The Charlie Kirk Show - The Rational Passover Haggadah with Dennis Prager

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk Show, a conversation with my friend Dennis Prager about his new book, The Rational Passover Haggadah.

00:00:07.000 How do you live a happy life?

00:00:09.000 How do you flourish when times are tough?

00:00:12.000 Dennis Prager goes over all of that and more.

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00:00:36.000 Dennis Prager is here.

00:00:37.000 Buckle up. 0.96

00:00:38.000 Here we go.

00:00:38.000 Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.

00:00:40.000 Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.

00:00:42.000 I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.

00:00:46.000 Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.

00:00:49.000 I want to thank Charlie.

00:00:50.000 He's an incredible guy.

00:00:51.000 His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created.

00:00:58.000 Turning point USA. 0.65

00:00:59.000 We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.

00:01:08.000 That's why we are here.

00:01:11.000 Hello, everybody.

00:01:12.000 Welcome to this episode of the Charlie Kirk Show.

00:01:14.000 Super thrilled and honored to have with us today a mentor of mine and a teacher of mine, someone who I've listened to hundreds of hours of his content.

00:01:23.000 His fireside chats have literally changed my life.

00:01:26.000 And he's the author of an exciting new book, The Rational Passover Haggadah.

00:01:31.000 Did I say that right, Dennis?

00:01:33.000 Perfectly.

00:01:35.000 And I encourage everyone.

00:01:37.000 You're really coming along in your Judaica. 0.74

00:01:40.000 It's, I still got to get some of these other words right.

00:01:43.000 Trust me, it's it's it's tough.

00:01:45.000 But Dennis, I just want to say your rational Bible, Genesis in particular, it really is life-changing, truly.

00:01:52.000 It's meant to be.

00:01:53.000 Thank you.

00:01:54.000 Coming from you, that's a big deal.

00:01:56.000 But as I said, that's the reason I work so hard on this is to change lives.

00:02:02.000 This one is part of the series and not part of the series.

00:02:07.000 I've used the term the rational because I only use reason, but it's not about a biblical book.

00:02:13.000 It's about the Passover Seder, the most ancient ritual that is still practiced in the world.

00:02:20.000 We're talking about something that has taken place for over 3,000 years.

00:02:26.000 It's astonishing when you think about it.

00:02:28.000 The Passover Seder, recounting the Exodus from Egypt.

00:02:33.000 And this is the 2,000-year-old book that is used to this day.

00:02:37.000 And I explain it like I do Genesis and Exodus, and now later in the year, Deuteronomy.

00:02:43.000 And that's why it's for everybody like my Bible books.

00:02:47.000 It's for Jews, Christians, and everybody else.

00:02:50.000 And so too, the rational Passover Haggadah. 0.92

00:02:53.000 So I noticed this book, unlike the Rational Bible of Genesis, is similar to how the Torah is, goes from the right to left.

00:03:01.000 Is that correct?

00:03:03.000 Yeah, because this one has Hebrew, and my Bible commentary is all English.

00:03:08.000 And so if it's Hebrew, it has to go from right to left. 0.58

00:03:11.000 Excuse my ignorance on this.

00:03:12.000 Just, yeah, okay.

00:03:13.000 Yeah, right, exactly.

00:03:15.000 That's exactly right.

00:03:16.000 I mean, theoretically, this could have been a left-to-right book, but because it will be used by a lot of Jews, presumably, who are used to right to left when they do anything in Hebrew, I put it that way.

00:03:27.000 It could have been in either direction, but actually, I think people get a kick out of it because it's the first time they're ever turning pages from right to left.

00:03:36.000 Yeah, I was a little bit disoriented.

00:03:38.000 It's a little bit left to right.

00:03:39.000 I'm sorry, left to right.

00:03:41.000 As I was doing it.

00:03:42.000 So I'm a Christian, Dennis.

00:03:45.000 Why should Christians buy this book? 1.00

00:03:48.000 Why should we care about the rational case for a Passover Haggadah? 0.93

00:03:52.000 Well, it's not the case for.

00:03:54.000 It's a rational explanation of.

00:03:57.000 Like you.

00:03:58.000 You could answer it actually in some ways better than I, because you're a Christian and you've read my, my uh Torah commentaries.

00:04:04.000 Bible commentaries, uh, there are 4 000 reviews of my Rational Bible series uh on Amazon.

00:04:12.000 That's a lot for for a bible commentary.

00:04:14.000 The great majority are from Christians for whom my, my work has been actually uh, reinforcing of their faith, because I only use reason and i'm i'm not making a case for Judaism and i'm making a case for God.

00:04:31.000 I'm making a case for the Bible and i'm making a case here for the importance of the, of what is uh the, the seminal event of the exodus.

00:04:42.000 You know, Christianity rises and falls, if you will, but it's based upon the the, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

00:04:50.000 Judaism is is, is rooted in two events as well, the creation uh, and and the exodus, and that's repeated in in Jewish liturgy always those two events, it.

00:05:02.000 Without those two events, there's no, there's no Judaism, just as there's there's no Christianity without, without the crucifixion and resurrection. 0.90

00:05:10.000 But the the creation and the exodus, are seminal to Christians too.

00:05:15.000 So i'll give you an example of what I do.

00:05:17.000 I ask a question that any thinking person would ask and and would like an answer to, if God took the Jews out of Egypt, why didn't God take the Jews out of Europe? 0.62

00:05:29.000 So that's, that's an example of an issue I discuss.

00:05:34.000 That's not a Jewish question.

00:05:36.000 That that's the great question of.

00:05:38.000 Why does God allow suffering?

00:05:40.000 That's for everybody.

00:05:42.000 Everything in the book is for everybody.

00:05:44.000 You know I, you'll love this, Charlie.

00:05:46.000 Uh, so whenever i'm asked about this question, I I say it from when I was a kid in in Yeshiva Jewish religious school.

00:05:56.000 I remember thinking this, this can't be just for Jews.

00:06:00.000 And later I came up with this idea, uh, the notion that the Tora only speaks to Jews is as bizarre as Beethoven only speaks to Germans or Shakespeare only speaks to the English.

00:06:15.000 Either and I go further either it speaks to everyone or it doesn't speak to anyone.

00:06:22.000 That is my deepest belief about everything that I write that has to do with Hebrew scripture.

00:06:28.000 It's either universal in its import or it's insignificant completely.

00:06:34.000 And these questions you go a level deeper.

00:06:37.000 Not only did why did God not intervene in Europe, but why Egypt in particular?

00:06:43.000 It's just an interesting question to mull over it.

00:06:46.000 Why that incident and why that period of time?

00:06:49.000 And so entirely right, and so just the word haggadah is, is I, I?

00:06:55.000 I just want to make sure our listeners are sure uh, certain of this.

00:06:58.000 What does that mean exactly?

00:07:00.000 Is it?

00:07:01.000 It means literally, it's including modern Hebrew.

00:07:05.000 Hagid is to tell So, the literal translation of Haggadah is the telling.

00:07:13.000 The whole purpose of the Seder is to tell the story of the Exodus. 0.85

00:07:18.000 Through all the trials and the tribulations, and then, of course, God's deliverance of his people.

00:07:24.000 So, I want to ask you something that may or may not be covered in this book, Dennis, but something that you've been saying for the last year and a half in particular.

00:07:32.000 And as a sidebar, I don't think you've received credit from the world, Dennis, for how clear you were on the lockdowns, how early you were.

00:07:40.000 You were one of the few people, and I don't mean this in a bad way, over the age of 60 that actually had a clear argument of why the lockdowns were a mistake, truly.

00:07:51.000 And it was from not just the mistake, but the worst mistake humanity ever embarked on.

00:07:57.000 You connected, though, a Bible verse that's very interesting, which is, you know, after God delivered, you know, people, Jewish people from Egypt, and they're in the desert, very quickly they say they want to go back to Egypt because at least they had meat.

00:08:12.000 Can you kind of recount that and then explain that to our listeners?

00:08:15.000 I found that to be very interesting.

00:08:18.000 Well, that's part of the reason that I think that we have no wisdom today is because we have no Bible today. 0.60

00:08:26.000 I mean, why are universities the most foolish institutions in society? 0.89

00:08:31.000 Because they're the most secular. 0.97

00:08:33.000 They're the most God-free and Bible-free. 1.00

00:08:36.000 It's not even an attack.

00:08:38.000 It's just a description.

00:08:40.000 The wisdom in the Western world comes from the Bible.

00:08:44.000 There's non-biblical wisdom, Shakespeare, whom I mentioned earlier, clearly as an example.

00:08:49.000 But these people were steeped in the Bible.

00:08:53.000 And so here's a perfect example. 0.75

00:08:56.000 People are ingrates.

00:08:58.000 The story of the Exodus is the story of many things, including ingratitude. 0.89

00:09:04.000 God splits the sea.

00:09:05.000 God brings 10 plagues.

00:09:08.000 God gives them manna in the desert.

00:09:10.000 And all they do is complain.

00:09:12.000 You know, I'm working on the book of Numbers now because I'm doing the first five books of the Bible, the five books of Moses.

00:09:18.000 So people say, What does that mean, numbers?

00:09:21.000 I go, numbers of complaints.

00:09:26.000 That's my theory on what I mean.

00:09:28.000 There's another reason because there's a census taken, but that's my quick answer.

00:09:34.000 It's the book of numbers of complaints.

00:09:36.000 And God gets so disgusted with the Israelites, Hebrews, Jews, whatever you want to call them, that he wants to get rid of them. 1.00

00:09:47.000 He actually has an argument with Moses.

00:09:49.000 You know, let me start a new nation with you.

00:09:51.000 I'll get rid of them.

00:09:52.000 By the way, I just want to add parenthetically, that is part of, that's one of the biggest reasons I believe in the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible.

00:10:02.000 Not to say their non-authenticity elsewhere.

00:10:05.000 I'm just speaking specifically of the Old Testament, is how negatively the Jews are depicted.

00:10:12.000 Nobody would make up such an unappealing past.

00:10:17.000 If people wrote the Torah, the first five books, they would have portrayed their ancestors as much more positively than they are portrayed in the Torah.

00:10:27.000 That is the biggest single proof that it was not written just by men.

00:10:34.000 If they had an opportunity just to edit it out, there would have been plenty of chances to do that.

00:10:39.000 David would have said, get rid of that Bathsheba part, okay? 0.83

00:10:42.000 I didn't like that.

00:10:43.000 It wasn't my shining moment.

00:10:45.000 Is that true?

00:10:45.000 Oh, my God.

00:10:47.000 That's exactly right.

00:10:49.000 Or, you know, again, all of these complaints and the ingratitude.

00:10:56.000 And by the way, also remarkable in the Torah, most of the heroes are not Jewish. 0.58

00:11:01.000 Nobody talks about this.

00:11:03.000 I do, beginning with Noah.

00:11:06.000 Noah was not a Jew. 0.82

00:11:08.000 And Noah was the most righteous man in his generation.

00:11:11.000 God destroys the world, keeps Noah and his family alive. 0.66

00:11:14.000 Then who is Moses saved by?

00:11:17.000 The daughter of Pharaoh, which is unbelievable.

00:11:19.000 The daughter of Pharaoh saves a Hebrew baby.

00:11:22.000 It's incredible.

00:11:25.000 Or the midwives who won't kill the Jewish boys when they're born. 1.00

00:11:30.000 They are, I think, undoubtedly not Hebrews.

00:11:34.000 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses or Cyrus.

00:11:41.000 Cyrus.

00:11:42.000 Yeah.

00:11:42.000 Oh, that's later.

00:11:43.000 Yeah, I'm just talking Torah, but you're absolutely right later as well.

00:11:47.000 There is ironically, it's a Jewish book, but it's the least ethnocentric book you'll ever read.

00:11:55.000 I've never heard anyone make that argument.

00:11:59.000 That's why people should get my books.

00:12:01.000 Listen, I want to make it clear.

00:12:03.000 Nobody writes Bible commentaries to get rich.

00:12:06.000 I just want to make this clear.

00:12:11.000 However, you do get wise.

00:12:12.000 I want to ask you, Dennis, about how you write this.

00:12:15.000 Just kind of a more technical question.

00:12:18.000 I've written a couple books, nowhere near as many as you have.

00:12:21.000 But to go, you're a lot younger.

00:12:23.000 You'll get there.

00:12:24.000 Well, if I read, Dennis, if I write a rational commentary on Leviticus, I would love to explain how I got there.

00:12:34.000 So fair enough.

00:12:38.000 Explain how you write this because this is tough work.

00:12:41.000 I mean, I'm just flipping through this.

00:12:44.000 You go through exactly the different interpretations and a rational perspective.

00:12:49.000 I mean, I could imagine you could spend months on just one verse.

00:12:54.000 Sometimes that's happened actually.

00:12:57.000 It happened.

00:12:58.000 Deuteronomy is coming out next.

00:13:00.000 By the way, talking about that, you want to know one of the proudest achievements of my life that Costco has ordered 25,000 copies of Deuteronomy.

00:13:11.000 I mean, I pinch myself, I must tell you.

00:13:14.000 The thought that Costco is ordering a massive amount of a book on Deuteronomy.

00:13:20.000 I mean, how many people who visit Costco can spell Deuteronomy when they get their life-size ketchup bottles and enough mayonnaise to fill up their pool?

00:13:31.000 Pick up a copy of Deuteronomy.

00:13:33.000 They'll mistake it for a barbell because it's going to be very tough.

00:13:37.000 That's fine with me as long as they read it.

00:13:40.000 But this is a tremendous amount of work.

00:13:45.000 I couldn't do it if A, I haven't been teaching it all of my life.

00:13:49.000 B, I didn't know biblical Hebrew so well.

00:13:52.000 And I know it very, very well.

00:13:55.000 I love languages.

00:13:56.000 I've been studying Hebrew all of my life.

00:13:59.000 Interest that what may interest you is, or and your and your listeners, viewers, is that the most important thing to know is grammar more than vocabulary.

00:14:12.000 You can always look up a word, but you must master the grammar.

00:14:18.000 And I am one of, I am the one in 100 human beings who loves grammar.

00:14:24.000 So it was a real blessing that I mastered Hebrew grammar and able to explain this.

00:14:30.000 So aside from everything else that has enabled me to write this stuff, but you know, and this will resonate with you, a lot of Christians are now having a Passover Seder.

00:14:44.000 So this thing is like perfect.

00:14:46.000 It guides them step by step through it and explains everything.

00:14:52.000 That's so it's like a godsend to a Christian who was interested. 1.00

00:14:57.000 Listen, I believe from the New Testament that some differ, and I respect that, that the Last Supper was a Passover seder.

00:15:09.000 I mean, the connection with Christianity is...

00:15:12.000 And there are many pastors who believe that, several.

00:15:15.000 Yes, it would seem.

00:15:16.000 I think the New Testament pretty much suggested.

00:15:19.000 That's right.

00:15:20.000 And also, we know it was during Passover.

00:15:22.000 We know that for sure.

00:15:23.000 That's right.

00:15:24.000 That we know for sure because of the Paschal sacrifice.

00:15:27.000 That's exactly right.

00:15:28.000 We know the timing for sure.

00:15:30.000 I want to ask you about something with the grammar issue, which is funny because I listen to all your fireside chats.

00:15:36.000 You like being corrected with grammar as well.

00:15:39.000 Can you talk about how people need to be okay, in fact, excited with correction?

00:15:45.000 I think that's a very unique thing.

00:15:47.000 Well, you know, this is so, folks, this is the, this is one of the reasons Charlie Kirk is so special.

00:15:53.000 And, you know, I don't say these stuff to butter anybody up.

00:15:56.000 Then there's no need for me to butter you up.

00:15:59.000 But that you would pick up on that and care about that is a statement about you as much as it is about me.

00:16:06.000 So here's my theory.

00:16:09.000 Why wouldn't I want to be corrected?

00:16:11.000 If I'm corrected, that means I won't make this mistake a second time.

00:16:17.000 Why do I want to be in error ongoing?

00:16:23.000 It's the a person must be so deeply insecure to resent being corrected.

00:16:34.000 It's the biggest favor you could do for me.

00:16:37.000 I don't want to speak incorrectly.

00:16:39.000 I don't want to recite a fact that isn't accurate.

00:16:43.000 On selfish grounds, it's not noble that I want to be corrected.

00:16:47.000 It's selfish.

00:16:50.000 And a lot of people don't take correction well at all.

00:16:53.000 In fact, because that's so deeply insecure.

00:16:57.000 We live in the age of safe spaces.

00:17:02.000 People are triggered.

00:17:04.000 All these terminology.

00:17:08.000 Grow up.

00:17:08.000 Hello.

00:17:09.000 Grow up.

00:17:10.000 It's all it's about.

00:17:13.000 One of the other things you talk about a lot on your fireside chat, which is a similar, it's a connect.

00:17:18.000 It's not a direct connection, but it's in the arena.

00:17:22.000 It was being easy.

00:17:24.000 I've tried that.

00:17:28.000 Charlie, I love you.

00:17:29.000 I really do.

00:17:31.000 You tried that?

00:17:34.000 How did it go?

00:17:35.000 It wasn't easy.

00:17:39.000 That's great.

00:17:40.000 It's not easy to be easy.

00:17:43.000 That's right.

00:17:47.000 What does your wife think? 1.00

00:17:50.000 She says, I need to be easier.

00:17:53.000 So talk a little bit about it.

00:17:58.000 I love that you picked up on that.

00:18:01.000 So I'll tell you how that came about.

00:18:04.000 You may know because I'm so delighted about how much you listen to what I say.

00:18:10.000 So I am a father-in-law and a father.

00:18:16.000 So out of nowhere, I said to my daughter-in-law on the phone about two years ago, you know, Miriam, you know what I really want to be in your life?

00:18:29.000 And she calls me dad, which I think is great.

00:18:32.000 And she goes, what, dad?

00:18:34.000 And I said, easy.

00:18:37.000 I want to be an easy parent.

00:18:40.000 I mean, I didn't want to be an easy parent when my kids were five.

00:18:45.000 That's a different story, but my kids is late 30s.

00:18:49.000 And so I said, I want to be in your life and in David, my son's life.

00:18:56.000 I want to be easy.

00:18:58.000 I don't want to be a burden on my daughter-in-law.

00:19:02.000 And that I really, really live by that.

00:19:07.000 And to have that aim in life, to be easy in people's lives, not a burden.

00:19:15.000 I got to say, I was very grateful to my parents.

00:19:19.000 who lived respectively, father to 96, mother to 89.

00:19:23.000 I always used to tell people how grateful I was for how few demands they made on me emotionally or as they got older.

00:19:34.000 They were so self-sufficient.

00:19:36.000 They'd so enjoyed each other that, you know, they were a non-issue in terms of trouble in my life.

00:19:47.000 And that's very rare for kids to be able to say about parents, or frankly, parents to be able to say about kids.

00:19:54.000 But that's the dream.

00:19:55.000 You just not be a burden on people.

00:19:58.000 I don't want to be a burden on my friends or certainly not on my wife.

00:20:03.000 And it's a great goal in life.

00:20:07.000 That's a good segue to a topic.

00:20:09.000 I've been wanting to talk to you, Dennis, for my audience's sake, our audience's sake, not for mine, because I do know your answer to this, but I think your answer is one of the most helpful because we've received, I would say, probably 100 emails about this in the last six months.

00:20:23.000 And you've received this question, no exaggeration, at least a thousand times in your career in person, which is one of the, as you would say, the 11 statements or 10 commandments in the wonderful PragerU video, which actually connects with the Passover because it starts with, I'm the Lord your God who delivered you from Egypt, I'm not mistaken, right?

00:20:43.000 Which is a reminder, which is the hardest commandment for some people to follow.

00:20:50.000 One of this, I could read this email, but basically this person says, I've tried, Charlie, to do what you say, which is follow the Ten Commandments, because as you say, Dennis, we have the Ten Commandments.

00:21:00.000 We don't need a police.

00:21:01.000 We don't need jails.

00:21:02.000 Everyone follows it.

00:21:03.000 The world would naturally order itself.

00:21:05.000 So I've been talking a little about that.

00:21:07.000 They said, but Charlie, the one I cannot follow is I can.

00:21:10.000 I says, I cannot understand the whole honor your parents thing in the Bible.

00:21:16.000 I really tried.

00:21:17.000 Now, I know the details matter.

00:21:19.000 He says that his mom is unfair and all of this.

00:21:22.000 I can go into the details if it matters, Dennis, but let's just talk more broadly.

00:21:26.000 You've heard this question many times.

00:21:28.000 What does it mean to honor your parents versus loving your parents?

00:21:33.000 Well, that's my point that I made when I first started teaching the greatest document in history, the Ten Commandments.

00:21:42.000 And again, this is why I'm in love with the Bible and especially the first five books, the one which I'm writing my commentary on.

00:21:51.000 There is a law to love your neighbor.

00:21:54.000 Love your neighbor as yourself.

00:21:55.000 There's a law to love the stranger.

00:21:58.000 Love the stranger because he was strangers to the land of Egypt.

00:22:01.000 There's a law to love God.

00:22:02.000 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your might.

00:22:07.000 But there's no law to love your parents.

00:22:11.000 You don't have to love your parents.

00:22:14.000 And it's so liberating that fact because people are racked with guilt if they don't love their parents.

00:22:21.000 But you have to honor them.

00:22:23.000 And I'll give a non-parental example and then go back to parents.

00:22:28.000 I was in many years ago, I was in a radio studio and Jimmy Carter walked in.

00:22:34.000 I can't stand Jimmy Carter.

00:22:36.000 But Jimmy Carter had been president of the United States.

00:22:40.000 And I, Dennis, stand up for a president or ex-president of the United States.

00:22:47.000 I stood up and shook his hand.

00:22:49.000 I honored the president.

00:22:51.000 I didn't honor Jimmy Carter.

00:22:53.000 I have no desire to honor Jimmy Carter, but I honored the president.

00:22:59.000 If you don't want to honor your mom or your dad, that's fine.

00:23:03.000 But you have to honor the father and mother of your life.

00:23:07.000 Is it sometimes impossible they're truly evil human beings or one of them is?

00:23:15.000 In every instance in life, exceptions are not the rule.

00:23:20.000 Seatbelts save lives.

00:23:22.000 Sometimes they kill people.

00:23:24.000 If your car is on fire and it crash and your seatbelt is broken, you're trapped and you will die of being burned alive.

00:23:35.000 But it is fair to say seatbelts save lives.

00:23:38.000 As a rule, you honor your father and mother.

00:23:41.000 If nothing else, send them text messages, send them email messages, leave messages on their voicemail.

00:23:48.000 You don't have to hug them.

00:23:50.000 You don't have to love them.

00:23:51.000 You don't have to say beautiful nothings to them.

00:23:56.000 But the most obvious arena of not honoring is ignoring them like you're dead, unless they're evil.

00:24:04.000 And there are people who have forgiven evil parents, but that's another subject.

00:24:10.000 You have, look, I begin all of my commentaries on the Bible in the introduction.

00:24:19.000 I begin with this little story.

00:24:23.000 I had, like most people, I had difficulties with my parents at a certain age, you know, and so let's say my early 20s, my late teens.

00:24:34.000 But because of this law of the Ten Commandments, which I believe is incumbent upon me, as I explain in the Ten Commandments, every commandment is in the singular, not the plural.

00:24:44.000 Hebrew has a different word for you, plural and you singular.

00:24:50.000 It's all in the singular.

00:24:52.000 You, Dennis, have to honor your father and mother.

00:24:55.000 Because I believe that God demanded that of me, I honored my parents no matter how difficult my relationship was.

00:25:03.000 It later became lovely, but when it was difficult, I am happy to say now I honored them.

00:25:10.000 I contacted them at least every week.

00:25:13.000 I called my parents every week, no matter where I was in the world, and I traveled to 130 countries.

00:25:19.000 So that's a lot of telephone calls.

00:25:22.000 And that was it.

00:25:24.000 That is what I had to do because God said so.

00:25:27.000 Next, I'm sorry to be so long-winded, Charlie.

00:25:31.000 I just want to make one more point.

00:25:35.000 Every totalitarian regime, every cult begins with removing parental authority.

00:25:46.000 In some ways, honor your father and mother is the most important commandment, oddly enough, because it is the antidote to totalitarianism.

00:25:58.000 Stalin said, your commitment is to the party, not your parents.

00:26:03.000 Hitler said, your commitment is in the Hitler Jugend, the Hitler youth. 0.75

00:26:08.000 Your commitment is to me, not your parents.

00:26:11.000 And that's what we are getting now in our schools.

00:26:14.000 Your commitment is to your school and teachers, not your parents, because leftism is a cult.

00:26:22.000 And it's the only one of the Ten Commandments that comes with a promise.

00:26:25.000 And also, it involves your nation.

00:26:28.000 So you might live long in the land of which you are.

00:26:32.000 Yeah, because no nation will survive without parental authority.

00:26:36.000 My dad died at 96.

00:26:38.000 And until nearly his last year, I had him on my radio show every year on his birthday, July 18th.

00:26:45.000 So I asked him every couple of years, hey, dad, what's the biggest difference between America today and when you grew up in the 20s and 30s, 1920s, 1930s?

00:26:56.000 And his answer was always the same.

00:26:59.000 Say, when I was a kid, the parents ruled the house.

00:27:02.000 Today the kids rule the house. 0.71

00:27:06.000 That's wisdom.

00:27:08.000 So Dennis, I want to shift gears here about another book you wrote that I don't think I've really had a chance to dive in and explore much with you.

00:27:14.000 I think we did it previously a little bit, which is happiness is a serious problem.

00:27:19.000 You know, I know two people in the last couple of weeks that have committed suicide, young people.

00:27:24.000 It's a tragedy that's happening in our country.

00:27:27.000 You see the numbers, Dennis, because of the lockdowns, not because of the virus.

00:27:31.000 Alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, depression.

00:27:34.000 It's all on the increase.

00:27:36.000 But you have a different take on happiness.

00:27:38.000 It's not a self-help book.

00:27:40.000 I mean, it could be helpful to people, but it starts with a moral claim where you say you have a moral obligation to be happy and that it's a choice.

00:27:48.000 Please explain that to our listeners.

00:27:51.000 Yeah, this is a life changer for a lot of people.

00:27:54.000 People think of happiness as an emotional state.

00:27:58.000 I think of it as a moral achievement.

00:28:03.000 That's why we have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

00:28:08.000 For the founders of this country, the pursuit of happiness was in the moral sphere.

00:28:14.000 That is a good thing.

00:28:16.000 Life is good.

00:28:17.000 Liberty is good.

00:28:18.000 And the pursuit of happiness is good.

00:28:21.000 This is, as I say on my happiness hour on my radio show, I have for 22 years, the happy make the world better and the unhappy make it worse.

00:28:31.000 And everybody knows that's true in their own family life or among friends or whomever.

00:28:36.000 The unhappy make things worse for people.

00:28:39.000 So not only is it a moral achievement to be pursued, it is also a moral obligation.

00:28:45.000 And at the risk of being a bit gross, I guess, if that's the word, I may be overstated.

00:28:53.000 I regard bad moods as I regard bad breath or bad body odor.

00:28:59.000 Why do we brush our teeth every day?

00:29:00.000 Why do we take a shower every day?

00:29:02.000 We don't have to.

00:29:04.000 We do it for others.

00:29:06.000 I brush away my bad breath.

00:29:08.000 I wash away my bad odors for others.

00:29:12.000 You should do the same with your bad mood.

00:29:14.000 You got to wash it away.

00:29:16.000 I wish people looked at bad moods the way they do bad breath.

00:29:21.000 Be a better world.

00:29:23.000 And you walk through what that actually means to be happy.

00:29:26.000 So, Dennis, some people say, Dennis, things are so terrible, I can never be happy.

00:29:31.000 But you say, it's actually not about your circumstances, about something completely different.

00:29:35.000 It's about a state of mind.

00:29:36.000 It's a choice.

00:29:39.000 Well, the greatest advocate of that was Abraham Lincoln, who led a very, very difficult life.

00:29:47.000 The man was married to a woman who was probably bipolar.

00:29:51.000 He lost two of his sons whom he adored.

00:29:55.000 That alone is very hard to overcome and be happy.

00:30:00.000 And then his nation were killing each other at the greatest rates in American history in any foreign war.

00:30:10.000 And yet this man said, we're as happy as we choose to be, as we decide to be.

00:30:14.000 I thought he said, I think he said as we reckon to be, but I'm not certain.

00:30:19.000 But basically, we're as happy as we choose to be.

00:30:21.000 And that is correct.

00:30:23.000 He chose to be happy despite losing his children, despite his wife's condition, and despite his country shooting each other, killing each other in the hundreds of thousands. 0.61

00:30:36.000 If Lincoln can do that, I suspect most of those listening right now could do that.

00:30:42.000 It's a choice.

00:30:43.000 By the way, that's another one of my many, many theories of life.

00:30:47.000 Virtually everything is a choice.

00:30:50.000 Very little is built in.

00:30:52.000 You choose whether to be happy.

00:30:54.000 You choose whether to marry.

00:30:56.000 You choose whether to have children.

00:30:58.000 You choose whether to be religious.

00:31:00.000 God never appeared to me.

00:31:02.000 I made a choice.

00:31:03.000 And as a young man, I would prefer to lead a religiously active life than a secular life.

00:31:10.000 That's it.

00:31:11.000 That's the choice I made.

00:31:13.000 God did not tell me what to do in that sense.

00:31:16.000 I got no theophany, no epiphany.

00:31:19.000 I just decided I have two choices, a religious life or a secular life.

00:31:25.000 A religious life is infinitely deeper than a secular life.

00:31:28.000 That's where I'm going.

00:31:30.000 It was the greatest decision I ever made.

00:31:33.000 And believing everything is a choice actually informs people's politics.

00:31:37.000 If you think that things aren't a choice, then you would need big government to make decisions for people.

00:31:44.000 It's a very important thing to believe.

00:31:47.000 And I agree with it totally.

00:31:48.000 I want to close with this, Dennis, kind of just more broadly about the country.

00:31:54.000 Your book on America is phenomenal.

00:31:56.000 You coined the American Trinity, which I use quite often in God We Trust Liberty and E Pluribus Unum.

00:32:02.000 I'm afraid that all three are simultaneously under attack from within.

00:32:07.000 I'm not going to ask you whether or not you're optimistic or pessimistic because I already know your answer.

00:32:11.000 It's completely irrelevant.

00:32:12.000 There's no good way to answer it.

00:32:14.000 Instead, let me ask you this.

00:32:16.000 Are you starting to see a revival from people, at least from what you're seeing, to get us closer towards a restoration of liberty?

00:32:24.000 Well, given that I'm neither prone to optimism or pessimism, there will be some credibility in my answer.

00:32:33.000 If San Francisco kicks out three of its members of its school board, we are approaching messianic times.

00:32:44.000 That's all I can say.

00:32:46.000 I mean, if that doesn't give you reason to at least perceive the beginnings of the counter revolution, then nothing will.

00:32:56.000 I mean, they kicked out the head of the school board, who then charges all of these mostly Asians in San Francisco with white supremacy.

00:33:11.000 I mean, at what point will we regard these attacks as utterly as laughable? 0.90

00:33:19.000 They're not only evil, they're just laughable. 0.99

00:33:22.000 Larry Elder is the black face of white supremacy. 0.99

00:33:25.000 That's written by a Los Angeles Times columnist. 0.98

00:33:28.000 The woman should have been fired. 1.00

00:33:30.000 She's an idiot. 1.00

00:33:32.000 This is only an idiot could write that. 1.00

00:33:34.000 Larry Elder is the black face of white supremacy. 1.00

00:33:39.000 It would be like saying, I'm the Jewish face of anti-Semitism. 0.96

00:33:43.000 Well, Dennis, they've gotten close to say that before.

00:33:45.000 That woman, Wyoming or something or Colorado.

00:33:50.000 University of Wyoming.

00:33:52.000 I treasure that.

00:33:53.000 Every time I go to a university, there's the preliminary attack on the sexist intolerance, xenophobic, homophobic, xlamophobic, race, bigoted speaker coming to the campus.

00:34:04.000 So there was this article in the Wyoming paper. 0.99

00:34:07.000 Again, Dennis Prager, bigot, homophobia, dabba, dabba, dabba, daba, an anti-Semite. 0.98

00:34:13.000 I got such a kick out of that. 0.98

00:34:15.000 I guess she didn't read my book on anti-Semitism.

00:34:19.000 Or dare to look up your Bible commentary on the Torah.

00:34:22.000 Yes, exactly.

00:34:24.000 Minor details.

00:34:26.000 So, Dennis, so just final question.

00:34:29.000 A lot of people are listening.

00:34:30.000 You talk about a lot on your program, The Fireside Chat, which I recommend everyone to listen to.

00:34:36.000 It's unscripted.

00:34:38.000 Dennis gets the number of fireside chats right about 10% of the time.

00:34:42.000 Otto and Snoopy are there.

00:34:44.000 It's terrific.

00:34:46.000 And I really enjoy it.

00:34:48.000 And it's really enriched my life.

00:34:50.000 But, Dennis, there's a young person listening that all these are good resources.

00:34:56.000 What's your closing message to this generation at this time?

00:34:59.000 Because there's been a great injustice done to them.

00:35:00.000 The lockdowns, it was generational theft.

00:35:03.000 There's no other way to put it.

00:35:04.000 What's your message to a young person who might just be trying to find their way right now?

00:35:11.000 Well, it's really two sides of the same coin.

00:35:16.000 You have a choice in this country, or really in any country.

00:35:21.000 Are you going to fight your society or are you going to fight yourself?

00:35:26.000 I was raised that the biggest problem in Dennis Prager's life is Dennis Prager, who's the greatest message my religious upbringing could give me.

00:35:35.000 And it has informed my whole life.

00:35:38.000 I am my biggest problem.

00:35:40.000 The left tells you you're fine. 0.62

00:35:42.000 America is your biggest problem.

00:35:45.000 It's a double lie. 0.93

00:35:47.000 You are your biggest problem, and America is a terrific place.

00:35:53.000 That's well said.

00:35:55.000 The Rash Passover Haggadah by Dennis Prager.

00:35:58.000 Everyone, check it out.

00:36:00.000 I'm honored to be able to have it here.

00:36:02.000 And Dennis, I can't wait.

00:36:03.000 I have to, I told you, I'm finishing Exodus, and then Leviticus is a paper shortage.

00:36:09.000 Is that right?

00:36:11.000 No, Deuteronomy was the paper shortage.

00:36:13.000 So that's coming.

00:36:14.000 I didn't do them in order.

00:36:15.000 Leviticus will be the fifth because I will be contemplating shooting myself while doing Leviticus.

00:36:25.000 Dennis, I can't wait for Leviticus to be.

00:36:27.000 That will be a real accomplishment, I have to say.

00:36:29.000 You're damn right, it will.

00:36:31.000 I know a couple verses that, I mean, the whole book could be on the verse.

00:36:36.000 You know, the whole book could be the whole, you could have a whole book on just some of the Leviticus verses, is what I'm saying.

00:36:44.000 Oh, yeah.

00:36:44.000 Oh, I do actually.

00:36:45.000 I have 20,000 words I've already written on do not lie with a man as with a woman.

00:36:52.000 20,000 words on that verse.

00:36:55.000 As Dennis always says, how do you know the founding fathers were awesome?

00:36:58.000 They put Leviticus 25 on the Liberty Bell.

00:37:00.000 That's how you knew.

00:37:02.000 That's right.

00:37:03.000 God bless you, Dennis.

00:37:04.000 Thank you so much for joining.

00:37:05.000 You're a great friend and a teacher.

00:37:06.000 Thank you.

00:37:08.000 Thank you.

00:37:11.000 Thanks so much for listening, everybody.

00:37:13.000 Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.

00:37:14.000 Thanks so much for listening.

00:37:15.000 God bless.

00:37:19.000 For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.

The Charlie Kirk Show - February 27, 2022

The Rational Passover Haggadah with Dennis Prager

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