 |
| Space Nebula (Jewish Action) |
Nonetheless, throughout history there have been those that have had questions about God’s very existence. That is understandable because as a Spiritual Being, God’s existence is un-provable in a world that is entirely physical where our 5 physical senses are equipped to experience only the physical . Over the long history of the Jewish people - that has led some of us to falsely conclude that God does not exist.
In recent years there are some Jews that might lean in that direction and nevertheless are still observant. The question arises whether that means anything to those of us that believe in God.
Questions like this were tackled by Jewish Action in a symposium and put to a group of ‘prominent rabbis and educators’. Their responses are published in that issue. I thought that I would add my own 2 cents. The questions are in blue block-quotes each followed by my own thoughts.
1. We tend to identify Jews as Orthodox by their behavior rather than by their beliefs. (For example, we refer to an individual as a “shomer Shabbat” or a “shomer mitzvot,” rather than a “ma’amin” or a “ye’reh Hashem.”) Is having emunah integral to being a Torah Jew, or is observance of halachah far more critical, and thus deserving of more attention and education?
I don’t see how it’s possible to be an observant Jew without the fundamental belief in God. And that it is He that gave us the very Mitzvos we keep. It is true that Judaism is based on action. That being a ‘Jew in the heart’ is meaningless. If you do not do what God requires of you, you are failing in the mission He gave you as a Jew. But without a Lawgiver, laws are irrelevant. Especially ritual laws that have no logical basis. Why bother with them at all? Who cares if one keeps kosher or observes Shabbos?!
But even without that logical construct, the very first of the Ten Commandments is belief oriented. There is no act for us to do in God’s declaring, ‘I am the Lord, your God’. The reason it is the first declaration is precisely to tell you that action follows only if there is belief. The conclusion must be that belief is a prerequisite to action.
2. Have we sufficiently taught the underpinnings of our faith to our children? If not, is there a valid reason for this? Do our schools emphasize knowledge of and skills in Tanach, Gemara and halachah without providing students with a foundation in the fundamentals of Jewish belief? Is there a reason why our educational institutions in the past focused on the practice of Yiddishkeit more than the tenets of emunah, and if so, are the reasons still applicable?
The answer to the first part of this question in my humble opinion is, no. Jewish education in our day is not doing its job that way. It is instead more or less following the original paradigm set many years ago of teaching ‘what’. Not ‘why’.
From the earliest grades all the way through Kollel and beyond, the focus is on what exactly the law is… and how it was derived. Throughout Jewish history many volumes have been written by the greatest scholars of each generation along those lines. Very few dealt with belief.
Those that did such as the Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim were at best ignored if not outright banned. This is not to say that these older discussions would suffice in our time where the challenges are different. I do not believe they necessarily would - although they may help even now in some circumstances. The point is that the subject of belief has been all but ignored in most classrooms. The presumption being that belief is a given. In our day there should be no such presumption. As the opening of the Jewish Action article notes:
A group of young Jewish day school graduates—all of whom were raised in Orthodox homes—were recently asked about their belief in God. Not a single one could explain why he believes in God or why believing in the Torah differs from believing in any other belief system.
3. What are the challenges when it comes to imbuing our students with emunah in this post-modern, technological era? Do we need to teach it differently in contemporary times? What would you tell a student experiencing a crisis of faith?
The fact that we are in an age of information overload where anything goes, makes it is way too easy to find rational arguments against belief in God and/or Judaism. Without any preparation we and up with a population of students that can easily one can fall victim to these arguments – having never had the opportunity to examine our own belief system.
If we are to raise future generations of observant Jews, this has to change. Educators must know how to answer challenges to our faith – before they are ever asked. They need to teach the importance and value of belief and to explain why Judaism without belief is meaningless. A curriculum must be developed whereby students are shown rationally and clearly using the logic and evidence of a Creator.
(There is much evidence and logic to belief in God and Judaism - but it is beyond the scope of this post to discuss it. The point is that educators must know these arguments and instill them in their students long before they encounter arguments against them.)
4. Do you have suggestions for how to introduce the concepts of emunah into the contemporary American Orthodox experience? How should a teacher or rabbi intent on doing so begin?
That is a difficult question and beyond my pay-grade. I am not equipped to teach teachers how to teach anything. Much less a subject like belief.
That is however the task for our age. Programs must be developed that will educate the teachers of the future how to do that. At the same time those that are currently teaching need to be given crash courses in how to answer these challenges. The danger of not doing so will only increase the numbers of sincere Jews looking for answers and finding them in all the wrong places.
*As always in subjects like this, this post is not an invitation to debate belief itself. I am not an educator and this site is not equipped to deal with these questions. Any attempt to do so will be deleted upon my discovery of it. Thank you for your cooperation.