CTP (S3EAugSpecial3) Sacred Comedy: Gershon Siegel's Biblical Reboot

CTP (S3EAugSpecial3) Sacred Comedy: Gershon Siegel's Biblical Reboot
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Gershon Siegel discusses his book "Ten Commandments Reboot," offering a fresh, humorous take on divine governance and the origin story behind the biblical commandments. Through lighthearted storytelling, he addresses serious questions about morality, biblical interpretation, and our obligations to one another.
• Reimagining the Ten Commandments as originally fifteen divine suggestions that Moses edited down
• Using humor to make spiritual truths more accessible to both believers and skeptics
• Exploring the difference between murder and justifiable killing in biblical context
• Discussing how Jesus provided new context rather than erasing previous teachings
• Highlighting our moral obligations to serve others rather than just focusing on self-improvement
• Examining how humor can bypass defenses and open minds to reconsidering spiritual principles
• Recognizing that repetition of truth in different ways helps people absorb important messages

A Short Story: A Lasting Legacy? book Trailer

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Constitutionalist Politics Podcast , aka CTP . I am your host , joseph M Leonard , and that's L-E-N-A-R-D . Ctp is your no-must , no-fuss , just-me-you-can-occasional-guest-type podcast

Welcome to Constitutionalist Politics

Speaker 1 0:19

. Really appreciate you tuning in . As Graham Norton will say , let's get on with the show . Hello everybody , hello everyone , welcome to another episode of Crustitutionalist Politics Podcast . Joining me today is Dare Sean , and I'm sensitive to names , you know , because my last name looks French . It's not , it's actually Polish somehow Leonard Owoskiewiczki or something . Leonard without an O . It got shortened too . So Gershon , though G-E-R-S-H-O-N . Siegel , am I getting the last name right at least ? Okay , great , and you were joking about your own name , what ?

Speaker 2 1:10

Well , gershon , people take Gershon and they go Gershon or Gershon , and I tell them my people were peasants and they couldn't afford an accent , so it's just plain Gershon , yep , and you are the author of , and they couldn't afford an accent , so it's just plain direction .

Speaker 1 1:26

Yep , and you are the author of Ten Commandments Reboot . So obviously I saw that and said , oh , I got to hear about this . Hey , there it is For the benefit of those viewing the behind-the-scenes video . He's holding up the book . But if you're on audio , why aren't you watching the video ? You missed it , yeah you missed it .

Speaker 1 1:56

Yeah , I don't know Good to be here , Good to be here , jason , good , good , I mean , I do get it . Most people listen to a podcast when they're out and about , but I don't get why people from their homes don't then want to watch the video rather than just listen . But you know , it's the same with Savage Unfiltered . I'm on and I talk to so many other podcasts filtered I'm on and I talk to so many other podcasts . They've got video channels but they don't get any views because people are just so used to only listening . But I like to put up behind the scenes video because you know , I want them to see you , I want them to see us interacting as long as we're talking about names , do I call you Joe ?

Speaker 2 2:47

I want them to see us interacting .

Speaker 1 2:50

Well , as long as we're talking about names , do I call you Joe or Joseph Joseph , please ? Yeah , joseph M Leonard , because there is a Joseph Lennard out of South Carolina who's also an author an author , so I try to be , you know , joseph M Leonard , because that's what my books are written under , to make sure people understand . But , at any rate , what before we get to the book ? Who are you , where were you born and raised , and all that good stuff and all that good stuff .

Speaker 2 3:24

Well , before I do that , I just want to say I'm really very touched by the fact that you've written these books . You've written your own books , and two of them are very practical how to publish a book , which is wonderful for authors , and

Meet Gershon Siegel

Speaker 2 3:43

how to do a podcast , and what a great gift that you've given . So I'm I'm , thank you for doing that and I do plan on getting that , that , that podcast , because that's kind of an interesting cool . Yeah , I'm and I'm I've . Only this is only the third or fourth podcast I've been on , so I'm a newbie . I'm 76 years old . The technology has gotten so far away from me , I'm overwhelmed with it . So thank you for trying to make that .

Speaker 1 4:18

My how to write a book and get it published hints and Techniques is also written more like a novel than a self-help guide , because a lot of people aren't interested in maybe authoring their own book , but they should be curious about how does a book doesn't just get a wave of a magic wand and come into existence . Somebody's got to think it up . How does that happen ? How do you write it ? How do you publish it ? How do you market it ? All that stuff needed to be out there , because there's a million how to put your book on Amazon . Well , whoop-de-doo , I could read the Amazon help files for free for that .

Speaker 2 5:04

Right , right .

Speaker 1 5:06

Well , thank you for having me oh a great honor to have you and what inspired the idea of Ten Commandments Reboot .

Speaker 2 5:24

Well , it seems to me that the ten commandments have sort of been uh , you know , thrown kick to the curb .

Ten Commandments Reboot Concept

Speaker 2 5:35

Here we have these 10 short little sentences that have been the undergirding of Western civilization , and yet they're not really being observed . And so I thought , if I put them in a different context , made a story up about how they came to be , what God in heaven had in mind . Because , let's face it , we're in all kinds of crises , and part of those crises are moral crises . Maybe the moral crisis is really the telling thing here , and so I wanted to re-inject that into humanity . We've lost touch with divine governance . You know , we were given some original instructions and we seem to be ignoring them .

Speaker 1 6:39

Yeah and like it .

Speaker 2 6:41

So I thought , if I do it in a human way . Yeah , and like it or not , if I do it in a humorous way yeah go on , Go ahead . If I do it in a humorous way , you know , first of all I kind of made Moses the villain .

Speaker 1 7:01

Oh , interesting .

Speaker 2 7:26

Oh interesting as to why heaven , why humanity has gone so far off the rails and why we're in this place now where we're staring into an abyss and what's going to happen . So I thought , well , okay , let's first of all commandments . Who likes to be commanded ? I don't like to be commanded , I want to . You tell me . You tell me hey , do this , I'm going to want . Well , why ? Why do I have to do that ?

Speaker 2 7:49

So this apology is basically trying to explain what heaven really had in mind originally , why they picked the Hebrews to receive this message , even though and I'll tell you something the Hebrews were not God's first choice . He wanted to go with the Babylonians . Babylonians already had a big empire and they were going to get the word out much quicker . But there was sort of a democracy going on in heaven and they had a conclave of the archangels and some of the archangels wanted the Hebrews and some of them wanted the Philistines , and on and on . But actually God went behind everybody's back and tried to enlist the Babylonians , but that didn't work out . So they ended up going with the Hebrews and , as we know , the Hebrews sold their cousins into slavery . So the story goes in the Bible and so this was a chance . Rather than flood the earth again like in the time of Noah and start all over again , they thought , well , let's just get a group of people together and they ended up being the Hebrews . We'll give them some codes and they'll be an example for the rest of humanity , and that way we won't have to wipe out the world and drown everybody like so many rats .

Speaker 2 9:32

Well , they had to get somebody to deliver the message . They find Moses . Moses is the perfect candidate to do it . Only , moses is kind of now . He's kind of an arrogant guy . He knows the Egyptian mysteries and you're not going to bamboozle him like you did with Abraham . So Moses wants to be the most famous person that ever lived and he wants final editorial decisions on these suggestions from heaven . Well , god was not very good at negotiation . He wanted Moses to do it . So he lets Moses

Moses as Editor-in-Chief

Speaker 2 10:14

be the final editor . Because , first of all , there were not just 10 . There were 15 original suggestions from heaven and each one was about a thousand words long . They obviously weren't going to fit on a little tiny stone tablet . But this is what they got and Moses eliminated five of the original suggestions and also said I'm not going to call them suggestions . I'm going to call them commandments . The Israelites need to be told what to do . They've been slaves for seven generations and they just need some straight out . This is how you do it , so that was Moses' insistence .

Speaker 1 10:58

And Mel Brooks in the History of the World or whatever movie does a great tongue-in-cheek . I have your 15 commandments and drops one . I have your 10 .

Speaker 2 11:11

So we , as Christians , we got to keep a sense of humor . I'm so glad you're saying that and that is actually mentioned . I do reference no Brooks in the book .

Speaker 1 11:25

And the other thing is like it or not , even non-Judeo-Christian formed nations based most of our laws on the Judeo-Christian ethos Bible . I talk about Penn and Teller all the time . He's an avowed atheist , but he too says he has no problem with Moses and the Ten Commandments being on our SCOTUS building Because , indeed , whether they're suggestions , commandments or just a non-believer looking at them , saying , yeah , you don't get to kill me , I don't get to kill you , you don't get to take my stuff , I don't get to take your stuff , these are good being a good human kind of things . So atheists shouldn't have a problem with it . A lot of them just hate Christianity and have a problem because they are laid out in the Bible .

Speaker 2 12:28

Right , right , yeah , this book is not anti-religious at all , it's not anti-God , it's not anti-Jewish , right , it's not anti-Christian .

Speaker 1 12:38

It's sounding a little tongue-in-cheek , but still serious and I like that because I say on this show all the time we Christians have to have a doggone sense of humor .

Speaker 2 12:52

We do . We do , indeed , as a matter of fact , I have up on my wall it's a saying that it wasn't a Christian who said it , it was a Zen Buddhist monk , or something he says . In general life , one should laugh , and when one is not laughing , one should be waiting for the next laugh .

Speaker 1 13:18

Yeah , and if we can't laugh at ourselves , we got no business laughing at anybody else .

Speaker 2 13:29

Well , yeah , we should start laughing at ourselves first , before we laugh at other people .

Speaker 1 13:35

You're laughing at other people and you're walking a dangerous line there . Now I want to get your . Take the original Aramaic , hebrew , latin Greek of the commandment really is thou shalt not murder innocents , because Exodus 22.2 alone says a thief breaks in the night dealt a fatal blow . You are not guilty of murder . The intent matters . Killing is different than murder . The intent matters . Killing is different than murder .

Speaker 2 14:12

Yeah , that's a slippery slope when you're going to have an excuse to kill somebody , and we can create all kinds of scenarios . Well , this guy attacked my wife or my child .

Speaker 1 14:27

Well , that's revenge and retribution , and that's a whole other thing . But Genesis , leviticus and whatever the death penalty is biblical . It is that you're not supposed to seek the revenge and kill the person . We are supposed to have fair and honest

Biblical Context of Killing vs. Murder

Speaker 1 14:47

judicial system , but thou who sheddeth man blood by man shall have his blood sheddeth . The death penalty is biblical Again . That is then someone is killing that person , but it is not guilty of murdering an innocent .

Speaker 2 15:08

Well , I don't want to be the executioner of that . That much I can tell you .

Speaker 1 15:14

Well , I understand and I get that too , but again , yeah , as you said , we don't want to make .

Speaker 1 15:26

We don't want to make Right , we don't want to make Excuse uh-oh , having Connectivity issues again , like I did an hour ago with another Recording . But yeah , we don't want to make excuses Uh-oh , having connectivity issues again , like I did an hour ago with another recording . But yeah , we don't want to make excuses that okay . Well , you can kill as long as you claim such and such . I'm not saying that right , some is forgivable . It's still a bad thing and to be avoided . But there are right . Self-defense is forgivable .

Speaker 2 16:03

Yeah , there probably are circumstances where you know self-defense may be one of those times . Certainly there's a righteous martial arts . People have learned how to defend themselves , you know , I think that's an important thing to do , and I also think you mentioned about a judicial decision . Rather than taking that on yourself , I'm certainly very much in favor of justice . Justice needs to be , you know , but everybody has to have that sense of justice , carry that sense of justice within themselves and treat each other fairly , with justice , with respect . You know , we , we had the most wonderful example in Jesus coming and saying turn the other cheek . Example in Jesus coming and saying turn the other cheek . Love your neighbor , love your enemy , love your enemies .

Speaker 1 17:09

But he didn't say and the Bible doesn't say I erase I for an I entirely . It doesn't say be a continual sucker . It doesn't say continually turn the other cheek to the point of allowing yourself to be abused . It doesn't say that Context of the whole Bible matters .

Speaker 2 17:27

Context is supremely important and you , Joseph , don't look like somebody who is going to be taken advantage of . I'm not going to worry about you being abused . You don't look like the kind of person that would take much abuse .

Speaker 1 17:45

Yeah , what is it ? Matthew 5 , 17, . I did not come to erase—paraphrasing—I didn't come to erase the Scriptures , I came to fulfill them . He's not removing all the Old Testament . The New Testament provides new context and the new way , the preferred way . But again , yeah , don't always be a sucker . You can't just allow yourself to be a sucker all the time . Jesus certainly never said that .

Speaker 2 18:24

No , he didn't . He didn't say that . And he did go into the temple and overthrew the money changers because he saw corruption , there was corruption , and when he saw corruption , he called people on it . And he wasn't there to erase all the previous laws , but in a way he supplanted all the previous laws by just saying love . You know , love is the supreme law .

Speaker 1 18:51

Yeah .

Speaker 1 18:53

If everybody was coming from a place of loving everybody , we wouldn't need any other laws , basically , yeah yeah , and ultimately back to what you said about justice , we are not to be judge , jury and executioner all in one . And Matthew 7 is condemn not lest ye be condemned . Because there are other scriptures that tell us indeed to judge biblically , ourselves equally as well as others , but final judgment is

Justice, Love, and Tough Truths

Speaker 1 19:28

for the Lord . So again , there's all that necessary context that people want to warp Matthew 7 and use just the first seven words judge not lest ye be judged . Leave out the whole rest of that scripture that talks about removing the log from thine own eye and , indeed , judging biblically .

Speaker 2 19:53

Yes , I'm a believer in injustice , certainly , and and I'm also a believer in temperance and self-esteem . So I don't want I'm not going to walk on anybody and I don't want anybody walking on me using , using me for a doormat and we believe in grace and second chances .

Speaker 1 20:19

Right , we're all human , we're all frail , we're all flawed , we're all imperfect . Everyone has and may in the future again have a bad day . First impression may not always be the correct one , right ? So we have to give grace and that's part of the whole . Turn the other cheek , well , okay , and believe in reform and redemption .

Speaker 1 20:47

I love you brother , Okay , yeah , Well , I quickly took us away from the humor , didn't I ? I went to the fire and brimstone , but it's like you said , though overturning the tables . Matthew 23 , fake Christians want just the kumbaya singing around the campire Jesus and ignore all that tough love stuff .

Speaker 2 21:18

Right right .

Speaker 1 21:19

Again all— .

Speaker 2 21:21

That's why I did—that's why the book is written in a humorous way , because there's tough love in it . I tell people I am of the Mary Poppins school of spirituality . Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down .

Speaker 1 21:42

That's very good , very good .

Speaker 2 21:46

You have to give a little bit of , you have to be a little entertaining , you have to be a little lighthearted . But there are harsh truths , some of them being we have obligations . People think you're born and you're in a privileged place . And we are in a privileged place and we have a debt to pay . And people think it's a free ride here , taking up space and eating the resources , consuming the resources . We need to make sure that we are enabling other people , empowering other people , like you did with your books . Wonderful thing . We all need to be in that place where we're trying to help others . There's so many self-help books out there . There's so many paths to self-perfection . I can make myself into a conscious , happy person , but if somebody's not benefiting from all the work that I've done on myself , then all that work that I've done on myself is for nothing . We're here to serve each other . That's my belief anyway .

Speaker 1 23:01

No , amen Again . That's biblical , that's in there , that's right . Love our brothers , be our brother's keeper . We're not , though , however , ordered by force to do that . The Bible also makes the distinction between the unable versus the unwilling , who you have no obligation to , and I'm glad you mentioned humor again , because an atheist is not going to read my two Christitutionalist politics books . Going to read my two constitutionalist politics books , it's too serious for them . Your book , however , it might be attractive enough because it comes at it in a way that allows them to read it without feeling they're necessarily being preached to right Anything like in my what color is the sky really ?

Speaker 1 23:56

Episode , I use that scientific A farce . The sky isn't blue . I hate to break it to people who are used to parroting that because that's the accepted norm . No , at night is it blue ? No , the sky is transparent . It appears blue , sometimes orange , sometimes green , based on atmospheric conditions and refraction and reflection of light off our planet . On Mars the sky would appear red because of the reflection , right , but yet we all say what color is the sky ? Blue , no , wrong . And if you can reach people somewhat tongue-in-cheek , like I do , through that to get them to recognize , oh wait , a minute , you're right , I didn't really think that through . Then maybe they'll wake up to the fact well , what else hadn't I thought through ? But again , anything through humor gets past some people's facade and defenses .

Speaker 2 25:10

Right , right and yeah , humor is just well . We would be in sad shape , wouldn't we , if we couldn't laugh , if we didn't have humor . I mean , even the kings of old , they had their gestures , they knew that that was an essential element . So I'm kind of a modern day .

Speaker 1 25:31

And , of course , those who hate Christianity accuse us all of having no sense of humor . We're always all uptight and preachy all the time , and that , of course , is not true . Proof in the pudding is this show .

Speaker 2 25:49

Yeah , yeah , glad to see that you're such a jocular rock . I was a little nervous , frankly .

Speaker 1 25:58

Oh , were you ? Yeah , well , it's a very serious title and yeah , I trademarked constitutionalist because left , right , liberal , conservative , all those put people immediately on connotative defense . Right , they have in their mind oh liberal , you must be this , oh , conservative . So I invented Christitutionalist . You're either a Christian or you're not . You either understand the context of the Bible or you don't . And unfortunately there are a lot of Matthew 23s

Humor as Spiritual Medicine

Speaker 1 26:37

again . Just want the hippie version of Jesus and ignore all the commandments kind of parts , the tough love . They don't want to be bothered with that . Okay .

Speaker 2 26:54

So you got any other questions for me ? I got a question for you sure are you gonna read my book ?

Speaker 1 27:07

you know what ? I'm not sure I you know I'm not gonna blow smoke or take oh , absolutely I , because we're not supposed to lie either . So I'm not going to string you along and say I am or I'm not . I am very interested in it , I like it , and my then next obvious question is do you have another , something similar in the work ?

Speaker 2 27:32

well , I'm working on another book . It's . It is not similar . Now , my , my first book that I wrote 30 years ago and self-published , is still available , but it is not . It is similar in a way because the that book was called paradigms . It is called paradigms . It is called Paradigms Lost Paradigms .

Speaker 1 27:58

Lost . Oh hey , for those on the behind-the-scenes video viewers , they can see that . Uh-oh , I think you froze there for a second , so let me Millennium . Yeah , okay , okay , okay .

Speaker 2 28:34

And the other reason I don't like to say I'm going to read other people's stuff is because I personally worry about anything subconsciously creeping into my own works if I'm reading a bunch of other people's stuff . You know what I mean . So you have a fear of other people's stuff . You know what I mean , so you have a fear of other people's opinions , oh , no , other people's ideas , boy , has that come out wrong ?

Speaker 1 28:44

No , Agree or disagree with someone else's stuff , it might accidentally get buried in a part of my brain . I don't want to subconsciously accidentally lift plagiarize , if you must , somebody else's work because I didn't overtly recall I read it in your book and I'm typing it out as if thinking it was my great idea . Does that make it clearer ?

Speaker 2 29:21

I see ? Well , I'm not at all . I'm not yeah , that's a little clearer . I'm not at all , because for me , anything I've ever written , no matter how original it may seem when you dig down there , it's derivative . You know , we all , we're all victims of what we've been bringing in conditioning from our parents and our teachers and so forth . So you're bound to be affected by whatever you take in . But that's okay . That's okay because you take , you mix it up and you present it in a brand new kind of way and hopefully you've got something original to say . Maybe , maybe not , but if you say it in a in a way , that's , you know , people need to hear the same thing over and over and over again , but they , they need to hear it in different ways .

Speaker 1 30:18

Slightly different ways to make it stick . Yeah , In politics , having run for office myself . Right , it's the touch seven times .

Speaker 2 30:29

You've been in office .

Speaker 1 30:30

Yeah , yeah , A couple of times . God bless you . Well , I put my money where my mouth is , unlike a whole lot of other people that don't right . Touch people seven times in seven slightly different ways A mailer , a TV ad , a radio ad saying slightly different ways of the same thing as you're saying . So that your presence is enough then that it sticks . That's kind of what you're saying . The repetition matters yeah , yeah do you have a website people could visit ?

Speaker 2 31:14

Yes , it is GershonSiegelcom .

Speaker 1 31:21

Simple enough . I wrote it down to make sure when I edit the episode I'll put it on the screen for all to see . Looking on the few that bother to view the behind the scenes videos . Most people listen across the 25 plus audio platforms this show airs on , including spotify and iheart and all that . So thank , I didn't say your name enough . Normally I like to repeat the name again . That touched seven times to get it to stick . Thank you , Gershon , spelled G-E-R-S-H-O-N , Siegel and again GershonSiegelcom . If you can't remember it , or whatever , come back and look at the video . It'll be on the display . Thank you for joining me today . Take care , God bless .

Speaker 2 32:20

Thank you for having me , Joseph . That was very sweet of you to extend an invitation . I'm very grateful .

Speaker 1 32:27

Thank you for having tuned in for Chris D'Attusio's Politics Show . If you haven't already , please check out my primary internationally available book , terror Strikes , coming soon to a city near you , available anywhere books are sold . If you have locally run bookstores still near you , they can order it for you . And let me remind , over time the fancy high production items will come . But for now , for starters , it's just you as a very appreciated listener by me . All subjects , no flaws , just straight to key discussion points

Episode Wrap-Up

Speaker 1 33:08

. A show that looks at a variety of topics , mostly politics , through a Christian , us constitutionalist lens . So again , thank you from the bottom of my heart . Take care , god bless , like and subscribe to Constitutionalist Politics Podcast and share episodes . We need your help .