The Charlie Kirk Show - October 11, 2024


Into the Wilderness—The Book of Numbers ft. Dennis Prager

Topics
belief in God animal rights in Torah Yom Kippur and Shabbat rituals ingratitude
Hosted by
Charlie Kirk
Mentioned
Dennis Prager Torah Yom Kippur Shabbat Aaron Balaam King Balak Wonder Story Shakespeare Deuteronomy Exodus Brown Moab Turning Point USA Jesus Revolution Gillian Anderson Jacob Milgram Helen Mirren Fred Charlie Beethoven Hebrews and 5 more
Chase a Ballot a Day to Send Kamala Away The Good News In Georgia, Arizona, and Nationwide

Episode Stats


Length

44 minutes

Words per minute

144.46

Word count

6,455

Sentence count

667

Harmful content

Toxicity

15

sentences flagged

Hate speech

39

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Dennis Prager shares phenomenal wisdom and applies the Book of Numbers to today's world. Charlie Kirk is one of my heroes and teachers, someone who I greatly admire and respect, and I'm so excited for the full hour to dive into his latest book, "Your Rational Bible: A Commentary on the Book Of Numbers." I think you'll love it! Thank you so much for listening to The Charlie Kirk Show with Dennis Prager. It's a great listen and a must-listen for anyone who wants to learn more about the book of Numbers and what it means to be a Christian in the modern world. I'm sure you'll agree that it's one of the most important books in the Old Testament, and it's a book that can help us understand the world in which we live in today, and how we should live in the world we're living in today. I hope you enjoy this episode, and if you do, please share it with a friend or family member who needs to know more about Numbers and why it's so important to know about it. The book of numbers is so important. If you don't have a Bible, or don't want to learn about it, then you'll have to listen to this episode of The Charlie Kirker Show with someone who does. You'll get a much better idea of what the book is really means to you, so you can begin to understand what it's all about. What does it all mean to you? You're in the right place, right now, right in the moment, right here, in this moment, and you're in time, right where you're going to be in the place you need to be? You can't ask for it, you're not going to get it, because it's coming soon, it's here, right? It's all here. And you'll learn it, right on the other side of God's Word, you'll be there, right at the front of your head, right there, in front of you, in the next 24 hours, right across the screen, right next to you. . That's right, right before you're gonna get it. You're not gonna want to miss it? - Charlie Kirk's show! - The Charlie and I are here! "The Book of the Numbers is not a math book, it s a Bible that explains it all. -

Transcript

Transcripts from "The Charlie Kirk Show" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk Show, a wonderful conversation with Dennis Prager.
00:00:04.000 We talk about the Book of Numbers.
00:00:05.000 Now, before you decide to listen to another podcast, you're going to love this conversation about one of the most important books of the Bible.
00:00:11.000 What is it actually called?
00:00:13.000 We discussed that. Dennis Prager shares phenomenal wisdom and applies the Book of Numbers to today.
00:00:18.000 I think you'll love it. Become a member today, members.charliekirk.com.
00:00:22.000 That is members.charliekirk.com.
00:00:24.000 When you become a member, you guys get a hat and so much more, and get involved with Turning Point USA at tpusa.com.
00:00:31.000 That is tpusa.com.
00:00:33.000 Email me, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:00:36.000 Buckle up, everybody. Here we go.
00:00:37.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
00:00:39.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
00:00:41.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
00:00:45.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
00:00:48.000 I want to thank Charlie. He's an incredible guy.
00:00:50.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA. We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:01:07.000 That's why we are here.
00:01:11.000 Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of The Charlie Kirk Show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals.
00:01:21.000 Learn how you can protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:27.000 That is noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:29.000 It's where I buy all of my gold.
00:01:31.000 Go to noblegoldinvestments.com.
00:01:35.000 Joining us now is one of my heroes and teachers, someone who I greatly admire and respect.
00:01:41.000 I'm so excited for the full hour to dive into his latest book.
00:01:45.000 And I believe the finale, is that right, Dennis, of your rational Bible?
00:01:51.000 No, no, no. I wish...
00:01:52.000 Leviticus, I'm sorry.
00:01:54.000 No, there's still... It's the fourth of the five books.
00:01:57.000 Okay, no, I mean, of course you have to finish with Leviticus.
00:02:00.000 I mean, that...
00:02:02.000 So, I want to remind everybody, this is the Rational Bible Numbers.
00:02:06.000 It is not a math book, okay?
00:02:09.000 This is not a math book.
00:02:12.000 When you see Prager Numbers, you think it's about geometry.
00:02:16.000 Dennis, tell us about this very important work, and congratulations.
00:02:20.000 It is remarkable what you're accomplishing here.
00:02:23.000 Well, this is the most important work of my life in some ways.
00:02:28.000 You know, I look at my work as parents look at their children in a healthy situation, which thank God I have.
00:02:37.000 I love my children equally, but of course they're all unique.
00:02:42.000 So in some ways it truly is the most important, certainly the thing I've devoted the most time to, writing What's called a commentary.
00:02:51.000 I think the better word is an explanation of the first five books of the Bible known as the Torah.
00:02:57.000 And people need to understand that those are the foundational five books of the whole Old Testament and the New Testament.
00:03:06.000 No Torah, no Judaism. 1.00
00:03:08.000 No Torah, no Christianity. 1.00
00:03:10.000 No Torah, no Old Testament.
00:03:12.000 No Torah. No New Testament. 0.50
00:03:16.000 Every law of the Bible is in the Torah.
00:03:18.000 Everything that people value, the Ten Commandments, the Garden of Eden, the creation story, it's love your neighbor as yourself, love God, it's all in the Torah.
00:03:31.000 Everything blossoms from there.
00:03:33.000 However, if you just pick it up and read it, it is very hard to understand, as is true of much of the Bible.
00:03:39.000 We need people to help us through what is really meant here.
00:03:44.000 And I don't care if people begin with Genesis or Exodus or Numbers, which is coming out now, or Deuteronomy.
00:03:55.000 It doesn't matter.
00:03:57.000 Each volume stands on its own.
00:03:59.000 It does not build on the preceding volume.
00:04:03.000 And the number of important themes in every one of these books.
00:04:07.000 I'm crazy about the book of numbers.
00:04:09.000 I am too. When you ask people, you know, what's in it, most people don't even have a clue.
00:04:15.000 And I don't blame them.
00:04:17.000 And the name is so boring in any event who would want to know what's in the book of numbers.
00:04:22.000 The Hebrew is the really sexy name, in the wilderness. 0.97
00:04:26.000 Dennis, I have to interrupt.
00:04:27.000 It is one of my passions in life to get Christians to accurately name the Book of Numbers in the wilderness.
00:04:35.000 You know what? You may succeed.
00:04:37.000 If you are so young, if you keep doing that and live as long as I have, I hope you do it.
00:04:45.000 It's a silly name numbers.
00:04:48.000 I understand why it's there, because a census is taken, a few censuses, but so what? 0.61
00:04:54.000 The Hebrew tells it much better.
00:04:57.000 But by the way, let me give the English some kudos.
00:05:01.000 The Hebrew for Exodus is just as boring as numbers in English.
00:05:06.000 Names, right? Yeah, names.
00:05:11.000 Exodus comes from the Greek exhodos, which means the way out.
00:05:15.000 And so I'm so glad we did not name the second book of the Bible names.
00:05:22.000 No, exactly right.
00:05:24.000 But it is in the wilderness.
00:05:26.000 So, a couple of the themes, and people will realize why I think this work is so important and life-changing.
00:05:35.000 So, for example, in the book, I'm going to try to get the quote exactly here.
00:05:43.000 Let me turn to it.
00:05:44.000 Yeah. So, in the book, let's see.
00:05:48.000 Yeah. In 11.5, chapter 11, verse 5, the Israelites or Hebrews or Jews, however you want to refer to them, they say, we remember their rebelling against Moses again.
00:06:02.000 We remember the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
00:06:12.000 This... It is almost impossible, Charlie, to overstate the relevance and importance of that verse.
00:06:20.000 We rather eat for free as slaves than work for food as free people.
00:06:29.000 People, this is one of the themes of my life, liberty is not a human yearning.
00:06:36.000 To be taken care of is a human yearning.
00:06:39.000 Now Dennis, did you have that view before COVID, that freedom is a value?
00:06:46.000 Because I don't remember, I've listened to you as you know, I've listened to hundreds of hours of you, it seems around COVID that became more pronounced.
00:06:55.000 Oh, there's no question.
00:06:56.000 Yeah, yeah. Charlie, you should definitely, if you're born 40 years from now, consider writing a synopsis of Dennis Prager's ideas.
00:07:07.000 Nobody knows them better than you do.
00:07:10.000 I'm really honored to say, by the way.
00:07:13.000 But anyway, yeah, you're probably right.
00:07:16.000 And so it's really perfect that I should have been writing numbers at that time.
00:07:23.000 But this is so huge.
00:07:26.000 If people understand this, that's why liberty is one of the three values on American coins.
00:07:31.000 As you know, I call it the American Trinity.
00:07:33.000 Liberty and God we trust, e pluribus unum.
00:07:36.000 The founders of the country, whom I consider the greatest assembly of men in the history of the world, Obviously, there were great individuals before them, but an assembly of such great men at one time in one place, I don't believe existed anywhere else but America in 1776.
00:08:00.000 And they understood...
00:08:02.000 They really got it.
00:08:03.000 They understood that liberty is a value, that it isn't an instinct.
00:08:09.000 And by the way, it explains why the left wins elections all over the world and always does.
00:08:14.000 Because they don't promise you freedom.
00:08:17.000 They promise you goodies.
00:08:19.000 Another thing I learned from you is having children is a value.
00:08:23.000 That is not automatic.
00:08:24.000 Having children is a value.
00:08:26.000 I want people to think about that.
00:08:28.000 Now, the act of reproduction, okay, that urge continues.
00:08:32.000 But when you have the technology to interfere with actually childbearing, then actually having children is not something a civilization will do automatically, as you can see, through declining birth rates all across the Western world.
00:08:46.000 We are wealthier than ever, yet we're having less children than ever.
00:08:49.000 It's remarkable. Okay, Dennis, do you want to comment on children being a value?
00:08:53.000 I saw that you motioned towards that.
00:08:56.000 Oh no, I'll comment on anything.
00:08:58.000 You know that. Yes.
00:09:01.000 So, this began by my noting that liberty is a value, not an instinct.
00:09:09.000 The instinct is to be taken care of.
00:09:11.000 And that's based on this very profound lament of the Hebrews.
00:09:17.000 It was better in Egypt, we had better food.
00:09:20.000 Of course we were slaves, but so what?
00:09:23.000 That's what they're saying. So what?
00:09:24.000 We were slaves. We got free food.
00:09:27.000 And that's the great trade-off that the left makes.
00:09:33.000 You give us your soul.
00:09:34.000 You give us your liberty.
00:09:36.000 We'll give you goodies.
00:09:38.000 And most people vote for that.
00:09:40.000 With regard to children, what you come to realize, and this is also...
00:09:49.000 Relatively recent in my life.
00:09:51.000 This one's not lockdown related, but it is relatively recent.
00:09:57.000 That so much of what we thought in the past was instinctive, like having children.
00:10:05.000 If you'd have asked anyone in history, is having a child a value or an innate desire?
00:10:15.000 Slash instinct. Of course, are you kidding?
00:10:18.000 Of course it's innate.
00:10:20.000 That's what people want.
00:10:23.000 They want children. People divorced.
00:10:26.000 Kings divorced women if they didn't have children, even though it wasn't the wife's fault.
00:10:30.000 They wanted children. You know, what is it?
00:10:34.000 Rachel says to her husband in Genesis, you know, if you don't give me children, it's not worth living, which is a silly comment.
00:10:43.000 But nevertheless, that's how people regarded it.
00:10:48.000 The fact is, everything, almost everything is a choice.
00:10:55.000 Belief in God is a value, is a choice.
00:10:58.000 Some people have it instinctively, just like some people want children instinctively.
00:11:03.000 But for most people, I'm one of them.
00:11:05.000 I chose to believe in God, and now I do.
00:11:09.000 It was one of the great choices of my life.
00:11:12.000 It was utterly life-changing and fulfilling.
00:11:18.000 But marriage, you know, I'm sure even though it's way before your time, love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.
00:11:27.000 Right. That was the way people in the 1950s and 1850s and 1750s and so on backwards, that's the way they felt.
00:11:35.000 Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.
00:11:39.000 But that's not true anymore.
00:11:41.000 Love does not go with marriage anymore.
00:11:43.000 I love her.
00:11:44.000 Why should I marry her?
00:11:46.000 I love him. Why should I marry him?
00:11:49.000 It's too big a burden.
00:11:52.000 It's not worth it.
00:11:53.000 It's just a piece of paper.
00:11:55.000 By the way, I have a great line.
00:11:57.000 Charlie, I wonder if you've heard this because you've heard me so much.
00:12:01.000 But whenever guys say to women that they're dating five years and she says, I think we should get married, it's just a piece of paper.
00:12:11.000 To which I've always told women to say to this man, if it's just a piece of paper, what's the big deal about signing it?
00:12:18.000 That is such a good point.
00:12:20.000 So then what's the big deal?
00:12:21.000 If it's just a big paper, then let's just sign it.
00:12:24.000 I love that. Dennis Prager continues with us.
00:12:27.000 Check out the Rational Bible.
00:12:29.000 Every single one of them is life-changing, Dennis.
00:12:31.000 And I say that every time you come on here.
00:12:33.000 Genesis, especially, is life-changing.
00:12:36.000 Exodus, Deuteronomy numbers, and then the finale.
00:12:39.000 We'll have to have you in person for the finale, Dennis, which is Leviticus.
00:12:43.000 That's a deal. Leviticus.
00:12:45.000 We're not here to talk about Leviticus.
00:12:47.000 That alone is a life accomplishment.
00:12:49.000 To write a commentary on the book of Leviticus.
00:12:53.000 From what I understand, you wrote a couple thousand words just on the verse of a man shall not lay with another man like he does with a woman. 0.97
00:12:59.000 No, not a couple. 20,000 words.
00:13:02.000 20,000 words on one verse.
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00:14:04.000 That is charlieforhillsdale.com.
00:14:09.000 So Dennis, I think it would be helpful for our audience to remind them what is the Book of Numbers?
00:14:16.000 What is the Book of Numbers about?
00:14:18.000 What is the context here?
00:14:20.000 Everyone understands that chronologically the Book of Numbers is essentially the end of the Torah because Deuteronomy is largely Moses' farewell address.
00:14:29.000 So it is the end of the story, if you will.
00:14:33.000 That's right. It's the end of the story.
00:14:35.000 And so in the book of Numbers, or in the wilderness, there's so much drama.
00:14:39.000 You have talking donkeys.
00:14:40.000 You have spies.
00:14:42.000 You have people trying to turn rocks into water.
00:14:45.000 You have a rebellion against Moses.
00:14:47.000 You have giants. You have constant complaining.
00:14:49.000 So set the table just from a context standpoint, Dennis.
00:14:53.000 Where and when and what is the book of Numbers about?
00:14:57.000 Well, so it's exactly what the Hebrew tells you. 0.53
00:15:00.000 It's in the wilderness. So they're not yet at the Promised Land, and they're out of Egypt. 0.77
00:15:06.000 What happens during that time?
00:15:08.000 That's what the book is about.
00:15:10.000 It is relentlessly interesting.
00:15:12.000 You mentioned the talking donkey, and there are only two animals in the Hebrew Bible that speak, the serpent in Genesis and the donkey in Numbers.
00:15:25.000 I am a big, big fan of the donkey story.
00:15:29.000 Me too. Really?
00:15:32.000 Oh, that's fascinating. Because, I mean, the donkey says, didn't I treat you so well?
00:15:35.000 What's the matter with you? Right?
00:15:38.000 Yeah. Well, that story has so many great lessons.
00:15:44.000 Well, one of them, the biggest one is when there is an angel...
00:15:50.000 Just to remind, well, it's not even a reminder.
00:15:53.000 Most people don't know. But just to bring people up to speed, in a nutshell, the king of Moab, Balak, I don't know how he's pronounced in English.
00:16:06.000 Maybe it's Balak. 0.87
00:16:07.000 Balaam, yeah. Well, Balaam is the prophet.
00:16:10.000 Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. So Balak is the king of Moab, and he... 0.81
00:16:15.000 He goes to this Gentile prophet, a non-Jewish prophet named Balaam, and he says, I want you to curse Israel. 0.96
00:16:26.000 And Balaam says, I'm sorry, I can only do what God wants me to do.
00:16:30.000 And he uses the term for God, Jehovah, that the Jews used.
00:16:34.000 So he's referring to the Jews' God. 0.81
00:16:37.000 And he goes, I'm sorry, I can't do it.
00:16:39.000 So he sends a mission and they'll make him the richest man in the world if he'll only curse Israel. 0.92
00:16:46.000 So anyway, Balaam goes and will he curse Israel or not?
00:16:51.000 We're not sure.
00:16:53.000 But anyway, he heads towards Balak, the king, King Balak.
00:16:58.000 And he's riding his donkey and the donkey stops because the donkey sees an angel of God and a sword.
00:17:08.000 And so the angel knows, I don't want to get killed.
00:17:11.000 I'm stopping. But here's the beauty.
00:17:14.000 The prophet. Doesn't see it.
00:17:18.000 So, in other words, an ass, that's the term usually used and certainly used in the King James, an ass can see what this prophet can't. 0.99
00:17:32.000 That's the great moral of the story. 0.99
00:17:37.000 How the... 1.00
00:17:40.000 People we revere are often stupider than a donkey. 1.00
00:17:45.000 And if that's not relevant to our time, then don't bother reading my book. 1.00
00:17:53.000 As they say, trust the experts.
00:17:56.000 Yeah, that's right.
00:17:57.000 Exactly. Now, there are secondary fascinating matters where he keeps beating the donkey and the donkey looks at him.
00:18:07.000 This is my favorite part. Yes.
00:18:09.000 Oh, for good reason.
00:18:11.000 It actually touches me every time.
00:18:13.000 It touches me relating it now.
00:18:15.000 And the donkey says, wait, haven't I treated you well and been a loyal animal to you for all these years?
00:18:21.000 Why are you hitting me?
00:18:23.000 And by the way, so the joke is, Balaam answers him. 0.94
00:18:27.000 Now, wouldn't you think if your donkey started talking to you, wouldn't your reaction be, huh? 0.87
00:18:34.000 What? How do you speak? 0.96
00:18:37.000 And instead he responds to him.
00:18:39.000 I find that fascinating.
00:18:41.000 But that's not critical.
00:18:43.000 What's critical is you get an empathy for the animal.
00:18:48.000 And the Torah really cares about animals. 0.76
00:18:52.000 The animals made it into the Ten Commandments.
00:18:54.000 Your animal has to rest on the Sabbath.
00:18:56.000 You're not allowed to plow with two animals of different sizes on the same plow.
00:19:03.000 You can't muzzle an animal when it works in the field.
00:19:08.000 You can't kill an animal for sport?
00:19:10.000 The concern for animals is really deep in the Toro.
00:19:13.000 You can't kill an animal for sport, for example.
00:19:16.000 Animal rights are an underappreciated component of the Torah.
00:19:21.000 You have to check out the Rational Bible series.
00:19:23.000 It is life-changing for all people because the Torah, which means teacher, has something to teach all people in all nations.
00:19:31.000 So Dennis, I want to isolate some parts of the Book of Numbers that I think are very important.
00:19:36.000 Can we talk about, just from my own personal curiosity, your take in the book on the priestly blessing?
00:19:43.000 This is said a lot in Christian churches in Numbers 6.
00:19:47.000 I believe it's Numbers 6, 24 through 26, which is the sacred blessing given by God to Moses and Aaron, and it's still used in a lot of Christian churches.
00:19:57.000 What is your take on that in the book, if any?
00:20:00.000 Well, if you have it in front of you, I know it in Hebrew, but if you have it in English...
00:20:03.000 I do. I can read it, actually.
00:20:05.000 Yes. So, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
00:20:08.000 May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
00:20:12.000 May the Lord lift you up, his countenance upon you, which I don't love that word countenance.
00:20:15.000 I usually have to explain it to people, and give you peace.
00:20:18.000 That is the priestly blessing in Numbers 6, 24 through 26.
00:20:24.000 Well, to a large extent, except for countenance, it is somewhat self-explanatory.
00:20:30.000 It's obviously profound.
00:20:32.000 Christians use it regularly, as they should.
00:20:35.000 And I'll come back to the blessing in a moment, but I want to make the point that you ended with before the break.
00:20:44.000 The notion that the Torah is only for Jews... 0.99
00:20:50.000 First of all, it's obviously stupid because it is divine scripture to Christians. 1.00
00:20:56.000 It is part of the Old Testament. 0.99
00:20:58.000 But my ultimate argument is it's like saying Beethoven is only for Germans or Shakespeare is only for the English.
00:21:11.000 If Shakespeare were only for the English, then Shakespeare is worthless.
00:21:16.000 If the Torah are only for the Jews, then the Torah is worthless. 0.79
00:21:20.000 It either has to be relevant to all people, or it has nothing to say.
00:21:32.000 My whole point is that the lessons are all universal.
00:21:39.000 Like liberty is a value that we discussed earlier.
00:21:42.000 You'll be very touched.
00:21:44.000 Just this week, I spoke at MIT and at Brown.
00:21:48.000 Oh, wow. I want to hear about that.
00:21:50.000 Yeah. Well, you'll be touched by this little story.
00:21:54.000 Give an idea of how these are the moments that say to me, Dennis, maybe you've done some good with your life.
00:22:04.000 So at Brown, a student comes over to me, and he looks like he's from India, because he is from India.
00:22:14.000 And he says, I just want you to know that reading your work made me conservative.
00:22:21.000 I was very touched by that.
00:22:23.000 We took a picture together, and then I wanted a picture with him so that I would have it.
00:22:28.000 And then he said, oh, that's not all.
00:22:31.000 He said, also because of you, I came to embrace Judeo-Christian values and I converted to Christianity.
00:22:39.000 Wow. And so here's a guy from India reading a Jew and converting to Christianity. 0.89
00:22:47.000 And as you know, that brings me a great deal of joy.
00:22:54.000 And I'm a committed and religious Jew, but...
00:23:00.000 If Christianity dies, it's the end of Western civilization. 0.99
00:23:07.000 We're brother or sister or daughter, mother, father, however you want to put it, religions.
00:23:15.000 And that's why I'm such a believer in the term Judeo-Christian. 1.00
00:23:20.000 We're the only two religions on earth that share a Bible.
00:23:24.000 These things are forgotten.
00:23:26.000 There were Jews who were not happy with the word Judeo-Christian, and there were Christians who were not happy with it.
00:23:31.000 But that is a fact. America, until the very recent past, was the one truly Judeo-Christian nation in history. 0.91
00:23:42.000 These were Christians rooted in Jewish scripture.
00:23:45.000 It's a verse from the Torah, from Leviticus on the Liberty Bell.
00:23:50.000 That's right. I just want to make all these points.
00:23:54.000 But yes, this was the priestly blessing.
00:23:57.000 The priestly class comes from Aaron, Moses' brother.
00:24:02.000 And it's another interesting point that I make in the book.
00:24:06.000 We learn nothing about Moses' children.
00:24:10.000 Nothing. And Aaron's children carry on the priesthood.
00:24:16.000 Isn't that interesting? And Moses was a successful, much more successful brother, Aaron.
00:24:21.000 Nor do we know where Moses is buried.
00:24:23.000 It had to be that way.
00:24:25.000 Otherwise, they would have built a shrine and it would have been a big problem.
00:24:28.000 Please mention that where Moses was buried is unknown because it would have turned into a shrine and what other reasons?
00:24:36.000 Well, the reason is, in fact, another of the incredible stories.
00:24:42.000 I think, actually, in terms of stories, Numbers may be the richest of the Torah books, and Genesis is filled with great stories, and Exodus, it's true.
00:24:56.000 Leviticus does not have stories as such, nor does Deuteronomy, except for the death of Moses.
00:25:04.000 So there is the story of Moses hitting the rock, and everybody understandably thinks that Everybody.
00:25:13.000 That's really a joke.
00:25:14.000 Everybody who knows the story.
00:25:17.000 It used to be everybody.
00:25:19.000 Now it's everybody who knows the story.
00:25:21.000 So God tells Moses to go to this rock, speak to it, and bring out water.
00:25:28.000 He had told him the exact same thing in the book of Exodus.
00:25:33.000 Go to a rock, and he said, and hit it, and bring out water.
00:25:37.000 Now he said, speak to it.
00:25:39.000 And he didn't, he hit the rock.
00:25:42.000 And everybody thinks that God then, when God then says, okay, because of this, you cannot enter the promised land.
00:25:53.000 And I remember even as a kid, when I learned this, I thought, that's not fair of God.
00:25:59.000 Moses' great dream is to enter the promised land and he can't do it because he hit the rock?
00:26:04.000 What kind of God is that?
00:26:06.000 And I was right. That is not the reason that God says that you can't enter the promised land.
00:26:14.000 He gives the reason. You and Aaron...
00:26:19.000 They both hit the rock.
00:26:20.000 You and Aaron did not sanctify my name before the people.
00:26:24.000 Why? Because this is what Moses and Aaron said.
00:26:30.000 Watch, you rebels, how we will bring forth water from the rock, not God.
00:26:40.000 And so God realized, if this man who took credit for the miracle had nothing to do with hitting, If this man who took credit for this miracle, that of course is only attributable to God.
00:26:55.000 If he gets into the promised land, there's a very good chance they will worship him.
00:27:00.000 He got us into Israel, not God. 0.98
00:27:04.000 And that's the reason God doesn't allow him in.
00:27:07.000 And it almost is, you read into it saying, God wanted to say, I got you out of Egypt and I brought you to the land of milk and honey.
00:27:18.000 Moses did not. That's a very important distinction.
00:27:20.000 That's right. Very, very important.
00:27:22.000 Right. That's correct.
00:27:24.000 That's why in Exodus 20, it says, I am the Lord your God who delivered you out of the house of bondage.
00:27:29.000 Not Moses. Right.
00:27:30.000 It's not just Exodus 20.
00:27:32.000 It's the opening to the Ten Commandments.
00:27:34.000 It's interesting. For Jews, that's the first commandment. 1.00
00:27:38.000 I am the Lord your God who took out of the land of Egypt by the house of bondage. 0.99
00:27:42.000 For Christians, that is the preamble to the Ten Commandments.
00:27:46.000 That's right. That's right.
00:27:47.000 So, Dennis, I'm going to ask you maybe the hardest question you will receive in the commentary on the Book of Numbers.
00:27:54.000 Which is, it's not even a question, I guess it's a request.
00:27:59.000 Explain the law of the red heifer.
00:28:02.000 Yes, so that's often noted as the Jews, even traditional Jews, use that as the example of a law whose explanation we cannot know.
00:28:18.000 The key there is the red.
00:28:22.000 As I understand it, this is my understanding.
00:28:26.000 First of all, I don't believe that there are any laws in the Torah that cannot be understood.
00:28:30.000 I don't know if they're fully understood, but certainly largely understood.
00:28:35.000 And so the red heifer, which will be slaughtered, the red heifer, red symbolizes blood, and contrary to...
00:28:48.000 Western civilization, where blood symbolizes death, in the Torah, blood symbolizes life.
00:28:56.000 That is why you're not...
00:28:59.000 By the way, I don't know if you know this, Charlie, though you might because you really follow this stuff.
00:29:04.000 Not only I as a Jew, according to the Torah, am forbidden to eat blood, so are you as a non-Jew.
00:29:13.000 That's right. Very few non-Jews, very few Christians know this.
00:29:17.000 It's a universal law. It's the Noahic Covenant, right? 0.94
00:29:20.000 One of the few universal laws in the Torah, sorry?
00:29:22.000 Was it in the Noahic Covenant, or was it...
00:29:25.000 Yes, that's correct.
00:29:27.000 For all people. For all people, yes, because blood symbolizes life.
00:29:34.000 You cannot eat life.
00:29:35.000 You can eat a dead carcass, but you cannot eat life.
00:29:41.000 And that's why, as Jacob Milgram, one of the great scholars of Leviticus, put it, the life is spilled into the earth.
00:29:52.000 It goes back to God.
00:29:54.000 But you can have the carcass to eat.
00:29:58.000 So, anyway, red represents life because blood is the essence of life.
00:30:06.000 And so the red heifer is a cow that represents life.
00:30:12.000 And that was the essential part of the whole sacrificial system was sprinkling the blood on the altar and on the walls because this is life draining the blood.
00:30:25.000 And so this animal represented, it was like the quintessence of life.
00:30:33.000 Hey everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
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00:31:17.000 Again, this is an amazingly powerful film based on the beloved book by the best-selling author of Wonder.
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00:31:29.000 So watch right now, whitebird.movie.
00:31:33.000 So another part of the book of Numbers that I think is noteworthy, tell us about the bronze serpent in Numbers 21.
00:31:41.000 Yeah, so again, we need context.
00:31:45.000 At this part, I really go to town on how much God hates complaining about It's...
00:31:58.000 And despair. Right.
00:32:00.000 Despair. Complaining leads to despair.
00:32:03.000 That's smart, I guess.
00:32:04.000 Yeah. But complaining in and of itself, it drives...
00:32:09.000 If you could say this, if we can drive God crazy, complaining drives God crazy.
00:32:15.000 And basically, you know, I joke when people say, oh, it's the book of numbers.
00:32:21.000 Numbers of what? Complaints.
00:32:22.000 And I go, numbers of complaints.
00:32:25.000 Now, Dennis, you've said this before and I won't, but you could fill in the gaps.
00:32:29.000 Otherwise, I'll be called a terrible name by the media.
00:32:32.000 But would you agree that a certain group of people are known to be complainers?
00:32:39.000 Fred Charlie is a mean man, ladies and gentlemen. 0.73
00:32:45.000 Yes, Jews.
00:32:47.000 I fully acknowledge it.
00:32:49.000 It is not one of the endearing traits of my people.
00:32:53.000 And it started really early, like in the Torah, in the Bible.
00:32:59.000 The complaints.
00:33:01.000 You've got to tell the cantaloupe analogy, Dennis.
00:33:04.000 Okay, so I tell this story to both synagogue groups and church groups.
00:33:11.000 So I have this vision where a synagogue, a Catholic church, and a Protestant church, they all decide to have an ecumenical lunch at a hotel some Sunday.
00:33:26.000 And I arrange with the hotel to serve them all over-ripe or not-yet-ripe cantaloupe.
00:33:37.000 So I ask my listeners, whether they're Jews or Christians, I ask, which of the three groups do you think will complain the most about the cantaloupe? 0.91
00:33:48.000 So the Jews crack up because all the Jews know the answer. 1.00
00:33:53.000 Christians are a little hesitant about cracking up, lest it be possible. 1.00
00:33:59.000 Regarded as somewhat anti-Jewish.
00:34:02.000 But I say, folks, you're allowed to laugh.
00:34:04.000 I'm a Jew, and I'm telling you this story, which I made up.
00:34:08.000 But of course, everybody knows there's no question the Jews would complain the most about it. 1.00
00:34:13.000 It's just a given.
00:34:16.000 So... It started very early.
00:34:20.000 And then back to your bronze serpent. 0.99
00:34:23.000 So after a particularly awful about, God sends serpents to infect them, to kill some of them. 0.99
00:34:34.000 God doesn't have much patience for this stuff.
00:34:38.000 And then if you look upon the bronze serpent, then you will be healed.
00:34:44.000 And I write a whole essay on this one.
00:34:46.000 It's so beautiful. It's so profound that God is using the thing that hurt them to heal them.
00:34:57.000 And that's one great lesson here.
00:35:01.000 Another one is, whatever you fear, you will stop fearing if you look at it.
00:35:10.000 You can't stop fearing...
00:35:12.000 If you fear flying on an airplane, you will only stop fearing it if you go on an airplane.
00:35:20.000 That's... I'm not reading into the story.
00:35:24.000 That is the way it works.
00:35:25.000 You have to look at what you fear, and then you will stop fearing it.
00:35:30.000 When I was a kid, I was very afraid of horror movies, monster movies, horror movies.
00:35:36.000 So my older brother... Whom I revered.
00:35:38.000 He said, Dennis, what you have to do is watch so many of these movies, you will finally start to laugh instead of getting afraid.
00:35:48.000 And that's exactly what I did.
00:35:50.000 I just watched horror movie after horror movie, and they lost their ability to inflict fear in me.
00:35:58.000 So you look upon the thing that hurt you, the serpent, and you will be healed.
00:36:03.000 That is incredibly profound.
00:36:06.000 More to discuss here, the book of Numbers with Dennis Prager.
00:36:09.000 As you can tell, the book of Numbers has really blessed my life.
00:36:16.000 We're not here to talk about this.
00:36:17.000 This is only for the very adventurous.
00:36:20.000 But on DennisPrager.com...
00:36:22.000 Dennis, over the course of 20 years, is that right, Dennis?
00:36:25.000 Correct? Yeah. 20 years, Dennis, once a week, with some weeks off, went through every verse of the Torah and taught it, which I think is even, I don't want to say a greater, because they're both great accomplishments, but that's a serious accomplishment.
00:36:38.000 And I listened to all, I think it was 210 hours of it.
00:36:42.000 Phenomenal. As a detour, the Day of Atonement.
00:36:45.000 Can you tell our audience the significance of that in Judaism?
00:36:49.000 I might have my days mixed up, but I think it's tomorrow night, correct?
00:36:53.000 Yes, it is. Tomorrow night.
00:36:55.000 Yeah, because all Jewish days, whether holidays or regular days, begin at sunset, not at midnight.
00:37:01.000 Even on Shabbat. That's amazing.
00:37:03.000 So you're going to have a coinciding Yom Kippur Shabbat?
00:37:06.000 That's right. This is super-duper holy, because The two holiest days in the Jewish calendar and the Torah are Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, and Shabbat. 0.90
00:37:19.000 Shabbat happens 52 times a year, and yet, of course, Shabbat is in the Ten Commandments, Yom Kippur is not. 0.89
00:37:26.000 So to have the holiest day of the year, 52 days a year, is quite a remarkable thing.
00:37:31.000 But ultimately, Yom Kippur is, in this sweepstakes, perhaps the holiest day of the year.
00:37:40.000 And it is, as I said, it is known that Kippur is to atone. 1.00
00:37:47.000 And then so you'll find this interesting.
00:37:52.000 You will find, you Charlie, because you love this stuff.
00:37:56.000 One of the reasons I love you.
00:37:58.000 And So Jews in the synagogue, by the way, people can stream it.
00:38:04.000 They can go to PragerHighHolidays.com if they want to attend or they want to stream it.
00:38:12.000 People of all faiths do that.
00:38:17.000 And we bang our chest with a whole series of like, I don't remember the number, about 40 sins that we committed this year.
00:38:27.000 And we bang our chest for each one.
00:38:32.000 And every one of them is about something we did wrong to a fellow human being.
00:38:42.000 None of them are ritual sins.
00:38:46.000 You would think one of them would be for the sin of not keeping kosher.
00:38:51.000 But no, it's not listed.
00:38:55.000 But there is, for mocking my parents or my teachers, For cheating my fellow man in business.
00:39:03.000 It is so emphatic about sins against our fellow human being.
00:39:14.000 I happen to love Yom Kippur even though I fast 24 hours.
00:39:19.000 And it's a real fast.
00:39:21.000 It's also liquids.
00:39:23.000 That's tough. You know what I love about it, and Dennis, you taught me this, is that it's one day of atonement, one day of forsaking from allowed pleasures and indulgences, if you will.
00:39:36.000 Right. And that means that God wants you to enjoy life, but there is a day where you stop and you forsake those things.
00:39:44.000 God wants us to enjoy life and be good people.
00:39:47.000 So, Dennis, we could go on at length.
00:39:49.000 And I do want to have you come in person.
00:39:51.000 I'll either come to you or in Phoenix because it's so much easier in person to dialogue on this.
00:39:55.000 We could do a three-hour conversation on the Book of Numbers.
00:39:57.000 But you touched on this previously towards the beginning.
00:40:02.000 But can you dive deeper into this, please?
00:40:04.000 What does the Book of Numbers have to teach us today, especially maybe during this election cycle, this culture war, this cold civil war, as you put it?
00:40:13.000 Apply the wisdom of the Book of Numbers to our times today.
00:40:17.000 Well, because of your question, it will be somewhat political, my answer, even though that's not my intent.
00:40:27.000 And it's certainly not anything I write about in the book.
00:40:31.000 I want people of every political persuasion to be influenced by it.
00:40:36.000 But I said earlier about how God is so annoyed.
00:40:41.000 No, annoyed is too gentle.
00:40:44.000 Anchored. By the constant complaining, the ingratitude, that's what it is.
00:40:50.000 Why is God angry about their complaining?
00:40:53.000 Because of one of the ugliest traits in the human condition, ingratitude.
00:40:58.000 I took you out of Egypt.
00:40:59.000 I brought the 10 plagues there.
00:41:01.000 I feed you manna.
00:41:02.000 I split the sea. And then you go and do all these terrible things and, of course, just complain the whole time.
00:41:16.000 So, that's how I feel about America, and what the left has done is complain the whole time.
00:41:24.000 If that's not relevant, then nothing in the book is relevant.
00:41:28.000 You're complaining about America?
00:41:30.000 It has given so many of us, nearly all of us, such opportunity as unavailable elsewhere, and you're complaining?
00:41:39.000 You ingrate? And that's what it is.
00:41:42.000 The central characteristic of the left is ingratitude.
00:41:48.000 To parents, to society, to America, to the founders.
00:41:53.000 And if there's one overarching theme, that would be it.
00:41:59.000 But look, the law is in numbers.
00:42:05.000 Can you have a free society if you are not grateful?
00:42:08.000 Well, you can't have a free society.
00:42:10.000 You can't have a moral society.
00:42:13.000 Ingrates are bad people. 0.99
00:42:15.000 There are no kind ingrates on earth. 0.98
00:42:18.000 And from ingratitude leads to so many of the other vices that plague our society.
00:42:25.000 Yeah, including misery.
00:42:29.000 We wonder why is it the least happy generation in American history?
00:42:34.000 Maybe ingratitude has something to do with it.
00:42:38.000 Grateful people are happy. 0.96
00:42:40.000 Ungrateful people are miserable.
00:42:42.000 To close, Dennis, this is very important as people might see news events that they like or do not like.
00:42:48.000 I believe this is derived from the book of Numbers, but I could be wrong.
00:42:52.000 To despair is a sin.
00:42:53.000 Yeah, that does.
00:42:54.000 That was the sin of the spies.
00:42:59.000 Twelve spies for the twelve tribes are sent into Canaan because Israel is about to conquer it. 0.60
00:43:07.000 The Jews are about to conquer it and create Israel. 1.00
00:43:11.000 Or Israel the country. 0.72
00:43:13.000 They already had Israel the people. 0.92
00:43:15.000 And ten of them say, we can't do it.
00:43:20.000 We were there. We can't do it.
00:43:22.000 Two of them, Joshua and Caleb.
00:43:26.000 And by the way, Caleb is not ethnically a Jew.
00:43:31.000 It's another one of the themes that I developed about how heroic the non-Jews in the Torah are.
00:43:37.000 God is ethic-centric, not ethnic-centric.
00:43:41.000 Let's just take that one example.
00:43:42.000 That blood doesn't matter to the Torah.
00:43:44.000 That principle built the West.
00:43:46.000 That principle is where you get e pluribus unum out of.
00:43:50.000 Blood doesn't matter. And so I hope people understand that these are not just stories or mythologies.
00:43:55.000 I believe they happen as written.
00:43:56.000 That's my belief. I'm not here to impose it on you.
00:43:58.000 But what is a fact is that people who believed it built the greatest civilization ever because they believed it.
00:44:05.000 That is irrefutable.
00:44:07.000 That's correct. Dennis, God bless you.
00:44:10.000 I think the word I'm supposed to say is have a fast and easy fast.
00:44:14.000 Is that correct? Or have an easy fast?
00:44:16.000 Is that right? Yeah, I know.
00:44:18.000 It's funny. The law of the Torah is that you should torment your soul. 0.74
00:44:22.000 So if you wish me an easy fast, I'm not tormented.
00:44:25.000 No cigars.
00:44:27.000 Okay, Dennis? Ah, that's tormenting.
00:44:29.000 No cigars. Yes.
00:44:32.000 All right. Dennis, God bless you.
00:44:34.000 Thank you so much. Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
00:44:36.000 Email us, as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
00:44:39.000 Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.