‫ב”ה‬

‫יום כיפור תשס”ח‬ ‫שיחות רב עוזר‬

Insights into Torah and Halacha from Rav Ozer Glickman ‫שליט”א‬
‫ר”מ בישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן‬
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Modern Orthodoxy and Traditional Belief in God
‫אביכם שבשמיים‬-- ‫אמר רבי עקיבה אשריכם ישראל לפני מי אתם מיטהרין ומי מטהר אתכם‬
Over the year just past, I have enjoyed many opportunities to teach and speak outside the ‫בית המדרש‬, something I
didn’t do very often earlier in my Yeshiva career. Spending time with our laypeople and practicing ‫ כלי הקודש‬in communities
around the country and in Israel, I’ve learned that there is an insatiable thirst for spirituality in the Jewish community. Intricate
expositions of the contingent nature of ‫( איסור‬my Kollel Yom Rishon lecture on ‫ דבר יש לו מתירין‬in Toronto) or the dynamics of law
and morality (my Clanton Park lecture on ‫ )זה נהנה וזה לא חסר‬no matter how successful at demonstrating the powerful internal
coherence of Jewish law miss an opportunity to engage Jews on matters of profound spiritual concern. The reaction of the
audience to a ‫ שיעור‬should not be amazement at the lecturer’s scholarship and/or brilliance. It should rather be the realization
that the Torah has deep and abiding meaning for the listener.
There is little discourse about God and spirituality in that part of the religious community that calls itself Modern
Orthodox. This may in part be a reaction to our own discomfort with the notion of God. As products of Western culture and
what passes for intellectual honesty on the modern university campus, we perceive ourselves out of step with the enlightened
society against which we measure ourselves. This is why we flock to lectures about ‫’חז”ל‬s flawed science and how one can
be Orthodox and believe in evolution. These conversations allow us to play the role of skeptic and assert our devotion to
rationalism and the accumulated knowledge of post-Enlightenment society.
While I have been a vocal supporter of Rabbi Natan Slifkin’s right to publish his views on science and Torah, they miss
the mark for me. Attempts to square Torah and science are an anachronism in the Modern Orthodox community. They played a
role perhaps when our grandparents worried about the deleterious effects of college on our parent’s ‫נשמות‬. It isn’t science that
needs defending in our community. It is the continued relevance of Torah in intellectual discourse that is now controversial.
The Torah never discusses the obligation to believe in God. There are no rational arguments for the existence of God
in the entire Hebrew Bible. His Presence suffuses the entire text. God’s existence is never an issue for ‫ עם ישראל‬because we
experience Him directly through history and nature. In fact, there is no Hebrew word in the Bible for what we mean by faith:
nonrational belief. The word “‫ “אמונה‬in its various forms denotes faithfulness and trust:
:‫וירא ישראל את היד הגדלה אשר עשה ה‘ במרצים וייראו העם את ה‘ ויאמינו בה‘ ובמשה עבדו‬
This verse is no more telling us that they believed in the existence of God than that they believed in the existence of ‫משה ע”ה‬.
Existence wasn’t the issue but rather what responsibilities that relationship entails.
There is another important lesson in this verse. The sense of responsibility and obligation experienced by ‫בני ישראל‬
was engendered by their experience, not dialectic. They saw the ‫ יד השם‬in their own experiences. Faithfulness engendered by
experience.
All throughout ‫חומש דברים‬, ‫ משה רבנו‬reminds ‫ עם ישראל‬of their concrete experiences of the Infinite:
:‫להיך מקרבך‬-‫פעור השמידו ה‘ א‬-‫עניכם הראות את אשר עשה ה‘ בבעל פעור כי כל האיש אשר הלך אחרי בעל‬
:‫רק השמר לך ושמר נפשך מאד פן תשכח את הדברים אשר ראו עיניך פן יסורו מלבבך כל ימי חייך והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך‬
There is never an appeal to doctrinal belief or philosophical dialectic.
When I met last year with Jews who have “gone off the derech” , I didn’t encounter a single young Spinoza among them.
Invariably, the story was one of neglect during a period of self-discovery outside the orbit of the community in which they were
raised. The theological questions came later when they sought to justify their lifestyle choices to indignant parents. In fact, the
best arguements they offered against literal fundamentalism are the ones they learned in their years in yeshiva. The Orthodoxy
with which they argue is a strawman in which they never believed in the first place.
When Jews no longer locate their ontological selves within the Jewish community, any sense of obligation cannot be
much more than filial loyalty. Living apart from the Jewish community at an emotion-laden time in a young person’s life makes
them vulnerable. It takes a heroic personality to maintain a Torah lifestyle in a sea of secularity. Heroism is too much to demand
from our children. The Rav ‫ ז”ל‬explains the first ‫ הלכה‬of the ‫ יד החזקה‬in his seminal essay in Tradition 32 years ago:
.‫יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון‬
Knowledge of God “transcends the bounds of the abstract logos and passes over in the realm of the boundless intimate and
impassioned experience...” Humanity does not live in the abstract, in a world of dry propositions. Recasting religion as a set of
postulates devoid of the experiential robs it of its essential nature.
There is no conflict between the scientism of the secular world and the faith-based world of Torah. Assuming, however,
that the two can be actively mapped onto one another forces Torah to be recast in a series of postulates and deductions
which are ultimately not sustainable. Engaging the Jewish community only in the technology of halachah divorced from the
experience of the Divine turns Torah-talk into a barrier between ‫ עם ישראל‬and its Creator.
‫גמר חתימה טובה‬
Sichot Rav Ozer are published by talmidim and admirers of Rav Ozer Glickman. We may be contacted at ravglickmanshiur@gmail.com.