Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “A ‘long shorter’ way.”

The story is told that when King Solomon, in his wisdom, set down in his book of proverbs, “A simple person will believe anything,” all the fools in the world became very agitated.

They convened a grand World Congress to deal with a pressing issue.

Until Solomon revealed that “a simple person will believe anything,” it was impossible to discern the wise person from the fool.

But now what was to be done?

The fools concluded that in order to avoid detection, they would do just the opposite.

From now on, they must not believe in anything.

And, indeed, that is the practice of fools to this very day.

When people, simple or scholarly, speak of the inability to have faith in our day, of the absurdity of faith, one is tempted to ask them: “Were you perhaps a participant in that Congress?”

Of course, the way to faith is not an easy one.

It is not easy for a person who grew up in a “religious” home, and not for one who grew up in a non-religious environment.

The way of faith is a “long shorter” way.

It is not a wide highway, traveled in the same way by all, but rather a narrow and winding path, personal and private.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz