Professor Beer Sheva University, talks about his returning to Jewish roots. The return of the Jews to live according to the Torah appears to the reader as a national Jewish problem.
The third edition
Foreword
First of all, I must say gentle reader, what a great responsibility name "book" it is hardly applicable to the proposed its attention to the pages that are placed above and entitled "Out of the depths." Rather - it's half-baked sketches, self-talk, and we would have to spend a lot of time and effort to really get the book.
I cherished these sketches for many years while living in Soviet Russia, in Riga. Being totally ignorant of Jewish philosophy, history and religion, however, I had an insatiable need to find their world view that as completely as possible and blend in to the views of nature and people in general with an explanation of the exclusivity of my long-suffering people, its places and its mission in the world .
Initially, I have absolutely no intention to give someone read my sketches, and a happy possibility of transferring a manuscript outside the Soviet Union, and I do not dare to dream. Surprisingly, however, this possibility became a reality, and I thought that probably there are other people who have doubts in search of this, like me, and that I have written can help them. Then I finished writing that appears above as "Instead of a Preface" and take this case.
I was then about a lot of trouble with the Soviet authorities, but the manuscript came to the Holy land, beating myself for many years. In Israel, the manuscript was translated into Hebrew and was published under the title "Mimaamakim" ("From the Depths").
The most important conclusion to which I have led my quest is that in our time, just as in any previous era, it is necessary and inevitable return of the Jews to the eternal and immutable precepts of the Torah. Since my trade - science and as a child I was brought up on the basis of rational thought, it is natural that I paid most attention to the philosophical analysis of natural-scientific methods and results. It would be quite wrong to say that science has led me to believe. However, no doubt, that my analysis has helped me figure out the limits and limitations of rational thinking and overcome skepticism. By the way, one of the advantages of modern science and is, in my opinion, is that in contrast to the situation that occurred 100-150 years ago, the limits of science, as well as convention and approximate its judgments can be seen clearly.
Probably, many now agree with the statement that the only kind of reliable and rigorous proof of the conclusions of rational thinking is related to the definition of the boundaries and the principal features of this very thought.
Thus, it is ridiculous to claim that rational science lead to the irrational - faith. But as much as pointless to believe that science can deny the faith. The last statement, however, has been done many times over the past centuries.
In the Jewish community first conductors of these views were "maskilim", then Jewish socialists of various persuasions, and now has lost weight at all to the taste of worldview analysis, the sciences or philosophy, but has learned, however, a convenient formula that expresses the relationship to Gd, Torah, commandments. And this goes jagged formula: "In our time it is not possible."
In light of the above it is clear that the sacred duty of a Jewish scholar, concerned that the tragic situation of the spiritual, which proved to be his people, the decline in all spheres of life, which we have seen, alas, are recently tirelessly to explain the absurdity of the opinion that our time special that penetration into the life and industry of advanced machines have changed the properties of the soul or human desires and aspirations, virtues and vices.
Of course, those who understand the falsity of these statements, yet did not come back immediately and automatically to the faith and the Jewish way of life, but at least it will be eliminated one of the main obstacles, and an honest man, which is not stalled, and the voice of conscience debt, feels that there is no justification for what he behaves in his life as his grandfather or great-grandfather. Disappear one contrived excuse ("nowadays it is impossible"), which authorizes, tearing mercilessly age-old tradition of the chain, exposing the gentle souls of their children before the onslaught of alien vices and condemning people for forgetting their mission, the assimilation and destruction.
So, to build or restore destroyed, we must first properly clear the space.
Faith is born spontaneously in the human soul. In every man there are moments in life when he feels the presence of the Creator, His authority over them naturally and spontaneously and pray to Him, but in order that the faith has become a solid, continuous, conscious, it is necessary to free the soul from the shackles of prejudice, abuse of public opinion, self- , it is necessary to fertilize her deep study of the Torah and the commandments saturate performance.
I do not in any way wish that my sketches found apology faith. What I wanted to - is to show that belief in any apology does not require that it is as natural as the need to eat, drink, breathe, and to justify and explain to those who, playing on the conceit, laziness, indifference and limited human , entices them to the road of atheism and nihilism, leading to a complete spiritual and moral degradation, as well as those that easily lend themselves to these harmful influences.
On this one would finish my explanation, but from experience I have gained during his three-year stay in Israel, as well as during visits to Europe and America, I know that most of those who read my notes say that my fascination with the Torah - is nothing more than a sort of hobby of the intelligentsia, but not the basis of life. Hundreds of times after the lecture on the Torah in the era of technology, etc., which I have read in various countries to the general public, Jewish students, students or professors, someone will ask me, "Do you really put on a daily basis," tefillin, "pray and your wife is cooking kosher food and light Shabbat candles? Do you really believe that these archaic rituals still have any meaning? This, in our time! Oh, do not you think that their performance or non-performance could change the course of events in the twentieth century space? "
At first, these questions infuriated me. These people were inclined to sympathize with Judaism, as it remains for them a beautiful theory, along with many fashionable "isms", but imagine Judaism woven into their own life imposed on them by any requirements in many cases they do not want and can not .
However, there were some of my students and those who want an honest and open mind to sort things out, and they insistently demanded: "Tell me how you got to this" - because for them life story more convincing than any theoretical reasoning and abstract proof.
Which is why I now accompany my philosophical note describing his life, showing how and why I have "come to this."
According to the original plan of this description had to be quite short, but actually it is very stretched and it was longer than that to which was to serve as an epilogue. Frankly, it's not a very pleasant experience - talk about their lives. Naturally, therefore, I have tried to reduce as far as possible, a description of personal, everyday events and focus on finding the ways that led me to Judaism, the faith, the Torah. And yet, in order to answer the question as I "come to this," I need to touch and personal, for which I beg the reader's pardon.
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