Rabbi Josh Joseph recently brought me on board the Orthodox Caucus’ new project called Torah Currents. Periodically I’ll be sending in anecdotes or short ideas mostly in the section called Thought of the Day and may or may not duplicate them on the blog. The first piece is up and titled Not Much to Ask.
Enjoy
(כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי (ישעיהו נה:ח
I sent this article to a friend of mine at Tufts.
Josh,
I’m sorry
We both think that most people want to be complacent.
I have found that I have grown away from friends that don’t think. One of my closests friends thinks I’m a nutcase becuase I think there is some kind of ultimate truth out there that is findable.
And I never told my friend this morning that Reading the tanya is not spirtualy satifying becuase it doesn’t give you grounding…it doesn’t tell you where to look. A lot of times rambam doesn’t either. You could go in circles in a post-relevatist age.
And yet I go through the same daf until I get it so thouroughly becuase it answers the basic question for this age.
Underneath those layers, we still all see the same thing. I conceptualize it differently than you, but I still see it.
My concpt of God is both life and death and is between the layers of the world. If you look closely, you can see. It’s like you can walk past God and not notice.
I also think there is a very big difference in a spirtual moment (have had those) and seeing/hearing God. State of mind and sence of wonder makes a big difference.
Maybe that’s why learning learning gemara when I am “on” feels so great but gives me such a headache.
We’re still on for next year right?
Shana
Did I leave the iron on?