Q&A: What Brought You Back to Religion
What Brought You Back to Religion
Question
Hello Rabbi,
In the latest podcast that was published, you said that from your perspective the Talmud brought you back to religion, and philosophy came afterward. Could you explain what you mean by saying that the Talmud brought you back to religion?
Best regards,
Answer
I’ve written here several times about my impression of / admiration for the Talmud. In my view, it is an exemplary text in many different respects, and my feeling is that it reflects a profound approach to reality and to thinking about it. The connection I formed with the Talmud helped me develop an identification with the Torah and with Judaism more broadly.
Discussion on Answer
Not at all. Intuition, not emotion. Being impressed by a text is not emotion.
Admiration and feelings are intuition?
I’m familiar with your claim that intuition is a kind of sixth sense, which is basically the understanding and perception of the intellect.
But from what you wrote here, it seems that the admiration was an experience accompanied by feelings that left an impression on you.
I don’t see anything wrong with that if, after a cooling-off period, the examination was intellectual. But maybe it was that Jewish spark people talk about that caused the spiritual awakening spoken of by those who bring people back to religion—something that apparently didn’t pass over even the greatest rationalist of our generation!
So in short, after all the rationalism, it’s emotion that creates the connection.