Q&A: A Brief Note on the Book "Matzui Rishon," p. 450, "Faith and Revelation"
A Brief Note on the Book "Matzui Rishon," p. 450, "Faith and Revelation"
Question
Hello Rabbi.
I’m currently going over your trilogy again. Right now I’m in the book "Matzui Rishon," p. 450, where you wrote that: “From your perspective, faith in God is a claim of ‘fact,’ and therefore people who observe commandments out of national identification, or nostalgic feeling, or out of religiosity and a connection to mysticism, are not really believers—as opposed to someone who observes commandments because this is ‘the truth’ (a kind of faith-based categorical imperative / Leibowitz’s ‘faith for its own sake’). The latter you define as the ones who are truly ‘believers.’” This distinction between people who are “sort-of believers” and genuine philosophical believers isn’t so clear to me. In the end, even someone who goes to synagogue and observes commandments because “his grandfather was a rabbi,” or the religious mystic who prays with the kavanot of the Rashash after immersing in ice-cold water in the predawn hours, believes that this is “the truth,” even if not in a philosophical sense. Maimonides (Laws of Repentance, chapter 10) emphasizes and distinguishes between the simple masses, who serve out of fear/love, and a philosophical elite that “does the truth because it is true.” If so, this is not really a matter of fake believer versus true believer; it is simply a distinction in the level of “religious awareness,” at the very least.
Answer
Let’s begin with someone who does not believe in God at all. Clearly, his commandments are not commandments, even if he is full of religious feeling and/or national and family nostalgia. That is what I meant when I said: commandments require faith. Without that, these are acts that are not part of religious service to God.
Now you can ask about someone who does believe and understands that he is obligated, but in practice that is not what motivates him to observe the commandments. Here he does have a commandment, but not for its own sake.
Discussion on Answer
For your sake, I hope this was an attempt—unsuccessful—to be funny, and wasn’t written seriously.
There is such a view, and that’s why I asked. Your Hungarian sarcasm is understood, but it doesn’t work on me!
It’s clear that it doesn’t work, and that’s a shame. I would have expected you to have drawn conclusions by now regarding your questions.
Maybe you could enlighten me—I really mean that. Honestly. Not just in order to insult me. And surely I also have some good questions, no? It doesn’t make sense that someone would keep failing all the time, I think.
You appear under a lot of nicknames, so the readers here don’t see the number of questions and remarks I make to you. That is also why I respond sharply, since your real name does not appear on the site and this is not public shaming. I have no problem with people asking whatever question they want, but I do expect a drop of thought.
I’ve already pointed out to you more than once that it seems you don’t invest even a moment in thinking before posting a question. Most of them are really beside the point. I understand that this is not trolling but innocence, yet after quite a few remarks I expect you to draw conclusions. For example, here you bring some kindergarten teacher’s little saying and expect an explanation of how my words fit with it. Why should they fit? I am not obligated to fit even with the interpretations of the greatest medieval authorities. Beyond all that, in this specific case here I do not see any contradiction even to the little saying you brought up.
I invest quite a bit of time in writing and answering every questioner, and I expect at least somewhat more serious questions.
Okay. I was talking about the idea of inner and natural faith—that some of us have it openly, and in my opinion everyone has it in the subconscious. And everything else is just excuses to strengthen or refute it.
And what is the question? You’re really driving me crazy. Formulate a question clearly. What is my claim, and what is your question about it?
How do you explain the rule that the Jewish people are believers, children of believers? And that Moses turned to God after performing the signs and wonders—Moses was afraid that the Jewish people would “believe only because they saw the signs and wonders.” And then God answered him: “And the people believed.”