Project Inspire Convention 2026 - Rabbi Ken Spiro - WorldPerfect

Okay, so this is the grand finale. Come on forward. Come on up front. Grand finale. This is a PowerPoint. This is my first presentation I launched my entire like speaking career on. I mean it was so long ago there was dinosaurs in the audience. It's actually it's actually the also the first it's the not only the first presentation, it's also based on a book that I wrote which is the first book I wrote called World Perfect, which is an excellent book. Again, you can ask my mother, she will verify that. Um, okay. I'm also operating on minimum sleep, so we'll hopefully I'll be coherent. Uh, it takes about 50 minutes. I Raviosi told me we're not starting exactly on time. I said for the next session, I said tell me something I don't already know. I always say if it started on time, it wouldn't be Jewish. But since we're at a project inspire conference and we're working on how to reach out to our fellow Jews, this is a great topic to have some sense of because one of the things that you know we got to find what we agree on as Jews and one of the things that all Jews love is fixing the world. Tonolum I mentioned a previous talk that when they did a a Pew Research study in 2012, they said they said the word Jew to Jews and 52% came out with commitment to social justice. So while that is not Judaism, it is definitely part of it and it comes from Judaism. But to be able to obviously not express it the way I've been doing this for years. I got a little more background than you guys. But to be able to in a nutshell give over these concepts is really powerful to show people the transformative impact of Judaism not only on our own personal lives but on the world because it really is transformative. So to create this presentation, I was brainstorming with audiences. I said, "Let's come up with a list of values we'd like to see in as perfect a world as humanly possible." And I asked about 1500 people, Jews from all backgrounds and non-Jews also. And I basically got the same list. So when I came to create the PowerPoint, I condensed it down into what I call the these five fundamental values. Number one is value of life, the right to be alive, most basic of all values. Number two, it's world peace. A world where there's no more wars. Everyone gets along harmoniously. Number three, equal justice. Ah, there it is. A world where everyone is treated equally before the same set of laws. Number four is education. A world where everyone has a minimum level of functional literacy so they contribute in a meaningful way to the world and fulfill their potential. And and then last but not least, don't freeze on me now, please. Oh god, so annoying. There it is. Oh, no. Social responsibility. A world where people take care of the world. Whether we're talking about crime, poverty, environmental issues, animal rights, you name it. So, look at the list, guys. What do you think? Why is this thing not working? This is really annoying. Okay, there it is. What do you think? Looks good. >> True. True. But in right now, this is in America. >> Well, let's if you don't mind, Martin, let's hold up on the questions for now. You're right. This I'm not This is the ideal. what's going on. Reality is always a different thing, you know. But let's hold off on the questions unless you miss something I said cuz otherwise it breaks up the flow. I'll be happy to answer questions after. Um, you know, but I say always look around the room. This might be the only time you ever see a room full of Jews agree on anything. And it's not just Jews. Anyone who sees this list has an immediate reaction. Of course, this is the way the world should be. We don't have to think about it. It's almost as if these ideas are born kind of programmed into our our brains this basic software operating package. So the first thing we want to understand is are these values innate in our consciousness like we're born with them or did we get them from somewhere and if we got them from somewhere what's the source? So we're going to do first and foremost is jump into a time machine and travel back to the ancient world to see what did those guys think of these values. Now, obviously, we can't look at every single civilization that's lived in the last 6,000 years. I got less than an hour, and this that would take weeks. So, I chose to focus primarily, but not exclusively, on the great foundation cultures of the West. What are the great foundation cultures of Western civilization? We think of the ancient world in the West. What do we think of? What comes to mind? I would say first of all, ancient >> Greece and Rome. So, we know the Greeks gave us so much of our modern western worldview with their idea of philosophy and art and architecture, the aesthetic, you name it. And the Romans who are was like the most organized empire ever where their ideas of government, law, engineering, for some reason my remote doesn't really want to work. That's too bad. Uh, modern armies. So, Greece and Rome gave us so much of this worldview. But a lot of other civilizations contributed. And even if we don't have time to look at them, we don't really have to. Cuz one of the things I discovered when I was researching this presentation is although culture varied tremendously from place to place in the world, just like it does today, values are remarkably similar with slight variations like what the Greeks thought about the value of life or equal justice was not that different from the Chinese. So with that in mind, let's jump in our time capsule, travel back to the ancient world. Beginning with value of life, let's look at what did they think of these values? And remember, just to be clear, our goal is to understand where do we get these universally accepted values from? Everyone with me? All good? Everyone had coffee? At least two hours of sleep. Okay. Okay. So, begin at the beginning. A couple of examples to illustrate how different is the value of life in the ancient world. Does anyone know what is the most excuse me most commonly common form of population control practiced in the ancient world? >> Murder. >> Murder has a side side benefit. Infanticide. The killing of newborn children is almost a universal practice everywhere in the ancient world. Not just to control population but also for sex selection. Lucky for the guys here. In the ancient world, most cultures valued boys and considered girls to be disposable. And this wasn't done by the baby disposal squad. In a case like ancient Rome or ancient Greece thousands of years ago, unwanted newborn child will be taken by the parents after birth, thrown into a clay jar, thrown out in the garbage, dropped down a well to drown, or left out in a rock in the woods to be to die of exposure, be killed by a wild animal. And this wasn't considered something weird and sick and evil. It was quite normal. Here's a Roman a Roman writing to his wife 2,000 years ago. He says, "Know that I am still in Alexandria and I ask and beg of you to take good care of our baby son. And as soon as I receive payment, I will send it up to you. If you deliver of a child, you know, if it is a boy, keep it. If it is a girl, discard it. Now, today, for those of us who are old enough to remember BC, which is not what we think BC normally is, but before cell phones and before internet, when they used to have standards on television and radio, now there's no standards because everything is unfiltered. You still we're still we're very desensitized to everything, but people are still horrified by the thought of someone, god forbid, killing a baby. Not so in the ancient world. It was as normal to talk about killing a baby as it was to talk about the weather. That's how normal it was. So, bye-bye baby. Where's baby? There's There we go. Okay, don't worry. Baby's going to come back. Another shocking example of a different attitude towards value of life is killing people for religious reasons, which is again pretty much universally practiced in the ancient world, although to very varying degrees. Meaning, some cultures did it daily, some cultures did it rarely. The Greeks and Romans weren't that big into killing people for religious purposes. Some cultures sacrificed prisoners and slaves. When the emperor of China died thousands of years ago, they would behead hundreds of prisoners at his funeral. You guys heard of Genghaskhan, the great Mongol conqueror of all of Asia. When he died in the 13th century, he was buried with 40 virgins and 40 horses. Many cultures consider it a great honor to offer up themselves or their own children. This is an Inca girl. This is amazing image. Did you see here? Where is it? Where's our anchor girl? Come on, Anchor girl. >> Sorry. >> Normally, there you think. Thank you for that. That's good. Good to know. Okay, this is an Inca girl who was actually killed over 500 years ago. She's not a prisoner or slave. She was given, look at this, perfect state of preservation. Isn't it unbelievable? Like literally frozen. Literally frozen. She was given by her parents, drugged, strangled, and buried at the top of a mountain as an offering to the mountain gods. But the worst example we could think of killing people for religious reasons. I supposed to go in Mexico tomorrow. I don't think I'm making it there. But the Aztecs, for instance, a great example. The Aztecs, Mexico City today is basically built on what is a dried up lake. In the center was the Aztec capital, Tonchitlan. In the middle of that capital island, capital city was a 150 foot high pyramid of the sun. The Aztecs went to war primarily to capture people alive to shle them back to this pyramid. They tend to rip out their hearts where they were still beating. And they did this to up to 1,000 people a week because they believed if the blood stops flowing, the world will cease to exist. It's human sacrifice on a scale that's absolutely mind-blowing. But the worst example I could think of with a different attitude towards value of life is killing people for entertainment. Like today we have blood sport like boxing. Look at this one. Double knockout. Boom. Okay. But there's limits to the violence. The referee steps in, stops people. Not so in the ancient world. Many cultures went all the way and killed people for entertainment. The Aztecs who we just saw, they had a version of football, meaning the real football, not what Americans play, which they call soccer. But at the end of the game, the entire winning team was sacrificed to the gods. The winning team did not pay to did not pay to make it to the playoffs in Aztec sports. MVP one season, you know, unbelievable. But what's the worst example? We think of blood sport. Who do we think of? >> The the right the Romans. In over 200 locations throughout the Roman Empire, the Romans built these massive circular arenas. Certainly the one of the largest and the most famous is this one, the coliseum. Who's seen it in real life? This is what it looks like today. Okay, this is the skeleton of this building. But this building was an unbelievable feat of architecture and engineering. First of all, it was a giant amphitheater. It seated 50,000 people at least. The roof could go off and on it like, you know, like an astrodome. The entire center of the arena could be mechanically lowered and filled with water in less than 15 minutes so boats could sail in it. They could raise up to a thousand people through the floor and elevators at one time. They could put in fake fake trees and rocks like a Hollywood movie set. What was it used for? It was free. Free entrance, free meat, free wine, free cushion to sit on. Imagine that. American football game with free beer. Now it's like $27 for a beer, you know. But the imagine a British football game with free beer. That's a scary thought. But 50,000 men, women, and children, no such thing as like parental guidance suggested, would come watch. The first act of the day was the Romans went all over their empire, brought back thousands of exotic animals, lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, and watch them rip each other to shreds. Sometimes up to 1,000 animals a morning would kill them each other in the coliseum. Now, animal rights people would have gone nuts, but they would have been act number two, feeding people to animals. But then the main sporting event of the coliseum which along with chariot racing was the biggest sporting event in the empire gladiators prisoner slave or slaves who fought to the death in front of thousands of screaming fans. And they didn't just use just men by the way they used women blind people dwarves anything for the sake of entertainment. the most sophisticated civilization in the ancient world that had an empire that ruled the Mediterranean for well over half a millennia also was the most brutal which is a big lesson for us. We think there's a connection between law and order culture technology and morality. There is no connection in human history. Some of the most culturally technologically law and order societies in human history have proven to be the most evil and immoral and violent. You see it with Rome which wasn't evil. It was like a normal kind of empire with a lot of violence. But what's the best example in the 20th century? >> Germany. No country was more technologically advanced than Germany culture than Germany. And look what they used it all for. Mechanized mass murder. So let's give a big thumbs down. Walk Phoenix playing the Roman Emperor Comeodus in Gladiator. In real life, he's Jewish. How do you like that? So for many different reasons, including entertainment, the most basic of all of our values, value of life, gone. Okay, let's move on to number two. World peace. Today, everyone wants peace. When I was a, you know, a kid in school back in high school and which is again a thousand years ago, I was I was a little kid, it was the Vietnam War. People used to wear these buttons that said war is not healthy for children and other living things. It's an obvious point that war isn't healthy for anyone. War is the most destructive pastime that the human race participates in. Like how much money does the world spend on armies and weapons and defense budgets? What's the world's defense budget? Budget. >> It's over $2 trillion a year, of which the United States spends almost 1 trillion of that. US spends more defense than the next 10 countries in the world combined. Isn't that wild? I always tell like I said I said previously if any Canadians here you know don't make war in America the Canadian army all eight soldiers are unbelievable but think about it what could the world do with $2 trillion if it didn't have armies to arm weapons to buy wars to fight how much food medicine education clean water thousands of kids die in Africa every day from diseases related to not having clean water it's an obvious we just figured this out because we're so smart Okay, cuz we have our smartphones, of course. You think the Greeks that philosophy comes from the Greeks? They like wisdom. What? People didn't know war was destructive. But if we know it's destructive today and they know it was destructive back then, then how come 6,000 years of human history is 6,000 years of warfare? Why is there so much war? You know what war stands for? By the way, we are right. No, seriously. Why is there so much warfare in human history? No ideas, a bunch of Jews with no opinions, this is not possible. So if you ask the anthropologists, people fighting over a water hole because someone's going to die of thirst. Okay, that's pretty basic survival. Once you get past survival, the number one reason for war is greed. Taking what's not yours by force, primarily land, then people, women, gold, silver, cattle, you name it. Number two reason given by the anthropologist, what's the law of the jungle? Survival of the fittest, right? The lion's on top of the food chain because he eats everyone to know when eats him. He doesn't say to the gazelle in Africa. You had a rough day. You rest by a water hole. I'll chase a zebra today. If I catch you your lunch, that's how animals behave. That's how empires behave. You think Rome ever respected any country's borders? The only people the Romans didn't conquer, like the Persians, but people the Romans couldn't conquer. Conquest was normal not to conquer was a sign of weakness. And the third reason that the experts say there's so much war is who's glorified in the ancient world. Where's the world's first heroic literature in the west? It's on the screen. Remember the the Iliad? Remember Troy, Hector, and Prime and Paris. And you go read the book again. It's one giant battle scene with occasional breaks for long speeches because the hero by definition is the warrior. The guy who kills the most and greatest opponents. He gets the honor, the glory, and the power when he's alive. He becomes a legend after he's dead. To be a warrior is the thing for guys to do in the ancient world. I say guys specifically. If women ran the world, it' be a totally different reality. A woman comedian once said, you know, when a woman gets depressed, she like eats her shops. When a man gets depressed, he invades another country. And it's glorified in all ancient literature. This is Wallace Caldwell of Columbia University, albeit a century ago. But look what he writes. War therefore is in the mind of the poet the chief business of men from youth to age. But he regards as the special flower of youth. The glorification of war, the glamour and glory of battle were subjects of the finest words and pictures. But to be fair, the Romans had a period of 200 years called Pax Romana. What's pax in Latin? >> Peace. 200 years of peace. The Romans never had two years of peace. So what was the Roman idea of peace? >> We conquer and subjugate everyone. We have peace. Today we call it aggressive colonialist expansionism. Back then they called it peace. If you could beam yourself back to the Roman Senate 2,000 years ago and say, "Hey guys, you know what peace is going to be in the 21st century?" That mega superpower country like the United States, which has more military power than anyone in human history, how long would it take America to take Canada and Mexico? America could do it in 48 hours if it wanted to. But they don't do it just because it's not done anymore. Those guys in Rome would have needed Prozac when they heard that. They would have been so depressed. What? Not conquer? We can. These guys are weird. What's wrong with them? So, another value gone. See all the fun things you could do with PowerPoint? Even in really old PowerPoint presentations, they had cool special effects. Okay, let's keep moving. Equal justice. Now today coming from western liberal democratic country like the United States justice justice is such a huge thing. The real power of a democracy, by the way, is not so much whether you vote or not, but whether there's a system of laws like the US Constitution that everyone is, you know, no one is above the law. They just arrested like William used to be Prince William. You know, the other the rest of the family think, "Thank God mom died. She doesn't have to see this." But anyway, no one, not even the king, the prince is above the law. That's a basic idea that we take for granted as kind of innate in how society functions. Not even close in human history. Let's go back to the ancient world. Here's a this is only about a thousand years ago. We'll call this guy over here Joe average ancient guy. Where is Joe average ancient guy on the socioeconomic ladder? Is he upper class, middle class, or lower class? >> Lower class. What do we call him? What title do we give this guy? >> Peasant or surf which we associate with medieval Europe. surf feudal systems exist everywhere in the world at all periods of time including today there's still places that have feudal systems um but a thousand years ago in Europe like 90% of the population are like this guy what do they do for a living what's he doing >> farming does he own the land he's farming usually not and even if he lives in a more progressive place where he's allowed to own land as a tenant farmer who's he paying a huge percentage of what he's harvesting in taxes to >> Joe Lord and you know with an outfit like this this man is not planning to do any manual labor. >> It's actually King Charles I of England. But anyway, I was in South Beach. I saw a guy dressed just like that. He just had a cell phone, not a sword. But anyway, what gives Joe Lord is a teeny percentage of the population the right to lord over all the peasants. Did they elect him? >> No. Golden rule. What's the golden rule? >> He who has the gold makes the rules. Birth and wealth are the sole criteria for leadership in human history. between that teeny tiny elite of the nobility and all the peasants. Is there equality before the law? No, there's institutionalized inequality with the nobility being above the law and everyone else having like no rights generally. And of course, the ultimate elite in human history are monarchs. A guy like Pharaoh that we're reading about in the Exodus story. We don't recog realize how powerful he was literally considered a god alive god not like the Romans who worship their you know they're the emperors usually are sometimes after death but these guys are completely on a different level by the time you get to this guy over here who's this Henry VII you know great kings like 600 years ago great kings of renaissance Europe those guys 500 years ago they're no longer living gods but they rule by divine right what's divine right of kings God made me king. And if you don't like it, what does the Queen of Hearts say to Alice in Wonderland? Off with her head. And he did it to two of his six wives. Anyone know the two wives tomorrow? You know, you get bonus points. You'd probably know this. >> Oh my god. Oh, that's that's a British nursery rhyme. >> That's so English. You know that. Anyone know that two the two wives? Trivia. Trivia. >> Everyone knows Anne Bolin. Queen Elizabeth the Not everyone does know, but but people get that one. And Bolin is is Queen Elizabeth the First's mother. Beheaded for being adultery. And Katherine Howard. Yeah, lots of Catherine's and Anands in there. Whatever. He didn't want to burn this guy's dinner. But tremendous inequality in human history. But to be fair, where's the first democracy in human history? Who has the first democ where's the word even come from? It's a Greek word. Remember my big fat Greek wedding? Every word's a Greek word. A lot of our language is Greek. What does the word democracy mean? Right. Right. Demostos. The people governed. Which Greek citystate had the first democracy? >> Athens. >> Athens. And the Athenian Greek democracy was far more direct than the democracy we have today in a place like America. In America, you do you vote for anything directly? No. You vote for a Congress person, senator, whatever. And they vote for you maybe if they show up. It's like Churchill said about democracy. It's the worst form of government except for every other system we've tried from time to time throughout history. That's better than anything else we got until we get Msiah. Anyway, but who are citizens who can actually vote in Greek democracy? >> What? What gender? >> Yeah. Men with land. Sounds like a rock group. They're coming out with like an album next week. Couple thousand adult men with land. It was an oligarchy. Had all the political power. Everyone else, women, artisans, freed men, slaves, they're all disenfranchised. If you could beam yourself back to the Athenian oligarchy that ran that city 2 and a half thousand years ago and say, "Hey guys, you know what equal justice is going to be in the 21st century in the west? Everyone, man, woman, rich, poor, whatever color, skin is all going to be treated equally before the same set of laws." They would have shaken their heads and said, "You are out of your mind." Henry Phelps Brown writes, where is he? There he is. of Oxford University. The Greeks distinguished strongly between different types of persons and thought it only proper to treat them differently. This inequality of treatment they endorsed in the name of justice. An endorsement that with Aristotle included the justification for slavery. Only those men were citizens who had certain qualifications. Beyond them it was taken for granted were all women but also farmers, laborers, mechanics, freed men, slaves, and aliens. So another value gone. Okay, we're not doing too good here. Moving along to education. Now we in the west take this for granted because all western developed liberal democratic countries have free public education usually up through like like high school whatever you call it. And a lot of schools in the west by the way America is ridiculous. Pay $100,000 to have your brain ruined but that's a different I went to Vasser. When I first went there it was like $9,000 tuition. Then it went up to 11,000. Now it's like $80,000 a year. But forget forget that that discussion. But we assume in a in a in a developed western country, government not only has an obligation to educate us to a certain minimum level, but the government actually wants us to do that. What do you gain by educating your population? I once that asked that in an audience and woman raises her hand and she goes an educated population. That's true you do. But what do you gain by having an educated population? you get a first world country. One of the great defining differences between the first and third world is the average level of literacy and education of the population in general. So come on, the Greeks, I mean the word philosophy means lover of wisdom. They loved wisdom. The Romans, look how organized their their empire was and their army. These guys must have had great public school. No. Let's go back to Joe average ancient guy with his torn leggings. Look at that close-up picture. What percentage of people in the ancient world do you think historians estimate? It's an estimate. We don't know exactly estimate or functionally literate. I'm not talking about high school grads. I'm talking like elementary school level functional reading skills. >> 20%. >> 20%. 10%. >> You're 5%. We keep going down. We're going to get close. The correct answer is.1% on average. It varies from place to place and time to time. But that means on average until 500 years ago with the printing press and the Protestant Reformation and the development of Western Europe, on average one in a thousand people could read. That's like mindblowing. I think we're going back to that soon. No one reads any books. You have an audio version of that. Why are the rates of literacy so incredibly low? Why do you think >> everyone Sorry. Yeah, everyone always jumps on that one first because you know power keeping people deliberately ignorant. But there's a more basic reason. It says in Pyavos the ethics of the fathers you know the wisdom of the rabbis from the time of the second temple it says it says um who is happy what's the answer >> one who's happy with their own lot. So this is I always thought have this thought if you come from a first world country and there's no place more first world than the US and you have a house not a shack a shed or a hut running water electricity indoor plumbing a kitchen and refrigerator filled with food that you don't eat all of it cuz you're watching your weight. You guys have any idea what a luxury it is to worry about obesity which is actually a big problem today and you have a nineto-ive job and you have weekends vacation health plan retirement benefits. You got your teeth in your mouth past the age of 30 and you live to see your grandchildren. You have a standard of living that not only exceeds the vast vast vast majority of every human being that has lived in the last many thousands of years, you have a standard of living that that exceeds billions of people in the world today. There's over a billion people on this planet that don't even have any kind of toilet. Sorry about that. So before the modern world, if we go back before we had all this science and technology and modern medicine, what was the daily goal of the average human being in most places in the world? >> My daily goal is to make it through the day. And if my goal is to make it through the day and not starve to death, what do your kids have to do as soon as they're old enough to start doing it? >> They have to work. Which is why child labor is a universal phenomenon in the ancient world. And in the third world today, you still have tons of it going on. What do you mean send my kid to school? He's going to starve to death. It's a luxury. But let's say you're a little better off and your kids were freed up and you could even afford to pay some tuition somewhere for them to go to school. You think you'd find a school even for pay in the ancient world? Rare indeed. The Greeks who loved wisdom considered it a form of prostitution for a teacher to sell the wisdom. He would take a select group of young boys and impart that to them, but you never sold it. And that's number one reason there's so little literacy. The other reason is go to more modern reference points. Like think of all the the social unrest taking place in the world, the protests and anti, you know, going back to Occupy Wall Street and antivietnam and even all the crazy stuff going on with, you know, going after Israel for its genocidal population, all that other nonsense. Who's leading that stuff? >> Yeah, students. I think specifically that girl who's definitely Jewish. I think her name is Licia Schwarz from like Huelet or something. I don't know. I have no idea. Come on. Would you want to mess with her? Seriously, students. Why students? Because two things. They're young and idealistic and they're educated and empowered. And you put those two things together, you have a very difficult group of people to control in the non-democratic ancient world. They figured out pretty fast the best way to keep people keep society stable was to keep people stupid. It's a deliberately crushing education. As William B. Harris of Harvard says the written culture of antiquities in remain restricted to a privileged minority. It should be obvious that in Greece and to an even greater extent in the Roman Empire the illiteracy of the masses contributed to the stability of political order. This disturbance was caused by the the disturbances caused by the spread of literacy on the other hand have been numerous and varied. The Greeks and Romans would have become very different people if per impossible they had achieved mass literacy. So whether because of deliberate government policy or actually are just having to survive and usually it's a combination of both virtually no one in the ancient world could read. So another value gone. Uh that's my graphic artist's uh graduation photograph. There's his cameo appearance in the PowerPoint. Okay. And then last but not least we have social responsibility. This one is very quick and easy to do because there wasn't any. You know, today in again a developed western democratic state, the social welfare infrastructure. If you're hungry, if you're homeless, people fall through the cracks. It doesn't work perfectly, but it's government's obligation of the people, by the people, and for the people to help. You think you had any of that in the ancient world? You know, most all the modern social welfare we have in the Western world appeared in the last about 200 years. Before that, forget it. Go back to Rome 2,000 years ago. You're hungry and homeless and you don't have family to help. tough die. And today we have an idea of international social responsibility. You see this when there's a flood or a famine or a war. You have all these organizations and countries sending in aid and you have doctors without borders and you know all this international monetary fund, United Nations peacekeeping forces. You think you had any of that in the ancient world? Can you imagine asking Rome for a peacekeeping force? That's like a really scary thought. What do you think the goal the a the goal of the average ancient world leader was? It wasn't to spread democracy and freedom. In the ancient world, almost all ancient and almost all leaders were were hyperfocused on one word. It began with the letter P and it was not the word peace. It was power. Preserving it, passing it on and ideally increasing it. Remember Genghaskhan, our great Mongol conqueror friend 13. Look at his vision, his incredibly inspiring vision of what is meaningful in the world. The greatest h happiness is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you. To rob them of their wealth, to see to see those dear to them bathe in tears. To class to your bosom their wives and daughters. A true humanitarian visionary. So this value completely gone. So what are we left with? A pretty different version of the ancient world than most of us get the sanitized one in school. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone in the ancient world is horrible, baby killing, oppressive, illiterate maniac. No, no. The vast majority of people throughout human history, the vast vast vast majority of human people are just trying to do what? >> Survive. And they're not hurting anyone. And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying good stuff didn't come out of the ancient world. A huge amount of ideas and technology came from all over the world. So that's not the issue. But what I am saying is this beautiful vision of values which the whole world has basically bought in as the foundations especially of western liberal democracy are not a product of even the most advanced civilizations like Greece and Rome which did contribute a lot of other stuff. So we're left with this huge question like where do we get the values from? So there's a British historian by the name of Paul Johnson who wrote a book in 1987. He just passed away two years ago. It's called The History of the Jews. It's almost a proof of God because it was a bestseller for three months now. I was recommending it for years until I wrote a better one, Crash Course in Jewish History. I would have showed you a copy, but thank God I sold all my copies last night. But but in the epilogue of his book, he says he I want to share what he writes because he really answers this question beautifully. So, let's look at what Paul Johnson has to say. He says, "One way of summing up 4,000 years of Jewish history is to ask ourselves, what would have happened to the human race if Abraham had m not been a man of great sagacity?" That's a really good word. It means sage, wise, or clever. If he had stayed in or kept his higher notions to himself, and no specific Jewish people would have come into being. Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might eventually have stumbled upon all the Jewish insights, but we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed. But it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. Pay spe very special attention to what he's going to say now. Keeping in mind the list I got from my audiences to create this presentation. He said to them, meaning to the Jewish people, we owe the idea of equality before the law, both divine and human, of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person, of individual conscience and so of personal redemption, of collective conscience and so of social responsibility, of peace as an abstract ideal and love as the foundation of justice and many other items which constitute the basic moral furniture of the human mind. Without the Jews, it might have been a much emptier place. Above all, the Jews taught us how to rationalize the unknown. The result was monotheism and the three great religions which profess it. It is almost beyond our capacity to imagine how the world would have fared if they had never emerged. And I always say it's a good thing that a non-Jew said this because if a Jew said it, no one would believe it. I always say I always quote non-Jews talking about Jews. It's got more credibility. And what Paul Johnson is not you saying is not unique to Paul Johnson. In the course of researching that book I wrote, World Perfect, I came across dozens of presidents, prime ministers, philosophers, historians, thinkers, they all say the same thing. The Jewish people, we basically civilized the world. Now again, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the Jews are perfect. No, there's some rotten Jews running around usually with a last name that ends with Steen, Weinstein, Epstein. We needed like the Smith committee, like change all their names. We're hated. We're hated on for so much stuff we didn't do. We don't need these guys with these really obvious Jewish names like feeding into it. So, it's not true. There's been some rotten Jews and there's definitely righteous Gentiles in this world. I'm not saying we invented all the good ideas. No, no. Like I said before, not true either. But what is true is this beautiful vision of values is overwhelmingly a byproduct of the Jewish people directly or indirectly. And what I want to do now in the time we have left is take you back through the list. And you're a well educated audience, so we're going to do this fast. And I want to show you how in every single one of these areas, Judaism is truly transformative and revolutionary. Beginning with value of life, the best place to see the difference between what everyone else is saying about value of life and the Jewish people is number six of the ten commandments, which is drum roll, do not murder. Ah, the most mistransated phrase in the Hebrew Bible. It's loss, not loar. Judaism taught the world that human life has intrinsic value. Judaism taught the world, right, that God doesn't need human blood. You don't kill babies. God forbid you kill a human being for entertainment. Why, by the way, is it low? Don't murder and not log >> because there are times there is like it says and you know there's times it's time like it says in in Ecclesiastes is a time for peace, a time for war. We're not pacifists. Sometimes you have to destroy evil. There is a death penalty in Jewish law, but it's so hard to actually meet out that death penalty. It's very rarely happened. And you're supposed to violate virtually all the commandments in the Torah to save another human being's life, which is most beautifully stated by the quote in the Mishna. And this is the original way it appears, by the way, is this this word, this phraseiology. Someone who saves one life, it's if he saves an entire universe. That's incredible. Keep in mind, the rabbis are saying this at the same time as the Romans are killing thousands of people for entertainment in the coliseum. It's truly transformative. How about peace? What's the word for peace in Hebrew? Everyone knows that one, even my non-Jewish audiences. Shalom. How do you say hello in Hebrew? >> Shalom. >> Shalom. So basic is peace to the Jewish worldview. It's how you greet your fellow human being. The word shalom appears 240 times in Tanakh. That's a lot of times for one word. Thank God for like you can check these things quickly now. And it's obsessed on by all the rabbitic thinkers throughout history that peace is the ideal perfect state over and over again. By the by the way, the best proof of the Jewish obsession with peace doesn't come from even our own sources. What is the world body today supposedly dedicated to bringing peace into the war and they're not obsessively hyperfocusing on Israel and condemning us? >> The UN, which really stands for the useless nothings. In theory, the United Nations is a good idea. In practice, it is a a farce. They just put Iran on the human rights committee. Can you imagine that? That's like putting Hitler on the Jewish Pride Committee. These people just killed like 30,000 of their own people. Whatever. Not but outside the UN in Dag Hammershaw Plaza in Manhattan on the East River. You can see this is the Isishayahu the Isaiah wall. This is the motto of the UN about beating swords into plowers and spears into pruning hooks and not making war anymore. Why is this the motto of the UN? When the League of Nations was founded, which was the forerunner to the United Nations, Yan Christian Smutz, the who was the prime minister, the president, prime minister of South Africa, he gets up and he says, "The vision of this organization is the vision of the Jewish people and the prophet Isaiah. We are the people who taught the world that peace is the ideal permanent state for humanity." Moving along. Okay. How about equal justice? What's the word for justice in Hebrew? I'm looking for you. I just put it up already so you know there's a lot. This dinish, but sedic. What's the word for charity in Hebrew? So duck at the root of the word charity is the word justice. There's definitely something there. Do you know that I said peace appears 240 times? The word sedic appears 120 times. Exactly half. Isn't that wild? Maybe you need twice as much justice to get a little peace. I don't know. Maybe that's why it says but out of the obsession that Judaism has with this idea, we get a really transformative concept which has really changed the idea of government and responsibility of government. It says right there in Vayikra, if you ever want to show Leviticus, first of all, when you're doing Kiru, you have to always remember if you use the Hebrew terms for things, people do not know what you're talking about. So, I apologize. I know you guys do know the different books of the Hebrew Bible. But if you ever want to show anyone like a nice typical Jewish person is fairly open and liberal and progressive and they these all these values, the bucket list of Western liberal democracy is is Vikra chapter 19. It's got so much stuff in there, it's unbelievable. But there it says, "You shall do no righteous injustice. You shall not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. But in righteousness, you shall judge your neighbor." What does that mean in simple English, no inequality either way because you can also discriminate against people who are more privileged than you. You know that it's you see that in America with a lot of stuff going on. Everyone is treated equally before the same laws. Today that's like duh. Trust me, in the ancient world, it's not duh. The reason why we don't appreciate this is we don't have these all powerful monarchs like these guys who can cut your heads off and are living gods. Today we think of a reigning monarch in the world. Everyone goes default to the same person, King Charles. I still keep thinking about Queen Elizabeth. Come on. This guy, he's got no real political power. He pays taxes. He certainly gets no knock from his family. This is not a monarchy. These guys had real power. But compare this to the power of a Jewish king because Judaism has the idea of kingship in it. We know and a Jewish king had tremendous tremendous political power. But what does it say? If you look in Dvarim Deuteronomy 17, it says when the king sits on his throne on the on the throne of his kingdom, he will write a copy of the Torah. It will be with him. It'll read from it all the days of his life. So he will learn to fear the Lord his God and keep all the words of his Torah and do its statutes. This is incredible. The king has to know as a king of kings and no one not even the king is above the law. That's wild. And by the way this quote from Deuteronomy and not everyone remember your British history Magna Carta King John 12:15 runny meet England Magna Carta limiting the power of a monarchy. No this is the first example of limiting a power of a monarchy in human history. And you should also know that the biblical government of Israel is not a pure monarchy. It's a mixed system, checks and balances, which by the way, great point of trivia, was taken by the founding fathers of the United States to create the US government. Is literally built on the biblical model. The only difference is they substituted a king with a >> president, although they did offer George Washington to be king. And he said, "You already got rid of one George, King George of England. You don't need another George's king." But in biblical Israel, the chief political leader is the king and he has a lot of power, but the chief religious leader is not the king. He's not the high priest like a lot of ancient civilizations. That's the Coen Gad, the high priest. But where did the judicial legislative power rest in biblical Israel? Not in kingship, not in priesthood. But what organization? >> The Sanhedrin. That Supreme Court of 71 judges. And they were like the Congress, the Senate, and the Supreme Court all rolled into one. They adjudicated and legislated. They had incredible power. Anywhere else in the world, what did you have to have to have that power? Remember the golden rule, birth and wealth. What did you have to have to be on the Sanhedrin? It's an interestingly long list. First of you have to be married with kids. Why? Because the Sanhedrin can pass a death penalty. And being a parent definitely teaches you mercy. The fact that you have anyone who has teenagers gets this point. You know, Roseanne Bar, the comedian once said, "Now that I have teenagers, I realize why some mammals eat their young." You had to have encyclopedic knowledge of everything. Not on your phone, in your head. And you had to have inqu unquestioning integrity. Come on. Political integrity is like an oxymoron. What's an oxymoron? Two words that don't go together, like jumbo shrimp, you know, pretty ugly military intelligence, French military victories. The British would say oxymoron American culture. And then I shoot back, yeah, like British cooking. Anyway, seriously, it's a meritocracy. The best person for the job got the job regardless of their position in society. Okay, moving along. Education. We can skip this one because even totally uneducated Jewish parents actually think there are 11 big commandments. What's number 11? Dako University. I used to jokingly say preferably Ivy League school up to PhD with a scholarship. That's called kor mitzvah or zi vianu. You know this is my god I'll glorify him. Reminds me of that that joke about there's a debate about when is a fetus viable when can it live outside the womb? And the Jewish mother answers when it graduates from medical school. But we have a unique status in human history. Jews are history's only consistently highly educated people. The smallest poorest Jewish communities living in diaspora in exile in poverty and oppression on average had levels of literacy and education and nu and numeracy also numberability far bigger than the people amongst whom they lived literally literally for centuries it was a unique Jewish status which made us very valuable in the world by the way amongst people who didn't like us these people can read they can count we'll use them even though we hate them it's a very unique but it comes from the very different attit attitude that Judaism has always had towards education. Everyone else is saying keep people stupid to control them. Judaism is saying educate people to empower them to take responsibility for themselves. You you everyone knows the Rambam here. My manades. Okay. Now my manes who died in 1205 I share a birthday with him. Yeah. Happens to be my number one favorite rabbitic personality in all Jewish history. But he codifies all of Jewish law in a multi-olume yad the fourth the Mishna Torah. And he talks about it. Look what he says. It's not his original idea, but it's an amazing quote about education. Appoint teachers for the children in every country, province, and city in any city that does not have a school. Excommunicate the people of the city until they get teachers for the children. If they don't, destroy the city because the world exists only because of the breath of children studying. Destroy the city. Never happened because there's never a place in the Jewish world where there wasn't a school. Even they had no books. Remember my first my first Opan teacher in Israel, Mr. get by from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. He could read a kash any angle upside down, backwards, right? Cuz he used to sit like in some little hut in Morocco as a little kid and they had like one book for 12 kids and they all sat in a circle and read it. Unbelievable stuff. Yemenites also are famous for that too. Tremendous levels of literacy. And if you're thinking, "Yeah, you can't believe what Jews say about Judaism." Look what Peter Adelard, famous uh Catholic uh religious scholar and philosopher says going back a thousand years ago. He says a Jew whoever poor if he had 10 sons would put them all to letters not for gain as the Christians do but for understanding of God's law and not only his sons but his daughters. H okay let's move on to social responsibility. And this is the other area where Judaism is unique. Not only are we history's only highly literate nation, we're the only nation to consistently have highly developed kind of holistically covering every community social welfare infrastructure. The smallest, poorest Jewish communities had social welfare infrastructure far older and far more comprehensive than the greatest empires of the ancient world. And it goes back to a couple of fundamental principles in Judaism. Number one, one of the most famous quotes in the entire Hebrew Bible is this one. Loa, don't stand by your neighbor's blood. What does that mean? If you see someone bleeding, don't stand in it because you get your shoes dirty. No. If you see a human being in distress, physical, emotional, economic, you have to help. We did not invent law. Any society from the most primitive to the most sophisticated has codes of proper behavior. Sometimes they're written down, sometimes they're not because without that you have anarchy. But legal systems are basically preventative. Don't murder, don't steal, stop at the red light, pay your taxes, you're a good citizen. Judaism has that, but has a unique proactive component. Actively do good. Today in America, if you see someone in distress and you don't help them, what's your legal status? Any lawyers here? Anyone going to admit they're a lawyer? Nothing. It's not my problem. I'm I'm like a bystander. I don't want to get involved. Judaism says, "No, no, no, no, no. You make only one of two choices. You're part of the problem or you're part of the solution." Doing nothing makes you part of the problem. And you have a legal obligation to be part of the solution. It is 3,339 years since we stood at Harina, Mount Si, and got this code of law. And there is virtually since that time, there is virtually no legal code anywhere in the world that demands that you actively do good, which is most beautifully stated by probably the three most famous words in all of the Hebrew Bible. Love your neighbor as yourself. What does that mean? I stand on a street corner with a smiley button on handing out flowers telling people to have a nice day. Probably in Southern California that what it does mean. But in Jewish law, it means no. You have to give 10% of your income to charity whether you like it or not. You have to help the widows, the orphans, the downtrodden, the oppressed. It's not just Jews, by the way. It's also non-Jews. It's not just human beings. It's also animals. The first in animal rights legislation, the first environmental law that appears anywhere in the world is comes from Judaism. And it has transformed the world. It's such an powerful idea. Like if you look at almost all the great modern social thinkers in the western world, where they get their inspiration from almost always the Bible. Look at this quote from Lyman Abbott, a big American social thinker from the beginning of the 20th century. It's such a great quote. It would be impossible to mention any other people of even a much later age whose law and constitution embodied ideals so nobles that embodied in Hebrew civil laws or any people whose history shows the existence of political institutions so essentially just, free and humane. We Gentiles owe our life to Israel. He doesn't mean the state doesn't exist back then. it Jewish people. It is Israel who is bringing us the divine law has laid the foundation of liberty. It is Israel who had the first free institutions the world ever saw. When sometimes our own uncchristian prejudices flame out against the Jewish people, let us remember that all that we have and all that we are, we owe under God to what Judaism has given us. Maybe we should put that in the UN. So what we're left with is this amazing fact that we, the tiny Jewish people who shouldn't even be here, have directly or indirectly transformed humanity, especially in terms of values and spirituality. But we're left with one final point before we end. And don't worry, the next session is not starting exactly on time. I know that's shocking to hear. But so we understand these values basically are coming from the Jewish people. But why? What enabled us to do it? So to understand that we have to understand there's one more thing we have to look at but without that one more thing we don't have this. So besides obvious Jewish contribution to civilization like guilt bagels junk bonds leverage buyouts Einstein marks Freud 22% of all the Nobel prizes since 1901 24% of the field medals in mathematics and all that other great trivia I talked about in a previous class. What is the single greatest Jewish contribution to civilization? Very who said it? Very good. Ah, one God brought to you by the Jewish people. One God and one absolute standard of morality which is often called ethical monotheism is in the realm of spirituality, religion, values, morals, law, the single most powerfully transformative idea in all of human history. It's an idea which looking back as we've done you can see has transformed the world. But it's an idea which thousands of years ago was completely like incomprehensible. Let's just jump back in time one more minute to ancient Joe Average ancient guy in the middle here 4,000 years ago contemplating his moral spiritual universe in the ancient world. There's no such thing as secular. That was a death sentence denying the existence of gods. No one had that. But you believe the world was full of gods. Every force in nature had a god that governed it. And all these countries had legal codes and correct behavior. What's right? What's wrong? But what were they based on? What you perceived different gods wanted? What the majority liked? What was expedient and economical like overpopulation is a problem. We didn't have birth control pills back then. So kill babies. No one's connected to them yet. The whole ancient world was essentially amoral without an absolute standard. And because it was amoral, it degenerates into being immoral, which explains why you can have cultures that are so sophisticated culturally, technologically with laws, but yet they're killing babies and and and killing people for sport. It all came out of a world where no one could say this is absolutely right or absolutely wrong. This is good and this is evil in an absolute sense. To paraphrase the great Russian writer Dusttoyki he said where there is no god all is permissible. There's actually GK Chesterton has a great line. He says when people stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing. They believe in anything. It's a very powerful line by the way. So into this world almost 4,000 years ago out of a place we call orcazim. Where's Orcazim today? It's not Brooklyn. I know we think it's >> Iraq. We all know where Iraq is. as Ambrose Spears who wrote the during the American Civil War said, "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." So, we all know where Afghanistan is, Ukraine is now. With Donald Trump around, we're going to know a lot more countries soon. Anyway, definitely going to know where Iran is, that's for sure. Out of Iraq almost 4,000 years ago comes one man who's great for two reasons. A in a world that has no connection with lost its connection with God. Abraham is a radically transformative freethinking super genius who's able to think outside the box and reconnect to this counterintuitive infinite invisible being. But imagine being the only person in the world to believe in this radically transformative, incomprehensible idea. How many of us would have the to even whisper it to our best friends? And that's the real greatness of Abraham. He says, "I don't care what anyone thinks. I want truth regardless of consequences. I choose to live it if necessary to die for the reality of God. Now, Abraham knows better than we know. You don't live for God. You don't die for God. You don't do anything for God. He's infinite. He doesn't need us. But without relationship with him, we are doomed. We're missing the purpose of creation. And we are going to eat each other alive. That's what is. That's our mantra, our Jewish battlecry. God is it the source of reality, spirituality, morality. And look at the transformative impact of just that concept. Like if every human is being is in the beginning of the Bible, it says in Genesis, we're made bellum elohim in in his image. Now God is infinite. He has no parts. What does every human being have that is godlike? >> This soul, this divine spark that's like piece of the infinite. Look at the implications of that morally. If every human being has this like infinite spark within him or her that every life has infinite value which is why the rabbis say saving a life is like saving a universe. The whole concept of value of life comes from that. And if every human being is made in the image of God that means it's a fundamental equality amongst all of us like the prophet Ovadia says has not one God made us all? Are we not all his children? And if you're made in God's image you have an obligation to act like God. One of the six 13 commandments is be like God. Go in his way. What does that mean? I sit in the cloud and throw lightning bolts at people. No. The rabbis say just as he is kind and merciful, you have to be kind and merciful. Wow. How transformative. We don't appreciate it. But I'll show you one more person who does. Second president of the United States, John Adams. I always say the uh that's the social response. The first one to live in the White House, by the way. There he is. John Adams. He probably never met a Jew in real life, but I will insist. The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If an atheist of another sect, I should believe that chance order the Jews to preserve and propagate for all mankind the doctrine of a supreme intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality and consequently of all civilization. They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this earth, the Romans and their empire but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to threearters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern. And if you were running for president today, I would definitely be voting for him. So, we understand that this brings us to what our mission is, by the way. It's not to convert. It's not to conquer. It's to be this light to nations which brings us to what the real Jewish responsibility of the world is which the you know and to understand a concept that is so basic. We have to be able especially in outreach to be able to articulate this chosen thing because one day you're going to walk around with your keep on and someone's going to walk up to you and you go you're Jewish. You think you're chosen. What do you think you're chosen for? Ah, you know or why are we chosen to be killed? Like God forbid. You have to be able to explain that. The way I explain this simply is Abraham says to God, "God, I choose you. I choose to dedicate my life and the life of my children and my children's children to one mission to teaching the world about the reality of you and the values that come from relationship with you." And God, so to speak, chooses Abraham back. You're choosing me, Abraham. I choose you back. You and your descendants, us, the Jewish people. What are we chosen for? Is it privilege? No. We're chosen for responsibility. What's the responsibility? Well, I've spoken about this before, but the word that the Jewish world loves to use and often misus is tikun, fix the world, which is certainly sounds really good. Beats the heck out of save the whales. But the real expression is perfect the world under the kingdom of God. But my friends, and this is a gamecher for the religious world in my opinion, we have to be so clear on this. The ultimate purpose of being Jewish is kadush hashem to individually and collectively live in a way that inspires not only our fellow Jews but the world. And it says o all over the place you know be holy because I am holy. You know you're supposed to be vagu nation of priests and a holy people. I mentioned this quote before, but that famous expression that imitation is the highest form of flattery. I always say that's the shortest class you ever got on Christianity and liberal democracy. It's the Jewish people directly indirectly transforming the world, which is why we have these values today. And the last thing to touch on, and we're going to be finished literally in two minutes, is okay, we understand that Judaism brought these values to the world. We understand that it all comes from the idea of one God and one absolute standard of morality. What's the process? How do we get the world to buy into that? We're so well-loved and so popular. It's the greatest subliminal marketing victory in the world is Judaism. And half the book I wrote, World Perfect, is about how these ideas got out to the world. It was not quick and it was not easy. From the birth of Abraham to the birth of Christianity is 2,000 years. And we exist in alone in the world as the only people believing in one God. And everyone is hating hating on us and trying to wipe us out, which is what Hanukkah was about. And after being told we're crazy for 2,000 years, out of Judaism will ultimately come two offshoot faiths, which are Christianity and Islam, which would not exist without Judaism. They're the children of the mothership, which is the Jewish people, because any believing Christian or Muslim will tell you there is one God. Okay, the Christian one's got a few parts. Let's not go there. He created the world. He gave one standard of morality to humanity. He gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Si. And then he changed his mind and chose us instead. That's a separate problem in a different presentation. But this is the greatest transformation in terms of spirituality. But the other great area that Judim has been transformative in is in government and liberal democracy. The true word liberal that John lock us is not the misuse of the word today. By the way, I have a whole presentation just on that. But it all also comes from the same ideas. And look at the first what's the what's the world's first democratic republic? Look at the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776. It's right there. We hold these truths to be self- advantage that all men are created equal. That they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights. That amongst these are life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Wow. So, put this all together on a graph and you look at like religions of the world. And we Jews are not just a religion. We're a nation and a people and a faith and a family. Often dysfunctional, but whatever. We are so small, we don't even appear here. Look, magnifying glass. Nope. Nope. Nope. Boom. There it is. 02% of the world's population. But you make a graph of impact on the world. Boom. Right off the top of the scale, smallest of nations, biggest of impacts. Why did I create this presentation? And it's not for you guys. Although it's a great thing to see. It's a big boost for like, whoa. But so many Jews, like the ones we encounter on the street, Project Inspire, are walking around thinking Judaism is meaningless and irrelevant, ancient, irrelevant laws and stuff. No. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have to be able to instill in our fellow Jews some Jewish pride. And that pride is a dangerous word. But it doesn't mean walking around thinking I'm better than you. I'm superior to you. Pride is justifiable self-respect at the historically proven power of Jewish people and Jewish ideas to transform the world. Because it is, my friends, a fact of history and reality. The entire human race is in a completely different place because of the values that Judaism has brought into the world. And so just to end with a little bit of food for thought as we're at a project inspire conference and supposed to get inspired, what do we take from this practically speaking? So number one big lesson to end with is every human being like a snowflake is different. We're never supposed to compare to ourselves to anyone else because there's no one like us. We're supposed to look at our own bring out our own unique potential in this world. That is our job. But how do you do that? You buy a complicated piece of equipment like a car, computer. It comes with an instruction manual. were much more complicated than any of those things. And we come with an instruction manual. It's called Torah. The literal definition of Torah translation is instructions. Toratim, the guide book for living. Because you can't represent the Jewish people until you know what the Jewish people represents. Ignorance is more dangerous to the Jewish people than anti-semitism. We have to be educated, right? We have to educate our fellow Jews. And when we do that, we have to make them aware that our job in this world is to be a light, right? to light up the world to be a role model for humanity like I said last night in a world that is so lacking include role models that's our job we're the god squad as I always say and the job of being a light to nations is not just for project inspire to kabad nor and a few rabbis it's the collective responsibility of all the Jewish people we have to have some Jewish unity like that little Israeli folk song goes each of us is one small light but together we shine bright we need a paradigm shift in the Jewish world starting from the top down. and those of us who are well educated that keshm is what it's all about to be that role model individually and collectively to make the shift to focus on what unites all of us as Jews that's what our enemies like I said last last night in the class before the people who hate us don't care what kind of Jew you are religious secular Ashkanazis there's only one line in Awitz for all of us god forbid so we have to start looking that way and recognize the incredible power of the Jewish people which is the class I did last night and the incredible power of Jewish ideas. Put those two things together, boy is that transformative, and we will get the job done. Even though I know it sounds impossible. But if you know Jewish history, what's impossible for everyone else is possible for us. You know who said it the best? First prime minister of Israel, who was whom? >> David Bengulian, who is not religious, but he knew his Bible and his history really well. He had a great quote. He said, "A Jew who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist. When we finally come together as a people, unified, educated, focusing the incredible energy and drive and taking those Torah values which have transformed the world and shining forth on the rest of the world, we will finally give humanity the beautiful vision which is in the end of the prophet Isaiah. And then I said they'll stop attacking us. They're going to follow us. It says, "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all the nations shall flow unto it, and many people will shall go and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and they shall beat their swords into plow shears, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." And we should merit to see that soon and in our days. And thank you very much. We be done. That's my website. These are the books I wrote. There's my podcast I do every week. If anyone would like my card, uh I do a podcast on Jewish history and current events. There's the world perfect book. Excellent read. And guys, enjoy the finding the final session. You're most welcome. Yeah. Come on up and talk to me if you I'm just want to I just got to pack up my stuff here, guys. The next session is starting right on time like everything.