Dennis Prager argues you should live like a religious person even if you doubt God, because weekly ritual and community matter. He credits observing the Sabbath, starting on a Friday night in Finland, with giving his whole week structure. A caller from Jerusalem adds that religious law works only when you move from the letter to the spirit.
Science argues for a Creator, but that's— this hour is not to convince you that religion is true or that God exists even. It is to convince you to lead a religious life even if you have doubts about God or doubts about the religion. To find good people to have a weekly community with. I have an essay in my book of essays called Think a Second Time. There are 44 essays in that book on 44 subjects. It's quite varied. Can you believe in God after the Holocaust? Can a good man go to a strip show? I mean, it's, it's all, it's about all of life. And I have an essay in there on what happened to me at the age of 21 in Finland. I've been to 130 countries. I started my world travels at a very early age. So I went from the Arctic in Finland down to Helsinki, and I arrived at the Helsinki railway station at around midnight. And a very, very deep thing happened to me. I realized it was Friday night, the traditional night of the Sabbath in Judaism, and I all of a sudden, having been raised with it but now not observing it, It occurred to me that it's Friday night and there's nothing special in my life going on. This special day is absent. And I thought, I don't want Friday and Saturday to be just like Thursday and Wednesday and Tuesday and Monday and Sunday and, and so on. I didn't want that. I wanted a break each week. It, it gave the other 6 days more meaning to have this meaningful break in the routine, to do other things than work or, or whatever else one does on a daily basis. And that's when I decided I was going to observe the Sabbath There's a huge article in the Wall Street Journal on the Sabbath just a couple of weeks ago. Huge article. Maybe there will be a— what was the word for the reaffirmation of religion in American life in the 19th century? The Great Awakening. Maybe there will be another awakening in this country. If the Wall Street Journal has a featured article on the significance of the Sabbath and the loss, the loss it entails in people's lives, it is, it is worth doing. Again, the subject, whatever you believe or don't, it is worth leading a religious life. Louis in Jerusalem, Israel. Hello, Louis. Hi.
Hi, I was going to say Rabbi Prager. Sorry. Um, yeah, I think, I think what it's the letter of the law could be a very good framework to make good decisions that will make it likely that you can get to a good the understanding, maybe of your particular religion, of God. But you ultimately, you have to go from the letter of the law, and it has to be the spirit there. And I can, you know, that's, that's my basic thing. And I live in Jerusalem, and I can't avoid the Sabbath.
Yes, that's certainly true. Thank you for calling me.
Life, Legacy, and a Dangerous Mission in the Soviet Union | Sunday Fireside Chat
