*Transcripts are auto-generated and reviewed for accuracy, but there may be some errors in punctuation or words. Listen to the podcast for clarification.
The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: How To Beat The Experts And Get It Right Every Time!
Date: 08/05/22 Length: 1:03:05
Daniel Lapin 0:01
Welcome, happy warriors, to another episode of The rabbi Daniel Lapin show where I, your rabbi reveal how the world really works. Great to be together with you, and thank you to all of you who participate. Thank you for those who write in and who comment on the podcast. Some of you send me information, some of you send ideas for future podcasts, much appreciated, thank you very much indeed makes me feel very close to you. And before I continue, I should tell you right outside where I enjoy taping the podcast, there is major construction going on. I am actually looking right now, not at one, not two, but three, massive diesel, hydraulic Earth excavators. These are those massive machines with colossal buckets at the end of monumentally huge arms. And those buckets in one scoop, you know, gather multiple cubic yards of dirt, and they're busy excavating right now. And I've given up on trying to block out that noise completely. So you may hear bits of it in the background.
Daniel Lapin 1:30
And I suggest you develop the attitude towards that I do - you remember I've told you before that Scott Fitzgerald put this basic idea very beautifully in one of his essays. And that is he said, the mark of a good mind is the ability to hold two conflicting ideas at the same time, and to continue to be able to function. And so at exactly the same time, you know, I can love my child and at the same time, be frustrated that my child is making serious mistakes. At one and the same time, I actually love the construction going on. First of all, I love how these guys, these guys who work on the construction site, they're absolute professionals, they show up on the dot of, seven o'clock, and the machines are up and running and they're at work and they don't stop no lunch hours. They don't stop until they quit at about three o'clock. And during that time, they're added and the results are visible. Literally each day I can see new concrete pilings being extended and new foundations being laid. It's extraordinary to watch. And the downside of course, is the the noise and the dust and the hampering of my access roads and so on. So it's two conflicting ideas at the same time, but I really do find it quite fascinating and, and really my only criticism of these construction crews is their flagrant, blatant, unforgivable sexism. Do you know that these bigoted crew bosses will not hire a single female?
Daniel Lapin 3:26
I mean, I look out the window and I watch, I suppose, I'm sure for 10 or 15 minutes a day, I actually watched the construction. Never seen a woman working on the site. Obviously, it must be sexism, right? Because the current view in the United States of America is that disparate outcomes explains is explainable only by bigotry. So different groups of human beings performed differently in different circumstances. Well, obviously, it is only bigotry at work, discrimination at work, lack of equity, lack of diversity, lack of inclusion. And so clearly, those wicked people out there need to be condemned for their flagrant sexism and not choosing to hire the many women who must flock each day to the gates in the hope of being chosen to be able to work an earth compacting machine or to climb up on scaffolding onto the top of a narrow concrete piling and prefer the and organize the formwork that the crane, the tower crane, which is operated by Yes, again, a man who sits up in the little cab 200 feet off the ground does is it does not it's, it's it's a little less than 100 feet off the ground. And he and he's carrying these huge canisters of pre pre mixed concrete and he's placing them over. And then there's three or four guys balancing and holding on with one hand onto the top of a concrete piling, and they laid the forming and now they guide this huge bucket of concrete. And there's not a woman to be seen doing that work. Shocking. All I can say is that that is one evil industry.
Daniel Lapin 5:21
Okay. All right, don't you think it would be helpful in your life to be able to predict things with some degree of certainty?
Daniel Lapin 5:33
You know, I mean, there's just so many different areas, I made a few notes of areas, but for instance, you know, would would this man be a better husband for me to marry? Or would that man be a better husband? They've got very different characteristics. I'm, I'm seeing them both. I know them both, I think both are probably liable to develop, which one should I pick? If I have the other way around a guy? I mean, there's two, these two women I really want to get married, which one might be the better wife? Wouldn't you like to have some way of arriving at that conclusion? And I mean, if you ask experts, they'll do well, which one? Do you love more? Which, you know, is manifestly absurd.
Daniel Lapin 6:17
So hows about the price of oil? And wouldn't it be nice to be able to have some way of figuring out what the price of oil is going to be doing? It might help you with some investment decisions, it might help you with making arrangements to pre buy fuel for the fleet of your trucks in your business. And so you're looking, you say, well, ordinarily up till now, you know, the price of oil, and has always worked in concert with the dollar, how about the price of gold, you know, you've noticed that inflation in the United States at the present time, and I'm taping this in the middle of 2022, inflation, official rate of inflation, about 9% real rate of inflation, not less than 15%. And if you doubt that, just go to the store and look at what your money buys you. And if you can possibly remember what it bought you three, four or five years ago, then you really will be I think, in a pretty good position to know what the real price of inflation is. So ordinarily, as inflation goes up, the price of gold has typically gone up as well. In fact, gold has been a fairly good hedge against inflation. And yet, oddly enough, with inflation at certainly 15% or more, the price of gold is sort of lethargic, it's not doing a whole lot right now. And so, you know, what, what is going on there? Why isn't it going up?
Daniel Lapin 8:05
To be able to understand that there will be useful, or, as I say, as the dollar rose, typically for years, I mean, this has been for decades, as the dollars value went up, the price of oil went down, right? Because oil was usually denominated in dollars. And so if the dollar buys more, well, then the oil price effectively goes down in in dollar terms, but now it's it's weird. The the price of gold has, excuse me, the price of oil has been going up. And the the value of the dollar compared to many other currencies is still up or rising. So why why is the price of oil not going down? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to understand what's going on there with oil? And with gold?
Daniel Lapin 9:02
What's with the supply chain? Should I buy a new car now is is a good time to buy a new car? And there are experts who say yes, there are experts who say no. But wouldn't it be nice to say to yourself, well, here's why it would make more sense to just keep my old car running for another year, and then buy a car or alternatively, no, you know what, this is a really good time to buy a car.
Daniel Lapin 9:25
Should you start a children's, a child's college tuition fund, as soon as your baby is born? Is that a good thing to do? Who do you ask Who do you find out from these things? Wouldn't you know? Wouldn't you like to know the basic principles that will enable you to effectively evaluate the right answer and these sorts of questions.
Daniel Lapin 9:50
What what are the ways available to me to influence my child? You know, my child is a teenager young adult. I still have life experience, but how can I influence my child? Or if I can influence my child? What field? Should I influence my child to stop thinking about? My child is 15. And she doesn't know what she wants to do. How? How do I start getting a sense of what the market life might be like in seven to 10 years time? Should I should I build onto my house in the neighborhood I live in? or would this be a good time to change neighborhoods? Is my neighborhood going up? Or is my neighborhood going down? And what are the factors in my city that influenced my neighborhood? How should we space children, we just got married. And we'd like to have three or four, maybe five children, but how should they be spaced?
Daniel Lapin 10:47
You know, who do you ask these questions? Right? These are big issues. But if you trust experts, hoh, you are in serious trouble. Because experts are actually wrong more often than monkeys throwing darts at a dartboard. That's the that is the reality. But let me tell you some of the amazing predictions. Experts, right, all experts, but back in 1970. So we're talking more than 50 years ago. So there's been a lot of time already to see if they were right. so called experts gathered on the very first Earth Day. That's right, April 1970, wasn't it?
Daniel Lapin 11:39
Yeah. So let me tell you some of the marvelous predictions. And these were the experts of the day, by the way, all the stuff I'm telling you. If you check, you will see the media repeated the stuff ad infinitum again, and again. And again, this is the reality here is the information. So let's take a look and see how many predictions of these experts have actually come true since then.
Daniel Lapin 12:12
An eminent biologist at Harvard, George Wald, he stated again, this is 1970. So it's what he said, then we've had ample time to see that, hey, guess what his prediction didn't come true. Here it is. civilization will end within 15 or 30 years, unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind? Well, none of the actions he recommended have been taken. And it's now 50 years later guess 52 years, guess what? Mankind and civilization are actually still around.
Daniel Lapin 12:50
Here's, oh, Washington University biologist, another biologist, Washington University. These are guys who were looked up to as the experts, you had to believe what they said, quote, science doesn't lie. Right? Washington University biologist Barry Commoner, said, We are in an environmental crisis that threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place for human habitation. Well, there's a freshman Congressman from New York in the United States Congressman, called AOC. Cortez. And she sounds exactly like Barry Commoner did in 1970. And she says exactly the same. We are in an environmental crisis that threatens the survival of this nation and the world as a suitable place for human habitation. That's right.
Daniel Lapin 13:49
How about the New York Times right, you can always count on the New York Times. The New York Times editorial page wrote on this appeared on April 23 1970. Men must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence, but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction. I mean, what can you say about this kind of stuff? I just want you to see you cannot trust experts. Continuing population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make. This was declared with full confidence by Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich. And he wrote this in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle. It's a women's magazine right, a well known source of scientific data. He wrote the death rate will increase until at least 100 to 200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next 10 years. He wrote us in April 1970. We passed April 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020. And guess what? The death rate will increase until 100 to 200 million people per year will be starving to death. Not happening. Nowhere.
Daniel Lapin 15:30
How about this one? This is all Paul Ehrlich. By the way. Stanford great Stanford professor. People pay $60,000 A year and more for their children to be educated by this man. Can you believe that? By the way, there's a clue as to whether you should start a college fund for your children's tuition. Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest Cataclysm in the history of man have already been born, stated, Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich in a 1969 essay entitled eco- catastrophe. He said food shortages will escalate the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. And he said this will surely happen by 1980.
Daniel Lapin 16:27
This is true stuff. Look it up. It's real. Paul Ehrlich, Stanford professor. More of Paul Ehrlich is one of my favorites. He said again in 1970, he said between 1980 and 1990, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans will perish in the great die off. Well, America's population has only increased, there has been no great die off. And 65 million Americans have not perished of hunger, and 4 billion citizens of the planet have not perished of hunger. He said that will happen by 1980. It's now 2022. It has not yet happened.
Daniel Lapin 17:17
Denis Hayes, one of the main organizers, in a in a spring 1970 issue of the living wilderness, quote, it is already too late to avoid mass starvation. My friends, the problem in the United States of America right now is not mass starvation. It's mass obesity. But everyone then said, Hey, we have to listen to the science. Science may not lie, scientists do.
Daniel Lapin 17:52
North Texas State University Professor Peter Gunter he wrote in 1970, I'm quoting demographers agree unanimously on the following grim timetable. By 1975. Widespread famines will begin in India, these will spread by 99 to include all of India, Pakistan and China in the Near East and Africa by the year 2000. Or maybe sooner, South and Central America will only exist under famine conditions. By the year 2030 years from now, the entire world with the exception of Western Europe, North America and Australia will be in famine. These were people we were all told know what they're talking about. They were all hailed by the press as experts.
Daniel Lapin 18:43
Look, I'm gonna keep going a bit more. Firstly, it's entertaining and I find it funny. But secondly, let this be a good lesson that none of us forget. Please don't think that people who are titled experts are telling you things that you can rely on in organizing and shaping your own life. There is a better way, and I'm going to lead you to it of course. Life magazine remember the famous Life magazine. It was like the biggest magazine in the United States of America January 1970. The issue? Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support the following predictions in one decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution. By 1985. Air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by one half Life magazine. It was authoritative. Who didn't believe what they read in Life Magazine. Me. I didn't because I know this fundamental principle. So January 1970 The issue of January 70. Life says scientists know beyond any doubt that by 1980 people who live in cities will have to wear gas masks to survive pollution. By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching the earth by one half. Well, that would mean there shouldn't be any global warming right? Well that's true because back then they were saying that temperatures are going down. calamitously. Now we're pretenders are going up so I presume this plenty sunlight reaching the earth right. As a matter of fact, where I am right now you could call it a heatwave temperatures are approaching 100 degrees, quite a lot of sunlight reaching the earth. But in Life Magazine or January 1970. They said by 1985, let alone 2022. By 1985. Half the sunlight will no longer reach earth.
Daniel Lapin 20:58
There was an academic ecologist called Kenneth Watt Time Magazine said at the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it's only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable. That's what Time Magazine said in 15 More than 50 years ago. Again, Barry Commoner, he said freshwater fish in all American rivers and lakes will be gone. They will be suffocated. Paulette Paul Ehrlich again in 1970. Air pollution is certainly going to take hundreds of 1000s of lives in the next few years alone. Ehrlich said that 200,000 Americans would die during 1973. In New York and Los Angeles, the man is I mean, call him brave or reckless. But in 1970, he predicted that only three years later, New York and Los Angeles would lose 200,000 citizens to death by air pollution.
Daniel Lapin 22:07
In Audubon magazine, the May 1970 issue. Pollution has substantially reduced the life expectancy of people born since 1945. Ehrlich warned that Americans born since 1946, now have a life expectancy of only 49 years. And he predicted that this pattern would continue and reach a life expectancy of 42 years by 1980.
Daniel Lapin 22:40
Life expectancy for men in the United States at the moment is calculated by the CDC to whatever extent you trust the Center for Disease Control after the COVID calamity. I don't know they shouldn't be trusted at all. But they are saying life expectancy is approaching 80 years from and yet, in 1970. They predicted Yes. 42 years would be life expectancy. You see these people like calamity and disaster. Right? That's what's going on? Because people pay attention. If you come out with bad news and attention is how academics and yes, that includes scientists thrive there. Their grants and funding is always dependent on attention.
Daniel Lapin 23:32
Ecologist Kenneth Watt by the year 2000, we will be using crude oil at such a rate that there won't be any more crude oil, you will drive up to the pump and say filln 'er up buddy. And he'll say I'm very sorry, there just isn't any. I don't have to tell you that global oil production is now considerably annually on an annualized basis, considerably higher than it was in 1970. So it's not that there's less oil as they predicted. There's actually more. We're pumping about 50% more oil than we did in 1970. So Scientific American, right credible magazine, you'd think published that humanity would totally run out of copper by the year 2000. Also lead, zinc, tin, gold and silver would be gone before 1990. Well, not only is gold not gone, but as I said earlier, the price of gold is not reflecting any shortage whatsoever.
Daniel Lapin 24:41
One a United States senator by the name of Gaylord Nelson in 1970. He wrote in Look magazine, right, Look magazine, you know what that is? They believe his scientists believe that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80% of all the species of living animals will be extinct. Right? That's what's going on. Right. Let's go back to Paul Ehrlich. 1975 Paul Ehrlich says, Since more than nine tenths of the original tropical rainforests will be removed in most areas within the next 30 years, it is expected that half of the organisms in these areas will vanish with it. Hasn't happened.
Daniel Lapin 25:27
Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age? Right? It's hard to believe, right? Only 52 years ago, as scientists who was published, I mean, this guy, you google this guy's name, he shows up 1000s and 1000s of times, he was quoted everywhere. This guy was the guru of ecology and meteorology and science. Listen to what he said in 1970. The world has been chilling sharply for about 20 years getting colder. If these trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder in 1990 and 11 degrees colder in 2000. This is twice as much as it would take to put us into a new ice age, disaster calamity global cooling. That's right. That's what people were believing back then. And today, foolish people are believing their predictions about global warming, climate change and subsequent calamity.
Daniel Lapin 26:40
It's It's unbelievable. All right, you know what I should probably I should probably stop with that. These these predictions are absolutely disastrous. They, they they just nonsense, and but it's all experts who made them. Every one of them was made by an acknowledged and acclaimed expert.
Unknown Speaker 27:02
Don't worry, I know you're thinking to yourself, well, what are we supposed to do, then you can't trust any... not so fast? Yes, I can suggest somebody you could trust. And if you want to know his name before, I'm willing to disclose it. While I'm talking. Get out your wallet or your purse, open it up and find your driver's license. If you look at your driver's license carefully, you will see a photograph and the name of a person that is the person I want you to acquire the means of being able to trust and rely on. That's right. That is the person who should be making all final decisions having to do with your life. And what's more, there is a way to equip you to be doing just that.
Daniel Lapin 27:56
A psychologist Professor psychology professor at Berkeley University, Philip Tetlock did a really interesting study. Here's what he did. He got hold of 284 experts in all sorts of areas, politics, science, were all 284 of them. And the only requirement was they all had to make their living by being experts. So they all had to be people who are quoted or are interviewed on television. These are names of people you will see if you watch the news, you watch television, you will see many of the people have the 284 experts on Philip Tetlock 's list.
Unknown Speaker 28:41
And he started this in 1983, by the way, and he was willing to put a lot of time into this. Basically, he wanted to get predictions from them. And then he was going to wait to see how those predictions played out. And good man, Philip Tetlock was in no hurry. He waited for over 20 years before he decided to start studying and evaluating the predictions made by all these 284 experts, you know how many predictions he gathered 82,361? In other words, each one of these experts had produced many, many, many predictions and the total number of predictions he studied 82,361.
Daniel Lapin 29:25
How many of them came true? Well, so few that he says had he had monkeys throwing darts at yes/no answers, he would have got a better response rate. In other words, statistically, random would have given better results than these experts. They were overwhelmingly wrong. Isn't that something? If you just guess an answer, right. You got a 50/50 chance of being right or wrong. These experts who made 82,361 predictions 20 years later, Philip Tetlock, Professor Tetlock from Berkeley looks at the predictions and discovers you would have thought right 50% of them should be right, about 30% or less, turn out to be right. So you didn't better throwing darts at a board.
Daniel Lapin 30:26
But people love experts. That's what's going on. By the way, when you when he tried to make it better, by limiting experts to predictions in their own fields, because very often, you know, experts make predictions in all kinds of fields, and he thought it would get much better at least he then be able to say, Well, if you follow and listen to an acclaimed expert in his own field, well, the results should be much better than random. No, unfortunately not. So I am very persuaded. I am completely persuaded already. That. Yeah, experts, it's meaningless.
Daniel Lapin 31:11
So what is the answer? My dear friends, what is the answer? Well, the answer is, the answer is very simply. The answer is that correct prediction, whether it's about matters having to do with with your family or with your lives, predictions, all have to do not with facts, not with being an expert, but with being wise, or in other words, as we say on the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show, by understanding how the world really works. That's wisdom. And if you know how the world really works, why then your chances of being able to get predictions right goes way up.
Daniel Lapin 32:13
Right. But wisdom? What is wisdom?
Daniel Lapin 32:21
Well, before I give you an insight into what wisdom is, knowing how the world really works, how do you get that other than being part of the rabbi Daniel Lapin show? Well, here's an example of something that isn't. And again, this is hot off the press. If you happen to be watching this show or listening to this show in the middle of 2022, then this is brand new. If you're listening to it much later. Well, you'll know by then how this has all played out. But here's something that is definitely not wise.
Daniel Lapin 33:05
Medical schools around the United States, they're all governed. They're all organized by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the AAMC. And this represents the country's medical schools and advises them and it influences the Committee on committees on medical education, the National accredited law that sets medical school standards so when the AMC tell schools to revise how they teach, America's future physicians will be obliged to listen and obey.
Daniel Lapin 33:42
And they've just recently released a report which somebody inside the medical school establishment sent me a copy of secretly, and it is now clear that physicians who are teaching at medical schools and men and women who are aspiring doctors have to undergo political re-education. They have to become fluent in the concept of intersectionality which as you know, is the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that communities face based on race, gender, ethnicity, and ability. Medical students who don't master these topics won't pass and become doctors.
Daniel Lapin 34:46
They also have to show expertise in the intersectionality of a patient's multiple identities, not personality disorders, but multiple forms of oppression and proof village, they are going to have to learn aspiring doctors are expected now to learn and practice. That race is a social construct that is a cause of health and health care in equities, not a risk factor for disease. Racial and ethnic groups do in fact, have different proclivities for certain diseases.
Daniel Lapin 35:29
The dangerous braca gene mutation is found much more in Ashkenazi Jewish women, then other groups, and so on and so forth is half a dozen easily well known situations or conditions that are more prevalent among people of different skin colors and different racial groups and different gender groups. And that now has to be banished right now, it is only a question of oppression caused by discrimination based on race, gender, class, ethnicity, and ability.
Daniel Lapin 36:08
So, most young people who pursue a career in medicine, do so because they want to help people, they want to cure people. Now, they're going to be taught that an intricate web of social, behavioral, economic and environmental factors, including access to quality education, and housing, have greater influence on patient's health than physicians do.
Daniel Lapin 36:32
Okay, you got to be aware that when you are on the lookout for medical treatment, be aware that if your doctor is a young doctor who's just recently graduated, then he has had his or her head filled with stuff. And that means that their diagnosis and their treatment will partially be based on very unwise factors. Sad, but true, very real.
Daniel Lapin 37:11
So what is wisdom, wisdom, is a set of principles, what I call timeless truths by means of which you can see the world. It's the set of lenses that make up a window through which you can see the world. And if you look at the world through these lenses, your predictions will be much more correct than if you don't, if you look at the world through these lenses, you will be looking at the world quite differently from the way everyone else does. But you won't be subjected to the wrongheaded and embarrassing predictions that I read you a number of examples from earlier on. And so let me give you just a few examples so you get the idea of what we're talking about. One example is that when things are wrong in your life, who is most responsible?
Daniel Lapin 38:10
I can give you a clue. This is painful stuff, but I respect you as a happy warrior enough to feel confident that you rather hear the truth. Then have me massage you with warm butter, right? You want to know who's mostly responsible for the problems in your life. Here's a clue. Open your wallet, open your purse, pull out your driver's license. Take a look at the photograph you'll see a name next to the photograph. That's the name of the villain.
Daniel Lapin 38:43
The scoundrel most responsible for whatever problems you have in your life. 100% No nothing's and represent us most. Got financial problems today. 99% because of bad choices and decisions you made yesterday. Now this is not at all the way the world out there looks at stuff be aware that you've got friends and relatives whose natural intuitive instinct is that things go wrong. Not because of anything I did. But things are wrong in my life because of outside forces, like racism, like sexism like anti semitism, like intersectionality like capitalism, like whatever it is. People believe this. And so people like that wake up every morning getting out of bed saying I'm a victim. What What chance do I ever succeeding with all these terrifying and faceless forces opposing me and sabotaging me in every possible way? That's what people but you will be wiser. And you will have a better sense of how the world really works. When you realize that having been created in the image of God, you have agency in your life, you have power, you can actually affect your own life. Is it easy? No, of course not much easier to blame the world around you to blame all kinds of other forces. But the reality is, you and I have the ability to change our own lives. So that would be one very important one.
Daniel Lapin 40:38
Here's another one. You don't have the right to anyone else's property. The way but how about honors, remember the other ways I've been disadvantaged as No, you have no right to anyone else's property period. That's another example of how the world really works. You're looking at the world and other way, you're going to end up with confused results, and wrong predictions. And worst of all bad decisions for your life, and that of the people you care about. Those are the people you care about, I should have said.
Daniel Lapin 41:18
And here's an obvious one, right? This one is so simple. Men and women are different. Almost every cell in your body has chromosomes in it, which proclaim that you are either xx, xx female or XY, male. That's it. Again, very different from what you're gonna hear out there. But if you want to make smart predictions, accurate predictions, wise decisions about your life, then you need to know that simple reality. And so all kinds of questions, very real questions, questions that do matter, questions.
Daniel Lapin 42:10
Husband and wife both have jobs. And both are now being relocated. And so only one is going to be able to keep their job. Either we move where the husband's job is moving him to, or we move to where the wife's job is moving her to, what is the preference?
Daniel Lapin 42:34
Well, their husbands, all things being equal. I mean, if there's a huge disparity of income, then we have another set of problems, because marriages in which the wife dramatically out earns the husband or not have long duration. That's an arguable it's just a reality. It's again, how the world really works. And so all things being equal. If we can keep the husband working, rather than the wife that's better for the marriage, much better for the marriage.
Daniel Lapin 43:05
Many foolish women cannot accept that. What do I mean by foolish woman? A foolish woman is somebody who rails at everything. Well, this is sexist, that sexist, this is sexist. I'll tell you what I say to women like that. I say, Look.
Daniel Lapin 43:25
I don't know exactly how old you are. But you only have a short period of time, a relatively short period of time to mother a child of fertility. If you're 30 you got another 15 years approximately. That's it. Me I'm older than you a lot older than you I could still father a child.
Daniel Lapin 43:50
Sexist. Men can father children, men can remain fertile match long sepsis. So yeah, call it sexist, if you like, but for how, how long are you going to waste your life, waving a defiant fist against reality? Because wisdom and how the world really works are very tied to reality. And so it is there many, many, many sets. There's, in order to function effectively in the world, there's probably about 100, maybe less timeless truths that you have to know, in order to become a wise person. You don't have to go to university for these things. You don't have to go to college, you don't even have to go to kindergarten. These are things that are taught in a totally different way.
Daniel Lapin 44:43
In, in my case, these emerge from Scripture, the entire purpose of Scripture if you want it in one sentence, it's God's way of giving his children understanding of the timeless truths that explain and how the world really works. I'm going to give you an example. And with that, with that, we'll have to leave it. But I want you to understand that when I teach scrolling through scripture, which is an online course, at RabbiDanielLapin.com. And by the way, you can even watch off, you cannot watch an entire lesson of that free right now, just go online, go into RabbiDanielLapin.com. But when I teach, and that's like, 10 hours of teaching the first 34 verses of Genesis, I'm teaching how the world really works. I'm not teaching theology, I'm not teaching Bible history, I'm not teaching comparative religion. I'm not teaching any of that all that wasted time, the things you need to know for your life, or how the world really works, the timeless truths of ancient Jewish wisdom, because they apply to every single human being.
Daniel Lapin 46:04
And that's why I teach Scrolling through Scripture. And it gives you an example. And this is a typical Scrolling through Scripture lesson. Some of you might remember if you're, if you know, if you're not born in the last few years, you might remember when they introduced the 75 mile 7055 mile an hour speed limit, pardon me, it was 1974. And there was the gas shortage. And you'll remember those those years. It was post Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and the interest rates are 18%, and gasoline lines all over the place. So in order to save gasoline, the brilliant legislators in Capitol Hill came up with a 55 mile an hour speed limit. Now, my question to you is, and I'm going to divide laws into two categories. So bear with me, concentrate with me, right? Concentrate, focus, like a laser beam for just a few minutes, and then I'll give you a rest.
Daniel Lapin 47:18
Two categories of laws, descriptive laws, proscriptive laws, proscriptive laws are some faceless bureaucrat came up with a law and it gets passed. Actually, faceless bureaucrats usually cover their rear ends far too carefully. And they always pass laws by committee never individuals, so. So it's always going to be a committee. A descriptive law is a law that describes how the world really works. Now, what is the 55 mile an hour speed limit, which by the way, did not even save one half of 1% of oil in the United States of America? And so about, was it 10 years later?
Daniel Lapin 48:01
Forget when it was they upped it to something higher, higher. But some bureaucrat licked his pencil and said, yeah, 55 miles an hour, I think we'll we'll make that the National speed limit. And for many years, there was a national speed limit. Why? A bureaucrat said, so now, if you would violate that speed limit, which I did all the time. And if you drove more than 55 miles an hour, then would you suddenly disintegrate? Would you fly apart? In a in a fireball of of matter? No. If you didn't get caught, everything was fine. Do you see? That is what is called a prescriptive law. It's prescribed.
Daniel Lapin 48:59
That income tax returns have to be filed by April 15. Proscriptive or descriptive? proscriptive. Somebody could have said April the 17th or December 31. They came up with April 15. I don't know why they came up with it. But there's nothing. There's nothing written in granite. There's nothing in the world of the cosmos which decrees April the 15th. Somebody came up with it. That's another proscriptive law that you have to take off your shoes when you walk through airport security lines.
Daniel Lapin 49:36
Just a proscriptive law. Right. No, the TSA to my knowledge has never prevented a single terrorist attack in since the history of this formation, which was one of the many mistakes that President George W. Bush made. TSA what a disaster it's it's like the terminal stages of a bad marriage right?
Daniel Lapin 50:00
Too much hostility with too much intimacy all at the same time. So these are all dis prescriptive laws, somebody prescribed them. That's all. How about a descriptive law? Let me give you an example of a descriptive right? I said the weather is very hot right now. And again. By the way, I'm I don't know if you can hear the excavators at work, but I can see the guys at work temperatures nearly 100 degrees where I am at the present moment.
Daniel Lapin 50:29
They're working. They haven't stopped once. You got to you got to be admiring of this. It's incredible. Air conditioning. You know why air conditioning works? Because of two laws in physics. We call them Boyle's law and Charles's law. So Boyle's law and Charles law states that when gases expand, they cool off, their temperature goes down. What sort of law is that prescriptive or descriptive? Is there a bureaucrat at the United Nations who can change that law? No, there's a bureaucrat who can change the speed limit law. There's a bureaucratic can change fight tax filing on April 15. Floor, but not this. Gravity. If you step out of a window on the 20th floor of a building, you will enjoy a very exciting, short journey to the sidewalk. Unfortunately, the end of the journey will be fatal.
Daniel Lapin 51:32
Is that a law that can be changed? No. That's descriptive. There are some laws that descriptive they are descriptive. They describe how the world really works, in how the world really works, that when gases expand, they cool off. That's why we have refrigeration. That's why we have air conditioning, talking of the temperature because of Boyle's law, and Charles law, gravity, another law like that, well, how's about another law, there's a law in Scripture, which we can find in Leviticus chapter 18. And Leviticus chapter 20.
Daniel Lapin 52:13
And what they say is that a man is not allowed to marry his aunt is not allowed to marry his father's brother, his father's sister, or mother, sister, and a woman is not allowed to marry her nephew. What's the law is that descriptive or prescriptive? Remember, a descriptive law has real world consequences if you violate it. A prescriptive law only has consequences if you're caught.
Daniel Lapin 52:43
So what is this, that a woman shouldn't marry her nephew and a man shouldn't marry his niece, even though it's legal in many, many places. So you might say, Well, maybe it's genetic. The Bible doesn't want genetic problems between people who are too close to one another and with their offspring. But wait a second. If that was so then wouldn't you agree that a man should not marry his niece, remember, I told you a man must marry his art. But a man is allowed to marry his niece. And a woman is allowed to marry her uncle, where the genetic connection is exactly the same as a woman married to her nephew, and a man married to his aunt.
Daniel Lapin 53:29
So it can't be a genetic problem. And so therefore, are we looking at a prescriptive or a descriptive law? What do you think? The answer has to do with understanding the timeless truths about marriage, the timeless truths about marriage. One of them is that a woman likes to be able to look up to a husband and a man likes to be looked up to by his wife.
Daniel Lapin 54:00
We see a physical reflection of that spiritual reality, in that marriages tend to be mostly between taller men and shorter women.
Daniel Lapin 54:13
Even though the actual statistical ratio of male female heights are not as high as the marriage ratio. In other words, men choose to marry women who are shorter than they and women choose men who are taller than them at far more than the biological height ratio would suggest. That's a reflection of a spiritual desire of a man to be looked up to by his woman, and a woman to actually desire to be able to look up to her man. Now, in families remember families are supposed to be multi generational.
Daniel Lapin 54:54
Right? Ideally, a family has grandparents and parents and children. That's, that's the basic structure of a family. And that's the ideal structure you want. You want such good people, such people who are so functional and normal, that they raise functional and normal children who get married and raise functional normal grandchildren, and everybody's connected to one another. And family get togethers have three generations there. That's the ideal. And that's the way it is, in many places, you go into many homes around the world. And there'll be a picture of the grandparents on the on the mantelpiece or on the wall. Sometimes there are pictures of the great grandparents, because the multi generational aspect of family is very important. There isn't time in today's show that would need to show by itself as to why the multi generational aspect is so important. But just one teeny, weeny little part of that is that family traditions, family culture, family values are transmitted down from the grandparents generation to the parents generation to the children. And when that is coherent, multi generationally, the task of raising great children is made far, far easier. And so if you're somebody getting married today, you need to be talking to your future spouse, or your current spouse, you need to be talking not about being great husbands and wives, and not just about being great parents one day, but you need to already be talking about being great grandparents one day.
Daniel Lapin 56:35
In other words, keeping the multi generational aspect of a family in your heart. And it's never too late to work on this. By the way, if you've got kids, and you got a bad relationship with your parents fix it up now. It's not too late, it will be too late soon, but it's not too late now. So do something about it. Make sure you can restore multi generation ality in your family. And herein lies a clue to my question to you, which is whether or not women not being able to marry their nephews, is that descriptive or prescriptive? Prescriptive meaning, oh, well, Moses said that 3000 years ago, you can ignore it, or descriptive in that, hey, ignore it, but there'll be a price to pay. It's inescapable. So you know, like gravity. So
Daniel Lapin 57:23
what's going on here? What's going on here is that it's very simple. It's all intended to improve the chances of a marriage working. When society has no marriages, when marriages collapse, things are really, really problematic. Fertility goes down, your economic vitality, and the economic security of your children is harmed by a lowering population. Because for an economy to flourish, the population must be permit shaped, there must be more people in your children's generation than in yours for this to work. It's one of the great secrets of economics that people don't really like. And so, but nonetheless, very important to understand. So, you, you need marriages to flourish in a society, but marriages are very delicate. And the consequences of marriages getting better are so serious. And the delights and joys of a good marriage are so wonderful that you want to use every single miniscule opportunity to enhance the likelihood of successful marriage. Well, remember, if I marry my aunt, she is one generation closer to grandparents than I am.
Daniel Lapin 58:38
In other words, her parents or my grandparents. And so if we talk about family trends, transmission transmission of values, I might say, Gosh, I think Grandpa used to do this. She says, Come on, who you telling, I grew up in his house, I was his daughter, I know what he used to do. And I am demoted. That's not that's ideally not what my wife wants to know what I want. But if I marry my niece, now, I'm a generation closer to grandpa than she is. And that's a better way for things to work.
Daniel Lapin 59:13
Now, marriages work better. By the way, when husbands are wiser than wives. When wives look at their husbands and say, You know what, my husband really knows how the world really works. I got a stupid doctoral degree in psychology and I don't know anything. My husband never went to college. He works on a construction site, and he drives an excavator. But he knows how the world really works. That works much better for a marriage. And so,
Daniel Lapin 59:46
my dear happy warriors. I've told you a lot of things in today's show. Maybe I've squashed too many things into into one show. But I want to urge you, please realize that how the world really works. is the key to making successful decisions and wise predictions about the world. You really have to know it. I'm just looking to see if I if there's anything else I'd plan to tell you about it. I think enough, enough is enough. And I've given you more than enough for today's show, right? I think I've taken up more than half of your time. I hope you enjoy the video version that this show is available in video as well as audio on YouTube. And I hope you enjoy that and like that very much. I also hope that you will go to RabbiDanielLapin.com. And start making use of the resources, ancient Jewish wisdom, right you'll find online programs of Scrolling through Scripture, you will find online programs of Financial Prosperity. These are all practical, life affirming programs that will fill you with the information that allows you to make better decisions and more accurate predictions. Because these do not depend on expertise. They do not depend on college degrees. They depend on knowing the timeless truths of how the world really works. And I there may be other sources, but I know no better source than the scriptural teachings of ancient Hebrew wisdom that I share with you. Maybe there are other sources. But this is one that really works and what's more, has worked for a very long period of time, for a very broad variety of different Jews of every race, gender, color, background, everything. Because all you need to know in order to succeed in this world, to succeed with your family,
Daniel Lapin 1:02:04
which means sexually, economically, financially, socially, it means health wise, yes, health is also part of this, and even in a relationship with the boss up there, which is also a very valuable part of successful living. All of that is available through the secrets of ancient Hebrew wisdom, where it is my sacred mission, to share with each and every happy warrior, to do everything I can to give you more effective tools for making your life as successful as possible. Thank you so much for being part of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show. I appreciate it very much. And I wish you a wonderful week, onwards and upwards with your family and your finances, your faith and your fitness and your friendships. I'm Rabbi Daniel Lapin. God bless.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
