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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. Had

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

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Speaker 2: Thank you for coming. I must tell you I was

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Speaker 2: stunned to see all the cars in Los Angeles. If

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Speaker 2: it goes under seventy, they cancel the lecture. To see

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Speaker 2: this number of people show up on a miserable day

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Speaker 2: is shows that, if nothing else, you build part of

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Speaker 2: your souls in the east.

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Speaker 3: But I really was, I was quite taken.

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Speaker 2: I thought it would be basically the Rabbi, candor officers.

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Speaker 3: And I this morning.

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Speaker 2: So I am very delighted to see all of you,

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Speaker 2: and do wish you wish about you alone? Just one,

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Speaker 2: by the way, I must tell you what doctor a

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Speaker 2: goal that that was a very interesting introduction. To keep

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Speaker 2: me awake through an introduction to me is an achievement

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Speaker 2: having heard a few, and I appreciated that you took

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Speaker 2: the time to do that.

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Speaker 3: One slight amendment.

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Speaker 2: I tried to make the case last night for more

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Speaker 2: than the ten commandments. Just want to just want to

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Speaker 2: I want to be relieved to know that that got through,

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Speaker 2: or I would go back to Los Angeles a little

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Speaker 2: disconcerted that only ten that I had left that impression.

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Speaker 2: By the way, I am curious talking about that. How

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Speaker 2: many of you, And you have no reason to fid me,

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Speaker 2: but I am curious. How many of you who were

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Speaker 2: here last night did in fact not turn on your.

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Speaker 3: Radio in the car when you went home? Wow? Did

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Speaker 3: you see that? That is question of those of you

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Speaker 3: who did in fact.

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Speaker 2: Raise your hand, which is the great majority, how many

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Speaker 2: did find it a different experience as a result, about

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Speaker 2: half of you, So for half it was not. It

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Speaker 2: didn't mean anything either way. All right, keep trying.

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Speaker 3: It, I do. I mean, give it, give it a couple.

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Speaker 2: Of weeks, three four weeks, and see c indeed, but

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Speaker 2: I do appreciate the fact that you gave it a try.

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Speaker 3: That's all I can ask. Now.

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Speaker 2: What's interesting? Once again, Rabbi Maler asked me to work hard,

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Speaker 2: give a speech I never gave in my life, which

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Speaker 2: in Jewish life that is now reaching a point of

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Speaker 2: greater difficulty. I have exhausted quite a number of topics,

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Speaker 2: or at least exhausted as a poor word. They're never exhaustible,

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Speaker 2: but I have certainly devoted a lot of thinking to them,

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Speaker 2: or a lot of speaking. Why pray. It's ironic that

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Speaker 2: I should be giving it now. I actually should have

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Speaker 2: given it before you prayed, now that I think about it,

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Speaker 2: But hopefully the words will last till the next time

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Speaker 2: you pray.

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Speaker 3: I want to say one other word about this.

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Speaker 2: Rabbi Mahler has asked me to speak on my weakest

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Speaker 2: area in Jewish life.

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Speaker 3: However, However, there is a however here.

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Speaker 2: I have found in my life either this was God's

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Speaker 2: will and I mean that very sincerely, or just the

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Speaker 2: way fate would have it.

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Speaker 3: My lack of instinctive religiosity.

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Speaker 2: Is a major reason that I have been able to

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Speaker 2: be as persuasive as I am to the very very

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Speaker 2: many Jews and non Jews for that matter, but in

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Speaker 2: a different way, with who are also very skeptical and

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Speaker 2: not inherently religious. See if faith and prayer, religiosity spirituality

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Speaker 2: came to me easily came to me naturally, I don't

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Speaker 2: think I would be a particularly good lecturer on it.

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Speaker 2: It's the very fact that I have had to struggle

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Speaker 2: every minute of the way in my own Judaism and

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Speaker 2: my own religiosity from my childhood to this moment. That

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Speaker 2: has made me capable of addressing the great number of

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Speaker 2: Jews who also struggle. See, if it came to me naturally,

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Speaker 2: then I wouldn't know what to say to you, folks.

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Speaker 3: Hey, I feel it, I believe it, and I wish

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Speaker 3: you did and have a great day, and nobody would

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Speaker 3: be nobody would be affected.

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Speaker 2: So that's why, ironically, the fact that prayer is so

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Speaker 2: difficult for me, it's good that I'm speaking on it

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Speaker 2: because while it does, I also deeply believe in its importance.

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Speaker 2: So it's an important preamble to my thoughts on why pray?

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Speaker 2: Now I'm answering this question primarily as a Jew. This

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Speaker 2: is not a generic why prayer, even though this would

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Speaker 2: be of relevance in many of the areas to non

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Speaker 2: Jews as well, but I am specifically. This is a

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Speaker 2: very specifically Jewish response. As usual, every talk I have

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Speaker 2: given in my life is numbered. One of the nice

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Speaker 2: things about that is is at the end I can

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Speaker 2: summarize it for you, and if you fall asleep during

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Speaker 2: one of the points, you know you only miss that point.

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Speaker 2: So there are many advantages in talking in a numbered fashion.

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Speaker 2: So I begin by offering the well not begin it is,

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Speaker 2: I list for you four types of prayer, and in

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Speaker 2: that way you will appreciate what I believe the importance

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Speaker 2: of prayer is. Before I do, I have to say

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Speaker 2: the one overriding philosophical view I have of prayer, overwhelmingly,

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Speaker 2: the purpose of Jewish prayer is to affect you, not God.

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Speaker 2: The moment you realize that you are open to taking

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Speaker 2: it much more seriously if you are a skeptic, which

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Speaker 2: is what most Jews are, I cannot over emphasize this point.

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Speaker 2: The purpose of Jewish prayer is to affect the person

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Speaker 2: making the prayer, not so much God. When you realize that,

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Speaker 2: as I said, all of a sudden, hey, that makes sense.

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Speaker 2: I do have to affect me. When do I get

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Speaker 2: a chance to affect my soul? I affect my body,

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Speaker 2: when I work out, when I eat. When do I

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Speaker 2: affect my soul? If you think of prayer as how

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Speaker 2: to affect your soul, your inner jewishness, your inner religiosity,

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Speaker 2: and your spirit, makes a great.

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Speaker 3: Deal more.

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Speaker 2: The reason that many, and I would say most Jews

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Speaker 2: have very serious problems with prayer is because when they

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Speaker 2: think of the word pray, it is virtually synonymous with request.

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Speaker 3: And I will show.

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Speaker 2: You how that plays almost no role at all in

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Speaker 2: Jewish prayer, almost none at all. It's remarkable the proof

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Speaker 2: that it to pray in Judaism is to affect you

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Speaker 2: and non God is the verb the Hebrew word to pray,

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Speaker 2: and if you know any other language, Latin language is Slavic, Semitic.

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Speaker 2: Virtually every language has this type of verb, except unfortunately English.

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Speaker 3: It's called a reflexive verb.

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Speaker 2: If you know Spanish or you know French, you know that.

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Speaker 2: For example, when you say I wash my hands, literally

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Speaker 2: you say I wash myself the hands. The word in

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Speaker 2: frenchis si lave to wash oneself. If there's any verb

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Speaker 2: you would never expect to be reflexive, in other words,

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Speaker 2: coming back upon the doer, like I washed myself, it

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Speaker 2: would be to pray. After all, the most obvious assumption

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Speaker 2: is you pray outwardly, You pray towards something, you pray

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Speaker 2: to God. In Judaism, le hit palel is the word

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Speaker 2: to pray, and it is a reflexive verb, meaning you

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Speaker 2: are doing something to yourself. You are pallawing to yourself.

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Speaker 2: What does palal mean? To examine or to judge? Do

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Speaker 2: you know what the Hebrew word to pray literally means

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Speaker 2: to judge or to examine oneself? Nothing whatsoever to do

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Speaker 2: with prayer, as it is commonly understood when we use

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Speaker 2: the English term, which we have taken from Christianity, English

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Speaker 2: being a Christian language more or less, which is not

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Speaker 2: in any way a pejorative.

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Speaker 3: It's just a fact. But if you'd say it in Hebrew,

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Speaker 3: let's go meet palel and knew Hebrew? Truly? Well you go, Oh,

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Speaker 3: let's go examine ourselves.

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Speaker 2: What a difference. It's almost unconnected to what you normally

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Speaker 2: assume prayer is. Okay, that's the first and most important point. Now,

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Speaker 2: the four types of prayer, the first and rarest in

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Speaker 2: Judaism is the one that you are most you most

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Speaker 2: associate with prayer.

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Speaker 3: It's petitionary prayer. Oh, please God do the following from

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Speaker 3: heal my my mother who was ill, to heal me

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Speaker 3: who was ill, to have our team win an important game.

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Speaker 3: It would run that gamut.

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Speaker 2: Okay, This, in Judaism and in pure logic, is a

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Speaker 2: very very morally problematic form of prayer and will. I

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Speaker 2: will give you an example. In fact, I gave it

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Speaker 2: on the radio during the fires recently in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 2: You're driving down the block of your where your home

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Speaker 2: is located, and you see on your side a house

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Speaker 2: is on fire. You instinctively mumble, oh God, let it

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Speaker 2: not be my house. You have just prayed that at

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Speaker 2: your neighbor's house be on fire. There is no other

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Speaker 2: possible way to interpret that prayer. Oh God, let it

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Speaker 2: not be my house me since there is a house

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Speaker 2: on fire, Oh God, let it be the smiths, may

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Speaker 2: their house burn down? Amen, that is what you are saying.

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Speaker 2: This is a very serious problem. Petitionary prayer. I'll give

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Speaker 2: you another one. Your daughter's getting married at an outdoor wedding,

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Speaker 2: and you pray to God that had not rain. But

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Speaker 2: what if the city needs rain? What if the farmer

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Speaker 2: needs rain? What if they're having a special rain festival.

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Speaker 2: Who's gods supposed to listen to the farmer or you? Now,

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Speaker 2: let's go to the even more obvious one, or more

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Speaker 2: if you will difficult one. Oh God, please heal my mother.

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Speaker 2: But your mother is sharing a room with another woman.

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Speaker 2: Equally virtuous is your mother. But she has no children,

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Speaker 2: Should God pray your Should God heal your mother before

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Speaker 2: the woman who has no children and therefore nobody to

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Speaker 2: pray for her her husband died or she was never married.

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Speaker 2: Very problematic. Petitionary prayer is very problematic. I have always

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Speaker 2: felt that it's problematic in another way. Judaism, in fact,

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Speaker 2: legislates you may not pray for what's already done. For example,

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Speaker 2: your wife is pregnant. You're pregnant, and you may not pray,

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Speaker 2: Oh let it be we really want a girl, we

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Speaker 2: really want a boy. Can't It's already been decided by

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Speaker 2: Jewish law. You can't even make that prayer. It's called superstition.

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Speaker 2: It's which craft almost because it's already been done.

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Speaker 3: God isn't going to change nature.

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Speaker 2: It's already been decided at the moment of conception. So

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Speaker 2: the whole notion of oh God, please do the following

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Speaker 2: for this individual is a problematic notion.

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Speaker 3: Either it's already been done, in which case God can't

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Speaker 3: or will refuses to do anything, or you have the

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Speaker 3: problem why this person.

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Speaker 2: I'm not saying you shouldn't make such prayers. I think

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Speaker 2: the one on the house is very problematic. I'm not saying, though,

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Speaker 2: that you should not pray for your mother or your

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Speaker 2: child God forbid being sick.

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Speaker 3: No, not at all.

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Speaker 2: I merely want you to understand the very serious problem

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Speaker 2: with it, which is part of the reason why Judaism

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Speaker 2: almost doesn't have it. It's not in here, It's not

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Speaker 2: in the Reform, conservative or Orthodox prayer book of the

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Speaker 2: Jewish people.

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Speaker 3: Isn't that remarkable?

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Speaker 2: We have no oh, please heal so and so. Yes,

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Speaker 2: we have a mischabek. It is a later rabbinic addition

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Speaker 2: because the Jews couldn't handle it. The absence of a

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Speaker 2: petitionary prayer for a sick individual was too painful for Jews,

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Speaker 2: and so it was added to the service. It is

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Speaker 2: not part of the classic Jewish prayer book. Isn't that incredible?

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Speaker 2: Something that has become so much? Oh, if you're sick,

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Speaker 2: please come forward. I have come forward. I am not

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Speaker 2: opposed to it, And the reason I am not opposed

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Speaker 2: to it I will mention a little later. But you

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Speaker 2: must understand how logically, morally and Jewishly it's problematic to

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Speaker 2: pray for individual things. Please give, Please give.

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Speaker 3: What I would pray for I and do is the

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Speaker 3: strength to deal with what life or God has dealt me.

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Speaker 3: And the wisdom with which to deal that, I think

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Speaker 3: is a is more coherent.

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Speaker 2: Oh, God, give us the strength to deal with whatever

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Speaker 2: it is that life gives to me. That is to

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Speaker 2: me a very powerful and virtuous, singular petitionary prayer. God

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Speaker 2: is not, in Judaism, a celestial butler. And that is

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Speaker 2: what God is. If you primarily see prayer as petition,

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Speaker 2: it is God virtually as Santa Claus, this is what

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Speaker 2: I want, Please deliver it. And by the way, it

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Speaker 2: is never too soon to stop believing in that God.

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Speaker 2: If you believe in that God, there's a very good

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Speaker 2: chance you will end up an atheist because one day

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Speaker 2: you're going to make that prayer God's not going to

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Speaker 2: deliver and you'll say, you see, there is no God.

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Speaker 2: I know someone very well for whom this happened his

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Speaker 2: whole life. He was convinced that God was giving him

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Speaker 2: all sorts of wonderful things. And then a dearly, dearly

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Speaker 2: beloved relative of his dide and he told me, I

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Speaker 2: have never talked to God since God is irrelevant to me.

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Speaker 2: And of course, as I've told him, and I am

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Speaker 2: very close to this person. I said, listen, the God

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Speaker 2: you believed in, you should be an atheist about. I

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Speaker 2: don't believe in the God you believed in before either

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Speaker 2: Your God was a waiter. The God I believe in

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Speaker 2: is not that God. Now we go to the second

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Speaker 2: part of petitionary prayer, which is much more acceptable jewishly

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Speaker 2: communal petitionary prayer. We do ask God for things in

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Speaker 2: this book, but it is always always in the plural.

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Speaker 3: We ask God.

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Speaker 2: We call God rofei colail a mo Israel.

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Speaker 3: God is the healer of the sick of his people Israel.

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Speaker 3: We pray to God to heal all the sick.

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Speaker 2: That makes sense, for the for the woman next to

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Speaker 2: my mother who has no kid and no husband. To

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Speaker 2: make the prayer, we are also praying God is the

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Speaker 2: healer of all the sick. That makes a great more sense.

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Speaker 2: We want all the fires on the block extinguished. Oh God,

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Speaker 2: may no fire do damage. Now. I know that it

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Speaker 2: is natural to wish your fire the fire not be

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Speaker 2: your home. I know it is natural to pray for

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Speaker 2: your own relative, and I have no problem with the second.

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Speaker 2: I have a problem with the first for the obvious reasons.

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Speaker 2: But Jewishly it is the communal idea that is the

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Speaker 2: petitionary one, Oh we bless you, who are the healer

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Speaker 2: of all the sick of Israel. So therefore number one,

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Speaker 2: this is not a big part of Jewish prayer. Petitionary

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Speaker 2: one final word about God and helping the individual.

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Speaker 3: The more you see.

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Speaker 2: God as the God who helps out those in trouble,

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Speaker 2: the more you are likely to be, as I said,

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Speaker 2: an atheist. And I use Auschwitz as the best example

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Speaker 2: when people say God died in Auschwitz or I can't

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Speaker 2: believe in God after the Holocaust. And I have a

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Speaker 2: whole talk on this and many articles on it. So

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Speaker 2: I don't want to belabor the point right now it

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Speaker 2: would take too much time.

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Speaker 3: But very briefly, what they're.

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Speaker 2: Saying is the God who saves people who are in

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Speaker 2: terrible straits.

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Speaker 3: I no longer believe in, my friends.

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Speaker 2: I have to say that, as painful as it is,

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Speaker 2: that is not the God of Judaism, as I understand it.

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Speaker 2: But you might say, what are you talking about. Didn't

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Speaker 2: God save the Jews from Egypt? And when I speak

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Speaker 2: on this at length, I point out, yes, God saved

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Speaker 2: the Jewish people from Pharaoh, but God did not save

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Speaker 2: all individual Jews from Pharaoh. How many Jewish boys were

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Speaker 2: thrown into the Nile and drowned. How many Jews were

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Speaker 2: beaten to death by Egyptians.

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Speaker 3: Slave masters, We don't know, but in its own way,

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Speaker 3: it was a mini Holocaust. God does save the Jewish people.

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Speaker 3: I do believe that we're here in Pittsburgh four thousand years.

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Speaker 2: Later, we are still here. That's pretty remarkable. God does

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Speaker 2: save the Jewish people. I believe that as I am

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Speaker 2: standing by that Torah, that God saves the Jewish people.

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Speaker 2: There is no doubt in my mind. There will be

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Speaker 2: Jews as long as there is humanity. There will be

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Speaker 2: people dobvining on Neptune one day, I have no doubt

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Speaker 2: about it.

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Speaker 3: Temple Emmanuel of Neptune. I don't think I'll live to

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Speaker 3: see it, but it will happen. It is the.

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Speaker 2: Individual that can be hurt by the hater, and how

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Speaker 2: could it not be that way. I don't believe in

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Speaker 2: a god who will stop all rapes, who will stop

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Speaker 2: all murders, who will stop all muggings.

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Speaker 3: How could that be?

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Speaker 2: If I believed in such a God, I'd have to

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Speaker 2: be an atheist. I'd have no choice, or I would

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Speaker 2: have to do even something worse, that it is God's

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Speaker 2: will that people be raped and murdered, which I certainly

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Speaker 2: don't believe in. Judaism certainly doesn't believe. It is not

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Speaker 2: God's will that the six million or tortured and burned.

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Speaker 2: It is against God's will. But God allows you to

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Speaker 2: violate his will. God allows you to hurt people. You

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Speaker 2: don't like that fact. I don't like it either, but

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Speaker 2: intellectually not emotionally, Thank God. That's the way the world works.

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Speaker 2: Would you prefer that God stop you every time you

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Speaker 2: want to hurt somebody? And where do you draw the

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Speaker 2: line at six million? No? But three million yes? Or

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Speaker 2: three million stop? But why is three million any less?

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Speaker 2: What about one? Why is one murder? O?

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Speaker 3: Go? God exists if heel it's one person murdered, But

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Speaker 3: if he lets six million murdered, he doesn't exist. It

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Speaker 3: makes no sense for that one. What's the difference? That's

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Speaker 3: all we have? You and I. We are entire universes.

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Speaker 2: Whether we die with five million nine nine nine nine

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Speaker 2: others or alone, we still are are away gone extinguished.

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Speaker 2: So what where should God draw the line? How about

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Speaker 2: he should stop all murdered? What about rape. Should he

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Speaker 2: allow rapes?

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Speaker 3: Or yes, allow date rape but not stranger rape, or

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Speaker 3: he should stop all date rape? Two?

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Speaker 2: What about how about punches? Should he allow punches? Don't

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Speaker 2: you see how ludicrous it becomes? What evil would you

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Speaker 2: allow God to allow? And where would you stop him?

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Speaker 2: He made us, he told us what to do. We

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Speaker 2: violate it. We have screwed up. It's as simple as

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Speaker 2: an unappeal.

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Speaker 3: Is that?

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Speaker 2: So you'd say, what I pray in a foxhole? Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I pray in a foxhole. I'm human, but I'm not

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Speaker 2: in a foxhole now and I can think rationally, and

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Speaker 2: it's very difficult to believe this foxhole. Yes, that foxhole.

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Speaker 3: No. Petitionary prayer is not my cup of tea.

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Speaker 2: It's not Judaism's cup of tea, except communally, and even

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Speaker 2: then it is a very very small part of Jewish prayer.

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Speaker 2: What we said today, I would say ninety nine percent

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Speaker 2: of what we said today was not petitionary, even communally.

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Speaker 2: So that brings me therefore too. Numbers two, three, and

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Speaker 2: four of Jewish prayer, Number two, Part two of Jewish prayer,

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Speaker 2: which is more than petitionary and a big part, but

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Speaker 2: not the biggest alone is praise. We praise God. Oh

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Speaker 2: you are great, you are magnificent, you are the creator,

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Speaker 2: you do incredible things, etc.

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Speaker 3: Etc. This bothers a lot of.

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Speaker 2: Moderns, especially those with advanced degrees, because the thought of

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Speaker 2: praising something higher than themselves. After all that graduate work

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Speaker 2: is a very difficult emotional.

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Speaker 3: Thing to do, and it is a very healthy thing to

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Speaker 3: do when done in proportion to assert daily weekly.

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Speaker 2: I recognized there is something infinitely higher than me is

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Speaker 2: important for a lot of reasons. The most obvious is

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Speaker 2: you don't worship yourself. There is something higher than me.

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Speaker 2: That's a good reason to do it. But there's another

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Speaker 2: reason to do it. It gives you inner peace.

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Speaker 3: The thought that there isn't something higher than me or

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Speaker 3: us humanity would scare the living daylights out of me.

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Speaker 3: We're the highest thing that we know of. Oh, my god,

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Speaker 3: that's terrible.

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Speaker 2: It gives me peace to know there is a Boreolam

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Speaker 2: as a creator of the world. Ah shoo, there's some

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Speaker 2: order in this discord, as was read today by the Rabbi. Okay,

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Speaker 2: I feel better about that there is a source of

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Speaker 2: this universe.

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Speaker 3: It isn't just coincidence.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I want to praise that God doesn't need praise.

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Speaker 2: If you think for one second that the purpose of

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Speaker 2: praising God in prayer is to make God feel good,

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Speaker 2: your view of God is so primitive as to literally

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Speaker 2: be childish. Literally God can do you understand if you

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Speaker 2: think God feels good when you praise him? Do you

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Speaker 2: understand what you're engaging in your own hubris?

378
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Speaker 3: All God feels really good because Schwartz said he's great?

379
00:25:21,340 --> 00:25:25,179
Speaker 2: Isn't that ludicrous? God, the creator of the world, is

380
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Speaker 2: happy that Prager thinks well of him. Wow, what a

381
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Speaker 2: day Dennis Prager praised me today? Do you have to

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Speaker 2: understand it's absurd? God gets no, nothing, nothing out of

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Speaker 2: being praised by us.

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Speaker 3: It's all for us. And that's what I kept saying

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Speaker 3: from the beginning. It's for us.

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Speaker 2: I assert there is a creator, and it is magnificent

387
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Speaker 2: what you have done. I have problems with the discord.

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Speaker 2: But as was read today, if we had a sunrise

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Speaker 2: once a year, we'd be really dazzled by it. The

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Speaker 2: fact that it happens every day we yawn. The trick

391
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Speaker 2: is not to yawn.

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Speaker 3: The trick is to be blown away every day. We

393
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Speaker 3: just said it again, it's a great. It's a great thing.

394
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Speaker 2: He in the Hebrew ha'ma kadesh betuvo behol young tamid saboration.

395
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Speaker 2: God in his goodness, every day renews the acts of Genesis.

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Speaker 3: I get the chills when I say it, isn't it staggering?

397
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Speaker 3: The first sentence of Genesis and the beginning. God created

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Speaker 3: the heavens and the earth. God did it this morning.

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Speaker 3: God's doing it now.

400
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Speaker 2: A dear friend of mine, doctor David Weiss, very prominent

401
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Speaker 2: scientist in Israel, been honored by a Queen Elizabeth for

402
00:26:45,699 --> 00:26:48,379
Speaker 2: his work in immunology. He's head of immunology at Hadasa

403
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Speaker 2: Medical Center.

404
00:26:49,979 --> 00:26:51,940
Speaker 3: He was a professor. He was the head of chemistry

405
00:26:51,979 --> 00:26:52,659
Speaker 3: at Berkeley's.

406
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Speaker 2: He's a very very well regarded scientist and a deeply

407
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Speaker 2: religious Jew. And he asks one question when he speaks

408
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Speaker 2: about science, or one of the questions he asks is

409
00:27:03,580 --> 00:27:04,820
Speaker 2: a very powerful one.

410
00:27:05,419 --> 00:27:07,939
Speaker 3: He said, you know, we all know that there is

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Speaker 3: movement in the universe. For example, we all know that

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00:27:11,379 --> 00:27:16,820
Speaker 3: the protons and the electrons are going around the nucleus

413
00:27:16,820 --> 00:27:20,059
Speaker 3: of an atom, and that's the original energy of the world.

414
00:27:21,820 --> 00:27:28,419
Speaker 3: Why why do they keep moving? He said? Scientists just

415
00:27:28,500 --> 00:27:30,939
Speaker 3: say that's it. It's a law of nature that they

416
00:27:31,020 --> 00:27:33,219
Speaker 3: keep moving, he said. But that's not an answer.

417
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Speaker 2: It's like it's a tautology. Why do they keep moving

418
00:27:36,100 --> 00:27:40,179
Speaker 2: because they keep moving? They keep moving because God keeps

419
00:27:40,219 --> 00:27:46,940
Speaker 2: moving them. That every day is a big bang, as

420
00:27:46,979 --> 00:27:51,859
Speaker 2: it were. To become aware of this and to reflect,

421
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Speaker 2: of course, you go, this is incredible, not all. You're terrific,

422
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Speaker 2: like you would say to a friend, you're terrific.

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Speaker 3: I want to boost your ego. God has no ego,

424
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Speaker 3: but for the sake of our ego and our appreciation

425
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Speaker 3: of what there is in this world, we praise God.

426
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Speaker 2: That's the whole and only reason number three, number three

427
00:28:21,699 --> 00:28:28,099
Speaker 2: part of prayer, and perhaps the greatest part. And I

428
00:28:28,139 --> 00:28:31,979
Speaker 2: have come to realize, if you take it seriously, the

429
00:28:32,060 --> 00:28:37,539
Speaker 2: most important for your happiness you hear me, Not your religiosity,

430
00:28:38,020 --> 00:28:39,460
Speaker 2: your happiness.

431
00:28:41,180 --> 00:28:41,660
Speaker 3: You heard.

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00:28:41,780 --> 00:28:44,540
Speaker 2: I'm writing a book which I've been writing for too

433
00:28:44,540 --> 00:28:50,660
Speaker 2: many years now, titled Happiness is a Serious Problem. I

434
00:28:50,780 --> 00:28:55,459
Speaker 2: have worked very systematically on the question of happiness for years,

435
00:28:55,900 --> 00:28:58,979
Speaker 2: given actually many courses on it, believe it or not.

436
00:28:59,700 --> 00:29:07,059
Speaker 2: And more important, I'm actually a happy person. And I

437
00:29:07,500 --> 00:29:11,140
Speaker 2: discovered with all the hutzpah that this entails. I actually

438
00:29:11,219 --> 00:29:16,180
Speaker 2: discovered the secret to happiness. For this alone, you will

439
00:29:16,219 --> 00:29:19,100
Speaker 2: have been rewarded for trooping out in this weather.

440
00:29:21,820 --> 00:29:27,620
Speaker 3: I am telling you I have found the secret to happiness.

441
00:29:28,660 --> 00:29:33,380
Speaker 3: If you have this, you will be happy. If you

442
00:29:33,660 --> 00:29:38,060
Speaker 3: don't have this, you cannot be happy. You cannot.

443
00:29:38,979 --> 00:29:41,779
Speaker 2: And there was nothing else I would say about, not

444
00:29:41,820 --> 00:29:43,739
Speaker 2: even health. There are people with health that were not happy.

445
00:29:43,860 --> 00:29:46,420
Speaker 2: There are people who were unhealthy and yet who have

446
00:29:46,620 --> 00:29:48,580
Speaker 2: an essentially happy disposition.

447
00:29:48,940 --> 00:29:54,900
Speaker 3: It's not health. I'll tell you what it is, gratitude.

448
00:29:56,219 --> 00:29:59,780
Speaker 3: If you are a grateful human being, you are definitionally

449
00:29:59,940 --> 00:30:02,779
Speaker 3: going to be a happy human being. If you are

450
00:30:02,860 --> 00:30:05,339
Speaker 3: not a grateful human being, it does not matter what

451
00:30:05,459 --> 00:30:10,260
Speaker 3: you have, it is not possible to be happy. Not possible.

452
00:30:11,420 --> 00:30:19,259
Speaker 3: The single greatest part of Jewish prayer is gratitude, and

453
00:30:19,300 --> 00:30:22,860
Speaker 3: if you take it serious, it will make you a

454
00:30:23,100 --> 00:30:28,860
Speaker 3: better and happier human being. Thank you for what you

455
00:30:28,979 --> 00:30:33,100
Speaker 3: have done. Thank you for this world, Thank you for

456
00:30:33,420 --> 00:30:38,020
Speaker 3: and you just fill it in, just constant hodu la

457
00:30:38,100 --> 00:30:38,980
Speaker 3: chem quito.

458
00:30:40,140 --> 00:30:46,780
Speaker 2: Thanks to God, because it's good. You are the one

459
00:30:46,820 --> 00:30:49,340
Speaker 2: who made this all. You have given all of this

460
00:30:49,420 --> 00:30:55,060
Speaker 2: to us. Thank you, baruch Attah. What is that it's

461
00:30:55,140 --> 00:30:57,940
Speaker 2: a thank you, it's not only a thank you.

462
00:30:58,060 --> 00:30:58,500
Speaker 3: Barruth.

463
00:30:58,860 --> 00:31:02,219
Speaker 2: The word for blessing in Hebrew comes from berek, which

464
00:31:02,260 --> 00:31:05,019
Speaker 2: is me, and it literally means.

465
00:31:04,780 --> 00:31:08,340
Speaker 3: I bend my knee to you. You are bendable to.

466
00:31:09,020 --> 00:31:12,740
Speaker 2: It's a combination of gratitude and awe when you make

467
00:31:12,780 --> 00:31:13,620
Speaker 2: a brusha.

468
00:31:14,820 --> 00:31:17,820
Speaker 3: But it's half gratitude.

469
00:31:18,020 --> 00:31:21,019
Speaker 2: I am grateful to you, you who have, and then

470
00:31:21,060 --> 00:31:26,140
Speaker 2: you fill in the rest of the braha. If you

471
00:31:26,340 --> 00:31:30,739
Speaker 2: can take the gratitude part of Jewish prayer seriously, you

472
00:31:30,780 --> 00:31:33,300
Speaker 2: will not only be a more serious Jew, you will

473
00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:38,100
Speaker 2: be a happier person. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

474
00:31:41,020 --> 00:31:48,539
Speaker 2: And number four, a major part of Jewish prayer is

475
00:31:48,580 --> 00:31:55,140
Speaker 2: to affirm the Jewish purpose. There is a purpose that

476
00:31:55,180 --> 00:31:58,219
Speaker 2: we're here. If Jews all knew this, there would be

477
00:31:58,260 --> 00:32:02,620
Speaker 2: no assimilation none. To my mind, it is not possible

478
00:32:02,860 --> 00:32:07,420
Speaker 2: to know and appreciate the purpose of Judaism and assimilate.

479
00:32:09,140 --> 00:32:12,820
Speaker 2: The problem is it's not taught. Judaism became for many

480
00:32:13,219 --> 00:32:16,900
Speaker 2: a folk way of life. The kids rejected it, just

481
00:32:16,940 --> 00:32:21,019
Speaker 2: as kids rejected old European customs of Italian or or

482
00:32:21,420 --> 00:32:25,700
Speaker 2: Polish parents. Judaism ceased being a mission and became a

483
00:32:25,780 --> 00:32:30,980
Speaker 2: folk way from Orthodox to non Orthodox, and that's the

484
00:32:31,020 --> 00:32:33,300
Speaker 2: primary reason so many Jews rejected it.

485
00:32:34,420 --> 00:32:36,340
Speaker 3: Jews would not want to live.

486
00:32:36,459 --> 00:32:40,940
Speaker 2: An East European way of life anymore non Jews would

487
00:32:40,979 --> 00:32:45,100
Speaker 2: when they came to America, or when Enlightenment came in Europe,

488
00:32:45,180 --> 00:32:51,660
Speaker 2: when Napoleon knocked down the ghettos. Jews have ceased to understand.

489
00:32:51,780 --> 00:32:55,580
Speaker 2: And this goes from Orthodox to reform to secular. Certainly

490
00:32:56,900 --> 00:33:00,299
Speaker 2: that we have a mission in this world. Think I

491
00:33:00,380 --> 00:33:02,700
Speaker 2: made it up. Let me read to you from the

492
00:33:02,739 --> 00:33:07,260
Speaker 2: prayer book just said right before I started speaking. This

493
00:33:07,340 --> 00:33:11,180
Speaker 2: is to be found in Reform, conservative and Orthodox prayer books.

494
00:33:11,700 --> 00:33:13,940
Speaker 2: May the time not be distant, Oh God, when your

495
00:33:14,020 --> 00:33:17,300
Speaker 2: name shall be worshiped in all the earth, when unbelief

496
00:33:17,380 --> 00:33:21,499
Speaker 2: shall disappear, and arabin no more. Fervently we pray that

497
00:33:21,540 --> 00:33:23,779
Speaker 2: the day may come when all shall turn to you

498
00:33:23,860 --> 00:33:26,979
Speaker 2: in love, when corruption and evil shall give way to

499
00:33:27,020 --> 00:33:27,740
Speaker 2: integrity and.

500
00:33:27,700 --> 00:33:30,900
Speaker 3: Goodness, and so on and so forth, when.

501
00:33:30,780 --> 00:33:34,739
Speaker 2: All who dwell on earth shall know that You alone

502
00:33:34,860 --> 00:33:39,420
Speaker 2: are God. Oh, May all created in your image become

503
00:33:39,459 --> 00:33:44,740
Speaker 2: one in spirit, ever united in your service. Then your

504
00:33:44,860 --> 00:33:47,940
Speaker 2: kingdom will be established on earth, and the word of

505
00:33:47,979 --> 00:33:52,780
Speaker 2: your prophet will be fulfilled. The Lord will reign forever

506
00:33:52,900 --> 00:34:00,580
Speaker 2: and ever. Pretty big deal. That's why we're on earth.

507
00:34:01,380 --> 00:34:07,539
Speaker 2: The only, only, only reason for Jews is this paragraph

508
00:34:07,660 --> 00:34:10,140
Speaker 2: to bring the world to the one God, so that

509
00:34:10,180 --> 00:34:13,259
Speaker 2: we can become one humanity, so that that we could

510
00:34:13,340 --> 00:34:19,300
Speaker 2: understand there is one moral law, not two. That's why

511
00:34:19,460 --> 00:34:24,259
Speaker 2: the Jews are existent. We are in the service of

512
00:34:24,340 --> 00:34:28,540
Speaker 2: this mission to bring the world to God, not to liberalism,

513
00:34:28,900 --> 00:34:33,219
Speaker 2: not to conservatism, not to feminism, not to socialism or

514
00:34:33,259 --> 00:34:35,460
Speaker 2: all the other isms that Jews invent and give.

515
00:34:35,339 --> 00:34:37,180
Speaker 3: Passion to God.

516
00:34:37,739 --> 00:34:42,220
Speaker 2: From that will flow many of the ideals that Jews affirm. Now,

517
00:34:42,460 --> 00:34:47,899
Speaker 2: no problem with that, But the first and primary aim

518
00:34:48,020 --> 00:34:50,660
Speaker 2: of the Jewish people is to bring the world to

519
00:34:50,779 --> 00:34:55,100
Speaker 2: the one transcendent source of goodness, of good morals, of

520
00:34:55,140 --> 00:34:55,940
Speaker 2: good values.

521
00:34:56,180 --> 00:34:56,500
Speaker 3: God.

522
00:34:58,580 --> 00:35:03,300
Speaker 2: Much of our prayer book is about reminding you and.

523
00:35:03,180 --> 00:35:04,980
Speaker 3: Me what we're here for.

524
00:35:06,540 --> 00:35:09,900
Speaker 2: You forget at the office, you forget when you're raising

525
00:35:09,940 --> 00:35:15,339
Speaker 2: your kids. You forget on Tuesday afternoons. It's easy to

526
00:35:15,460 --> 00:35:19,380
Speaker 2: forget when you're overwhelmed with ear.

527
00:35:19,219 --> 00:35:25,140
Speaker 3: Infections and not enough money to pay bills. So we

528
00:35:25,299 --> 00:35:28,660
Speaker 3: get together, or you do it on your own daily

529
00:35:28,859 --> 00:35:33,299
Speaker 3: or weekly and you reaffirm, Ah, that's why I'm a Jew.

530
00:35:34,140 --> 00:35:34,980
Speaker 3: I forgot.

531
00:35:37,620 --> 00:35:43,860
Speaker 2: That's the greatest single purpose of Jewish prayer, of Jewish

532
00:35:44,060 --> 00:35:50,460
Speaker 2: self examination, to remind you what you're doing. We forget,

533
00:35:51,779 --> 00:35:54,739
Speaker 2: and even when we say it, we don't say it seriously.

534
00:35:55,500 --> 00:35:58,180
Speaker 2: How many read this paragraph and we're thinking about the

535
00:35:58,219 --> 00:36:03,419
Speaker 2: penguins or business or the person next to them, or.

536
00:36:03,660 --> 00:36:06,380
Speaker 3: Just it happens. It happens to me too. It happens

537
00:36:06,380 --> 00:36:11,020
Speaker 3: to all of us. But if you actually did it,

538
00:36:11,060 --> 00:36:14,460
Speaker 3: if you could have the covenant, look at the words

539
00:36:14,500 --> 00:36:20,580
Speaker 3: you're saying. Wow, it's overwhelming. Oh, that's why we're here.

540
00:36:21,779 --> 00:36:25,420
Speaker 3: That's all of Russia Shana Young Kipper service. It's Russia

541
00:36:25,460 --> 00:36:28,540
Speaker 3: Shanam Kipper, much more even than the other services. Is

542
00:36:28,580 --> 00:36:32,100
Speaker 3: to remind you why we're here. The most repeated prayer,

543
00:36:32,140 --> 00:36:32,979
Speaker 3: one of the most is.

544
00:36:32,980 --> 00:36:38,180
Speaker 2: Via Asu Kulama guddah hatla God, we pray to you

545
00:36:38,259 --> 00:36:41,539
Speaker 2: that all mankind will make one community to do your

546
00:36:41,620 --> 00:36:47,260
Speaker 2: will with a full heart. That's why we're here. Russia

547
00:36:47,299 --> 00:36:49,540
Speaker 2: Shan is not a Jewish holiday. Russia Shan is a

548
00:36:49,660 --> 00:36:55,819
Speaker 2: universal holiday. Pessa is a Jewish holiday. Russia Shana is

549
00:36:56,219 --> 00:37:03,180
Speaker 2: Hyom Harat olam Hiyom ya Amat. It is the birthday

550
00:37:03,219 --> 00:37:06,900
Speaker 2: of the world and the day where everyone, not just Jews,

551
00:37:07,020 --> 00:37:08,180
Speaker 2: begins to be judged.

552
00:37:09,339 --> 00:37:13,019
Speaker 3: It is a totally universal holiday. The Jewish New Year

553
00:37:13,060 --> 00:37:17,340
Speaker 3: begins with Passover. The world's new year begins Russia Shanna.

554
00:37:18,140 --> 00:37:19,339
Speaker 3: Most Jews don't know this.

555
00:37:21,100 --> 00:37:23,860
Speaker 2: It's called the Jewish New Year, but only because Jews

556
00:37:23,859 --> 00:37:24,899
Speaker 2: are celebrating it.

557
00:37:25,180 --> 00:37:28,860
Speaker 3: But it is the world's new year. Though world is judged,

558
00:37:29,420 --> 00:37:30,379
Speaker 3: we believe.

559
00:37:30,060 --> 00:37:33,859
Speaker 2: In a God who will judge everybody because everybody has

560
00:37:33,900 --> 00:37:38,819
Speaker 2: a conscience. It's our task to bring the world to

561
00:37:38,900 --> 00:37:43,339
Speaker 2: this one God. And so went better time to make

562
00:37:43,420 --> 00:37:45,859
Speaker 2: you aware of it than when you get together with

563
00:37:45,980 --> 00:37:50,140
Speaker 2: fellow Jews at a synagogue and assert this is why

564
00:37:50,180 --> 00:37:55,219
Speaker 2: we're here, When you realize that it's to praise something

565
00:37:55,339 --> 00:37:57,859
Speaker 2: higher that has made the world and unites it and

566
00:37:57,900 --> 00:38:03,820
Speaker 2: gives it meaning, that it is to affirm gratitude because

567
00:38:03,819 --> 00:38:05,939
Speaker 2: that's the only way we will be happy in a

568
00:38:05,980 --> 00:38:09,859
Speaker 2: difficult world, and that it is to restate what our

569
00:38:09,940 --> 00:38:11,899
Speaker 2: purpose is on this earth as Jews are.

570
00:38:12,819 --> 00:38:18,580
Speaker 3: Doesn't it make it much more meaningful? Then? Oh, please

571
00:38:18,739 --> 00:38:20,620
Speaker 3: help Sally Berkowitz.

572
00:38:20,980 --> 00:38:23,739
Speaker 2: When in your heart you know there's a good chance

573
00:38:23,779 --> 00:38:29,419
Speaker 2: Sally Berkowitz is going to die, and I hope there's

574
00:38:29,420 --> 00:38:35,140
Speaker 2: no Sally Berkowitz ill in this particular synagogue. When we

575
00:38:35,259 --> 00:38:40,019
Speaker 2: get together, we join with fellow Jews in a religiously

576
00:38:40,060 --> 00:38:45,219
Speaker 2: affirmative environment. My friends, even if you didn't pay much

577
00:38:45,259 --> 00:38:49,819
Speaker 2: attention to the dobvining on any given Shabbat, you leave

578
00:38:49,900 --> 00:38:55,740
Speaker 2: the synagogue different than had you stayed home alone. For years,

579
00:38:55,779 --> 00:38:58,620
Speaker 2: I went to synagogues that bored the living daylights out

580
00:38:58,620 --> 00:38:58,819
Speaker 2: of me.

581
00:38:59,739 --> 00:39:02,019
Speaker 3: They drove me out of my mind. Frankly, I read.

582
00:39:03,100 --> 00:39:04,779
Speaker 2: I had a Jewish book, and I would read in

583
00:39:04,819 --> 00:39:10,340
Speaker 2: the back row. But I never stopped going to synagogue

584
00:39:10,620 --> 00:39:15,060
Speaker 2: because the feeling that it induced was worth it. I

585
00:39:15,100 --> 00:39:18,180
Speaker 2: had gotten together with fellow Jews as an island in

586
00:39:18,259 --> 00:39:22,939
Speaker 2: a week of every other concern, to reaffirm that I'm

587
00:39:23,020 --> 00:39:27,259
Speaker 2: part of something larger than me, not just God, but

588
00:39:27,339 --> 00:39:31,140
Speaker 2: a Jewish community. You don't have to love everybody you

589
00:39:31,219 --> 00:39:35,899
Speaker 2: go to school with, and by no means, but it

590
00:39:36,060 --> 00:39:39,859
Speaker 2: is a major statement that I have joined with you

591
00:39:40,100 --> 00:39:44,700
Speaker 2: Friday night and or Shabbat morning, and I have sung

592
00:39:44,779 --> 00:39:47,540
Speaker 2: with you, and I have restated with you what we

593
00:39:47,580 --> 00:39:48,219
Speaker 2: are here for.

594
00:39:49,020 --> 00:39:52,540
Speaker 3: And I have heard words of Torah with you. That

595
00:39:52,739 --> 00:39:55,180
Speaker 3: to me is what prayer is. And that's how I

596
00:39:55,299 --> 00:39:59,339
Speaker 3: worked it out for someone who instinctively does not wake

597
00:39:59,420 --> 00:40:02,580
Speaker 3: up in the morning and go, thou art great and

598
00:40:02,739 --> 00:40:04,259
Speaker 3: please heal my mother.

599
00:40:05,219 --> 00:40:11,100
Speaker 2: Thank you, Shabatchalla more than happy to take questions, comments,

600
00:40:11,140 --> 00:40:18,620
Speaker 2: and reef alternate speeches. Yes, please A dress myself to

601
00:40:18,660 --> 00:40:21,620
Speaker 2: the prayers of young Kipur and Russias Shanna when we

602
00:40:21,700 --> 00:40:23,300
Speaker 2: pray for another year of life.

603
00:40:23,420 --> 00:40:24,660
Speaker 3: This is how I deal with it.

604
00:40:26,219 --> 00:40:29,180
Speaker 2: First of all, I do believe God judges us that

605
00:40:29,259 --> 00:40:33,060
Speaker 2: after all you mention Yom Kipur. The other name for

606
00:40:33,140 --> 00:40:37,220
Speaker 2: Yom Kipur is Yomhadin, the day of judgment. The thought

607
00:40:37,259 --> 00:40:39,859
Speaker 2: that we are judged by God to whom we are

608
00:40:39,900 --> 00:40:44,420
Speaker 2: accountable for our behavior is terrific. I wish everybody felt

609
00:40:44,420 --> 00:40:47,899
Speaker 2: that that. Uh oh, I'm going to have to give

610
00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:51,299
Speaker 2: an accounting for the way I behave. That in and

611
00:40:51,339 --> 00:40:56,739
Speaker 2: of itself is magnificently important. It's again, how it affects you,

612
00:40:57,580 --> 00:41:00,620
Speaker 2: and I think that that's critical. Does God decide on

613
00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:04,500
Speaker 2: russiashana literally decide whether you will live or whether you

614
00:41:04,540 --> 00:41:11,500
Speaker 2: will die? Maybe I don't know. It's possible. I'm not

615
00:41:11,620 --> 00:41:15,779
Speaker 2: certain either way, but to the extent that one is

616
00:41:15,819 --> 00:41:18,700
Speaker 2: willing to grant that God has any connection to whether

617
00:41:18,739 --> 00:41:21,540
Speaker 2: we live or die, that would make sense. Now, of course,

618
00:41:22,299 --> 00:41:40,739
Speaker 2: the people who wrote this were The people who wrote

619
00:41:40,739 --> 00:41:44,020
Speaker 2: this were not stupid. They knew that no matter what,

620
00:41:44,859 --> 00:41:47,140
Speaker 2: even if you are the most righteous person in the world,

621
00:41:47,180 --> 00:41:50,660
Speaker 2: you're going to one year after Russia Shana, you will die.

622
00:41:50,940 --> 00:41:53,060
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously, it's just gonna happen.

623
00:41:54,020 --> 00:41:57,739
Speaker 2: Therefore, it depends on the amount of literalness you bring

624
00:41:57,819 --> 00:42:00,660
Speaker 2: to the issue. Let me give you an example of

625
00:42:00,739 --> 00:42:02,939
Speaker 2: something I am embarrassed to say I.

626
00:42:02,940 --> 00:42:05,739
Speaker 3: Only learned this year at that synagogue.

627
00:42:06,779 --> 00:42:10,540
Speaker 2: I learned it from my dear friend and teacher, Rabbi

628
00:42:10,660 --> 00:42:15,219
Speaker 2: Joseph Tulushkin, at whose service I was. He comes and

629
00:42:15,259 --> 00:42:18,059
Speaker 2: does a service in Los Angeles. So he came out

630
00:42:19,180 --> 00:42:22,859
Speaker 2: and he blamed and have killed me. You know, you know,

631
00:42:22,900 --> 00:42:24,379
Speaker 2: when you hear a great point, you go, why didn't

632
00:42:24,420 --> 00:42:26,500
Speaker 2: I think of that? That's when you know it's a

633
00:42:26,540 --> 00:42:28,819
Speaker 2: great point, and it's so obvious, and you missed it

634
00:42:28,859 --> 00:42:34,140
Speaker 2: for forty five years. There is a statement which we

635
00:42:34,219 --> 00:42:36,380
Speaker 2: say at the height of the Russia showing them kipper

636
00:42:36,420 --> 00:42:46,100
Speaker 2: service to shuvatila ut daka, mavirin atrozeira to Shuvah, repentance,

637
00:42:46,420 --> 00:42:53,940
Speaker 2: prayer and charity. They they avert you have in the English,

638
00:42:53,980 --> 00:42:55,980
Speaker 2: the evil decree.

639
00:42:56,140 --> 00:42:59,820
Speaker 3: I could never believe this. It seemed like a bribe.

640
00:43:00,739 --> 00:43:05,060
Speaker 2: All I see, I won't I won't die if I

641
00:43:05,140 --> 00:43:08,779
Speaker 2: give to daka and if I repent and do the

642
00:43:08,859 --> 00:43:10,180
Speaker 2: right things.

643
00:43:11,100 --> 00:43:14,379
Speaker 3: But somebody's gonna die every year. It's not possible.

644
00:43:15,380 --> 00:43:19,979
Speaker 2: And then he showed the Hebrew was incorrectly translated.

645
00:43:20,739 --> 00:43:25,100
Speaker 3: It's not avert the evil decree. It's avert the bitterness

646
00:43:25,140 --> 00:43:30,620
Speaker 3: of the decree. Roa hagazeira, the evil of the decree, literally,

647
00:43:31,060 --> 00:43:34,900
Speaker 3: not the evil decree. Ah, that's very different.

648
00:43:34,980 --> 00:43:38,140
Speaker 2: In other words, I can prepare myself for whatever decree

649
00:43:38,180 --> 00:43:39,580
Speaker 2: it is if I live.

650
00:43:39,460 --> 00:43:44,420
Speaker 3: A certain way. And that's true. As my wife always

651
00:43:44,460 --> 00:43:49,339
Speaker 3: puts it, you die the way you have lived. And

652
00:43:49,739 --> 00:43:50,580
Speaker 3: there's because.

653
00:43:50,380 --> 00:43:52,620
Speaker 2: She worked at she volunteered in a hospice for a

654
00:43:52,660 --> 00:43:55,140
Speaker 2: while and is speaking from some knowledge.

655
00:43:55,620 --> 00:43:56,940
Speaker 3: There's a great deal of truth.

656
00:43:56,980 --> 00:44:00,780
Speaker 2: You do prepare yourself if you have lived a certain way,

657
00:44:00,859 --> 00:44:04,259
Speaker 2: then you are able to handle the evil decree. If

658
00:44:04,299 --> 00:44:06,700
Speaker 2: God forbid God, I want to live not till one

659
00:44:06,779 --> 00:44:09,860
Speaker 2: hundred and sixty five, as you wished me last night, Rabbi,

660
00:44:09,859 --> 00:44:11,620
Speaker 2: I wish that I lived till see one hundred and

661
00:44:11,660 --> 00:44:14,180
Speaker 2: twentieth birthday of my son, who turned one today.

662
00:44:15,140 --> 00:44:16,299
Speaker 3: So that would I mean.

663
00:44:16,420 --> 00:44:18,180
Speaker 2: I don't want to live tw one hundred and sixty five,

664
00:44:18,299 --> 00:44:24,460
Speaker 2: but I appreciate the good words. One hundred and eleven

665
00:44:24,580 --> 00:44:29,100
Speaker 2: would be just about right now at any rate.

666
00:44:32,219 --> 00:44:37,859
Speaker 3: If I were told that I were to die, we

667
00:44:37,940 --> 00:44:42,779
Speaker 3: all think about this. I would have immense pain, but

668
00:44:42,900 --> 00:44:48,299
Speaker 3: it would be ninety nine percent for my loved ones.

669
00:44:49,500 --> 00:44:53,260
Speaker 2: Because I feel very good about the forty five years

670
00:44:53,259 --> 00:44:57,020
Speaker 2: I lived. I feel they've been full, they've been blessed,

671
00:44:57,180 --> 00:44:59,859
Speaker 2: they've been rich. I'm sure many of you can say this,

672
00:45:00,500 --> 00:45:05,700
Speaker 2: but there are many who don't. And I think I

673
00:45:05,739 --> 00:45:09,740
Speaker 2: can meet my maker, I'm not totally certain. With pretty

674
00:45:09,779 --> 00:45:16,060
Speaker 2: clean hands, that's what happens. You can avert the bitterness

675
00:45:16,140 --> 00:45:20,219
Speaker 2: of the decree, whatever it decree is, by how you live.

676
00:45:21,299 --> 00:45:24,819
Speaker 2: It makes it all so much more real to me then,

677
00:45:25,859 --> 00:45:30,140
Speaker 2: And to bang my chest, to bang my heart over

678
00:45:30,580 --> 00:45:35,819
Speaker 2: speaking badly about others, over not honoring parents and teachers,

679
00:45:35,819 --> 00:45:40,620
Speaker 2: over having malicious tongue, that is important. And by the way,

680
00:45:40,900 --> 00:45:43,939
Speaker 2: you know all of them are in the plural. We

681
00:45:44,140 --> 00:45:47,420
Speaker 2: bang for all our fellow Jews. How you act in

682
00:45:47,540 --> 00:45:50,980
Speaker 2: Jewish life is my business. That's why I could have

683
00:45:51,020 --> 00:45:53,379
Speaker 2: the hoodspur to fly here and tell you last night,

684
00:45:53,779 --> 00:45:55,739
Speaker 2: I don't think you should turn the car radio on

685
00:45:55,980 --> 00:45:58,819
Speaker 2: when you go home. That's my Jewish duty that you

686
00:45:59,180 --> 00:46:04,060
Speaker 2: may not have known that. It's a total law. You

687
00:46:04,140 --> 00:46:09,020
Speaker 2: must reprove your fellow jew lovingly. You must be receptive

688
00:46:09,060 --> 00:46:12,300
Speaker 2: to their reproof. We're in it together. We're like a team.

689
00:46:12,859 --> 00:46:15,859
Speaker 2: If the first basement has a wrong move, the shortstop

690
00:46:15,900 --> 00:46:19,180
Speaker 2: has to tell them. It's no service to the team

691
00:46:19,500 --> 00:46:22,140
Speaker 2: if he doesn't tell the first basement. Listen, if you

692
00:46:22,259 --> 00:46:24,100
Speaker 2: just put your glove this way, you'll be able to

693
00:46:24,140 --> 00:46:28,340
Speaker 2: get those the short hops better that we are a team,

694
00:46:28,580 --> 00:46:32,459
Speaker 2: a tiny team in this world. I am stuck with

695
00:46:32,500 --> 00:46:36,459
Speaker 2: you and you are stuck with me. We don't have

696
00:46:36,540 --> 00:46:38,500
Speaker 2: to love each other with our you know, and the

697
00:46:38,620 --> 00:46:41,499
Speaker 2: sense oh, I love every Jew. Anybody who says that

698
00:46:41,940 --> 00:46:44,700
Speaker 2: drives me out of my mind. I love every Jew.

699
00:46:45,660 --> 00:46:49,060
Speaker 2: It's a it's not possible. B. It's not it's not

700
00:46:50,100 --> 00:46:54,020
Speaker 2: even desirable. There are obnoxious Jews. What am I supposed

701
00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:59,779
Speaker 2: to do with them? But I do have to take

702
00:46:59,819 --> 00:47:03,060
Speaker 2: you seriously as a fellow Jew and say, you know,

703
00:47:03,060 --> 00:47:04,819
Speaker 2: we're in it together, and let me tell you how

704
00:47:04,859 --> 00:47:07,140
Speaker 2: I think you might play first base.

705
00:47:06,900 --> 00:47:10,500
Speaker 3: Better, and you have to do it to me. And

706
00:47:10,580 --> 00:47:13,140
Speaker 3: in that sense, that's why we bang in the plural.

707
00:47:13,299 --> 00:47:15,859
Speaker 2: Uh oh, we've all done this, then we all have

708
00:47:15,940 --> 00:47:19,700
Speaker 2: to pay the price and so on. So knowing all

709
00:47:19,700 --> 00:47:21,820
Speaker 2: of that, it is made im Kipper and Russia Shana

710
00:47:21,940 --> 00:47:26,379
Speaker 2: much more meaningful than just a literal This is it,

711
00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:31,180
Speaker 2: This is decided. But you could bribe God with enough saduka.

712
00:47:32,420 --> 00:47:41,779
Speaker 3: It never sat well with me. Yes, okay, well we

713
00:47:41,819 --> 00:47:47,660
Speaker 3: can pray. Just joking, she asks.

714
00:47:47,500 --> 00:47:49,819
Speaker 2: Why are we experiencing all this intermarriage and what can

715
00:47:49,819 --> 00:47:51,779
Speaker 2: we do about it? Very briefly, that too is a

716
00:47:51,819 --> 00:47:57,899
Speaker 2: topic unto itself. There's a very very good reason, or

717
00:47:57,980 --> 00:48:00,900
Speaker 2: I should say simple reason why there's so much intermarriage.

718
00:48:00,940 --> 00:48:05,299
Speaker 2: People marry people with whom they share everything or most everything.

719
00:48:07,060 --> 00:48:08,099
Speaker 3: It's as simple as that.

720
00:48:08,339 --> 00:48:16,340
Speaker 2: Very few American Jews marry Mayans because they don't share

721
00:48:16,540 --> 00:48:21,339
Speaker 2: that much. American Jews marry American non Jews with whom

722
00:48:21,380 --> 00:48:31,859
Speaker 2: they share everything, and specifically, most American Jews are non

723
00:48:31,900 --> 00:48:38,460
Speaker 2: religious and their convictions are liberal. So you have liberal

724
00:48:38,940 --> 00:48:47,140
Speaker 2: non religious Jew marrying liberal, non religious non Jew. They

725
00:48:47,140 --> 00:48:52,739
Speaker 2: have everything in common that when when you when I

726
00:48:52,779 --> 00:48:55,259
Speaker 2: think of intermarriage, I think of people who are different

727
00:48:55,500 --> 00:49:00,140
Speaker 2: marrying Jews and non Jews like I just described.

728
00:48:59,700 --> 00:49:03,100
Speaker 3: Are no are no different. There's no reason they shouldn't marry.

729
00:49:04,140 --> 00:49:08,180
Speaker 2: Ideologically, the only real intermarriage and Jewish life would in

730
00:49:08,219 --> 00:49:10,420
Speaker 2: most cases would be if your son or daughter married

731
00:49:10,420 --> 00:49:11,180
Speaker 2: a Republican.

732
00:49:14,700 --> 00:49:17,100
Speaker 3: That would be an honest to goodness intermarriage.

733
00:49:18,060 --> 00:49:26,739
Speaker 2: Most Jews are ideologically liberal, ethnically Jewish, not ideologically Jewish.

734
00:49:27,339 --> 00:49:31,180
Speaker 2: If Judaism is the source of your values, the odds

735
00:49:31,180 --> 00:49:34,219
Speaker 2: are you will want to marry someone for whom Judaism

736
00:49:34,259 --> 00:49:34,620
Speaker 2: is the.

737
00:49:34,540 --> 00:49:38,259
Speaker 3: Source of his or her values. Is their passion, is

738
00:49:38,299 --> 00:49:41,299
Speaker 3: their commitment. If you knew the Jewish mission in the

739
00:49:41,339 --> 00:49:44,620
Speaker 3: world and believed in it, you'd want to marry somebody

740
00:49:44,620 --> 00:49:49,899
Speaker 3: who shared that mission, a converter, a born Jew. But

741
00:49:49,980 --> 00:49:54,660
Speaker 3: if you have no Jewish mission, have no Jewish ideological distinctiveness,

742
00:49:55,060 --> 00:49:58,299
Speaker 3: why on God's earth should you not marry a non

743
00:49:58,420 --> 00:50:03,340
Speaker 3: Jews identical to you? It is no different.

744
00:50:04,299 --> 00:50:08,020
Speaker 2: We raise our kids, just like the kids were raised

745
00:50:08,100 --> 00:50:13,660
Speaker 2: next door who don't have a Jewish surname. If your

746
00:50:13,739 --> 00:50:17,580
Speaker 2: kid has Shabbak and your kid has Judaism, and your

747
00:50:17,660 --> 00:50:21,459
Speaker 2: kid has a Jewish mission, and your kid does the Alenu,

748
00:50:22,100 --> 00:50:25,060
Speaker 2: and your kid understands this, your kid will want to

749
00:50:25,100 --> 00:50:29,020
Speaker 2: marry someone with whom it's shared. We marry people to

750
00:50:29,180 --> 00:50:32,620
Speaker 2: share our deepest things in life. If the deepest thing

751
00:50:32,660 --> 00:50:36,580
Speaker 2: in your life is social justice liberalism, you'll marry a

752
00:50:36,620 --> 00:50:41,500
Speaker 2: liberal social justice person. It's racist to tell most of

753
00:50:41,540 --> 00:50:44,620
Speaker 2: our kids not to marry non Jews because the only

754
00:50:44,700 --> 00:50:49,100
Speaker 2: difference between them and a non Jew is racial, not ideological.

755
00:50:50,460 --> 00:50:55,380
Speaker 2: Does I answer your question? Yes, good question, Your rabbi

756
00:50:55,420 --> 00:51:06,900
Speaker 2: chef Rabbis ask good questions. If prayer is so wonderful,

757
00:51:06,900 --> 00:51:08,660
Speaker 2: what I sit in back a shoe reading a book

758
00:51:08,859 --> 00:51:10,940
Speaker 2: most of my life? And why would I like to

759
00:51:10,940 --> 00:51:20,100
Speaker 2: see all the restructuring? Because you can have too much

760
00:51:20,140 --> 00:51:23,939
Speaker 2: of a good thing to put it in the most

761
00:51:23,980 --> 00:51:29,180
Speaker 2: positive light. I was raised and even though not Orthodox,

762
00:51:29,259 --> 00:51:34,620
Speaker 2: I went to Orthodox synagogues till a few years ago, and.

763
00:51:35,779 --> 00:51:36,700
Speaker 3: I made it.

764
00:51:36,819 --> 00:51:39,540
Speaker 2: I made a mistake for me, Certainly, it's not a

765
00:51:39,540 --> 00:51:42,620
Speaker 2: mistake for other Jews. I fully appreciate the beauty of it.

766
00:51:42,660 --> 00:51:48,620
Speaker 2: For many Jews, the uh, the amount of dobvining in

767
00:51:48,660 --> 00:51:53,020
Speaker 2: the traditional service is to my mind, simply too much.

768
00:51:53,819 --> 00:51:57,980
Speaker 3: You either have you either have to read.

769
00:51:57,739 --> 00:52:02,020
Speaker 2: It as if you were in an Evelyn Wood reading

770
00:52:02,100 --> 00:52:05,900
Speaker 2: dynamics course. In fact, I have often said evelyn Wood

771
00:52:05,980 --> 00:52:08,220
Speaker 2: must have grown up in an Orthodox synagogue.

772
00:52:08,620 --> 00:52:08,859
Speaker 3: Uh.

773
00:52:08,980 --> 00:52:12,939
Speaker 2: The the the the speed with which the sitter is

774
00:52:13,020 --> 00:52:19,140
Speaker 2: gone through on Shabbat is uh makes makes reference to

775
00:52:19,180 --> 00:52:24,940
Speaker 2: the to the words extremely difficult, if not impossible. And

776
00:52:26,420 --> 00:52:30,900
Speaker 2: this massive amount of words just didn't have an effect

777
00:52:30,940 --> 00:52:33,299
Speaker 2: on me. It does on others, and I appreciate that,

778
00:52:33,380 --> 00:52:36,100
Speaker 2: but for me and most Jews, clearly it does not

779
00:52:36,180 --> 00:52:39,620
Speaker 2: have that effect. That was my problem. I want it shortened.

780
00:52:40,900 --> 00:52:46,700
Speaker 2: The ability to appreciate and ruminate over the words becomes

781
00:52:46,779 --> 00:52:53,540
Speaker 2: more real to me. Secondly, I personally very much believe

782
00:52:53,819 --> 00:52:56,739
Speaker 2: that God gave us music, that music is one of

783
00:52:56,779 --> 00:53:01,339
Speaker 2: the great gifts of God. For me, again, these things

784
00:53:01,380 --> 00:53:04,620
Speaker 2: are very personal. For some people, music is not that powerful,

785
00:53:04,660 --> 00:53:09,540
Speaker 2: but for many people it is. In Jewish life all

786
00:53:09,779 --> 00:53:14,580
Speaker 2: powerful music by and large.

787
00:53:14,540 --> 00:53:15,859
Speaker 3: I should say not in Jewish life.

788
00:53:15,900 --> 00:53:20,860
Speaker 2: For Jews, all powerful music is not Jewish to get

789
00:53:20,940 --> 00:53:26,580
Speaker 2: really to get my passion stirred musically, I go to

790
00:53:26,700 --> 00:53:33,460
Speaker 2: Handel's Messiah and it's a Christian oratorio. Now, obviously I

791
00:53:33,460 --> 00:53:37,220
Speaker 2: don't believe the words, or i'd be Christian, but I cry,

792
00:53:38,060 --> 00:53:43,819
Speaker 2: I get excited. Do I get excited in regular shools?

793
00:53:43,940 --> 00:53:47,419
Speaker 2: By and large, I don't. I want to sing, or

794
00:53:47,460 --> 00:53:50,460
Speaker 2: at least I want to be moved by powerful music

795
00:53:51,380 --> 00:53:55,499
Speaker 2: and instruments, which are not allowed in Orthodoxy. Though ironically,

796
00:53:55,540 --> 00:53:59,379
Speaker 2: as I tell my Orthodox friends, God himself asked that

797
00:53:59,420 --> 00:54:03,819
Speaker 2: we use musical instruments in the temple. So we have

798
00:54:03,940 --> 00:54:07,220
Speaker 2: a double burden here, which has always struck me as odd.

799
00:54:07,900 --> 00:54:10,620
Speaker 2: The temple is destroyed, so we have to not only

800
00:54:10,620 --> 00:54:13,300
Speaker 2: pay the price of no temple, but pay the price

801
00:54:13,660 --> 00:54:17,140
Speaker 2: of no instruments which the temple used in order to

802
00:54:17,180 --> 00:54:21,660
Speaker 2: make us love to pray. To me, it is the

803
00:54:21,739 --> 00:54:28,219
Speaker 2: quintessence of illogic Nvuha Netsar destroys my sm temple, so

804
00:54:28,460 --> 00:54:32,140
Speaker 2: I can't use music two thousand, three thousand years later.

805
00:54:35,900 --> 00:54:37,779
Speaker 3: That's one of the reasons I'm not Orthodox.

806
00:54:38,460 --> 00:54:42,260
Speaker 2: It's that idea does not make sense to me. Something

807
00:54:42,299 --> 00:54:45,860
Speaker 2: that doesn't make sense to me I cannot accept unless

808
00:54:45,900 --> 00:54:50,419
Speaker 2: it's divine. I'm prepared to accept divine irrationality because I'm

809
00:54:50,460 --> 00:54:54,060
Speaker 2: not God. I'm not prepared to accept human irrationality. So

810
00:54:54,219 --> 00:54:55,420
Speaker 2: I don't keep you on to shaming.

811
00:54:56,540 --> 00:54:56,860
Speaker 3: Now.

812
00:54:58,140 --> 00:55:02,700
Speaker 2: I therefore now in a service with music and study

813
00:55:03,100 --> 00:55:08,899
Speaker 2: and song. It's the first time in my life I

814
00:55:08,940 --> 00:55:14,419
Speaker 2: look forward to every Shabbat morning. I would much rather

815
00:55:14,540 --> 00:55:19,459
Speaker 2: go to synagogue where I'm going now than sleep, and

816
00:55:19,540 --> 00:55:22,819
Speaker 2: God knows I need the sleep, and I would love

817
00:55:22,900 --> 00:55:25,540
Speaker 2: to be able to sleep in on Saturday morning. But

818
00:55:26,259 --> 00:55:29,180
Speaker 2: the thought that I missed this, it's almost like if

819
00:55:29,219 --> 00:55:32,700
Speaker 2: you had season tickets to a sport and you missed

820
00:55:32,700 --> 00:55:35,899
Speaker 2: a great game, you'd be disgusted. I'd be disgusted to

821
00:55:35,940 --> 00:55:44,700
Speaker 2: miss it. So what I fantasized jewishly actually materialized in

822
00:55:44,739 --> 00:55:49,380
Speaker 2: a certain service that I attend, and I know therefore

823
00:55:49,460 --> 00:55:53,180
Speaker 2: that it's real and possible. And by the way, it's

824
00:55:53,219 --> 00:55:53,900
Speaker 2: not unique.

825
00:55:53,980 --> 00:55:57,460
Speaker 3: When I went to my friend Rabbi Joseph Tulushkin service

826
00:55:58,299 --> 00:56:01,580
Speaker 3: at a synagogue in Los Angeles for Russia shunning Young

827
00:56:01,660 --> 00:56:06,340
Speaker 3: Kipper the same I was equally touched. Then the music

828
00:56:06,739 --> 00:56:09,739
Speaker 3: was a major, major part of it.

829
00:56:11,060 --> 00:56:13,419
Speaker 2: So I have no problem at all with prayer I

830
00:56:13,460 --> 00:56:15,739
Speaker 2: have a problem with the traditional way of doing it.

831
00:56:16,500 --> 00:56:20,939
Speaker 3: By the way, the Sefara Dim do it differently. They

832
00:56:20,980 --> 00:56:23,540
Speaker 3: actually do read every word in the citter out loud,

833
00:56:23,540 --> 00:56:29,020
Speaker 3: they don't run through it like the Ashkenazi Orthodox. But

834
00:56:29,900 --> 00:56:34,820
Speaker 3: I find that as boring to sit and say every

835
00:56:34,900 --> 00:56:37,820
Speaker 3: single word of a large service. Does that answer you totally?

836
00:56:37,859 --> 00:56:40,779
Speaker 2: I need to know, because if not, you know, come

837
00:56:40,819 --> 00:56:53,540
Speaker 2: back to mess and how by taking from the traditional

838
00:56:53,580 --> 00:56:58,500
Speaker 2: prayer book but not everything, and by combining it frequently

839
00:56:58,580 --> 00:57:04,779
Speaker 2: with music, it does it for me, and different synagogues

840
00:57:04,779 --> 00:57:08,859
Speaker 2: will have to experiment. But the lack of experimentation in

841
00:57:08,859 --> 00:57:14,980
Speaker 2: this regard and is rather amazing to me. I understand

842
00:57:14,980 --> 00:57:17,780
Speaker 2: why the Orthodox don't experiment, and I fully respect that,

843
00:57:17,860 --> 00:57:20,780
Speaker 2: but I don't understand why the Conservative and reform are

844
00:57:20,820 --> 00:57:26,140
Speaker 2: so often addicted to ways that haven't worked. They look

845
00:57:26,180 --> 00:57:28,700
Speaker 2: at that, they look around, and in particular, I think

846
00:57:28,780 --> 00:57:32,980
Speaker 2: in many Conservative synagogues where the canter has gone to

847
00:57:33,060 --> 00:57:38,180
Speaker 2: cantorial school and has learned many cantorial melodies, there is

848
00:57:38,180 --> 00:57:44,900
Speaker 2: no congregational participation and he is basically a soloist for

849
00:57:45,260 --> 00:57:50,860
Speaker 2: on display that no longer works. When Jews could not

850
00:57:50,980 --> 00:57:54,860
Speaker 2: in Eastern Europe, afford opera tickets. It was the one

851
00:57:54,900 --> 00:57:57,939
Speaker 2: place they could hear a great voice. That is not

852
00:57:58,020 --> 00:58:01,939
Speaker 2: the case any longer. And the proof is that, by

853
00:58:02,020 --> 00:58:08,220
Speaker 2: and large Mite, this is purely an impressionistic reaction. I

854
00:58:08,220 --> 00:58:13,220
Speaker 2: think conservative are appealing the least between reform and orthodox

855
00:58:14,100 --> 00:58:17,900
Speaker 2: to a younger generation that is purely impressionistic and may

856
00:58:17,940 --> 00:58:19,620
Speaker 2: have no demographic basis.

857
00:58:19,620 --> 00:58:23,939
Speaker 3: But in terms of weekly attendants, I have frequently found that, you.

858
00:58:23,900 --> 00:58:26,340
Speaker 2: Know, I wrote an article in the second issue of

859
00:58:26,860 --> 00:58:30,300
Speaker 2: the journal that I write, I've now written thirty five issues.

860
00:58:30,340 --> 00:58:33,620
Speaker 2: This is a long time ago, and that the article

861
00:58:33,700 --> 00:58:38,460
Speaker 2: was titled when Rabbis and canters become doctors and artists.

862
00:58:40,380 --> 00:58:43,140
Speaker 3: You know the old saw. It certainly wasn't mine.

863
00:58:43,140 --> 00:58:48,140
Speaker 2: When when rabbis became doctors the Jews got sick, which,

864
00:58:48,180 --> 00:58:52,460
Speaker 2: by the way I subscribed to, I essentially subscribed to

865
00:58:52,500 --> 00:58:56,419
Speaker 2: that Judaism is not a subject to be studied. It

866
00:58:56,460 --> 00:58:59,980
Speaker 2: is a way of life to be lived. PhDs study things,

867
00:59:00,180 --> 00:59:04,220
Speaker 2: Rabbis teach things. There's a very big difference. Rabbis are

868
00:59:04,260 --> 00:59:08,140
Speaker 2: to inspire. The same thing happened though with canters they

869
00:59:08,140 --> 00:59:14,020
Speaker 2: became artists. It became a cantorial art. Now there is

870
00:59:14,060 --> 00:59:18,900
Speaker 2: an art, there's no question. But it was supposed to.

871
00:59:18,860 --> 00:59:21,939
Speaker 3: Be art in the service of inspiration and not art

872
00:59:21,980 --> 00:59:26,419
Speaker 3: for art's sake. Do you know after the article was.

873
00:59:26,420 --> 00:59:29,380
Speaker 2: Written, I got a letter I published in my journal

874
00:59:31,140 --> 00:59:34,220
Speaker 2: from the head of the Reform Cantorial School at the time,

875
00:59:35,380 --> 00:59:40,060
Speaker 2: and he said, and it's almost verbatim, whoever said the

876
00:59:40,100 --> 00:59:42,020
Speaker 2: purpose of a cantor was to inspire?

877
00:59:46,460 --> 00:59:49,820
Speaker 3: I didn't even react to the letter that it's so

878
00:59:50,060 --> 00:59:54,100
Speaker 3: self indicting from my perspective, whoever said the purpose of

879
00:59:54,100 --> 00:59:57,820
Speaker 3: a cantor was to inspire? Everybody says it except the

880
00:59:57,940 --> 01:00:04,300
Speaker 3: cantorial school. That's the answer to that empty synagogue say it.

881
01:00:04,940 --> 01:00:09,980
Speaker 3: That's who says it. So that's that's it could work.

882
01:00:10,220 --> 01:00:13,700
Speaker 3: It's a great book, it's great stuff. Thanks.

883
01:00:13,820 --> 01:00:19,660
Speaker 2: Yes, how did drig your hand up? I totally agree

884
01:00:19,700 --> 01:00:22,660
Speaker 2: with you. Just heard one critical word that I said.

885
01:00:23,340 --> 01:00:28,660
Speaker 2: My indictment was primarily of conservative So that's why I

886
01:00:28,700 --> 01:00:31,580
Speaker 2: totally agree with what you said back there.

887
01:00:31,620 --> 01:00:34,940
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm sorry, Rabbi. We introduce the services of feeling

888
01:00:35,180 --> 01:00:38,740
Speaker 3: class to uh can we discussed in the firstship hot

889
01:00:38,780 --> 01:00:41,900
Speaker 3: services that we have as FIRS all the problems and

890
01:00:42,060 --> 01:00:45,620
Speaker 3: problem out of you mentions doing that you raise this morning,

891
01:00:46,340 --> 01:00:50,260
Speaker 3: uh ass evolve as now monthly service. Uh These nons

892
01:00:50,740 --> 01:00:53,900
Speaker 3: mystical impmentations in the UNBO general they're want and Bible

893
01:00:53,980 --> 01:00:57,180
Speaker 3: and the junior services and them we deal uh in

894
01:00:57,340 --> 01:00:59,140
Speaker 3: discussion with issues of feeling.

895
01:00:59,180 --> 01:01:02,780
Speaker 2: From the Jewish perspective, you find that people who participate

896
01:01:02,900 --> 01:01:06,260
Speaker 2: are praying for people who have asked that we pray

897
01:01:06,380 --> 01:01:10,660
Speaker 2: or pray for loved ones who are in selfdale and

898
01:01:10,820 --> 01:01:13,380
Speaker 2: often healthcare professionals as well, the.

899
01:01:13,460 --> 01:01:17,100
Speaker 3: Craive that they have the ability to serve their patients. Well,

900
01:01:18,860 --> 01:01:21,540
Speaker 3: you wig of what you said before that healing, what

901
01:01:21,700 --> 01:01:27,220
Speaker 3: are your reactionists? From what I sense to the Jewish

902
01:01:27,260 --> 01:01:31,740
Speaker 3: belief day and God to the mission that position ever

903
01:01:31,860 --> 01:01:35,860
Speaker 3: careres the specifically we're healing on individual basis can be

904
01:01:36,260 --> 01:01:43,340
Speaker 3: offered in the midst of the right. As I said,

905
01:01:43,500 --> 01:01:46,340
Speaker 3: and I hope I made it clear, I myself say

906
01:01:46,380 --> 01:01:51,460
Speaker 3: them I do I come. We are all.

907
01:01:53,060 --> 01:01:58,820
Speaker 2: In some ways not totally integrated beings. I have Dennis

908
01:01:58,860 --> 01:02:02,540
Speaker 2: the Jew, I have Dennis the rationalist. I have Dennis

909
01:02:02,580 --> 01:02:06,820
Speaker 2: the moralist, Dennis the animal. Then you name it as

910
01:02:06,900 --> 01:02:10,060
Speaker 2: you do, as you do and so on. Dennis the

911
01:02:10,220 --> 01:02:14,059
Speaker 2: rationalist has a problem with please heal so and so

912
01:02:14,380 --> 01:02:15,419
Speaker 2: for the reasons.

913
01:02:15,060 --> 01:02:19,740
Speaker 3: I mentioned, Dennis the Jew can offer it and do.

914
01:02:20,820 --> 01:02:23,860
Speaker 2: I might add, though, that there was a secondary or

915
01:02:23,900 --> 01:02:27,180
Speaker 2: if not even primary, alternate purpose to doing that.

916
01:02:28,980 --> 01:02:31,700
Speaker 3: When you come up here, if you have it that way,

917
01:02:31,740 --> 01:02:38,820
Speaker 3: I don't know and say and Sonia Silberman and it's

918
01:02:38,860 --> 01:02:43,580
Speaker 3: got ben Ahern. It is an When.

919
01:02:43,460 --> 01:02:46,980
Speaker 2: I have done that for a particular relative I'm thinking of,

920
01:02:48,140 --> 01:02:51,419
Speaker 2: it meant a lot to me that her name was

921
01:02:51,460 --> 01:02:58,900
Speaker 2: announced to the community as in need of their amain. Okay,

922
01:02:58,940 --> 01:03:02,660
Speaker 2: more than there's a better chance now that God's going

923
01:03:02,740 --> 01:03:08,260
Speaker 2: to send a drug. That's how I thought. But that

924
01:03:08,460 --> 01:03:13,220
Speaker 2: in itself is empowering. There are people behind me. When

925
01:03:13,220 --> 01:03:15,740
Speaker 2: my Christian friends tell me they have prayed for me,

926
01:03:16,380 --> 01:03:20,460
Speaker 2: I have been touched. And it's not even my religion.

927
01:03:22,460 --> 01:03:26,820
Speaker 2: So certainly if my own community says, oh, Dennis is

928
01:03:26,860 --> 01:03:29,100
Speaker 2: such and such as sick, we all.

929
01:03:28,940 --> 01:03:32,580
Speaker 3: Say, I mean to her recuperation. That's a very powerful thing.

930
01:03:33,300 --> 01:03:36,940
Speaker 3: That's why I'm for it, sure, just that I don't

931
01:03:36,940 --> 01:03:40,420
Speaker 3: want Jews to depend on it, because it's an invitation

932
01:03:41,100 --> 01:03:47,740
Speaker 3: to angst and ultimately atheism. That's why that's why I

933
01:03:47,780 --> 01:03:49,260
Speaker 3: spoke against.

934
01:03:48,940 --> 01:03:52,380
Speaker 2: It so strongly, to the extent that I did. Okay,

935
01:03:52,820 --> 01:03:55,980
Speaker 2: but surely it must be done. There's another reason, and

936
01:03:56,020 --> 01:03:59,059
Speaker 2: I meant to say this in my talk. If God

937
01:03:59,180 --> 01:04:04,340
Speaker 2: is my friend, my father, my heavenly father, how could

938
01:04:04,380 --> 01:04:07,740
Speaker 2: I not share with him what I want? Not in

939
01:04:07,780 --> 01:04:09,860
Speaker 2: the sense of petition, but in the sense of I'm

940
01:04:09,860 --> 01:04:12,100
Speaker 2: telling him. Don't you don't tell your friend you know,

941
01:04:13,020 --> 01:04:14,180
Speaker 2: you know, Jerry.

942
01:04:14,900 --> 01:04:20,300
Speaker 3: I wish my I don't know my cousin were feeling better.

943
01:04:20,660 --> 01:04:21,540
Speaker 3: He's really sick.

944
01:04:22,940 --> 01:04:26,220
Speaker 2: Don't you tell that to a dear friend. I'm not

945
01:04:26,260 --> 01:04:30,499
Speaker 2: going to tell it to God, God, the author of

946
01:04:30,660 --> 01:04:33,700
Speaker 2: all possible remedies. I'm not going to tell I wish

947
01:04:33,780 --> 01:04:34,660
Speaker 2: somebody were well.

948
01:04:36,780 --> 01:04:39,020
Speaker 3: So that I'm glad you pushed me further in this

949
01:04:39,100 --> 01:04:42,300
Speaker 3: to make it clear, because there's such a fine line

950
01:04:42,340 --> 01:04:46,220
Speaker 3: between rejecting it and relying on it. I don't want

951
01:04:46,260 --> 01:04:47,380
Speaker 3: jeus to rely on it.

952
01:04:49,220 --> 01:04:52,500
Speaker 2: Okay, back there, Yes, okay, And if I didn't answer you,

953
01:04:52,540 --> 01:04:56,660
Speaker 2: please rise again and tell me how does having an

954
01:04:56,700 --> 01:04:59,620
Speaker 2: intermarriage affect one's Jewish identity?

955
01:04:59,940 --> 01:05:00,740
Speaker 3: I think that.

956
01:05:00,900 --> 01:05:05,060
Speaker 2: Frankly, by and large, and there are always exceptions, at

957
01:05:05,100 --> 01:05:10,700
Speaker 2: somewhat putting the cart before the horse. Mostly one had

958
01:05:10,740 --> 01:05:15,220
Speaker 2: a fairly weak Jewish identity in order to intermarry. It's

959
01:05:15,260 --> 01:05:19,260
Speaker 2: not the intermarriage that causes a weakening of the Jewish identity,

960
01:05:19,700 --> 01:05:24,860
Speaker 2: but the Jewish idea identity was fairly weak, and therefore

961
01:05:25,140 --> 01:05:29,540
Speaker 2: the intermarriage was allowed. This is not an indictment. It

962
01:05:29,620 --> 01:05:33,980
Speaker 2: is merely a description people with a very strong Jewish identity.

963
01:05:34,660 --> 01:05:36,700
Speaker 2: I mean, just as if you have a very strong

964
01:05:36,780 --> 01:05:40,220
Speaker 2: passion for anything, if you have a strong passion for animals,

965
01:05:40,540 --> 01:05:43,780
Speaker 2: there's a good chance you will marry somebody who, at least,

966
01:05:43,820 --> 01:05:48,860
Speaker 2: if nothing else, is not oblivious to animal suffering. Okay,

967
01:05:49,420 --> 01:05:51,700
Speaker 2: the odds are if you care a great deal about

968
01:05:52,460 --> 01:05:56,180
Speaker 2: how animals are treated, you wouldn't marry a man who

969
01:05:56,220 --> 01:06:02,180
Speaker 2: loved bullfights. Okay, we do the things we most care about.

970
01:06:02,340 --> 01:06:07,300
Speaker 2: People don't only marry on love. Some do and find

971
01:06:07,340 --> 01:06:10,140
Speaker 2: that in the long run you need more than love,

972
01:06:10,740 --> 01:06:15,900
Speaker 2: not less than love, but more than love. And therefore

973
01:06:16,700 --> 01:06:19,100
Speaker 2: I don't know what effect it has on the identity.

974
01:06:19,180 --> 01:06:23,260
Speaker 3: It can't be a strengthening one. Usually. Having said that,

975
01:06:23,820 --> 01:06:25,459
Speaker 3: it doesn't mean it's ever too late.

976
01:06:27,300 --> 01:06:29,939
Speaker 2: In fact, one of the most common problems I have

977
01:06:30,540 --> 01:06:34,980
Speaker 2: I hear when I go around around North America lecturing

978
01:06:36,540 --> 01:06:40,100
Speaker 2: and already have twice here, one a husband and one

979
01:06:40,140 --> 01:06:41,340
Speaker 2: a wife.

980
01:06:41,460 --> 01:06:44,939
Speaker 3: And it is it is. I hear it everywhere I go.

981
01:06:45,260 --> 01:06:46,500
Speaker 3: And this is with two.

982
01:06:46,340 --> 01:06:49,860
Speaker 2: Jews married, not a Jew in a non Jew, that

983
01:06:50,020 --> 01:06:54,539
Speaker 2: one in adulthood became seriously Jewish and the other one

984
01:06:54,940 --> 01:06:59,220
Speaker 2: did not move in that direction. It is one of

985
01:06:59,220 --> 01:07:03,220
Speaker 2: the most sad problems said, because it's not the one

986
01:07:03,220 --> 01:07:07,220
Speaker 2: who didn't move fault. When a spouse changes, the non

987
01:07:07,340 --> 01:07:09,980
Speaker 2: changing spouse has a right to say, wait a minute,

988
01:07:10,220 --> 01:07:11,660
Speaker 2: this is not what I married.

989
01:07:12,700 --> 01:07:15,539
Speaker 3: I fully understand that. My heart goes out to both

990
01:07:15,580 --> 01:07:15,939
Speaker 3: of them.

991
01:07:16,420 --> 01:07:19,340
Speaker 2: To the Jew who is becoming more seriously Jewish, my

992
01:07:19,420 --> 01:07:21,860
Speaker 2: heart goes out because I want you to be more

993
01:07:21,900 --> 01:07:26,660
Speaker 2: seriously Jewish. Thought of a secular life frightens me. It's

994
01:07:26,660 --> 01:07:32,979
Speaker 2: so boring at its inner core, it is empty. On

995
01:07:33,020 --> 01:07:36,820
Speaker 2: the other hand, I feel terrible for the other spouse, who,

996
01:07:36,860 --> 01:07:39,620
Speaker 2: through no fault of his or her own, has a

997
01:07:40,060 --> 01:07:45,939
Speaker 2: new person that they're married to. That is why ideally

998
01:07:47,420 --> 01:07:50,340
Speaker 2: one has grown up Jewishly before marrying.

999
01:07:52,260 --> 01:07:53,180
Speaker 3: That's the ideal.

1000
01:07:53,580 --> 01:07:55,380
Speaker 2: Well, we don't live in an ideal world, and I

1001
01:07:55,460 --> 01:08:00,260
Speaker 2: fully acknowledge that. But if you can somehow know where

1002
01:08:00,300 --> 01:08:03,539
Speaker 2: you are or where you're moving before, or at least

1003
01:08:03,580 --> 01:08:06,340
Speaker 2: defer marriage till you have made peace with that evolution.

1004
01:08:06,900 --> 01:08:09,380
Speaker 2: But even then it's no guarantee because people still will

1005
01:08:09,420 --> 01:08:12,700
Speaker 2: evolve later. I don't know if that fully answers you,

1006
01:08:12,820 --> 01:08:16,059
Speaker 2: but it's the identity needs to precede the marriage.

1007
01:08:16,060 --> 01:08:25,780
Speaker 3: That's the ideal child of an intermarriage. Okay, if there

1008
01:08:25,860 --> 01:08:32,220
Speaker 3: is a I'm sorry, I was the last line. Well.

1009
01:08:32,340 --> 01:08:36,580
Speaker 2: By reform Judaism, a child of any Jewish parent, male

1010
01:08:36,660 --> 01:08:38,500
Speaker 2: or female is considered Jewish.

1011
01:08:38,580 --> 01:08:40,380
Speaker 3: According to a.

1012
01:08:39,979 --> 01:08:44,740
Speaker 2: Conservative and Orthodox it's the child of a Jewish mother only.

1013
01:08:46,260 --> 01:08:50,939
Speaker 2: But in real life, the question is what does the

1014
01:08:51,059 --> 01:08:55,380
Speaker 2: child think of himself? Not what does Jewish law think

1015
01:08:55,420 --> 01:08:58,979
Speaker 2: of them? Because if you don't care, who cares what

1016
01:08:59,059 --> 01:09:02,580
Speaker 2: Jewish law thinks of you? If you don't care about Judaism,

1017
01:09:02,660 --> 01:09:04,860
Speaker 2: So the ultimate question in life is what do you

1018
01:09:04,979 --> 01:09:08,580
Speaker 2: think you are? Not what is the what does Jewish

1019
01:09:08,660 --> 01:09:12,700
Speaker 2: law think you are? And that depends on the Jewish parent.

1020
01:09:13,420 --> 01:09:17,620
Speaker 2: It also depends on the non Jewish parent being open. However, statistically,

1021
01:09:17,660 --> 01:09:20,540
Speaker 2: I am told that the great majority of children of

1022
01:09:20,660 --> 01:09:24,380
Speaker 2: intermarriage do not opt for a Jewish identity, and it

1023
01:09:24,460 --> 01:09:27,019
Speaker 2: is not surprising that they wouldn't who who in the

1024
01:09:27,059 --> 01:09:31,179
Speaker 2: world opts to be a minority in Israel, they would

1025
01:09:31,220 --> 01:09:32,500
Speaker 2: opt to be Jewish because Israel.

1026
01:09:32,580 --> 01:09:33,780
Speaker 3: In Israel, the Jews.

1027
01:09:33,580 --> 01:09:37,299
Speaker 2: Are a majority, so all intermarried couples should make aliyah.

1028
01:09:40,140 --> 01:09:46,540
Speaker 3: Yes, do you think that the help to the general

1029
01:09:46,700 --> 01:09:50,059
Speaker 3: problem of the feeling for the evil?

1030
01:09:51,340 --> 01:09:56,179
Speaker 2: Does prayer help you deal with the general problem, deal

1031
01:09:56,220 --> 01:09:58,700
Speaker 2: pragmatically with the with the problem of evil.

1032
01:10:01,820 --> 01:10:05,500
Speaker 3: I think it does for many people. I'll tell you

1033
01:10:05,580 --> 01:10:07,300
Speaker 3: how I deal with it.

1034
01:10:07,300 --> 01:10:10,460
Speaker 2: It's not so much through prayer as it is through

1035
01:10:10,500 --> 01:10:15,219
Speaker 2: a knowledge that there is a God, that God doesn't

1036
01:10:15,220 --> 01:10:18,780
Speaker 2: want the evil to behave the way they do, that

1037
01:10:18,820 --> 01:10:22,780
Speaker 2: they will ultimately pay for what have done. I believe

1038
01:10:22,860 --> 01:10:25,420
Speaker 2: deeply in an after life, or I would probably go mad.

1039
01:10:26,420 --> 01:10:29,139
Speaker 2: I think the more aware you are of cruelty in

1040
01:10:29,220 --> 01:10:33,660
Speaker 2: this world, the more your sanity depends on some ultimate justice.

1041
01:10:35,140 --> 01:10:37,379
Speaker 2: At least that's how I feel, because I am deeply

1042
01:10:37,540 --> 01:10:43,299
Speaker 2: conscious of the horrors that people inflict on others. That's

1043
01:10:43,340 --> 01:10:46,820
Speaker 2: what keeps me sane, rather than prayer in and of itself.

1044
01:10:47,860 --> 01:10:53,019
Speaker 2: But my weekly attendance at a synagogue is an island.

1045
01:10:52,540 --> 01:10:59,700
Speaker 3: Of peace in a turbulent world. It is my own profession.

1046
01:11:00,220 --> 01:11:02,300
Speaker 3: Everyone has his or her own challenges.

1047
01:11:03,620 --> 01:11:05,780
Speaker 2: I cannot do what a lot of people I know do,

1048
01:11:05,900 --> 01:11:09,780
Speaker 2: and that is tune out from you know, Bosnian rapes,

1049
01:11:10,620 --> 01:11:20,300
Speaker 2: Somalian starvation, homeless diseases, fires, tornadoes. I not only have

1050
01:11:20,380 --> 01:11:23,340
Speaker 2: to know about them, I have to immerse myself in

1051
01:11:23,380 --> 01:11:25,540
Speaker 2: them and then talk about them three hours a day.

1052
01:11:27,220 --> 01:11:30,540
Speaker 2: So the Shabbat to me, you know, I'm working very

1053
01:11:30,540 --> 01:11:34,140
Speaker 2: hard this Shabbat, and yet in some ways it is effortless,

1054
01:11:34,979 --> 01:11:40,179
Speaker 2: beyond effortless. It's rejuvenating to be with fellow Jews. Talking

1055
01:11:40,220 --> 01:11:44,260
Speaker 2: tore is my favorite thing in the world. It's just

1056
01:11:44,300 --> 01:11:49,060
Speaker 2: an absolute delight. My wife is amazed at my stamina.

1057
01:11:49,260 --> 01:11:52,339
Speaker 2: I mean, I flew yesterday after five hours of sleep

1058
01:11:52,700 --> 01:11:57,700
Speaker 2: NonStop across the country, got dressed, came here, spoke last night.

1059
01:11:57,780 --> 01:12:00,539
Speaker 2: I'm on LA time right now. So my day started

1060
01:12:00,540 --> 01:12:04,380
Speaker 2: this morning at six o'clock LA time talking Judaism. Got

1061
01:12:04,420 --> 01:12:09,019
Speaker 2: another talk tonight, good, another one tomorrow morning Tomorrow night.

1062
01:12:09,019 --> 01:12:13,099
Speaker 3: In Virginia. Fly three o'clock in the morning LA Time

1063
01:12:13,300 --> 01:12:16,380
Speaker 3: on Monday and do my show in the afternoon and

1064
01:12:16,420 --> 01:12:22,580
Speaker 3: then in the evening teach Genesis I have a busy man,

1065
01:12:23,540 --> 01:12:26,820
Speaker 3: do you know, I I it doesn't eat me up

1066
01:12:27,059 --> 01:12:31,099
Speaker 3: because I love it. This to do a.

1067
01:12:31,180 --> 01:12:35,219
Speaker 2: Jewish weekend, which I do, thank God, frequently, and by

1068
01:12:35,220 --> 01:12:37,860
Speaker 2: the way, in almost every instance, bring my family or

1069
01:12:37,900 --> 01:12:43,820
Speaker 2: at least one member of the family. And the only

1070
01:12:43,860 --> 01:12:46,259
Speaker 2: reason my wife. She was scheduled to be with me today.

1071
01:12:46,260 --> 01:12:48,900
Speaker 2: But it's Aaron's first birthday, and I wouldn't have missed that.

1072
01:12:49,019 --> 01:12:51,259
Speaker 2: But this was scheduled before we even knew they would

1073
01:12:51,300 --> 01:12:55,179
Speaker 2: be an Aaron. So it's quite all right, and I'm

1074
01:12:55,300 --> 01:12:58,620
Speaker 2: very happy to be here anyway. I don't think he

1075
01:12:58,780 --> 01:13:03,419
Speaker 2: knows that it's his first birthday. I like all Jewish parents.

1076
01:13:03,420 --> 01:13:08,580
Speaker 2: He's brilliant, but not that brilliant, thank God, I might add.

1077
01:13:10,620 --> 01:13:16,700
Speaker 3: But this is powerful stuff. This is sanity inducing stuff.

1078
01:13:17,620 --> 01:13:19,979
Speaker 2: Get together and sing, you know, at the place I

1079
01:13:20,059 --> 01:13:23,420
Speaker 2: go in La we goes like this. We have an

1080
01:13:23,460 --> 01:13:27,900
Speaker 2: hour of service from ten to eleven. Rabbi leads a

1081
01:13:27,939 --> 01:13:30,820
Speaker 2: tora discussion from eleven to twelve, and then from twelve

1082
01:13:30,900 --> 01:13:35,260
Speaker 2: to two. People all bring dairy pot luck food and

1083
01:13:35,420 --> 01:13:42,419
Speaker 2: we sit and we sing for two hours. I can't

1084
01:13:42,460 --> 01:13:45,860
Speaker 2: I can't believe how much I enjoy it. I mean,

1085
01:13:45,860 --> 01:13:48,700
Speaker 2: it is an island. It is just an island, And

1086
01:13:48,740 --> 01:13:54,139
Speaker 2: I commend the idea to you. It's so it's not

1087
01:13:54,340 --> 01:13:59,260
Speaker 2: the prayer itself as it is this Jewish whole, whole.

1088
01:13:59,019 --> 01:14:03,420
Speaker 3: Thing that does it for me anybody else. Yes, sir,

1089
01:14:04,620 --> 01:14:07,180
Speaker 3: it seems to me that the four points that you

1090
01:14:07,340 --> 01:14:15,700
Speaker 3: mean about types of prayer uni primarily those types that

1091
01:14:15,700 --> 01:14:21,340
Speaker 3: actual understanding of what one was doing. Yes, the rest. Uh,

1092
01:14:21,420 --> 01:14:25,339
Speaker 3: The more the aspect that I come across in many

1093
01:14:25,380 --> 01:14:28,900
Speaker 3: books about the Jewish prayer, that it has more the

1094
01:14:31,300 --> 01:14:35,979
Speaker 3: almost mantra like power of the U language. Yeah, what's

1095
01:14:36,059 --> 01:14:38,059
Speaker 3: It's a very good point.

1096
01:14:38,220 --> 01:14:40,660
Speaker 2: And for the second time I ever give this talk,

1097
01:14:40,740 --> 01:14:42,019
Speaker 2: I will have to incorporate that.

1098
01:14:42,460 --> 01:14:44,179
Speaker 3: It'll probably be when you invite me back.

1099
01:14:44,540 --> 01:14:46,460
Speaker 2: It's the only rabbi in America who's asked me to

1100
01:14:46,500 --> 01:14:48,420
Speaker 2: speak on this, then I salute him.

1101
01:14:49,620 --> 01:14:50,380
Speaker 3: Uh.

1102
01:14:50,500 --> 01:14:53,179
Speaker 2: Yes, there is a monstra like power. Harold Kushner has

1103
01:14:53,220 --> 01:14:57,500
Speaker 2: made that point. I don't know Aramaic, certainly not well.

1104
01:14:57,540 --> 01:14:59,580
Speaker 2: I mean I I know a little cause of the gamura,

1105
01:14:59,500 --> 01:15:02,620
Speaker 2: cause of the talmut, but the cottish, the the prayer

1106
01:15:02,660 --> 01:15:07,260
Speaker 2: we say in commemorating the death of someone is an

1107
01:15:07,300 --> 01:15:11,660
Speaker 2: Aramaic ninety nine percent of Jews saying it don't know

1108
01:15:11,700 --> 01:15:15,139
Speaker 2: what they're saying, but it has an an unbelievable power

1109
01:15:16,300 --> 01:15:19,339
Speaker 2: godal Goddah shemeh Rabba.

1110
01:15:19,900 --> 01:15:22,939
Speaker 3: Just as I intelle it now right, if we were

1111
01:15:22,979 --> 01:15:25,620
Speaker 3: to say it in English, magnify and sanctify, be the

1112
01:15:25,660 --> 01:15:28,460
Speaker 3: great name, it would not have one tenth of.

1113
01:15:28,460 --> 01:15:33,740
Speaker 2: Power, even though you don't know the original. You're right,

1114
01:15:34,340 --> 01:15:36,939
Speaker 2: there is an element of that. And the Orthodox would

1115
01:15:37,019 --> 01:15:40,059
Speaker 2: argue that not dwelling on every word is okay because

1116
01:15:40,099 --> 01:15:42,620
Speaker 2: there is perhaps this greater montral like power.

1117
01:15:43,620 --> 01:15:46,820
Speaker 3: And I respect that. Say, I am.

1118
01:15:46,740 --> 01:15:52,540
Speaker 2: Actually a living pluralist, a living and breathing Jewish pluralist.

1119
01:15:53,740 --> 01:15:56,099
Speaker 2: I am not Orthodox, but there is no part of

1120
01:15:56,140 --> 01:16:01,540
Speaker 2: me that thinks that they are invalid. I gave it

1121
01:16:01,580 --> 01:16:08,099
Speaker 2: a forty year chance. That's a long time, that's all.

1122
01:16:09,460 --> 01:16:13,099
Speaker 2: There are people who fall in love with it overnight. Fine,

1123
01:16:13,900 --> 01:16:17,500
Speaker 2: not just fine, terrific. Is there anybody who rather have

1124
01:16:17,540 --> 01:16:19,539
Speaker 2: a Jew secular than Orthodox?

1125
01:16:19,580 --> 01:16:20,620
Speaker 3: There may be, but I wouldn't.

1126
01:16:22,740 --> 01:16:24,580
Speaker 2: And I asked the Orthodox, would you rather have a

1127
01:16:24,660 --> 01:16:27,059
Speaker 2: Jew secular than reform? And there were some who would

1128
01:16:27,540 --> 01:16:33,380
Speaker 2: And it's crazy, just crazy. So I appreciate that that

1129
01:16:33,420 --> 01:16:37,860
Speaker 2: could be powerful. I am too much in the brain.

1130
01:16:38,860 --> 01:16:43,020
Speaker 2: I am a creature of Judaism and Western Greek rationality,

1131
01:16:44,380 --> 01:16:47,299
Speaker 2: and so are the vast majority of my peers, which

1132
01:16:47,340 --> 01:16:47,979
Speaker 2: is why they're.

1133
01:16:47,780 --> 01:16:48,379
Speaker 3: Not in shule.

1134
01:16:50,140 --> 01:16:53,179
Speaker 2: And to them I address these comments. I guess that's

1135
01:16:53,220 --> 01:16:55,219
Speaker 2: the most honest way I could respond.

1136
01:16:55,620 --> 01:16:59,860
Speaker 1: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager. Visit Dennisprager

1137
01:16:59,939 --> 01:17:03,499
Speaker 1: dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

1138
01:17:03,540 --> 01:17:08,180
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.