This Shiur by R' YY Jacobson left unanswered questions

momnaturally

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 9:49 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

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?

I did not hear the shiur. It depends what you call blind faith. I have lots of questions. The question is that what is the mindset when we question. Every person really needs to establish why they believe in Hashem and constantly build that up. Once there is a very strong foundation to believing in Hashem then when there are questions it is not doubting rather seeking. Seeking is good and many times we do find answers and higher levels of understanding. But sometimes we don't right away and it takes time. But still those questions don't cause us doubt in Hashem because we already have built up a strong foundation of trusting Hashem. Some may call that blind faith some may not, but that is emuna peshuta.
It's like the Yidden trusted Hashem and followed him to the midbar even though there was no food or water there. Hashem considered that tremendous emuna. You can call that blind faith it is really based on the trust in Hashem that they saw how he helped them in mitzrayim. Even though they may still have been nervous and even though they still may have had questions why they had to have been enslaved for 210 years until now...

shoshanim999

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 10:13 am

momnaturally wrote:

I think those are 2 different things. There is:

1. Belief in hashem and that he gave us the torah at har sinai.

2. Belief that all of the things it says in the torah are true. This includes attributes that hashem has, rewards that are promised to us for certain things we do. It also includes believing anything chazal say 100%.

If we put aside any question about hashems existence, my question is specifically how do I believe that hashem is full of compassion and kindness when my eyes tell me otherwise? Of course I can blindly say it just as I can blindly go outside on a freezing winter day and close my eyes and shout that it's 95 degrees and sunny. Do I honestly believe it? Of course not. So how can I believe hashem has endless mercy when I often see the opposite?

momnaturally

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 11:21 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

I am not sure what you mean by those 2 things are different. What are the 2 things that I wrote or did not write that you are referring to ?
Regarding the 2 things you wrote I think they are impossible to separate. If I really believe in Hashem and he gave us the Torah and that Torah is what we have, then that would follow that I believe everything it says in it even if some things seem hard to understand. The stronger I really believe in Hashem and gave us the Torah tells me all my questions must have answers...

BTW I really enjoy talking to you on this thread and on other threads. I myself have lots of thoughts and grapple with things and am always trying to work things out in my own mind. When you ask questions I really have an opportunity to sort out my own thoughts too when I respond to your questions. I don't know if my posts are helpful for you. I hope they are. Your questions are definitely helpful for me and I appreciate them.

momnaturally

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 11:28 am

shoshanim999 wrote:

I am not sure what you mean by those 2 things are different. What are the 2 things that I wrote or did not write that you are referring to ?
Regarding the 2 things you wrote I think they are impossible to separate. If I really believe in Hashem and he gave us the Torah and that Torah is what we have, then I would have to believe everything the Torah says even if some things seem hard to understand. The stronger I really believe in Hashem and he gave us the Torah tells me all my questions must have answers...If I doubt things that the Torah says that means I don't fully accept Hashem or I don't fully accept that he gave us this Torah.

BTW I really enjoy talking to you on this thread and on other threads. I myself have lots of thoughts and grapple with things and am always trying to work things out in my own mind. When you ask questions I really have an opportunity to sort out my own thoughts too when I respond to your questions. I don't know if my posts are helpful for you. I hope they are. Your questions are definitely helpful for me and I appreciate them.

shoshanim999

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 11:49 am

momnaturally wrote:

I am not sure what you mean by those 2 things are different. What are the 2 things that I wrote or did not write that you are referring to ?
Regarding the 2 things you wrote I think they are impossible to separate. If I really believe in Hashem and he gave us the Torah and that Torah is what we have, then I would have to believe everything the Torah says even if some things seem hard to understand. The stronger I really believe in Hashem and he gave us the Torah tells me all my questions must have answers...If I doubt things that the Torah says that means I don't fully accept Hashem or I don't fully accept that he gave us this Torah.

BTW I really enjoy talking to you on this thread and on other threads. I myself have lots of thoughts and grapple with things and am always trying to work things out in my own mind. When you ask questions I really have an opportunity to sort out my own thoughts too when I respond to your questions. I don't know if my posts are helpful for you. I hope they are. Your questions are definitely helpful for me and I appreciate them.

With regards to the idea that hashem gave us the Torah, I struggle with the mass revelation proof, I'm disappointed that in the videos about the mass revelation, the lecturers don't address some of the problems with the proof that I'm sure they've heard. I appreciate that they are trying to prove their point but the problem is when I research the proof I see several refutations that weren't addressed by the rabbi giving the proof. All that being said, I can't directly contradict that hashem gave us the Torah. I have problems with the proof, but at least there is an argument to say it happened. Other things like hashem being "fully compassionate", actually flies in the face and directly contradict what we see with our eyes. It's things like this (hashem being fully compassionate) that bother me because there doesn't seem to be any possible way to understand it.

momnaturally

Sun, Feb 25 2018, 2:56 pm

shoshanim999 wrote:

I never watched any of these videos and never attended any such lectures or presentations. I don't know if it would even talk to me. I can share some of thoughts I have. Perhaps my thoughts can help you. Or perhaps you can tap in to your own thoughts the same way I try to tap in to mine.
Why do I believe in Hashem ? Why do I believe in Torah ? Why do I believe everything the Torah says including how Hashem is kind ?
My underlying motivation for everything is
Why am I here ? What is the point of everything? Why is there a world ? In a way the whole world seems kind of crazy. The world exists for thousands of years and people just come and go after x amount of years like animals ? What will happen to me after I die ? All these questions really force answers. If I would have no answers I would go crazy or be a horrible person. I personally don't understand how a [gentile] can live a normal stable life without any sensical answers. I guess it's a bracha that hashem made a [gentile] different than a yid that they don't need answers to live functionally.
This post is getting too long but once I think about all these questions the comprehensive answers the Torah gives are the only good enough answers out there to make any sense of anything. The longevity of our nation and Torah, the beat down and revival of our nation
tells me there is a purpose here. The holy Tzaddikim that we have and had that exists by no other nation is proof of meaning and direction. I consider myself so lucky to just have "ended" up part of all this and not a clueless [gentile]. All these things just push me to seek not to doubt. I have questions too. But since I feel the real underlying question is resolved in my mind all the other questions are just details and puzzle pieces that I try to figure out. But since I know what the puzzle is all about I just don't know how every part fits in or makes sense then although those pieces make at times be painful they don't tear at my core beliefs. My beliefs are way too overwhelmingly strong for anything to happen to undermine that. This whole world is really only a puzzle piece itself. Almost anything that happens no matter how tragic is technically a very minor detail if you put in in the whole existence of everything that ever happened and will happen. The problem is if we get too emotionally overwhelmed to the point where we cant direct our emotions with our logic at all. That is truly a dangerous thing and I daven that should never happen to me.
And it won't because the Torah says Hashem will never give us something we can't handle.