Do You Believe?
Parshat Devarim - 5780
Does God still love us, or
is COVID a sign of divine wrath?
Has God removed His
providence from the world, or is this merely a difficult stage in the
birth-pangs of the redemption- a disrupter intended to spur our repentance and
return us to the Land of Israel?
Is it our job to fend for
ourselves using any means available to us, or must we place our faith entirely
in God and not in the dysfunctional and failed economic, political and medical
constructs of our world?
Whenever the true intent of
God is concealed it serves as a test of our Emunah. In recounting the sin of the spies, Moshe
levies a harsh accusation against the Jewish people.
וּבַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֵינְכֶם מַאֲמִינִם בַּה' אֱלֹקיכֶם.
In
this matter, you do not believe in God.
How dare Moshe accuse them
of lacking faith? To how many open miracles did they bear witness? Perhaps they
were ungrateful at times, maybe they grumbled and kvetched, but they were certainly not faithless! In fact, the
prophet Yirmiyahu praises them for their faith during the desert travels
לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה
Oh,
how you followed Me in a desert, in a desolate land…
Based on the writings of
the Maharal of Prague[1],
Rabbi David Fohrman suggested[2]
that there are three stages of faith, corresponding to three iterations of the
word Emunah in the Torah’s exodus
narrative.
The first-time faith is
mentioned is when Moshe turned to the elders of the Jewish people and apprised
them of the impending exodus, sharing with them the signs God provided him.
וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ
כִּי פָקַד ה' אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכִי רָאָה אֶת עָנְיָם וַיִּקְּדוּ
וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲוּוּ.
The Israelites understood
that God saw their suffering....
What did they believe at this juncture? They had been slaves for
two centuries, with no overt sign of God in their lives. Remarkably, they
believed it was possible there was a God who was aware of their travails.
Perhaps they heard stories about God from their grandparents and for that
reason the verse states וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם. On its own, though, this is not enough to
foster faith. After all, just knowing that God watches us suffer does not
render one into a believer. The real
question is whether He is capable of doing anything about it. Many who lost
faith after the Holocaust, or for whom human suffering represents a theological
challenge, were at this stage of faith. It is not that they don’t believe in
God; it is that they are deeply angry at Him for a perceived lack of action on
His part.
This brings us to the second, better known expression of Emunah. When the Jewish people approach
the frothy waters of the Red Sea, the Torah tells us that finally, they
achieved a new level of faith.
ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו
What did they believe? They believed in a God who saw their pain
and who had the capacity to do something about it. But this still does not
represent full faith. Perfect and complete faith, according to the Maharal, was
achieved on a third occasion- at mattan
Torah, when God tells Moshe וגם
בך
יאמינו לעולם – The people will
believe in you, as my “spokesperson,” forever.
Once Moshe was established as the middleman between Hashem and Bnei
Yisrael, they believed that God understood Moshe, and that He was prepared to
communicate with them in a way that would resonate in their hearts. It’s one
thing to have faith in an all-powerful God, and another to have faith in a God
who speaks to you where you are. This level of faith proved unsustainable, and was
the subject of Moshe’s scathing rebuke: וּבַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֵינְכֶם מַאֲמִינִם בַּה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם . They did not believe any longer in a God
who understood them and rationalized their lack of belief by asserting instead
that God despised them. This was their lack of faith- not that they did not
believe in God, but that they did not think He understood the uniqueness of
their circumstances. Many of us struggle with this third level of faith - we
know people who hear our cries, they may even have the ability to help us, but
we don't think they can relate to our predicament. And if others can't understand me, maybe God
also doesn't understand me! During the COVID crisis, we are all in the same
same boat - we are under duress, living with some degree of anxiety about the
future, contemplating what exactly God means by all this. When there is
wholesale suffering, we tend to gloss over the specific stories, the nuances in
each household and heart - one person experiences Covid with other health
concerns very much in the foreground; another is overwhelmed by financial
uncertainty; still others are worried about the mental, academic and
intellectual well-being of their children and yet others are navigating Shalom Bayis tensions that are either
created or exacerbated by enforced proximity. There is no “one size fits all”
stimulus check for emunah; as
believing Jews, this third level of faith is the most difficult for every one
of us to attain. As long as God remains a mysterious entity who performs
massive acts of salvation to a distant nation called “The Jews,” but acts
capriciously toward individual Jews like me, we will continue to struggle with
faith. Emunah does not mean believing
that God will supply every miracle we need, or answer every prayer we utter for what we think we want. Instead, it means a
belief in a God who understands us and knows what is best for each of us even
when His ways are entirely inscrutable.
This year, our thoughts have turned earlier than usual to the Yamim
Noraim season, as we contemplate the logistical challenges of hosting a
meaningful tefillah under safe
conditions. Aside from considerations of space and numbers, many poskim are advocating for an abridged
version of the davening to reduce the amount of time spent together in prayer.
This involves removing some or many of the piyyutim
that are such a familiar part of the Yamim Noraim experience, at the
discretion of each Rabbi and each community. To be sure, some people will find
these changes welcome, hoping for them
to continue well after COVID is over; others will be irate that this is even
being considered. Both groups must be aware that these changes are
temporary. In considering which piyyutim
are essential, we recall as a baseline the ruling of Rav Soloveitchik, who felt that there were
only two piyutim in the entire Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy that are non-negotiable: the avodah
of the Kohen Gadol on Yom
Kippur, and Vechol Ma’aminim throughout.
Keep in mind, that according to the Rav, in extreme times even the
hallowed and emotionally charged prayer of ונתנה תוקף was expendable - but under no circumstance
should a tzibur skip the Avodah and the liturgical poem about
faith.
For us as well, these are
non- negotiable. We must continue our avodah,
our service of God, with the faith that He watches over us, that He has the
power to assist us, and that He maintains an intimate understanding of our
particular needs.
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