Reason to Believe

No one is indifferent to the truth. One reason for this is that we cannot get what we want without it. If you want hot water, you need to know which is the correct faucet. To stop your friend's tears, you need to know why he is crying. To get a college degree, you need to have the knowledge to answer the exam questions. To catch a plane, you need to know the flight schedule. To make a living as a doctor, you need to know medicine. Accurate information - truth - is crucial to navigating life's challenges. Without the truth, we only guess that our actions have the desired effect; we hope and pray that they prove successful. The effect could be, and often is, failure. Truth is so useful that (in almost all cases) ignoring it is not the best policy. When the truth is disregarded, things get worse. Our goals move even further away. The truth is so important that, in a sense, the very happiness and success of our lives depends on it.

Why do we live the way we live? Why does anyone? There are scores of religions and worldviews in existence, each claiming to be accurate. How do we know that Judaism is true? In this masterful work, the magnum opus of one of the greatest contemporary teachers of Judaism, readers are guided along an extremely logical, consistent, and convincing path. With this once-in-a-lifetime book, readers discover truth: a powerful "reason to believe."

Rabbi Dr. Dovid Gottlieb received his Ph.D. in mathematical logic from Brandeis University in 1970. He taught in the department of philosophy of Johns Hopkins University from 1969 to 1980. Today, he is a senior faculty member at Ohr Somayachin Jerusalem and one of the most renowned lecturers in the Jewish world. His book, The Informed Soul, was published by Artscroll Publications