Simple Faith: The Light Hashem Desires

1“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep … and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light.”¹ There is another way to explain how the end of the Torah is joined to its beginning: “before the eyes of all Israel. In the beginning.”²

2Let us first cite the Midrash: “‘And the earth was formless and void’: these are the deeds of the wicked. ‘And God said, Let there be light’: these are the deeds of the righteous. But I do not know which of them He desires … Since it is written, ‘And God saw the light, that it was good,’ it follows that He desires the deeds of the righteous and does not desire the deeds of the wicked.”³ My holy ancestor, zt"l, raised a question about this in his holy sefer Toldos Adam.⁴ The words of the Midrash, he said, cannot be understood: how could it even occur to anyone that Hashem desires the deeds of the wicked? His own answer was cited in the previous maamar. But there is more to say on this, for, in the words of the verse, “there are still words to say on God's behalf.”⁵

3There is another Midrash as well: “‘And darkness was upon the face of the deep’: this is the kingdom of Greece, which darkened the eyes of Israel.”⁶ But why is “darkness” connected with Greece in particular?

4It seems that we can explain all this as follows. The holy sefarim teach that there are two levels of faith in Hashem. The first is faith that comes from the tradition of one's fathers, as in the verse “Know the God of your father and serve Him.”⁷ This is simple faith: a person believes because that is what he received from his fathers, with no investigation at all. The second is faith that comes through investigation, as in the verse “Lift up your eyes on high and see Who created these.”⁸ A person reflects on created things and investigates them, and so comes to believe in and recognize “the One Who spoke and the world came into being.”

5aOne of the foundations of faith, and its highest level, is to know and recognize that everything that exists, every created thing in the world, comes from Hashem's power. A person should look for the existence and greatness of the Creator in everything, with wholehearted faith and without any investigation. This, as is well known, was the way of the Baal Shem Tov, zt"l, and his disciples: in everything they saw and heard, they always recognized Hashem's existence and His power. It is told, too, that my holy great-grandfather of Biala, zt"l, used to go and look closely at unusual animals.⁹ For him this was holy service: seeing the greatness of the Creator in everything.

5bMy holy father and teacher, zt"l, often told this story. Once the Baal Shem Tov was sitting with his disciples, and a cup was standing on the table. He told his disciples that one must believe that this cup exists only because Hashem's power flows into it at every moment. If the Divine power that gives the cup its life were withdrawn for a single moment, the cup would cease to exist. As he was saying this, the cup suddenly broke. This is what we have been describing: in each thing they saw the Divine power that gives it life, and their faith was free of investigations and doubts.

6With this we can explain why “before the eyes of all Israel” is placed next to “In the beginning.” All Israel must always see with its own eyes, as plainly as something it can touch, that everything comes from Hashem's power. In everything it sees, it should see only “In the beginning God created …”: Hashem is the Creator and Guide of the world. Every single thing in the world should bring it to faith in Hashem, without any investigation at all.

7aThis is what the Midrash means by “‘And the earth was formless and void’: these are the deeds of the wicked.” “The deeds of the wicked” means faith that comes through investigation. It has that name because it is not a desirable path: it can make a person stumble in faith, Heaven forbid. As is well known, tzaddikim were uneasy about learning the Rambam's Moreh Nevuchim, his work of philosophy. R' Simcha Bunim of Peshischa reported this in the name of R' Moshe Leib of Sassov, as recorded in Ramasayim Tzofim, a commentary on the early Midrash Tanna Devei Eliyahu.¹⁰ They gave a reason. In that work the Rambam raises difficulties in matters of faith. As soon as a person learns such a difficulty, before he has learned the answer, there is a moment in which he wonders and wavers in doubt about faith, until he reaches the answer. That moment of doubt is not good in itself, even though in the end he does not remain in doubt. [There is no complaint, however, against the holy Rambam himself, for he knew the answer even as he wrote the difficulty.]

7bSo faith of this kind, which comes through difficulties and inquiry, is not a path suited to everyone, and for the public at large it is called “the deeds of the wicked.” Those who take this path may be righteous right now, and their intentions good. Even so, these deeds of theirs, their investigations into faith, could bring them, Heaven forbid, to be among the wicked.

8The right path, however, is “‘And God said, Let there be light’: these are the deeds of the righteous.” That means walking in the way of simple faith, always seeing Hashem's power in all of creation, as the Baal Shem Tov and his disciples did, without any investigation or doubt. That power is the “light.” This answers the Toldos Adam's question, and explains why the Midrash says, “I do not know which of them He desires.” One might have thought that faith reached through investigation is more precious to Hashem than simple faith. So the Midrash concludes, “Since it is written, ‘And God saw the light, that it was good,’ it follows that He desires the deeds of the righteous.” It is simple, wholehearted faith, without investigations, that Hashem desires.

9This also answers our second question, about the Midrash “‘And darkness’: this is the kingdom of Greece, which darkened the eyes of Israel.” We know that the kingdom of Greece tried to bring the accursed wisdom of philosophy into the hearts of Israel and to turn it away from the ways of simple faith. That is how Greece darkened the eyes of Israel. Faith in Hashem's existence, we have seen, is called “light,” so uprooting faith is “darkness.”

10The verse closes with this idea as well: “and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters,” which the Midrash explains, “This is the spirit of King Moshiach.”¹¹ In the days of Moshiach, the very opposite of Greece's scheme will happen. Greece tried to bring in its impure wisdom, the way of investigation. But in the time to come the world will be filled with the wisdom of simple faith, as the verse says, “For the earth will be filled with knowledge.”¹² Then everyone will understand, recognize and know that everything comes from Hashem's power, and “every creature will know that You made it.”¹³

11May Hashem help us to be privileged to reach this soon. Amen, may it be His will.