Brooklyn, NY – I was apprised of the fact that a renowned rav and posek in Flatbush dedicated his Shabbos morning drasha to the plight of a young lady who was recently dismissed from her Brooklyn Bais Yaakov. It seems she vexed the administration because she asked her teacher incisive questions about the nature of Gan Eden. Thankfully, due to the intervention of this prominent rav, she was reinstated to her school.
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Thousands of frum individuals grow up with gnawing questions about the fundamentals of Yiddishkeit. Their questions may be trite and simplistic (i.e., Why do we keep Shabbos?) or profound and weighty (i.e., How do I know there is a God? or Hashem knows everything, including every move I make; yet I have free will. How can the two co-exist?).
It’s not the particular question that is germane – every sincere and thoughtful question is relevant and important. Rather, it’s the way the question is received and handled. Sadly, most often the questions are either rebuffed or repudiated by parents and teachers. Some adolescents are even slapped or labeled with the pejorative “apikores.” The outcome is that in some cases the seeker despondently resolves to trudge through life with lingering and unresolved doubts in ikrei emunah, and in other cases, tragically, they throw in the towel, religiously.
The Hebrew word for question, she’ailah, is etymologically derived from the word sha’al – to borrow or request. According to Rashbam, Tosafos, Chizkuni, Klei Yakar, and other commentaries, sha’al, in this context, does not mean to borrow but denotes requesting something that is one’s rightful possession – one’s natural entitlement.
It is against Torah hashkafah to take offense or to reject a sincere question. Just as water sustains the physical world and is free and accessible to everyone (this predates New York City’s water meters!), so too should knowledge be available freely. This is precisely why, according to the halachic ideal, one should not charge tuition to dispense Torah knowledge (see Yoreh Deah, 246:5).
The late Sy Syms said in relation to his discount clothing chain, “An educated consumer is our best customer.” His slogan is a fitting credo for Judaism. When we avoid answering questions and penalize a child for asking, it compromises the integrity and absolute authenticity of our mesorah. It projects insecurity and appears to the child as if we have something to hide. How incongruous! Judaism has all the answers. We live in an age where Torah knowledge is awing the greatest scientists and most resolute atheists.
If only parents and educators would be more candid and unveil the vast contemporary knowledge found in Torah, it would preempt many such questions.
Science is now on the offensive, catching up to Torah. For example, how many of our students know that at the 1990 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, the meeting’s chairman, Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge, astrophysicist at the University of California at San Diego Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (and former director of the Kitt Peak National Observatory), commented: “It seems clear that the audience is in favor of the book of Genesis – at least the first verse or so, which seems to have been confirmed.”
Do we speak to our children and students about modern-day miracles that show God’s intervention in the world?
For example: Eretz Yisrael lay desolate and barren for almost two thousand years. Mark Twain traveled there in 1867. He reported: “There is such desolation; one cannot even imagine that life’s beauty and productivity once existed here . [The Land of Israel] dwells in sackcloth and ashes. The spell of a curse hovers over her, which has blighted her fields and imprisoned her mighty potential with shackles. [The Land of Israel] is wasteland, devoid of delight.”
The world’s greatest civilizations fruitlessly attempted to restore life to the land. In fulfillment of the Torah’s prophecies, miraculously, as soon as the Jews returned, starting in the late 19th century, the land became fertile and reinvigorated.
Another example: After the Persian Gulf War, two eminent scientific journals (Nature and MIT’s Nature and Arms Defense Studies) were puzzled about the apparent Divine protection that Eretz Yisrael had been afforded from Scud missiles. Both journals devoted full-length research articles to attempt to logically explicate the hows and whys behind the purported miracles.
Many rishonim (among them Rambam, Rabbeinu Bechaya ibn Pakudah, Rabbeinu Bechaya ben Asher, Rav Saadya Gaon) hold that the mitzvah of emunah is not predicated on blind faith but on rational and objective knowledge. According to Chovos HaLevovos, knowing and inquiring about Hashem, getting first-hand knowledge of Him, is a fulfillment of the Torah’s charge “Veyadato hayom ki Hashem hu Elokim” – “and you should ‘know’ today that He is God .”
Rambam (Yesodei HaTorah 8:1) stresses that despite all the miracles they witnessed in Mitzrayim, the Children of Israel did not believe in Hashem wholeheartedly until they had first-hand knowledge and personally experienced the revelation at Sinai.
Our children and students deserve answers. If we don’t provide them with answers or they feel too uncomfortable and intimidated to ask questions, they will, chas v’shalom, go elsewhere with their questions. The street and the Internet are replete with individuals and material looking to snare the innocent away from Judaism. We don’t necessarily have to know all the answers. We do have to know that there are addresses to turn to for answers, such as qualified rabbis, hashkafah books, and lectures.
The value of shakla vetarya, the dynamicof the exchange of questions and answers, is paramount in Judaism. Every Jewish toddler is educated with the four questions of Pesach. Upon death every Jew is asked four crucial, fateful questions. The only way to ensure that these last questions are answered appropriately is to espouse an open-communication “questions welcome” environment throughout a person’s life.
Rabbi Fingerer, a popular lecturer and educator, is the author of “Search Judaism: Judaism’s Answers to a Changing World” (Targum, 2009) available at SearchJudaism.com. He is director of the Think and Care Tank (thinkandcare.org), an organization dedicated to spreading Jewish values and innovative Jewish programming.
The writer hit the nail on the head! I have friends who are today borderline frum or no longer frum because they had questions and were afraid to voice them to the rabbeim in Yeshiva and Beis Yaakov. Some did ask their honest questions and were rebuked. My opinion is that the teachers get better credentials and be more qualified to answer questions and also learn how to encourage questions and how to have “open communication” as Rabbi Fingerer says. If not, they should stop teaching.
But Our mesorah in emuna is blind faith not like the reshonim mentioned. This Is Why We Say shema With A Hand Covering Our Eyes, There Is No Need To Prove That There Is A God The Whole World Knows This Anyway. This Editorial Is Wrong.
when i was a little secular kid looking for answers (after going from a hard knock public school to yeshiva). i was secular and asked many questions. some rabbis were intrigued and glad to answer me, but the administration and especially the less down to earth rabbis and teachers thought i shouldn’t be allowed to question anything and eventually they managed to kick me out (even going as far as to forge a nasty a letter from a rabbi who obviously didn’t write it since he stood up for me).
i went on being secular and even at times being a self-hater. these days however i am a little older and wiser and have found my way back to yiddishkeit my own way. i am trying to find a good torah study group that ISN’T zionist. i hope to marry a jewish lady and raise my kids in a traditional jewish home. but that is no thanks to a certain brooklyn yeshiva…
Counted among the many askonim (what a shanda that so many are needed) to help prevent impulsive and foolish throwing away of precious neshamos from our schools and yeshivos, the hashkafah questions account for a small, but noticeable percent of those thrown out. It has been suggested that the reason for these expulsions is that the teachers are not able to answer these questions themselves, and it is better to get rid of the questioner than to appear ignorant. Does anyone recognize the Emperor’s New Clothes? Had mechanchim been trained, they would embrace these questions as inquisitiveness, the quest to learn and understand, instead of challenge and “apikorsus”.
How chinuch has fallen from the ideals set forth by our gedolim of yesteryear!
Of course there’s an issue with lack of open communication. There’s no platform for it. It’s a huge problem. Most principals and roshei yeshiva are in denial. The schools (at least those in Brooklyn) don’t offer it. I actually recently read Search Judaism by the author of this article and I can’t understand why my kids and other kids in Yeshivos are not required to read this work as a text book. Search Judaism should be mandatory reading.for all Jewish high school students. There are so many issues in contemporary society that run counter to anything Jewish and the only way that kids are going to stay with the faith is if they appreciate how Yiddishkeit is relevant and, indeed, has all the answers.
Rabbi Fingerer has 4 videos on his site, and he admits that none of them include a proof that there is a God.
Without Emunah Pshutah, our own logic can not prove to us that there is a creator.
Because our shallow mind can not begin to comprehend how such a complex God could have been around forever infinitely, just like our shallow mind can not comprehend how the world could have been here forever infinitely or just happened by itself.
So why would our logic create such a phenomenon as God, when nothing becomes more logical, with or without God (CH”V).
Nothing else, only Emunah Pshutah.
What happened to “Lo Habayshon Lomed” & “Mikol Melamdai Hiskalti Umitamedi Yother Mikulom”. The teacher probably was embarrassed because she/he were unable to answer. If you don’t know say I don’t know & I will look it up or ask someone & get back to you. You do not throw a child out of school becasue they a ask a lot of questions. And remember no question is too dumb or stupid.
Many wonderful people have been tuned “off” because our “trained” educators aren’t equipped and run the other way when asked a tough question. Rather than waiting for questions/challenges to cause a collision -religiously- it’s time rabbis/teachers deal with Judaism (particularly in a classroom/shul setting) maturely, and begin confronting questions head-on. The best offense is a defense. I commend Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer for his work and salute him on his publication of Search Judaism. Jewish education is too important to be fall in the hands of ignorant or apathetic educators. Our children deserve more.
Joey (commenter #2 ) is radically wrong. Blind faith is not Judaism. That’s how we are different than Christianity. In the other religions one man spread his vision to all the people who bought it hook line and sinker. In judaism the people had too see it and know it in order to believe.
Cant wait to see the comments on this one…sure to be controversial…two Jews three opinions…
that is the yesod of ‘bechirah’, otherwise the inyon of schar veonesh is botil .its not the first or last those who abandon because of questions . the klall what geonim of privious generations told skeptics..if your right ..but ‘och un vey’ if your wrong and there is a creator…
Rabbi Fingerer is so right. Every kid who can think straight will have questions and the questions become more complicated as we grow older and actually know more. The mechancim can’t answer every question. But they can teach the children one very important concept. If you have a question it’s not wrong. But understand that your question comes from not knowing, from being ignorant about this idea. So hold your question to the side. This is where blind emunah comes in. Then go learn until you understand the answer. This is where intellect takes over. Rashi says on the posuk “haskeil v’yodeah osi”, that “haskeil” means Daas, daas torah, learning. And rashi says further that daas is intellect b’laz. The intellect of Torah will answer the questions. The kids have to know that they can ask and they should be given explanations. But they should also know that every question can be answered if you learn and gain knowledge and have an open mind to the Torah first. If I don’t understand calculus or quantum physics, that doesn’t mean that these areas of knowledge don’t exist or are invalid. Not understanding something means that you are ignorant of this subject and need to learn.
Its just shocking it seems acceptable to attack the one with questions…(true nuts) if in fact many students have questions or even without questions it’s a subject that deserves attention & discussion in the classroom…
The Editorial writes “Hashem knows everything, including every move I make; yet I have free will. How can the two co-exist?”
Sorry but this is easy to co-exist.
Here is the corrected question “Hashem knows everything WHAT IS GOING TO BE, including every move I WILL make; yet I have free will. How can the two co-exist?).
and has the answers through Chassidus and the Rebbes sichos. The Rebbe said that Chasidus does not belong to one group but to klal Yisroel. Look into it, and don’t answer about faults that you may find in Lubavitch. lets be honest learn Chasidus and the rebbes sichos and you will have the answers. ( better said you may not get questions anymore)
I know someone who went off the derech and said it was because her teachers would not answer her questions. When my kids ask me questions that I can’t answer, I’ll say either “I don’t know, I’ll have to ask a Rav” or “You haven’t learned enough to understand the answer to that question yet so keep asking it from time to time and I’ll answer it when you’re ready” or “Our sages disagreed about that and we don’t have an answer that everyone accepts” or “Our sages saw several ways this could happen and which one actually happens will depend on us” or “Teku!” but I won’t blow off the question or scold my child.
Comments 2 (Joey) and 6 (Shlomo) are two sides of the wrong coin! They both suffer from a lack of a proper Jewish education. Shlomo is stating a major misconception about Judaism. ANYONE can -with rudimentary logic- come to the powerful “recognition” that there IS a Creator. However, NO ONE can UNDERSTAND His mysterious ways, or begin to “fathom” how He operates. Man’s intellect alone can extract, pummel and ascertain the truth. Through our senses we cannot see God, but through our intellect we can (BTW Joey (comment 2), that’s why according to the Hasidic masters, you cover your eyes). Shlomo (comment 6), no one can prove God’s existence by showing you He exists, but anyone (smart enough) can show you He exist by proving it.
We can’t relate our own attributes or praise to the Creator, since in doing so we limit Him. (We are limited from understanding How Hashem operates.) There aren’t enough adjectives to sufficiently describe God’s majesty. Any description is at best a weak approximation. But we KNOW He exists, and are “commanded” to KNOW He exists. Shlomo, Joey—this is nothing better than knowing Him! It’s a real relationship.
This is what happens when you have 19 year old teachers.
David, you can learn alot from Rabbi Fingerer’s superb sefer Search Judasim and see for yourself. Go to your local Jewish book store or http://www.searchjudaism.com. I also suggets all of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s stellar books. Hope you learn and grow!
It’s amazing that in this day & age a yeshiva/Bais Yaakov would expel a student. Especially someone who has sincere questions.
The Chofetz Chaim refused to shake the hand of a Menahel in a Knessiah Gdola. He told the Menahel that he heard that he expelled a student. The Chofetz Chaim said: Do you know what kind of churban you could have created?
The student expelled wad Leibel Trotsky, better known as Leon Trotsky, Y’S.
I agree with the gist of this article and would like to add, that Emunah Peshutah is not blind Emunah. Blind Emunah would be if I told you that I was Moshiach, and you should believe me because I said so. Emunah Peshutah on the other hand means that I believe my father that his father told him that his father told him …that G-d revealed himself on Mount Sinai to us and told us Onochi Hashem Elkecho Asher Hoitsaisicho Maieretz Mitzrayim…Veatem Tiyu Li Mamleches Kohanim Vegoi Kodoish. That means that I believe my father of the Mesoirah that he heard from his father who heard from his father and so on. It would be somewhat similar to a colony of people getting on a spaceship and landing on another planet then had children and died, and then the children had children and told them that their father told them that their father told them that they landed here on this planet. This is called Emunah Peshutah, as Ein Odom Moirish sheker lebonov, a person will not make his children inherit lies.
Then there is Emunah by proof and circumstantial and other evidence. This route, although it can be VERY fruitful, is nevertheless fraught with a lot of danger. Your’s truly has trodden on that path and am LUCKY to have remained a committed Jew. The reason is simple; because the mind works by rational, and can fool itself or be fooled into thinking almost anything; yes anything. Peer pressure from friends and neighbors, the need for self gratification which is the most common reason for someone rationalizing sin and denial of G-d, and a whole host of mitigating factors can contribute for someone to loose his Emunah or never having it in the first place.
The real approach to Chinuch should be to hammer away at Emunah Peshutah, and at the same time to also incorporate proof of Judaism and G-d as much as needed for someone’s religious equilibrium. But never ever should we be angry if a child or even an adult asks questions. Instead we should lovingly try to answer them to the best of our ability, and if we aren’t capable, then we should seek out the ones who ARE capable. We, Boruch Hashem have so many who are capable, so why not utilize them? We, more then anyone, are the people of the book; we are the ones who have introduced into this world the belief in G-d; we were the ones to introduce to the world the concept of mercy; we were the ones to introduce into this world the concept of holiness; we were the ones who during the “DARK ages” produced hundreds of scholars like Maimonides; we are the people who by the laws of nature should long have vanished; and nevertheless we are still here stronger then ever waiting for what was promised to us the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu Bimheroh Beyomeinu Omein, when the whole world will recognize the oneness of Hashem Elokei Yisroel, his Torah and his children, the children of Israel.
the real reason why todays yeshivas and bais yacovs discourage questions about our beautifull religion is a simple one,because 95% of the rebbeim and teachers don’t have clue when in comes to hashkafa,and they simply have no answers themselves,
Most people, including Rabbeim, can’t answer the questions.
Why don’t I believe that a girl was kicked out of Beis Yakov for asking incisive questions about gan eden?
“Science is now on the offensive, catching up to Torah. For example, how many of our students know that at the 1990 meeting of the American Astronomical Society, the meeting’s chairman, Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge, astrophysicist at the University of California at San Diego Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (and former director of the Kitt Peak National Observatory), commented: “It seems clear that the audience is in favor of the book of Genesis – at least the first verse or so, which seems to have been confirmed.” “
Is this a joke?! Burbidge, how didn’t believe that the universe has a beginning, ment it as an insult of those in favor of the big bang theory (majority of scientists). The audience surely didn’t agree with that description! What exacty does this story prove?