Question & Answer With Michoel - Philosophy & Chassidus

A Simple Jew asks:

As someone who had a secular education growing up and later went to college, is it difficult for you intellectually when you are confronted with the anti-philosophical undertones contained in some Chassidishe seforim?

Michoel answers:

I have seen many college-educated, intellectually oriented people hung up on their "groiseh kashes". Baruch Hashem, I have been largely spared this nisayon. In fact, I would say that my (self-perceived) intellectual sophistication and depth was actually a great motivator in my accepting an emunah p'shuta approach.

Let me try to explain…

Back in my college DJ days, there used to be a very popular Reggae singer named Peter Tosh. In all likelihood, he was something of a m'nuvel but he sure could play! In any case, the refrain from his most famous song goes like this: "The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all-l-l-l. The harder they come, the harder they fall, one and all-l-l-l." You have to sort of bop up and down when you sing that for it to have to proper effect.

When I began to become observant, I had a lot of questions. All the usual ones and plus plenty of others. Feminism, ethnocentrism, death penalty, ben sorer u'moreh, ishah y'fas to'ar, finger nails out of order etc etc. And with time I came to ask, "How does our mesora work? What does it really mean that the Avos kept the Torah before it was given? How can one Rishon say things that are seemingly k'firah according to another Rishon?" And other questions of that nature. And of course even more basic things, like B'chirah Chofshis vs Omniscience.

However, I always remembered that there were things that I had come to accept as emes that I previously would have sneered at. And thus I managed to force myself to have an open mind, even to concepts that seemed very strange. "If I could be so wrong about something so basic as the very existence of the Ribbono Shel Olam, then certainly I have to suspect myself being wrong about other things as well. If I, the big thinker, could think complete nonsense, that the world is just a fortuitous accident, then I must be very careful to not make an avodah zara of my own intellect. And also, I need to know that other very confident intellects can be just as wrong as I was.

I saw a Chasidishe Torah over Shabbos that I would like to mention in this context. Rashi brings down that Yosef Hatzaddik told all the Mitzrim, who were suffering from famine, that they should perform bris milah on themselves. So this is the type of medrash that could cause someone to pause. "Why would Yosef do that? Is this Chazal really to be taken literally?" But when one allows oneself to say, "Hey, I don't know everything. Chazal were a bit smarter than I am.", then sometimes they will be zoche to an understanding that is m'shushav al ha'leiv. And sometimes it takes dafka Chasidishe seforim to reveal those deeper p'shatim. So I saw in one likut sefer that Yosef saw that the Yidden would be coming down to Mitzrayim and wanted to set the tone, that there shouldn't be social pressure against milah. Another sefer mentions that only through removing the orlah is one zoche to parnassa. But Rav Zilberstein (a Litvak) brings from the "seforim hakedoshim" a very chasidishe p'shat which I found to be emesdik and deep. He mentions that Yosef understood that the Mitzriyim had to be nitzul (saved) in his z'chus. And that in order to be nitzul in the z'chus of a tzaddik, one must be misdameh and miskarev to the middos hakedoshos of that tzaddik. So since Yosef's midda was Yesod, he understood that for the Mitzriim (who were “shetufei zimah”,as Rashi mentions by Sarah Imenu) to be saved in his z'chus they needed to be drawn closer to that midda.

So, in conclusion, one must learn the Torah Hakedosha with open mind, not like he knows it all already. And to always remember that the Torah is infinitely deep, not just a story book about regular folks. Then one can hopefully find answers. Emunah P'shuta doesn't mean that one has to accept everything (and one shouldn't). But one should be makir es m'komo and know that far greater minds went forward with questions also.