First is the rational intellectual who gives no credence to anything his mind cannot grasp. He dismisses with ridicule anything that can’t be “proven” — preferably in a laboratory. We tend to dismiss him as if all that intellectualizing is somehow a threat to our relationship with Hashem.
And then there is the simple but holy type who seems to function on a purely intuitive beyond-logic level. He eschews all philosophizing or theorizing yet remains steadfast and unshakeable in his faith.
But even as we longingly tell the story of the shepherd who called out the alef–bais at Kol Nidrei or extol the illiterate Yiddishe Mama who knew how to cry on Tisha B’Av not despite but somehow because she didn’t know how to read (let alone translate the kinos) our heart does not really seem to be where our mouth is.
It’s hard to accept that Hashem would give us this wondrously capable mind and then be happier if we don’t use it. Can it really be that depth of thought and understanding are really just “intellectual fluff” reserved for the weak among us? And truth be told few people I know would seriously be willing to give up their ability to think reason and understand (even if that would set their tefillos soaring on Kol Nidrei night) even as they yearn for the emunah pshutah of that Yiddishe Mama and the shepherd with his alef–beis.
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