{"id":81761,"date":"2020-10-20T14:39:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T11:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81761"},"modified":"2020-10-20T14:39:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T11:39:04","slug":"a-questioning-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-questioning-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"A Questioning Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are times when we are sure of ourselves, and then questions arise, our sense of confidence deserts us. The questions which we never truly faced before overwhelm us and after, we are left to try to pick up the pieces.<\/p>\n

Psalm 27 narrates that very story. It begins with a voice that is supremely confident, \u201cAdonai is my light and my savior, the stronghold of my life, whom should I fear?\u201d\u00a0 It is the expression of a person who is a true believer: I know God is with me and so I have nothing to fear.<\/p>\n

That faith is expressed here as a rhetorical question, whom should I fear? The answer seems obvious to the speaker: no one.\u00a0 But the rhetorical question then leads to another reflection, essentially a question: what is missing? If I have no fear, is something else gnawing at me?<\/p>\n

Yes, says the narrator, I live a life of faith, but I don\u2019t truly feel God beside me.\u00a0 Would that I could be with God, visit with God, walk with God, feel God\u2019s wings embracing me!<\/p>\n

And the recognition that God is not a palpable presence leads to a review by the narrator of experienced \u00a0losses, a sense of desertion: I live in a world which can be treacherous, many of the people I know lack integrity, are corrupt, are unafraid to pervert the truth.\u00a0 Even my mother and father are imperfect, they live their own lives, and they, too, may desert me in my hour of need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, all I have left is my faith, a faith to see me through these dark times. I hold on to the hope it gives me. But hope is such a thin thread\u2026<\/p>\n

What are we left with at the end? The psalmist through an internal dialogue has raised deep questions, has taught us that the world of faith, when it is truly examined, does not issue in self-confidence, but in a life fully aware of vulnerability. That\u2019s hard to live with, but that\u2019s all we have really.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Edward Feld is senior editor of the new\u00a0Siddur Lev Shalem\u00a0and of its sister volume\u00a0Mahzor Lev Shalem, published by the Conservative Movement\u2019s Rabbinical Assembly.\u00a0His two books,\u00a0The\u00a0Spirit of Renewal: Faith After the Holocaust\u00a0(Jewish Lights) and\u00a0Joy, Despair and Hope: Reading Psalms\u00a0(Cascade Books) have been widely praised.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more on the PsalmSeason project see here.<\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":81791,"id":81791,"title":"Ed Feld","filename":"Ed-Feld.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Ed-Feld.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-questioning-faith\/ed-feld\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ed-feld","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":81761,"date":"2020-10-20 11:38:52","modified":"2020-10-20 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