O ne of my ongoing peeves with secular Jewish publications is the sheer tediousness of so much of what passes for writing on Judaism in their pages. That there are Yiddishe neshamos that feel a compulsion to subvert Jewish beliefs and practices is painful enough — must their regurgitation of laughably baseless assertions be so drearily predictable too?
Among the all-time leading yawn-producers of course is the notion that Judaism is fairly besotted with questioning and challenging. Yes indeed: Questions here questions there questions truly everywhere… As for answers — or for that matter G-d — well not so much.
“Judaism Religion of Questioning” is a close cousin of another perennial doozy that of “Judaism Religion of a Plethora of Voices.” You know the drill: There’s Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel and you can take your pick because it’s anyone’s Bet as to which one is right since the Talmud endorses a “multiplicity of opinions.” If you thought you just heard a low anguished murmur that would be your faithful columnist who as he types is pleading with no one in particular “No no please not again.”
But in fact yes again. Each year just as spring has sprung and Passover approaches Four Questions make a prominent appearance during the Seder (the one ritual unaffiliated Jews observe more than any other). And out rolls the “questions” meme faintly redolent of schmaltz and ready for one more hackneyed schlep around the Jewish media block.
