A Life Changing Experience - Parshat Chayei Sarah

the bernam society of Jewish psychiatrists always had a monthly Lunch and Learn they always invited somebody stimulating thought-provoking doctors scientists economists media personalities they'd all graced the tables of this exclusive gathering of intellectuals it occurred to them one day that they never actually had an address by an Orthodox rabbi so a phone call was duly made to the locally Shiva and a distinguished rabbi was invited to speak at their next lunch the polite applause died down and the rabbi started to speak he spoke in terms suited to his secular audience but his material was authentic Torah philosophy 3,000 years old and honed by a life of study about 10 minutes into his talk a man in the audience suddenly rose to his feet and said in the low and threatening voice stop that man from speaking stop that man from speaking stop that man from speaking or I'll have to change my entire life I often think that if the Torah required Jews to travel around the world eating in all the best non kosher restaurants a lot more Jews would be religious usually the greatest barrier to faith in God isn't logical but psychological because if we accept that the manifest ordering creation logically implies an ordering subconsciously we already know that we may have to stop driving to the golf club on Saturday morning and more than that we're going to have to stop seeing ourselves as the center of the universe and having been brought up in the me generation the thought that the pursuit of happiness and self fulfillment may not be the ultimate purpose of life strikes at the very foundations of our most self-evident beliefs this is a bribe that most people find irresistible the desires of the heart blind the intellect and the search for truth becomes its first victim as rabbi shimon raphael hirsch once put it belief is not the knowledge that there's a God that rather the acknowledgement in this week's Torah portion when Abraham Avraham servant Eliezer tested Rivka Rebecca to see if she was a fig y4y it's odd for Isaac he wanted only to find out if she had a love of kindness why didn't he check that she also had the unshakable faith in God that was necessary as the future mother of the Jewish people the answer is that kindness and faith are inextricably linked only someone who's selflessly involved in the needs of others can free himself from the bribes of his own selfish desires and only one who loves kindness for its own sake as the objectivity to recognize that there's a creator [Music]