Q&A: A Question About Faith
A Question About Faith
Question
Shalom, Rabbi. I have a question that has been weighing on me for quite a while now (although with a question like this, even a short time is a long time). I know the Rabbi is brief in his answers, but this time I’d ask that you depart from your usual practice and answer me in detail. I’m eagerly looking forward to it.
Lately I’ve been asking myself: how can it be that the Creator made the world so that we would serve Him in a certain way, while there are 60,000 sects and religions in the world, and every day another 3 new ones are created—and He remains silent about this situation?!
It reminds me of an objection that is raised against Christianity: Christianity says that the Holy One, blessed be He, rejected Israel and therefore established Christianity, etc. But wait—if so, then all the righteous people who died at that time, who didn’t know about this event, arrive in Heaven and discover it only afterward… So what are we supposed to say, that the Holy One, blessed be He, forgot to tell them to convert to Christianity?!!!
I think the same objection can be directed against every religion in the world (and Pascal’s wager only presents it in an even stronger form): how is it that—if we speak in Jewish terms—the Holy One, blessed be He, wants the world to keep Torah, etc., while almost everyone else is “busy with their idol worship,” like in the days of Abraham our patriarch… What accusation can there be against them? What can be expected of a person who never heard of Judaism in his life, and if he did, then almost nothing… and then he gets to Heaven and discovers that supposedly they forgot to inform him that he was supposed to convert… The problem is that even if the Rabbi answers me with proofs for the truth of the Torah, etc., the local clergyman in his area will claim the exact same thing… and so it goes with every religion. When I think about it, it seems absurd to me—sixty thousand paths, all of them saying, “Come with us and you’ll be fine; don’t come with us and you’ll be punished forever”… Forgive me, but if that really is the idea, then I think it simply makes no sense….
If the Rabbi wants, I study at Bar-Ilan, so it wouldn’t be too impossible for me to meet with you (granted, it would be somewhat difficult for me, but not too far-fetched….)
Thank you very much, Rabbi.
Answer
Shalom.
First, I’m not at Bar-Ilan; I teach from home over Zoom.
Second, I still won’t answer at great length. I hope this will be sufficient.
As for your point itself: first, you have to examine the evidence on its own merits. The fact that there are others who may be able to offer evidence in their favor doesn’t change anything for you. You are dependent on the examination that you yourself conduct. Otherwise, you won’t be able to decide anything in the world (there are several places on my site where I address this claim—why a person is supposed to take his own considerations into account, and not be impressed merely by the existence of dissenting opinions or by the people making them, but only by examining their arguments).
As far as your own decision is concerned, the examination you conduct is enough. True, there is still room to ask the Holy One, blessed be He, how He allows such a thing, as a theological difficulty (independent of your own decision). About that I’ll say a few things: first, the Holy One, blessed be He, apparently wants us to choose (!) the right path, and not merely to follow it. Therefore, there have to be several alternatives before us. We all have free choice, and therefore a person can choose any of the possibilities. That is also why there is evil in the world (because if the Holy One, blessed be He, did not allow evil to be done, then choosing the good would not really be a choice).
Second, exclusive discourse (= I’m right and everyone else is wrong, or vice versa), in my view, is probably intended only for internal purposes—that is, to strengthen our backbone and our commitment to the path. From the perspective of the Holy One, blessed be He, I am not at all sure that a Christian who fulfills his religious obligations to the best of his understanding will not receive treatment similar to mine. As long as a person does what is proper to the best of his understanding, he deserves that same treatment, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not come with complaints against His creatures. That is also where Pascal’s wager is mistaken (beyond several other errors I have pointed out in the past).