Q&A: The Obligation of Belief
The Obligation of Belief
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
In connection with the amazing notebooks on faith, revelation, etc.,
I have a big difficulty that comes up in several places: if there is no absolute truth, how can one be obligated to faith and to religious commitment בכלל when there are no conclusive proofs, especially when these are philosophical discussions and we do not have the tools to examine them? And let us say that someone knowledgeable like you can delve into them—but what about ordinary people who cannot grasp these things, or who dismiss, for example, the theory of evolution without taking it seriously? In that case, faith is lacking in rationality. How can you obligate a person: believe in something that is not necessary?
And the main difficulty is: why did God build a system in which it is impossible to know the truth clearly? How are we supposed to know what the path is? Probability is seemingly not enough; we need certainty.
Answer
Hello David.
I have already written several times that in my opinion there is no obligation at all to delve into philosophy and arguments as a basis for faith. If a person reaches the conclusion that he believes, and that is sufficient for him, then that is fine. Moreover, the more you delve into the arguments, the less certain you become, because you are aware that we are human beings who can make mistakes.
One thing is clear: if you identify truth with certainty, you are making a bitter mistake. In that case, you will not be able to accept anything on earth, because there is nothing that is certain (and not only faith). I discussed this at length in my books, mainly Two Carts and Unstable Truth. We are condemned to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, in science, in faith, and in every other area of our lives. Probability is good enough, and there is no necessity that we have certainty.
Why did God create the world and us this way? I have no idea.
Discussion on Answer
There is absolute truth, but we cannot know it with certainty.
Moshe,
Are you serious? You infer from verses that the Torah is true?
Rabbi, if a person reaches the conclusion that he believes and that is enough for him, is that fine? Many times you said that he might be a hidden atheist, etc.
If there are questions you have not considered and they would have convinced you, then indeed you may be a hidden atheist. But that has no end, and it is not reasonable that a person be required to investigate when he has no doubts. Only someone who does have doubts but is afraid to investigate because maybe it will affect him—with regard to him I said what I said. A person is required to do what seems reasonable to him, no less and no more. And if he made a mistake, he is under compulsion.
To Wondering, yes brother, because I’m talking to religious people here, right? Did anyone here say that he doesn’t believe in the Torah?
And I’m talking about absolute truth, brother. Meaning, if his belief is only partial—in my view there’s no such thing. Because the Torah said that it is truth. And not half-truth.
Moshe, then you didn’t understand. I am religious because the Torah is probably correct, but I cannot know that with certainty.
This is the first time I’ve seen someone say there is no absolute truth—I don’t agree with that. God is truth and His Torah is truth. As it says: “The Lord God is truth.” And it says: “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your Torah is truth.”
It is written: “To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning—and Your faithfulness in the nights” (faith is kindness—a poetic parallelism in the verse).