Transcript [00:00] Hey everyone. So I want to show you a [00:02] clip of Vivic Ramaswami. Something he [00:04] said a few days ago that I think is one [00:06] of the sharpest statements that any [00:08] non-Jewish political figure has said [00:10] about anti-semitism, at least in my [00:13] memory. And I don't even think Vivic [00:16] realizes how deep the point he's making [00:18] actually goes. And that's really what I [00:20] want to do in this video. So Vivic is [00:22] running, Vivic Ramaswami is running for [00:24] governor of Ohio. He was invited to [00:25] speak at the Republican Jewish [00:27] Coalition. And instead of giving a kind [00:29] of run-of-the-mill speech at one of [00:32] these Jewish political events where you [00:34] get up and you say some nice things [00:36] about the USIsrael relationship, you [00:38] condemn anti-semitism. [00:40] Uh he gave a speech that was different. [00:42] It was it was much more [00:43] thoughtprovoking. [00:45] And the theme of the speech was the [00:47] relationship between socialism, [00:50] envy, and hatred of Jews. So some [00:53] context before we get to the first clip. [00:55] We're going to play two excerpts which [00:57] are really backtoback. They're uh [00:59] they're but it's just a section of the [01:01] speech. I'm not going to play the full [01:02] speech for you, [01:04] but uh the excerpt I'm going to show you [01:06] opens by referring to the story he just [01:09] finished telling. Okay? So, right before [01:11] this part of the speech, he told his own [01:14] personal story, how his parents came [01:15] from southwest India with nothing. How [01:18] he grew up going to public school in [01:20] Ohio. His mom worked at the VA and in [01:23] nursing homes. His dad worked at GE [01:26] at a plant while going to law school at [01:29] night. And then Vivic went on to found a [01:31] bio a very successful biotech company [01:33] that's now a multi-billion dollar public [01:35] company. And now he's running to be [01:37] governor of Ohio of the state where he [01:40] was born and raised. So that's the story [01:41] that he's referring to when the clip [01:43] opens. This self-made start from nothing [01:46] American success story. So keep that in [01:48] mind because he's going to argue that [01:51] the rise in anti-semitism is actually an [01:54] attack on that American idea. And in the [01:57] middle of this, he says something that [01:59] uh that brings that that that brings us [02:01] back to the book of Genesis, even though [02:03] he doesn't mention Genesis. And that's [02:05] what I'm going to want to get into here. [02:07] So let's pull up the clip and uh let's [02:10] take a look. [02:12] And my story is a living example of [02:15] something that we have forgotten in this [02:18] country. The American dream. It's not [02:20] the British dream. It is not the [02:22] Canadian dream. It is not the Chinese [02:24] dream. It is the American dream that [02:27] makes American exceptionalism possible. [02:30] But today [02:32] we are at a crossroads for the future of [02:35] the American dream. For not only the [02:37] future of my state, but for the future [02:39] of our country. And it comes down to our [02:41] attitude towards success. [02:45] Do we celebrate it or do we penalize it? [02:49] According to the socialist worldview [02:51] that's now spreading across our country [02:52] like wildfire, [02:54] success is a sin. Economics is zero sum. [03:00] If someone else succeeds, that means it [03:04] necessarily takes away from your [03:06] success. And if you believe that the [03:08] only way to lift up those who fail is to [03:11] penalize those who succeed, I reject [03:14] that worldview. And for most of our [03:16] history, America did too. In our great [03:20] country, we don't believe that success [03:22] is zero sum. Someone else's success does [03:26] not take away from your success. It [03:28] makes you more likely to succeed [03:30] yourself. That is what the American [03:32] dream is built on. [03:37] That is what I care about. That is why I [03:39] am in politics actually. And if I'm not [03:40] willing to defend that, there's no point [03:42] in doing any of this. And so you may ask [03:45] the question, why am I here at the [03:46] Republican Jewish Coalition talking to [03:48] you about success? [03:50] It is because you represent the most [03:52] successful demographic group in America. [03:55] And the anti-semitism that is now [03:57] spreading across our country is not just [04:01] an attack on Jewish people. It is an [04:04] attack on success. It is an attack on [04:07] the idea of success. It is an attack on [04:10] the idea of meritocracy. It is an attack [04:13] on the idea of capitalism. It is an [04:15] attack on the very idea of America [04:19] itself. That is the [04:24] Okay. So that's uh that's the first clip [04:26] we're going to look at. [04:29] Um so let's unpack it. He talks about [04:31] the zero sum versus positive sum view of [04:35] economics. Right? If you think that [04:36] success is zero sum, if my winning or my [04:40] having more means that you're losing and [04:42] you're having less, then the only way to [04:44] have justice uh or uh you know, the only [04:48] way to fix that is is to take the [04:52] winners down. Or alternatively, the the [04:56] only way for me to succeed is to bring [04:59] is to take from the people above me to [05:02] bring them down. It's this is this is [05:04] the doorway into the whole oppressor [05:07] oppressed socialism [05:10] uh way of thinking. [05:12] And I brought this up once in a video [05:14] way back where I I talked about how [05:17] healthy societies ask themselves, how do [05:20] we how do we improve? How do we fix our [05:22] problems? And anti-semitic societies [05:24] when societies turn anti-Semitic [05:27] they're they're into blame. Who do we [05:29] blame? Think about people who you know [05:32] who when they're having you know who are [05:34] always looking for someone to blame [05:36] right? These are two different ways of [05:38] thinking. One looks at someone else's [05:41] success and asks what what can I learn [05:42] from it and the other looks at someone [05:44] else's success and wants to take it down [05:47] and sees it as a threat to their own [05:49] happiness. [05:51] Okay, this is the economics of envy. [05:57] You know, in in the Ten Commandments, [06:00] the final commandment is not to covet, [06:02] not to be envious, [06:04] right? Because if if you if you're [06:07] motivated by, you know, why is that in [06:09] the Ten Commandments? It's it's a bad [06:10] emotion. There's lots of bad emotions. [06:13] And elsewhere in the Bible, it there's a [06:15] verse that says, "Don't hate your [06:17] brother in your heart." But that didn't [06:18] make it into the Ten Commandments. Why [06:21] did envy get into the Ten Commandments? [06:24] I believe it's there because the Ten [06:25] Commandments are a recipe for how to [06:28] properly order a society. [06:31] That's what the Ten Commandments are. [06:33] That's why they're the Ten Commandments. [06:35] That the first three commandments are [06:36] about faith in God. And then we have the [06:39] importance of of the Sabbath and family, [06:44] right? That's the fourth and fifth [06:45] commandments [06:47] because Sabbath and family are [06:48] intimately connected because people are [06:51] not working. They're not traveling [06:52] anywhere. They're they're by def they're [06:54] by natural consequence with their [06:56] families with their communities not [06:58] working spending time together. And I [07:00] think that's that's the reason for the [07:02] juxtaposition of honoring the Sabbath or [07:05] uh keeping the Sabbath and honoring [07:07] one's parents, the healthy relationship [07:09] between parents and children. And then [07:11] we have the five prohibitions of murder [07:15] uh murder, theft, uh uh adultery, false [07:19] testimony, and and covetousness, envy. [07:25] And I I think that the structure of the [07:26] ten commandments is that you know and [07:29] and is that we honor God and because we [07:32] and we honor God as families, we honor [07:35] God as communities and we also stay away [07:38] from these these these prohibitions are [07:41] the prohibitions that destroy a society. [07:44] If a society tolerates murder and [07:46] tolerates theft and tolerates adultery, [07:52] like if there's a breakdown of marriage, [07:54] that's that's also what adultery is. If [07:57] a society tolerates false testimony, if [08:00] if the court system is undermined as a [08:02] joke, that undermines the entire [08:04] society. And covetousness and envy [08:08] destroys a society. That's why it's in [08:10] the Ten Commandments. Anyway, back to [08:14] back to Vivic. Vivic here is saying that [08:17] anti-semitism is a symptom. It's not the [08:19] problem itself. It's a symptom [08:23] of a disease. And the disease is a world [08:25] view. The belief that the economic pie [08:28] is fixed. [08:30] So someone else's success inevitably [08:33] means that I have less. And Jews happen [08:36] to be the most visible, most successful [08:38] minority. So they're the most visible [08:41] target for people who want to think that [08:43] way. Okay, that's uh that's basically [08:47] Vivic's [08:49] uh Vivik's argument. And before we go [08:51] on, I just want to remind you that [08:54] Russash Shana, the Jewish holidays, the [08:56] high holidays are coming. Rashana is [08:58] just about a week away. And then we have [09:02] uh the day of atonement and then we have [09:03] Sukkot, we have the the festival season [09:05] coming. It's a very expensive time of [09:07] year and there are many families in [09:09] Israel who don't have the means to [09:11] really celebrate it uh uh you know in a [09:15] in a in a nice way. So the team at [09:18] Israel 365 charity is putting together [09:21] large food packages that will be [09:23] delivered to the front doorstep of needy [09:26] families all across Israel. It's a very [09:28] important initiative. If you can uh put [09:31] a few dimes in the bucket, please click [09:33] the link in the description of this [09:34] video and give whatever you can. U part [09:37] of our festivities, part of our [09:39] rejoicing on the festivals must be that [09:41] we care for those who are in need. So, [09:43] we're going to be delivering these food [09:44] packages to many needy families as well [09:46] as uh setting up uh uh needy people in [09:50] Jerusalem with festive meals. So, this [09:53] is a very important initiative and uh [09:56] please partake of it. If this speaks to [09:58] you, click the link in the description [10:00] of this video for that. Okay, let's uh [10:03] let's go back to to the clip of Vivic [10:07] and we will we'll see the next uh the [10:09] next segment of this that I will then [10:12] comment on. Okay, so let me let me uh [10:14] just go back there. Here we are. [10:16] >> The truth of the matter. And here I'll [10:19] paraphrase the great American writer [10:21] Joseph Epstein who's almost 90 years old [10:23] now and a really funny guy. He's Jewish, [10:25] although he's lightigh-heartedly [10:27] described himself as Jewish. Okay, [10:30] that's his his description. He wrote a [10:33] short book in 2003 called Envy. And I'll [10:37] paraphrase him as many have over the [10:39] years. It resonates a lot more today [10:41] even than it did back then. You realize [10:44] that almost every single vice offers [10:48] some kind of immediate comforting [10:51] reward. Think of the seven deadly sins. [10:53] Pride makes you feel grand and [10:55] important. Gluttony fills your stomach. [10:58] Lust satisfies your deepest physical [11:01] urges. Sloth lets you comfortably avoid [11:04] the burdens of the world. They're all [11:06] guilty pleasures. They're driven by a [11:09] desire for satisfaction. But envy [11:13] operates totally differently. Envy [11:15] requires no satisfaction. It is born [11:17] entirely out of malice, out of hidden [11:20] ranker, out of a secret hostility for [11:22] somebody else's happiness. It doesn't [11:24] make you feel good even for a second. It [11:26] clobbers your generosity. It clouds your [11:29] thoughts. It shrivels your heart. You [11:31] just sit there completely miserable, [11:33] stewing over what somebody else [11:36] possesses. Of the seven deadly sins, [11:40] only envy is no fun at all. And that, my [11:44] friends, is the heart of the matter. I [11:46] believe when it comes to anti-semitism [11:48] in the modern era, I believe that it is [11:51] envy of Jewish achievement which spans [11:54] science to medicine, the arts to [11:56] business that is actually the main [11:58] driver of anti-semitism now spreading [12:00] across the country like an epidemic. It [12:03] is the spread of envy. And as much as it [12:07] causes psychological and sadly even [12:11] physical harm to the Jewish community, [12:14] it causes even more psychological harm [12:17] to those who harbor it. Those who harbor [12:20] envy and those who harbor anti-semitism [12:23] reject a fundamental truth that America [12:27] was built on. It is this. [12:30] The number one factor that determines [12:32] whether you achieve your goals in life [12:36] isn't the Jews. It isn't the [12:38] billionaires. [12:40] It isn't the patriarchy. It isn't white [12:42] people. It isn't black people. It isn't [12:44] anyone else. The number one factor [12:48] that determines whether you achieve your [12:51] goal in life [12:53] is actually you. [12:55] That is the truth on which the American [12:58] dream was built. [13:03] >> All right, that's so that's it for uh [13:08] that's it for Vivic. [13:11] Uh and uh there's a lot in here. So he [13:14] just described [13:16] in in perfect and specific detail about [13:19] what envy does. It clobbers your [13:21] generosity. It clouds your thoughts. It [13:24] shrivels your heart. [13:27] Only envy is no fun at all. I'll add to [13:29] this. You know, I mentioned the Ten [13:31] Commandments before. The Ten [13:32] Commandments open [13:34] with the words, "I am the Lord your God [13:37] who brought you out of the land of [13:38] Egypt, out of the house of bondage." Now [13:42] God could have introduced himself any [13:44] number of ways to open this covenantal [13:47] moment where he speaks to a people [13:50] at the at at Mount Si. The great moment [13:52] of entering, you know, the covenant. [13:56] He could have said, "I am the Lord your [13:57] God, creator of heaven and earth. I am [14:00] the Lord your God, God of your [14:02] forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." [14:04] But he didn't. God chose to say, "I am [14:07] the Lord your God who brought you out of [14:09] the land of Egypt." And then just to [14:11] emphasize the point, he says, "From the [14:14] house of bondage." Now, we know that [14:17] Egypt is the house of bondage. It's the [14:18] place where the Jews were slaves. [14:21] That phrase does not add any new [14:23] information. And that's always a [14:24] telltale sign in the Bible that a point [14:26] is being emphasized. The Bible doesn't [14:28] have bold or underline or it or italics. [14:31] That's how it emphasizes things, an [14:34] extra phrase, an extra word. So, this is [14:37] the Bible's way. This is God's way of [14:39] saying, "I'm introducing myself to you. [14:41] I we are about to enter a covenant. And [14:43] the first and foremost thing you must [14:44] know is that a relationship with me [14:47] means a covenant with me means that you [14:49] are free. You have agency. [14:55] You are not bound. You are not a slave." [15:00] And then he goes through the ten [15:01] commandments. And the final one of the [15:02] ten commandments, these ten [15:03] commandments, which as I just said [15:04] before, are the recipe for a healthy [15:06] society. And the final one of them is [15:08] don't covet. You know why? Cuz covet is [15:11] going to turn you back into a if you [15:12] covet, you're going to get turned back [15:13] into a slave. [15:16] It's going to undo that agency and that [15:18] liberty, that sense of of possibility [15:21] that you are free. [15:24] You stand before God. You're in covenant [15:26] with him, but you are free. [15:29] But if you're if you're envious and [15:31] everything else is someone else's fault [15:33] and you know and and and the powerful [15:35] are have taken from you and you want [15:37] what they have and you're never [15:38] satisfied, you are a slave. [15:42] But this also appears in the book of [15:43] Genesis. I want to take you back. I I [15:44] think the best sort of early story of of [15:50] envy [15:52] is the story of Cain and Abel. Genesis [15:54] chapter 4. [15:58] So Cain of course kills Abel, but [16:00] there's so much more in that in that [16:02] text. The text is very clear about why [16:05] Cain why Cain killed Abel. So here's [16:08] what happened in the story. Cain and [16:09] Abel, the two brothers, children of Adam [16:12] and Eve. They both bring offerings. They [16:15] each bring an offering to God. And [16:17] Abel's is accepted. It says that God [16:19] heeds Abel's offering. Cain God does not [16:22] heed his offering. So Cain is furious. [16:25] He's angry because his brother's [16:28] offering was successful and his was not. [16:31] And the text says that his face fell, [16:33] which is the biblical way of saying that [16:35] he was depressed, he was upset, he was [16:36] angry. [16:39] His brother succeeded. He did not. [16:42] So God [16:45] approaches Cain and speaks to him. And [16:47] this is before he kills his brother, [16:48] before he says, you know, where's your [16:49] brother? Am I my brother's keeper? That [16:51] whole dialogue way before that. This is [16:53] the previous scene. [16:55] Cain is just ups he's God sees him upset [16:58] after his offering was not accepted. [17:02] And God gives him a warning. Like God [17:05] asks him, he says, "Why is why is your [17:06] face fallen?" But God gives him a [17:09] warning [17:10] that I think is the most precise [17:13] description of what envy actually [17:17] does to a person. [17:20] And depending on your translation, this [17:21] won't be exactly the same, but this is [17:23] what it says. God says to him, "Why are [17:25] you angry? [17:27] Why has your face fallen? [17:30] If you do right, [17:33] will you not be accepted? And if you [17:36] don't do right, sin crouches at the [17:39] door. [17:41] Its desire is for you, but you can [17:44] master it." [17:48] Sin crouches at the door. [17:51] He's not saying you're going to be [17:53] punished. It's not saying God will [17:55] punish you that it's a sin to be, [17:59] you know, to feel this way. [18:01] He's saying that if you don't simply do [18:04] your best, [18:07] sin crouches at the door. This is what [18:10] envy, this is it, this is God warning [18:13] him about what envy will do to you. [18:15] Right? [18:18] God's not threatening Cain with a [18:20] punishment. He's warning him that the [18:22] feeling he's having if it's left [18:25] unchecked, if it's not mastered, is [18:28] itself dangerous. [18:30] It will damage him. It will he's saying [18:33] it will damage you from the inside if [18:35] you let it go. If you don't master it. [18:38] And Cain doesn't master it. He kills his [18:40] brother. And the tragedy the text is is [18:42] is talking about is not the death of [18:45] Abel. The death of Abel is a tragedy. [18:46] But it's Cain is the is the character in [18:49] the story. It's that his life gets [18:50] destroyed by what he did. He becomes a [18:52] wanderer cut off, [18:55] right? Permanently unsettled for the [18:56] rest of his life, which is what envy [18:58] does to people. It cuts it destroys your [19:00] relationships. It destroys your sense of [19:03] yourself in society. [19:07] or to use Vivic's terminology, it [19:08] clobbered his generosity and clouded his [19:11] thoughts. [19:12] Right [19:15] now, I want to bring this I want to [19:17] connect it to something else in Genesis, [19:18] which is Genesis 12:3. This is where God [19:22] tells Abraham when he first speaks to [19:23] him, I will bless those who bless you, [19:26] and I will curse those who curse you. [19:28] This is uh a reference, this is the [19:30] first reference to anti-semmites, right? [19:31] The those who will curse Abraham and his [19:33] offspring. [19:35] And I once said this, I think in a video [19:36] on this channel, that maybe this verse [19:39] isn't describing some external [19:41] punishment. When God says,"I will curse [19:43] those who curse you." That maybe it's [19:45] not even saying that God is going to [19:48] meet out a punishment on people who [19:50] curse the Jews. [19:52] But maybe it's describing cause and [19:54] effect that a society that is consumed [19:59] with cursing the Jewish people will end [20:01] up destroying itself, which is what [20:03] Vivic said. Like Vivic said that the the [20:05] the that anti-semitism doesn't just hurt [20:08] Jews, but psychologically and I think [20:11] even more so, it hurts the anti-semites [20:14] themselves. It destroys them. And the [20:16] reverse is true. I will bless those who [20:18] bless you could just be cause and [20:19] effect. that if you value what the [20:20] people of Israel represent, you will be [20:23] a more successful person [20:26] because the success of the people of [20:27] Israel, it the fact that we have [20:30] success, that we have financial success [20:32] a lot of the time in many different [20:34] places we've lived and as a people we do [20:37] is also in the Bible. God says it to [20:39] Abraham. He says, you know, your [20:41] children will will uh after they're in [20:44] exile, they're going to leave Egypt with [20:45] great wealth. [20:47] Our great wealth is a is a gift from God [20:50] and God grants that gift to the people [20:52] of Israel at times so that we can use it [20:55] as a tool to influence the world. [21:00] We also work hard. [21:04] Right? The curse on Cain [21:08] is [21:10] it's the result of what he does. [21:13] It's what that unchecked envy does. [21:18] Genesis 4 is the individual version of [21:21] this law that God set up. And Genesis 12 [21:24] is the same law applied to nations that [21:28] if you curse the if you curse the people [21:30] of Israel, if you curse the offspring of [21:31] Abraham, it will destroy you. [21:35] I will curse those who curse you. It [21:37] it'll it'll you'll be the victim of your [21:39] anti-semitism. [21:42] So here's Vivic Ramaswami quoting Joseph [21:45] Epstein on the seven deadly sins but it [21:48] really is a very biblical concept. [21:52] So why is anti-semitism spreading right [21:54] now all across America [21:57] um especially among young people who've [22:00] never met a Jewish person with any [22:02] actual power over their lives [22:05] because this is it's the spirit of Cain. [22:09] It's seeing someone else's success and [22:13] being so resentful instead of looking [22:15] inward [22:17] instead of looking inward at yourself. [22:19] Like God says, if you do your best, [22:21] everything will work out. [22:23] But he can't see past the other guy's [22:25] success. [22:29] Anyway, that's what I wanted to share [22:30] with you. I I thought that this was a a [22:32] very interesting [22:35] I thought it was a very interesting clip [22:37] of Vivic, very thoughtprovoking and uh [22:40] that's what I wanted to share with you [22:41] today. So, please uh like, share, [22:43] subscribe, and please make sure to go [22:45] into the link in the description of this [22:46] video and give to the campaign to feed [22:49] the needy during this holiday season. [22:51] And thank you for watching. God bless.
