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What is the goal of mental interrogation?

שו”תCategory: philosophyWhat is the goal of mental interrogation?
asked 5 years ago

You claim that a person must use their intellect to research and delve deeper in order to reach conclusions about all the fundamentals of the Jewish view.
I’m trying to understand what the purpose of all this is?
It is clear that each person will reach a different conclusion, each according to their own understanding and the data they have in their head.
Therefore, it seems to me that it is impossible to reach the absolute truth through intellectual investigation.
So what is the goal?


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago
Strange question. Who spoke of absolute truth? And if you don’t use your intellect, will you reach the absolute truth? You must reach the truth to the best of your understanding. The goal is truth. Truth serves no other purposes outside of itself.

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Y.T replied 5 years ago

To clarify the matter.
From the answer it seems that the Rabbi agrees with the assumption that the questioner assumes, that it is impossible to reach the truth because everyone reaches a different conclusion.
If this is true, then what is the real benefit of investigating with the intellect if we know in advance that “each one has his own truth” what is better than fully investigating? After all, in both situations we will not reach the truth?
.

דורון replied 5 years ago

He replied that it is possible to reach the truth, not the absolute truth. Isn't that a gain?

הפוסק האחרון replied 5 years ago

The goal is to shatter the foundations.
Because there are none. They are an illusion.

ישי replied 5 years ago

I know this has nothing to do with the correspondence, but apparently everything A. wrote will be deleted, so I'm writing here. I'm sorry A. for returning to trolling as usual in the Holy Land. You make me smile with all your trolling. Go ahead and troll!

משה ארבל replied 5 years ago

The question is very simple and I have not received an answer to it.
If it is impossible to reach the truth through intellectual investigation
then what is the use of it?
Just to investigate and think?

מיכי Staff replied 5 years ago

Moshe Shalom.
You have received an answer more than once and you probably don't bother to read, or don't try to understand what you read. It is possible to arrive at the truth, even if not certainty, and that is the purpose of the investigation.

משה ארבל replied 4 years ago

Despite the flattering superlatives the rabbi gave me, I still haven't received a satisfactory answer to my question.
I'll ask him one more time in more detail.

1. Let's start with the fact that each person has a different level of intelligence, a different way of thinking, and a different treasure trove of knowledge, and a different enlightenment.
Therefore, on any topic that is not discussed among a group of people, each person will have a different conclusion and a different opinion. Understand?
Great, let's move on...

2. After we understood this, it's hard for me to understand the rabbi who claims that everyone should use their own intelligence to understand the foundations of Judaism and everything related to the Jewish view. After all, in a state of independent thinking and investigation, everyone will reach a different conclusion, each according to their own intelligence, their own knowledge, and many other things that are different for each person. Therefore, in complete contrast to my conclusion, my friend will reach a completely opposite conclusion! So 1-What is the truth? 2-How can one trust a person's independent thinking and investigation to understand and reach the truth in Judaism?

3. My difficulty is compounded sevenfold when it comes to Judaism, the foundations of whose view are written in the Torah and in thousands of different books, and supposedly if a person does not have the same data that is in these books, he cannot begin to discuss and delve into the Jewish view because he does not have all the data, just as we would not expect a gentile or a native of the land to discuss complex issues in Judaism when he does not have the basic fundamentals!

4. Another difficulty here is that in Judaism there are also spiritual components that a flesh-and-blood person is not able to understand or discuss, certainly not with independent thinking.

I would be happy to receive a logical response (without unnecessary superlatives if possible)
Moshe

אריאל replied 4 years ago

Hello.
Although I am not Rabbi Michael, I think that sometimes there is an obsessive motive for such questions. (In addition, you mention a question that was asked here before)
You kind of observe human activity as cause and effect, and decide that there are those with a different mechanism, which might prevent them from believing.
And maybe this is the factor that bothers you, and makes you ask this question, in an old question that you asked, precisely at this time.
I assume that an example of your intention is expecting an animal to keep a mitzvot.
But you are deciding and apparently obsessively dealing with a question that has no decision (the question of free will). And by the way, even if we assume that there is a case for determinism, this does not mean that you should sit back and wait for things to happen.

I think that everyone has their own path, but the truth is the same. Some cases of physical disabilities have a certain status in halacha. (For example, deafness, stupidity, etc.)
And apparently the expectation from everyone is to do the maximum they can.
It is written: “The Lord says: Do not judge your neighbor until you have reached his place.” (Mishnah Avot 2:4)
I saw on the page from which I copied this, a detailed reference to the sentence:
“…But do not judge a person's actions and thoughts until you have reached in your mind his place and time and his chapter from the chapters of his two lives. Each chapter and chapter in a person's life is a special world in itself with its actions and customs and things of pleasant and reprehensible taste and of the knowledge of good and evil. Do you want to know the soul of a child? Come and enter the world of a child, and see yourself as a child, as if you were in your childhood – And this is the teaching of initiation and the right pillar, on which pedagogy stands… But this is the whole trouble, that the elders judge and educate the little ones not according to their way in the world of childhood, which they themselves were in when they were little, but according to this world, of the judges and educators now in their old age” (“The Book of Animals” Mendeli Mocher Sfarim)
I don't know if the source is religious, but its intention is clear.
In the end, the Creator of the world judges, and we have the ability to try. If there is a psychological problem that prevents us from trying, we will try to address it.

I hope I helped.

מיכי replied 4 years ago

There were no superlatives here, because I answered you completely to the point. Since you want it in detail, I will write again.
1. Completely understandable, just not agreed upon. It is clearly not true that every person reaches a different conclusion. Usually there are many agreements between people. Sometimes the debate deals with different angles or different wording of the same thing. And sometimes one of the sides is simply wrong. I argued about this in my columns on philosophy (the meaning of philosophical debates).
2. Even when there are debates, I explained in a column on peer disagreement why it is not necessary to relax your hands.
3. I wrote that indeed there is no hope of reaching the absolute truth (because it is always possible that you are wrong), but you are not required to reach it. You are required to find out the truth as likely as possible. The chance of error always exists, and all you can do is try to minimize it.
4. A person has all the data to decide. The sages and the early people did not have any data that you do not have. There is no need to be familiar with the thousands of books written in this field. What is needed is mainly to think, talk, and think again.

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