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Psychological difficulty in investigating faith

שו”תCategory: faithPsychological difficulty in investigating faith
asked 1 year ago

Hello Rabbi,
 
I must ask for forgiveness first, because I know this is not your area, but since the rabbi deals a lot with things of God and faith, I saw fit to try to ask him.
I am experiencing a very serious dissonance. On the one hand, the desire to be a thinking, philosophical, and curious person who formulates positions on his own. On the other hand, I am dealing with something that until yesterday I would have called fear of investigation, but it is natural that today it is more of an anxiety. Yesterday, after encountering Yum’s criticism of the witness’ argument, I had a small anxiety attack. All this time I had assumed the status of Mount Sinai as a basic premise, and suddenly it dawned on me how arbitrary it is and how unfounded I am, and now I feel that I have serious doubts about my faith and that I need to start investigating from a deeper point. I constantly postpone studying, whether because of fear or because of perfectionism. In recent months, I have felt that I am not afraid to investigate, and that even if I come to the conclusion that I have no reason to keep the commandments, then that is fine. But yesterday during the attack I felt cold and as if a pit was opening up under my feet (“If the Torah was not given to us, what does it actually mean? Why am I alive?”), definitely a feeling that I was not prepared for.
I’m trying to recover from this. But I would like to hear from the rabbi whether he knows, heard or experienced something similar, and what logically is possible and advisable to do (research, not research, wait it out), how can one deal with the fear of the bubble I live in bursting, how can one reconcile my new doubt and the following conclusions from a more whole place in the soul.. And I know there is a bit of psychology here, and really, forgiveness, I just really feel like I need to ask someone this, so if the rabbi can try to say something useful I would be happy,


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 1 year ago
This is not ‘a little psychology’ but psychology. Not my field. In my opinion, it is always appropriate to research and reach your own independent conclusions without fear of anything (but responsibly and through genuine inquiry). If there are fears, they must be overcome. When you reach anxiety, it is worth consulting a psychologist.

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מאיר ב replied 1 year ago

David,
The question is whether this is a literal panic attack, or a metaphor.
If it is a kind of general fear of ”bubble bursting”, I would personally recommend waiting a while until the questions no longer arouse fear, it just happens over time psychologically, and then research and test answers. If the answers are given within the emotional ’storm’ of fear of the question, the answer may ‘feel’ like an excuse and not a real answer, even though it is, and all this is because of the emotional ”fear” that the question arouses.
As an answer”D.
Good luck!

I can tell you that after investigating the truth (I highly recommend Rav Michi's lessons and books), there is a reasonable possibility that in some ways your faith will actually be much stronger than before your doubts began to arise.

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