Where my Psych Textbook Went Wrong: Making Sense of Not Making Sense

Printable PFD Logical Practices 

Psychology textbooks and articles repeatedly boil down religion to something that can give hope to the despondent and support when tragedy strikes. Judaism has much, much more to offer, and to take a reductionist approach and to be forced to provide tangible, rational reasons for each law and text will ruin its full breadth and depth.

The esoteric law of The Red Heifer in the book of Numbers speaks to this issue. It is understood as chok by the Jewish sages, a law which we cannot make basic, rational sense of[1] and one we would not have thought of on our own; we do it, because it is simply a decree of The King.

In our world we demand interpersonal or society-benefiting reasons for why we do things. The overtones of what we are taught are to believe that texts and rules come from selfishly-motivated patriarchal authority figures.

However, the truth is that at it s essence, Judaism tells us that we must have, in some capacity, a dedication follow G-d and our leaders.

We are taught to analyze, question, and make sense of the information we are handed, and that is a wonderful approach. It makes sense to follow Judaism, and many rational proofs and arguments back this up. However, underlying each analysis or dissection must be a healthy faith in G-d and a trust in leaders in whom we trust and connect with.

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[1] By this I mean laws against stealing, murder, and the like-laws that we can make some rational sense of. They are laws that we would have thought of on our own.