A Lecture Series by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
Lecture 2: Delivered November 20, 1958
The unique Jewish viewpoint should be placed in the context of Occidental (Western) thought and religion. However, we must avoid the danger of applying the categories and the question-set of the scientific world view, which is fundamentally pragmatic and utilitarian, to the paradoxical religious experience. We are not interested in a psychology of religion or anthropology of religion, but in a religious psychology and religious anthropology. That is to say, we don’t want to know what psychology or anthropology have to say about religion, but what religion has to say about psychology and anthropology. The task of formulating a Jewish anthropology is further hindered by the fact that Judaism, unfortunately, never formulated an original philosophy, but has been mostly apologetic, due to the shyness of our leaders about publicly expressing details about our most intimate relationship with God. Instead, Jews express religiosity through laws that correlate to that inner experience. The Halakhah holds an untold story about the Jewish religious experience that is difficult to unravel, but that is the task of Jewish anthropology. Like science, Jewish anthropology operates with a system of dynamic, a priori postulates, but while scientific postulates are inductive, relying on experimentation and observation, Judaism’s postulates are deductive, like mathematics. Judaism therefore provides a metaphysic of man, certain presupposed axioms about the nature of Man, although it remains open to adjusting some of its postulates in the face of newly encountered religious realities. It also allows multiple axioms about Man that contradict one another. On the other hand, Judaism also felt the need to transpose this metaphysic into a practical, functional, living creed through the Halakhah. It translates speculative metaphysics into concrete action by way of man’s emotional life.
Jump to:
00:01:18 Placing Jewish religious philosophy in the context of Western thought
00:03:15 First problem: error of describing religion in scientific terms
00:29:19 Second problem: Jewish shyness about expressing the private religious experience
00:58:05 Comparing Judaism’s a priori postulate system with that of science
01:04:04 Translating the Jewish metaphysic of man into concrete action through Halakhah
01:07:25 The role of creativity and metaphysical postulation in science
01:17:19 Judaism’s attention to man’s emotional life, and the logic and duties of the heart
01:38:45 Audience questions and responses, and reading assignment for next lecture
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