In a March 10, 2009 lecture on Leviticus 19: 26-28, Dennis Prager said: When I was in yeshiva, a very very pious rabbi who on Yom Kippur was so careful not to drink that he would not even swallow his own saliva. He would spit it out. I remember thinking the man was an idiot. The thought of a guy spitting all Yom Kippur, what’s so pious about that? I would leave shul.
The Shulchan Aruch says you should wake up every night after midnight and mourn the destruction of the temple. That’s a happy life. What a joyful life, you get up at 2 a.m. every day to cry.
A great religion makes you happy to be alive. It increases your joy in life.
