https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=9y3QTZhsGhI
And the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people. And Moses said, thus- So we have a Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, but loved Joseph, and now what do we have? Another Jew who the Egyptians adore. It’s just ironic. Right, right. Joseph and now Moses. That language is used of Joseph as well, isn’t it? Let’s see, with regard to the people, no, I don’t think so, but they knew he saved their lives. So what assumes- But in this case today, I don’t know if they adored him, at least it says that he was great. You mean Joseph? No, Moses. They say he was great in their sight. Okay, that’s fair enough. They might have been scared of him more than anything. Both of them were great in their sight. Yeah, they were great in their sight. Whether they adored them or not, yeah. A quick question. For sure Joseph they love, that’s for sure. Where are you emotionally, I’m just curious about this, in like, are you, when you’re reading this, are you reading this in eager anticipation of the Pharaoh being punished? Are you reading this in trepidation? Because I remember when I used- It seems to me it’s more trepidation. It’s like, I think because I probably identify with the Pharaoh. You do. Well, enough. You mean about losing a child? Yeah, about what’s coming. Just about the consequences of your own stupidity. Like are you feeling vindicated? Right, like vengeful that you’re hoping that the Pharaoh’s gonna get his? Are you feeling remorse and empathy for what’s coming? What is your emotional, because I remember I used to read in like high school history when you’d read like World War I and World War II. It’s like you have that sense of being ensconced. Like I really hope that America wins, right? Like you have this emotional positioning in relation to reading history even if you know the outcome. And I’m just curious. But in this, like there’s this growing, looming threat. As if God is saying, this is, don’t, if you don’t listen, this is where we’re going. He’s not telling you where we’re going at. It’s almost like a very, it’s like in a movie, right? You can feel the music like coming up and you can feel the threat and you know like, please let it stop before it reaches that point. You don’t even know where it’s going. And then once it gets there, I don’t think, is it possible to not feel sad for the Egyptians and to not feel sympathy and to not wish that the Pharaoh had broken before? And it’s like, you get there and you’re like, oh. Dennis, how about you? I hope Pharaoh gets his. I admit though. I knew I could count on you in that regard. I was like, I was just waiting. I was letting that pass. Is that a good sign or a bad sign? Well, he’s clearly the villain. He’s clearly the villain. Yes, exactly. I want villains to get punished. I don’t know. But do you want the villains to learn before they have to pay the ultimate price? That’s such a Christian question. I know, that’s why I want to get Frager’s take on this. I don’t give a damn if they learn before they die. I want them to die. Because I’m more concerned with good people. I don’t want good people to suffer. So whether Pharaoh learns or not is between Pharaoh and Pharaoh. But between Pharaoh and me, he has to be punished. But the great lesson, which is of course unlearned like most great lessons, is people do really like tyrants. There’s no way around it. One of you mentioned this, and so I didn’t bother commenting on it, but polls in Russia prior to Ukraine showed the increasing proportions of the Russian people adored Stalin. Yeah. Well, that’s the same thing that happens to the Israelites. They can’t complain to Moses about- Because they want a monarch? No, they want to go back to Egypt. Oh, they want to go back? Okay, there you go. That’s right. Do they adore Stalin or they adored order and the greatness of Russia? I know Russians now. Also one might- Who, who what, who what? Who admire the- The order under- In America. There’s always order under a tyrant. Well, one has to- Yes, I mean- Yes, okay. But if this is not order rather than disorder- Well, freedom is messy. In this text- People don’t like messy. But they still are happy when the tyrant- There’s also some question about the veracity of polling under Stalin. No, no, there’s polling now. Not poll, of course. Polling under Stalin means nothing. Polling today, I mean- Oh, I know. In the last few years. There’s definitely- Yes. What do you call that? Nostalgia for- But some of that’s ignorance too. They look back and they just see the greatness, so to speak. Right, but it’s willful ignorance. Yeah, I know. But don’t you think in this text- Same with Congress. It is clear, it seems like in this text, it’s clear that it’s trying to show us that the people of Egypt now find, the Israelites find favor in their sight. They’re giving them jewels and things for them to leave, and they see Moses as being very powerful in their sight, and then in the text itself, it switches right away to saying, now all the first born will die, and it says of the Pharaoh, and then it says to the woman behind the mill. And so it’s like right in the text, a few verses from each other, you see the people have compassion for the Israelites, and then it says, no, but their children are gonna die too. That’s why I feel like there is a sense in which we’re meant to have compassion, even for the Egyptians in the narrative. Dennis, take Weimar, and how many Germans were grateful for the order that Hitler seemed to bring, and then they suddenly realized. They loved order rather than the Weimar chaos. I tend not to defend the Germans, but it is fair to say that Hitler didn’t get a majority of the vote. The Nazis didn’t get a majority vote. But between the communists and the Nazis, they did get a majority. The tyranny parties did win out. No, but I’m with you on the calm up. Yeah, yeah, thank you. I know, I have a feeling. I pray daily that Putin will get his comeuppance. I really do pray. Your point of willful blindness, I mean, that holds both ways. Like you have polling now about communism, right? I think this has to do with a generational remove from the horrors of both Stalin and what happened in communism, right? So it is both directions. You mean both willful and just normal? Is that what you’re saying? I mean, that it’s not just that people look back fondly on tyrants, people look back fondly on communism now. They were removed from a certain distance of it. So the willful blindness and the ignorance isn’t. Listen, the number of Americans and English who gave Stalin the bomb, the flirtation with tyranny on the part of Western intellectuals is among the most depressing facts of the 20th century. Eastern Europeans who experienced communism, they don’t look back. That’s right. But I mean, like when we’re polling today, right? You mean Western? Yeah, in the West, if you pull now on communism, people often, right. And likewise with tyranny, like if Stalin’s doing well in the polls. What percentage of Harvard seniors do you think could identify Pol Pot? I would say 5%. Yeah, I think you’re probably being optimistic on that front. I mean, when I taught about the gulag catastrophes or the catastrophes of the Soviet Union. Oh, gulag too. Just say gulag. Hardly any of my students have ever heard of any of that. That’s right. Hardly any of them today have heard of salt and incense. Oh, that’s a given. But Pol Pot, you know, one of the great mass murderers, he killed a quarter of his own people. By the way, these tyrants killed, Hitler is the only of the tyrants that didn’t mostly slaughter his own people. Pol Pot killed Cambodians, Mao killed Chinese, Stalin killed Russians, and they’re still held in esteem. How about Mussolini? Well, he wasn’t a mass murderer. He’s not in their category. He was a tyrant, but he’s not in their category. Italians don’t make that type. Italians make lousy tyrants.