Scholars Claim Moses Never Existed — Rabbi Singer SHUTS IT DOWN!

Why you lowering yourself? You could do better than saying I know Moses [music] didn't exist. Don't do that. You could You You atheists could ask much better questions or make make better assertions on that one. >> Uh thank you, Georgie, for the super chat. What is Rabbi Tovia's view on biblical scholarship? What does he think about the claim that Moses never existed? >> I think it's silly. Moses' brother was my great-grandfather. Um I think that it's a lazy way to be an atheist. I think atheists or people who question the veracity of the Hebrew Bible should engage on its own terms. And I think that people who are not believers are raising very important questions and that require answers from scholars. But by saying it never existed, what they're doing is Everyone knows you can't prove someone didn't exist. And it is widely known that people like me I'm a Kohane. I can blindly say that if you There are I'm making this part up. There are half a million men like me. I don't know that. There could be three quarters of them. I just don't know. But I could You could blindly do a blood test on us and find a Y chromosome. This has been done. So, I think that the the the questions that non-believers have for believers are good questions. They're thoughtful questions. They demand a serious answer. However, I think that people who are not believers should not give up on those really good questions for saying why know there's no Moses. How could you know there's no Moses? Or I know that um Moses as a baby was, you know, in a in the water. Why? Cuz we have an ancient text that has that applying to someone. Yeah, but that ancient text is much later than the Torah. So, people are It's not fair to do that. Means you have an I just want to give you a good argument, not that argument. A good claim is well, we have an ancient text that says that there was this baby who a leader who was saved as a in the water. We do. But how old is the text itself? I don't know, 2,700 years old. According to tradition, it's 30 The Torah is 3,300 years old. You're claiming a cross-pollination in one direction. So, I would say, why don't we go in two directions? And therefore, I would say that the claim that Moses didn't exist is weakening what would otherwise be a a very important argument that I don't believe in God, which requires to be addressed. Well, I don't believe in the historicity of Torah. Argue that, but don't default to what in my view what is a lazy argument which says I don't have to even address them cuz if he didn't exist, then what's the point? >> I see what you mean. Yeah, so technically, one could evaluate this and question someone's existence. But if that's your like, well, I just don't think he existed and that's like your argument, that that doesn't really get move the needle. By the way, does this question, if you don't mind me asking, does this question bother you? Uh cuz I don't want to I don't want to bother you, but I figured I'd ask because I imagine there are other questions that would be more irritating than simply asking whether or not Moses existed. Does this one kind of irritate you? Are you annoyed by this kind of question specifically? >> So, that's family, right? So, in that case, it's family. It's part of a unique uh tribe that I'm a part of. So, doesn't annoy me. It does like, what? But I We all know that you can't know You can't have any confidence of certainty that Moses didn't exist. We know that. Even And now, we're not opponents, but people that who are atheists are not like personally my opponents, but even those who have a dramatically different view than mine, they can't know it and they would concede they can't know it. They can feel a moral confidence that he didn't exist. So, when people say that Moses didn't exist, and they say it with confidence. And so when you see people who are scholars um who have the same background, who sometimes chuckle. Why do you need to laugh? Like I don't When you ask me, "Did Jesus exist?" I'm obviously not a Christian. I'm not a fan of the Christian religion, but I say that Jesus probably did exist, and I don't laugh. So, that doing that and like chuckling, "Haha." That to me is transparent. There is no way any scientist, whether religious or not religious, could say with confidence, "I know Moses didn't exist." And that's where my disappointment is. Why are you Why are you lowering yourself? You could do better than saying, "I know Moses didn't didn't exist." Don't do that. You could You You atheists could ask much better questions or make make better assertions than that one. >> Thank you. Appreciate that uh follow-up there. >> If you enjoyed this program, please like and subscribe. >> Adonai [singing] asher malakh >> [music] >> beterem kol yetzer nivra >> [singing] >> le'et na'asa [music] vekheftzo kol