The Problem And Possible Solutions To The Emunah Problem

I was directed to a blog post that posed the following question: How many people who are perceived as Orthodox are really atheists. The blogger believes that this a lot more widespread than one might think. From the comments there you see that he is right [don't read it - quite a bit of blasphemy]. People either don't believe in G-d, Torah mi-sinai or most commonly - the truth and reliability of divrei chazal [which also halachically qualifies one as an apikorus and wine that he touches is not drinkable, his shehchita renders the animal unkosher etc. etc. - see Yerushalmi Megilla Perek dalet, Hakdamas HaRambam to the Sefer HaYad, Hakdama to the Sefer Hachinuch, Igros Chazon Ish 15 and many, many other sources which those interested can find].

The reality as I see it is as follows: I begin with a story. Rav Volbe [author of the Alei Shor] once went to visit Rav Yechezkel Levenstein, the famed mashgiach of Ponovich, and asked him what he should tell the boys in his yeshiva Be'er Yaakov. Rav Chatzkel replied "Tell them that there is a G-d."

Rav Volbe was quite surprised. This was not a Baal Teshuva yeshiva or even a yeshiva for modern kids but a hard-core Charedi yeshiva where they learn intensely day and night. From this he understood that even born and bred charedim are not conscious enough of G-d's existence.

When Rav Chatzkel would give shmuessen in Ponivitch, he would bring home the point again and again - THERE IS A G-D. He has an entire sefer of his talks on this topic [Ohr Yechezkel - Emunah]. Was that a chiddush?

Yes.

Some people are plagued by serious doubts. They see a physical world of nature and nothing more. Others officially believe but are lacking a constant awareness. I BELIEVE that there is a planet Mars but believe me - it doesn't change the way I live one iota. Regardless of whether one keeps halacha, the matter of the existence of G-d, the veracity of the Torah, the authority of Chazal etc. etc. is not a given.

If one goes through the Chumash, he sees that even when G-d's Providence was quite apparent He STILL needed to constantly remind the Jews that He is there. The major theme of Neviim and Ksuvim is remembering and forgetting G-d. Chazal deal quite often in the gemara and medrashim with matters of faith that troubled people. Since then, our literature is replete with lengthy discussions and analysis of Emunah-related issues. The Ramban has a book "Emunah U'bitachon", the Rambam has his 'Moreh Nevuchim', there is 'Emunos Vi-deos' of Rav Saadiah Gaon, Rabbeinu Bechaye has his famous Shaar Habitachon, the Maharal talks about Emunah in countless places, Rav Hirsch, the Sfas Emes [all chasidic sfarim for that matter] Rav Kook, Rav Soloveitchik, all sifrei mussar etc. etc. etc. Everybody understood that faith is the ABC of being a Jew. Without it - all "Orthpraxis" lacks meaning and significance.

Do people today really believe?

When I am in the States I sometimes enter the Beis Medrash of a well-known "Neo-Chassidic" shul in an upscale affluent neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon and night [just an example - this is the reality in many religious neighborhoods]. Just about everybody is off from work. I would expect to see people who have a day off [after they already had a day and a half off] taking advantage and shteiging away. The place is empty [with the possible exception of ghosts whom I can't see].

Let us say that a member of the community goes on his annual succos trip to Israel and makes his pilgrimage to his trusted mekubal Rebbe David Abuchatzeira in Nahariah. Rebbe David promises him that every Sunday that he spends in the Beis Medrash for at least 3 hours will net him at least 1 billion dollars. He is VERY excited. Rebbe David said.  The first Sunday he learns away [for 5 hours, just to be sure] and lo and behold - Monday morning he get a phone call that somebody wants to buy a few properties that he owns for 1.5 billion dollars. He bought them originally for a half a billion so this will be a one billion dollar gain for him. Deal done! He is ecstatic. [He writes Rebbe David a check for ten million to support his worthy institutions...]

The next week he again goes to the Beis Medrash and Monday morning he finds out that some of the stocks he invested went beserk and he has one billion more dollars. Whoa! He is on a roll!:-)

This continues for 8 more weeks and he can take it no longer and calls the Rebbe's private cell number in Nahariah. "Rebbe, I can't deal with all this money. My wife is wiped out from all of the shopping. The tzedaka collecters won't leave me alone. Stop the shefa!!"

Rebbe David responds "OK, for next Sunday, new deal. Your 29 year old daughter, Chava Reizel [known to her friends as "Evie"], will finally find her chosson, a prince in shining armor. A ben-torah who is well loved by all, kovea ittim la-torah, baal middos, from a fine family, who will love and cherish your daughter forever. She will be forever like a beaming kalla. It'll just cost you 3 hours in the Beis Medrash. Learn whatever you want."

DEAL!

Next Sunday he faithfully spends 6 hours [!] in the Beis Medrash and LO AND BEHOLD, that day a boy asks his daughter out and she comes home from the date at 2am with tears of joy in her eyes and says "Mom and dad - I met my husband". Six weeks later they are engaged and 3 months later they are married. [78 piece band. The Hilton. Just the mechitza costs 100k. Flowers 70k. Shwekey, Fried, Daskal. Every Rosh Yeshiva on the planet. A chasuna-chasuna:-)].

He calls up Rebbe David "What next....?":-)

No offense to Rebbe David but HASHEM YISBORACH promised us that if we spend three hours in the beis medrash we are assured of something much greater than a billion dollars and a shidduch for an older daughter. Eternal bliss greater than anything this world can offer. Pashut. So why then is the beis medrash empty? These are all people who profess to believe, daven three times a day with a minyan etc. [and probably even give big money to mekubalim...]. So do they believe or don't they?

The answer is [for most in the Orthodox world] - they do and they don't. As Chazal say about Noach - He believed and didn't believe that the mabul would come. We believe in Olam Haba and don't believe. We believe enough to sit shiva, light a yahrtzeit candle, dedicate learning in the memory of the dearly departed etc. etc. We don't believe enough to sit and learn on a Shabbos afternoon and instead read the New York Times or Daily Znus.

I sometimes go to a shmorgasbord and watch people circle the room with their plates full of food, socializing, talking, laughing, texting and looking [lots of attractive women...]. I ask myself - Is there ANY awareness of Hashem in this room?

None.

Announcement - MINCHA. People faithfully take out their blackberries or tablets and schuckle for five minutes. "Hi again, G-d. Love your cold cuts". ונאמר והיה השם למלך על כל הארץ ביום ההוא יהיה השם אחד ושמו אחד - Mincha over. See you G-d at maariv. He isn't the slightest bit interested in what he just said, that in the future G-d will be One. He doesn't even know what that means. I am also one. If I were "two" that would mean that I have multiple personality syndrome. So G-d isn't mentally ill? Big deal. Hey - I have to get another frank. He moves on. He can check off the box of "davening mincha today with a minyan", feel good and move on as if nothing happened. "Hi Ariella!! It's been so long! How have you been?". Ariella is secretly hoping that he will ask her out. He is secretly hoping that Ariella's roommate is at the wedding because he is more interested in her. But they both play the fake game. G-d-awareness is about being real. This whole "scene" [and that at the Inbal, the Eden Roc and the countless other popular Jewish vacation sites] are about being fake and putting on a show.

Sweet friends. I am certain that the feeling of G-d and active belief in Him is usually absent in people's lives and needs constant chizzuk.

I used to be associated with a yeshiva for modern orthodox boys. In the middle of the year they had an "Emunah Seminar". They took the boys away to another location [for extra effect that this is "something special" even though they could have just as easily had it in yeshiva and brought the speakers there]. The boys heard talks about Emunah in Hashem, the Torah and Chazal. Year after year the boys returned with their mouths agape. "Wow - the Torah is true!! There is a G-d!! I never thought about that before!!!"

Really. Twelve years of Jewish day school education at such schools as Moriah, Halb, MDS, SAR, Ramaz, Ida Crown, Haftr, TABC, DRS, MTA, Skokie etc. etc. and they never really considered that the Torah was true. The boys told me that they never really thought about it.... If they did think about it, they had questions and didn't know the answers but where too busy on Facebook to further explore their beliefs.     

The possible solutions: Our educational system must be revamped. From the earliest age children must constantly be reminded about our belief in Hashem and the Torah and there must be a constant emphasis on the DEPTH of our belief. As the children get older they must be taught sefarim which deal with matters of faith, not as a school subject that they memorize for the test, but as a living subject by which they live. As Chabakuk put it צדיק באמונתו יחיה - A person's faith must give him chiyus, life and vitality.

Rav Kook stressed again and again that we must LEARN emunah, no matter who we are or what stage of life we are in.

However, people are generally not so intellectual. Most people don't have the time or patience to go deep into matters of emunah. The world is a superficial world and anything that requires years of study and hard work is not attractive [unless large financial rewards beckon]. We have to work hard to shake people out of their superficiality. The "kiruv" websites are sometimes great examples of the superficial approach to yiddishkeit. But they are correct to a certain extent. If they would be deeper and more profound - they would cease to be intersting. They need a lot of graphics, pictures, videos, gimmicks and jokes to keep people interested. Light, cool, funny, with it. Pictures of pretty women and either attractive or funny looking men. G-d has a lot of competition and we have to keep the competitors at bay by using their methods. Talk a lot about Israel and get people to identify with Tzahal. [I don't need Tzahal to teach my kids about the importance of being Jewish].

We also need to create an emotional connection between people and their faith. Davening, learning, Shabbos and shmiras hamitzvos in general have to be GESHMACK. No kid who goes off the derech stopped keeping mitzvos even though he loved it [I have never met one]. It is always because they were emotionally turned off from Yiddishkeit. People have to meet real live tzadikim. Not just your average run of the mill Rabbi [with all due respect to them] but the "real McCoy" if you will. They exist in Israel and America. It is a matter of finding out who they are and connecting.

I once tried to start a kollel that would focus on limmud emunah for talmidei chachomim. People who learned gemara in a deep way and wanted to learn emunah in an equally deep way [first a whole seder of emunah and then when I saw people didn't take to it I changed it to part gemara part emunah and mussar]. It was a failure. One difficult year and I couldn't raise one more penny. I also couldn't find people who were serious about learning inyanei emunah and weren't coming for the money. On both ends there was a lack of interest.

I tried to start a yeshiva for younger people with an emphasis on matters of emunah and I raised about enough to buy a shas but not more. So that was the end of it and I will never try again. I am not good at shlepping money out of people. If people would have believed in the idea - they would have given.

But I believe that this is the chisaron of the generation. The shtussim of the Internet and the mass media in general, shalom bayis problems, kids of the derech, addiction problems etc. are all just symptoms. The yesod hayesodos is that people live without Hashem. This is the root of the many problems we see in society. Hashem heals all physical, spiritual and emotional wounds. We just need to connect. [I am aware that sick people need medicine but a true connection to Hashem would make medicine unnecessary - as it will in the future. In our world of darkness we need medication].

THE GOOD NEWS:-): People are thirsting for Hashem. If we know how to present it to them, if shuls stop inviting silly politicians to speak and instead offer real Torah, if schools never tire of reminding the kids of Hashem's kindness and love, if parents limit the use of those silly contrapations and toys [for themselves and their children] and instead try never to waste a minute of life on nonsense, there is hope to elevate neshamos to connect to the Source of Life.

A Yid, by his most innate nature, yearns for a connection with the infinite. We just have to remove the barriers of the kfirah and materialism that surround us and the light will shine.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I am zocheh to have many many shiurim on emunah recorded on Yutorah on the deepest level from the teachings of the Maharal, Rav Kook, Rav Tzadok, Rav Charlap, Rav Hutner [he called his shiurim "Hilchos Deyos Vi-chovos Halevavos"], the Tolna Rebbe Shlita etc. etc. My shiurim are not so popular, probably because I am don't have a big "name", and don't offer the light entertainment that some others do [or perhaps because I don't give such a good shiur?:-)], but I still humbly believe that this Torah is the antidote for the ills of the generation. If not from me - then find someone else, but please, never stop strengthening your emunah and constant awareness of Hashem's loving presence.

The rewards... are infinite.

Love and blessings:-)

  
לזכות אברהם מרדכי בן נעכא גיטל