Q&A: Chabad
Chabad
Question
What does the Rabbi think about the Chabad approach and the belief that faith is above reason and logic, and therefore you can’t really argue with faith, and in essence faith is natural and only the evil inclination tries to mislead you, while the role of reason is to provide support for faith, and they bend reason to fit faith (shoot the arrow and only afterward draw the target)? It seems to me that Rabbi Elchanan Wasserman also writes this way. What is the logical problem with this approach?
How do you respond on the site—what is an optional site?
Answer
You ask what I “think,” but how can one think about something that cannot be thought about? I think with reason, and I do not see how one can think about something that is above reason. In my view this is, of course, nonsense. For us there is nothing above reason. There is intuition that leads us to our assumptions, and that is true in every field, not only in matters of faith. From that point on, it is logic.
Discussion on Answer
Honorable Rabbi David, may he live long and well. See here:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%A4%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%98%D7%94
Rabbi Michi,
I assume that what they usually mean is, if we use your terminology, that Jews in particular have an inborn intuition of faith in God, one that precedes understanding faith through rational logical proofs.
Similar to Anselm’s prayer, in which he prays to God to help him produce a proof of His existence.
Presumably you would disagree with the claim that such an intuition exists in Jews in any special way. But I think that is what they mean by the concept.