Q&A: How Are You Not Afraid to Say What You Think? And on the Search for Truth—Between Withdrawal and Mixing In
How Are You Not Afraid to Say What You Think? And on the Search for Truth—Between Withdrawal and Mixing In
Question
Let me sharpen the question. When you are part of a religious society—family, friends, and so on—it is very hard to go against the beliefs that are common in your surroundings if that is what you think. In a way, you are taking yourself out of the group, because one of the things that binds you to the others is the shared religious belief. You will find this in every religious community, from the most liberal religious people to the most extreme Haredim, because without that there are no boundaries that define belonging to the community. So how is it that you are unafraid of these things and able to say whatever is on your mind? I will also broaden the question into a more general one: you could say there is a certain tension between attaining truth and living an ordinary daily life. What binds people together are popular beliefs, like that in the end everything will turn out well and so on, which a person of truth does not accept before examining them deeply. On the other hand, if that same person of truth is detached from reality, it is hard to say that his truth about reality is worth much, because he does not really know reality. So in your view, what is the right balance between withdrawal and mixing in with people for someone who wants to get as close as possible to the truth?
Answer
I have told many people that this fear, and others like it, are very often the result of self-perception and not of reality itself. When you say what you think—especially if you really identify with it and are prepared to explain it and stand behind those positions—you will often find that people respect it. Beyond that, I have reached an age where I am tired of weighing every word and not saying what I think. In my view, these statements are necessary for many people, and there is no justification for keeping them bottled up inside.
When you start with this policy, you discover that nothing happens, and the fear was a kind of illusion.
This whole hairsplitting argument about detachment from reality harming truth is nothing more than hairsplitting.