Ali Ataie – Judaism in a Nutshell The Basics of World Religions (Part 3)

Ali Ataie
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The speakers discuss the history and meaning of the Bible, including the use of words of God and the importance of the Tal Torre in Christian understanding. Maimonides claims that God is the primary cause of all things, and that he is the efficient cause of all actions. The speakers use logic and the beast's actions as evidence to prove the existence of god, and emphasize the importance of faith and understanding the laws of the church. The importance of Jevah is emphasized, and the importance of conversion is emphasized in the coming world.

AI: Summary ©

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			This is our, 3rd class,
		
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			covering the
		
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			basic
		
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			concepts of the world major religions.
		
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			So, the 1st week we spoke of our
		
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			tradition of Islam
		
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			as well as the 2nd week. So today,
		
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			Insha'Allah, tonight, Insha'Allah,
		
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			we're going to begin
		
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			the first part of the religion of Judaism.
		
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			So
		
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			it's it's difficult to distill a religion down
		
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			to, a couple of sessions but,
		
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			I'll do my best InshaAllah Ta'ala.
		
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			Also at 8 20 or so we'll take
		
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			a break
		
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			maybe 7 or 8 minutes.
		
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			So, we can pray Maghrib
		
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			Insha'Allah for those of us on
		
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			West Coast time.
		
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			So,
		
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			I thought a good
		
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			thing to look at when it comes to
		
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			Judaism
		
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			is the famous
		
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			creed
		
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			of,
		
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			Maimonides.
		
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			So Maimonides,
		
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			famous rabbi and philosopher,
		
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			He died in the early 13th century.
		
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			He was buried,
		
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			in Fostat in Egypt.
		
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			Moshe ben Maimon is his name.
		
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			And,
		
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			Jews refer to him as the Rambam.
		
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			That's the sort of acronym. It means Rabbi
		
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			Moshe Bin Maimon.
		
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			He
		
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			was an incredible scholar.
		
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			He was, a great scholastic.
		
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			He was a great synthesizer
		
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			of,
		
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			of,
		
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			Jewish thought
		
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			as well
		
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			as Aristotelian
		
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			ethics.
		
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			And we'll talk a little bit
		
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			about that as well.
		
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			He believed that revelation and reason go hand
		
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			in hand.
		
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			He was a natural theologian,
		
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			meaning that he believed that
		
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			one could engage
		
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			in,
		
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			reason and philosophy,
		
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			as evidence of god.
		
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			He was a champion of what's known as
		
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			negative theology
		
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			and we'll explain that as well inshallah.
		
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			He
		
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			he wrote quite extensively.
		
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			Probably his 2 greatest,
		
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			works
		
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			are the, and he wrote them in Arabic.
		
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			At least the first one was in Arabic.
		
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			Dalalatul 'Irene,
		
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			which
		
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			is oftentimes translated
		
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			as the Guide for the Perplexed.
		
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			It's called
		
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			the Moreh Nevuchim
		
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			in Hebrew,
		
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			3 volumes.
		
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			And basically, the aim of the guide for
		
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			the perplexed
		
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			who are the perplexed?
		
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			Who are these people in the state of
		
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			cheira?
		
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			These are people that cannot reconcile nakal with
		
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			aqal.
		
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			They can't reconcile
		
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			the revelation with reason.
		
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			So again, that's sort of the job, as
		
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			it were,
		
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			as we said last week,
		
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			of the dialectic,
		
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			theologian
		
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			to reconcile the 2.
		
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			So that's what he attempts to do in
		
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			the famous Guide for the Perplexed.
		
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			His,
		
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			second famous text is called the Mishnah Torah,
		
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			which is a commentary
		
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			on,
		
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			the Torah,
		
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			Jewish
		
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			law,
		
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			and scripture.
		
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			And in his Mishnah Torah,
		
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			Maimonides articulated
		
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			basic creed.
		
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			Right?
		
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			So, his creed is 13
		
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			principles.
		
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			That's all it is, 13 lines.
		
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			And it's taken from the Tanakh and the
		
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			Talmud. So we sort of have to
		
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			get familiar again with our terminology. What are
		
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			we talking about when we say
		
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			Tanakh is another acronym.
		
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			The the tau comes from
		
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			Torah.
		
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			There's a Nun in there which is from
		
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			Nabiin, means prophets.
		
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			And then the Kaf which is more guttural
		
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			in Hebrew.
		
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			So Tanakh comes from Kitobim,
		
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			the Writings. So
		
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			it's basically the Hebrew Bible.
		
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			Right? Tanakh and Hebrew Bible are synonymous.
		
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			Of course, Christians would call this the Old
		
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			Testament.
		
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			Right? So the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible,
		
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			the Tanakh, these are all synonymous. Of course,
		
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			the term Old Testament
		
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			is Christian terminology.
		
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			Jews, at least Orthodox Jews, would find
		
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			the term Old Testament to be a bit
		
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			offensive,
		
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			which implies that the
		
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			the covenant that god made with Moses and
		
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			the Israelites on Sinai has
		
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			been abrogated.
		
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			So so that's the Tanakh. Right? So you
		
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			have the Torah. So what do we mean
		
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			by Torah? What do they mean by Torah?
		
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			They mean the 5 books of Moses.
		
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			Right?
		
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			This is called also called in Hebrew the
		
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			Chumash
		
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			because the term Torah
		
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			is a bit ambiguous.
		
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			Right?
		
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			Sometimes when Jews use the word Torah, they're
		
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			talking about the 5 books of Moses. Sometimes
		
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			they're talking about the entire Old Testament, the
		
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			entire Tanakh.
		
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			Sometimes they're talking about all of the sacred
		
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			literature including the Talmud, and we'll talk about
		
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			that.
		
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			So the term Torah is a bit ambiguous.
		
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			But when we say chumash,
		
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			which comes from which is related to the
		
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			Arabic word, hamza,
		
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			like, Pentateuch
		
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			in Greek,
		
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			Here, we're talking about the first five books
		
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			of the Tanakh.
		
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			Right?
		
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			The books that are traditionally ascribed to to
		
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			Musa alayhis salam,
		
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			and Orthodox Jews believe in fact that Musa
		
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			wrote these 5 books
		
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			on Mount Sinai,
		
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			Some,
		
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			35 100 years ago.
		
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			He wrote them over 40 nights. He was
		
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			in sort of a trance.
		
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			He did not sleep. He did not eat.
		
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			He did not drink.
		
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			He was simply receiving,
		
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			these 5 books. What are these 5 books
		
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			called?
		
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			Well, in Hebrew, the first book is called
		
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			Beresheath which comes from the very first word.
		
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			That's how they're all called in Hebrew.
		
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			It's the first word
		
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			or so.
		
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			A word in the first verse of the
		
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			first chapter of that book. In this case,
		
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			Genesis,
		
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			right, is called beresheet because the book begins,
		
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			beresheet
		
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			bara Elohim et Hashemayim
		
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			ve'et aharetz,
		
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			that in the beginning, God created the heavens
		
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			and the Earth.
		
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			Right?
		
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			However, it's called Genesis in English,
		
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			which is taken from Greek. So the titles
		
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			of the books,
		
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			that we know are taken from Latin and
		
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			Greek, and of course, they're they're taken into
		
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			the English language.
		
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			So Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
		
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			These are the 5 books of Moses. This
		
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			is the Chumash.
		
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			Right? This is,
		
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			the first five books of the Tanakh, the
		
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			Old Testament.
		
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			The Orthodox believe, again, that Moses himself, Musa
		
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			alaihi salam,
		
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			wrote these books.
		
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			They are equivalent to,
		
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			our conception of the Quran
		
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			as far as the Quran being,
		
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			a dictate
		
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			from Allah
		
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			So Musa alayhi salam is not being inspired.
		
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			These are not his words. He's not receiving
		
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			some sort
		
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			of inspiration or
		
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			and then he's articulating
		
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			the wording himself. The love is not his.
		
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			Right? Just like with the Quran,
		
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			the prophet Muhammad
		
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			is receiving the words either through exterior or
		
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			interior location.
		
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			And he's simply repeating those words that he's
		
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			hearing from outside of himself or that he's
		
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			perceiving
		
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			within himself.
		
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			So that is the status of the Chumash,
		
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			Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
		
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			Right?
		
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			And then we have the Nabiim, the prophets.
		
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			Now, so there's another set of books in
		
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			the Old Testament
		
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			that,
		
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			are called after certain prophets. Right? So you
		
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			have books like Jeremiah
		
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			and Ezekiel and Isaiah and Amos
		
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			and Zephaniah,
		
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			etc.
		
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			Micah.
		
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			Right?
		
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			So
		
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			these books are believed by Jews to be
		
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			inspired by God. Right? So it's not a
		
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			ipsissima verba, you know, word for word dictate.
		
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			It's more like hadith,
		
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			if there's something comparable in our tradition,
		
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			inspired words of God where a prophet
		
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			would receive,
		
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			inspiration,
		
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			but that prophet would use his own words.
		
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			He would articulate that inspiration.
		
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			And then you have a third class of
		
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			revelation,
		
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			right, so or degree of revelation in the
		
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			Old Testament, which is called the Kitobim,
		
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			the Writings, or hagiography,
		
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			and these are books that are authored by
		
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			non prophets,
		
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			for example, Proverbs.
		
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			So Jews don't believe that David and Solomon
		
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			are prophets. This is a difference of opinion
		
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			that we have with them.
		
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			So the Psalms, for example,
		
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			is Kitobim.
		
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			So a lower degree of revelation. Still sacred
		
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			writings, canonical and sacred,
		
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			but not as high. Right? Not not as
		
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			great
		
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			as the writings of Isaiah, and Isaiah is
		
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			not as great
		
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			as or exalted as the writings of Moses,
		
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			which are not even the words of Moses.
		
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			They are the words of God spoken by
		
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			by Moses.
		
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			So Maimonides' creed is taken from the Tanakh,
		
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			aka Old Testament, as well as something called
		
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			the Talmud.
		
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			The word talmud
		
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			is related,
		
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			to,
		
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			the Arabic tilmid.
		
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			Right? And tilmid means, like, a a pupil.
		
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			Right? So the Talmud is sort of the
		
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			pupil or the little student of the Torah.
		
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			The Orthodox believe the Talmud is also sacred
		
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			writing.
		
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			Right?
		
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			So it has a status
		
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			that we would, the equivalent in our tradition
		
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			would be something like ilham.
		
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			Right? Or iha,
		
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			which is nonprophetic
		
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			revelation.
		
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			So not Wahi.
		
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			Wahi, according to our scholars like Imam al
		
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			Suyuti and Zarqashi and others,
		
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			The the term wahi is is prophetic revelation.
		
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			So, Musa, alayhis salam, in our tradition,
		
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			Ibrahim alayhi salam, Isa alayhi salam, they received
		
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			Wahi.
		
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			Right? But,
		
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			saints or nonprofits, the Quran says that the
		
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			the disciples of
		
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			Isa
		
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			received
		
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			iha,
		
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			nonprophetic
		
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			revelation,
		
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			inspiration,
		
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			inspired revelation.
		
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			Right?
		
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			So the the Talmud then has 2 parts.
		
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			The Talmud is
		
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			made up of the Mishnah and Gemara.
		
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			Right?
		
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			Mishnah and Gemara.
		
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			So
		
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			the Mishnah,
		
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			according to Judaism
		
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			is
		
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			the oral law of Moses that was finally
		
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			reduced to writing. So here's something interesting
		
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			that a lot of people don't know,
		
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			even a lot of secular Jews don't know,
		
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			is that,
		
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			in the Orthodox tradition,
		
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			Jews Orthodox Jews believe that Moses received 2
		
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			Torahs
		
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			on Mount Sinai.
		
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			He received the first five books,
		
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			which is the very words of God,
		
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			but he also received
		
00:12:18 --> 00:12:19
			inspiration,
		
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24
			that, that he
		
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26
			eventually would articulate
		
00:12:26 --> 00:12:27
			piecemeal
		
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30
			over his life in his own words.
		
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33
			So essentially a commentary
		
00:12:34 --> 00:12:35
			of the written Torah.
		
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39
			Right? So receive the first five books and
		
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41
			then Musa alayhis salam, Moses, peace be upon
		
00:12:41 --> 00:12:42
			him, according to Judaism,
		
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45
			he as as he would live his life
		
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48
			and situations would arise with the Israelites
		
00:12:48 --> 00:12:49
			in the Sinai,
		
00:12:50 --> 00:12:50
			wilderness,
		
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53
			he would he would comment,
		
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55
			commentate or interpret
		
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57
			what was written in the first five books
		
00:12:58 --> 00:12:59
			with his own words,
		
00:13:00 --> 00:13:00
			and
		
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04
			those words were eventually written down in the
		
00:13:04 --> 00:13:05
			1st century of the Common Era.
		
00:13:07 --> 00:13:09
			So it's kind of like the hadith of
		
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11
			Musa alayhis salam, his tafsir, if you will,
		
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13
			of of the Chumash.
		
00:13:14 --> 00:13:15
			So it was written down,
		
00:13:16 --> 00:13:16
			and,
		
00:13:17 --> 00:13:18
			called the Mishnah.
		
00:13:18 --> 00:13:19
			Right?
		
00:13:19 --> 00:13:22
			And then between the second and
		
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24
			7th Centuries of the Common Era,
		
00:13:25 --> 00:13:28
			2nd 7th Centuries, 2nd 8th Centuries,
		
00:13:31 --> 00:13:32
			rabbis began to
		
00:13:34 --> 00:13:35
			write commentaries
		
00:13:36 --> 00:13:37
			on the Mishnah.
		
00:13:37 --> 00:13:38
			Right?
		
00:13:39 --> 00:13:39
			And
		
00:13:40 --> 00:13:43
			that was called the Gemara. So Gemara means
		
00:13:43 --> 00:13:43
			completion.
		
00:13:44 --> 00:13:46
			So you have the Tanakh.
		
00:13:46 --> 00:13:49
			Right? The Old Testament, which is the Torah,
		
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52
			the Chumash, in other words. The Nabiim, the
		
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55
			prophets, the Kitubim, the writings. And then you
		
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57
			have the Talmud, which is made up of
		
00:13:57 --> 00:13:57
			the Mishnah,
		
00:13:58 --> 00:14:00
			the oral law that Moses received that was
		
00:14:00 --> 00:14:02
			eventually reduced to writing in the 1st century
		
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04
			because the Temple had been destroyed and now
		
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06
			the religion was in danger, so the rabbis
		
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08
			decided to write it down. And then you
		
00:14:08 --> 00:14:09
			have rabbinical commentaries
		
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12
			written on the Mishnah
		
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13
			that occurred,
		
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16
			primarily in two locations, at the,
		
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18
			rabbinical academy
		
00:14:18 --> 00:14:21
			in Babylon or Iraq and, as well as
		
00:14:21 --> 00:14:22
			the Rabbinical Academy
		
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25
			in, in Palestine.
		
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28
			So you really have two versions then of
		
00:14:28 --> 00:14:29
			the Talmud. You have the Babylonian
		
00:14:30 --> 00:14:30
			Talmud,
		
00:14:31 --> 00:14:32
			and you have the,
		
00:14:33 --> 00:14:33
			Palestinian,
		
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35
			Talmud.
		
00:14:36 --> 00:14:37
			Okay.
		
00:14:39 --> 00:14:39
			Okay.
		
00:14:40 --> 00:14:40
			So
		
00:14:42 --> 00:14:45
			so Maimonides then the genius of Maimonides
		
00:14:46 --> 00:14:48
			is that he's able to
		
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50
			take this massive
		
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53
			corpus of literature. I mean, you look at
		
00:14:53 --> 00:14:53
			the
		
00:14:53 --> 00:14:54
			the,
		
00:14:54 --> 00:14:56
			the Tanakh and the Talmud, I mean,
		
00:14:57 --> 00:14:58
			millions of words,
		
00:14:58 --> 00:15:00
			and he's able to distill it
		
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03
			and give us the bare bones of Jewish
		
00:15:03 --> 00:15:05
			theology. And that's what he does here
		
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09
			with his 13 articles of Jewish faith, 13
		
00:15:09 --> 00:15:11
			principles of Jewish faith. And he says very
		
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13
			clearly that if you don't believe in any
		
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15
			one of these, you are a kofer,
		
00:15:16 --> 00:15:17
			or a cather,
		
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19
			in his opinion. Now there's some difference of
		
00:15:19 --> 00:15:19
			opinion,
		
00:15:20 --> 00:15:21
			amongst Jewish theologians.
		
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25
			Joseph Albo, for example, a 15th century
		
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26
			Spain,
		
00:15:26 --> 00:15:27
			Spanish
		
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28
			rabbi,
		
00:15:28 --> 00:15:31
			said that only 3 of the 13 are
		
00:15:31 --> 00:15:33
			essential. Maimonides, he confused,
		
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36
			which is essential with that which is derivative.
		
00:15:37 --> 00:15:38
			But generally,
		
00:15:39 --> 00:15:39
			Maimonides's
		
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42
			articulation of the creed is accepted by
		
00:15:43 --> 00:15:44
			by Jews the world over.
		
00:15:45 --> 00:15:46
			Right?
		
00:15:46 --> 00:15:47
			So,
		
00:15:48 --> 00:15:51
			he called these the sholoshah a'ashar,
		
00:15:52 --> 00:15:55
			Ikkarei Emunah, which literally means the 13 principles
		
00:15:56 --> 00:15:59
			of Jewish Faith. So at this point,
		
00:16:00 --> 00:16:01
			we're going to take
		
00:16:01 --> 00:16:03
			maybe a 7 minute break, inshallah,
		
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06
			and we're going to pray the Maghrib, and
		
00:16:06 --> 00:16:08
			then we'll come back and we'll begin with
		
00:16:08 --> 00:16:09
			the first
		
00:16:09 --> 00:16:10
			couple of principles
		
00:16:11 --> 00:16:12
			as articulated
		
00:16:12 --> 00:16:13
			by Maimonides.
		
00:16:24 --> 00:16:25
			So now continuing
		
00:16:26 --> 00:16:29
			to principle number 1, iqar number 1, as
		
00:16:29 --> 00:16:30
			articulated by Maimonides,
		
00:16:31 --> 00:16:32
			he says
		
00:16:34 --> 00:16:34
			I believe
		
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38
			with full faith, with perfect faith or sound
		
00:16:38 --> 00:16:39
			faith,
		
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42
			that the creator, blessed be his name,
		
00:16:43 --> 00:16:43
			and,
		
00:16:44 --> 00:16:45
			the Hebrew here is,
		
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49
			if you know Arabic you could pick up
		
00:16:49 --> 00:16:50
			Hebrew quite easily.
		
00:17:00 --> 00:17:00
			So
		
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03
			I believe with sound faith
		
00:17:03 --> 00:17:04
			that the
		
00:17:06 --> 00:17:07
			that the creator,
		
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11
			blessed be his name,
		
00:17:12 --> 00:17:15
			he creates, he says, and he guides
		
00:17:15 --> 00:17:16
			all of creation,
		
00:17:19 --> 00:17:21
			and he by himself
		
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23
			did and is doing
		
00:17:24 --> 00:17:25
			and will do
		
00:17:25 --> 00:17:26
			all actions.
		
00:17:27 --> 00:17:30
			And it's very poetic here the way that
		
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32
			he frames it using the
		
00:17:37 --> 00:17:38
			So he uses
		
00:17:38 --> 00:17:41
			the perfect tense verb, then he uses the
		
00:17:41 --> 00:17:42
			active participle,
		
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45
			and then he uses the imperfect tense verb.
		
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48
			So basically what he's saying in this principle,
		
00:17:49 --> 00:17:50
			the first principle of the 13,
		
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53
			is that God alone
		
00:17:54 --> 00:17:55
			is the creator
		
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58
			and direct doer of all things
		
00:17:59 --> 00:18:02
			That God is the primary cause, he's the
		
00:18:02 --> 00:18:02
			efficient
		
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04
			cause of all things,
		
00:18:05 --> 00:18:08
			which is contra Aristotle, Right? For Aristotle,
		
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11
			god is not the efficient cause
		
00:18:11 --> 00:18:14
			because Aristotle believed that the universe is,
		
00:18:15 --> 00:18:16
			pre eternal.
		
00:18:17 --> 00:18:17
			Right?
		
00:18:18 --> 00:18:19
			So,
		
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21
			for Aristotle, god
		
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23
			the unmoved mover is kind of like a
		
00:18:23 --> 00:18:24
			giant cosmic
		
00:18:25 --> 00:18:25
			magnet
		
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27
			that,
		
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29
			who draws all things
		
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31
			unto himself. So it is sort of an
		
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33
			unconscious pull towards God.
		
00:18:34 --> 00:18:36
			God did not create ex nihilo
		
00:18:36 --> 00:18:38
			according to Aristotle's
		
00:18:39 --> 00:18:39
			metaphysics.
		
00:18:41 --> 00:18:42
			So,
		
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45
			god is only the final cause for Aristotle.
		
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46
			But now
		
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48
			in in Judeo Christian Islamic tradition,
		
00:18:49 --> 00:18:52
			God is ultimately the final cause, but he's
		
00:18:52 --> 00:18:54
			also the efficient cause,
		
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57
			meaning that there was a sort of conscious
		
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00
			push that he is the beginning of the
		
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02
			ontological origin of all things. The universe is
		
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04
			not pre eternal in the past. The universe
		
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07
			was created from nothing.
		
00:19:07 --> 00:19:08
			Ex nihilo.
		
00:19:09 --> 00:19:11
			The universe was created from nothing
		
00:19:11 --> 00:19:12
			by God.
		
00:19:13 --> 00:19:15
			Right? So God is the efficient cause, the
		
00:19:15 --> 00:19:16
			primary cause.
		
00:19:17 --> 00:19:18
			So
		
00:19:18 --> 00:19:21
			he says that God by himself,
		
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24
			right? He did and is doing
		
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26
			and will do all actions.
		
00:19:27 --> 00:19:28
			Right? So you're gonna think about here no
		
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30
			one does God's actions
		
00:19:31 --> 00:19:32
			except God. None
		
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36
			no one can create anything
		
00:19:36 --> 00:19:37
			except for God.
		
00:19:38 --> 00:19:42
			Right? So if you examine the rationalist, the
		
00:19:42 --> 00:19:42
			Muertazila
		
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45
			claim, this controversial
		
00:19:49 --> 00:19:50
			the creation
		
00:19:51 --> 00:19:52
			of that
		
00:19:53 --> 00:19:57
			the rationalists who were highly influenced by Greek
		
00:19:57 --> 00:19:58
			philosophy,
		
00:19:59 --> 00:20:01
			they said that due to our absolutely
		
00:20:01 --> 00:20:02
			free will,
		
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05
			we create our own actions.
		
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08
			We are the creators of our own actions.
		
00:20:09 --> 00:20:10
			That our actions,
		
00:20:10 --> 00:20:11
			in effect,
		
00:20:11 --> 00:20:12
			inform
		
00:20:12 --> 00:20:13
			God himself.
		
00:20:14 --> 00:20:17
			So that God only knows what we decide
		
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19
			to do. So things are not
		
00:20:20 --> 00:20:21
			predetermined.
		
00:20:21 --> 00:20:23
			So you have rationalist
		
00:20:23 --> 00:20:24
			elements
		
00:20:25 --> 00:20:27
			in the Jewish world as well. And it
		
00:20:27 --> 00:20:30
			seems that Maimonides a lot of these,
		
00:20:30 --> 00:20:32
			or you can argue all of the 13
		
00:20:32 --> 00:20:34
			principles, has a polemical aspect
		
00:20:35 --> 00:20:38
			to them. In other words, he is trying
		
00:20:38 --> 00:20:39
			to argue against
		
00:20:39 --> 00:20:42
			a position that he believes to be heretical.
		
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44
			This idea that god
		
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46
			does not create everything. That we create some
		
00:20:46 --> 00:20:48
			of our actions. That god does not know
		
00:20:48 --> 00:20:51
			everything. He doesn't know particulars. He only knows,
		
00:20:52 --> 00:20:52
			you
		
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54
			know, essences.
		
00:20:56 --> 00:20:56
			So this is,
		
00:20:57 --> 00:21:00
			soundly refuted by Maimonides in his writings.
		
00:21:00 --> 00:21:02
			As well as the theologians of Ahlus Sunnah
		
00:21:02 --> 00:21:04
			wal Jima'al. They also had to deal with
		
00:21:04 --> 00:21:04
			this idea.
		
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07
			And our theologians, they would quote from the
		
00:21:07 --> 00:21:07
			Quran.
		
00:21:11 --> 00:21:13
			Right? That God created you and your actions.
		
00:21:14 --> 00:21:14
			Right? Allah
		
00:21:15 --> 00:21:17
			is the only real creator.
		
00:21:18 --> 00:21:19
			Right? Allahu khalikoo
		
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21
			che. That Allah
		
00:21:22 --> 00:21:23
			is the creator of everything.
		
00:21:25 --> 00:21:26
			So these are some of the proof texts
		
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29
			that our theologians would use. Maimonides would quote
		
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31
			from the book of Isaiah, for example, which
		
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33
			is in the nabiim, the prophets, that middle
		
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35
			section of the Chumash.
		
00:21:35 --> 00:21:38
			So Isaiah chapter 45 verse 6 and 7
		
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41
			where God is the speaker, and he
		
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43
			and Isaiah is is speaking the words of
		
00:21:43 --> 00:21:45
			of god although Isaiah is choosing the wording
		
00:21:45 --> 00:21:46
			according again
		
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49
			to, the to the Jewish,
		
00:21:49 --> 00:21:50
			tradition
		
00:21:50 --> 00:21:52
			where he says I make peace
		
00:21:58 --> 00:21:59
			and I,
		
00:22:00 --> 00:22:01
			create evil.
		
00:22:02 --> 00:22:04
			Right? God says I make peace but I
		
00:22:04 --> 00:22:05
			create
		
00:22:05 --> 00:22:06
			evil.
		
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09
			He creates everything, even evil.
		
00:22:10 --> 00:22:11
			Notice how he says it: I make peace,
		
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13
			I'm the doer of peace, and I create
		
00:22:13 --> 00:22:14
			evil.
		
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16
			Right? So even though God is the creator
		
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19
			of evil and ultimately he is the doer
		
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21
			of every action, the way that it's worded
		
00:22:21 --> 00:22:22
			in scripture
		
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25
			is a way that we should think about
		
00:22:25 --> 00:22:25
			it.
		
00:22:26 --> 00:22:27
			And then he says
		
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32
			that I am the Lord and I do
		
00:22:32 --> 00:22:33
			all of these things.
		
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36
			I do, all of these things. So so
		
00:22:36 --> 00:22:39
			god, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, for Maimonides,
		
00:22:40 --> 00:22:40
			god
		
00:22:41 --> 00:22:42
			the Creator,
		
00:22:43 --> 00:22:45
			is the only creator.
		
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48
			He's the only creator, and he's a doer
		
00:22:48 --> 00:22:49
			of all actions.
		
00:22:50 --> 00:22:51
			So God's omnipotence
		
00:22:51 --> 00:22:53
			includes the power
		
00:22:54 --> 00:22:56
			to will that which is evil,
		
00:22:57 --> 00:22:57
			from our perspective.
		
00:22:59 --> 00:23:00
			Right? So this is an important concept. God's
		
00:23:00 --> 00:23:02
			omnipotence, his quadra,
		
00:23:02 --> 00:23:03
			includes
		
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06
			the power to will that which is evil,
		
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08
			at least from our perspective. So the rationalists,
		
00:23:09 --> 00:23:11
			they denied this, and they said things like
		
00:23:11 --> 00:23:12
			good and evil have intrinsic,
		
00:23:14 --> 00:23:14
			properties
		
00:23:15 --> 00:23:18
			and that that the intellect knows
		
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22
			and that god is bound to act within.
		
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24
			Right? So good and evil exist outside of
		
00:23:24 --> 00:23:25
			god
		
00:23:25 --> 00:23:26
			as absolute
		
00:23:28 --> 00:23:28
			things.
		
00:23:29 --> 00:23:31
			They have intrinsic
		
00:23:31 --> 00:23:31
			properties.
		
00:23:32 --> 00:23:35
			And so god is bound to be good
		
00:23:35 --> 00:23:36
			according to what is good.
		
00:23:36 --> 00:23:38
			So this whole idea is
		
00:23:39 --> 00:23:40
			is a is a philosophical
		
00:23:42 --> 00:23:42
			argument
		
00:23:43 --> 00:23:44
			that is brought out by Plato,
		
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47
			the the Euthyphro
		
00:23:47 --> 00:23:47
			Dilemma.
		
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50
			Right? Are things good because God,
		
00:23:51 --> 00:23:52
			says they're good?
		
00:23:53 --> 00:23:55
			Or does god say they're good so therefore
		
00:23:55 --> 00:23:56
			they're good?
		
00:23:57 --> 00:23:58
			This argument. Ultimately
		
00:23:59 --> 00:24:00
			ultimately,
		
00:24:01 --> 00:24:02
			Allah
		
00:24:03 --> 00:24:05
			is the standard
		
00:24:05 --> 00:24:06
			of good.
		
00:24:07 --> 00:24:08
			Right? Good and evil do not
		
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11
			exist as they don't have any type of
		
00:24:11 --> 00:24:11
			sort
		
00:24:12 --> 00:24:12
			of ontological
		
00:24:13 --> 00:24:14
			existence
		
00:24:14 --> 00:24:17
			up there in the ether somewhere distinct
		
00:24:17 --> 00:24:18
			from Allah
		
00:24:19 --> 00:24:20
			That Allah
		
00:24:20 --> 00:24:21
			is the one who determined
		
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24
			what is good and what is evil.
		
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27
			So this is what he's heading at here.
		
00:24:30 --> 00:24:32
			Just to give some more notes here
		
00:24:32 --> 00:24:34
			from the Orthodox tradition of Judaism,
		
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37
			the rabbis say that
		
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40
			that faith, iman, which they call
		
00:24:41 --> 00:24:43
			it requires yadi'a
		
00:24:43 --> 00:24:45
			or elm, knowledge, or ma'rifah.
		
00:24:47 --> 00:24:48
			In other words,
		
00:24:48 --> 00:24:48
			credulity,
		
00:24:49 --> 00:24:52
			believing in something without evidence is actually blameworthy.
		
00:24:53 --> 00:24:54
			Right?
		
00:24:54 --> 00:24:57
			So you must know that god exists. You
		
00:24:57 --> 00:24:59
			must know that within yourself.
		
00:25:00 --> 00:25:00
			Right?
		
00:25:01 --> 00:25:02
			You have to prove it to yourself that
		
00:25:02 --> 00:25:04
			god exists. You have to find evidence of
		
00:25:04 --> 00:25:05
			god's existence.
		
00:25:09 --> 00:25:10
			As the Quran says,
		
00:25:10 --> 00:25:13
			know that there is no God but Allah
		
00:25:15 --> 00:25:16
			Right? So
		
00:25:17 --> 00:25:18
			the, the
		
00:25:18 --> 00:25:19
			comes first.
		
00:25:19 --> 00:25:20
			The
		
00:25:20 --> 00:25:21
			in in Hebrew is called the,
		
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25
			and it is a necessary condition of of
		
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27
			nakal, and we would concur with this.
		
00:25:28 --> 00:25:30
			Alright? In order for you to be tasked
		
00:25:31 --> 00:25:33
			to believe in the revelation of god, the
		
00:25:33 --> 00:25:34
			nakal,
		
00:25:34 --> 00:25:37
			you have to have intellect. It's a necessary
		
00:25:37 --> 00:25:40
			condition. It's not a sufficient condition because there
		
00:25:40 --> 00:25:41
			are other conditions.
		
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43
			Right? But it certainly isn't necessary.
		
00:25:44 --> 00:25:47
			So it's necessary for you to be able
		
00:25:47 --> 00:25:47
			to
		
00:25:48 --> 00:25:49
			understand, at least,
		
00:25:50 --> 00:25:52
			like, what is the difference if if we
		
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54
			say, for example, god has neither kethra or
		
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55
			adad.
		
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58
			Right? God has no multi no multiplicity whatsoever
		
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01
			with respect to kethra or adad.
		
00:26:01 --> 00:26:04
			Right? To to understand what that means,
		
00:26:04 --> 00:26:06
			You know, like this is one pen.
		
00:26:06 --> 00:26:09
			Right? But this pen is composed of multiple
		
00:26:09 --> 00:26:09
			things.
		
00:26:10 --> 00:26:12
			That's called kethra. So this has nothing to
		
00:26:12 --> 00:26:13
			do with Allah
		
00:26:14 --> 00:26:16
			You might have you might have 2 pens.
		
00:26:17 --> 00:26:17
			Right?
		
00:26:18 --> 00:26:20
			So, a plural of numbers. This has nothing
		
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21
			to do with Allah
		
00:26:23 --> 00:26:25
			You might have 3 similar pens. You might
		
00:26:25 --> 00:26:28
			have 3 pens that in essence they're they
		
00:26:28 --> 00:26:29
			have pen ness.
		
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32
			Right? But one's blue, one is red, and
		
00:26:32 --> 00:26:35
			one is black. So different attributes of one
		
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37
			essence. That has nothing to do with Allah
		
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39
			subhanahu wa ta'ala.
		
00:26:40 --> 00:26:41
			So that's important. We'll get back to that
		
00:26:41 --> 00:26:42
			idea as well
		
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45
			when we talk about the rigid,
		
00:26:45 --> 00:26:46
			oneness of Allah
		
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53
			So the rabbis say that begins with a
		
00:26:53 --> 00:26:55
			end. So faith begins
		
00:26:56 --> 00:26:57
			where the intellect stops.
		
00:26:58 --> 00:27:01
			Right? But the sekel leads you to faith.
		
00:27:01 --> 00:27:04
			The akel, the intellect, leads you to faith.
		
00:27:04 --> 00:27:06
			You're not in conflict.
		
00:27:07 --> 00:27:10
			Right? The sekel is not a hindrance to
		
00:27:10 --> 00:27:11
			God. It can be trusted
		
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13
			to a certain degree.
		
00:27:14 --> 00:27:16
			We we use logic. At some point, logic
		
00:27:16 --> 00:27:19
			will break down, especially when we talk about
		
00:27:19 --> 00:27:20
			god, when we talk about metaphysics.
		
00:27:21 --> 00:27:22
			Allah
		
00:27:23 --> 00:27:25
			god is greater than human logic,
		
00:27:26 --> 00:27:28
			but we still use logic. So it's really
		
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30
			a faith based on evidence.
		
00:27:31 --> 00:27:33
			Right? It's reasonable faith.
		
00:27:33 --> 00:27:36
			Right? Like Richard Dawkins is incorrect
		
00:27:36 --> 00:27:39
			when he says that faith is belief without
		
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40
			evidence.
		
00:27:40 --> 00:27:42
			That's not what it is at all.
		
00:27:43 --> 00:27:46
			Right? You believe because it is reasonable to
		
00:27:46 --> 00:27:49
			believe. It's reasonable to believe in God. Again,
		
00:27:49 --> 00:27:50
			that's the task of the dialectical
		
00:27:51 --> 00:27:52
			theologian.
		
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54
			That's the task of Maimonides in the,
		
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59
			the guide for the perplexed. Why is it
		
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01
			reasonable to believe in god?
		
00:28:02 --> 00:28:05
			Right? How is belief consistent with reason?
		
00:28:05 --> 00:28:07
			This goes all the way back to the
		
00:28:07 --> 00:28:07
			presocratics,
		
00:28:09 --> 00:28:10
			someone like Heraclitus,
		
00:28:11 --> 00:28:13
			who just looked at nature. And in the
		
00:28:13 --> 00:28:13
			Quran,
		
00:28:14 --> 00:28:15
			we are,
		
00:28:15 --> 00:28:18
			encouraged to look at nature,
		
00:28:18 --> 00:28:21
			look at what Heraclitus called logos. We talked
		
00:28:21 --> 00:28:22
			about this last week as well. There's there's
		
00:28:22 --> 00:28:25
			there's an ordering principle in nature. Things are
		
00:28:25 --> 00:28:26
			ordered.
		
00:28:26 --> 00:28:28
			Things are predictable in nature.
		
00:28:29 --> 00:28:32
			Right? He called that logos or or logos.
		
00:28:32 --> 00:28:33
			The Quran says
		
00:28:36 --> 00:28:38
			Do they not look at the camels and
		
00:28:38 --> 00:28:39
			how they're created?
		
00:28:39 --> 00:28:41
			Right? Look at the creation of the camel.
		
00:28:41 --> 00:28:42
			It's incredible.
		
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44
			Right?
		
00:28:45 --> 00:28:47
			Look at the heavens, how he raised them
		
00:28:47 --> 00:28:49
			high, how he made the the Earth to
		
00:28:49 --> 00:28:51
			appear like a carpet. These are great signs.
		
00:28:51 --> 00:28:53
			Look at nature as evidence of God. The
		
00:28:53 --> 00:28:56
			Alam. Right? That's what the world is called.
		
00:28:56 --> 00:28:59
			The Alam is is is is related to
		
00:28:59 --> 00:29:01
			the It's a great sign of
		
00:29:04 --> 00:29:04
			So that's
		
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08
			that's important. So Heraclitus, he looked around and
		
00:29:08 --> 00:29:12
			he saw logos. Now later on, another philosopher
		
00:29:12 --> 00:29:13
			that's still pre Socratic,
		
00:29:14 --> 00:29:15
			Anaxagoras,
		
00:29:15 --> 00:29:18
			I believe, he said, look, if there's logos
		
00:29:18 --> 00:29:19
			in nature,
		
00:29:19 --> 00:29:21
			if there's order in nature,
		
00:29:22 --> 00:29:24
			then someone must have ordered it.
		
00:29:25 --> 00:29:26
			Right?
		
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28
			There must be some grand intellect, and he
		
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30
			called it the noose,
		
00:29:30 --> 00:29:33
			the intellect. The noose is the one who
		
00:29:33 --> 00:29:34
			ordered the universe.
		
00:29:34 --> 00:29:36
			So that's what his intellect, that's what his
		
00:29:36 --> 00:29:37
			reason,
		
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41
			compelled him to admit
		
00:29:42 --> 00:29:44
			that there's order in the universe and someone
		
00:29:44 --> 00:29:45
			must have put it there. There must be
		
00:29:45 --> 00:29:46
			some,
		
00:29:47 --> 00:29:47
			intelligence
		
00:29:48 --> 00:29:49
			that has ordered the universe.
		
00:29:51 --> 00:29:52
			Alright?
		
00:29:52 --> 00:29:55
			So the rabbis, they speak of Ibrahim alaihis
		
00:29:55 --> 00:29:57
			salam, and they call him Avraham Avinu,
		
00:29:58 --> 00:30:00
			our father Abraham. That he looked at creation,
		
00:30:01 --> 00:30:02
			and he came to know
		
00:30:03 --> 00:30:04
			that god exists.
		
00:30:05 --> 00:30:05
			Right?
		
00:30:06 --> 00:30:08
			So Abraham, according to the Jewish tradition, was
		
00:30:08 --> 00:30:09
			a type of evidentialist.
		
00:30:11 --> 00:30:14
			Right? That you look at evidence to arrive
		
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15
			at faith in god.
		
00:30:15 --> 00:30:17
			And there's something of this in the Quran
		
00:30:17 --> 00:30:19
			as well. We find in Surah Al An'am,
		
00:30:19 --> 00:30:20
			Ibrahim alayhi salaam
		
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23
			looking at a star, a najam,
		
00:30:24 --> 00:30:25
			This is my lord.
		
00:30:26 --> 00:30:27
			And then it set.
		
00:30:27 --> 00:30:28
			This is not my lord.
		
00:30:29 --> 00:30:31
			Right? And then he saw the moon. This
		
00:30:31 --> 00:30:31
			is my lord
		
00:30:32 --> 00:30:33
			and then it set.
		
00:30:33 --> 00:30:35
			Unless Allah guides
		
00:30:35 --> 00:30:37
			me, I shall be of those who are
		
00:30:37 --> 00:30:38
			lost. Then he saw the shams,
		
00:30:39 --> 00:30:40
			the sun.
		
00:30:40 --> 00:30:41
			Right?
		
00:30:42 --> 00:30:43
			This is my lord.
		
00:30:44 --> 00:30:45
			And then it set.
		
00:30:46 --> 00:30:47
			Right?
		
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49
			So don't get the wrong idea here. There's
		
00:30:49 --> 00:30:50
			no question of Ibrahim,
		
00:30:51 --> 00:30:54
			even entertaining the thought of worshiping these celestial
		
00:30:54 --> 00:30:55
			bodies.
		
00:30:55 --> 00:30:58
			Right? This is his argument against his people.
		
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00
			He's trying to demonstrate to them the futility
		
00:31:01 --> 00:31:03
			in the worship of things that are mutable,
		
00:31:04 --> 00:31:05
			things that change.
		
00:31:06 --> 00:31:09
			Something is changing. It's constantly changing.
		
00:31:09 --> 00:31:12
			Even if it's predictable, if it's changing,
		
00:31:12 --> 00:31:13
			then it's not eternal.
		
00:31:14 --> 00:31:15
			If it's not eternal,
		
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18
			then it cannot be worshiped in its right.
		
00:31:19 --> 00:31:20
			It's not a.
		
00:31:21 --> 00:31:22
			Right?
		
00:31:23 --> 00:31:24
			So this is,
		
00:31:24 --> 00:31:26
			This is the point. This is what we
		
00:31:26 --> 00:31:27
			get from the argumentation.
		
00:31:27 --> 00:31:30
			This is this is and Imam Tabari says
		
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32
			there's a bit of sarcasm here, that this
		
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34
			is the argument he's presenting to his people,
		
00:31:34 --> 00:31:36
			that you're worshiping these celestial bodies.
		
00:31:37 --> 00:31:39
			Right? He's trying to understand their thought process,
		
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41
			explain it to them, and and and try
		
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43
			to drive home the futility
		
00:31:43 --> 00:31:46
			of of of worship, of of creation.
		
00:31:48 --> 00:31:50
			Right? God cannot change because god is perfect,
		
00:31:50 --> 00:31:53
			and you can't improve on on perfection.
		
00:31:54 --> 00:31:56
			Right? So the the anthropic principle, right, the
		
00:31:56 --> 00:31:57
			teleological
		
00:31:57 --> 00:31:58
			argument,
		
00:31:59 --> 00:32:01
			Some people call this the argue the argument,
		
00:32:02 --> 00:32:05
			for intelligent design or fine tuning, the great
		
00:32:05 --> 00:32:05
			watchmaker
		
00:32:05 --> 00:32:06
			analogy
		
00:32:06 --> 00:32:08
			going back to William Paley.
		
00:32:10 --> 00:32:11
			So the Midrash,
		
00:32:11 --> 00:32:13
			which is the word for tafsir
		
00:32:14 --> 00:32:14
			in Hebrew,
		
00:32:15 --> 00:32:16
			The Midrash,
		
00:32:17 --> 00:32:18
			says that Ibrahim
		
00:32:19 --> 00:32:20
			as a child,
		
00:32:21 --> 00:32:23
			he figured this out by listening to his
		
00:32:23 --> 00:32:23
			neshama.
		
00:32:24 --> 00:32:25
			This is a term in Hebrew,
		
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28
			neshama, which is translated as mind.
		
00:32:30 --> 00:32:31
			It's more like fitra.
		
00:32:32 --> 00:32:33
			Right, I would say, kind of a theological
		
00:32:34 --> 00:32:34
			or moral
		
00:32:35 --> 00:32:36
			compass,
		
00:32:36 --> 00:32:38
			the level of the soul that sort of
		
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41
			pulls you towards a greater understanding
		
00:32:42 --> 00:32:43
			of the divine.
		
00:32:44 --> 00:32:45
			And this is the purpose of,
		
00:32:46 --> 00:32:49
			the Shabbat, Yom Shabbat, Yom Mesupt.
		
00:32:52 --> 00:32:52
			According
		
00:32:53 --> 00:32:54
			Judaism,
		
00:32:55 --> 00:32:57
			so when the body is not working,
		
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00
			you can listen to your neshama. You can
		
00:33:00 --> 00:33:02
			listen to your moral compass,
		
00:33:03 --> 00:33:05
			if you will. And you reflect upon God
		
00:33:05 --> 00:33:06
			and his greatness.
		
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08
			You listen to your soul
		
00:33:08 --> 00:33:10
			without any type of worldly,
		
00:33:10 --> 00:33:11
			distractions.
		
00:33:12 --> 00:33:13
			So this is a bit akin to the
		
00:33:13 --> 00:33:14
			maturity position
		
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17
			of Akal Ma'akal, that the Akal,
		
00:33:18 --> 00:33:18
			is
		
00:33:20 --> 00:33:22
			enough evidence for the to arrive at a
		
00:33:22 --> 00:33:23
			creator god.
		
00:33:23 --> 00:33:24
			Right?
		
00:33:24 --> 00:33:27
			But the intellect must be aided with to
		
00:33:27 --> 00:33:27
			know
		
00:33:28 --> 00:33:31
			the Sharia, the sacred law. Although the,
		
00:33:31 --> 00:33:32
			one could argue
		
00:33:33 --> 00:33:34
			that there are ma'ruf.
		
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36
			Right? There are things that are simply known
		
00:33:37 --> 00:33:41
			through the intellect, through thing through innate knowledge
		
00:33:41 --> 00:33:42
			that's still given by Allah
		
00:33:43 --> 00:33:45
			That's given the by the,
		
00:33:46 --> 00:33:47
			the one who bestows
		
00:33:49 --> 00:33:50
			that's a
		
00:33:51 --> 00:33:52
			long a long argument
		
00:33:53 --> 00:33:54
			about
		
00:33:54 --> 00:33:57
			whether we have innate knowledge or,
		
00:33:58 --> 00:33:59
			whether we don't.
		
00:34:00 --> 00:34:01
			Okay. So that's basically
		
00:34:01 --> 00:34:02
			the first,
		
00:34:05 --> 00:34:06
			the first point here,
		
00:34:06 --> 00:34:09
			the first principle. Just to recap it again:
		
00:34:09 --> 00:34:11
			God alone is a creator.
		
00:34:12 --> 00:34:14
			There's only one creator. He is the direct
		
00:34:14 --> 00:34:16
			doer of all things, the primary cause, the
		
00:34:16 --> 00:34:20
			efficient cause. That's principle number 1. Principle number
		
00:34:20 --> 00:34:22
			2 for Maimonides, he says, the same beginning,
		
00:34:22 --> 00:34:25
			he says I believe with sound faith that
		
00:34:25 --> 00:34:27
			the creator, blessed be his name.
		
00:34:28 --> 00:34:28
			He says
		
00:34:33 --> 00:34:34
			Remember, Imam
		
00:34:35 --> 00:34:35
			first
		
00:34:36 --> 00:34:36
			statement.
		
00:34:38 --> 00:34:41
			Right? So here, Maimonides says, god is
		
00:34:42 --> 00:34:43
			which is
		
00:34:43 --> 00:34:44
			That's the cognate.
		
00:34:45 --> 00:34:47
			He is 1. He is uniquely
		
00:34:47 --> 00:34:48
			1,
		
00:34:48 --> 00:34:49
			and and then he continues.
		
00:34:54 --> 00:34:55
			And there is not
		
00:34:56 --> 00:34:57
			a uniqueness or oneness
		
00:34:59 --> 00:34:59
			like him
		
00:35:00 --> 00:35:02
			in any way, shape, or form.
		
00:35:04 --> 00:35:04
			Right?
		
00:35:05 --> 00:35:06
			Any way, shape, or form. So a lot
		
00:35:06 --> 00:35:07
			of emphasis.
		
00:35:07 --> 00:35:10
			He continues to say, and he by himself
		
00:35:10 --> 00:35:11
			is our God who was,
		
00:35:12 --> 00:35:12
			is,
		
00:35:13 --> 00:35:13
			and will
		
00:35:14 --> 00:35:17
			be. Or that that he was our God
		
00:35:17 --> 00:35:19
			and is our God and always will be
		
00:35:19 --> 00:35:22
			our God. Again, very poetic here using the
		
00:35:22 --> 00:35:24
			perfect tense and then immediately
		
00:35:25 --> 00:35:26
			the active participle,
		
00:35:26 --> 00:35:27
			then the imperfect
		
00:35:28 --> 00:35:29
			tense.
		
00:35:30 --> 00:35:31
			So basically here then,
		
00:35:32 --> 00:35:35
			with this principle, God is unique and he's
		
00:35:35 --> 00:35:35
			radically
		
00:35:35 --> 00:35:37
			1 and immutable.
		
00:35:37 --> 00:35:39
			Right? He doesn't change.
		
00:35:40 --> 00:35:42
			Right? Malachi chapter 3 verse 6. I am
		
00:35:42 --> 00:35:44
			the lord and I change not.
		
00:35:45 --> 00:35:45
			Right?
		
00:35:46 --> 00:35:46
			That Allah
		
00:35:47 --> 00:35:48
			is.
		
00:35:49 --> 00:35:51
			Right? And this is one of the words
		
00:35:51 --> 00:35:53
			this is one of the names of god
		
00:35:53 --> 00:35:55
			according to the rabbinical tradition as well. It
		
00:35:55 --> 00:35:57
			doesn't mean the peace. It means the perfect.
		
00:35:57 --> 00:36:00
			That God is perfect. He doesn't change
		
00:36:00 --> 00:36:02
			because he is perfect,
		
00:36:02 --> 00:36:05
			and you cannot improve on perfection.
		
00:36:07 --> 00:36:09
			So the commentators also say here that God
		
00:36:09 --> 00:36:10
			does not incarnate,
		
00:36:12 --> 00:36:14
			into human flesh. He doesn't become a human
		
00:36:14 --> 00:36:15
			being.
		
00:36:15 --> 00:36:16
			This would compromise
		
00:36:16 --> 00:36:17
			his radical uniqueness
		
00:36:19 --> 00:36:20
			and his immutability.
		
00:36:21 --> 00:36:24
			He is also transcendent of space, time,
		
00:36:24 --> 00:36:25
			and matter.
		
00:36:26 --> 00:36:26
			Right?
		
00:36:28 --> 00:36:31
			So the word for uniqueness or in Arabic,
		
00:36:33 --> 00:36:34
			the Hebrew equivalent
		
00:36:40 --> 00:36:41
			is Right? And the great statement in the
		
00:36:41 --> 00:36:42
			Torah,
		
00:36:43 --> 00:36:43
			the great,
		
00:36:44 --> 00:36:45
			monotheistic
		
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48
			statement of the Torah is Deuteronomy 64. So
		
00:36:48 --> 00:36:51
			remember, Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The
		
00:36:51 --> 00:36:53
			5th book of the Chumash,
		
00:36:54 --> 00:36:56
			the 5th book of the 5 books of
		
00:36:56 --> 00:36:59
			Moses is called Deuteronomy. That's the that's the
		
00:36:59 --> 00:37:00
			English name taken from,
		
00:37:01 --> 00:37:02
			the Latin,
		
00:37:03 --> 00:37:06
			or Greek, meaning second law.
		
00:37:07 --> 00:37:08
			64 of Deuteronomy,
		
00:37:11 --> 00:37:12
			This is like their shahada.
		
00:37:13 --> 00:37:14
			Right?
		
00:37:14 --> 00:37:16
			So when one enters into Judaism
		
00:37:17 --> 00:37:18
			and one can convert into Judaism,
		
00:37:20 --> 00:37:21
			there's there's,
		
00:37:21 --> 00:37:23
			there's some sort of misunderstanding,
		
00:37:23 --> 00:37:25
			popular misunderstanding that
		
00:37:25 --> 00:37:27
			Judaism does not allow
		
00:37:27 --> 00:37:30
			proselytes or converts. That's not true at all.
		
00:37:30 --> 00:37:31
			You can convert to Judaism.
		
00:37:32 --> 00:37:34
			And when one does convert to Judaism, one
		
00:37:34 --> 00:37:37
			will recite the Shema. The Shema, Deuteronomy 64.
		
00:37:37 --> 00:37:40
			Hear, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the
		
00:37:40 --> 00:37:41
			Lord is 1.
		
00:37:42 --> 00:37:42
			Right?
		
00:37:43 --> 00:37:43
			And,
		
00:37:44 --> 00:37:47
			devout Jews, they try to recite this
		
00:37:48 --> 00:37:49
			as much as they can. They want it
		
00:37:49 --> 00:37:51
			to be the last words on their tongue
		
00:37:51 --> 00:37:52
			before they die.
		
00:37:53 --> 00:37:55
			That god is echad.
		
00:37:58 --> 00:38:00
			The word the Hebrew word echad is spelled
		
00:38:01 --> 00:38:02
			exactly the same as
		
00:38:02 --> 00:38:03
			ahad.
		
00:38:05 --> 00:38:06
			God is 1.
		
00:38:06 --> 00:38:07
			Right?
		
00:38:07 --> 00:38:08
			And there's some interesting
		
00:38:09 --> 00:38:10
			curious parallels,
		
00:38:11 --> 00:38:12
			to,
		
00:38:12 --> 00:38:13
			Plato.
		
00:38:13 --> 00:38:15
			In the Parmenides, for example,
		
00:38:16 --> 00:38:17
			Plato refers to God
		
00:38:18 --> 00:38:19
			as Tahen,
		
00:38:20 --> 00:38:21
			the one.
		
00:38:21 --> 00:38:23
			Right? Of course, Plotinus,
		
00:38:23 --> 00:38:25
			who wrote Aeneidus, who is the great formulator
		
00:38:25 --> 00:38:28
			of Neo Platonism, which is a 3rd century
		
00:38:28 --> 00:38:30
			religious interpretation of Plato,
		
00:38:31 --> 00:38:32
			where you have this
		
00:38:33 --> 00:38:35
			whole system. He's a system builder of the
		
00:38:35 --> 00:38:38
			hierarchy of being and so on and so
		
00:38:38 --> 00:38:39
			forth, and the the godhead
		
00:38:40 --> 00:38:42
			consisting of the the one that he said,
		
00:38:42 --> 00:38:44
			tachin, then you have the logos,
		
00:38:44 --> 00:38:47
			then you have the psuche, the spirit.
		
00:38:47 --> 00:38:49
			Right? And we'll talk more about that when
		
00:38:49 --> 00:38:52
			we get to Christianity because Christians borrowed from
		
00:38:52 --> 00:38:52
			this idea.
		
00:38:54 --> 00:38:55
			But even if you go back to Plato
		
00:38:55 --> 00:38:57
			again, in the Timaeus,
		
00:38:58 --> 00:38:59
			right, one of his,
		
00:38:59 --> 00:39:00
			dialogues,
		
00:39:01 --> 00:39:03
			he says that god looked around the world
		
00:39:03 --> 00:39:05
			and he said it was good.
		
00:39:06 --> 00:39:07
			Right?
		
00:39:08 --> 00:39:10
			And that is very curious parallel to something
		
00:39:10 --> 00:39:13
			we find in Genesis 1 when god is
		
00:39:13 --> 00:39:14
			creating in stages
		
00:39:15 --> 00:39:16
			right, on these
		
00:39:17 --> 00:39:17
			different
		
00:39:19 --> 00:39:21
			what is the plural of yom in in
		
00:39:21 --> 00:39:21
			Hebrew?
		
00:39:22 --> 00:39:24
			I think it's yomim. I think it's a
		
00:39:24 --> 00:39:26
			sound plural. We'd say I am in Arabic.
		
00:39:26 --> 00:39:29
			God is when God is creating different things
		
00:39:29 --> 00:39:29
			on these yomim,
		
00:39:30 --> 00:39:31
			after each day he says,
		
00:39:33 --> 00:39:35
			it is good. It is good. And this
		
00:39:35 --> 00:39:36
			is
		
00:39:36 --> 00:39:39
			something that Plato says in the Timaeus.
		
00:39:39 --> 00:39:42
			There is this legend. Right? This is sort
		
00:39:42 --> 00:39:43
			of ad hoc.
		
00:39:43 --> 00:39:45
			There's no strong evidence of this, but there's
		
00:39:45 --> 00:39:47
			this legend, very interesting, that Plato
		
00:39:48 --> 00:39:49
			was captured at Syracuse,
		
00:39:50 --> 00:39:51
			and he was enslaved,
		
00:39:52 --> 00:39:53
			and he was brought to Egypt.
		
00:39:54 --> 00:39:56
			And Egypt at the time of Plato
		
00:39:57 --> 00:39:59
			had a pretty sizable
		
00:39:59 --> 00:40:00
			Jewish population.
		
00:40:01 --> 00:40:02
			I mean, Alexandria
		
00:40:02 --> 00:40:03
			in Egypt,
		
00:40:04 --> 00:40:04
			would be
		
00:40:05 --> 00:40:07
			one of the great Jewish capitals of the
		
00:40:07 --> 00:40:07
			world,
		
00:40:08 --> 00:40:09
			the first place where the Torah
		
00:40:10 --> 00:40:11
			was translated
		
00:40:11 --> 00:40:13
			into Greek, into any other language, the first
		
00:40:13 --> 00:40:14
			language was Greek,
		
00:40:15 --> 00:40:16
			was in,
		
00:40:17 --> 00:40:19
			Alexandria, Egypt in 250 before the Common Era.
		
00:40:20 --> 00:40:22
			So there's a there's a sizable population of
		
00:40:22 --> 00:40:24
			Jews living in Egypt,
		
00:40:24 --> 00:40:26
			and the legend is that Plato
		
00:40:27 --> 00:40:29
			in Egypt read the books of Moses,
		
00:40:30 --> 00:40:31
			and he was highly influenced
		
00:40:33 --> 00:40:34
			in his metaphysics.
		
00:40:35 --> 00:40:37
			Right? Again, there's no evidence of this as
		
00:40:37 --> 00:40:39
			conjecture, but it's an interesting theory. Of course,
		
00:40:39 --> 00:40:41
			Plato is much more
		
00:40:41 --> 00:40:43
			metaphysical than someone like Aristotle,
		
00:40:44 --> 00:40:46
			even though Aristotle studied under Plato. If you've
		
00:40:46 --> 00:40:48
			ever seen that great painting of Raphael.
		
00:40:49 --> 00:40:51
			Right? It's called the Academy
		
00:40:51 --> 00:40:54
			where you have, all these philosophers and then
		
00:40:54 --> 00:40:55
			right in the middle
		
00:40:55 --> 00:40:57
			on the left side, I believe, you have
		
00:40:57 --> 00:40:58
			Plato
		
00:40:58 --> 00:41:00
			who's holding the Timaeus.
		
00:41:00 --> 00:41:03
			Right? His most metaphysical work, and he's pointing
		
00:41:03 --> 00:41:04
			up like this
		
00:41:04 --> 00:41:06
			because for Plato,
		
00:41:07 --> 00:41:08
			reality
		
00:41:08 --> 00:41:10
			I mean the real essences of things are
		
00:41:10 --> 00:41:12
			found in the celestial realm.
		
00:41:13 --> 00:41:15
			What we have here are just
		
00:41:15 --> 00:41:17
			shadows on the wall, if you will.
		
00:41:18 --> 00:41:20
			Right? So, here, the famous
		
00:41:21 --> 00:41:22
			theory of ideal forms
		
00:41:23 --> 00:41:24
			in the celestial realm,
		
00:41:25 --> 00:41:26
			the essences of things.
		
00:41:26 --> 00:41:27
			Right?
		
00:41:29 --> 00:41:30
			And of course, the the essence or the
		
00:41:30 --> 00:41:32
			form of the good, Ta'agathan,
		
00:41:33 --> 00:41:35
			is God. He's the form of the good
		
00:41:36 --> 00:41:36
			for Plato.
		
00:41:37 --> 00:41:38
			This idea would be bothered
		
00:41:38 --> 00:41:39
			would be borrowed
		
00:41:40 --> 00:41:41
			by Middle Platonists
		
00:41:42 --> 00:41:44
			who were religious and they would say all
		
00:41:44 --> 00:41:44
			of these forms
		
00:41:46 --> 00:41:47
			God's mind.
		
00:41:48 --> 00:41:48
			Right?
		
00:41:49 --> 00:41:52
			But Aristotle in that painting
		
00:41:52 --> 00:41:54
			is to the right and he's holding his
		
00:41:54 --> 00:41:55
			Ethics
		
00:41:55 --> 00:41:57
			and he's got his hand over the Earth
		
00:41:57 --> 00:41:59
			like this. He's not pointing up. He's pointing
		
00:42:00 --> 00:42:03
			parallel to the to the Earth because Aristotle
		
00:42:03 --> 00:42:04
			is an empiricist,
		
00:42:05 --> 00:42:06
			and a hylomorphist.
		
00:42:07 --> 00:42:08
			He believed that the essences or forms of
		
00:42:08 --> 00:42:10
			things are in matter itself.
		
00:42:11 --> 00:42:14
			Form or essence and matter are not separate,
		
00:42:15 --> 00:42:17
			as as Plato taught, so that was a
		
00:42:17 --> 00:42:20
			major difference of opinion that Aristotle had with
		
00:42:20 --> 00:42:21
			his teacher, Plato.
		
00:42:24 --> 00:42:25
			But nonetheless,
		
00:42:26 --> 00:42:29
			whatever happened here? It's an interesting, curious parallel
		
00:42:29 --> 00:42:29
			between Genesis
		
00:42:30 --> 00:42:31
			and some of the Platonic,
		
00:42:32 --> 00:42:33
			dialogues.
		
00:42:35 --> 00:42:37
			So Shema. Right? So the Shema,
		
00:42:38 --> 00:42:39
			right, their Shehadah
		
00:42:40 --> 00:42:41
			begins with hear.
		
00:42:42 --> 00:42:44
			Hear, o Israel. The Lord our God, the
		
00:42:44 --> 00:42:45
			Lord is 1.
		
00:42:46 --> 00:42:48
			And to hear doesn't just mean to hear.
		
00:42:48 --> 00:42:50
			It means to receive, to accept.
		
00:42:51 --> 00:42:52
			Really, it means to obey.
		
00:42:53 --> 00:42:53
			Right?
		
00:42:54 --> 00:42:55
			So the 5 senses,
		
00:42:56 --> 00:42:57
			the 5 physical senses,
		
00:42:59 --> 00:43:00
			they correlate
		
00:43:01 --> 00:43:02
			to different
		
00:43:03 --> 00:43:05
			spiritual senses, if you will.
		
00:43:06 --> 00:43:07
			Right? There's sort of a correlation
		
00:43:08 --> 00:43:10
			dealing with spirituality.
		
00:43:11 --> 00:43:13
			So in scripture, to give you an example,
		
00:43:15 --> 00:43:17
			hearing something means to obey.
		
00:43:18 --> 00:43:18
			Right?
		
00:43:20 --> 00:43:22
			They said we believe,
		
00:43:23 --> 00:43:25
			we we hear, and we obey. So this
		
00:43:25 --> 00:43:27
			is these are synonymous. This is,
		
00:43:27 --> 00:43:28
			synonymic
		
00:43:28 --> 00:43:29
			juxtaposition
		
00:43:29 --> 00:43:29
			here.
		
00:43:30 --> 00:43:31
			Right? They're synonyms.
		
00:43:32 --> 00:43:34
			To hear something means to obey.
		
00:43:34 --> 00:43:35
			To
		
00:43:35 --> 00:43:37
			see something means to understand.
		
00:43:38 --> 00:43:40
			It's interesting ayah in the Quran.
		
00:43:43 --> 00:43:44
			Where Allah
		
00:43:45 --> 00:43:46
			is speaking to the prophet
		
00:43:46 --> 00:43:48
			when you call them to guidance,
		
00:43:49 --> 00:43:51
			right, they don't hear.
		
00:43:51 --> 00:43:53
			What does it mean they don't hear?
		
00:43:54 --> 00:43:55
			They didn't hear the words of the prophet
		
00:43:55 --> 00:43:57
			sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Of course, they heard
		
00:43:57 --> 00:43:59
			him. They don't obey him.
		
00:44:02 --> 00:44:04
			And you see them looking at you,
		
00:44:05 --> 00:44:06
			but they didn't see.
		
00:44:07 --> 00:44:09
			You see them looking at you, but they
		
00:44:09 --> 00:44:10
			don't see.
		
00:44:11 --> 00:44:11
			Right?
		
00:44:12 --> 00:44:14
			To see something means to understand something. Right?
		
00:44:14 --> 00:44:16
			You say that in English. Someone explains something
		
00:44:16 --> 00:44:18
			to you, you say, ah, I see.
		
00:44:19 --> 00:44:20
			Right?
		
00:44:20 --> 00:44:23
			And then you have 3 different degrees of
		
00:44:23 --> 00:44:23
			experience.
		
00:44:24 --> 00:44:26
			Smell, touch, and taste.
		
00:44:26 --> 00:44:28
			Smell something. Right? You don't quite touch it,
		
00:44:28 --> 00:44:30
			but you get something of it,
		
00:44:30 --> 00:44:32
			then you touch something
		
00:44:32 --> 00:44:34
			that's a deeper level of experience,
		
00:44:35 --> 00:44:37
			and then you taste it.
		
00:44:37 --> 00:44:38
			That's the deepest.
		
00:44:39 --> 00:44:39
			Right?
		
00:44:40 --> 00:44:42
			You take it into your body, you accept
		
00:44:42 --> 00:44:43
			it completely.
		
00:44:44 --> 00:44:47
			It's zok. Right? Imam Ghazali talks about this.
		
00:44:47 --> 00:44:49
			Zok, to taste one's faith. There's hadith that
		
00:44:49 --> 00:44:50
			mentioned.
		
00:44:50 --> 00:44:52
			The sweetness of faith, the taste,
		
00:44:53 --> 00:44:54
			right, the sweetness of faith.
		
00:44:55 --> 00:44:58
			So the Shema's, hear, O Israel, the Lord
		
00:44:58 --> 00:45:00
			our God, the Lord is 1, doesn't just
		
00:45:00 --> 00:45:01
			mean hearer.
		
00:45:02 --> 00:45:03
			It means to obey.
		
00:45:04 --> 00:45:06
			Right? Obey. The Lord our God, the Lord
		
00:45:06 --> 00:45:07
			is 1.
		
00:45:08 --> 00:45:10
			Right? So the rabbis say that
		
00:45:11 --> 00:45:12
			God is 1.
		
00:45:13 --> 00:45:14
			Yes.
		
00:45:14 --> 00:45:17
			It's not enough to just accept the rational
		
00:45:17 --> 00:45:18
			proposition that god is 1
		
00:45:19 --> 00:45:21
			just to give it some ear service.
		
00:45:21 --> 00:45:24
			One must prove one's faith, they say,
		
00:45:24 --> 00:45:26
			by following the commandments.
		
00:45:27 --> 00:45:29
			The Mitzvot this is the Hebrew term that's
		
00:45:29 --> 00:45:30
			used,
		
00:45:30 --> 00:45:32
			in the Bible. Mitzvot
		
00:45:32 --> 00:45:33
			are commandments.
		
00:45:34 --> 00:45:34
			Alright?
		
00:45:35 --> 00:45:36
			So there are 3 requirements
		
00:45:37 --> 00:45:38
			for the new convert.
		
00:45:39 --> 00:45:41
			Right? And I think the
		
00:45:41 --> 00:45:42
			the misunderstanding
		
00:45:42 --> 00:45:43
			comes from
		
00:45:45 --> 00:45:48
			the idea that in Orthodox Judaism, as well
		
00:45:48 --> 00:45:50
			as conservative Judaism,
		
00:45:50 --> 00:45:51
			it is not necessary
		
00:45:52 --> 00:45:55
			for one to convert to Judaism in order
		
00:45:55 --> 00:45:55
			to
		
00:45:55 --> 00:45:58
			be successful in both worlds.
		
00:45:58 --> 00:45:59
			This is very interesting.
		
00:46:00 --> 00:46:00
			Right?
		
00:46:02 --> 00:46:04
			So Jews in the Orthodox tradition and the
		
00:46:04 --> 00:46:07
			conservative tradition and other reform as well,
		
00:46:08 --> 00:46:10
			Although, when we get to reform Judaism, many
		
00:46:10 --> 00:46:11
			of them don't even believe in god. So
		
00:46:11 --> 00:46:13
			we'll we'll just talk about the orthodox tradition.
		
00:46:15 --> 00:46:18
			There are 7 laws that they call the
		
00:46:18 --> 00:46:19
			Noahitic laws.
		
00:46:20 --> 00:46:23
			The Noahitic laws, the Noahide laws. They're called
		
00:46:23 --> 00:46:23
			the,
		
00:46:24 --> 00:46:25
			the Sheva,
		
00:46:26 --> 00:46:27
			Mitzvotayv
		
00:46:27 --> 00:46:29
			Bani Noach, the seven laws of the children
		
00:46:29 --> 00:46:30
			of Noah.
		
00:46:32 --> 00:46:33
			For non Jews.
		
00:46:33 --> 00:46:35
			So if you're born
		
00:46:36 --> 00:46:36
			outside
		
00:46:36 --> 00:46:38
			of the Jewish
		
00:46:38 --> 00:46:38
			faith
		
00:46:39 --> 00:46:41
			or your mother is not Jewish. If your
		
00:46:41 --> 00:46:42
			mother is Jewish,
		
00:46:43 --> 00:46:46
			then you have to follow all 613
		
00:46:46 --> 00:46:47
			of the commandments.
		
00:46:48 --> 00:46:50
			There's no way out of it. You can't
		
00:46:50 --> 00:46:51
			say I converted to Islam,
		
00:46:52 --> 00:46:54
			therefore I'm just going to follow the 7
		
00:46:54 --> 00:46:57
			Noah Hittic Laws, and I'll be fine. That
		
00:46:57 --> 00:46:57
			conversion
		
00:46:58 --> 00:46:59
			is not acceptable.
		
00:47:00 --> 00:47:02
			If your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish.
		
00:47:03 --> 00:47:04
			So in Judaism,
		
00:47:06 --> 00:47:09
			the Jewish faith is passed matrilineally.
		
00:47:10 --> 00:47:12
			The tribe comes from the father,
		
00:47:12 --> 00:47:14
			you know, whatever your tribe the tribe of
		
00:47:14 --> 00:47:15
			Judah, the tribe of Levi.
		
00:47:16 --> 00:47:16
			Right?
		
00:47:17 --> 00:47:19
			The the tribe of of Simeon, of Issachar,
		
00:47:19 --> 00:47:21
			whoever your whoever it might be, the 12
		
00:47:21 --> 00:47:22
			tribes.
		
00:47:22 --> 00:47:24
			But Jewishness is passed through the mother.
		
00:47:25 --> 00:47:27
			Right? But let's just say that you're,
		
00:47:29 --> 00:47:31
			you're an Iranian like me. Right?
		
00:47:32 --> 00:47:33
			My mother is not Jewish.
		
00:47:34 --> 00:47:34
			So
		
00:47:35 --> 00:47:36
			if I believed,
		
00:47:36 --> 00:47:39
			if and I kept the 7 Noahitic laws
		
00:47:40 --> 00:47:40
			And these 7 Noahitic
		
00:47:41 --> 00:47:42
			laws,
		
00:47:44 --> 00:47:47
			Jews would argue are. They're known. They're innate.
		
00:47:48 --> 00:47:48
			They're axiomatic.
		
00:47:49 --> 00:47:50
			Right?
		
00:47:50 --> 00:47:52
			Everybody knows them.
		
00:47:52 --> 00:47:55
			They are God is 1 or sometimes they
		
00:47:55 --> 00:47:57
			explain it by saying that there's
		
00:47:58 --> 00:48:01
			people know innately the futility of worshiping idols,
		
00:48:01 --> 00:48:04
			the futility of worshiping material things. They know
		
00:48:04 --> 00:48:06
			innately that's wrong, even though a lot of
		
00:48:06 --> 00:48:07
			people do that.
		
00:48:07 --> 00:48:09
			It goes against the fitra. And of course,
		
00:48:09 --> 00:48:10
			the fitra can be
		
00:48:11 --> 00:48:13
			God is one not to steal,
		
00:48:14 --> 00:48:15
			not to commit adultery,
		
00:48:18 --> 00:48:18
			right?
		
00:48:20 --> 00:48:21
			Not to murder,
		
00:48:22 --> 00:48:22
			Right?
		
00:48:24 --> 00:48:25
			Not to
		
00:48:30 --> 00:48:32
			while it's still alive. Basically, what that means
		
00:48:32 --> 00:48:33
			is respect creation,
		
00:48:34 --> 00:48:36
			respect animals, respect all of creation.
		
00:48:37 --> 00:48:38
			Set up courts of justice
		
00:48:39 --> 00:48:40
			is one of them as well.
		
00:48:43 --> 00:48:44
			See if I can
		
00:48:45 --> 00:48:46
			I think I'm missing one here?
		
00:48:48 --> 00:48:48
			Yeah.
		
00:48:49 --> 00:48:51
			Oh, don't blaspheme God.
		
00:48:51 --> 00:48:53
			Right? So it
		
00:48:53 --> 00:48:56
			recognizes a single creator, God. That's the first
		
00:48:56 --> 00:48:58
			one. And then not to blaspheme God or
		
00:48:58 --> 00:49:00
			curse God. So if one recognizes
		
00:49:00 --> 00:49:02
			that God is a creator and he's all
		
00:49:02 --> 00:49:04
			powerful and he's and he's the creator of
		
00:49:04 --> 00:49:05
			us, he's the creator of
		
00:49:06 --> 00:49:08
			everything, then one knows not to just be
		
00:49:08 --> 00:49:09
			disrespectful
		
00:49:09 --> 00:49:11
			towards God. So those are the 7. So
		
00:49:11 --> 00:49:12
			according to Judaism,
		
00:49:13 --> 00:49:16
			if 1 if a Gentile
		
00:49:16 --> 00:49:18
			that's the word for non Jew or goi
		
00:49:18 --> 00:49:19
			in Hebrew
		
00:49:19 --> 00:49:23
			if a goi follows these 7 Noahitic laws,
		
00:49:23 --> 00:49:24
			they will be successful
		
00:49:25 --> 00:49:27
			in this life and the next, and the
		
00:49:27 --> 00:49:28
			next life is what takes precedence.
		
00:49:29 --> 00:49:31
			They call it the olam haba, the world
		
00:49:31 --> 00:49:33
			to come. This is the olam hazeh.
		
00:49:33 --> 00:49:36
			This is this world. Right? And then there's
		
00:49:36 --> 00:49:38
			an olam haba, the coming world.
		
00:49:39 --> 00:49:41
			Right? So one so
		
00:49:44 --> 00:49:45
			rabbis are trained.
		
00:49:46 --> 00:49:48
			If someone comes to them, if a goy
		
00:49:48 --> 00:49:49
			comes to them and says, I want to
		
00:49:49 --> 00:49:50
			convert to Judaism,
		
00:49:51 --> 00:49:53
			the rabbis are trained to turn that person
		
00:49:53 --> 00:49:54
			away 3 times.
		
00:49:55 --> 00:49:58
			Because for them, there's no need to convert
		
00:49:58 --> 00:49:58
			to Judaism.
		
00:49:59 --> 00:50:01
			If you follow the 7 Noahidek Laws, you'll
		
00:50:01 --> 00:50:02
			be successful.
		
00:50:04 --> 00:50:06
			Right? But, they say, if you become a
		
00:50:06 --> 00:50:07
			Jew,
		
00:50:08 --> 00:50:09
			then the burden
		
00:50:11 --> 00:50:12
			of spreading the light
		
00:50:13 --> 00:50:16
			of El Echad falls down on your shoulders.
		
00:50:16 --> 00:50:18
			Now you have a great responsibility
		
00:50:19 --> 00:50:20
			to spread
		
00:50:20 --> 00:50:22
			the light of monotheism
		
00:50:23 --> 00:50:24
			to all the nations,
		
00:50:25 --> 00:50:26
			and
		
00:50:26 --> 00:50:28
			you're going to fall short of that.
		
00:50:29 --> 00:50:31
			And oftentimes in Jewish history, you have what's
		
00:50:31 --> 00:50:32
			known as collective punishment.
		
00:50:33 --> 00:50:35
			You have the Jewish nation being punished as
		
00:50:35 --> 00:50:37
			a whole. So the rabbis would tell the
		
00:50:37 --> 00:50:37
			proselyte,
		
00:50:38 --> 00:50:39
			if you wanna convert,
		
00:50:39 --> 00:50:40
			get ready
		
00:50:40 --> 00:50:43
			for a lot of trials and tribulations and
		
00:50:43 --> 00:50:45
			Musi Ba'at and so on and so forth.
		
00:50:45 --> 00:50:46
			It's not going to be easy.
		
00:50:47 --> 00:50:48
			Or you can remain
		
00:50:48 --> 00:50:51
			a non Jew, follow the 7 Noahidek Laws,
		
00:50:51 --> 00:50:53
			and you'll go to the next life, and
		
00:50:53 --> 00:50:54
			you'll be in a good state.
		
00:50:54 --> 00:50:56
			So what's then the incentive for becoming a
		
00:50:56 --> 00:50:59
			Jew then? Why would anyone convert to Judah?
		
00:50:59 --> 00:51:00
			Well, if you convert to Judaism
		
00:51:01 --> 00:51:02
			and you keep all 613
		
00:51:03 --> 00:51:03
			Commandments,
		
00:51:04 --> 00:51:05
			right,
		
00:51:05 --> 00:51:06
			and you do them
		
00:51:07 --> 00:51:09
			and you suffer in this world, you will
		
00:51:09 --> 00:51:11
			have the highest of stations
		
00:51:11 --> 00:51:12
			in the next life.
		
00:51:12 --> 00:51:15
			That's the incentive. So there's degrees in the
		
00:51:15 --> 00:51:17
			olam haba in the world to come.
		
00:51:18 --> 00:51:20
			I'm out of time. We'll continue talking about
		
00:51:20 --> 00:51:22
			these principles next
		
00:51:26 --> 00:51:27
			time.