In the dramatic build-up to the Sinai revelation, God informs Moshe that “the people will hear when I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever".
Rambam distinguishes between the high level of belief (emunah) which the nation gained in Moshe at Sinai and the lower level of belief with which they were instructed to trust regular prophets. Writing in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah (chaps 8-10), Rambam describes how divine endorsement of Moshe's mission was established not through mere signs and wonders which invite witnesses to assume divine involvement, but rather from participation in God's direct revelation to Moshe providing the nation with a clear and indisputable perception of the truth of his prophecy.
When it comes to belief in regular prophets however, Rambam teaches that the Torah instructs us to listen to them and act in accordance with their words even though we lack absolute proof and knowledge that they are genuine. This lower quality of ‘’belief’’ which he also terms leha’amin, seems to require a certain mode of action rather than an intellectual commitment to any stated truths or propositions.
Rambam himself appears to pave the way for this approach in Moreh Nevuchim (1:34) where he writes that very few people, unaided, can achieve even an approximate understanding of God’s existence, essence or creation of the world. It is a lifetime’s work:
Accordingly, if we never in any way acquired an opinion through following traditional authority…this state of affairs would lead to all people dying without having known whether there is a deity for the world … much less whether a proposition should be affirmed with regard to Him.
For the vast majority of people, belief in God of the Torah must therefore initially be reliant upon Jewish tradition rather than a genuine personal understanding.
Rabbi S. R. Hirsch by contrast places far less emphasis on abstract knowledge of God and the professing of beliefs within Judaism. Whether such knowledge is derived from abstract reasoning, perceiving God in nature or seeing His hand in history, it must be acted upon in order for it to develop from “barren knowledge” into the guiding force with which to determine one’s course of action. It must be transferred from the mind to the heart and become the basis for one’s activity:
Emunah is the essence of Judaism; but to define Emunah as “belief” is to empty the term of its true content. Belief is an act of the mind, sometimes only an opinion. Every believer thinks his beliefs are true, based on the reasoning and assurances of someone else. Nowadays, religion is identified with belief, and belief is thought to be the essence of religion. A religious person believes in principles that cannot be grasped by the intellect. Thus, religion has been divorced from life and converted into a catechism of doctrines, a system of faith-slogans, required for admission to the hereafter…Rather Emunah means to rely upon God in theory and in practice; to take strength in Him and to follow Him…One who replies “Amen” [related to Emunah]…devotes himself to this truth, accepts it in his heart, and vows to adopt it as the guide for his conduct.
In contrast to a commonly-held Christian emphasis on the adequacy of “faith alone”, R’ Hirsch places primary importance on ‘’practical belief’’. Not cold abstract formulations but the sort of faith that will guide and define one’s everyday life.
The value of falsely declaring that one holds a particular belief or pretending that one “knows” of God is unclear. According to Rambam such a pretence is not only empty but even dangerous, as it will hold a person back from striving towards genuine knowledge of the divine. Where does this leave people practically?
I would suggest that the basic level of Emunah that we have identified here (in the context of prophets other than Moshe) involves a practical obedience which can coexist with some level of doubt. It is not a ‘’blind faith’’, but one which is built up from sensing – though not necessarily knowing – God’s hand in nature, history or through some form of philosophical reasoning. Emunah then requires one to confirm and rely upon this initial position by actively living one’s life in accordance with its teachings. Nevertheless this ‘’lower-level Emunah’’ – at least from a Maimonidean perspective – is valuable but nevertheless insufficient. For Rambam a person must then undertake a life-long intellectual journey, carefully refining and clarifying one’s understanding of God and Judaism’s theological teachings until one can truly uphold the first command of Mishneh Torah: knowledge of God’s existence and uniqueness.
First posted to Facebook 3 February 2021, here.
