Business Secrets from the Bible

What is it about Jewish people
that make them prosper financially?

Well, you'll almost never find Jews

tinkering with their cars on the
weekends or mowing their lungs.

That's what Daniel Leppin says.

Very good reason for that.

And it lies within
the Business Secrets of the Bible.

Take a look.

Most everyone would like to have
more wealth and prosperity.

Few, however, manage to attain it.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin is
known as America's Rabbi.

He says financial success is
the result of doing the right things.

In his new book,
Business Secrets from the Bible,

Rabbi Lappin uses simple concepts
to help increase income.

Regardless of your faith.

They'll change the way you think about
money and help you make more of it.

To say he's my favorite Rabbi would be

an understatement,
but he's here with us again.

It's a pleasure to introduce once again

to the 700 Club audience
ran by Daniel Lapin.

Good to see you.

Fantastic to be together with you again.
Thank you.

You've written a landmark book.

It really is a fabulous book.

It's called Business Secrets in the Bible.

How come Jewish people don't mow
their own lawns on Saturdays?

Well, it really comes from the end

of the Book of Genesis, where Jacob is
147 years old and the time is going by.

And finally, he's about to be taken
home to his father in heaven.

And you'd think that after a long
and difficult life,

he'd gather his sons together
and he'd say, Boys, God bless you.

I'm gone.

Instead, he takes 2030
verses giving up Reuben.

This is your blessing, Simon.

This is your blessing, Judah.

This is your blessing.

In other words, he's laying
the foundation of specialization.

You're not just one big clump of people.

Each one of you is going to find the area
in which you can best serve your brethren.

And this idea,

which wasn't found in general economics
until the 18th century,

Adam Smith realized the principle
of specialization lies deeply embedded

in ancient Jewish Wisdom's,
understanding of the Bible.

In other words, somebody's got to Cook

the bread, somebody's
got to make the machine.

Somebody has to sew the cloth.

They can't all do it together.
Exactly.

And it's even more than that, because

if we each take care of our own needs,
then we don't need one another.

But since we specialize as part of God's

plan, the result of that is that I
pray for the welfare of my customers.

I pray for the welfare of my vendors.

I pray for the welfare of the people

who work for me because we're all wrapped
up in this web of interdependency,

which is exactly what our Father
in heaven wants us to be doing.

So naturally, when you correctly
in Jewish neighborhoods,

you do not find Jews lying under
their cars on Sunday afternoon.

No.

I pay one of the best mechanics
around to take care of my BMW.

That's what I do.

I'd be crazy to take my time doing it.

Myself.

Exactly.
I'm taking care of what I can do best,

and then I'm happy to pay
him for me to mow my lawn.

I'm the worst lawn mower in the world.

But the young man who lives down

the street from me, he's one of the best,
and he's happy to do it.

I'm happy.
And so it's really important that each one

of us finds our highest and best way
to serve our fellow human beings,

which is another way of taking
care of God's other children.

And that's why we speak of customer

service and worship service,
because one of the ways of worshiping our

creator is by taking care
of his other children.

Is that one of the principles of Jewish

finances, to look after your customers
and to be one of the great secrets.

And again, I present 40 secrets in this
book, which is it's not a book about

investing, because investing,
you already got to have some money.

It's not a book of getting out of debt
because you want to get out of debt.

You speak to my friend Dave Ramsey,
but this is about making more money.

This is about saying, you know what?

This year I want to make twice as
much money as I made last year.

Not 100 times, not 50
times, twice as much.

Is that a biblical
concept of making money?

Making money?
Yeah.

Let me put it this way.

If a young person came to you and said,
look, I can't decide what to do.

I either want to go into politics.

Actually, they don't say that I
want to go into public service.

I always distrust occupations
that need a euphemism.

Have you noticed?
Right.

So public service or I'd like to go
into business and make a lot of money.

Who is better for America?
Who's better for you?

Who's better for me?

When somebody tells me he wants to go

into public service or politics, I think
to myself, ten more fingers in my wallet.

But when somebody tells me I want to go
into business, then the only way he can

succeed in business or she is by making
products or services that enhance my life.

And that's why I say yes.

I'm not going to say God wants you to be

rich, but God wants you to be
striving for more money.

Money is a spiritual
creation of our creator.

It's not something that just
came about said something here.

Too, that would surprise most people is
that cities are really a creation of God,

that men had to get together
in cities. Why was that?

That's exactly right.

We find that after Cain kills Abel,

God gives him the punishment
of isolation from people.

Basically, you're always going to have

to keep traveling and things
you plant won't grow.

And finally he realizes and so
he names his son Enoch.

And so he took one life.

He shows that he's atoned.

He shows God that he understands.

He brings a new life into the world.
Enoch.

In Hebrew.

In the Lord's language,
Enoch means I'm educated, education.

I've got it.
I caught on what I did wrong.

And now he builds a city.

What, for three human beings?

Well, that's not the point.

Build it and they will come.

A city is a glorious place.

A city is where you've got
the best of everything.

Sadly, you can also have
the worst of everything.

If you build your city without God

in a Godless manner,
you'll have massive problems.

But a city built basically
as people like Cotton Mather and some

of the great Christian
leaders of colonial America.

The city on the Hill.

If it's that kind of a city, a Godly city,

it's a city where everybody can make
more money than they can anywhere else.

You find these principles in Hebrews.

I know one thing in your book you talk

about, of course,
the word for hand is yadd.

And you said a friend.

Yes, of course.

Tell me about that.

Well, what's interesting about that is
that it's curious how throughout Western

civilization and Western civilization
sprang from the pages of the Bible.

I mean, obviously what we think of as

the west is the creation of God's book,
basically God's message to mankind.

Right.

And it's funny that the symbol or
action of friendship is shaking hands.

Why isn't it rubbing elbows or noses
or noses like what's with their hands?

And one of the fallacious explanations,

which are debunked,
is that this is because when people used

to meet on the road,
if they shook hands with one another,

then they couldn't be
reaching for their sword.

Well, all I know is I can handle
a knife with my left hand as well.

Wouldn't that be a surprise for the guy

whose right hand I'm holding while
I take him out with my left hand?

It's nonsense, complete nonsense.

So the reason is because in the Lord's

language, which people used to all know,
I mean, Hebrew was widely understood.

That's why I say today
everyone needs a Rabbi, right?

Because not everyone knows Hebrew
help people along a little bit.

But when they did, the idea in Hebrew is

one of the great words in Hebrew for a
friend is Ye did, which is spelt hand.

Two Hebrew words, basically
two hands clasping becomes.

And to this day, the picture of clasped
hands is a symbol of friendship.

What else? Where did the word money come
from? Is that a Hebrew word? Money.

The word money itself.
Yeah.

Well, yes, the Hebrew word is counting.

And Monet is the Hebrew word for CAFO?

Mona is counting accounting.

And if you say to anybody counting,
what do you count?

The first thing you think of,
I think, is you count money.

Well, you mentioned in your book
that people had to keep accounts,

that if you're going to succeed,
you don't know where your money is.

Look, if you want to lose weight,
you've got to keep a record.

You've got to measure your weight and keep

records if you want to
become biblical in your money.

And

when I travel to churches, Pat,
I got to tell you, my heart breaks when I

sometimes I speak at 30,
40 churches a year.

Every now and then I come to a Church
where I see deferred maintenance.

I see a stressed out pastor who hasn't
been able to pay the mortgage.

I see members of the Church who just not.

And for me, it's the greatest blessing.

It's what my Ministry is all about,

to bring them business
secrets from the Bible.

So that when I come back a year later,

I see a different institution,
a totally different Church.

The whole idea of knowing how
to do balance sheet accounting.

You don't have to become a CPA,

but you do need to be able
to understand financial statements.

And it's easy to do.

You just got to be able
to do that's a key.

I mean, the Jewish person from the Bible

will always know how to count
his money and know where it was.

Not only that,
but the Hebrew word for counting.

Yes.

Not only means money in the case of Monet,
but each of the four Hebrew words

that mean counting also means
successful person of accomplishment.

Tell me about those that are
the successful person.

Yeah.
In Hebrew, there's a word porcade or how

about the word nose means to count,
but it's also the same word in the book

of numbers where Moses appoints
the Princes for each tribe.

That's exactly the same word.
The Princess.

So in other words,

people of accomplishment,
people of achievement,

people of aristocratic bearing
are all people who can count.

And that's true in everything.

I mean, you've got to be able to measure
your achievement, because if you don't,

the days pass and nothing
gets accomplished.

That was certainly true with John D.
Rockefeller.

He was basically an accountant.

He kept exquisite books.

Every Penny he spent, everything he
gave away down to the last dime.

He had it all written
in a book of accounts.

Yeah, people offered that.

And he may have been a little extreme,
but then his wealth was also extreme.

He came to the richest man in the world.

Yes, exactly right.

But for most of us,

the other extreme is more common where
there's no record keeping and no

meticulous accounting for our time,
for our money, for our achievements.

It's important.
And that accounts for failure, doesn't it?

And that's one of the secrets is keeping

records, not only financial,
but also life records, a Journal.

There's no word in Hebrew for retirement.

I told you that, and I'm very pleased.

Last time we were together, I told you
there's no Hebrew word for retirement.

The general rule is when there's no Hebrew
word for something, it's a bad idea.

So, for instance, there's no Hebrew word

for adolescent, because when you think
about it, adolescent is just somebody

who wants all the privileges of adulthood
with none of the responsibilities.

Right.

So no word for adolescent,
no word for retire.

And I'm very happy to see that you've
taken that lesson to heart.

Totally the heart man.

They won't let me retire.

I'm trying, but they won't let me.

Absolutely out of the question.

But there's no word in Hebrew for it.

No, there isn't because
it's a bad concept.

Well, what have we done in our country?

We have violated that totally to people.

We've got to pay them on the 65 years old.

Well, we violated a lot of things
in this country right now.

For instance,

there is the implication that if you've
made money, there's something morally

suspect about you, that somehow
making money is a bad thing.

There's another word
in Hebrew doesn't exist.

The word fair

because you'll hear politicians say, well,
he's rich, he hasn't paid his fair share.

The funny thing about
fair is it's not defined.

I would think that when many politicians

say we want people to pay their fair tax,
they probably mean 100%.

There is no short of it.

Fair doesn't mean anything at all.

Fair is whatever I choose
to want it to mean.

But there's no word in Hebrew for fair.

No word for fair.

There's word for justice.

Yes, because in the Bible and in biblical

thinking, agreements
and contracts are sacrosanct.

They're very important.

If we shake hands on something that is

an agreement, but we'd never say,
Pat, I got an idea.

Why don't we go into business together

and we'll have a fair equitable
distribution of the profits?

No, we don't do that.

We say, here's what it's going to be.

It's going to be 50% and 50% or
it's going to be 43% and 57%.

But we don't just use loose and ill

defined concepts because that creates
bad arrangements, bad relationships.

What is another key principle
of wealth that you found in the Bible?

Well, one of the great ones that has

always served the Jewish people very
successfully and very, very well.

And I mean, I'm not saying there's no poor

Jews, but Jews are disproportionately
financially effective.

And I wanted to bring 40 of the most

important secrets from
the Bible to everybody.

One that's beautiful is in the second book
of Kings, the Prophet Elijah is approached

by a widow who has nothing
and absolutely nothing.

And he says to her, listen, you've got
to go back and search you in your house.

She says, I got nothing.

How many times I have to tell you?

She says, you got to find something.

So she finds one teensy wingsy,
little jar of oil, right?

And then he said, okay,
this is going to work.

And she says, now go borrow 50 gallon oil
drums from everybody, thousands of them.

And she becomes the first oil
tycoon in the Middle East.

Now, this is a miracle.

It was an absolute miracle once.
It's a miracle.

Why couldn't Elisha have
poured oil out of his thumb?

I mean, God can fill thousands of barrels

of oil from the thumb just as easily
as from a little bottle of oil.

Yet he made this poor widow go back
and search until she found because each

and every one of us has
a bottle of oil inside her.

We have that tiny little reserve.

We overlook something we
think is insignificant.

She said, I got nothing.

He said go back and search
little bottle of oil.

Oh, that's very significant.

You got to have something inside you.

Every one of us has that little
spark of potential.

That's why it's oil.

Oil contains energy got packed
chemical energy into oil.

We've got that inside
each and every one of us.

That is the kickstart of our
own economic miracles.

What is the modern state doing to violate

God's principles and destroying itself
in the process? What do they do?

You have an hour or two to spend on that?

Well,

let's make believe you're Adam Smith
and you wrote your book in two pages.

A number of things.
One of them, of course,

is increasing the size of government
and increasing taxation.

Essentially, that turns
people into slaves.

Ultimately, the Marxist vision is slavery.

You work for us, you give everything
to us and we take care of everything.

We take care of your children's education,
we take care of your retirement.

We take care of your health care.

Oh, wait a SEC, we're already there.

That's exactly what they're doing.

And they also think they can borrow. What

about borrowing? What does
the Bible have to say about that?

Needless to say, a very bad way
to go about doing business.

It's a very bad way to try and build
a sustainable economy.

Whether it's an individual
or a family or a nation.

The borrowing is immoral.

It's essentially taken
from people who are not yet born.

But then many of the people who are doing
that are really fairly comfortable

with taking a lot of things
from the unborn, including their lives.

Is this book available?

That book is absolutely available.

Where can one get copies?

You can get them anywhere
that books are sold.

You can also my website,

which can be found on your
website is you needrabi.com.

All right.

And it's available there as well.

It's a fantastic book.

You only get it if you want to learn how

to keep money, make money
and do the biblical way.

It's called Business Secrets of the Bible.

Daniel Lapin.