Dvar Torah on Parshat Yitro

As an educator, I am often asked questions about God.  "Do you believe in God?" "How do we know God exists?" "What if you find you just can't believe?"  "How can you come to a belief in, or knowledge of, God?" This is my answer:

When discussing the Ten Comamndments, there is always a good deal to be said about the first one: "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves." Is this an introduction, explaining exactly who it is who is speaking to us, and where we know each other from, or is it a commandment, demanding that we believe this?  If it is a mitzvah, a commandment, it certainly is lacking any kind of imperative language - "do", or "do not", "you shall" or "you shall not", and yet we would expect some sort of instruction about believing in the God who is giving us the Torah, and not just a "hello, it's me", would we not? 

This opening sentence is followed by what obviously are commandments, pertaining to our relationship with God - "There shall not have other Gods before me. Do not make for yourself a statue, or any picture, of anything in the heaven or in the earth below, or in the water below the earth. Do not bow down to them, do not worship them....." The negative commandments against idol worship are clear, but the opening "I am the Lord your God" seems to fall short of an actual mitzvah to believe in, recognize, or know there is a God, which one would certainly think would be an appropriate opening to the Ten Commandments. So, what is it?

Now, there are plenty of commandments, elesewhere in the Torah,  about relating to God. We are told to love and fear Him, to study His Torah, and keep His commandments. But nowhere are we explicitly asked to believe in God. Many commentaries understand "I am the Lord you God" as having the clout of a commandment: this is something you must know, and believeing that He is God, and took us out of slavery, and all that that implies, is a mitzvah, it is something we must do. The choice to use the words "know" or "believe" when it comes to God is, of course, interesting. Some Rabbinc authorities use both words, others only one or the other, and understanding the differences between the two is, of course, important. However, it is clear that, even if you understand "I am the Lord your God" as a commandment, a mitzvah to know and/or believe that there is a God of Israel, it is certainly ineteresting that the Torah couches it in such a non-commandment-sounding  way, and seems to not really come out and say it.

To me, the lesson is clear. Our relationship with God is exactly that: a relationship. Ongoing, changing, full of give-and-take, ups and downs, love, fear, anger, absence, study, respect; a relationship. There is not meant to be, in Judaism, an "I believe " moment. Although, over the centuries,  some of our most important Rabbis and books have engaged in attempts to prove God's existence, and dealt with other basic questions of faith, I think Judaism remains remarkable for the relative absence of this material in our literature. Unlike what we find in some other religions, questions of belief are not central to being Jewish. As we saw in last week's parsha, B'shalach, at the crossing of the Red Sea, the salvation experienced by the Israelites led them to believe in God, and his servant Moshe, and this was an important and dramatic development. However, this belief was situational, fluid, based on that awesome experience. Sadly, but honestly, the Torah reports to us that that belief waxes and wanes all through the years in the desert. Their belief in God, their relationship with Him, is dynamic, and actually goes through changes. As it does, I believe, for all of us. Because it is precisely that, a relationship. With moments of closeness, and periods of distance. Feelings of a real presence and deep connection, and a sense, at times, that God seems hidden and disconnected from us, and we from him. The Torah does not have an explicit commandment to know there is a God, to believe in Him - even if there is such a mitzvah, the Torah does not couch it in those terms - because, simply, that is not how it is meant to work. Rather, we are meant to be struggling with, enjoying and suffering through, experiencing, an ongoing, dynamic, relationship with God. With the universe He created, the Torah He has given us,  the history He stands above and oversees,  and the lives which He has granted us, and which He  sustains. It is not a question of "do you believe  or not?" It is an ongoing presence in our lives, a relationship, a journey. That is what we are commanded to have with Him. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Shimon Felix