Recently, Rabbi Horowitz published an article which suggested that skeptics are created, in part, by mean, unfriendly Rabbis. There's probably some truth to that, but I wonder how much more skepticism is the result of Rabbis who are simply ignorant of the facts of Judaism?
The Typical Path into Skepticism
1: A Rabbi says something that is obviously untrue. Examples include: "The universe is 5768 years old." or "All aggadot are literally true." or "Chazal were experts at science and medicine."
2: After the student expresses healthy and reasonable doubt, the Rabbi additionally says that anyone who doubts the truth of these statements is spiritually damaged, a kofer or worse
3: The student says, "Hmm. If I have to choose between suspending my common sense and being a kofer, I guess I'm a kofer."
4: The student, certain that either he or the mesorah are damaged goods, goes OTD.
The tragedy is that this is entirely avoidable. The students descent into skepticism could have prevented if the exchange had gone like this this instead:
1: A Rabbi says something that is obviously untrue....
2: After the student expresses healthy and reasonable doubt, the Rabbi says, "BORUCH SHE KEVANTA: there are rishonim who also believed in the old universe/said aggadot aren't literal/agreed that Chazal were experts in law, but not medicine or history."
3: The student says, "Cool. I guess I think like a Rishon"
4: The student, pleased to see that there's room for him within Judaism, stays OnTD.
Most of the skeptics I know started on the path to
skepticism after bumping up against a Rabbi who didn't pay proper respect to the
Rishonim. [See:
GH, Extreme] Perhaps we'd have fewer skeptics, if Yeshiva educators were willing and able to tell the truth about what Judaism actually teaches.
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