“R’ Bana’ah would say: Anyone who toils in Torah lishmah, his Torah becomes an elixir of life (sam chaim) for him. As it says ‘Eitz chayim hi… — It is a tree of life for those who grasp it.’ (Mishlei 3:18) And it says ‘It will be cures for your leaders.’ (v. 8) And it says, ‘Those who found me found life.’ (ibid. 8:35). Whereas anyone who toils in Torah but it is not lishmah, it becomes a poison (sam maves) for him….”

And reliabilism WOULD state that if sources you trust say there is something there and yet you have tried Shabbos, or learning Torah, or…. and havent’ found it, that you would assume the flaw was in your attempt. IOW, that you should continue looking for it until you find a Judaism that works.

But I was speaking of philosophical proof vs evidence, not of reason. People don’t really need things to have an airtight proof in order to hold of them. That’s an abstraction.

Your example is flawed in that it invokes an emotion, not a mental assessment of truth. My argument is not that one should believe because they enjoy Shabbos. But that the reality of a G-d-given Shabbos is as self-evident to someone who does Shabbos right as the reality that two parallel Euclidean lines won’t cross is to someone who contemplates such lines.

We develop a fear of falling because we perceive with our senses that falling leads to pain. We then ‘produce postulates’ based on these facts to apply to our lives. Should we find truth in mental experiences too? Absolutely. For example, ‘when X happens I feel sad – therefore, I will deal with X to prevent sadness.’ We can deduce that X makes us feel sad and this can be demonstrated scientifically.

However, someone who grows up in a culture in which they are indoctrinated from birth that when X happens, you feel sad because supernatural Y is punishing you – they might believe that. However, there is no scientific indication or truth that Y actually exists. All that can be drawn from event X is that the individual feels sad.

There is nothing wrong with making postulates based on real experiences that can be proven and that are logical. But to assume that the feelings felt due to indoctrination from a young age that are not provable scientifically and have no indication that they exist is foolish. This especially true when biology can explain why one would think these experiences are real when in fact they aren’t.

“Simply, we trust ourselves, particularly after repeated experience. ”

This is foolish. Look at the religious experiences we have and you’ll see that they are very likely imaginary.

Now what would you say to a religious individual, such as myself, who experiences shabbos and halacha and Torah and still does not feel the authenticity of Judaism. Even when things feel real doesn’t mean they are. In fact, most Muslims (at least in my experince) will tell you the proof that Islam is the true religion is the Quoran. They say “The beauty of the Quoran makes it impossible to have been man-made. The Quoran is clearly the truth…”

What makes you think that these emtional and spiritual highs you get when keeping shabbos and studying Torah are any different than the ones that Muslims experience when they study and practice? In truth, there is a strong biological basis for religion and the need for spirituality. Maybe these experiences you are so sure you have are all in your mind?

Based on your article there is no reason for a jew to be shomer torah and mitzvos if it doesn’t fel real to him or her.

In this case, Chazal say that the Pinechas of the desert generation is the same Pinechas who failed to prevent the battle of the Pilegesh beGiv’ah, meaning that he could well have lived from Yehoshua all the way to Shemuel. (This long life is part of the Zohar’s discussion that he is Eliyahu.) But that kind of fantastical medrash is just the type of story the Rambam says only fools and heretics (out to make the Torah look silly) take as a historical claim. Which is why, as I opened, I have no idea how to explain it myself, and instead am blindly following the Rambam.