ALIEN PHILOSOPHIES AND IDEOLOGIES.
7. Within the bounds God has set for man’s intelligence, it is a great mitzvah, a positive duty, to sharpen the mind and understand as clearly as possible whatever the human mind is capable of grasping. However, there are certain questions to which the answers are beyond the capacity of the human mind to understand. Only in time to come will the answers be revealed. (An example is the paradox of free will.) On no account should one delve into these questions. Of those who try, relying on their own intelligence and speculation, it is said, “None that go unto her return” (Proverbs 2:19). It is impossible to solve these questions through reason. We must have pure faith (Likutey Moharan I, 62:2).
8. There are certain questions which stem from the chalal hapanui, the empty void, to which it is impossible to find any answer. In time to come the answers will be revealed. But in this world it is impossible to put these questions to rest merely with thought and ingenuity. Whole philosophical systems have been built up around them. … But God is not to be found in these philosophies.
Israel believes in God and His Holy Torah without needing philosophical justifications. They have pure faith. The Hebrew word for “beyond” is EVeR, and the Jews are called IVRim, Hebrews, precisely because they are beyond all this speculation (ibid. I, 64:2).
