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Speaker 1: Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of

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Speaker 1: hours of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs. I

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Speaker 1: had to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go to Dennisprager

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Speaker 1: dot com.

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Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite topics.

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Speaker 3: I don't speak on it all the time because not

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Speaker 3: everybody asks for it, but I, as I said on

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Speaker 3: the radio promos, I really am one of the handful

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Speaker 3: of people I think who can do the.

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Speaker 2: Topic justice on a number of accounts.

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Speaker 3: One, I am deeply involved with both Christians and Jews

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Speaker 3: and have been for decades, and that's not true for

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Speaker 3: many people. Secondly, I like them both and I have

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Speaker 3: tremendous respect for both. And there is a very interesting

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Speaker 3: statement that I learned from Judaism as a child in

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Speaker 3: Orthodox world. I haven't been Orthodox since my teenage years,

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Speaker 3: but I thank God that I was raised in tremendous

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Speaker 3: immersion in the tradition and learned the sources as well

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Speaker 3: as I did. But there's a very famous statement in Hebrew.

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Speaker 3: I'll just give it an English and that is Wisdom

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Speaker 3: of the Nations.

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Speaker 2: You should believe the Torah of the Nations. Don't believe.

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Speaker 3: In other words, it's a jew should learn from every

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Speaker 3: other group. You don't take their theology, because if you

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Speaker 3: take their theology, you cease being Jewish. But beyond the theology,

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Speaker 3: you have to learn from everybody. The idea that only

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Speaker 3: my group or only my religious group, has wisdom is absurd.

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Speaker 3: That's the antithesis of wisdom. I realized this very early

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Speaker 3: on this program that I was moderator of.

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Speaker 2: I don't know when.

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Speaker 3: And if God intervenes in anybody's life. To be honest,

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Speaker 3: I just don't know. I'm agnostic on that issue. I'm

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Speaker 3: not agnostic on God. I'm an agnostic on the issue

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Speaker 3: does He intervene or at least can I identify when

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Speaker 3: God does? But if he did, he got me this

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Speaker 3: job to be the moderator of a priest, minister, rabbi,

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Speaker 3: different ones each week for ten years. I got much

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Speaker 3: better than a PhD in religion and specifically Christianity. I

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Speaker 3: got a living doctorate. I was with Christian, Catholic and

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Speaker 3: Protestant clergy every single week, the best people, answering the

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Speaker 3: toughest questions. It got to the point, by the way,

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Speaker 3: I'll never forget this is when I knew.

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Speaker 2: I was proud of where I had gotten.

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Speaker 3: Somebody started giving the Protestant minister and the Catholic priest

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Speaker 3: a hard time, and at a given point, the priest

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Speaker 3: slipped me a note, could you.

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Speaker 2: Handle this please?

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Speaker 3: And so here was this guy from Yeshiva defending the

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Speaker 3: Christians against somebody I don't remember what. He was, probably

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Speaker 3: an next Catholic. They gave the Christians the hardest times.

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Speaker 2: I learned a lot about that too.

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Speaker 3: The Jews didn't give Christians a hard times, the ex

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Speaker 3: Catholics that gave them. And then, by the way, it

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Speaker 3: worked in both directions, because I'll ever forget one time

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Speaker 3: somebody called.

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Speaker 2: Up and started a non Jewish.

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Speaker 3: Caller called up and gave the rabbi a really hard

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Speaker 3: time on Jewish choseness. Now he was the wrong rabbi

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Speaker 3: to give a hard time too, because the Rabbi wasn't

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Speaker 3: comfortable with Jewish chosen is either. And I could tell that,

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Speaker 3: you know, this is not something on that rabbi's radar,

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Speaker 3: and he kept yelling all with chauvinism, Jewish elitism, Jewish chauvinism,

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Speaker 3: and it has overtones of racism. Finally, the Catholic priest,

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Speaker 3: Father Michael Nosita. I said, Dennis, may I respond to

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Speaker 3: the corps. I said, please go right ahead. And so

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Speaker 3: he said, caller, this is Father Michael Mosita, the Roman

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Speaker 3: Catholic priest. God chose the jew God chose the Jews

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Speaker 3: get a life. And that answered that, yeah, we really

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Speaker 3: the guy I think he thanked them.

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Speaker 2: Ah, now I understand.

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Speaker 3: So I had this ten year experience of Jews defending Christians,

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Speaker 3: Christians defending Jews, both criticizing of everything, and of course

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Speaker 3: I always and I have to add it tonight as well,

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Speaker 3: all of this is only possible in America. That's that's

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Speaker 3: should never be forgotten. The comfort that Jews and Christians

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Speaker 3: have only exists in the United States of America. And

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Speaker 3: it is a blessing beyond words that we have this,

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Speaker 3: that that nobody, nobody thinks twice that half this audience

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Speaker 3: is Christian and a synagogue, or half this audience would

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Speaker 3: be Jewish at a church and having the same thing

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Speaker 3: and getting together for each other's occasions and respecting each

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Speaker 3: other it's and loving each other and enjoying each other.

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Speaker 3: And the fact that you would want to hear this

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Speaker 3: speech tonight. You know when I believe me, you know,

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Speaker 3: I mean, this is not a knock on my rabbis

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Speaker 3: a yeshiva, but it's just a fact. I never heard

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Speaker 3: a speech from my rabbis at yeshiva what Jews can

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Speaker 3: learn from Christians? I promise you this was not one

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Speaker 3: of the subjects in the Yeshiva curriculum. So boys today, up,

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Speaker 3: you could lay from the Christians nothing and it wouldn't

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Speaker 3: It wouldn't have been bigotry. Does he was certain? Because

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Speaker 3: because he would You see, there there's another statement that

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Speaker 3: you know there were, by the way, there were echoes

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Speaker 3: of this in every religion, because there was there's.

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Speaker 2: A statement in the Talbut you know, just go through it.

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Speaker 2: Through it.

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Speaker 3: Everything is in it, meaning the Tower and the Talbot.

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Speaker 3: So what do we need anybody else who's good a lot?

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Speaker 3: What are we gonna learn?

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Speaker 2: What don't we gonna learn? You know, this is this

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Speaker 2: sort of gesture, but today it was wrong.

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Speaker 3: There's a massive amount to learn and improve on, in

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Speaker 3: my opinion, So I'm going to challenge both groups tonight,

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Speaker 3: and as I challenge myself, because these are things that

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Speaker 3: I have incorporated into my into my own life, and

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Speaker 3: I try.

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Speaker 2: To make it numerically even there were five things? Is

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Speaker 2: there one?

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Speaker 3: By the way, is there? You know there is good?

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Speaker 3: There are five things I have for each for each group.

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Speaker 3: They're not necessarily symmetrical, but five things each, and not

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Speaker 3: in order of importance, simply in the order that.

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Speaker 2: I made the maiden notes.

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Speaker 3: I think I'll start with what Jews can learn from Christians.

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Speaker 3: And again, please understand, this is.

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Speaker 2: To use a phrase from each religion.

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Speaker 3: This is not the Gospel truth, and this is not

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Speaker 3: Torah from sign up. Okay, So let me make that clear.

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Speaker 3: This is one man's opinion. You are totally free to

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Speaker 3: reject it. But obviously I've burned enough of your respect

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Speaker 3: that you took your precious time and came tonight.

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Speaker 2: So here goes.

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Speaker 3: I think that an area that I have come.

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Speaker 2: To really appreciate.

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Speaker 3: In Christianity, and one that I think Jews can learn from,

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Speaker 3: is the way Christians pray.

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Speaker 2: I have.

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Speaker 3: See the Christians here don't know, but Jewish prayer is

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Speaker 3: at the synagogue is very long, and the more traditional

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Speaker 3: the longer it is. Until such time as some of

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Speaker 3: us felt anti Semitic.

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Speaker 2: It's a terrible thing to admit. It's an amial lead.

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Speaker 3: But at a given point, after three hours, you start

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Speaker 3: hating the people.

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Speaker 2: Around you, and at least for me, and now you

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Speaker 2: have to want.

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Speaker 3: Now, let me make something clear. This may well be idiosyncratic.

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Speaker 2: I need it.

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Speaker 3: I have one sibling, an older brother. He loves Jewish prayer.

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Speaker 3: He gets there on time, he's the only one who does.

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Speaker 3: But he is there on time, does the entire Orthodox prayers.

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Speaker 3: Loves it, often leads it. He's a physician, a major

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Speaker 3: physician to Columbia universe. He's a professor of medicine.

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Speaker 2: Loves it.

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Speaker 3: My older son loves it. And so I'm in the middle.

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Speaker 3: I'm sandwich between two prayer lovers. And for me, it's

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Speaker 3: just too much, too low. And I think though I

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Speaker 3: represented more people than my son and my and my

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Speaker 3: brother now and my father.

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Speaker 2: Also loves it.

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Speaker 3: And my proof is that at Orthodox Jewish camp in

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Speaker 3: the summer, we would we would pray outdoors on benches

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Speaker 3: and it went three three and a half hours in

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Speaker 3: the sun.

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Speaker 2: It's not fair. It was not fair.

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Speaker 3: It was it was wrong. It was morally wrong. All right,

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Speaker 3: I got that off my chest. Now here's the thing, though,

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Speaker 3: if you would look at us, you would see kids

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Speaker 3: opening and closing the prayer book going like this and mumbling,

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Speaker 3: and you would have wondered, whether Jewish or not Jewish,

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Speaker 3: what are they doing? And here is the answer. We

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Speaker 3: were playing prayer book baseball. Prayer book in Hebrew is

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Speaker 3: a sitter or seder. It was called sitter baseball. So

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Speaker 3: after about an hour we had and what we would

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Speaker 3: do is we had a simple game. You opened up

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Speaker 3: the prayer book and if it was on Hebrew, of course,

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Speaker 3: if the first letter was out of the first letter

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Speaker 3: of the Hebrew alphabet.

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Speaker 2: It was a single.

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Speaker 3: Second letter bet double, the third letter of kimmel triple,

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Speaker 3: and dalla the fourth letter was a home run. So

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Speaker 3: you'd see kid man on first, second, and third to

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Speaker 3: our single sing. That's what we did in synagogue because

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Speaker 3: it was so long. Now this is something you know,

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Speaker 3: I could not have made up correct and it had

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Speaker 3: to have happened.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 3: Then I finally and I got older, I became an adult.

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Speaker 3: I would go to church service. The thing was over

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Speaker 3: in an hour. You can't believe it.

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Speaker 2: That's it, that's it, and that was it.

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Speaker 3: And by the way, a lot of Christians think that's

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Speaker 3: too long. I can't believe it. You know, the past

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Speaker 3: is spot for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes the rabbi was

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Speaker 3: getting started.

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Speaker 2: After fifteen minutes, it would be forty.

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Speaker 3: Five minutes plus plus all the prayers and the repeat

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Speaker 3: of the prayers that the cantor would do.

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Speaker 2: And so there's there's a more.

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Speaker 3: Important element than the brevity and longness of it or

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Speaker 3: length of it, and that is the spontaneity of it.

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Speaker 3: This again, I obviously experienced as an adult with Christians

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Speaker 3: at meals, and I'll never forget spoke to about two

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Speaker 3: thousand Catholic educators at one of their national conferences at

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Speaker 3: the Anaheim Convention Center, and they invited me in. Before

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Speaker 3: I spoke, they made an invocation and the woman to

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Speaker 3: the total silence of two thousand people, again something I'm

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Speaker 3: not used to two thousand Jews being silent in.

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Speaker 2: Maybe at Sinai, maybe at her at Sinai, I don't know.

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Speaker 3: And she said, among other things, God, that please open

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Speaker 3: our hearts to hear what our guest speaker, mister Dennis Prager,

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Speaker 3: has to say.

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Speaker 2: And I remember thinking, Wow, I.

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Speaker 4: Can't believe this, and I got up and I even said,

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Speaker 4: you know, I've spoken about a thousand times to Jewish

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Speaker 4: groups they've never prayed to hear me, it was so nice.

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Speaker 2: It was just worth coming for that prayer.

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Speaker 3: But the spontaneity of Christians prayers is very moving to me,

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Speaker 3: and where and to the point where I am often

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Speaker 3: at a where I am at a Christian's home, a

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Speaker 3: pastor's home, or just lay Christians. I would be at Dennis,

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Speaker 3: would you lead us in the opening invocation? And I

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Speaker 3: am completely comfortable in doing so, and I love it

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Speaker 3: actually where I open up with some a thought and

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Speaker 3: my heartfelt statement about how fortunate we are to be

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Speaker 3: with such friends in the in the in the company

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Speaker 3: of God himself, and it's very beautiful.

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Speaker 2: Jewish prayer is all written out for you. Now.

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Speaker 3: That has its own advantages in that if you if

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Speaker 3: you're not ready with something spontaneous.

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Speaker 2: It is there.

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Speaker 3: But the truth is, for me personally, the spontaneity wins.

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Speaker 3: There is just so often I could say the same

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Speaker 3: words over and over and over and they do start

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Speaker 3: losing their impact. Now, my Orthodox friends tell me I'm

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Speaker 3: wrong that the whole point is that it's like a

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Speaker 3: mantra and it has its own power.

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Speaker 2: And I'm sure to someone does.

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Speaker 3: I'm speaking as an individual, I admit it, but there.

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Speaker 2: Is a power to this. And I think that a.

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Speaker 3: Jews, without dropping all of their prayer book but condensing

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Speaker 3: it and adding the spontaneity that before a meal, to

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Speaker 3: just say something about thanking God for the moment that

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Speaker 3: they are in, I think it would add something to

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Speaker 3: Jewish life.

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Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.

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Speaker 2: Now on the now.

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Speaker 3: In this case, there is a symmetry because the flip

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Speaker 3: side is I think that what Jews can teach Christians,

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Speaker 3: or what Christians can learn from.

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Speaker 2: Jews is ritual, and especially.

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Speaker 3: Protestants, which is almost ritual free Catholicism.

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Speaker 2: Catholicism has still some.

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Speaker 3: Ritual, but ritual, and I think there's too much ritual

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Speaker 3: in Jewish life. But ritual is important. And this and

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Speaker 3: by the way, Christians love Jewish ritual, which is one

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Speaker 3: of the reasons Christians love to attend a Jewish Satan

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Speaker 3: or a Jewish Shabbat Sabbath, is precisely because these Jews

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Speaker 3: have all these rituals and we don't.

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Speaker 2: And there is something.

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Speaker 3: Powerful because ritual is the physical expression of a value.

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Speaker 3: That's my definition of the word ritual. We have secular rituals.

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Speaker 3: We shake hands when we meet. Why we don't have

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Speaker 3: to shake hands useless ritual, but it is. If somebody

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Speaker 3: refused to shake your hand, you'd feel there was something

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Speaker 3: suspicious here, right, Shaking hands represents a lot pleasure to

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Speaker 3: meet you. I reach out to you. There was nothing

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Speaker 3: to fear from me. I mean, there was so much

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Speaker 3: in a handshake. So the idea of ritual is very

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Speaker 3: powerful in life, and I like it. We have a

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Speaker 3: ritual of seeing the national anthem before ballgames. I think

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Speaker 3: America would be far poorer if we did not have

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Speaker 3: that ritual.

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Speaker 2: So secular life understands it too.

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Speaker 3: And I don't like when we get rid of American rituals.

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Speaker 3: I don't like that kids don't say the pleasure of

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Speaker 3: allegiance in school. That's an American ritual. These things are

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Speaker 3: the way in which we fold the American flag, that's

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Speaker 3: a ritual. But so ritual has a very powerful thing

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Speaker 3: to it. The notion that religion doesn't need ritual as

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Speaker 3: I think erroneous.

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Speaker 2: It does.

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Speaker 3: Everything needs ritual, secular life and religious life does. And

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Speaker 3: one ritual that has if I can put it under

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Speaker 3: the label of ritual that has been lost to modern Christianity,

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Speaker 3: is the Sabbath. Now it's this is a very interesting

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Speaker 3: Christians what they're lacking. But yes, I think it's I

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Speaker 3: think it's a big I think it's a big lapse

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Speaker 3: that that.

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Speaker 2: Sunday I'll never forget.

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Speaker 3: When I had the Christian and Jewish clergy on on

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Speaker 3: this program, I would periodically I would ask the priest

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Speaker 3: and the minister, if I visited you at home after

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Speaker 3: church on Sunday, how would I know it's Sunday and

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Speaker 3: not another day of the week. And it was fascinating

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Speaker 3: because they felt very awkward in answering it, because they'd

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Speaker 3: be sitting watching a football game or a baseball game,

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Speaker 3: right or go or gone?

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Speaker 2: Shopping? To them, all is a good sale.

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Speaker 3: On And so I often got the answer, which I

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Speaker 3: honestly did not buy, I must tell you, And that

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Speaker 3: was Dennis, it doesn't have to be in our actions,

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Speaker 3: will the Sabbath was in our heart. Okay, I have

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Speaker 3: more to say about heart versus action later, but let

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Speaker 3: me say I didn't buy it. So the Sabbath is

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Speaker 3: in your heart while you are at a baseball game.

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Speaker 3: I see, I understand. I'm not impressed. Okay, if you

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Speaker 3: want to say, look, the truth is, we're not obligated

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Speaker 3: to anything beyond church going.

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Speaker 2: Fine, I respect that, But don't tell.

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Speaker 3: Me while you're in a Giants game or a Dodgers

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Speaker 3: game that the Sabbath is in your heart that day.

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Speaker 3: At least for me as a behaviorist, I just I

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Speaker 3: can't buy it. If you believe it and sincerely believe it,

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Speaker 3: then that's fine.

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Speaker 2: I don't buy it.

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Speaker 3: So we Jews can really learn a lot about prayer

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Speaker 3: from Christians, and I think Christians can learn a lot

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Speaker 3: about ritual from Jews. And it would start, in my opinion,

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Speaker 3: with the reaffirmation of the Sabbath. Now, technically, of course,

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Speaker 3: Sunday is not the Sabbath. It's the day of the Resurrection,

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Speaker 3: so it's not exactly the Sabbath.

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Speaker 2: And that's another reason that Christians can say, well, we're.

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Speaker 3: Not obligating whatever you want to call Sunday. If it's

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Speaker 3: like every other day of the week, something is lost

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Speaker 3: societally and christianly.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 3: Number two, start again with what Christians can teach Jews

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Speaker 3: or Jews can.

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Speaker 2: Learn from Christians.

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Speaker 3: Religious Christians in other words, by religious I mean serious belief. Christians, Catholic,

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Speaker 3: Protestant and other have mastered something that they don't even

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Speaker 3: know how rare it is. I do, and that is

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Speaker 3: being deeply religious and living fully in the world. This

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Speaker 3: is unique, almost unique, que almost unique to Christianity. Extremely religious,

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Speaker 3: deeply believing Jews tend to lead a more hermetically sealed

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Speaker 3: life because that is what, in fact Judaism countenance. Where

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Speaker 3: you eat in certain places, you eat off certain dishes,

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Speaker 3: you relate to one another far more than to the world.

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Speaker 3: I mean, that's just a fact. Criticism or not, it's

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Speaker 3: just a fact.

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Speaker 2: Same with Muslims.

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Speaker 3: There is the comfort zone is in a Muslim world

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Speaker 3: if you are fully observant and immersed as a Muslim.

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Speaker 3: But religious Christians have mastered something that I respect immensely,

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Speaker 3: the ability to stay deeply religious and immersed in the world,

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Speaker 3: deeply religious, and send their kids to a regular school

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Speaker 3: and not worry, or maybe they do worry, but still

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Speaker 3: do it that their kids will retain their Christian faith

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Speaker 3: immersed in a secular world, whereas you don't have that

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Speaker 3: nearly as much in Jewish life. Where understandably, and I'm

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Speaker 3: a big supporter of Jewish day schools. But Jews who

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Speaker 3: are religious will send their kids to Jewish schools, deeply

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Speaker 3: fearing that if they went to a public school or

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Speaker 3: a private secular school, they will lose their Judaism.

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Speaker 2: But Christians will have the faith, and I.

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Speaker 3: Don't just mean theological faith, rational faith that their kids

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Speaker 3: can be immersed in the outer world. They can be

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Speaker 3: immersed and still retain a very strong Christian faith. That's

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Speaker 3: very rare and very admirable. And that's something more than

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Speaker 3: any other one thing. It is something I wish a

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Speaker 3: Jewish life could adopt, because the thing that was most

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Speaker 3: troubling to me in my Orthodox upbringing was the insularity.

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Speaker 3: I want it to be immersed in the world as

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Speaker 3: a religious Jew. Indeed, that's what I ended up doing,

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Speaker 3: even though not specifically Orthodox, but deeply religious on the

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Speaker 3: other side, and it's not necessarily symmetric.

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Speaker 2: But a second thing, now, line number two, that.

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Speaker 3: Jews can teach Christians is to take care.

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Speaker 2: Of fellow Christians. Jews take care of fellow Jews. This.

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Speaker 2: Jews are good at this, really good at this.

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Speaker 3: And I'll give you the best example and show you

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Speaker 3: an interesting countradistinction.

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Speaker 2: I became involved in public life.

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Speaker 3: And in public Jewish life at the age of twenty one,

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Speaker 3: after I had been sent to the Soviet Union because

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Speaker 3: of my knowledge of Russian and Hebrew. I was sent

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Speaker 3: to the Soviet Union to meet with dissident Jews, to

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Speaker 3: bring in Jewish items and bring out Jewish names of

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Speaker 3: those who wanted to leave the Soviet Union. And it

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Speaker 3: was a harrowing four weeks. And I became very involved

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Speaker 3: in the student struggle for Soviet Jury, the leading organization

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Speaker 3: for Soviet Jury. I became the national spokesman, spoke for years,

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Speaker 3: and every synagogue in America I ninety nine percent had

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Speaker 3: a sign in the sixties and seventies and eighties saved

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Speaker 3: Soviet Jewry. Reform, conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionists, Hassidic, neurotic, whatever the denomination,

378
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Speaker 3: it had a sign save Soviet Jewelry. Now, as a

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Speaker 3: student of the Soviet Union, you should know, I'll tell

380
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Speaker 3: you something that probably neither the Jews nor the Christians

381
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Speaker 3: here know there was a group more oppressed than the

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Speaker 3: Jews of the Soviet Union, the Christians of the Soviet Union.

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Speaker 3: This is probably a revelation to nearly all of you.

384
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Speaker 3: Christian or Jewish. Jews were persecuted, but very rarely sent

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Speaker 3: to prison for being Jewish, very rare. They were often

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Speaker 3: fired from jobs, they were not hired, it was lousy thing.

387
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Speaker 3: They were ostracized, they experienced anti Semitic thoughts. But Christians

388
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Speaker 3: were sent to terrible conditions and sometimes tortured for preaching

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Speaker 3: Christ for smuggling in a New Testament. I don't remember

390
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Speaker 3: a church in America that had a sign save Soviet Christians. Now,

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Speaker 3: why is that? Now? Notice this is very important. There's

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Speaker 3: no better or worse in any of this list. There's

393
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Speaker 3: what you can learn from. And I feel free enough

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Speaker 3: to speak this way. But I did wonder. I knew

395
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Speaker 3: how bad it was for Soviet Christians. That was my

396
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Speaker 3: field of.

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Speaker 2: Study, was the Soviet Union. And I didn't understand this.

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Speaker 3: Where are the rallies for Soviet Christians? Why aren't the

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Speaker 3: churches having at least a sign up saved Soviet Christians?

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Speaker 2: By the way, to this day, I don't know the answer.

401
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Speaker 3: I still ask the question, but I don't know the

402
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 3: full answer. It's a question for Christians to ask themselves. Now,

403
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 3: the part of the answer is that I can answer

404
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: from the Jewish side, I know why Jews did it,

405
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Speaker 3: I don't know why Christians didn't.

406
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Speaker 2: Maybe knowing why Jews.

407
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Speaker 3: Did and the absence of these two factors in Christian

408
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,320
Speaker 3: life might answer it might in fact just give the reason.

409
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Speaker 2: Number one, Jews are not just a religion.

410
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Speaker 3: There are people. Christianity is a religion, not a people.

411
00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 3: That's not better or worse. It's just a fact. You're

412
00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:04,399
Speaker 3: not born a Christian, you are born a Jews. The

413
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:07,719
Speaker 3: analogy is to American, whether you feel American or not,

414
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 3: if you're born American, you're American.

415
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,840
Speaker 2: Whether you feel Jewish or not, you're born Jewish, you're

416
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Speaker 2: a Jew. So there is a.

417
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Speaker 3: National people hood identity in Jewry that you don't have

418
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Speaker 3: in Christendom. So there is that sense of having to

419
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,359
Speaker 3: take care of that other Jew because he's a member

420
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Speaker 3: of my people, not just a co religionist.

421
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Speaker 2: That's one factor.

422
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Speaker 3: Another is that the Jews feel that every Jew who

423
00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:43,600
Speaker 3: assimilates or is killed.

424
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Speaker 2: Is closer to the end of Jewry.

425
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,120
Speaker 3: Christians don't get up ever, and worry that Christians will

426
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:55,560
Speaker 3: die out. This is a Jewish problem, not a Christian problem.

427
00:27:55,800 --> 00:27:58,399
Speaker 3: When you have over a billion people. It's very different

428
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Speaker 3: than you have twelve million people and you were just

429
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:06,560
Speaker 3: a third of them were just exterminated deliberately. So Jews

430
00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:11,640
Speaker 3: worry about disappearing. Christians don't worry about disappearing. So those

431
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 3: are two factors that work in Jewish life. I don't

432
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Speaker 3: think they're the only factors, but they are two factors

433
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Speaker 3: why Jews went nutting to save Soviet Jews. I mean

434
00:28:25,480 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 3: it was amazing Jews in Argentina, where they had it

435
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 3: very hard. Often every synagogue in Spanish would say save

436
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 3: Sylvie Jewy. In Australian synagogues, it didn't matter where it was,

437
00:28:40,120 --> 00:28:43,240
Speaker 3: everybody was worried about Sylvia Jewry. And then it went

438
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 3: to Ethiopian Jewry. How many Jews knew Ethiopians Zero? And

439
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:53,680
Speaker 3: yet if it's an Ethiopian Jew's having trouble, I'm out

440
00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 3: there for it. I tell the story when I speak

441
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 3: for Jewish charities like United Jewish Communities formerly UJA, and

442
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:06,719
Speaker 3: I tell this story very often that when I was

443
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,480
Speaker 3: in my twenties, I spent a week living with a

444
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 3: family in Bulgaria, and because my knowledge of Russian and

445
00:29:13,440 --> 00:29:17,880
Speaker 3: similar Bulgarian we got along, and one day they brought

446
00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:22,080
Speaker 3: in friends from rural Bulgaria to meet this young American

447
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 3: and at some point I mentioned I was a Jew,

448
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 3: and then they was silence, and then one of them thought, Jews. Jews,

449
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:35,400
Speaker 3: are they the people who all help each other? And

450
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 3: I found that so moving that the only association this

451
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,040
Speaker 3: rural Bulgarian had about Jews was that they help each other.

452
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 3: And that's true, and that is true. So it's something

453
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 3: that I wish Christians did more. Christians are the most

454
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:56,680
Speaker 3: persecuted religion in the world today. I mean, cops are

455
00:29:56,720 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 3: killed regularly in Egypt, Cops Christians are killed. Assyrian Christians

456
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 3: are killed regularly in Iraq. Churches are burned, Christians are

457
00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:11,720
Speaker 3: sent to prisons in China, and.

458
00:30:13,640 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 2: Pretty much.

459
00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:16,280
Speaker 3: I mean, I know there were church groups that work

460
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 3: for these people, but they're small groups. It's just not

461
00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:24,840
Speaker 3: a big deal in Christian life. And and I must,

462
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 3: even with all I said, I don't understand it. I

463
00:30:29,120 --> 00:30:30,440
Speaker 3: just I don't understand it.

464
00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

465
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

466
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:47,000
Speaker 2: Number three again.

467
00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 3: I'll start with something to learn from Christians and this

468
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,080
Speaker 3: is a I guess you could say it's all subjective,

469
00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 3: so this certainly would go into that category. I do

470
00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:06,480
Speaker 3: believe that the that religion should have aesthetic greatness, that

471
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 3: there should be a beautiful sanctuary, that there should be

472
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 3: a beautiful music, there should be beautiful architecture and beautiful art.

473
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 3: And Christianity has has been the world leader in this.

474
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 3: Uh you know, it's it's one of the I don't

475
00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:30,520
Speaker 3: know if a Jew has ever visited France and not

476
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:34,560
Speaker 3: gone to the you know, Notre Dame Cathedral. I mean these,

477
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 3: I am moved. I am profoundly moved by a beautiful cathedral.

478
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:43,240
Speaker 3: I'll ever forget. We have a few in the United States.

479
00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:45,320
Speaker 3: I mean, my wife and I visited the Saint Paul

480
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,000
Speaker 3: Cathedral and we were just we were, as they say,

481
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:49,960
Speaker 3: blown away.

482
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 2: And uh, here's a here's a story. Uh what did

483
00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 2: they say when you air dirty laundry? Uh? But uh,

484
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:05,680
Speaker 2: why not, I've annoyed everybody tonight already.

485
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:12,040
Speaker 3: Uh uh there there there arose in Jewish life an

486
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,960
Speaker 3: idea that if Christians did X, Jews should.

487
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:17,440
Speaker 2: Do not X.

488
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 3: So, for example, they play the organ in their church.

489
00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,920
Speaker 3: So now the Orthodox have an excuse for not playing

490
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:28,280
Speaker 3: the organ. They don't allow musical instruments on the Sabbath. Hey,

491
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 3: I don't happen to agree with it's one of the readings.

492
00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 3: I'm not Orthodox, but at least they're consistent, and I understand.

493
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:36,959
Speaker 3: But even a lot of reform, not all, but a

494
00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 3: lot or conservative. Oh, it sounds like a church, to

495
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:45,480
Speaker 3: which I always answered, so what what if that's a

496
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 3: nice sound? What if it actually moves people?

497
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 2: That? What matters The issue is does it sound like

498
00:32:53,880 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 2: a church?

499
00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 3: Is does it move Jews to feel God?

500
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 2: That's what the question is.

501
00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:06,160
Speaker 3: By the way, this question always happened. Jews did not have,

502
00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,760
Speaker 3: for example, until German reform. Jews started it in the

503
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,840
Speaker 3: nineteenth century, where rabbis would deliver a sermon.

504
00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:15,920
Speaker 2: From the pulpit, and the argument was that's what.

505
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 3: The Protestants do, that is what the guy in do,

506
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:26,680
Speaker 3: and to which their answer was, maybe it's a good idea,

507
00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:30,880
Speaker 3: which seems to me to be the more logical and

508
00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,760
Speaker 3: rational response and the one that God would actually prefer. Now,

509
00:33:34,800 --> 00:33:38,560
Speaker 3: of course orthodox rabbi lecture from the pulpit, but the

510
00:33:38,640 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 3: opposition originally was that's what they do in churches and

511
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:51,000
Speaker 3: I'll tell you I won't mention names because because I

512
00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 3: just won't mention names. But on the East Coast, I

513
00:33:55,520 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 3: am very familiar with an Orthodox and agogue recently built.

514
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,120
Speaker 2: I think at the cost, do you remember the cost?

515
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:03,320
Speaker 2: It was?

516
00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:08,960
Speaker 3: It twenty million, twenty eight million dollars.

517
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 2: It's an elaborate warehouse. It is. If you were to

518
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:15,279
Speaker 2: walk in, you would not know.

519
00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,080
Speaker 3: If I took down Hebrew, you would not know that

520
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 3: it was not a warehouse. It is downright ugly. How

521
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 3: you do twenty eight million dollars ugly?

522
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:32,120
Speaker 2: Is it? I think that's an achievement. I mean, I

523
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 2: don't know how you do it. A guy.

524
00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:36,000
Speaker 3: You got to get some credit how you make an

525
00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:42,120
Speaker 3: uninspiring house of prayer? And yet and people I know

526
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:45,080
Speaker 3: agree with me who attend that particular synagogue.

527
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,080
Speaker 2: But if you.

528
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 3: Look at the synagogues built in the nineteenth century.

529
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:54,120
Speaker 2: In the United States and in the.

530
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 3: Early twentieth century, they're stunning, with gorgeous, beautiful stained glass

531
00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:05,000
Speaker 3: and beautiful lighting and woodwork and so on. And then

532
00:35:05,040 --> 00:35:07,880
Speaker 3: the idea rose, well, it looks too much like a church.

533
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:11,279
Speaker 3: I guess I don't know a lot of rose. Likewise,

534
00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:16,040
Speaker 3: with you know, we have some beautiful Jewish melodies, absolutely,

535
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:20,160
Speaker 3: but you know it's not white up there with a

536
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:23,720
Speaker 3: lot of the hymns that you will hear at a church,

537
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:26,120
Speaker 3: and certainly not up there with handles Messiah. But then

538
00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 3: you can't blame Judaism for not producing a handle's Massah, right.

539
00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:33,960
Speaker 2: You know, And anyway, for for the Jews, there would

540
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:35,360
Speaker 2: be no Messiah.

541
00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:43,480
Speaker 3: So you know, so you know it's a joint effort.

542
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:49,439
Speaker 3: Now we go over to to what Jews can teach

543
00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,399
Speaker 3: Christians or Trusians can learn from Jews. This is line

544
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 3: number three out of five, and this is a very

545
00:35:56,120 --> 00:35:59,320
Speaker 3: this is a big one. And I said I would

546
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 3: come back to this one where the priests and ministers

547
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,440
Speaker 3: would tell me that the Sabbath was in their heart,

548
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,600
Speaker 3: and as a Jew, that you might as well say

549
00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:14,440
Speaker 3: to me, water is dry. It makes the same sense

550
00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:20,600
Speaker 3: to me. Judaism's great, great message, if I had to distill,

551
00:36:21,040 --> 00:36:25,600
Speaker 3: aside from ethics rooted in God, its greatest single message

552
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:30,399
Speaker 3: is that behavior matters more than feelings. By the way,

553
00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 3: those of you who know me from radio, which is

554
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:37,040
Speaker 3: most of you, well, no, that's my key message. That's

555
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 3: my message on happiness, act happy, even if you don't

556
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 3: feel it, it's a moral obligation to act happy and

557
00:36:42,160 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 3: not inflict your bad moods on others. The fact that

558
00:36:44,960 --> 00:36:48,000
Speaker 3: you feel ousy is your problem, not mine. Have a

559
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 3: great day. I got this all from Judaism. Behavior, behavior, behavior,

560
00:36:59,239 --> 00:37:02,040
Speaker 3: not feeling, not feeling, not feeling.

561
00:37:03,040 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 2: I learned it in fourth grade.

562
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:07,759
Speaker 3: One of my all time favorite stories, fourth grade Yeshiva.

563
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 3: The Rabbi says, boys, it is time to dobleman.

564
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:12,480
Speaker 2: That it is time to.

565
00:37:14,280 --> 00:37:18,040
Speaker 3: Pray the afternoon prayer. I walked over to the Rabbi.

566
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,239
Speaker 3: I always have chutzville, but I never was disrespectful, and

567
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 3: I just said, Rabbi, excuse me, but I'm not in

568
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:34,799
Speaker 3: the mood to Dovin Minie. The man was utterly perplexed.

569
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,880
Speaker 3: You he understood English, was from East Europe. He understood

570
00:37:38,880 --> 00:37:41,239
Speaker 3: English fine, but it was clear he had never in

571
00:37:41,320 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 3: his life heard those juxtaposed concepts of praying and mood.

572
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 3: So he thought and he thought, and he finally said,

573
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,160
Speaker 3: he used to week in the Jewish subjects, they use.

574
00:37:54,080 --> 00:37:55,800
Speaker 2: Your Hebrew name. My Hebrew name is Schmoyle.

575
00:37:55,880 --> 00:38:00,360
Speaker 3: And he said, Schmoyl praterer is not in the mood

576
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 3: to Dovenman, So what.

577
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:18,839
Speaker 2: That was it? That was it? Like God cares if

578
00:38:19,120 --> 00:38:19,640
Speaker 2: in the mood.

579
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,200
Speaker 3: It's just the idea struck him as so absurd he

580
00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 3: couldn't be sowhat was the only possible coherit reaction. And

581
00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:30,440
Speaker 3: by the way, the man changed my life. It's not

582
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:34,640
Speaker 3: that I continued to David Minha. I didn't, but I

583
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,359
Speaker 3: continue to think, so what if I'm in the mood

584
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,279
Speaker 3: or not to this day. By the way, just to

585
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:45,040
Speaker 3: show you how much I have, I have brought this

586
00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:49,839
Speaker 3: idea out into every part of life. And you may

587
00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,279
Speaker 3: not know this, and if you now that you know it,

588
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 3: you may regret that you came tonight. But I wrote

589
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:59,799
Speaker 3: a two part a column. I have a column every week,

590
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:04,399
Speaker 3: as many I hope many of you know, and at

591
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 3: the end of the year I write two columns on

592
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 3: utterly personal issues. So two years ago I wrote two

593
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:18,640
Speaker 3: parts and they were on the subject of when a

594
00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:24,360
Speaker 3: woman is not in the mood. And I have the

595
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:28,480
Speaker 3: audacity to suggest that even if you're not in the mood,

596
00:39:29,239 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 3: if he's a really good man.

597
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:32,360
Speaker 2: What the hell.

598
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:47,600
Speaker 3: I'll say this, whoever is married to the women who

599
00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 3: applauded is a lucky man.

600
00:39:49,280 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 2: I looked around very careful, but I got that.

601
00:39:56,200 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 3: By the way, that is a quit essentially Jewish concept.

602
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,280
Speaker 3: The idea that you will only have sex in a marriage,

603
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,120
Speaker 3: providing it's a decent marriage and a decent person, etc.

604
00:40:06,760 --> 00:40:10,000
Speaker 3: All the givens only when you're in the mood strikes

605
00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:11,280
Speaker 3: Judaism is absurd.

606
00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,880
Speaker 2: It would be as silly jewishly as he Hiden getting up.

607
00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm not in the mood to work.

608
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:20,480
Speaker 2: So what.

609
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:27,319
Speaker 3: People have obligations sex is sex is an obligation. The

610
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,799
Speaker 3: romantic notion that every time it should be embarked on

611
00:40:30,920 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 3: because both are totally in the mood and there are candles,

612
00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,600
Speaker 3: and that you have hired a roving violinist.

613
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 2: Is this silly? It's silly? And so I got this

614
00:40:47,160 --> 00:40:54,000
Speaker 2: all from So what it changed my life? About happiness,

615
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 2: about sex, about ethics.

616
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,600
Speaker 3: You know you're supposed to give x amount of charity,

617
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,080
Speaker 3: you're not in the mood, So what I mean, it's endless.

618
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 2: There's sobots of Judaism. Judaism is a behavioral religion. By

619
00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:07,560
Speaker 2: the way.

620
00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 3: It goes in the other direction too, because if you have,

621
00:41:10,440 --> 00:41:13,800
Speaker 3: you know, bad thoughts. The famous, most famous call of

622
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:16,239
Speaker 3: my thirty years of radio. The man who said he

623
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,040
Speaker 3: was a bad son forty years old.

624
00:41:18,400 --> 00:41:19,560
Speaker 2: Why you have bad son?

625
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,799
Speaker 3: He said, because, Dennis, I'm the sole financial, physical, emotional

626
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:27,520
Speaker 3: support for my mother who's been ailing for ten years.

627
00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,440
Speaker 3: And Dennis, I got to tell you there were times

628
00:41:29,480 --> 00:41:31,720
Speaker 3: I hate to even tell you, but I'm just opening

629
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:32,080
Speaker 3: up to you.

630
00:41:32,719 --> 00:41:37,560
Speaker 2: I wish she would succumb to her illness. And I said,

631
00:41:37,560 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 2: you're not a bad son. I want you to know.

632
00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:41,160
Speaker 2: It's an honor to speak to you. One of the

633
00:41:41,280 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 2: finest sons I have ever spoken to. He thought I was.

634
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 2: He thought I was mocking him, and I was.

635
00:41:48,480 --> 00:41:52,520
Speaker 3: Dead serious because I said to him, I judge you,

636
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,040
Speaker 3: and God judges you by how you.

637
00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 2: Treat your mother, not what you think.

638
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:06,279
Speaker 3: This is the great Jewish lesson for the world. Behavior

639
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 3: over feeling. We have become far too feeling oriented the

640
00:42:12,040 --> 00:42:12,840
Speaker 3: way we raise.

641
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:16,640
Speaker 2: Our kid kids. How do you feel about it? I

642
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:21,080
Speaker 2: don't care. Okay. The sooner the kid.

643
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 3: Learns it doesn't matter, no one cares how he feels

644
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:27,480
Speaker 3: about it, the better it is for that child.

645
00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:32,360
Speaker 2: Because you become a prisoner of your feelings. That's what happens.

646
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 3: You become a prisoner of your emotions. You are only

647
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:38,880
Speaker 3: the master of your ship. When you master your behavior,

648
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 3: You'll never master your feelings. I'm sorry, at least I haven't.

649
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:51,040
Speaker 2: Okay. Most of my day is spent doing things I'm

650
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 2: not in the mood to do. Okay, And by the way,

651
00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:57,759
Speaker 2: I just I read it on the air.

652
00:42:57,840 --> 00:43:01,440
Speaker 3: I believe the man considered a man named Canneman from

653
00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:07,080
Speaker 3: Princeton considered the greatest living psychologist Nobel Prize in economics.

654
00:43:07,080 --> 00:43:09,080
Speaker 3: The guy's a genius, but he's a brilliant thinker too,

655
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:12,080
Speaker 3: which is very rare for someone in Princeton. And he.

656
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:15,800
Speaker 2: No, it is. It's very rare. But if it's to

657
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:20,960
Speaker 2: his credit, and he he found out it's very interesting.

658
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,040
Speaker 3: He did this study and a serious study, and it's

659
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:28,360
Speaker 3: confirmed my view that studies confirm what all common sense suggests,

660
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:28,960
Speaker 3: or they're wrong.

661
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:32,880
Speaker 2: But it was a great one where overwhelmingly.

662
00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:39,880
Speaker 3: People who earned twenty thousand dollars spend like four times

663
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 3: more time watching television than people who earn one hundred

664
00:43:43,680 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 3: thousand dollars. Might that not be a factor, but you're

665
00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:49,879
Speaker 3: not allowed to say that in American life, because that's

666
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,239
Speaker 3: blaming the victim. Maybe a lot of poor people are

667
00:43:53,280 --> 00:43:55,920
Speaker 3: poor because they didn't work hard. Some aren't us of

668
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:59,200
Speaker 3: bad luck, that's true, and they have to be helped.

669
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:04,080
Speaker 3: But a lot of people don't work hard. And he

670
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:07,560
Speaker 3: went on to say most of their life is doing

671
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 3: shoulds not once. That's right, that's the way it works.

672
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:20,280
Speaker 3: That's a big, a big Jewish lesson now here. Christians

673
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 3: do have some difference, and this is this is one

674
00:44:25,719 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 3: of the few not fully reconcilable differences. And Christians, just

675
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:32,800
Speaker 3: just as Jews, have to grapple with some of the

676
00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 3: stuff I raised. I think here's something Christians have to

677
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 3: grapple with because Christianity can be behaviorist in the way

678
00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 3: I just described.

679
00:44:40,840 --> 00:44:43,440
Speaker 2: Behavior is more important, but it can also be the

680
00:44:43,520 --> 00:44:44,160
Speaker 2: other way around.

681
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 3: And the famous, the famous difference is with regard to

682
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 3: to Jesus's famous statement in Matthew, a man who looks

683
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:57,600
Speaker 3: after another woman a lust after another woman. It's as

684
00:44:57,600 --> 00:44:59,880
Speaker 3: if he has committed adultery with his heart. There is

685
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,879
Speaker 3: no analogue in in normative Judaism. You can only commit

686
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 3: adultery with one organ, and it's not the heart. It

687
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,400
Speaker 3: is just I mean it to be blunt as possible.

688
00:45:13,080 --> 00:45:18,680
Speaker 3: With the Rabbi's permission to thank you for that. No, no,

689
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:21,080
Speaker 3: it's a very big deal. Now let me tell you

690
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,799
Speaker 3: his a very interesting evolution in me. I started out

691
00:45:25,080 --> 00:45:30,719
Speaker 3: life with patcha freud. I start out with Christian envy.

692
00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,320
Speaker 3: I'll ever forget I would in my I would. I

693
00:45:34,360 --> 00:45:38,319
Speaker 3: would go every Friday night on the Sabbath. We would

694
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,799
Speaker 3: take a walk around the block in my Brooklyn neighborhood,

695
00:45:42,480 --> 00:45:46,560
Speaker 3: which was not particularly Jewish neighborhood. And though we were

696
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:50,040
Speaker 3: an Orthodox home, and I would see all these people

697
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:52,400
Speaker 3: driving and of course the Orthodox is not allowed to

698
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 3: drive on the Sabbath. And I remember thinking, man, why

699
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:59,760
Speaker 3: couldn't I be born a Christian? Then I could drive

700
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:01,600
Speaker 3: on the Sabbath and still go to Heaven.

701
00:46:01,680 --> 00:46:04,560
Speaker 2: There what a deal. I thought.

702
00:46:04,719 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 3: Christians had the greatest deal going in religious life. We

703
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 3: had to observe all these rules to get into heaven.

704
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:17,439
Speaker 3: They believed in Christ. They could eat ham, bacon, shrim, lobster, prawns,

705
00:46:18,200 --> 00:46:20,200
Speaker 3: and and on shops.

706
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:25,000
Speaker 2: I mean, what a deal. And I was just transfixed

707
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 2: with this. How did they have it so easy? Then

708
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:29,520
Speaker 2: I did religion on.

709
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:34,040
Speaker 3: The line, and I lost all Christian end because Christians

710
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:37,839
Speaker 3: traded in sin over behavior.

711
00:46:38,040 --> 00:46:40,480
Speaker 2: Slash ritual for sin.

712
00:46:40,680 --> 00:46:46,560
Speaker 3: Overthought, and I thought, oh, oh, I'll go back to

713
00:46:46,920 --> 00:46:49,000
Speaker 3: sin over behavior any day of the week.

714
00:46:49,480 --> 00:46:53,959
Speaker 2: Sin overthought. I'm committing suicide. I'm dead villa.

715
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:59,480
Speaker 3: I mean, my father was the president of an Orthodox

716
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:01,480
Speaker 3: synagogue and subscribe to Playboy.

717
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:08,240
Speaker 2: And now when you tell this to a Christian, they hyperventilated.

718
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:21,720
Speaker 3: My father was faithful to my mother for seventy three years,

719
00:47:21,800 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 3: that's pretty darn good. But he got Playboy, he did,

720
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:31,960
Speaker 3: and she never thought he was committing adultery. So this

721
00:47:32,120 --> 00:47:34,360
Speaker 3: is a very This is a real challenge here, and

722
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 3: it's tough because I'm challenging in effective statement of Jesus.

723
00:47:38,160 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 3: Now on behalf of Jesus. He didn't say you're the

724
00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:44,640
Speaker 3: man's committing adultery. Said he's committing it.

725
00:47:44,680 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 2: With his heart. And that's very important.

726
00:47:46,880 --> 00:47:51,800
Speaker 3: If he said he's committing adultery, it would be insoluble.

727
00:47:52,840 --> 00:47:57,320
Speaker 3: But Jesus was too smart and too steep in Judaism

728
00:47:57,480 --> 00:48:01,440
Speaker 3: and common sense to say lusting is the same as adultery.

729
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:04,080
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to be a fool to say that.

730
00:48:04,560 --> 00:48:08,040
Speaker 2: Said you're committing it with your heart, that's different. That's different,

731
00:48:09,440 --> 00:48:10,080
Speaker 2: and it's still.

732
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:12,960
Speaker 3: Not a statement that would be normative Jewish, but it's

733
00:48:13,040 --> 00:48:15,279
Speaker 3: not the same as the ultimate statement that.

734
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,560
Speaker 2: Is the same, and that's important for Christians to remember.

735
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:18,879
Speaker 2: It's still with the heart.

736
00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:25,759
Speaker 3: Okay, Ask any woman though, which she would prefer, and

737
00:48:25,920 --> 00:48:28,600
Speaker 3: I think she'll tell you. You know, my husband is faithful,

738
00:48:28,680 --> 00:48:31,399
Speaker 3: but every so often he commits lost with his heart

739
00:48:31,800 --> 00:48:35,200
Speaker 3: at the beach. Okay, most women can live with that.

740
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:38,000
Speaker 3: I think Jimmy Carter could have lived with that. Remember

741
00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:41,520
Speaker 3: that in his Playboy interview he was totally he was

742
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 3: consumed by the fact that he committed that sin. So

743
00:48:45,480 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 3: there's a difference. That is a Jewish Christian difference. My

744
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:52,720
Speaker 3: best story and I am The only reason I hesitate

745
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:55,520
Speaker 3: is because my wife has heard this over two hundred times.

746
00:48:55,640 --> 00:49:00,880
Speaker 3: But to her great credit, she actually acts like she

747
00:49:01,239 --> 00:49:03,360
Speaker 3: hates like she still enjoys it.

748
00:49:03,440 --> 00:49:07,239
Speaker 2: I don't know what she feels, but I love it

749
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,480
Speaker 2: every time. Okay. If she doesn't, she doesn't, I'm sorry,

750
00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:14,879
Speaker 2: But do you like it every time? Every time? Yeah,

751
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:16,680
Speaker 2: she's a good one. Okay.

752
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,560
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

753
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:32,720
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

754
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:38,400
Speaker 3: Religion on the Line, year five, I would give the

755
00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:42,440
Speaker 3: clergy a topic. You heard it, I would give the

756
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 3: clergy a topic. So tonight's topic was what is your

757
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 3: religion's view.

758
00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:52,759
Speaker 2: Lust? So okay, uh?

759
00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:55,879
Speaker 3: The Protestant minister began a till, I always go, minister, priest,

760
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,880
Speaker 3: Rabbi to the second round, Rabbi, priest, minister, So.

761
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:02,040
Speaker 2: We would I go, okay, pastor please?

762
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:06,480
Speaker 3: So of course you would cite Jesus and Matthew and

763
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 3: how a Christian aspires to purity of thought in all realms,

764
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:18,960
Speaker 3: and lust is sinful. And he spoke beautifully the capital

765
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:23,799
Speaker 3: priest virtually identically, totally understandably in this case. Sometimes they

766
00:50:23,840 --> 00:50:26,880
Speaker 3: were Christian. Excuse me, there were Protestant and Catholic differences,

767
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:31,400
Speaker 3: but not tonight again cited Jesus and Matthew and spoke

768
00:50:31,480 --> 00:50:35,160
Speaker 3: of the purity of the heart and thought. And now

769
00:50:35,200 --> 00:50:38,480
Speaker 3: it came the rabbi's turn. Now the rabbi, like the

770
00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:40,600
Speaker 3: priest him, it is with different ones each week. This

771
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:44,000
Speaker 3: week it happened to be not only an Orthodox rabbi,

772
00:50:44,080 --> 00:50:47,719
Speaker 3: but a bearded Orthodox rabbi, so even more, you know,

773
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:51,480
Speaker 3: almost ultra Orthodox. And that's not a descript it's a

774
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 3: commonly used description. So I didn't know what he would say.

775
00:50:55,960 --> 00:50:58,720
Speaker 3: I was pretty certain that if I had a modern

776
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:01,400
Speaker 3: Orthodox or reform or Conservative, I would know what they

777
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:03,279
Speaker 3: would say. But I had no idea what he would say.

778
00:51:05,080 --> 00:51:09,720
Speaker 3: So a Rabbi, please your understanding of Judaism's view on lust,

779
00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:14,560
Speaker 3: and then he goes denis lust.

780
00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:24,320
Speaker 2: Must That was it. That was his entire answer.

781
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:28,399
Speaker 3: And I always, I always know, I don't remember when

782
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 3: I was prouder being a Jew.

783
00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:33,600
Speaker 2: Than with this rabbi's answer.

784
00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:36,279
Speaker 3: I mean, he came through with flying colors for me,

785
00:51:36,960 --> 00:51:41,040
Speaker 3: because that really is basically I'm not saying all ultra

786
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:45,440
Speaker 3: orthodox Jews would say that, but the vast majority of

787
00:51:45,600 --> 00:51:50,279
Speaker 3: rabbis would answer exactly that. You know, that's not where

788
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:53,520
Speaker 3: our emphasis is. Don't act on it and have a

789
00:51:53,600 --> 00:51:58,040
Speaker 3: great thing. That's pretty much what it would be. As

790
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:00,719
Speaker 3: my father would get Playboy and be faithful to my

791
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:02,200
Speaker 3: mother for seventy three years.

792
00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:05,320
Speaker 2: And it wasn't hidden.

793
00:52:07,320 --> 00:52:12,759
Speaker 3: It came in the mail, mister Max Praeger. I was

794
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:22,440
Speaker 3: surprised at that that President Kingsway Jewish Center here. So

795
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,360
Speaker 3: it's a it's a it's a it's a very interesting issue.

796
00:52:27,200 --> 00:52:28,440
Speaker 2: That is a tough one.

797
00:52:29,480 --> 00:52:33,080
Speaker 3: Now, does this mean that if one's thoughts are all

798
00:52:33,239 --> 00:52:37,000
Speaker 3: day long in the impure zone, it is a good thing.

799
00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 2: No, it isn't a good thing. I mean what we

800
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:40,399
Speaker 2: common sense prevails here.

801
00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 3: On the other hand, men being what we are visually

802
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:51,640
Speaker 3: excited instantaneously. So what so what a man learns to

803
00:52:51,719 --> 00:52:56,160
Speaker 3: control his behavior and everybody moves on. And if he

804
00:52:56,480 --> 00:52:59,200
Speaker 3: the irony is the more he has to hide from

805
00:52:59,280 --> 00:53:02,080
Speaker 3: his wife. Oh, honey, I never look at any other woman.

806
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 3: Any man who says that to his wife is hiding.

807
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:08,319
Speaker 3: First of all, he's lying, which is a very bad

808
00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:09,880
Speaker 3: thing between couples to begin with.

809
00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:14,520
Speaker 2: Secondly, he's he's hiding a part of him from her.

810
00:53:15,719 --> 00:53:17,480
Speaker 2: Right it shouldn't be scary. Well, that's why I have

811
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:18,880
Speaker 2: my Male Female.

812
00:53:18,560 --> 00:53:23,200
Speaker 3: Hour, and I could show you literally thousands of letters

813
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:27,840
Speaker 3: of people saying it changed their marriage because it's a

814
00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 3: scary thing to women when they think about it, and

815
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,320
Speaker 3: then it's not scary when they learn about it.

816
00:53:34,800 --> 00:53:35,840
Speaker 2: That's a very important.

817
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:40,720
Speaker 3: Male sexuality is scary to women at the outset. Totally

818
00:53:40,840 --> 00:53:44,680
Speaker 3: understandable because there's no analog in women's sexual life.

819
00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:48,560
Speaker 2: It's just it's we are animals. Compared to you. That's correct,

820
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:51,800
Speaker 2: that's correct, right.

821
00:53:51,680 --> 00:53:54,160
Speaker 3: I mean how many girls, I mean forgetting the sexual

822
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,040
Speaker 3: Did your daughter ever go in the middle of the

823
00:53:56,080 --> 00:54:05,800
Speaker 3: living room and spread her buttocks and tooted? No, girls

824
00:54:06,000 --> 00:54:09,560
Speaker 3: just don't do that. They don't have to be taught. Now,

825
00:54:09,640 --> 00:54:13,680
Speaker 3: you never far in public. Boys have to be taught that.

826
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:17,720
Speaker 3: That's why, By the way, I want to tell you something.

827
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:23,840
Speaker 3: The reason men want boys is not sexist. It's so

828
00:54:24,000 --> 00:54:35,000
Speaker 3: that their wife begin to appreciate what they became. Okay,

829
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:47,719
Speaker 3: And finally, finally the issue of suffering. There is a

830
00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:53,120
Speaker 3: difference between Jews and Christians, and we can each help

831
00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:57,319
Speaker 3: each other out here. Both have a lot of very

832
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 3: good things. And there's no there's really no better or

833
00:55:01,760 --> 00:55:02,080
Speaker 3: worse here.

834
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 2: It's just different. And here's my great example that would

835
00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:13,920
Speaker 2: make my case. I want you to imagine that a

836
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:15,840
Speaker 2: group a group of.

837
00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:18,680
Speaker 3: The Jews, a group of Catholics, and a group of

838
00:55:18,719 --> 00:55:22,560
Speaker 3: prob are invited to have lunch together.

839
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:26,800
Speaker 2: For an ecimedical lunch.

840
00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:30,399
Speaker 3: Right, Well, our church will get to me, Your church

841
00:55:30,440 --> 00:55:35,240
Speaker 3: will get them, your synagogue. Lovely they are intentionally, because

842
00:55:35,280 --> 00:55:39,759
Speaker 3: I'm conducting this test to no one's knowledge, they are

843
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 3: all given somewhat unripe cantalope, which group will complain the.

844
00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:53,799
Speaker 2: Most out of curiosity?

845
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,320
Speaker 3: Is there anyone here who has any doubt as to

846
00:55:56,440 --> 00:55:57,840
Speaker 3: the correctness.

847
00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:03,520
Speaker 2: Up there? It's a non issue. The Jews will complain

848
00:56:03,600 --> 00:56:04,200
Speaker 2: the most.

849
00:56:05,800 --> 00:56:08,879
Speaker 3: The Catholics will complain second most, and the Protestants will

850
00:56:08,920 --> 00:56:09,719
Speaker 3: complain the least.

851
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:10,360
Speaker 2: In fact, the.

852
00:56:10,400 --> 00:56:15,360
Speaker 3: Protestants will relish the fact that it's not ripe because

853
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:20,560
Speaker 3: it's more christ Life. By the way, that's that's my

854
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:25,919
Speaker 3: that's my that's my belief. Suffering for Christians is christ life.

855
00:56:26,719 --> 00:56:35,440
Speaker 3: Suffering for Jews sinks. It's a very big, fascinating difference.

856
00:56:37,000 --> 00:56:40,360
Speaker 3: For critic, give me more, give me more more, unripe catalog,

857
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 3: I'll sue you for this. Unway, I am a member

858
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 3: of the Chosen People. We do not have unripe catalog.

859
00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:55,520
Speaker 3: It's it's it's really an interesting difference. Now that's on

860
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 3: a fun level. On a serious level, it plays out too.

861
00:56:59,239 --> 00:57:02,320
Speaker 3: By the way, it might be part of the reason

862
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:05,920
Speaker 3: for the Jews being more active for Soviet Jews and

863
00:57:06,040 --> 00:57:10,439
Speaker 3: the Christians for Soviet Christians, because the suffering of those

864
00:57:10,520 --> 00:57:15,080
Speaker 3: Soviet Christians did not offend in the way that the

865
00:57:15,200 --> 00:57:18,240
Speaker 3: suffering of Soviet Jews offended Jews. And this is not

866
00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:23,240
Speaker 3: a judgment at all, It's just a description. Suffering is

867
00:57:23,680 --> 00:57:28,520
Speaker 3: just bad in Jewish thinking, it is not just bad

868
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 3: and Christian thinking. Christ suffered the ultimate suffering for us.

869
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,520
Speaker 3: If I have my cross to bear, there's no Jewish

870
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:43,480
Speaker 3: equivalent to my cross to bear, none at all. And

871
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:49,200
Speaker 3: so we can learn from each other. The Christian acceptance

872
00:57:49,360 --> 00:57:54,320
Speaker 3: of suffering is has has its benefits because life is

873
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:58,400
Speaker 3: going to happen anyway. And yet the Jewish rejection of

874
00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 3: it is also important because God didn't make us just

875
00:58:02,560 --> 00:58:06,520
Speaker 3: to suffering. I mean, there's no biblical basis for that,

876
00:58:07,760 --> 00:58:10,040
Speaker 3: and no logical basis for not a good God. A

877
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:12,560
Speaker 3: good God wants us to love life, to enjoy life.

878
00:58:12,760 --> 00:58:20,760
Speaker 3: Even so, that's a very interesting aspects. And I'll give

879
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:25,080
Speaker 3: you one biblical difference that and it's the one of

880
00:58:25,160 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 3: the only ones between the Testaments that I could find,

881
00:58:31,840 --> 00:58:36,600
Speaker 3: the one of the only fact perhaps the only irreconcilable difference.

882
00:58:36,680 --> 00:58:37,560
Speaker 2: I'm not talking.

883
00:58:37,400 --> 00:58:42,920
Speaker 3: Theology, because that's it's not the issue. But I'm talking life,

884
00:58:43,480 --> 00:58:49,240
Speaker 3: not belief, not faith, and that is divorce. The Torah

885
00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:56,480
Speaker 3: allows for divorce, Uh, Jesus pretty much doesn't. I mean,

886
00:58:56,600 --> 00:59:00,440
Speaker 3: it's allowed under very exceptional circumstances, but they're they're pretty

887
00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:04,480
Speaker 3: much defined what those exceptional circumstances are. And a lot

888
00:59:04,520 --> 00:59:10,920
Speaker 3: of Christian life has adopted a ban an existential ban Uh.

889
00:59:11,920 --> 00:59:15,640
Speaker 2: I have Protestant friends, well, obviously, the Catholic.

890
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:18,360
Speaker 3: Church doesn't allow it unless it's uh, you know, the

891
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:22,080
Speaker 3: the marriage is annulled, and the vast majority of marriages

892
00:59:22,160 --> 00:59:28,080
Speaker 3: can't be annulled. So in Catholicism and for Evangelical Protestants

893
00:59:28,160 --> 00:59:33,200
Speaker 3: it's it's just a non but Judaism allowed it. In fact,

894
00:59:33,280 --> 00:59:38,680
Speaker 3: a rabbi wrote a book. Perry Metter, conservative rabbi in

895
00:59:38,800 --> 00:59:44,200
Speaker 3: Los Angeles wrote a book, Divorce is a Mitzvah. That's

896
00:59:44,240 --> 00:59:48,320
Speaker 3: an unbelievably heretical thing for a Christian to hear. Mitzvah

897
00:59:48,360 --> 00:59:49,880
Speaker 3: means commandment or a good deed.

898
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:51,640
Speaker 2: How cold?

899
00:59:51,720 --> 00:59:53,920
Speaker 3: How could divorce be a mitzvah? I mean, it's like

900
00:59:54,000 --> 00:59:57,840
Speaker 3: it's almost it's almost an oxymoron. And yet he took

901
00:59:57,880 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 3: it from Rashi, who is an Maidener Orthodox commentator in

902
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:08,800
Speaker 3: the Middle Ages from France. Uh the uh the Talmud,

903
01:00:09,560 --> 01:00:12,040
Speaker 3: which is the book the rabbi made reference to earlier,

904
01:00:12,080 --> 01:00:15,080
Speaker 3: which is the compendium of Jewish law, and thought the

905
01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:20,520
Speaker 3: Torah and uh and later we've been answer all allowed

906
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:25,920
Speaker 3: for a divorce. It's no mitzvah to live in misery.

907
01:00:27,760 --> 01:00:31,680
Speaker 3: And that's part of the Jewish view of suffering. And

908
01:00:32,040 --> 01:00:37,240
Speaker 3: that is a very interesting question for Christians to reflect on.

909
01:00:39,200 --> 01:00:43,000
Speaker 3: I mean, I reported on the air. Give how many

910
01:00:43,080 --> 01:00:46,160
Speaker 3: stories I don't report on. You can only imagine either

911
01:00:46,240 --> 01:00:51,480
Speaker 3: they're not absolutely verified, or you know there's no point,

912
01:00:51,920 --> 01:00:55,960
Speaker 3: or it's to this or to that. This one was

913
01:00:56,080 --> 01:00:59,200
Speaker 3: so dark, and I have a dark sense of humor,

914
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:02,760
Speaker 3: and I think anybody who deals with suffering has to

915
01:01:02,840 --> 01:01:03,959
Speaker 3: have a dark sense of humor.

916
01:01:04,080 --> 01:01:05,520
Speaker 2: Or they cut their wrists.

917
01:01:06,240 --> 01:01:09,480
Speaker 3: And so there was the story I don't remember out

918
01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:12,600
Speaker 3: of which city, but it happened last week.

919
01:01:13,400 --> 01:01:20,680
Speaker 2: In fact, an older couple obviously not getting a law. Well, he.

920
01:01:22,600 --> 01:01:27,880
Speaker 3: Apparently got so sick of her barbs at him. He

921
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:35,320
Speaker 3: shot her, and he shot her and missed, and she

922
01:01:35,560 --> 01:01:40,920
Speaker 3: said to him, you can't even shoot straight, And then

923
01:01:41,040 --> 01:01:45,600
Speaker 3: he shot her and she died, but she went out

924
01:01:45,640 --> 01:01:47,280
Speaker 3: with an insult edward.

925
01:01:49,640 --> 01:01:51,840
Speaker 2: Now it's a terribly dark story.

926
01:01:52,600 --> 01:01:56,200
Speaker 3: As Alan, my producer, sends me these articles at night,

927
01:01:56,320 --> 01:01:58,920
Speaker 3: and he has his brilliant one line summaries.

928
01:01:59,520 --> 01:02:03,560
Speaker 2: His summary that was of that one was, what was that?

929
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:06,680
Speaker 2: How to begin with? Oh?

930
01:02:06,760 --> 01:02:10,960
Speaker 3: Yes, insulting your husband is one thing. Insulting your husband

931
01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:16,320
Speaker 3: with a gun in his hand is another. So that

932
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:20,360
Speaker 3: was Now why do I raise this? Why did they

933
01:02:20,520 --> 01:02:24,120
Speaker 3: stay together? You realize the hatred that was built up

934
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:26,480
Speaker 3: over years for this to happen, that he would kill

935
01:02:26,560 --> 01:02:30,680
Speaker 3: his wife and that she would die insulting him. I mean,

936
01:02:31,200 --> 01:02:36,760
Speaker 3: your heartbreaks after the laughter or your heart breaks. It's

937
01:02:36,840 --> 01:02:42,160
Speaker 3: a very it's a very odd thing to me, this

938
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:45,880
Speaker 3: notion that, and it's worthy of its own lecture. The

939
01:02:47,640 --> 01:02:52,120
Speaker 3: judgmental quality over divorce. Now you'll say, well, look, I've

940
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:54,120
Speaker 3: been divorced, so you know that's why I'm saying it.

941
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:57,080
Speaker 3: Any of you know me, No, I don't say anything

942
01:02:57,240 --> 01:03:01,600
Speaker 3: because of me. I take so many positions that aren't

943
01:03:01,720 --> 01:03:04,720
Speaker 3: for me. I mean, you know, I'm not Christian. I

944
01:03:04,800 --> 01:03:09,440
Speaker 3: defend Christianity constantly. I mean, and I'm critical of Jews

945
01:03:10,240 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 3: on a whole host of political issues constantly.

946
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:15,640
Speaker 2: I don't take positions because I did it or don't

947
01:03:15,680 --> 01:03:15,920
Speaker 2: do it.

948
01:03:17,800 --> 01:03:20,280
Speaker 3: I felt this way before I was ever married, and

949
01:03:20,440 --> 01:03:22,840
Speaker 3: partially because I was raised with the Jewish notion that

950
01:03:22,920 --> 01:03:24,160
Speaker 3: it's not amid'st for to suffer.

951
01:03:25,000 --> 01:03:27,480
Speaker 2: You do what you can to keep a marriage together.

952
01:03:27,680 --> 01:03:30,959
Speaker 3: But you know, how do you know at twenty five

953
01:03:31,160 --> 01:03:34,480
Speaker 3: or twenty one or nineteen how someone's going to be

954
01:03:34,560 --> 01:03:36,200
Speaker 3: a thirty six or forty two?

955
01:03:37,240 --> 01:03:39,960
Speaker 2: What do you know? How do you know what you

956
01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:44,000
Speaker 2: will turn out? There's no practice, there's no you can't

957
01:03:44,120 --> 01:03:47,600
Speaker 2: practice this. You can learn. It's easier to be a

958
01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:50,680
Speaker 2: good surgeon than to have a good marriage. You know

959
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:54,040
Speaker 2: what the Jewish tradition says about marriage? What is this?

960
01:03:54,160 --> 01:03:56,760
Speaker 3: A great Jewish question? What's God been doing since the

961
01:03:56,840 --> 01:04:01,280
Speaker 3: sixth day of creation making couples?

962
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:06,400
Speaker 2: And it's and it's considered the hardest thing he has

963
01:04:06,480 --> 01:04:09,720
Speaker 2: to do. Clearly doesn't do a great job.

964
01:04:10,280 --> 01:04:15,000
Speaker 3: But that's Jews are allowed to have that relationship with

965
01:04:15,120 --> 01:04:19,160
Speaker 3: God where we kid around with him. It's very good,

966
01:04:19,320 --> 01:04:23,640
Speaker 3: it's healthy, but it's just something to think about, and

967
01:04:23,760 --> 01:04:27,000
Speaker 3: it's part of the issue of suffering.

968
01:04:28,000 --> 01:04:28,560
Speaker 2: To review.

969
01:04:29,120 --> 01:04:32,240
Speaker 3: I think that Jews have an immense amount to learn

970
01:04:32,320 --> 01:04:36,400
Speaker 3: from Christians on prayer, on being religious in the world.

971
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:40,000
Speaker 2: Oh and I didn't mention it's too bad. I'll mention

972
01:04:40,160 --> 01:04:40,640
Speaker 2: it anyway.

973
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:48,680
Speaker 3: This is really something to Christian's credit. Christians feel a

974
01:04:48,800 --> 01:04:55,880
Speaker 3: religious mission to humanity. Jews don't, and the Jews who

975
01:04:55,960 --> 01:05:00,320
Speaker 3: have a mission to humanity are not religious. As I

976
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:02,840
Speaker 3: always say, the Jewish tragedy is the Jews who live

977
01:05:02,920 --> 01:05:05,480
Speaker 3: Judaism don't talk to the world, and the Jews who

978
01:05:05,520 --> 01:05:09,360
Speaker 3: talk to the world don't live Judiasm. But Christians who

979
01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:13,880
Speaker 3: live Christianity do talk to the world. They want to

980
01:05:13,960 --> 01:05:18,160
Speaker 3: bring their values and christ to the world. More power

981
01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:22,640
Speaker 3: to them. So that's that's that's a huge that's that's

982
01:05:22,880 --> 01:05:27,560
Speaker 3: that's something else that that Jews can learn the aesthetic

983
01:05:27,600 --> 01:05:31,880
Speaker 3: beauty idea of the acceptance more acceptance of suffering. On

984
01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:35,840
Speaker 3: the Jewish side, the power of ritual care for coreligionists.

985
01:05:36,960 --> 01:05:43,040
Speaker 3: Behavior is ultimately more important than thought and uh and

986
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:48,560
Speaker 3: the the issue of non acceptance of suffering. I will

987
01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:53,520
Speaker 3: end by saying that is why I so love America.

988
01:05:54,400 --> 01:05:57,680
Speaker 3: It is the only country that ever said it was

989
01:05:57,800 --> 01:06:02,280
Speaker 3: rooted in Judeo Christian values and it is and really

990
01:06:02,360 --> 01:06:05,520
Speaker 3: what it did it took the best from both.

991
01:06:05,760 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 2: And made the best country. Thank you very much, thank

992
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:21,960
Speaker 2: you very.

993
01:06:22,000 --> 01:06:22,640
Speaker 1: Much, thank you.

994
01:06:24,520 --> 01:06:26,960
Speaker 2: Thank you.

995
01:06:30,720 --> 01:06:40,880
Speaker 5: Thank you, first of all, listen, thank you for your

996
01:06:40,920 --> 01:06:43,160
Speaker 5: wisdom and listening to you so that have brought me

997
01:06:43,280 --> 01:06:45,000
Speaker 5: back a few years being able to learn from you

998
01:06:45,080 --> 01:06:45,760
Speaker 5: in Los Angeles.

999
01:06:45,880 --> 01:06:48,120
Speaker 2: I hope you'll come back to the area. We're We're

1000
01:06:48,160 --> 01:06:49,360
Speaker 2: glad to have you here. Thank you.

1001
01:06:57,560 --> 01:07:02,080
Speaker 5: You concluded with really an affirmation of this great country in.

1002
01:07:02,080 --> 01:07:02,640
Speaker 2: Which we live.

1003
01:07:03,440 --> 01:07:05,880
Speaker 5: That there's another thing that I know many Jews and

1004
01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:08,400
Speaker 5: Christian share, and that is a love for the land

1005
01:07:08,480 --> 01:07:10,160
Speaker 5: and people of Israel. And I was just told them,

1006
01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:12,800
Speaker 5: maybe you could share a few of your thoughts as

1007
01:07:12,840 --> 01:07:15,560
Speaker 5: they relate to this topic on a share of love

1008
01:07:15,600 --> 01:07:16,800
Speaker 5: that we have for the people of Israel.

1009
01:07:17,120 --> 01:07:18,680
Speaker 3: Let me just ask you, will there be time for

1010
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 3: questions and answers or are we going to just wear

1011
01:07:21,440 --> 01:07:22,560
Speaker 3: for We're over pretty late.

1012
01:07:22,640 --> 01:07:24,400
Speaker 2: Hut, we're getting late. We may have time for one

1013
01:07:24,480 --> 01:07:26,080
Speaker 2: or two, we're not going to have hours. So let

1014
01:07:26,120 --> 01:07:26,840
Speaker 2: me that's fine.

1015
01:07:27,160 --> 01:07:29,600
Speaker 3: Let me let me answer that because this is a

1016
01:07:29,760 --> 01:07:32,000
Speaker 3: very moving thing to me. I work a lot with

1017
01:07:32,920 --> 01:07:35,440
Speaker 3: Christians United for Israel. They're not the only Christians who

1018
01:07:35,520 --> 01:07:37,960
Speaker 3: care for Israel, but they're the largest group that does.

1019
01:07:38,040 --> 01:07:39,600
Speaker 2: Pastor John Hagey is the head of it.

1020
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:44,560
Speaker 3: I've spoken at their annual convention in Washington, as well

1021
01:07:44,600 --> 01:07:49,320
Speaker 3: as regionally around the country and various churches, and to

1022
01:07:50,360 --> 01:07:54,560
Speaker 3: see this, uh, this outreach by Christians on behalf of

1023
01:07:55,040 --> 01:07:59,000
Speaker 3: the Jewish people in Israel. Actually, the first time I

1024
01:07:59,080 --> 01:08:02,840
Speaker 3: did it, it was at an enormous church. Three thousand

1025
01:08:02,880 --> 01:08:07,960
Speaker 3: people were present just in the church itself in Arvada, Colorado,

1026
01:08:09,160 --> 01:08:16,200
Speaker 3: and I was crying so much in my chair that

1027
01:08:16,440 --> 01:08:20,240
Speaker 3: I never pray for anything. I mean, I pray for others,

1028
01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:22,719
Speaker 3: but I never pray for me. Maybe it's stupid, it's

1029
01:08:22,760 --> 01:08:26,360
Speaker 3: just my idiosyncrasy. I actually made a prayer for me. God,

1030
01:08:27,080 --> 01:08:31,400
Speaker 3: please make sure I just get control of myself by

1031
01:08:31,440 --> 01:08:33,720
Speaker 3: the time I go up there to speak, because I

1032
01:08:34,160 --> 01:08:37,559
Speaker 3: don't mind. I have saw publicly, but you know, it's

1033
01:08:37,600 --> 01:08:42,880
Speaker 3: a few seconds. But to just be overcome with emotion

1034
01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:47,519
Speaker 3: and not speak is unimpressive. So I really did make

1035
01:08:47,600 --> 01:08:49,800
Speaker 3: this prayer. That's how moved I was by what I

1036
01:08:49,960 --> 01:08:52,760
Speaker 3: was seeing. See, Jews are not used to being like

1037
01:08:55,720 --> 01:08:57,680
Speaker 3: I mean, this is, by the way, why a lot

1038
01:08:57,720 --> 01:09:01,160
Speaker 3: of Jews are suspicious of Christian outreach of love to them.

1039
01:09:01,640 --> 01:09:02,920
Speaker 2: They can't believe it's for real.

1040
01:09:03,960 --> 01:09:07,439
Speaker 3: When when you're hated for thousands of years, all of

1041
01:09:07,479 --> 01:09:09,360
Speaker 3: a sudden you're told, well, no.

1042
01:09:09,640 --> 01:09:11,400
Speaker 2: They really love you. Give me a break man.

1043
01:09:12,160 --> 01:09:17,440
Speaker 3: That is really what is what is behind Jewish recalcitrance

1044
01:09:18,120 --> 01:09:20,400
Speaker 3: at emil supporting such efforts.

1045
01:09:20,439 --> 01:09:22,640
Speaker 2: It's it's it's it's foolish and.

1046
01:09:22,800 --> 01:09:27,120
Speaker 3: Self destructive, but it's it's more psychological and slightly political

1047
01:09:27,680 --> 01:09:28,519
Speaker 3: than anything else.

1048
01:09:29,160 --> 01:09:34,120
Speaker 2: So but it's uh. But I mean, why is more.

1049
01:09:35,720 --> 01:09:40,880
Speaker 3: Reinforcing of one's Jewish or Christian faith than the return

1050
01:09:40,960 --> 01:09:41,160
Speaker 3: of the.

1051
01:09:41,200 --> 01:09:43,680
Speaker 2: Jews to Israel. I mean, I just don't know what.

1052
01:09:43,800 --> 01:09:50,280
Speaker 3: I mean, what act, What historical act suggests the divine

1053
01:09:50,840 --> 01:09:51,400
Speaker 3: like that one?

1054
01:09:52,120 --> 01:09:55,719
Speaker 2: I don't know one now for all other.

1055
01:09:55,680 --> 01:10:01,040
Speaker 3: Things, Christians believe in the resurrection, totally understandable, But it's

1056
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:04,120
Speaker 3: it's it's not the same as a historical act is

1057
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:07,200
Speaker 3: in the sense that a Christian believes that happen, a

1058
01:10:07,280 --> 01:10:10,880
Speaker 3: Buddhist doesn't. But Buddhists know that the Jews returned to Israel,

1059
01:10:11,360 --> 01:10:15,040
Speaker 3: just as with the splitting of the sea. It's an

1060
01:10:15,080 --> 01:10:17,200
Speaker 3: act of faith. I believe the sea was split, but

1061
01:10:17,280 --> 01:10:18,880
Speaker 3: I admit it's an act of faith. But it's not

1062
01:10:19,040 --> 01:10:21,160
Speaker 3: an act of faith that the Jews returned to Israel

1063
01:10:21,640 --> 01:10:24,240
Speaker 3: as prophecy two thousand years.

1064
01:10:24,080 --> 01:10:28,960
Speaker 2: Ago, and there's no parallel to it, and that the Jews.

1065
01:10:29,000 --> 01:10:31,679
Speaker 3: And Israel are at the center of the great hatred

1066
01:10:31,840 --> 01:10:35,559
Speaker 3: of the greatest evil forces of any time. Is also

1067
01:10:35,680 --> 01:10:38,400
Speaker 3: suggest to me that there was the divine involved, and

1068
01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:41,360
Speaker 3: Christians believe this. It's very it's very funny. For years

1069
01:10:42,280 --> 01:10:45,800
Speaker 3: I hesitated to speak about Jewish choseness in synagogues, but

1070
01:10:45,920 --> 01:10:49,000
Speaker 3: when I spoke in churches, oh my God, I would

1071
01:10:49,080 --> 01:10:51,160
Speaker 3: just mention the Jews that I'm hello, I'm a member

1072
01:10:51,200 --> 01:10:54,799
Speaker 3: of the Chosen people, and hallelujah, A men, God bless

1073
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:59,800
Speaker 3: you shears. I would go to Christians for Jewish sustenance.

1074
01:11:04,160 --> 01:11:06,560
Speaker 3: You know, I tell Jews very often, and it's just

1075
01:11:06,640 --> 01:11:09,320
Speaker 3: the cyitagague audience. You know, the day Jews believe in

1076
01:11:09,360 --> 01:11:12,080
Speaker 3: the Torah as much as Christians do. The machiaf will come,

1077
01:11:12,680 --> 01:11:17,360
Speaker 3: but first or second time, depending on which group you're

1078
01:11:17,400 --> 01:11:17,960
Speaker 3: in this end.

1079
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:20,519
Speaker 2: So what do we do, sir? Should we?

1080
01:11:20,720 --> 01:11:20,760
Speaker 1: Just?

1081
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:24,200
Speaker 3: Should we We're ready to do. Yeah, We're ready to

1082
01:11:24,880 --> 01:11:27,840
Speaker 3: sign books and just greet. Okay, listen, So let me

1083
01:11:28,000 --> 01:11:31,439
Speaker 3: just say it's been a joy, a real joy. You're

1084
01:11:31,560 --> 01:11:34,280
Speaker 3: a terrific audience means the world to me that you

1085
01:11:34,439 --> 01:11:38,639
Speaker 3: listen to me on the radio and uh and I'm

1086
01:11:38,720 --> 01:11:42,679
Speaker 3: humbled by this fact. And I will end by telling

1087
01:11:42,720 --> 01:11:46,320
Speaker 3: you I don't think I know, forget to think. I

1088
01:11:46,600 --> 01:11:50,800
Speaker 3: know that there is no force in the world as

1089
01:11:50,960 --> 01:11:55,960
Speaker 3: powerful as Jews and Christians united together to fight for

1090
01:11:56,560 --> 01:11:57,439
Speaker 3: what God wants.

1091
01:11:57,640 --> 01:12:00,280
Speaker 2: That I do believe. That's why I love to see anything.

1092
01:12:06,479 --> 01:12:15,639
Speaker 2: Thank you, nice, very thank you, very very much.

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Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit Dennisprager

1094
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Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1095
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Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.