大象传媒

Rabbi Harvey Belovski goes back to his childhood and remembers the nervous boy who had an aversion to uncertainty - something that continued to trouble him well into adulthood.

Harvey explains that, when he was young, he was taken with the certainty shown by Abraham in the story of the Binding of Issac, where his total faith in God led him to the brink of sacrificing his son. According to Harvey, "we are always left in awe, or horror, that Abraham seemed to experience no doubt that he was doing the right thing."

Later, Harvey found another interpretation of the story in the writings of a Polish rabbi known as the Ishbitzer, who suggests that Abraham was being tested to see if he could embrace uncertainty - did God want Abraham to sacrifice Isaac or would Isaac become the father of a great nation? Abraham simply couldn't know, yet he was required to accept the doubt.

"This might seem trivial," Harvey says, "but it changed my world forever...I began to see doubt and complexity less as enemies to be eliminated, but as central features of a meaningful life."

Through traditional Jewish music and the compositions of Mozart and Chopin, he leads us on his journey from discomfort to mature acceptance that uncertainty is something to be embraced.

Presenter: Rabbi Harvey Belovski
Producer: Michael Wakelin
A TBI production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.