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(א) הַאֲזִ֥ינוּ הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וַאֲדַבֵּ֑רָה וְתִשְׁמַ֥ע הָאָ֖רֶץ אִמְרֵי־פִֽי׃ (ב) יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י תִּזַּ֥ל כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב׃ (ג) כִּ֛י שֵׁ֥ם ה' אֶקְרָ֑א הָב֥וּ גֹ֖דֶל לֵאלֹקֵֽינוּ׃ (ד) הַצּוּר֙ תָּמִ֣ים פׇּֽעֳל֔וֹ כִּ֥י כׇל־דְּרָכָ֖יו מִשְׁפָּ֑ט אֵ֤ל אֱמוּנָה֙ וְאֵ֣ין עָ֔וֶל צַדִּ֥יק וְיָשָׁ֖ר הֽוּא׃
(1) Give ear, O heavens, let me speak;
Let the earth hear the words I utter! (2) May my discourse come down as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
Like showers on young growth,
Like droplets on the grass.
(3) For the name of ה' I proclaim;
Give glory to our God!
(4) The Rock!—whose deeds are perfect,
Yea, all God’s ways are just;
A faithful God, never false,
True and upright indeed.
(כ) וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַסְתִּ֤ירָה פָנַי֙ מֵהֶ֔ם אֶרְאֶ֖ה מָ֣ה אַחֲרִיתָ֑ם כִּ֣י ד֤וֹר תַּהְפֻּכֹת֙ הֵ֔מָּה בָּנִ֖ים לֹא־אֵמֻ֥ן בָּֽם׃
(20) [God] said: I will hide My countenance from them,
And see how they fare in the end.
For they are a treacherous breed,
Children with no loyalty in them.
לא אמן בם. אֵין גִדּוּלַי נִכָּרִים בָּהֶם, כִּי הוֹרֵיתִים דֶּרֶךְ טוֹבָה וְסָרוּ מִמֶּנָּה:
מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶֽיךָ מֶֽלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּם שֶׁהֶחֱזַֽרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי בְּחֶמְלָה, רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ:
I give thanks to You living and everlasting King for You have restored my soul with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.
(ג) לְהַגִּ֣יד בַּבֹּ֣קֶר חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ וֶ֝אֱמ֥וּנָתְךָ֗ בַּלֵּילֽוֹת׃
Your faithfulness each night
(יז) וַתִּזְנַ֧ח מִשָּׁל֛וֹם נַפְשִׁ֖י נָשִׁ֥יתִי טוֹבָֽה׃ {ס} (יח) וָאֹמַר֙ אָבַ֣ד נִצְחִ֔י וְתוֹחַלְתִּ֖י מֵה'׃ {ס} (יט) זְכׇר־עׇנְיִ֥י וּמְרוּדִ֖י לַעֲנָ֥ה וָרֹֽאשׁ׃ {ס} (כ) זָכ֣וֹר תִּזְכּ֔וֹר (ותשיח) [וְתָשׁ֥וֹחַ] עָלַ֖י נַפְשִֽׁי׃ {ס} (כא) זֹ֛את אָשִׁ֥יב אֶל־לִבִּ֖י עַל־כֵּ֥ן אוֹחִֽיל׃ {ס} (כב) חַֽסְדֵ֤י ה' כִּ֣י לֹא־תָ֔מְנוּ כִּ֥י לֹא־כָל֖וּ רַחֲמָֽיו׃ {ס} (כג) חֲדָשִׁים֙ לַבְּקָרִ֔ים רַבָּ֖ה אֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ׃ {ס} (כד) חֶלְקִ֤י ה' אָמְרָ֣ה נַפְשִׁ֔י עַל־כֵּ֖ן אוֹחִ֥יל לֽוֹ׃ {ס}
(17) My life was bereft of peace,
I forgot what happiness was. (18) I thought my strength and hope
Had perished before the LORD. (19) To recall my distress and my misery
Was wormwood and poison; (20) Whenever I thought of them,
I was bowed low.
(21) But this do I call to mind,
Therefore I have hope: (22) The kindness of the LORD has not ended,
His mercies are not spent. (23) They are renewed every morning—
Ample is Your grace! (24) “The LORD is my portion,” I say with full heart;
Therefore will I hope in Him.
מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶֽסֶד מְחַיֵּה מֵתִים בְּרַחֲמִים רַבִּים סוֹמֵךְ נוֹפְ֒לִים וְרוֹפֵא חוֹלִים וּמַתִּיר אֲסוּרִים וּמְקַיֵּם אֱמוּנָתוֹ לִישֵׁנֵי עָפָר, מִי כָמֽוֹךָ בַּֽעַל גְּבוּרוֹת וּמִי דּֽוֹמֶה לָּךְ מֶֽלֶךְ מֵמִית וּמְחַיֶּה וּמַצְמִֽיחַ יְשׁוּעָה:
Sustainer of the living with kindliness, Resurrector of the dead with great mercy, Supporter of the fallen, and Healer of the sick, and Releaser of the imprisoned, and Fulfiller of His faithfulness to those who sleep in the dust. Who is like You, Master of mighty deeds, and who can be compared to You? King Who causes death and restores life, and causes deliverance to sprout forth.
אָמַר רַבָּה בַּר חִינָּנָא סָבָא מִשְּׁמֵיהּ דְּרַב: כָּל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר ״אֱמֶת וְיַצִּיב״ שַׁחֲרִית, וֶ״אֱמֶת וֶאֱמוּנָה״ עַרְבִית — לֹא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״לְהַגִּיד בַּבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ וֶאֱמוּנָתְךָ בַּלֵּילוֹת״.
(ה) לְמַ֣עַן יַאֲמִ֔ינוּ כִּֽי־נִרְאָ֥ה אֵלֶ֛יךָ ה' אֱלֹקֵ֣י אֲבֹתָ֑ם אֱלֹקֵ֧י אַבְרָהָ֛ם אֱלֹקֵ֥י יִצְחָ֖ק וֵאלֹקֵ֥י יַעֲקֹֽב׃
(5) “that they may believe that ה', the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, did appear to you.”
(ט) וְהָיָ֡ה אִם־לֹ֣א יַאֲמִ֡ינוּ גַּם֩ לִשְׁנֵ֨י הָאֹת֜וֹת הָאֵ֗לֶּה וְלֹ֤א יִשְׁמְעוּן֙ לְקֹלֶ֔ךָ וְלָקַחְתָּ֙ מִמֵּימֵ֣י הַיְאֹ֔ר וְשָׁפַכְתָּ֖ הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וְהָי֤וּ הַמַּ֙יִם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּקַּ֣ח מִן־הַיְאֹ֔ר וְהָי֥וּ לְדָ֖ם בַּיַּבָּֽשֶׁת׃
(9) And if they are not convinced by both these signs and still do not heed you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and it—the water that you take from the Nile—will turn to blood on the dry ground.”
יִגְדַּל אֱלקִים חַי וְיִשְׁתַּבַּח, נִמְצָא וְאֵין עֵת אֶל מְצִיאוּתו.
Acclaim and praise the living God who exists beyond the boundaries of time
היא הצווי אשר צונו בהאמנת האלהות, והוא שנאמין שיש שם עלה וסבה הוא פועל לכל הנמצאים, והוא אמרו אנכי ה' אלקיך. ובסוף גמרא מכות (דף כ"ג:) אמרו תרי"ג מצות נאמרו למשה בסיני, מאי קראה תורה צוה לנו משה, ר"ל מנין תור"ה. והקשו על זה ואמרו תורה בגימטריא תרי"א הוי, והיה המענה אנכי ולא יהיה מפי הגבורה שמענום. הנה נתבאר לך שאנכי ה' מכלל תרי"ג מצות, והוא צווי באמונת האלהות כמו שבארנו. (בפרשת וישמע יתרו, מדע הלכות יסודי התורה פ"א):
That is the command that He commanded us to believe in God. And that is that we believe that there is an Origin and Cause, that He is the power of all that exists. And [the source of the command] is His saying (Exodus 20:2), "I am the Lord your God." And at the end of the Gemara, Makkot (Makkot 23b), they said, "There were 613 commandments stated to Moshe at Sinai [...] What is the verse [that alludes to this]? 'Moses commanded to us the Torah' (Deuteronomy 33:4)" - meaning to say, the numerical value of [the word,] Torah. And they asked about this and said, "That is 611." And the answer was, "They heard, 'I am the Lord, your God, and '[You] shall have no [other gods]' (Exodus 20:2, 3), from the mouth of the Almighty." Behold it has been made clear to you that "I am the Lord, your God," is included in the 613 commandments. And that is the command about belief in God, as we explained. (See Parashat Yitro; Mishneh Torah, Foundations of the Torah 1.)
כתב הרב המצוה הראשונה שנצטוינו באמונת האלהות והוא שנאמין שיש עלה וסבה הוא פועל כל הנמצאות והוא אמרו יתעלה אנכי ה' אלקיך. ובסוף גמרא מכות אמרו תרי"ג מצות נאמרו לו למשה בסיני מאי קראה תורה צוה לנו משה והקשו תרי"א הוי אנכי ולא יהיה לך מפי הגבורה שמענום, הנה נתבאר לך שאנכי מכלל תרי"ג מצות והיא מצוה באמונה כמו שביארנו: אמר הכותב האמונה הזאת בדבור הזה לא נפלאת היא ולא רחוקה היא וכן בדברי רז"ל מפורש שהוא קבלת מלכותו יתעלה והיא האמונה באלהות, אמרו במכילתא לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים על פני למה נאמר לפי שהוא אומר אנכי ה' אלקיך, משל למלך שנכנס למדינה אמרו לו עבדיו גזור להם גזירות אמר להם לאו כשיקבלו מלכותי אגזור עליהם גזירות שאם מלכותי אינן מקבלים גזירותי היאך מקיימים, כך אמר המקום לישראל אנכי ה' אלקיך לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים על פני אני הוא שקבלתם עליכם מלכותי במצרים אמרו הן כשם שקבלתם מלכותי קבלו גזירותי לא יהיה לך. ועם כל זה ראיתי לבעל ההלכות שלא ימנה אותה מצוה מכלל תרי"ג והתימה מהרב שמנה בדבור לא יהיה לך ד' מניעות, לא יהיה לך לא תעשה לא תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם, אם כן יהיה מפי הגבורה חמש ומפי משה תר"ח לא מנין תור"ה. והנראה מדעתו של בעל ההלכות שאין מנין תרי"ג מצות אלא גזירותיו יתעלה שגזר עלינו לעשות או מנענו שלא נעשה, אבל האמונה במציאותו יתעלה שהודיע אותה אלינו באותות ומופתים ובגילוי השכינה לעינינו הוא העיקר והשורש שממנו נולדו המצות לא ימנה בחשבונן, והוא מאמר החכמים גזור עליהם, עשו קבלת המלכות ענין בפני עצמו והמצות הנגזרות מאתו יתעלה מענין אחר, ועוד כי מה הפרש בין הדיבור הזה ובין מה שאמר יתעלה בצדוק המדות אני ה' אלקיכם אשר הוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים והוא ירצה לומר הואיל וקבלתם מלכותי מיציאת מצרים קבלו גזירותי ואם תהיה בכל מקום מצוה שיאמר דעו והאמינו שאני ה' שהוצאתי אתכם מארץ מצרים ועשו מצותי עם כל זה לא יבא בחשבון המצות כי הוא העיקר והן התולדות כאשר פירשתי. ולדעת הזו מה שאמרו בתשובת השאלה תורה תרי"א הוי אנכי ולא יהיה לך מפי הגבורה שמענום לומר שיש בדיבור לא יהיה לך שתי מצות ישלימו לתרי"ג. והם המניעה בעשיית הצלמים לא יהיה לך ולא תעשה לך ענין אחד. והמניעה בעבודתם לא תשתחוה להם ולא תעבדם מצוה אחרת. הודיעו כי עד כאן הדברות מפי הגבורה מובנות לכלם באשר הם בלשון מדבר על עצמו, אנכי ה', על פני, ושאר הדברות בלשון נביא מתרגם ביניהם. אבל הכונה מפני (מצות) הדבור הב' שהן משלימות המנין, וכן מנה בה"ג במצות ל"ת שבסקילה עובד ע"ז אחד ומנה בלאוין שבמלקות לא יהיה לך אחד שהיא אצלו מניעה בקיום הצלמים ולא הזכיר לאו אחר בעשייתן, ומצאתי ראיה לדבריו שאמרו במכילתא לא יהיה לך אלקים אחרים למה נאמר לפי שנאמר לא תעשה לך פסל אין לי אלא שלא יעשה העשוי כבר מנין שלא יקיים תלמוד לומר לא יהיה לך, וזה דעת בעל הלכות גדולות ויש לו פנים, אבל עוד במצות לא תעשה אבאר המתחוור לי:
Rambam wrote: The first commandment – that we have been commanded in faith in Godness, meaning that we must believe that there is a cause and motive that drives all existents which is the meaning of His saying “I am Hashem your G-d”. At the end of Makkot they say: 613 commandments were said to Mosheh at Sinai. What verse generates this? “Torah was commanded to us by Mosheh”. They challenged: “Torah” is numerically 611?! “I (am Hashem your G-d”, and “There must not be for you etc.” they heard directly from the mouth of the Almighty. So it has been made clear to you that “I am” is included in the 613 commandments, and is the commandment of faith, as we have clarified. Ramban writes: This faith referred to in this statement – it is not too wonderful nor is it distant (see Devarim 30:11), and indeed it is explicit in the words of our Teachers that it refers to acceptance of His kingdom, and this is faith in G-dness. They said in Mekhilta: “There must not be for you other gods before Me” was said to teach what? Because it says “I am Hashem your G-d”. A parable. Compare this to a king who entered a province. His servants said to him: “Decree decrees upon them!” He said to them: No - when they accept my kingship, I will decree decrees upon them, because if they do not accept my kingship, how will they uphold my decrees?! Similarly the Omnipresent said to Israel: Am I He Whose kingdom you accepted upon yourselves in Egypt? They said: Yes. (He said:) Just as you accepted My kingship, accept My decrees.
But despite all this I have seen that Halakhot Gedolot does not count “I am” as a commandment among the 613. Also, the statement “There must not be for you” contains many injunctions: “There must not be”, “You must not make”, “You must not bow to them”, “and you must not serve them”, and if so, there would be five commandments heard directly from the mouth of the Almighty, and only 608 from the mouth of Mosheh, which does not equal “Torah”!? So what seems to be the opinion of Halakhot Gedolot is: That the set of 613 commandments includes only His decrees that He decreed upon us to do or enjoins us against doing, whereas faith in His existence, which He made known to us via signs and demonstrations and Revelation of the Presence before our eyes, this is the essence and root from which the commandments are generated, and therefore is not included when their number is calculated, which is the meaning of the Sages’ saying His servants said to him: “Decree decrees upon them!” He said to them: No - when they accept my kingship, I will decree decrees upon them – they made acceptance of the Kingdom a separate category, and the commandments that are decreed by Him a separate category. Furthermore – there is no difference between this statement (“I am”) and His saying with regard to the obligation to maintain honest weights and measures “I am Hashem your G-d Who took you out of the land of Egypt”, which intends: Since you accepted My kingship from the time you left Egypt, accept My decrees. But if “I am” is nonetheless a commandment saying “Know and have faith that I am Hashem Who took you out of the land of Egypt, so do My commandments”, nonetheless it would not be included in the calculation of the number of the commandments, because it is the essence and they are the derivations, as I have explained. According to this opinion, when they said in response to the question “Torah” is numerically 611?! that “I (am Hashem your G-d”, and “There must not be for you etc.” they heard directly from the mouth of the Almighty, meaning that the statement “There must not be for you” includes two commandments that complete the set of 613, namely the injunction against “representations” (tzelamim) – so “There must not be for you” and “You must not make” are a single category; and the injunction against “excluded service” (avodah zarah) – so “You must not bow to them” and “You must not serve them” are one category, they conveyed that up to there were the statements from the mouth of the Almighty that were understood by all Israel, as evidence by their being in first person – “I am Hashem”, “before Me”, “because I am”, whereas the other statements are grammatically in the voice of a mediating prophet, but they specifically intended to say that the commandments contained in the second statement complete the set of 613. Similarly Halakhot Gedolot counts among the ‘Do nots’ one prohibition against “excluded service”, and among the “Do nots” whose violation generate lashes he counts “There must not be for you” as one, but does not list a separate “Do not” for making representations. I have found evidence for his opinion, as They said in Mekhilta: “Why is ‘There must not be for you other gods before Me’ said? Because it says ‘You must not make yourself a relief or any portrait”, I would know only that you must not make them, but how would I know that you must not maintain possession of those already made? So this is the teaching of “There must not be for you”, which is the very opinion of the Halakhot Gedolot, and it is plausible, but in my section on the “Do nots” I will clarify what seems more compelling to me.
Translation from Aryeh Klapper here
Ramban’s defense of BHG ‘s failure to count the opening sentence of the Aseret haDibrot among the 613 commandments, is likely familiar, but I return to it regularly because of my uncertainty as to whether I overread it. Ramban suggests, as do contemporary scholars of ancient Hittite vassal treaties, that “I am Hashem your G-d” is a preamble rather than a command, a statement of sovereignty that grounds and whose acceptance is a necessary precondition for all subsequent commands. To a contemporary philosopher, ever sensitive to reflexive loops and a passionate partisan of autonomy, the position Ramban articulates (although not his own position) is tantamount to a conscious recognition that belief cannot be commanded, and accordingly that there can be no justification for religious coercion against agnostics, and no blame for those whose failure to uphold halakhic commitments stems from denial of the premise that G-d commands us, or even of the premise that G-d commands us to observe Halakhah. However, these conclusions seem a difficult fit for Ramban in historical context, and I think that a close reading of his words yields no clear indication that his argument goes beyond the technical claim that metamitzvot can be excluded from the number 613. One can evade the historical issue by suggesting that he merely attributes this position to BHG, and thereby legitimates it, but himself does not believe it – but I find that approach unconvincing. One can also argue that he legitimates the position, and we are then free to draw our own implications from that position, but that only begs the question of whether the implications are necessarily legitimate. But perhaps it is disrespectful to Ramban to read him as missing what seems to me such a clear implication of his argument? I would be hard-pressed to accept such a contention in any other area of Rabbinic discourse. Shabbat shalom Aryeh Klapper here
להאמין מציאות הבורא יתברך והוא שיש שם נמצא שלם בכל דרכי המציאות הוא עילת מציאות הנמצאים כלם בו קיום מציאותם וממנו קיומם ואל יעלה על הלב העדר מציאותו כי בהעדר מציאותו נתבטל מציאות כל הנמצאים ולא נשאר נמצא שיתקיים מציאותו ואם נעלה על לבנו העדר הנמצאים כלם זולתו לא יתבטל מציאות הש"י ולא יגרע ואין האחדות והאדנות אלא לו לבד הש"י שמו כי הוא מסתפק במציאותו ודי לו בעצמו ואין צריך במציאות זולתו וכל מה שזולתו מן המלאכים וגופי הגלגלים ומה שיש בתוכם ומה שיש למטה מהם הכל צריכין במציאותם אליו וזה היסוד הראשון מורה עליו דבור אנכי ה' אלהיך:
Facebook String (Oct 4th 2022)
Here’s a difficult story.
Years ago a teacher of mine, a rabbi I admire deeply, called me up to get my thoughts on the question of faith. What did I have to say about faith? I didn’t understand the question. Faith in what? “You know, faith!” he replied. “Having faith.” I was genuinely confused. Faith in God? Faith in Mashiach? Faith in Jesus? “Just faith!” he insisted. If he meant having belief in a particular doctrine or creed, I said, I could think about that with him. If he meant an optimistic outlook, I could do the same. “But I don’t know what you mean by ‘faith.’” “OK,” he said, and went to speak with someone else whose insights might be more edifying.
I’ve turned that conversation over in my head ever since. “Faith” has never been part of my lexicon; and I don’t know anyone, certainly not a Jew, who speaks of faith. But the exasperation in my teacher’s voice that day told me I was missing something that was both obvious and essential, at least to him.
What exactly is faith, to a Jew? It’s not the same as belief (in English, at least), or optimism, or even hope, though hope comes close, I assume.
I assume faith is the opposite of יאוש, despair, giving up. Faith, I suppose, is an attitude toward all the things of this world that resists the impulse toward nihilism. Sometimes it might flow from conviction; but I suppose it must persist even when our convictions are shaken or in spite of new convictions. Faith is close to loyalty, the canine virtue of cleaving to another and never letting go. Faith is going through with things not only out of a sense of integrity or out of duty and not only out of hope that they will turn out well, but because one’s very self has become deeply entwined with the doing.
I worry I didn’t understand what was meant by faith because I lack it. But I think I also feel it stirring in me, this faint sense that living in faith is the only way to live, לקיים אמונה in the words of the siddur, to keep faith. And in a way I can’t quite explain the possibility of teshuva, or genuine change for the better, is bound up with faith; and genuine freedom is found only where teshuva is possible. [Joe Schwartz}
The more I think about it, the more struck I am by the number of injunctions *against* faith — faith in the wrong things. It’s not just idols we aren’t to have faith in — it’s also people. “Al tivt’chu bin’divim, b’ven adam she’ain lo teshuah.” That kind of thing. The biblical text seems to take for granted that people will want to place their faith in something or someone — as a matter of course, as if it were human nature — but that they will place that trust wrongly.
Think of the chet ha-egel. Lack of faith leads to the need for reassurance in the form of an object in which faith can be placed — something we can see, and therefore can have more confidence in than the absent Moses (for whom the calf substitutes as an intercessor). My point is, there’s a palpable *need* for something to have faith in there, which must be satisfied somehow.
I’m not aiming here for something pat like “man who doesn’t believe in God will believe in anything.” That just begs the question: who or what is this God that we should have faith in? I’m more interested in the interplay of trust and distrust, what it feels like to be subject to this conflicting set of injunctions. [Noah Milman]
might this help? it's from Mordecai Kaplan's journal entry of Fri.Sept.30, 1955: *I forgot to include in the brief summary of the Yom Kippur sermon the idea about the three fold function of religion as a means of motivating the good life. That function is to inculcate a) faith in oneself as capable of salvation, self-realization or perfection relative to one's capacities and opportunities, b) faith in God as the cosmic Power that compels and helps men achieve salvation, and c) faith in society as capable of evolving a method of social interaction based on truth, reason, freedom, justice and peace, which method is essential if society is to enable those who belong to it to achieve salvation." [David E Kaufman]