Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2022-03-16
Lex Fridman & David Wolpe: books mentioned on Lex Fridman Podcast #270
#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.
Lex Fridman discussed If-- by Rudyard Kipling and Why Faith Matters by David J. Wolpe. David Wolpe recommended Hitch-22 by Christopher Hitchens, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Herzog by Saul Bellow, and The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel, and discussed God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, The Talmud of Babylonia by Jacob Neusner, The Exodus by Richard Elliott Friedman, The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain, and Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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If--
If-- by Rudyard Kipling is a celebrated Victorian-era poem offering enduring advice on stoicism, character, and personal integrity.
Discussed“Like the poem If by Roger 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."”
Where to get it
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God Is Not Great
God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens is a prominent polemical manifesto of the New Atheism movement that argues organized religion poisons everything, undermines moral responsibility, and distorts human understanding.
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
Why Faith Matters by David J.
Discussed“You wrote in your book Why Faith Matters quote Walt Wittman wrote that in order for there to be a great books there must be great readers.”
Where to get it
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The Exodus
Discussed“I think Richard Elliot Freriedman may have gotten this right in his book Exodus.”
Where to get it
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The Denial of Death
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning philosophical and psychological study that argues human behavior is fundamentally driven by an unconscious terror of mortality and the subsequent cultural mechanisms created to deny it.
Discussed“Uh, first of all, I would say when I was in high school, I think my father actually encouraged me to read this book. Uh, 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
Hitch-22 is a candid and intellectually robust memoir by the late British-American essayist and critic Christopher Hitchens, reflecting on his political evolution, literary friendships, and eventual battle with cancer.
Recommended“His uh autobiography Hitch 22 is a great read.”
Where to get it
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Middlemarch
Middlemarch by George Eliot is widely celebrated as a masterwork of Victorian literature, chronicling the lives and aspirations of provincial society in the fictional town of Middlemarch.
Recommended“My favorite novel is Middle March.”
Where to get it
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Herzog
Herzog by Saul Bellow is a celebrated modernist novel following a beleaguered intellectual who writes frantic, unsent letters to friends, enemies, and historical figures while suffering a midlife crisis.
Recommended“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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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“you mentioned one of them which is Victor Frankle's man's search for meaning and I also really really love Hesshel's the Sabbath”
Where to get it
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The Sabbath
The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel is a profound theological exploration of time, sacred rest, and the spiritual dimensions of Judaism.
Recommended“you mentioned one of them which is Victor Frankle's man's search for meaning and I also really really love Hesshel's the Sabbath”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (4) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Why Faith Matters”
“David: The Divided Heart”
“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”
“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.”