What happens when a self-described "Spiritual Agnostic" decides to tackle anti-Semitism head-on? After an unsettling encounter with anti-Semitic comments online, I felt compelled to address the questions many non-Jews have always wondered but rarely ask directly: Why are Jews constantly persecuted throughout history? Do Jewish people bear any responsibility for the stereotypes they face?
Taking you on a deeply personal journey through Jewish identity, I break down the three branches of Judaism—Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform—with candor and occasional humor. As a Reform or "Jew-ish" person myself, I offer an insider's perspective on what makes Jewish culture distinctive, from our approach to education and success to our characteristically fatalistic sense of humor (there's a reason so many comedians are Jewish!).
The podcast explores the concept of Jews as a "middleman culture"—similar to Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia or Armenians in various regions—and how economic success often breeds resentment. Through personal anecdotes and historical insights, I address misconceptions about Jewish beliefs, including the often-misunderstood concept of "chosen people" and our relationship with religious texts.
Perhaps most poignantly, I share what economist Thomas Sowell (who isn't Jewish) said when asked what Jews could do to end anti-Semitism. His one-word answer—"fail"—reveals a profound truth about prejudice and success. This episode isn't just for those curious about Judaism; it's for anyone interested in how cultural identity shapes our experiences in a world that often misunderstands difference.
Whether you're Jewish, curious about Judaism, or simply interested in cultural understanding, this unfiltered conversation offers insights into a complex identity that has survived millennia of persecution while maintaining its distinctive character and contributions. As we navigate increasingly polarized times, perhaps understanding one another's perspectives is more important than ever.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Howdy partners, it's me, herbie, your host at the
Spiritual Agnostic and today,which I'm actually recording on
Thursday instead of my customaryFriday, even though I'm not
going to post it until Fridaybecause I'm going to discuss
anti-Semitism.
And the reason that I'mrecording it a day early is
because my buttons got pushedwhile I was for lack of a better
(00:24):
term doing a little trolling onX.
Anyway, on X, some guy saidwhat was the biggest mistake
Hitler made in World War II andwhy did he lose the war.
And I said kicking out, exilingand otherwise killing the Jews,
because that included Einsteinand Oppenheimer.
And I hate to break it to you,but that's how the United States
(00:44):
got nuclear weapons and Germanynever had a chance in the war
from the beginning because ofthe enormous industrial might of
the United States and theworld's largest merchant and
military navy of Great Britain,which people never talk about.
But it's true, germany neverhad a chance From the very
beginning.
Hitler's biggest mistake wasstarting the war.
(01:05):
But you know that all said andput aside, that somehow brought
out the anti-Semites andsuddenly I was being attacked by
anti-Semites and you know thenext thing?
I knew I was responding andthen I decided you know what I'm
going to disengage because thisrelates to the last podcast I
(01:26):
did on stupidity and DietrichBonhoeffer, and then it started
getting my wheels turning.
So I thought for those of youwho are Gentile and have always
wondered, what is it?
Okay?
A, why are the Jews constantlypersecuted from the dawn of time
?
That's number one.
Constantly persecuted from thedawn of time?
That's number one and numbertwo.
What is it about us thatattracts I don't know,
(01:51):
caricaturization?
Is that a right word?
That's a long word, I'm glad Igot it out of my mouth.
But are there behaviors, arethere characteristics of Jews
that are just somehow triggerpeople into believing the worst
possible things and going stupid?
Do we bear some culpability forour own ruin?
So I'm going to have an adultconversation as a Jew.
(02:13):
So to give you a littlebackground, I am what is called
a Reform Jew.
Now, there are breakdownswithin it, but basically in
Judaism, just like inChristianity, you have
Catholicism and then you haveProtestantism and then within
Protestantism, you've got agajillion different Protestant
groups, subgroups, religion,religious I hate to use the word
(02:37):
sect, I'm not sure whatChristians call it, but various
churches.
I guess I'll just use the wordyeah, that's the word.
I always hear churches.
You have a lot of differentchurches within Protestantism.
So in Judaism there are threebasic outlines of Jews.
There's the Orthodox, and thesubgroup within the Orthodox are
(02:57):
the Hasidic, and those are theones that people always
associate with Jews when they'reanti-Semites, because somehow
it's easy to caricaturize Jewsas having, you know, black hats
and long black coats and bigbeards and you know schlepping
along with their wives behindthem, wearing wigs.
You know pushing strollers with5,000 children, and that is
Hasidim or, as they're called inIsrael, haredim.
(03:19):
But that's a very smallsubgroup of Jews that come from
Poland and the little villagescalled shtetls and I'm not going
to go into.
I'm going to stop translatingYiddish backwards and forwards
if I use Yiddish, just take itout of context and you're
probably right about what itmeans.
So as I go down.
So that's a subgroup, butOrthodox in general will always
(03:43):
wear a yarmulke.
So if you've ever gone to, likeTrader Joe's, for example, in
my part of the country has avery good kosher foods
department and they have koshermeats, which is very important.
That's a long story.
I'm not going down that road,but you'll see Orthodox Jews in
there all the time with theirfamilies and the little boys
wear yarmulkes and the wives'heads are covered, usually with
(04:04):
a scarf, and little girls don'thave to bother with that
nonsense.
They're not off the deep end,aside from the yarmulkes and
head coverings, you wouldn'tknow them from anybody else.
But they strictly observe theSabbath, they strictly keep
kosher and they follow Judaismin its most orthodox, that is to
say Catholic, form.
(04:25):
Okay, you know, the most Latinmass Catholics would be very
close to what an orthodox Jewwould be, if we're going to use
a broad analogy.
So that's probably not accurate.
Please don't pick me apart.
I'm just trying to make peopleunderstand.
I'm sure you get the drift ofwhat I'm trying to say.
Then you go to the conservatives, which the conservatives to the
(04:47):
Orthodox are like the Anglicansto the Catholics.
So basically all the ceremony,but without a lot of the really
strict, strict, strict, strictrules.
I separate the Episcopals fromthe Anglicans because the United
States, the Anglican Church,which is the Episcopal Church,
has gone off the deep end ofWoken, so I'm just going to
leave that off there in its ownlittle land.
(05:08):
But people who identifythemselves as either
traditionally Episcopal in theUnited States or Anglican in the
Catholic Church, you get what Imean.
You know, basically there's nopope and there's the Archbishop
of Canterbury, but he's notnearly in the same position and
(05:29):
the church has a lot of ritualand you know the same kind of
trappings and if you walk intoan Anglican church or a Catholic
church in Europe they're very,very similar.
It's just sort of.
You know, it's optional if youwant to go completely off the
deep end.
So my brother, who's myhalf-brother but I'm not going
down that road either is aconservative Jew.
He does keep kosher that's achoice but he does not wear
yarmulke in public, he does notwear tefillin under his shirt.
(05:54):
You know, I'm so tempted.
You know I can go from tefillinto Mormons.
You know my mind goes flyingoff into space, but I've got to
stay on track.
Anyway, mo is my, his name isMorris, but I call him Mo.
Mo, my brother and his wifeAdora, they don't how his mother
, how her mother named her aftera hat is beyond me.
But anyway, there you go.
So they're, and they and theirchildren, they actively practice
(06:18):
, they keep the Sabbath.
They do keep kosher, butthey're not crazy about it.
They're not like glot kosher.
So there's different kinds ofkosher.
So there's the Orthodox Jews whoit has to.
They don't eat in a restaurantthat isn't kosher because they
know they're not maintainingseparate sets of plates for
dairy and meat, as would bestrictly kosher.
Whereas they'll go, my brotherand Fedora will go to a pizzeria
(06:42):
.
I've been with them and I'm notkosher.
I'm reformed.
We'll get to me in a minute,but I'll order a pepperoni pizza
.
They'll order a cheese, closeenough.
Okay, they don't mix meat anddairy, but they're not off the
deep end of oh my God.
They made this pizza in an ovenwhere a pizza with meat on it
touched the hot stone orwhatever it is.
That's conservative.
(07:03):
And then there's what I am,which is reform, and a lot of
reformed Jews are secular Jews,just like I am.
They're Jew-ish.
I'm very, very proud of being aJew, but the religious part to
me is almost secondary to thecultural experience which is,
believe me.
There are Orthodox Jews who,when they hear me say this in
(07:26):
this podcast, they areabsolutely wanting to slap the
crap out of me for being sostupid, and I do understand.
So maybe that makes me not somuch stupid as clueless.
But I'll have that discussionwith them.
The cousins can argue with eachother.
I'm just sharing with you thatReform Jews are the.
(07:46):
If they were asked if they wereJewish, americans or American
Jews to a toddler, it would beAmerican Jews.
Our first and foremostallegiance, for most American
Jews, is America.
Um, we're also fierce zionists.
We see no conflict in that.
Um, we don't wear yarmulkes inpublic.
We don't even wear.
Yarmulkes are completelyoptional, even in synagogue,
(08:08):
which we attend rarely.
Most reformed jews are what arethe equivalent of christmas
christians.
They show up for rosh hashanah,which is jewish new year, and
yom kippur, the day of atonement, where we all pretend that
we're fasting when we'resneaking candy bars in the men's
room, and then the rest of theyear, you know pretty much do as
we please, and you know youwant to meet a lot of Reform
(08:32):
Jews.
You want to meet a lot of Jewsin general.
The best day to meet Jews ifyou live in a city and if you're
saying to yourself I don't knowany Jews, just go to a Chinese
restaurant on Christmas Day andyou're going to meet Jews and
Buddhists two groups you have noexperience with Jews.
View Chinese food as the nextthing to pastrami.
It's Jewish soul food.
I can go into the reasons whythat is true, but it is true.
(08:54):
So anyway, now you understandthe three groups of Jews and
what kind of Jew I am.
So I am Jew-ish as opposed toJewish.
And there you have it.
But the commonality of allthree groups are, when it comes
right down to it, an OrthodoxJew, most Orthodox Jews, not the
Hasidim.
They view Reform Jews assomething less than pond scum
(09:14):
and prefer Gentiles to us.
But that's another story.
But most Jews will generallyprefer to do business with Jews,
would prefer their childrenmarry a Jew, regardless of which
part of Judaism they come from.
It's very interchangeable.
There are a lot of Reform Jews,particularly of this most recent
generation, who feelspiritually bereft.
This is a healthy thing.
And there's a large modernOrthodox movement that's taking
(09:37):
place which is large by Jewishstandards.
That's another thing that youall need to understand.
Large by Jewish standards.
That's another thing that youall need to understand.
If you're ever wondering whythere are so few Jews in the
world where there are so manyChristians, yet we predate you
times three we've been around300% longer than Christianity
has been roughly since Abrahamthe answer is Jews don't
proselytize.
It's the Jewish religion, it isliterally.
(09:59):
There's no such thing as aJewish missionary.
We've never tried to convertanybody to Judaism.
What chosen people means hasnothing to do with you have to
be Jewish.
I'll get into that in just onesecond.
But what being we don't?
We just don't.
I'll tell you a quick story.
When I was in college my briefcollege career, very brief I, at
(10:22):
the Hillel Center there was aPassover Seder and I had nowhere
else to go.
So I went to the Passover Sederat the Hillel.
It was lovely, we had a greattime and there was a young rabbi
who worked there and he was agreat guy and we're all hanging
out and having a good time.
We went through the Seder andthen we were doing what Jews do
best, which is eat.
Jews, as a group, we have thelowest incidence of alcoholism,
(10:46):
but we are fat and that'sbecause Jews much prefer to chew
our calories.
We don't get the drinking thing.
By and large.
It's not that there aren't sucha thing as a Jewish alcoholic,
there's just not that many ofthem, as compared to Gentile
alcoholics.
Again, don't know why, just is.
But Jews, we're big into food,big, big, big into food.
So we're having a great time.
We're eating all kinds of goodfood brought in by various
people in the community, in theJewish community in Tucson.
(11:07):
This is at the University ofArizona Having a great time.
Anyway, this girl walks intothis Seder and when I say girl,
clearly Gentile, the minute youtook one look at her you knew
that from a Jewish point of viewbecause of her little butt and
shicks and nose.
And she walked into the roomand she literally says loudly I
mean, I'll just never forgetthis.
This is literally true.
I'm not embellishing this.
(11:28):
She says to the rabbi who, Idon't know how, you didn't
figure out he was the rabbibecause he was reform and not
wearing a yarmulke.
But anyway, she says, rabbi, Iwant to be Jewish.
And his reply was priceless andit just explains why Judaism is
so small.
He turned to her and said whatyou don't have enough problems,
(11:49):
see the term chosen people.
Okay, by the way, as you cantell, jews have a fatalistic
sense of humor.
We know the world's going to onemore quick story about this is
just a family story.
So I have a first cousin.
His name is Marty.
He's a wonderful guy, he's anattorney and he's now retired.
But he was a returnee, was anattorney.
I am so silly.
(12:12):
Sometimes I talk to my dog likethat, but anyway.
So Marty and I were on the phone.
I was in my office.
He was evidently in his office.
It was just one day.
We were just talking to eachother.
We kept in touch.
We're going back and forthHow's your family Good, how's
your wife Good, how are yourchildren Good.
Back and forth, good, good,good.
How's business Good, how's yourpractice?
Good, everything was good.
(12:38):
It Suddenly both of us becamesilent, literally silent, and it
was like one of thoseuncomfortable silences, like if
I went silent right now for 30seconds you start to wonder if
you were having a malfunction inyour device that you're
listening to this on.
So it was one of those 30second uncomfortable, really not
that long, but it seemed likean hour silences.
(12:59):
And then Marty says to meyou're waiting for the Cossacks,
aren't you?
Now, that's a very Jewish thingto say and I don't know if you
would understand that, but whatit means is to be Jewish is to
understand that the Cossacks,who were basically the killers
of the Tsar okay, the Tsar was abad guy in Jewish life, very
(13:22):
bad guy.
No, jews were crying when theczar fell Let me just share and
they didn't know what was coming, but they knew it couldn't be
any worse than the czar.
From a Jewish point of view,stalin was a mass murderer, but
he was an equal opportunitymurderer, if that means anything
at all.
At least the Jews didn't feelparticularly picked upon.
(13:43):
You know, lots of Jews werekilled by Stalin, but so were
lots of everybody else.
But for the Tsar we were it.
I mean to this day we're cursed.
His secret police, the Cheka,wrote that.
Was it the Cheka?
Or was that the communistsecret police early on?
That was the communist secretpolice.
Who were the Tsars?
No, that was the NKVD, wasstill communist, I think.
(14:04):
Anyway, the czar had his.
Maybe it was the Czech.
Anyway, the czar had his ownsecret police and they were the
ones who wrote the Protocols ofthe Elders of Zion.
It was just a piece of crapthat they put out as propaganda
so the czar could kill more Jewswith Cossacks.
And it's still hanging out tothis day.
People cite it.
Anti cited, anti-semites lovethat book.
You know they think there's asecret protocol.
You know the elders of Zionthat secretly control the world,
(14:25):
the lie of which is madeevident by the fact that the
world continually shits on ourhead.
And if we were that powerful,how could that possibly happen?
So anyway, moving right along.
So Jews, because of being, youknow, murdered through the
centuries, the Holocaust,october the 7th, was the latest
of a long line of Jewishslaughters.
You know, to Jews there'snothing new about being
(14:48):
slaughtered.
We've been slaughtered by everygroup there is.
But you know the Jewishattitude is they come and they
go, but we're still here.
You know like we were chosen byGod, not because we were
special and we were the onlyones going to heaven.
Here's an interesting side noteof the Jewish religion.
The whole heaven thing is verynebulous.
There are a lot of Jews,including Orthodox Jews, that
(15:08):
literally don't discuss it atall in any more than you know an
afterthought term, theafterlife is not a big thing in
Judaism, it just isn't.
And there's no hell in Judaismand I know that's hard for a lot
of people to put their handsaround.
That was all Christianity woveall that in from Roman mythology
, but in Judaism there's none ofthat stuff.
Greek and Roman mythology, Ishould say, but there's none of
(15:36):
that stuff in Judaism.
We're just not.
We don't think there's like youhave to be Jewish to get the
reward.
That's not what's in the booksfor Jews.
So you know, the bottom line iswe don't think you need to be
Jewish.
We were chosen by God to bringhis law to the world.
That's it and we did it.
The world has laws, for betteror for worse.
Judaism, from our point of view, we are the ones who brought
(16:00):
ethical, god-based law to theworld.
That's it.
That's our gift.
That's what we were chosen todo, and for that we have been
paying the price for a really,really long time.
You know, like what was thatjoke?
Something like being the chosenpeople, god, could you choose
someone else for a while?
It's like oh my God.
(16:22):
Anyway, I'm laughing through itbecause I have a very, very
Jewish sense of humor.
There's nothing unusual aboutmy sense of humor among Jewish
people.
That's why so many comediansare Jewish.
You have to be kind offatalistic to be a good comedian
, I think.
Anyway, at least by mydefinition of what's funny.
And, you know, have a certainamount of self-loathing and
recognition.
And, by the way, why do Jewsseem clannish to you?
(16:44):
Because Jews are clannish?
Because, truthfully, we'd muchrather that our kids marry
Jewish people.
Now, none of my kids married aJew, to be honest with you, but
that's okay.
I mean, it was my preference.
I'm a Reformed Jew, remember?
See, this is what the Orthodoxwould hate about me.
I'm okay with it.
If I were conservative orOrthodox I would not be okay
with it.
So that can seem very, veryclannish.
(17:05):
And you know what?
The older I get, the more Irealize how much stress I would
have saved myself and mychildren, who are very Jewish
and they identify as Jewishpersonally, which was an
election in our family, which isanother discussion for another
day.
But anyway, we would say toourselves a lot of heartache if
(17:25):
we would have married within ourown culture.
Only because we understand eachother.
It's like my kids have noticed.
I have a.
I'm a very gregarious person, Ihave a lot of friends, but my
closest, closest, closest,closest closest friends are Jews
.
Why is that?
Because we understand eachother, because we understand
each other.
You know, my dearest, I havetwo very dear Jewish men,
friends for nearly life.
And you know, like there's anunspoken language, there's a
(17:49):
certain fatalism.
Just like Marty understood, Iwas waiting for the Cossacks.
There's a certain and you know,here's the thing about being
Jewish You're relieved when theCossacks show up because at
least you know what directionthey're coming from.
That's why my ex-wife, who wasa Midwestern Lutheran or
Methodist, I don't know, I cannever remember, but anyway her
attitude was like she used totell me you are the calmest
(18:13):
person I've ever met.
When things are really bad andthat's always been a
characteristic of mine whenthings really turn to complete
and total crap, I become almostpreternaturally calm and can see
what needs to be done.
And here's the weird part ofthat.
That is not unusual amongJewish people.
We are great when the worldturns to shit because we expect
(18:36):
it to, and when you have acertain fatalism in your outlook
in life, you become that way.
But you also become a littleclannish.
There's no doubt about it.
You have a naturalpredisposition to trust Jews
more.
It's a bias, it's a prejudice,but it's one born in a way that
(18:59):
you'll understand, I think.
And plenty of groups all feelthe same way, I'm sure, about
the group that they're in, Idon't know, and I know Jews take
a lot of heat for it, butthat's just the way it is.
The other thing that is is thatJews tend to be successful.
That's because Judaism has astudy ethic, not a work ethic.
Those of you who are Christian,take the Christian work ethic,
replace every time you hear theword work with study and you'll
(19:20):
understand why Jews are doctorsand lawyers and engineers, and
the other part of it is justgenetics.
You know, when a very, verystudious people marry other very
, very studious people, theytend to have very, very studious
children, and those childrenmarry.
You know, when you marry withanother reason that, when I look
back on it, it would anyway.
But if you're coming from agroup of, by the way,
(19:42):
collectively let me be veryclear on this, in case you think
that I'm displaying Jewisharrogance the smartest people in
the world by IQ are not Jews.
We're the second smartest groupof race call it what you want
of people.
Asians are the smartest groupof people in the world.
So I would have been thrilledif any of my children came home
with, you know, a nice Indiangirl you know what can I say?
(20:02):
Or a nice Japanese girl.
I would be totally thrilledBecause they would have almost
undoubtedly had intelligentchildren, also beautiful
children.
But I could go right down thechild rabbit hole fast, because
my number one passion in life ischildren and grandchildren.
So anyway, but I'm coming back.
I'm coming back to explainJudaism.
So anyway, you get my drift.
(20:25):
Jews are going to be successfuland the other thing is is that
Jews don't misread the Bible.
So you Christians out there Iknow you've all read this, you
know, you've all heard about itit's easier for a camel to crawl
through the eye of a needlethan a rich man to get into
heaven.
That thing from the gospel youguys are all you don't
understand what you're reading.
The eye of the needle was thesmaller door next to the big
gate in these walled cities backin biblical times, and at
(20:48):
nighttime they would shut thegreat big doors of the city.
You know, because obviously youknow people have to go to bed,
they want to put on the nightguard, they don't want the whole
army to have to be on the wallall day long regulating the
traffic coming in and out.
So they shut it all down.
But there's a smaller door soin case a traveler or someone
important shows up at night andthey need to get into the city
(21:09):
but the main gate is closed,they could basically knock, or
however they make themselvesknown, on that door and then
that door would be opened up.
But here's the thing it wascalled the Eye of the Needle and
that's the camel.
To get through the eye of theneedle in these desert countries
(21:31):
, had to get on its knees.
Any of you who have been aroundcamels know that camels can
walk on their knees essentially,so you know they don't have to
be on their feet.
So anyway, long story short,the story is that a rich man
needs only to get on his kneesand thank God for being rich.
He doesn't have to give up hismoney.
You're completely misreadingthis.
(21:51):
You know, going to heaven justmeans thank you, god for giving
me.
And that's the other thing.
When Jews, jewish prayers andChristian prayers are very, very
different and I'm painting ahuge broad brush.
But to where Christians andmaybe Muslims?
I'm ignorant on Islam, so Idon't want to go down that road.
I'll let you guys write me andmake me clear on this.
(22:12):
But Jews don't have an intimaterelationship with God.
We don't think that God talkswith us every day.
We don't believe in the HolyGhost, so we don't believe in
the Trinity.
So therefore, jewish prayers gosomething, are all a version of
basically thank you for givingme the brains to figure this out
for myself.
Thank you God.
The Jewish view of God, since wedon't have revelation and we
don't believe in the end oftimes that we're inevitably
(22:35):
going to end up in a lake offire.
All of that is all.
Christian Jews, on the otherhand, think that God gave us the
brains to operate, gave us laws, told the Jews pass it out
among everybody else, set theworld a spinning and said good
luck.
And he's there and he cares.
But it's ours to make or breakand that's why Jews tend to
(22:55):
survive, because we're notlooking for divine intervention
and we don't think necessarilyGod's on or off our side.
It's our world and ours to makeand ours to break.
But we don't have any problemwith making money and we don't
feel guilty about it.
But Judaism does have, and anyof you that have known Jews and
have been the beneficiaries ofJewish largesse know this Jews
habitually give away more moneythan anybody else because we
(23:15):
have mitzvah.
It's the obligation of everyJew to perform mitzvot, which
are the plural of mitzvah, whichis our acts of charity.
So Jews are incrediblycharitable people.
We're just private about it.
You know it's anyway.
And these are broadcharacterizations and there are
plenty of loud and obnoxious and.
(23:36):
But you know, in everystereotype there lies a seed of
truth.
Okay, I'm going to.
I'm going to sum it up.
So, jews and by the way, we gotlabeled with the whole Christ
killer thing, you know, theChristian church.
I'm going to digress for likethree or four minutes.
The Christian church would notbe the Christian church were it
(23:56):
not for Paul.
Okay, jesus is not the keyfigure, from a Jewish point at
least for no.
No, let me rephrase there is noJewish point of view because
there is no head Jew.
Okay, there's no Jew Pope.
There's nothing like that.
There's no central authority,there's no one handing down
doctrine, it's every man forhimself in Judaism.
Use your brains.
That's why the old joke goesyou put two Jews in a room, you
get five, six, seven, eight,nine opinions.
(24:18):
You never know.
Me too, you can tell by the wayI talk.
My mind is all over the place,so I can see different.
I think it's that's why Jews, Ithink, have a healthy view of
the world that I'd like to sharewith you, which is the world is
gray, not black and white.
It just goes from light gray todark gray, and you have to just
understand the gradations andlive within it.
It's a realistic view, I think,anyway, from my point of view,
(24:39):
a realistic point of view.
But again, I'm open todiscussion because I'm Jewish.
And that's how Jews are, youknow, like, bring up a good
point and we'll listen.
That's why, by and large, jewsare smart.
Not that's why, by and large,jews are smart, not to say
intellectually, but smart in thesense that we'll at least
listen to what you have to say.
Okay, so, moving right along,what was I about to talk about?
I don't know, I just lost mytrain of thought.
Look at that, derailed justlike that.
(25:03):
Oh, I was going to talk aboutPaul.
Okay, so Paul was the greatvillain of Christian
anti-Semitism.
Paul thought that Christianitywas at first.
He didn't want to go talk tothe Gentiles about it.
You know, jesus dies and it's100 years later and they write
the Gospels after he's been deada long time.
And they're another sect, andat the time there were a lot of
Messianic sects.
So what made Christianitydifferent than all the other
(25:25):
Messianic sects?
That had their own heroes andtheir own Jesus figures, and so
on and so forth.
How did it all come together,paul?
Now, I'm not going to go intoall the historical relevance of
that, and it might have been alldivinely led, and who only
knows, and you know.
His revelation on the road toDamascus or from Damascus or
wherever he was going out theremight have been very, very, very
(25:47):
sincere and good for him andyou know, live long and prosper.
But he thought he had a brandof Messianic, a group that he
could sell to the Jews and theJews we're a tough sell man,
we're just a tough sell.
So they turned him down and heturned on them and that's where
all that Christ killer crapcomes from.
(26:08):
And it sat there festering inthe Catholic church until 1964,
when Pope I think it was 64,when Pope Paul finally said the
Jews did not kill Jesus.
You know I could go into thewhole Pharisee and Sadducee and
Roman relationship and who wasHerod and all that other stuff,
and I'm a great student ofChristian theology as history
(26:29):
and I think it's really, reallyinteresting.
And, yes, I think Jesus was areal guy and I'll share just one
insight with you guys just onthis.
I know it has nothing to dowith what I'm talking about, but
this is how I know Jesus was areal guy.
You know there is nocontemporary history of Jesus,
so there is an insertion by oneRoman historian at the time.
I forget who it was, it'll cometo me in a minute, but anyway.
(26:53):
But it's clearly a forgery andan assertion later trying to
have something that mentionsJesus, you would think a guy
that has a movement so importantthat he has to be sold over to
the Romans by the Pharisees andthen crucified.
There'd be some written recordof him by a people that were
writing down everything.
There are tons.
There's tons and tons and tonsof history from that era written
(27:17):
down.
There's tons of written history.
We know a lot about that erabecause the Romans and the Jews
both were literate people andwere writing things down like
crazy, as were the Greeks.
So there's plenty of writtenhistory.
There's just nothing aboutJesus.
So how do I know he's a real guy?
And the answer is from thestory of Matthew and that whole
book of my about him being bornin Bethlehem, in Nazareth, and
(27:38):
ends up in Bethlehem and born inthe manger.
See, in order to fulfillprophecy for who the Messiah is
going to be, the Messiahevidently has to be born in
Bethlehem.
I say evidently because I amnot a student of prophecy, but I
believe this is true.
Feel free to contradict mebiblical scholars out there.
So anyway.
He had to be born in Bethlehem,but he was born in Nazareth.
So they go through this wholebubba-mice about going through
(27:59):
the desert and the stars and thewise men and all that dreck,
anyway, that's a lot.
And they had to make up thebaby slaughter and the whole
thing because there was neverany such thing.
That's another thing.
There was never any slaughterof Jewish children by Herod.
That never happened.
Never took place.
He did lots of things, some ofthem good, some of them bad.
He was a complicated guy, oldHerod, and his son Herod Antipas
(28:21):
.
But I'll tell you what theyweren't.
They were not mass murderers oftheir own people.
So that just didn't happen,never took place.
Total bubba misa.
Bubba misa, by the way, is theYiddish word for old wives tale.
It's just a story.
It got written into gospel butthere's.
No, it certainly didn't happen.
So how am I still convinced thathe's the real guy?
Because why go through thewhole bubba misa to fulfill the
(28:45):
prophecy?
If you could have just said hewas born in Bethlehem, as
prophesied?
Why go through the whole songand dance of the hovering stars
and the wise men crossing thedesert and the whole thing and
the mass murder?
That never happened and allthat and schlepping and ending
up in a manger and the wholestory.
You wouldn't have to go throughthat if he wasn't a real guy.
That's all I'm saying.
(29:05):
Okay, so I think he was a realguy.
Now that's again Jewishreasoning.
You now have an example of howJews' minds work.
What else could it be?
Why would you go through thisproblem?
Now, I'm sure there's an answerto that question, and I'm sure
somebody who's an atheist.
And, as I have said when Istarted this podcast, I believe
that religion is by and large,including Christianity, a good
(29:26):
thing, not a bad thing.
I think, to the extent thatwe've lost it in this country,
we've melted down our societything, not a bad thing.
I think, to the extent thatwe've lost it in this country,
we've melted down our society,and I think that and I envy the
faith of people of faith butwhere faith at one time was
believing, there was a God thatcreated everything and
controlled everything.
Now, thanks to science, we knowthat none of that is true.
Probably what is true is thatin order to have faith now, you
(29:49):
have to believe in somethingthat can't be true and just
believe that the supernatural isreal, and for an increasing
number of people, that justdoesn't compute.
And so there is anever-expanding group of people
that identify themselves asnon-believers of one flavor or
another.
But I use the word agnosticbecause, a I could be wrong and,
b I'm not an asshole, andatheists are assholes who walk
(30:11):
around with their own religiononly as one, absent any kind of
redemption or satisfaction,where they have to tell
everybody that they're wrongbecause they know they're right
and on the side of good, whichis the classic sign of stupidity
.
As I discussed in my priorpodcast, and you can listen to
it.
It is certainly on whateversite you are streaming this on
right now.
Anyway, that to it.
It is certainly on whateversite you are streaming this on
(30:33):
right now.
Anyway, that's it.
I've covered the whole historyof Jews and our behaviors and,
by the way, the last thing I'llsay is we're a middleman culture
.
That's the other thing.
Middlemen culture are alwayshated.
So because the Jews are indiaspora and we're spread all
over the world, and we wereinvited into Europe but that's
another long story for anotherday.
And we were invited into Europe, that's another long story for
another day.
(30:53):
And to come to keep the booksof the medieval royalty because
they were illiterate and thepeople were illiterate and the
only people that could read andwrite were churchmen.
But churchmen weren't allowedto handle money because of some
Christian stuff.
So they invited the Jews in andwe became the merchant class.
And then, when the people gottired of the nobles, the nobles
did what any good person doeswho's in big, big trouble?
(31:16):
They found a scapegoat and whoelse but the Jews?
Because those guys are Christkillers.
So that's exactly how it allstarted this long stream of
anti-Semitism that has justsnowballed into craziness to
this day because it suits therulers to go after a small group
of highly successful people.
However, the reason I go throughall of that is there are other
(31:37):
middlemen cultures in the worldwho have taken a similar licking
to Jews.
I start with the Chinese inAsia, who Chinese people, as
anyone knows, who knows ChineseAmericans on a personal level
level, are a lot like Jews.
I mean really, you know, valuefamily over all, respect of
elders, very, very strongcultural ties.
(32:00):
But most of all, they're amiddleman culture, chinese
wherever they have gone, whetherit's in Vietnam or it's in
Cambodia or Laos or Thailand orSingapore or the Philippines or
wherever they've gone, and theUnited States.
A lot of them were dragged hereas coolies which was a fancy
(32:23):
name for slave really and endedup making a life for themselves.
And some of them were evenexiled to Mexico and they made a
life for themselves there as amiddleman culture.
And they're hated like Jews,everywhere they are, especially
in Asia, hated, hated, hated,hated and persecuted all the
time.
And why?
Because they dared to do wellin a foreign culture.
(32:45):
And why are Jews and Chineseand other lands middleman
cultures?
And I think Armenians I think,if I had to name another group
Armenians have taken a lickinglike this around the world.
But there are other groups aswell.
I'm missing others.
Believe me, I know I am.
Thomas Sowell wrote a reallygood book on this, by the way,
that I am searching for thetitle, but it won't be hard for
you to find it anyway, andthat's where I'm drawing a lot
(33:08):
of my knowledge from.
But again, we go into these.
Why are there a lot of Jewishdoctors and lawyers?
Because we weren't allowed tobecome bankers.
I know that's contrary to whatthe propaganda is, we own all
the banks.
But let's think about it longand hard the biggest banker in
the world is Jamie Dimon.
He is not a Jew.
I'd just like to point that out.
(33:28):
I have years thought he was,but he's not.
Anyway, um, jewish Jewishbankers there's like one Jewish
banker family, the Rothschilds,and of course you know that.
You know what.
Another, another rabbit hole,I'm not going down.
We ended up doing what we'redoing and the Chinese ended up
doing what they're doing becausethe Gentiles aren't doing it.
So we do it.
Then we make a lot of moneydoing it and the next thing, you
know, we're hated for beingsuccessful.
(33:50):
And I will leave all of thiswith Thomas Sowell, who, I've
said before and I'll say itagain, is my hero and the
greatest living Americaneconomist and scholar, and I
love him with all my heart.
Even though I've never met him,I could just tell I'd like him,
although he'd probably think Iwas a complete and total nutcase
moron.
But that's okay because I knowbetter than me when I see it.
(34:12):
But anyway, thomas Sowell, whenasked about it and Thomas
Sowell is not Jewish, by the way, he's black, but that's just as
an aside when Thomas Sowell wasasked what could the Jews do to
help end anti-Semitism, he hada one word answer fail.
And Jews aren't going to fail.
So there you are.
(34:32):
That's just the way it goes.
So I hope you learned a lot.
That was a long doctoraldissertation on an ugly subject,
but it certainly falls in therealm of ethics, and it's such a
hot topic today with what'sgoing on politically and the
Harvard story and theadministration and the
anti-Semitism and the Haas, andI didn't go down any of those
roads because there are plentyof podcasts that do that and
(34:54):
they bore me, so I'm not goingto bore you with any more of it.
And that's it.
Have a beautiful, beautiful day, a beautiful weekend ahead.
Love your children, love yourfamily, love your culture, love
your country and, most of all,love yourself.
Take care.
Howdy partners, it's me, herbie, your host at the
Spiritual Agnostic and today,which I'm actually recording on
Thursday instead of my customaryFriday, even though I'm not
going to post it until Fridaybecause I'm going to discuss
anti-Semitism.
And the reason that I'mrecording it a day early is
because my buttons got pushedwhile I was for lack of a better
(00:24):
term doing a little trolling onX.
Anyway, on X, some guy saidwhat was the biggest mistake
Hitler made in World War II andwhy did he lose the war.
And I said kicking out, exilingand otherwise killing the Jews,
because that included Einsteinand Oppenheimer.
And I hate to break it to you,but that's how the United States
(00:44):
got nuclear weapons and Germanynever had a chance in the war
from the beginning because ofthe enormous industrial might of
the United States and theworld's largest merchant and
military navy of Great Britain,which people never talk about.
But it's true, germany neverhad a chance From the very
beginning.
Hitler's biggest mistake wasstarting the war.
(01:05):
But you know that all said andput aside, that somehow brought
out the anti-Semites andsuddenly I was being attacked by
anti-Semites and you know thenext thing?
I knew I was responding andthen I decided you know what I'm
going to disengage because thisrelates to the last podcast I
(01:26):
did on stupidity and DietrichBonhoeffer, and then it started
getting my wheels turning.
So I thought for those of youwho are Gentile and have always
wondered, what is it?
Okay?
A, why are the Jews constantlypersecuted from the dawn of time
?
That's number one.
Constantly persecuted from thedawn of time?
That's number one and numbertwo.
What is it about us thatattracts I don't know,
(01:51):
caricaturization?
Is that a right word?
That's a long word, I'm glad Igot it out of my mouth.
But are there behaviors, arethere characteristics of Jews
that are just somehow triggerpeople into believing the worst
possible things and going stupid?
Do we bear some culpability forour own ruin?
So I'm going to have an adultconversation as a Jew.
(02:13):
So to give you a littlebackground, I am what is called
a Reform Jew.
Now, there are breakdownswithin it, but basically in
Judaism, just like inChristianity, you have
Catholicism and then you haveProtestantism and then within
Protestantism, you've got agajillion different Protestant
groups, subgroups, religion,religious I hate to use the word
(02:37):
sect, I'm not sure whatChristians call it, but various
churches.
I guess I'll just use the wordyeah, that's the word.
I always hear churches.
You have a lot of differentchurches within Protestantism.
So in Judaism there are threebasic outlines of Jews.
There's the Orthodox, and thesubgroup within the Orthodox are
(02:57):
the Hasidic, and those are theones that people always
associate with Jews when they'reanti-Semites, because somehow
it's easy to caricaturize Jewsas having, you know, black hats
and long black coats and bigbeards and you know schlepping
along with their wives behindthem, wearing wigs.
You know pushing strollers with5,000 children, and that is
Hasidim or, as they're called inIsrael, haredim.
(03:19):
But that's a very smallsubgroup of Jews that come from
Poland and the little villagescalled shtetls and I'm not going
to go into.
I'm going to stop translatingYiddish backwards and forwards
if I use Yiddish, just take itout of context and you're
probably right about what itmeans.
So as I go down.
So that's a subgroup, butOrthodox in general will always
(03:43):
wear a yarmulke.
So if you've ever gone to, likeTrader Joe's, for example, in
my part of the country has avery good kosher foods
department and they have koshermeats, which is very important.
That's a long story.
I'm not going down that road,but you'll see Orthodox Jews in
there all the time with theirfamilies and the little boys
wear yarmulkes and the wives'heads are covered, usually with
(04:04):
a scarf, and little girls don'thave to bother with that
nonsense.
They're not off the deep end,aside from the yarmulkes and
head coverings, you wouldn'tknow them from anybody else.
But they strictly observe theSabbath, they strictly keep
kosher and they follow Judaismin its most orthodox, that is to
say Catholic, form.
(04:25):
Okay, you know, the most Latinmass Catholics would be very
close to what an orthodox Jewwould be, if we're going to use
a broad analogy.
So that's probably not accurate.
Please don't pick me apart.
I'm just trying to make peopleunderstand.
I'm sure you get the drift ofwhat I'm trying to say.
Then you go to the conservatives, which the conservatives to the
(04:47):
Orthodox are like the Anglicansto the Catholics.
So basically all the ceremony,but without a lot of the really
strict, strict, strict, strictrules.
I separate the Episcopals fromthe Anglicans because the United
States, the Anglican Church,which is the Episcopal Church,
has gone off the deep end ofWoken, so I'm just going to
leave that off there in its ownlittle land.
(05:08):
But people who identifythemselves as either
traditionally Episcopal in theUnited States or Anglican in the
Catholic Church, you get what Imean.
You know, basically there's nopope and there's the Archbishop
of Canterbury, but he's notnearly in the same position and
(05:29):
the church has a lot of ritualand you know the same kind of
trappings and if you walk intoan Anglican church or a Catholic
church in Europe they're very,very similar.
It's just sort of.
You know, it's optional if youwant to go completely off the
deep end.
So my brother, who's myhalf-brother but I'm not going
down that road either is aconservative Jew.
He does keep kosher that's achoice but he does not wear
yarmulke in public, he does notwear tefillin under his shirt.
(05:54):
You know, I'm so tempted.
You know I can go from tefillinto Mormons.
You know my mind goes flyingoff into space, but I've got to
stay on track.
Anyway, mo is my, his name isMorris, but I call him Mo.
Mo, my brother and his wifeAdora, they don't how his mother
, how her mother named her aftera hat is beyond me.
But anyway, there you go.
So they're, and they and theirchildren, they actively practice
(06:18):
, they keep the Sabbath.
They do keep kosher, butthey're not crazy about it.
They're not like glot kosher.
So there's different kinds ofkosher.
So there's the Orthodox Jews whoit has to.
They don't eat in a restaurantthat isn't kosher because they
know they're not maintainingseparate sets of plates for
dairy and meat, as would bestrictly kosher.
Whereas they'll go, my brotherand Fedora will go to a pizzeria
(06:42):
.
I've been with them and I'm notkosher.
I'm reformed.
We'll get to me in a minute,but I'll order a pepperoni pizza
.
They'll order a cheese, closeenough.
Okay, they don't mix meat anddairy, but they're not off the
deep end of oh my God.
They made this pizza in an ovenwhere a pizza with meat on it
touched the hot stone orwhatever it is.
That's conservative.
(07:03):
And then there's what I am,which is reform, and a lot of
reformed Jews are secular Jews,just like I am.
They're Jew-ish.
I'm very, very proud of being aJew, but the religious part to
me is almost secondary to thecultural experience which is,
believe me.
There are Orthodox Jews who,when they hear me say this in
(07:26):
this podcast, they areabsolutely wanting to slap the
crap out of me for being sostupid, and I do understand.
So maybe that makes me not somuch stupid as clueless.
But I'll have that discussionwith them.
The cousins can argue with eachother.
I'm just sharing with you thatReform Jews are the.
(07:46):
If they were asked if they wereJewish, americans or American
Jews to a toddler, it would beAmerican Jews.
Our first and foremostallegiance, for most American
Jews, is America.
Um, we're also fierce zionists.
We see no conflict in that.
Um, we don't wear yarmulkes inpublic.
We don't even wear.
Yarmulkes are completelyoptional, even in synagogue,
(08:08):
which we attend rarely.
Most reformed jews are what arethe equivalent of christmas
christians.
They show up for rosh hashanah,which is jewish new year, and
yom kippur, the day of atonement, where we all pretend that
we're fasting when we'resneaking candy bars in the men's
room, and then the rest of theyear, you know pretty much do as
we please, and you know youwant to meet a lot of Reform
(08:32):
Jews.
You want to meet a lot of Jewsin general.
The best day to meet Jews ifyou live in a city and if you're
saying to yourself I don't knowany Jews, just go to a Chinese
restaurant on Christmas Day andyou're going to meet Jews and
Buddhists two groups you have noexperience with Jews.
View Chinese food as the nextthing to pastrami.
It's Jewish soul food.
I can go into the reasons whythat is true, but it is true.
(08:54):
So anyway, now you understandthe three groups of Jews and
what kind of Jew I am.
So I am Jew-ish as opposed toJewish.
And there you have it.
But the commonality of allthree groups are, when it comes
right down to it, an OrthodoxJew, most Orthodox Jews, not the
Hasidim.
They view Reform Jews assomething less than pond scum
(09:14):
and prefer Gentiles to us.
But that's another story.
But most Jews will generallyprefer to do business with Jews,
would prefer their childrenmarry a Jew, regardless of which
part of Judaism they come from.
It's very interchangeable.
There are a lot of Reform Jews,particularly of this most recent
generation, who feelspiritually bereft.
This is a healthy thing.
And there's a large modernOrthodox movement that's taking
(09:37):
place which is large by Jewishstandards.
That's another thing that youall need to understand.
Large by Jewish standards.
That's another thing that youall need to understand.
If you're ever wondering whythere are so few Jews in the
world where there are so manyChristians, yet we predate you
times three we've been around300% longer than Christianity
has been roughly since Abrahamthe answer is Jews don't
proselytize.
It's the Jewish religion, it isliterally.
(09:59):
There's no such thing as aJewish missionary.
We've never tried to convertanybody to Judaism.
What chosen people means hasnothing to do with you have to
be Jewish.
I'll get into that in just onesecond.
But what being we don't?
We just don't.
I'll tell you a quick story.
When I was in college my briefcollege career, very brief I, at
(10:22):
the Hillel Center there was aPassover Seder and I had nowhere
else to go.
So I went to the Passover Sederat the Hillel.
It was lovely, we had a greattime and there was a young rabbi
who worked there and he was agreat guy and we're all hanging
out and having a good time.
We went through the Seder andthen we were doing what Jews do
best, which is eat.
Jews, as a group, we have thelowest incidence of alcoholism,
(10:46):
but we are fat and that'sbecause Jews much prefer to chew
our calories.
We don't get the drinking thing.
By and large.
It's not that there aren't sucha thing as a Jewish alcoholic,
there's just not that many ofthem, as compared to Gentile
alcoholics.
Again, don't know why, just is.
But Jews, we're big into food,big, big, big into food.
So we're having a great time.
We're eating all kinds of goodfood brought in by various
people in the community, in theJewish community in Tucson.
(11:07):
This is at the University ofArizona Having a great time.
Anyway, this girl walks intothis Seder and when I say girl,
clearly Gentile, the minute youtook one look at her you knew
that from a Jewish point of viewbecause of her little butt and
shicks and nose.
And she walked into the roomand she literally says loudly I
mean, I'll just never forgetthis.
This is literally true.
I'm not embellishing this.
(11:28):
She says to the rabbi who, Idon't know how, you didn't
figure out he was the rabbibecause he was reform and not
wearing a yarmulke.
But anyway, she says, rabbi, Iwant to be Jewish.
And his reply was priceless andit just explains why Judaism is
so small.
He turned to her and said whatyou don't have enough problems,
(11:49):
see the term chosen people.
Okay, by the way, as you cantell, jews have a fatalistic
sense of humor.
We know the world's going to onemore quick story about this is
just a family story.
So I have a first cousin.
His name is Marty.
He's a wonderful guy, he's anattorney and he's now retired.
But he was a returnee, was anattorney.
I am so silly.
(12:12):
Sometimes I talk to my dog likethat, but anyway.
So Marty and I were on the phone.
I was in my office.
He was evidently in his office.
It was just one day.
We were just talking to eachother.
We kept in touch.
We're going back and forthHow's your family Good, how's
your wife Good, how are yourchildren Good.
Back and forth, good, good,good.
How's business Good, how's yourpractice?
Good, everything was good.
(12:38):
It Suddenly both of us becamesilent, literally silent, and it
was like one of thoseuncomfortable silences, like if
I went silent right now for 30seconds you start to wonder if
you were having a malfunction inyour device that you're
listening to this on.
So it was one of those 30second uncomfortable, really not
that long, but it seemed likean hour silences.
(12:59):
And then Marty says to meyou're waiting for the Cossacks,
aren't you?
Now, that's a very Jewish thingto say and I don't know if you
would understand that, but whatit means is to be Jewish is to
understand that the Cossacks,who were basically the killers
of the Tsar okay, the Tsar was abad guy in Jewish life, very
(13:22):
bad guy.
No, jews were crying when theczar fell Let me just share and
they didn't know what was coming, but they knew it couldn't be
any worse than the czar.
From a Jewish point of view,stalin was a mass murderer, but
he was an equal opportunitymurderer, if that means anything
at all.
At least the Jews didn't feelparticularly picked upon.
(13:43):
You know, lots of Jews werekilled by Stalin, but so were
lots of everybody else.
But for the Tsar we were it.
I mean to this day we're cursed.
His secret police, the Cheka,wrote that.
Was it the Cheka?
Or was that the communistsecret police early on?
That was the communist secretpolice.
Who were the Tsars?
No, that was the NKVD, wasstill communist, I think.
(14:04):
Anyway, the czar had his.
Maybe it was the Czech.
Anyway, the czar had his ownsecret police and they were the
ones who wrote the Protocols ofthe Elders of Zion.
It was just a piece of crapthat they put out as propaganda
so the czar could kill more Jewswith Cossacks.
And it's still hanging out tothis day.
People cite it.
Anti cited, anti-semites lovethat book.
You know they think there's asecret protocol.
You know the elders of Zionthat secretly control the world,
(14:25):
the lie of which is madeevident by the fact that the
world continually shits on ourhead.
And if we were that powerful,how could that possibly happen?
So anyway, moving right along.
So Jews, because of being, youknow, murdered through the
centuries, the Holocaust,october the 7th, was the latest
of a long line of Jewishslaughters.
You know, to Jews there'snothing new about being
(14:48):
slaughtered.
We've been slaughtered by everygroup there is.
But you know the Jewishattitude is they come and they
go, but we're still here.
You know like we were chosen byGod, not because we were
special and we were the onlyones going to heaven.
Here's an interesting side noteof the Jewish religion.
The whole heaven thing is verynebulous.
There are a lot of Jews,including Orthodox Jews, that
(15:08):
literally don't discuss it atall in any more than you know an
afterthought term, theafterlife is not a big thing in
Judaism, it just isn't.
And there's no hell in Judaismand I know that's hard for a lot
of people to put their handsaround.
That was all Christianity woveall that in from Roman mythology
, but in Judaism there's none ofthat stuff.
Greek and Roman mythology, Ishould say, but there's none of
(15:36):
that stuff in Judaism.
We're just not.
We don't think there's like youhave to be Jewish to get the
reward.
That's not what's in the booksfor Jews.
So you know, the bottom line iswe don't think you need to be
Jewish.
We were chosen by God to bringhis law to the world.
That's it and we did it.
The world has laws, for betteror for worse.
Judaism, from our point of view, we are the ones who brought
(16:00):
ethical, god-based law to theworld.
That's it.
That's our gift.
That's what we were chosen todo, and for that we have been
paying the price for a really,really long time.
You know, like what was thatjoke?
Something like being the chosenpeople, god, could you choose
someone else for a while?
It's like oh my God.
(16:22):
Anyway, I'm laughing through itbecause I have a very, very
Jewish sense of humor.
There's nothing unusual aboutmy sense of humor among Jewish
people.
That's why so many comediansare Jewish.
You have to be kind offatalistic to be a good comedian
, I think.
Anyway, at least by mydefinition of what's funny.
And, you know, have a certainamount of self-loathing and
recognition.
And, by the way, why do Jewsseem clannish to you?
(16:44):
Because Jews are clannish?
Because, truthfully, we'd muchrather that our kids marry
Jewish people.
Now, none of my kids married aJew, to be honest with you, but
that's okay.
I mean, it was my preference.
I'm a Reformed Jew, remember?
See, this is what the Orthodoxwould hate about me.
I'm okay with it.
If I were conservative orOrthodox I would not be okay
with it.
So that can seem very, veryclannish.
(17:05):
And you know what?
The older I get, the more Irealize how much stress I would
have saved myself and mychildren, who are very Jewish
and they identify as Jewishpersonally, which was an
election in our family, which isanother discussion for another
day.
But anyway, we would say toourselves a lot of heartache if
(17:25):
we would have married within ourown culture.
Only because we understand eachother.
It's like my kids have noticed.
I have a.
I'm a very gregarious person, Ihave a lot of friends, but my
closest, closest, closest,closest closest friends are Jews
.
Why is that?
Because we understand eachother, because we understand
each other.
You know, my dearest, I havetwo very dear Jewish men,
friends for nearly life.
And you know, like there's anunspoken language, there's a
(17:49):
certain fatalism.
Just like Marty understood, Iwas waiting for the Cossacks.
There's a certain and you know,here's the thing about being
Jewish You're relieved when theCossacks show up because at
least you know what directionthey're coming from.
That's why my ex-wife, who wasa Midwestern Lutheran or
Methodist, I don't know, I cannever remember, but anyway her
attitude was like she used totell me you are the calmest
(18:13):
person I've ever met.
When things are really bad andthat's always been a
characteristic of mine whenthings really turn to complete
and total crap, I become almostpreternaturally calm and can see
what needs to be done.
And here's the weird part ofthat.
That is not unusual amongJewish people.
We are great when the worldturns to shit because we expect
(18:36):
it to, and when you have acertain fatalism in your outlook
in life, you become that way.
But you also become a littleclannish.
There's no doubt about it.
You have a naturalpredisposition to trust Jews
more.
It's a bias, it's a prejudice,but it's one born in a way that
(18:59):
you'll understand, I think.
And plenty of groups all feelthe same way, I'm sure, about
the group that they're in, Idon't know, and I know Jews take
a lot of heat for it, butthat's just the way it is.
The other thing that is is thatJews tend to be successful.
That's because Judaism has astudy ethic, not a work ethic.
Those of you who are Christian,take the Christian work ethic,
replace every time you hear theword work with study and you'll
(19:20):
understand why Jews are doctorsand lawyers and engineers, and
the other part of it is justgenetics.
You know, when a very, verystudious people marry other very
, very studious people, theytend to have very, very studious
children, and those childrenmarry.
You know, when you marry withanother reason that, when I look
back on it, it would anyway.
But if you're coming from agroup of, by the way,
(19:42):
collectively let me be veryclear on this, in case you think
that I'm displaying Jewisharrogance the smartest people in
the world by IQ are not Jews.
We're the second smartest groupof race call it what you want
of people.
Asians are the smartest groupof people in the world.
So I would have been thrilledif any of my children came home
with, you know, a nice Indiangirl you know what can I say?
(20:02):
Or a nice Japanese girl.
I would be totally thrilledBecause they would have almost
undoubtedly had intelligentchildren, also beautiful
children.
But I could go right down thechild rabbit hole fast, because
my number one passion in life ischildren and grandchildren.
So anyway, but I'm coming back.
I'm coming back to explainJudaism.
So anyway, you get my drift.
(20:25):
Jews are going to be successfuland the other thing is is that
Jews don't misread the Bible.
So you Christians out there Iknow you've all read this, you
know, you've all heard about itit's easier for a camel to crawl
through the eye of a needlethan a rich man to get into
heaven.
That thing from the gospel youguys are all you don't
understand what you're reading.
The eye of the needle was thesmaller door next to the big
gate in these walled cities backin biblical times, and at
(20:48):
nighttime they would shut thegreat big doors of the city.
You know, because obviously youknow people have to go to bed,
they want to put on the nightguard, they don't want the whole
army to have to be on the wallall day long regulating the
traffic coming in and out.
So they shut it all down.
But there's a smaller door soin case a traveler or someone
important shows up at night andthey need to get into the city
(21:09):
but the main gate is closed,they could basically knock, or
however they make themselvesknown, on that door and then
that door would be opened up.
But here's the thing it wascalled the Eye of the Needle and
that's the camel.
To get through the eye of theneedle in these desert countries
(21:31):
, had to get on its knees.
Any of you who have been aroundcamels know that camels can
walk on their knees essentially,so you know they don't have to
be on their feet.
So anyway, long story short,the story is that a rich man
needs only to get on his kneesand thank God for being rich.
He doesn't have to give up hismoney.
You're completely misreadingthis.
(21:51):
You know, going to heaven justmeans thank you, god for giving
me.
And that's the other thing.
When Jews, jewish prayers andChristian prayers are very, very
different and I'm painting ahuge broad brush.
But to where Christians andmaybe Muslims?
I'm ignorant on Islam, so Idon't want to go down that road.
I'll let you guys write me andmake me clear on this.
(22:12):
But Jews don't have an intimaterelationship with God.
We don't think that God talkswith us every day.
We don't believe in the HolyGhost, so we don't believe in
the Trinity.
So therefore, jewish prayers gosomething, are all a version of
basically thank you for givingme the brains to figure this out
for myself.
Thank you God.
The Jewish view of God, since wedon't have revelation and we
don't believe in the end oftimes that we're inevitably
(22:35):
going to end up in a lake offire.
All of that is all.
Christian Jews, on the otherhand, think that God gave us the
brains to operate, gave us laws, told the Jews pass it out
among everybody else, set theworld a spinning and said good
luck.
And he's there and he cares.
But it's ours to make or breakand that's why Jews tend to
(22:55):
survive, because we're notlooking for divine intervention
and we don't think necessarilyGod's on or off our side.
It's our world and ours to makeand ours to break.
But we don't have any problemwith making money and we don't
feel guilty about it.
But Judaism does have, and anyof you that have known Jews and
have been the beneficiaries ofJewish largesse know this Jews
habitually give away more moneythan anybody else because we
(23:15):
have mitzvah.
It's the obligation of everyJew to perform mitzvot, which
are the plural of mitzvah, whichis our acts of charity.
So Jews are incrediblycharitable people.
We're just private about it.
You know it's anyway.
And these are broadcharacterizations and there are
plenty of loud and obnoxious and.
(23:36):
But you know, in everystereotype there lies a seed of
truth.
Okay, I'm going to.
I'm going to sum it up.
So, jews and by the way, we gotlabeled with the whole Christ
killer thing, you know, theChristian church.
I'm going to digress for likethree or four minutes.
The Christian church would notbe the Christian church were it
(23:56):
not for Paul.
Okay, jesus is not the keyfigure, from a Jewish point at
least for no.
No, let me rephrase there is noJewish point of view because
there is no head Jew.
Okay, there's no Jew Pope.
There's nothing like that.
There's no central authority,there's no one handing down
doctrine, it's every man forhimself in Judaism.
Use your brains.
That's why the old joke goesyou put two Jews in a room, you
get five, six, seven, eight,nine opinions.
(24:18):
You never know.
Me too, you can tell by the wayI talk.
My mind is all over the place,so I can see different.
I think it's that's why Jews, Ithink, have a healthy view of
the world that I'd like to sharewith you, which is the world is
gray, not black and white.
It just goes from light gray todark gray, and you have to just
understand the gradations andlive within it.
It's a realistic view, I think,anyway, from my point of view,
(24:39):
a realistic point of view.
But again, I'm open todiscussion because I'm Jewish.
And that's how Jews are, youknow, like, bring up a good
point and we'll listen.
That's why, by and large, jewsare smart.
Not that's why, by and large,jews are smart, not to say
intellectually, but smart in thesense that we'll at least
listen to what you have to say.
Okay, so, moving right along,what was I about to talk about?
I don't know, I just lost mytrain of thought.
Look at that, derailed justlike that.
(25:03):
Oh, I was going to talk aboutPaul.
Okay, so Paul was the greatvillain of Christian
anti-Semitism.
Paul thought that Christianitywas at first.
He didn't want to go talk tothe Gentiles about it.
You know, jesus dies and it's100 years later and they write
the Gospels after he's been deada long time.
And they're another sect, andat the time there were a lot of
Messianic sects.
So what made Christianitydifferent than all the other
(25:25):
Messianic sects?
That had their own heroes andtheir own Jesus figures, and so
on and so forth.
How did it all come together,paul?
Now, I'm not going to go intoall the historical relevance of
that, and it might have been alldivinely led, and who only
knows, and you know.
His revelation on the road toDamascus or from Damascus or
wherever he was going out theremight have been very, very, very
(25:47):
sincere and good for him andyou know, live long and prosper.
But he thought he had a brandof Messianic, a group that he
could sell to the Jews and theJews we're a tough sell man,
we're just a tough sell.
So they turned him down and heturned on them and that's where
all that Christ killer crapcomes from.
(26:08):
And it sat there festering inthe Catholic church until 1964,
when Pope I think it was 64,when Pope Paul finally said the
Jews did not kill Jesus.
You know I could go into thewhole Pharisee and Sadducee and
Roman relationship and who wasHerod and all that other stuff,
and I'm a great student ofChristian theology as history
(26:29):
and I think it's really, reallyinteresting.
And, yes, I think Jesus was areal guy and I'll share just one
insight with you guys just onthis.
I know it has nothing to dowith what I'm talking about, but
this is how I know Jesus was areal guy.
You know there is nocontemporary history of Jesus,
so there is an insertion by oneRoman historian at the time.
I forget who it was, it'll cometo me in a minute, but anyway.
(26:53):
But it's clearly a forgery andan assertion later trying to
have something that mentionsJesus, you would think a guy
that has a movement so importantthat he has to be sold over to
the Romans by the Pharisees andthen crucified.
There'd be some written recordof him by a people that were
writing down everything.
There are tons.
There's tons and tons and tonsof history from that era written
(27:17):
down.
There's tons of written history.
We know a lot about that erabecause the Romans and the Jews
both were literate people andwere writing things down like
crazy, as were the Greeks.
So there's plenty of writtenhistory.
There's just nothing aboutJesus.
So how do I know he's a real guy?
And the answer is from thestory of Matthew and that whole
book of my about him being bornin Bethlehem, in Nazareth, and
(27:38):
ends up in Bethlehem and born inthe manger.
See, in order to fulfillprophecy for who the Messiah is
going to be, the Messiahevidently has to be born in
Bethlehem.
I say evidently because I amnot a student of prophecy, but I
believe this is true.
Feel free to contradict mebiblical scholars out there.
So anyway.
He had to be born in Bethlehem,but he was born in Nazareth.
So they go through this wholebubba-mice about going through
(27:59):
the desert and the stars and thewise men and all that dreck,
anyway, that's a lot.
And they had to make up thebaby slaughter and the whole
thing because there was neverany such thing.
That's another thing.
There was never any slaughterof Jewish children by Herod.
That never happened.
Never took place.
He did lots of things, some ofthem good, some of them bad.
He was a complicated guy, oldHerod, and his son Herod Antipas
(28:21):
.
But I'll tell you what theyweren't.
They were not mass murderers oftheir own people.
So that just didn't happen,never took place.
Total bubba misa.
Bubba misa, by the way, is theYiddish word for old wives tale.
It's just a story.
It got written into gospel butthere's.
No, it certainly didn't happen.
So how am I still convinced thathe's the real guy?
Because why go through thewhole bubba misa to fulfill the
(28:45):
prophecy?
If you could have just said hewas born in Bethlehem, as
prophesied?
Why go through the whole songand dance of the hovering stars
and the wise men crossing thedesert and the whole thing and
the mass murder?
That never happened and allthat and schlepping and ending
up in a manger and the wholestory.
You wouldn't have to go throughthat if he wasn't a real guy.
That's all I'm saying.
(29:05):
Okay, so I think he was a realguy.
Now that's again Jewishreasoning.
You now have an example of howJews' minds work.
What else could it be?
Why would you go through thisproblem?
Now, I'm sure there's an answerto that question, and I'm sure
somebody who's an atheist.
And, as I have said when Istarted this podcast, I believe
that religion is by and large,including Christianity, a good
(29:26):
thing, not a bad thing.
I think, to the extent thatwe've lost it in this country,
we've melted down our societything, not a bad thing.
I think, to the extent thatwe've lost it in this country,
we've melted down our society,and I think that and I envy the
faith of people of faith butwhere faith at one time was
believing, there was a God thatcreated everything and
controlled everything.
Now, thanks to science, we knowthat none of that is true.
Probably what is true is thatin order to have faith now, you
(29:49):
have to believe in somethingthat can't be true and just
believe that the supernatural isreal, and for an increasing
number of people, that justdoesn't compute.
And so there is anever-expanding group of people
that identify themselves asnon-believers of one flavor or
another.
But I use the word agnosticbecause, a I could be wrong and,
b I'm not an asshole, andatheists are assholes who walk
(30:11):
around with their own religiononly as one, absent any kind of
redemption or satisfaction,where they have to tell
everybody that they're wrongbecause they know they're right
and on the side of good, whichis the classic sign of stupidity
.
As I discussed in my priorpodcast, and you can listen to
it.
It is certainly on whateversite you are streaming this on
right now.
Anyway, that to it.
It is certainly on whateversite you are streaming this on
(30:33):
right now.
Anyway, that's it.
I've covered the whole historyof Jews and our behaviors and,
by the way, the last thing I'llsay is we're a middleman culture
.
That's the other thing.
Middlemen culture are alwayshated.
So because the Jews are indiaspora and we're spread all
over the world, and we wereinvited into Europe but that's
another long story for anotherday.
And we were invited into Europe, that's another long story for
another day.
(30:53):
And to come to keep the booksof the medieval royalty because
they were illiterate and thepeople were illiterate and the
only people that could read andwrite were churchmen.
But churchmen weren't allowedto handle money because of some
Christian stuff.
So they invited the Jews in andwe became the merchant class.
And then, when the people gottired of the nobles, the nobles
did what any good person doeswho's in big, big trouble?
(31:16):
They found a scapegoat and whoelse but the Jews?
Because those guys are Christkillers.
So that's exactly how it allstarted this long stream of
anti-Semitism that has justsnowballed into craziness to
this day because it suits therulers to go after a small group
of highly successful people.
However, the reason I go throughall of that is there are other
(31:37):
middlemen cultures in the worldwho have taken a similar licking
to Jews.
I start with the Chinese inAsia, who Chinese people, as
anyone knows, who knows ChineseAmericans on a personal level
level, are a lot like Jews.
I mean really, you know, valuefamily over all, respect of
elders, very, very strongcultural ties.
(32:00):
But most of all, they're amiddleman culture, chinese
wherever they have gone, whetherit's in Vietnam or it's in
Cambodia or Laos or Thailand orSingapore or the Philippines or
wherever they've gone, and theUnited States.
A lot of them were dragged hereas coolies which was a fancy
(32:23):
name for slave really and endedup making a life for themselves.
And some of them were evenexiled to Mexico and they made a
life for themselves there as amiddleman culture.
And they're hated like Jews,everywhere they are, especially
in Asia, hated, hated, hated,hated and persecuted all the
time.
And why?
Because they dared to do wellin a foreign culture.
(32:45):
And why are Jews and Chineseand other lands middleman
cultures?
And I think Armenians I think,if I had to name another group
Armenians have taken a lickinglike this around the world.
But there are other groups aswell.
I'm missing others.
Believe me, I know I am.
Thomas Sowell wrote a reallygood book on this, by the way,
that I am searching for thetitle, but it won't be hard for
you to find it anyway, andthat's where I'm drawing a lot
(33:08):
of my knowledge from.
But again, we go into these.
Why are there a lot of Jewishdoctors and lawyers?
Because we weren't allowed tobecome bankers.
I know that's contrary to whatthe propaganda is, we own all
the banks.
But let's think about it longand hard the biggest banker in
the world is Jamie Dimon.
He is not a Jew.
I'd just like to point that out.
(33:28):
I have years thought he was,but he's not.
Anyway, um, jewish Jewishbankers there's like one Jewish
banker family, the Rothschilds,and of course you know that.
You know what.
Another, another rabbit hole,I'm not going down.
We ended up doing what we'redoing and the Chinese ended up
doing what they're doing becausethe Gentiles aren't doing it.
So we do it.
Then we make a lot of moneydoing it and the next thing, you
know, we're hated for beingsuccessful.
(33:50):
And I will leave all of thiswith Thomas Sowell, who, I've
said before and I'll say itagain, is my hero and the
greatest living Americaneconomist and scholar, and I
love him with all my heart.
Even though I've never met him,I could just tell I'd like him,
although he'd probably think Iwas a complete and total nutcase
moron.
But that's okay because I knowbetter than me when I see it.
(34:12):
But anyway, thomas Sowell, whenasked about it and Thomas
Sowell is not Jewish, by the way, he's black, but that's just as
an aside when Thomas Sowell wasasked what could the Jews do to
help end anti-Semitism, he hada one word answer fail.
And Jews aren't going to fail.
So there you are.
(34:32):
That's just the way it goes.
So I hope you learned a lot.
That was a long doctoraldissertation on an ugly subject,
but it certainly falls in therealm of ethics, and it's such a
hot topic today with what'sgoing on politically and the
Harvard story and theadministration and the
anti-Semitism and the Haas, andI didn't go down any of those
roads because there are plentyof podcasts that do that and
(34:54):
they bore me, so I'm not goingto bore you with any more of it.
And that's it.
Have a beautiful, beautiful day, a beautiful weekend ahead.
Love your children, love yourfamily, love your culture, love
your country and, most of all,love yourself.
Take care.
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