Doubting Our History

There are some who are strongly inclined to cast doubt upon the historical accounts of the Jewish People [many of them like to write blogs]. Rav Kook, in his sefer "L'nivuchei Ha-dor" calls such people "ill" and holds back no words expressing his contempt for their way of thinking.

He continues and says that if one doubts the history of the Jewish people then he can just as easily doubt his OWN history and ask - How does one know that his father is really his father? Maybe his father was once away on business and his mother invited a male acquaintance over for dinner, what happened - happened, and a child was born. The mother decided, not surprisingly, not to tell her husband who the real father is [that could cause a shalom bayis problem or two]. Or maybe while on vacation together and the husband was sound asleep, something happened and 9 months later a baby. People are only people, you know. The gemara says in Chullin the same idea [which it rejects], ודילמא לאו אביו הוא - Maybe the presumed father is really not the father?!

Or maybe neither parent is the true parent and the baby was mixed up with another baby in the hospital and the true parents received a different baby. The gemara talks about a child who was just picked up on the street and we don't know his real parents [אסופי]. Do you remember what happened when you were a newborn?? So who knowssssssss.

Such an attitude would bring upon a tremendous catastrophe to the world. Nobody has to listen to parents anymore and authority is jettisoned. Those who seem to be sources of authority are really imposters....

If one rejects the tradition of our nation, he can just as easily reject the narrative of his own past. The results would be an erosion of society as we know it [in addition to the already present erosion...].