The Choice to Believe: Based on the shiurim of Rav Moshe Shapiro, z"l (Mosaica Press, 2023), by Rabbi Aryeh Feldman
Reason to Believe (Mosaica Press, 2017), by Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb
Reviewed by Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein (Rachack Review)
Although both of these books have
similar titles and are ultimately aimed at bringing the reader to believe in
the same thing — namely, the tenets of Judaism — these two books take quite
different approaches towards that end. Both authors agree that there is no such
a thing as an ironclad logical proof that can demonstrate the existence of God
in the way of a mathematical theorem. But how each author advocates for belief
in God despite this admitted limitation widely differs.
Rabbi Dr. Gottlieb, a philosopher
of science and former professor, uses philosophical/logical arguments to make
his case that there is ample reason for a person to believe in Judaism. He is
always careful not to claim that he is “proving” Judaism, but rather shows the
reader that deciding to believe in Judaism is not at all an illogical or
irrational choice. In doing so, Gottlieb uses Socratic maneuvering to force the
reader to admit that his arguments are sound and logical.
In the beginning of the book,
Gottlieb focuses a lot on epistemology with discussions about how people “know”
things and what threshold of evidence is typically acceptable in what sorts of
circumstances.
To summarize Gottlieb’s main two
points: one aspect of the believability of Judaism lies in its predictive effectiveness,
as the Torah already supplied a plausible reason for Jewish Survival and what factors
could lead to upending the Jewish presence in the Holy Land before the events
that eventually caused the exile and dispersal to happen actually occurred. After
surveying all the possible natural reasons for Jewish Survival and rejecting
them, Gottlieb concludes that this phenomenon can be nothing short of a Divine
miracle.
The second aspect is what
Gottlieb calls the Kuzari Principle, which essentially states that a National
Experiential Tradition must be true and since there is a tradition that when
the Jews accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai, they underwent such an experience,
it is perforce true. Rabbi Gottlieb elaborates on exactly how to define the
Kuzari Principle and under what circumstances it is or is not relevant. As
opposed to other religions which were based on the testimony of only a few
individuals claiming to have been privy to Divine revelations.
In general, Rabbi Dr. Gottlieb
provides very specific examples to sharpen his points. His argumentation is very
well thought-out and the core of his argument has clearly been refined and
reworked over the years to be very specific. Of course, the author is a
well-known public speaker and long-time educator Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem, so he
has had much chance to debate interlocutors on these questions, and those
critiques (which he often cites verbatim) has given him the opportunities to
hone his craft. In his footnotes, Gottlieb often refers the reader to
supplementary “appendices” to his book that are available on his website and go
into more detail about the various claims and arguments that he makes.
On the other hand, Rabbi Feldman
takes a totally different approach. His book presents the teachings of his
esteemed father-in-law Rabbi Moshe Shapiro (1935–2017), under whom he studied
for over forty years. His book presupposes that the reader already believes in
Judaism and its basic dogmas and practices. What Rabbi Feldman does is presents
the reader with a metaphysical framework by which the observant Jew can
conceptualize his Jewish theosophy and practices.
Rabbi Feldman devotes much
discussion to the duality of God’s revelation in the physical world (through
Creation) and in the spiritual world (through the Torah). He sees parallels
between these two worlds in various aspects, like numerology (the physical
world was created through ten utterances, just like the spiritual world of the
Torah can be summed up in Ten Commandments) and the like. In doing so, Rabbi
Feldman explains how Emunah (“belief”) in God is the quintessential mitzvah
that bridges these two worlds and reveals God’s presence in the physical world.
Following this, he teaches that in the future, purely spiritual concepts (like
the holiness of the Sabbath vis-à-vis other days of the week) will be
manifestly visible in the physical world.
One of the most common terms that
Rabbi Feldman uses is “greater existence” which points to the notion that man is
not at the center of everything. Rather, it is incumbent upon man to recognize
that his very existence hinges on God and God’s will. This entails making the
proper decision to view life and existence in that way. A person must see himself
as obligated to believe in God and follow His commandments due to him
being totally dependent on God for everything. With such an attitude in place,
a person can more easily take his Emunah to the nth degree and be
willing to even sacrifice his life for the sake of God — after all, it is God
who gives him life in the first place.
This weltanschauung contrasts
with the approach always taken by idolators, heretics, and evildoers who put man at the center of everything and deny that they are
dependent on anything else but themselves. The demand for empirical or logical
proof of God’s existence is itself a symptom of the idolatrous attitude that
sees man as the ultimate arbiter of reality. As Rabbi Feldman shows, it takes a
person with a special knack to connect to things outside of himself to be able
to buck this trend. He calls this skill daas, usually translated as
“knowledge,” but sometimes meant in the sense of “connection.” Although, Rabbi
Feldman also warns about a false sense of daas whereby one is selfishly
motivated to consume news and other media information under the guise of
connecting to a greater existence, while actually doing so merely for one’s own
benefit.
A major theme discussed
throughout Rabbi Feldman’s book is what made Abraham so special and how we can
learn from the level of Emunah that Abraham achieved. Abraham was the
perfect foil to the generation of the Tower of Babel that viewed all of
creation as something meant to serve them. Instead, Abraham introduced the
paradigm shift that taught that God is at the center of creation and creation’s
role is to serve Him — not vice versa.
As Rabbi Feldman clarifies, whatever
a person chooses to believe will always be reinforced by what he sees in the
world, so if a person chooses to believe in God as his starting point, he will
see proofs to God’s existence time and time again. And conversely, if a person
chooses to disbelieve in God as his starting point, he will see apparent proofs
to support that view because he has already defined the world as something
devoid of God.
Besides for the general approach
and content, these two books differ from each other in terms of tone, as well.
Gottlieb’s book maintains the tone of a teacher who is speaking directly to his
student/reader and trying to convince them of his arguments. To do so, he often
uses slightly less formal language and tries to summarize information and bring
it down to the reader’s level. In contrast, Rabbi Feldman always maintains a
very formal tone of writing that resembles the style of a preacher who is very careful
with his words in trying to get his message out. Rabbi Feldman is also somewhat
more repetitive in trying to hammer in certain key ideas, rather than trying to
build an overarching argument like Rabbi Dr. Gottlieb. On the other hand, while
Gottlieb spends a lot of time exploring alternate explanations and debunking
possible refutations to his arguments, Rabbi Feldman simply asserts things to
be as they are, without even seriously entertaining the rival theories.
What both books have in common is
that they are masterfully decorated with the stunning cover designs and
pleasant typesetting that has become Mosaica Press’ signature in the Jewish
Book World.
