Dennis Prager Show - Timeless Wisdom: Weekend Torah Teaching - Genesis 19:1-19:26
Aired: 2026-03-07
Duration: 01:23:40


=== Different Financial Rules (15:18) ===

[00:00:00]  Let me ask you something.
[00:00:01]  Do you ever feel like the financial rules are different depending on who you are?
[00:00:05]  For years, Washington has operated a two-tier system.
[00:00:08]  Regular investors are told to stick with the basics, while well-connected insiders get access to opportunities most people never hear about.
[00:00:16]  Now, a major AI-driven buildout is creating a new income-style opportunity tied to that shift.
[00:00:22]  To see what it is and how it works, visit planwithoxford.com.
[00:00:26]  That's planwithoxford.com.
[00:00:30]  Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[00:00:34]  Here are thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
[00:00:38]  And to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles, go to DennisPrager.com.
[00:00:43]  We are up to Genesis 19, my friends.
[00:00:53]  Now, let me tell you something.
[00:00:54]  Those of you who are going to stick through the whole book, hopefully the whole Torah with me, I didn't write the Torah.
[00:01:01]  Ergo, I cannot predict to you always when the most spectacularly exciting points rise.
[00:01:09]  The real challenge to me is not in Genesis.
[00:01:12]  Wait till Leviticus.
[00:01:15]  And, you know, you take a turtle dove and two pigeons and, you know, and a bullock of three weeks old and so on.
[00:01:24]  But that's going to be the challenge.
[00:01:25]  I think that there's profundity all over.
[00:01:27]  But understand, some chapters are richer than others, obviously.
[00:01:32]  And so that's just part of the way it goes.
[00:01:36]  That's by way of saying that 19 is not as rich as 18 was.
[00:01:40]  So we would simply go faster in it.
[00:01:45]  And let's see what we go to.
[00:01:47]  Okay, so you know what we have just done.
[00:01:50]  We have just had Abraham arguing on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah.
[00:01:56]  Those of you who were with me recall that he made two arguments to God, and God ignored the one on justice.
[00:02:04]  It was the one on compassion because on justice alone, they deserve to be destroyed.
[00:02:10]  On justice alone, the world may deserve to be destroyed.
[00:02:15]  I mean, if God, if you were God now and looked down and saw Bosnia and saw Somalia and saw the torture chambers of Iraq, you might conclude on justice alone that I could do a lot of honest destroying.
[00:02:31]  There is so much evil taking place.
[00:02:33]  So it is compassion that ultimately animates God to respond because that's the more effective, effective argument that Abraham raises.
[00:02:42]  Okay.
[00:02:43]  The two angels arrived in Sidome.
[00:02:45]  Who were they arriving for?
[00:02:48]  Everybody recall who's in Sudom that they want to save.
[00:02:52]  Okay, Lot or Lot in English.
[00:02:54]  Okay, I call them Lot.
[00:02:56]  The two angels arrived in Sidom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sidome.
[00:03:02]  Okay, now here are some thoughts already on this thing.
[00:03:06]  Why did they come in the evening?
[00:03:09]  Because the place is so rotten, if they came in the day, they'd have been killed.
[00:03:14]  Okay, that is, if you give you an idea, remember I told you when we study this, always ask, why does it say that?
[00:03:21]  It could have just said, and the angels came.
[00:03:23]  Why does it tell you in the evening?
[00:03:25]  Because anybody who showed up in Sidom during the day had a very poor reception.
[00:03:30]  So they came at night.
[00:03:32]  This was a very bad place.
[00:03:34]  God doesn't destroy mediocre places.
[00:03:37]  Okay, they weren't just mediocre.
[00:03:39]  They were evil.
[00:03:40]  And Lot is sitting there, and why is he sitting at the gate?
[00:03:45]  Probably because Abraham had told him to expect visitors.
[00:03:50]  Now the question is, what does Lot know?
[00:03:54]  Remember I went through this with you?
[00:03:56]  What did Abraham know?
[00:03:57]  Remember Abraham is sitting at his tent.
[00:04:00]  And remember when they came to him?
[00:04:02]  Kichom Hayom?
[00:04:04]  And during the heat of the day?
[00:04:06]  It tells when they came to him, and it tells when they came to Lot.
[00:04:09]  They came in the middle of the day, and he's sitting out there and welcomes them in and so on.
[00:04:14]  But it said there, when he looked up, Abraham, he saw Anashim.
[00:04:20]  He saw people, men.
[00:04:23]  Here, it's the two angels or messengers went to Sidome.
[00:04:29]  Now, what does that mean?
[00:04:31]  Is it mean that if they'd have showed up as people, Lot wouldn't have recognized who they were and wouldn't have treated them well?
[00:04:39]  Do you understand the problem here?
[00:04:41]  Why doesn't it say the men, they're the same creatures.
[00:04:45]  Why doesn't it say, and the men came to Lot at the gate?
[00:04:50]  Just as in the men came to Abraham at the tent.
[00:04:54]  I can argue a number of things.
[00:04:56]  One obvious one is that had they showed up as men, Lot wouldn't have been nice to them.
[00:05:02]  Lot is not a particularly nice guy.
[00:05:06]  He is not as evil as the people of Sidom.
[00:05:09]  And I beg you now, keep in mind a fascinating mirror image.
[00:05:15]  Especially if you were with me or heard the tape on Noah.
[00:05:18]  You will find Lot is a mirror image of Noah.
[00:05:25]  Remember the discussion on Noah?
[00:05:27]  Here is, it describes him as a good man in his generations.
[00:05:31]  In other words, in a miserable time, that's the implication, he was okay.
[00:05:36]  And we don't hear a thing about him.
[00:05:38]  We don't know why he's good.
[00:05:39]  We just take the Torah's word.
[00:05:41]  We know why Abraham's good.
[00:05:42]  Look at the argument that he just made on behalf of strangers.
[00:05:46]  And I want to talk more about strangers today, but not right now.
[00:05:49]  We know why Abraham is good.
[00:05:51]  We don't know why Lot is good.
[00:05:52]  We don't even know if he's any good.
[00:05:54]  He's just not as bad as his co-citizens of Siddome, his fellow Sodomites, which is quite a place to be, obviously.
[00:06:05]  Most appropriately named, as we'll find out.
[00:06:08]  Now, he therefore might not have treated men well.
[00:06:14]  Abraham treats men well in the middle of the hot day in the desert.
[00:06:21]  Would Lot treat men well?
[00:06:24]  We don't know, but they had to come as angels.
[00:06:28]  Or Lot would not, we don't know, either recognize them or treated them well.
[00:06:35]  Or, I may be wrong.
[00:06:37]  There may be nothing to be read into this.
[00:06:39]  I hope that is a possibility, because we don't know for sure that he knows who they are, though the suspicion is that he does.
[00:06:46]  Okay, he's sitting at the gate, and he got up, and Lot saw and got up to greet them.
[00:06:55]  Okay?
[00:06:56]  And he bows his face to the ground.
[00:07:00]  Again, we have somewhat servile conduct here on his part.
[00:07:05]  I mean, it's a little too far.
[00:07:07]  It's one thing to go, how do you do, and another to put your face on the floor.
[00:07:12]  As you will see, Lot did not bring Uncle Abe Nachis, which is Jewish or Yiddish in Hebrew for joy, pride, and glory.
[00:07:24]  Abraham did not walk around saying, that's my nephew.
[00:07:28]  That's really a quality sort of guy.
[00:07:30]  Anyway, and the Torah goes out of its way to show this, as you will see, constantly, but in the great subtle way that the Torah does it.
[00:07:39]  Anyway, he gets up and he absolutely bows down to the ground.
[00:07:45]  And he says, so again, the implication is he knows that they're angels because they came as angels.
[00:07:52]  I said I may be wrong, but the implications are pretty strong.
[00:07:55]  Okay, he says, we're on verse 2.
[00:08:00]  Please, my lords, so in a sense he knows who they are, we assume, turn aside to your servant's house.
[00:08:07]  Turn aside, suru in Hebrew means go circuitously.
[00:08:11]  In other words, it's again an implication of what a place Sidom was.
[00:08:16]  If you walk directly to my house, forget it.
[00:08:20]  You've got to take a, you know, you've got to go this way, a sideway route in order to get to my house.
[00:08:26]  Again, it's one of those subtleties that you pick up from the sentence.
[00:08:35]  And you will sleep and wash your feet and get up early.
[00:08:42]  That's very important.
[00:08:43]  Does it say if you have it, get up early?
[00:08:46]  Maybe on the way.
[00:08:47]  Yes, the early part is important from the Hebrew, the Hishkam Tem, the Hishkam Tem.
[00:08:52]  And then you will go on your way.
[00:08:54]  In other words, look, I'll take care of you, and then you'll go.
[00:08:59]  Now, that is the part that you might infer from it, that he doesn't know exactly who they are.
[00:09:06]  If he thought they were angels, then he would say, okay, what's the plan?
[00:09:11]  Right?
[00:09:12]  Not stay with me and then get up early before they know I've been nice to you.
[00:09:17]  You see how what I mean, it's tough to know.
[00:09:21]  Because if they're angels, his behavior is, why would he kick them out?
[00:09:26]  Maybe they appear as people to Sidom, to the Sodomites, if I may use the term, and he knows they're angels.
[00:09:34]  It's a little complex, but his behavior suggests that he wants them out early for their sake and for his sake, as you will see.
[00:09:42]  Okay, do you get it though?
[00:09:44]  Get up early.
[00:09:45]  You come at night and you get up early.
[00:09:48]  Again, avoid contact with the people of Sidome.
[00:09:51]  They'll hurt you.
[00:09:53]  And they say, no.
[00:09:55]  No thanks.
[00:09:56]  We'll sleep in the street.
[00:09:59]  Isn't that something?
[00:10:02]  And here is a credit to him.
[00:10:05]  Here is where Loth comes out with a positive side.
[00:10:09]  He says he urged them, ma'od, a lot.
[00:10:14]  He really begged them and urged them.
[00:10:17]  And so they turned to him and they came to the house.
[00:10:21]  Okay?
[00:10:22]  So that's a credit to Loth.
[00:10:24]  He really begged them.
[00:10:26]  He could have gotten off the hook.
[00:10:29]  It would almost be like a German helping Jews in World War II.
[00:10:33]  And the Jews say, we're not going to stay in your house.
[00:10:36]  We'll sleep in the street.
[00:10:37]  And he says, no, I'll take the risk.
[00:10:39]  You come in my house, but be on your way in the morning.
[00:10:42]  Okay?
[00:10:42]  So there is a nobility there.
[00:10:45]  And he made for them in modern Hebrew a party, Mishtez a party.
[00:10:50]  It's difficult to imagine that he made a party.
[00:10:54]  And, you know, who was he going to invite?
[00:10:56]  You know, parties usually have guests.
[00:11:00]  So, and Umatzot, here is the first time we see in the Torah Matzah.
[00:11:06]  This is a pre-Exodus note.
[00:11:09]  And what is the beauty?
[00:11:11]  What is the point of matzah?
[00:11:13]  Why do Jews eat matzah on Passover?
[00:11:15]  Because it's the food, it's the bread that they bake because it's unleavened.
[00:11:19]  It's easy and fast to make.
[00:11:21]  Everything is rushed.
[00:11:22]  He didn't have time to bake bread.
[00:11:24]  He only had time to make matzah.
[00:11:27]  So here is another example.
[00:11:28]  If you ever read any Bible quiz, where did matzahs turn up before Egypt?
[00:11:32]  You now know that Shef Lot made them for the angels.
[00:11:42]  Okay, now, number four.
[00:11:46]  They had not yet lain down.
[00:11:48]  And in other words, They had just arrived.
[00:11:53]  I mean, it can see the subtle build-up of the rottenness of the people of Sidome.
[00:11:59]  They had just, before they could even gone to bed, the men of the city, and it says again, do you have it?
[00:12:09]  That it says men twice?
[00:12:11]  Here it says when the townspeople, the men.
[00:12:14]  Do you have it?
[00:12:14]  It's important.
[00:12:15]  In Hebrew, that's why this translation should be more accurate.
[00:12:20]  It has Anshe twice, the same Hebrew word.
[00:12:22]  The men of the city, the men of Sidome.
[00:12:25]  Why?
[00:12:26]  These were the leaders.
[00:12:27]  Imagine then what the rank and file is like.
[00:12:31]  These are the leading men of Sudome.
[00:12:34]  Okay?
[00:12:35]  Because you do wonder why did God destroy Sudom?
[00:12:39]  And here you just get constantly an idea of the terror in which a citizen of Sadome lived, as Lot would, at least when he had guests.
[00:12:49]  But Lot couldn't have been a particularly wonderful man, or he would have left Sudome.
[00:12:54]  Good people leave evil places.
[00:12:56]  Because what is it?
[00:12:57]  When you lie with dogs, you wake up with fleas or whatever it is?
[00:13:01]  I mean, there is a time, and it's a very important thing.
[00:13:04]  It's a point we'll touch today or another time.
[00:13:07]  What do you do in a thoroughly rotten society?
[00:13:10]  There is a time when it's time to leave.
[00:13:13]  You fight and you fight and you fight, but there is a time.
[00:13:17]  In Hebrew, there is a statement, bimakom sha'in ish.
[00:13:22]  Well, in a place that there is no man, you try to be a man, but if not, or used to children doing bad things than old people.
[00:13:31]  You know that American crime rates are entirely dependent upon the number of single young men in society.
[00:13:38]  The lower their number, the lower the violence.
[00:13:41]  The higher their number, the higher the violence.
[00:13:43]  It's certainly not dependent upon the elderly.
[00:13:46]  Point that I make frequently.
[00:13:49]  If you see graffiti spray-painted on walls with the glass broken, how many of you would immediately assume a group of senior citizens did it?
[00:14:00]  And so that's what's the dramatic point here.
[00:14:04]  You have the elderly and the youth gathering to bully or gathering on the house.
[00:14:11]  What they're going to do, you'll see.
[00:14:14]  Okay, verse 5, and they called out to Lote, and they said to him, where are the men who came to you during the night?
[00:14:25]  Now, by the way, among other things, you have to realize that this is a society that is not only rotten, not cruel and so on, but it is totalitarian.
[00:14:38]  It is the forerunner of a communist or Nazi-type state where whoever visits you is known.
[00:14:45]  I remember going to apartments in the Soviet Union, and there would be a woman who would simply check off every single person who came into the apartment building.
[00:14:58]  It just was a given.
[00:15:00]  There was a woman on every floor of a hotel to make sure no Soviet citizens ever came there.
[00:15:05]  This is a forerunner, if you will, of totalitarianism, that they already found out this.
[00:15:11]  Hotziem, Elenu, take them out to us.
[00:15:15]  and let us know them.

=== Hotziem Elenu: Testing Values (06:34) ===

[00:15:18]  In Hebrew, to know a person in biblical Hebrew is to have sexual intercourse with a person.
[00:15:24]  And Adam knew his wife Eve.
[00:15:27]  This was not in order to let us learn about them so we can bring the appropriate gifts to your visitors.
[00:15:34]  This is let us know them biblically.
[00:15:37]  Let us, sodomites, sodomize your guests.
[00:15:42]  That's exactly what they were asking to do and from which we get, of course, the word.
[00:15:46]  So you have to understand what is happening here.
[00:15:49]  First, it gives you an idea of the type of people.
[00:15:52]  They want to rape the guests.
[00:15:53]  It's also homosexual rape.
[00:15:56]  It is also a, even beyond those, it is the ultimate violation of ancient Near Eastern morality.
[00:16:11]  And that is, there was one thing sacred in the most miserable and barbaric of ancient Near Eastern cities and villages.
[00:16:20]  And that is your home.
[00:16:22]  You could have the murderer of my child in your house, and I leave it alone.
[00:16:29]  And here, they didn't even honor that.
[00:16:35]  19.6.
[00:16:37]  He goes out to them, that's Lot, at the opening, and he shut the door behind him.
[00:16:49]  Now, this is one of the things that plagued me when I prepared this.
[00:16:54]  Why did he shut the door?
[00:16:58]  Why would the Torah go out of its way to add that word?
[00:17:02]  Why, you know, it's again a good example of how you have to study the text.
[00:17:06]  And he went out to the man of Sodom and spoke.
[00:17:10]  But he went out to them and he closed the door behind him.
[00:17:14]  What could be the reason for that?
[00:17:19]  My theory is not pro-loat.
[00:17:24]  You can have a pro-lot theory that, well, in the hope that if he closes the door in the ancient world, in the Near Eastern world, that's the last barrier.
[00:17:34]  They may yell for them, but they certainly won't knock the door down.
[00:17:38]  That's the pro-lote thinking and and I, 49% of me believes it 51% of me has the theory that he closed the door so that the angels wouldn't see what he was about to do.
[00:17:55]  Okay, now I I'm not a cynical guy, but I acknowledge that it's a slightly cynical interpretation of events.
[00:18:03]  But when you see what he's about to do, you may side with me and I will be very curious to take a vote if you think he shut the door because that was the last chance to stop the these, the Sadome people, or because he didn't want the angels to see what he was about to do.
[00:18:21]  Seven, he says, I beg you, my brothers.
[00:18:25]  I don't know why they they translate it as I beg you, my friends.
[00:18:28]  Does anybody have my brothers?
[00:18:31]  Some of you have my brothers.
[00:18:32]  That's what the Hebrew literally is.
[00:18:34]  And he says them, my my, my brothers don't do such an evil.
[00:18:42]  Now, that's a very interesting thing and again, it's a credit to Lot.
[00:18:46]  Okay, so you understand.
[00:18:48]  He again, he's like Noah.
[00:18:50]  He's not a moral giant, but he's not like the rest of the people.
[00:18:54]  You've got to understand that.
[00:18:55]  He's not he's.
[00:18:56]  He is saved because of his relationship to Avraham, but you've got to realize that in his own right.
[00:19:02]  He's not like these people.
[00:19:03]  He comes out and says don't do evil.
[00:19:06]  He actually uses the word don't do such such a wrong.
[00:19:10]  Now, what is the wrong?
[00:19:12]  That's very important.
[00:19:13]  What is the wrong?
[00:19:15]  The wrong is I.
[00:19:18]  I would have to say the wrong is violating his home and his hospitality to his guests.
[00:19:28]  I don't think the wrong it because it couldn't be homosexuality, because to tell the people of Sadome that homosexuality is wrong is a joke is not possible.
[00:19:41]  To tell them that rape is wrong is not possible.
[00:19:46]  But to tell them that violating hospitality is wrong, that is the one possible thing that he can actually get by with where they could actually hear him.
[00:19:58]  However, when he offers an alternative to them, everything does come, or some things come, To question.
[00:20:06]  Verse 8 is, in our modern minds, quite a winner verse.
[00:20:12]  It's pretty remarkable.
[00:20:14]  My laughter is gallows laughter, you have to understand.
[00:20:20]  I beg you, my brothers, don't do such a wrong.
[00:20:22]  Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man.
[00:20:25]  Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please.
[00:20:29]  But don't do anything to these men since they have come under the shelter of my roof.
[00:20:34]  That's the point that I'm saying.
[00:20:36]  It's not rape, it's not homosexuality, it's hospitality.
[00:20:43]  You got to talk to people on the only values level that they have, if they have any.
[00:20:48]  So, guys, I oh, geez, I understand you, but you know, after all, and that's what he said, but do not do anything to these men.
[00:20:58]  Now, had it been do not do anything to these men, period, it would have looked odd.
[00:21:05]  What then was the argument?
[00:21:06]  But the argument is clear because they have come under the shelter of my roof.
[00:21:11]  That's what matters in Sidome.
[00:21:13]  Even you guys know that's a wrong, okay?
[00:21:17]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:21:22]  Gold and silver recently soared to record highs, then pulled back.
[00:21:27]  So, are precious metals still a good buy?
[00:21:29]  Many Wall Street experts predict higher prices ahead.
[00:21:33]  Why?
[00:21:33]  Because we still have trillions in national debt, a declining dollar, and inflation that keeps shrinking our savings.
[00:21:39]  Even with corrections along the way, gold remains a historical hedge for wealth protection.
[00:21:43]  That's why Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer ditched the 60-40 stock and bonds portfolio and recommended up to 20% in precious metals.

=== Ancient Values and Choices (05:54) ===

[00:21:52]  They're getting educated, and you should too.
[00:21:55]  Call Lear Capital at 800-992-2255 for your free gold investment kit and learn how you could qualify for up to $20,000 in bonus gold.
[00:22:06]  Lear Capital has over $3 billion in transactions and thousands of five-star reviews.
[00:22:11]  Call 800-992-2255.
[00:22:15]  That's 800-992-2255 or visit LearAlex.com.
[00:22:24]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[00:22:29]  But they said, Stand back.
[00:22:34]  And before I go on, there's actually a point I wanted to make about the offer of the daughters, which is an important point.
[00:22:48]  He makes how does he appeal to them to take his daughters and rape them by saying that they're virgins?
[00:23:00]  I have a point to make here.
[00:23:06]  I have never valued virginity.
[00:23:09]  I have always been a modern in that way.
[00:23:13]  But understand what it has been for the vast majority of humanity historically and the vast majority of humanity today, a woman's virginity is of extreme importance.
[00:23:25]  I have no relationship to that, I must tell you.
[00:23:28]  It's, to me, the quintessence of sexism.
[00:23:31]  He can do what he wants, but if she's not a virgin, and I am not a raving feminist, some of you may be aware of that fact.
[00:23:40]  But I find this to be a quintessentially macho sexist piece of drivel, that that matters, that that is a defining element of a woman.
[00:23:54]  But you got, and to prove my point about how unrelated so often sexual mores are to moral mores, look at what appeals to them.
[00:24:06]  These guys value virginity and they are the scum of the earth.
[00:24:11]  Do you see what I'm saying to you is, and I have felt this for many years, the relationship between some, not all, but I would even say many, sexual mores and the actual ethical, moral decency of a civilization are frequently absolutely unrelated.
[00:24:32]  Okay?
[00:24:33]  And this is the part of me that argues with those to the right of me who are very concerned about sexual morality.
[00:24:41]  Sexual morality is a subject unto itself, which maybe when we're in Leviticus, we'll talk about.
[00:24:47]  But it is much more complex than those on the right, religiously and politically, often tend to think it is.
[00:24:56]  Here you have a value on virginity as if it matters, and yet, and it did matter in those days, and look at the type of people they are.
[00:25:08]  Now, another question is, if Lote didn't think that these were angels, would he have offered his daughters instead of the men?
[00:25:31]  See, that's a question here.
[00:25:34]  Based on your own thinking on Lote as of now, if you think that he thought that they were men, raise your hand if you think he would still, if he would have given the men over or he would have given the daughters over.
[00:25:48]  Raise your hand if you think he would have given his daughters over if he thought they were just regular men.
[00:25:53]  If he thought they were regular men, you think he would have given the men over, raise your hand.
[00:25:58]  If you're not sure what you think, raise your hand.
[00:25:59]  I just want to make sure you're all answering the question.
[00:26:02]  Okay.
[00:26:06]  Those of you who voted, nearly all, everyone but about one or two voted that he would have given the men over.
[00:26:12]  I'm not certain.
[00:26:14]  I think to the man who values hospitality in that society, he may very well have done the same thing even if he knew, even if he believed they were just men.
[00:26:28]  Also, remember, the value of women is so minimal in much of human history.
[00:26:36]  It is so much, they are chattel in most ways, that who knows if in the hierarchy of values, my daughter's being raped, and I'm not even sure that in Sidome there would have been a word for rape.
[00:26:49]  It's just, let's know them.
[00:26:52]  They didn't say, we want to rape these men.
[00:26:54]  We want to know these men.
[00:26:57]  So who knows?
[00:26:58]  Who knows what he really would have done?
[00:27:00]  But it is to our ears and minds so incredible that a man would offer his daughters to a mob that it gives you an idea of that world and how far we have traveled, which is important to know.
[00:27:16]  Certainly he doesn't look heroic here in the trying to offer of his daughters.
[00:27:24]  Anyway, it doesn't work.
[00:27:26]  They said, stand back, verse 9.
[00:27:33]  One of them, or the man, came here as an alien and already acts like a ruler.
[00:27:41]  Now we will deal worse with you than with them.
[00:27:45]  Now, who are they talking about?

=== They're Going to Break Down the Door (02:29) ===

[00:27:47]  Lot, exactly.
[00:27:49]  What's with you?
[00:27:50]  It's with you, Lot.
[00:27:51]  You're an alien.
[00:27:52]  You have moved in here.
[00:27:55]  And now we're going to hurt you even more than we're going to hurt them.
[00:27:59]  And they pressed hard against the person of Lot and moved forward to break the door.
[00:28:04]  Again, please put your mindset into that of an ancient reader.
[00:28:09]  They're going to break down the door.
[00:28:12]  And that's the argument.
[00:28:13]  That's why 49% of me believes he closed the door in order to have that last protection of hospitality.
[00:28:21]  Are you with me?
[00:28:23]  Because nobody in our world broke down doors.
[00:28:26]  To this day in the Arab world, it is a vastly, vastly important value, hospitality.
[00:28:33]  You just don't break down the door when there are guests.
[00:28:37]  But the men stretched out their hands, the men being the angels, and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door.
[00:28:49]  Well, the assumption is they opened the door, stretched out their hands, and shut the door.
[00:28:55]  And angels can do a lot of funny things.
[00:28:57]  That's correct.
[00:28:59]  You're a pleasure to have, I gotta tell you.
[00:29:04]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[00:29:10]  Gold and silver recently soared to record highs, then pulled back.
[00:29:14]  So are precious metals still a good buy?
[00:29:16]  Many Wall Street experts predict higher prices ahead.
[00:29:20]  Why?
[00:29:21]  Because we still have trillions in national debt, a declining dollar, and inflation that keeps shrinking our savings.
[00:29:26]  Even with corrections along the way, gold remains a historical hedge for wealth protection.
[00:29:31]  That's why Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer ditched the 60-40 stock and bonds portfolio and recommended up to 20% in precious metals.
[00:29:40]  They're getting educated and you should too.
[00:29:42]  Call Lear Capital at 800-992-2255 for your free gold investment kit and learn how you could qualify for up to $20,000 in bonus gold.
[00:29:53]  Lear Capital has over $3 billion in transactions and thousands of five-star reviews.
[00:29:58]  Call 800-992-2255.
[00:30:02]  That's 800-992-2255 or visit LearAlex.com.
[00:30:12]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

=== Takers and Their Daughters (15:40) ===

[00:30:17]  Verse 11, and the people who were at the entrance of the house, young and old, were struck with blinding light.
[00:30:42]  So that they were helpless to find the entrance.
[00:30:45]  They were not made blind.
[00:30:47]  They were struck with blinding light.
[00:30:50]  If they were made blind, they would have still been able to go into the house.
[00:30:55]  Right?
[00:30:56]  I mean, they're right at the door.
[00:30:57]  You don't have to have sight to open a door that you're in front of.
[00:31:03]  So that wouldn't have worked.
[00:31:04]  They had to actually have blinding light where they were in effect paralyzed in movement in what they did.
[00:31:11]  Obviously, this is miraculous behavior on the part of the angels who can do that sort of thing.
[00:31:18]  Number 12.
[00:31:20]  Then the men said to Lot, who else do you have here?
[00:31:25]  Sons-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else that you have in the city, bring them out of the place.
[00:31:32]  Who are the men here?
[00:31:33]  The angels, right?
[00:31:35]  So the angels say, who else do you have here?
[00:31:38]  We want to save your whole family.
[00:31:40]  So you tell us who you have.
[00:31:42]  All right?
[00:31:44]  Now, as I made a point here, the angels asked even though they certainly knew the answer.
[00:31:52]  Angels know answers.
[00:31:55]  But God always asks the question, and this helps answer your question, God knows God doesn't need our anything.
[00:32:04]  He doesn't even need our answers.
[00:32:06]  When God says to Adam in the Garden of Eden, where are you?
[00:32:09]  It's not because God can't find Adam.
[00:32:12]  It's a question for us to answer.
[00:32:14]  When God asks Cain, where is your brother?
[00:32:17]  God doesn't know where Abel is.
[00:32:19]  It's to get the answer.
[00:32:21]  So what is the answer?
[00:32:23]  What is the answer that is being sought here?
[00:32:27]  Basically, whom do you want to save?
[00:32:31]  It's to have Lot open up and answer the question, who do you want to save?
[00:32:36]  Because God knows the angels know who his relatives are.
[00:32:40]  By the way, to give you an idea of how low on the totem pole women were, look at who's placed first.
[00:32:48]  Sons-in-law.
[00:32:50]  I mean, that's inconceivable today.
[00:32:52]  You'd say your children and their spouses, right?
[00:32:56]  If somebody had asked you, who are we going to save?
[00:32:58]  Oh, well, my sons and, you might say sons and daughters, okay?
[00:33:01]  We'll acknowledge that.
[00:33:02]  But you'd sort of say, oh, and their husbands and wives, or their wives and husbands.
[00:33:06]  But who would ever say, my sons-in-law?
[00:33:09]  And then who's second?
[00:33:11]  My sons.
[00:33:12]  Now, why are my sons-in-law even more valuable if this is true that the order shows value?
[00:33:18]  Because they're married to my daughters and they have built homes.
[00:33:21]  So that's more valuable even than my bloodline of my sons.
[00:33:25]  My sons-in-law, my sons, oh yeah, my daughters.
[00:33:29]  I mean, it almost sounds, you know, the ones I wanted to give to the mob.
[00:33:34]  By the way, you will die.
[00:33:36]  You will just, if you don't know Genesis, you will die when you see the, hold on, when you will see, the way the Bible has tit for tack,
[00:33:58]  all through Genesis, if you hang around, you will see the most amazing belief in recompense for deeds.
[00:34:07]  In Hebrew, it's the best, midach, mida.
[00:34:12]  Measure for measure.
[00:34:13]  Thank you.
[00:34:13]  That's right.
[00:34:14]  Measure for measure.
[00:34:16]  He gets paid back, Lot, for offering his daughter to the men.
[00:34:21]  Boy, does he.
[00:34:23]  He gets screwed, as you will see by them.
[00:34:31]  That's the unbelievable denouement of the story with Lot and his daughters.
[00:34:37]  Anyway, let's see.
[00:34:40]  What are we up to?
[00:34:42]  13.
[00:34:43]  Oh, David Wolpe, whom I go over these, Rabbi Wolpe, whom I know many of you are familiar with, made a point here.
[00:34:50]  There are moments in life when each of us has to decide whom to leave behind and whom to take with us.
[00:34:58]  And it's true, isn't it?
[00:35:00]  Who do you carry on in life when you move on?
[00:35:03]  Who do you take with you?
[00:35:04]  And in that sense, it's somewhat of a homiletic, but I thought it was a good point.
[00:35:09]  That's what really he's being asked, Lot, by the angels.
[00:35:13]  We're at 13.
[00:35:15]  Four, we...
[00:35:21]  Oh, that's interesting.
[00:35:23]  Excuse me.
[00:35:24]  It's not Lot who sets sons-in-law first, it's the angels.
[00:35:27]  So it's just, it's really totally societally given.
[00:35:30]  Even the angels put the sons-in-law first.
[00:35:33]  For we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against them because their outcry against has been heard by God and God has sent us to destroy it.
[00:35:56]  Again, I just have to say to you, we don't have a conclusive answer unless any of you can show me evidence from the text as to at what point Lot knew they were angels.
[00:36:11]  Is it from the beginning?
[00:36:12]  If it's from the beginning, you would think he would have known about the destruction.
[00:36:19]  I don't know that answer.
[00:36:20]  I'm just saying it's an interesting question.
[00:36:22]  At what point did he know?
[00:36:23]  It might have been from the beginning, but you were not certain because of the information given here, which you would have assumed he would have had earlier.
[00:36:32]  Maybe he did, maybe he had it from Abraham.
[00:36:34]  Anyway, 14.
[00:36:36]  And Lot went out and he spoke, and he spoke to his sons-in-law.
[00:36:43]  Now here is the takers of his daughters.
[00:36:56]  This is a tough one.
[00:36:57]  This is very tough.
[00:36:58]  First of all, it's again the emphasis on the sons-in-law, you notice, right?
[00:37:03]  Now, it's a very odd construction.
[00:37:08]  First of all, who, I thought his daughters never knew a man.
[00:37:16]  Right?
[00:37:17]  I mean, this doesn't say much for the sons-in-law.
[00:37:21]  Presumably, there are other daughters.
[00:37:24]  I'm saying presumably.
[00:37:25]  Maybe he lied about his daughters.
[00:37:29]  They could have been betrothed.
[00:37:31]  That's right.
[00:37:32]  In other words, they could have been the same daughters.
[00:37:35]  You're considered a son-in-law in betrothal, and so that could be the thing.
[00:37:41]  So everybody's on the up and up here, or it could have been other daughters.
[00:37:46]  It probably is betrothal.
[00:37:48]  It's right to the point because I try not to interrupt, yeah?
[00:37:55]  I see.
[00:37:55]  That's interesting.
[00:37:56]  What translation is that?
[00:37:59]  Were to be taken.
[00:38:01]  Or were to take, I think.
[00:38:05]  Yeah, well, the actual literal Hebrew is the takers of the daughters, which is not a genteel way of speaking about the sons-in-law.
[00:38:14]  That is not how the Torah describes men marrying women.
[00:38:18]  Okay, I just want you to know there is an implication here.
[00:38:23]  The implication is that he is probably right on betrothal, but what is interesting is they did not leave with him.
[00:38:34]  I think what the Torah is saying here is they were the takers of the daughters, but they didn't really love them or bond with them.
[00:38:43]  They just had taken them because they didn't go with the family.
[00:38:48]  Okay?
[00:38:49]  I think that it goes out of its way to describe a non-familial, somewhat animalistic almost relationship to the daughters as the takers of the daughters.
[00:39:00]  What kind of sons-in-law are they?
[00:39:02]  Daughter takers.
[00:39:04]  But once there's family trouble, they don't go on, as you will see.
[00:39:10]  He says to them, Lot says to them, come, get out of this place, because God is destroying this place, is going to destroy it.
[00:39:20]  And he appeared as a joker, as a laugher in the eyes of his sons-in-law.
[00:39:29]  Isn't that something?
[00:39:30]  By the way, the same word is used, mitzachek, as how Sarah reacted when the news about Isaac came, and Isaac in Hebrew is laugh.
[00:39:43]  So there is a play on this word throughout these chapters here.
[00:39:47]  But anyway, they didn't go with him.
[00:39:50]  The sons-in-laws were not terribly attached to the family, and they did not leave, and he appeared to be a joker in their eyes.
[00:39:57]  Now, by the way, that too is interesting.
[00:40:00]  If Lot had had a reputation as a God-fearing man in his family and among others, he probably wouldn't have appeared as a joker.
[00:40:10]  Isn't that interesting?
[00:40:11]  Do you agree that that's possible?
[00:40:13]  All of a sudden, if a guy who seems like you all of a sudden turns God-fearing, he seems like a joker.
[00:40:21]  If the guy had had a reputation as being in touch with the holy and the moral, I don't think he would have appeared to have been a joker to them.
[00:40:29]  Is that a fair reading to you?
[00:40:31]  Again, I am trying to understand the character of Lot by inference since it's never directly spelled out.
[00:40:39]  Anyway, the sons-in-laws don't leave.
[00:40:41]  Verse 15.
[00:40:43]  And at about dawn, The angels urged strongly on Lot, saying, get up.
[00:40:56]  Now, by the way, notice how many commands and active verbs are here on doing things to Lote.
[00:41:06]  Lot doesn't really want to leave either.
[00:41:10]  No wonder he appeared as a joker to his sons-in-law.
[00:41:14]  He probably himself wasn't thoroughly convinced of it.
[00:41:18]  Because if he were, why would the angels have to urge him?
[00:41:22]  He would have said, let me get out of here as soon as possible.
[00:41:26]  He didn't.
[00:41:27]  Look at what happens.
[00:41:29]  In 15, the angels urge Lot, saying, get up.
[00:41:36]  Take your wife and your two daughters who are found here.
[00:41:42]  And that by implication might mean that there were two other daughters married.
[00:41:47]  We don't know because it says the daughters who were here.
[00:41:50]  Is that correct?
[00:41:50]  Do you have that in your two remaining daughters even?
[00:41:54]  So right.
[00:41:54]  Well, that's in other words.
[00:41:56]  The sons-in-law kept their wives, his other two daughters.
[00:42:00]  So that would appear to say that we don't have the betrothal issue.
[00:42:06]  Lest you be destroyed in the sin of the city.
[00:42:10]  This is a very important philosophical moral point.
[00:42:15]  Lest you be destroyed in the sin of the city.
[00:42:19]  You all have that?
[00:42:20]  Iniquity or sin of the city.
[00:42:23]  What would the more logical thing be?
[00:42:25]  Lest you be destroyed in the punishment of the city.
[00:42:31]  Right?
[00:42:33]  Isn't that interesting?
[00:42:37]  The point here is this.
[00:42:39]  If you do bad and you suffer for it, it's the punishment, it's the sin, excuse me, that has caused your suffering, not the punisher or the punishment.
[00:42:53]  That's very important.
[00:42:56]  You have brought this onto yourself.
[00:42:59]  Don't say the one who's punishing you has brought upon the destruction.
[00:43:04]  Your sin has brought upon the destruction.
[00:43:08]  I can't think of a more important thing to be said in America today where people walk around desiring to believe that whatever happens to them, they have no responsibility for.
[00:43:21]  Whatever I do, I am the victim of the outside force, including I have murdered or raped and I'm in prison and I'm angry at society for its punishing me.
[00:43:32]  Even to that point, interviews with criminals show a great deal of anger at being punished.
[00:43:39]  You are punished for your sin.
[00:43:41]  Your sin is what has punished you.
[00:43:43]  So lest you be destroyed in the sin of the city.
[00:43:46]  It's a very, it's one of those critical little moments.
[00:43:51]  Now, just in case you missed the point about what kind of guy the Lode is and why the sons-in-law would have laughed at him, look at verse 16.
[00:44:03]  And he dawdled.
[00:44:07]  They've urged him.
[00:44:08]  They're angels of God.
[00:44:09]  He saw them.
[00:44:10]  He saw them smite all these people with blinding light, and he still dawdles.
[00:44:16]  By the way, in Hebrew, in almost all versions of the Hebrew Torah, there are musical notes on every word.
[00:44:28]  Cantillation notes, trope, as it's called.
[00:44:33]  And it is, a lot of non-Jews don't know this.
[00:44:37]  Jews in synagogue do not read the Torah.
[00:44:39]  They sing the Torah.
[00:44:41]  But you don't sing it according to the way you want.
[00:44:44]  We have ancient musical notations under every word.
[00:44:49]  And they are immensely helpful in understanding the text.
[00:44:53]  Because the Torah text has no periods, no punctuation, so no commas, no question marks, no exclamation points.
[00:45:00]  The only way we know where to stop and where to start and where to hesitate is through the trope, the musical cantillation.
[00:45:09]  There is a very rare musical note in the trope.
[00:45:13]  It's called shalchelet.
[00:45:15]  And it's found over the word in Hebrew, he dawdled or delayed.
[00:45:21]  It's Vayit Mama, that's the word.
[00:45:24]  And this is the way the word is sung.
[00:45:33]  It's almost like the writers of the cantillation had a sense of humor.
[00:45:39]  To make sure you know how much he dawdled, they have the longest musical note in the entire trope on top of that word.
[00:45:47]  There's another time you have it, by the way, when the wife of Potiphar wants to seduce Joseph.

=== Shalchelet: The Long Note of Delay (04:23) ===

[00:45:57]  And Joseph declines, but his decline gets a shalchelet.
[00:46:06]  He declined.
[00:46:10]  Nahat so fast.
[00:46:12]  It's a fascinating little thing, which, you know, most people don't, obviously wouldn't be able to pick up on, but it's right over the word.
[00:46:20]  He really dawdled.
[00:46:22]  That's the point.
[00:46:24]  And now, time number three, where they are pushing him.
[00:46:33]  And they grabbed, strongly grabbed the men, the angels, his hand, and the hand of his wife and the hand of the two daughters.
[00:46:46]  Now here is the giveaway on why I'm unimpressed with Lot.
[00:46:52]  Bechem Lat Adonai Allah.
[00:46:55]  Because God felt pity for him.
[00:46:58]  God didn't save Noah out of pity.
[00:47:01]  God saved Noah because he deserved it.
[00:47:05]  Lot got saved because God had pity on him.
[00:47:09]  This is a loser.
[00:47:12]  He is, he's a loser.
[00:47:15]  Not evil like the rest of the Sidon people, but he's a loser.
[00:47:19]  And God just felt sorry for him.
[00:47:22]  And you get an idea of what a loser he is.
[00:47:25]  God's about to destroy everything around him and the guy dawdles.
[00:47:31]  And so far we have, and they urged him, and they told him, get up, and they told him take, that's three.
[00:47:38]  He dawdled four.
[00:47:39]  Five, they grab his hand.
[00:47:41]  Six, we're still in verse 16, vayotsiyuhu, and they took him out.
[00:47:47]  Seven, vayani chuhu, and they placed him down.
[00:47:52]  It's almost as if they took him like this, carried him out, and put him outside of the city.
[00:47:58]  The Hebrew word is hilarious, by yani chuhu.
[00:48:01]  You never have it with people, and it's like you place an object.
[00:48:05]  And they placed him down.
[00:48:08]  I mean, the man didn't want to leave.
[00:48:12]  He didn't want to leave Sidome.
[00:48:16]  And it's about to be destroyed, and he sees angels doing miracles.
[00:48:19]  This is not impressive.
[00:48:21]  However, never ever think that there's no Lot in us.
[00:48:25]  Every one of us has Lot in us.
[00:48:28]  Who wants to leave?
[00:48:31]  Even miserable circumstances.
[00:48:35]  This is a very, very important point, which I want to speak about for a moment.
[00:48:42]  Many Jews wonder, why did the Jews of Germany not leave in 1933 when Hitler was elected?
[00:48:50]  Or in 1934 or in 1935 or in 1936 and they could have left.
[00:48:55]  Why didn't they?
[00:48:58]  Why didn't they leave?
[00:49:00]  I mean, is Germany under Hitler not Sidome?
[00:49:04]  I'm talking even pre-Auschwitz.
[00:49:06]  It's not Sidome.
[00:49:08]  When you have Nazis running your society?
[00:49:12]  Why didn't those Jews leave for the great majority of them?
[00:49:16]  They're not all losers like Lot.
[00:49:19]  But my friends, we all have that part in us.
[00:49:23]  Why don't women leave abusive husbands?
[00:49:27]  They're not in Sidome when they go, when their husband's drunk, or sometimes doesn't have to be drunk.
[00:49:34]  That's what I mean by this stuff as a teacher.
[00:49:37]  If you just laugh at Lote and he's laughable, the point is lost.
[00:49:43]  Do you leave bad situations all the time?
[00:49:47]  Got to be very strong to leave a bad situation.
[00:49:50]  Truly bad marriage, a truly bad home, truly bad parents, truly bad community, truly bad work environment?
[00:49:59]  How much do you tolerate of garbage in your life?
[00:50:02]  Really bad stuff.
[00:50:03]  I mean, we all have nuisances.
[00:50:05]  I'm not talking nuisance.
[00:50:06]  I'm talking bad stuff.
[00:50:10]  I mean, it's one of the, to men, being male, it has always been a puzzle to me.
[00:50:17]  I would want my daughter to leave the day one slap occurred.

=== Got To Be Strong (11:00) ===

[00:50:21]  That's it.
[00:50:22]  Not two slaps.
[00:50:24]  One.
[00:50:25]  Not one punch.
[00:50:26]  One slap.
[00:50:27]  Bye.
[00:50:28]  Goodbye.
[00:50:29]  I mean, I am puzzled that women stay for the next beating.
[00:50:33]  I'm not blaming them.
[00:50:34]  I'm merely telling you the loteness that pervades all our lives, or many of our lives.
[00:50:42]  That's why this is such a powerful thing.
[00:50:45]  Who doesn't dawdle?
[00:50:47]  Who doesn't do what Lot's wife will finally do and look back?
[00:50:52]  It's very hard to look forward in life.
[00:50:55]  Very hard.
[00:50:58]  And that's why this story is so powerful.
[00:51:00]  It's not just to tell you about Lot.
[00:51:03]  Who cares about Lot?
[00:51:05]  But the idea of dawdling when there is a better future in front of you and you're hanging around with crap, that's universal.
[00:51:13]  That's the power of this story.
[00:51:16]  And that's why it goes out of its way to tell you how he had to be lifted up and placed outside the city.
[00:51:24]  That's why it's such a great story.
[00:51:27]  Seven times you're told this in two or three verses.
[00:51:35]  So God felt sorry for him, and that's the only reason he's saved.
[00:51:39]  He doesn't deserve to be saved.
[00:51:41]  That's the implication here.
[00:51:44]  17.
[00:51:45]  And so it was when they were taken outside, he said, presumably the angel, one of the angels, flee for your life.
[00:52:02]  And here is such an interesting thing.
[00:52:05]  The Hebrew for flee is the same root as lot.
[00:52:12]  The word here is himalet.
[00:52:15]  Lot, himalet.
[00:52:18]  And there's no question that there is a relationship to give you an idea that perhaps like Adam, the question is not whether or not Lot existed.
[00:52:31]  To me, that question about the Bible is an unsophisticated question.
[00:52:36]  Did Adam really exist in the Garden of Eden is an unimportant question.
[00:52:43]  Did Lote really exist is unimportant.
[00:52:47]  Did Romeo and Juliet exist?
[00:52:49]  They didn't exist.
[00:52:51]  Do you not learn from Hamlet?
[00:52:53]  Does it matter if there was or wasn't?
[00:52:56]  Does it matter if King Richard was exactly like that or not when you read it?
[00:53:00]  Lot is paradigmatic of the one who did flee or didn't flee.
[00:53:07]  We have to read into Lot what we do.
[00:53:09]  I believe Lot existed, but so he didn't.
[00:53:12]  So some biblical scholar will prove to me there was no Lot.
[00:53:16]  So does it make the story less important?
[00:53:18]  Adam means earth.
[00:53:22]  Eve, hmm?
[00:53:24]  Well, but it's really from Adama.
[00:53:26]  Okay, if you will, but it's really more from earth because he was created from earth, not from blood.
[00:53:32]  And Eve means life.
[00:53:35]  So life and earth got together.
[00:53:37]  Now tell me that is in the way of saying to you, folks, they're paradigms.
[00:53:41]  You know what paradigms are?
[00:53:43]  You know, archetypes.
[00:53:46]  That really helped, I'm sure, for those who didn't know.
[00:53:49]  Sometimes I laugh at myself when I do that.
[00:53:52]  I'm sure anyone who has no paradigm, archetype.
[00:53:54]  That'll do it.
[00:53:57]  But anyway, that's the idea conveyed.
[00:54:04]  Whether or not Mr. and Ms. Adam and Eve, as such, existed isn't the key any more than Lot.
[00:54:12]  And so I believe that this play on words tells you something to that effect.
[00:54:19]  Flee for your life and don't look behind you, verse 17, and don't stand in all of the square.
[00:54:27]  What is Kikar here?
[00:54:29]  What do you have?
[00:54:30]  Plain, okay, in the plane, right?
[00:54:33]  To the mountain you should flee, lest you are destroyed.
[00:54:40]  How many times now are they giving him directions?
[00:54:43]  I mean, is this incredible?
[00:54:45]  Now, this is the ultimate.
[00:54:47]  If you were Lot, even if you were Lote, or I were Lot, at this point, I'd get the message and move rapidly, okay?
[00:54:55]  Not him.
[00:54:57]  Listen to this and this, I want you to know.
[00:55:01]  You know, I was telling my wife today, when I prepare this stuff, I work on every sentence.
[00:55:08]  I have like eight books around me.
[00:55:10]  I call up scholars to check on points.
[00:55:12]  I really do a lot of work in preparation.
[00:55:14]  And by the way, I love it.
[00:55:16]  But sometimes, after all the work I will do, I will finally realize I have no answer.
[00:55:23]  This is what happened when I prepared the next couple of verses.
[00:55:28]  It is so bizarre what Lot then does.
[00:55:31]  I still don't know why.
[00:55:33]  To this minute, I cannot tell you the answer.
[00:55:37]  The most logical thing in the world is he goes, okay, thank you.
[00:55:41]  Goodbye.
[00:55:42]  And what does he do?
[00:55:43]  All right?
[00:55:45]  Maybe you can help me out.
[00:55:48]  18.
[00:55:48]  And Lot says to them, no, my lords.
[00:55:54]  No, my lords.
[00:55:55]  They've saved his life.
[00:55:56]  They've lifted him up.
[00:56:00]  They've performed miracles.
[00:56:01]  He goes, no, now listen to this.
[00:56:03]  He goes, if I have found favor in your eyes, I'm sure big favor in their eyes.
[00:56:08]  You know, he's a real impressive guy.
[00:56:11]  Anyway, whatever it is, oh no, well, you have been so gracious to your servant.
[00:56:16]  Already shown me so much kindness in order to save my life, but I cannot flee to the hills.
[00:56:22]  Now that cracked me up, lest the disaster overtake me and I die.
[00:56:26]  Look, that town there is near enough to flee to.
[00:56:30]  It's such a little place.
[00:56:32]  Let me flee there.
[00:56:33]  It's such a little place and let my life be saved.
[00:56:38]  Huh?
[00:56:41]  Now, do you understand how bizarre this is?
[00:56:44]  I have analyzed this to death, and I have no answer until finally, I read one scholar who said he was bumbling.
[00:56:58]  He was a bumbling idiot at this time.
[00:57:01]  And I'm trying to figure out the words of a bumbling idiot.
[00:57:04]  And that's, would you believe it?
[00:57:06]  That's what one of the biggest scholars on Genesis finally concludes.
[00:57:10]  It makes no sense.
[00:57:12]  A place is being destroyed, so you don't go to the upper hills.
[00:57:16]  You go to a lower city that's nearer to the place.
[00:57:23]  Maybe he doesn't feel deserving.
[00:57:26]  So, well, that's very, it's a beautiful psychological interpretation.
[00:57:29]  In other words, he had a death wish.
[00:57:31]  Okay, that's possible.
[00:57:33]  That's possible.
[00:57:35]  But the presumption is he wanted to live and live in the city.
[00:57:40]  Mind you, what makes this thing even more bizarre is the city is a bad city.
[00:57:45]  The city was also scheduled, huh?
[00:57:49]  That's the point.
[00:57:50]  Exactly.
[00:57:51]  He's in shock.
[00:57:52]  So, in other words, what we're getting here is the sort of thing that makes me think we really have authentic texts.
[00:58:01]  Because it's not every word of the Torah is pristine, pure, ethical, and religious insight.
[00:58:12]  It's sometimes the words of utterly confused human beings.
[00:58:16]  And there is nothing to be learned except that it's an accurate story.
[00:58:21]  Why is he trying to save the people in the southern suburbs?
[00:58:24]  If he's trying to save those people in the bottom of the city, I'll be there to save me.
[00:58:30]  We'll see in a moment.
[00:58:31]  He says maybe he wants to save the people of that city.
[00:58:35]  Since he never tried to save anybody in Sidome, his track record is pretty poor.
[00:58:42]  It's a lovely interpretation.
[00:58:44]  I like the death wish, frankly, a little better.
[00:58:47]  Yes.
[00:58:49]  Huh?
[00:58:51]  Lot faces it with denial, and Abraham faced it with confrontation.
[00:58:57]  You're absolutely right.
[00:58:58]  In fact, one of the notes I have to say to you at the end of the chapter, but I'll tell you now is, all of this does another thing.
[00:59:05]  It is an attempt to have you appreciate the greatness of Abraham.
[00:59:10]  Abraham's the hero of our story.
[00:59:12]  Lot is a sidebar.
[00:59:14]  Okay?
[00:59:15]  Remember that.
[00:59:15]  So your point is 100% correct in my opinion.
[00:59:18]  Yes?
[00:59:22]  Yeah.
[00:59:22]  Right.
[00:59:23]  That is, it's interesting.
[00:59:25]  She says, Abraham, I'll be with you in a minute.
[00:59:28]  Abraham was in the mountains and maybe he didn't want to go to Abraham.
[00:59:31]  That is exactly what the Midrush says.
[00:59:34]  You know what Midrush is?
[00:59:35]  The Midrash is very early, talking about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, rabbinic stories on the Bible, but they're not just stories.
[00:59:47]  They're stories to teach ideas.
[00:59:49]  And that's what they held, that it was too painful to be in the presence of Abraham, and so he wouldn't want to go there.
[00:59:57]  He'd be shown up, as it were.
[00:59:59]  Trouble is, that's not where Abraham was.
[01:00:02]  I checked that out.
[01:00:04]  Other than that, it was a great idea.
[01:00:06]  But from the best of our knowledge, that's not...
[01:00:09]  The mountains to which they pointed apparently are the mountains across the Dead Sea.
[01:00:18]  Any of you been to the Dead Sea?
[01:00:20]  From the Israeli side, what do you see across?
[01:00:23]  Mountains.
[01:00:24]  Those are the mountains of Moav, as they're called.
[01:00:28]  That's where he was supposed to flee, but Abraham is not in the mountains of Moav.
[01:00:32]  Okay?
[01:00:33]  So I don't know.
[01:00:34]  I mean, it's a good thought.
[01:00:36]  Yes.
[01:00:38]  God, is he right?
[01:00:40]  He's saying, I keep saying, look, the guy is shown miracles, and it has no effect.
[01:00:47]  This is a point for a longer time, but that point is a critical one.
[01:00:55]  I bet most of you feel that if God just showed you one miracle, you'd be an absolute firm believer for the rest of your days on this earth.
[01:01:07]  And I want to tell you that zero would change.
[01:01:12]  You'd be impressed for about a day, and by next week, you would be back to watching television news.

=== Pillar of Salt Mystery (16:28) ===

[01:01:21]  I am as convinced of it as one could be of anything.
[01:01:25]  Do you know it's absolutely raw, brand new thinking on my part?
[01:01:34]  And if any of you heard my show last night on KABC, you got a sense of it.
[01:01:39]  This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
[01:01:45]  Gold and silver recently soared to record highs, then pulled back.
[01:01:50]  So are precious metals still a good buy?
[01:01:52]  Many Wall Street experts predict higher prices ahead.
[01:01:55]  Why?
[01:01:56]  Because we still have trillions in national debt, a declining dollar, and inflation that keeps shrinking our savings.
[01:02:02]  Even with corrections along the way, gold remains a historical hedge for wealth protection.
[01:02:06]  That's why Morgan Stanley's chief investment officer ditched the 60-40 stock and bonds portfolio and recommended up to 20% in precious metals.
[01:02:15]  They're getting educated and you should too.
[01:02:17]  Call Lear Capital at 800-992-2255 for your free gold investment kit and learn how you could qualify for up to $20,000 in bonus gold.
[01:02:28]  Lear Capital has over $3 billion in transactions and thousands of five-star reviews.
[01:02:34]  Call 800-992-2255.
[01:02:38]  That's 800-992-2255 or visit LearAlex.com.
[01:02:47]  Now, back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
[01:02:51]  I had the subject.
[01:02:53]  I started off with the subject of why do so many couples, a vast proportion of couples who lose a child, break up.
[01:03:02]  And I offered some thoughts and couples who had lost children, or at least parents who had lost children, called the show.
[01:03:10]  And it was absolutely riveting for me and extremely instructional.
[01:03:15]  And I concluded something last night that has had a deep impact on me in the last day, because I only concluded it last night.
[01:03:25]  But it really, it coincided with stuff that I had thought but never drew the conclusion.
[01:03:32]  You all have that, right?
[01:03:33]  You get all this data, then one day all of a sudden you realize two and two really do equal four.
[01:03:38]  And that is this.
[01:03:40]  For most of us, what happens to us doesn't affect us as much as our philosophy of life affects us.
[01:03:56]  Example.
[01:03:59]  Studies were done on Jewish concentration camp and death camp survivors.
[01:04:06]  If you knew nothing about it, you would think that a lot of Jews who were religious and saw their children cremated, saw their parents hanged, and knew of their wife's murder, would cease to be religious.
[01:04:20]  Or vice versa, that a lot of irreligious Jews would see that the only thing left in life is God, can't believe in man, and become religious.
[01:04:30]  The overwhelming majority of Jews from every study we have changed not one iota religiously.
[01:04:38]  They went through stuff that none of you could imagine, that I can't imagine, and came out religiously and philosophically the same.
[01:04:48]  I don't say psychologically.
[01:04:49]  I mean, obviously, but even then, what you go into trauma with, you often come out of trauma with.
[01:04:58]  If you have a predisposition to believe that God relates to us, you will see miracles.
[01:05:03]  If you have a predisposition against believing it, God could come and dance the hula for you, and it would have zero impact on your life.
[01:05:13]  That's why what you said is so critical.
[01:05:15]  I am convinced of that.
[01:05:17]  Whom does God talk to?
[01:05:19]  Those who are prepared to hear.
[01:05:21]  That would be my answer to that question.
[01:05:23]  Most of us in the modern world are not prepared to hear.
[01:05:28]  I am as guilty as anyone.
[01:05:30]  I am very rational.
[01:05:31]  I am very scientific.
[01:05:33]  Therefore, I am cut off to seeing certain things that others see.
[01:05:38]  I even sometimes have an envy of those who see God's hand here and God's hand there.
[01:05:44]  And I don't have the chutzbutt to say they're wrong.
[01:05:48]  I just envy their ability to hear and see what I can't.
[01:05:53]  And even in a physical level, you know, our dog can hear things that we can't hear.
[01:05:59]  There are things going on.
[01:06:00]  So you're absolutely right.
[01:06:03]  Abraham is very impressed with being told that you're going to have a son at your age and more impressively at your wife's age.
[01:06:13]  And he, yep, that's right.
[01:06:15]  I'm sure you're right.
[01:06:16]  Thanks for stopping by and here's a great meal.
[01:06:19]  That's Abraham, not this guy.
[01:06:22]  He's got to be lifted up and just put out.
[01:06:24]  And his is more obviously dramatic.
[01:06:28]  Abraham's thing took much more of a leap of faith.
[01:06:31]  It'll happen a year later.
[01:06:32]  It goes totally contrary to anything.
[01:06:34]  No miracles were shown by the angels.
[01:06:37]  Lotsi's miracles sees Sadome on the brink of destruction and still it has no impact.
[01:06:42]  Yes, that's why that point is so important.
[01:06:57]  Yeah, this is the point the rabbis made and that she made, that in Sodom he was pretty okay, but living next to Abraham it would really show his moral worth.
[01:07:08]  Yeah, I understand you're right, but we don't have the basis to hold that that's why he didn't want to run to the mountains.
[01:07:14]  It may be though, it may truly be that he is more comfortable in miserable places.
[01:07:22]  Maybe that's not so much a death wish, but I'm used to darkness.
[01:07:29]  Don't send me to the light.
[01:07:31]  Send me to another dark city.
[01:07:34]  So who knows?
[01:07:35]  Maybe that is what it is.
[01:07:36]  20.
[01:07:42]  Yes.
[01:07:43]  Okay.
[01:07:43]  He wants to go to this little place.
[01:07:45]  He replied, that is the angel.
[01:07:47]  Very well, I'll grant you this favor, too.
[01:07:49]  I love that.
[01:07:50]  Two.
[01:07:51]  You keep demanding all these things.
[01:07:53]  We'll give you this one too.
[01:07:54]  They were not impressed with him either.
[01:07:57]  And I will not annihilate the town of which you have spoken.
[01:08:02]  Now that, who said that he wanted us, oh, you did.
[01:08:05]  That's right.
[01:08:05]  That was the basis, as I said we'll see, on which you can make that claim.
[01:08:10]  But as we've seen no moral heroism on his behalf before, he didn't argue for the people of Sidome.
[01:08:15]  Abraham did.
[01:08:17]  Which is another, I mean, glaring, glaring difference, right?
[01:08:22]  Between Abraham and Lot.
[01:08:25]  He didn't say save the place.
[01:08:28]  But on the other hand, he might have known if he goes there and he's going to be saved, the place will be saved.
[01:08:33]  One of the arguments you make for him prevaricating all that time was that he wanted to be able to say something, make up some argument to save the people, but he just didn't have the wits today.
[01:08:44]  Oh, that's very sweet.
[01:08:46]  It's very sweet.
[01:08:48]  Wherever Lot is resting, he is appreciative of your kind thoughts, that he prevaricated only because he couldn't think of a good argument at the time.
[01:08:57]  Right.
[01:08:58]  I'd love you to, these are really fine men.
[01:09:00]  Look, I offered my daughters, and they wouldn't take that.
[01:09:06]  Moral giants of Sidome.
[01:09:12]  The wife and daughters are with him right now when he's having this discussion, but wives and daughters don't talk to angels in Genesis.
[01:09:19]  Sorry.
[01:09:21]  They're lucky they're alone.
[01:09:24]  And if the sons-in-laws didn't take them, they're dead.
[01:09:30]  Hurry, flee there to this other city, for I can't do anything until you arrive there.
[01:09:37]  Hence, the name came to be called Soar, which I'm sure makes perfect sense to all of you.
[01:09:42]  I know, don't you love that?
[01:09:44]  In the English, you can't help doing that.
[01:09:50]  There's no way.
[01:09:51]  As he writes, Hebrew Mitzar is a play on Soar in verse 22.
[01:09:55]  was intended to explain by popular etymology.
[01:10:00]  Mitzar is what?
[01:10:02]  Suffering?
[01:10:03]  Bad, low place.
[01:10:06]  So that's how it got the name, presumably.
[01:10:10]  23.
[01:10:13]  As the sun rose upon the earth, by the way, it's not that in Hebrew.
[01:10:17]  In Hebrew, it's very weird.
[01:10:19]  Hebrew, it's usually Hashemeshalah, the sun rose.
[01:10:22]  It doesn't say that here.
[01:10:23]  It says Hashemesh Yatzah, which means left.
[01:10:27]  It's very odd.
[01:10:28]  It says it or went out.
[01:10:30]  It's like the sun went out on the land.
[01:10:34]  I'm just telling you that because it's an interesting Hebrew construction.
[01:10:37]  And Lot went to Tsoar.
[01:10:40]  And God rained upon Sidome sulfurous fire, and it's added again from the Lord out of heaven.
[01:10:48]  It would seem to be redundant.
[01:10:49]  Is that not correct?
[01:10:52]  Hmm?
[01:10:56]  It said here that God did it, and then it says it came from God out of heaven.
[01:11:03]  It's simply to make the point it's not nature doing this, it's God.
[01:11:07]  Just in case there was any doubt, it is purely coming from God.
[01:11:13]  In other words, what we assume is some massive earthquake-type upheaval did take place in that area.
[01:11:19]  It is apparently it is verified by some archaeological study.
[01:11:26]  And what the Torah is saying is God did it.
[01:11:29]  Don't think this was just a natural phenomenon that took place.
[01:11:33]  By the way, there is an interesting question I have.
[01:11:37]  It says, I won't destroy Tsoar because you, Lot, are there.
[01:11:42]  But why would God destroy Sidom if Lod is there?
[01:11:46]  Is Tsor of a lower moral deficiency?
[01:11:51]  I don't have an answer to that question.
[01:11:53]  It's just something if you come up with, I would appreciate it.
[01:11:56]  It's one of those puzzles that I couldn't figure out an answer to.
[01:12:00]  God rains all of these things on them, 25.
[01:12:03]  He annihilated those cities and the entire plain and all the inhabitants of the cities and the vegetation of the ground.
[01:12:11]  Notice when Noah is, when Noah is saved during the flood, it says, and God destroyed all man on the earth, except for Noah and his family, and all the animals.
[01:12:27]  It doesn't speak of the vegetation, and here it doesn't speak of the animals.
[01:12:33]  My theory is that, remember, this is being read by a Jew looking at a desolate Sidome.
[01:12:43]  And it's an attempt to explain the desolation of that area.
[01:12:48]  You don't even see vegetation in Sidome.
[01:12:50]  If you've been to the Dead Sea, it's a world of salt.
[01:12:52]  That's why it's called dead.
[01:12:54]  It's dead.
[01:12:54]  In Hebrew, it's not dead sea, it's sea of salt, but it is.
[01:12:57]  It's all dead.
[01:12:58]  Nothing grows there, basically.
[01:13:00]  And so I think that that's the point that it wished to make.
[01:13:03]  You know why it's dead?
[01:13:05]  If you look at Sidome today, Jews, because I, God, destroyed all of the vegetation.
[01:13:12]  Okay?
[01:13:12]  Or the other possibility is they were so cruel they didn't even keep animals there.
[01:13:16]  But I doubt it.
[01:13:17]  Just wanted to throw that as a possibility.
[01:13:22]  And here is one of the most famous statements of the entire Bible.
[01:13:27]  Lot's wife looked back, and she thereupon turned into a pillar of salt.
[01:13:36]  And that's what happened to, that's what happens if you look back.
[01:13:46]  It is.
[01:13:46]  It's a very powerful imagery.
[01:13:48]  And by the way, Josephus claims, the time of the era of Jesus, Josephus, the Jewish historian, claims to have seen the pillar of salt.
[01:14:03]  If you go today to the Dead Sea on an Eged bus tour, your Eged bus tour driver will tell you there is a pillar, and they will still point out, but that's somewhat of a joke.
[01:14:16]  Everybody does look for it, though.
[01:14:18]  And it is true, I have not used the Torah as a metaphoric book.
[01:14:24]  I have tried to be very strict to the literal writing.
[01:14:28]  But the concept is very powerful.
[01:14:32]  You look backward, you die.
[01:14:35]  Not so much you die.
[01:14:37]  You don't deserve to go ahead and be in the next place.
[01:14:43]  Well, it's basically the same thing, that you don't go ahead or you die.
[01:14:48]  You may still breathe.
[01:14:51]  That's why I must tell you, I say this to older people all the time.
[01:14:56]  I have the chutzpah to admonish people twice my age.
[01:15:01]  When I hear from an older person after I will give a lecture, oh, you know, it's not important for us old ones to hear it.
[01:15:10]  The youth have to hear it.
[01:15:11]  We're too old to change.
[01:15:14]  That strikes me as exactly Lot's wife.
[01:15:19]  A lot of old people have the Lhot's wife syndrome.
[01:15:23]  They only look back and they end up a pillar of salt.
[01:15:28]  It's natural when you get older to look back.
[01:15:31]  Of course.
[01:15:32]  In fact, being more or less at mid-age, 44, I realize that I now, a lot of the time, not majority, 40% of the time, let's say, have memories.
[01:15:45]  When you're 20, you only think about what'll be.
[01:15:48]  You don't have memories.
[01:15:49]  What are you going to remember?
[01:15:50]  What?
[01:15:50]  Things were great at 14.
[01:15:52]  I mean, there's nothing to remember.
[01:15:54]  But now, I have a lot of memories.
[01:15:56]  I have a storehouse of memories, and they are.
[01:15:59]  They're a very real part of life.
[01:16:01]  You should have memories.
[01:16:03]  They're a very powerful part of life.
[01:16:06]  But if you only look backward, you turn into a pillar.
[01:16:11]  That's exactly the point here.
[01:16:14]  You have to move on even at 88.
[01:16:18]  Or you're a pillar.
[01:16:20]  By the way, Lote's wife wasn't 88.
[01:16:23]  You can be a pillar of salt at 30.
[01:16:26]  And you could be a dynamo at 80.
[01:16:28]  And you all know that because you all know exactly those two types of people.
[01:16:32]  There are people who are dead in high school.
[01:16:35]  And just and go on till they die.
[01:16:39]  That's one of the few times I would use a homily, but I am convinced that that is part of the story.
[01:16:48]  About whether you move on, when you have to move on, especially from bad scenes, whether you look forward, whether you're able to change, or whether you just look back and turn to a pillar of salt.
[01:17:01]  I'm going to really, you know, as I think about this, I'm going to really write it up as the Lote's wife syndrome as an affliction of old age that's far more corrupting than arthritis.
[01:17:15]  And it's something that you really have to work against.
[01:17:19]  It's okay to look back, but not only look back.
[01:17:22]  And so that's why I think that that's powerful.
[01:17:25]  I will stop here but take a few more questions.
[01:17:27]  We get into a staggering story of Lote and his daughters next time, which as I say is the perfect measure for measure.
[01:17:36]  Let me take these 17 and let me take a handful of you raising your hands and then I do have to do a radio show.
[01:17:47]  Forgive me.
[01:17:48]  By the way, how many of you heard it last night?

=== Malachi's Calls Clear (05:22) ===

[01:17:50]  I'm just curious.
[01:17:51]  Were you moved by it?
[01:17:52]  I mean, were those calls meaningful to you?
[01:17:56]  Because I was really overwhelmed myself.
[01:17:58]  Okay, yes.
[01:18:01]  All right, speak as loudly as you can.
[01:18:03]  Can you talk about the value of their virginity for morality today, but for their sexism?
[01:18:25]  Yeah, she's saying that the value on virginity was not a moral value, which I was saying.
[01:18:30]  I was saying it's not a moral value, but they would hold it.
[01:18:33]  You're just saying it's for their sexual gratification.
[01:18:36]  But the sexual gratification there is not, I mean, the act with a virgin is no more pleasurable than the act with a non-virgin.
[01:18:45]  It's an attitude toward women And ownership.
[01:18:52]  yes if it had nothing to do with homosexuality oh that's interesting if it wait if it If it had nothing to do with homosexuality, why didn't he offer himself?
[01:19:15]  Well, I mean, that would have been the ultimate.
[01:19:18]  That's an interesting thought.
[01:19:20]  Why didn't he offer his sons-in-law?
[01:19:23]  Well, yeah, you don't offer men.
[01:19:28]  You can offer women.
[01:19:29]  They're more expendable.
[01:19:31]  It's pure sexism.
[01:19:34]  That was the issue.
[01:19:35]  It has a lot to do with homosexuality.
[01:19:38]  See, it's a funny thing because in today's very sensitive era of homosexual rights and so on, people want to say that there is no homosexual sin here.
[01:19:47]  There is only the evil of rape, period, and of the violation of hospitality, period.
[01:19:55]  But it's dishonest to the text to hold that homosexuality is not ascribed as a given to a very bad people.
[01:20:06]  And it is biblically based, I mean, it's constant, that homosexuality is ascribed to the nations that are described as awful that Israel goes into.
[01:20:16]  You may say that that's an unfortunate thing, whatever, and we'll talk about homosexuality well down the line, but that's another.
[01:20:23]  I can only take two more because I've got to do a show.
[01:20:26]  Mm-hmm Are they all together usually described by God?
[01:20:39]  Or are they usually that kind of thing?
[01:20:41]  The theory on who the angels are.
[01:20:43]  Angels are messengers of God who clearly come in human form.
[01:20:47]  That's all we could really say.
[01:20:49]  You mean who are they?
[01:20:52]  Are they celestial creatures?
[01:20:58]  Angelology, and there is such a thing, is a part of rabbinic thought.
[01:21:05]  I've never gotten into it personally, so I can't tell you.
[01:21:12]  I can tell you, though, there is a belief, and whether it's literal or not is the question.
[01:21:17]  There are malachi HaSharit.
[01:21:19]  Who do you sing shalom to on Shabbat?
[01:21:23]  Shalomalechemache Elion, Malachi Sharit, the angels of the above, the angels who serve you.
[01:21:32]  Is the song imply that there really are the celestial winged beings?
[01:21:37]  I guess it's up to you to conclude on your own.
[01:21:41]  I've got to take one final.
[01:21:42]  Please forgive me.
[01:21:43]  Sorry.
[01:21:43]  Yeah.
[01:21:50]  I have to ask him in two parts.
[01:21:52]  Did he know where an angel was and what kind of power an angel?
[01:21:58]  It's a very good one.
[01:21:59]  I have to think that through.
[01:22:02]  What was the argument against it?
[01:22:04]  What was the argument that he would have thought they were angels?
[01:22:12]  Oh, the way, yeah, the servile greeting.
[01:22:20]  Yes, he might have been.
[01:22:22]  He's a mixed bag.
[01:22:23]  Let's put it that way.
[01:22:24]  No, no, he is, and that's important.
[01:22:27]  I know I'm not, you know, I haven't been his biggest booster tonight, but he is clearly rungs above his brothers, as he calls the citizens of Sodoma.
[01:22:38]  I'm going to think that one through.
[01:22:40]  I'll see you in two weeks.
[01:22:41]  Thanks a lot.
[01:22:43]  This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
[01:22:58]  Visit DennisPrager.com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's rational Bibles.
[01:23:11]  Let me ask you something.

=== Two-Tier Financial System (00:28) ===

[01:23:12]  Do you ever feel like the financial rules are different depending on who you are?
[01:23:16]  For years, Washington has operated a two-tier system.
[01:23:19]  Regular investors are told to stick with the basics, while well-connected insiders get access to opportunities most people never hear about.
[01:23:27]  Now, a major AI-driven buildout is creating a new income-style opportunity tied to that ship.
[01:23:33]  To see what it is and how it works, visit planwithoxford.com.
[01:23:38]  That's planwithoxford.com.