Rosh Hashana Special with Rabbi David Wolpe

We talk meaning of life, human nature, Elon Musk vs the ADL - and somehow leave more optimistic than when we started!

As a Rosh Hashana gift to ourselves (and our listeners) we spent an hour with the Beyonce of Rabbis, the honey to our apple, the horseradish to our Gefilte Fish -

Rabbi David Wolpe!

He joins us from Cambridge where he is a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School (ohh-la-la), though you may remember him from such rabbinical masterpieces as “Most Influential Rabbi in America” (Newsweek), and “50 Most Influential Angelinos” (LA Magazine). A frequent cordial sparring partner of atheists like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, today he is the Senior Advisor at Maimonides Fund and the inaugural Rabbinic Fellow for the ADL.

Yes, that ADL. And yes - we go there!

BUT FIRST (read in

Matt Welch

) - you get to hear us daven solo for a few moments about the upcoming holidays, casinos and MS Windows games, Hashem knows why.

At about minute 23 we dive into the treasure trove of deep thoughts (mixed metaphors by design) with Rabbi Wolpe. Since he’s so knoweldgable on issues like ethics, faith and the human condition, naturally we choose to pick his brain about diet books and Elon Musk.

Among the pillars of our talk:

• 🔔 A record breaking Holocaust bell at 2:40 into the interview 🔔 

• Unironic discussion of generational trauma

• The world is super random

• Why is there no Rabbi Dre or Rabbi Pepper?

• The biggest human problems he sees all the time

• Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. - C.S Lewis

• Blame it on the pill

• A vision of a successful marriage

• Wait, is the rabbi single??

• Talmudic lessons from the 1990 Patrick Swayze masterpiece “Ghost”

• Human nature is…problematic.

• Post-Sinai life

• Check out amazing online lessons at the Streiker Center

  Help us grow! Rate and review us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Apple podcasts

• The tyranny of the Thank You Note

• Jews are just like everyone else, only more so

• The ADL Vs. Musk - pick your fighter

• Secular Vs. Orthodox - pick your fighter!