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Some Definitions
Part Four
Societies rise and fall on definitions. How many major conflicts have occurred because of a misunderstanding, because of two people’s, or peoples’, different take on the same idea?
Indeed, just about all of mankind pursues a fulfilling life. Who doesn’t truly want to be happy in life? And, yet so much tension exists in the world today, and has all through history. So many wars have been fought, and so much brutality has man inflicted upon fellow man, all because each nation’s understanding of just what happiness and fulfillment are varies so dramatically.
It is not so different when it comes to the implementation of ideas as well. Very often, we are unable to integrate certain important concepts into our lives because we don’t fully understand them, though we think that we do. Hence, the more important an idea is, the more crucial it is to make sure that we understand it as accurately as possible, because even a nuance of incorrect thinking can render the idea ineffective.
For example, there is the idea of emunah, or faith. The Hebrew word itself indicates that faith cannot be blind; indeed, the term “blind faith” is, in fact, an oxymoron. This is because the word emunah is related to the word “uman,” which is Hebrew for “craftsman,” for someone who is a professional at his trade. Indeed, an uman is someone who has been tried and tested in his area of expertise, with consistently positive results. Even what we call “emunah peshuta,” simple faith, is not blind. Rather, it too is based upon past experience, but perhaps not to the extent that others might base their faith in God. Jews with emunah peshuta may not fully understand how God works, but, for such Jews, the fact that God has saved the Jewish people so many times in the past, even when we have been unworthy of being saved, especially miraculously, is enough for them to have faith in God every single time.
Thus, the Torah itself states that blind faith is not a Jewish thing, when it says:
You were shown to know that God is God;
there is nothing but Him.
(Devarim 4:35)
Notice how God doesn’t simply say, “You have to believe in Me”? Rather, He says to the Jewish people, “How can you not believe in Me, after all that I have shown you? How can you not have faith in Me, after all I have done for you? When it comes to taking care of My people,” God tells His children, “I am an uman—an expert—tried and tested, and therefore, worthy of your emunah!”
There is something very instructive in this statement, a crucial first step for developing a sturdy bitachon in God. It teaches us that, if you want to appreciate how much God can help you in the future, you have to first develop an appreciation of how much God has helped you in the past. This is more than knowing that He has. This is knowing the specific occasions that He has, and how much.
In other words, start a notebook, and call it, “Heavenly Help.” Order is not as important as quantity, so start with the most obvious and easiest to remember examples of how God has come through for you in the past. You should probably carry the notebook with you everywhere you go, or something to jot down a note or two to be transferred to the main notebook later, because once you start thinking about past miracles, they seem to come back to mind at a furious rate. Number them, and add to the list every day. Be as elaborate as you can, recording as many details as is practical, especially about how you thought you were finished, only to have the situation turn out well at the last second. For the really big redemptions, put a big asterisk in the column for easy reference in the future.
Don’t be lazy and don’t be ungrateful. Every word you write down will earn you reward in the World-to-Come, because it reveals God in history, and shows your appreciation for what God has down for you. However, the most important part of this aspect of emunah is that it leads to bitachon. For, just as love of God is something that must be developed by appreciating the world God has created, likewise must bitachon be developed by increasing one’s emunah, that is, one’s appreciate of what God has done for one in the past.
In other words, emunah is belief in God for what He has done in the past, and bitachon is the projection of that belief into the future. It is the logical extension of emunah that says, “If God has saved me in the past, and who says I deserved it then, then why won’t He save me in the future? What says a miracle can’t happen for me again?” Nothing. Just my own insecurity, my own self-doubt, my own fear of failure. And, this is nothing new, but something that goes back all the way to our beginning as a nation, as the Leshem explains:
Moshe Rabbeinu knew that at that time it was dependent upon their strengthening themselves in trust in God, and for this the verse faults them: “Because you did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation” (Tehillim 78:22), and it adds:
“Nevertheless, they sinned further
and had no faith in His wonders”
(Tehillim 78:32)
However, this was not due to an evil heart, God forbid, but because they did not find themselves worthy of this … Therefore, when they came to the desert and found themselves constantly tempted by the Sitra Achra and his trickery they did not encourage themselves to trust in God so that He could deal with them beyond measure and with constant miracles; they felt unworthy of this. Therefore, instead, they constantly complained, “Why did you bring us up from Egypt?” since they saw that they could not maintain the proper faith in God because of the yetzer hara that kept overcoming them and renewing itself each day. (Sha’arei Leshem, p.114)
In other words, when it says that the Jewish people in the desert did not believe in God or His miracles, which would be hard to fathom after all they had witnessed and experienced, it really means that they did not believe that He would continue to perform such miracles for people like them on such a low spiritual level. It had been too new for them, and too hard to accept, that God is so generous with His miracles that He will do them even for people unworthy of them, even though God Himself declared:
“I will make all My goodness pass before you,
and I will reveal My Divine Name
in your presence.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.
I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.”
(Shemos 33:19)
That is, as the Talmud explains, even if it doesn’t make sense to us (Brochos 7a). After all, how many people, as far as we can see, are really worthy of miracles? Not too many, perhaps. However, the stories of personal miracles abound, not because people simply got lucky, but because God deliberately performed the miracles for them, because He wanted to.
Hence, it is a mistake to look at the Jews of Moshe Rabbeinu’s time simply as complainers. They were good people, like we try to be. Unfortunately, they were under-confident, as we also tend to be. Therefore, they felt unworthy of receiving great miracles to survive, and believed that they were on their own, somewhat. That worried them, and where there is worry, there is kvetching.
Were their worries well-founded? Well, they certainly became self-fulfilled prophecies, for, by not relying on God, for not having the proper bitachon, they lost the right to the very miracles they dreamed of having performed for them. It was a vicious cycle that they had created on their own, and one which only they could break, by simply saying, “Has God performed great miracles and saved us in the past? Let’s confidently assume that He will again in the future.” It’s the one-two punch, emunah and bitachon. Taking stock of past miracles to believe in future ones. It’s the perfect combination, and the only safe way to navigate through Jewish history.
© 5769/2009 by Rabbi Pinchas Winston & THIRTYSIX.ORG: essays, books, cds, interactive presentations, and ideas that will change the way you look at history — and yourself.
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The End of Days Part IV video
