When did the idea of having "אמונה פשוטה" become idealized? When I say "אמונה פשוטה" I mean faith in Hashem with no sophistication - like on the level we were taught in nursery.
We don't find it in the Tanach, not in Chazal and not in the Rishonim. It could be that it started with .... Rebbe Nachman. [NOTE: Maybe I am wrong and am misunderstanding what he means.] As his student R' Nosson writes:
ענה ואמר: "אצל העולם אמונה הוא דבר קטן, ואצלי אמונה הוא דבר גדול מאד. ועיקר האמונה הוא בלי שום חכמות וחקירות כלל רק בפשיטות גמור" (שיחות הר"ן ל"ג).
"ליזהר מאד להרחיק החקירות מלבו ולהשליכם מלבו לגמרי, לבלי להיות ח"ו שום חקרן כלל. רק להאמין בה' ובצדיקים אמיתיים באמונה לבד, בלי שום חקירות כלל" (שיחות הר"ן ל"ב).
Now there is a מחלוקת ראשונים and אחרונים about learning secular philosophy. But it would seem that to understand Emunah from the inside [from Jewish sources] was always the ideal [like in ספר איוב. The answer to איוב was not אמונה בלי חכמות. Chazal don't answer אמונה questions they present with "don't ask - just believe"]. So the rule is "כל המשנה - ידו על התחתונה" whoever changes has the lower hand.
In our case the problem is simple: The Torah says the words "א-דני" or "א-להים". What does that mean? If one can't answer that question intelligently [to the best of human capacity - we can never REALLY understand b/c לא יראני האדם וחי] then he doesn't understand a pasuk in Chumash. Actually - 10,000 psukim in Chumash.
If one doesn't understand the concept of בחירה חפשית then how does he understand the psukim that talk about Paroh's בחירה being taken away [among other things]?
There are so many concepts that we are meant to understand to the best of our ability [other examples - השגחה or how tfilla works] and saying that one should just believe without חקירות is another way of saying "be superficial". Where is there a source that one should be superficial??? If that is where one is holding then OK. Like everything else, we don't always reach the ideal. But to idealize "simplicity"? It would seem to be an innovation with no earlier source. Would one learn Gemara and say "don't ask questions. Learn בפשיטות". There are plenty of people learning like that but it is certainly far from the ideal.
The major problem is that we are meant to have a relationship with Hashem and one who stays on the nursery level is having a relationship with an imaginary Hashem.
That is why the Rishonim such as the Rambam worked so hard to understand Hashem as best as we can. Even in a Chasidus such as Chabad there is a tremendous emphasis on understanding אלוקות.
Today - Rebbe Nachman's Torah is very "in", as is the whole Uman thing which presents other Hashkafic and Halachic problems. It is worth examining closely.
