Death of the Firstborn: The Final Plague | Biblical Series: Exodus

Why is it the Passover that becomes the memorial in the foundation, and is it the sacrifice of the innocent? And it's this because it's the sacrifice of the Lambs and the blood. And so is the idea here that the foundation of the proper state is the voluntary sacrifice of the innocent? Is that what's happening? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I think that we need to see it really in terms of Egypt as opposites.

So you have the end of a world—Egypt ends. God takes the seeds out of Egypt. We have a new beginning, which is also based on sacrifice. It's based on voluntary sacrifice, but that's the magic of the Passover sacrifice. It's as if if you are willing to give your firstborn to God, God will give him back to you. That's the surprise.

Okay, so is it founded on the principle of voluntary sacrifice? No, I don't think so. You don't think so? Okay. I think the plain and obvious thing—this was a night of Liberation, right? I agree with it. They went out, right? Now, but there's also a sacrificial element; that's too in the Passover, how it happened. But the basic thing, and they remember it through history. Isn't it nice they were free to say in our prayers over and over?

Just as for the Christian, the crucifixion and Resurrection are the central events, I believe, of Christian theology. The central events of Jewish theology—and I didn't make this up, it is constant in Jewish prayer—is creation and exodus. If you deny either of those—and you're certainly free to—you have put yourself outside of Judaism. That is the Jewish normative view.

Yeah, but I think it's not necessary. It's not a zero-sum game. You know, we've been talking a lot about reaction and Redemption; these are the two sides of the same coin. Just as for Christians, Crossing and Resurrection are two sides of the same coin.

Yeah, but it's a recreation of the world—the giving up of your first fruits and the giving up of that which is primary to God—and then the surprise of God saying, actually no, you can have it back. Right? And I think that that's definitely part of the—that's part of the story. It's not the only thing.

Yeah, I know. I wouldn't want to make it—by the way, do any of you have a reaction? And I'm not urging that there be one, but that idea that we Jews have to remember this because God may not intervene again. Does that strike you as plausible? Because you do have the mystery in the Bible in some sense, and maybe in history itself as well.

If God was there so much in the times that are being described, where did He go as time progressed? Right? That's the Deo subscondus problem, and I don't know exactly how to contend with that. But God is not involved in Israel. I believe in the ultimate sense there’s no question—God is constantly the guardian of Israel.

That's repeated, but it's clear that you know, most people don't know that in the 1660s, about the same percentage of Jews in Europe were murdered as were in the Holocaust—about a third—or well, two-thirds in the case of the Holocaust, I believe. But one-third in the Malinsky pogroms in Ukraine and Poland.

And God saves the Jewish people, but not the Jews. And that, by the way, I have comfort in that. I don't expect to be individually saved, but I just want to note that religious Jews in death camps celebrated to the best of their ability a Seder. So here they are facing gas chambers and saying thank you for saving us. We remember you saved us from Pharaoh.

It's an incredible thing, and that's why I say it gives comfort even though I'm not being saved now. But I know you intervened on our behalf. I think it makes sense for people to believe in the fundamental ascendance of the spirit that leads us from slavery under all conditions because to not have faith in that is really, in some sense, to lose faith in life itself.

And so that would even be if you're in the situation of a camp—what do you have to have faith in? Well, in some sense, just to live. And I think this is something Solzhenitzen observed too: to just live under those conditions, you still have to believe in the ascendancy, the ultimate tendency of the spirit that calls mankind out of tyranny.

And isn't it where the story picks up? Because God existed before the Jews were enslaved in Egypt. They existed when all the firstborn were killed, right? And so it sort of depends where it is because you could say to them then, when they were in Egypt, before God said, "I've heard the cries of my people," it's sort of the same position, right? So God wasn't there, right? So we can exactly correct.

Okay, okay, so I would like to point out that we've got through one verse so far. Probably it was a big one—it was a big one. We need to get Shapiro in here reading.

Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. Even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat—that only may be done of you.

It's another application of a set of laws here and establishing a set of principles. And ye shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for in this self-same day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. That's to your point with regard to Freedom. Therefore shall you observe this day in your generations by an ordinance—an interesting ordinance. Because an ordinance is something that ordinates.

It's like a coordinate—it's like an establishing system—by an ordinance forever in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month— even at even—you shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall you eat unleavened bread. It's very much emphasized there—this structure of rules. Well, it's not called Passover in the Torah; it's called the holiday of Matzah, of unleavened bread.

And do you think we analyzed the motif of leaven minutes before? By the way, I will get a ski jacket, is that what it's called? I will buy one for anyone who could name all the holidays of the Torah.

Now does this include all the people who are listening? Send in your response. No, no, I'm sorry. Could you think you could? It's an interesting question. And by the way there are seven again.

Seven? Oh, I can't! Come on, Greg, oh don't let us down! I'm going to kick this to Oz, you've got us.

Dennis, the vast majority of Jews couldn't do—it would if they would—because one is very obscure and I… before.

Alright, so Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, which is called the Day of Trumpets, Yom Kippur, Passover, Pentecost, Shavuot, Tabernacle, Sukkot. And then the seventh, which is the one that trips up everybody— including most Jews—called Shmini Atzeret. It's his own holiday; it's after the seven days of Tabernacles. It's the Eighth Day. Shmini means eighth, Atzeret is convocation meeting.

It is the only holiday that has no purpose other than having a good time. It doesn't commemorate anything. It is a fascinating thing. So I don’t work on Jewish holidays that are in the Torah.

So I remember many of you know Larry Elder, who ran for governor in California—a dear friend of mine. So we used to be on the same station in Los Angeles, and I would be on in the afternoon, and he would follow me in his talk show.

And so I said, "So Larry, just want you to know I won't be on tomorrow." He goes, "Why?" I said, "Well, you know I don't broadcast on Jewish holidays," and he goes, "Which holiday is it?"

I said, "It's Shmini Atzeret," and the guy was convinced I made it up to take the day off.