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Jewish World Review May 16, 2002 / 5 Sivan, 5762
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
"You impetuous people," the apostate said to the sage Rava. "You
put your mouths before your ears!"
Our mouths before our ears? The apostate was referring to "Na'aseh
v'nishmah," the famous phrase uttered by the Jewish people when
they stood at the foot of Sinai and were asked if they would accept
the Torah. "We will obey, and [then] we will listen," they replied
enthusiastically. As their response implies, they committed
themselves to follow the Torah's commandments without first asking
what responsibilities this commitment would entail.
"You should first have asked what was in the Torah," the apostate
continued. "If you felt able, you could then accept it; if not, you could
refuse it."
Our first impulse might well be to sympathize with the position of the
apostate rather than that of the Sage. Why, exactly, did the Jews not
first inquire of Moses, so that they could responsibly weigh the
obligations that the Torah would impose on them? Does Judaism call
upon us to serve our Creator unquestioningly? Are we to assume that
Torah Judaism views faith and rational thought as mutually exclusive?
Conventional wisdom does indeed perceive such an incompatibility
between religion and science, between faith and reason. Careful
consideration, however, reveals that every single one of us truly does
rely on faith. Whether we are scientists or laymen, clergymen or
atheists, faith is as essential to our diet as flour and water.
We have all learned that the world is made up of atoms. But no one
has ever viewed an atom, only the energy trails left behind by ...
something. In the absence of any better hypothesis, we posit the
existence of atoms. We have all learned that the universe began with
the Big Bang. Scientists tell us that before this great cosmological
cataclysm, neither time nor space existed. But what exactly does that
mean? It means, according to columnist Bob Berman in the June
2000 issue of Astronomy, precisely this: "Nobody has the foggiest
idea what happened the Tuesday before the Big Bang."
We have all learned that life came into existence billions of years ago
in a sea of primordial goo, and that sentient life evolved from the
lower orders. So where are the myriad examples of macro-evolution
that Darwin predicted we would find? What's more, biologists can
make only the wildest speculations as to how a random assembly of
amino acids could produce animation and conscious thought, even
given billions of years to work at it. Nevertheless, most people
continue to believe that the Big Bang created a universe made up of
atoms and inhabited by creatures evolved from pre-Paleozoic slime.
Why? Because they have faith, faith that science will eventually
answer its own questions.
At best, the science-believer can claim a rational faith; a faith in
observation and experimentation that will eventually confirm the
unsubstantiated beliefs he holds today. Nor is this the only example
of how rational faith serves every one of us every day of our lives. If
my doctor tells me that I need my appendix out, I'll probably rely on
him, since I realize that I don't know enough to diagnose myself. And
if my mechanic tells me my car needs a new fuel pump, I'll probably
rely on him too, since I wouldn't know my fuel pump from my
appendix.
The faith demanded by Judaism is no less rational, for it is built upon
a logical extrapolation of evidence available to anyone who cares to
examine it, tempered by an awareness of the limitations of human
knowledge. Therefore, if the Almighty tells me that observing and
safeguarding the Torah is to my benefit, I will certainly take His
advice, for He created me, and He knows me even better than a
mother knows her child.
So there was nothing impetuous about the Jews' acceptance of the
Torah sight-unseen. Indeed, we did not accept the Torah on faith at
all; we accepted it on trust, a trust more solid than the most
compelling scientific proof.
But trust is only the first step. "Na'aseh v'nishmah," the Jewish people
said. "We will obey, and we will listen." The Hebrew word "nishmah"
implies much more than simply hearing the commandments. It
implies studying them diligently, laboring to understand them. That
which we originally accepted based on trust, we can then accept
based on knowledge. This is how the Jew has faced the unknown
since his ancestors received the Torah on that first Shavuos day,
3,312 years ago: by trusting that everything in the world has been
brought into existence by design, but also by questioning the nature
of the world and all that is in it; pondering good and evil, triumph and
tragedy, nobility and selfishness. Always confident in the supremacy
of divine reason, we stand assured that whenever the universe
seems not to make sense, it is rather we who have not yet
succeeded in understanding it.
The Supremacy of Reason
By Rabbi Yonason Goldson
JWR contributor JWR contributor Rabbi Yonason Goldson teaches at Block Yeshiva High School and Aish HaTorah in St. Louis. Comment by clicking here.
