The latest issue of Parabola magazine (Fall 2008) has just been published, and, as is often the case, there is an article in it by Rabbi Steinsaltz.
I have been reading Parabola for over 30 years, which is just about the number of years it has been since articles and interviews by Rabbi Steinsaltz have been appearing in this superb journal.
Here’s a brief excerpt from the article, called “The New Year.”
Rabbi Steinsaltz writes:
“The path to faith is not easy.
Neither for someone who has grown up in a “religious” home, nor for one who has grown up in a secular atmosphere.
And this is not surprising;
the way to faith is never a smooth one.
It is not for anyone a broad and even highway along which people progress at the same pace, but always a tortuous, winding path—very personal and private.
A certain tzaddik put it with profound simplicity:
Because I know that God is great, because I know that I alone know and no one else can know as I do,
someone else may know more than I do,
know more deeply,
more comprehensively,
more perfectly,
but in the end,
the experience of God is personal and unique and can never be transferred to another.”
From “The New Year” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in Parabola (Fall 2008)