[Avodah] belief based on personal experience

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 03:46:39AM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
>> On belief based on personal experience:

I checked on TorahMusings, and RJR forgot to say there as well just who
he is quoting, but someone wrote:
>> A pure rationalist would separate himself from his own experience and
>> analyze starting with how many people there are, how many situations
>> similar to his own,..... and determine based on the entire sample space
>> (ex. one person has a dream that someone they know got sick, and they
>> actually did. analysis-how many dreams were dreamt in the world, how
>> many about friends, how many sick, how many did get sick...)

And RJR asked:
> How do we take this into account in our emunah process?

I think that's leaving the personal experience route, trying to use the
idea of personal experience as a data point to build a philosophical
argument.

Kind of like the difference between the Kuzari cheileq 1's appeal to
tradition, and "The Kuzari Principle" trying to make a philosophical
argument out of the impossibility of forging this kind of tradition.


The question is whether you want to philosophically get knowledge about
the Borei, or you want to get to better know Him.

The Rambam, because he believes that a personal relationship of that sort
is impossible, focuses on theological knowledge about G-d.

On the opposite extreme, R Nachman eschewed studying about G-d because all
that intellectualizing gets in the way of knowng Him.


The resolution I pursue in my own life assumes neither of these ends of the
spectrum.

Ever do something you know was the wrong choice? That's because there
is a gap between what we think and what we feel. (R' Elya Lopian --
all of mussar is about moving something just an ammah. Moving an idea
from the head to the heart.)

It is therefore not necessarily true that a pursuit of philosophical knowledge
about Hashem in all His Transcendence has to get in the way of finding a
relationship with Him. This is a case where compartmentalization is a good
thing.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and he wants to sleep well that night too."
Author: Widen Your Tent            - Rav Yosef Yozel Horwitz, Alter of Novarodok
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF