I read this quote of Rav Soloveitchik overhere and found it very inspiring:
The error of modern representatives of religion is that they promise their congregants the solution to all the problems of life − an expectation which religion does not fulfill. Religion, on the contrary, deepens the problems but never intends to solve them. The grandeur of religion lies in its mysterium tremendum its magnitude and its ultimate incomprehensibility. To cite one example, we may adduce the problem of theodicy, the justification of evil in the world, that has tantalized the inquiring mind from time immemorial till this last tragic decade. The acuteness of this problem has grown for the religious person in essence and dimensions. When a minister, rabbi, or priest attempts to solve the ancient question of Job’s suffering through as sermon or lecture, he does not promote religious ends, but, on the contrary, does them a disservice. The beauty of religion with its grandiose vistas reveals itself to men, not in solutions but in problems, not in harmony but in the constant conflict of diversified forces and trends.
The beauty of God is experienced as holiness, as the mysterium magnum, ineffable and unattainable, awesome and holy (nora ve-kadosh), as something that transcends everything comprehensible and speakable, which makes one tremble and experience bliss. Beauty and paradox merge—He is both remote and so near; awesome and lovely, fascinating and daunting, majestic and tender, comforting and frightening, familiar and alien, the beyond of creation and its very essence.
So are you going to add Rudolf Otto to your reading list now?
‘The Idea of the Holy’ was already on my list, is that the book you have in mind too?
http://www.archive.org/details/theideaoftheholy00ottouoft
Daniel,
This is a wonderful quote that really speaks to me. When I began studying theology it was to learn more about God and people. After about a year of intense studying I realized that I knew less about God than before and would never know so many things. I was spiritually weakened from the conclusion that my academic studies were distancing me from the God I knew before. My ideas of God had become more and more abstract and I felt that nothing could ever be said about God, even that God was good, because it would reduce God to a level that is comprehensible by humans and therefore unGodly. I struggled with the idea of spending my entire life studying about God and never being able to make a concrete statement about God. At first, this was a definite problem for me, but slowly I realized it was not a problem but a blessing that God has given us. We can never comprehend the Almighty, but God lets us see and experience enough so we can know. For example, there is a midrash about the Heavenly Torah being given to Moses and the first time Moses received the Torah it was just a white fire. Moses, being human, could not possibly understand the Torah and God had to give Moses a new Torah that could be understood by humanity. God transcends everything material and everything humanity is and can think, but we know enough. We have miracles, we have Torah, ect. Some things, like the status of the world to come, we will never know, but that is only a problem if you can’t accept God as everything God is. Part of accepting God is accepting the inability to understand many things in life that are beyond you. Another example is why did the Shoah happen? This is a question that no one can answer, many people try, but in the end humanity is left with more questions than answers and many times more frustration than peace. But it is these questions that become part of the journey. Part of what it means to be Jewish comes from the origin of the word Israel, to wrestle with God. In your life you must continue to wrestle with these questions. In a lifetime of learning and practicing you will never understand God, but you will come to understand yourself.