He’s Too Smart to Be Religious , Pt II

On Monday I wrote about how frustrated I am with people who consider themselves too smart to believe in God. Today I want to bring things in another direction. A very Jewish direction. What happens when you want to be religious, but your own academic pursuits are presenting you with a number of real difficulties when you try to believe what you read in the Torah? This, of course, is a normal dilemma for hundreds of Jewish experts in the Judaic studies. Multiple authors of the Torah, traditions and stories that can be traced back to other nations, and archaeological digs cast huge amounts of doubt on a book that is supposed to be Divine, created from nothing by the word of God. What’s a nice Jewish girl (or boy) to do with all this blasphemous evidence? Most of the time when someone brings information about Biblical exegesis and archaeological evidence that contradicts the Bible I just shrug. I am not a literalist, and neither are most Jews I know. It’s no surprise to me at all that no one has turned up the Ten Commandments, or any proof that the Nile river once turned into blood. I don’t go to synagogue because I think every thing that it says in the Bible definitely happened. And I don’t keep Shabbat because I think God created the world in seven days. I do these things because I like doing them, I love the community of other people who do them, and because I think that there is some element of truth in the Torah. I can’t explain it, and I have no interest in fighting with anyone about it, since no one can bring anything other than hot air to the table. But this is what I do, and I’m happy with it. That’s all well and good, but what about when I’m the person saying, “You’re too smart to believe that, aren’t you?” Because if I’m honest, that is part of what I thinking when I’m talking to a brilliant Ultra-Orthodox scholar. And I’m not the only one. Last year I wrote a fiction story that mentioned an Orthodox rabbi who had a PhD in Judaic studies, and when I showed it to my friend Adam he said that no one who had a PhD in Judaic studies would be an Orthodox rabbi. His point was that the critical and historical look at Judaism that scholarship provides could never sustain the la-la-land of Orthodoxy. As far I know, that is basically true. I’ve yet to meet an Orthodox scholar of Judaic studies. But I have met plenty of scholars who respect tradition and community in the same way I do, and who negotiate Jewish law with varying levels of respect and awe. I don’t want to get into a debate about whether or not Judaic studies proves or doesn’t prove there is a God, or whether the Jewish idea of God is the right one. I just wanted to point out that there are people who deal with this kind of crisis of faith on a daily basis and often in a professional environment, and somehow they are able to come away without calling anyone an idiot. They may think people are idiots, but they don’t usually shout about it at coffee shops. Which is why I will always like Judaic studies professors who make Kiddush on Friday night more than I like frum atheists.