TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: Things Wise People Do Not Share With Their Spouses
Date: 12/23/22 Length: 51:08
Daniel Lapin 0:02
Welcome, happy warriors, and welcome to the rabbi Daniel Lapin show where I, your rabbi reveals how the world really works.
Daniel Lapin 0:18
Thank you for being part of the show. And as always, I profoundly appreciate the public relations you're performing. There's so many of you who are telling folks about the show, sending people links to hear the show, talking about it, much appreciate that. And the the audience for the show continues to expand, which makes it a lot of fun for me. And today's show is going to be something which is going to help you in many different ways. And here's what it is, almost everybody makes the mistake of fragmenting their lives. What do I mean by fragmenting their lives? What I mean by that is that there'll be a period of time where a woman might say, you know, for the next five years, I've got to focus on my finances using the five F model that I teach, right? Family, finance, fitness, faith, and friendships. Those are the five pillars of a successful life. And yet, what happens is people fragment which, for instance, as I said, a young woman says, well, for the next five years, I mustn't think about anything except my job, my career, building up my finances. Sometimes you have people, you know, somebody might say, you know, I'm focused right now on bodybuilding. I know that if I can just, you know, think of Arnold Schwarzenegger when he first came to the United States, and he decided he was going to achieve success through bodybuilding. And, you know, and as you can see, there's a pride. I mean, he achieved that success in many ways. But there was, of course, also a price to be paid in terms of his family. You know, you'll get people you know, I've known people, both Jewish and Christian, who are very focused and want to go into ministry. And so you have young people, Jewish, Christian, male, female, who are very, very focused on faith, to the detriment of the other four. And the point that I want to introduce you to is that, fragmenting your life, focusing on only one of those at a time, instead of realizing that you've got to consistently be making progress in all five at the same time, failure to do that, and fragmenting your life, handicaps your success, and your happiness. That's the important thing to understand.
Daniel Lapin 3:27
There's a fantastic novel called Anna Karenina by the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy. It's not it's not a short novel, it's not particularly easy going but you know, if you're a reader and and you are interested in eternal ideas, and ultimate issues, things that really matter, then, you know, you may well decide you'd like to read Anna Karenina and, and you know, it's an undertaking, you know, you're gonna take a few weeks to get through it, but you will find yourself rereading certain paragraphs, even pages sometimes just because they are so wise, there's so much insight. And listen to the opening here. Let me read you the first sentence of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. That's very profound. And let me explain what I mean by that. Look. I keep talking about how to be a happy warrior, how to build your life, how to avoid the mistakes, how to recover from mistakes you've already made. And, and so at any given time, right, you have your unhappiness, I don't know But your unhappiness is, you know, I have mine and you have yours. We each have our own unhappiness is our own discontents, our own regrets. And each of them are entirely different. There's nobody, there's nobody who has exactly the same package of problems that you have. But when it comes to happiness, when I speak about what a wise person does with their lives, and I speak about family and faith and finance and friendship and fitness, I don't say, Well, now, if you are a white skinned male of Lithuanian heritage, then this is what you should do with your five F's. And if you are a black skin, Haitian of Catholic background, while this is -- no, it's the same for everybody. In other words, the avenue towards happiness ends up in one place, even though everybody starts off in their own unhappy place. So you can imagine it's like, tributaries to a river, right? Everybody has their own particular unhappiness. But as they move towards as each and every one of us moves towards improving our lives, we're all moving in the same direction. Because there's nobody who doesn't need a top rate family. And there's nobody who doesn't need a top rate, financial life. And there's nobody who doesn't need a top rate, social life and a community life that's under friendship. And there's nobody who doesn't need physical fitness and good health. And finally, there's nobody who doesn't need that many people don't realize it, but there's nobody who doesn't need a connection with the spiritual as well.
Daniel Lapin 7:02
And so, let me start off by clarifying the, the idea of systems because that's what we're talking about here. We're talking about your life and your life and his life and my life. And they are all systems in which the five essential parts of successful living are family and finance, friendships and fitness, and faith. And, you know, here we are, I'm recording this as close to the end of 2022. And, and I'm going to be wishing you all a very joyous and uplifting Christmas. If you are Jewish, then you will have just celebrated Hanukkah, and I hope you had a joyous Hanukkah. And one of the things that I like thinking about is, you know, the coming year, and one of the things you might consider doing for the coming year, which will be good for you and good for me. And that is become a happy warrior, connect with the happy warrior community. And you just go to the website, WWE happy warriors.com we happy warriors.com and join up become a happy warrior, and, and build that connection in your life. You can also if you have trouble finding we happy warriors.com Just go to my website, Rabbi Daniel lapin.com. And you can easily click on a link there take you to the happy warriors website. But you you join up and you are part of a community. And you're able to contribute to that community in terms of providing guidance and insight to people who've got particular struggles and you can draw on the wisdom of the community for situations in which you need to progress and make and take steps towards growth. And so let's let's look at a couple of examples of of what I mean by systems. Okay. An airplane journey right? What makes an airplane journey possible? Is it that in the early part of the 20th century, an Englishman by the name of Frank Whittle developed the jet engine? Or is it perhaps Orville and Wilbur Wright, who built an airplane and took it for its first flight? In was it 19 Oh, was it 1903 Sorry, I should have that on the tip of my fingers. I think it was At any rate, was it?
Daniel Lapin 10:04
How about the computer geniuses who designed the reservation system that allowed you to go online and, and buy a ticket to get on the airplane? So your your airplane journey came about? Why? Because of the brilliant interaction of all those things. You know, how about the folks who, who drill for oil and the folks in the refinery converted to jet fuel, right, all of these things all work together. The oil is delivered to the fuel tanks at the airport. The jet engines are bolted onto an airframe with wings that will convert the thrust of the engine into lift that keeps the airplane airborne. It's a huge complex system. And it all works together as an integrated totality, which is incredible. Think about a beehive. Right? What is a beehive? a beehive also is a system. There is worker bees, and there's drones. And there's a queen bee and somehow or another, it all works together. Think of a sailboat. Right, a sailboat, a mast sails controls, and there's lots of lines. And there's it may even have a small engine and auxiliary engine. And the sailboat works because the keel provides lateral resistance in the water. And the sails provide effort. And the balance between the lateral resistance and the sail the center of effort of the sales that results in forward motion of the boat. And the weight of the engine mustn't be too high for its power. Everything works together. Right? Or how about a think of a country. A country is a system. You got farms producing food, you've got roads and canals, and railways that move resources around whether the resources are fuel or food or whatever they are, you've got power cables that provide energy, you've got radio and television waves that provide information. Well, actually, it sounds a little like a human body doesn't it. We also in a human body, it's systems, you got an air system that provides air and you got a circulation system and you got a kidney system, you got waste disposal just as a society as a city, if you like think of a city. All of these are systems and in that way, a city and a human body are very similar. They both have systems, there's got to be food, there's got to be inflammation, nervous system, waste, disposal, everything. And it all works together. If if somebody decides that he's going to work very hard on keeping his lungs in great shape, and he's going to ignore his cardio health is going to ignore all kinds of muscle. No, it doesn't work that way. You've got to work on all of these things at the same time. And so we realize that our lives are essentially a system of separate elements that, unfortunately, are all too easy to fragment. It's, it's so tempting and so easy to ignore, the ones we don't particularly enjoy are the ones who are not really thinking about and to just focus on the ones where we're seeing most result, you know, whether it's physical bodily development, or whether it's financial development. And what we don't realize is that even if you're primarily concerned that in your conscious mind, you primarily concern about your finances. You sort of tend to think to yourself, well, you know, I'm not gonna go to my friend's birthday party. I've got to prepare a presentation for tomorrow. And then you listen to this show. And you discover that wait a moment, if I actually am interested in maximizing my financial revenue, I actually should be going to my friend's party. It's counterintuitive. It seems to make more sense that I stay at home and work on the report. But it's actually just as important to work on friendships and you're interested in fitness? Well, maybe I should just rather go to the gym, instead of the social at, you know, my local church or synagogue where I promise to, to be there. Yeah. Those things all interact. And it is counterintuitive. But if it wasn't, you would need a rabbi would you. And so that is what I'm talking about.
Daniel Lapin 15:13
Now, here's an important rule about systems. And that is that if you improve only one, or two or three of these essential five elements, without regard for all of them, you'll actually not improve anything, you'll actually cause deterioration of your life. Let me give you an example. Let's imagine that for some bizarre reason, you decide to buy a Hugo car. Now, do you know what a Hugo is? It's been years since they've been around. But it was a car built in communist Yugoslavia. And it was about the biggest disaster in motoring history. They were more of a joke than they were transport. Everything was bad. I mean, the the seats, the suspension, the brakes were almost non existent. The engine required as much pressure as it did petroleum. If you get the picture, right, even if you've never seen ever Hugo, why yujia You get the idea pretty bad. And so you buy Hugo, and you decide, okay, now, what I'm going to do now is I am going to buy a an engine that normally gets installed in a Bentley car, a W 12. It's a 12 cylinder engine, in a W configuration. It's like one of the best engines in the world. And you buy this huge big engine, and you modify the hood compartment of the Yugo till you're able to shoehorn in the big engine. And you say to yourself, well, this is my first step in turning my Hugo into a great car, you know, next month, I'm going to work on the brakes, you actually haven't improved the car, as bad as the Hugo is, you've actually succeeded in making it worse. Because you focused on one part of the system, instead of keeping in mind how the system integrates all the time. And so this is worth thinking about for a little bit happy warriors, you think about this for a little bit, that if your life needs improvement as all of ours do, then you say to yourself, Well, I think I really got to focus on on this one of the F so that f no, you got to focus on all five of them all the time. That's what you really have to do. And so you can't possibly improve the condition of your life. By just working on one of the five F's, any more than you can fix up a Hugo by putting in a fantastic engine. You've made it worse, actually. And so focusing on finances while ignoring family, or the other way around focusing on family and ignoring finances. I've known people like they're tremendously obsessed about wanting to get married and start building a family. But neglecting finances, or somebody who prioritizes friendships over family, or family over friendships. No, they both need it. Okay, it's a really important thing.
Daniel Lapin 18:55
Now, it's worth understanding also that, let's say, you know, I mentioned a beehive before. What do you think is more likely? Do you think that if you study a bee, you will understand a beehive? Or is it more likely that if you study the beehive, you'll get a better insight into bees? And I think it's clear, it should be clear if you think about it, that studying a bee, you know, take a bee into your lab and look at it and study. It doesn't help you understand this amazing organism. It's like a smoothly running machine where all the pots effectively communicate with one another. And by the way, to this day, it is still not clearly understood how bees actually communicate. How do they all tell each other what they need to be doing? Or how does the queen bee communicate to the other it's some people say it's through pheromones smell. Others say it's through direct eye contact, yet others say it's due to a special bead dance, they wiggle around and communicate information that way. Bottom line is there a lot of theories, nobody actually knows. It's a smooth running organism. And in the same way, that it would be a mistake to view a human body as nothing other than a casing, in which different creatures live. Hey, look, there's a creature we call lungs. Oh, and there's a creature we call kidney and what's Oh, that's a hot creature. And they all live in this in this little nest, called a human body. No, we don't do that. We say that a body is one organism. And it has many, many, many smoothly functioning and integrated components. They are the lungs and the kidneys and the hearts and there's the muscles, and there's a circulation system.
Daniel Lapin 20:56
All of these things work in synchronization with each other. It's it really is a system. And so if you want to get a good sense, you know, you want to start understanding the heart and look at the whole bodies. First of all, once you look at the whole body, you will see the need to communicate oxygen around the body. And the blood does that and how does the blood get around, it gets pumped by the heart Ah, now we're finally making progress, we're now getting somewhere we're looking at what we want to understand namely the heart. It's the same way also, with with B with your life. Okay, in the same way that if you want to understand a B, look at the whole system. First you want to understand the heart, look at the whole body. First, you want to understand the role of family, and faith and finances and friendships. And what did I say family finance, friendships, fitness and faith. If you understand any one of those, all of those start off looking at the whole life, human wholeness, right, we humans are a system of integrated parts, both physically in terms of our bodies, but more importantly to today's discussion, in terms of our life, our lives are the systems. And we've got to make sure that they all are integrated, and that they work properly. And as I said earlier, although I live in the United States of America, and I observe things in the United States, and I'm perhaps most familiar with the country of the United States. But I know that we've got happy warriors in about 60 different countries around the world when I last checked, right about 60. And so some of you living in different countries, you know, maybe the Philippines or in Kenya, or in Lithuania I mentioned earlier, or Brazil or Argentina or Chile. We got people in all those places, why happy warriors. And some of you might say to yourself, well, I guess there's no point in, in in listening, I can't gain anything from the show, because he's talking about the United States of America. And the answer is that I am speaking about permanent principles, and timeless truths. It is true if you're in Venezuela, I don't fully understand and know the details of the pain that you are experiencing on account of the horrible mismanagement of the country of Venezuela. By its dreadful government. I don't know that. So in other words, I don't fully understand the the the troubles from where you're coming. But I do know that where you have to end up is exactly where I have to end up, which is exactly where our friend from Brazil has to end up. Which is exactly where the happy warrior from the Philippines from from Kenya has to end up. Each and every one of us, all of us need to have solid relationships with our family, with our friends, with our finances, with our bodies, and actually even Yes, with God, too. And I know that's that's going to be hard for some people. There's no question about it. But I do want you to think about it and at least be open to hearing something that goes at odds With with everything you think you know, and you think you believe, because if you commit yourself to only listening to things with which you already agree, you are condemning yourself to perpetual stagnation, you'll never be able to grow. This is one of the reasons why reading is so valuable because you can pick up a book with which you don't necessarily agree, but you can read it anyways. And it opens up new ways of thinking, that allow you to expand and allow you to grow. And that is very worthwhile. And now, I want to let me just remind you again, would you would say that, now is not a bad time for you to join our community of happy warriors. You get to share with an entire community of people. Connection is key. And if you become a happy warrior, you're given access to a community of happy warriors, who are all trying to reach the same goal as you, namely, totality, holistic living, meaning that my finances and my family and my friendships and my fitness and my everything's tied together. And so you know, you learn things about how to involve your family, how to involve your spouse, how to involve your children in your work. There's there's value in that, and it helps with a children's education in finances well, and what is faith? What could faith possibly have to do with your bodily fitness? Well, as it turns out a whole lot.
Daniel Lapin 27:01
But you want to be a happy warrior in order to find that out. So join us and I'm feel encouraged, every time somebody else joins and becomes a happy warrior, I feel uplifted. So go for it, you just go to our website, we happy warriors.com We Happy warriors.com. Or if you wish, you can also go to our regular website, Rabbi Daniel lapin.com. And there you will find the link to We Happy Warriors. So we'll be able to do it that way as well. But at any rate, do join us. And that way, we will all be able to move forward to good times and green pastures, onwards and upwards. Now, to clarify what I mean by family, family is the very first of our human connections, isn't it? You know, before we're even cognitively functioning, almost, we are connected to our mothers. And then we recognize our fathers. And there, you've got the beginning of this family connection. But family connection means a little bit more than that.
Daniel Lapin 28:15
To define it, family means all the connections in your life that are forged by sexual relationships. That's right. When you think about it, next time you have a family get together, maybe it's a birthday, or maybe it's somebody's anniversary, or whatever it is, but next time you get together, and there's uncles and aunts, and cousins and brothers and sisters in all kinds of everyone's there. You have to realize, as you look around that you're all there, because many years ago, grandpa and grandma caught one another's eyes, and later found ecstasy in one another's arms. And from that came the family of which you are apart. And so, family is essentially the relationships that are forged, fundamentally by sexual relationships. That that's kind of what family means. How about friendship, friendship, well, let me go to money first finances. Finances means what it sounds like your money. It's also connections forged by economic transactions. And so if you're, if you're in business, you have customers or you're in business and you have clients, those are part of your finance F. Right, because they're not family members, and they're not necessarily friends. So what are friends? Well, friends, the friendship and the friendship are relationships that are neither sexual Oh no financial. That's what friendships are. Eben, it also goes beyond that. If you think of your your friends as the middle of the dartboard, there are wider concentric circles that reach to community and beyond. And so yes, if you serve on your local PTA, or you're on the board of the local orchestra, or whatever it is, you do, those all fall into the friendship part of your world. If, if you have a quilting club, right, you love sewing quilts, then those are that relationship and those relationships are part of friendship. So I'm hoping I'm just clarifying everything that comes in the heading a family, it in everything that comes under the heading of finances, everything that comes under the heading of friendships. You know, if you're dealing with elections and government, whether it's, you know, city, government, state, government, federal, whatever it is, you're, you're involved politically, that falls under friendships as well, even though you may not be particularly friendly. It's also interesting to note that family is something we innately are conscious of, and drawn to intuitively when we're young. But when we're older, we kind of have to work a little bit on family because you hit the teenage years, and you start feeling that everyone else's parents are nicer and more reasonable than your own parents. And eventually, you reach a bit of maturity. And you realize you got to you got to work on rebuilding relationships with siblings with parents again, because they may be in a period of semi estrangement. So family works that way, you really get it when you're little. And then as you become older, you have to kind of work at it. Friendships a little bit the other way around, in the sense that, yeah, when you're at kindergarten, and preschool, you know you, you have what you call friends, but you don't really begin understanding the role of friends until much later. I know a number of women who, when they have given birth, actually prefer to have a girlfriend with them in the labor and delivery rather than their husband. Now, I know that may sound funny to some of you. But, and certainly maybe for first child, they like their husband there. But later on they they rather have a girlfriend, because friends, you suddenly you realize friends fill a role different from family, they don't replace family. Don't think that for a moment, there's a there was a television sitcom that I think was was very popular, I think during the 90s called friends. It was very clever and well written. But it pretty much communicated the idea that as a young adult, all you need are friends, you don't need family. And the only family members in that show that were ever seen was sort of almost caricatures. There were buffoon type figures. But the as far as I recall, I'm not an expert on it. But I did think it was a very cleverly written shown very well acted. But but one of the false among many false messages, the show projected was the idea that, you know, as a young adult living in the city, you don't need family, all you need are friends, and that fills all your needs. Yeah, not true. Not true. It's, it's, it's all. You need friends, and you need family, and they feel entirely different purposes. It puts an unbearable strain on a marriage, a strain that no marriage was ever designed to sustain. To tell a ought to believe that your spouse has to be everything to your best friend. No, my spouse is my spouse. My spouse isn't my best friend. I've got best friends, few best friends, but spouse is a spouse. And as soon as you start thinking in terms of, well, your husband or your wife has to be your best friend. That's not really you want to be able to talk completely openly to your best friend. And yet, they are absolutely things that you may decide not to talk openly to your spouse about. Now, that's a shocker for many of you. I know. Particularly if you are a romantically inclined young man. I can't wait to have a girlfriend or a fiance or a wife, with whom I'll be able to share everything. And if you are wise, you then learn that you don't share everything, right? There are many, many, many examples of things that a wife doesn't necessarily share with her husband. And I have, and I'm talking about a good marriage with, you know, a good man and a good woman and a good marriage. And part of the way that a good marriage is sustained is exactly by knowing where boundaries are and that privacy's do exist even between husband and wife. And so for instance, if a husband has a major disagreement with someone at work, in most cases, a wise husband wouldn't tell his wife about this fight he's having at work, he's upset about it, he's bothered by it, you know, what, have a beer with one of your friends and talk through it with him rather than with your wife, you know why? Because the odds are, that in six months down the road, the disagreement will be history. And you and the person with whom you had a disagreement have put that totally behind you, your, your once again, your relationship is healthy, it's productive in the business, and you both forgotten it. But your wife because of her loyalty to you will not forget the pain that that person caused you at work through the troubles you were having and through the disagreements you were experiencing. And so you will want to say at some point, hey, let's go out with the Smiths. And she'll say how could we possibly I'd never be able to sit through dinner with that man after what he did to you. And she's right to say that to feel that you were wrong to tell her about the disagreement, the work disagreement in the first place. Now, I hope that you wives this thing, are not thinking to yourself, Well, I hope my husband doesn't listen to the show. I want him to be able to tell me everything. You really don't. There really are many things that we're better off not knowing. I mean, one rather grim and and gloomy example is, you know, let's imagine that a genie popped out of the bottle and asked you if you'd like to know the date of your death? Would you say yes, I don't think so. There will be an example of information that we're better off not knowing. And there are many other things like that as well. But specifically, in the area of marriage. Sure. Of course, there are things that husbands would be wise not to share with wives and wives now to share with husbands. That's why you have friends. That's right. And so understanding the need for each of these things, well, that's what we're talking about.
Daniel Lapin 38:07
So we looked at family, right connections that are human connections forged mainly by sexual relationships, your finances, your money, your connections, forged by economic transactions, friendships, relationships that are neither sexual nor financial. And this becomes a wider concept of concentric circles, that extend from close friends to less close friends, to friends of friends, to community to clubs, to associations, to society to come to, to even to, to government and, and citizenship and civic groups, etc. Okay, fitness, that's pretty straightforward, right? Your body, matters of health, that matters of diet, and also a matters of aging. Understanding aging, because again, if you're, if your finances are in good shape, aging is much better, much easier. And if your family is in good shape, aging is much easier and much better. And so all of these all of these things, you know, hard to see at the outset, necessarily, why? Why do I need friendships when I'm focused on fitness? Or why do I need family when I'm focused on finances? That is exactly the point of today's show. Because your life is a system. And one of the fundamental and unchangeable rules of system is that all the pots are needed. All the pots reinforce and support one another. And all the pots depend on all the other pots. And so when we realize We're not talking about a beehive. We're not talking about a city, we're not talking about your body. We're talking about your whole life. And yes, your family and your finances, your friendships and your fitness. And yes, your faith do all inter depend upon one another. Not a single one of these is more important than any other. They are literally all equally important. And that's true for a for any system, right? Would anybody say that the engine is more important than the brakes and a car? No, it's a silly thing. You know, if you're needing to slow down, you need the brakes. If you're needing to speed up, you need the engine, each one for the system called a car, you need all the elements equally urgently. And then finally, the last F that I haven't yet dealt with is the one of faith. What is faith? Faith is all matters that are spiritual, which means all matters that cannot be measured mechanically. They cannot be measured in a laboratory. And so I mean, hardly anybody would dispute the importance in your life of things like your dignity, your reputation, your integrity, your optimism, your persistence, your endurance, these are all spiritual characteristics. Surely, you need to know how to develop them. Well, if you don't understand faith, then you have a Trump you're suffering from a tremendous handicap in being able to deal with and improve those things. And secondly, under faith comes God. And it again, you know, realizing that there are many challenges in many areas in which a connection with God is a huge help. And I know that there are many people who believe that faith in God is a kind of like a watch, you know, you're born with it. Or a, you just you either have it or you don't have it. And it isn't like that at all. In the same way that you know, you don't automatically have physical fitness it's it's something you have to develop, you have to work at it, you have to eat right, you have to exercise etc, etc. So it is with connection with God. Well, I don't I don't believe in God, really. And you know, I don't I don't I'm agnostic. I don't know if I just don't even think about that stuff. Yet. Well, you need to write it again. I just want to make clear. I don't care. It's not as if I'm a rabbi trying to notch up the hand you know, the handle of my revolver or send me a good now the happy warrior became religious. Now I'm not doing that at all. Right? If this is information for your use, this is information for your benefit. And so although I know so many people and throughout my life, I've always known people who say that, you know, I'm not particularly religious person I, you know, I don't know if I believe in God, that is a fine, fine, fine, it's okay. All I'm telling you is that for a fully holistic life, where all the parts of your life interact smoothly with one another, then you actually do need to figure out how to build a relationship with God. Well, it feels weird, I'm building relationship with something or someone that I don't even know exists. That's alright. Don't worry about that won't be the first time in your life, you're inconsistent. Inconsistency is not the worst thing in the world, inconsistency is very different from hypocrisy to different things entirely. Alright. So let us just bear in mind then, that under the faith heading, there is areas of spirituality. Music by the way, music is a totally spiritual phenomenon. Totally spiritual because there is no instrument that exists that can tell you whether a particular song is a happy song or a sad song. And I've looked at artificial intelligence don't see that yet. Now, if you buy artificial intelligence, you just mean a comparator. As a comparator circuit that goes to the internet or is is is programmed to know certain type of major chord is happy, but a minor chord is sad, fine, but in general, music is nothing but vibrating air molecules until it hits your soul until it hits your brain until something goes on. inside of you, the precise nature of which nobody understands language itself, by the way, language communication spiritual not understood at all. Will it ever be understood? I don't think so. to two different ways of contemplating the human presence on our planet. Right? This is all part of the faith one, you got to ask yourself, you know, how did human beings get to this planet? And as far as I know, there are only two answers. One is that the good Lord created us in His image and put us here. And the other is that by a lengthy process of an aided materialistic evolution, primitive protoplasm turned into bookkeepers and ballerinas. Okay. I don't know a third alternative of how human beings are found on this planet. Some people tell me, well, rabbits, little little men on spaceships from another planet came and planted us here, as part of their experimental as part of their science project, fine, then all we are doing is postponing the question of where they came from. So that doesn't help very much. And you might say, well, who cares? You know, I'm a practical person. I don't really care about philosophy and these questions of how we got here and how it didn't get here? And my answer is that if you are a practical person, you really are a practical person, then you have to think about these things because they are real life implications. In terms of understanding money, in terms of raising children, in terms of nurturing your marriage, a lot of these things are shaped by how you answer the question. Well, I'd like to answer it with science. No, science is agnostic on the topic. I mean, obviously, science is gonna say we came here through a lengthy process of unaided materialistic evolution. But but then science is not very helpful in areas of spiritual measurement. It's just, it's the wrong instrument. I can't use a barometer to find out if I have to wear a sweater tomorrow, wrong instrument. And so those are the
Daniel Lapin 47:33
the five F's, the five areas upon which a successful life absolutely depends. And what most people by far and away the majority of people simply don't know about. Because you're not taught this in school, you're not taught it in college. And that is that your life is a system. And that all five elements of the system, operate together with one another, into depend upon one another, and enhance one another. In other words, if you have good friends, then that's good for your family, your marriage and your physical fitness as well, in ways that friends encourage friends to do good things, right? If if, if you're part of a married couple, and you're hanging out with a lot of divorce people, that's not the most healthy thing for your marriage. Right. So there, we've got it, friends, that's about as far as we're gonna take it today. But as you know, this is an ongoing course, the rabbi Daniel Lapin show goes on week after week, and you can go back week before week. And you can do research on earlier shows and earlier topics. Because I am telling you all the time, only things that have to do with how the world really works, and things that are permanent principles and timeless truths of reality. They were true five years ago, they'll be true in 10 years time. There is true in the Philippines and in Kenya and in Bolivia and in Brazil, as they are in California. So until next week, I want to wish you a week of growth, a week of happiness. And you know what? A very terrific Christmas and uplifting and joyous Christmas and by the way, let me wrap up with a wine a complaint and a grouse. I've noticed that year by year fewer and fewer people put out Christmas lights and Christmas decorations on their homes. I think that's sad. I think it's a fantastic thing for people to have their faith clearly is that and yes, I know, I understand that, you know, big inflatable snowman with a light in it on your lawn does not really speak of your devotion to your Lord and Savior. I get that obviously. But at the same time, it's kind of nice. And I think it drives very violent, secular fundamentalists crazy with which, which is another advantage of doing it. So I do hope that if you're Christian, I do hope you're decorating your home and putting those lights out. And yes, so it uses a little bit of God given fuel. So what there's plenty more where that came from. So until next week, I wish that you will have a week of great progress and growth in your family and your finances, your friendships, your fitness and your faith. I'm Rabbi Daniel Lapin. God bless.