Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardoso tells us: “The greatness of the Talmudic sages was that they shared their own conflicts and doubts with their students, as well as their attempts to resolve them. This is demonstrated in the debates over halachic issues, especially between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, and between Rava and Abaye. These disagreements were rooted in each student’s view of life and Judaism. The students shared their teachers’ inner lives, and this led to heated discussions. The teachers created tension in their classes, waged battles with their own ideas, and asked their students to question them with all their might. They were not interested in teaching them the final halachic rulings, but rather asked them to dismantle the conclusions to rediscover the questions. These teachers realized that not all halachic paradoxes can be resolved, because life itself is full of paradoxes.”

Rabbi Irwin Kula tells us: “In most cases, when a decision was reached, the verdict favored Hillel and not Shammai. But this was not because Hillel was objectively correct. The Talmud tells us of both teachings: ‘This and this are the words of the living God.’ Why then did the decisions favor Hillel’s school? The reason is because of the way Hillel arrived at his conclusions: Hillel always studied and analyzed Shammai’s position first, even teaching it before his own. His school understood and valued the other’s truth, and they used this to broaden their perspective and present a more inclusive position, which gave them a deeper understanding of life. They did not seek to defeat Shammai in the debate, but to benefit everyone from it.”

Kula says: “Throughout the centuries, our sages have sought to free us from our certainties so that we can discover deeper insights and expand our moral universe. They understood that since no two human situations are identical, the answer we give them today is, by nature, provisional. Every morning there will be a new moral dilemma. There are never definitive answers to life’s great questions; there are only deeper ones. There is something liberating and rich in this teaching. The search for truth is not about finding the final answer, but about going deeper. The goal is not to reach “the answer,” but to live the process of searching again and again.”

Al Reguel Ajat is just that: a continual search for answers. And every time we find an answer, we stumble upon a better question.

By Marcos Gojman

Bibliography: Nathan Lopes Cardozo: “The Manifesto of the David Cardozo Academy” and Irwin Kula: “Yearnings, Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life”