzchak means will laugh. Or laughs. Isn't it amazing to think it's Abraham, laughs, and Jacob? That's really, that's really the way it would be. The patriarchs of the Jewish people are Abraham, laughs, and Jacob. It's a very odd name when you think about it. And of course it's very common, it's Isaac, but in Hebrew Yitzchak means to this day. If you will, to say in modern Hebrew, he will laugh, who Yitzchak? Who Yitzchak can either be, he is Isaac, or he will laugh. The exact same word and pronunciation and all. 4, and Abraham circumcised Isaac, Yitzchak his son, at 8 days, just as God had instructed him. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was circumcised. Was born, Isaac his son was born to him. And Sarah said, God made— now it's very interesting here, there are a lot of ways of translating this. God made a big joke out of me is one of them. God made me laugh is another one. It's not fully clear, so we'll take the nicest one. God brought me laughter. That is possible. And laughter is tsichok. Again, his name is Yitzchak, again playing on the word. God made me laugh, we got laugh. And then it says, and everybody who hears this is— now what do you have? I have the translation, everyone who hears this will laugh with me, on account of me. Is that what you have? Now it's a very interesting thing when— if I said everybody in the world is laughing on account of me, Does that sound positive or negative? Right, doesn't it? Exactly. I mean, if you heard that somebody 90 gave birth, you'd laugh too. But I'm not sure you would only laugh for her. You would laugh, "Did you hear what happened to Mrs. Rosenbaum? She's 90 and look at what happened." And it's, you know, it's a funny thing. It's a play on words here. This laughing child causes laughter and derision. I think that that's both— there's something of a mockery here, and then there's like a little poem that she then has. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would suckle children, yet I have borne a son in his old age? She has a little— in Hebrew it's like a poem, okay? It's like a little ditty that she comes out with here because it is quite extraordinary. The child, uh, verse 8, the child grew up and was weaned. And Abraham held a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. A big party. And Abraham was a rich man. You could imagine what it must have been like, because in Hebrew it says, "Michteg Adol." A big, a great party was thrown on the day that that happened. Now it gets very interesting. 9. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian who gave birth for Abraham. She saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian who gave birth for Abraham. Now it has a very tough thing. It doesn't fully make sense, and I have really worked and worked. Some of these verses take longer than whole chapters. It says mitsachek. Back to this play on words of tsechok, of laughter. In Hebrew, it's play, it's laugh, but it's also got a negative element. And what truly happened here? What do you have? I have playing. Does anyone have anything else? Making sport? Mocking. Whose translation is mocking? Oh, the Hirsch. The Hirsch translation is mocking. Oh, that figures, because that's Hirsch's way of understanding what happened. You have Hirsch too? Very interesting. Hirsch— I, I get a kick out of that. Hirsch is a traditional Orthodox exegete, and in his translation he gives— he wants to, you know, this is so classic. Hirsch wants to always put the Jewish patriarchs in the finest light. So remember, what happens later is difficult. Getting kicked out of the house by Sarah, right? As you'll see coming up again, it's a second time, you recall. And the issue is, why? So of course, if you follow Hirsch, it makes more sense. 'Look at what this Yishmael is doing. He's making a mockery of everything that's happened.' The Hebrew doesn't say mocking. The Hebrew says playing, or literally making to laugh. Okay, and in the Septuagint, the oldest translation of the Hebrew text, it said made Isaac laugh. It's his little brother. That's what big brothers often do, right, is make their little brothers laugh. Be nu— ah, how old, this is going to be a big issue. We know how old he is. He's at least 16. I will show you how we get the age. Ishmael is at least 16 years old here, and he's making his little brother Isaac laugh, or at the very least is playing. The question, though, is Why would this infuriate Sarah? Maybe women here might know it. Maybe they might be able to better empathize with her particular situation. Look at the next verse, because it has to be related to the verse before. Has to be. Remember, Sarah sees the child of Hagar playing or making laughter. Next verse: And she says to Avraham, 'Cast out that slave woman and her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.' I'm sorry? Yeah, they got back. Well, that's another issue. It's not written. Let me, let me work on this right now. Hold the questions because I always, you know, it gets sidetracked. Listen to this. She says, kick out the woman and her child so that she does not inherit with my son. With my son. Okay, now remember, Abraham has two sons. Sarah has one son. Okay, this is not what we have today, a blended family. It didn't work out quite that well. It's pretty different here. And what annoyed Sarah? That's the big question from the verse before. After reading this a lot and looking into it, my belief is not what Hirsch says. One traditional Jewish understanding is that he was mocking what went on. Okay? That he did something negative. There were actually some rabbinic exegetes who hold that it's worse than that, that he actually did some vulgar things and made to laugh. That the mockery he made was vulgarity in some way with the 2-year-old or in his own way. That he made Because, uh, when the Jews at the, at the, uh, Golden Calf do wrong things, it also uses this word of making play. It doesn't always have an innocuous interpretation of just laughing. Okay, so what is going on here is not fully clear. What I think it is is simply that seeing him all that happy after the child that she had is clearly weaned and healthy— remember, you didn't know in those days when your child was— whether your child would live. It like dawned on her, wait a minute, there's competition for the inheritance. And that dawning took place at this party, and he— at where his weaning party and she kicked them out. What's interesting here, and I'm going to read you more about this, this is really very interesting stuff. 11 is that this did not sit well with Abraham. Vayeraha davar ma'od be'enei Avraham. The thing was very evil. Vayera comes from the Hebrew word ra, which is evil. The thing appeared evil in his eyes. Remember, it's an— now this is a very interesting thing though. He's playing by the rules. God announces the birth of Yitzchak, and that's the miraculous birth. There's no miracle in the birth of Yishmael. He slept with a concubine. Big deal. You with me?

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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

Abraham is playing by legal rules. Sarah is playing by God's intent. That's the difference here. Abraham's a stickler for the rules. I got an older son, he is just as much my son, Sarah darling, as our son together, Isaac, and he gets the inheritance and he is just equal. So it appeared to be wrong to him, or so it, so it seems pretty clear from, from what's in— I try not to read anything into the text, but it says, and it makes it clear, look at what the sentence says in verse 11. The matter— again, I can't stand these translations— the matter distressed Abraham greatly. Which is more powerful? "The matter distressed Abraham greatly," or "The matter seemed as evil, as an evil matter to Abraham." Isn't there a difference? Distressed is an emotional distress, but vayehi is the thing. Here is literally, "The thing was evil, very evil in the eyes of Abraham." You can't get much clearer than that Hebrew. And it adds, "Al odot b'no," about his son. You see, just in case you didn't know what it was, it's about his son. He regards Yishmael as his son. And this appeared to be evil, the suggestion of his wife. We do not, by the way, have a sense of a particularly modern romantic marriage with Abraham and Sarah. It's, as we go through Genesis, I will talk to you about all the marriages. I don't think any of which could really serve as a model for what you might want with your spouse or with your future spouse, but it might be a model of what you had with your ex-spouse. That I can say with some accuracy, because they are not good in Genesis. And it gets worse later when you see one of the most incredibly silent yet eloquent statements of how Sarah reacted to her husband trying to kill her son, which is pretty understandable. So here it's an interesting thing. She tries to throw out her, uh, Hagar's son, well, or his son, and then he tries to kill her son. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, think about it. That's what's happening here. Isaac, yes, when he go later in, in 22. Anyway, he does not like this. He thinks it's very wrong. And God said to Abraham, verse 12, this should not be evil in your eyes about the young man and about your maiden. Whatever— and these are one of the most famous words whenever men are given advice to listen to their wives in Hebrew, they quote this statement: Everything that's— everything that Sarah tells you Listen to her voice. That's pretty powerful. God tells him to listen to his wife because through Yitzchak will your seed be called. All right, why don't you forget Abraham? She's right. She, she understands what's going on here. And I have a lot of words to say here because Sarah comes out very powerfully in this episode, very powerfully. Let me just go to the next verse. And don't worry, God says, I will also take care of the child of the concubine, of the maid, of the slave woman. I will make him into a nation because he is your seed. So you, Abraham, We're worried about evil being done. You see how the distress doesn't work? I, God, am answering what you thought was evil. I don't do evil, God says. He has rights and he will be a big thing. He will be a nation as well. So you don't have to worry about Yishmael. I'll take care of him. But you must listen to Sarah. Now, before we go on with what happens in the episode with Hagar and Yishmael, Let's figure out what is going on here. Let me first read what Sarna says. God prompts Abraham to agree. The narrator feels it necessary for God to justify his, God's, actions so as to remove any suggestion of moral taint. You see? He does so on two grounds. The line of Abraham is to be continued solely through Isaac. Hagar and her son will not, and Hagar and her son will not be left to an uncertain fate in the wilderness, for a great future awaits Yishmael. There is a delicate shift here, Sarna notes, from Sarah's motivation to God's. What was Sarah's motivation? Inheritance. What is God's motivation? Who carries on Abraham's mission? You with us? You get the difference? And he makes the point. There is, there's a subtle shift here. God is saying in effect, listen, Sarah is right even though the reasoning may be not that noble. You get it? It's almost like George Bush was right to attack Kuwait even though oil was probably the most animating factor. A lot of times the motive may not be pure and the act may be right. And that's what might be involved right over here with Sarah. So God is saying to Sarah, you've got to listen to her. God is concerned here. It's as he writes, her sole interest is to safeguard her son's inheritance. I don't fully agree, but, but it's probably true. God is concerned with the question of posterity and his ultimate purposes. The fact is though that Sarah is the one who is most worried. You see, why Sarah is most worried, I don't only think because of money. I think Sarah is most concerned because she knows which child is the one that should carry on Abraham's mission. Okay, that's my theory. I'm giving Sarah a benefit of the doubt here. I fully acknowledge that you could read it as purely a concern with inheritance. What she did, what she worried about, which I said in verse 9, was that Ishmael had seen himself as an equal. Anyway, God gives this instruction to Abraham, verse 14. And Abraham got up early in the morning. They all got up early, as I pointed out a few times. And he took bread and a skin What do you have there? I have skin of water. What does anyone else? You all have it? Okay. A skin of water, which is holding water, meaning. And he gave it to— now this is, this is another very perplexing thing which took me a while. And he gave it to Hagar and put it on her shoulder. How many of you have, and he put the child on her shoulder? You do? You have that? Together with the child. Does anybody not have— does anybody have a translation that does not imply that the child was put on her shoulder? What does yours say?

Uh, put and gave it under her guard, putting it on her shoulder, and the child and went her away, and the child, and sent her away.

Okay, now does it— does that imply— and the child was put on her shoulder as you read it? Yeah, that's right. Good, that's more accurate. Whose is that? Oh, Hertz. Oh, that's the old, uh, King James, I guess, if I'm not mistaken. Oh no, is that JPS 19? Uh, no, that's— I don't know which he uses. Anyway, listen, if he, if she put, if the implication is that she put a child on her shoulder, we are in, in a very bad way in this story. The story makes no sense because the child is 16 years old, and that's why it's so perplexing. I mean, who puts 16-year-old boys on their shoulders, right? I mean, think about it, it's ludicrous. Now listen, I gotta tell you, I begin— I— when I read the Torah, I believe that it makes sense. If it doesn't make sense, something has to give. I am not going to read into it, so something has to give. And what has to give in this case is the incorrect translation. Here is the Hebrew literally translated: And he gave to Hagar put on her shoulder and the child, just like you had it there, as if there were a comma. There are no commas in, in Biblical Hebrew. There's no punctuation. So that is why what it is is he put the stuff on her shoulder and gave her the child as well. Okay, that is what to me is clear. Yes. Is that Hirsch? Oh, it's this. So that's Hertz. Yeah. Okay. Did you all hear that? Though, though a grown boy, he was unable to walk because Sarah had cast an evil eye on him. Okay. In 1992, I find that stuff a little tough to swallow. That's what I mean. I'd rather labor over the text to figure out how to make sense of it than add what is known in Yiddish as bubbe meises, which means grandmother tales. Okay? That's what I think that that is. He couldn't walk because Sarah made an evil eye on him. Yes? That he put something on the child's shoulder? Yes. No, no, all right, it very well could be, but that is also a reading into it, I think, because it doesn't say on his shoulder, it says on her shoulder. Be that as it may, that's what I believe it is. The, the actual reading is that he did not go on her shoulder. By the way, do you want to know how to figure out Yishmael's age, please see Genesis 16:16, okay, to show you how this stuff is worked out. Because this is, I think, an important thing. How old was Yishmael when all of this happened? And if you will notice, 16:16, and Abram was 86 years old when Hagar gave birth to Yishmael. Okay, that's 16:16. How old is he when Isaac is born? 100. What is 86 from 100? 14. When do children normally get weaned? 1 or 2. So he's either 15 or 16 years old when this happens. Okay? There's no way around it if you take the text seriously. If— okay, I don't remember. She's 90-something. I don't, I don't remember the actual age. She's 10 years younger than him, so she's 90. Okay. Now, Therefore, we have more problems with him though at 16. We've only resolved the one with the shoulder. Now let's go on. What are we up to? 15. No, excuse me, 14. We're not finished with 14, right? Okay, and he sends her. This is Abraham sends her. And she walks and she gets— and she wanders in the desert, in the desert of Beersheba, in the wilderness of Beersheba. Okay? She gets lost. She was given enough for her and her child if she knew where she was going, but she got lost. The water from the skin ended. And she sent the child, or she left the child, under one of the bushes. Now this is again a difficult thing. If he's 16 years old, you put a 16-year-old in bushes? This part really drove me crazy. Only possible thing is that being a vigorous young male, he needed more water than she did, and that he tired first. Can anybody— does that sound plausible to you folks? No. How many say no? Okay, please leave. Okay, why isn't it plausible? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, oh, in other words, oh, so you don't find it problematic at all? Oh, I see what you— all right, let me, let me repeat what she said. She has an 18-year-old, and if they were in the— and a 15— and if they were in the wilderness having been sent out by Abraham and angels of God, uh, and, and they ran out of water, you would have said, go and sit go and sit in the leaves, in the shade. So hold on a minute. Well, let's look at the next verse and see if that works. She went and she sat by herself at a distance, a bowshot away, because she said, I can't look upon the death of my child. And she sat across and she lifted her voice and she cried. It's very touching, isn't it? It's very powerful. I can't watch my child die. Would you say that? You would have left your child She puts him under the bush, wants to be more protected. How many find this mother's conduct— and I mean this, this is truly, I need your help on this— how many find this mother's conduct makes sense? You could relate to it. How many don't? Okay, if you don't, and why don't you? Why don't you? Right, because she would have held and kissed him or hugged him while he died. What do you say? Yeah, it— yeah, I know, really, that's why I, I— what did I translate?

A cross?

Yeah, a cross makes more sense. Forget— you're right, it is a little confusing, but forgetting that, clearly she's at a bowshot's distance away so that she's close, but she can't watch him die. Okay, I mean, in other words, she can't see him. Does that make sense? Alright, let me just tell you what I would have thought. I would think that a parent with a child who's dying would stay with the child till it died. I mean, that just strikes me as a more normative, a mother's instinct. For that matter, as a father I would say that. I've never, thank God, been in the position. I can't say exactly what I do. But tell me if the— why am I wrong? Why does that make— why did you vote, a lot of you, the other way, that what she did made sense? Yes? Look at what's happening in Somalia, the number of people who are still trying to find food or water for their children, and they have to therefore leave their children someplace while they go and try to get food and water. Right. She says look at all the people, like in Somalia, where mothers would leave their kids to go to find food and water. I would buy that totally if that's what she did. She didn't. She went to sit down and cry. I'm sorry? Yeah, so therefore what? That she went away to cry and then came back? That's what you're saying? Uh-huh. Oh, that's interesting. One second. No, no, but no, no, no, it wouldn't work. It doesn't imply that she came back to him.

Yeah, this—

it's right, and it's true, better, sitting thus afar. Listen, I don't want to belabor the point, but I am very curious. I'll tell you why. First of all, I want to know what this reflects about Hagar. It's— I'm very interested to know that. I think it's important. It's important for a lot of reasons. First of all, the entire Muslim world dates itself back to Ishmael. I mean, this is not an insignificant character in history. This is— it's significant. Number two, I have to deal with the issue of his age. See, if the child— well, except at any age, I guess the conduct seems odd. Although, look, let's assume this: when she puts the child down, he's unconscious. Is that a fair assumption? You don't put your child down and he's conscious. She didn't say, "Go and sit there," although I guess it does in some way. It said she sent him. No, in Hebrew. One minute. What verse? 15. Well, what did she left? It says she left the child in English, but in Hebrew, no, "vatashlekh et hayeled" means she sent the child, as if she went over and plopped him down in the reeds, in the leaves. Okay? It would seem to me that he had lost his ability to walk or control himself at this time. It makes perfect sense if he's 5 years old, but if the Torah is to make sense here, he's 16 or 15. I just want to know if this conduct makes sense. If it does, I'll move on. It bothers me. It doesn't make sense to me, or the Torah is trying to say something about Hagar. Now, the child— wait, how many of you agree with me the child is not fully conscious here? Oh, none of you. Oh well, that's great. I love when my presumptions are accepted by no one. 4 of you out of 280. Wait a second. All right, how do you see it? She said, go and sit down there and so long-ish. What, what do you think happens? Explain it to me. I'm dead serious. Yes, she's not in good shape. We acknowledge that. That's correct. So, oh, I see. She's not thinking rationally. That's interesting. You're making a face. Yes. So All right, who God answered, we'll deal with in a minute. Right now I want to figure out her conduct.

Oh, I—

oh, it does mean they're dying. She says, I can't watch him die. All right, it's possible. Let me— what do you say?

Walking on her deathbed, she realizes that this is the end. Nowhere to go. She's overwhelmed with grief. She says, look, there's a cool spot, go over there, sit down there. I'm gonna just be by— I need to be by myself for a second. She makes some excuse, and she's just overwhelmed with grief, and she pours herself out.

I can't believe this is happening. It says, I can't— I, the mother, can't bear to see my child die. You mean she can't bear it that moment, you're saying, and it implies that she might bear it later? Is that what you're saying? I just want to understand. Um, I could answer you that— what— and this is— was my inclination— what parent will just abandon the child in its— as it's dying. But she's saying it's dying. She says it's dying. Okay, let me take a final vote. I mean, is there truly one revelatory last thought? Because I, I know that this is a fascinating thing, and I don't have an answer. Yes. Is that— yes. Well, This drives me crazy. I won't even repeat it because these tapes go to people of all different backgrounds, thank God. That's such an ethnocentric, chauvinist notion that mothers of other groups love their kids less. I just find that I admit that I find the conduct difficult, but to say that therefore— All right, let me take one final vote. If you were a mother, could you see yourself acting like this? Would you raise your hand?

Okay.

If you couldn't see yourself acting like this, would you raise your hand? All right, it's more or less 50/50. Well, no, it's about 60/40 that you couldn't see yourself. Okay. It's a difficult thing, and if somebody can come up with something next week, or drop me a line, I would be very interested. I find it difficult. I don't know what it means. Anyway, look, the truth is, the actor in this thing, the dramatist is God, and he comes in in 17. And whoever, you made that point, gentleman over there, I think, wearing the yarmulke, that God heard the kid, and that's what comes up next. And God heard the voice of the kid. Now this is very interesting. Who made that point? That God didn't hear her cry but his cry? Very good. I had not thought of that. That's a very good point. And that may tell you something about what God thought of the action. That may be an implicit rejection of her conduct. Yes? Only because he could be going, "Oh." You'd be delirious if you're very thirsty. I had it once. I hadn't had a 7-Up for 2 hours. I was, "Oh, oh." Yes? Well, God heard the voice of the kid and then went to Hagar. What was he going to do, go to the kid? No, no, he heard. It says he heard. No, let's read the words. And God heard the voice of the boy, and an angel of God called to Hagar from these, from the heavens. By the way, as Sarna points out, interestingly, an angel's voice from the heavens will save both of Abraham's sons from death. Interesting, isn't it? Just like this is what's going to happen at the binding of Isaac. Never say sacrifice of Isaac because he was never sacrificed. And he said to her, that's the angel of God, what is, well, malach, what's, how do you have it? What troubles you? What's with you is literally. What's with you, Hagar? Don't be afraid because God heard the voice of the boy who is there. Okay? Again, now I got to go back here. Yeah, listen, it's very interesting. It's like, it's twice in the verse that God didn't hear her voice. Your point is, I think, extremely important. I think the implication is a real little dig at Hagar. We heard his voice, but not your voice. The other possibility is, of course, which is less noble as it were, that God heard the child's voice and not Hagar's voice because it's Yishmael who counts, not Hagar in this particular instance. By the way, if you think that's cruel sounding or less noble sounding as I said earlier, remember something. You always have to ask the question, why does God intervene in anybody's life in the Bible? After all, look at all the mothers who've lost children since Hagar, and God didn't do a thing for them, right? At least in that regard. All right? I think the answer is that God doesn't intervene all the time. God doesn't intervene in everybody's life all the time either, and perhaps doesn't intervene in some people's lives ever. Certainly the Jewish view from Maimonides is not that God intervenes in everybody's life all the time, That God intervenes in some people's lives. Those who reach out to God are more likely, those who live a God-based life are more likely to have God touch them. If you reach out, you may get touched, is one thing. And a second thing is those who have a role to play historically will be touched. Abraham had, Isaac had, Jacob had, and Ishmael had a role. Hagar didn't. You get it? Because you could really ask, well, it's not fair. Why did God care about Hagar when her son was suffering, but not about 10,000 other Egyptian women at the very same time whose children were suffering? Are you with me? So the operative element is God hears the voice of that which will have a role in history, Yishmael. That may bother you because you all want to think that God touches everybody's lives equally. But as a dear Roman Catholic friend of mine once put it beautifully, God is not a democrat, small d, small d. He's clearly not a Democrat, big D. I mean, I have no doubt about that, but, uh, he's a libertarian. The, uh, no, no, I don't know, I'm just joking.

The—

but God is not a democrat. That's— and it's very important to remember that God does not run the world by vote. He is not, nor is he an egalitarian in that sense. I mean, the very notion that he has chosen a people for a specific thing. I mean, why did he choose a people? It's not— in fact, it was about that that the Roman Catholic made the point. It was a caller on one of my— when I was doing Religion on the Line, and said, you know, what is this? Why did God choose the Jews? And the Roman Catholic priest says, because he's not a Democrat. That was when he answered it. God does what he wants. He doesn't take a straw poll before acting. And so please understand that God has, has visions for what will be with this planet, and that some people will play a role in it. That is apparently the issue here. Or the other issue is that what she did did not earn a response. Okay, I still think, obviously contrary to some of you, that the more natural motherly instinct— and she obviously loved her child, she couldn't bear to see him die. And I'm not sitting here dumping on her. If there's one thing I never do, it's judge people who have endured things that I have never endured. Judgment of Hagar whatsoever here. I'm merely talking about what seems to me to have been a more primal response of a parent, that to hold your child who is dying rather than to leave it because you can't face it. I'm not judging her. I'm merely stating what I think might be the more primal maternal instinct. Who knows, maybe God was judging her. That's why I'm telling you this part is difficult. I'm just being totally honest with you. And remembering his age and so on is also complex. A lot of times you might think a 16-year-old boy would send his mother away. You know, he would be the— he might be the strong one at that point and say, 'Ma, you sit down and you go in the shade.' But, but who knows. Anyway, 18: Come, lift up the boy and take and hold your hand with his, because I will make him a great nation. All right, are you with me? I will make him a great nation. Uh, Sarna notes that, that God promises that Yishmael will be a great nation but does not promise Territory. Abraham's seed is promised territory and great nationhood. Just the point that, uh, that Sarna wished to make. Okay, 19. Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. It's a miraculous thing here, obviously, that she saw a well. She went and filled the skin with water and let the boy drink. God was with the boy and he grew up. And he dwelt in the wilderness, that is, the boy did, of course, and became a bowman. He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt. And as we all know, all sons love when their mothers choose their wives. And that's the next sentence, and Ishmael was thrilled with his mother's choice. Verse 21 and a half. Verse 22 is an entirely new story, which is just one of those riddles as to why it's there. And I'll try to go through it with some speed. At that time Avimelech and Phichol, chief of his troops, said to Abraham, and he explained— let me read to you Sarna's explanation for this story. Abraham's encounter with Avimelech, this new story which ends chapter 21, is reported with such an economy of detail that the background is obscure. Clearly, it is told not for its own sake, but for other reasons. It projects a fresh image of the patriarch. Now that his life's dream is fulfilled and his posterity assured, he possesses a new sense of confidence. No longer does he exhibit timidity and evasiveness in dealing with royalty, He negotiates as an equal. That's the point that Sarna says the story is. Abraham now knows that he is fulfilled, and he is not timid with royalty, negotiates as an equal. Moreover, Abraham reaches a new stage in his relationship to the Promised Land. He makes his first acquisition, a well at Beer Sheva, and his rights are acknowledged and guaranteed by the king. Okay. You will find, by the way, in this story a fascinating little thing. Okay, here. In this story, both Avimelech's name and Abraham's name are each mentioned 7 times. I have not pointed this out thus far in Genesis, but the number 7 is throughout the book thus far. Things appear 7 times, things appear by multiples of 7, the 7 days of creation. 7 is of overwhelming importance in the Torah. And you have here just another example in this little thing about Avimelech and Abraham. Each name is mentioned 7 times, and I'm not done with the fascination with the number 7. In Hebrew, the word 7 is— who knows? Sheva. What is the name of the well and the city? Beer Sheva, which really means well number 7. Okay, that's another 7. Also, it says a couple of times that he will take a He will take an oath. An oath in Hebrew is shvua, which has the exact same root as sheva. So it's another play on the word 7. And then there's another one in verse 29. What does it say? And Avimelech says to Abraham, uh, what do these 7 ewes mean which you have set apart? 7 calves, or what's a ewe? Anybody know? Female sheep. Thank you. I, I was raised on a farm, but I forgot. It's, uh, you just have to forgive me. In Flatbush. The, uh, let me just therefore read. It's just interesting how 7 appears in just these few, uh, few verses from 22 to 34. It's very quickly. At that time, Avimelech, chief of his troops, said to Abraham, God is with you in everything that you do. Therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my kith and kin, but will deal with me and with the land in which you have sojourned as loyally as I have dealt with you. And Abraham said, I swear it. Swear again is shvua, which is the seventh thing.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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

We up to 25. Then Abraham reproached Avimelech for the well of water which the servants of Avimelech had seized. This is one of those statements in the Torah that makes no sense. We have no idea about what well he sees or anything. It's just out of there. The assumption is that they knew what they were talking about, but we don't. Avimelech said, "I do not know who did this. You did not tell me, nor have I heard of it until today." Neither have we heard of it. Neither the reader nor Avimelech ever heard of it. Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Avimelech, and the two of them made a pact. Abraham— by the way, if you want to count the Abrahams and Avimelechs, go right ahead. It's fun. Abraham then set 7 ewes, female sheep for those of you who unbelievably might not know what it means, from me as proof that I dug this well. Hence that place was called Beer Seven, Well Seven, Beer Sheva, for there the two of them swore an oath, shvua. When they had concluded the pact at Beer Sheva, Avimelech and Phichol, chief of the troops, departed and returned to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beer Sheva and invoked there the name of the Lord, the everlasting God, the eternal God. And Abraham resided in the land of the Philistines a long time. Okay, so we actually get a chance to get into at least a little bit of the most, perhaps the most extraordinary few sentences. Okay. In order to get into Genesis 22, which is about the binding of Isaac, I need to answer a question. I need to ask and answer a question. Does the Bible hold that something is right because God says so, or God says something is right because it's right? You get the question? Is something right because God says it's right, or does God say something is right because it's right? Hmm? Okay, let's take a vote. Is something right because God says so, or is something right and therefore God says so? Something is right because God said so, raise your hand. The other way. Okay, to my amazement, the divine-based idea won by a little bit. But of course you are a select audience of monotheists, and therefore you might be more likely to vote that way. Certainly if I went to UCLA and took the vote among students, I would probably be laughed out of the room for this first suggestion, let alone would I lose the vote. It's a difficult issue because after all, Abraham implies when he asks God in Sodom, which we went over with, "Hashofet kol haaretz lo yasem ishpat," "Will the judge of all the earth not do justly?" that justice exists outside of God. "God, how come you're not acting justly?" implies there is justice over here and God has to match it. Right? So there is an implication that there is a standard of right and wrong and And we expect God to act accordingly. My answer to that is that there is a standard of right and wrong, and we do expect God to act accordingly. However, God made the standard. Were it not for God, there would be no standard. That would be my answer in the way of not playing both sides, but truly saying in the final analysis, good and evil exist because of God. If there is no God, then there is no such thing as justice. There are opinions about it, but it's not, you know, it's Hitler's opinion, it's the Aztec's opinion, it's Jefferson's opinion, it's your opinion, it's all opinion. You have to understand that in trying to understand or answer the question, How on God's earth does Abraham, this morally sophisticated human being, go and say, yes, I'll sacrifice my child? Okay, that's part of what has to be understood as we approach this. However, the first verse of chapter 22 answers a lot of people's problems with this chapter, because a lot of people have problems. How could God command the sacrifice of a child? And here, to let all of those skeptics understand that God never ever wanted this, you have— and never forget this, please, if you should ever come up in discussion about this subject. Remember how the whole story begins. Chapter 22, verse 1: "Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test." In other words, God is making it clear, the Torah is making it clear from the outset, God never wanted Abraham to fulfill this? This was a test. Okay, it's— who is this telling? The reader. You. Of course God would never want this. It's not a question. This is a test. Now I have to talk to you about tests. Why would God test somebody? Does God not know how they'll act? The answer— there are a number of answers. The answer is God isn't testing Abraham to 'Gee, am I curious to know what Abe will do.' Okay, you must understand that such a notion of God is not acceptable. God knows exactly what he's going to do, so the test is not for God. Next question: is the test for Abraham? Well, that's a tough question. Does it serve Abraham any good or not? I don't know. It strikes me that the story is there for us. And it is there for us in a number of important ways. One obvious one is that every human being has his faith tested. We all do. This is a very universal thing. You go through tragedy, you see tragedy, you're asked, Will you give up a principle, or will you live by— live according to what God— what you have felt God wanted? In other words, will you compromise the most important things in your life for the sake of God, for the sake of the principles here? Don't forget what you have to say. I really do want to take you, but I don't want to lose strand of thought. These are— this makes this thing universal. A, we're all tested. B, we're all tested in a different way, and that is, will we give up principles for the sake of expedience? So the test here is not for Abraham's sake, and it is not for God's sake. It is for our sake. And of course, again, it is a test. God does not want this to happen, but Abraham doesn't know this. Oh, is that true? That is a riddle. Does Abraham really think that God wants it? You will find as we read it that you might— there is one source, or not source, but there is one piece of statement that might lead you to think that Abraham knows that this is only a test. My assumption, however, is that he did not know it, and I make that assumption on these grounds. Human sacrifice to the gods was universal. God asked Abraham to do something that everybody did. You have to recognize that. It wasn't like asking you today. Today it would be, "And God spoke to Mark Rosenbaum and said, 'Give up thine Mercedes.'" Okay? That would be an equivalent today. Take the Mercedes that you loved, your only Mercedes, the Mercedes that you speak of, and blow it up. Okay? Or trade it in for a Camaro. Not a Camaro. What is it? Toyota. Toyota Camry, right. Okay? That would be a difficult thing for a modern Jew to do. Okay, in those days, instead, they were— they sacrificed kids. The task here was that this is what was given. This is the thing he loved. This is what he lived for, and he's asking to give it up. The issue here is, will you give it up to me, God? I, God, ask you. You know, you say, well, would God ever say that today? God says that. Jews hold that God has said that to Jewish parents ever since Abraham. Any Jew who raises a child as a Jew, given the number of Jews slaughtered in history, has done what Abraham has done. Been prepared to sacrifice his children for God. And I don't get into homiletics much. This is not a nice rabbinic sort of speech. There's a lot of truth to it. Given the amount of slaughter of Jews in history, to raise a child as a Jew is to reenact in in some ways, what Abraham was forced to reenact. Jews have resonated to this all the time. Will you have a child and give it up? Israelis feel it all the time. So, and obviously not just Jews do. Any parent in the United States who sent a child to World War II, will you sacrifice your child for freedom and democracy? For Judeo-Christian values? Right? So don't think that this is the sort of thing that we can't relate to. The idea of sacrificing a child for a principle is very common. All right? So after these things, God tests Abraham, and he says to Abraham, and he said to him, Abraham, And he says, "Hineni." It's so powerful, the literary part here, that I get the chills as I read it to you. He says, "Hineni." Here I am. And this "hineni" word has become very resonant among Jews as a statement of, okay, I am ready to do what I'm called for. "Hineni." Here I am. And now it's just so powerful. He says, "Take your son," and look at how God rubs it in, "your favorite one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the hills or mountains that I will point that I will tell you. I mean, it makes it clear, you know, it's not Yishmael, who's gone by now anyway, but whether he was or not, it's take Isaac, the one you love, the specific Isaac. So early next morning, again early, right? Which means that he rushed to to do it. That's what it really says. He rushed to do it, to fulfill it. By the way, rarely is silence so eloquent as no comment on Abraham's part. Not, "Himani?" Not, "What?" He argues for the slime of Sodom, but for his own son he says nothing because here is not an issue of justice. There, there was an issue of justice. Here is an issue of faith. That is how he sees it. You get the difference? And also, it is here where he is being told to give something up. There it was God doing something. Here it is he who has to do the giving up. And of course children were regarded as possessions more or less, so the issue of, well, what does Isaac have to say about it, doesn't really rise, even though you'll see how he is. We don't get much about Isaac in the Torah anyway. So he got up early in the morning and he saddled his donkey and he took the 2 attendant boys, and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the offering, got up, and went— Verse 6: So Abraham took the, the wood of the offering, and he put it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they walked, the two of them, together. These words, "And they walked the two of them together," vayechushnehem yachdav, is also so poignant. Can you imagine walking with your son whom you love, whom you're going to kill? And it's overwhelming that the two of them walk together. And here is the only time we have dialogue in the Torah between Isaac and Abraham. Says to Abraham his father. He said, my father. And he said, hineni, my son. Here I am, my son. And he said, here is the fire and the wood, so where is the sheep for the burnt offering? Verse 8, and Abraham And he said, "God will see to it that there is a sheep for the offering, my son." And the two of them walked together. Is that dramatic? Again, the same words. It gets heavier, the walk. 9. And they came to the place which God told him. And Abraham built an altar, and he spread out the wood, and he bounded, or binded, I guess bound, he bound Isaac his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham sent his hand. I'm doing it literally. And he took the knife to slaughter. The word here is the same as slaughtering an animal, shkhita, lishkot, to slaughter his son. And an angel of God called from the sky and said, Abraham, 'Abraham.' And he said, 'Hineni,' 'Here I am.' And he said, 'Don't send your hand to the boy and don't do a thing to him, because now I know that you are afraid of God.' What does it have to do with what do you have? Good. Okay, God-fearing. And you did not spare your son, your special son, from me. And Abraham lifted his eyes and he noted a ram. He noticed a ram whose horns were caught in the thicket. And Abraham went and he took the ram and he sacrificed it for a burnt offering in place of his son. And Abraham called that place Yir'ah, which is fear or sight, because God, or will be seen actually, not fear, will be seen because that is where God would be seen.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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

What is the moral of the story? The moral of the story is, I have believed my entire life, I have never— I, I must say, I do not have a different view of the story at 44 than I did at 14— is to teach us that God does not want you to sacrifice children. You can never after this say that God wants a sacrifice. If God went to Isaac and said, "Isaac, I want you to sacrifice Jacob," he would be able to say what Abraham said about Sodom, "But God, you've already said not to do these things." This really put an end to it in the ancient world as far as the Jews were concerned. I want you to be prepared to be as giving as the pagans are to their gods, but this is not the way that I, God, want you to give over things to me. Do you get the difference? They will give their children to gods. You should be as prepared as the pagans are to be religious, But that's not the way to be religious in my religion. That is what I read of it. And I read of it as well that the power— and Jews are not comfortable with this, or many Jews are not— the power of faith. Christians specialize in faith. Jews specialize in emphasizing the importance of deed. They're both right. Both need to be emphasized. That's what ethical monotheism is about. It is— faith is critical. Nothing makes sense if there isn't a God who has made this universe and whom you rely on and who has the right to dictate. Because if God can't say this to Abraham, how can he give the Ten Commandments? Why should he tell you not to commit adultery? Who's he? Oh, I'll listen to him on adultery, but I won't listen to I'll listen to him on love your neighbor as yourself, but I won't listen to him on do not steal, or whatever it'll be. Well, obviously the two would go together, but whatever it would be. God is the source of it all. That's what's being told here. You are to have faith. You have crises of faith, and you're supposed to pass them. Abraham passed his. Abraham is our patriarchal model. We are supposed to emulate what Abraham did. But we don't do it in the same way. We are supposed to have his faith, but we don't exercise it in this way. I'll take questions now, but there was something I'd like you to think of before the next session, and I won't comment on it now. What do you think Sarah thought of all of this? And I will give anybody here a bonus I don't know what, but free tour of the new studios at KABC, if I could ever get through them myself. They're color-coded and you still get lost. But I will, I will be impressed if you reading, and not, you know, just reading the text, because if you read the text carefully, you can find the answer. But without reading commentaries, and I've never seen a commentary with it, this was told to me orally. But maybe some have it. In fact, maybe Plaut has it. I'm not sure. I would like you to figure out how Sarah reacted, because I do believe— I don't believe, I know that the answer is in there. Any questions on this? Any comments on this? Do you read it differently than I did? Yes? No. Anything but the Sarah thing. Thank you. Yes?

I'm having a difficult time understanding what God revealed to Abraham from the outset. The reason I ask is that God has already commanded Noah not to murder, so one would have thought that the proper response to the test would have been, but God, you've already commanded him not to murder.

Right, but the answer is my first question. God is the source of right and wrong. God says do not murder. But God says, "I want you to sacrifice your child because I declare that that isn't murder." Just as— [INAUDIBLE] Why isn't Avi Melech a Jew?

In other words, did Abraham become a Jew because he accepted some revelation from God, for example?

Absolutely right. Avi Melech did accept the existence of God. Why wasn't he a Jew? Well, I guess the simplest answer is that a Jew is more than somebody who accepts the existence of God.

It's, uh, right.

Well, A, not chosen, but, but also not every monotheist is a Jew. Abraham is the father of the Jewish people and the father of monotheism as it passed on through the Jews. So, oh yeah, well then the answer there is that God chose Abraham, which I dealt with earlier. Why did God choose Abraham? And the answer is we don't We only know afterwards. It would be very interesting to know, you know, it would be very interesting if God tested Avimelech. What if God had said, "Avimelech, take the son that you love and bring him as an offering to me." I don't know what the answer would be, but that would be an instructive thing to have worked out. He might have passed the test. Who knows? Also, I argue another thing. You know, it's a very difficult thing here. Let me, let me show you how difficult this is. If you were certain that God spoke to you, wouldn't you be prepared to do it too? What's the big test? Seriously, what is the big test? And I mean this very, very openly. If you're certain that God is speaking to you, if there's no question about God speaking to you— and I've often said I wish God would just sneeze for me. I'm not asking for a speech? I would like a hiccup. Anything I will take, and I'll be thrilled, right? And don't you feel that way? I mean, most of us would love any, any gurgle from God, and they would make our day, if not our week. Now, if God came to me and said, Dennis— this is God— Dennis, I want you to sacrifice your son whom you love, it's a very interesting question. I mean, this is God. Well, God must know. That would be my answer to you. God must know what he's doing. God, the author of do not murder, says give me your child. Well, then he must have a reason. That's God. Now, this is the point. This is what I want you to understand. Maybe even if God does appear to you, it's still a test. You don't cease to be human, as you're pointing out. Exactly. Does your love for your child diminish because God spoke to you and said, "Give me your child"? That's part of the thing I want you to understand, that if God appears to you, all your problems don't end. I think that a lot of people today think, "Oh, if I just saw one miracle, I know there's a God, and that would be it. Everything would be hunky-dory." Nothing's hunky-dory. Everything remains the same. All of your emotions, all of your passions, all of your wants, all of your needs. See, that's another element that you have to realize about this. It doesn't answer a lot for God to appear to you. Things still go on. You still live in this world even if God appears to you. So that is a legit test, because that's one thing as a kid I used to think, well, if God appeared to me, hey man, hey, that's God, you want it? Absolutely, then there's no question. But you don't stop, you don't stop functioning in the way in which you are functioning now. Yes?

Did you hear that?

That's called the cynical theory of Genesis. It's the game of brinksmanship. She is saying that he knew that God was making a nation out of him and he was prepared to go. I would say that playing brinksmanship with God is unwise because he doesn't have anything to lose. Yes, this is— yes, this is the last session of this series, but it starts again in like about, uh, 6 weeks. Isn't it? Does it start at the end of January? January 26th. Thank you. So you just continue, and I'll just be continuing where we are in Genesis 22. Yes, that Abraham failed the test. What? I'm sorry, how did he fail the test? Oh, well, all right, he failed your test, but he didn't fail God's test Because it says, because you didn't hold back from me your son, you passed the test. The angel says, see, he failed Laurie's test. I— you have to know that. Uh, and it's getting a little closer to the earlier question that I posed. Yes. 18, uh, chapter 18, verse 19, he says, um, for I have known him. He's a Jew. Yes. All right, that is the implication in that sense. That's right. Thank you. Yes, I heard a discussion of this chapter some years ago, at which time it was stated that when this action took place, Isaac was about 40 years old. Now, what man 40 years old would permit himself passively to be tied and placed on an altar? Yeah, that's a great question. I'm going to go into that when we talk about Isaac's— Isaac as a personality. Isaac is— Isaac has the burden that a lot of sons of great men have had. That you can't live up to your father and you are in his shadow, and indeed he— Isaac is the sandwich. Isaac is in Abraham's shadow and Jacob's shadow. He's shadowed by both, overshadowed by both his father and his child, and that seems to be his personality, is to lie down and have things happen to him.

Him.

It does seem that way, doesn't it? You, you must think that, unless of course we don't know the age, because look, the last time we met Isaac, he was just weaned, so we don't know how old he is. I've heard the 40 also, and I don't know on what basis it is. I would like to know if anybody can figure out for me how old from the text Isaac was. I would be very interested if you can find out a basis for that. It does seem that he's very young from the way this is written. Also, children did that. What about all the Aztec kids? Hey, Dad, what are you doing? They didn't do that, apparently. They just went to be sacrificed. Say to you that there is nothing more hypnotic than love and obedience, and that love and obedience for a, for a parent can have you lie down and do what your parent wants. What can I say? 39, you're thinking a young son, and here's somebody from 100. You want into it, do you? I mean, I don't. If you did, tell me. Let me take one more.

Yeah, um, getting back to the point you made about it being a test, I don't quite see that the implication of the word test means that it was only, uh, a symbolic test because when God tested Job, committed all these atrocities.

He could not have tested him by having him kill Isaac, because then it would have meant that God actually demands sacrifice, that, that it's a good thing. If God let him go through with it, we'd be up the creek. I'd find it very difficult to teach this Torah. I would. The ending of this story is what enables is what enabled moral monotheism to go on. Otherwise, it's just another tribal religion with a monotheist paganism instead of a polytheist paganism.

Yeah, that's true, I accept that, but from the implication that you're deriving from the word test means something that you really didn't want.

No, the whole point of saying test is that God didn't want it to happen. When God tests Job, first of all, Job is much more in the realm of a fable. Even the Hebrew texts hold, in the Talmud it says Job never lived, that it's just a story. God doesn't make deals with Satan in Judaism. It's not normative. It's a fable to deal with the perplexing issue of suffering in God's existence. Existence. I must tell you, otherwise, if I didn't, and that's probably why the Talmud said that, it would be— it's too difficult Jewishly to rationalize. Satan makes a bet with God, so God destroys all these people just to see how a guy would react. God plays chess with humans' lives like that? I mean, it's a very terrible view of God. It has to be understood as a fable, and thank God it was. Last one again. Why was it an angel instead of God himself? Because a physical being probably had to stop him then. A vision couldn't do it. When God appeared to Abraham, it was in a vision. God only appeared real to Moses. A vision wouldn't have stopped him from doing it then, near as a physical being would have.

Hmm.

Oh, the angels in Genesis have all been physical. They just mean messengers. Frohlinow is a physical person who came and held his hand, said, wait a minute, you can't do this. But he knew that it was a messenger from God.

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.

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