Dennis Prager Show - Does Dennis Work on the Sabbath?
Aired: 2025-06-27
Duration: 04:27

[00:00:00]  The question is given that I observe the Shabbat, the Sabbath, not quite in the way Orthodox Jews do.
[00:00:12]  There are things I will do that they don't do.
[00:00:14]  I will use electricity, for example.
[00:00:17]  But I go to synagogue every Sabbath.
[00:00:21]  I have Shabbat dinner every Friday night.
[00:00:25]  I don't work.
[00:00:26]  I don't do a radio show.
[00:00:28]  I don't do podcasts.
[00:00:29]  I don't go on shows during that 24 hours.
[00:00:37]  So I'm I'm pretty serious about the Sabbath.
[00:00:43]  It's in the Ten Commandments, which I take really seriously.
[00:00:46]  I believe they were in fact revealed by God, which is a big deal.
[00:00:53]  So he asks the question.
[00:00:56]  So what he's really asking, what is work?
[00:01:00]  So the Orthodox Jew would say that I can do reading on Leviticus, but I couldn't do writing on Leviticus on the Sabbath.
[00:01:19]  Writing is one of the prohibited acts in Jewish law.
[00:01:26]  Rabbinic law, to be precise.
[00:01:31]  So first let me take the larger question about working on the Sabbath generally.
[00:01:40]  So my my grandson, who is a very serious Orthodox Jew, my son is Orthodox, my two grandsons are Orthodox.
[00:01:50]  So he has been working his way through a sort of dilemma.
[00:01:57]  I think I can say this, and I can think I could say it publicly.
[00:02:06]  But I think what I'm saying is accurate.
[00:02:08]  He's working through understanding of course Judaism, but me, his grandfather, whom he has, I think, love and respect for.
[00:02:19]  So how is it that I'm so committed to Judaism, to God, to the Torah, and yet I'm not orthodox, which by the way puzzles a lot of Jews, not just my grandson.
[00:02:36]  The younger grandson is not yet of age to ask these questions.
[00:02:41]  So he asked if I give speeches on a Friday night, for example.
[00:02:47]  Do I give a speech?
[00:02:49]  If I'm invited by a group to give a speech, will I do it?
[00:02:54]  So I told him that if the topic is morality, religion, and related subjects, on occasion I do take it.
[00:03:06]  I don't like it, because I rather be home for Shabbat.
[00:03:09]  But on occasion I do take those speeches.
[00:03:12]  And I said, Working on the Sabbath is exactly what your rabbi, your orthodox rabbi does.
[00:03:20]  In fact, he works harder on the Sabbath than he works on a Wednesday.
[00:03:25]  That's his day of work, not his day of rest, ironically.
[00:03:30]  And nobody thinks that your rabbi is violating the Sabbath.
[00:03:35]  When I go and speak about the necessity of God in our civilization, for example, why am I doing anything different than your rabbi does?
[00:03:45]  The only thing different that I'm doing is that I will travel, that I will drive, let's say, from my hotel to the venue.
[00:03:58]  By the way, many times I don't even do that because the venue is the hotel that I'm staying at.
[00:04:08]  So what am I doing?
[00:04:13]  By the way, he accepted this.
[00:04:15]  It made perfect sense to him.
[00:04:17]  Poppy, that's me, does what my rabbi does.
[00:04:21]  He speaks about God, religion, morality, etc.
[00:04:26]  on the Sabbath.