This is
what I don't mean by belief. There is now evidence gravity waves exist. Physicists
are relieved, they no longer have to believe, they now have evidence. In
science beliefs are provisional theories which exist only to be superseded by data.
That's fine, but nothing to do with belief as I understand it.
'What is
finite to the understanding,' said the German philosopher of religion, Ludwig
Feuerbach, 'is nothing to the heart.' Belief is the realm of that infinite to
the understanding. It’s not a provisional theory, it’s a spiritual, emotional
reality which doesn’t respond to laboratory testing.
There is
something wilful about this kind of belief. One has to open one's heart to the
possibility of meaning in places beyond science. One has to believe, as it were,
in the possibility of belief; in a realm which makes calls on who I am and how
I should live.
At the opening
of the Mishneh Torah, Rambam expressed this belief as follows; The base of
belief and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a First Cause which is
the causation of all causation from heaven to earth and everything in between. (Yesodei
HaTorah 1:1)
When Rambam
built all Jewish life from a belief statement it was a radical departure for
Judaism. The Torah never explicitly commands to belief, but Rambam is surely
right; without some reference to something, 'beyond,' Judaism collapses into a
grab-bag of cultural peculiarities. But if there is something beyond humanity,
beyond calculation then there might be a purpose to our existence as humans and
as Jews.
In the
rabbinic imagination Abraham, rejects the nonsense idolatrous world of his
childhood and embarks on a search. Abraham wandered from place to place when
he saw a bira doleket - a castle in flames. He wondered: "Is it
possible that the palace has no owner?" The owner of the palace looked out
and said, "I am the owner of the palace." So Abraham our father said,
"Is it possible that the world lacks a ruler?" G‑d looked out and
said to him, "I am the ruler, the Sovereign of the Universe." (Bereishit
Rabba 39:1).
The experience
of wondering about the purpose of existence allows for an encounter with that
purpose. Belief arises from a quest; why we are here, who shall we be? Belief provides
a framework for understanding our lives as something other than a decaying atomic
dust.
Of course,
to the atheist, we are just this collection of meaningless dust. But my call is
that we should open our heart to the other possibility. This is a little
circular - in order to find meaning we need to will ourselves to believe that
there is meaning. But that doesn't worry me. If I live my life as if there is a
purpose I might stumble on that purpose. If I live my life as if there is no
purpose, I won't. I (perhaps like Pascal) will take that gamble. I'm also a fan
of people who live their lives with this kind of belief. The religious
fundamentalists scare me and nihilists, too often, strike me as selfish, boring
even.
Belief has
gone out of fashion these past years, atheists are winning the PR battle, but
let me share two exercises to help us feel easier with this notion of belief.
The first
is borrowed from the writings of Abraham Joshua Heschel, probably my most
significant Jewish teacher. We should, wrote Heschel;
live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and
look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is
phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be
spiritual is to be amazed.
Radical
amazement is the single key to unlock a life infused by belief. To live life
amazed is not a retreat into ignorance, in fact quite the reverse. The more I
understand about evolution or quantum physics the more I am amazed at the
beauty of the world.
The more we
develop a sense of finding humdrum life remarkable and miraculous - breath,
smiles, the ability to put one foot in front of the other - the more we can inculcate
a willingness to find belief and meaning. Developing a sense of radical
amazement in our lives also, I believe, makes it easier for us to complete the
next spiritual exercise.
Develop the practice of gratitude
In so many
ways gratitude is integral to a Jewish existence. The very Hebrew term for Jew
- Yehudi - comes from the same root as the word for gratitude. We should
say thank you more often, place ourselves in a position of grace - how much we
receive. Heschel again, 'The cure for the soul begins with a sense of
embarrassment.' How can we be worthy of our lives? The more we pause to show
our gratitude the more we open to the possibilities of feeling in our souls
that which is beyond scientific measurement, that which is beyond the rational.
In next
week’s reflection I will attempt to join the dots between this kind of belief
and the doctrines of Jewish day-to-day existence.
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