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The True, the Good, and the Jew
- Abstract
The faith of a Jew is the faith of a man for whom there are no synods, no edicts, no authorities to whom he can turn for final answers to his questions regarding the specific nature of things, mundane or divine. Even his Bible fails to give the Jew clear answers to the simplest questions; his God speaks in a language for which no man seems to have a key. In order to know all he should, the Jew is forced to speculate, to think for himself, to follow the trail of truth wherever it may lead, under the guidance of the wise who have gone part of the way before.
The theology of the Jew is theology at a minimum. It affirms nothing more than that God is One, leaving open even the question of what his nature is, what it means for him to be, and what his Unity implies. The Jew’s cosmology, too, is at a minimum. It affirms little more than that the world has a history, man a dignity, and each thing some degree of value. Beyond these bare affirmations, whatever the Jew asserts he asserts precariously, as the closest he can now come to truth by free and honest inquiry. The faith of a Jew is the faith of one who passionately desires and wholeheartedly tries to understand the nature of God and the nature of the world. He can be true to his faith only to the extent that he faithfully pursues the truth.
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