Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Rabbi Manis Friedman - Author & Dean of Bais Chana Institute | YouTube's Most Popular Rabbi Says You're Doing Religion Completely Wrong
Transcript
- 0:00So Rabbi, you have a lecture called Why You Shouldn't Be Religious.
- 0:03What is religiosity?
- 0:04It's like being religious about being religious.
- 0:08When did religion turn into this?
- 0:09God created the world.
- 0:10He tells us how he wants it to be.
- 0:12But then we become religious about it.
- 0:14How religious are you?
- 0:16How religious am I?
- 0:17I'm more religious, you're less religious.
- 0:19Who's getting to heaven first?
- 0:20That was not meant to be.
- 0:22If you were created for a purpose, just do it.
- 0:24What's with the religiosity?
- 0:26Today's guest is Rabbi Manas Friedman, world-renowned author and lecturer, widely known as YouTube's most popular rabbi.
- 0:33For decades, he's challenged conventional ideas about faith, purpose, and spirituality, inspiring millions through his books and online teachings.
- 0:41In this conversation, he explains why religion isn't about appearances, why purpose matters more than ritual, and what it truly means to live a meaningful life.
- 0:49Religion has basically blocked God out of the picture.
- 0:52It's no longer about him.
- 0:53It's about me.
- 0:54Can anyone tell me why I was born?
- 0:56Why am I here?
- 0:57I don't know.
- 0:57I didn't ask to be born.
- 0:58This is such a fundamental issue that we're so afraid of it that we keep avoiding it.
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- 2:18So, Rabbi, you have a lecture called Why You Shouldn't Be Religious.
- 2:22You're a rabbi, so let's start there.
- 2:25The idea is religion has become a self-serving tool instead of leading you somewhere.
- 2:36So it's the religiosity that is not healthy.
- 2:40What is religiosity?
- 2:41It's like the idea of being religious but not actually living the way that somebody who should be religious should live?
- 2:48That's one of the symptoms.
- 2:50But it's like being religious about being religious.
- 2:53Would this be akin to virtue signaling?
- 2:57Not that bad.
- 2:58As a moralist, like saying I'm better than you?
- 3:01It is sincere.
- 3:03But it's just, it turns on itself.
- 3:05Like, you're religious for the sake of being religious.
- 3:09What's the point?
- 3:11When did religion turn into this?
- 3:13See, here's how it works.
- 3:16God created the world.
- 3:18He wants it to be a certain way.
- 3:21He tells us how he wants it to be.
- 3:25And most people would like to satisfy that plan of that need.
- 3:32But then we become religious about it.
- 3:35How religious are you?
- 3:37How religious am I?
- 3:38I'm more religious.
- 3:39You're less religious.
- 3:41Who's getting to heaven first?
- 3:43Who's getting the best part of heaven?
- 3:46That was not meant to be.
- 3:49If you were created for a purpose, just do it.
- 3:53What's with the religiosity?
- 3:56What's with the holier-than-thou?
- 3:58It becomes a game and a measure almost of your worthiness as a human.
- 4:04Here's the real thing, okay?
- 4:07The virtue and the benefit of God telling us what he expects of his world is that we have a way of living and functioning without becoming narcissistic.
- 4:22Because by nature, we should all be narcissists.
- 4:25Why not?
- 4:27It's my life.
- 4:28It's about me.
- 4:30Why would I want to make room for you in my life?
- 4:36So naturally we should all be narcissistic.
- 4:40And the only reason we're not is because God has a stake in his creation.
- 4:46So you have an option.
- 4:48Yeah, you can live just for yourself as long as it's working, you know.
- 4:53Live it out until it ends, which, you know, kind of pointless.
- 4:59Or do what it is that God needs you to do.
- 5:04If you're doing what God needs you to do, you're an altruist, not a, yeah.
- 5:13So when you turn the religion into a narcissistic pursuit, what have you done?
- 5:18I don't know why this topic comes up so often, but I feel like the secularization of society
- 5:27has caused people to pursue other versions of God.
- 5:30So they pursue whether or not it's astrology or money or work or anything.
- 5:39Success.
- 5:40And I'm curious, I've never been able to really pinpoint why society, I'm sure you have many opinions as somebody who's like a religious authority, why societies become more secular.
- 5:48But as you're describing this, maybe it's because people don't, they look at religion and they think, well, people that are religious
- 5:55seem to think that they're better than other people.
- 5:57I don't want to be a part of that.
- 5:59And it's actually turned people off from something that was meant to be good.
- 6:03Do you see that?
- 6:05Actually, I was talking to this very arrogant student.
- 6:09They get very arrogant these days.
- 6:11Anyway, he says, there is no God.
- 6:16It's foolish.
- 6:16The whole thing is stupid.
- 6:18People are so brainwashed.
- 6:20There is no God.
- 6:21There was no Bible.
- 6:22There was no, nothing, nothing.
- 6:24He doesn't believe in anything.
- 6:28I said, that's very sad.
- 6:31Because God really needs you to make his world a better place.
- 6:37And this guy says, really?
- 6:39Really?
- 6:42Like, you're an atheist.
- 6:45I'm telling you God needs you, and suddenly you're interested?
- 6:50See, if it's just me being religious, I'm not interested.
- 6:54Why would I need that?
- 6:57But if you're telling me God has an interest, oh, why didn't you say so?
- 7:04So religion has basically blocked God out of the picture.
- 7:09It's no longer about him, it's about me.
- 7:12getting to heaven, being saved, getting blessings, being among the saints when they come marching in.
- 7:21How did it become about us when it's not our world, not our creation, but it's all about me?
- 7:28Is this not because everything in life has become about us?
- 7:33So religion was just one more thing.
- 7:36We don't serve communities anymore, more often than not.
- 7:39They're generalizations, but we serve ourselves, our own interests, our own career.
- 7:44So I think the way it started is we used to serve God.
- 7:47And we said, no, we'll serve our community.
- 7:51And then we said, we'll serve our family.
- 7:53Yeah.
- 7:54And then they're like, not really, just me.
- 7:58But that's the progression.
- 8:00And religion was a casualty in this progression.
- 8:05Or it contributed by turning selfish, self-serving.
- 8:11So the scary follow-up question to this is, if this is where religion is today,
- 8:18And it's, again, doing a lot of different things.
- 8:20It's making people who are religious by definition focusing on themselves and how they succeed as a religious person and, you know, collect all the points while they're on earth.
- 8:33Or it's pushing people away who think that's a silly way to interpret religion.
- 8:36Religion is not meant to be self-serving, so I'm not going to worship anything.
- 8:39And by not worshiping anything, I actually worship something else, even though I'm not realizing it.
- 8:45and now we have incorrect interpretations of religion, we have non-religious secular people, the question really is what is the answer to make people happier, serving people and communities and ideas larger than themselves, less self-serving?
- 9:05I mean, this podcast is called Success Story and a lot of it is speaking to entrepreneurs that are not
- 9:13self-serving, but have built things that massively serve themselves.
- 9:18They're not exclusively self-serving is what I mean.
- 9:20Like they're very successful, but at the end of the day, a $500 million exit is not a $500 million exit for, you know, 5,000 employees.
- 9:29They get a little bit of upside, but one person benefits from that significantly more or a group of people that there's invest in.
- 9:36So the point is a lot of society has been geared towards serving my own interests.
- 9:43How do we get back to the point where we think differently?
- 9:47So let's go back to the origins of it all.
- 9:51What is ambition?
- 9:54Where does that come from?
- 9:55I don't know.
- 9:55It seems like unnecessarily.
- 9:58Relax.
- 9:59Slow down.
- 10:00What is with this ambition?
- 10:01You got to what?
- 10:05And why is it even called ambition?
- 10:07Why isn't it called greed?
- 10:11Or what's the difference between greed and ambition?
- 10:14I don't know.
- 10:14I don't know the answer.
- 10:16I don't know the, I feel like ambition, I feel like it's motives.
- 10:19I feel like it's motives.
- 10:20So I think it's, it's easy to equate the two because successful ambition turns into money at some point.
- 10:27Successful, the way that I would define ambition.
- 10:30But the motives at the beginning, at the onset are not purely financially driven.
- 10:35And there are no shortcuts taken in pursuit of your ambitious goals, just to increase the revenue or the wealth.
- 10:43I think it's a byproduct as opposed to the focal point.
- 10:46That's how I would describe or differentiate.
- 10:48Okay, but to be fair about it, it's not just the money.
- 10:54Ambition is about more than just money.
- 10:57It's accomplishment.
- 11:00It's prestige.
- 11:01It's something to be proud of.
- 11:04It's not just money.
- 11:05It's not that.
- 11:08So I think the difference is this.
- 11:10Greed is very ungodly.
- 11:14Ambition is godly, misinterpreted.
- 11:20See, we're all created because we are necessary, and there is something we can contribute.
- 11:29If I don't know what that is, then I got to use my own imagination and figure, what is my contribution?
- 11:35But I'm driven by the sense of, I'm here on a mission.
- 11:43One of the ways of interpreting it is, be a success.
- 11:48Be the best you can be.
- 11:50Have the biggest impact.
- 11:51What impact?
- 11:53What impact?
- 11:54That's where people get lost.
- 11:55Yeah.
- 11:56You know, if people will listen to me, if people will follow my advice.
- 12:01And they follow advice of rich people and successful people.
- 12:04So now I'm successful and I'm rich and I give my advice and nobody follows because I don't know what I'm talking about.
- 12:11So let's get down to the real nitty gritty of this whole thing.
- 12:15Topic of the book.
- 12:16I didn't ask to be born.
- 12:18I didn't ask to be born.
- 12:20This is such a fundamental issue that we're so afraid of it that we keep avoiding it.
- 12:27Can anyone tell me why I was born?
- 12:30Why am I here?
- 12:31Why?
- 12:32The biological reason would be hopefully because my parents loved each other a lot.
- 12:36Or the birth control didn't work.
- 12:37Or the birth control, hopefully not.
- 12:40You know what he wants that answer.
- 12:42But that's the biological reason.
- 12:45But the what's the meaning of life question and why was I chosen?
- 12:52My parents wanted to have a baby, but why did it have to be me?
- 12:55So why am I here?
- 12:57Yeah, I don't know.
- 12:59And I think that's actually what creates, by the way, just a quick thought on that, lack of belief in something greater than yourself.
- 13:07tied into the idea of why am I here, creates a lot of depression, anxiety, ambition, just for the sake of pursuit of something bigger, because there is nothing in your mind bigger than yourself, so you're like, I wanna create something that I've built that's bigger than who I am now.
- 13:27And I think that's why society to a degree is broken and people are not happy and not content and not fulfilled.
- 13:34Because we're not who we are meant to be.
- 13:38How can it work?
- 13:39Because they don't feel like, they don't actually feel like they, they didn't ask to be born, but like they were, so what now?
- 13:46What now?
- 13:48Well, make the best of it.
- 13:51No.
- 13:55Wanting to get to heaven?
- 14:00That's why you're born on earth, so that you can get to heaven?
- 14:03It seems like you're skipping the whole point of life.
- 14:06And in some way,
- 14:08If you think heaven is better than here, then you're the enemy.
- 14:14You're a potential terrorist.
- 14:17If you've got a better world to go to, you're not going to be very good to this world.
- 14:21I mean, what are you going to contribute to this world if you think there's a better one?
- 14:26Well, you're not, you're going to try and skip it.
- 14:28Yeah.
- 14:29You're going to disregard everything and you're going to, and you're going to not treat it the right way.
- 14:34All right.
- 14:35So here's the real story.
- 14:37Number one,
- 14:40Human beings are unique in this universe because minerals are very content to be minerals.
- 14:49You look at a stone, so content, so peaceful, so happy to be a stone.
- 14:56Look at a cow.
- 14:59They're so happy to be cows.
- 15:01Never a thought of being anything else, and they go about being a cow 24 hours a day, all their existence.
- 15:11A flower, perfectly content to be a flower.
- 15:16The nature of a human being, nature, not religion, not even ideology, the nature of a human being
- 15:27is that we're never content being human.
- 15:33We are the human beings in the world.
- 15:35We don't like it.
- 15:37It's not enough.
- 15:39A flower finds being a flower enough.
- 15:42An animal finds being an animal enough.
- 15:46Just don't interfere with me and I'll be fine.
- 15:48Don't put me in a cage.
- 15:51And I'm a perfectly content out.
- 15:53Human beings...
- 15:56To say, well, you're a human being.
- 16:01Yeah, but what have I contributed?
- 16:05I'm not content being what I was born to be.
- 16:10I need to be something more.
- 16:15And this drives all ambition.
- 16:18Even the survival instinct is more than human.
- 16:23And this drives all ambition.
- 16:25Got to survive at all costs.
- 16:27Why?
- 16:30What's with this ambition?
- 16:32Where are you going anyway?
- 16:35What is driving you?
- 16:37What's driving me is the sense that I'm only human, but I'm supposed to accomplish something more.
- 16:47So you go in for Olympics.
- 16:49I'll be the fastest runner, the highest jumper, the best swimmer.
- 16:54No, you're still a human being trying to outdo an animal.
- 17:00The deer still run faster than you, and the fish still swim faster than you.
- 17:05What are you doing?
- 17:07So it's misinterpreting what really drives us.
- 17:13What really drives us is I didn't ask to be born because I don't need to be.
- 17:24It takes a while to get used to that idea.
- 17:26I understand the idea.
- 17:27It's a scary idea because then that forces us to sit with the thought that everything we're pursuing is almost, how do you say this?
- 17:46it's not like a way to cover or mask like a subconscious feeling of not being enough or not even understanding why we're here.
- 17:55Like everything seems to be some sort of mask, which that taking off the mask and realizing that our ambition is not healthy is not, I don't know if it's healthy or not, but it's not what we thought it was.
- 18:13It's a very unnerving idea because then that leaves a void and we don't know how to fill that void.
- 18:18So please don't stop the conversation now because then everybody who's listening is thinking, okay, great, I have this existential crisis and I don't know what I should be doing.
- 18:27Existence is a crisis.
- 18:31It is for a human being to exist is a crisis.
- 18:35Because why am I here?
- 18:37What am I here for?
- 18:39I don't know.
- 18:40Well, that makes me miserable.
- 18:43So I got to make up something.
- 18:45I'm here to heal the world.
- 18:48Okay.
- 18:49Go for it.
- 18:52I'm here to become successful.
- 18:54Okay, you are successful.
- 18:55Now what?
- 18:57Did it work?
- 18:58Did it satisfy?
- 18:59No.
- 19:01So, the fear of admitting or recognizing that I don't need to be here.
- 19:09You can't threaten me with death.
- 19:11You can't threaten me with death.
- 19:13Because I don't need to be alive.
- 19:16It took 5,000 years, but we figured it out.
- 19:20I don't need this.
- 19:23I like it.
- 19:25Most of the time.
- 19:27So I'm not complaining.
- 19:28I'm not suicidal.
- 19:29I like this.
- 19:31But do I need it?
- 19:33I don't need this.
- 19:37Well, then why am I here?
- 19:42If I don't know the answer to that, I will have an existential crisis.
- 19:47And if I don't face it, my children will.
- 19:52Your parents are the most successful people in the universe.
- 19:56And you say to them, yeah, so?
- 20:00It's not like you can take credit for their success.
- 20:03You're just looking at the success and you're saying, so what?
- 20:07So now what?
- 20:08So we're the richest kids in town.
- 20:10So what?
- 20:12painful.
- 20:13So even when there's that void and people discover that void and I, I, I, you know, I can't remember.
- 20:20There's one, I think it was Jim Carrey.
- 20:24He said, I wish everybody could be rich and famous so that they could paraphrasing obviously, so they could understand that it doesn't give what you think it gives.
- 20:33I think that's a Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey-ism.
- 20:37But I
- 20:38I see this with people that I interview who sold companies for tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, billionaires.
- 20:45And it's interesting because the people that did not forgo all the other parts of their life, the other buckets of their life, and I speak about this often, the spirituality, the physical, the mental health, the relationships, all these other pieces, not just the wealth building, business building piece of their life.
- 21:03They are more fulfilled and they are more content and they are happier.
- 21:06Whereas the people that did not keep those buckets at least semi-full in pursuit of whatever it is they were building, they seem to be chasing after all those things, knowing that it was probably a little bit too late and they should have cared about all those other things much earlier on.
- 21:23And I think that's, I don't want to put words into your mouth, but what you're alluding to is,
- 21:31oversimplifying obviously, but people should care about more than just ambition from the get-go because that will create a more full life based on what your soul desires while it's on this planet.
- 21:44So what is it that your soul needs?
- 21:47And I don't know what it is.
- 21:48I made up these buckets, but I feel like that's a good place to start.
- 21:52But what does the soul need?
- 21:54The answer has to be, it's not about you or your soul.
- 22:00It can't always keep coming back to me.
- 22:03I don't have the answer.
- 22:05The answer is not in me.
- 22:10I don't ask to be born because I don't need to be born, and yet I am.
- 22:17Well, if you follow the logic, you need to be born to somebody.
- 22:26Somebody needs you to be born.
- 22:28You don't.
- 22:30So instead of describing myself as needy, I see myself as needed.
- 22:36That's what drives all ambition.
- 22:43I know I am needed for something, but no one told me what.
- 22:49So I'm going to try to be the best singer, the best dancer, the best- You're looking, you're just seeking- The answer is not in me and I'm not going to find it by examining myself.
- 23:00So the question is, who needs me?
- 23:02Because I don't need this.
- 23:06Now, psychologically, I don't need this is so healthy.
- 23:12It is the healthiest mind space you can possibly, I don't know, I don't need this.
- 23:17I'm enjoying.
- 23:19Do I need this?
- 23:19No, I don't need this.
- 23:21I can't take myself seriously.
- 23:25But I am needed?
- 23:27Well, tell me more.
- 23:29This is what happened to your student.
- 23:30Yeah.
- 23:33It turns out we need to be needed more than anything else in the world.
- 23:41More than love, more than success, more than fame, more than pleasure.
- 23:51So Freud says, everything, human beings are driven by the pursuit of pleasure.
- 23:56We're erotic in our essence.
- 24:02Adler said, you're looking for power and control.
- 24:05Maslow says, no, you're looking for seven different things.
- 24:10Frankl says, you're just trying to find some meaning.
- 24:14So to say, well, life is all about pleasure.
- 24:18Yeah, but what's the meaning of that?
- 24:21So yeah, life is the pursuit of pleasure.
- 24:24But why?
- 24:25Who needs this?
- 24:27Who needs the pleasure?
- 24:30Well, you don't.
- 24:31Oh, okay, so...
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- 27:25Out of all those individuals that you just referenced, and even, I mean, like you, for people that don't know your backstory, you worked with the Rebbe for many years.
- 27:39Obviously another, you know, just powerhouse in terms of outside of religion, just thinking about how we live our life.
- 27:50the answer will probably be at the end of the day, God, but outside of God and what he's taught to the human, you know, the human, uh, to the human civilization, uh, who is the closest to understanding how we derive meaning out of all the great thinkers that you just mentioned?
- 28:08Frankl.
- 28:10Frankl.
- 28:11I mean, he, he, he proves it, right?
- 28:13He was in the concentration camp who survived the concentration camp.
- 28:18Those who found meaning.
- 28:21If you don't have meaning, you're just trying to survive, the chances are not so good.
- 28:27But if you have meaning, like the guy, he had to survive because his father was waiting for him somewhere.
- 28:37And his father needed him.
- 28:39He survived because he had a purpose.
- 28:43He survived.
- 28:46Frankl doesn't tell you what the purpose is.
- 28:50Everybody has to find their own purpose.
- 28:56So, religiously speaking, or biblically speaking, why is God not the answer?
- 29:04With all the religions in the world, everybody's talking about God, and God is not a solution.
- 29:11He's not helping.
- 29:12In some ways, making it worse.
- 29:15religious wars, killing in the name of God.
- 29:22Why is God not working?
- 29:26Because we've got him all wrong.
- 29:31Anyone who talks about God will assure you that God is perfect and needs nothing.
- 29:40You're in trouble and you need him.
- 29:45I don't like that picture.
- 29:48It doesn't sound nice at all.
- 29:51I'm in trouble and I need him.
- 29:53How did I get into trouble?
- 29:54I didn't ask to be born.
- 29:56I didn't start the fire.
- 29:59So God creates me with a bunch of problems, and now I have to plead with him to be nice to me.
- 30:06I don't like such a God.
- 30:07You don't like that deal?
- 30:07I don't like such a God.
- 30:10The big mistake is,
- 30:12to think that God who created the entire universe needs nothing.
- 30:18That's where everything falls apart.
- 30:23That's where God becomes an idol.
- 30:25And you know how to worship idols?
- 30:28If he doesn't need anything, then he's just an idol.
- 30:34What makes God God is that he has a vast eternal plan.
- 30:42that is important to him.
- 30:46And he made himself really vulnerable.
- 30:51Yeah, God is vulnerable.
- 30:53He made himself really vulnerable by depending on us to complete his plan.
- 31:02So we are needed by the Creator himself, but we have no needs because I don't need to be here.
- 31:12Why do all religions misinterpret that dynamic?
- 31:19I think it started with Aristotle.
- 31:21For real?
- 31:22Yeah.
- 31:23What did Aristotle say?
- 31:24Aristotle said, stop treating God like a religion.
- 31:26He's just the perfect being.
- 31:30And all religions are like ashamed, you know, like, oh, yeah, right.
- 31:33You're a smart guy.
- 31:34You must be right.
- 31:36Yeah, so God is perfect.
- 31:37He doesn't need anything.
- 31:40What did you do that for?
- 31:42He created the universe and he doesn't need it?
- 31:45Well, then I quit.
- 31:47Now, this thing makes no sense at all.
- 31:52And if that's what God is, no thanks.
- 31:56I'm actually talking to a very religious pastor, minister, I don't know exactly what.
- 32:03First introduction.
- 32:05His first words, so do you believe in the Savior?
- 32:08Yes.
- 32:10I said, I'm not looking to be saved.
- 32:13I don't want God to serve me.
- 32:15I want to serve him.
- 32:17The man started to cry.
- 32:18He said, what did I think of that?
- 32:24Really, is God here to serve me?
- 32:26No, of course.
- 32:27Am I the center of the universe and he's my valet?
- 32:29Of course not.
- 32:31Help me, save me, bless me, give me, take.
- 32:33What is this?
- 32:35That's not narcissism?
- 32:37Spiritual narcissism.
- 32:39Humans are very good at making themselves the center of almost everything.
- 32:43It's interesting.
- 32:44So let's flip it.
- 32:45Yeah.
- 32:46I am not the needy one.
- 32:49You know, people who aren't born never complain.
- 32:52It's not like, how come I wasn't born?
- 32:57Nobody can.
- 32:57No, if you're not born, you're fine.
- 33:01But if you are born, then you have a mission.
- 33:05And if you don't know what that mission is, it's going to drive you crazy.
- 33:10And you're going to try to be something more and end up being less because you picked the wrong thing.
- 33:21So if I don't need and I'm not needy, now I understand all my problems.
- 33:30All my dysfunctional issues is because I think I'm needy when I'm not.
- 33:39So feeling needy doesn't feel normal.
- 33:45So it drives me crazy.
- 33:48And yet everybody tells me how needy I am.
- 33:51Everybody.
- 33:54You can't cross the street without me.
- 33:56That's my father talking.
- 33:58You can't get healthy without years of therapy.
- 34:00That's my therapist talking.
- 34:03You can't solve your own problems without God.
- 34:08And if you think your problems are over when you die, no.
- 34:16Everyone is telling me that I am needy.
- 34:19And it's not even true.
- 34:21Not true.
- 34:22So when God has a mission for you, let's frame it for people who are, have no interest in God right now, when they're listening to this.
- 34:35So they're listening to you and they're thinking,
- 34:38Okay, where do I even start with that mission?
- 34:40That's probably the first question that somebody would ask.
- 34:42Maybe you have other questions when your students come to you, but that would be an obvious question.
- 34:47And the other question would be, okay, so we just described...
- 34:51Why traditional ambition the way most people understand it exists because of lack of other mission is what you're saying.
- 35:00So does that traditional version of achievement, does that not exist at all?
- 35:06Like is there a world where being needed by God and having a mission that is in line with something that he needs us to accomplish is,
- 35:17also include our own personal ambitions or should those not exist?
- 35:24When we have a talent and we have an ability, it's given for a reason.
- 35:32That's what we're meant to use in doing what God needs from us.
- 35:37I understand.
- 35:37I understand.
- 35:38They're not two separate things.
- 35:40But I think the first question people are going to ask, I don't believe in God.
- 35:44That's even before the mission, yeah.
- 35:46Where do I come to God?
- 35:50You think there's a purpose to life?
- 35:54Are you looking for your purpose in life?
- 35:56Then you believe in God.
- 35:59Because the only place a purpose can come from is from the Creator who creates it with a purpose.
- 36:07So people say, oh, my purpose in life.
- 36:09Who says your life has a purpose?
- 36:13You can't make one up after the fact.
- 36:17If you say there's a purpose to my life, it means you came into existence with a purpose.
- 36:23You can't make one up.
- 36:26Midlife, say, I think this week, I think my purpose is going to be, that's not your purpose.
- 36:33It's actually misleading to say my purpose.
- 36:38What you're really asking is, what is the purpose for having me?
- 36:42Not my purpose.
- 36:45What purpose am I serving?
- 36:48Well, then you believe in a purposeful creator.
- 36:51Can't separate the two.
- 36:53So you are much closer to God than you think.
- 36:58Not religion.
- 37:00God.
- 37:04So what is it that God needs?
- 37:06God.
- 37:07See, we have to flip everything because we've been so wrong.
- 37:12We probably have everything wrong.
- 37:17The desire to get to heaven.
- 37:21I don't know who did this to us.
- 37:24I don't know who to blame.
- 37:28God created the world because he wants to be on earth.
- 37:32Why are you going to heaven?
- 37:34Who asked you to come to heaven?
- 37:35Why?
- 37:39And if you go to heaven because you want to be closer to God, you're going to be disappointed because God is not in heaven.
- 37:47God is on earth.
- 37:50God created us to make earth his primary domain.
- 37:58See, God is even more than we in that being God is not enough.
- 38:06I think God...
- 38:09The idea of life after death is because I think most people are scared of permanence.
- 38:19I think that the idea of nothingness and a permanent end to whatever it is that you enjoy is very, very scary.
- 38:27Yeah.
- 38:29I think that biologically we are wired to survive and to move away from death.
- 38:37I think that's how most creatures are.
- 38:38No, no.
- 38:40Only we.
- 38:41I mean, all animals have self-preservation.
- 38:43No, but once they die, they're fine.
- 38:47But no one's trying to die, and I think that the thought of dying is scary.
- 38:51And that's where the next place we go after we die, well, it makes death less scary.
- 38:59Yeah.
- 39:00For some people.
- 39:01I've spoken to many people who say, no, no, no, there's more?
- 39:06No.
- 39:07When it's over, it's over.
- 39:08Leave me alone.
- 39:09Enough.
- 39:13So it's like, the reason we're so afraid of death is because that's it.
- 39:20It's not that we're afraid of death.
- 39:22We're afraid of life being meaningless.
- 39:26So I live, I struggle, and then I just die?
- 39:29What was the purpose of my life?
- 39:33Everything I do just ends?
- 39:36It's not scary.
- 39:38It's embarrassing.
- 39:39It's like you wasted your time.
- 39:41Yeah, it's dehumanizing.
- 39:45And that's it.
- 39:45And then it's just over.
- 39:50That can't be.
- 39:51It makes a joke out of life.
- 39:54But to make a big deal about what happens after you die is also a mistake.
- 39:59So what should the objective be while we're alive?
- 40:03Reframe God and our relationship with God.
- 40:07What is it that God needs that made him create this world?
- 40:12He needs you to get to heaven?
- 40:14That's why he put your... Come on.
- 40:16Doesn't make sense.
- 40:16Doesn't make sense.
- 40:18In fact, if you read the Bible, in the beginning God created heaven and earth.
- 40:25And that's the last time heaven is mentioned.
- 40:27And the logical, the logical, you know, the way to think about this logically is if God wanted us in heaven, he would have just skipped the earth part, just dropped us in heaven right away.
- 40:37Well, he created heaven first and was not content and continued on to create earth.
- 40:44And then never mentions heaven again.
- 40:49The entire Bible is about earth.
- 40:52people with their weaknesses, with their mistakes, with their... God wants us to bring him into this world by making this world comfortable or welcoming to him.
- 41:10In different words, he wants a relationship.
- 41:15What was God missing before he created the world?
- 41:19A friend?
- 41:19I don't know.
- 41:20The only thing wrong was that he was alone.
- 41:24Very alone.
- 41:31So Billy Joel has a song, Piano Man, very famous.
- 41:38So there's a line there that says, they're sharing a drink called loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone.
- 41:48Profound.
- 41:48Profound.
- 41:51Loneliness?
- 41:53Find some other lonely people and have some good time.
- 41:56But what do you do with being alone?
- 41:59What do you do about that?
- 42:01I'm alone in the world.
- 42:02You go find some people, then you're no longer lonely.
- 42:05But why is it that being alone bothers me?
- 42:09I don't know.
- 42:10But it bothers most people.
- 42:12Everybody who admits it.
- 42:17God said...
- 42:19It is not good for man to be alone.
- 42:24Isn't it?
- 42:27I think we got a little contradiction between life and the Bible.
- 42:30In life, everyone wants to be left alone.
- 42:33Until they don't.
- 42:34Until they don't.
- 42:36So what's going on here?
- 42:37Everyone said, just leave me alone and I'll be fine.
- 42:39And then you leave him alone and he's miserable.
- 42:43I think about every, like the worst fears outside of death is public speaking.
- 42:50And why people are scared about speaking publicly is they think that they're going to be ostracized from this proverbial community.
- 42:56If they say something wrong, do something wrong, society will cast them out.
- 43:00Same reason why you don't want to be embarrassed in school or get canceled online.
- 43:04Here's the good news.
- 43:06This discomfort that we have with being alone is not human.
- 43:12It's divine.
- 43:14God, for no knowable reason, was not content to be alone.
- 43:23Perfect, infinite, eternal, almighty, all-powerful, but alone?
- 43:29Doesn't like it.
- 43:32Why?
- 43:32There's nothing good about it.
- 43:36Is it good to be perfect?
- 43:39It's impossible.
- 43:40Good for what?
- 43:41Good for what?
- 43:42In fact, it's probably more damaging to try and be.
- 43:45You know, being perfect is almost like being dead.
- 43:50It's over.
- 43:52Like, where do you go from perfect?
- 43:54You say, oh, you don't go anywhere.
- 43:56You're just perfect.
- 43:57And that's good?
- 44:00See, when we say God is perfect, we're not complimenting Him.
- 44:04We're describing His predicament
- 44:08Because God is perfect, he needed to create a world and have a relationship, something more than himself.
- 44:18And he put that into us as well.
- 44:21He created us in his image.
- 44:24We don't look like him.
- 44:27We're in his image because we also can't accept just me.
- 44:34Me for me and just me and that's it.
- 44:38It's not human.
- 44:41Ego-driven human beings are perfectly happy being alone.
- 44:46Much more happy.
- 44:47Stay out of my way.
- 44:49Don't interfere with me.
- 44:50Leave me alone.
- 44:51I come when I want.
- 44:52I do what I want.
- 44:57Wanting to be in a relationship is divine, not human.
- 45:04Oh, I want to be among friends.
- 45:07I want to have a butler and a chef and a valet and my doctor.
- 45:16That's a new development.
- 45:17When I was growing up, no one said my doctor.
- 45:20A doctor.
- 45:21You need a doctor, you go to a doctor.
- 45:23All of a sudden, no, no, it's my doctor.
- 45:25My doctor?
- 45:28Even my rabbi?
- 45:30Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- 45:31You'd have to possess everything?
- 45:34So when a person says, leave me alone, he means leave me alone with my butler, with my chauffeur.
- 45:42But I don't want anyone other than me.
- 45:45Those who serve me are fine, because that's just more of me.
- 45:51So if I could have a house on an island with a butler, with a carpenter, all taking care of my needs, I'd be so happy.
- 46:00But if a stranger shows up, hey, hey, hey,
- 46:03What are you doing here?
- 46:05But is that person truly, truly happy?
- 46:08If he's not, it's divine.
- 46:11But then what makes someone subject to divine traits versus somebody who isn't?
- 46:16All of us.
- 46:18Some are conscious of it, some are not.
- 46:20So bottom line, what does God want with his creation?
- 46:25A relationship.
- 46:28He doesn't want something from you.
- 46:31He wants you to be with him so that he is not the only existence.
- 46:39You know what's sad?
- 46:40When you say it like this, it just sounds like we are moving in the completely wrong direction because religion is now self-serving and there's no true relationship the way that you're describing it.
- 46:57If you do not believe in God, there's no relationship.
- 47:00And we've moved farther, both religious and non-religious, moved farther and farther away.
- 47:06I was speaking to a retired psychiatrist
- 47:10who was secular all his life.
- 47:14And then all of a sudden, as he was getting older, after he retired, he suddenly took an interest.
- 47:27And I asked him why.
- 47:28It was amazing.
- 47:32He said, in my profession, I know that if a man says to a woman, I love you very much,
- 47:41more than anything in the world.
- 47:44And she says, eh, not interested.
- 47:49And he says, well, your loss.
- 47:54He never loved her.
- 47:57Because we know that there is no love without vulnerability.
- 48:04If it won't hurt you to lose me, you don't love me.
- 48:13He says, everyone tells me God loves me.
- 48:18I never believed it.
- 48:21Because God can't be vulnerable.
- 48:26But now as I'm getting older, wait a minute.
- 48:29Maybe God is vulnerable, and that's why he loves us.
- 48:33It's such a difficult idea for people to wrap their mind around, though.
- 48:36That's the, I think the biggest issue is that it's so... That God is vulnerable?
- 48:40Yeah, yeah.
- 48:42Because we've been marketed God.
- 48:44But he came up with it because he's a psychiatrist.
- 48:48And in psychology, they always argue that vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness.
- 48:55So for him, God is not vulnerable?
- 48:58Why?
- 48:58He's not strong?
- 48:59That's the only cohort of people that look at vulnerability as a strength.
- 49:06That could be a whole other conversation as to why we view vulnerability as a weakness versus when you actually deal with human emotion.
- 49:13So vulnerability doesn't mean you can hurt me.
- 49:17That's not a strength.
- 49:18Vulnerability means I hurt without you.
- 49:26That is humility.
- 49:29You're not enough without me and with me you're enough.
- 49:33And you're the creator of the world?
- 49:36Wow.
- 49:38You're so romantic.
- 49:43There's the bottom line.
- 49:45If you don't see God as being romantic, you don't have a God.
- 49:49You're worshiping an idol.
- 49:51This is reframing how a religious person has a relationship.
- 49:55Don't even call it religious.
- 49:58You have a creator?
- 49:59Well, he needs you.
- 50:01But I'm saying, how do you get the people on board who don't even believe that God has this spot in their life?
- 50:08That's the harder sell.
- 50:09Well, actually, I don't even know who the harder sell is.
- 50:11I don't know if it's reframing somebody who believes they have a relationship with God to see that relationship in a new light or somebody who has no relationship and they're only discovering the relationship for the first time potentially in the correct way.
- 50:24I don't know who's the harder pitch.
- 50:26The religious guy.
- 50:27Yeah, I'm thinking that too.
- 50:29That makes sense.
- 50:30Such resistance.
- 50:31Oh, no, no, no.
- 50:33God is perfect.
- 50:36But he created the world?
- 50:38Well, yeah, he wanted to do you a favor.
- 50:42This he calls a favor?
- 50:46This is a favor?
- 50:48Well, after you die.
- 50:51I don't know what you're talking about.
- 50:53It's insane.
- 50:53It's insane.
- 50:57He wants to do you a favor, but he won't put you into heaven unless...
- 51:04It's like a nasty scheme.
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- 55:41Where does this, you know I mentioned focusing on things outside of ambition.
- 55:52When we understand our relationship with, with God, the way that he's being vulnerable and he's looking for a relationship with us.
- 56:11How do we do that properly?
- 56:13How do I say this?
- 56:14How do we have the best relationship with God while also making sure that that relationship benefits the other parts of our life?
- 56:23I don't even know if that's healthy to think that way, but I'm just thinking about how do we have the best relationship with God in a way that supports our own personal interpersonal relationships.
- 56:35We have a skill set that we continue to master and that provides for our families, our vocation, our job, our business, whatever.
- 56:47We have to take care of our own personal health and wellness while we're on this planet because I think that's important as well for us to both have a relationship with God while we're alive on this earth.
- 56:56I don't think somebody who's sick or deteriorating can have the best possible relationship.
- 57:01So how does God transcend all these other parts of our life with this new interpretation or definition of a relationship the way that we should have it?
- 57:11We're serving, God needs us, but we also have to keep the other parts of our life alive and thriving.
- 57:17Which is what he needs from us.
- 57:20It gives you purpose across all areas.
- 57:22It would be such a blessing to millions of people
- 57:30who work at boring jobs, and they're miserable about it.
- 57:36They work on assembly line and it's...
- 57:40If somebody would tell them, do you realize that what God needs from you is to make his world, his creation, a better place?
- 57:54You go to work every day and you produce toothbrushes,
- 57:59You don't even produce them.
- 58:00You just work in the shipping department.
- 58:03And you ship toothbrushes to people.
- 58:07You're making his world better.
- 58:11From nine to five, you are serving God.
- 58:17You're not there to make money.
- 58:20You're there to make the world a better place.
- 58:24And your contribution happens to be toothbrushes.
- 58:30You are serving God most of the day, most of the week, most of your life.
- 58:37Here's an example.
- 58:40This Japanese gardener, who's really an artist at heart, right?
- 58:46Can't stand to see a neglected lawn.
- 58:50So without asking any questions, he sees a neglected lawn, he goes and he fixes it up.
- 58:55Turns it into a beautiful garden.
- 58:58And some guy walks over and hands him a chit.
- 59:00And he says, what is this?
- 59:03He says, that lawn.
- 59:04It's my lawn.
- 59:06You made it beautiful.
- 59:10God owes you if you produce toothbrushes.
- 59:15Because you made his world better.
- 59:19If you invented the bread slicer?
- 59:21Ha, ha, ha.
- 59:26So, instead of God saying, you can come to heaven with certain conditions, if you believe in me, if you... No.
- 59:38God is saying, can you please invite me into your life?
- 59:44I want to be with you, not without you.
- 59:47I was without you.
- 59:49Not good.
- 59:52Whether or not that person is shipping toothbrushes or working as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the question really is, how do I know if what I'm doing today, tomorrow, and next week is actually how I should be serving God?
- 1:00:11Good question.
- 1:00:12It's a good question.
- 1:00:13But you are serving God.
- 1:00:15So just by existing?
- 1:00:16No, by being productive.
- 1:00:20You're running a business, so you're producing something, or you're offering a service, then you're making life on earth better.
- 1:00:29Then you are serving God.
- 1:00:31Question is, are you going to continue making toothbrushes or should you become a CEO?
- 1:00:36That's a question a lot of people wrestle with.
- 1:00:38So if you can do more to make the world better, why not?
- 1:00:44If the best you can do is bake bread, great.
- 1:00:49But if you can influence the whole world's behavior, well then let's go.
- 1:00:56So the message to the world is, God created you because he wants a relationship with this world.
- 1:01:07Being in heaven is not an accomplishment for him.
- 1:01:13And just like he put into us this need to be more than what we were given, it comes from the need to be more than he was.
- 1:01:29What was he missing?
- 1:01:31Relationship.
- 1:01:34What's wrong with being alone and perfect?
- 1:01:38You might as well be dead.
- 1:01:41A dead god is an idol.
- 1:01:46A god who needs nothing is not a god.
- 1:01:50He's a cruel taskmaster.
- 1:01:52I have a question.
- 1:01:54If the goal is to invite God into your life while you're on this earth and not just try and skip earth and end up in heaven, that means that people will want to do the most and be productive at the highest level while they're on this planet.
- 1:02:12As opposed to sort of like delaying whatever their mission is in life until heaven.
- 1:02:20So they want to do the most now.
- 1:02:21So does God.
- 1:02:24You said if the best you can do is be, you know, a toothbrush shipper, then good for you.
- 1:02:31But I have a hard time believing that there is a limit to most people's potential.
- 1:02:40I think that the measure of good work and where you should sort of stop in the ceiling you put on yourself should really be tied to, well, before I've spoken to you, what else is important in your life?
- 1:02:55So, for example, if you want to start a company or if you want to be a CEO, that's going to come with sacrifices.
- 1:03:02And you may not have the time to put in towards to put towards a relationship as if compared to if you were working a nine to five Monday to Friday.
- 1:03:11So that's a trade off for a season of your life that you may have to make.
- 1:03:16but there's no right or wrong answer.
- 1:03:18You should just be comfortable making that decision, knowing that there are sometimes trade-offs with certain paths that people take in life.
- 1:03:26That's what I've always believed.
- 1:03:27I believe that if you want to be an entrepreneur, good, but for five or 10 years, you are not going to have balance in your life, but that's something that you want to do.
- 1:03:35Go for it.
- 1:03:37But I think anybody can do it.
- 1:03:39I genuinely believe that most people, if they spend time learning, spend time trying and failing, they can achieve the thing they want to achieve.
- 1:03:48I think that most people put ceilings, artificial ceilings, based on...
- 1:03:53their perceived, I don't know, abilities, but I don't think those ceilings are true.
- 1:03:59I don't think they're reality.
- 1:04:00So I'm saying this because I'm saying if your goal is to be as productive as possible and to do the job that you can do to the best of your ability, well, then we should negate everything except just being more productive and contributing more to society.
- 1:04:17And anything outside of that could just be considered selfish.
- 1:04:19Yeah.
- 1:04:20That's where we've lost God.
- 1:04:25You have to be productive at your highest capacity in service of Him, not without Him.
- 1:04:34But how do you define highest capacity?
- 1:04:37Whatever you think you can contribute more, then you're contributing more to His world.
- 1:04:43So what if?
- 1:04:44So if you're doing it for Him, you're not going to forget your wife.
- 1:04:48No, you won't forget your wife.
- 1:04:49But what if you delay?
- 1:04:50So humor me.
- 1:04:52So you build a company and you don't start dating seriously till you're like 35, 40.
- 1:04:59And you maybe don't have kids or maybe you don't have as many kids because you spent the first 10, 15 years of your life building a company.
- 1:05:05That affected me.
- 1:05:08millions of people in a positive way, hopefully in a positive way.
- 1:05:12But then you aren't having kids that could go on and do it.
- 1:05:17There's so many variables that it becomes overwhelming for somebody to understand when you're including God into the mixture of, okay, that's another variable I have to consider.
- 1:05:27How am I living the most productive life in pursuit of something that God would say, you should go do this?
- 1:05:34that gets confusing because then you're like, well, does God want me to have a family and have like 10 kids?
- 1:05:38Does God want me to build a trillion dollar company and, and, you know, take humanity to Mars?
- 1:05:44What, what does God want me to do?
- 1:05:46Yes.
- 1:05:49This father said to me, he was brilliant.
- 1:05:52He said, I'm so busy taking care of my kids.
- 1:05:56I have no time for my kids.
- 1:06:02You're taking care of your kids because it's your job.
- 1:06:05You have no time for your kids.
- 1:06:09Stop taking care of your kids and just be a father.
- 1:06:16Don't be a good father, because then it's all about you.
- 1:06:22Just be a father.
- 1:06:26You're capable of producing a lot of good stuff.
- 1:06:29Well, go ahead.
- 1:06:32Don't become it.
- 1:06:34Do it.
- 1:06:35And then there's no conflict.
- 1:06:37There's no conflict.
- 1:06:38Is that what people wrestle with?
- 1:06:39You don't sacrifice anything in God's world.
- 1:06:47You don't do a guy a favor at the cost of another guy.
- 1:06:51So you're doing good here and damage there?
- 1:06:54This is not going to work.
- 1:06:56You'd cause no damage whatsoever.
- 1:06:58No.
- 1:06:59The sage has made a very brilliant statement.
- 1:07:02Who is really rich?
- 1:07:04Someone who is content with his portion.
- 1:07:08So that's the answer.
- 1:07:09Yeah, but that doesn't make sense.
- 1:07:11How come it doesn't make sense?
- 1:07:13Because if you're content, you're never going to be rich.
- 1:07:17But I've always found that you have to be content with what you've achieved, but still also understand that there can be more and more achievement.
- 1:07:26which means you don't jettison what you had before in favor of something better.
- 1:07:33So here's the real problem.
- 1:07:35A guy becomes rich, and all of a sudden, his car, not good enough.
- 1:07:44His house, not good enough.
- 1:07:47His wife, his children,
- 1:07:56his rabbi.
- 1:07:57He got to trade in his rabbi for a better model.
- 1:08:01In other words, he's not content with his life because he's rich.
- 1:08:08Then the wealth has destroyed him.
- 1:08:11But if you're content with your money, you're never going to get rich.
- 1:08:19So you can't be content with your money and get rich.
- 1:08:24You get rich because you want more money, which is fine.
- 1:08:28But why does that mean that all of a sudden your wife is not good enough, your children are not good enough, your house, your car, your neighborhood?
- 1:08:37On the contrary, you're making more money for them.
- 1:08:43How did they become less important?
- 1:08:46If you're working for them,
- 1:08:49This is the problem.
- 1:08:51Career clashes with family.
- 1:08:55Don't have a career.
- 1:08:58Make a lot of money.
- 1:09:00Don't have a career.
- 1:09:02Have a family for whom you make a lot of money.
- 1:09:06And if you make more money than your family needs, then do it for the community.
- 1:09:13And if you have all the money in the world, spend it on Earth, not on Mars,
- 1:09:19Is it because, do we lose sight of what's important when our identity becomes a thing?
- 1:09:28Like when work becomes an identity.
- 1:09:30Of its own.
- 1:09:31Of its own.
- 1:09:32And then we forget all the other things that we actually started the work for.
- 1:09:37Which is true of life itself.
- 1:09:39If you're just living life for the sake of life, you got nothing.
- 1:09:46You live life in order to fulfill the purpose for which God needs you in this world.
- 1:09:54I think I have a weird little story.
- 1:09:58There are these kids, two 14-year-old kids attempted suicide together.
- 1:10:08They failed.
- 1:10:10And one of them is being held in the county hospital.
- 1:10:14for observation for 48 hours.
- 1:10:18And this hospital, the sixth floor of the hospital, is really a prison.
- 1:10:23Armed guards, double bar doors, windows, you know.
- 1:10:28The nurses carry tasers.
- 1:10:30I mean, it's a dangerous place because they're there for observation, to see whether they should go to the electric chair or get therapy.
- 1:10:40So it's really a dangerous, crazy place.
- 1:10:46So this mother calls me.
- 1:10:47Her son is there.
- 1:10:49She can't visit.
- 1:10:50The only people who can visit are clergy.
- 1:10:52You've got to be cleared, whatever.
- 1:10:55And ask me if I would go see her son and see how he's doing.
- 1:10:58I don't know her.
- 1:10:59She doesn't know me.
- 1:11:00She just needs a rabbi.
- 1:11:03I go up to the sixth floor.
- 1:11:05I've been there before, but never to see a 14-year-old.
- 1:11:09I couldn't believe they would put him in the same place with the adults.
- 1:11:14Anyway, I get off the elevator, just in time to see two nurses wrestle a guy to the floor and put him in handcuffs.
- 1:11:21And everybody else is standing around howling like banshees.
- 1:11:24The place is really scary.
- 1:11:27Anyway, I go off to the kids' room.
- 1:11:30He's lying in his bed reading something and doesn't even look up.
- 1:11:36I try to make conversation.
- 1:11:38Not interested.
- 1:11:41Jaded completely.
- 1:11:43I said, how are you doing?
- 1:11:46Doesn't look up from the book.
- 1:11:48I said, your mother asked me to see you.
- 1:11:51She's worried.
- 1:11:52What should I tell her?
- 1:11:54Nothing, nothing.
- 1:11:58After about 10 minutes, he says, why don't you go home?
- 1:12:02The chaplain has already been here, the hospital chaplain.
- 1:12:09I said, what did the chaplain say?
- 1:12:12He says, something stupid.
- 1:12:16I said, really?
- 1:12:17What did he say that was stupid?
- 1:12:20He told me not to kill myself because God loves me.
- 1:12:27See, I'm not, I'm not, I have no license in psychology or whatever, right?
- 1:12:31I can say whatever I want.
- 1:12:34Well, I lose my license.
- 1:12:36Anyway, so I said, that's stupid?
- 1:12:39He says, yeah.
- 1:12:40I said, I agree.
- 1:12:42I can't imagine God loves you.
- 1:12:44You're obnoxious.
- 1:12:48He looked up.
- 1:12:50And he said, yeah?
- 1:12:53I said, God created you.
- 1:12:56Obviously, he needs you for something.
- 1:12:59I don't think he likes you.
- 1:13:01He's stuck with you.
- 1:13:05He says, well, what if I don't want to do what he created me for?
- 1:13:09I said, that's called freedom of choice.
- 1:13:13So take a position.
- 1:13:14You want it?
- 1:13:15You don't want to say something.
- 1:13:19I went home from that visit, and I realized that I have been barking up the wrong tree.
- 1:13:26Human beings don't need to be loved.
- 1:13:30They need to be needed.
- 1:13:33This kid kills himself or tries to kill himself for no reason.
- 1:13:38Not like he couldn't pay the mortgage.
- 1:13:41It was an adventure because he's convinced that he's unnecessary.
- 1:13:48Yeah, his mother will cry for her.
- 1:13:50No big deal.
- 1:13:51He's not needed.
- 1:13:52He's not necessary.
- 1:13:55Now the chaplain comes and says, yeah, you're right.
- 1:13:59You're not necessary.
- 1:14:00But still, don't kill yourself because God loves you.
- 1:14:03He says, that is so stupid.
- 1:14:07And he's right.
- 1:14:10You can't say to a human being, hang around because I love you.
- 1:14:15What am I, your pet?
- 1:14:18If you don't need me, you don't love me.
- 1:14:20We're going back to the, if you're not vulnerable, then it's not love.
- 1:14:26So the chaplain was actually confirming the kid's belief that he wasn't needed.
- 1:14:33Yeah, but God loves you.
- 1:14:35I'm not a gerbil.
- 1:14:37How do you define the difference between love and need?
- 1:14:40Oh, love is selfish.
- 1:14:44Need is humble.
- 1:14:47Selfless.
- 1:14:49Why is love selfish?
- 1:14:51I love.
- 1:14:53Makes me feel good.
- 1:14:54How can that be selfish?
- 1:15:02True love means I really need you and I like it.
- 1:15:07We have a lot of incorrect definitions then, I think.
- 1:15:10I think that's what I'm getting at.
- 1:15:12But that's what marriage is.
- 1:15:14Marriage is not love.
- 1:15:17Marriage is I need you.
- 1:15:19You're part of my identity.
- 1:15:22And I love it.
- 1:15:25And if I don't love it, I still need you.
- 1:15:27It's very true.
- 1:15:27Because some days things aren't going right.
- 1:15:32But you're not leaving the person.
- 1:15:34You still need each other.
- 1:15:38But you do love the person.
- 1:15:40But when I say, like, for example, when I say I love Gina, I'm not saying, like, I love...
- 1:15:47I'm not saying I love her just for me.
- 1:15:50Like, I love her for her.
- 1:15:53Like, I'm not saying it selfishly.
- 1:15:55What does that mean?
- 1:15:56What do you mean?
- 1:15:59Like, when I say I love somebody, say I love Gina, I love my mom, I'm saying, like, I want to...
- 1:16:08you know, use everything that I have access to and, you know, every resource that I have to make their lives as good as possible.
- 1:16:18I don't need to do that.
- 1:16:19Whether they make your life better or not.
- 1:16:22I think so.
- 1:16:24Oh, I think so.
- 1:16:26They do make my life better, but I don't think I do it as like a trade.
- 1:16:33I don't think like, hey, when we go on this trip or when we go on this date night, I need something in exchange.
- 1:16:40I love you and I want to give you this.
- 1:16:42Marriage means I don't want to be alone.
- 1:16:47So that's what I need.
- 1:16:49How do I not be alone?
- 1:16:50Oh.
- 1:16:52I have friends, still alone.
- 1:16:55So then you do need something.
- 1:16:56I have parents, still alone.
- 1:17:00I have children, I'm still alone.
- 1:17:02When do I stop being alone?
- 1:17:05When there's another person in my life, not in my love.
- 1:17:12Look, a man says, we're in love, let's get married.
- 1:17:19Why?
- 1:17:20You're already in love.
- 1:17:21What do you want?
- 1:17:22What are you getting married for?
- 1:17:26In fact, if I'm marrying you because I love you, this marriage isn't going to work.
- 1:17:36I really just want love.
- 1:17:37I want to give love and get love.
- 1:17:39That's it.
- 1:17:40That's why I'm marrying you.
- 1:17:42But a week into the marriage, you discover that your wife has an opinion.
- 1:17:47You say, whoa, whoa, whoa.
- 1:17:49didn't marry you for your opinion, just the love.
- 1:17:53So when I marry somebody, and Gina has lots of opinions, when I marry somebody and I love her opinions, and that makes her more attractive to me, what is happening?
- 1:18:04So if you love her, that means you love the fact that she's not you.
- 1:18:15All the things you have in common, that's not her, that's you.
- 1:18:20Oh, you also like pina colada and walks in the rain?
- 1:18:24Hey, let's get married.
- 1:18:26No.
- 1:18:27Let's just have pina colada and walks in the rain.
- 1:18:30So the marriage is needing somebody in your life.
- 1:18:32Somebody who is not you.
- 1:18:35That's bringing it back to the divine.
- 1:18:37But that's the part we hate in each other.
- 1:18:40Like, why can't you be... more like my mother or less like my mother?
- 1:18:52Like, why can't you be?
- 1:18:54Do you want her in your life or not?
- 1:18:58So a guy says to me, I love everything about my wife.
- 1:19:01I said, that's really strange because your wife wants a divorce.
- 1:19:09You love everything about your wife?
- 1:19:11Yeah.
- 1:19:12Okay.
- 1:19:12Do you love her?
- 1:19:14I love everything about her.
- 1:19:16Oh, you're not answering the question.
- 1:19:20You love everything about her.
- 1:19:22Do you love her?
- 1:19:24He says, what does that mean?
- 1:19:27Take away all the things.
- 1:19:29What's left?
- 1:19:31Her.
- 1:19:32And you don't know what that means.
- 1:19:35So what does it mean to love her, not something about her?
- 1:19:41What do people mean when they say, can't you accept me for who I am?
- 1:19:47Nobody knows an answer to that.
- 1:19:50Accept me for who I am.
- 1:19:51Who are you?
- 1:19:53You don't even know.
- 1:19:56What they mean is, can you accept the fact that I'm not you?
- 1:20:04Can you accept the fact that I don't like the same foods you like?
- 1:20:08You can tolerate it?
- 1:20:09No thanks.
- 1:20:12Do you love the fact that I am me, which means not you?
- 1:20:20That's big.
- 1:20:22So I'm just, I only, I can only speak for personal experience.
- 1:20:25So the things that are the most different in G, that's what I, I would say love the most because I like that compliment to the things that I like.
- 1:20:37I don't want another version of me.
- 1:20:39I want her, like I want her and I want the things that she likes because I like that she likes those things.
- 1:20:45And I liked it by being with her.
- 1:20:48It's added, it's added more to my life that wasn't there before.
- 1:20:53And it turns out I enjoy those things.
- 1:20:54Which sounds great.
- 1:20:56Then you get married.
- 1:20:57Well, yeah, that's.
- 1:21:00Now those differences, what make her different, you're stuck with it for the rest of your life.
- 1:21:07You still okay?
- 1:21:08Yeah.
- 1:21:09I genuinely am.
- 1:21:10I genuinely am.
- 1:21:11Well, you're not married yet.
- 1:21:13No, we're engaged.
- 1:21:13Right.
- 1:21:15So get ready.
- 1:21:16It changes.
- 1:21:18I know that.
- 1:21:18Well, that's why, unfortunately, divorce rates are so high because people do change.
- 1:21:25No, no, no.
- 1:21:26Marriage changes it.
- 1:21:27I think people change too.
- 1:21:28That takes a long time.
- 1:21:30The minute you're married, it's different.
- 1:21:33You got to be prepared for that.
- 1:21:35So then the question would be, how do you prepare for that before you're married?
- 1:21:39You're saying that love is not enough.
- 1:21:42You marry somebody because you need them and they need you.
- 1:21:48Differences, you need those differences and they need your differences.
- 1:21:55But I mean, I don't think there's a playbook for figuring out how to do that or how to find those things or how to figure out the needs that you have.
- 1:22:05Here's the crucial line is, I'm not enough.
- 1:22:11If I'm just looking for more love, I've never admitted that I'm not enough.
- 1:22:16On the contrary, I want more of me.
- 1:22:21To get married means I'm not enough.
- 1:22:26If you don't have that conviction, then what is she doing in your life?
- 1:22:32If you're getting married so that you have a better life, better off not married.
- 1:22:43You're getting married so that you have something more than your life because your life is not enough.
- 1:22:52Then you're not going to turn around and say, oh, I don't need this more in my life.
- 1:22:55Yeah, you do.
- 1:22:57Because you're not enough.
- 1:23:00But if you think you're enough, then stay single.
- 1:23:03Don't you think that if somebody thinks they're enough, that alone is a psychological issue?
- 1:23:11Like for somebody to go through life and think that no one on this planet can add value to me, that seems like a narcissist.
- 1:23:23Yeah.
- 1:23:24That seems like the person is a little off.
- 1:23:26Now, people who say, God doesn't need anything.
- 1:23:30Really?
- 1:23:31You think God is saying, no one can add value to me?
- 1:23:35And this is a God you want to worship?
- 1:23:38The idea of vulnerability and not being enough seems like it's the core of any good relationship then.
- 1:23:46Why do you need a business partner?
- 1:23:47Why do you need a wife?
- 1:23:49Well, business is business, but...
- 1:23:52I see, I see.
- 1:23:53I mean, sometimes you say like getting a business partner is almost the same as getting married.
- 1:23:58That's almost, almost.
- 1:24:00But you do recognize a vulnerability in your own skill set.
- 1:24:03Oh, yeah.
- 1:24:03Well, that's just being you.
- 1:24:05That's not humble.
- 1:24:06That's just true.
- 1:24:07Yeah, exactly.
- 1:24:09I'm not good at it.
- 1:24:10I'm not being humble.
- 1:24:12There's parts of life that people aren't good at, which is why they...
- 1:24:17Look for help.
- 1:24:17Look for help.
- 1:24:18They can still be narcissists.
- 1:24:22You got to help me.
- 1:24:24You exist to help me.
- 1:24:26That's narcissism.
- 1:24:28That's interesting.
- 1:24:28I'm just noticing.
- 1:24:34A lot of the things that you teach...
- 1:24:38They can be interpreted in a healthy way and also like a negative way as well.
- 1:24:42I mean, like what you're talking about with the fact that it's good to be vulnerable.
- 1:24:46It's good to have somebody who adds value to your life in terms of a marriage or any kind of relationship.
- 1:24:54But at the same time, a narcissist can also think that other people are put on this planet to add value to their life.
- 1:25:01So the same idea, just in one positive and one negative way to interpret it.
- 1:25:06Right.
- 1:25:07But if I think you're put on this planet to serve me, then I don't even know who you are.
- 1:25:14All I see is your utilitarian contributions.
- 1:25:19That's a horrible way to look at anybody.
- 1:25:22That's pornography.
- 1:25:23It's horrible.
- 1:25:24Absolutely horrible.
- 1:25:25It's pornography.
- 1:25:27the place somebody who wants to understand themselves better so that they can receive value from other people, their partner, their peers.
- 1:25:46How does somebody make sure that the value they extract from another is in a good way?
- 1:25:52Yeah, but that should not be your primary thought.
- 1:25:54The primary thought is, what can I offer?
- 1:25:59not what can I get.
- 1:26:04What can I give?
- 1:26:06And that what you receive is a side effect of giving.
- 1:26:10What the other receives when you give is the contribution of receiving.
- 1:26:20Receiving doesn't have to be selfish either.
- 1:26:24When you receive someone, you're giving them the biggest gift in the world.
- 1:26:30You recognize them.
- 1:26:33You attribute significance to them.
- 1:26:35You hear them.
- 1:26:39That's a huge gift.
- 1:26:42But you're not taking.
- 1:26:43You're giving.
- 1:26:45By receiving them, you're giving.
- 1:26:47You're not being narcissistic.
- 1:26:52On the contrary, if you don't receive them, you're being narcissistic.
- 1:26:58So in both cases, giving and receiving are contributions.
- 1:27:03Taking is abuse.
- 1:27:07You do not take a person.
- 1:27:12You receive them.
- 1:27:13Oh, that's a gift.
- 1:27:15Women are better at receiving.
- 1:27:17Men are better at giving.
- 1:27:19Who is providing a better service or gift?
- 1:27:23The giver or the receiver?
- 1:27:26I don't think there's a better.
- 1:27:27I think it's both necessary.
- 1:27:30And they're both gifts.
- 1:27:33You make a woman out of your wife by giving.
- 1:27:38She makes a man out of you by receiving.
- 1:27:47But if you're taking, that's abuse.
- 1:27:52So the expression marriage is a give and take.
- 1:27:55Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.
- 1:27:58Because receiving is not taking.
- 1:28:01Receiving is giving.
- 1:28:04I think that many people, good people, have more of an issue giving, I would say, too much.
- 1:28:14They give so much of themselves to other people who do take and do not reciprocate.
- 1:28:23How does that person who gives to everybody and receives nothing...
- 1:28:30What's your advice to them?
- 1:28:32It's usually because you expect something in return.
- 1:28:38So you're not giving wholeheartedly.
- 1:28:42There's an underlying...
- 1:28:45So you give and give and give, and then when you see that there's no return, you regret grieving.
- 1:28:51So what does that mean?
- 1:28:52You were giving in order to get.
- 1:28:54Yeah.
- 1:28:58A man came to his rabbi many, many years ago, and he said, I give a lot of charity.
- 1:29:03I'm very hospitable.
- 1:29:05I feed all the poor in the city.
- 1:29:07Everybody knows you can come to me for food.
- 1:29:09But I don't know if I'm really sincere.
- 1:29:15I want to be sincere about it.
- 1:29:19And the rabbi said to him,
- 1:29:23The hungry people who eat at your table appreciate the food sincerely.
- 1:29:29What more do you want?
- 1:29:30It's, well, he wants to feel like there isn't some alternative reason as to why there's no like a, like there's no other reason why he's giving outside of just being helpful, I'm assuming.
- 1:29:50That's what he wants.
- 1:29:51He's looking for some virtue in himself.
- 1:29:54And the rabbi said, you feed others because they're hungry.
- 1:29:58What are you looking at yourself for?
- 1:30:02So if you fed them and they're no longer hungry, perfect.
- 1:30:07Well, what do you want?
- 1:30:08A halo?
- 1:30:10I want to bring up one.
- 1:30:12And by the way, the poor people who eat at your house, they're usually not grateful.
- 1:30:16Why?
- 1:30:17I don't know.
- 1:30:19Why are they not grateful?
- 1:30:20They're not.
- 1:30:21You just, you always throw these, these dualities into the conversation.
- 1:30:27It causes, it causes somebody to, I think,
- 1:30:33at least when I hear how you teach, I second guess a lot of the ideas because I'm like, well, I want to give or I want to be grateful.
- 1:30:42Hopefully I'm not living life wrong.
- 1:30:45That's what I get concerned about because you're right.
- 1:30:48Somebody can receive and be grateful.
- 1:30:49Somebody can receive and not be grateful.
- 1:30:51Then I'm overthinking everything in life.
- 1:30:54How am I pouring into my wife, into my friends?
- 1:30:58Am I doing it the right way?
- 1:30:59Am I doing it the wrong intent?
- 1:31:01I don't know.
- 1:31:02I think people can overthink this stuff too.
- 1:31:05And I don't think that's healthy either.
- 1:31:07I think that's what the rabbi was telling this guy.
- 1:31:10What are you doing?
- 1:31:11Yeah.
- 1:31:12There are hungry people who need your food and you give them the food.
- 1:31:15What is your problem?
- 1:31:17Well, this is bringing us back to the first part of this conversation, which was religion.
- 1:31:21And we're overthinking how we are religious.
- 1:31:25We overthink everything.
- 1:31:27And I actually, you know, it's funny.
- 1:31:29It's the good people who overthink everything.
- 1:31:32It's never the assholes.
- 1:31:35It's never the narcissist.
- 1:31:37They don't overthink anything.
- 1:31:39It's the good people that wonder, well, you know, I'm building this company and it's going super well, but we have to do some layoffs.
- 1:31:48Like, you know, am I a bad person for doing these layoffs even though our company is still growing and doing a lot of good?
- 1:31:54It's never the asshole that wonders that.
- 1:31:56In fact, I would make an assumption that if you are ever wondering if you are doing good or bad, if you have that second thought about, am I doing this in the best way possible, helping the most people, I feel like you are probably a very good person just by having that thought.
- 1:32:16So both the narcissist and the altruist are always thinking about
- 1:32:22They're always obsessing.
- 1:32:23The question is only about what.
- 1:32:26So the real solution is this.
- 1:32:30You gotta do good.
- 1:32:32Are you doing enough good?
- 1:32:34No.
- 1:32:35What are you thinking?
- 1:32:38Now what is your doubt?
- 1:32:40There's no doubt.
- 1:32:42You have to be good and you're not good enough.
- 1:32:49There's no puzzle here.
- 1:32:53It's as clear as day.
- 1:32:59No Schindler's List?
- 1:33:02At the end, he says, he beats himself up because you just notice that he has a gold pin that he's been wearing all the time, and he could have sold it and saved one more soul.
- 1:33:15He's beating himself up, and you think, oh, come on, you did plenty.
- 1:33:20Of course, yeah.
- 1:33:21Huh?
- 1:33:23Don't beat yourself up like that.
- 1:33:24You did enough.
- 1:33:25But at the same time, you could have done one more.
- 1:33:27So, yeah, you could have done more.
- 1:33:31Was that a shock?
- 1:33:32So that duality, I mean, you're expanding it to every single thing in life.
- 1:33:40You're saying that, are you doing enough to be a good husband?
- 1:33:43Yes, but you could do more.
- 1:33:45Are you doing enough to be a good son?
- 1:33:46Yes, but you could do more.
- 1:33:48I always think about it from the context of people who are, in a traditional sense, ambitious, building a company.
- 1:33:58Well, have you done enough?
- 1:33:59Are you successful?
- 1:34:00Yes, but you could also do more as well.
- 1:34:03And I think that's a healthy way to look at life.
- 1:34:05I think that the issue with looking at life that way is when you're hard on yourself, too hard on yourself.
- 1:34:17Because you haven't done the more yet.
- 1:34:19That's narcissism.
- 1:34:21See, the very fine line.
- 1:34:22I didn't do enough.
- 1:34:23That's why people are suffering.
- 1:34:26No.
- 1:34:27People are suffering.
- 1:34:28Do some more.
- 1:34:31Where did you get into the picture?
- 1:34:34Right?
- 1:34:37It's like, if we're here to make this world a godly place, look around.
- 1:34:42Is the world a godly place?
- 1:34:44So what do you mean you've done enough?
- 1:34:47The place is not godly.
- 1:34:53So keep your eye on the goal, not on yourself.
- 1:34:58And by the way, that is so much happier.
- 1:35:02We are so much happier when we don't think about ourselves.
- 1:35:06Well, you said, this is what I wanted to mention.
- 1:35:08You said the healthiest attitude towards yourself is boredom.
- 1:35:12Not high self-esteem, not low self-esteem, but boredom.
- 1:35:14Boredom, like, why are we talking about me?
- 1:35:18Nothing more important to talk about.
- 1:35:19Is there a difference when you're talking about your self-perspective between boredom and indifference?
- 1:35:26Or is that more or less the same?
- 1:35:27Yeah, one leads to the other.
- 1:35:32But all the pop psychology urging you to love yourself and validate yourself.
- 1:35:39Self-development industry.
- 1:35:42It is so destructive.
- 1:35:44You're making people miserable.
- 1:35:49It was this cartoon where this woman says to her friend, you know, between Pilates, gym, and the spa, and the hair maker, I have no time for myself.
- 1:36:05No time for yourself?
- 1:36:06All of that's for yourself.
- 1:36:08If somebody is too self-focused, what's the first thing they should do?
- 1:36:13Take anti-depression pills, because you're going to get depressed.
- 1:36:19If you're focused on yourself, you're going down.
- 1:36:24Because it is not natural for a human being to feel needy.
- 1:36:30You're destroying yourself slowly.
- 1:36:33If the whole self-development industry is causing depression, and religion is also focusing on the self, then where do people start?
- 1:36:48There's no escape, right?
- 1:36:49There's no escape.
- 1:36:50Go back to God.
- 1:36:54I think I'm having problems.
- 1:36:56What are God's problems?
- 1:37:01My problems will be oversome, not his.
- 1:37:07So who's more needy?
- 1:37:10Besides the fact that everything he does, he does infinitely, infinitely.
- 1:37:21compassion is sorely lacking in this world.
- 1:37:28Every husband has to have compassion for his wife because it's not easy being married to you.
- 1:37:34I have no doubt.
- 1:37:36Any guy who thinks it's easy is cruel.
- 1:37:41So you have to have compassion for your wife.
- 1:37:43You have to have compassion for kids.
- 1:37:46They don't know better.
- 1:37:48You have to have compassion for God.
- 1:37:55Imagine you create a whole universe and all anybody does is complain to you.
- 1:38:06Or deny you.
- 1:38:09Or blame you for every problem.
- 1:38:14It's no fun being God.
- 1:38:19I don't understand people who want to think they're God.
- 1:38:23I don't either.
- 1:38:24What do you need those troubles for?
- 1:38:26I don't either.
- 1:38:27I have no idea.
- 1:38:30I always say to people, the individuals that you look up to and probably worship to a degree, most of them you would not want their life and they're not God either.
- 1:38:46So can you only imagine the problems that God would have?
- 1:38:49Why would you ever want that in your life?
- 1:38:52I wonder why people try and worship somebody who isn't themselves.
- 1:38:57I don't know why we always look at somebody because people in my world, they look up to and probably worship to a degree these big entrepreneurs and successful business leaders.
- 1:39:10I don't know why people want to be something other than themselves.
- 1:39:14I never understood that.
- 1:39:15The only legitimate envy is to envy people who know what they're doing.
- 1:39:23They know why they're alive.
- 1:39:26That is enviable.
- 1:39:27I had a friend in Minnesota.
- 1:39:32He was a quadriplegic.
- 1:39:35I've never seen a happier guy in your life.
- 1:39:39He would get up in the morning.
- 1:39:40It would take two hours to get out of bed.
- 1:39:44But he was out of bed and he was ready to take life on.
- 1:39:49He was a counselor for handicapped people.
- 1:39:55And he just loved life.
- 1:39:56He loved life because he understood why he's here.
- 1:40:02To help, not to be helped.
- 1:40:07He was a giver, not a taker.
- 1:40:10And it's enviable.
- 1:40:18That's why a truly godly person is enviable.
- 1:40:24He sees life clearly.
- 1:40:26Doesn't have to be holier than vow and have the superiority complex and be assured that he's going to have a front seat in heaven.
- 1:40:39None of that shtick.
- 1:40:40He just loves being who he is in the service of God.
- 1:40:45Amen.
- 1:40:47So imagine everyone in the world wakes up tomorrow morning.
- 1:40:51Eight billion people wake up in the morning and say, God, what can I defeat?
- 1:40:59Would this not be a nice world?
- 1:41:01I think people would be a lot happier.
- 1:41:07Do you have belief that we will ever get to that point?
- 1:41:12You're optimistic.
- 1:41:13And it is enviable, those who have gotten there.
- 1:41:17Their lives are so calm.
- 1:41:19Do you believe that a billion people can do it?
- 1:41:22Yeah.
- 1:41:23Because we've gotten really turned off to narcissism.
- 1:41:27That's true.
- 1:41:28We've had enough.
- 1:41:30It's choking us.
- 1:41:32No one wants to be a narcissist.
- 1:41:35No, almost no one.
- 1:41:38So yeah, people are very, very interested.
- 1:41:42What does God want?
- 1:41:45It's the most popular thing right now.
- 1:41:47What's the number one question that you get asked about God?
- 1:41:53What can I do for him?
- 1:41:58No one talks about believing in him anymore.
- 1:42:00What can I do for him?
- 1:42:01Yeah.
- 1:42:03What does belief do?
- 1:42:06Okay, I believe.
- 1:42:07Yeah, I'm out.
- 1:42:10They want to know what can I do.
- 1:42:13I have non-Jews calling up from all over the world.
- 1:42:17So I'm keeping Shabbat and I'm keeping kosher.
- 1:42:20What more?
- 1:42:21I said, well, first of all, don't keep Shabbat.
- 1:42:25No, and don't keep kosher.
- 1:42:27Give a lot of charity.
- 1:42:28Honor your parents.
- 1:42:30Have good kids.
- 1:42:32And produce toothbrushes.
- 1:42:34If people could pick this book up, read through it, and just come away with the most important lesson.
- 1:42:43What is the takeaway that you want everybody to have?
- 1:42:46Well, I don't know.
- 1:42:47The takeaway is if you read this book, you will be happier, you will be less stressed, you will be serving God, and you won't be religious.
- 1:42:58Where can people find you, Rabbi?
- 1:43:01It's goodtoknow.org.