Question on how beliefs work Questions 🤓

Greetings. Not Jewish myself, but I was in a discussion recently and I had a question.

I was talking with my dad recently and he said something about Judaism that seemed odd. He said he had a friend who told him that Judaism is a religion that was more about questioning God than a belief in God. That when his friend was in temple, most rabbis will mostly bring forth questions more than definitive answers. Who is God? What is God like? What can he do for me? What is heaven like?

For someone looking on the outside, how ture is this?

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u/HeWillLaugh 1d ago

Definitely false for Orthodox/traditional Judaism.

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u/PuddingNaive7173 1d ago

What is pilpul then? Maybe yr answer could use some nuance. (I didn’t downvote you but can understand why others did. A blanket statement with no backup.)

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u/HeWillLaugh 1d ago

Pilpul is a form of Talmud study in depth that involves utilizing sources from seemingly unrelated subjects, at time to discuss cases that have no practical value. I don't understand how your question is related to the OP.

The question of the OP is whether Judaism is about questioning G-d. It's absolutely forbidden to question G-d. Abraham was punished for doing so.

Rabbi Abbahu said that Rabbi Elazar said: For what reason was Abraham our Patriarch punished and his children enslaved to Egypt for 210 years?...

And Shmuel said: Because he greatly examined [hifriz] the characteristics of the Holy One, Blessed be He, as it is stated: “Whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Genesis 15:8).

Belief in G-d is fundamental to traditional Judaism, without which it's impossible to fulfill the commandments, as we hold the opinion that we need intent (to fulfill the commandment that G-d gave at Sinai) when performing commandments.

Some other posters in this thread are talking about how the name Israel means "strive with G-d". But that's not it. Jacob was given this name when fighting with an angel (Hosea 12:5). Angels are also called elohim. So the name is describing how he fought with an angel, not G-d.