The Avraham Development - Part 2 - Rabbi Dr. David Gottlieb

yesterday we saw that Abraham was in Egypt and Farrell took his wife and there was a plague as I told you although the Torah doesn t library clear the fair of that the plague was because of Sarah and he challenges Abraham you've committed a crime you totally lied to me cause me to make this terrible mistake and Abraham doesn't respond now what I want to do is show you another incident in Abraham's life is over later where it's quite similar but the outcome is different in certain ways and I want to compare and contrast that incident with this incident what I want you to see is that Abraham had policies and the policies were there was an effort made that the policy should be consistent and that even though you might have to work a bit to figure out why they're consistent but in the end they are consistent take a look at page 91 chapter 20 Abraham journeyed from there to reason the south and seventh ecology sure sojourned in guerard everyone said Sarah his wife she's my sister so here it is again the same gambit I mean well a king aguar sent and took Sarah I told you yesterday that's different from Pharaoh Pharaoh just says she was taken into the palace of feral here the king himself sends and has ur taken God came to America in a dream by night said to him behold you ought to die because of the woman you have taken moreover she's a married woman now as we go along i want to point out things that are important it says he sent that took Sarah and God says to him is to die because the woman you have taken does that mean he had relations with her so if you are buzzing in your head with a contemporary English you know so maybe that's what take means and maybe yes maybe no you put that going on the side and you see that the text will explore will will settle this question explicitly even if here you can't deduce on the surface what the answer is but a little further down the text will answer for you at any rate I God says to him you're gonna die you took a married woman you're gonna die so for says I mean Ella had not approached her oh so taken didn't mean he had relations with her he didn't approach her so take it means he took her into the palace and yet God says to him he's gonna die not because he committed adultery he didn't commit adultery and yet he's gonna die so I've been mellow now protests oh my lord will you slay a nation even though it is righteous did not he himself told me she's my sister and she to herself said he's my brother in the innocence of my heart and integrity of my hands have I done this and I think at this point the reader has some sympathy for a favela it's true they liked him we might scruple at taking somebody's sister you know just by force but maybe in those times and some places in our times that's not a matter to to be upset about but he didn't know that she was married notice the terminology that he uses righteous innocence integrity this mate is not a savage this man is not a primitive you know hiding in caves and jumping from rock to rock a beating his chest is the man is a concept of righteousness and innocence and integrity he has his moral philosophers he has his legal system right so he's making a complaint against God in moral terms why going to punish me for something that was done in ignorance so God says to him in the 36 I too knew that it was in the innocence of your heart that you did this so I could I grew through I credit you that and I to prevented you from sinning against me you didn't approach her that's not because the you held back but I held you back that is why I did not permit you to touch her as we will see shortly God made a meal so he couldn't so God says tim i agree with you you're innocent this is your heart I didn't want you in the innocence of your heart to commit a crime so I stopped you from committing the crime but now return the man's wife for he's a prophet and he will pray for you and you will live you're sick her danger give her my give her back and he'll pray for you and you'll live if you do not return her be aware that you should surely die you and all that is yours and I think here again the reader has a right to be puzzled god you're just agreed that he's innocent and you say that because he was innocent you wouldn't permit him by making him sick you didn't permit him to touch her ok so you're crediting him and then you say but you don't return her you'll die and all that yours gonna die no it'll be a neutron bomb just wiped out no pollution just intransitive remember right why are you threatening him that way the guy after all is innocent he was acting without correct information keep that on hold and we'll see ok and the dream wakes up in the morning I'm rose early next morning he summoned all the servants had told them all these things in their ears that people were very frightened after all God threatened him with death and all that was his to be destroyed and I've Abeloth understood this at the beginning Abby Miller says would you slay a nation even though it's righteous when you attack the king there's a threat to the nation as a whole God confirmed that so he tells this to all his servants at they're all very frightened then I remember summon I bahama said to him what have you done to us how have I sinned against you that you brought against me and my kingdom such great sin deeds it ought not to be done have you done to me and Abraham is silent just like when Pharaoh challenges Abraham Abraham doesn't answer when I vanilla his Abraham he also doesn't answer to 10 and I'm avella said to Abram since who's speaking in nine just one second who speak a vmail look who's speaking in 10 I mean oh so when it repeats the speaker it means there was a pause it's not one run speech means he spoke 9 waited for now responsive I from Ivan doesn't say anything so he tries again and he says what did you see that you did such a thing and now Abraham will give a long and elaborate answer so my question to you is this we saw with Pharaoh Pharaoh challenged him I need an answer we see that I've America nine challenges Abraham and it doesn't answer I familiar challenges him in 10 he does answer what's the difference between the first two cases and by the way so I'm look up the out of the Pharaoh cases on page 57 Pharaoh and I vanilla number one he doesn't answer I have another number two he does answer what is the difference between the first two challenges what do they have in common that's different from the third challenge and which could be used to explain why what's Abraham set state of mind where for the first two challenges he declines the the client declines to answer and that their challenge he does opt to answer those precise words aren't used by Pharaoh what have you done to me but there's there's a similarity to crucial similarity I would say the similarity and attitude what's the attitude of Pharaoh and every mother's first challenge what attitude a projecting you did and what you did was wrong you're a criminal you're a criminal you lied to me by lying to me you pushed me into an action that I never would have done never would have considered in action is a great crime you're wrong to that kind of challenge Abraham has no response what does FML look say in 10 what did you see what did you see that you did this thing what's the attitude of that in that in in 10 in avenel speech attend curiosity Jamie first of all you wouldn't have done it unless you saw something you're not the kind of person does something without a reason number two I don't know what your reason is so number 3 i'm asking you what is your reason that's an entirely different attitude first of all i added to the credits Abraham that he must have a reason and the king is saying I don't understand your reason that's not a small thing for a king to admit and he asks to be filled in Abram says oh you know I have a reason and you wanted all my reason is I'll tell you the reason Abraham doesn't respond when the person attacking him takes the moral high ground it says that you're a criminal the reason he doesn't respond because his response is going to be very sharp and challenging and he has to know that the person speaking to has an open mind to hear what he has to say let me just get this with this finished I'll take your question and the more the lesson for us by the way is that she choose your battles don't respond to every challenge evaluate whether the person whose challenge you challenging you can hear what you have to say and if he doesn't just decline you'll have to answer every challenge let's look at abrahams response you'll see what it's what his point is and then you'll understand why he had this split strategy 11 Abraham said of course I said now thing this year is worthy of Shakespeare I'm going to translate it straight plain English the only thing they're missing in this place is fear of God and they will kill me because of my wife the only thing they're missing here is the fear of God and it will kill me because of my wife now he says the only thing they're missing is fear of God in His crediting that they have everything else what kind of everything else do you think he could be referring to when he says you have everything else you just don't have fear of God go back to the top of the page they have moral philosophers they have a legal system they know about innocence and righteousness and integrity yes yes you have all of that you have everything except the fear of God and without the fear of God you are for philosophers and your legal system will not restrain you and you'll kill me anyway we expressing here is a critique of the value of this kind of civilization this kind of culture you pride yourself and happy this kind of sophisticated deep morally and legally extensive culture I tell you that without the fear of god it's worthless that's a challenging statement if the critic things he has the moral high ground looks at you as a criminal he's not going to hear that you're a criminal talking but I've another switches his ground what did you see that you did such a thing Abraham says if you ask that question yeah you're open you can hear me and I'll tell you what I think yeah home with a couple of things yeah sation class one is in the other starve email apps like testing innocence to God and then he says to Abraham why'd you made me do this great sin yes so that I mean it's not my big double standard look he's protesting innocence in on the ground set that he didn't know God is threatening him with neutron bomb so obviously guys upset right guys angry right so whatever it is that God is angry at you got me into it you pushed me into it I do too I do you and although some of the commentators say so she isn't married but he just can't pick a woman off the street that's not civilized either but leave that aside I'll show you I'll show you when we come out of it I left behind the question of why God is so so threatening to him I'll show you I'll show you what that means yeah yeah yeah now the question is how Graham said yes but no faith got in this place five years and you have everything else but surely forgot yes but he's talking to avi Miller talking to Harvey Miller when you talk to a person there are two ways to talk this is a general point of discussion and argument and persuasion I can support my point against somebody else in two different ways usually he and I come from different starting points I can say look here in my axioms my conclusion follows my axioms now that will mean that I'm justified in terms of my axioms but of course his response will be fully t-rex aims don't borrow your axes I have different axioms so I can't convince him I'm a show him that I'm consistent within myself but I can't move him that way he only then can know that I'm careful to be internally consistent but if I attack him on the basis of his axioms even in the basis of your axioms you are wrong then I can I can engage him in a reappraisal of what he's doing the tanakh has many cases where are you speaking to be and a makes a point to be in terms of bees own axioms so is that for example there's an attack on the Jewish people made like the get on to be the judge to lead them I forget which nation it is maybe it's a mom and they claim that we took their land we came out of Egypt three hundred years before and now they're going to take it back and and get on says to them it's not true oken signal toka before and we took it from them it wasn't yours when we took it and after all we should Herot what I what God has given us and you get inherit what come on sure God gave to you right so some academic fools say you see that kiddo was a polytheist he recognized the god of a man called commotion of course not he's speaking to the king of ammo Obama he's making it an argument which the king of Amun should accept follow his own point of view it's making the argument in public right the king of Amun will have to justify why he's coming to attack when the king of Amon himself would say that each person should inherit what his God gave him that doesn't mean he's committed to polytheism because he speaks that way to sierra speaking he's speaking to Harvey Milk right and and and he's saying you credit yourself with your civilization okay I tell you that your civilization no matter how much credit you give it because the missing is ingredient it's not gonna it's not going to restrain you right for me maybe the whole civilization means nothing just be very careful when a speaks to be to recognize that often a speaking B's language in terms of bees presuppositions and don't read into a speech to be what ace commitments are yes when is Abraham accusing the whole kingdom of black a fear of god I just having Malik because including I'll you know because obviously I know house here God God kingdom the dream you recognize this guy and now he's he's in fear for what his dream represent your TV yeah but she got chronology well I've email at s him why did you do what you did yesterday yesterday afternoon when I took Sarah why did you lie to me that we're brother your brother and sister right that's what he's asking about you cost me yesterday afternoon to take Sarah by saying that your brother and sister why yesterday afternoon did you lie about that Abraham's answer yesterday afternoon you would have killed me because yesterday afternoon you didn't have any fear of God that's not contradicted by the fact that in the night time afterwards God came to him and now yes fear of God alright he's explaining what he did yesterday afternoon before IV Melek had this fear of God so now would there be for sure he's frightened to death almost almost we'll see about that's why he's he told it to his people they're all frightened and I was confronting Abraham you'll see there's that there's a quad but but that doesn't affect his explanation what he did yesterday afternoon yeah because of what I'm set as all rooms you don't have to you can have everything you don't have fear of God circuses and we're sending our own nose with a storm on Scott just I'm going to instill fear of God in you because even all that you won't give sorry you got you got half of it you have half of it but there's another half coming that's in weight very dramatic okay we're together so far now there's more in Abraham's response because i'm gonna i'm going to tell you about let's skip that for the next for the moment let's wander the next page so Abby Miller took flocks and cattle and servants and maid service he gave to Abraham just like feral and we turned his wife Sarah to that last phrase raised some questions in your mind yeah what what question doesn't it yeah I mean isn't this a funny sequence of events let's go both back through the scenario of that morning and then I time he has a dream God says to him you're gonna die I'm gonna blow up your whole kingdom give her back he wakes up what's the first thing he does calls in to all his sermons explains the situations then they're all very afraid oh that's number one number two he confronts Abraham you're a criminal you lied to me no response then he says to him what did you see everyone gives a long response then he takes flocks and catalyst servants and made terms to give his Abraham he says to this to the butler so anything else in this morning's agenda you know what son before lunch you know before tea oh yes give Sarah back that's astonishing that's astonishing she's a time bomb get her out of the palace give her back first even after God comes to him and threatens him he's on a knife-edge he's still 5050 he still has to struggle with himself to give her back he does it last last well there's no other extolling excuses there's no other way to get out of it he finally gives her back now that being the case what would have had and if God hadn't threatened him he'd have been helpless he would not have given her back so this this verifies that they have the verification when Abraham says he would have killed me before the dream or the other of course they would have killed him and even with the dream he has to struggle to be able to do it that's why God threatens it God threatens him in order to enable him to make the free decision of giving her back and to his credit he succeeds to his credit he succeeds but God's threat is not is not exaggerated as we thought because he acknowledges the fact that that he made a mistake because even acknowledging he made a mistake he would have been lost without the threat so now both both are justified yeah but in this sentence I mean what if you read it and of course he returned his wife Sarah thing like that would imply its not necessarily chronologically after the flocks of cattle service and Mason well I wonder how if you had the freedom to take a sequence in a narrative ABCDE and say yeah but he happened be happen before before be well you need some pressure to do that you can't you otherwise you have to take the narrative in the in the order which is given and in fact in the Hebrew language there are two ways of writing future verbs and two ways of writing past verbs like we're talking about you can you can write a past verb in the past or you can write it in the future form and put a love in front of it and that switches it from future to past they both and indicate past but there's a difference because if you switch from future to pass by using above then the the implication is you're talking about you say this happened and then this happened and then this happened and then that happen and here it's all future tense with a verb that switches it so and they're all the verbs are the same so this is a happened and be happy and then be happening and see happen that D happen that he happens the city happiness before be it would be very strategy okay so this is further application for lazy yeah borrow he gave me all the stuff the sheep and a catalan to be nice to get his sister here of uniform he gave him the stuff after after the fact that you see you see it does it that respect is Jack anything difference he invites him to stay in his land they kicked him out I don't want you here know what your people here get Kiki phrase lazy afraid for his life he had terrible plagues on the bed for the on the base of this man he's not gonna fool around with this maze I don't like I'm not gonna poke him again he can't do that all right he's afraid okay now let's go back and see the rest of Abraham's response it's really quite interesting 93 verse 12 so first thing he says is I lied to you I lied to you because I did sort of saved my life I don't know if this is you aware of this or and this may be obvious to you but there is no absolute rule that you must not tell lies the only major philosopher who said there was such a rule was count that he was dead wrong no one agrees with him what if it's a question of life and death I can't tell a lie I have to die suppose I can save your life by telling a lie no I tell the truth and you draw and you die will you be happy i mean with you or your heirs be happy with that I don't think so saving a life through telling a lie is of course required in morality so now that's that's 11 I lied to you because otherwise I would have died 12 moreover she is indeed my sister it's actually true that she's my sister my father's daughter though not my mother's daughter and she became my wife okay let's take a look at the genealogy look on page 77 at the top you have tara tara has three children one of whom is Abraham hi Ron Abrams brother has a daughter named Sarah so how are mom and sarah related no uncle Andy's is Avram's brother's daughter so she's his niece okay now let's see she is terex granddaughter now on the eve of language the word for daughter bas can also mean door granddaughter great-granddaughter any any number of generations are like same with ben meant giving son grandson great-grandson any number you like we called pinay yes rail its rails the name of jacob and we are some many generations removed from jacob or call b'nai israel so here's how it goes really she's terrace grandpa daughter but you could say granddaughter by saying bus if you said bars would sound like that she's Terrance daughter and I promised Eric's son so you could say their brother-sister you could you could want to stretch that way you know you're always an elbow in the ribs a little bit you could you could put it that way okay terrific what is the point of Abraham tell me this tie vanilla why is he telling him this what I vanilla should have hired a Hebrew philologists and and quizzed him as to the way in which the formula relations are expressed in Hebrew and whether you can expand generations of the fear out like mad me sister and brother really means you know Uncle Aneesa maybe they married it was every mother supposed to guess at this of course not he's not now justifying why he lied toffee mellow he's making an entirely different point the point that is making is an expression of a Jewish value I don't know if any other culture in the world has such a value but it is a Jewish value that truth has two dimensions one is when you speak don't mislead other people don't speak in such a way as to cause them to have false ideas what's called me Brooke Davis ah so you steal the person's understanding that's the universal moral rule everybody agrees to that the other is speak true words speak true words that's not the same thing you might even have a case where they conflict were you couldn't do both let's imagine that somebody believes that I exaggerate he asked me what's the situation I go through the following reasoning since he thinks that I exaggerate if I tell him the truth about the situation he's going to discount it by fifty percent because he thinks like we I speak exaggerated and therefore is going to get a false idea how can I speak in such a way is to get him to believe the truth only by doubling the situation I can't speak true words and also get him to understand the truth not possible so these are two different values the Torah values both Abraham says you want to know why I spoke in such a way to create a false belief in you because otherwise I would have died that's point number one but point number two I also care about speaking true words and as a matter of fact my words are in a certain sense true in my language that's an independent consideration that I have that's the point of the second verse of his reply that has repercussions elsewhere don't do them right now and 13 he now explains his overall policy and so it was when God caused me to wander for my father's house i said to her let this be your kindness that you shall do for me to whatever place we come say it be he is my brother so this has been a long-standing policy and they've been traveling for decades and only twice did it lead to inappropriate action on the part of the authorities and in both cases god saved one could have thought if it happened if the Pharaoh took her in Egypt and I me mother takes her here is this a wise policy or is it a foolish policy what does he accomplished by answer this is it happened 40 times and in 38 times it was fine and twice it backfired and God sent me twice so that was explaining that was a general policy okay we're together okay now the other thing that I pointed out yesterday is that when God tells when Pharaoh offers him wealth he takes it not only not always does does it for him do that if you take a look on page 65 now here in situation is this Abraham is a nephew named load and because of pressure of mutual wealth and competition fergie ferg fields is over the so on they decide to part company and low takes up residence in the city called Sodom there is an international war for Kings against five games one of the five kings the king of Sodom the four kings win the war it's a military sweep of the whole area and they win the war and they take everything from those that they conquer including Sodom means they capture the king they capture the people and they take the wealth everything Abraham because and they've taken his nephew load captive Abraham mounts a military campaign against the four kings he and his cane and I'd Confederates and they defeat the four kings in one night's battle okay now according to the rules of warfare it's going to take all the four keys concord Sodom in the others Abraham conquered the four kings so everything belongs to Abraham now the king of Sodom comes to Abraham and says to him okay verse 21 king of Sodom said to Abram give me the people and take the possessions for yourself listen Abraham I understand that you won the war you're on the war everything belongs to you but I'm a king nice shoemaker I'm not Shepherd you know I can't cook delicious meals on the king if I don't have people to serve me nothing I'm nobody I've lost give me back the people so I can be king okay well well I'm thankful for our oils other world woman but you can keep the possessions but get but give me the the people everyone says to him if I lift up my hand to a sham God Most High make him heaven and earth if so much as a thread to a shoe strap or if I shall take anything from you of yours not taking anything don't want anything from you why not why not when Pharaoh offered him all that wealth he took it now the cynic will say sure Abraham took it from Pharaoh because when he went down to Pharaoh he was penniless like you told us yesterday now he's a rich man anyway the rich man he has all his possessions from from Pharaoh so he doesn't need it yeah but when having mella this incident we just read which is later than this when I've America offers him wealth he takes it so that's not the right answer that's not the right answer Rashi has very interesting comment here now she says um Abraham says diving to the king of Sodom I have a promise from God that he'll make me wealthy so I don't want to take it from you that just makes the question worse you took from Pharaoh you took from they will take from a vmail it even though that God's a guy made the promise and by the way some people use the old story about about the flood and a story but what is rising and and the last Jeep that taking people out is going past and let's guy sitting his house that's it get on the cheapy God will take care of me goes up and he's up to the second floor and the last boat comes out God will take care of me because the tapas and the helicopter with a rope ladder God will take care of me said waters rising these drums so come before guys it's good I trusted to you why don't you save me God said I sent you a jeep and I sent you a boat they said your helicopter what more do you want how does Abraham know that this isn't precisely how God is keeping his promise to make it rich so the morrow explaining this Rashi says something that you would be worthy of thinking about meditating on and discussing now says Gabriel ooh the god would not keep his promise through war not through war kaisa Pharaoh and I vmail luck they gave it voluntarily here's through war God wouldn't keep his promise to war I don't know the background to the Morales remark I don't know why you know what what the full justification for it is but it's interesting to know that but there's another explanation I didn't finish this place I'll thank you the other explanation which I saw in a safer called Davina by the be either of I believe i saw it there because later i look for and i couldn't find it but that's the images in my mind that's where I found it he says when the person's actions have an effect on himself on society and even on his physical environment if a person acts well if he leads a spiritual life it elevates the things in his environment and he acts badly if it leads to the grated life it pollutes there's such a thing as spiritual pollution and it can get to the point where its pollution is so great that it's impossible to make positive use of those items as usual all we have such a case if a Jew worships an idol not 492 interesting leave a jewellers of the idol there's no way back it has to be destroyed there's nothing you can do three bit rehabilitated the offerings that are placed in front of an aisle for the sake of sacrificing of the idol there's no way back they just have to be destroyed so we know there's such a constant even Jewish law let alone your philosophy and and spiritual concerns so now the difference is this Abraham said Egypt is no moral and spiritual paradise but their degradation has not sunk to the level where their wealth is impossible to rehabilitate to elevate to use that's why I accepted it okay same is true with avi MELAS later whatever their weaknesses are there's not sunk to the point where the environment has become so polluted that it can't be used but in the case of Sodom Abraham could see that they had sunk to such a level and therefore or he couldn't take what they offered him because there was no way that he could use it that's what the safer said and I suppose he's taking it as obvious when the people of Sodom are destroyed because of their evil because of their wickedness not only are they destroyed but the whole physical environment is destroyed also that confirms this idea that when God destroyed it after all there is a sentiment it's a person which lay some place where it says that the wicked will die and there and the righteous will inherit the possessions of the wicked that sometimes happens that's certainly appropriate why did it happen with Sodom answer is because there's their possessions have gotten to the point where if they were beyond rehabilitation that's the explanation that's the other explanation for why Abraham didn't take the possessions of Sodom but it shows you again that what he did with Pharaoh and IV lost on the one hand and what he did over here is the fruit of a consistent strategy yeah question just one of the reasons you take here is exactly because of that much because decided on you know give me a few on take the possessions for yourself DC ripped off on the language so the reason I said that and that and I'm glad you reminded me that if you look I stopped in the middle of what Abraham says because I wanted to not you know I'd want to confuse this point with the other point again look at look at 23 if so much as a threat or shoe strap or I shall take from anything of yours so you shall not say it is I who made a ver umbrage see you're stating a reason I'm not taking anything because if I do you're going to say you may be rich now here there are two questions of quoting of death so now first of all what gives every I'm the idea that that's what the king of sorrow will say was he that front and number two so what if he says is what's so wrong about that oh it's if it's a big deal right you look carefully at king of sodom speech in 21 you can see it where everyone gets the idea that to the king of sodom will say recall the scenario we call those circumstances that are leading up to this incident and tell me what you get from from verse 21 what is the king of sodom saying and how does it indicate that if I've rum takes keeps the possessions he'll say that he made it rich where are we now Abram just defeated the four kings says if you did the four kings everything is Abraham's everything belongs to Abraham that's why the king of Sodom has to come to Abraham and say give me the people right and what does he say was the king of Sodom say about the possessions take take take the possessions excuse me he already has them he has everything that's why you have to come to him and ask for the people what did he take take means it's mine it's really mine all mine everything belongs to me and if you hold on to it you're taking it oh yeah so help you say that I'm taking it then you're going to say you may be rich if you're going to describe me as taking it then you're describing it as if you're making me rich quite right so that's how Abram got it this that's the point I wouldn't have thought of this in a thousand years I was reading odessa's sa setha wow I got that tie to read a verse that's not a read that's something I've taught in university and why does Abraham care about that says of Dessler I've Rome cares about the king of Sodom spirituality after all after this incident everyone's going to plead on behalf of sign of God's going to say they destroy Sodom a neighbor's going to plead on their behalf to try to save them the fact that someone's wicked corrupt evil to whatever extent doesn't mean that everyone gives out it gives up on him Ava doesn't give up on anybody even when you should doesn't give up on anybody she says them I don't want you I don't want to reinforce this false picture of yours that everything really belongs to you I can't allow myself to reinforce it and therefore I don't want to take anything that's another reason why it doesn't think okay you