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July 29, 2020 - Dennis Prager Show
09:15
Rabbi Simon Jacobson: It's The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
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The author I'm going to have on for this hour writes about fear, actually, in his book.
The book is Toward a Meaningful Life.
As you know, I have often cited the book that influenced me the most outside of the Bible, and that is Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, that humans need meaning more than anything except food and air.
It's actually a deeper drive even than sex, as powerful as that drive is.
Toward a Meaningful Life, and the author is Simon Jacobson, who is a rabbi, specifically of the Chabad movement within Judaism.
Many of you have heard of the Chabad house that perhaps exists in your, probably does exist in your city.
And for 14 years, he was responsible for publishing the talks Thank you so
much for having me, Dennis.
Beautifully stated.
Thank you.
Good, thank you.
So, the crisis, as I have delineated it for so long to my audience, is a meaning crisis induced by the death of religion.
I want to tell you at the outset, what I tell every guest, you are 100% welcome to disagree with me.
But if you don't...
Or you do, please react to that, that the great crisis is the one of meaning.
I totally agree.
I don't know if I would use the word religion, per se, because religion has also been maligned and stereotyped, but definitely godlessness and a sense of accountability to a higher purpose and a higher destiny.
So I believe that's what you're referring to, so I totally agree.
So why would you advise people?
You have a wonderful part about fear.
People are walking around now because of COVID in fear.
What do you have to say to them?
Well, I'll just use a good analogy and a good anecdote actually of a time much worse than ours so we don't compare tragedies.
But 1927, the previous So he was under the iron rule of the former Soviet Union, which, as we know, wanted to eradicate every semblance of Judaism in that country.
And he stood up, was arrested by them, which, of course, there was no due process.
They could kill him in a moment.
And he refused to cooperate.
So someone pointed a gun to his head and said, Rabbi, this This toy can frighten someone that has one world and many gods, but not someone who has one god and many worlds.
I think that lies the essence of fear.
Fear at the end of the day, you know, some say it's all connected to the fear of death, the fear of the unknown, but when you have As you said at the outset, purpose and meaning in life, which means you have something to hold on to that's greater than the moment.
So yes, it may be a frightening moment.
It may be a setback.
It may be an unknown.
As we see now during the pandemic, it's uncertain times.
But you have something to hold on to.
You're not just holding on to your job or money or other impermanent things, which of course don't provide security.
So essentially, the counterforce that's there is security.
And security needs to be bound with some eternal value.
Something you stand for.
It could be love.
It could be kindness.
It could be generosity.
It could be religion and deeper purpose.
But it has to be something more than just the world that we know that is so subject to the vicissitudes is a good way to use the changes that are constantly sweeping You
go around lecturing.
And so I'm curious, and you may not have an answer to this, it's fine.
Do you see a change in many people?
Many people.
If it's just a few, then it's irrelevant.
But do you see a change in many people from, let's say, I don't know how old you are, but whether you experienced it or not from, let's say, 50 years ago?
Do you think there has been a serious change?
It's an excellent question.
I would respond yes.
But I think change happens more incrementally, like a process, rather than a one cataclysmic event.
What I see is the following.
I'm 63, just for the record.
Okay, so 50 years is a good...
I was growing as a teen in my teen years and then adult years.
The changes I see are both in the positive and the negative.
I've seen, and now it's coming to roost, actually, I've seen the complacency that has grown out of prosperity and comforts.
You know, since World War II, frankly, we have not had to fight for anything we stand for.
So you have the average young man or woman today, or the 60s or the 70s, what do you fight for?
I mean, the 60s was, I guess, more of a sudden moment in the social and civil rights of this country.
Later, in the 80s and 90s, most people would tell you, I fight for it.
Make more money, maybe relationships, sexuality.
I love baseball or sports and my video games or some other luxurious item.
And what happened is that certain complacency sets in when you're comfortable and you take life for granted.
Everything we're talking about, finding meaning, usually happens when there's, unfortunately, trauma, loss, death, some setback.
And things are riding, and that's one thing I've seen, get more and more apathetic.
But on the other end, Dennis, I would add, I also see an upturn, because people at some point get sick of being miserable.
Like someone just told me a few weeks ago, how many Netflix movies can I watch?
You know, there's a certain point where you go, how much junk food can you eat?
And I think that there is, and again, not a few people, as you said, I think it's a trend.
That there is also a certain, what we call, a spiritual opening and awakening.
And the pandemic has, of course, changed things dramatically because that's really upended and disrupted everybody's schedules.
So my answer is, it's like, I don't want to plagiarize Dickens, the best of times and the worst of times, but it is the best of times in many ways of our comforts and our standard of living and the ease.
You press a button, you have whatever you want at your door.
But it creates that type of almost spiritual vacuousness and emptiness, because you're not the fight for it.
And I think that there is an upturn going on as well.
So I think there's a paradox.
What do you think about that?
I mean, you're sort of observing this as well as I am, your own journey.
Well, I'm a bit more pessimistic than you are, but that's...
I have enough time to describe my views when you're not on.
So I'll just...
I briefly...
I am very worried about a generation that does not...
To use the biblical citation, a generation arose that did not know America.
Just as, you know, a pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph.
That they don't appreciate freedom.
They don't appreciate the family.
I think that it's a real crisis.
That's why his book is important.
Toward a Meaningful Life, Simon Jacobson will be back.
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