Skepticism to Faith?

One of the things I love about reading an actual newspaper is that I find interesting articles by flipping the pages that I would never read if I had to click on the title on my computer. Today, my journey through the New York Times took me to Life's Work Is a Talmud Accessible to All Jews. The article focuses on Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz who has just completed a translation of the Talmud into modern Hebrew. It took him 45 years!

I could write about his dedication (not too dissimilar from the Episcopal saint, Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky who spent decades translating the Bible into Chinese, but I'll leave that for another time).

What I found interesting in the article today was this quote by Rabbi Steinsaltz. Having grown up in a non-religious home, his religious belief developed during his teenage years. "By nature," the rabbi said, "I am a skeptical person, and people with a lot of skepticism start to question atheism."

Really? I've always heard it the other way around, that skeptical people question religion, thus becoming atheists (or agnostics or some other religion or something).

Somehow this strikes me as refreshing, that someone came to a religious faith not through grand experiences or because of acceptance of doctrine. He became a faithful person by asking questions. And then he dedicated most of his life to translating volumes of the questions and answers and questions and answers and questions that make up the Talmud.

Skepticism leading to faith. Now, there's a concept!