The most basic principles of being a Jew is studying and following the
first two commandments, which are written in פרשת יתרו פרק כ פסוק ב Hashem commanded His children, the Jewish nation:
אָנֹכִי ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִיךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים 1
2 לֹא יִהְיֶה לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל פָּנָי
1 I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of Slavery.
2. You shall have no other Gods beside Me
These verses teaches us two basic principles of:
Yediah Baashem which is knowing Hashem and
Emunah Baashem which is believing in Hashem
Yediah means Knowledge. Knowing for a fact that this is so.
Emunah means Believing. Believing this to be so. This is not something we saw with our own eyes, but rather a well-documented and established fact or thing known to all.
For example: The 13 colonies declared independence from Britain with the declaration of independence written in 1776.
There is not one person alive today that has witnessed the declaration of independence or the document being written, nor is there any video evidence, but we believe this to be a fact because it is a well-documented and no one is disputing it.
When patients go to hospitals for surgery, they usually don’t ask to see their doctors’ license to prove that they are actually doctors and that they are licensed to practice. Why? Because they have Emunah, they believe that the hospitals already made their due diligence before hiring them as doctors.
They also believe in the well-established fact that these are very experienced doctors. They have trust based on the established facts without seeing proof for themselves.
When Hashem took the Jews out of egypt and in the 40 years in the desert, Hashem performed אותות ומופתים open miricals.
In devarim perek ו pusik כב it says
וַיִּתֵּן ה’ אוֹתֹת וּמֹפְתִים גְּדֹלִים וְרָעִים בְּמִצְרַיִם
He performed miracles. Why? Hashem said: shemos chapter 6 verse 7 וידעתם כי אני ה You will know, have the knowledge, that I am God.
What is a miracle? Something that occurs against the laws of nature. Every one of the 10 plagues were unnatural events, דם the water turned to actual blood, ברד fire and water together, and so on.
Later, in the desert, there were more miracles. Mun, the food fell from the heavens and water flowed from a stone, these were all unnatural. Hashem performed these miracles only because ידעתם כי אני השם so that we should know, have the knowledge that He is the master of the universe.
By performing miracles, Hashem gave us the Yediah, the knowledge and proof that he is God.
In דברים פרק ד פסוק לה Moisha told the Jews
אַתָּה הָרְאֵתָ לָדַעַת כִּי יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּוֹ
Now you were shown proof to have the knowledge that Hashem He is the God and there is no other.
Rashi quotes the midrash
בשעת מתן תורה פתח להם ז’ רקיעים, וכשם שקרע את העליונים כך קרע את התחתונים וראו שהוא יחיד
Hashem opened all the heavens and the depths in the universe so that everyone saw with their own eyes that יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּ That Hashem is the only one and their is no other.
In one of the 6 זכירות that we need to remember each day, which some say every day along with the 13 Ani Mamins authored by the rambam, hashem tells us to remember everyday the giving of the torah at mount sinia.
דברים פרק ד פסוקים ט-י
וְהוֹדַעְתָּם לְבָנֶיךָ וְלִבְנֵי בָנֶיךָ: יוֹם אֲשֶׁר עָמַדְתָּ לִפְנֵי ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּחֹרֵב
“Beware and watch yourself very well, lest you forget the things that your eyes saw, and lest these things depart from your heart, all the days of your life, and you shall make them known to your children and to your children’s children—the day you stood before the L‑rd your G‑d at mount sinia.”
This is an obligation that every generation must give over the knowledge of God to the next. We must give over THIS proof and well-established fact which our forefathers saw with their own eyes.
Hashem proved that he was the Only One and it became a known well-established fact. The Jews were commanded to give this knowledge of יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּ over to the future generations.
In the first of the 13 Ani Maamins which some say everyday to strengthen our Emunah, The Rambam wrote:
א] אֲנִי מַאֲמִין בֶּאֱמוּנָה שְׁלֵמָה.
שֶׁהַבּוֹרֵא יִתְבָּרַךְ שְׁמוֹ הוּא בּוֹרֵא וּמַנְהִיג לְכָל הַבְּרוּאִים.
וְהוּא לְבַדּוֹ עָשָׂה וְעוֹשֶׂה וְיַעֲשֶׂה לְכָל הַמַּעֲשִׂים:
“I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, is the Creator and Guide of all the created beings, and that He alone has made, does make, and will make all things. “
Everything is from Hashem and He makes everything.
We often hear people, even very religious looking people demanding that Hashem send them a sign that he is here. They will say: “God show me a sign.”
“Show me a sign that you are here with me, show me sign of what you want me to do.”
People say this out of lack of Emunah because they are demanding that Hashem reveal Himself to them and “prove” Himself once again.
Sometimes, kids who go off the derech say: I will smoke on shabbos and if Hashem is here He should strike me dead. It does not work this way.
Hashem has revealed himself to our forefathers, this is a well documented and well-established fact. Hashem does NOT have to prove himself in every generation.
Throughout history whenever, and wherever a Torah scroll was found, they were all identical. The 3 biggest religions, Jews, Muslims and Christians all believe in the God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.
It is a proven and well-documented fact and just like you don’t question the American history books you should not question the Torah.
Hashem does not have to prove himself again in every generation. Although, we are sometimes privileged to see Yad Hashem, is not something we should ask for.
In order to strengthen out Emunah, we have to understand the relationship between Hashem and the Jewish people.
in פרשת בא ד’ כב it says בְּנִי בְכֹרִי יִשְׂרָאֵל
The jewish nation is my eldest son
In דברים perek יד pusik א it says
בָּנִים אַתֶּם לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
The Jewish Nation that are my children
One mistake that many people make is believing that They WORK for Hashem.
You can hear people say “I do God’s work.”
No!
We are doing God’s will.
We are Hashem’s children NOT his workers.
What is the difference between doing God’s work and God’s will?
Someone who feels that they are working for Hashem’s company they expect a paycheck when the job is done.
A woman hung up signs on street poles claiming that when you wear wide clothes you will have wide parnassah, meaning lots of money.
If this woman would walk over to a group of girls and tell them that if they start wearing bigger clothes Hashem will reward them and give them a lot of money. She will probably be able to get many of those girls to follow her rules and her dress code.
How? the girls will say, well, I may not like the fashion style or the way I look in the clothes, but if the pay is good then I will take the job, if Hashem rewards me with lots of blessings and money for dressing a certain way it is worth it.
The same thing is with Shabbos, if a person is asked to keep shabbos for the rewards they will get, people say, the job description appears to be simple, all I have to do is sit home, eat good food and enjoy the people I love, sign me up.
Sometimes when there is a sick person in a family, members take on mitzvos in hopes that Hashem will “pay them” for these good deeds by healing the sick.
The problem with believing that we are employees of Hashem’s company, is that the moment these people don’t see their payment coming through, they quit the job and they drop God.
However, if we live by what the Torah says, that we are children of Hashem, We understand that we are doing Hashem’s Will like a child who wants to please his father.
אִם כְּבָנִים אִם כַּעֲבָדִים rosh hashana shmonei esra musaff
We can be treated like hashem’s children or his servants. If we are zocha we are like his children in not than we are like servants.
Think about this: Amazon uses robots in their warehouse to fulfill some orders. The robot works as hard as other employees but the robots never get a check at the end of the month.
You may say that this is unfair, the robots did the work but did not get paid why? Because Amazon programed it to the job they need to do and it is Amazon’s property.
So too Hashem created us and gave us the ability to do His will.
Imagine if a child comes to his parents and says, I cleaned my room, I put away my laundry and I cleared the table after I ate, Now pay me for the work I did.
The parents will reply: Who bought you the clothes which you put away, who bought and cooked the food? All you are doing is your chores. As a member of this household you have a to do your part.
On the other hand if a maid who was hired by the family, does those same chores, she will get paid for it.
Many times, when children do their chores nicely, their parents will reward them.
Parents may decide that a child is doing chores so nicely that they will buy the child a big gift something that the child wanted for sometime.
Imagine if when the young girl gets a gift she thinks that parents have paid for doing chores. Now, the girl wants a another big ticket item so she begins doing more chores in the home.
She may even help her siblings do their jobs so that she can be rewarded with another gift. After several months of doing so, when her parents don’t pay her by buying her the second gift she wants, the child gets discouraged and gives up on everything.
If the same child gets the first gift and she is so grateful to her parents for the reward despite the fact that they gave birth to her, raise her, they work to support her, they cook for ther and clothe her, and with the chores she is doing her obligation as a family member, to show appreciation to her parents for the gift the girl begins doing more chores in the home.
She may even help her siblings do their jobs because she is so grateful.
Her happy attitude and appreciation for her parents will eventually result in more rewards being given to her.
The same is true with us, Hashem created us, He gave us hands and feet to be able to do the mitzvos, he gave us the ability to work and earn a livelihood so we can use the money to do mitzvahs we have to thank Him for everything not demand payment or else you quit doing His will.
Hashem said that he will reward us for what we do, but like the child, it comes when Hashem wants to reward us.
In pirkai ovos, perek ב mishna א is says:
וֶהֱוֵי זָהִיר בְּמִצְוָה קַלָּה כְּבַחֲמוּרָה, שֶׁאֵין אַתָּה יוֹדֵעַ מַתַּן שְׂכָרָן שֶׁל מִצְוֹת.
“Be as careful with a minor mitzvah as with a major one, for you do not know the rewards of the mitzvos.” this shows that reward for mitzvos is not a payment it is unrelated to the hard work it is totally up to God to give reward.
When Yakov came back from the home of Luvon, he was informed that his brother Eisov was coming towards him,
In בראשית פרק לב פסק ח it states: ויירא יעקב מאד Yakov was very afraid why was he afraid? Because Eisov despite being a sinner had done the mitzvah of kibud ov veaim while he Yakov was unable to do this mitzvah as he was away from his parents home.
Yakov who was the Kollel yirngerman, the man who had spent many year in Yeshiva learning Torah was afraid of his brother who is a sinner? After all doesn’t it say תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם that learning Torah is as great as doing all of the mitzvos?
So why was Yakov so scared, because every mitzvah no matter how small it may seem in our eyes has great merit.
We see the same concept by Moisha Rabainu, He was afraid Oig Melech Habashan the giant because of the one good deed of telling Avraham that his nephew loit was kidnapped.
We don’t know Hashem’s reward system.
This also proves that we are not workers of Hashem, but rather his children or servants as a worker get rewarded according to the job he does, the harder the job the more the pay is, with mitzvahs it is not this way.
Sadly, many cannot read Hashem’s language of Loshein Hakodesh and therefore they cannot read the torah to truly know what Hashem wants from us.
Someone who questions Hashem ways and demanded to “see” Hashem will never be happy or believe in Hashem even when Hashem proves himself with open miracles, as we see in the midbar Hashem showed may miracles and some Jews still questioned Hashem.
After the Chet Meraglim, Hashem said how much longer will I have to prove myself until they believe in me.
Some people claim to be non-believers. They say that they don’t believe in something they cannot see.
However, in reality, these people just don’t want to accept the authority of God.
When these people walk into a hospital they don’t demand the doctor to show them proof that he has the license to practice.
When they walk into a pharmacy they take medicine without seeing proof of what it in the bottle. How do they REALLY know that the pharmacist did not put a placebo or the wrong medicine into the bottle.
When they walk into a store to buy a coke, they don’t question “who sais this is coke, the bottle states that but how can you really know?
Furthermore, Coke contains a secret ingredient which the company refuses to disclose it is a highly guarded secret for the past 125 years.
When you buy coke you have no idea what you are consuming, there are videos online of people using coke for different purposes such as washing rust off cars rims, yet people have blind faith, they have Emunah they trust in humans who created the company in 1886 they take the word of those who are in it to make a profit any they DON’T demand proof of what’s inside the coke before drinking it.
A woman went on a year-long experiment to live on non-process food. She was so surprised to discover the amount of chemicals used in the food that she became a non-believer.
She did not believe the manufacturers, so much so that she picked the wheat and ground her own flour.
A non-believer would question everything including the authenticity of a can of soda which is sold in the store as he has no idea who made it, how it was made, it is authentic or if it is a knockoff.
The fact that they don’t question medicine, ready-made food, the doctor’s credentials, or coke shows that they are not a non-believer in general, but only a non-believer in Hashem because you don’t want to accept Hashem’s authority.
Many people who question Hashem are not really non-believers they just don’t know or understand what Hashem wants from them.
I have seem sforim that have been translated to English and have been censored by the authors and translated in a way that would be less graphic than that of the Torah or be more in line with the norms of today.
Our job is to learn Loshen Hakodesh, Hashem’s language, so that we can read the Torah, understand it and know what Hashem wants us to do. And also see the proof, the knowledge, that Hashem is the only God He alone has made, does make, and will make all things. And we are his children and he will reward us like a father rewards his children.
