1:01🔗VoiceoverListener discretion is advised. Adam Corolla and Dr. Drew. Loveline, coast to coast.
1:13🔗VoiceoverIf it is Loveline, I'm Adam Corolla. That is Dr. Drew over there. Phone number, 1-800-LOVE-191. Dr. Drew is a board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist. We're happy to welcome back to the show tonight, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Oh, wait a minute. I've got to get some coffee in me so I can... Give me like a...
1:34🔗Shmuley BoteachGargle, gargle of coffee so you can pronounce my name.
1:45🔗Shmuley BoteachBut it may be nine. You never know when it comes to children. They multiply before you can even count. How many have you got, Adam?
1:54🔗AdamI have zero children. My model airplanes and my sporting goods are my children.
2:05🔗AdamRabbi Shmuley is a guy who has been on this show a couple of times. He's the author of the book of Why Can't I Fall in Love? And also, and I hadn't seen much of Rabbi Shmuley before he came on the show a year and change ago, but as soon as he got off this show, he became a Rabbi to the stars. I saw him on the Michael Jackson, hanging around with Michael Jackson. What other celebrities have you befriended?
2:31🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, I believe in going straight to the top and then working your way down. I started with you, Adam, and Dr. Drew. And after that, I figured once you meet world-renowned superstars, everyone you meet after that is not... you won't be intimidated.
2:45🔗DrewBy Michael. You know, by the way, I felt so sorry for that guy with the way the people throw themselves at him. It is unbelievable.
2:52🔗AdamDrew, you were at the benefit with Rabbi Shmuley was there in New York with Michael Jackson about six months ago.
3:00🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, it was in February. We launched... we did an American and European launch of Heal the Kids, which is an organization that seeks to re-prioritize kids and the lives of their parents. And we chose Valentine's Day because this whole thing about lovers and we wanted to try to show that romantic love should be inclusive, that you can be parents and lovers. So we really wanted to get to Carnegie Hall. This was Michael's first speech really in the United States. We wanted to have the biggest experts and without brown-nosing too much, because I'm only four inches away from him, we wanted Dr. Drew to be there. He was our first choice and he very kindly flew out with his wife. And he, as usual, gave great wisdom and was much admired by the people. But Michael's fans, they were mostly European fans that night.
3:58🔗AdamAnd how... have you spent much time with Michael Jackson alone?
4:03🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, I mean, we're friends. We run this organization together. We did an American launch. We did a launch at Oxford University. And we're actually doing a book together now about how adults can recapture their childlike qualities. They can be like you, Adam. Furious and funny and not cynical.
4:28🔗AdamCash in on other people's dashed dreams. That's what you're going to do with this book. But I'm not cynical. So Michael Jackson, good guy, normal guy, bizarre guy.
4:41🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, I give him what for me is a very high compliment, perhaps the ultimate compliment, and that is that amidst achieving his achievements rise to the heavens, he's very down to earth. He's very humble and I like that. I like people who don't take themselves seriously. He's very gracious to people he meets and he's very shy. Yeah. Arrogance turns me off. See, of all the virtues that I have, my humility stands out the most.
5:04🔗Shmuley BoteachWhich is supposed to be humorous. Yeah. I like humble people. So he's a humble guy and that's what I think. Did you find that that night true?
5:11🔗DrewWell, I humble to the point of like almost shamed.
5:15🔗DrewLike uncomfortably humble. Like uncomfortable in his own skin kind of thing. I felt very, very sorry for him.
5:20🔗But throughout his life a man can be loved by the children.
5:23🔗DrewNo, but I felt like a guy that really needs connection with people and can't because he got these people throwing themselves at him.
5:27🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, it's hard. He can't walk down the street. I mean, we saw that that night. And, but I mean, like for example, even that night as we were leaving Carnegie Hall, all the fans were yelling, screaming, and they were like closing in on us as we're getting into the van with Michael. And my children were with me, my three oldest daughters, age 12, 10, and 9. And I remember Michael really risking himself because he can often get hurt by his own fans to make sure that these little girls were not, he was very scared for them, that they weren't stampeded. And his like security were pushing into the van and he wouldn't go until the little girls got in so that they weren't hurt. And little things like that impressed me. By the way, you said something amazing that night that I've quoted to so many people and it was very courageous. We were speaking about the Britney Spears phenomenon and she says she's a virgin, but she's also very sexually explicit. I'm not judging or being critical. She's a friend of Michael's actually, but I just bringing up that point. And I quoted you from Time Magazine. So you said you weren't sure about the quote because that...
6:26🔗Shmuley BoteachNo, the one where he said that the whole early puberty phenomenon might be induced by the sexually explicit material that adolescents are sort of consuming. And I asked you what you thought about the phenomenon and you said, it scares me to death.
6:39🔗DrewYeah, absolutely, but there's a whole story attached to that though. It does scare me that it could be a possibility. It needs to be studied. And that's what I said to Time Magazine. Then they quoted me as taking that position and saying, that's the way it is.
6:52🔗AdamSo, what you're saying is that early puberty is being like, puberty is being jumpstarted by sexuality in the culture?
7:00🔗DrewI think that's worth studying. And the problem, it's a very complex issue. It turns out early puberty is not occurring.
7:07🔗DrewIt's not occurring. Menarche has not changed in 200 years. It was purely a nutritional issue, it's set. Pre-puberty is decreasing. Breast-bud, pubic hair, which is an adrenal gland mediated phenomenon, not ovarian, which is very interesting. But then again, that still could also be evoked by something in the environment.
7:32🔗AdamBut you just talked about breast development and pubic hair, that's sort of how society judges puberty, but not ovarian production and that kind of stuff.
7:41🔗DrewThe reason I take issue with this is the Time Magazine article went on to discuss estrogens, which is the ovarian issue, which is not what this is about. This is about the adrenal gland.
7:48🔗Shmuley BoteachBut there was that woman who was quoted as saying that when a dog sees... sorry, when a person sees food, they salivate. So there is...
7:54🔗DrewOh, of course. We are profoundly affected by that.
7:56🔗Shmuley BoteachSo when you see something very sexual, Adam?
8:14🔗AdamIt's like everything that's bad for you. Booze, cigarettes, you never get your fill. You know how many times I vomited from drinking and announced the next morning never again? Only to vomit the next weekend? That's the beauty of me. Melissa?
8:31🔗CallerUm, not much. Well, um, my parents divorced when I was like two, one, real young. I don't remember. Um, and they had a real big custody battle. Like, I think it was like four years or something. Anyways, um...
8:48🔗DrewWho were you living with during that four years?
8:54🔗DrewMom must have been, mom must have been a mess then.
8:56🔗CallerYeah, mom was into drugs and, because, I don't know, she was having trouble getting her life together. And because of issues when she was younger. And anyways, the court, you know, said I'm to live with my dad and my dad has raised me and he's been a very good father. Until like two years ago, recently. He owned his own business. And if you notice him not owning your own business and it not working out, you have lots of stress. And it totally took a toll on him and he totally changed. And he had like a heart attack. And like he's gotten, he's taken like his stress out on me. And he's like, I'll, you know, do stupid little teenage things, you know, like small little, you know, mistakes and then like he'll hit me sometimes and curse at me and, you know, and like my friends have even witnessed like he'll pull the car over the side and like slap me. And anyways, I'm smart, I think, I guess. So my family, like on my dad's side, they have like real high expectations for me. And I'm going to be going to New Mexico Military Institute for freshman year and high school.
10:18🔗CallerOkay, I'm sorry. Okay. Well, during this time of my dad's stress and everything, I, because of like everything going on in my life, I've gotten into a big depression and I cut myself in time and I've gotten into like doing drugs, like marijuana and speed and totally like not doing what a 14-year-old should be doing. And anyways, I talked to my mom. I've been talking to her a lot because she fought for four years trying to get custody of me. Anyways, we talked and she has like gotten her life straightened out. She's gotten therapy. She's gotten help. She is my brother and my sister.
11:01🔗AdamAll right. Hold on. Hold on a second. Melissa, I'll tell you, it's weird because we usually will never go on this long with somebody spinning a boring yarn.
11:13🔗AdamYou're intelligent and you don't leave gaps for me to jump in and criticize, which I normally do. Plus, I'm tired and a little bit distracted. But we must cut to the chase here. You want to go live with your mom? Is that it?
11:29🔗DrewHere's one question. How many years sober is she?
11:32🔗CallerI'm not too sure. I think it's been like five or six.
11:37🔗DrewIs she working an active program of recovery? Does she have a sponsor? Is she going to meetings?
11:43🔗DrewNo, then don't go back. No, no, no. If she thinks she's over it, do not go back. If she is an active program of recovery, if she's working with a sponsor regularly, go back. But if she believes she's over it, it's for you.
11:57🔗CallerI was going to say, okay, because I was talking to her and I talked about the drugs, I talked about the cutting myself, I talked about everything. And she's gotten her life back on track and taking care of her kids and she has a husband now. She talked to me and she wants me to get therapy and she wants me to come out there and live with her so I can get help. All right, well, wait, wait. Because my dad doesn't care about my disease.
12:32🔗DrewGo see mom, but listen, mom's got to guarantee you she's going to do her work. Because mom's got a ragged history and relapses around the corner dealing with a very difficult 14 year old.
12:41🔗AdamYeah, you know what's amazing is Melissa, 14, who's been to hell and back already, sounded like you're talking to a woman in her 30s.
12:49🔗Shmuley BoteachExactly, you know, I was just about to comment on that. There are no children in America anymore. Whenever people say to me, oh, you hear about this shooting, that shooting, how could kids do this? I said, these aren't kids, these are adults and children's bodies. That's what's so interesting about the pre-puberty phenomenon. There are no kids in America. If being a child means that you look forward to the future, people are profoundly depressed about the future. If being a child means that you're still curious about life, most of these people are already sort of fed up. They think, you know, it's been there, done that, this is cynicism that has already become endemic.
13:17🔗AdamWell, you guys have kids. I mean, Drew's kids are waiting by the fireplace for Santa to come down in July, by the way.
13:24🔗DrewMy daughter is watching Britney Spears and it scares me.
13:26🔗AdamOh, really? She's fine. You know, it's like your kid's in a van with Michael Jackson. That's something to think about. But don't you think that kids from a good family are going to endure this?
13:39🔗Shmuley BoteachKids these days want to grow up. They really feel that being a child is profoundly uncool. It's just amazing. You know, global warming means that you sort of lose two seasons. You just have extremes, winter and summers, no springs, no autumn. That's what life is like. You go from infanthood straight to adulthood. You're right, she's 14 and she's going on 50.
13:58🔗DrewThere's another version. I'm just thinking my boys have this version. Other than Britney Spears, it's professional sports. In their mind, little league, just one just tiny step from Dodger Stadium.
14:10🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, you know, Eric Fromm, the great psychologist said that children, this is 40 years ago, the children are afraid to say they don't know anything anymore. You know, they don't ask, they pretend to know. That was the beginning of it. And today, they're afraid to show that they have not yet grown up. They really think that they're being left behind. And it's troubling, because really, the perfect adult, I think, is when you have a child at your center, instead of being a child with an adult at your center.
15:51🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, let me just jump in here for a second and say that I'll take the Stone Age Prude line here. And I think there is something to what you're saying. Studies show that women say that 87% of the time they have better orgasms masturbating than they do with their husbands. And very few men ever take the time to really understand the female body and really communicate sufficiently to have a pleasurable intimate connection with their wives. Now, you do have a problem. Insofar as she finds pleasuring herself better than being with you, there may be something deficient in your relationship. And I think that is worth exploring. Drew may disagree with me.
16:29🔗Shmuley BoteachI think there is something to talk about. A lot of men don't know what foreplay is. They think it's something made by Black and Decker. You know, they, they... And if you're interested in a strong intimate connection, I think that you have to get naked with her. And nakedness today means something physical. I mean, get emotionally naked. Be prepared to ask the questions that might make you feel very uncomfortable.
18:13🔗Shmuley BoteachBy the way, I mean, on the contrary, for a lot of people, sex orgasm is just a great sedative. And that's why you have to try to make sex more exciting than a sedative. A lot of people use things like, like vibras just to relax. And if you make your relationship, see, maybe there's too much anxiety in your relationship. Maybe there's some sort of angst. And that's why it's so important to discuss this. But have you ever talked to her about this?
18:33🔗AdamWait a minute, let me get him back. Josh? Yeah? Have you spoken to her about this?
18:38🔗Shmuley BoteachOr are we the first people you've discussed this with?
19:03🔗Shmuley BoteachBut having said that, having said that, it should be used with a couple together and not on their own. I don't believe in masturbation. I really don't. I believe that we should have great sex together.
19:12🔗AdamDo you use it through a hole in the sheet or are you allowed to just...
19:14🔗Shmuley BoteachNot only through full body armor, not the hole in the sheet. I'll tell you. Actually, two separate bedrooms through a hole in the wall.
19:20🔗Shmuley BoteachWhere did you get this hole in the sheet thing? You've been watching too many movies.
19:22🔗AdamMy step-grandfather was an old-world Jew. And he was from Hungary. He was like a super, super old-world Jew. And he sat down and explained to me once all the bizarre rituals that have to do with the Jewish faith. And I was fascinated by it. And I think we may have gotten into this a little bit before. But some of the rules about putting metal to your face or shaving and that kind of stuff and the two sets of dishes and the foul and the poultry and the buttermilk and not paying retail and all that stuff. But I'll tell you, it's a religion that's almost like a novelty religion to me. I mean, it's good, but it's funny at the same time. It's definitely one of the funnier religions.
20:13🔗Shmuley BoteachWe have a sense of humor about it. But I will tell you that while all the things you said are true, the sheet thing, I mean, that's the KKK, They Wear Sheets. The Jews do not use sheets. In fact, in Jewish law, you can't have any clothes on when you make love. It's flesh pressed against flesh. Judaism is very erotic.
20:37🔗Shmuley BoteachIf you don't have the hole in the yarmulke, then your horns can't fit through. So you have to make sure, you know.
20:41🔗AdamYeah, you know, and I don't understand. And I, and Drew, please, you know, I'm not just sucking up to the rabbi here. I have said that I love the Jews and I love the gays.
20:53🔗Shmuley BoteachSo you must especially love gay Jews.
20:55🔗AdamThere aren't any. Actually, they're around. Their parents have killed themselves, but they actually exist. No, I love the Jews because they take care of their families. They pay their taxes. They're not criminals. I mean, you go going to any prison, you're not going to find many Jews. All you got to know about this, here's all you need to know. Go to any major prison in any major city. Here's what you got. You got the Crips, you got the Black Gangs, the Bloods, all right? Then you got the Aryan Brotherhood. Those are the whites. Then you got the Mexican Mafia and the Latino guys, and then a sprinkling of Asian dudes have started their own sort of Asian Mafia. There's no such thing as any Beth Hillel mafia in prison. There's no Jew population in prison. That's all you need to know about the Jews. Watch any documentary, watch any movie. You'll never see the Jewish prison population. They don't exist. They're not guards. They're not wardens. It's like Feff. Feff with the whole prison thing. They didn't want to get near it.
21:59🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, but you're also not going to cheer a Jew in the NBA.
22:05🔗AdamAll right. They may not be in the NBA, but they're not in prison either. God bless and these people take care of themselves and take care of their own. And I was talking, who did we have in here? What black woman?
22:15🔗Shmuley BoteachI'm going to vote for you for president, by the way.
22:16🔗AdamWhat was I talking about? Oh, yes. Then they're smart, too. They're smart. They're crafty. But they're smart, the Jews. Who would we have in here, like Queen Latifah or Kim Coles or something? I finally said to her, what is your problem with the Jews?
22:32🔗AdamYeah, these guys, the Jews are traditionally progressive, left-wing types, Democrats. These people were marching next to you. These people have seen strife and seen their people killed and executed. You guys have a lot in common and the Jews are generally pretty good to the blacks, or at least that's what it seems to be. I finally got it out of her. She's jealous.
23:11🔗AdamYou whine and they complain, but the point is, is there was some competition in the complaint department. They didn't like that. You know what I'm talking about?
23:19🔗Shmuley BoteachI debated Reverend Al Sharpton about six weeks ago in New York.
23:24🔗Shmuley BoteachIt was called Blacks and Jews, Brothers of Belligerence, and we sort of really went after each other on stage, and then we went out for dinner at a kosher restaurant. It was like that EF Hutton commercial. You know, he walked in and everything goes silent, and we've become good friends. I just went to see him in prison the other day because, you know, he was arrested for demonstrating in Puerto Rico against a naval bombing site.
23:49🔗AdamOh, okay. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. That was close.
23:54🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, I think that he's very courageous and he has taken up a lot of issues. There are things I completely disagree with him on, obviously, because he has been, there's been a lot of strife between him and the Jewish community. I think he wants to make it right. I think he wants to try to have people understand that he didn't mean offense. And if he did, then he's sorry and wants to move on. So we're trying to do some things together now, actually, we're trying to do a big literacy event in Harlem, our Heel of Kids initiative, giving out books, things like that.
24:20🔗AdamYeah, I don't know what's in it for the blacks to piss off the Jews. It doesn't seem like a great plan.
24:32🔗AdamLess than 2? Jesus, you guys are loud. And I always think about that. I think who are the loudest, who are the loudest for the smallest numbers? I think the Jews got the blacks trumped in that department.
24:54🔗AdamI understand. Let's take ourselves a break. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. I got to get some coffee.
25:00🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, I only come back to hear that. You are the only person who says it right.
25:03🔗AdamThere we go. Let me try. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is here tonight. He is the author of Why Can't I Fall In Love? We will be back with him after this.
25:45🔗AdamWhy can't I fall in love? He is the Rabbi of the Stars. We're glad to have him back on the show. And we could really talk to the Rabbi for hours and hours about just about anything on this show. So we're going to have to force ourselves to power through a few calls tonight. Sean?
26:41🔗DrewDo you want to give your usual spiel about teenagers in the house?
26:44🔗AdamOkay. There's a lot of rabbis, a lot of broken families, a lot of people remarrying later on in life, and you have a 14-year-old guy and a 15-year-old chick or vice versa, and it's like you put them in the house and, hey, this is your brother and this is your sister.
27:03🔗DrewThe week before, there was people trying to date one another.
27:07🔗AdamThe week before, he was looking at her across the classroom getting an erection. Now she's down the hall and he hears the shower running, and he's just had a night of sleeping on his penis.
27:19🔗DrewThese kids that come from these systems have poor boundaries and poor impulse control and have been maybe even in abusive systems at one point or another.
27:27🔗DrewNo, no, no, I'm not saying, Sean, Sean, relax.
27:29🔗AdamI'm just saying I'm surprised this does not happen all the time. I mean, how are you going to prevent this when you take a couple of people whose hormones are popping and put them under the same roof?
27:39🔗Shmuley BoteachBut based on what you're saying, it would follow that as time progressed and they felt a greater kinship and grew more accustomed to each other, the attraction would diminish. Right.
27:48🔗AdamBut this guy was banging her on day one, so that never happened. I mean, how long did it take for you guys to get together?
27:53🔗Shmuley BoteachYou used this euphemism. You said a bit of a relationship. How much is a bit?
27:57🔗CallerWell, we've been together probably about, I don't know, eight or nine times. She wants me to come up to school this weekend and spend the weekend with her, and I'm like really nervous about this.
28:11🔗DrewYeah. I think how awful these boundary issues are. This is family member now you're getting involved with. You really are getting intimate with this one.
28:20🔗CallerYeah, I think I do. I don't know yet, I mean.
28:24🔗DrewAnd what happens if this doesn't work out? Imagine how awkward, how awful. I mean, Adam, what do you want to do? The first thing you want to do when you end a relationship with someone that really was over.
28:35🔗AdamOh, not see them anymore? Well, look, I have a stepsister who regrettably I don't get to have sex with, but if I did, I see her once every year and a half or something is no big deal. You know what I mean? I mean, yeah, it's going to make for a uncomfortable Thanksgiving, but look at it this way. She's off at college. He's off doing something else. You guys come together a few times a year for a holiday. But the point is, you've gotten together with your exes.
29:01🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, but that's a shame because here he could be close to a potential sister and he's going to avoid her because of all this awkwardness.
29:47🔗AdamAll right. Well, well, I don't know, should he go up there and figure it out?
29:51🔗CallerI mean, how do you say, you know, yeah, I'm sure the pork was wonderful tonight. And by the way, mom, I've got your daughter pregnant.
29:58🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, something as awkward as that sounds, I really think this is time to sort of very gently bring in the parents because it's getting serious. It's not something you can even, you know, this is something that has to be discussed, however painful.
30:19🔗Shmuley BoteachNo, this is something that the family has to consult on and mature decisions have to be made by people with experience.
30:25🔗AdamI just could not imagine sitting down with, but my stepmom didn't like me anyway. I couldn't imagine telling her I got her daughter pregnant. Caleb? Caleb?
30:49🔗DrewWell, the thing about the PPD is it's usually... No, no, no, not PPD, tuberculosis. Yeah, PPD is the tuberculosis skin test. So you're talking about the skin test for tuberculosis, not BCG, the sort of internationally used vaccine that doesn't work with it, Adam?
31:03🔗CallerNo, yeah, they shot me for a tuberculosis test.
31:07🔗DrewPPD. And this was... When were you doing this?
31:10🔗CallerThis was during the flu season, just this year.
31:12🔗DrewAnd you're supposed to get your flu shot in the fall, not during flu season.
31:19🔗DrewSo this happened months ago and you've been fine, right?
31:21🔗CallerYeah, I've been fine, but I wanted to know if there was anything.
31:23🔗DrewNo, the problem is that if you had had TB, primary TB particularly, and you started to react to all that, boy, you can get quite a reaction, but no, you should be fine. And you're fine now, so what are you concerned about?
31:35🔗CallerI don't know. I was just saying possibly in the future if there was something.
31:37🔗DrewNo, nothing I'm aware of, no. The other problem is usually it's a tenth of a cc, and this is a half a cc, excuse me, a tenth, they give you a half a cc for the flu vaccine, so it's five times the dose that you normally get for a skin test.
31:50🔗AdamSo they gave him five times of the TB skin test.
31:54🔗DrewThe other thing is this TB skin test is intradermal, and the other one is intramuscular, and so it's a weird difference, but that's fine.
32:16🔗DrewNot really. At the end, I'll try to talk about the complexities and he'll announce the truth towards the end somewhere. It's like he did just that. Hey, Caleb, you're fine.
32:23🔗Shmuley BoteachRelax. I mean, Adam looked really lonely during that question.
32:26🔗AdamI'm interested. I'm interested in how stuff works usually in the intro and outro stuff. There's some terminology that always confuses me.
32:56🔗Yes, I am. I'm a conservative Jew, but I think when I'm older, I'm going to be orthodox. And so I'm kind of like...
33:02🔗DrewShe doesn't plan to give up the weed. And should it be on a bong or there's some ritual that goes with it?
33:07🔗I don't smoke now and I haven't, but I'm thinking about it. And I kind of like to, but I don't want to regret it later.
33:17🔗Shmuley BoteachFirst of all, you have to make sure the weed is kosher. Right. That's a joke. If I were you, I would really stick to the matzah balls and the chopped liver. You know, I was the rabbi to the students at Oxford University in England for 11 years. And everyone tells me, you know, weed is not serious. I saw so many students, in my opinion, become mentally slower. And they smoked a lot. I know students used to smoke two, three hours a day. And it had, in my opinion, had a really serious and permanent effect. I mean, why would you want to start anything like that? I mean, the mind is quite a precious organ. And to fill it up with anything like that, if you need a stimulant, read a great book. Find really exciting things that are healthy, that are life-affirming, that you don't have to be afraid of becoming dependent on them because they don't drag you down.
34:03🔗AdamWhat if she compromises and smokes a good buck?
34:09🔗Shmuley BoteachAs long as it's one of my books.
34:10🔗DrewIs there anything in Judaism about mind-altering sums or addictions?
34:13🔗Shmuley BoteachAbsolutely. They're completely prohibited and forbidden. We're very, very careful. I mean, to us, the first obligation of our religion, actually, is to preserve and protect our health. That's why every...
35:22🔗Shmuley BoteachI used to get very upset when the students in Oxford would... They'd always try to hide it when I walked into the room. You can't exactly hide a stench. Those tea leaves. I was burning tea leaves. It was a Native American ritual.
35:33🔗DrewAnd a bong shaped like the Statue of Liberty.
35:35🔗AdamAnd you had a lot of Jewish students that smoked a lot of weed?
35:39🔗Shmuley BoteachThere were Jewish and non-Jewish students, but yes, Jewish students as well, of course. And they always say to me, it's no big deal, you know, it's just grass.
35:45🔗DrewIt is no big deal if they're doing it once a month. It's no big deal. Really, it isn't.
35:49🔗Shmuley BoteachBut I think these are the kind of things that become more than once a month. Look, so many people today live with a lot of anxiety, a lot of pressure, and they don't know how to find a healthy way to release that pressure. They find unhealthy ways, and that's why I think people like marijuana. And it's a great shame, because I think you can achieve, as I said, the same kind of stimulant, but a great conversation with a friend or something like that. We all need a release. Let's find a healthy way to do it.
36:08🔗AdamYeah. I'll tell you, I'm really down with the Jews and their beliefs. First off, you know how much I hate to shave, right, Drew? Oh, there you go. And I'll tell you, there's two things in life I hate. Shaving and working on a Saturday. And these are both things that the Jews... I went down and visited some Hasidic Jews on Fairfax a year and a half ago to do some man show bit. It was Tuesday, middle of the day, and these guys are all just plotting around eating. And I'm like, hey, what are you guys doing? They're like, we can't work. I was like, why not? We got to study. They're like, really? It's Tuesday. It's the middle of the goddamn week. You can't go to work? Nope. It's forbidden. And I thought, wow, this is for me. This is great.
36:51🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, this is what you should be doing. Instead of smoking weed, you should be eating.
36:56🔗AdamThis guy had a weird... I was wrapping my hand with something and he had a weird box I strapped in my head or my arm. I mean, it was a tremendous waste of time, but it was great. It was like a club for guys. We didn't have to work and no one really hassled them. You know, no one like came in and ate dead beats, get off your ass, let's get to work, let's go now. No, because when it's a religion, people sort of leave you alone.
37:21🔗Shmuley BoteachWait a second, and you call this Loveline work? You're having the time of your life, you call this work?
37:26🔗AdamThat's true, this is not work. Now, if I was to be orthodox Jew and I wanted to be clean-shaven, would I have to use a depilatory and a stick or something? I couldn't put metal to my face, right?
37:40🔗Shmuley BoteachYou could only use masking tape, attach it to your beard and we rip.
37:58🔗AdamRight. But an electric knife? No problem.
38:01🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, it's because some of the rabbis say that an electric knife doesn't actually... It doesn't uproot or damage or things like that.
38:06🔗AdamAt what point do you guys just start laughing hysterically at yourselves?
38:10🔗Shmuley BoteachOnly when you're in the room.
38:28🔗AdamYes, it is Loveline. I'm Adam Carolla. That is Dr. Drew over there. Phone number 1-800-LOVE-191. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is here. He is the author of Why Can't I Fall In Love? He is very knowledgeable about relationships. He also has a few celebrity friends. What's the name of the group that you and Michael Jackson run?
38:57🔗Shmuley BoteachWe're trying to get parents to re-prioritize their children, which means simply all the things that we were lucky to grow up with that American kids don't, dinner with your parents, read a bedtime story, Sundays off without parents, answering cell phones, doing e-mail, just to feel that you're the center of your parents' lives, that you have unconditional love and you don't have to do anything to earn it.
39:32🔗Shmuley BoteachAnd he's also a very humble guy. He's been very kind to us in helping us steer and guide this whole initiative. And I took him to meet Michael and talk about things and I mean, his whole, his whole approach is the need for nurturing care.
39:46🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah. He says three hours a day, the parents have to be with the kids three hours a day. Each parent.
39:50🔗DrewSo it was the one third solution, right? Wasn't that what he said? Yeah. Don't you agree that this country's got the worst problem in this, of the industrialized?
39:58🔗Shmuley BoteachNo question about it. I mean, kids that are being raised by Nintendo and by MTV. Yeah. Well. And with you guys at MTV, it wasn't so bad because, you know, it was so funny. You were wise. It was great. But ever since you guys went...
40:17🔗CallerWell, about three years ago, I dated a girl for about six months. And we ended up getting engaged, probably within about three months of the relationship. And six months into it, I realized that I was way too young, and I had to back out and I wanted to wait till later.
40:43🔗DrewAnd so you have some judgment. Good. What's it?
40:56🔗CallerEver since then, I've just been thinking about her a lot. And we've had a few chats within the past six months or so, wanting to get back together. So I was wondering if it would be OK to go back together.
41:31🔗CallerShe lives 350 miles away in Spokane, Washington.
41:35🔗Shmuley BoteachAll right. After I just witnessed this resurrection of Travis on the phone line, why do you want to get married at 15? Don't you? Don't you want to be a kid? Before you have responsibilities and mortgages.
41:50🔗Shmuley BoteachBut even 19 is young, Travis.
41:52🔗DrewWell, now he's just lonely and horny, I think, is what it breaks down to. Anyway, he knew that was a good thing for him, and they're talking again.
41:58🔗AdamTravis, you thought there was a possibility that you could score out on your own and you realize that that ain't happening now, right?
42:04🔗CallerNo, actually, I got... became very sexually active after I...
43:02🔗Shmuley BoteachYou forgot about the beard. You forgot about the guilt. That's the main thing.
43:05🔗AdamOh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll tell you. My Jewish step-grandfather, God bless him, he was the only one in the family, did any cooking, any cleaning, anything at all.
43:16🔗AdamAnything, anything. He made lunches, made dinners. The guy was great, but he did get you with the guilt a little. And here's the way he would get you. It would be great. Like it was subtle. Here's good Jewish guilt. Like I'd go visit him and then I'd go, well, grandpa, I gotta be getting back to work. So I gotta leave now. You're going to leave? Yes. They make say it eight times. Yeah, I gotta leave. I gotta get back to work. So you're going? Yes, I'm leaving. You're leaving now?
43:43🔗DrewYou're leaving me alone here in this house? Alone?
43:46🔗AdamThat's right. Like they really make you go back and revisit it a couple of times. It's not, you talk to Goiam, you can say once, I'm leaving and you get to leave.
43:55🔗Shmuley BoteachGrandpa, you're making me feel guilty.
44:06🔗CallerWell, I have my dad and well, he's been a non-alcoholic for seven years and he's going to AA meetings. He has a sponsor and he starts saying things to me and my brother who's 16 saying stuff like, you guys make me want to go back and drinking. And he sounds really serious.
44:25🔗DrewYou know what, Alex? He probably is serious. That is, you know, the stress does put alcoholics at risk, but he's got a solid program going on. It is completely unfair of him and untrue for him to make you responsible for his disorder.
44:39🔗CallerWell, he also just tried to stop smoking. He's doing it right now.
44:49🔗DrewYou go to Alateen, Alex. That's what you need to do. His disease is a little bit active right now. You might want to talk to his sponsor if you have a relationship with him at all, because it's not okay for him to do this to you. It's true. It's true that stress does put alcoholics at risk for relapse, but as long as he's working his program, he'll be okay, but you got to work some too.
45:07🔗CallerDo you know what I can do to say to him?
45:18🔗AdamYeah. Adam, good times. Hey, good times there, buddy. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, look at it this way. The guy, and Drew, we've never spoken about this, I don't believe, but the guy, he's drinking and he's smoking, so he gives up booze five years ago, and he's doing all right with that, and he's doing pretty good, he's staying with the program, now he decides to give up another vice. And when he gives up that other vice, or attempts to give up that other vice, he now gets sort of thrust back into the booze a little bit too, right? I mean, not that he's drinking, but that he's feeling vulnerable, now he's having to give something up, and some of the other stuff he gave up may be cropping up too, right? Yeah. Yeah?
45:57🔗DrewIt's a little more complicated than that, but yeah, I'll give you, I don't want to get into it with you, so I'll let you have it.
46:01🔗AdamThank you. You know, I'm a genius. Rabbi Shmuley is our guest tonight. We will take ourselves a little break.
46:06🔗DrewThe board went out, then we came back on again. There we go.
46:23🔗AdamIt is Loveline. I'm Adam Corolla. That is Dr. Drew over there.
46:28🔗DrewAnd all of your friends at the Yeshiva will know Weezer.
46:30🔗AdamPhone number, 1-800-LOVE-191, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is here tonight. Why Can't I Fall In Love is the name of his book, The Rabbi. Like most Jewish folk, have something to say. And I'll tell you, during the commercials here, we just take turns yelling at each other, me and Drew, and the Rabbi. And I was just thinking, it's not enough time this four or five minutes.
46:54🔗DrewNo, I got to pee too, and I haven't done that in an hour.
46:56🔗AdamThat is a huge compliment. Yeah, massive.
46:59🔗DrewYou understand? My prostate is going to explode.
47:03🔗Shmuley BoteachI'm honored. I want a plaque saying that if I can get one.
47:07🔗DrewNormally, how do I, what, every 20 minutes we're in there?
47:16🔗CallerI have a three and a half year old son and he's the result of a rape. I was wondering, what am I going to tell him when he asks where his daddy is?
47:27🔗AdamWell, don't tell him he's a product of rape. Is that something that was in your plans?
47:43🔗DrewNo, because I could see from a hell standpoint, I could see advantages and disadvantages to both. Just saying nothing. I think saying nothing is probably the best thing, but I don't think you could get away with it.
47:51🔗Shmuley BoteachI think you could get away with it until at least the child is old enough and sure enough and having felt loved enough to absorb it, but certainly to tell him at any age. I think let him discover it on his own and not tell him. I mean, what can you possibly gain in telling him?
48:06🔗AdamOh yeah. Look, here's what you tell him, Sherry. He died jumping on a grenade in a desert storm. He was in a foxhole with four or five of his comrades. A grenade rolled in and he dove on it and took one for the team. You cannot tell him he's a product of rape. That's just going to ruin the kid. Is there any male figure in his life now?
49:19🔗Shmuley BoteachYou're just not telling the whole truth.
49:21🔗AdamRight. Lying. You didn't... Right. Things didn't work out. You're right. And now he's in No, don't. Sherry, please do not burden him with this. All right. Okay. All right. And I know.
49:37🔗AdamWell, here's what I have to say about this, Sherry. You may have some unresolved energy and issues with this. That's for you to resolve. Right? It has nothing to do with your child.
49:50🔗Shmuley BoteachDid you know the rapist before?
49:52🔗CallerWell, I wasn't like friends with him or nothing. I just saw him a couple of times. I worked for an apartment complex that he lived in. And so I saw him when he came in and paid rent.
50:57🔗CallerThe state went after him for child support.
50:59🔗AdamGood. Now that's better. Better that he should do that than sit in prison and not pay you. Yeah. All right? All right. Not a Jew though, right?
51:09🔗CallerActually, my grandmother on my father's side is Jewish and my grandmother on my mother's side is Jewish.
51:49🔗AdamI'm going to put it on hold because something's killing me.
51:52🔗DrewSchool is still out a little bit on exactly how safe polyurethane is. They are probably quite safe, probably nearly as safe as latex. A lot of concern these days about latex allergies. I just read another big article about that. People are concerned about that. Polyurethane is a good option if you can't tolerate latex.
52:36🔗CallerI chose neither. I chose, you know, basically, you know, the non-religious thing. And lately, I've been finding that I would like to become more Jewish. I was wondering if you had any recommendations of resources for stuff like that.
52:49🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, the first thing is you have to add a ha sound to your last name so that, as Adam does here with me.
53:21🔗Shmuley BoteachSo you're asking how you go about finding out more?
53:24🔗DrewYes. Sit down with the rabbi at that synagogue.
53:27🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, I think you should go to the synagogue. I think there's some great books out. You know, here in LA., Dennis Prager is very popular on the radio. He wrote a great book called The Nine Questions People Ask Most About Judaism. I wrote a book called An Intelligent Versus Guide to Judaism. Sold really well. My mother bought a copy. And then two more for her friends. And the web is a great tool. But there's nothing better than just actually being part of a community. And there's so many educational outreach organizations. So explore any or all of them. There's Chabad, there's Asha Torah, et cetera. Okay.
53:58🔗Shmuley BoteachChabad is where I was educated. It's an international Jewish educational organization that sends emissaries to the most distant shores to try to open communities.
54:05🔗DrewBut they have all kinds of interesting community services. I've sent them to...
54:09🔗Shmuley BoteachRight, like in Oxford, I... But they have recovery programs that are excellent. They do. They have an outstanding national addiction recovery program here in Los Angeles.
54:19🔗AdamWhat is the... I may have brought this up last time you were here, but the Southern California Jewish Center... Is it Jewish Center? Your gift of hope is a great deduction. First off, I never stop laughing. I laugh my ass off every time I hear that.
54:44🔗AdamAnd the other thing that's great about it, Southern California Jewish Center... Yeah, it must be... Now, okay, a couple of questions, a couple of comments and some questions.
54:55🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, I think that the Jewish people exist only to entertain you, by the way.
54:59🔗Shmuley BoteachGod called us forth from nothingness into existence just so that you could have your...
55:06🔗DrewI've never heard Adam say anything is really funny.
55:09🔗AdamThat is hysterical. Your gift of hope is a great deduction, Southern California Jewish Center. And while all the other non-profit organizations are trying to get a dented can of garbanzo beans, these people are asking for land. If you want to donate land, RVs, boats, commercial properties, holy... Aircraft.
55:47🔗Shmuley BoteachIt's something, they usually, it's probably like a 70-30, 70-domestic 30-year Israel, or it could be Jews in the Soviet Union or other poor countries.
55:56🔗AdamI always assume that because I think Jews are doing pretty well...
56:00🔗Shmuley BoteachThere are poor Jews, by the way. I've met them, yes. In this country? There are plenty of poor Jews. They just don't revolve in your circles, Adam.
56:31🔗Shmuley BoteachShe would have been very upset if she didn't have a bot mitzvah.
56:33🔗AdamWasn't this trumped up, this female bar mitzvah in the 60s or something?
56:38🔗Shmuley BoteachIt didn't exist for a thousand years. Your problems with the bot mitzvah, what about the bar mitzvah? It used to be this religious ceremony, the kid reads from the Torah. Today, I used to go to Star Wars bar mitzvahs when I was a kid. I mean, C-3PO coming with a tallis saying, I don't know. I mean, I've seen some wild bar mitzvahs. This wasn't the plan.
56:56🔗AdamWell, I'll tell you, if I was in charge of the Jews, which I may be, soon.
57:03🔗AdamKing of the Jews, I would immediately do some work on the bar mitzvah things. As far as bar mitzvah has turned into tail hook, essentially. It used to be a very religious. It used to be a very religious-based ceremony, and now it's just turned into bucks and themes, and you got the Mets or you got Star Wars or whatever your team is, whatever your theme is. Now, the women are doing it. I would raise the age to 19, because if you've seen a 13-year-old Jewish boy, with the braces and the nappy hair and the skinny arms, there's no way is he a man who's got to get a ride home from his parents. He can't drink for another eight years. And I would eliminate the bot mitzvah, because there's no such thing as a young Jewish woman becoming a young Jewish man. The math doesn't work on it.
57:53🔗Shmuley BoteachI think you and Drew, you should start doing bar mitzvahs. Why don't you do bar mitzvahs?
59:20🔗AdamYeah, so go down to Planned Parenthood and grab some out of the fishbowl in the front.
59:24🔗DrewNo, no, he should... It all bogged down at the end of the whole.com situation, but we got bought by Dr. Coop, so it's now a drcoop.com company. And they are going to resurrect a lot of those services, and probably in the next couple of weeks, in fact. So check it out again, Robbie.
59:40🔗CallerOkay, I'm sure you're all familiar with the flavored alcoholic beverages. Yeah.
59:46🔗DrewYou mean like lemonade vodka, lemon vodka kind of thing?
59:50🔗CallerAnd since all those flavors have like a lot of sugar in them, I was wondering if that was like a variation of the yummy phase that Adam has been talking about.
1:00:00🔗DrewNo, no, even Kevin and me, they're not drinking yummy vodka.
1:00:04🔗AdamNo, but all, listen, all those sweet booze drinks, the flavored wines, the wild berry wines, the wine coolers, all the daiquiri-type drinks, they're all, were invented to get chicks drunk.
1:00:18🔗DrewBut now they have like blackberry, but they have real hard liquors that have a slight flavor, you know, blackberry vodka.
1:00:23🔗AdamNo, but he's not talking about that. He's talking about like Mike's hard lemonade and that Zima and all that stuff that's basically has the alcohol content of beer, but it has, you know, 12 teaspoons of sugar in it, a bunch of lemon flavoring, and it's so kids can get drunk. Kids and girls can get drunk.
1:00:41🔗Shmuley BoteachGot it. I think Robbie should get into Kosher sacramental wine, actually. Comes with a screw top and...
1:00:51🔗AdamAnd it is really... Manischewitz is really sweet stuff, right? I mean, that's almost like the kind of Boone's farm wine.
1:01:00🔗Shmuley BoteachWe use to tile our bathrooms at home at Manischewitz.
1:01:02🔗AdamYeah, I mean, it's really sappy, syrupy... Syrupy stuff, right?
1:01:07🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, you put it on your pancakes, it's good stuff. No one knows who invented this Kosher kiddish wine stuff, but it is seriously harmful.
1:01:14🔗AdamIs there a good bottle of Kosher wine?
1:01:16🔗Shmuley BoteachNo, no, there are. Even Manischewitz is a good wine.
1:01:42🔗AdamNo, we never... I never did do that matzah hiding nonsense, but I think we did leave a plate open for Elijah once or something. Oh, who knows? Mike?
1:01:54🔗CallerYeah. Well, I have a... It's kind of a question, not too many people's... A drug... A question about a drug not too many people seem to know a lot about.
1:02:20🔗CallerBasically, I have no money for methadone treatment or any type of withdrawal treatment or anything. So what do I do?
1:02:30🔗DrewCheck with county facilities. Because usually there are county funded beds at most and many programs. Somewhere there are beds available. You may have to wait quite some time for it, where they can put you in and detox you, and realize that detox is the easiest thing you're going to go through. As miserable as it is, it's nothing compared to the work you have to do to get over the addictive disease and stay sober.
1:02:50🔗AdamOh, and what can he do in the meantime? And what if he's six months off of a bed?
1:03:02🔗DrewWhat are you taking? Forty-five twice a day? Something like that? Yeah. A little more.
1:03:07🔗CallerI mean, I spaced it out through the course of about 24 hours.
1:03:10🔗DrewWhat's the... How many milligrams per tablet you have?
1:03:12🔗CallerThey go from 20, 40, and 80 milligram tablets.
1:03:15🔗DrewSo you have 24s and 80s. Yeah. Okay. Try to cut it down by 10% roughly, say, every three to five days, okay? Take a slow taper, see if you can do that. If you can't do that, realize there's no chance of doing anything other than a cold turkey and just get a bit somewhere.
1:03:36🔗CallerWhat I've tried in the past, I've tried other types of painkillers like...
1:04:10🔗AdamOkay. Now, you're suggesting that he crushed that up and not crushed a whole pill up. Is that what you're saying?
1:04:18🔗DrewI'm suggesting you try to cut it down. He's got 20, 40, and 80-milligram pills. He's probably doing 40s four times a day in reality. Try to get it down.
1:04:27🔗CallerMy biggest problem, if I go for, say, more than 12 hours, we're talking like...
1:04:31🔗DrewYou'll have withdrawal, bad withdrawal.
1:04:34🔗DrewListen, let's not mess around here. You need to try to cut it down as best you can and get into a hospital and get detoxed. You're totally wasting your time on anything else. You might as well. It's the same thing as heroin. You might as well be slamming large doses of heroin because it's the same biology.
1:04:49🔗AdamWhat is Oxycontin? What is it? Is it a painkiller?
1:04:52🔗DrewYeah. It's Percocet, and long-acting Percocet, high dose.
1:05:02🔗AdamTrue. Just because I have to talk about this stuff all the time and I'm not familiar with all the drugs, why don't you bring one of everything in? And let me just see if I can familiarize myself with it.
1:05:11🔗DrewIf you guys are going to knock you on your ass you'll be quiet during part of the program.
1:05:28🔗CallerOkay, I started talking to this girl about a month ago and I've seen her about five times and she's, I'm talking to her about two weeks ago. I told her I kind of liked her on the phone and I kind of had a boner when I told her that, so you know how it makes you say things you don't really want to.
1:05:43🔗AdamYeah, no. I started my mom the other night.
1:05:57🔗CallerAll right, I told her that I kind of liked her and I wanted to go out with her and pursue a relationship.
1:06:04🔗AdamWhy were you talking to her on the phone?
1:06:06🔗CallerBecause she lives a little like maybe 15 miles away and I wouldn't say it to her face because it's like...
1:06:13🔗DrewNo, why did you call her in the first place? Why did you speak to her in the first place? Why did you call her? What was the pretense for the phone call?
1:06:20🔗CallerI just wanted to talk to her, I guess.
1:06:23🔗CallerWell, she's one of my older sister's friends.
1:06:27🔗DrewI see, and you just found the number and called her up?
1:06:29🔗CallerWell, actually, my older sister is like, yeah, she likes you, and I'm like, oh my god. And I was like, I was kind of stoked because she's older than me. And I was like, yeah, I think the girl likes me.
1:06:38🔗AdamAll right, hold on. I'll tell you, we have the world's dumbest callers to this show. Why did you call her? I wanted to talk to her. No. You know what I'm saying?
1:06:58🔗DrewYou know, it's funny, one of my sons just like went through a rapid phase of growth last couple of weeks and he started abstracting all of a sudden. I noticed it when I say, you want to come out and play baseball, but you stand there, let's play baseball, let's go, let's go, let's go. This time he went, I'll be outside and meet you in five minutes.
1:07:14🔗AdamRight. Travis has not yet reached the point that your seven-year-old son has reached. Okay. All right, Travis. So you call her because you want to talk to her. Yeah.
1:07:24🔗CallerAnd then she started like saying stuff that she wouldn't usually tell other people or other guys and kind of...
1:07:29🔗AdamRight. Yeah. And you asked her out on a date?
1:07:31🔗CallerNo, I didn't ask her out. I just said I liked her.
1:07:35🔗CallerSo, and then like, that was about two weeks ago. And lately, about a week and a half, she's been calling like 15 times a day and bugging the hell out of me. And I never really liked her in the first place.
1:08:03🔗Shmuley BoteachI'd actually say that since you started, you initiated this through the phone call, you shouldn't get someone else to do your dirty work. You should be very mature and say, you know, I made a mistake. I'm sorry if I misled you or led you on. You know, whatever. This isn't right. I don't feel the same way. I'm sorry if I hurt you. And just be a man and heal the love wounds. But don't run from it and don't complain that she, you know, you started this. Now you're complaining she's calling. Take responsibility.
1:08:28🔗AdamAnd this time, beat off before you call. It removes that sense of urgency. Dude, it is. It's true. You know, it's funny.
1:08:38🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, you know, you know, you see, I make the statements, you give the commentary.
1:08:41🔗AdamSo, yeah, I'm sure that Michael Jackson, why don't you? I'll take up with you. We'll get something done. You know, I don't know why it's just ran through my mind, but you know, it's funny. And I know you guys aren't going to come to this, but it happens to me from time to time. Once in a while, I'll be whacking off just in the middle of the day, you know, four in the afternoon or something, the phone will ring and I'll be interrupted. And I'll pick the phone up and I'll be angry at the person that calls. But I can't really explain to them why I'm angry at them. I'm just irritated at them. And it's so funny.
1:09:14🔗DrewThis is really, you should not have said this. You should not have told this story because eight out of ten times that I call you, you're angry. And now every time I'll be, oh, holy Christ, what have I gotten into here?
1:09:24🔗Shmuley BoteachForget about that. What about when he's on the radio and he sounds so angry?
1:09:28🔗AdamIt's really funny though. And then I'll hang the phone up and I'll go, Jesus Christ, you got to call and ask me that at four. It's four in the afternoon. Come on now. Have some decency. All right.
1:09:40🔗Shmuley BoteachBut at this age, teenagers have got to learn how to treat a woman even if you're 16. And you can't just start things and later, I just change my mind. These are people. You can't break people's hearts and act with impunity and leave all these scars.
1:09:55🔗AdamWell, as we were talking about off the air with the rabbis, sometimes on the air, it's a sort of get what you can get world at this point. Other people don't really exist except for to serve you. And if you want somebody to have sex with, fine, then they exist. And if you all of a sudden don't want them for any reason, then they don't exist. But there's no sense of how is this person feeling? What did I make them feel like? What is my responsibility in this? And how can I rectify it? It's just I'll just dodge the calls and hopefully she'll go away. Maybe she'll kill herself. OK, speaking of killing yourself, we got to take a break. And Drew's got to...
1:10:37🔗AdamDrew, you got a whiz, right? All right, we'll be back.
1:10:47🔗Hi, I'm Rob Schneider. You're listening to Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew on Loveline, my favorite show. You're doing it.
1:10:54🔗AdamYes, you is. It is Loveline. I'm Adam Carolla. Dr. Drew over there. Phone number 1-800-LOVE-191.
1:11:00🔗DrewThe movie's doing OK, isn't it, Rob? I don't know.
1:11:03🔗AdamI haven't been so busy lately. I haven't heard anything about that. Coming up on Loveline in the next days and weeks, the cult's going to be in here, Trickey's going to be here, Dave Navarro, Pennywise, 311. Lots of good bands tonight. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Why Can't I Fall in Love, is the name of his book. The Rabbi's a very wise man, and I suggest that you read what he has to say. Let's get back to the phones and speak to Dave. It's 41. Dave?
1:11:36🔗CallerThis is for the Rabbi. I have a dilemma. I married to a wonderful person, and she's not a Jew. I'm a Jew. And now she likes to have a kid. And when we got married, we agreed that if she liked to have a kid, she must convert to be a Jew. And now she doesn't like to convert to be a Jew.
1:11:58🔗Shmuley BoteachAnd you want to know what you should do?
1:12:06🔗Shmuley BoteachOkay. Right. Well, it's a serious issue, because if she is not Jewish, your children, at least in the Jewish community, will not be Jewish.
1:12:19🔗Shmuley BoteachI don't believe, I don't know, I don't believe in ripping apart marriages for reasons such as these. And what you really have to do, I think, is at least persuade her to go and talk to a rabbi together, someone who might be able to explain to her what this all entails and what her requirements for her would be so she can make an informed decision. Have you done that?
1:12:38🔗CallerYes, I try. And she went along for a long time. Then she realized to be a Jew, she must give up Jesus as her savior. And then she got scared and she changed her mind.
1:12:49🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, what you can do is force her to convert, because first of all, the conversion is invalid. And secondly, that's not really respectful. You marry a woman, suddenly say, I don't like you the way you are. And for the sake of the kid, you suddenly have to change. That's not love, that's love on your terms.
1:13:02🔗AdamWhat about the Jews for Jesus? Are they a bunch of crackpots?
1:13:06🔗Shmuley BoteachI debated the head of Jews for Jesus on Larry King a little while ago, and I've now challenged him to a public debate, and I hope he'll do it. We've been corresponding about the terms of the debate.
1:13:14🔗AdamAre there other, is it Jews for Jesus?
1:13:16🔗Shmuley BoteachJews for Jesus is like Muslims for Buddha or Americans for Stalin. I mean, come on, these are two totally incompatible systems.
1:13:27🔗AdamIncluding myself. The Jews, while they like Jesus, don't look at him as a Messiah, right?
1:13:35🔗Shmuley BoteachWe look at Jesus, many look at Jesus as someone who had inspired ethical teachings, but in the end of the day, he still went against traditional Jewish teachings. He's certainly not Messiah, and he's certainly not the son of God, because we don't believe that anybody is the son of God. My mother's opinion of me notwithstanding.
1:13:54🔗Shmuley BoteachThe Messiah in Judaism is nothing but a great leader who will persuade the nations of the world to beat their swords into plowshares, bring peace. He is a mortal person. He's just a man. But he's a great man.
1:14:09🔗Shmuley BoteachNo, he's not arrived yet. And we know he hasn't arrived because the main thing is world peace. And judging from the events in the Middle East, there ain't no world peace.
1:14:17🔗AdamRight. So he has not arrived yet. And he didn't arrive in the form of Jesus. Now, your wife, like many religions, and I don't know what religion is your wife right now, Dave?
1:14:28🔗CallerShe is seven day, seven day, Ebony. Oh, boy.
1:14:31🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, there's a lot in common in the seven day events in the Jews. But look, A, you can't force her to become a Jew because that's disrespectful and it's not valid. B, you've got to work this out because you guys will fight over how to raise the baby. And that's going to undermine the marriage anyway. And that you don't want either. C, Adam's solution of Jews or Jesus is not a solution.
1:14:49🔗AdamWhy not? She's Jewish and she still gets to keep Jesus.
1:14:54🔗Shmuley BoteachBecause it's not, it not only is it not workable, it's not real. These are incompatible doctrines, which are tiny little insignificant.
1:15:01🔗AdamTell that to the Jews for Jesus people. They look at themselves as Jews.
1:15:05🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, okay, the American Communist Party looked at themselves as valid as well. Capitalism, Communism, a totally different system.
1:15:12🔗AdamI think marriage means compromise. You could slide her in on a technicality here.
1:15:16🔗Shmuley BoteachBut a compromise here was that she had a sex change operation, become a man or something. I mean, you're talking about for us, at least in our belief system.
1:15:22🔗AdamReally struck a nerve here with the Jews for Jesus. You hear that? Wow. It's going nuts here.
1:15:26🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know how to get me, you know how to get me.
1:15:28🔗AdamAll right, but let me ask some real questions. How long does it take someone to convert?
1:15:35🔗Shmuley BoteachOkay, for us, a conversion is acceptance of the rules of Judaism, as outlined in the Torah. That means you have to be knowledgeable about the Torah and you have to commit to living the Jewish life. I mean, you want to become a doctor, you can't do it overnight. And no patients are going to come to you if you have no knowledge. But it's about, I mean, it would be a minimum, it's about a year, at least a year.
1:15:57🔗Shmuley BoteachPeople offer it, but it's not valid. What good is it? It's not accepted by anyone. I know some guy who offers like a 48-hour conversion. You know, go to a doctor at a 48-hour degree.
1:16:07🔗AdamAll right, but here's, I think, and Dave, stop me if I'm wrong, but you need her to technically become Jewish so that your children will become Jewish, not to necessarily embrace the entire Jewish lifestyle. Am I right?
1:16:24🔗AdamAll right, so you get the 48-hour conversion. You, she becomes technically Jewish. It's all this religion's one big technicality anyway. And then you raise your kids technically Jewish.
1:16:40🔗Shmuley BoteachYou can't become an American citizen in any crash course. You have to have a basic knowledge of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence. You have to be committed to the principles of freedom as a strong constitution. And then you got to take an oath and you have a pledge of allegiance. So that all makes sense because it ain't no big joke to be an American. We take it seriously. How much more so?
1:16:56🔗AdamOr you can pay someone three grand and marry them and become an American citizen and get divorced a week later.
1:17:30🔗Shmuley BoteachOkay, well, at least let him- have you taken her to a rabbi who can at least explain the Jewish religion to her in a way that she might find it attractive? Or have you just stuffed it down the throat and said, this kid's going to be Jewish or I'm out of here?
1:17:45🔗CallerYou know, we went to the synagogue a few times and she enjoyed it, so it's pretty nice.
1:17:49🔗Shmuley BoteachBut have you talked to anyone that can explain it to her?
1:17:52🔗CallerNo, this is the next time she's willing to meet a rabbi and maybe it's going to be the next thing that we like to do, but I'm refusing to have a kid who's going to burn to a woman as much as I love her who are not Jewish.
1:18:09🔗AdamI see. I recognize the accent. You one of those sec-phartic Jews?
1:18:15🔗CallerYeah, I came here ten years ago from Israel.
1:18:16🔗AdamSacramento. I tried to work the pun in there. He didn't get it. Oh boy, what a pain in the ass. Look, you married her, you love her, hash it out with her for Christ's sake. I agree, hash it out. Make the marriage work. And, you know, is, well, I was going to say is good, but as bizarre as religion is, and as good as it is sometimes, the whole idea is to get people together, not break families apart.
1:18:40🔗Shmuley BoteachI'm going to have you moderate this debate between me and the head of Jews for Jesus. You can be in the middle on that one.
1:18:45🔗AdamI'd really like to meet that crackpot. Becky?
1:18:50🔗CallerYeah, I've been masturbating since I was 11. I was wondering if that was normal, because I was always taught that it was wrong, because I'm an orthodox Jew.
1:19:01🔗DrewRight. Somebody actually taught you that?
1:19:04🔗CallerNot taught me, but I've always heard from my siblings. I have 10 older siblings.
1:19:29🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, look, first, I have seven kids, and I think big families are nice. Secondly, even though Adam has passed out with my saying that, secondly... He's still conscious. Secondly, look, Jews do not look at sex as something to be guilty about at all. We look at sex as, in the Bible, there's no word for sex. The word is knowledge. We look at it as the ultimate way by which a man and a woman can know each other. So the ideology is that you have to be careful with your sexuality to ensure that when you want to use it later in love with a man, that it will be a form of knowledge. Now, should you feel bad about masturbating and guilty?
1:20:06🔗Shmuley BoteachThe idea behind it, or not doing it, I guess, is not that you're going to turn blind and all this other silly stuff, but it's rather that our sexuality is supposed to be the engine by which we gravitate to a man, the engine by which we remain close to a man. No one knows how to keep men and women together anymore today. There's a 63% divorce rate. The whole Sex in the City phenomenon is about four women who enjoy each other's company far more than they enjoy any other man. In fact, they only date men in order to entertain each other the morning after with stories. So, use your sexuality to impel, to propel you to a man. The thing about masturbation is that it's self-contained. It's about self-pleasuring. And while that isn't the worst thing in the world, obviously, it's supposed to be used to push you towards someone else. And I know that everyone says, oh, come on, masturbation is something benign. But I'm really concerned about what are we going to use as the glue that keeps a man and a woman together? And I would like to see men and women pleasuring each other. Now, obviously, you're very young for that, and that's why you wait to experience sexuality in the confines of committed relationship later when you're married. But you shouldn't feel guilty about it. You should understand it, and you should try to transcend it. And I think, and always understand that your sexual energy is something beautiful, and you should harness it, God willing, in a few years' time, to make it something that does keep you joyous with someone for the rest of your life.
1:21:20🔗AdamHey, Becky. That's Adam's way of saying enjoy. Listen, I agree with the Rabbi, and I thought it was pretty bold of him calling semen glue that way, at least as I understood it, halfway into it.
1:21:33🔗DrewWell, it's certain you've had some experience.
1:21:34🔗AdamBut you have ten brothers and sisters?
1:22:18🔗Shmuley BoteachBy the way, you know, I'd appreciate it. And I'm not saying this just to plug the book. Or maybe I am. But you should read my Kosher Sex Book. I discuss all this kind of this stuff. That's who I wrote it for people like you. I hope you will read it.
1:22:45🔗Shmuley BoteachYou know, you should have been, you should have been Amish, Adam. I should have been. Yeah, we should have been like a horse and buggy.
1:23:04🔗Shmuley BoteachYeah, it's a sign of pride. Only zippers. No, no, they use pins actually.
1:23:09🔗AdamThere's another flip of Crackbox over there.
1:23:12🔗Shmuley BoteachAnd you're the most normal person that ever lived, right?
1:23:14🔗AdamThank you. I know you're being facetious. We'll be back. Yes! Oh, quiet down, girl. It's Loveline. I'm Adam Carolla. That is Dr. Drew over there. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is our guest tonight. Why Can't I Fall in Love is the name of his book. And a quick Torah question. I was just heard something that the best selling book each and every year is the Bible. How does the Torah sell? And does the Torah, you read right to left, right? Is that correct?
1:24:45🔗Shmuley BoteachTorah is all of those. Usually, when people speak about the Torah, they speak of the five books of Moses, the first five books, which is the main part of the Torah, which is what's read in the synagogue every week.
1:24:54🔗AdamThey made a movie out of the first book, right?
1:25:43🔗DrewYeah. Why would you call and tell us that you want to commit a crime?
1:25:46🔗Shmuley BoteachBecause I guess he doesn't want to. You're trying to, are you looking for ways to get off this idea? I mean, or get rid of this idea.
1:26:20🔗Shmuley BoteachA little bit is the whole fireplace full. Look, even if it wasn't a crime, don't you understand that she's a child? I mean, take the law away for a second. You're an intelligent guy. You were smart enough to dial the number.
1:26:43🔗DrewAt least you're honest, Neo. I'll give you that.
1:26:44🔗AdamAll right, Neo, let me try to infuse a little knowledge into you before I hang up on your stoner ass. Here's the deal. Forget about you for a second. Think about her. Put your needs aside for 10 minutes and focus on somebody else. You will be hurting her. And eventually, you will hurt yourself because you will go through your life with this knowledge.
1:27:50🔗Shmuley BoteachI love what humor can bring out in this show.
1:27:52🔗CallerDr. Drew, I really, as a member of the Ohio Right to Life Society, I really appreciate all your work that you do to try to stop abortion.
1:28:07🔗Shmuley BoteachJust before you go on, I just want to ask Drew and Adam quickly, are there any people who are not stone who do listen to Loveline?
1:28:55🔗AdamWhoever the Messiah is who hasn't arrived.
1:28:57🔗CallerThat's right, I am. Because I know you don't believe in God, but you know, I do. And I am a Christian, even though I do smoke weed occasionally.
1:29:55🔗AdamAll right. So, Kim, did you have a question or a criticism for the rabbi?
1:30:01🔗CallerWell, I kind of, I'm just, first I want to know why the Jews do not believe that Jesus is the son of God, if he could explain that to me.
1:30:14🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, first of all, let me, let me make it.
1:30:19🔗Shmuley BoteachLet me make it clear that I'm not, in no way trying to undermine your faith or your religion. I'm speaking from the perspective of my own. We believe that God is everywhere. God is disembodied, that God is not prejudicial by coming in the form of a man or a woman that would disenfranchise women. So there's no such thing as a son of God because God has no offspring. We don't believe God impregnated a woman. That doesn't mean that Christianity is a false religion. It just means that it's antithetical to Judaism. Does that answer your question?
1:30:46🔗AdamYeah, it does. I put it on hold because we got to take a break. Listen, Jesus is the son of God. Please, Jesus, do you guys really believe that nonsense? Come on, all you screwballs out there. Is that really what you need? Do you have to cling to that?
1:31:02🔗Shmuley BoteachThere's a diplomatic and non-diplomatic response here, Adam.
1:31:05🔗AdamWell, listen, let's face it, most religion is nonsense based on nothing, but people don't want to die.
1:31:12🔗Shmuley BoteachWell, let me ask you a question. What about the lust for celebrity and to try to be really successful? And that has real meaning and purpose to it?
1:31:25🔗Shmuley BoteachSo enjoy the sun while it lasts.
1:31:28🔗AdamI was telling somebody, I was talking to today, I did a couple of man shows today and they were like, how'd it go? And I was like, I was fine, I just want to get the hell out of there. And I told them, listen, the only time I really know I'm alive is when I'm napping. Alright, we'll take a break.
1:31:46🔗Hello, this is your radio. Loveline will be right back.
1:31:55🔗AdamWell, there you go. Another provocative two hours in the can, as they say. Rabbi Shmuley, I really, the show, two hours is not enough to contain your wisdom.
1:32:43🔗Shmuley BoteachGod, you don't believe in Adam. May he bless you.
1:32:45🔗AdamI appreciate that. Until next time, it's Adam Corolla for Dr. Drew saying mahalo.
1:32:54🔗This has been Loveline. The opinions expressed on the show are not necessarily those of the staff, management, and sponsors for this station. The producer for Loveline is Ann Wilkins Engel. Loveline is a presentation of Westwood One Entertainment.