Faith at Sea
STUDENT SUMMARIES OF SICHOT OF THE ROSHEI YESHIVA
Parashat
beshalach
guest sicha by
rav
Faith at the Sea
Translated by
And they believed in God (Shemot
14:31). How did the nation achieve this state? And how are we to achieve
this faith, which transcends the level of merely reciting slogans?
One may affirm Gods existence as a fact
either out of strongly-maintained tradition, or out of philosophical
conviction. The author of Chovot Ha-levavot elaborates at length on both
possibilities. However, the Rambam offers a third path.
The Rambam, who believed that the human
epitome of knowledge of God was possible based on philosophical logic, also knew
that only exceptional individuals would ultimately attain this level. However,
he believed that there was also another way, which was not based upon the
original acceptance of the forefathers, but rather anchored in the experience of
the individual, even if he has not achieved the highest levels of theoretical
understanding. This path is what he proposed to the students of his Mishneh
Torah, a work intended also for those who are far removed from intellectual
pursuits. As such, his suggestion remains a live option for our generation:
What is
the path to loving and fearing Him? When a person contemplates Gods works and
His great, wondrous creations, and stands in awe of His wisdom which is
immeasurable and without bounds, he immediately loves and praises and glorifies
[God] and feels a strong desire to know the great God, as David said, My soul
thirsts for the Lord, for the living God.
And when
he meditates upon these very things, he is taken aback and fearful and knows
that he is a tiny, lowly, dark creature that stands with faint and little
knowledge before He Who is perfect in wisdom, as David said: When I see Your
heavens, the work of Your fingers what is man that You should take note of
him?
In
accordance with these things I [shall] explain fundamental laws in the actions
of the Sovereign of the worlds, in order that there shall be an opening for one
who understands to love God, as our Sages taught concerning love that out of this one comes to know Him Who spoke and
the world came into being. (Hilkhot Yesodei Ha-Torah 2:2)
In chapter 1, Rambam established the
mitzva of knowledge of God and of His unity. But he did not ask here, How does
one go about knowing Him? Before explaining the path of knowing God, the Rambam
waited until he had finished describing the personal significance of this
knowledge: love and fear. Indeed, the Rambam is not talking about knowledge, or
faith, in the objective, rational, abstract sense. I believe that the term he
uses for knowledge hakara means a personal, experiential sort of
familiarity.
And they believed in God and in Moshe,
His servant. This is the climax of a process of inculcation of faith, which had
been promised in advance: And you shall know that I am the Lord Who brings you
out from beneath the burdens of
It must be noted that first the text
reads, They feared God, and afterwards they believed. This follows the same
order set forth by the Rambam: first comes the experiential significance, and
only afterwards is there recognition and knowing. So as to illustrate this
point, the Torah juxtaposes the Song of the Sea to this faith in God, and we
understand with certainty that this is not faith that has been arrived at
through intellectual proofs alone. The direct result of their faith is that they
burst into song.
In other words, faith results in meaning;
without meaning it cannot survive. If faith does not infuse my life with meaning
and does not cause me to sing, then it does not exist. A person cannot believe
in God in the same way that he believes that the sun will rise tomorrow. There
is no belief in Gods existence without that existence influencing the life of
the individual and giving it meaning.
What was the existential meaning that was
the foundation for the faith of the generation that left Egypt?
Let us consider the example of Avraham,
the first believer. Our Sages describe the beginnings of his faith by invoking
the midrashic parable of the burning city. Some interpret the parable in the
following way: Avraham saw a world going up in flames, the land controlled by
evil people, and he concluded that there must be an owner of the city who will
care enough to come and save the world. How is it possible to arrive at a
cosmological conclusion based on a wish? Avraham identified within himself the
inability to bear the situation, and analyzed this feeling: where did this human
moral sense come from? Surely it could not have arisen from blind natural laws.
It must be, he reasoned, that human morality is embedded in the world beyond, in
the supernatural realm of the holy. There must be Someone Who is just, and He
must have fashioned man with that aspiration. The existential significance of
his faith gave rise to his trust. He had understood that God was the Supreme
Source of the moral sensitivity which was so central to his life.
This was the axis upon which revolved the
spiritual world of the generation that left Egypt. They lived in a world that
was cynical and corrupt, which had built a culture on the foundations of
oppression and infanticide. It is no wonder that their faith in justice was
almost extinguished. But then Moshe arrived and announced that God was going to
fulfill His 400-year-old promise. This was difficult for them to believe, since
the value of loyalty was entirely foreign to their concrete experience.
The crux of the proof embodied in the
strong arm is not intellectual. Rather, it was the observation of how the
natural world the
When our forefathers were struck with
astonishment at the Sea, this resulted in faith. In other words, those who had
been redeemed permitted themselves to revive what had been almost completely
vanquished during their long years of slavery. They were guided by their inner
senses and found there confirmation (intuitive and unproven!) that the Splitting
of the Sea was not a one-time event, but rather the reflection of something
fundamental and integral to the world, and to themselves as people. From now on,
mans loftiest aspirations were no longer an illusion; goodness was no longer
condemned to be shattered on the rocks of cynicism; the conduct of the world
ultimately had to make sense. This
could be demanded of man. It could be expected of God.
Great faith means a great song. If the
Rambams vision doesnt affect us, perhaps we are reading the words without
singing the notes. Our wonderment is locked up inside the routine view that
attributes everything to human rule. If we sit down and write just some of the
important, precious and essential things in our lives over which we have no
control, and which for all our effect on them could just as easily not have
come into existence, perhaps we can begin to touch the outermost edges of the
greatness of the world in which, amazingly enough, we awaken and find ourselves.
Perhaps we can still awaken the wonderment, and perhaps the song will awaken on
its own, and we shall merit to come to know Him Who spoke and the world came
into being.