Question

Dear Rabbi Michael Abraham,
At last I found the time to write to you what I’ve wanted to write for a long time.
My name is Y., a second-year student in one of the yeshivot, and I’m the one who published (together with a friend) the article about formerly Religious Zionist youth who left religion on the Srugim website and on other sites as well (the article following which you published the post about people leaving religion). At the time we spoke a bit on the phone.
I’m sending this letter to express enormous appreciation for you and your unique work, (and of course Oren, the site editor, is included in this praise as well), for which unfortunately I know of no equal, not even close.
I regularly enjoy your wonderful website, the lectures, and the articles, the intellectual honesty, and the way you present things.
I wrote the article about people leaving religion following my experiences in my high-school yeshiva, where I saw before my eyes how my classmates grew disgusted with the “old Judaism,” and since no alternative of any kind was presented, they left religion full of sky-high self-confidence and pride over their “benighted” religious friends who can’t even understand why they left religion.
Their choice was between a Judaism full of ideas that are impossible to accept (mysticism, “heresy” against science, extreme right-wing politics, a kind of “ban” on thinking independently, the later generations being necessarily complete idiots compared to the earlier ones, the Sages having said all the aggadic teachings and Jewish laws by divine inspiration so they must certainly be correct, etc.), and “enlightened” atheism—and without a doubt the latter wins.
Already during my studies, because of exposure to all the heretical views brought by those students, I was forced to build for myself, slowly, a more and more “rational” Judaism. I grabbed onto every rational insight I could find, and I had to work things out for myself.
One of the difficulties that troubled me (among many others) was the matter of the forced interpretive readings in the Talmud. (True, this is not a severe theological difficulty, but it bothered me that things were being inserted into the Mishnah that aren’t written there.)
I started thinking of an idea that would solve the issue, and it is similar to what you say in the lecture series on those interpretive readings (though it was still far from the full picture that the Rabbi managed to present in the lectures).
I do not understand why a young man has to go through 20 years of his life before he encounters your lectures on these interpretive readings (if he encounters them at all, because most people will never encounter them). I’m taking specifically this as an example because this isn’t some earth-shaking innovation from a traditional standpoint, like divine foreknowledge and free choice, providence, and so on. We’re talking about a topic for which I have no explanation how it took us 1,500 years to solve it. My feeling is that we abandoned independent thinking long ago, which on the one hand causes us to preserve Judaism from generation to generation more easily (something that looks good in the short term), but on the other hand prevents us from reaching deep explanations in many areas (dangerous in the long term), such as your explanation of these interpretive readings—topics that do not even carry the faintest scent of “Reform,” which could have explained our lack of progress in them.
I remember how, during the public discussion in Israel about the Chief Military Rabbi’s remarks regarding the beautiful captive woman, I was left without any decent explanation for myself (and I felt this among other people too). Although sometimes rabbis explain this topic here a little and there a little, I had never seen an orderly, systematic, and consistent treatment of such issues like yours.
From what I checked with very famous rabbis who are considered among the best in the field of answering questions of faith, almost none of them are really familiar with the issues that truly bother young people (mass revelations among other tribes, Torah and morality), nor do they dare express “innovative” views (like the Shlah’s approach regarding free choice, which almost nobody knows; and even one of the rabbis who mentions this opinion rejects it immediately at the beginning of his article). Not to mention “proofs” of God.
Since I studied for years alongside these friends of mine, I have no doubt at all that if they had become acquainted with your personality and teachings at earlier stages, they would be in a completely different place today—at least some of them.
I know exactly which issues bothered them, and those are the issues you talk about.
Two of the questions I asked on the site were about the Exodus from Egypt in archaeology and mass revelations among other tribes. As the Rabbi can see for himself, those questions are ranked among the first in the “popular responsa.” I knew these were central issues that really trouble people, and that is why I asked them.
On a personal level, the Rabbi shaped a central part of my faith, and I hardly find others who can quench my thirst anymore (perhaps the Rabbi will still be able to teach me something new).
I sometimes wander through youth forums and direct people to your site. Quite a few of them have already told me that they changed their minds regarding faith and so on. That is besides people to whom I passed on individual ideas from your teachings and it helped them. So may the Rabbi’s hands be strengthened in his important work of answering questions on the site.
Your teachings are the only solution for many people, and it pains me that many of them take the step of leaving religion before they become acquainted with them.
Regarding the criticisms raised against your openness, I think there are enough rabbis who are one-half, one-third, or one-quarter conservative, and we cannot give up on a rabbi who will fully open up all the most difficult issues.
We have no one else who does this the way the Rabbi does. And despite the price this may perhaps cause for some people (it is debatable whether it is a cause or merely a catalyst), the benefit outweighs it tenfold, and the Rabbi serves as a very strong last line of defense for many people.
With deep appreciation and tremendous thanks for your great investment in young people (through the website and the books) and in general, and with great anticipation for the release of the trilogy,