Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Dennis Prager - Radio Host & PragerU Founder | Why Traditional Values Are the Foundation of Success

Transcript

Dennis Prager - Radio Host & PragerU Founder | Why Traditional Values Are the Foundation of Success · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  I can't believe something if it doesn't make sense.
• 0:03
  Are more likely to believe in things that don't make sense than even religious people.
• 0:08
  My life is work into a certain extent has been to bring the Torah to the world.
• 0:13
  What if a single voice could challenge the entire educational establishment?
• 0:17
  Dennis Prager, a broadcaster, author and co-founder of Prager You, has spent decades doing just that.
• 0:23
  If you don't have wisdom, you can't do good.
• 0:25
  If you rely on your heart or even your conscience, the chances of you doing good are very, very small.
• 0:31
  You need wisdom.
• 0:32
  The greatest miracle is that you and I are talking, that you and I exist, that the universe exists.
• 0:38
  If one doesn't see that as a miracle, then one doesn't understand biblical faith.
• 0:43
  From his early days advocating for Soviet Jews to becoming a nationally syndicated radio host,
• 0:47
  in 2009, he co-founded Prager You, a digital platform delivering concise videos on topics ranging
• 0:54
  from history to economics, all through a conservative lens.
• 0:57
  Gravity is the mother of the two biggest things in life, goodness and happiness.
• 1:02
  The secular think it only God and really religious people think it only reason.
• 1:06
  And they're both wrong if you want to learn and grow doesn't matter how old you are.
• 1:11
  In this episode, we delve into Dennis Prager's journey from radio waves to digital platforms
• 1:15
  and explore how he's reshaping conversations around education, values and culture.
• 1:25
  Dennis, I'm excited to do this.
• 1:35
  This is going to be a lot of fun.
• 1:36
  So you have taken a very ambitious task of making ancient biblical wisdom accessible through
• 1:44
  rational analysis.
• 1:46
  I want to understand what sparked your first realization that this bridge between reason and
• 1:53
  faith is necessary.
• 1:55
  Oh, that I can answer quite easily.
• 1:58
  That's the only way that's the only way I have faith.
• 2:02
  If it doesn't make sense, I don't believe it.
• 2:06
  It sounds radical and by the way among believers, it might be radical because
• 2:12
  many people in any of the biblical faiths or any faith do not allow
• 2:19
  something not making sense to impede their belief.
• 2:22
  And I'm not saying they should.
• 2:24
  I'm just saying that in answer to your question, I can't believe something if it doesn't make sense.
• 2:31
  But I want people to understand something.
• 2:34
  This secular people are more likely to believe in things that don't make sense than even religious
• 2:42
  people. So I know anyone who is not religious or the religious, they believe in so many things
• 2:48
  that don't make sense.
• 2:49
  And by the way, to a certain extent, that's true.
• 2:52
  But no religious person believes men give birth.
• 2:56
  Millions of secular people say men give birth.
• 2:59
  Now, to say the least, that doesn't make sense.
• 3:02
  In fact, it's a lie.
• 3:04
  So no secular person should be on any high horse.
• 3:10
  We are impervious to the irrational, baloney.
• 3:14
  Reason is rare among believers and among non-believers.
• 3:19
  Maybe just for people who don't know your work and sort of your background,
• 3:22
  just very briefly give us like a brief background of the role that God played in your life or
• 3:28
  the inflection point.
• 3:29
  I think you grew up in a modern orthodox Jewish family.
• 3:33
  So obviously God was always there to some degree.
• 3:35
  But what was a notable event or notable moment that reinforced the idea of God,
• 3:40
  religion, even the Bible, the Torah in your life?
• 3:44
  I, again, I'm an outlier for better or for us, but I know me and I know a lot about the world.
• 3:55
  I, this, I march to the beat of a different drummer from a very early age.
• 4:03
  I, and I'm very open about my life.
• 4:08
  And the reason for my hesitation is because even though I say this often,
• 4:12
  it's not easy for people to hear, especially religious people,
• 4:15
  I find the, the commandment of God difficult.
• 4:22
  I, I've always found it difficult.
• 4:24
  I still find it, if I believe in God is easy, atheism doesn't make sense.
• 4:31
  A creator makes sense.
• 4:32
  So the, there's no question to my mind that there's a God.
• 4:37
  But loving God, which is a commandment in the Bible and, and for Christians that's the first great
• 4:44
  commandment, the second is love your neighbor.
• 4:46
  And that's why I say I know that for many religious people this is difficult to hear,
• 4:51
  but I'm very honest about all of my faith.
• 4:54
  I'm open, not forget honest.
• 4:56
  I'm open about it.
• 4:59
  Given all the suffering on earth, the unjust suffering,
• 5:04
  I find it hard to love God.
• 5:07
  I work on it, but I do love.
• 5:10
  There is something religious I love, and that is the Torah.
• 5:14
  And while I love the Bible, I love the Torah more.
• 5:19
  That's the first five books of the Bible.
• 5:22
  They, they have a special role.
• 5:24
  They are the basis of the old and new testaments.
• 5:27
  It's everything is there, creation, garden of Eden,
• 5:30
  ten commandments, love God, love your neighbor.
• 5:32
  It's all there.
• 5:34
  If the Torah wasn't there, there would be no Judaism,
• 5:37
  there would be no Christianity, there would be no Western civilization.
• 5:41
  The problem is that most people don't understand these five books.
• 5:45
  They have a vague notion of some of the stories,
• 5:48
  and that's the end of it.
• 5:50
  So my life has worked into a certain extent,
• 5:54
  has been to bring the Torah to the world.
• 5:59
  And my final statement since you asked about God and my life and so on,
• 6:04
  I only say I don't believe in the Torah because I believe in God.
• 6:09
  I believe in God because I believe in the Torah.
• 6:13
  It is so unlike anything else ever written.
• 6:18
  I can't believe it was man-made.
• 6:21
  Why do you think?
• 6:23
  And I have ideas, but I need to understand yours,
• 6:26
  obviously, this year, I don't mind, but I do believe that
• 6:29
  society is increasingly getting more secular,
• 6:32
  and there's less God in society.
• 6:35
  And I think there's a whole host of problems that come with that for a variety of reasons.
• 6:39
  The most basic of being if there is no traditional version of God and people's minds,
• 6:43
  and they replace that God with some other version of God.
• 6:47
  But why do you think, or why did you think that it was very important to draw these rational
• 6:54
  analyses from Torah to show this bridge between a biblical text and how we sort of live our day-to-day?
• 7:02
  So in order to answer you, I have to first make the case for wisdom.
• 7:07
  Wisdom is infinitely more important than knowledge,
• 7:13
  and infinitely more important than IQ, infinitely more important than good intentions,
• 7:21
  a good heart. Wisdom is everything.
• 7:25
  And without wisdom, no good can be done.
• 7:28
  We can't rely on good intentions.
• 7:30
  The number of people who supported the greatest mass murder movement in history,
• 7:33
  communism, with good intentions is very large.
• 7:37
  So intentions mean nothing.
• 7:38
  Why did anybody in the West support Stalin?
• 7:42
  One of the two greatest mass murders in history,
• 7:44
  the other one being Mao, Hitler's in third place,
• 7:47
  and at least in terms of numbers.
• 7:50
  And the answer is they were fools,
• 7:54
  and a fool is the opposite of a wise person.
• 7:56
  That's the opposite.
• 7:57
  Wisdom foolishness, they are the polarities.
• 8:02
  So if you don't have wisdom, you can't do good.
• 8:06
  If you rely on your heart or even your conscience,
• 8:09
  the chances of you're doing good are very, very small.
• 8:14
  You need wisdom.
• 8:16
  And there's more wisdom in these five books than anywhere else in the history of the world,
• 8:21
  in my opinion, and my job is to explain it.
• 8:26
  Because if you read it on your own,
• 8:28
  you will get obviously something out of it.
• 8:31
  But somebody needs to,
• 8:36
  it's like I have a trainer.
• 8:37
  I work out three days a week.
• 8:40
  If I didn't have a trainer, I would do some exercise,
• 8:43
  but it would be a joke.
• 8:45
  If it weren't for the trainer, I would do it wrong.
• 8:48
  I wouldn't do it as hard.
• 8:49
  I wouldn't do it as consistently.
• 8:52
  You know, she's like all trainers, she's somewhat of a sadist.
• 8:56
  And that's, I'm joking.
• 8:59
  I know exactly what you mean.
• 9:00
  Yeah, because yeah, there's no pain, no pain.
• 9:03
  It's as simple as all, but I don't,
• 9:05
  I'm not good at inflicting pain on myself.
• 9:08
  I could, a trainer could do it, and so on.
• 9:11
  So anyway,
• 9:15
  you need a trainer if you read this stuff.
• 9:18
  And I'm your trainer, as it were.
• 9:20
  I make sense of it all.
• 9:22
  And on the rare occasion that something doesn't make sense,
• 9:25
  I say I cannot explain this.
• 9:27
  This doesn't make sense.
• 9:29
  And by the way, one of the biggest, one of the few,
• 9:32
  I did come, I didn't have an explanation in volume two,
• 9:37
  but I did have an explanation that I came across for volumes three and four.
• 9:42
  So I explain just about everything.
• 9:48
  It's interesting because I do believe that everything we're trying to figure out,
• 9:51
  all the wisdom in the world is already, the majority of it has already been sourced.
• 9:55
  Maybe less, you know, Elon trying to get to Mars.
• 9:58
  Maybe there's some, maybe there's some new things we have to discover there,
• 10:01
  but a lot of the wisdom that we, that would help us figure out our day-to-day,
• 10:05
  it's there.
• 10:06
  It's in, it's in, it's in, it's in,
• 10:08
  Bible, it's in Torah, it's in things that,
• 10:10
  that's right.
• 10:11
  Yes, yeah, exactly.
• 10:12
  That's the reason that wisdom is eternal,
• 10:16
  whether it's from Homer or Aristotle or Genesis or what have you.
• 10:21
  Wisdom is wisdom.
• 10:23
  And that's why I say, of course, look, the musk, I believe, does have wisdom.
• 10:28
  And the reason musk has wisdom is that the pursuit of truth is essentially the same thing as
• 10:36
  the pursuit of wisdom.
• 10:38
  And we don't have a pursuit of either truth or wisdom.
• 10:42
  If men give birth is an example of we have contempt for truth.
• 10:47
  You can't become the other sex.
• 10:49
  You can gain my, you can gain all I would say respect, but you can gain my acceptance of,
• 10:58
  of you, that's as a human being.
• 11:01
  You're a man, you say you're a woman, you dress like a woman, you, you, you, you, you don't have facial
• 11:08
  hair, you, it's you look like a woman, dress like a woman, I'll address you as a woman.
• 11:15
  Son of my business, what, what you were born or what you are biologically.
• 11:19
  But I, if you ask me, kind of man, become a woman, you're asking me a stupid question.
• 11:25
  It's not possible because we're not just genitalia, even if you, if you could change genitalia
• 11:32
  and you can't, you could change the cosmetics, you can't change the genitals.
• 11:36
  But even if we could, we can't change the chromosomes and we can't change the brain,
• 11:41
  the male brain, I, I have a funny line on this. I always say, I'll believe that a man can
• 11:46
  become a woman. If a trans woman, all of a sudden starts finding things, because any married man
• 11:53
  knows that his wife finds things that, and he can't find them. Do you know, it, this is a really
• 11:59
  funny story. I was, I think it was in Pittsburgh and I, and I couldn't find my tablet.
• 12:04
  And, you know, the, the electronic thing that you, you, you, you, right, okay fine.
• 12:11
  So I couldn't find my wife. That's right. I called my wife in LA and I go, honey, I, you know,
• 12:19
  here I am in this Pittsburgh hotel room and I, I can't find the tablet. She said, oh, well,
• 12:24
  I'm, I'm all sure it's under the sheet in the other bed. And that's where it was.
• 12:32
  So my wife finds things when she's thousands of miles away. Anyway, my only point is you can't
• 12:39
  become a man. You can't become a woman, but it doesn't mean that I don't address you as whatever
• 12:44
  you appear. That's, that's, that's, that's fine. That's not an issue. So, but back to my point,
• 12:50
  the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of wisdom are almost synonymous.
• 12:55
  Now, when somebody reads your work, they're going to, they're going to, they're going to see
• 12:59
  a couple things about because you address both doubting God and arguing with God.
• 13:05
  So somebody's listening to this, they're saying, hey, wait a second. You just made the argument for,
• 13:10
  there should be more God. There should be more religion. It's a net positive in society.
• 13:14
  That idea without understanding conflicts with the idea of doubting or arguing with God. So where
• 13:19
  does the doubting and arguing with God come into this narrative? Well, the name of the, of the,
• 13:26
  the people God shows to bring him into the world. Israel, what's the name of the Jewish people in
• 13:31
  the Bible? It has a definition. And it's, it's not my definition. It's not King James definition.
• 13:39
  It's the definition given in Genesis when God changes Jacob's name to Israel. He, the name is
• 13:47
  explained. It's in Hebrew, Yisra'el. El is God. And Yisraq, Lehasri is to struggle with.
• 13:58
  So the name Israel means struggle with God. And therefore, by the way, the first Jew,
• 14:06
  the first monotheist is Abraham and he argues with God. It's an extensive argument over God's
• 14:11
  desire to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their evil. Arguing with God is actually a healthy thing.
• 14:20
  I don't like meeting robotic religious people. I don't like meeting robotic secular people.
• 14:29
  So you, you're not only, it's not only okay to struggle with God or argue with God. It's sort of
• 14:37
  baked into the formula of belief. And as regards faith and doubt, it is, I don't know how it's possible
• 14:48
  to live life and never doubt God. I don't know. Some people, it may be. And, and I quote an orthodox
• 15:00
  rabbi. I quote a lot of Christians, but in this case, it's a rabbi. He said, God created doubt.
• 15:07
  I thought it was a very intelligent line and he goes on why God would. If God wanted us to be
• 15:13
  absolutely certain about his existence, he could, he could, he could have made it that. He could have
• 15:17
  made that. When you think about faith and miracles, because you speak a lot about faith in miracles,
• 15:24
  where does this place, where does faith and miracle play into the concept of God and religion
• 15:31
  and the Bible? Because I think that if somebody, if somebody feels that they want to,
• 15:37
  if somebody feels that they want to start to believe or start to read into the wisdom of the
• 15:43
  Bible, they feel like there should be some miracle associated with God and their belief in God.
• 15:48
  They feel like there should be something that should happen in their life because they're putting
• 15:52
  their energy into into God. For somebody who's secular, for example. So where does faith and
• 15:56
  miracle play into this whole, into this story? Well, first, you're probably right, but it's not
• 16:04
  my premise. If God didn't do any of the biblical miracles, I would believe in him just as much as I
• 16:11
  do now. The, the, the greatest miracle is that you and I are talking, that you and I exist,
• 16:20
  that the universe exists. That's, if you don't, if one doesn't see that as a miracle,
• 16:26
  then one doesn't understand biblical faith. That's the miracle that anything exists.
• 16:34
  So the thought that I need another miracle like a split C or 10 plagues or, or for Christians,
• 16:42
  Jesus walking on water or, or the lobes and fish, I mean, the, or our own wine, this is,
• 16:54
  look, that since you converted to Orthodox Judaism, you may have heard the phrase,
• 17:00
  I know it in Hebrew, Al-Tiswohel-Anase, do not, do not rely on miracles.
• 17:04
  The, the, the ultimate miracle is our existence. And if one doesn't see that as a miracle,
• 17:12
  then I don't understand the nature of one's faith.
• 17:15
  Today's episode is brought to you by Vanda. Now, listen up, this matters for your business.
• 17:19
  And today's digital landscape security isn't optional. It's essential. Without it,
• 17:24
  deal stall, sales cycle stretch on and scaling becomes very difficult. Now, why? Because investors,
• 17:30
  customers, and partners, all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before
• 17:35
  they commit. If you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup
• 17:41
  founder, trying to land that first big client or an established company, scaling your security
• 17:46
  program, Vanda helps businesses of all sizes prove that they're trustworthy by automating compliance
• 17:53
  across 35 frameworks like SOC2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. The exact certifications your prospects
• 18:02
  are demanding. Here's why you need to pay attention. Vanda gives you back precious time that you're
• 18:06
  currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work.
• 18:12
  It helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires at the five times faster,
• 18:16
  and it connects you with experts to get your security program running immediately.
• 18:20
  The results speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanda customers achieve over
• 18:26
  $535,000 per year in benefits, and the platform pays for itself in just three months.
• 18:33
  So you're going to join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, Korra, and Factory,
• 18:38
  who use Vanda to manage risk and prove security in real time. And don't miss this.
• 18:43
  For a limited time only, my listeners can get $1,000 off Vanda that's real money back in your pocket.
• 18:49
  Visit vanta.com slash Scott right now before the software expires. That is v-a-n-t-a.com slash Scott.
• 18:58
  Prolon is a success story partner. Now, long weeks and busy weekends can leave
• 19:03
  everybody feeling depressed and tired. We work nonstop. And that's why I love Prolon's
• 19:09
  five-day fasting mimicking diet. I absolutely love this company. Let me explain how it works.
• 19:15
  Basically, they have a fasting mimicking diet that rejuvenates you from the inside out.
• 19:20
  They deliver plant-based soups, snacks, and drinks to keep your body in a fasting state
• 19:25
  while giving you the nutrition you need. And when your body is in a fasting state,
• 19:28
  this triggers cellular renewal. And it actually works. This is why I've loved intermittent fasting
• 19:34
  for so many years. This is the magic of Prolon. And the exciting news is they just launched their next
• 19:39
  Gen five-day program. It has all the benefits they had before, but now they have 100% organic
• 19:45
  ingredients in all their foods, better taste, and ready to eat meals to make the whole process
• 19:51
  easier. I tried the original Prolon program. I feel incredible whenever I do it. I personally
• 19:56
  can't wait to try this new and improved version. And if you've never tried them before,
• 20:00
  you are in for a treat. Because the old one was great. I can't even imagine how good this new
• 20:04
  Prolon five-day program is going to be. And for a limited time, Prolon is offering success story
• 20:09
  listeners. You guys, 15% off-site wide, plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five-day
• 20:15
  programs. Just go to prolonlife.com slash clary to get your 15% discount in your bonus gift.
• 20:22
  Prolonlife.com slash clary. Why do you point to another piece of wisdom that we can sort of pull
• 20:29
  from numbers? You point to ingratitude as a source of evil. Why is that? Because it is.
• 20:38
  There is no kind in great on earth, and there are no mean grateful people.
• 20:45
  Gratitude is the mother of the two biggest things in life, goodness and happiness.
• 20:51
  You can't be good, and you can't be happy if you're not grateful.
• 20:56
  And that's why God is so ticked off at the Jews in the Bible. One of the reasons I believe in
• 21:03
  the Torah, and I believe in the Torah, not only as valid and true, but as God given, is because
• 21:13
  the Jews would never have made up how awful they come out in their own holy book.
• 21:21
  It had to have been ultimately God is the author. There was no example
• 21:27
  in any religion on earth that its holy book depicts its group so negatively as the Jews are depicted
• 21:34
  in their holy books. So either the Jews were so morally superior to anybody else that they could
• 21:42
  do this, or it was a divine authorship in some way. That's what I believe. Because
• 21:50
  the Jews don't come across all that great, and in the Torah, non-Jews are heroic.
• 21:56
  Noah is a heroic non-Jew. The daughter of Pharaoh is a heroic non-Jew.
• 22:01
  Jethro, the Midianite priest, is a heroic non-Jew. So God, as I write in my commentary, God is not
• 22:16
  ethno-centric. He's ethic-centric. So this is why, so now I see another argument that you made,
• 22:23
  and the argument that maybe somebody who's secular or somebody who does not believe in God,
• 22:29
  they say, well, I don't need God's and the Bible as a moral compass because I have a conscience.
• 22:37
  And you make the... The conscience is reliable, a silly putty. You know what? Every Nazi had a
• 22:44
  conscience. Every communist had a conscience. Every murderer in prison has a conscience. The vast
• 22:51
  majority of human consciences are worthless. Unless the conscience is designed by a sense of
• 23:01
  values or a sense of a transcendent moral source higher than the conscience. For a handful of people,
• 23:10
  the conscience is sufficient to make a good person. That is one who does good. For the vast majority
• 23:16
  of people, we shape our conscience to comport with what we're doing. Murderers do not lose sleep
• 23:24
  at night. I know this from people who have worked with murderers. It is the very rare person who
• 23:33
  does bad. The only people racked by guilty conscience are good people. And they're not that many of them.
• 23:44
  So you have to be a well-educated secular fool to believe that the conscience is sufficient.
• 23:51
  So then what's the rational interpretation from biblical wisdom that would be a better version of
• 23:57
  a conscience for... Not a better version of a conscience, just a better version of a guide
• 24:02
  through life for somebody. Well, for one thing, God knows your behavior. So I give real
• 24:10
  down-to-earth examples. I actually did an hour on this subject on my radio show.
• 24:15
  So about a year ago, I rented a car in Minneapolis. I travel almost every week of the year,
• 24:21
  and almost every single place I rent a car. I like the freedom of a rental car. I don't want to be
• 24:26
  picked up by a local person. I don't want to take an Uber. I like to take my camera myself.
• 24:33
  So I rented a car in Minneapolis, and the car they gave me was particularly big, a suburban.
• 24:42
  I wasn't used to driving... Well, I do drive an SUV at home, but not the size of a suburban.
• 24:47
  So I got stuck in between two cars in a parking lot. And there was no way I could extricate the car.
• 24:57
  I scraped the side of one of the cars. You know, it wasn't horrible, but it was damaged.
• 25:06
  So I left a note, I damaged your car. Here is my phone number.
• 25:14
  So I'm very open about this. There is part of me, a serious part of me,
• 25:24
  that said, God is watching you, Dennis. Will you leave your note or not? Will you leave a note or not?
• 25:33
  I could have gotten away with it, like most people do. Most people don't leave notes. I mean,
• 25:37
  they've done surveys. Most people do not leave a note if they, they're certain they could get away
• 25:42
  with it. They just drive on. So A, their conscience isn't bothering them. And so you're asking,
• 25:50
  what is the substitute? The substitute is God watching me and judging me. That's why I am not a big
• 25:55
  fan of God loves you compared to God judges you. I don't think you're going to get nearly as good a
• 26:01
  human being from God loves you as you would from God judges you. So yes, I believed that God was
• 26:12
  aware of what Dennis Prager was doing at that moment and that if I didn't leave, leave a note,
• 26:19
  he would be annoyed with me, even perhaps punish me. And this sounds primitive to the fools who
• 26:28
  think conscience is enough, except I would like to find out the question, those who think God is
• 26:33
  watching and those who think conscience is enough, which group will have more people leaving a note
• 26:39
  at the car they scratched? You do a lot of research into history of various civilizations that have
• 26:45
  fallen. When you look at where current Western society civilization is heading, what do you think
• 26:55
  50 years from now society looks like if we continue on the trend of less God more secular?
• 27:02
  Well, go to Harvard and you'll know the future of Western civilization. Go to Berkeley,
• 27:10
  go to almost any university. They're moral wastelands, spectacularly unhappy people, not having
• 27:18
  children, not getting married and ruining civilization with a broken moral compass. The more elite
• 27:25
  the university, the more support Hamas has. Hamas are the Nazis of our day and that they are happy
• 27:32
  to acknowledge, just like the Nazis wanted to annihilate Jews so do they. That's it. There's not
• 27:41
  an argument over politics. They wish to exterminate Jews. That's their charter.
• 27:47
  They have support at the elite universities of the Western world. We will continue to remove
• 28:00
  girls' breasts, healthy breasts if they say their boys. There is no hope for a postbiblical
• 28:11
  West. No hope. Freedom will be abolished because the freedom of speech is not a left-wing value,
• 28:20
  it is a liberal value, but not a left-wing value. I have no hope for a postbiblical society.
• 28:29
  So this is a rational interpretation of a Bible is really a drop in the bucket of what has to
• 28:37
  happen to stop society from going in a very dark direction. This is one piece of work in the
• 28:44
  world that's a net positive, but what else do you think really has to happen? Like if you could
• 28:49
  have your perfect version of how do we move in a correct direction and not a direction that basically
• 28:56
  destroys all the affluence and the freedoms that we have right now? What's the? Well my long answer,
• 29:02
  my long answer are the five books that I'm writing. So the fourth is coming out now,
• 29:07
  the rational Bible. You can't intuit the correct response. Wisdom is learned. You can't
• 29:18
  intuit physics. You can't intuit math. You can't intuit a foreign language. You have to learn it.
• 29:25
  You have to learn right and wrong and it has to be God-based. There's a law in the Torah that you
• 29:31
  cannot favor a poor man in a court room. Okay? Because the Torah is preoccupied with justice,
• 29:38
  not social justice. There is no Hebrew term for whole social justice. I lecture in Hebrew. I know
• 29:45
  Hebrew really well and I know biblical Hebrew really well. There is no term social justice. It's a
• 29:50
  made up term by the left like environmental justice, racial justice, gender justice. Whenever
• 30:00
  you add an adjective, why do they add adjectives? Why isn't the left just for justice?
• 30:05
  Because they're not for justice. If they were for justice, they wouldn't add adjectives. The
• 30:10
  moment you add an adjective to justice, it's not just. If you don't favor, if you favor the poor man
• 30:17
  in in in the court room, there's a poor guy and there's Bill Gates. Oh my can't stand but
• 30:23
  doesn't matter. You rule by justice. You don't say, well, he's so poor. Of course,
• 30:30
  I will give him the judgment. That's social justice. Favouring the poor guy against the billionaire
• 30:36
  in a court room is social justice. It's not justice. So again, these are not things you
• 30:43
  into it. You have to learn it. And that's the reason I've worked so hard on the on the
• 30:50
  rational Bible. This this will give you you asked me about in gravitude. The the Israelites get
• 30:57
  out of Egypt. And what is the first thing they do? They complain to Moses. Take us back to Egypt.
• 31:04
  The food was better. You know what lesson there is to learn how relevant that is? People don't
• 31:09
  yearn to be free. That's a myth. It's like the conscience. It's baloney. It's wishful thinking.
• 31:14
  People do not yearn to be free. People yearn to be taken care of. The big difference.
• 31:20
  They prefer it to be slaves with food they wanted than free with mana from heaven.
• 31:27
  There's a few things you bring up that I think are interesting prospect or interesting points
• 31:31
  because they would be things that would turn someone off from religion. So you mentioned two
• 31:37
  points. You mentioned why can only men be priests which could if somebody's looking at this from
• 31:43
  the outside in they're saying well that's an antiquated outdated thought why is that this is exactly
• 31:48
  why I don't subscribe to religion. And then the second idea is a fanaticism. So these two ideas
• 31:56
  obvious I mean these ideas turn people off from religion amongst others. So why would those ideas
• 32:04
  first of all explain to me your perception on those ideas sort of potentially from a secular
• 32:14
  perspective an antiquated ideology as well as fanaticism. And how do they play into someone's
• 32:19
  interpretation of Bible, of biblical literature. So with regard to the priests
• 32:25
  the the the Torah is adamant that there is a unique division in the human race between man and
• 32:36
  woman. It's the only division that really matters. The Torah doesn't care about color division
• 32:42
  and it's not even noted. We're all created in God's image but God created human being male and
• 32:49
  female. That's the beginning of the creation. Well I think it's 127 Genesis 127 I think.
• 32:57
  So the very beginning we're different male and female are different. Therefore there will be
• 33:03
  religiously speaking different roles. Now secondly speaking they don't have to be different roles.
• 33:09
  If the wife is making a lot of money as a CEO and the husband is not making a lot of money
• 33:17
  as a teacher then clearly most couples will opt for relying on her income and then he'll take
• 33:26
  perhaps the care of the kids more. Okay that's there's no Torah position on that issue. That's
• 33:33
  just common sense. But when there's a religious role yes there is a desire to preserve the male
• 33:43
  female distinction and we do we do have there we have different roles but that's exactly right.
• 33:51
  And by the way it is not help Christianity or Judaism or dating with them. No so that was my
• 33:56
  question though it was like reconciling reconciling like what people would be would consider to be
• 34:02
  outdated beliefs because if if somebody looks at one idea as outdated then that person maybe
• 34:08
  turned off from the entirety of the concept of religion. You're right that's correct so my
• 34:13
  task and any serious religious person's task is to explain why it's not outdated.
• 34:22
  It's not in keeping with what you learn at secular universities and from secular media that's true.
• 34:30
  So one of us is wrong and in the meantime we have data. No religion that has ordained women
• 34:37
  has thrived and that's just you say you may say well it's true but it's not they're not related facts
• 34:44
  okay that's fair you can say that. I just want to take a second and thank cornbread ham for
• 34:49
  supporting today's episode now cornbread ham CBD gummies have been this really nice addition
• 34:54
  to my wellness toolkit. I don't use them every day just when I want to win wine after those
• 34:59
  extra busy weeks but they're perfect for those moments when you want to take the edge off and
• 35:04
  just find your balance really just shut off from work. What makes them special is how cornbread
• 35:09
  ham crafts them they only use a flower of USDA organic ham plants that's the best part for the
• 35:15
  purest most potent experience no fillers no artificial fluff just clean full spectrum goodness
• 35:22
  in delicious watermelon berry and peach flavor. I keep them in my night stand for those moments when
• 35:27
  I just need a little extra help relaxing and I love how transparent they are too. Every batch is
• 35:32
  third party lab tested so you know exactly what you're getting and they put together a special
• 35:36
  offer for all success story podcast listeners all listeners can save 30% off their first order.
• 35:42
  Just head to cornbreadhemp.com slash success and use code success at checkout that's cornbread
• 35:48
  ham.com slash success code success for 30% off your first order of these amazing dummies. Fresh
• 35:55
  books is supporting today's episode and if you've ever wondered how successful entrepreneur
• 35:58
  stay on top of their finances while growing their business the answer is fresh books the numbers
• 36:02
  don't lie over 30 million people have chosen fresh books processing more than 60 billion in
• 36:06
  invoices and saving an incredible 192 hours every year on accounting tasks think about it that's
• 36:12
  nearly eight full days you can get back to focus on what really matters growing your business.
• 36:17
  Fresh books is more than just accounting software it's your all-in-one financial command center
• 36:21
  create professional estimates track time automatically build clients and capture expenses on the go
• 36:26
  plus it integrates seamlessly with over 100 business tools you already use all backed by award-winning
• 36:31
  customer service if you're ready to stop drowning in receipts and you're ready to stop chasing
• 36:35
  down payments here's what I want you to do head over to freshbooks.com to start your 30 day free
• 36:40
  trial no credit card required and for all you success story listeners out there I've got something
• 36:44
  special get an exclusive 60% off for six months when you visit freshbooks.com slash pricing
• 36:50
  dash offer transform your business with fresh books today that's freshbooks.com slash pricing
• 36:56
  dash offer for 60% off so then when when you put this workout into the world and somebody wants to go
• 37:04
  go pick it up go sort of explore some of the I mean if if people don't know I mean outside of
• 37:08
  the words you've done a prager you you put out a lot of different content you teach on a lot of
• 37:12
  different topics but this one is probably this one's probably the most important yet the most
• 37:19
  difficult to communicate its importance to a secular person so if somebody is just going down
• 37:25
  the rabbit hole and they've never consumed your content like what's outside of everything we
• 37:31
  spoke about today what is the and I do think there has to be an argument compelling enough that
• 37:37
  somebody will start to consume start to pull out wisdom from the Bible from the work that you're
• 37:42
  doing so what is that argument what is like the the lesson you want to leave people with or the
• 37:47
  or the wisdom or the insight so that they start to go down the rabbit hole they start to look at
• 37:51
  the wisdom how they can apply biblical wisdom to their own life and their own problems well that
• 37:56
  is why I have I have not devoted my life and I brought a lot of people to the Bible based religion
• 38:03
  I mean a lot I I claim and I'm if I'm wrong just tell me give me a name I don't I don't know if
• 38:12
  there's a Christian living today who has brought more people back to church than I have
• 38:19
  and I'm a Jew saying this I don't know who has brought more Jews to Judaism who is living today
• 38:26
  than than I have and it sounds like a boast it is a boast I it's not an insult I think it's a
• 38:34
  boast but I'm not saying it to people to pat me on the back I'm saying it because I want people
• 38:39
  understand how why I'm effective I do not argue for God's existence I argue for God's necessity
• 38:49
  and that has that persuades people far far more because if you believe God exists it doesn't change
• 38:55
  your behavior it's okay now I believe in God great okay well I will I act differently tomorrow
• 39:02
  probably not the necessity question is everything why is God necessary that there is a judge
• 39:11
  watching and who judges you and who is giving you a guideline in these five books on how to lead a
• 39:18
  wise and good life that's big deal that wisdom is there's no secular institution with wisdom not one
• 39:28
  the most the most radically secular institutions are universities and they are the the the stupidest of all our
• 39:36
  institutions there is more idiocy at the universe and I've said this since I was in Colombia in the
• 39:42
  1970s this is not new it's just worse today I mean they they they said men and women were basically
• 39:49
  the same when I was at school in the 70s but today it's gone beyond that now you not only are men
• 39:58
  and women not different if you think you're a woman you're a woman I that they didn't say that
• 40:04
  in the 70s this idiocy is relatively new they were they were morally confused about the US
• 40:11
  and the Soviet Union that was my field of study Soviet affairs I'd learned Russian
• 40:15
  I'm with the communist countries regularly and I was taught that you know it's not a moral battle
• 40:22
  America and Soviet Union it's not freedom versus tyranny it's two superpowers
• 40:28
  fighting for hegemony on planet earth so when I when I when I make the argument for the necessity
• 40:39
  of God in the Bible it resonates when people start to consume this work what would be your advice
• 40:45
  on how they can start to incorporate some of these ideas into their own life if they are not
• 40:49
  religious yeah well they will I mean for example you can't read my my extended analysis of
• 40:57
  ingravitude and stay ungrateful I mean just as just as one example or my my explanation of the
• 41:06
  10 commandments and how important honor your father and mother is it's the only the only of one
• 41:13
  of the 10 commandments that has a reward and as I point out and this this has affected I don't
• 41:19
  know maybe millions of people there's no commandment to love your parents there is a commandment to
• 41:25
  love God to love your neighbor to love the stranger but not to love your parents you don't have
• 41:30
  to love your parents you just have to treat them with honor you have to honor them now I know
• 41:37
  people say well what if my parents you know horribly abused me and molested me okay fine
• 41:43
  it's it's like saying yeah people should obey speed limit laws but what if somebody in your car
• 41:50
  got a heart attack should you still drive slowly now exceptions don't prove anything there are times
• 41:57
  that seatbelts kill people yet it's true that seatbelts save lives so why I think honor your father
• 42:07
  and mother is so important is that Nazism and Communism and all tyrannies begin with the reduction
• 42:16
  of parental authority and that's what we're seeing with the left in America that's how I know that
• 42:22
  unchecked it will lead a to tyranny because it undermines parental authority in in Minnesota and
• 42:31
  California there are laws that if your your eight-year-old daughter says she's a boy at school
• 42:39
  you cannot inform the parents of this case that is amazing
• 42:45
  yeah your kids in California now fed lunch and breakfast at school all that says to kids is the
• 42:57
  state feeds you not your parents if you wanted to I mean you've put out these books now if you
• 43:04
  want to leave the audience with one last piece of wisdom what would that last piece of wisdom
• 43:09
  or insight be yeah basically if you want to be a good human being if you want to be a happier
• 43:19
  human being the there the these five books provide the answers where do you want to send people to
• 43:28
  consume more of your information but I didn't want to interrupt your thoughts so we can get that
• 43:32
  out oh no no that was that was that was that was sufficient that you asked me to summarize it
• 43:37
  basically a couple of sentences look people should go they should read the reviews on the rational
• 43:45
  Bible the volumes that have come out again brand new volume four volume four is coming out now
• 43:51
  and there are about five thousand reviews and many speak of it changed their life
• 43:59
  I spoke at Brown University in Rhode Island a couple of weeks ago and a young man came over
• 44:05
  to me a student at Brown says I'm I'm from India that it was clear and both is looking as accent
• 44:14
  said I just want you to know you you've made me conservative and I go thank you and I said but
• 44:21
  that's not all you also brought me to God and and I said wow thank you for telling me oh that's
• 44:32
  not all and I converted to Christianity he was a Hindu and so here's a Hindu telling a Jew
• 44:39
  thanks to you I converted to Christianity and and I I don't see how a rational person reading these
• 44:52
  books will not be affected because it addresses reason it if you if you really care about evil
• 45:04
  which is what my preoccupation I want to reduce evil on earth then I would ask people to read
• 45:11
  the rational Bible and by the way it doesn't matter which volume you start with I you should read all
• 45:16
  them I don't say this to turn money folks just for the record nobody writes Bible commentaries to
• 45:24
  get rich okay oh wow he's written a book on numbers he's going to make a fortune okay nobody
• 45:32
  ever heard of numbers which is the fourth of the five books but I would actually ask people to get
• 45:38
  the newest one because then you'll realize it's not because of the famous stories of Garden of
• 45:45
  Eden or Ten Commandments these five books are so awesome it doesn't matter which one you start with
• 45:52
  but might as well start with the latest got my latest insights so it's called the rational Bible numbers
• 45:59
  but you know the question is if a person is convinced that they know what is good and they know what
• 46:09
  is true then you know and that they they have reached some ethical pinnacle they may not want to
• 46:18
  read it because but you know what the best people on this earth they there there is never a point
• 46:24
  where they are are finished learning so I think this is oh yeah that's right that's the beauty that's
• 46:30
  correct my dad died at 96 and I remember watching who he's about 95 I mean he's reading he's
• 46:37
  avidly reading a book and I remember thinking wow you know he's at the stage where he doesn't buy
• 46:45
  green bananas and there he is devouring a book on you know with one foot in the next world
• 46:58
  but that if you want to learn and grow it doesn't matter how old you are
• 47:05
  and it doesn't matter like you mentioned before it doesn't matter what faith you are either I mean
• 47:11
  this is something oh no totally that when I write these books my vision is will I persuade a
• 47:19
  peasant in China who never heard of the Bible never heard of it that's that's my target audience
• 47:29
  the intelligent rural Chinese that's very true that's a great that's a great avatar if you can
• 47:37
  find a way to communicate a compelling message that person yeah we'll put all the we'll put all
• 47:44
  the links in the show notes I mean what's the best website of people because you're going to
• 47:49
  keep writing what's the best website people should go to well Dennis Prager.com and you see all
• 47:54
  things this I asked this question to everybody before we close it out just one last thought you've
• 48:00
  had a great career many seasons to your life in your in your work if you could go back and you
• 48:05
  could tell your 20 year old self one thing what would that be so I'll disappoint you probably and
• 48:11
  and many of many of your viewers and listeners I was given a gift at 20 I was given I had a lot of
• 48:22
  wisdom at 20 I'm really living out what I understood then was important and I'll give you one
• 48:30
  example I knew a 20 I mean knew I really knew that I will be old one day and I will die one day
• 48:40
  and I was a very happy young person and I'm a happy old person but I I knew that the key to life
• 48:51
  is to be able to look back at when at some age and think now I did I I let a full life I let
• 49:02
  an important life I did good I made an impact on some other people I I didn't live for the moment
• 49:14
  how am I do how much money am I making now it was never a question for one day in my life
• 49:23
  if I made if I made good money it's a blessing but I didn't want to be poor but I I had zero
• 49:34
  ambition to be wealthy zero I knew what was important to 20 so there isn't much I would tell my
• 49:40
  20s year old self