I had a short discussion with my rabbi about my lack of faith. At one point, we discussed morality and whether I thought the world was or should be amoral. I told him that I thought morality was needed in this world and that Judaism's moral code is a good one. I haven't studied alternative systems, but I recalled Hasidic Rebel's post about faith and how other moral systems have their own problems. Anyway, to that he responded that I should think about the fact that the same book that provides this comprehensive code also commands us to perform other, less rational duties. So, I'm thinking.

It is a conundrum. Is it possible to accept the moral code described in the Torah and Talmud and reject the rituals? Perhaps it first comes down to how you view the code. If you accept it as the best among many options, then I think it is possible to reject the God "component". However, if you accept the moral code as absolute truth, a description of how things should be, then it's not possible to reject the other parts of it. To accept it as truth, though, requires faith that the Torah is devine. I am not a philosopher. I don't know if one can even prove that a moral is "true" or "right". All I know at this point is that the Jewish morality I do know feels right to me.

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As I re-read what I just wrote above, I realized that Judaism doesn't claim to know the "truth". Passages in the Torah are disected and interpreted by the sages and they may be wrong. There is a famous talmudic story about such an event where Rabbi Eliezer argued against the majority's ruling in a Jewish court. Rabbi Eliezer invokes miracles and even a voice from heaven telling the court that his ruling is right. However, these acts are not enough to convince the court to change its mind and one of the other rabbis informs that the Torah is "not in heaven". The law is that majority rules and the story illustrates that is true even when they are wrong. To me, it also illustrates that there is no truth except for what man decides. (Well, the truth may be there, but it must be interpreted and ends up distorted.)