Book recommendation on why to believe

amother

↑ Jade

Tue, Oct 08 2024, 10:26 am

amother Crocus wrote:

What bothers me about these threads are not the questions but the other posters who jump in to agree with the OP.
One person with questions is not the same as everyone else with questions, each one has a unique life story that contributed to their current situation and no two are alike. They shouldn't be conflated.
What I mean is that five people can be doubting Hashem but they are not the same, even if it sounds the same superficially.

To OP: the Tanya tells us specific things that lead to timtum halev vhamoach. Perhaps consider this.

This!!!

kneidelmeidel

Tue, Oct 08 2024, 10:46 am

Hi OP,
I think you’re really brave for putting this out there, I suspect a lot of people go through life with these questions and never do anything about it.
It’s hard to recommend you a book when I have no idea what kind of angle/ approach would sit well with you, maybe if you gave some direction, would you appreciate a very rational approach/ mathematical/ scientific/ esoteric/ Kabbalistic or emotive?
Different souls connect to different ideas and approaches.
And, talking of souls, that’s quite a solid reason to believe- because our bodies are temporary yet they take up an inordinate amount of our time and interest, whilst our souls, which are eternal, are often largely neglected.
Standing on one foot, how do we nourish our souls? By choosing intellect over instinct. Intellect is our soul, instinct is our body.

amother

Snowdrop ↓

Tue, Oct 08 2024, 10:55 am

Everything you are working for the in your life, you are doing for yourself. You want to have fun, so you have fun. Your not actually a good person going beyond yourself, your just serving yourself I’m not calling you selfish everyone is this way, but I searched for meaning when my life was idyllic because I felt what I wrote above deeply. To me, the efforts I put in, even to have fun, felt empty.

About the existence of God- I consider myself a very logical thinker, and I’m good at debating. I’m seemingly more spiritually inclined than you overall, but I had/have some serious issues with religion that basically made me want to drop it all. I read through atheist arguments and thesis, and none of them were iron clad. It isnt at all a more reasonable conclusion when you are open to the fact that Hashem may have created the world through methods of evolution and we don’t understand Bereishis.

You can’t prove the existence of God, but when you analyze the arguments white a open mind, the conclusion is that the existence of God is most likely and most logical.

amother

↑ Lightcyan

Tue, Oct 08 2024, 1:06 pm

amother Snowdrop wrote:

Try listening to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Saks and see what that does for you.
This is an example of one of his presentations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipDdd1SISoM

amother

Snow

Tue, Oct 08 2024, 9:39 pm

It’s hard for me to get a read on your personality and outlook so not sure these suggestions make sense… but here are some things that are helping me in my own journey.

1. A Letter in the Scroll by Rabbi Sacks which talks about our role in the transmission of Torah which may help give you the “why” to keep learning.

2. Finding Torah teachers who speak to you and then learning their Torah. Even if you don’t connect to Hashem directly right away, you can connect to his Torah in whatever way works for you (more text-based/intellectual, psychological, etc.) I can’t connect to more yeshivish or fluffy teachers at this point in my life so I am very selective with who I learn from.

3. Learning original sources. I did a beginner Gemara class and also a deeper Tanach class because I think there is so much fluff in the way women are taught and we get confused so I am trying to go back to basics to see what the Torah actually says.

Good luck!

MO3B

Tue, Oct 15 2024, 10:20 pm

Your question is very common – there are many seforim and books that can help you clarify, believe me, its worth reading! Your life will change! You will learn to be empowered to choose, choose Hashem and with his help you could do your life with more strength and dignity than you even knew you had. More authentic joy and clarity than you knew was possible.
ובחרת בחיים – We can choose life.

Hashem's essence is giving and generosity; therefore, He created the world and people to give to, including Jews, non-Jews, animals, and all other beings.
There is a very popular question, what’s with those people who don’t believe in Hashem, non-Jews, sometimes we see that they are very successful, how? The answer is the Hashem runs his world in various ways regarding various creatures, for example animals, chickens, trees, and so on. For example, birds don’t believe in God, and Hashem doesn’t require it from them. He leads them according to the abilities that are appropriate for them.

Hashem decides to leave certain animals in existence for many years until he decides that their existence should end. For example, the dodo bird, was around until year ’17. According to Gd’s plan they had to be alive for a certain number of years, of course for them בטחון wasn’t relevant or required. The same can be said to the non jews, they live without בטחון, and when the time comes, they disappear from the earth – according to Gd’s plan. There were many nations that existed for several hundred years, but at some point, we see that none are left. The same is true for some kingdoms and governments. From this, we can see that Hashem has a different account with the nations of the world.
We say every morning inבָּרוּךְ שֶׁאָמַר :
בָּרוּךְ מְרַחֵם עַל הַבְּרִיּות, Blessed is hashem who cares for all creatures. Meaning ALL creatures, even hashem cares for the non-Jewish people. However, when it comes to the Yidden, we continue saying: בָּרוּךְ מְשַׁלֵּם שכָר טוב לִירֵאָי. Blessed is hashem who rewards a good “schar” for those who are afraid –(believe) in him. By the Jewish people its completely different, there is שכר טוב – Good rewards.
Its worth to live with בטחון because there is a special השפעה that Hashem gives according to our בטחון.

Here are my recommendations: any seforim/books on Emunah from Rabbi Avigdor Miller. Also, “Your Awesome Self, by Shterna Ginsberg.
Lots of Luck!