This Shiur by R' YY Jacobson left unanswered questions

Mevater

Tue, Feb 20 2018, 9:34 pm

https://www.torahanytime.com/#.....57103

Rabbi YY Jacobson
Basics of Emunah #19: Finding G-d in Your Pain

Rabbi YY Jacobson has become one of my favorite speakers. His Shiurim leave me feeling good.

This Shiur begins with 4 heart wrenching letters Rabbi Jacobson got from people in the community where each had different questions on how to deal with their very troubling issues.

While R' Jacobson spoke with amazing passion and knowledge, quoting Gdolim Mefarshim and Sfarim, I didnt hear much in his answer that would help the 4 people with their troubling issues.

What am I not getting?

What in his answer potentially helped remedy all the four people's questions, and anyone who might have similar Bitachon issues?

Mevater

Tue, Feb 20 2018, 9:44 pm

amother wrote:

You won't die from an unanswered question.

Pretending you have the answers to questions outside the grasp of ordinary humans, on the other hand, can do great damage.

So for instance, one of the 4 letter writers, the woman whose brilliant daughter went OTD partly because she asked in school why Yiddish is any more acceptable as a language than English, if Yiddish comes from German, and was brushed off by teachers. Are you saying that if the mother tells her "You won't die from an unanswered question. ", it will help her?

Or the seemingly ultra religious yingerman railroaded into getting married at 19 and learning for the rest of his life, like others in his community, and is being told this is the best life, and feels its not for him, and is pretending to all that he holds learning Torah dear, which is totally false, will be helped by hearing "You won't die from an unanswered question"?

I doubt it.

Last edited by Mevater on Tue, Feb 20 2018, 9:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Ecru

Tue, Feb 20 2018, 10:12 pm

Mevater wrote:

I dont think everyone in the community can be a passionate observant marching soldier, if they have deeply troubling questions, with an answer like "We dont have to understand everything".

I hear what you are saying, but it's a lot scarier to have a bunch of people who are sure they have all the answers to everything. Humility is a religious value.

A lot of what messes people up is being told that social norms are halacha. Some Jews prefer to speak Yiddish as a way of fostering group identity. That's fine. It just isn't required by the Torah, and anyone entrusted with educating children should know that.

amother

Seashell

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 2:16 am

Rabbi jacobsons way is that exactly to recognize we have questions but don't know all the answers, he's basically doing what rambam did in his time.accepted he didn't have all the answers, but was a maamin anyway, that is what emunah is, but the rambam was very deep and had very deep philosophical questions.

And the takeaway is , we have questions but dont understand everything.

There are many things we can find an answer to it's just that rabbonim would rather tell us your an apikores so rabbi yy j. Is basically saying I understand you have questions and I acknowledge them I don't have all the answers though that is emunah peshuta

And rabbi Jacobson has a shiur saying exactly that he knows we all have questions in emunah and he's criticizing those that tell others your an apikores.on the contrary he supports you having questions and asking he doesn't pretend he knows the answers to them and doesn't criticize you, I find that so enormously refreshing in a time where all our questions are that your an apikores

shoshanim999

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 4:40 am

Mevater wrote:

https://www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?v=57103

Rabbi YY Jacobson
Basics of Emunah #19: Finding G-d in Your Pain

Rabbi YY Jacobson has become one of my favorite speakers. His Shiurim leave me feeling good.

This Shiur begins with 4 heart wrenching letters Rabbi Jacobson got from people in the community where each had different questions on how to deal with their very troubling issues.

While R' Jacobson spoke with amazing passion and knowledge, quoting Gdolim Mefarshim and Sfarim, I didnt hear much in his answer that would help the 4 people with their troubling issues.

What am I not getting?

What in his answer potentially helped remedy all the four people's questions, and anyone who might have similar Bitachon issues?

[u]

I think the answer to your question is what does emunah, or faith in hashem mean, and how does it help? The difficulty with this is that that word "faith" has a different meaning when applying it to a person versus applying it to hashem.

For example, imagine you decide to use Dr. "A" for your children as opposed to the other 5 local pediatricians. If I would ask you why you chose him vs. any of the others, your answer would likely be that:
1. You've heard amazing things about how he thinks out of the box.
2. He can give you an appointment immediately.
3. He has a very friendly disposition and he is great with small children that are afraid of the doctor.

In all these examples the "faith" in the doctor will result in IMMEDIATE benefits. Another example: You are arranging a ride for a small child for the school year and you have several choices and you choose choice "A". Why did you choose "A"? Because you have faith that it will result in IMMEDIATE benefits because:
1. The driver has a reputation for always being on time.
2. The ride is agreeable to picking up the child at a convenient time.
3. The driver is known to be very safe.

Emunah, or faith in hashem is different. There is no reason to expect any IMMEDIATE result (which is what we are used to associating the word "faith" with) So your asking a reasonable question. What about those 4 difficult cases in R. Jacobsons lecture and how did their faith help them? But we have to accept that faith in hashem really means that we have ZERO understanding of his master plan and that we believe that after 120 everything will make sense, but in this world there are no answers. This flies in the face of what we hear as children about how hashem is our father and he is compassionate and we make certain obvious connections with a compassionate father. Namely that he will take care of us as we understand it. In other words, IMMEDIATE results. When things don't work out it's confusing because where is our compassionate father who I have faith in? The answer is that we can't expect anything in this world. I wish Rabbi Jacobson would address this.

Mommyg8

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 7:00 am

I have not listened to this particular speech. But I have my own questions, if anyone's up to the challenge:

1) Why did Hashem create suffering? Yes, I understand it's for us to grow, mechaper aveiros, etc. But Hashem could have just as easily created a world where there is no suffering at all, and we grow or mechaper in easier ways?

2) We are told that we have to work hard in this world, because nobody wants "unearned bread". But Hashem could just as easily create a reality that we would be fine with "unearned bread".

Anyone up to answering my questions?

ssss1

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 8:22 am

Mommyg8 wrote:

I always had these questions. Hope someone can answer.

Inspire

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 1:15 pm

This was the 19th shiur on emuna, although I didn't hear the first 18, I hope to go back & listen to them all, slowly. What I got from that 19th shiur was a message I have heard Rabbi Jacobson say in other contexts, and I think it is powerful: that when we find ourselves in what seems like impossible predicaments, know that we are meant to serve Hashem from that place, to reinvent ourselves in order to deal with these circumstances, which were customized for us. Our type of tzar is exactly what we need in order to do the work Hashem wants from us. We should not reject our pain nor any situation we find ourselves in, but accept that this too is a way to serve Him.I think this is amazing, especially regarding the letter from the woman who married out and after so long, still feels the pintele yid. There is always hope.

penguin

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 1:25 pm

Quote:

Those are among the questions posed by writers in the beginning of the shiur. I'm not sure he finished answering those questions or will do so further.

If I am remembering correctly it was mostly about being real about your pain and being real with Hashem about your pain.

Definitely worth listening to all 19 and those to come. However if you listen to the 19 shiurim and feel you still have those questions feel free to write to yjacobson@theyeshiva.net He is very responsive.

TranquilityAndPeace

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 4:52 pm

This is my humble understanding, after listening to many of Rabbi Jacobson's shiurim.

In this world, it's possible to put different things next to each other, because we have time and mass.

We have no problem putting apples next to eggs. That's because we have mass, ie - physicality.

In the true, spiritual, world, things that are different from one another are distant from each other.

In the spiritual world, only similar things can exist near each other.

Physicality allows us to put things that are different near each other in this world.

Truthfully, apples and eggs are separate entities, and would be "light years" away in the spiritual world.

The way we can be close to Hashem and experience that extraordinary pleasure, is by being close to Him.

In this world, it's easy to ask, "Why couldn't Hashem have made us experience the pleasure of being close to Him WITHOUT all the pain and challenges?"

In the World of Truth, in spirituality, things can only be close if they are alike.

Hashem created us. We are the creations. Thus, we are opposites, and doomed to be very far from Hashem by virtue of our nature.

The way that He saw fit, in His Infinite wisdom, to allow us, mere mortal creations, to achieve closeness to Him, is by giving us a specific opportunity to be creators, similar to Him.

He created this world and approximately 70-100 years for people to have this limited time period in which to become creators. We become creators by fulfilling His commandments, overcoming our base instincts, finding truth and positivity amidst a world of lies and negativity.

By going through painful situations, we have the opportunity to genuinely create ourselves anew, from a base and animalistic soul, into a refined and soul with self-created self-control.

If you're looking for more understanding of why bad things happen to good people, this shiur that Rabbi Jacobson gave at A Time to couples suffering infertility will answer you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbuLjjqTF-0

chicco

Wed, Feb 21 2018, 5:21 pm

Mommyg8 wrote:

You are correct, Hashem can do anything, so why did He choose what He did?

Chazal tell us that Hashem looked in the Torah and created our world. I understand that to mean that Hashem expressed the Torah in physics and ended up with the world that we have. Everything in it is an expression of something that is real and true and exists in the Torah. For Hashem to change or omit something would be to deny a truth.

Now you can ask why Hashem dafka chose physics as an expression of Torah for this world. The hallmark of physics is that it is always changing. Nothing stays the same. The point of this world is to cause a transformation. Hashem made this the language and the rules of our world in order to accomplish this goal.

Yes Hashem could do anything, but He chooses as He does to express Torah- the ultimate truth. If it exists, it is real and needs to be manifest in some capacity.

Hashem's expressions are so intricate and beautifully true, that for anything to happen, it needs to line up in perfect symmetry to be appropriate in that particular situation. There's never one reason why something is the way it is. It works on every level. Which is where the idea of 70 panim ltorah comes in...

I hope this helps.

momnaturally

Sat, Feb 24 2018, 11:29 pm

Mommyg8 wrote:

I also wondered about these questions. We can also question why Hashem created the world at all he could manage without that too. I think ultimately the answer to all these type of "why" questions are we don't understand and it is beyond the scope of our understanding. The whole Torah and Hashem is really predicated on us believing in it and looking to understand what the Torah says and what Hashem wants from us. Even the "why" questions we generally ask are really only to have a better understanding of the what Hashem wants from us. The "why" questions that are not in that context end up just questioning our basic belief in Hashem.
If you think about it many times you can ask the "why" questions on every answer given and eventually it will lead back to the same problem that why did Hashem do things this way.
So in a nutshell your questions are valid. Our whole belief in Hashem is predicated on that our reason for believing in him is so strong that we know it to be true even though we know we will never have the underlying understanding of why it has to be this way at least in this world. If we did have all the answers and full understanding then the whole foundation of YiddishKeit would not exist which is emuna in Hashem. There is no place for emuna if everything is understood.
So basically we can't have YiddishKeit if there would not be unanswerable fundamental questions like you are asking.
(But technically you could ask why couldn't Hashem make YiddishKeit without unanswered questions and keep going in circles because like I wrote before the goal of every answer given in Torah that we understand will only explain in the perspective of understanding what Hashem wants from us not why Hashem chose to do it.)

shoshanim999

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 5:50 am

I just watched most of Rabbi Jacobson's first video on Emunah. He is a fantastic speaker and incredibly enjoyable to listen to! I LOVE that he talks about how in Judaism we are meant to ask questions. At around the 34 minute mark he talks about how only fools have blind faith. He refers to blind faith as "senseless faith based on simply shutting our eyes". He says it's foolish to say "I don't see the truth but I believe it anyway". I realize that he has 19 long videos on emunah, and perhaps he will answer my question at some point, but if anyone else can suggest something, I'd appreciate it. We say on yomtov in davening that hashem is "Mullei Rachamim", full of compassion. Isn't that the classic example of blindly and robotically saying something that we can't understand? I don't need to point out all the tzoros that go on to demonstrate my point. Let's just say that if we could be god for the day, things would run differently. So how do I understand (and not be a fool, and blindly accept without understanding) hashems abundant and never ending compassion when I see all the terrible things going on in the world?