GUEST COLUMNISTS

Are People of Faith Brainwashed?
By Aaron Moss
Dear Rabbi Moss,
Q) Passover has been coined a holiday of questions. The children, of course, ask the famous four questions, and the entire Seder is structured as a question-and-answer dialogue between parents and children. Personally, I have no problem with questions. As you know, I've always been a bit of a heretic. For me nothing is sacred, and I question everything. But I was wondering at what point do people of faith like yourself get repulsed by questions and demand that the questioning stop and the belief begin?
Do you ever draw the line and say, "Enough questions"? Does there not come a point where for faith to be sustained people must be discouraged from asking further questions?
Bob.
A) Hey Bob, Your question implies that questioning and faith are mutually exclusive; that where one ends the other begins. In Judaism, though, the reverse is true. Questioning and belief can and must coexist. They are two very separate and very necessary human traits. They happen in different places inside of us, so they can both exist simultaneously.
We question with our mind; we believe with our soul. Just as the hand is used to write, the feet to walk, the heart to feel, so the mind is employed to think, and the soul is employed to believe. When someone says, "I believe", they are really saying: "I feel my soul, and it's alive." Non-belief is a sense of detachment, not from G-d, but from our own soul.
Our soul knows G-d already; because our soul is itself Divine, a fragment of G-d, as it were. Our soul sees G-d all the time, and needs no proof of G-d's reality. Our minds, on the other hand, struggle to accept things that are beyond our empirical imagination. The mind wants evidence; it wants things to fit into a logical picture.
So while the soul may believe, the mind may not be so sure. Judaism teaches that G-d desires a wholesome and complete relationship with free human beings. He wants us to connect to Him with our entire self -- not just our souls, but our minds too. So He wants us to question and investigate. That brings our minds into the relationship.
Some questions we can answer, some we cannot. At least, not yet. But we can believe even before we have the answers, because belief operates on a different plane, and the two are not mutually exclusive. Just as you can walk and think at the same time, because your feet are walking and your mind is thinking, so you can question and believe at the same time: question with your mind, believe with your soul. And you should never stop questioning.
In the Haggadah of Passover, we read about four sons: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one that doesn't know how to ask a question. The first three sons ask questions according to their temperament. The last one is silent. He is not stupid. He just isn't bothered enough to question things. He follows blindly, and never stops to think. That's bad news, and that's why he is last of the four sons. Even the wicked son is in some way better. He may be wicked, but at least he asks. He's using his mind, he's present.
Bob, if you think you're the wicked son, I'm not worried about you. As long as you're asking –and you really want true answers – then you're in the picture. Keep asking, but don't let the questions hold you down. Look into your soul and who knows – you might find some answers.