Regarding the Rabbi’s teaching

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asked 5 years ago

In the S.D. Shalom Rabbi Michael
I watched the conference launching the trilogy, and I don’t think I heard a response from you regarding the statement by Rabbi Yehuda Altushler, head of the kollel, to his suggestion that instead of negating and negating, you present an alternative to what is true, you propose to do some way of what is true.
Rabbi, I think that the Rabbi (not just me) has emptied Judaism of all religious content (perhaps the Rabbi does not see himself as religious?) So what is left for you: You have no interaction with God, you do not pray to Him, but only the 3 prayers that the Sages prescribed. You also do not believe that we came to this world to test whether we will withstand the trials that God sent us, as Mesilat Yesharim says, and that this is not the purpose of the free choice we have (for testing and trial). And that we are subject to fate and there is no message for the suffering that people go through in the world. And that there is no reward and punishment and private providence and you do not know if there is an afterlife, and that also rules out religious experiences.
So what’s the difference between you and Leibowitz? Apart from keeping the commandments, there’s no religious dimension to the lifestyle that remains. Maybe the rabbi missed something here, and not everything is supposed to pass the rigorous test of reason, perhaps. You know, there are also mystical things in religion, maybe here you need a little innocence and the faith of the sages and humility?

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מיכי Staff answered 5 years ago

Hello. This question has already come up here, and I’ve also addressed it in books. Maybe I’ll dedicate a column to it later, because it keeps coming up. In the meantime, I’m just saying that you take it for granted that Judaism should fill and encompass our lives, and I’m really not sure about that. It’s certainly possible that we are required to be human, and Jewish stature is just a partial and specific addition. Beyond that, even if I were to accept your assumption, if factually I do not think that there are any additional dimensions to Judaism, I do not think that inventing something that is false (the faith of the sages, innocence, mysticism) and implanting it in Judaism (even if you base this on a demand for humility) just to provide feelings of what I think should be in it, provides a solution to the problem. Contrary to what is accepted today, meaning is not something that a person is supposed to invent for themselves, but something that exists. Inventing meaning does not give meaning. Finding meaning does. See column 159 on this. Therefore, you must examine my arguments and form a position on them, whether they are correct or not. What you would like to be here or what feelings it creates in you, these are questions that are not relevant to the investigation in itself. At most, after you have formed a position, you will deal with the feelings (or to put it more bluntly: take a pill). By the way, I don’t rule out religious feelings. I simply don’t have any. For those who do – to their health. I just don’t see them as important or necessary, and I also don’t tend to see them as a tool for knowing reality (atheists also have religious feelings. We are built that way). This is in contrast to spiritual intuitions, which can be a tool for knowing reality, although it is also very important to be careful about them and examine them carefully (because they are very similar to religious feelings. And don’t ask me for the criteria. I don’t have any. Not everything is a strict mind, as you say).