Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2022-03-16
Books mentioned on #270 – David Wolpe: Judaism
David Wolpe is a Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – Mizzen+Main: https://mizzenandmain.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The light that failed
Discussed“Like the poem 'If' by Rudyard Kipling says, 'If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch; if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; if all men count with you, but none too much,' this is a really, really important thing to me that I try to live”
Where to get it
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God Is Not Great
Discussed“So, for example, the idea that you would call a book 'Religion Poisons Everything'—I think he did that deliberately and provocatively so that he could defend a proposition that obviously is indefensible: that it poisons everything.”
Where to get it
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The Talmud of Babylonia
Discussed“Yeah, well, the Torah is the five books of Moses written in Hebrew. Most modern rabbis, non-orthodox or non-literalist rabbis, will tell you that it's a product of human beings, and I believe that they are inspired by God.”
Where to get it
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Why Faith Matters
Discussed“Yeah, you wrote in your book 'Why Faith Matters': 'Walt Whitman wrote that in order for there to be a great book, there must be great readers.' For a book to remain powerful throughout generations, it cannot have a single meaning; scripture, like great poetry, is not reducible to other words.”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning examination of human motivation that argues our deepest terror of mortality drives much of our cultural and psychological behavior.
Discussed“First of all, I would say when I was in high school, I think my father actually encouraged me to read this book. I read Ernest Becker's 'Denial of Death,' which I found, and still find, to be one of the most profound works I’ve ever come across.”
Where to get it
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Letters from the Earth
Discussed“One is that every image of what it's like is foolish; like Mark Twain has in 'Letters from the Earth' says, 'We're going to lie on green fields and listen to harp music,' which you wouldn't want to do for five minutes while you're alive, but you think you'll be happy for the rest of eternity doing it after you”
Where to get it
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Hitch-22
Discussed“His autobiography, 'Hitch 22,' is a great read and I just want to say what you discover there. I don't know if I'm giving too much away by telling the story—spoiler alert—what you discover there is that his mother ran away with a minister or a priest, and they died in what seemed like a suicide pact.”
Where to get it
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Herzog
Discussed“I also love Saul Bellow, especially 'Herzog.' But that's a very different kind of thinking—person's novel. I read a lot of mysteries, and a lot of other kinds of fiction and literature.”
Where to get it
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... Trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen
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Discussed“In terms of the books that most influenced me, one of them is Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." I also really love Heschel's "The Sabbath." I think it's a beautiful book.”
Where to get it
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The Sabbath
Discussed“I also really love Heschel's "The Sabbath." I think it's a beautiful book. It's a very short book, just as Frankl's book is.”
Where to get it
