EMUNAH INTRODUCTION

Dear Family.

I hope everyone is well.

Tonight is the Anniversary of Avi and Penina. Your wedding brings back many happy memories BH! Wishing you many more.

Happy birthday to Ariella whose birthday is next week. Wishing you a year of much success and happiness Ariella.

We are now heading into the month of Nissan and Pesach.

I heard a shiur this week from Rabbi Yossie Jacobson on Emunah (Faith), and this shiur was part of a series of shiurim on this subject (12 shiurim!)

The shiur I heard was the first and seemed to cover the subject of emunah quite fully, and I thought to myself how can there be another 11 shiurim on this subject?

What has emunah got to do with Pesach?

It is said that the matzah we eat on the first night of Pesach feeds our emunah.

And so with that in mind I thought maybe we could explore this subject in the few weeks we have before Pesach, and see what emerges. Right now I have no idea of what we are in for but here we go.

The first shiur tries to define emunah as follows, and I am going to try and keep it very summarised:

Based on on the first line of the daily Amidah prayer where we say 'Baruch atah Hashem, Elokeinu veiElokei avoseinu.' ( our G-d and the G-d of our Fathers) the question is asked are there 2 G-ds? Why does it separate out and say our G-d and then the G-d of our Fathers?

Rabbi Jacobson explained by showing that there exists in Judaism 2 powerful streams of thought regarding this ie

2 opposite sides of a spectrum.

1. The G-d of our Fathers represents the Jews who follow the TRADITION unchanged and unchallenged from generation to generation, observing all the Laws, traditions, customs dress etc - with unwavering faith.
2. Our G-d represents the Jews who are struggling and searching with tremendous efforts in all different ways to discover their own G-d. ie TO KNOW G-D. - to have faith in their own G-d which they discovered with their own efforts

He then examines extensively which gedolim followed which path eg TRADITION - Seifer hachinuch 1200s, the Zhidichover late 1700s, I think Sadia Gaon 900s. And then those who followed the path of TO KNOW were Choveiv levavos in the 1000s, Rambam in the 1100s. Then Moshe and Yisro were arguing about this. interestingly the Vilna Gaon was closer to the path of Knowing as was the Baal Shem Tov.

So in defining emunah, there are those who trust and follow without question the Tradition handed down from Moshe Rabeinu, generation after generation till this day, and there are those who search out G-d with Knowledge.

This is the situation when there are no questions but what happens when questions arise?

These could be of 3 types:

1. Against Tradition it can be asked 'how can you believe in something you cannot see or know?', 'how can you be sure it is true what you are following?' etc
2. Against Knowing it can be asked 'Hashem is too far beyond our understanding, and knowledge can only take you a part of the way, and thereafter you will need faith anyway, so why bother about the knowledge?', and 'how can you trust your intellect. It can easily mislead you?' etc
3. Those who say emunah means we don't know, and yes I believe there is a G-d but what is all the fuss about because it is all futile?

In defining emunah Rabbi Jacobson then moves in the following stages:

1. The word emunah means certainty. It does not mean we do not know. This exists in both groups 1 and 2.
2. The last group ie group 3 is therefore dismissed as being lazy and on the wrong route.
3. First prerequisite Is to want the Truth
4. Questioning is very important! Group 1 tends to reject questioning and feel aggravated by these. But why should Truth be afraid of questions. Today's youth are questioning, and have a right to question. If one does not have an answer one can research in to these together. But questions have to be addressed and worked on. Here there is no laziness ie the questioning, the answering, and the researching.
5. The Baal Shem tov says we need both approaches ie the Traditional route may not give a person a feeling of ownership, but it has a solidity, and the Knowing route will give one a fire and enthusiasm of ownership. So take both.
6. BUT THE ALTE REBBE EXPLAINS MORE THAN THIS IE THAT THE SOUL OF A JEW IS LITERALLY A FRAGMENT OF HASHEM HIMSELF. IT IS THERE RIGHT WITHIN EACH ONE OF US AND HAS EYES WHICH SEE HASHEM. IT IS LIKE THE SIXTH SENSE OF THE NESHAMAH AND READY TO EXPRESS ITSELF AT ANY TIME IN THE SIMPLEST OR GREATEST OF JEWS. WE NEED ALSO OUR INTELLECT TO GET TO UNDERSTAND AND KNOW THIS BETTER.

Emunah is therefore a certainty coming from within each one of us, which is beyond Tradition and beyond Intellect, but sees and harmonises both in a continuum of development. It can get covered over with many layers, but it is always there.

Gut Shabbos to all.