Writing in the London Jewish Chronicle, Miriam Shaviv points out the Catholic Church is continuing the process for Mother Theresa's sainthood, even though it is now clear that Mother Theresa had profound doubts about the existence of God. Shaviv notes:
As Spanish Cardinal Julian Herranz said of Mother Teresa this week: “These moments of crisis felt by great saints are normal… [her moments of] weakness [are in fact] the proof of the greatness of faith of Blessed Mother Teresa and take nothing away from her holiness.”
We [Orthodox Jews] could learn a thing or two.
But Shaviv misses a key point – Judaism is based on a mesorah, a supposedly unbroken tradition handed down from parent to child from Sinai to today. Further, part of that mesorah is a code of law that, at least in part, makes doubters outsiders, heretics even, and denies them a place in the World to Come. For Judaism to allow doubt means Judaism must allow heresy.
But a careful examination of the so-called mesorah shows not an unbroken chain but many divergent threads. In other words, the mesorah is largely a product of wishful thinking, and the greatest enemy for that wishful thinking is informed skepticism – doubt.
Skeptics are not 'heretics' because Orthodoxy can easily answer the skeptical challenge – skeptics are 'heretics' because Orthodoxy cannot answer informed skeptical challenge. Unlike the skeptics of old who relied on reason alone to prove their points, today's skeptics have hard scientific data to bolster their points of view – Orthodox Judaism does not. In the end, Judaism's best defense is the plea to disregard scientific knowledge and fact. God is omnipotent and can do anything is really the only answer Judaism has left.
(One can easily see this by tracking the deleted comments and banned commenters on Rabbi Gil Student's Hirhurim blog. Gil deletes and bans skeptics largely because his answers to their challenges do not hold up to scrutiny.)
Many Jews choose to follow halakha and live their lives as Orthodox Jews, even though they realize the basis for Orthodox Judaism has been ripped to shreds by modern science. Some do this with the hope that in the End of Days God will answer the unanswerable questions and resolve the unresolvable conflicts between fact and religious myth. Others do it because they like the lifestyle. They practice but do not believe and have no expectation of ever believing. Still others are afraid a public display of skepticism will destroy their families.
Imagine standing before two doors. One is marked "Truth;" the other, "Judaism." The first door may open to a yeshiva with scholars learning Talmud and Codes. Or it may open to a lab where scientists are exploring the Human Genome. Or, even though unlikely, perhaps there will be both. But whatever it is, door number one will be absolute Truth.
The second door will only open to a yeshiva – but it may or may not be or contain the Truth.
Orthodoxy in all its forms has chosen to open door number two. The familiar, the perceived truth is their comfortable, seemingly necessary choice.
Skeptics have chosen door number one. They see the lab and realize there is little if any room for the yeshiva. While this troubles them, they press on, pursuing Truth.
Shaviv seems to think that if we could all just talk it out, everything would be fine and skeptics would eventually come around to Orthodoxy's point of view.
That may have been possible 100 years ago, but I do not believe it is possible today. There are simply too many facts, too many scientific truths on the side of skepticism, and it is too late to pretend otherwise.