Rabbi Daniel Lapin's podcast

How a country's economy controls its military abilities. The most important rule you've heard today: Reality is more accurately depicted by a video than by a snapshot. With this show you can measure whether you're a hi quality or low quality person. Hitler wasn't a lunatic-at least not at first. His willingness to make war against England was quite logical. This show explains why. It also explains why China could one day become a real threat to America while Russia's population and economy make it all but incapable of seriously imperiling any American interests. Genuine education vs. inflated qualifications and meaningless degrees in pseudo-subjects. Why citizens of Israel produce far more wealth than those of United Kingdom, France, Japan, Italy, S. Korea and Taiwan. Why many Americans fail to feel the boundary between verbal altercation and physical violence.

China threatens American military interests in South China Sea & American economic interests internationally. Iranian nuclear aggressiveness threatens American interests in the Middle East and elsewhere. Illegal invasion of America by Middle Easterners, North Africans, and South and Central Americans threatens to overwhelm hospital emergency rooms, the welfare system, and the criminal justice system. Yet to the Left, none of these threats matter. Why is Russia the only danger they scream about hysterically? Why was Russia no threat during the Obama years? Why did Justice and the FBI indict 12 lower level Russian hackers who will never see the inside of a U.S. courtroom exactly a few hours before President Trump met Mr. Putin in Finland? The American intelligence community spied on candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and reported to President Obama and Hillary Clinton. Of course President Trump doesn't trust them. Why should he? Why other countries' "human-rights abuses" are none of America's business. Thomas Friedman embarrasses me by promoting globalism and environmentalism in the New York Times by using Hebrew words! Yes, NATO is becoming an anachronism. They wouldn't help us if we came to blows with China. And does NATO really need a new building in Brussels, as large as the Pentagon? Your rabbi explains what is REALLY going on.

Does America really care about little children? For more than 8 days, the world held its breath over the plight of 12 young boys stranded in a cave in Northern Thailand. Why no equivalent empathy for the more than 50 young American boys murdered by their mothers' boyfriends in only the first half of 2018? Why no attempt to rescue the thousands of young children at mortal peril from their mothers' live-in boyfriends? Why no comparable concern for the many children at risk of being killed in drive-by shootings? So we obviously don't care about kids. Why was Thailand different? How liberalism & progressivism promote emotionalism. If Black Lives Matter, why is it okay that fully 36% of all American abortions were had by black women—only 13% of all females? The true but rare explanation. High class doesn't mean "rich"; it's living wisely that will make you and your children grow rich. Low class doesn't mean poor-it's living for "now" that condemns you & your kids to poverty. There are low class wealthy folks & high class poor but they don't stay that way for long. When Russia and the Soviet Union posed an existential threat to the west, liberals, progressives, and secularists excused it and blamed the U.S. Now that the threat is China and no longer Russia, they are obsessed about the dangers of President Trump cozying up to Russia.

Why did the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the banks of the Mississippi in St Louis become The Gateway Arch National Park? Is it because the Louisiana Purchase was really a horrid event? The Left wants to progress constantly. Socialism wants change for its own sake. What would America have to look like for progressives to want to preserve? If America acceded to all of the Left's demands, would they then become conservatives? Community Organizer & Activist are not job titles that Lewis and Clark would have understood. Politicians! Please stop changing our world and promising us Utopia. We just need you to preserve the framework of predictability in our lives. Jews and Christians both believe in a perfect Messianic tomorrow. So do progressives; but there's a big difference.

"You two have lovely hearts!" she told us. But she couldn't have known that. What's more, it's irrelevant. What mainly matters for people to be able to live & function together, is not our hearts and thoughts but how we behave. The motives of muggers & murderers don't matter. Their behavior does. The reasons robbers rob and rapists rape is largely irrelevant. But since you ask, I do happen to know why young men commit these hideous crimes. The answer is simple: Because they wanted to. Being able to resist our wants and desires takes character and GIC's abandoned teaching character half a century ago. Successful management of the Imperial Roman Empire, the Nazi's 3rd Reich, and Islamic Jihad. 90% of violent crime committed by which 13% of population?

Is America headed up or down? Is our discontent with our leaders because we see them working in their own interest not in ours or just because we are deplorables? Is our distrust in the FBI, the IRS, the Veterans Admin., the USPS, and Amtrak because of rampant bureaucratic & political corruption or just because we are paranoid? Does our gloom and pessimism obscure all the wonderful indicators of progress—teachers now getting paid well, even the poor have smart phones and air-conditioning, inequality going down, life-expectancy up, and increasing numbers of young people choosing selfless careers in government. The great Roman Empire is now nothing but ruins. Why America is not similarly headed to inevitable oblivion. Don't forget the cobra eggs.

"This was the beginning of evil, for if no man is a hero to his valet, much less can he remain a god for long in the eyes of a curious woman. Here, as in other matters, familiarity breeds contempt." I didn't realize that when the great English adventure writer Rider Haggard wrote those words, he was quoting the German 18th century philosopher Hegel, of whom in general, I don't think much but who did write these good words, "No man is a hero to his valet. This is not because the hero is not a hero, but because the valet is a valet." Anyway, a husband and wife see far more of one another than a valet sees of his boss so with all that familiarity, how can they avoid developing contempt for one another? The answer goes far beyond bathroom privacy and sexual restraint and provides an indispensable guide to marital happiness and durability. But it isn't easy.

On this show, I enjoy a conversation with several listeners of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin Show. The only thing about hosting my shows on terrestrial radio that I miss is the conversation with callers. Otherwise, I prefer the up-and-coming podcast format. A few weeks ago I solicited advice from tech-savvy listeners about how to incorporate your calls and today's show is the result of their generous guidance. We talk with callers about marital infidelity in marriages with higher earning wives, maintaining contact with business associates, the collective effect of pornography on the economy and other unexpected questions.

Most adults who have lived a little of life, and who've survived its inevitable heartaches and tears, deeply desire to save their children from pain. Chief among their legitimate concerns is premature sexualization. What a blessing it would be if children could avoid the intense emotional roller coaster ride of serial infatuations. (And don't for a moment surrender responsibility by fallaciously claiming that such heartbreak is 'just part of growing up'. It isn't.) How about if kids could grow up seeing sexuality, not as a smash-and-grab raid for the goodies in the window, but as a first step towards love, commitment and marriage? Maybe if we helped them understand the tight relationship between sex and money they'd be better equipped to face temptation. Why involuntary celibate men make less money. Let's help them see that unrestrained sexual indulgence erodes the self-discipline necessary for economic success. The Bible just happens to be a superb textbook for really getting this link.

Do you really believe that all children born ought to have equal opportunities for successful lives? Really? And how far exactly do you want the government go in order to guarantee this? How should we guarantee the child of a drug addicted homeless woman the same shot at success as a home-schooled child from a caring intact family? Should parents be able to bequeath their assets to their children or is the death tax a moral attempt to provide all children the same shot at success? Does a religious upbringing confer an unfair advantage on some children? Why isn't it just a little immoral to care so much more about one's own children than about all the other children in society? Why was Russia the first country to recognize the new State of Israel in May 1948? Politics is nothing more than the practical application of our most deeply held moral values. Is it wrong for prestigious universities to provide priority admission to children of alumni?

Three Mediterranean oceanfront countries with similar population densities, similar limited access, similar lack of natural resources. Yet, Malta and Gibraltar are thriving, happy places that attract throngs of tourists while Gaza is a dangerous and oppressive hell hole. Why? (Clue: It has nothing to do with Israel) Should countries that start wars and then lose them also lose territory? How helpful is the United Nations? When groups of people succeed or when they fail, the causes are seldom external. It is nearly always due to internal culture. Kids who succeed at school usually do so because they come from a family culture that esteems education. Whether young people grow into productive citizens building successful, independent lives or whether they become indolent, pleasure-seeking parasites depends only on culture. Why have Biblically-based countries and cultures been more successful than the rest? Is the victim always virtuous or can you sometimes blame the victim? Why are the Arabs in Abu Dhabi, Qatar, and Dubai more successful than those in Gaza and the West Bank?

Here's an unexpected reversal: It's not so much that civilization developed water-borne sewerage systems as much as it's that the cultural values of cleanliness that made it imperative for certain cultures to distance themselves from their body waste that made civilization possible. Toilets and sewage systems are more important than banks and art galleries and have to come first. Cultures that sexualize the public area lose economic vitality. Why premature sexualization of youngsters dooms them to poverty. How a certain 'redhead' contributed to economic and military decline. How they got enough water into New York in the 1840s. Why it takes 3 or more people to sustain 2 elderly people even if the old-timers have retirement plans and pensions. What distinguishes humans who are creators from humans who are consumers. Why a prominent Stanford professor who got it all stupendously wrong fifty years ago is still teaching. At the angel end, people aspire to greatness, creativity, achievement and accomplishment. At the other end of the spectrum, people aspire to eat, have sex, indulge drugs and alcohol, and seek entertainment and luxury. To flourish, a society can't have too many of the angel-type people. To survive, a society can't have too few of the other end people.

Should women be allowed to vacation, exercise, and work isolated from hungry, leering male eyes? Well, while most men do not mind being gazed at by women's eyes (What! Men and women react differently to being ogled?) should men-only clubs also be allowed?How about male only sports? When little children say to an adult, "But you said the opposite yesterday", you know they got you. You've got work to do. Inconsistency reveals fault lines in a coherent system and liberalism has more than its fair share of inconsistencies. True systems like mathematics and physics have no internal contradictions. No law about addition or subtraction contradicts any other law about multiplication or division. No law about gravity or optics contradicts another law about motion or electricity. Yet, repeatedly, the system known variously as liberalism/leftism/progressivism/secular fundamentalism/socialism reveals internal contradictions. These intrinsic fault lines prove the failure of the unproven axioms known as liberalism/leftism/etc. It is clear that it is no coherent system. It clearly possesses no integrity at all. Women-only organizations, yes; men-only clubs, no? Really? A vacation resort for women only. Makes sense, but why not one for men? Germany wants all immigrants but also wants to be pro-Israel. What if your immigrants hate Israel? Why did so-called black leadership like Jesse Jackson support O.J. Simpson but not Bill Cosby? Should it be illegal to deny the Holocaust?

Deep down, do you harbor a horrible little suspicion that accepting most migrants or refugees, (whatever you want to call citizens of other countries who want to live in America) is more moral than building a wall or stopping them at the border in any other way? Deep down do you suspect that it is more moral to help beggars in Bombay and derelicts in Djibouti than helping your own sister? Do any of the 535 legislators on Capitol Hill know of any moral framework defending national integrity? Does any State Dept. bureaucrat know of any moral framework validating border control? It sure doesn't look like it, does it? And if you don't believe in the morality of it, how can you accomplish it? No decent person can succeed at any enterprise that deep in his heart he considers morally reprehensible. Deep down they and their European counterparts believe that any South American has the right to live in Texas or Arizona and they believe that any MENA (Middle East/North Africa) resident has the right to reside in France, Italy, Germany or anywhere else in Europe. Yet, there is one moral response to uninvited immigrants; one blindingly clear and compelling approach to the problem that is entirely moral and which your rabbi imparts in this episode detailing what happened when they poured into his house.

3 vital questions to ask the man wanting to marry (or date) your daughter. One sure giveaway that he's a loser. Hint: It has to do with his mom. A scary interview with an intensive care hospital nurse. "If civilization was left up to women, we'd still be living in grass huts." What sexist male pig said that? It's also true that there are more female fetuses aborted than male. By their feminists moms! Why so many LUGS (lesbians until graduation) but not so many HUGS. Participation prizes-a national disgrace. Why the Bible says "Man must leave his father & mother…" Why are stores on Main Street, USA often called Smith & Son or Jones & Sons but never Wilson & Daughter? Why does financial stress harm masculinity, but women who lose their jobs suffer no loss of feminine identity? Why did "primitive" tribes have initiation rites for men but not for women?

What really distinguishes liberalism from conservatism. Holding your own baby for the first time matters to all people in all places at all times. Tennis and marshmallows do not. Feeling hope as the sun rises is something all humans everywhere have always known. Riding a rollercoaster ride is not. Ancient Jewish wisdom's take on Scripture is that it covers everything that is applicable to all people everywhere, always. Such a universal experience is laughter. What is it and what makes some things funnier than others? Why does so much comedy revolve around toilet functions, sexual functions and God? Which is the better blueprint for families, companies, organizations and countries; kindness & compassion or law & discipline? Do you know what is so funny about laughter in the Bible? Who laughs more; liberals or conservatives?

Only about 20% of self-identifying American Jews believe in God and regard His Torah as authoritative. And the rest? What do they believe? Is it true that some parts of American Jewry are viewed as the circumcised wing of the Democratic Party? Why is so much American entertainment Jewishly flavored? This is not true for movies and TV programming from England or France. Is this observation anti-Semitic? If so, call the Anti-Defamation League. Or the Southern Poverty Law Center. The truth about both these disturbing organizations. The sad story of the Christian girl who wasted seven of her best years dating two Jewish men (one after the other). How the term anti-Semitism is no longer about trying to hurt or harm Jews but has become a club with which to bludgeon conservatives into political silence. The overwhelming majority of self-identifying American Jews are political liberals (for reasons found in my book America's Real War). They conflate Jewish values with those of the Democratic Party and regard anyone who opposes their destructive political ideologies as anti-Semitic. With Jews prospering in America as never before and living as tranquilly as never before, it is impossible to claim that America is crawling with virulent anti-Semites-unless you wish to police people's thoughts which I thought we Jews oppose doing?

Today's worst insults and most indicting criticisms: It's old fashioned; it's not modern; it's archaic; it's outdated; it's so yesterday. Many mistakenly believe that any idea not sufficiently progressive is automatically false and wrong. But what if some old ideas are actually true and right? Learn to judge the value of an idea regardless of its vintage. And talking of older ideas with tremendous value, let's teach our children to court rather than date. Why the emotional roller-coaster of teenage and young adult dating does such a good job preparing for divorce. Why do progressives always paint the past in dark colors? School children are indoctrinated to believe that everything done by Americans yesterday was evil. Did Americans really do nothing more than kill Indians and enslave blacks? Progressives believe that society needs them to make tomorrow bright and redeem us from our horrid past. History lessons are no more than exercises in self-flagellation in order to propagandize children to the idea they need progressive ideas and progressive politicians to seek good.

Is it because the Jews convinced the Romans to crucify Jesus? No; many who hate the Jews also hate Christianity. Is it because of Jews like Saul Alinsky, George Soros, Bernie Sanders, Sigmund Freud, Herbert Marcuse and many others? Partially, perhaps, but many who hate the Jews have never heard of these men. Why is it that Jew hatred seems to go hand-in-hand with communism, progressivism, socialism or whatever else you wish to label the Left. Soviet style socialism hated Jews. National Socialism (Nazi) hated Jews and modern progressive socialism as found on American university campuses hates Jews. People and places who possess pride in economic growth and wealth creation get on well with Jews. Hatred of the free-market and loathing of wide spread individual prosperity seems to go together with hating Jews. The more left a country leans the more likely it is to hate Israel. This show explains this bizarre pattern that is so much a part of today's geopolitics. Also, why rioters destroy shops and stores In Their own neighborhoods which is strangely connected to the main topic. Wouldn't it make more sense for rioters to march to someone else's neighborhood before unleashing their barbarous impulses? Why firebomb the grocery store you shopped at yesterday? Why loot and destroy the business that employs your own neighbors?

This show is about the magical ten years in a man's life; ages 13—23 years-old. These are the years in which subsequent success in life is rooted and, sadly, the years in which the origin of future failure can be found. Here are the step-by-step success strategies that a young man should follow for positioning himself for everything good in life. The show is not about the importance of being cool. It is not about learning how to rap or tap dance and it is not about social media. But it is about sex and money; the two areas in which most men have the most regrets. Here are the things you wish you knew when you were between 13 and 23 years-old. The show starts with Shakespeare and ends with Kipling; those two dead white guys knew a thing or two! A genie pops out of the lamp and offers you a 're-do' of the ten years of your life; from when you were thirteen until the time you were twenty-three. Yes or no? I'd wager that you'd take up the genie's offer. You won't be surprised to hear that over 90% of the population agrees with you. Wouldn't you love to re-make the many crucial decisions of those ten years but with knowing what you now know?

America's bizarre distinctions in how two human appetites are treated—sex and money. With sex, anything that two consenting adults chose to do is viewed as nobody else's business. Anything at all! With money, even if two consenting adults agree to a certain job at a specific hourly rate, the government steps in to insist that employer must pay employee a minimum amount. With sex, if one party decides not to deliver to another, not only is that fine but the other, the 'buying' party can be destroyed for even suggesting the deal to the reluctant 'seller'. With money, if one party, say, a baker, decides not to deliver to another party, the government steps in and punishes the reluctant seller. Why hotel rooms in liberal cities are so expensive. What did Frank Sinatra/Ava Gardner, Clark Gable/Carole Lombard & Spencer Tracy/Katherine Hepburn have in common? Why are CEO salaries in business "scandalous" but movie & sport star salaries are unworthy of scrutiny? School sex-ed, yes but gun-ed, no? Four revolutions that changed our world.

Your rabbi equips you with an invaluable tool: Your spouse asks you to stop doing something. Your boss at work asks you to start doing something. You kid asks you why you're doing something. Wouldn't it be great to come back with the right answer every time? The answer that, a day later you still admire rather than the answer you think of a day later and wish you'd given. How do you react wisely off the cuff? By arming yourself with the right basic beliefs. But when you start off with a wrong basic belief you end up making bad intuitive decisions in all the many daily circumstance. For example, let's imagine someone saying: The most important thing in my life is money. Or, the most important thing in my life is my body's appearance. Or, the most important thing in my life is gaining knowledge. If you truly believe any of these 3 false ideas, and you can believe only one of them anyway since "most important" is singular, you are reducing the quality of your life. Of course each is important in its proper place in the matrix of your life's values, but most important? Absolutely not. Why science cannot be trusted for all decisions. How a misunderstanding of Einstein and Darwin helped destroy American public education. Why there really is hope for the future.

A reasoned analysis of the Florida school shooting. Yes, there is a way to stop these tragedies, but, no, it has nothing to do with guns. What percentage of the hundreds of people you encounter every day are really crazy? How many so-called "homeless" are mentally imbalanced? Do you know why they are not being cared for in medical facilities where they would be safe—and so would we? Do you know any families being torn apart by having to struggle with a deeply troubled teenager all alone? Is the SCOTUS ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973 connected in any way to the Parkland, Florida school shooting? Why did Hitler use precious resources killing 3 million Jews in Poland in 1942 while his eastern front was crumbling at Leningrad? Could you protect your family from a violent home invader?

Why does Socialism exercise an almost irresistible appeal to secular people? Why are intellectuals, academics, bureaucrats, career-politicians and others drawn so powerfully to, liberalism, progressivism, well, actually to Socialism? We cannot combat what we don't understand. We cannot defeat what we cannot get a hold of. Let's probe the real roots of the problem.

Grand Coulee Dam. Air-conditioning. Hoover Dam. Empire State Building. Over 3 million miles of highway. Golden Gate Bridge. Verrazano Bridge. Holland Tunnel. George Washington Bridge. Automatic transmissions. Commercial jet travel. Electric refrigerators. That and more took place 1900-1960. Since then…? Almost nothing! What! Why? 1960 is approximate date marking the end of Christianity as the respected central organizing force in American society. That date also marks the end of our ability to build really significant projects like bridges, dams and highways. Are they connected?

Is there a scientific test for honesty? The most important organ for making money (If you're not a swimsuit model!) Do identical twins have same or different fingerprints? The power of optimism in financial interactions. Do you know what medical school your doctor attended; do you really know if he attended medical school at all? The danger of fear and how to get rid of it.

Everything we think we know about Mutiny on the Bounty is a lie! 3 Hollywood movies distorted the truth. The 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great work of art nourishing our higher selves with serious thoughts about good and evil, marriage and morality, hypocrisy and nobility, the inevitability of consequences and yes, adultery. The 1995 movie The Scarlet Letter starring Demi Moore has as much to do with the book as the movie Free Willy has to do with Moby Dick, another great American novel written by Herman Melville at the same time as The Scarlet Letter. And while we're on the topic of books and animals, I tell you something you don't know about The Life of Pi. Yes, it was the mass adoption of the birth control pill and it was a SCOTUS decision that for the first time in US history declared that saying a prayer in public schools was against the law. This was the dangerous prayer that Steve Engel and his fellow leftists got the court to declare illegal: "Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers and our country."

Communicating honestly & effectively produces wonderful results in romantic, business & social interactions. Only in politics is the reverse tolerated. Here's what a politician would call a spade: "It's a one person operated, foot-powered implement of wooden-metallic composition designated primarily though by no means exclusively for use in agricultural, horticultural, & constructional activities for purposes of carrying out such excavational tasks as may be designated by supervisory grades." Why I would eliminate and ban the use of these meaningless slurs: Anti-Semite, Homophobe, Racist, Sexist, & Capitalist. My answer to a young friend's worry that "Trump will get us into a war."

Masturbation, the art of selfishness. Why is the smallest room in the house, the bathroom, so over decorated? Monogrammed towels? Soap shaped like seashells? Really? Why are we so embarrassed about a perfectly natural bodily function like emptying our bowels? What does relieving oneself have to do with masturbation? Why did Onan in the Bible have to die? If a woman never marries, is she better off with a child or without? Why are welfare recipients not the most patriotic and appreciative citizens? How to avoid all awkwardness in the masturbation conversation with teenagers. Why did the great, great, grandmother of King David dress up as a prostitute? Why did her former father-in-law not recognize her? No it won't grow hair on your hands or make you blind, but it will…….

Mrs. Lapin and I were offered a guided tour of the new Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. We accepted, planning on spending an hour there. We were confident that an hour would more than suffice. We know the Bible, right? We frequently visit Israel. We've already seen one too many archeological artifacts. Gosh, was I wrong! We spent five hours there. They couldn't get rid of us. And we are eagerly planning our next visit; sooner rather than later. How often is your rabbi speechless? Ridiculous, right? But I was lost for words. The museum is deeply moving for any American regardless of faith and profoundly impactful for any sentient human being. In this show, I describe what we saw and I place it in cultural context in terms of the socio-political canyon that cuts through our American culture. This is an immensely significant addition to our nation and I feel indebted to the Green family, creators of Hobby Lobby whose generosity and vision made it possible.

People say, "I'm not religious but I'm spiritual". What does that really mean? What is spiritual reality? Why do prostitutes still prosper in the era of Tinder with quick and free hook-ups? Why are so many mental health professionals secular when every indication is that spiritual reality is a powerful factor in mental rehab? The role of Darwin, Freud, and Marx at the start of the 1900s. My close encounter with a real, live African lion. Definitions of spiritual and physical and how many of the joys in your life depend upon each? The exact location of heaven.

How to overcome the resistance that obstructs every attempt to improve our lives, New Year resolutions notwithstanding. Health & weight loss; alcohol, drugs & other addictions, career advance, debt reduction and almost everything else that involves us in a struggle pitting our higher selves and our betterment against our lower desires, our laziness, and our lethargy. Learn the lesson from a famous musician & hear him play. Developing a ripped body without effort through electro-muscle stimulation. Reviewing President Trump's first year. Judeo-Christian religions liberate; secular liberalism restrains and restricts. Sexual harassment between 1967 and 2017. A secretary was not a toy, but is she now? And one of the best ways for a young woman to get ahead.

My polite response to the rude people who accosted me for driving a fuel-hungry, twelve cylinder automobile. Why we circumcise. The higher and holy purpose of energy and how the Left has it all wrong. What Chanukah lights have to do with foreskins. Why airplane engines burn oil not coal like older railway locomotives. The real purpose of aging and why not to dye your hair. Make a mistake with a recipe or driving directions and people gently correct you. But if you don't agree with them on use of energy, you're not mistaken, you're evil! If you don't recycle, you're not just ignorant, you're evil! If you prefer a 12 cylinder 420 horsepower gasoline driven car that can do 110 MPH and go 300 miles on a tank of gas to a cute little electric car whose main purpose is to advertise your virtue and purity, well, you're just plain evil.