Avot207

11:
The second clause of our mishnah is concerned with the compatability of wisdom and religiosity. For many thinking people in the modern era this is a serious issue – and sometimes it can cause considerable philosophic discomfort.

12:
We may understand the term 'wisdom' in the context of our present mishnah as indicating the knowledge and experience that a person has gained during their lifetime and their ability to evaluate that knowledge and that experience and to apply it to new situations. Http://www.dictionary.com offers this as one of its definitions of 'wisdom': The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.

13:
Religions in general – and Judaism in particular – consist of a body of received teachings. In the context of the discussion on our present mishnah it matters little whether that body of received teachings is considered to be divinely revealed, divinely inspired or transmitted by man. In all cases it presents itself as a 'take it or leave it' package: this is the received Word of God; or this is the accepted teaching of Judaism.

14:
It should now be clear how there can easily be a conflict between 'wisdom' and 'religion' – or what Rabbi El'azar ben-Azaryah calls 'fear of heaven'. What am I to do if the knowledge and experience that I have gained tells me that one or more of the received teachings of Judaism is in error? Conversely, what am I to do when one of the received teachings of Judaism contravenes my accumulated 'wisdom'?

15:
The response of a modern fundamentalist would probably be that I must submit my personal 'wisdom' to the greater – indeed infinite – wisdom of Torah (using the term in its widest sense). (In other religions the fundamentalist response would probably be an appeal to faith.) Such a response to this dilemma was never the response of the greatest of Israel's sages. They recognised that there must be a kind of symbiosis between 'what we know' and 'what we believe'. (Http://www.dictionary.com defines 'symbiosis' – in a borrowed meaning – as a relationship of mutual benefit or dependence.) And the solution to the difficulty that was almost always offered by these great sages was 'interpretation'.

16:
I have said many times that as Jews – and most certainly as Conservative Jews – we do not live our lives according to Torah. We live our lives according to Torah as it is expounded by the sages. One of the greatest of our sages that ever lived was certainly Rambam (Moses Maimonides, 1138-1204). And he wrote one book which deals directly with the painful dichotomy between 'personal wisdom' and 'received teachings': the Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevukhim). In his introduction he makes this very clear:

17:
Let us take one example from Rambam's book. In II:25 he deals with the various views held in his time concerning creation. Was matter created (as the Torah teaches) or has it always been in existence (as taught by Aristotle)? After considerable discussion Rambam accepts the view of Torah: he claims that Aristotle had not been able to prove his thesis and therefore it had no greater claim on accepted wisdom than does the teaching of Torah; so he is content to give primacy to received teaching:

However, he adds a rider: had Aristotle been able to prove his theory he – Rambam – would have had no hesitation in 'interpreting' Torah accordingly! "The gates of interpretation are not closed."

18:
God gave us the Torah and God gave us the ability to acquire wisdom. We must use our wisdom to understand Torah: for if there is no wisdom there is no fear of Heaven, if there is no fear of Heaven there is no wisdom.

To be continued.