As I’ve progressed on my journey with regards to religion, there are many topics I have researched and many thoughts I’ve had on related issues. I finally decided to try to take pen to paper, but I shall make no effort to organize or write up the discussions in a formal manner. This substack simply represents many of my thoughts as I go along.
Judaism makes several truth claims, some of them are clearly fundamental and across the board, while some of them may have internal disputes, whether historical or contemporary. The three most central beliefs is the belief in one God, (in modern context what’s most relevant is that a god exists), minimally defined as supernatural being who has always existed and created the world, the belief that god controls the world, which include ideas such as the efficacy of prayer, the possibility of miracles, the institution of prophecy, and reward and punishment, while the final belief is that he in some way is the author of the Torah, which minimally means that the Pentateuch was given to moses either at Sinai or a bit later, and the rest of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud are an accurate representation of god’s will. Without these three beliefs, Orthodox Judaism doesn’t get off the ground. Other, more peripheral tenets of Judaism are the belief in the messiah, the afterlife, and the resurrection, which minimally means that the third temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem and the world will be improved in some sense, and that the soul exists and survives death, will face judgement, and will be resurrected.
Maimonides famously delineated 13 principles of faith, largely based on these categories. He considers God’s existence to comprise four principles, 1) His existence, 2) His unity, 3) Not being physical, and 4) That he is eternal and creation ex nihilo (the last two focus on his philosophical leanings.) His control of the universe comprises another three, 1) Prayer, 2) Reward and punishment, 3) His awareness or our actions and thought. With regards to revelation and the Torah he lists another four, 1) Prophecy, 2) The prophecy of Moses was unique, 3) Torah Min Hashamayim, 4) The Torah is eternal. Finally, the last two are 1) The Messiah, and 2) The Resurrection. There have been various historical criticisms or disputes about this list and many of the details, and Marc Shapiro has written about it masterfully in The Limits of Orthodox Theology, which is why I choose to focus on the fundamental ideas of God, His control and revelation, the Torah, and the Messiah and the Afterlife.
Belief in these ideas is sufficient to establish a functioning Orthodox Judaism, however there are many peripheral issues or quibbles over details which are relevant as well. Orthodox Judaism needs to affirm the validity of the Torah and Halakha, but there are various approaches to how to approach this authority and how to address the historicity of it. Such points of contention include 1) Biblical literalism vs. non-literalism, particularly with regard to prehistory, evolution and the flood (although various aspects of biblical history pertaining to the Exodus and Israelite society are debated as well,) 2) Lower criticism (textual variants in the torah and the reliability of the Masoretic Text), 3) Very recently Higher Criticism (non-Mosaic authorship) has entered the fringes of orthodoxy as well, 4) The historical origins of Torah Sh’Baal Peh, if it dates to Sinai or was produced by the rabbis, 5) The flexibility of halakha and it’s response to social challenges, and many others. Another area which is frequently discussed is the current Charedi concept of mesorah, which includes ideas like 1) inerrancy of Chazal, 2) kabbalah, 3) authority of earlier generations on matters non-pertaining to halakha, 4) Daas Torah, and others.
Most people believe based on Mesorah. For the Charedi side of things, the idea of mesorah is sometimes focused on the greatness of Judaism and its scholars, on the superiority of Yiddishkeit over the rest of the world, and in general is a very insulated worldview where the idea of questions doesn’t arise often. In the modern orthodox world, my impression is that they also have this focus on mesorah, but it is more limited than the Charedi conception, as it usually encompasses only the core aspects of Judaism.
Among some, they feel the need to justify their beliefs. In the Charedi world it is usually directed towards kiruv, as the idea is that a child raised in a frum home already knows the truth, however in the modern orthodox world it is sometimes geared to frum members as well. Additionally, in the Charedi world asking such questions is strongly discouraged, and many would be embarrassed to be seen reading even very religious kiruv books, as this is often seen as an admission of weakness in belief.
Another major aspect which takes the focus off evidence is the psychological aspect of spirituality and connection to God. If you ask most frum people what the word Emunah brings to mind, they usually envision the sense of awareness of Hashem, rather than the belief in any given proposition. When people feel connected, they don’t even entertain any epistemological questions in their minds. The simple question “How do you know what you believe is true” is simply not on the table. Indeed, a large percentage (but far from all) of people that go off the derech and cease believing is not due personal research or intellectual drive, but rather due to the lack of connection they feel, which may in turn lead them to question their faith.
However, from a purely epistemological (the study of how we know what we know) perspective, these ideas have no bearing on the truth. People can have all kinds of reactions to ideas which resonate with them, or can be raised within communities of particular belief systems, but these have no bearing on whether or not it is true. For that, we must have the audacity to ask “How do I know this?” This is my goal here. To ask the questions, discuss the arguments, and focus on the reasons or justifications given to see if those reasons are valid.
Some of the topics that will be discussed are epistemology, theistic and atheistic arguments, historicity of the torah, biblical criticism, the development of Judaism, Torah Sh’baal Peh, the reliability of chazal, common kiruv arguments, the existence of the soul, the afterlife and free will, and others. If you’re interested in an analysis of Judaism from theological, philosophical and historical perspectives, then enjoy this blog (and please subscribe)! I hope to post once or twice a week, so be on the lookout for new posts!
Note: Although I was raised totally frum, I am currently an agnostic and don’t necessarily believe in most of Judaism’s truth claims, so it will likely have an skeptical bend, but I will try to examine the issues without bias, although I will still assert my own position. If you are frum and are not interested in kfirah v’apikorsus, this is not the place for you.
From Sam Harris' substack, posted today. We should observe that if this is what he writes to his Christian readers, Jewish readers of this substack should not think it's fine to make the same arguments.
If a Christian gives the same bad reason for why he believes in Jesus, Mary and God, as you want to give for why you believe in any other god, including but not limited to the God of the Torah, you should think deeply about the ways in which you are deceiving yourself by thinking these thoughts, and try to correct them.
LETTERS TO A CHRISTIAN
I should acknowledge at the outset that we use the term “faith” in a variety of ways. However, most religious people (as well as most atheists) use it to indicate the acceptance of specific religious doctrines without sufficient reason—that prayer can heal the sick, that the historical Jesus was resurrected and will be returning to Earth, that believers will be reunited with their (believing) loved ones after death, etc. Hebrews 11:1 really does give the game away— “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” According the Bible, therefore, faith is some combination of wishful thinking (“the assurance of things hoped for”) and belief without evidence (“the conviction of things not seen”). I am not alone in thinking that this frame of mind is antithetical to reason and that faith-based religion remains in perpetual conflict with science. However, I want to make it clear that I’m not criticizing faith as a positive attitude in the face of uncertainty, of the sort indicated by phrases like, “have faith in yourself.” There’s nothing wrong with that kind of faith.
*Most people believe based on Mesorah.*
To clarify this notion a bit, and to be utterly precise, people believe because they have been indoctrinated (fancy word for "taught to accept uncritically") to accept the mesorah. In other words, people were taught to accept the mesorah uncritically. The mesorah, if evaluated rigorously, does not withstand scrutiny, and so no one can actually believe based on mesorah. Unless the comment is being made in a self-referential manner, in which the mesorah is that the mesorah should be accepted, and since it's being accepted, this foundational rule is also accepted.
This is another version of the circular reasoning of believing in the Torah because the Torah says that the Torah is true.
Nice write up!