E520 Rabbi David Wolpe

26:11No. There never was a country in Israel since the... It was a succession of... So what happened was after the Romans called it... They're the ones that named it Palestine, the Romans. After the Romans took over, But then there were a succession of empires. There was the Roman Empire and then you had, among others, the Ottomans, the British. And the British were the ones who controlled it until Israel became Israel. And the Palestinian self-identification was in opposition to Israel. If you go back 200 years, you don't know the difference between a Palestinian and other Arabs who live in the area.

26:52I mean they were people who lived in the area and had – the identifications tended to be much more local. I am from the village of this. I am from the village of that. But there wasn't a Palestine as a country. Having said that, anybody whose heart doesn't break for the plight of the Palestinians, I mean they are – first of all, for two reasons my heart breaks for the Palestinians. One is because nobody wants to live under someone else's rule. It doesn't matter even how nice the rule is. You don't want to. Although I will say what people don't realize is 2 million Arabs live in Israel proper with full rights.

27:29They vote. They're on the Supreme Court. They're in the Knesset. Is it comfortable over there for them, do you think? Oh, yeah, very. Not only that, I was just in the National Library of Israel, and they talked about the classes they give. 30 % of their classes are in Arabic. So Arabs come to the National Library of Israel. Yeah, they come to the National Library of Israel and take classes. And they have representatives? They have representatives in the parliament called the Knesset. No, the Arab people do. Palestine doesn't. Palestine, those who are Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza, they have their own self-governing rule, but they're definitely under Israel.

28:06Okay. Now, Gaza doesn't – before October 7th, Gaza had no troops. I mean Israel had no troops there. They'd completely withdrawn from Gaza. But unfortunately, instead of spending the billions of dollars in aid that Gaza got in building seaports and restaurants and they built tunnels underneath so that they could attack Israel, which is what they did. Some people say that it's like a group – they feel like they have no choice but to elect like a dirty government, right? Or like – and excuse some of my question. Like I'm not that great, like I'm not always the best at figuring some of this stuff out.

28:45But some people say that it's basically like the Palestinian people have become like kind of a caged people. And so they're at the point where they feel like they'll elect the craziest element as their leader because that's the only chance they feel that they have. All I can say is they have done that for a long time and it hasn't worked. Right. And if they would elect somebody who would actually make a deal, this would have been gone 50 years ago, 60 years ago, 70 years ago. There were so many times when all they had to do was say, yes, look, I'll give you an anecdote. Arafat, who was the leader of the Palestinians for many years at Camp David, where he was offered 95 % of the West Bank plus land swaps to compensate.

29:30And this was under Clinton. He said no. Why? Do you know? And then he said to Clinton, you're a great man. And Clinton said, no, I'm not. I'm a failure. And you made me a failure. I think I know why he said no. I think he said no because he knew that if he said yes, he was in the same. He was going to happen to him. What happened to Sadat? In fact, Clinton even said to Arafat, you and later on Ehud Barak, you might get assassinated for doing this. But think of how many of your people you will save. And that's true of Sadat. Sadat got assassinated, but do you know how many Egyptians are alive today because they never had to go to war again against Israel?

30:08Yeah. But you have to have courage. The 2000 Cam David summit was a summit meeting at Cam David between United States Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat. The summit took place in July 2000 as an effort to end the Israeli-Palestine conflict. But Sunlit ended without an agreement largely due to irreconcilable differences between the two parties on the status of Jerusalem. Its failure is considered one of the main triggers of the second intifada, which was a big— What was the issue with Jerusalem? Do you remember?

30:40The intifada. Both places wanted Jerusalem to be the capital, which eventually was able to be worked out. What couldn't be worked out was what's called the issue of return. So there are two kinds of refugees in the world. There are Palestinian refugees and everybody else. And that's why there are two agencies from the United Nations who handle refugees. There's one that only does Palestinians and one that does everybody else. Palestinians are the only people whose refugee status is handed down. There are great, great, great, great grandchildren of the original conflict. maybe not great-great, great-grandchildren of the original conflict who are still called refugees.

31:21Wow. That's because they constantly cultivate that consciousness. We're going to go back. We're going to go back. And also because the other Arab nations never took them in. Jordan didn't take them in, right? Jordan, which is more than half Palestinian, didn't say, come to Jordan. Why? Why wouldn't they want more Palestinians? Because one of the things that anti-Semitism does is it creates coalitions. and all these Arab nations, all of whom had trouble at home, they all have dicey governments. Like if I said to you, which Arab nation would you want to live in? The answer would be, I'll stay right where I am.

31:57Thank you. And this is because for whatever reason, the Islamic culture, which used to be during the golden age, the most advanced culture in the world. So it's not like Islam doesn't have in it to be the most advanced culture in the world for whatever reason. And I'm not a historian. I have guesses, but who knows? Right now, they're not doing well culturally. And as a result, they've used the Palestinians to unify their own governments because look what Israel's doing to the Palestinians. And a mutual hate is the best way to tie people together. So what is it? It bridges them and Israel. Of course.

32:34What do 27, 28, 29 Arab nations have in common? What they have in common is they can all see Israel as hostile. so they don't have to say, what is it that we're not doing with our people? I mean, because if you think about it, the biggest war by far in the Middle East in recent years was the Iran-Iraq War. Had nothing to do with Israel. But when people say, what would solve the Middle East? They always say, oh, if Israel would act differently. It's not true. There are all sorts of local problems, but we do the same thing in this country. You know what the problem is? That other party and that other guy who's messing everything up.

33:09I, on the other hand, I'm guiltless. Like my people, we're great. And so it's a human tendency. Wow. Do the Palestinians have lost more land over time? Like even when we're looking at that chart, was there like a lease in the beginning? Like what did the original document say as far as what the land would be like? Oh my God, that is so complicated. It depends who because it's, well, you can see what the original UN partition was, but then what happened was the Palestinians lost, launched a war and lost land. And the only way you get it back is by making peace. So Israel lost, I mean, Egypt lost the Sinai to Israel.

33:48The Sinai is about a third as big as the entire country of Israel. When Egypt made peace, Israel gave the Sinai back. And that was a lot. It has oil fields, it has resorts, but that's what you do for peace. I think if the Palestinians made peace again and again and again, they've been offered, but even if they did now, they'd get a lot of the West Bank back. And it would be such a good thing for the world because economically, what that region, I mean, you could have in the Middle East, what you have like in Europe, or you could have this huge economic engine. Israel has technology and so on. And a lot of the Arab neighbors want that.

34:27Like when I went to the Technion, there were Arab students there. They had nowhere to study really where they could study at that advanced level. But just imagine if there was cooperation but you have to want it. So you think one of the biggest issues probably face in the, I mean, obviously there's huge like actual physical issues and emotional issues, but you think one of the issues facing the governments right now is that Palestine doesn't want peace? Yes, because, and part of that, by the way, is just downright anti-Semitism. Like when you hear, I mean, this is unfortunately pretty endemic in the Islamic world.

35:08So I don't know if you know Ayaan. What does endemic mean? Just tell us. Endemic means it's like they get it with their mother's milk. Okay. When Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who grew up in Somalia. Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I spoke to her once. She wrote a book called Infidel. She said, when I was growing up in Somalia, I didn't know a Jew. I didn't know anyone who knew a Jew, but I knew Jews were evil. now when you have that in kids and that's true that's ayan um when you when kids are taught that and and all through the west bank all through the arab world we know what children are taught about jews they're evil they control the banks they run the world they're you know everything bad comes sooner or later back to the jews they can't drink milk right so what do you do i mean how do you make peace when people believe that you're subhuman, subhuman and superhuman, that is you're vermin, but you control the world.

36:08That's a really weird and, and strange kinds of prejudice. And you know, you grew up in Louisiana. So, you know, the people still hold that kind of prejudice in the United States. It's not like that doesn't exist in our world. So take that and like toxify it a billion times in the Middle East and it becomes very, very difficult. Wow. Yeah. So it's a tough sitting over there for Israel. It's a very tough setting. Has Israel ever thought of just moving to a new place? It's funny that you should say that. You know, originally, I'll tell you, I don't know if it's a funny story. It's kind of a funny story.

36:45It's okay to be fair. It's okay. Everything can have some humor. Exactly. So the first president of Israel was named Chaim Weitzman. And he was testifying in front of the Peel Commission, which was the British commission that was trying to decide what to do with the – and one of them said, Mr. Weitzman, why don't we just give you Uganda? Just take Uganda, by the way. I'm not sure the Ugandans would have loved that either. But that's – because there's so much strife in the Middle East. Why don't you just take Uganda? And Weitzman said, that's like my asking you, sir, why you didn't drive 50 kilometers, why you drove, rather, 50 kilometers to visit your mother in the next town when there are so many other old ladies on your block.

37:27And it's the same thing. Like Israel, I mean, three times a day in my prayers, I pray for Jerusalem. And Jews have done that for thousands of years. That's where David walked. You know, that's what Moses was leading the people to. That's, I mean, that is the Jewish land in three different traditions. It's the Jewish land. It's even the Jewish land in Islamic tradition. It's why, you know, Muhammad started out. He originally faced Jerusalem when he prayed. And then when Jews eventually rejected Islam, he turned towards Mecca. But Jerusalem is sacred to all three traditions. And it just feels, not only that, but it feels to me like, honestly, you look, there are like 40, 40 flags in the world that have Christian symbols on them.

38:14And there are probably 35 that have Muslim symbols on them. And there is one that has the Jewish star. And that one country is the one that the world's entire hostility is turned towards. And I just feel like, doesn't anyone see that? Isn't that weird just by its nature? I mean, it's certainly, I could certainly see how if I was from there, I'd feel a real underdog mentality. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yes. Do you feel like we get fair coverage of like a lot of like a lot of a lot of a lot of media folks? Yeah. There's a lot of Jewish media folks. Right. And and they've made a lot of like, you know, a lot of great stuff over the years.

39:01I like the movie Family Man. I like a lot of different stuff. But do you feel like we get a fair coverage of the war in Israel and Palestine? or of the conflict? So it's really hard to fairly cover a conflict, especially this one, because reporters can say whatever they want if they're in Israel. But if you're in Hamas-controlled territory, you have to say what Hamas wants you to say. Really? Of course. I mean, there's no such thing as like, we're reporting against what Hamas wants because Hamas is a terrorist authoritarian group. So that makes it hard. So you have the Palestinian people, right?

39:39Right. Are most of them good people? Yeah, of course. Most people, I think, everywhere in the world are good people. Yeah. But I will say this. Good people can be made to do bad things by ideology. So if you say to me, were most Germans good people? I would say absolutely. But they became Nazis. Yeah. And not because they were any different than you are or I am. Well, it's like Raiders fans. I'm like, what are we doing here sometimes? Raiders fans. And that's just a joke, guys. Don't anybody freaking lose their mind. Listen, I go way back with the Rangers. I remember. You know, I'm a Max Cosby fan.

40:12I remember Bolitnikoff. Oh, wow. I thought he was a president of somewhere, was he? No, he was a wide receiver. Oh, damn, I failed that. So, but seriously, it's like, yes, people are good people, but they can be made to do very bad things if they believe bad stuff. And if you believe that everybody over there is evil, then you think you're being good by blowing up buses, which happened during the Intifada, blowing up cafes. I mean, look what Hamas did, deliberately targeting women and children and so on. Why would you do that? Because they're evil. And it's easier, unfortunately, than people think to persuade human beings to not see other people as human.

41:00I mean, in war, that's what people do. It's like Judaism introduced this idea to the world, that Christianity then spread to the world, that every person is in the image of God. It's really hard to hold on to that when you think that person wants to kill my family. But that's, to me, that's the only salvation we have, is to sort of double down on that message. Do you like support, or I don't know if that's the exact word, but how do you feel about the way that Israel is dealing with Palestine now? Because it feels like there's just so many more casualties, right? Like if you look at charts or bar graphs or something, or even maybe some - So I'll say two different things about it.

41:43One is if you ask experts in war, they'll say that the reason that people are so surprised is because they never paid attention to a war before. And in fact, the casualty rate is roughly 1 to 1.5. That is one soldier to 1.5 citizens, which is actually much better than almost every war, certainly much better than our wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq. But we live in a different age where you can see the rubble and you can see the bombs and all of that stuff. And it is heartbreaking. I mean, look, I see coffins of children. And I know that Israelis were responsible for that. responsible in one sense and not in another.

42:29And it's terrible. But I also know that tomorrow, literally tomorrow, if Hamas said, okay, we give up, that would be it. That would be it. The only one that, I mean, it's been in their power since day one to stop this war. All they have to do is say, okay, we give up. On October 6th, there was a ceasefire. Israel didn't break the ceasefire. And then when they went in at any moment, if Hamas had said, you know what, since it was clear that Israel was going to destroy Gaza, that would have been over. And yet it's not. And so there are a lot of ways of looking at the same conflict, even while being able to hold the enormity of the suffering and pain that is there.

43:15This says, is it really one-to-one? I don't know what source this is. Not one-to-one death of Israelis. One to 1.5 death of Hamas fighters to citizens. Of those, let's say it is 38, although that comes from the Hamas Health Authority. Of those 38, how many are Hamas terrorists? According to most estimates, somewhere between 20 and 25. Okay. I'm not between 15 and 20. So if it's 20, that means more terrorists than citizens. If it's 15, that means like 1 to 1.2. There's a guy, John Spencer, who's the world's expert in this, who's gone on a bunch of podcasts and talked about how he's never seen a conflict, even though what people see doesn't accord with this, where, in fact, the degree of civilian casualties has been as low in comparison to the degree of fighters in civilian areas.

44:13where, remember, Hamas again and again and again has in houses, in hospitals, in schools, in tunnels, all those places where you have to kill citizens or you can't kill Hamas. And that's a really awful way to fight a war. Another thing I'll point out, just if people doubt this. If people are listening at home, just so you can't see, it says, this says Palestinians 38 ,000, Israelis 1 ,200 reported killed. Now this is from? This is from the United Nations. Right. United Nations. I wasn't saying one to 1.5 Israelis to Palestinians. You're saying of those Palestinians. Right. How many are Hamas fighters?

44:55How many are Hamas fighters? And here's the other issue. If you go to an Israeli home, which happens all the time and you hear like sirens above, you go to what's called a meimad, which is a shelter, which is a bomb shelter. Every Israeli home has a bomb shelter built into it and so do all the communities. Hamas built more than 500 miles worth of tunnels all through Gaza and not a single bomb shelter for its citizens, not one, which meant that if Israel bombed, they were counting and Sinoir, the head of Hamas, even said this explicitly. We have them on the record saying it. They were counting on civilians dying because every civilian who dies is a success for Hamas because they know they're not going to win the war militarily, they can only win it reputationally and politically.

45:44Ah, so they're counting on this type of information? Sure. I mean, it's a terrible thing to say, but it does them good to have citizens killed because it turns the public opinion against Israel, which is the only way they can win the war. Has Israel offered a, like, okay, almost like a Red Rover type of day where it's like, if you want to come over here, you can come over here and we'll take care of you. They had several – first of all, they had several weeks before they started the operation, but also they have safe zones. Now, what has happened with the safe zones – and again, it's like agonizing.

46:19They just killed Mohamed Daif, who is the number one or number two in – next to Sinwar. He's the one who planned – right, there he is. He's the one who planned the October 7th operation. He was like – Mohamed Daif. He was like the most desirable target. Okay. And guess where they killed him? In a safe zone. Oh, so he's chilling over there. Right. So they create safe zones and then Hamas fighters invade the safe zones and people say, ah, you see the Israelis are bombing the safe zones. You can't win with people who don't care about their people. And I don't want to say Palestinians don't. Of course they do.

47:00Like a mother who's bereaved in Palestine is every bit as bereft as a mother who's bereaved in Israel. It's not like one mother feels more than the other. But the leaders don't care. They care about getting what they get. And by the way, many of them aren't in Gaza. Instead, they're enjoying their billions of dollars that were given to them in aid in Switzerland, in the Canary Islands. And were they just emailing stuff to do like that sort of thing? Yes. Right. Jesus. Because – so it's a very, very painful situation all around. And I wish on both sides that there were like visionary and courageous leaders who would figure out a way to stop what is this awful carnage.

47:50Although I must say like every time somebody feels like – first of all, it's not true that it's going on forever. And first of – and also conflicts that go on a long time like in Northern Ireland can be solved. I don't believe it can, it's not true that it can't ever be solved. Like the IRA. The IRA. And even countries that were hostile to Israel, like Bahrain, like the UAE, now it looks very soon like Saudi Arabia, and Israel and Jordan have made peace. So whenever someone says they'll never make peace, I think you don't know, you haven't lived long enough to see, for example, like I did, that people said the Soviet Union and the United States will always be enemies, and then the next day there was no Soviet Union.

48:33Things change, and I can't help it. I have faith. And so do you pray also then for you? You just pray for both sides of the conflict? Oh, absolutely. I pray for peace, and I pray for the best outcome. And I mean, it's like to see the images we've seen, how can you not? You know, it's funny, Rabbi, because like, yeah, I hear like you, you know, I've been on the side like, you know, or I don't even know if it's the side, but like you hear free Palestine, right? Yeah. And so I've always thought like if something, if you start to hear the channel free something, then that's the place that needs the help.

49:10Yes, of course. And so I guess a lot of my like, yeah, I think that's, and I guess you see more images of damage from there. And so you're just, your feelings can't help but, you know, just but hurt, you know? I absolutely. And I think there's no reason why they shouldn't hurt. Right. I mean, like they're suffering terribly. And part of my head is like, and this is why I think I don't, I may have a tough time, I just evolve in some of my thoughts that Israel's the stronger country. Yes. Right. They have a more of a culture. They have a more like charters and organization. And it feels like it's their responsibility, right.

49:52To help or to figure out. That's what that's just a, this is a blanket statement, right. It feels like they're the ones that should have to figure this out. Right. And now that might be delusional, but it's just like it might be emotionally motivated a lot of that. But I totally get that. And what I would say to that is, first of all, it does you credit. There's no reason not to feel that way. There's only so much you can do. It's almost like this is not a great analogy, and I've just thought of it, and I hope it's not a terrible one. But it's like a parent who has a kid who's a drug addict. And you say, well, look, it's the parent's responsibility.

50:28and they again and again and again and again and again, they enable and enable and enable, and then they decide, okay, I'm going to cut them off. And then they enable again, and then they cut them off. And you say, actually, at a certain point, if the other side doesn't help, you can't do anything. A strong people can't. Look, Israel tried, I mean, America tried this. America said, okay, we're going to impose democracy on Iraq. Look how well that worked. And we're much stronger than Israel is. Other people have to want to be helped in order for you to help. And they not only have to want to be helped, but they have to not want to destroy the people that are helping them.

51:04Because although Israel is stronger, that's true, there are 30 Muslim nations around Israel or 25. There's one Israel. So there – you know how many – like before the Holocaust, there were 18 million Jews in the world. That's like 0.1 % of the world. Now there are about 15 million Jews in the world. We're very tiny. There are over a billion Christians, over a billion Muslims. There's 0.1 % of Jews in the world. Bob probably knows 200. You probably do. You know? But that's, I mean, really, 15 million is nothing. It's smaller than the population of LA, smaller than the population of New York, and that's it, over the entire world.

51:47So Jews feel frightened, I think, for legitimate reasons. Yeah. Well, yes, certainly I would think if there's strength in numbers, you would have to be as – you would rely on so many other of your senses. And so many of my Jewish friends are so like – they're complex. I never – Jewish people are super complex. The whole system, it's really fun to joke around with a lot of my Jewish friends. If you think up a good joke, they like it. I have a theory about why that's true. Okay, so here's my theory about why Jews are the way they—not all, but I mean there's a variety always. But there are two things about Jewish history that actually I think gave Jews certain cultural tendencies.

52:38One is that our tradition is very book-centered, right? If you go into a church, you see an image of Jesus. You go into a synagogue, you see a Torah, you see a book. We don't have a perfect life in Judaism. We have a perfect book. That makes it different. So you have to know literacy was huge. And then the other thing is when you have to wander from place to place to place, you have to start learning all sorts of different cultural cues or you won't make it. And so you have to be like intellectually agile because if you're not, the host country is not going to have any use for you and they're not going to be able to use you.

53:16Wow. So both those things Jews learned. And that's why you have so many Jews in comedy and so many Jews in music and so many Jews in literature. And so they learned the cultural cues of wherever they had to wander, which is good and bad, good and bad. Well, let's talk about anti-Semitism then. Yeah. If we can. Is that all right? Absolutely. Okay. I talk about it all the time. Oh, you do? I do. Yeah. Yeah, because we had it. So we had an episode. What a fucking weird. Let's talk about anti-Semitism. Is that all right? We had. Well, sometimes I'll be honest with you. You get scared to even say the word Jewish or to say like Israel.

53:52Like it's you feel scared sometimes. Like you feel like. Well, we had a podcast like Roseanne Barr was on. Right. And she said she made a sarcastic comment. She goes, yeah. She goes, yeah. and six million Jews didn't die in the Holocaust, right? It was obvious sarcasm, right? It was obvious. I think if you and me listen. Of course. But YouTube, they banned us for two weeks. Wow. And they took our episode down because they said that we promoted - Holocaust denialism. Something like that, right? And so it kind of, it affected me. I was like, well, shit, you know, like she is Jewish. It was like, you know, it made me kind of angry, kind of.

54:32Not against Jewish people, But it made me angry that there was this like – that felt like there was another parameter where you couldn't speak about things, you know? So look, anti-Semitism is a very – it's called the oldest hatred. It's extremely difficult and there are lots of factors why I think anti-Semitism exists. But at least a big part of it is because Judaism and Christianity – look, Christianity came from Judaism. And so - So Judaism was first. Judaism was first by a couple thousand years. Oh, damn. And they probably were then. Yeah. And that's why Jesus was born Jewish. Saul - Oh, he was Jewish.

55:15Turned to Paul. Paul's original name was Saul. Oh, really? Yes. He was Jewish.

55:24And what happened was the believers in Jesus were all Jews. The early disciples were all Jews. and the other Jews disagreed with them. And I don't know about you, but in my experience, family fights are sometimes the worst fights. And this was a family fight. It was like they all knew each other. They all grew together. It was a very small community. They were all Jews together. And now they disagreed about this huge thing. It's like the fight over the Thanksgiving dinner table between the Democrats and the Republicans. Unfortunately, the family fight got put into a book called The New Testament that lasts forever.

56:00And so for thousands of years, Christians would read this, not with a sense of, oh, that's my Jewish brother and I'm fighting him, but that's the person who killed and denied the God that I believe in. And that's a very powerful thing to, I mean, the history of Christian antisemitism is long and very ugly. They've had a lot of beef. And Christians and then Muslims have their own history of antisemitism, not from most of history as bad as Christian, but still. and when you put that together and then Jews aren't allowed to own land in almost any land in medieval Europe so what do you do if you don't own land you become a money lender it's the only other job you can do you can't farm the land you can't grow so Jews were money nobody likes a money lender because then you owe them money and Jews every time people owed too much money you know what they would do they would kick the Jews out of the country then they don't owe money anymore.

56:54And so Jews got kicked from land to land to land to land. And because they lived in all these different lands, it became easy to develop conspiracies about them. That land, Spain, or not Spain, actually Spain kicked its Jews out in 1492. But let's say that land X or Y that we kicked the Jews out, now they're attacking us. Ah, it must be the Jews that did it. And it's always, always great to have someone to blame your own problems on. Yeah, everybody wants an enemy. Everybody wants somebody to point the finger at. So you put a lot of these things together and you get this enduring hatred and this very selective, like people don't go on the internet and say, you know what?

57:36Jonas Salk gave us the polio vaccine and Einstein gave us modern relativity and Freud gave us psychology and Proust gave us the greatest modern novel. No, they say Jeffrey Epstein gave us pedophilia. And you can do that with any group. The difference is, of course, people don't do it with any group. They don't look and say, okay, what white Anglo-Saxon Protestants have done terrible things? Let's make a huge chart of all of them and put it on the internet and say, you see, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants are terrible. No, but they do it with Jews. Yeah, that's interesting, man. That's one way of thinking about it.

58:12I mean, it's unfortunate too. Sorry. Yeah, no, no, no. I say weird sometimes. It's like, I'd never thought about it. No, of course. I mean, it's not like. And I think some of maybe like, I don't know if, like, I don't notice. I mean, I grew up in a place that was like racial division and stuff. We didn't have any Jewish folks. My mom dated a Jewish guy actually for a little bit named ****. And he would drive so far to get gas. It was a little cheaper, but we just thought it was funny. And he got us tickets to like our first football game we ever went to. and, you know, nice guy. And he was black and Jewish.

58:48I didn't even know that he could do that. Yes, he could. And then... Well, that's the other thing, is that Jews are white to the left, but they're not white to the right. It's weird. Like the Klan doesn't think of Jews as white, right? But all those kids on campus were saying Jews are white colonialists. Well, if you go to Israel, more than 50 % of the Jews in Israel are what are called Jews of color. Some from Ethiopia, the others from Arab lands. Wow. So J O C's baby. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. They got some beautiful Jewish, uh, ladies I've seen on the internet, probably men too. I haven't looked at them, but I believe that there are some, we got to get you to Israel.

59:24Yeah. Hey, look, dude, I could end up over there. A Jewish lady asked me to marry her one time, but she only gave me like seven hours to decide. And I was like, that's a little, that's a little bit of a deadline. Oh dude. I asked for more time and she's like, I've had enough of you. I'm like, then this is too much. I think that you probably made a wise decision. Anybody gives you seven hours to decide. I was like, yeah, this marriage wouldn't last. Why do Jewish people have so much success? Is that a fair question to ask you? Sure, sure. Because a lot of my Jewish friends are successful. It's like, dude, the more places I go where it's like, I see like, oh, this is a Jewish business owner or a Jewish thinker, facilitator.

1:00:03You know, it's almost like, sometimes I think of them as like glue-ish, right? It's like they're kind of the – like they're just – they find ways to like create value, you know, like – So what I would say to you, yeah. I think first of all, what I would go back to what I said before about there's a tradition of literacy and they had to learn the cultural codes. But remember that this is now. And yes, that's true that certain Jewish groups in the past have had. But there are – I mean like if you think about the Jews of Eastern Europe, the ones who were killed by them, they were poor as dirt. I mean they lived on farms.

1:00:40They like barely eked out a living. I can't even imagine that. That's crazy. But that's true. Even now. Even now there's like I think 10 to 12 percent of Jews live under the poverty line. They're always – but the people that you know of course are the people who are successful. And there are a disproportionate to our own proportion successful Jews. I think it's like 20 to 22 percent of all the Nobel Prizes in the world have been won by Jews, even though we're 0.1 percent of the world. Damn, dude. Which is amazing. Somebody's got to start a comeback or something. But here's the question. In reaction to that, if you knew that about another group, would you automatically think well of them or think badly of them?

1:01:19The weird thing is that people look at that at Jews and they think badly of them. If I told you, for example, which is true, the highest ethnic or racial or religious earning group in America is, do you know? Hold on. Give me 30 seconds. Okay. The highest racial or ethnic earning group in America is, I would probably say Persians. Nigerians. No way. Because of this email stuff? Isn't that wild? No, not the, I'm talking about in America. Oh, living here. Living here. Nigerians. which is amazing. And yet nobody says, those damn Nigerians. Yeah. They take all our jobs. They do all these terrible.

1:02:00No. It's because there are these ancient prejudices that then people turn against the Jews. I would think if people, I mean, look, the people who took their money from Harvard and Penn and so on, their grandparents weren't wealthy. Right. I mean, these are people who made tremendous success and then turned around and turned philanthropic. And then people say, look at those dirty Jews. Yeah. And I think, what do you want from us? How do you win? What do you want from the world? What do you do? Right, exactly. I mean, nobody looks at Bill Gates, again, and says dirty wasps. They look at Mark Zuckerberg and say dirty Jew.

1:02:34What does wasps mean? White American. White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Oh, they do? Yep. Wasps, yeah. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. It's interesting to think about. I appreciate you talking about it with me, too. Because it's like, I always just get afraid. Like, sometimes I think in Hollywood, like, you know, like, there's just a lot of Jewish folks. It's been, you know. Yep. And it's, I don't have any thoughts about it, except that sometimes you like, so at that point you build stereotype, you build like, you know, you wonder like, oh, well, do they have something against me if I'm not having successes or, so I can see how some people's schools of thoughts are like in Hollywood.

1:03:09Well, also we really, we have a tendency to group groups together. So people will say this about the blacks and this about the Mexicans and this about the Jews and this about on and on about the hicks, about the, you know, it doesn't matter. Hicks, gays, people with freckles, Irish, Jesus Christ. I know. What are they doing? And so that's also something that everybody fights against. Some of it is normal. But it's also we know, like, we know that it's not really, that it doesn't really work. Like, do some groups loosely have characteristics? Yes, but not enough that, like, you know, this group is good and this group is bad.

1:03:47And also those characteristics change. I know that this shocks people. But when Jews first came in the early 1900s, they didn't want to let them in for immigration because they had low IQs. No way. That was what they said. because we don't realize how quickly cultural stereotypes change from one thing to another. It's interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And it's tough too, because I don't know a ton of like Palestinian, you know, it's like I have more of a - Palestinians are amazing people. Yeah. I have to say the Palestinians I know - Tell me about that. Are - Because I don't even know. It's like, I have a couple of friends that are part Palestinian maybe.

1:04:23There are now like a bunch of Palestinian poets and writers that are getting translated into English that are just like incredibly gifted, thoughtful, insightful people. And it makes me that much sadder that, you know, they don't have a leadership that they deserve. And like, that's what I wish for very much. How do we get there? I don't know. To be, you know, and it can be vague, you know, we don't know. I think that you probably, you know, there is this. There's you there have to be sort of entrepreneurs of courage. Like how did Egypt make peace with Israel? Because one guy said, you know what?

1:05:04I'm not going to do it. I'm going to Israel. And Sadat went to Israel and he changed. And people saw that, oh my God, you can do this. So you need these people who are willing to stand up and say, we've been doing this wrong. I mean, where has it gotten us for the past 70 years to tell our kids we're going to one day destroy Israel? Which is what the Palestinians have been telling their kids for 70 years. We're going to destroy Israel just one day. When you grow up, you're going to fight. You're going to destroy Israel. And where has it gotten you? I mean you saw that chart. It's gotten you less and less and less land and less and less and less happiness and most tragically fewer children.

1:05:43And when I say fewer children, by the way, when people say that there's a genocide, the two of the five fastest growing populations in the world are the West Bank and Gaza. So if Israel's actually prosecuting a genocide, they're doing a very bad job of it. Oh, West Bank and Gaza are Palestinian. Are Palestinian. Wow. They're doing a very bad job of it. They're making love over there. Yes, because there are millions of people, and you just want them to have - I'd be able to. That's a good pickup line, too. It's like, we got about 40 minutes, babe. Let's figure this out. What can Israel do, you think, differently?

1:06:19Are you allowed to comment on that kind of stuff? Oh, sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Israel is – so there are two things I'll say. One is hard to change and one is easier to change. You know, when you get out of high school in America, you go to college. And we all know college kids, even though they can be very talented and very smart and very – they're also stupid. And they're not only stupid because they're 17, 18. Naive. Especially guys. But both. Yeah. But when you get out of high school in Israel, you go into the army and you give a 17 or 18-year-old an Uzi, a machine gun, and you put them at a border guard.

1:07:02He's still a 17-year-old. And then a 50-year-old Palestinian comes and a 17-year-old should not be able to control the life of a 50-year-old man or woman. But that's the situation. So first of all, the situation is messed up. And that is like intrinsic to it and that's tragic. Messed up in the sense of the organization of how they're running the idea. In the sense of that armies are young and armies control people who are not young. And that built into that is this humiliation and humiliation is the worst. Yeah. Humiliation is the worst. Well, every 17-year-old wants to be Rambo. Yeah, exactly.

1:07:38Exactly. And what Israel could do better, I believe, is there are lots and lots and lots of small ways in which they could constantly make it clear that they esteem the people and that they respect them and that they want to help them. Now, it is true that the people who did that most in Israel were actually the people whose kibbutzim were attacked on October 7th. Those were all peaceniks on the border. There were some of the people who were kidnapped and some of the people who were killed were people who ferried medicine to Gaza. But still, even so, I still think it is true that it's incredibly important when you're in the driver's seat to constantly turn around and say, I really want this to be different.

1:08:23I hope for the day that it will be different. And I think that Israel has not done that as much as it could or as much as it should. The people or the leadership? Both. Yeah. Both. because there's this great line from the poet Yates, who after all was in Ireland and saw trouble, what they call the troubles for years. He said, too long a sacrifice makes a stone of the heart. And like at a certain point, you just go, I don't care. I don't care. Those people, I don't care. And that's, you have to fight against that. You have to. Yeah, things edify kind of in you. Edify, is that the right word you think?

1:08:55Solidify. Solidify in you. Like if, they calcify kind of. Right, right. And like you can't stand your neighbor. You know, when you first met them, you brought them a cup of sugar, but now you just can't stand or you're a landlord or whatever. And it's very human, but if we don't overcome that, we go the way of the grave. America and Britain after World War II, or is it World War I when they freed? World War I. Okay. After World War I, they helped create the space for Israel in the current space of Israel. Especially Britain. Yeah. Do you feel like they should help now? Is that part of it? After World War II.

1:09:38Well, after World War II was the actual creation of the state. After World War I was when Britain first did all the initiatives to do it. They try. They do try. I mean, you can't, David. America has tried again and again and again. They have. To do this. They have. But also part of this is that for a long time, the Soviet Union was the ally of the Arab nations. And the Soviet Union also was deeply anti-Jewish and deeply anti-capitalist and anti-Western. There's a lot of Jewish people in the Soviet Union. There were. Oh, there were. But they all left. Yeah. So now I think that there really has to be like an ideological change, which is the kind of thing that you see happening in Saudi Arabia.

1:10:23With MBS, he's really trying to change his country. What's the name? I'm sorry to repeat. His name is Mohammed bin Salim. Mohammed bin Salim in Saudi Arabia. Right. There he is, Mohammed bin Salim in Al Saud. He's like, for example, women can now drive in Saudi Arabia. I know that that seems like, but that's a huge thing, which is the other part of it is that the culture. Yeah, I would not want to be there the first week. The culture in the West Bank and Gaza to women is – I mean women are very second class citizens there and LGBTQs have no rights, quite the opposite. So I think that there needs to be like a general sort of reckoning with the culture and an openness that would allow people to live in peace.

1:11:12And you think, so the responsibility really falls kind of 50-50, do you believe? No. I know people will disagree with me. I'm going to say 80-20. I really think if tomorrow the Palestinians said, we want peace, we don't want to destroy you, we want to live in peace and we want to thrive, there would be peace and they would thrive. Is there a way for them to even like verbalize that to the - Only if they have the leaders who promise it, because nobody's going to believe it. I mean, there are many people who say it, but unless the leaders promise it, it's not going to happen. Right. And the leaders are Hamas.

1:11:47Hamas. Is there a president outside of Hamas? There is. There is Abu Mazen in the Palestinian Authority, but he's in his 80s. He's thought of as corrupt and not good. Yeah. I can't imagine that somebody would have a leader in their 80s. How could that happen? Right. What is he just milling around a fucking bocce ball court? So it's. Get a fucking microphone. No, no. This is crazy.

1:12:13And what does he say about it? Well, this is a guy who did his PhD in, I don't want to get you canceled, but in Holocaust denial. So I don't think that he's as sympathetic to Jews as he might be. I see. But he has been - I didn't know they had a PhD for that. He has been okay in the sense that he has done some cooperation with Israel, but is he a peacemaker? Has he really reached out? Is he a courageous visionary leader? No, which is why he's not – and the Palestinian Authority is notoriously corrupt. So he is not somebody who is going to be able to make peace. But by the way, I just want to say just – one of the presidents of Israel was put away for – was put in jail for corruption.

1:13:03And it was an Arab female Supreme Court justice that put him away. So it's a very complex cultural picture over there. It's not so easy. So they rarely even have that. Is that what you're saying, an Arab female Supreme Court justice? I'm saying that could happen in Israel, but it could never happen. You know, when people say Israel is an apartheid state, it's kind of weird that you have Supreme Court justices who are Arab and Arab parties in the Knesset in the parliament and on and on and on. So Knesset is the Israeli parliament. Yes. OK, cool. Yeah. Sometimes it's cool to like learn like a new term or something.

1:13:38Say if you are a Palestine supporter, right? How do you just still be supportive of your Jewish friends? You know, like how is there ways that people can like manage that with their friends? should they like so here's here's it's very painful israel jewish zion what is the difference between some of that okay i'll answer both those i'll answer both those first of all thank you um zionism is the traditional jewish desire to return to the land of israel it has different forms as a political form it has a religious form but it's the same basic thing so in theory some jews say they're not zionist but the truth is that zionism is sort of a part and parcel of being Jewish.

1:14:20It's the bread and the butter. Right. Okay. What I would say to people who have Palestinian friends, have Israeli friends and disagree is this. I was until last year, the rabbi of Sinai temple in Los Angeles. I had a lot of people who in that congregation, I had a large Persian community and others as well as the Persian community who love Trump. and other people in the congregation who hate Trump, okay? And I have to think to myself, like, this is one congregation. I'm not going to take a political position, but I want to try to keep these people together. And the way to do it is we always start with politics.

1:15:06But if you start with what do you like to eat? How do you raise your kids? What do you care about in your life? In other words, the things that are closest to you, then you know someone before i like i buried their parents and i married their children and i went to visit them in the hospital and by then when i found out their political opinions i really didn't care because most of the things in our life that affect our life are not what we see on the screen and people scream about trump all the time but the truth is whether their kid is healthy or sick means much more to their life yeah than how they feel about him so i try to get people to live locally.

1:15:45You can care about issues, should care about issues. I do. Obviously, we spent the whole hour and a half talking about issues. But I also know that I'm not going to judge you as a human being based on your disagreement with me unless you hate. Unless you hate, then I'll judge you. Yeah. But if it's a disagreement of goodness and of love, then we can argue all day long. I got no problem with that. Yeah. Yeah. I wish you could find ways to do that more. I know. Me too. It makes me sad. Yeah. It is sad. It's painful in this country too. It's so painful because it's like, it doesn't take, I mean, you know, it's not the first time we've seen someone try to assassinate a political figure, but it always like, it always reminds you that, that the difference between chaos and civilization, it's really thin.

1:16:41It's like a bullet away. Yeah. And that's scary. I've said that too. It's like all that needs to happen is a couple of police stations need to get kind of commandeered. Right. And then it's, the game could change. I know. And you know, one thing I noticed the other day, Rabbi Wolpe was when that happened with Trump, a lot of people were like, it didn't even make them feel like it made them feel like something. But if that would have happened 20 years ago, but it's like we've become so desensitized to, I don't know, pain. I don't know what it is. It's true. And not only that, but don't forget, in recent history, we've had other political figures.

1:17:21Gabby Gifford. I can't remember the name of the Republican senator who shot at a baseball game. Oh, was that? Who was that? I went Don Mattingly or something. Who was it? Oh, Steve Scalise. Right, Steve Scalise, right. Somebody popped off on that bad boy, dude. What was he in, Shortstop? Shortstop, this Sig Sauer, baby. They really, that's insane. Yeah, so I'm saying it's like, this is happening and we have to be aware of it and it's pretty awful. Yeah. Why do, a lot of aid goes to Israel from America. People talk about that a lot. It's like a point of like, why are we giving money to Israel? Why are we giving money to other countries?

1:18:01Why is there a bigger connection that we have with Israel? Like, are they the footprint in the Middle East? Or are they like the teammate in the Middle East? Or why is that? Because a lot of people are like, well, shit, we have people that are bleeding to death on our streets, but we're sending billions of dollars to Israel. So there are two things to know. First of all, about foreign aid. Foreign aid is like 1%, less than 1%. I'd love for you to look this up of our budget. We think we're spending so much money. It's nothing. It's negligible. That's a great question. Look that up, Nick. And we get what percentage of the budget?

1:18:34Less than 2%. U.S. government's foreign aid budget is typically less than 2 % of total federal spending. In 2022, the U.S. obligated$70.4 billion in foreign aid, which is about 1 % of total spending. So that's first of all. When people say it's all this money, if only we brought it home, that's not true. It's less than 1 % of the budget. That's not going to change everything. But you buy a lot of influence around the world. And most of the money that goes to Israel, we get in arms purchases back and also in innovation back. I mean, Google has offices there. Microsoft has offices there. Israel is called startup nation because your nav system was built in Israel and a lot of other technological innovations were created in Israel.

1:19:23He was founded or whatever, yeah. So there's that. But also I think the reason America is tied to Israel is not because there are Jews who lobby Congress, because there are lots of lobbies in the world. There's a huge cigarette lobby, and yet at a certain point people said, let's put warnings on cigarettes and cut down cigarette. And they had a lot more money to lobby. It has to be a community of interest or people won't care. Yeah, because there's like AIPAC people talk about a lot recently. Right. But the only reason people listen to AIPAC is because AIPAC makes the case that here is a country in the Middle East that shares your Western values, that supports America, that listens in.

1:20:01You need a local listener in, in the Middle East that can actually, you know, infiltrate these various countries. Look, if Iran gets a nuclear bomb, yes, it's terrible for Israel, but it's not good for America either, right? Iran says we're the big Satan and Israel's the little Satan. So our money to Israel is truly, I think, an investment. It's not just a gift. It's an investment. Understood. Do we give money to Palestine as well? Billions, billions of money. How many dollars do we give to Palestine? As you will see. And yet, despite this, and this is just the United States, that's additional.

1:20:42We give billions of dollars to Palestine. The United States. I want to read it. I'm sorry, Mr. Wolpe, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, no, no. But I was just going to say this is just the past eight months, but I'm talking about every year how much money. Since October 7th, a little over a billion. Since October 7th, a little over a billion. And for Israel, it's$13.5 billion. And then also the UN and other agencies give money. No one else gives money to Israel, obviously, but other countries give money to Palestine as well. So we're the only country that gives money to Israel? Yes, we're not the only country that trades with Israel, but gives money to Israel.

1:21:15Oh, interesting. So there's a real allyship there then. Oh, it's very deep. In fact, Walter Russell Mead, who is the foreign affairs columnist of the Wall Street Journal, just wrote a long book that I actually blurbed, and I can't remember now the name of it. I think it has the word Ark in the title. But it's all about the Ark of a Covenant. There it is, the Ark of a Covenant. And it's all about the long history of Israel-United States relationship. And what he says is basically what Kissinger used to say. Countries don't have friends. They have interests. And if Israel wasn't in the interest of the United States, the United States wouldn't be supporting Israel.

1:21:59Sometimes it feels like because there's so many successful Jewish people in the U.S., it feels like that America kind of has become just like a – like a LLC or something, you know? Do you feel like that Israel, like, owns America now? Is that a crazy question? Yeah, it is, actually. Okay. I mean, there's never been a Jewish president. There's never been a Jewish vice president. Have we ever tried? Have we ever, has any, have a Jewish president ever run? Did Bloomberg almost won? Was he Jewish or not? Yeah, Bloomberg, yes, Bloomberg is Jewish. He didn't really run that hard. He ran, well, he ran as hard as he could, but the point is he didn't win.

1:22:39the majority of people who own wealth in America are not Jewish. If you look at the top 20 families, there are a number of Jews on them, but the majority aren't. So the idea, again, it's not a stereotype. It's conspiracy thinking, which is actually more dangerous in some ways than a stereotype. No group runs America. You hear all the time that like this group does or that group does, or those kinds of conspiracies. I hope you're not said I asked. No, no, no, no. I actually am really glad you asked. I think it's really important. I think it's really important. Conspiracy theories are almost always based on some previous prejudice that people have.

1:23:17Or would you even say in the beginning, what was the first thing we said? We've almost gone full circle here. Conspiracy theories are based sometimes on... Well, conspiracy theories are a desire to do two things. One is to explain a world that's inexplicable. Why do these things happen? I know there are complex causes, but I'd like a simple one. Right. And the other thing is it relieves you of any responsibility. Everything that's bad that happens, it's those other people that are doing it. But I got to tell you, I've been a rabbi now for decades. I know many of the most successful and powerful Jews in the world.

1:23:51Some of them I know very well. They haven't let me in on the conspiracy. And I would love to know. Okay. No, that's cool to know. because sometimes you're like, yeah, you just, I think, I think sometimes that's, some of that's Hollywood shit. It's like, you just feel like that since so many people are Jewish, sometimes you feel like, oh, they all kind of work together. And that you, if you're not Jewish, sometimes you feel like they don't care or that you're an outsider. And some of that could be your own thinking. It could be. And there certainly is a function that every group works that way.

1:24:24But if you go to most of America. If you go to a farm and it's a lot of farmers and it's a lot of like Like Baptist farmers, the same type of behavior is going to happen. Also, you see Jews if you go to LA, New York, Chicago, Miami. Yeah. But you know, like growing up in Louisiana? Yeah, we had two, maybe two Jewish people maybe. Yeah. And one guy, I don't even think he was. Somebody just wrote Jewish person on his back or whatever.

1:24:52But no, I think it's great actually. It's much better to ask even the really difficult questions, the questions that might be offensive, and let somebody answer them than to leave them unasked because then you think, ah, he had no answer for that one. That's why he didn't say that. Yeah. I think it's great. I don't ever think like that. I think like, okay, what am I? Maybe a little bit scared to ask right now or what it was like. Well, that's the other thing I was going to say is when you talked about how it's hard sometimes to talk about Jews, it's like every group is so sensitive now. So sensitive.

1:25:26Yeah. Yeah, you used to be able to make fun of like things. I think it's coming back a little bit. Don Rickles, I don't know if you remember. He was a member of my congregation. No way. You saw him there? Oh, yeah. He was merciless. First time he met me, okay? I'm the rabbi. First time he met me, I was young, obviously, the first time he met me. I have never and I'm introduced Don Rickles I'm like very intimidated he looks at me for a second he goes don't worry your skin will clear up that was the first thing the first thing just an error yeah right and I just and of course I cracked up but it's like it's a shame that people can't I think we're getting back to it I think a lot of it has just been just fucking some of society sorry some of society sir just like of yeah like I don't know we got into this crazy stuff in the media things used to be able to be funnier now live comedy I think is still very good I think it's the stuff that you you know that one person can object to and put on social media or two people I mean obviously there are things you can say that are truly objectionable it's not I'm like I'm a rabbi I take things seriously but you have to be able to laugh at yourself you really do if you can't then you'll just find that other people do it for you.

1:26:45And when it comes to like different, it's like in the end, your, your thought always has to be when it comes to different groups, whether it's Jewish people, black people, uh, illiterate people, Chinese or whatever, women, men, we all have to live together in the world. Right. And so it's like, like, I think when I was younger, I was probably maybe like a little more dumb about stuff or whatever. We all were. But yeah. We all were. Right. But then as you get older, you're like, well, the only way this all, it either goes left or it goes like straight. It kind of conjoins more, you know? Yeah. The world is a boat and you know, you can't, you can't drill a hole only under your seat.

1:27:25If it goes down, it goes down for everybody. Yeah. That's interesting. And that kind of keeps us all having, it should keep us all making sure that our neighbor has a life vest in a way. Yeah, exactly. Nice. You know, because that's really important. If it goes down for one of us, it can go down for all of us. You wrote a book called Why Faith Matters. Yeah. And after having some health issues. Yeah. Can you tell me just a little bit about that? I had a brain tumor and then I had lymphoma. So I had cancer. I had a couple of cancers. And afterwards, there were I mean, it's not as popular now, but there were all these people who were like professional atheists, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, a couple others.

1:28:13And what they were describing about religion wasn't at all the religion that I experienced when I was sick. Because the religion I experienced when I was sick was like people gather around you. They help you. They care about you. Like people in my congregation, I know they've been giving people meals for years and years and years who are in trouble. It was a human thing. And there's a human thing in it, but it's done also out of faith that this is what God wants you to do and that other people are in the image of God. And so I wrote this book. I mean, I talk about science and faith and other questions that people have and why God allows bad things to happen and so on.

1:28:47But essentially, I want people to understand it's very hard to create that kind of lasting community outside of a house of worship, outside of a synagogue, a church, a mosque. and that these are really the people who will, you know, one day your gym is going to close, but there'll always be a house of worship. And if you come in, you get accepted and you belong. And so the book is about the different ways in our lives that faith matters. And one story that I tell in there, which actually is very apropos of everything we've been talking about, is this guy, an old story about a guy who looks up at the heavens and he says, God, there's so much trouble and there's so much pain and there's so much war in your world.

1:29:33Why don't you send help? And God says, I did. I sent you. And I feel like that sense of personal agency, that's really important. Wow. Yeah. And it also even makes you feel not some responsibility a little bit, but the other part of that is it makes you feel purposeful, you know, or like you were chosen. Yep. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. I did. I sent you. How do you put together a sermon? We're going to wrap up in a minute. I just, and if it's too big of a question. You just saw it. That's how. I think of a theme and a story and then I speak more or less spontaneously. I speak from - But you'll start something maybe with - A note or two.

1:30:18Okay. And I'll get up with a note or two and I'll just go. I don't know why, but from the time I was young, there are a lot of things that I don't do well, but words don't fail me for whatever reason. And I know if I have an idea, I can get up and I can give you my 15 minutes on the idea and somehow it will tie together. And that's just – I've just been very lucky to be able to do that and I love to do it also. I really do. That's cool, man. Yeah, it's interesting because I think a lot of my thoughts have just been like about like Israel-Palestine is just like, yeah, feeling so much for the Palestinian people, you know?

1:30:58And I think that does you credit. And that's okay. Yeah, I would never say to somebody they shouldn't feel – I mean, how could you not? Right. When people suffer, you know, the first reaction should be that's terrible that people are suffering. Then you get to the causes. But the first reaction should just be, you know, that's awful. Well, it's nice to have just some more, it's nice to have more information. It's nice to have information from a Jewish person. You're fully Jewish? I am fully Jewish. It's nice to have information from a Jewish person, and yeah, it's just nice to learn. Do you think Israel has a preference in the presidential election?

1:31:36Hmm. I think it depends which Israelis you ask. Trump has been pretty popular in Israel, though. He's gotten pretty high marks in part because a lot of presidents promised to move the embassy to Jerusalem and didn't, and he did. And also because I think he eggs on some belligerence in Israel, and that makes Israelis feel like we'll be okay with him. So I think that that's probably true. But ultimately, what I always tell people, which I really deeply believe is true, is the best president for Israel will be the best president for America because Israel needs a strong America more than it needs any particular policy.

1:32:23So I'm not here to tell you who the best president for America is, but whoever it is, that's who I want for Israel because Israel needs America to be strong and prosperous and healthy in the world because it's by far Israel's major ally. And so I want America to do well, not only because I'm an American, but also because I think, and not only for Israel, but also I really, I like, I have a deep belief in America as, you know, it's been called the last best hope of mankind. I hope it's not the last hope, but I think it's the best. And so when America is at its best, it's really a beacon for the world.

1:33:06And for that, I want the best leadership we can have. What is a rabbi? I know it's like a priest, right? It's like a priest. Rabbi means teacher. Okay. So you do many of the things, like you visit hospitals, you do weddings, you do funerals, you do bar and bat mitzvahs, you do all those things, you preach, and your central role is to teach, to teach the Jewish tradition and to teach values and so on. And I was lucky enough that my father was a rabbi. His father, by the way, was a song and dance man. He was a vaudevillian. So maybe that's all the same thing. I don't know. I always wondered. Because sometimes people tell me like, man, one day you should preach or pastor or get into that world.

1:33:52And I don't know really what God has in store for me, you know, like, but I do really, there are moments where I'll be on stage doing comedy and I'll feel like I wish what I was saying was the most important thing it could be. Not from me, but just whatever needs to be said. I wish that whatever I was saying, you know, like that God would use me to just make it as important as possible. What I will tell you is you never, you never know in this life who you've influenced and how like you know all of a sudden someone comes up to you i'm sure and says you know remember that thing you said at a comedy show 12 years ago and you don't remember at all but they remember and they say that that changed that changed my life because you're like you're in different places different times i know we're ending but i'll end with the story so there was a there was a a famous he grew up to be a famous rabbi but when he was a kid um his name he was called the seer of lublin and he used to go into the forest and one day his father pulls him aside and he says, why do you keep going into the forest?

1:34:51And he says, well, I go there to find God. And his father said, that's beautiful, but don't you know that God is the same everywhere? And he says, well, God is, but I'm not. And so you have to find the places in the world where you are at the place where you can teach whatever it is you have to teach. And maybe the comedy stage is the place where that you have found that you have to teach. It doesn't have to be a pulpit for everybody everybody has their own place yeah sometimes we all feel yeah yeah everybody has their own place um and so does israel and so does palestine and hopefully they'll figure it out amen amen thank you rabbi david wolpe we appreciate you now i'm just floating on the breeze and i feel i'm falling like these leaves i must be Cornerstone Oh, but when I reach that ground I'll share this peace of mind I found I can feel it in my bones But it's gonna take