What If It Is All "Fake"?

Question:
Hi rabbi. Something has been bothering me for a long time. Basically I’ve been observant about a year and a half. I’m a teenager. And what bothers me is that I believe in Gd but at the same time I think, what if this is all fake. I mean I know it’s a necessary thing for there to be a Gd and logical and I practise that and believe in that. But what hold me back from really connecting is that at the back of my head I think "what if this is all fake" "what is there is no creator" how do I move past this and strengthen my faith?

Answer:
Your question deserves a long answer, but in the short scope of this framework, the easiest and quickest (!) way to see that there truly is a G-d and that “it’s not fake”, is through simply looking at His nation, Israel. Jewish history is so unique and different on all accounts (for better or worse), and what’s even greater, is that it was all foreseen and promised in the Torah, written 3,300 years ago! Just for example:
a. The fulfillment of the promise to Avraham of the eternity of the Jews, despite all odds (e.g. Breishit 17, 7; Tehilim 94, 14), and despite that nothing else in this world is eternal (especially ancient nations)!
b. The foreseen punishment of exile from Israel, if we don’t observe the Torah, yet we won’t be totally lost there (Vayikra 26).
c. Our returning 3 (!) times to the Land of Israel, just like it says in the Torah, especially the recent return in our times of 6,000,000 Jews from the “4 corners of the earth”, Europe, the sfardic countries in Africa and Asia, Ethiopia, North and South America, etc., just as we were told it would be (Dvarim 30, 3-5, Yirmiyahu 32, 42-44)! What other nation returns home (a 3rd time) after 2,000 years of wandering, to revive and speak the same language, and celebrate those same ancient holidays, in the same place where we were originally on the other side of the world?
d. The foreseen interdependence of the fruitfulness of the soil of Israel with the presence of the People of Israel (like a faithful wife, the deserted Promised Land waited to give her fruit only to her husband upon his return (Vayikra 26, 32; Yechezkel 33, 28-29; ibid ch. 36).
e. The unique but foreseen consistent anti-Semitism and Holocaust (Dvarim 28, 65; Yechezkel 20, 32-33). Even today in the modern world, Israel is the only country which is under a real nuclear threat of ideological eradication and genocide (by Iran).
f. The disproportionate success of our Bible, monotheism and moral code which have been universally accepted by those very haters, not to mention the disproportionate success and influence of Jews in general [0.2% of mankind has won 22% (!) of the Nobel prizes- literally 100x more than logic!] (Yishayahu 42, 6), despite (!) the eternal hatred.

g. The miraculous War of Independence, 6 Day War, Yom Kippur War, Hostage Rescue at Entebbe, aliya of 1,200,000 brothers from Russia who were the most assimilated of any Jewish community in our history, and BH, their return and re-uniting with our nation (to appreciate it, look up the details bc you’re surely too young to remember all of these unbelievable events, all of which happened in our generation!), etc.
h. The fact that the world is obsessed disproportionately with Israel (for better or for worse), for many, many varied reasons.
The common denominator is that there’s unquestionably and undeniably something “different” going on regarding the Chosen People, our history, fate and destiny, and it must have to do with “The Chooser”, Who told us from the very start that it will be this unique way!

R' Ari Shvat - yeshiva.org