I suggested that the Torah preempts the “How do we know that we know?” cycle by including all epistemological methods within a paradoxically unknowable knowledge. I’d like to bring this into focus...

Apr 11
Apr 11 Knowing the Unknowable (Part 2): A Fair Paradox

Eliezer Berger

Knowledge Of God, God

To review, Western philosophers have several theories as to what makes something true and how we know. All the theories encounter the problem of themselves being simply accepted beliefs...

Apr 5
Apr 5 Knowing The Unknowable (Part 1): Introduction

Eliezer Berger

Knowledge Of God, God, Machshavah

Being the Chosen People makes epistemology surprisingly relevant. How do we know what the truth is? How do we know what to do? What is emunah anyway? Since this is a gigantic topic, I want to provide here but a digest of the questions involved and then offer a perspective I hope will be true (no pun intended)...

Mar 11
Mar 11 Parshas Pekudei: We’re Still Being Punished For The Sin Of The Golden Calf

Devir Kahan

God, Parsha

The opening posuk of this week’s parsha has a number of peculiarities...

Mar 10
Mar 10 Art & Science Don’t Exist

Eliezer Berger

Machshavah, God

Whatever you think of generally as “nature” in the physical sense is most likely either tending toward a pantheistic or transcendentalist/deist conception. Allow me to explain...

Feb 4
Feb 4 Parshas Mishpatim: God’s Will? What About Civil Order!

Devir Kahan

God, Machshavah, Parsha

Parshas Mishpatim begins with the continuation of the giving of the Torah. The parsha begins by stating that what is to follow are all of the various mishpatim, or laws, that were given to the Jewish people...

Jan 22
Jan 22 A Nation Of Nonbelievers

Devir Kahan

Machshavah, Parsha, God

Amongst the most preeminent themes of Parshas Beshalach is without question that of emunah, belief in God. The stories of the parsha all seem to focus around the Jewish people finding their faith in the Divine. And yet, it is just as much a parsha of non-belief, and a lack of faith in God...

Jan 7
Jan 7 A Divine Name & The Unlikeliness Of The Universe

Devir Kahan

Parsha, Science, God

It is well known that the Torah uses different names to refer to God at different points in the narrative so as to convey different aspects of God’s manifestation and interaction with the world. Each name is specifically chosen in each context, and each has its own unique meaning. This is all quite a topic unto itself — especially given modern Biblical scholarship — and we shall thusly save it for another time. Nonetheless, herein we shall focus on one of the Divine names in particular and discover something truly astonishing...

Dec 15
Dec 15 Hashgacha Pratis (Part 5): Rambam’s Explanation Of Levels Of Providence & Why Bad Things Happen To Good People

Devir Kahan

God, Hashgacha

We have established until this point that Hashgacha Pratis is commensurate with one’s knowledge and understanding of God. We continue in Rambam’s Guide to understand what this means, and how this works...

Nov 9
Nov 9 Hashgacha Pratis (Part 1): Even A Leaf From A Tree?

Devir Kahan

Hashgacha, God

Here begins what I hope will become something of a mini-series on the topic of Hashgacha Pratis. Literally translated, it means “Detailed Supervision”, but it is otherwise known as “Divine Intervention” or “Divine Providence”. The question at hand is how often, and in what way, God intervenes in the world. When does God get involved in our state of affairs? Without getting too involved too quickly, it is enough to say that such a topic is, of course, fundamental to Judaism, and a proper understanding of the topic is of great importance. It is this that we endeavor to achieve in this series...

Nov 2
Nov 2 The Hidden Fundamental Of Faith

Dovid Schwartz

Yom Kippur, Halacha, God

At the end of his introduction to Mishneh Torah, the Rambam lists all of the twenty-four sefarim that comprise his great Halachic work. He briefly discusses the content of each one and explains his rationale for each title. For example, he writes, “In the Third Book, I shall include all of the mitzvos which occur at determined times, such as Shabbos and the Holidays. I have called this book Sefer Zmanim (Book of Times).” While this classification seems eminently reasonable, the Rambam has a problematic description of the contents of Sefer Ha-mada (Book of Knowledge). He writes, “In the First Book, I shall include all of the mitzvos which pertain to the fundamentals of the Religion of our teacher Moshe, which a man must know before anything else — such as, for example, the Unity of His Name, blessed be He and the prohibition of idolatry.”...

Oct 25
Oct 25 You’re Already Looking For HaShem

Eliezer Berger

God, Kabbalah

Have you ever strolled alone or had a moment to stop and observe the world? Too often we categorize these experiences as “vacations” or “breaks”, meaning that we consider them to be aberrations from our usual drone of business. And yet, it is in these moments that wonderful, soul-freeing epiphany can occur...

Sep 7
Sep 7 How Can The Torah Be So Evil?

Devir Kahan

God

Our Torah is not exactly a fun book. These past few weeks’ *parshios* provide ample support for such a statement, what with their curses, executions, genocide, and so forth. The fact that our Torah has so much in it that is far from politically correct is something that is pointed out with palpable glee by the likes of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, and so forth. Indeed, there are many, many people alive today who claim that the main reason they don’t believe in the Bible is because of what it contains.