Q&A: A Question About the Rabbi’s Books
A Question About the Rabbi’s Books
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi,
I’ve been going back and forth with myself for a while now about this whole issue of Judaism
and the existence of God in general.
I was born into a certain religious environment, one of the ones considered important in my sector (supposedly—though that’s just my opinion).
Two years ago I came to realize, supposedly, that it’s impossible to prove the existence of God,
so I declared myself an agnostic and said that anyone who wanted to prove to me that God exists or does not exist was welcome to try.
I haven’t come across a proof for either side,
not in my yeshiva and not in various atheist forums either.
I always assumed that some smart person might come along and prove one side or the other,
and therefore taking a side is not wise, and from my perspective it’s legitimate to say that both sides are rational.
I used more social arguments to defend the rationality of the different religions (except Islam—I really couldn’t manage that),
and when facing theists I never had a problem getting across my point: “Why should I believe in God?”
But then I came across your debate about the rationality of belief in God, and all your arguments made sense to me beyond just social arguments—they made logical sense to me.
I had only one problem:
I didn’t understand how you get from a deistic God to Judaism.
I’m not asking you to explain it to me, because I assume you’ve written dozens of books about it, and that’s why I bought one of them (God Plays Dice).
But in the introduction I see that you prove something I’d already heard from you and that I think makes sense (the existence of a deistic God, but not the “God of Judaism”), so my question is whether there is a book or
article you could point me to.
And in general I’d like your advice, because right now I’m not really a believer and I’m pretty boxed in inside the yeshiva,
to some extent against my will.
The question is whether it would be better for me to keep investigating and find out whether Judaism is true (which I believe there’s a good chance you prove),
and not take this or that step in my life,
or to try to move to a secular environment.
Because with all my love for the Talmud and Judaism, it takes a huge amount of my time, and right now I don’t believe in it.
P.S.
Sorry for the long rant; my situation is a bit complicated.
Answer
Hello.
I have a trilogy on Judaism, and the first book deals with exactly this. The first four talks deal with proofs for the existence of God, and the fifth talk deals with the transition from deism to theism. It is called The First Existent.
In general, there is a problem with yeshiva students who deal with these issues, because in many places there is no way to discuss them freely and raise the questions for discussion, and then a person is left to formulate a position by himself. And without a study partner, one reaches hasty conclusions because one does not encounter other sides and other conceptions. That creates an absurd situation: specifically the closed nature of the yeshiva world leads people to deny and reject traditional beliefs. I have encountered this a lot.
Obviously I am not recommending that you draw incorrect conclusions. I didn’t understand this strange question. Why would you take steps in a direction that is not correct? If your position is not yet formed, then you should continue examining the matter until it becomes clear to you. If you reach the conclusion that everything is mistaken, then you will no longer need to ask me what to do. Right now you write that you have indeed become convinced regarding God in the deistic sense, and you are in doubt about theism. That is what you need to clarify.
Discussion on Answer
I’ll check out the trilogy though. Thank you very much.
Good luck
The question is whether to keep investigating right now
or to focus on myself,
because continuing to investigate in my current situation does exact a price from me if Judaism is not true.
But if it is true, and I reach that conclusion from one of your books, then it would be worth paying that price,
apparently.
I actually do study in an open yeshiva.
The point is that they don’t deal with this very much.
The yeshiva is at a very high level; I think you’ve probably also heard about our post-high-school yeshiva and maybe even about the yeshiva high school.
But the teachers don’t deal with this.
The issue of rationality doesn’t interest them.
I respect them a lot and their worldview,
but it doesn’t persuade me.