For many, religion is a giant covert contract to get a certain things out of life. Religion does not promise an easy life, it promises a meaningful one.
Thank you for articulating ideas I've been pondering this past 50 years. There can be no doubt that religions that embrace the idea of devine providence have a serious challenge with the reality of bad things happening to good people.
"Flirting with heresy" is aptly put. The overarching caution is that philosophy and academia will slowly nudge you into heresy, when in reality so much of the chatter in frum world media is people desperately grasping for hope through supernatural miracles and foolproof segulahs to prove to themselves that God is real and the life they've chosen to live is worthwhile.
There is an enormous amount of Torah on this point surrounding the significance of Purim, though it is often misunderstood as God still "intervening" in nature, just doing so behind the scenes. The real message, as noted in the application of the Psalm of Ayelet Hashachar to mean that Purim was the "end of miracles," is that God's will, and response to human choices, can be clearly expressed within the everyday choices that play out within the natural order - that He created a world that is itself an expression of His will and that does not require "intervention" (which makes no sense when we remember that God exists outside of time and that our whole time-world was created "all at once"). The miracles of the Exodus, etc., as explicitly stated repeatedly, were there to demonstrate the full extent of God's omnipotence - not as a needed mechanism to get them out of Egypt, etc. (Caring for them miraculously in the desert was for a similarly explicit reason). This is taking your point one step further but it is a step I think you need to take or you risk leaving God's personal role in history out of the picture.
There's a now deleted comment where the author admitted it was AI.
I have my peeves. I happen to love this piece and its message, but then it goes “it gets deeper”. AI needs to constantly tell you how deep it is. It's off-putting and irritating.
Sorry - it should correctly be "assisted by AI" or "Edited by AI". The piece is clearly not fully AI generated. But the editing and the tone has the cadence of AI even if the content is not.
For many, religion is a giant covert contract to get a certain things out of life. Religion does not promise an easy life, it promises a meaningful one.
Well said. They’ve ‘signed up’ for the consequences of a belief they don’t actually live.
I knew you would appreciate
Yup!
How do you reconcile this idea with Judaism being presented explicitly as a contract throught Chumash
Where?
Everywhere. It's the central motif of Tenach.
Nice piece.
Hafta mention the following quote especially after you mentioned the burning bush!
"Earth’s crammed with heaven
and every common bush afire with God;
but only he who sees takes off his shoes,
the rest sit round it and pluck blackberries"
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh #86
This is WONDERFUL. Thanks for sharing!
I, too, was smitten with it when I first came across it (and still am).
Thank you for articulating ideas I've been pondering this past 50 years. There can be no doubt that religions that embrace the idea of devine providence have a serious challenge with the reality of bad things happening to good people.
"Flirting with heresy" is aptly put. The overarching caution is that philosophy and academia will slowly nudge you into heresy, when in reality so much of the chatter in frum world media is people desperately grasping for hope through supernatural miracles and foolproof segulahs to prove to themselves that God is real and the life they've chosen to live is worthwhile.
Agreed. That caution seems to be a holdover from long ago and maybe it’s time we let it go.
Cool thing to mention about footnote 4:
Nietzche had that same issue with Christianity…
First gripping, then thought-provoking.
There is an enormous amount of Torah on this point surrounding the significance of Purim, though it is often misunderstood as God still "intervening" in nature, just doing so behind the scenes. The real message, as noted in the application of the Psalm of Ayelet Hashachar to mean that Purim was the "end of miracles," is that God's will, and response to human choices, can be clearly expressed within the everyday choices that play out within the natural order - that He created a world that is itself an expression of His will and that does not require "intervention" (which makes no sense when we remember that God exists outside of time and that our whole time-world was created "all at once"). The miracles of the Exodus, etc., as explicitly stated repeatedly, were there to demonstrate the full extent of God's omnipotence - not as a needed mechanism to get them out of Egypt, etc. (Caring for them miraculously in the desert was for a similarly explicit reason). This is taking your point one step further but it is a step I think you need to take or you risk leaving God's personal role in history out of the picture.
https://substack.com/@perplexedjew/note/c-129981832?r=33pit
Is this shorthand to avoid triggering me? 😜
There's a now deleted comment where the author admitted it was AI.
I have my peeves. I happen to love this piece and its message, but then it goes “it gets deeper”. AI needs to constantly tell you how deep it is. It's off-putting and irritating.
I deleted the comment because I have no intention to fight with you - but that is definitely not what I said.
Sorry - it should correctly be "assisted by AI" or "Edited by AI". The piece is clearly not fully AI generated. But the editing and the tone has the cadence of AI even if the content is not.