A problem I keep facing is superstition. Whether it is true or not, my modern mind has a very hard time imagining a world with demons and angles running around.
From: avakesh: In praise of superstition
"In fact, in such a world leading a purely physical existence is distinctly abnormal. For the affordable price of credulity, folk religion acquires an abiding closeness to God in all His manifestations, right here, all around us. The difference between popular sensibility and Maimonidean rationality is like that of a luscious rain forest and the driest of deserts. The former surrounds its dwellers with life-giving moisture from all ends. The latter
deprives them of life-sustaining water, leaving them to be nourished by trust that it exists somewhere else and with measured, limited, barely sufficient cupfuls in their canteens."
In what must be a coincidence, I'll let you read into that what you want, I started reading Maimonidies *Guide to the Perplexed *this morning. The first chapter begins with the meaning of *zelem, *which Maimonidies takes as "essence" rather than form. The Rambam seems to be pushing back at the world of superstition, and I find myself cheering him on as I read. "Go Rambam! Fight back against those who think G-d has a hand!"
One of the things that drew me into the world of Observant Judaism was the dialectic reasoning found in the Talmud. At the end of the day the law might go with Hillel over Shammi, but that is not to say Shammi was wrong. In grad school I was taught that this type of reasoning was developed with feminism and post-modernism. I was stunned when I learned it had existed millennia earlier.
Which brings me back to demons and angles. Perhaps I am a little over the top in how I view these things. Certainly avakesh has a point. Being superstitious does bring G-d much closer
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