Why Do We Believe?

Question:

I know that there are many logical proofs for the truth of Judaism, but I imagine that there will always be a counter-argument to every logical arguments. At the end of the day, how do you know that yours is the right way? What makes you so sure?

Answer:

I don't know a thing about your lifestyle, but let's say you were a track athlete. Let's say you've entered a marathon, maybe in the World Olympics. You've been training for years for this, from morning to night and in your dreams as well. There hasn't been a day that you're not exerting yourself far beyond what others think is humanly possible. It's become your entire life.

So now I ask you, "Do you really believe you are going to win?"

Let me tell you something about real athletes—I mean, those that win. Not one of them would hesitate for a nanosecond to answer yes—as though my question was the stupidest idea they had heard. Because if it would enter into their mind for a second that maybe they're not going to win, they would never be able to gruel through everything they had to gruel through to earn their laurels.

About 3,800 years ago, a man named Abraham entered a marathon. He saw that the world was all wrong, full of lies. He envisioned a world where everyone would know that there is only one great, kind and intelligent force behind all things; a world where every life is considered divine. He taught that G‑d—"That Which Is"—the Core of All Existence—cares about what we are doing with His world. That He breathes His own soul into us and charges us to take care of His creation.

Abraham got his message out to most of the world and many followed him. Yet he knew he would not be able to change an entire world in his lifetime. He saw it would take many, many generations through much endurance and pain. He knew that his children who would carry out his mission would be threatened with annihilation again and again. But he was promised by G‑d that G‑d would protect and save them each time. In the end, the world would be transformed. It would be the way it was meant to be—a world of truth.

We are Abraham's children. We have carried his torch and his light for all these thousands of years. Nobody can explain how we survived this long. At any point in history, we were on the verge of disappearance, battered cruelly and mercilessly by the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisition, the Cossacks, the Germans and so many others.

Yet all those who oppressed us and attempted to destroy us, they themselves ended up adopting our ways. Until today, there is no corner of the world that has not been deeply transformed by the message of Abraham, the message of human dignity, of purpose, of the oneness of all things and of a caring G‑d behind all things.

We are almost there. The vision lies but around the corner. So, now, I ask you, should we stop to think, "Hey, maybe Abraham had it all wrong to begin with? Maybe we're on totally the wrong track?"