Faith

The light of the Torah is itself covered with many veils in this world. Often, its wisdom is cast in the form of opaque stories and proverbs, replete with mysterious symbols. At times its teachings are very recondite, seeming to bear little relationship to the everyday world as we know it.

While some of the mitzvot appear to be understandable in terms of earthly commonsense – love your neighbor, pursue justice, and the like – others are completely incomprehensible. For instance, it seems to make no difference whatsoever to physical health whether the food people eat is kosher or not. Why is it permissible to shift heavy furniture about inside the house on Shabbat but forbidden to flick on an electric-switch? Not the least of the veils which hide the light of the Torah are the many doubts and questions people have about it. Is it valid? Is it relevant? Is it true? Can it be proved?

Under the table, the Prince cannot see that the world around him is anything but a Turkey world. From his lowly vantage-point he can see nothing of the royal court except a partial, distorted aspect which is all but senseless. Now suppose someone from the court came down to the Prince and tried to explain to him the real significance of all the shoes and legs around him, and how inferior his crumbs and bones are to the delicacies being served at the table. Would the Prince believe him? What could the courtier say to him, except: “Put your clothes on, get up, and come and see for yourself.”

There is no way to come to know the truth of the Torah except through first accepting and practicing it on trust. The Torah is the key to the entire order of creation, but this order is so overwhelmingly grand that from our lowly vantage-point in this darkened world, we can barely catch the merest glimpse of it. Given that this world was made to be misleading, we cannot find irrefutable proof of the higher order from the way things appear here. On the contrary, the various belief-systems claiming that there is no higher order, and that man is merely a complex animal, may at times appear highly plausible. As long as we are in this world, our grasp of the order of creation cannot be through clear knowledge of the truth. Our connection with the truth can only be established through Emunah – faith.

Emunah means more than mere intellectual belief that God exists. It is first and foremost an admission of our own limitations within a universe confronting us with mysteries that we simply cannot fathom. Emunah is founded on our deepest intuitive sense that there is something grand and wondrous about life. Emunah is an acceptance of the superior wisdom of the Torah without asking for proofs. It is an affirmation of God and a willingness to reach out to Him on every level of our being: in our thoughts, feelings, words and actions.

Those seated at the table see the king in all his radiance, they converse with him and participate in the life of the court and the kingdom. Sitting at the royal table is symbolic of intimate connection with God. The ultimate connection with God comes in the time of reward in the World to Come. But Emunah turns the Torah path into one of ever-deepening connection and partnership with God even in This World. With Emunah, even This World becomes the royal table.

Taken from Under The Table & How to Get Up by Avraham Greenbaum.