Recap for 23 Sivan, 5774 (Parsha Korach and "The Problem with Skepticism"

This Shabbos, we discussed the week’s parsha, Korach, and Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha. We also discussed an article written by David Schlesinger’s father, Dr. George N. Schlesinger, back in 1969 called “The problem with skepticism”.

We discussed how in the parsha, Korach leads a rebellion against Moses and Aron. Korach claims that everyone is holy, and does not see why Moses and Aron get to be leaders and he does not. We discussed how there is also someone named Dathan who was never happy with leaving Egypt in the first place. Back when we were in Egypt, Dathan complained that we were going to anger Pharaoh. There was also a lot of complaining about how our life in the desert was not as good as our life in Egypt. And of course there was all the complaining about the bread we were provided by Hashem, that it was not good enough and we should be getting meat.

We discussed how it may be healthy to have disagreements, but the problem with Korach is that he wanted to play someone else’s position. We discussed how Judaism is a “team sport”. Just like in football, a linesman can not play quarterback, so to - not anyone can be the leader, and/or make sacrifices in the Temple as a Kohen/priest. Korach was trying to play out of position.

We discussed how this concept of Judaism being a team sport is relevant today. For example, if we have a choice whether to daven at home by ourselves or at shul with a minyan, it is better to daven in shul. It is important for us to become part of the community and do things as a team. We were not created to act on our own.

We discussed how the earth opened up and both Korach and Dathan perished. Although it would seem that what Dathan did was worse – rebelling against leaving Egypt in the first place – Korach received the same punishment - because he was influencing others to rebel. We discussed this Shabbos how we have to have faith in Hashem, including the people Hashem chooses as the leaders. We also discussed how there was 3 different types of bread provided to the people based on whether or not they were “playing their positions” on the team and having faith in Hashem.

This Shabbos, David led discussion of an article his father, Dr. George N. Schlesinger, wrote entitled “The Problem with Skepticism”. This article was written back in 1969. The article presents the case of someone who has several questions about the existence of Hashem. He goes off to be with the believers for a while and then comes back. His friends ask him if his questions were answered. He responds that no, his questions have not been answered, but he no longer has these questions.

The article then provides examples of things that we believe in, that have not been proven with certainty. For example, we believe that everyone else around us has emotions. However, it is possible that someone has been programmed to appear to have emotions. Another example, when I leave a space, I believe that things continue to exist in that space. However, it is possible that everything disappears and reappears a fraction of a second before I return.

The truth is that we really can not be 100% certain of much of anything. But things that we observe over and over again, we use inductive reasoning to conclude they will continue happening. If someone were to say that only he or she has emotions, or that unless a human-being is in a space nothing exists, we would probably be referring this person for mental health treatment.

The article then goes on to ask, why is it when someone says that Hashem does not exist, we do not react the same way? The probability that human beings are an accident that came out of randomness, is as likely as the probability that those around us do not have emotions and are robots.

The article then goes on to conclude that the problem with skeptism, when it comes to believe in Hashem, is that society regards this skeptism as normal. In contrast, skeptism with physical things, like all of us having emotions – society regards this as abnormal. Dave W pointed out that society’s views are shaped by whether or not something is physical or spiritual. The article concludes: If society regarded belief in the existence of Hashem as normal, and belief that Hashem does not exist, or may not exist, as abnormal, it would be rare to find someone questioning Hashem’s existence.

This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred

Parshat Korach 5774

Parshat Korach 5774

Here is an audio D'var Torah from my son, Efroni....

KORACH

Recap for 16 Sivan, 5774 (Parsha Shelach) and "Empirical Basis for the Belief in God"

This Shabbos we had a siyum to celebrate the completion of our learning of tractate Rosh Hashanah. We also discussed the week’s parsha Shelach, the article witten by David’s father “Empirical Basis for the Belief in God”, and the halakah of tzitzit.

We studied the last part of tractate Rosh Hashanah, and then had a celebration for finishing the book. In the last part of the tractate, we learned that there are times that we are exempt from the mitzvah of coming to shul and davening. In these times, those that are exempt will still realize the benefits of those that do participate in the minyan. We also learned that once we are in shul, it is expected that we will daven, regardless of our exemption status, unless we are explicitly exempted. This is because there is an expectation that once we are there we are able to participate. After our learning, we celebrated the completion of the tractate.

We discussed parsha Shelach and Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha. The parsha contains what is known as the “sin of the spies”. We discussed whether or not there were really spies. Dave W pointed out that the word “spy” does not appear in the Torah. In the parsha, the "spies" come back, with most of them giving a bleak report of our ability to conquer the land.

We discussed exactly what constituted the sin. Norm pointed out that the sin was not having faith in Hashem and going on this mission to begin with. We discussed how in order to accomplish our goals, whether as a nation, or as individuals, it is important to have faith in Hashem. It is also important to believe that we will succeed. If we do not believe we will succeed we are licked from the start.

We discussed how the spies expectations influenced what they reported. Norm commented on an experiment in psychology where there are two people. One of them is expecting to receive a dollar, and the other is expecting to receive a dime. Both of these people are put into a room. A blind person is asked to go into the room and give one of them a dollar, and one of them a dime. More than 50% of the time, the person expecting the dollar gets the dollar, and the person expecting the dime gets the dime. In the same way, the spies expectation of finding Israel to be too hard to conquer, influenced their conclusion that Israel was too hard to conquer.

Because of our lack of faith, we had to wait an entire generation before we were able to enter Israel. David talked about how this was not necessarily punishment, but that it would take this long for us to internalize faith in Hashem. When we have a goal, sometimes we have to take “baby steps” towards that goal. We discussed that maybe it was never the plan that we would conquer Israel immediately.

David talked about an article that his dad, Dr. George Schlesinger, wrote entitled “Empirical Basis for the Belief in God”. This article appeared in the book Challenge, which is edited by Cyril Domb and Aryeh Carmell.

The article starts off by describing the process and logic by which we gather evidence and "proove" that a scientific theory is true. The article uses the example of Newton’s law. Newton’s law predicts that there will be a planet in a very specific location in space. We conduct an experiment to see if the planet is where Newton’s law would predict. The probability of finding a planet in the specific location by chance is very small. The fact that we verify the planet is there, is evidence that Newton’s law is correct.

We can do more and more experiments and make more predictions based on Newton’s law. Each time we verify a prediction, we gather more and more evidence and become more and more certain that Newton’s law is true. However, we can never become perfectly 100% certain, because it is always possible that our predictions are all true based on chance.

The article then proposes that if we use this logic to accumulate evidence to prove scientific theories, the same logic should apply to accumulate evidence for the existence of God. Instead of looking at the location of planets, we look at the occurrence of miracles. For example, earthquakes that occur at the exact time and place necessary to ensure a nation wins a war. The probability this event would occur by pure chance is very very small. In fact no-one predicted the earthquake.  The occurrence of miracles at exact times and places is evidence of Hashem’s existence.

We can look at more and more miracles in order to get more and more evidence. There are miracles all around us, such as the creation of man. There are miracles such as the fall of the Soviet Union, and the establishment of the state of Israel. And we all have miracles in our personal lives starting with simply the fact we were born. The probability of each of these miracles occurring by chance is extremely small. None of these miracles are predicted.  Noone predicted that I specifically would be born on a certain date and time. The same way we can not prove that Newton’s law is correct with 100% certainty, someone can always bring something up in which God’s existence has not been proved with 100% certainty.

Finally, we discussed the mitzvah of tzitzit. The tzitzit remind us of the Torah commandments. We are obligated to have tzitzit with 4 corner garments, but what if we do not have any 4 corner garments? We concluded that although we are not obligated, we should try to acquire and wear 4 corner garments with tzitzit.

What about woman wearing tzitzit? Woman are not obligated, because tzitzit is a time dependent mitzvah, however it can be good for woman to wear tzitzit although this should not be a priority. Woman should not wear tzitzit in public, as this could draw attention to something that is not currently very common. If we ever reach the point in which a lot of woman are wearing tzitzit in private, then it would be fine for woman to start wearing tzitzit in public.

This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.

Recap for 9 of Sivan, 5774 (Parshah Behaalotecha)

This Shabbos, we discussed Parshah Behaalotecha, including Rav Yeager’s commentary on the parsha. David Schlesinger led discussion.  We discussed how when we were at Mt. Sinai we were not fully paying attention, and were in too much of a hurry to leave.  We discussed how this is similar to kids in school not paying attention, anxious to finish the school year and leave for the summer break.  When it was finally time for us to leave Mt. Sinai, we left not having learned all that was expected.

Norm commented that this is similar to adolescents wanting to leave the house before they are adults. And just like adolescents will eventually have to face the consequences of their actions, so did we have to face the consequences of our action (or inaction).  We left Mt. Sinai without having learned a sufficient amount of Torah, and many of our mistakes to come were consequences of this.

We discussed the Torah commandment that "thou shall not kill".  We discussed exactly what this means. There is a big difference between murder and killing.  We concluded that perhaps the commandment should be thou shall not murder, as some killing is justified.  In fact, there are numerous times in the Torah in which we kill others, when we go to war and/or have to eliminate enemies.  The Torah commandment does not mean we should never end a life.  In fact, in some situations the Torah would mandate that we do so.

Norm commented about patients with PTSD.  It may be easy to say there is a difference between murder and killing.  But it is much more difficult to get PTSD patients who have participated in a war to believe and accept this with their entire minds.  Norm commented that the Torah has numerous examples in the Torah in which we go to war and/or eliminate our enemies.  However, many PTSD patients are not Jewish, and even those who are Jewish - it may be difficult to bring them comfort - regardless of what is in the Torah.

We also discussed how the Torah commandment may in fact include emotional as well as physical "murder". Yaki spoke on this point. He commented that although non-Jews are subject to the 7 laws of Noah, they did not want to accept the Torah which includes a broader definition of transgressions. Yaki commented that when we verbally assault someone, it is a transgression that may be covered under the 10 commandments. Yaki also commented that giving someone wrong directions is a form of stealing - in this case stealing time.

As the Jews went on a physical journey with the goal of reaching Israel, they were also on a spiritual journey.  The spiritual journey included receiving the Torah, and then applying the Torah in their daily lives. We discussed the importance of learning Torah, and how it is a big mitzvah to do so.  This helps us reach our spiritual as well as physical destinations.   If we do not have regular jobs, we should be engaging in Torah study.

We discussed how we traveled through the desert from Mt. Sinai. For a long time we lacked direction, and would frequently make mistakes.  This was true both physically and spiritually.  Instead of learning from these mistakes and continuing we would often fail to keep moving both physically and spirtually.  David talked about how when we fall, we need to “get up” and keep going.  The Jews needed to get up and keep moving towards Israel, physically, and "get up" and learn from their mistakes and continue to do Mitzvah. In the same way, it is a good lesson that we should "get up" when we fall down in our personal lives as well.

We discussed what we should do if there are conflicts between studying Torah and doing other mitzvah. If someone else can do the mitzvah, then we should give priority to studying Torah. On the other hand, there are mitzvah such as putting on tefillin, in which we should discontinue Torah study to do the mitzvah. Even if we know what the mitzvah are, it helps us spiritually to know why we do the mitzvah with respect to what conveyed in the Torah.  Brett commented that doing mitzvah has more meaning, if we understand why we are doing it and how it is bringing us closer to Hashem and advancing us in our spiritual journey and growth.

Finally, Dave W talked a little about the kosher laws and how Hashem provided birds when we were asking for “meat”. Although birds were not considered meat in the Torah, the rabbis have instituted rules classifying birds as meat. 

This is a summary of what we discussed. No Halachic rulings are intended or should be inferred.