Rabbi Robert A. Davis

Get A Guide!

It is a tradition forJewish adults to be perplexed by some aspectsof Jewish life. In fact,every generation experiences the struggle to find leaning. In a recent demographic study, a large segment of affiliated Jews described themselves as “Jewish Silent Knowers." These are adults who believe that their experience as Jews has rendered them Jewishly illiterate and thus has made them unwelcome in Jewish learning settings.”

This is not a new phenomenon. Eight hundred years ago,the contemporaries of the great sage and philosopher Maimonides complained that Jewish life had become irrelevant and irrational. Maimonides responded to the concerns of his generation in a letter to one ofhis students. Over time, this letter became a book entitled The Guide for the Perplexed .

We can and should learn from this Guide, but we must learn from history. Eight hundred years ago, the Jewish populace dealt with its perplexities by confronting them. Today,many of the perplexed, unfortunately, have responded to their “Jewish experience” with the attitude of ambivalence and the strategy of avoidance.

Personal and cosmic betterment requires change. And change is not always easy. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote about a meeting he had with his Rabbi in 1926: “I was nine years old when Reb Menachem Mendel entered my life. Since then he has remained a steady companion and a haunting challenge ... he urged me to confront perplexities that I might have preferred to evade.” Rabbi Heschel found a guide in his Rabbi.

In an article on removing the obstacles ofavoidance and ambivalence, Rabbi Daniel Gordis discusses the importance of lifelong study. He says it is “the enterprise of asking life’s hardest questions and of searching for life’s most elusive answers.” We all have a natural tendency to evade life’s complexities, but I urge you not to do so. Confronting the perplexities of life is core to Judaism. Our tradition and our Temple are steady companions and can provide you with haunting challenges.