Why Spirituality Without Religion Is Dangerous | Weekend Torah Teaching

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Then God said to Moses, you will soon see, or actually now you will see, what I will do to Pharaoh, that with a strong arm he will, he will chase them out, and with a strong arm He will, well, actually send them out, and with a strong arm he will kick them out, chase them out from his land. God now is saying— there's a Hebrew statement, shhtika kehodah. It's a great Talmudic statement. Silence is agreement. I get that sometimes from callers on the radio show. Dennis, you know, one of the callers said da da da da, and you didn't take issue with them. And you should have. And they're right from their perspective. My saying nothing can be interpreted as agreement. And so God says nothing about Moses' attacks. In a sense, not so much agreeing that God has made evil, but there is no answer to those. Here is the real answer. You will now see what I will do. You're losing— you're losing faith in me. Not— remember, not faith that I exist. Remember, I made the distinction? There's faith that God exists and there's trust in God. You're losing trust in me. Now you will see what I will do.

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.

All right, last week was about as intense as they came, ladies and gentlemen. I was just, you know, what is the word? Just enervated. It was just, it was very intense. Any questions or comments? We took a lot. I took a lot at the end, so there may not be, but if there were, The nature of faith that we spoke about, and remember the conflict of loving God and loving man at the same time. It's really, that was an essential thought which I gave a thought about over the course of the week myself. Alright, Moses ends chapter, we finished 5, we're on 6. Moses ends with this, not even so much questions, like Abraham had questions, but Moses had attacks. You did evil. And God, God takes them, the attack seriously. This, God's response in chapter 6 begins is not, certainly never, you know, what nerve you have. God never gets angry in Judaism if you're angry at God. There's no— not a hint of it. And I think it's, as I've mentioned on occasion, I think it's a rather— if that isn't being self-contradictory, to be rather unique. You're either unique or you're not. I think it's pretty— I think it's unique to normative Judaism. There are certainly Christians who get angry at God, Muslims get angry at God. I was gonna say atheists who get angry at God. And the truth of the matter is, the truth of the matter is, I believe that a lot of people are atheists because they're angry at God. I think that they express their anger by saying, I'm so angry at you, I won't believe in you. They don't necessarily verbalize those words because they realize it would be logically foolish, but I believe that that is part of what atheism is. Not certainly— there are people who truly just don't believe. And I respect them. But I know I have met people who say, I don't believe in God, and then you ask them why, and they immediately talk about all the suffering in the world. But, but one really doesn't have that much to do with the other. If you can believe in God and see all the suffering and ask what Moses asks, why did you make such evil? Or why do you allow such evil? As Job asks. But the argument, I don't believe in God because there's so much suffering, Is a non sequitur. If you say, I don't believe in God because there's no evidence, because I truly believe science explains everything, I'm okay, I can accept that. But, I don't believe in God because of all the evil in the world, is a non sequitur. One is not related to the other. I don't like God because of all the evil, I don't understand God because of all the evil, that makes sense. And I, I, so— I don't like God because of all the evil, I really believe that even many atheists are atheists out of anger at God. And then, I guess, and I would again direct you to my book that just came out, I have in there a dialogue with Harold Kushner, who wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People. We have dialogued a lot. He is a beautiful human being and a very good thinker. And I asked him— I wrote an essay, uh, Is God Lovable? And he reacted, and we had a dialogue on this very issue of, is God lovable? His son, which is much of what prompted his theology, though not at all entirely, but his son died at a very young age. I don't recall— between 8 and 12, I don't recall— Of a particularly awful disease. the progeria, which is the rapid aging disease. And you can only imagine if you have a child and you go through this and you see. And he said he decided at the end to love God because he forgives God, and I asked him why, and he said, because I want him to forgive me. And he says, I love God because there is no choice. I think he's right. Do you want to spend your life walking around in anger? Yes. We all have a choice, you know. Forgive this, but that's part of what this course is, the nature of God and the nature of our life. We don't realize how much we can choose, can choose, and do choose with regard to how we go through life. The angry think that they can't be any other way than angry. But the truth of the matter is, if you're an adult, not a 3-year-old, but if you're an adult, you, you choose whether to remain angry or not. We all have reasons for anger, every one of us. And whether it's at humans or at God, you choose how you're going to go through life. Do you want finally on your tombstone, Here lies so-and-so who was angry almost every day. Even if it's correct, even if your anger is well-founded, is it good for you? Is that the most productive way to lead your life? It's very easy, and I, you know, it's funny, I get angry— this is a funny way of putting it— you know when I get angry? When someone has made me so angry, and I don't mean personally, I haven't had that in my personal life, but when someone or an event makes me so angry I can't stop being angry, then I'm angry at them for making me angry. I don't want to be angry, I don't like it. You know, and I had it when this child was given away in Chicago, taken away. I couldn't stop, I was angry, I just couldn't stop. I'm sorry. And I have an anger in me. I have, I mean, you can't be sensitive and not have any anger, because what are you going to react to Nazis and so on? I was, I'll tell you a personal story. It's how life works. How many of you are familiar with Simon Wiesenthal's book, The Sunflower? Very few of you. You should pick it up. The Sunflower, you're all familiar with Simon Wiesenthal, the world-famous Nazi Hunter, after whom of course the center here in LA was named. When Wiesenthal was in one of the concentration camps, he was on a work detail in a city. A slave work detail, of course. And he was called over by a nurse in a hospital. I think it was in Czechoslovakia. In Prague. And she called him over and said, someone insists on meeting a Jew, come over here. It wasn't Wiesenthal being called, it was a Jew. He didn't know what was going on. It turns out he's brought into a room with a fully bandaged Nazi. Totally, except for the eyes. Completely bandaged. And it takes many pages. And and I'll be very brief. The Nazi is dying. He's about 24 years old, 27 years old, whatever. He's dying. He knows he's dying. And he took part, he had taken part in a terror— one of those horrific actions against Jews in conquered territory, thrusting hundreds of Jews into a building and throwing grenades in it to To literally blow them up and set them all on fire. And he recalled to Wiesenthal seeing a father jump out of a window, covering his son's, his little son's eyes in the jump. Rather die jumping out than burning alive. And he cried and cried, and he said, I wasn't born to be a murderer. I, before I die, I want a Jew to forgive me. And even Wiesenthal says it was clear he was sincere. Wiesenthal listened and listened and walked out of the room and said nothing. He said neither I forgive you nor I don't forgive you. He said nothing. Nothing. This story haunted Wiesenthal after the war. Did he do the right thing? And he gave, I don't remember, about 25 Jewish thinkers and 25 non-Jewish thinkers the story to write their response. Did he do the right thing or not? And I believe something to the effect, you should read the book, it's brief, the responses are fascinating. Without any of them knowing, all 25 Jewish thinkers from across the board, secular to Orthodox, said he was right in not forgiving. 24 of the 25 non-Jews said he was wrong. And those of you who've heard me on radio talk about forgiveness know that I have raised this theme on a number of occasions, that the Christian and Jewish views Not the view of Christianity, I believe, but the view of Christians. And that is that generally Christians believe you forgive, period. Even if someone doesn't apologize. And that you forgive even when it's done to others. The Jewish position that Wiesenthal took was, how can I forgive? I wasn't that father. I wasn't that son. I wasn't one of those 300 Jews. How can I forgive? I wasn't the one burned alive. When I read it many years ago, 20 years ago at least, I totally agreed with Wiesenthal. And now they're doing another— Wiesenthal has asked for a new version of the book with like a new generation of thinkers. So I'm one of the Jewish thinkers. Because they've asked to respond. And I don't know what I'm going to write. It was clearer to me 20 years ago, which is very common in life, that when you're young it's all so clear, isn't it? In some ways, when you get older, you do achieve more clarity. There's no question, which is why being an adolescent is It's not fun. It's just, you're bombarded in every way, internally and externally. It's all so confusing. On the other hand, you have certain moral clarities, you think, when you're young, that become less so later. And I raise this because of the issue of anger. And you, you know, what do you carry around with Because not to forgive is to hold on to that anger. And on the one hand, it's moral, I think you're morally bound to preserve a certain anger on behalf of those who can't speak for themselves because they were burned alive. On the other hand, what do you do with your life? And is it productive to have that anger? I mean morally productive. I mean, spiritually, religiously, not forget psychologically, because I could argue it's psychologically unproductive but morally necessary. So, so much for this issue, because of the issue of Judaism and anger at God and how it is normal and how it is okay, but how in the final analysis it's probably not wise. That's right. That's what I would— that's my position as of November 1995. God responds to this unprecedented and unfollowed attack on him in the Hebrew Bible. This, as I showed you, it was unique. Then God said to Moses, you will soon see, or actually, now you will You will see what I will do to Pharaoh, that with a strong arm he will chase them out, and with a strong arm he will, well, actually send them out, and with a strong arm he will kick them out, chase them out from his land. God now is saying, and there's a Hebrew statement שתיקה כהודעה. It's a great Talmudic statement. Silence is agreement. I get that sometimes from callers on the radio show. Dennis, you know, one of the callers said da da da da, and you didn't take issue with them, and you should have. And they're right from their perspective. My saying nothing can be interpreted as agreement. And so God says nothing about Moses' attacks. In a sense, not so much agreeing that God has made evil, but there is no answer to those. Here is the real answer: you will now see what I will do. You're losing, you're losing faith in me. Not, remember, not faith that I exist. Remember I made the distinction? This faith that God exists and this trust in God. You're losing trust in me. Now you will see what I will do. And notice, God— God answers here twice. With a strong arm he will send them out, that is the Jews, and with a strong arm he will kick them out, chase them out. It's not only Moses will he let them out. He will send them out. And not only will he send them out, he's going to kick them out, which Moses must have stood there going, wow, that's extraordinary. He's, you know, he will want to get rid of his slaves, which makes the miraculous even more emphasized. God spoke to Moses. And he said to him, I am God. In this case, Jehovah. And here comes a very, a very complex verse for people who study it. I think, I don't think it's complex in the sense that there are those who say that the Torah was not written at one time, but as a compilation of documents point to this verse. I don't think persuasively, but that's what I meant by complex. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but my name Jehovah I didn't make known to them. But that's not literally true. If you think it means they never knew the name Jehovah. That's not correct. That's not necessarily correct. What it really means is my name Jehovah is not— the meaning of that name is not what I made known to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Name in the Bible is very important. All names have meanings. You already saw Jehovah is I Am What I Am, I Will Be What I Will Be. What is the meaning of Jehovah? being, remember that whole idea? Name means a lot. Adam names the animals. When you name something, you are giving it essence. That's why the Nazis took Jews' names away and gave them numbers. That, that it was— as important as murdering Jews was dehumanizing them. And so there was no name. It was a tag. Tattooed number like cattle. I think when I was teaching about the naming, I used the example of my wife would— got very sad when one of our fish died, which was particularly funny since she had had a tuna sandwich for lunch that day. As I pointed out to her, I said, you know, Fran, how sad can you get? You just had a tuna melt. And, you know, she started laughing and crying at the same time. And I realized why she got sad over the death of one of our fish. We had unwisely named our fish. But you see, if you ate a sandwich and it was really a Jerry sandwich, you're having Jerry for lunch, then you would recall Jerry. I recoiled from that sandwich. A tuna sandwich is not a problem. Jerry is a problem. So I vowed, after I saw my wife's reaction, we are no longer naming our fish. It's a puffer, it's a yellow tang, and that's it. You know, in fact, just tonight a yellow tang died. No, you know, nothing— Dennis, are you going to take it out of there? It's ugly, you know. I mean, that was it. There was no emotional connection. I'm sorry. Because it was a yellow tang. Name is essence. Look at how much thought parents give. Some do. My parents happened not to, as it happens. They wanted a girl. They had already had a boy. They knew they'd only have 2, so they really wanted the classic boy and girl. I came out a boy. And they were going to name the girl— they had given thought to that— Denise. And that was how I got the name Dennis. That was it. There was no other thought. That's a good story. thought. Most of the time, however, a great deal of thought is given. And, uh, because names have essence. If names of our pets and our names have essence, you would think God's names will have essence. Jehovah has meaning. It said, I came, I know, I, I, I, I came to them, I appeared to them as El Shaddai. Now, there are many names for God in the Torah. El, which is simply God, right? Deity, even. It's almost just a deity. El Shaddai, which we don't know exactly, but there are theories, and I'll tell you one which may or may not be absolutely— may not be linguistically correct, but it is implicitly Correct. Elohim, which is God, not as deity, but the ruler, the ruling God, as it were. Elohim is, for example, if you speak— if the Torah speaks about other gods, it will use the word Elohim, which is a plural of a word almost never used, Eloha. God's name Elohim is actually a plural name. Which doesn't mean that there is a plurality of gods, but rather that God takes in the plurality. And we have that in English. The word fish, which I've just been using, is both singular and plural. It's not totally uncommon that we would have that, right? So Elohim, El, the 4 letters, of Jehovah, and El Shaddai, which is the least common. Nehemia Leibowitz speaks about El Shaddai, and this is the important distinction, and this will be the great theme of today's— of tonight's class. The— what is the difference between God as he appears to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and God as he makes himself known to Moses and the Jews. That's what this is about, what God is explaining to Moses and I think to the rest of us through eternity. What is the difference?

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Uh, let me read to you Leibowitz and Neshamah Leibowitz, this brilliant woman, and then I will explain further. She quotes Yehuda Halevi, the Jewish thinker, as saying, The divine statement, and I appeared unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by my name of God Almighty— that is the general, uh, translation of El Shaddai. Okay, God Almighty implies not through open force and conquest as alluded to in Psalms, so on. Uh, he did not create for them, the patriarchs, miracles as he did for Moses And this is implied in the statement, and by my name the Lord was I not known to them. He performed for Moses and Israel that which left no vestige of doubt in their minds that the Creator of the world had brought these things into existence in an entirely new and purposeful creation, as for example the plagues of Egypt and the parting of the sea, the manna, the pillar of cloud, etc. God did not do these things because they were in any way greater than Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but because they were numerous and doubts existed in their hearts. I'll explain it all. I just want to read you the source where I get the idea from. The patriarchs, on the other hand, were inspired with a pure and undiluted faith which was proof against all temptation, even if evil had dogged them all their days. Consequently, they did not require all this. Are you, are you following? The theory of Yehuda Halevi is that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn't need miracles. The Jews in Egypt did because of their number, which I'll explain in a minute, and because of what— oh yes, the doubts that existed in their hearts. Okay. This is a very interesting idea about the difference between the faith of the patriarchs and the faith of the Jews later, and it will totally reverberate to the present moment in your own lives. You and I are much more similar to the Jews in Egypt vis-à-vis God than we are to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw God in every act. You got pregnant? God made you pregnant. You, you moved to another country? God wanted you to move to another country. Right? You found a wife? God wanted a wife. You found a husband? God wanted this husband. Whatever. You were barren? God made you barren. God was omnipresent to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To the Jews in Egypt, that was not the case. First of all, if it would be the case, they would have had to have said something very difficult. Yeah, God is omnipresent, and he's a slave master. Right? Their circumstance does not allow for the— without exceptional human beings who see God even in the darkest moments, it does not allow for what Abraham and Isaac and Jacob believed. They needed, they needed concrete evidence of God. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn't. We are like the Jews in Egypt. We need— most of us, okay, let's put it that way— most of us need a more concretized expression of God's existence. To the patriarchs, it was simply enough in that way. But here is where Mm-hmm. Leibowitz says the patriarchal age was the age of the individual. The patriarchs saw God in everything that happened. But in the age of Moses, the Jewish people was involved, therefore more was necessary. I would piggyback on her idea as follows, and this is where I resonate totally. The individual can easily believe in God. The problem arises when we look at how others suffer. For most of us who believe, we see God in our lives. It is when we ask larger questions, e.g., questions pertaining to others, that the problems arise. That's the difference between Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Jews, and Moses. And Moses. Moses, in his life, has every reason to believe in God, right? It's blessed. He's saved, he's raised by, uh, by Pharaoh's daughter, uh, his life is saved, he has beautiful circumstances. He goes out, he's saved again, he He goes, he's happily married, he raises kids, he likes his father-in-law, he has a good life, and God directly appears to him. He doesn't need miracles. This guy has a life like some of you have. Very blessed, and a very strong sense, I'm sure many of you have, of God involved in your life. When then do we start asking the big questions, most of us? When we look at what happened I have asked a question to a handful of audiences, and the question was, how many of you feel that your life, only your life, has been either fair or better than fair in terms of being treated by life justly? I would say 90%. I'll do it right now. How many of you feel your life has been fair or better than fair in the way in which life and fate have treated you? Okay? The vast majority. I won't ask for the other, people may be embarrassed to raise their hands. The vast majority of you. Yet I have no doubt that nearly everyone who raised his or her hand has certainly had suffering and pain and difficulty and death and And illness with loved ones or with oneself, has massive desires for something better in life, and yet you raised your hand. Now either you're deluding yourself— I once mentioned this to somebody who's very close to me, so I can mention who he is. He said either they raised their hands because psychologically they couldn't really look at how unfair life was to them. That's because I suspect that's how he feels about his life, this person I'm thinking about. I don't think that's the case for the great majority of you who raised your hand. I would certainly raise my hand, and I have known my share of pain, though certainly less than many have. Though more than some who also would raise their hand, certainly. It is a very interesting thing, though. This was raised to me by an Orthodox Jew about 25 years ago at Grossinger's Hotel. Among my fondest memories of my— I lived in New York until 20 years ago, and so in other words, I left in my late 20s. Is 27 late or mid? Late. Late, thank you very much. In my mid-20s, I left New York nearly 20 years ago. ago. And, uh, uh, when I, I, I was invited, I really— I mean, this was— talk about blessed. I was invited to lecture at singles weekends. I mean, is that luck or is that luck? I mean, you know, so, you know, uh, and, and that's when I'd be up there. And I remember one holiday of Sukkot going out to this freezing sukkah there, and, and I'm talking theology to a guy. I'm, I'm trying to find, you know, a woman And this guy's talking to me theology. I wanted to kill him, actually. But lo and behold, he made a great point. And he opened my eyes. He says, Dennis, everybody talks about how much suffering there is, and how unjust the world is, but if you ask them about their own life, they tell you they've been blessed, or they've been lucky, or they've had— at least it's been fair. That's the difference, essentially, between Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as I read into this, and the Jews and Moses now in Exodus. They didn't ask, how could one believe in God with all the suffering? Their God was— and here is the problem of only having a personal God. Their God was profoundly personal. He got her pregnant, he got him here, he moved him here, he spoke for him, he intervened when the king wanted to sleep with his wife, right? That was the perception then. It is totally wrong to regard God as just the creator of the world who doesn't know you. That's, that's to me equivalent functionally to atheism. If God doesn't know me, what's the difference if there's a God? As far as Dennis is concerned, it's irrelevant, right? If God doesn't know I exist. Personal God is critical, but only a personal God is not Jewish, because it's too self-preoccupied, and it doesn't ask the big questions that Moses asks here. Now, it is true Abraham did ask about the people of Sodom, to his enormous credit, but they were questions about justice. He wanted to know a little more. Would you do this if there were this? I want to know how you operate. And that's wonderful. But of course there was no question about sacrifice your child, because God is so intensely personal. To a Jew today, there would be, wait a minute, what do you mean sacrifice my child? My child. That's wrong! How can you ask for that? Like Moses is asking here. When— and by the way, that is why the Jew in me does react negatively when I hear often non-Jews speak in America with God. God said to me, God came to me, God told me, God operated with this. Part of me Part of me loves it, and part of me is hesitant and uncomfortable about it. They're doing a promo on KABC, in case you heard. Not my favorite line. I don't know if you can miss it. It's like played every 20 minutes. I'm going to have to bump it off and put on another guy's. The truth is, it was a good line that I I'm sorry. But calling the guy vomit was not a line that I wish to be permanently associated with. See, I wanted it— my brain came up with another term which I can't use, you know, a piece of, but then I realized I can't say that on the air, and so I said vomit as to describe the murderer of Yitzhak Rabin. But how did this come about? A guy says he's a hero. So how's it— I go, why is he a hero? He says, because God told him to. I said, what are you talking about, God told him to? He said, how can you prove God didn't tell him? So I said, well, what if God told me to kill you? I mean, how do you know? And then I said, you know, God told me the guy's a piece of vomit. Alright, that's how I think the thing ended, at least as far as what's being replayed now. But that's the the danger of, of an only a personal God. Hey, God told me, right? End of issue. That's why you need religion. In a nutshell, that's the case for organized religion, my friends. Otherwise, all of us will go around deeply spiritual and hearing whatever we Want to hear from God. That is why the faith of the patriarchs is not Judaism. It's monotheism, and that's great, and it's an advance, stupefying advance. It isn't Judaism. It isn't Sinai. Sinai begins Judaism. That's what this is about. I didn't appear to I didn't fully reveal myself to them as what I am fully. They only knew me as a personal God, which is wonderful, but not enough. How do you know that God didn't say, go and murder this man? Because I will give you 10 Commandments that say, do not murder. That's how you know. That's why Abraham can go and kill Try to sacrifice Isaac. God said! There's no rules that said it shouldn't— you shouldn't kill children. Oh, God said? Okay, not an issue. Absolutely not an issue. We don't have the slightest sense of hesitation. Only if God stops him and then tells us infanticide is wrong, child sacrifice is wrong, then we know it. And that is why— That's right. Spirituality without organized religion is dangerous. You hear what you want to hear. Just as indeed religion without spirituality is dangerous. You become mechanical, and there's no relationship to God. It's just, uh, what does the halacha say? What does the Sharia say? That's not good either. Or, hey, I went to church, don't bug me. That's not good either. And that's— now we enter biblical religion with this verse. That's why the key to the Exodus is not the Exodus alone, it's Sinai. At Sinai, I'll tell you what God wants. Honor your father and mother. Don't murder. Don't commit adultery. Don't steal. That's what God wants. Don't walk around with, God told me, God did this. That's why you don't have it later nearly as much. Isn't it the most common question? Why doesn't God appear to us all like he did to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Everything was God. Because that's how they saw it. And it is beautiful. And it— they're not wrong. Don't get me wrong. If you see God in your life, you're not necessarily wrong at all. That's right. I believe God has played a role in my life very deeply, but it must be consonant with my religion. That's the difference between spirituality alone and spirituality and religion. To grow up with God doesn't play a role in your life, but, you know, hey, he gave, he gave the Torah, now you obey it, and, you know, and that's it, is, is, is Lifeless religion. This is a terrible tension. Please don't forget it, okay? Don't forget what you want to ask. This is a terrible tension that, again, like all good things in life, must have that central role. It's easy to fall over. You contemplate your navel and you're spiritual. That's why the word, uh, uh, and the New Age, New Age is the oldest age idea in the world. That God is within you. The problem I've always asked— I stopped debating New Agers, and there are a lot of nice things, don't get me wrong, there are a lot of nice things in New Age, certainly a lot of nice people who are involved in it. But I asked, when I used to debate this with callers, I'd say, I have one question for you. If God is within you, only, I don't mind people saying God is within me. I mind when they put a period at the end of the sentence. God is within you and outside of you. But if you put a period, God is within me, then what's the difference between you and God? How do you know when it's your will and when it's God's will if God is not outside of you? It, it's too dangerous to making you and God co-equal with your will. I don't think it's dangerous. Which is what the guy in Israel did, and so many others who, in the name of God, though it violates the religion— that's why I'm pro-religion. The people, the Muslims who go around and, uh, and blow themselves up and kill as many men, women, and children as possible, tell you that God told them. It's interesting, you know what they never say? The Quran told me. You'd think if they're a devout Muslim, they'd say that. What do you mean? They should say the Quran says in Surah so and so that I should blow up as many Jews as possible. They never say that, not once, right? All they do is Allahu Akbar, God is the greatest. Just like the guy in Israel now. That's easy. Listen, there were Nazi soldiers who went with a belt, Gott mit uns, God is with us. Hitler thought he was doing God's will. work in creating the Holocaust. But he never said, interestingly, you know, I read in James that one should gas Jews. No, he said, God wants me to exterminate the Jewish race. That's easy to say. Find me in your religion exactly where it says. Religion is a brake on too personalizing a faith.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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This is truly important because many people, certainly most Jews, think organized religion is nonsense. I think it's a crutch, psychological nonsense, primitive stuff. It's the break on self-worship. There's a code, my friend. There's a code. A dear Muslim friend of mine who will be having Shabbat dinner with my family this week called me up, and he's heartbroken. He's just heartbroken about what he sees with fellow Muslims. faith that he believes totally in, totally, by their behavior. But this guy doesn't make the news like a guy who blows up people and shouts Allahu Akbar as he stabs an Israeli hitchhiker to death, right? My friend's not, uh, doesn't get on the BBC. So people think this is religion. It's spirituality. if you will, it's godality. Religion without God has its own problems, but that is now— you understand the difference. And the difference between the ability to easily embrace God when you only relate to God through your own life. Let me tell you, folks, if I didn't think about the Holocaust and Bosnia And Rwanda, Burundi, and, uh, and the Armenians, and slavery. If I only thought about my life, not only wouldn't I be ambivalent about God, I'd be sending him birthday cards. I would just send him flowers. I would, I would be praying all day in praise. The problem to my faith isn't my life. The problem to my faith is what I just Told you it's others' lives. That's the problem for Moses. Moses doesn't say, "Hey, you know you didn't treat me well. I don't like the wife you sent me. My kids aren't well." Nothing like that. Why did you make evil for them? That's different from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I appeared to them, right? Va'era el Abraham ve'el Yitzchak ve'el Yaakov ve'el Shaddai. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, very specific, to an individual in each case, as El Shaddai. Now, El Shaddai is a personal God, is, is, well, is not as much, it's actually the God, not the— it's both personal but it's mostly No, it's the God of nature, the God that you don't have to— that isn't personalized Jewishly, as it were, as Jehovah is. And one of the ways in which I learned this, though I saw no further note about it, is that Shaddai may well or may well not, but it it seems that it would. The word for breasts in Hebrew is Shaddai. So in a sense, it's almost God of breasts is El Shaddai, which is not odd because the word— a major description of God is El Rachum, a merciful God, and Rachum comes from the word Rechem, which is womb. Again, the woman being the source of empathy, of mercy, not of law, not of war. You need both. You need both. We have in our society gone too far over toward the mercy, and as a result, we decide that rapists who rape a lot of girls should have parole. Okay. Never, ever, ever think that mercy alone will make you a merciful world. Okay? My main God Jehovah—that I didn't make known to them. This is what is happening here. Nehama Leibowitz makes a. very intelligent point. In Genesis 12:1, when Abraham is given a promise of the land of Israel, he is, he is not told anything about its beauty and riches. But the Jews in Egypt in Exodus 3:8 are. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. They didn't— Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob needed no Manifestations of God's greatness, right? It was so personal, it was so real. God, I didn't need— it was enough to know getting a land, thank you. But now we need more specifics. I will show you that the plagues and whatever else is done— Okay. 4. So my name Jehovah I didn't make known to them, and I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojourn in which they have lived. And I have now heard The moaning of the children of Israel because of what the Egyptians are making them work. And I remember my covenant. So who is Jehovah? Now my— more of my essence is coming out. I am not only personal to the individual. I am personal I am faithful to the people. And I am trustworthy. Okay? I am trust— there was no way Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob could know that God is trustworthy. They just believed. But now you will see that who I am, you can have trust in. Not merely believe I exist, not even know I exist, actually have trust in me. Therefore— one second. Okay. Therefore, tell the children of Israel that I, God, Jehovah, will take you out of the suffering of Egypt, and I I will save you from your slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary punishments. And I will take you to me for a people. And I will be for you a God. And you will know that I, God, have— it is I, Jehovah your God, who takes you out of the suffering of Egypt. And I will bring you into the land which I raised my hand in an oath to give her, that land, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give her to you as an inheritance, as a possession. And I will give you a land flowing with milk and honey. I am God. There's the second major point of tonight in one of those verses, but first, I know all of you were dying to know, why do Jews drink 4 cups of wine on Passover? That is why some of you decided to come. You, I know, that's why you came tonight. You're just dying to know. I have other questions. Hmm? I have other questions. You have other questions. About a thousand before this one, I'm sure. Right. But for those of you who did want to know where the four cups of wine Passover are based on, it is based on the first four promises, verbal promises of God here, and they are: "והוצאתי והצלתי וגאלתי ולקחתי". "והוצאתי" I will take out. "והצלתי" I will save. V'ga'alti, I will redeem. V'lakachti, and I will take. Those are the 4 great things that God will do, and we drink a cup for each of the 4 things that God will do. It should have been called, this is the v'hotseti cup, this is the v'ga'alti cup, and so on. Now, it— there are, however, 7 Mm-hmm. Attached to what God will do. One of the things I didn't do, because I don't get into it as much as some others, but it is terribly fascinating, is how often 7 crops up in the Torah, which is almost like the watermark unifying everything in the Torah. 7, from 7 days to the 7 verbs here, and the 7 years of 7 is constant. 7 and 40 are very big, but 7 in particular. And there are 7 verbs. I gave you the first 4, then it's v'hayiti, and I will be, and then v'heveyti, and I will bring out, and then v'nata'ati, I will give. So that gives you 7, but it's the first 4. The rabbis wisely did not want us to Drink 7 cups of wine. Few Jews would have made it to the morning if they had done that. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you know, it's amazing because I was sure I would finish chapter 6 tonight. I was so sure I was even prepared for a little of 7. But there is another awesome point here. And it is verse 7, and I will take you to be my people. Again, I'm chilled by the profundity of the phrase and the— or I should say, not so much the profundity, although it's there, but the importance of it. First, it is like— it is the same verbiage used when a man takes a woman to be his wife. It's almost an, I will take you for my wife, as is very common in the prophets' metaphors. The Jewish people is God's wife, and we're unfaithful a lot, is the way in which the prophets put it. At any rate, I will take you to be my wife. You will be for me as my nation, okay, or my people. And I will be your God. It's like, you will be my wife, I will be your husband. But that's just the metaphor. The power here is this. What is the power? The Jews are a nation only insofar as they are God's nation. The Jews are not a nation or anything else without God and Judaism. That is the point. That's right. here that is critical. God could not have said to the Egyptians, I will take you as a nation. The reason is not that Jews are better, which is never implied or even hinted at, as I've showed you 50 times. And here goes, why were the Jews chosen? I mean, everybody wonders that at a given time. God took a group that had nothing, That's why the Jews are the Jews. Because without Judaism, without God and Torah, the Jews are nothing. This is not a, you know, this is not a homiletic point of a rabbi on Yom Kippur. This is the reality of life. There is no Jewish culture or Jewish race or Jewish nationality. There is none. There is Egyptian, there is French, there is black, there is white. There isn't anything Jewish outside of God and Judaism. Jews tried in this century to do so, called secular Jewish culture. It lasted 2 generations, Maybe. Their children either embrace Judaism or cease to be Jews. It's a fact. It's not a— again, it's not a rabbinic homiletic. Listen, you Jews, if you don't take the Torah, you're not going to be a full person. Forget it. If the Jews leave it, then there is no Jew left. A Jew without Judaism is a zebra without stripes. Okay? It's not a zebra any longer. It's something else. It's a fish that isn't in water, and it's not a fish. That is the point here. I make you a nation. I, God, am what forms you as a nation. Egyptians are Egyptian without God. Babylonians are Babylonians without God. Mesopotamians are. French are. Belgians are. Uruguayans are. Jews aren't. That's right. This is what you are, even if you live in your land. In Israel, it is a major dilemma: how do non-religious Jews keep their kids Jewish? In Israel! Forget LA. Israel has it as a major dilemma. How are you Jew? And they're not. Generally speaking, I'm Israeli. I'm Jewish. That's it. And I'm not criticizing them at all. This isn't a critique. People should do what they want to do. I believe in the American belief in individualism. You don't want to be Jewish, you don't want to be religious, you should live and be well. And you should be protected in your right to leave it. All I am saying is what is factually correct and what is existentially correct. Jews are Jews solely by virtue of God and Judaism. Italians are Italian by virtue of Italian language, Italy, Italian culture. Jews do not have Jewish culture, a Jewish place, uh, or a Jewish language without Judaism and Torah. They are now They are not speaking Egyptian, probably. They are— they have no land. We are formed outside of a country. Italians are formed in Italy. French are formed in France. Americans are formed in America. Jews are formed in the desert. Do you see the enormity of difference? It is totally different. Totally. God has decided a certain group will be my nation. I'm stuck with you, God in effect will say later, and you're stuck with me. You can leave, but you cease— You can leave me, God, you just end up not Jewish. We have no secular Jewish survivors. None. Secular Jews become something else. Secular Italians stay Italian. Secular Jews exist, but they don't reproduce as Jews. Arthur Hertzberg, the Jewish historian, was commissioned to do a piece on something to the effect of of the descendants of the 100 founders of B'nai B'rith in America. He found almost none who were still Jews. And these were founders of amazing, you know, a preeminent Jewish organization, but they were secular. What, what, I've always asked this to secular Jews, what is secular Jewish? What? I have encountered in common with a Moroccan Jew who is religious? The Torah, right? We will both read this weekend, this Shabbat, Vayera in Genesis. By the way, one of the chilling, that is chill-inducing, facts of Jewish history that I had heard was that when the Falashian Jews were first found by European Jews, that is Ethiopian Jews, who would Black Jews in Africa who had not been seen for, I don't know, 2,000 years. They were wondering, are these people really Jewish? And then they found that they were reading the correct parsha that Shabbat. Is that eerie? And that basically ended any issue of, yep, they're for real. I have in common with a Falashian, an Ethiopian Jew living in rural Ethiopia, to whom I could not correspond in any language. We could— I do not know Amharic, and do not know English, and do not know Hebrew except to read the Torah. I have more in common than with a secular Jew in LA. In that way, obviously. I mean, I have things in common, obviously, with a secular Jew in Los Angeles. But you're not a secular Jew. But you understand my point. That's what makes us Jewish. What does a secular Jew have in LA with a secular Jew in France? Nothing. Nothing. People say, well, Jewish food, but that's not correct. Jewish North Africans, Middle Eastern Jews, eat an entirely different diet than European Jews. Oh, they'll say Yiddish? Yiddish? Yiddish is European. The, the other half of Jewry spoke Ladino, which is a Spanishized Hebrew, like Yiddish is a Germanized Hebrew.

This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

Who answers America's call for more energy? Our people do. Chevron's U.S. energy production has increased by nearly 60% in the past 3 years.

Hi, my name is Aaron, and I'm a well site representative at Chevron. I'm proud of the work that I do every day. It gets more American oil out of the ground, and it brings America more energy security.

Learn more about what our people do at chevron.com/america.

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

So that there's literally nothing that they have in common, secular Jews in different cultures. There is no Jewish culture as such. There are culture of Jews in Germany who are not religious. There's a culture, you know, it's like there was a humanistic synagogue I'll never forget in my more firebrand years I am actually mellow compared to what I was 20 years ago. I would just, you know, walk into gladiatorial combat with anybody. I remember going to Detroit to debate the founder of Humanistic Judaism, a rabbi in Birmingham, Michigan. And it was really— it was the— I truly— I, you know, I've conducted orchestras, I've had a lot of fantasies, I've even come close to knowing what it's like to go into ring with trainers behind you, massaging you, you know, getting you ready with towels and a bucket of water. This evening had thousands of Jews of Detroit coming to scream on the one they were rooting for, the humanist or the religious one. And I had my backers, and he had his backers. It was really, it was like a prize fight. It bothered me in some way, because I don't think anybody came to hear any, any, you know, be enlightened, but just to see a major gladiatorial combat. But you know what he did in his synagogue? I mean, this was— to give you an example, this is humanistic Judaism, Judaism without God, right? What would they read? They would get together Friday night. You know what they would read? Philip Roth. No, that's exactly right. I remember. And the Torah— they had a Torah, it was in the library. They specifically decided to They acknowledged that it was a Jewish book, but it belonged in the library. What they, secular Jews getting together, would do is read Philip Roth. Okay? That— and they're right, that is what a secular Jew does. They read Philip Roth if they still want to stay Jewish. But whatever that means. And it means nothing. You certainly don't have to be Jewish to read Philip Roth. I agree. That's the importance of this verse. You will be my people. You are a nation by virtue of being mine. You have nothing else that every other nation has. You don't have a country. You don't have a land. I'm going to give you one, but it's made clear it isn't yours. It's Canaanites, and they'll only be out when they've sinned enough that you can go in. And if you You're no good. I'll kick you out of there. And you're not Canaanites anyway. Everybody's named after their land. You're not. You're named after me. Israel. Fight with God. Canaanites are named after Canaan. Mesopotamians are named after Mesopotamia. French are named after France. British are named after Britain. You're named after me. There is no comparison. It's the only ethnicity in the world, to this moment, you can convert to. You can't convert to being French, you can convert to being a citizen. You can't convert, certainly, to being white or black, right? You can't convert to being Hispanic. Gee, I love Spanish literature. It doesn't do it. But any black person can convert to being a citizen. any white, any Asian can become as Jewish as the chief rabbi of Israel in a moment. It doesn't take a moment, but I mean at the moment of conversion. But then you're not— you see, of course you can convert to Christianity or to Islam, but you have stayed a member of another ethnic group. You are a member of this group when you convert, because it's not a normative It's God's nation, and anybody can come in. Of course, it comes with tremendous burdens. It's, you know, it's easier to be Belgian than Jewish. It is. The question is, does it come with great advantages? The burdens are obvious. Are the advantages that obvious? The answer to that is yes, Yes, when you're not having horrendous times. There are times during the Holocaust, it could not really be argued that it was advantageous to be a Jew, obviously. But when that isn't happening, I think there are enormous advantages. But that's another course which I've given. Let me see how far we got. 9. And Moses spoke— oh, excuse me, but when Moses told this to the Israelites, to the children of Israel, they didn't listen to Moses. Because of a lack of spirit And because of the terribly hard work, of the hard slavery. So God spoke to Moses saying, 11, go and tell Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, that he sends Israel, the Israelites, from his land. No more, uh, this time it's not, uh, 3 days of, uh, sacrifices. Just let them go. God's a little ticked off here. And, uh, Moses, uh, spoke before God saying, but, uh, the Israelites won't listen to me. So how then is Pharaoh How's Pharaoh going to listen to me? It's a very powerful question. Listen, we have a problem, God. Not only will Pharaoh not listen to me, even the Jews aren't listening to me. So I've got 3 problems here. The Jews won't listen to me, and Pharaoh, how's he going to listen to me? I don't even speak well. So God spoke to Moses and Aaron, as opposed to just Moses, and he commanded them— this is a tough sentence too, because literally it says he commanded them to the Israelites, which doesn't mean anything, so it probably means with regard to— and about Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to take the Israelites from the land of Egypt. And then? Can't do it. We're very close to finishing because it's really just a listing of the Levite generations. So yeah, I will try to finish. I won't read— it's one of the rare times— it is a verse-by-verse teaching of the Torah, but genealogies are the one thing I skip over. So for those of you listening to Yes. You'll have this in your car. And hopefully, God knows where else, on vacation in Tahiti. It is verses 14 through 25. This is essentially to give a genealogy of the Levite, the tribe of Levites, which becomes so important and becomes Is, of course, of Aaron and how did the— where the Kohanim come from. And that is why, given its centrality, it wants to show its genealogy. Verse 26: And it was— this was Aaron and Moses. Now Aaron comes first. About which God said to them, take out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt by troops. By troops. A military term is being used here. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh. Let me read to you, one second, one second. Yeah, you know what, I should, I'll just read to you on the genealogy, what Sarna says. A detailed analysis of the content of the genealogy discloses careful design and purpose. The line of the Levites is framed by a separate introduction and conclusion. The lifespans of individuals are registered only in the list of Levites, and the descendants of Levi, Levi, are traced to 5 generations, in contrast to the single generation given for the Reubenites and Simeonites. Still more peculiarly, peculiarities appear in the Levitical listing. Aaron's name precedes that of Moses, verse 20. Moses' wife is not mentioned, but Aaron's is. Only the fathers-in-law of Aaron and his son Eleazar are named. Only Aaron's brother-in-law is recorded. Only Aaron's descendants, and not those of Moses, are listed, and to 3 generations. To put it all another way, the Levites are here singled out from among the other tribes of Israel. The Aaronides are distinguished from among the other Levitical families, and there is a further differentiation within the Aaronide families themselves. By the way, it is one of the fascinating things of the Torah that nothing is talked about Moses' offspring. Moses is important, but his offspring are not. They don't carry on any particular mandate, which, given the time that Moses spends with God and running Israel, is not unexpected. And that is why I opened by telling you how remarkable it was for Rabin to have done both, having the grandchild speak the way she did. Very quickly, and so Aaron and Moses it was to whom God said, bring forth the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop. It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to free the Israelites from the Egyptians. These are the same Moses and Aaron. Moses and Aaron. For when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt, and the Lord said to Moses, I am God, speak to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I will tell you. Moses appealed to God, saying, see, I am of impeded speech, how then should Pharaoh heed me? All this is, is replicating what was just said, lest you lost the train of thought with the genealogy. And we begin next week with the incredible The incredible story of the plagues, which have much more going on than you will have ever believed. And it's a great adventure unto itself. I can't take questions tonight. I'll happily take extra next week. I have to take a flight now to the East Coast. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

On tomorrow's Sunday Fireside Chat.

So tell us a little more about you. You were, you were born where?

Yeah, I born in the Old City of Jerusalem and specifically in an area called the Jewish Quarter.

Oh, how interesting. Yeah. So you're a Palestinian born in the Jewish Quarter. By the way, I meant to ask you, and it's because Palestinians, most Palestinians are from a Muslim family. Some are Christian. What are you?

I am a Muslim.

You are from— okay. If I may ask, and You don't have to answer every question, but are you a practicing Muslim?

No.

Right.

I am anti-religious person.

Anti-religious?

Yes.

Okay. I'm pro-religious, but I still love you. And I'm not joking. I'm not joking because I judge— I don't judge people by their faith. I judge them by their behavior. And you're a wonderful human being.

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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