Emuna ve’Deos (Introduction 7) I should add to this a list of what are, in my view, the causes of disbelief, falling into lies and a spirit of resistance to the truths of the miracles and speculation concerning religious belief. I see eight of these often. These eight are: 1) the natural burdensomeness of effort for humans 2) The stupidity of many of them. 3) Man’s instinct to fulfill his desires in terms of, food, feasting, sex and property. 4) An aversion to inquiry and an inability to listen attentively or engage in sustained thought. 5) People’s brazenness and pride which causes them to not concede there is any wisdom hidden from them nor any science that stands before him that he has yet to master. 6) Something someone heard in the name of one of the dissenters which touched his heart and worried him and he is thus stuck in worry his entire life. 7) A weak proof he heard from one of the monotheists and he thinks, therefore, that all of them are like this. 8) Someone for whom hatred exists between him and certain monotheists and this causes him to, hating their God.
Where does "And my rebbe molested me and when my father wanted to report it, the rosh yeshiva called him a moser" go on this list?
ReplyDeleteIt starts with #8.
ReplyDeleteHe hates his molester, and those who tried to cover it up, and therefore begins to hate ALL religious people and their God.
Then other items on the list come into play.
I've said this repeatedly - this is one of the biggest failing of Modern Orthodoxy - the inability to catch these peoples on their way out of the fold, to show them one can be Torah-observant without all the stuff that goes on in their native communities, that it was people abusing God's Torah and not God's Torah that's to blame.
ReplyDeleteAs I said, it starts with #8.
ReplyDelete