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There is a story told by the 19th-century rabbi, Israel of Rizhin, which relates to the question of faith. Scholem (1941) ends his Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism with it, and versions of it appear in Buber's Tales of The Hasidim (1947) and Weisel's Souls on Fire (1972).
The tale begins back in the early 1700s with the Baal Shem, the founder of the Hasidic sect. When the master was faced with an especially challenging task, he would go to a certain holy place he knew in the forest. There he would light a fire and meditate a long while and say a special prayer. And that would take care of the matter.
A generation later, when the Baal Shem's successor, Rabbi Dov Baer, was faced with a similarly daunting task, he'd go to the very same place and say to the Lord, “I don't know how to light the fire, but I'll speak the prayer”—and this would suffice.
Another generation later, when Rabbi Moshe Lieb of Sasov had to intercede with Heaven, he went to the same spot and pleaded: “The fire we cannot light, the prayer we no longer know. But we know this hallowed place, and that will have to do.” And it did.
When yet another generation had passed, Rabbi Israel of Rizhin sat in his armchair at home and pleaded, “We're unable to light the fire, we no longer know the prayer. We can't even find the place any more. But we can tell the story, and God will help us.” And the story alone exerted the same holy effect as did the fire, the prayer, and the place of old.
Walter Kaufmann (1958) also relates this tale in his Critique of Religion and Philosophy. He comments that Scholem and Buber fail to add what remained for the next generation to say:
The fire we cannot light, the prayer we do not know, and the place we do not know. We can still tell the story, but we do not believe it. Indeed, a
* Attending Psychiatrist, Westchester Mobile Crisis Team.
The author gratefully acknowledges Mr. Bruce Joel Rubin, Mr. Albert Low, Dr. Sherry Katz-Bearnot, Mr. Tom Teicholz, Mr. Steve Fenichell, Professor Mauric
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* Attending Psychiatrist, Westchester Mobile Crisis Team.
The author gratefully acknowledges Mr. Bruce Joel Rubin, Mr. Albert Low, Dr. Sherry Katz-Bearnot, Mr. Tom Teicholz, Mr. Steve Fenichell, Professor Mauric