Introduction

• Why Rabbi Sa~adiah composed Emunos VeDayos / Beliefs and Opinions  

• G-d: Source of true knowledge
• Man: Challenges to acquiring true knowledge
• Time – the virtue of patience
• Effort - overcoming laziness
• Sources of human knowledge
• Sensory perceptions – the five senses
• Intellect - reason and inference
• Mesorah - divinely-revealed knowledge

• Imperative to know Judaism
• Judaism and scientific knowledge
• How to explore Judaism
  • Reason and faith - real and imaginary dangers of intellectual inquiry
  • Mesorah – touchstone for Jewish belief
  • Miracles – the role of supernatural phenomena
  • Why people reject Judaism (and religion, in general)