The RDL Podcast with Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Responding to a thoughtful listener’s letter attacking my views on marriage as “ridiculous”.  Would we stand for a system that forces young people to undergo at least four years of religious indoctrination before getting on with their lives?  Would we cruelly withhold jobs and employment from anyone brave enough to try and evade this brutal system of compulsory madrassas? Would we allow imams, clerics, and priests to impose their destructive dogmas on young minds?  Of course not, right?  But we do just that!   Secular Fundamentalism is a religion; it’s a militant faith, a community of shared values, heresies and sacraments. Today’s modern secular fundamentalism has its fanatics and its saints and we force millions of tomorrow’s leaders into bowing down to its idols.  The power of numbers over stories.  Making important life decisions with our heads and never with our hearts.  How to decide just who among us gets the rare and desirable resources we all covet.

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I respond to a thoughtful listener’s letter charging me with ‘bias’ against Islam. After the Nazi surrender in May 1945, German youths didn’t inflict terror on London and New York to avenge the destruction of Dresden and the bombing of Berlin. After the surrender on the battleship USS Missouri in September 1945, Japanese youths didn’t form terror teams against America to avenge Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So why, for decades, have Muslim youths been committing atrocities against western civilians for perceived wrongs going back to the 17th century? Why do many so-called “accident-prone” children bring painful incidents upon themselves? Most Germans have allowed their government to import over a million young men bent on dominating Germany and destroying it. Recall what Russian soldiers did to German women in 1944 and 1945. Learn how men and women react differently to “pointless” telephone conversations and the scariest words any man will ever hear. Why, in this age, does belief trump biology and feelings trump facts? Progressives’ silly faith in electric transportation will get them nowhere. Remember you heard it here first: There will be no electric passenger planes in your travel future. Today’s titanic struggle between truth and materialism rages on. Which marriage model do you prefer? Progressives are wrong; not everything about yesterday is mistaken, ignorant or evil.

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Why does liberalism and home shopping dominate television while conservatism mostly finds its home on radio? Why is liberalism the creed of emotionalism? Who had done more good for the world - Calcutta’s Mother Theresa or Amazon’s Jeff Bezos? Why is our balance mechanism found in our ears? Aggressiveness vs modesty - Why do men and women’s biological structures reflect these differences? Newspapers never used to show pictures of corpses - why do they now do so? Why was it okay for Planned Parenthood to sell the body parts of babies they killed, but a fully grown adult may not sell one of his kidneys? Why do doctors not simply vote cancer out of existence just as they did with other disorders? Why is political liberalism often equated with moral virtue but conservatism never is? Why are limits on political campaign finance immoral? Why does government want to force people out of their cars and into buses and trains? Why is the question of whether we evolved or were created not a scientific question but a life decision? Why is charity important even if you don’t have much money?

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Why does adultery inflict greater pain and suffering than corporate closures and job loss? In Governmental Indoctrination Centers (GIC’s), formerly known as public schools, little children are prematurely sexualized through a propaganda campaign known as Sex Education or Sex Ed. The argument is that children are “going to do it anyway” so we should teach them how to do it safely. Now, your Rabbi asks, let’s also have 'Gun Ed' since we know that children are “going to do it anyway”, that is play with firearms, we should teach them how to do it safely. Here's why this will never happen in your lifetime. When a policeman shoots a black man, without knowing anything else we instantly know that he did it because he was a racist. When a homosexual is attacked in a bar during a drug deal gone bad, everyone knows without doubt that those attacking him did so out of their hate for homosexuals. But when a fervent Muslim, steeped in the theology of jihad, murders a westerner while yelling "Allahu Akbar", authorities spend months futilely trying to discover his motivation. Inevitably they give up or ascribe it to ‘workplace violence’. Why can’t the Left accept the flaws of followers of Islam at face value? Furthermore, the Left considers Bible-believing Jews and Christians to be greater threats to peace and progress than murderous Muslims. Why is this? Whatever two adults do sexually is not government's business, but when two adults engage in a free, consensual, economic or business transaction; government regulates it, controls it, taxes it, maligns it or prohibits it. The Left gives a free pass to adulterers who ruin lives while they focus their fury on business professionals who improve lives. Why is our appetite for sex so understandable while our appetite for money so demonized? Finally, we reveal the difference between the two repugnant revolutions, French and Russian, and the two benign revolutions, English and American, that still shape our century.

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The first time in human history that children knew more than their parents and how parents evade their responsibility to their children.  The 25th word in the Bible, religious holidays and modern science.  Surprising secrets of the casino’s roulette wheel. How humans got to planet earth.  If you tell me your answer to this one question, I would know how you feel about wealth & poverty, marriage, taxation, public education and mental health. Why most societal destruction and violence is perpetrated by single males.  What the name of Israel’s national airline, El Al, means. Amazing story of the discovery of microbes. Why water is approximately 70% of people and also 70% of earth’s surface.  The world’s most successful treatment for alcoholism.  Why do some people risk their lives to save/help a stranger? How do placebos work? How a rabbi with the same last name as mine cured a war veteran with a paralyzed arm.  A strange conversation with a cow.  How to discover whether you are a consumer or a creator; a maker or a taker.  Why the inheritance tax is immoral.  When your children should betray you.  The real source of the joy in physical intimacy between a man and woman.

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A tragedy is something that causes suffering, distress and destruction. A terrible tragedy is a tragedy that could have easily been prevented. Ancient Jewish wisdom can prevent those tragedies. When people marry without knowledge of how the world REALLY works, it’s usually just as tragic as when a pilot takes off in an airplane type for which he’s had inadequate training. When people choose careers or start families without any knowledge of the ages, it is nearly always a terrible tragedy. It didn’t have to happen and it is almost impossible to repair. Young people are vulnerable to immoral professors spewing propaganda partially because they have no knowledge of the ages. If a 23-year-old techie tells me that super-injection is now possible in single material semiconductors, I am astounded at his knowledge and assume that he’s right. If that same individual tells me that men can become women or that the profit motive is obnoxious, I weep at his folly. If we lived for 1,000 years, by the time we reached middle age we’d all be quite smart. Tragically, many dreadful mistakes foisted upon us by a revolutionary and progressive culture only get debunked after we’ve ruined our lives following them. (Hope you’re listening, young women!) Why talking to an old person could be the best afternoon you’ve spent in years. We used to be led by ‘Elders”—today we praise some very stupid politicians because they’re young and fresh-faced. New is a useful marketing word, but it has nothing to do with truth. The gift of ancient Jewish wisdom is living as if we all had 1,000 years of life experience.

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Is everybody’s work equally valuable and important? How can you tell the difference? I respect all humans who behave consistently with being created in the image of God, but do I respect all career choices, occupations, and professions equally? No, of course not, and neither do you. There are several key things to bear in mind when choosing a career path. What attributes does sprinter Usain Bolt share with an oil rig worker and a dentist? What does a professor of race and gender studies share with a graffiti artist? A surprising number of people think that the moon landing in 1969 was a hoax, but what actual benefits did it yield? Do you know what a black hole is? Do you care? Do you know what a dental implant is? Do you care? Most things you care about came about because of microscopes, not telescopes. Why do you probably respect mechanics and musicians more than astrophysicists and artists? Lastly, you should be finding your connection to God through an ear rather than through a galaxy.

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Many of today’s problems are the result of bad choices you made yesterday. They put you in your own Egypt. Want to see the mugshot of your worst enemy? Easy — look on your driver’s license. It’s relatively easy to conceive a male baby: It only takes a minute or two. It’s a little harder to give birth to a male baby: it can take several hours. But it is a whole lot harder to turn a male baby into a son. That takes years. It takes years of knowing what to do and doing it. Societies that fail to produce sons, but rather, only produce male human beings is a doomed society. Sons come into existence only after years of fathers and mothers working together. Lessons from Passover… “When your son will ask you…”. Discovering the name of the person most responsible for your failures and disappointments and turning things around is crucial. Who really enslaved the Israelites? Who enslaved you? Seeing the future is the only way to escape the past.

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Although riots slightly damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in the 16th century and the infamous French Revolution inflicted a little damage in the 18th, this fire was the worst damage the beautiful cathedral has ever sustained. In reporting on the Notre Dame fire, the news media ignored the many thousands of attacks, desecrations and vandalizations of European churches every year. Yes, thousands! And almost all perpetrated by Middle Eastern or North African immigrants or their children. There was even an attempt to blow up Notre Dame with a car bomb in 2016. The convicted Islamic terrorist, Inez Madani, was sentenced to eight years in jail just 72 hours before the Notre Dame fire broke out. There was another big fire right in front of Notre Dame on June 17th, 1242. People burned about 25 wagon loads of irreplaceable Hebrew manuscripts. That fire burned for two days. Is there a connection? Catholic-Jewish relations back then weren’t what they are today. Happily, times have changed. Also, Airbus is almost a part of European government, yet Boeing isn’t a part of American government? We explore reasons for the price of Boeing stock, and they include bribery and corruption. Try bribery and corruption using the Baltimore city government model. Finally, why do news media lean so far to the left, and why does journalism breed envy and resentment? Enjoy!

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There is a real reason why airlines have become so much more punctual in keeping to their schedules than they used to be. Has global warming expanded the American continent, pushing Los Angeles and New York further apart? Amazon and the internet are not the only culprits killing off suburban shopping malls; a far more destructive force is imperiling the very existence of your local shopping mall. Is it true that atheism is growing and spreading like wildfire, consuming Bible-based Judeo-Christian faiths in its insatiable lust for secularizing the world? I am surprised you even ask! But I have the answer for you. One thing that is definitely increasing is the number of young Americans taking anti-depressant drugs. Finally, does secular liberalism make societies rot?

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