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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 Dennis Prager

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Speaker 1: dot com.

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Speaker 2: To be or not to be?

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Speaker 3: That is the question?

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Speaker 2: Why was God?

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Speaker 4: Isn't God supposed to be good, supposed to love us?

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Speaker 5: Does God want us to suffer ten years? You're not

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Speaker 5: Dennis yet?

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Speaker 6: Why did you come here?

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Speaker 2: Who are you?

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Speaker 3: Bruce? I'm God bingo yazi?

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Speaker 5: Is that your final answer?

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Speaker 7: Our service has God bing ding ding ding ding ding

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Speaker 7: ding ding.

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Speaker 5: Well, it was nice to meet you guys.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for the Grand Canyon and good luck with

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Speaker 3: the apocalypse, and welcome to the Dennis Prager Show. The

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Speaker 3: Ultimate Issues our every week at this time I devote

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Speaker 3: the hour to some great ultimate issue. I am very lucky. First,

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Speaker 3: I'm lucky to have the guests that we have. But

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Speaker 3: what I was thinking of originally is I'm very lucky

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Speaker 3: that at a very early age I realize that the

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Speaker 3: most important question in life is there a God. Everything

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Speaker 3: flows from that. You talk about ultimate issues. There is

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Speaker 3: ultimate issues, and then there's the ultimate issue. It's the

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Speaker 3: ultimate including atheists who are honest acknowledge this. They have

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Speaker 3: concluded there is no God. But that's the ultimate question.

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Speaker 3: If there is no God, then this is all a happenstance.

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Speaker 3: We are as irrelevant to the universe as the pebbles

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Speaker 3: in a canyon, and that's it. And yet if there

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Speaker 3: is a God, then everything matters, and then there's pressure

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Speaker 3: to human life, etc.

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Speaker 2: Et cetera.

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Speaker 3: So this is the ultimate issue. And I can't think

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Speaker 3: of anybody better. There might be people tied with him,

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Speaker 3: but I can't think of anybody better to talk to

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Speaker 3: about this than one of the most prominent rabbis in

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Speaker 3: the United States. In fact, he was named number one

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Speaker 3: pulpit Rabbi in America in Newsweek and he is David Walpy,

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Speaker 3: the Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, teaches Modern

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Speaker 3: Jewish religious thought at UCLA, and he is quite well

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Speaker 3: known to those who follow religious thought.

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Speaker 2: Today.

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Speaker 3: He has a new book out, Why Faith Matters, and

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Speaker 3: you know it passes the Praeger test on many grounds,

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Speaker 3: the first one.

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Speaker 2: Being it's under two hundred pages.

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Speaker 3: My theory, Rabbi Walpy, is if you can't say it

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Speaker 3: an under two hundred pages. I mean, look at the

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Speaker 3: creation story, will you there?

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Speaker 4: You go, yes, I agree with you exactly. We're not

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Speaker 4: allowed to recommend long books. It's not fair to people.

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Speaker 3: It isn't fair, that's right, unless they need a door stopper, right, exactly.

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Speaker 3: You know it's true. These new biographies, I mean, they

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Speaker 3: tell you what the man had for lunch, you know,

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Speaker 3: on April seventh, eighteen fifty six. I don't care.

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Speaker 4: I agree so or you will not find in that

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Speaker 4: book what God had for lunch on April seventh.

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Speaker 5: I just want to put.

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Speaker 3: That out there. Excellent. The book, again, is why faith matters.

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Speaker 3: Why did you title it that? Why not why I

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Speaker 3: believe in God or something.

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Speaker 4: Like that, because I wanted to make both the case

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Speaker 4: for God and along with science and so on. But

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Speaker 4: a lot of it is why faith mattered to me

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Speaker 4: personally through various things that I've gone through, and also

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Speaker 4: why faith matters to society, and not just why I

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Speaker 4: believe in God, but what difference that makes to the

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Speaker 4: world if people do believe in God and if people

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Speaker 4: believe in religion, because I'm not only pro faith, but

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Speaker 4: pro religion.

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Speaker 3: If you had been asked to write this book twenty

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Speaker 3: years ago.

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Speaker 2: Would it have been different.

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Speaker 5: Twenty years ago? So I have to do the math

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Speaker 5: in my head. It wouldn't. Yes, well, thirty I would

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Speaker 5: have said there's no God. That's why I.

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Speaker 4: Said, that's tchnlo. Twenty years ago it would have been similar.

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Speaker 4: Thirty years ago would have.

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Speaker 5: Been completely diferr.

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Speaker 2: Okay, what really I.

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Speaker 5: Was when I was in high school.

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Speaker 4: What happened was when I was twelve years old, I

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Speaker 4: saw a movie called Knight and Fog about the Holocaust,

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Speaker 4: and I tell this story in the book, and that

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Speaker 4: was it for me. It drained the world of all color.

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Speaker 4: I was convinced that God didn't exist. And then I

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Speaker 4: spent my teenage years reading Bertrand Russell, who was a

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Speaker 4: British philosopher and for my money still the best best

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Speaker 4: atheist writing. I mean, Hitchens and Harris and Dawkins and

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Speaker 4: then at they're good, but Russell, I believe, outdoes them all,

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Speaker 4: both in prose style and in argument. And so for

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Speaker 4: at least a decade I was convinced there was no God.

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Speaker 5: So I would have written a very different.

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Speaker 3: Book What happened.

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Speaker 5: I wish I could tell you a.

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Speaker 4: Single thing happened but I actually think what happened primarily

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Speaker 4: was I got old enough to distrust my own omniscience.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I assumed, like a lot of teenagers, I

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Speaker 4: think that everybody who didn't believe what I did was

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Speaker 4: weak or thoughtless or irrational. Russell told me that you know,

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Speaker 4: if you believed in this stuff, it's because there wasn't

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Speaker 4: enough reason in your mind or in the world. And

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Speaker 4: I started to see that even the strongest people were

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Speaker 4: sometimes weak, and the smartest were sometimes not so bright.

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Speaker 4: And I even read something of Russell's life, because the

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Speaker 4: truth is, he wrote as though his life was perfectly

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Speaker 4: rational and reasonable, but his life was a mess. He

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Speaker 4: married numerous women, had endless numbers of affairs, was estranged

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Speaker 4: from his children. And I was actually.

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Speaker 3: Looking advocated that an Adam Bombie dropped on Moscow.

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Speaker 4: On Moscow right, exactly, I was actually looking, And yet

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Speaker 4: was a pacifist.

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Speaker 3: And became afterwards, for he went from one stream to

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Speaker 3: the others and.

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Speaker 5: Looking for wisdom in life. I was looking for a guide.

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Speaker 4: I was looking for and exactly what you asked at

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Speaker 4: the very beginning, which is why does faith matter? Because

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Speaker 4: faith is more than an abstract proposition it's how to

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Speaker 4: live your life. And I was looking for a guide

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Speaker 4: on how to live and Russell sounded like he was

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Speaker 4: a guide, but he wasn't.

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Speaker 3: So it was an evolution.

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Speaker 5: It was an evolution. It was great.

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Speaker 3: You have, like just about everybody, been tested by life. Yes,

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Speaker 3: you want to speak about any of those, sure, I.

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Speaker 4: Just talk about my immediate family. Right after my daughter

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Speaker 4: was born, my wife had cancer, which leaves us with

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Speaker 4: one child. She was unable to have more children, although

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Speaker 4: she's considered cured. A few years after that, I had

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Speaker 4: a brain tumor and neurosurgery, and a couple of years

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Speaker 4: ago I came down with lymphoma and had chemotherapy and

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Speaker 4: the lymphoma I mean remission, but I'm not cured, can't

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Speaker 4: cure it at this stage of medical knowledge. What I

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Speaker 4: tell my congregation is that I'm we're all in remission.

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Speaker 5: Only I know it.

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Speaker 2: So good line, good life.

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Speaker 5: Through all of that.

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Speaker 4: You know, you ask yourself all the normal questions, and

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Speaker 4: as you know, some people come out with their faith deepened.

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Speaker 4: Some people come out with their faith broken or shattered.

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Speaker 4: But I really do think that the people by and

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Speaker 4: large who come out of difficult circumstances with their faith.

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Speaker 4: Broken are sort of victims.

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Speaker 5: Of bad theology.

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Speaker 4: They went in with a faith that wasn't the kind

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Speaker 4: of faith I believe we're taught at at religion's best.

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Speaker 4: They went in with a sort of magical faith, like

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Speaker 4: if you just pray hard enough or do this right,

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Speaker 4: everything will be fine. And I don't believe God's set

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Speaker 4: up the world that way, and don't believe that faithful

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Speaker 4: people should assume that the world is that way.

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Speaker 3: So that's directly involved with the question of God's intervention

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Speaker 3: in individuals' lives. Well, that's a tough one.

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Speaker 5: It is a tough one.

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Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I want to say something first,

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Speaker 4: which is, you know, as a rabbi, I have people

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Speaker 4: come into my office all the time and say why me.

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Speaker 4: Something bad happens and they say why me. And what

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Speaker 4: I've noticed about that question is it's very rare for

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Speaker 4: someone to come into my office and say, you know,

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Speaker 4: I was born in the richest country in the world

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Speaker 4: and I've never gone hungry.

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Speaker 5: Why me? Or I have loving parents? Why me?

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Speaker 4: So part of it was that I felt, it's not

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Speaker 4: like I've gotten a rough deal in the world for

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Speaker 4: all the challenges that we've had, we've also had great blessings.

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Speaker 4: And if you're going to give God discredit, so to speak,

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Speaker 4: for the bad stuff, then first you have to give

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Speaker 4: God enormous thanks and gratitude and benefit for all the

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Speaker 4: other stuff.

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Speaker 5: But the second part is.

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Speaker 4: That I don't think there's any one on one correspondence.

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Speaker 4: I heard you asking Dines Desuza yesterday. I think it

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Speaker 4: was about prayer and whether God intervenes and does he

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Speaker 4: pray for specific intervention. And I was thinking at the

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Speaker 4: time of something that a seventeenth century rabbi said that

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Speaker 4: if you saw a man pulling his boat to shore,

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Speaker 4: you might think, if you were mistaken about mechanics and motion,

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Speaker 4: that he was really pulling the shore to his boat.

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Speaker 5: And that's what it's like in prayer.

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Speaker 4: That you think you're pulling God to you, but if

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Speaker 4: you pray, well, what you're doing is pulling yourself to God.

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Speaker 4: And I have to say for myself, as I was

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Speaker 4: getting chemo, I didn't assume that if I prayed hard enough,

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Speaker 4: God would cure me. But I did believe I could

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Speaker 4: pray for intimacy and for closeness, and that that prayer

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Speaker 4: is granted, and it was. Yes, I didn't feel alone,

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Speaker 4: and that's I thought. As much as I could really

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Speaker 4: ask of God, I wanted more. But really what I

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Speaker 4: want to be sure of was that whatever happened, it

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Speaker 4: would be okay.

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Speaker 3: When you prayed, was it the formal prayers of the

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Speaker 3: Jewish faith or was it spontaneous statements of your own?

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Speaker 5: It was both.

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Speaker 4: It was both my own prayer and also formulated prayer.

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Speaker 4: What happens in such circumstances is you find that the

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Speaker 4: formulated prayers are deeper than you ever imagined. There's one

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Speaker 4: paragraph for your Jewish listeners in the Ami Dah, which

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Speaker 4: is the central prayer of Judaism, called the modem prayer,

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Speaker 4: the thanks prayer, and I found that one enormously and

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Speaker 4: enduringly powerful. But I also just prayed that the people

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Speaker 4: in my life whom I love would have the strength

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Speaker 4: to see this through whatever happened.

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Speaker 5: So, you know, and.

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Speaker 3: That's just Are you more at peace now than when

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Speaker 3: you were in high school?

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Speaker 2: Yes? Oh? Yeah.

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Speaker 3: The book is Why Faith Matter, is a truly significant

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Speaker 3: and easily read book. Will be back in a moment.

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Speaker 3: I'm Dennis Prager.

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Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom we'll continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

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Speaker 3: Brager it is and it's the Ultimate Issues Hour. I'm

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Speaker 3: the Dennis Prager Show. Every week at this time some

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Speaker 3: great issue. There's no greater issue than this, obviously, God's

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Speaker 3: existence faith. One of the greatest thinkers and writers on

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Speaker 3: this is one of the most prominent rabbis in the US,

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Speaker 3: David Wolby, and his book is Why Faith Matters under

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Speaker 3: two hundred pages, and it's for people of every faith,

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Speaker 3: which leads to a question, a sensitive question.

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Speaker 2: I like to post to you what is posed to me.

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Speaker 3: By listeners constantly because they know that I am a

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Speaker 3: practicing Jew, and they wonder, and I give course give

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Speaker 3: them my answer, but I want, obviously your answer here.

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Speaker 3: Why are so many Jews so non religious?

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Speaker 2: Well?

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Speaker 4: I think that there are at least two very powerful

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Speaker 4: reasons why that is so. One is that I really

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Speaker 4: do think the shocks of history took their toll.

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Speaker 5: I think that the Holocaust.

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Speaker 4: Dealt the body blow to Jewish religiosity, both demographically, that is,

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Speaker 4: it wiped out the most religious portion of Jews, who

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Speaker 4: were the ones who stayed in Eastern Europe. So, first

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Speaker 4: of all, it did it demographically and second theologically, it

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Speaker 4: was very hard for many Jews to come to grips

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Speaker 4: with such I mean, the world Jewish population still has

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Speaker 4: not recovered, it's still not at pre Holocaust levels. A

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Speaker 4: third of all Jews were killed, and that's very difficult.

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Speaker 4: And then the second part of it was that, for

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Speaker 4: lots of reasons that we don't have to go into,

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Speaker 4: Jews raced towards modernity and the modern world to some extent,

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Speaker 4: jettisoned religion, and the more modern you were, the less

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Speaker 4: religious you were. And this was a common ground where

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Speaker 4: everybody could meet. You know, it was hard if you

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Speaker 4: felt like an outsider. As long as you stay Jewish,

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Speaker 4: you were still an outsider. But if you said, well

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Speaker 4: everybody should just forget their religion and meet in the

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Speaker 4: common ground of liberty, humanity, so on and so forth,

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Speaker 4: then there's no distinctions between us anymore. I think that

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Speaker 4: it was, as I'm sure you do, a historical mistake.

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Speaker 4: And I also think that the coalition of people who

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Speaker 4: are tolerantly but.

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Speaker 5: Deeply religious is the coalition.

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Speaker 4: I don't want to overstate this, but that's the coalition

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Speaker 4: that will save the world. I think that it's the

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Speaker 4: most desperately needed position in the world, which.

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Speaker 5: Is why I'm so glad.

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Speaker 4: You know that I have Rick Warren's name on the

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Speaker 4: cover of the book and that he wrote a preface

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Speaker 4: to it, because I do think that.

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Speaker 5: Faith should cross denominations. If I can tell you a

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Speaker 5: quick story.

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Speaker 4: And in one of my debates with Christopher Hitchins, and

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Speaker 4: I know that you've debated him as well, he said

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Speaker 4: to me, Okay, a child is born today in Saudi Arabia,

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Speaker 4: do you.

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Speaker 5: Want him to be a Muslim or an atheist?

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Speaker 4: And he was sure that I would say an atheist,

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Speaker 4: But I said, I wanted to be a Muslim, but

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Speaker 4: I want him to be a tolerant, pluralistic Muslim so

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Speaker 4: that he could influence other Muslims in that country to

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Speaker 4: enact the best of what faith is.

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Speaker 5: And that's where hope lies.

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Speaker 2: That is where hope lies.

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Speaker 3: But his question was a powerful one, yes, because the

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Speaker 3: odds are that in Saudi Arabia he's not going to

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Speaker 3: grow up to be a tolerant person.

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Speaker 5: Right, But I got to choose, well, I know, all right.

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Speaker 3: Like for me to defend Hitchard's on religious.

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Speaker 2: Matters is a rare moment.

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Speaker 5: But I understand what you're saying. I mean, that's that's also.

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Speaker 3: Do you feel do you feel that Christianity has been

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Speaker 3: given a bad rap? Given how antagonistic the intellectual class

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Speaker 3: is and and its history. Maybe it's in other words,

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Speaker 3: one could say no, it wasn't given a bad rap,

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Speaker 3: but it's terrific today. I saw I'm not moving you

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Speaker 3: toward any answer.

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Speaker 4: Well, I have a chapter on religion and violence, and

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Speaker 4: I'm going to abbreviate it very much to say, and

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Speaker 4: it's basically a defense of Christianity's historical record. And I say,

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Speaker 4: if you want to know whether whether religion causes violence,

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Speaker 4: you have to look before the monotheistic faiths and after

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Speaker 4: and before I mean Rome, Babylon, Assyria, Greece. The historical

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Speaker 4: record is abominable. It's much more savage than even the

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Speaker 4: Middle Ages and after, as you know from the Enlightenment,

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Speaker 4: on the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, World War One, World

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Speaker 4: War Two, Nazism, communism. I'm sure for your listeners, I

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Speaker 4: don't have to retail all the horrors that happened when

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Speaker 4: you drain sanctity.

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Speaker 5: From the world. It doesn't make the world better.

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Speaker 4: And so I actually think that Christianity there are many sins,

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Speaker 4: and this is coming obviously from a Jew. There are

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Speaker 4: many sins in the Christian record, But has Christianity made

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Speaker 4: the world better? I think it is unquestionable that it

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Speaker 4: has made the world better.

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Speaker 2: And.

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Speaker 5: That today continues to do so.

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Speaker 3: And I.

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Speaker 4: Think that it's a shame that that isn't better understood,

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Speaker 4: not only among non Christians, but even among Christians.

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Speaker 3: Well, for that alone, I know many people will want

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Speaker 3: to read this book because no Jew can challenge your

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Speaker 3: bona fide as a committed Jew. And of course I

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Speaker 3: agree with you, and it is it is a very

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Speaker 3: worrisome to me, very worrisome the the de religionization of America.

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Speaker 3: Does that worry you.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it worries me.

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Speaker 4: For for one one reason is the reason that of

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Speaker 4: course you speak about, which is the moral component, but

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Speaker 4: also because I actually see to some extent the lack

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Speaker 4: of religion as a cutting off from the past. And

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Speaker 4: you know, Cicero said, one who doesn't know the past

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Speaker 4: remains forever a child. And the truth is this is

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Speaker 4: our past, this is our collective past. And not only

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Speaker 4: is there a lack of belief. There's a lack of

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Speaker 4: knowledge and a lack of interest and the great religious

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Speaker 4: heritage that's our that's our reservoir of culture. And it

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Speaker 4: seems to me a shame not only from a moral

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Speaker 4: point of view, but just from the point of view

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Speaker 4: of the richness of life to lose everything that brought

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Speaker 4: us to this moment, to sort of kick the latter

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Speaker 4: out from under us in the assumption that we can

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Speaker 4: still move higher.

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Speaker 3: You and I both live in Los Angeles County, and

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Speaker 3: I led an ultimately and ultimately failed at the battle

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Speaker 3: to keep the little little Cross in the county seal

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Speaker 3: of Los Angeles County. And my argument to the Board

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Speaker 3: of Supervisors, the five person board was not religious. It

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Speaker 3: was exactly yours. It was historical. It's Los Angeles, the

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Speaker 3: city or the County of Angels It's not Los Zecularistas.

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Speaker 3: If it was founded by Wickens, I'd expect the broom. Yes,

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Speaker 3: you are erasing our history by erasing that cross.

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Speaker 4: And you know, it's not as though we don't have

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Speaker 4: some sense of what a secular society would be without

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Speaker 4: serious religious commitment.

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Speaker 5: We see it in America. If you call Hollywood, there.

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Speaker 4: Are enclaves of our society that feel as though classical

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Speaker 4: religion is is anethema, that they dislike it and they

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Speaker 4: reject it. And I don't see that it's creating any

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Speaker 4: you know, soaring culture or deep moral imperatives. It's just

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Speaker 4: it's very hard to take a tradition of thousands of

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Speaker 4: years and replace it overnight.

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Speaker 3: Name by Newsweek the number one pulpit rabbi in America

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Speaker 3: his book, Why Faith Matters, Rabbi David walp wo LPE.

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Speaker 3: It's up at Pragerradio dot com. We'll take your calls

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Speaker 3: and I.

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Speaker 1: Configure this episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

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Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.

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Speaker 2: The name of the book is Why Faith Matters.

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Speaker 3: And it's a wonderful thing when it's a Jew who

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Speaker 3: writes such a book, because so often we think it's

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Speaker 3: Christians writing on faith, and so many Jews have been secularized.

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Speaker 3: And I thought the rabbi came up with about as

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Speaker 3: concise and excellent an explanation for that phenomenon as one

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Speaker 3: could have. It's something I think I'll devote an hour

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Speaker 3: two once. It's trying to actually we had a series

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Speaker 3: of shows explaining Jews, but in any event, it's one

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Speaker 3: worth returning to. The book is Why Faith Matters? David Walpy,

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Speaker 3: one of the most prominent rabbis in America. Wolp except

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Speaker 3: but Praegeradio dot com at the blog area and of

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Speaker 3: course available anywhere you get your books, but it's convenient

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Speaker 3: for you through Prager Radio at the blog area of it.

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Speaker 3: Let me take some of your calls one eighth Prager

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Speaker 3: seven seven six, which is eight seven seven two four

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Speaker 3: three triple seven six and Jared in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jared,

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Speaker 3: Dennis Prager and Rabbi David Wilbe Hi, this.

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Speaker 6: Is a question that's bothered me for a few months now.

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Speaker 6: Would you say it's more important that God does exist?

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Speaker 6: Or is it more important that people believe that God exists?

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Speaker 6: If God exists but people are atheists, that would have

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Speaker 6: a more destructive effect. And if God didn't exist but

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Speaker 6: people believe that he did.

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Speaker 3: You're you're a real thinker, Jared.

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Speaker 4: All right, So I don't know how Dennis would answer

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Speaker 4: this question, but I'll tell you what I think. I

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Speaker 4: think in this world, given that it's already here, it's

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Speaker 4: more important.

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Speaker 5: That people believe God exists.

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Speaker 4: If there's a world after this one, it's more important

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Speaker 4: that God exists, or that world wouldn't be That would

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Speaker 4: be my offhand thought. But I think it's a great question, Jared,

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Speaker 4: and I have to give it more thought.

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Speaker 3: Okay, all right, wonderful, Thank you. It's an excellent answer

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Speaker 3: actually talking about that. What is your take on the afterlife?

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Speaker 5: I'm all for it.

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Speaker 4: I well, you know this was I think that the

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Speaker 4: afterlife is a sort of assumption that you make if

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Speaker 4: you really do believe in a God of love. I

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Speaker 4: don't understand how you can believe in such a God

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Speaker 4: and assume that God abandons us the moment we die.

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Speaker 4: And in some ways what's hard for people about faith

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Speaker 4: is faith in the eternity of human beings as opposed

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Speaker 4: to faith in the reality of God. But for me,

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Speaker 4: when I look into someone's eyes, when I really get

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Speaker 4: to know someone, that's part of what convinces me that

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Speaker 4: we are not just accidents of ancient chemistry. You know

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Speaker 4: that we're something greater than that and deeper than that.

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Speaker 4: And so I really do believe that we live on

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Speaker 4: although I have no idea in what way. Part of

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Speaker 4: what makes the afterlife seem silly at times is that

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Speaker 4: people assume they know what it's going to be like,

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Speaker 4: even though they couldn't know this world before they came

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Speaker 4: into it, right and Mark Twain in Letters from Earth,

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Speaker 4: he says, people think they're going to lie on green

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Speaker 4: fields and listen to harp music.

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Speaker 5: They wouldn't want to do it for five minutes while

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Speaker 5: they're alive, but they think they're going to be happy.

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Speaker 2: For he's a genius.

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Speaker 3: The guy that is so funny, it's true. But so

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Speaker 3: you know what that reminds me. By the way, you

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Speaker 3: will love this as a rabbi, you will totally relate

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Speaker 3: to this. When I was in yeshiva, which is for

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Speaker 3: my listeners who don't know, an intense religious Jewish education,

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Speaker 3: half your day is Jewish studies and half the day

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Speaker 3: secular studies. So I was a kid and I was

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Speaker 3: about no actually it was in high school in fact,

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Speaker 3: and I remember the rabbi and somebody asked him about

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Speaker 3: the afterlife and he said, I think it was in

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Speaker 3: Hebrew when he said to the boys, just want you

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Speaker 3: to know, or actually boys and girls, he said, in

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Speaker 3: the afterlife, we learned Torah all the time, and I

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Speaker 3: remember thinking, I don't want to go.

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Speaker 5: I don't want to go.

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Speaker 3: And I teach the Torah now and I love it.

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Speaker 3: But THEA.

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Speaker 8: And I thought of it in particular of studying with him,

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Speaker 8: but I have him for each as long as you're

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Speaker 8: not there. If you're there, it reminds me of the

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Speaker 8: harp story though.

443
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:49,399
Speaker 2: That's all.

444
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:50,119
Speaker 5: So you know.

445
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,080
Speaker 4: I send out an email every week of about two

446
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:55,840
Speaker 4: hundred words, just a very short, sort of.

447
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:57,439
Speaker 5: Inspirational email, and.

448
00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:01,840
Speaker 4: I try to encapsulate, and it's always hard to do

449
00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 4: just the same thing that you're doing. I try to

450
00:25:03,880 --> 00:25:06,919
Speaker 4: encapsulate answers to significant questions in that One of the

451
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,160
Speaker 4: things that one of the emails that I sent out

452
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,560
Speaker 4: that got the most response and I reproduced it in

453
00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:13,879
Speaker 4: the book, is this idea of the twins in the womb,

454
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:16,560
Speaker 4: which is, imagine that there are twins in a womb,

455
00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,720
Speaker 4: and one believes that there's a world outside the woman.

456
00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:20,439
Speaker 5: The other doesn't.

457
00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,080
Speaker 4: Because the one who doesn't believe it says, you know,

458
00:25:23,080 --> 00:25:26,360
Speaker 4: we've never seen another world, never experienced another world. Now

459
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:30,560
Speaker 4: imagine that the one who does believe is born back

460
00:25:30,600 --> 00:25:34,000
Speaker 4: in the womb their morning of death, but outside they're

461
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:35,120
Speaker 4: celebrating a birth.

462
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,680
Speaker 2: Back in a moment. The book Why Faith Matters.

463
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:45,360
Speaker 7: Done.

464
00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:14,080
Speaker 3: By everybody done it bring her hand the openate issues hour,

465
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:20,520
Speaker 3: and I'm very open, as you folks know. Indeed, transparency

466
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,879
Speaker 3: is a goal of mine, both personally and professionally. And

467
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,080
Speaker 3: I have to tell you there are times when I

468
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:30,600
Speaker 3: really don't think I deserve a salary, because if hard

469
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 3: work is the definition of when you should get paid,

470
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:39,119
Speaker 3: sometimes it is such a joy and really easy, especially

471
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 3: when you have a guest like doctor, like doctor, I was,

472
00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:43,119
Speaker 3: are are you doctor?

473
00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 5: By the way, you know what I feel.

474
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 4: Herst said when rabbis became doctors judas and became sick.

475
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:52,080
Speaker 3: And Jews got sick is the way I heard it. Yeah, yes, yes,

476
00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:52,879
Speaker 3: that's so.

477
00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 4: But I'm not that's just a defense that we rabbis

478
00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:55,800
Speaker 4: used for not paying.

479
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I love you for it. On the contrary,

480
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:00,520
Speaker 3: and you're not here with that anyway. But it's a

481
00:27:00,600 --> 00:27:03,119
Speaker 3: it's a rabbi David waltp w O LP and his

482
00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 3: book is Why Faith Matters. But talking to him as

483
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 3: as Densh de Susan whom you mentioned earlier, is another example.

484
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 2: Certainly it is. It is.

485
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:18,520
Speaker 3: I've always felt uh and this is apropos almost of nothing.

486
00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,280
Speaker 3: But when I'm when I'm with people like Desusa or

487
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 3: Walpy and I and certainly others folks that you've heard

488
00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:30,119
Speaker 3: on my show, I there are two types of people

489
00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 3: in a sense. There are those who love to star

490
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,439
Speaker 3: and there are those those who love to be on

491
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:37,840
Speaker 3: an all star team. It's just a temperament. I don't

492
00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,359
Speaker 3: say one is better than the other. I much prefer

493
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 3: to be a member of an all star team. That's

494
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 3: my temperament. So when I'm when I'm with such people,

495
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:46,879
Speaker 3: that's how I feel, and it's say yeah, it's a

496
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:50,560
Speaker 3: it's a great feeling. The book, again is why faith matters,

497
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:54,560
Speaker 3: and it is of course up at the Prager Radio

498
00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 3: dot com. And let's take some more of your calls

499
00:27:57,800 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 3: that you might have. You you were mentioning by the

500
00:27:59,800 --> 00:28:01,919
Speaker 3: way that people can get an email from you, is

501
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 3: that right?

502
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:05,520
Speaker 4: Yes, they can write to our Bagan that's our b

503
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,399
Speaker 4: e g I n at Sinai Temple dot org r

504
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 4: bagant or our begin at Sini Temple dot org. And

505
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,159
Speaker 4: I send out two hundred words once a week and

506
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:18,800
Speaker 4: you won't get anything else, No ads, just about two

507
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:20,560
Speaker 4: words a bunch of week WHI seems to me about

508
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:23,719
Speaker 4: a readable, bite sized inspirational email.

509
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,320
Speaker 3: That's right, and they are inspirational. I see them in

510
00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,320
Speaker 3: various papers. All right again, let me let me go

511
00:28:29,440 --> 00:28:32,320
Speaker 3: se some of your calls. Here, here's a here's an

512
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:36,280
Speaker 3: interesting one. Decatur, Georgia and Joseph Hi, Joseph, Dennis Praeger

513
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:37,960
Speaker 3: and Rabbi Wolpy from.

514
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 7: A devout Catholic Shalom from the bottom of my heart.

515
00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:42,600
Speaker 2: Thank you, sir, God bless you.

516
00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 5: I play.

517
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:46,360
Speaker 7: I'm seventy three years old and I played trumpet in

518
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:51,040
Speaker 7: a concert band, and we recently had a piece called

519
00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 7: Rhapsody for Hanukkah. And there's four or five Jewish friends

520
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:57,560
Speaker 7: of mine, all about our same age, old uffers, and

521
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,520
Speaker 7: they gave me a yamako, so I put it on

522
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,160
Speaker 7: while I played the solo, and it came out all right.

523
00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,040
Speaker 7: But I'd really like to know from the Rabbi.

524
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 3: What do you mean came out all right? It should

525
00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:07,680
Speaker 3: have come out a little better.

526
00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 7: Well, I'm kidding, all right. It had a little hard party.

527
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 2: There, Okay, So what's the question?

528
00:29:17,600 --> 00:29:20,640
Speaker 7: What is the history of the how far back did

529
00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 7: it go? And is it okay for Christians to wear it?

530
00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 7: Is a beautiful symbol and a very deep symbol, I believe.

531
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,520
Speaker 4: Okay, I'll give you a real quick one on this.

532
00:29:31,280 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 4: The truth is that in the Tumut, it's not clear

533
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:36,640
Speaker 4: that people wore them, which goes back a couple thousand years.

534
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,480
Speaker 4: In the Bible, there's no mention of it, but it

535
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 4: became a distinctive garb of Jews.

536
00:29:42,040 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 5: In fact, it.

537
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 4: Really is only in very modern times that Jews took

538
00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 4: to wearing it all the time, which some do. I

539
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 4: wear mind as a sort of clerical color. That is

540
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:54,080
Speaker 4: some you know, I wear it as a sort of

541
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:56,440
Speaker 4: means of identification. People will look at me sometimes and

542
00:29:56,440 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 4: they'll see amakom my head and they'll.

543
00:29:58,320 --> 00:29:59,760
Speaker 5: Say, oh, you must be a rabbi Wolpe.

544
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,200
Speaker 4: But there's nothing against Ananjo wearing it, and there's nothing,

545
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 4: by the way, sacred about the Yamaica itself. It's just

546
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:12,160
Speaker 4: a head covering. The idea is this sort of reverse

547
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:15,480
Speaker 4: idea of taking your hat off when you come into church.

548
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 4: It's just considered a mark of respect before God and

549
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 4: a last point which I once heard a person in

550
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 4: Israel say to me when someone asked him why he

551
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 4: wears a yamaka, he nudged me and he said, I

552
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,040
Speaker 4: wear a yamaka so that I know where I stop,

553
00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:33,600
Speaker 4: which I thought was a nice idea. That is, it's

554
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 4: a mark of humility.

555
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 3: Excellent, excellent, Thank you. All right, we have listeners around

556
00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 3: the world, so we'll go to Norway and Eric in

557
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:45,240
Speaker 3: Friedrich Stott, Norway. Hello, Eric, Dennis Praeger and Rabbi Walby.

558
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,280
Speaker 9: Hi, all right, thanks for taking my call. I'm sitting

559
00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:51,840
Speaker 9: here in a country that's, you know, one arguably one

560
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 9: of the most secular in the world, and I'm constantly

561
00:30:56,560 --> 00:31:01,120
Speaker 9: made aware of I think it's a GK. Chesterton quote.

562
00:31:01,880 --> 00:31:05,280
Speaker 9: When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing,

563
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:09,080
Speaker 9: they'll believe in anything. And right now they're dealing with

564
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 9: a lot of immigrant immigrants coming in from largely Muslim countries,

565
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:23,000
Speaker 9: and I think that I wanted to get your perspective

566
00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,120
Speaker 9: on this. You know, I think that perhaps a person

567
00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 9: from a religious background has a greater ability to understand

568
00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 9: both the benefit and dangers of a strong faith, and

569
00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 9: right now, the secular Europe I don't think really understands

570
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 9: these things very well, and it feels like the US

571
00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 9: is racing to catch up in that direction. I was

572
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,520
Speaker 9: wondering if you had any prective no matter, any thoughts.

573
00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:50,800
Speaker 3: Thank you, Eric.

574
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 4: I would say this, first of all, I really do

575
00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:58,120
Speaker 4: believe that when I wrote this book, I wrote it

576
00:31:58,200 --> 00:32:00,360
Speaker 4: better because there had been a long period of my

577
00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:03,960
Speaker 4: life when I didn't believe in God, so that mindset

578
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:06,680
Speaker 4: is not alien to me. But if you've grown up

579
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,680
Speaker 4: either always believing or never believing, it's true that it's

580
00:32:10,680 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 4: hard to sort of vault into the other person's mindset.

581
00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 4: And I think that the more secular countries, although I

582
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 4: might must say that even in Sweden and Denmark, the

583
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:24,680
Speaker 4: vast majority of people still get married in churches have

584
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 4: their kids baptized, So there's a sort of disconnect between

585
00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 4: people's professed disbelief and their conduct. But in those countries,

586
00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 4: the test of their belief system will be when it

587
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 4: comes in contact with another passionate belief system. And I

588
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,600
Speaker 4: don't know I share your concern with how Europe is

589
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 4: going to do.

590
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,360
Speaker 3: Over the next fifty years, as or as I've put it,

591
00:32:51,360 --> 00:32:55,240
Speaker 3: it's hard to be You can't contend with those who

592
00:32:55,280 --> 00:33:01,040
Speaker 3: believe in something by believing in nothing. We return final

593
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:03,040
Speaker 3: segment with Rabbi Wolby.

594
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.

595
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:19,440
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. If

596
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,360
Speaker 1: you have a friend on whom you think you can lie,

597
00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:24,040
Speaker 1: you are lucky man.

598
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,840
Speaker 7: If you found the reason to live on and not to.

599
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:31,760
Speaker 2: Die, you are lucky man.

600
00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:39,840
Speaker 7: He chose a poets scans no toys ten Wossen using

601
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:44,120
Speaker 7: Steve Woo. If you've got the secret, just tied out

602
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 7: the poet's tale.

603
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 2: Duggy Man.

604
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:49,200
Speaker 1: Lucky.

605
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:51,600
Speaker 2: The book is why faith matters.

606
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 3: It's for people of every background and no background, whatever

607
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,640
Speaker 3: your religion or no religion. And he's very open, this

608
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 3: distinguished Rabbi Wolpe about his own non belief for many years.

609
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:06,360
Speaker 3: I'm going to ask you a question that may seem

610
00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 3: odd to some of the listeners. I don't think it

611
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:10,640
Speaker 3: will seem odd to you, but you know, I'll take

612
00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:16,359
Speaker 3: the risk. Your faith in God? How much is it,

613
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,520
Speaker 3: David is the Hue Woman's faith in God? And how

614
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:23,399
Speaker 3: much is it, David the Jews faith in God? How

615
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 3: much is Judaism a medium to that faith?

616
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:32,400
Speaker 4: I see religions as languages. They're the languages that we

617
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 4: talk to God.

618
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 2: You know.

619
00:34:34,680 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 5: I know that this may offend some of your Jewish listeners.

620
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,280
Speaker 4: When people ask me why is Judaism better, I always

621
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:43,080
Speaker 4: tell them it's my job to argue Judaism's excellence, not

622
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:44,160
Speaker 4: its superiority.

623
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:46,560
Speaker 5: I haven't been every religion in the world.

624
00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 4: I've only been a Jew, and I know that Judaism

625
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 4: is a very powerful means of communicating with God. I

626
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 4: have no doubt that other religions are as well. The

627
00:34:55,440 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 4: fundamental reality over any religion is that God exists. The

628
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,040
Speaker 4: religions are the paths by which we seek to reach

629
00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:08,680
Speaker 4: towards God. So I would say that God is prior

630
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,719
Speaker 4: to Judaism. The Bible makes that clear. Judaism doesn't come

631
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:16,560
Speaker 4: along for long after the world is created, and I

632
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 4: always thought that that was a wonderful thing. That what

633
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 4: the Jewish New Year celebrates is not the beginning of

634
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:24,959
Speaker 4: Judaism doesn't celebrate the new year when Abraham was born.

635
00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:27,240
Speaker 5: It celebrates the new year when the world is created.

636
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:32,200
Speaker 4: Because fundamentally, human beings are gifted with the reality of

637
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,200
Speaker 4: God and given the task of reaching towards God. They

638
00:35:35,239 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 4: will always find different ways to do it. But as

639
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,799
Speaker 4: long as their faith is inacted, that is, as long

640
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,759
Speaker 4: as they do goodness with their faith. Because what you

641
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 4: feel is of much less importance to me than what

642
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 4: you do with.

643
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:49,320
Speaker 2: What you feel.

644
00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:51,840
Speaker 4: As long as their faith is enacted, it seems to

645
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 4: me worth honoring and cherishing.

646
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:58,800
Speaker 3: If you can answer this is, give me and my

647
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:03,479
Speaker 3: listeners the thing that is most likely, at any given

648
00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 3: moment to make you feel God centered, a sunset, your daughter,

649
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 3: prayer at synagogue?

650
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:13,279
Speaker 1: What is it?

651
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 2: If there is one?

652
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:20,680
Speaker 4: This may sound funny, I would say tragedy and great joy.

653
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:25,799
Speaker 4: In other words, the extremes of life. You know, they

654
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 4: break open a part of you at times of great love.

655
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 4: And the part that's broken, let's God in.

656
00:36:34,280 --> 00:36:36,800
Speaker 3: Now you know why people are reading Life Faith Matters

657
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:40,359
Speaker 3: by Rabbi Wilpy. Rabbi, thank you so much for your

658
00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:41,319
Speaker 3: time and for your book.

659
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,440
Speaker 2: Thank you You're very welcome.

660
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:45,520
Speaker 3: And Jim and Katie and Ned and David and Rabbi

661
00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:46,840
Speaker 3: Dan from Cleveland, Evelyn.

662
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:48,320
Speaker 2: I wish I could take your calls.

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Speaker 3: It's always painful, but I hope you enjoyed this Ultimate

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Speaker 3: Issues Hour.

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Speaker 2: I'm Dennis Prager.

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Speaker 3: This has been timeless wisdom with Dennis Prager.

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Speaker 1: Visit dennisprager dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,

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Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational

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Speaker 1: Bibles