Q&A: Logic
Logic
Question
Hello Rabbi, I wanted to ask whether you know any rabbis who, in your honest opinion, are on your level or above it in terms of general and Torah knowledge. If so, with your permission I would be glad to know who they are.
Answer
I do not answer personal questions.
Discussion on Answer
Hello.
If certain books are not acceptable to you, then you need to look for a book that is, or study in a way that will let you rule for yourself. Of course, you can choose a rabbi and ask him about everything and every step. That is not so practical. Perhaps if you do this only for questions that seem especially problematic to you, then it is possible. I do not know of any other way.
Thank you very much. One last question, if possible:
Do you think the following path is a correct one religiously, in light of the limited details you have about me (one small additional detail: I am half Ashkenazi and half Sephardi, and my wife is Ethiopian):
To study, for example, Peninei Halakha and follow the opinion that seems logical to me there (I believe that logic will usually point me toward the lenient opinion), without choosing a particular track (Ashkenazi/Sephardi), in the hope that in the future I will be able truly to investigate each topic in depth and arrive at the opinion that really seems correct to me?
Thank you very much in advance.
That sounds reasonable to me under the circumstances. But you should examine what really seems right to you, and not just choose leniencies. Lenient here and lenient there—that is wicked.
Thank you very much. If so, I wanted to ask, with your permission:
I am a very rational person. About 15 years ago, during my army service, I became religious, coming from a completely secular family. After about 5 years, I went back to being non-religious because of logical difficulties I encountered and because I could not find rabbis who would deal with them. Throughout that whole period and until the present, I maintained faith in a worldview that, in my opinion, fits Judaism except for one thing: Torah from Heaven. Recently, for various reasons, my faith in Torah from Heaven has returned, and now I want to act accordingly. In your opinion, what would be the most correct path for me in order to keep the Torah, when the existing Jewish law books are very, very difficult for me intellectually, and in fact other than you I have not known a rabbi whose arguments did not bother me intellectually? And I cannot keep the Torah just by learning from the website here, while studying everything in depth on my own is not possible for me in terms of time.