Okay. Good evening and welcome, everyone. The class tonight is on understanding emunah. Emunah means faith. And emunah includes basically two parts: emunah in Hashem, faith in the existence of Hashem, and emunah in the Torah, faith in the truth of the Torah. And the subject, the topic tonight is understanding emunah in both parts. The only thing is, it seems like the title is a contradiction in itself: understanding emunah? Emunah, which is faith, is not understanding, and understanding is not faith. We usually know that faith is something that we don't understand, something we cannot prove. And here I'm saying that the topic is understanding faith, understanding emunah. But the truth is that it is not so. The emunah that we we are referring to, which most people assume is emunah, which is the belief that there is a God, a Creator, in truth, that is something that we can't we can understand. And therefore, we could say understanding emunah. What people think is emunah, what people think is something that we have to have faith, or as the term goes, \"blind faith,\" is not true, because that is something that we can understand. Generally speaking, I just want to say that a lot of people are under a misconception that when it comes to Yiddishkeit, especially the way it is by frume yidden, we are very afraid of questions, and the answer we give to many questions is, \"Well, you just got to believe, and that's all. Don't ask questions. You just have to accept, and you have to believe.\" And that's what people think, that we're so narrow-minded, so to speak, and everything is just belief, and belief, and belief, and don't even think of asking questions, don't question anything. And certainly, when it comes to understanding or believing in Hashem, there the answer is certainly that's something you can't ask, you can't try to understand, it's beyond our understanding. And that's the foundation of Yiddishkeit, and that's it. And that's we are raised, and that's how people grow up. That's what people think. It is not true. Torah is not afraid of questions. Torah has answers to all the questions. Logical answers to all the questions. Torah is made up of understanding, which is the reason why we know that when Hashem gave us the Torah, it says he asked us if we're ready to accept it, we answered, \"נעשה ונשמע.\" \"We will do, and we will hear,\" which means we will do and we will understand. And we all know what the Gemara says, that this was a special trait that the Yidden had, that they were מקדים נעשה before נשמע. They said, \"First we will do, and then we will understand,\" which is not normal. The Gemara says that a certain אפיקורס told Rava, \"You're not normal. How do you say such a thing, that you will do before you understand?\" And Rava answered, \"Yes, this is the right way: to accept it before we understand.\" True. But there is a question that's asked: wouldn't that been better if they would have not said נשמע at all? Would have been better had they said נעשה. If the whole idea is that we accept, and that's it, we're not interested in understanding, and there's nothing to understand, the best thing would have been that Yidden would have said, \"נעשה, we will do,\" and that's it, we have blind faith and we will do. That is not so. The Yidden answered, \"נעשה ונשמע.\" What we're saying is that the נעשה came before the נשמע, which means they said we are ready to accept before we go to understand. But then, the second stage is we will try to understand, and there are answers to all the different questions that people have in the Torah. Answers, logical answers to all the questions. But you have to remember that there are certain things that cannot be explained logically, but that doesn't mean that that's not logic. Logic itself forces a person to come to an understanding that there are things beyond logic. And therefore, when you accept certain things beyond logic, it is also not because you accepted from blind faith, you accept it because, logically, you come to an understanding that there has to be certain things that you have to accept beyond logic, as I will explain later on. So whether it is something that we actually understand and we can explain and we could describe, etc., etc., or it is something that we cannot explain, but the way the Torah is based, there are logical explanations and logical reasons and logical proof that we have to come to a point to understand that there is something beyond logic, and we have to accept it. But logic forces us to reach that point that we have to accept certain things beyond our understanding. Certainly when it comes to the foundation of Yiddishkeit, which is the belief in God, in one God, in a Creator, in a first being, definitely that is something that we can come to with our logic, and this is not what faith is all about. It is what people call faith, but this is a kind of faith that we could understand. As we see, the Rambam, the Rambam, who is the greatest thinker that we can imagine, the greatest philosopher, he starts off his sefer, which the first part of his sefer is הלכות יסודי התורה, the laws of the foundation of the Torah. And the Rambam starts off by saying: יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות. The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom. Wow, this is something, he is going to put down a point here that is the foundation of everything, the foundation of all חכמות, which includes the חכמה of Torah, which includes the wisdom of Torah. So what is that foundation? By the way, the first four words, if you look at the first letters of each one of the words, it comes to שם הוי׳ה, י-ק-ו-ק: יסוד היסודות ועמוד החכמות, י-ק-ו-ק. But anyway, he says, what is the foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom? לידע שיש שם מצוי ראשון, to know that there is this first being. And this first being is the source of all beings, from שמים וארץ, and everything in between, heaven and earth, from top to bottom, and everything between, there is this one being who is the source of all that. And when the Rambam says that which is the foundation of all foundations, he doesn't say the foundation is להאמין, to believe, that there is this first being. He doesn't say that. He says לידע, to know. There is a big difference between להאמין and לידע. להאמין, to believe means, as I said, faith, that you don't understand, and you just accept it blindly, that's what להאמין would be. לידע, to know, is not faith; it is to know. Da'at is knowledge, wisdom, understanding, it's understanding, and that's what the Rambam says: that the foundation is לידע, to know that there is this first being. In other words, the Rambam is telling us exactly what I said: that to know that there is a one God, there is this Creator, the first being, is not something that we take with faith beyond our understanding, but that is something that we are able to know, לידע. We are able to know, know means we are able to know it with sechel, we are able we have proof for it, we are able to understand it. We also know something else which goes into the same on the same lines. The Rambam says, and so do other מוני המצוות, other sages who counted, enumerated the mitzvot. We know that there are 613 mitzvot, and there are different חכמים who took upon themselves the job to enumerate, to list all the mitzvot. So the Rambam and many others say, המצוה הראשונה, what is the first commandment, the first mitzvah? The first mitzvah is to know that there is a God. Or let's use the term the first mitzvah is to know, to believe that there is a God. That's the first mitzvah. Comes the famous Jewish philosopher and sage, the Abarbanel, and the Abarbanel asks a kashya on the Rambam. He says, what is the meaning that the first mitzvah is to believe in one God? To believe in God is the first commandment. What does a commandment mean? A commandment means that there is a commander who commanded you something. Now, who is the commander that commanded you to have the mitzvot? God. So how can you say that the first commandment is to believe in one God? That means that before we have that commandment, there must be somebody who you know already is giving you the commandments, so you already know that there is one God, that there is a God. So he says it means, that's the expression he uses, that means you believe in God before you believe in God. You have to believe that there is a being that is commanding you, and He gives you the mitzvot, so that means you already believe in God before you accept the commandments. So what does it mean that the first commandment is to believe in God? And the Abarbanel answers that the fact that you have to believe in God is not a commandment. That is not some a mitzvah. That is something that we could understand logically. That is something that we don't need a commandment. The commandment of God that we have to believe in God, or to know that there is a God, that is A second stage, details of what Hashem is. Certain detail we do not know logically. And then, since we know that there is Hashem, and we know he commanded, he's the commander, then there are certain things he said, \"You have to believe about me, this detail, and that detail, and this detail,\" which on our own we would not know. But since we have that first acceptance, first accepting of Hashem without the commandment, and he tells us, \"You have to believe so and so,\" so we accept it. But it starts off with understanding with our own logic that there is a God. So, understanding that there is an existence of a מצוי ראשון, of a first being, who is the source of all beings, is something that we could come to with a logical understanding. Then there's the second step, the emunah in Torah, that this being commanded us to do certain things. That is also not really emunah that we have to believe beyond our understanding and accept in blind faith. That also has logical proof to its truth. And then when we say that there is a concept of emunah, in truth, emunah is a much higher level. Emunah is not just to believe that there is a God or believe in the Torah. More than that, after we already know and we think about it and we understand that there is a God and we understand that there is a Torah, then we could go a step deeper and higher. And that could be considered the level of emunah, as I will explain when we get to the to that point.

Just to start off, let's first think why would we even be discussing whether there is a God or not. That's what we're trying to talk here about, emunah in Hashem. The reason is very simple, and whether it's faith, emunah, or is it da'at, is it an understanding. The whole reason we're discussing this because this is something that we can't see, something that we can't hear, something that we can't touch, something that we can't feel, something that we can't taste. It's something that we cannot grasp with our חושים, with our senses, we can't grasp it. And therefore, we have a question: Is it there or not? Is it an existence or not? We don't have a question whether there is a table or not, and we don't discuss is it a emunah, is it is it da'at, do we understand, or is it something that we believe. It's there. We see it, and there's nothing to talk about. When there's something that we don't see, so who knows if it's there? Maybe it's not there. Maybe somebody just made it up. How do we know it's there? Somebody could say there's a God. We can't touch it. We can't feel it. We never heard of him. We don't know. How do we know it's true? But we have to remember one thing, that not because we can't see it, or feel it, or touch it, it means that it doesn't exist. This just reminds me of a famous joke. I was in Russia 16 years ago to give underground shiurim. At that time, it was still underground, and the situation wasn't good. So, I heard a joke in Russia from some of the people there. I heard a joke that was circulating amongst the אידן. In Russia, the communists would teach the children in schools atheism, not to believe in God. So, you say the teacher got up and said, \"You know, there is no God.\" The teacher started saying picked up the pencil and said, \"You see? Do you see the pencil?\" Everyone said, \"Sure. Yes.\" \"So, there is a pencil.\" Then the teacher picked up the book. \"Do you see this book?\" Everyone says, \"Yes.\" \"You see it? So, there is a book.\" Then he said, \"Do you see God?\" They say, \"No.\" \"So, you see, there is no God.\" So, one kid picks up the hand, gets up, turns around to the class, \"Does anyone see the teacher's brains?\" \"No.\" \"So, the teacher has no brains.\" I heard this in Russia. The fact that we don't see it, or hear it, or touch it doesn't prove that it doesn't exist. Existence and true מציאות, true being, is not always the same. Not to everybody is it the same. To some people, true, what is an existence, something that you could touch? For instance, to for a baby. For a baby, we all know that when a baby is small and you give the baby something, the first thing the baby does puts it in its mouth. Why? Because the baby's strongest sense is taste. And when does a baby feel that there is an existence, there is something? If it it could feel it with its taste, with taste buds, then it exists. If it doesn't taste it, then it doesn't exist for the baby. Later on, a baby, when it could feel something, that's an existence. For instance, for to a blind person, colors are not a true existence. He can't feel a blind person can't relate to the concept of colors because in his world, since he can't see, and colors are only grasped through sight, so if he can't see it, and he can't see it, so therefore, doesn't exist. So, as far as he's concerned, it doesn't is an existence, but he can't grasp, but doesn't mean it doesn't exist. To a בעל שכל, a person who is a logical person who understands, the true existence is something that we can understand. That's existence. To some people, something that's very strong, what's a bigger מציאות if you have a heavy rock? That rock, oh, that's called a real existence, that's something strong. A rock can be thrown, it could hurt somebody, that's it. But you tell a simple, very simple person a very deep thought, he thinks that's nothing, that's, it's only something you talk about, that's nothing, that's not a מציאות, that's not a real being. To a בעל שכל, it's just the opposite, a logical, intellectual person, it's just the opposite. A rock is for sure to be, we can't say it's not, but what's really, really a real מציאות is something that makes a lot of sense and you understand it. And therefore when you could prove something logically, and we see with our שכל that this must be, even if you can't see it, and you can't hear it, and all the things, you can't take it to senses, that is the true being, a being that we could come to an understanding with our שכל that it's there. That's called a true being. Now when we talk about coming with שכל to something is there, שכל means not necessarily when we actually see it like I said, but when we see results of something, and that proves that there is something else that brought these results, and to a בעל שכל, to an intellectual person, that's enough proof. The fact that he doesn't see the thing itself doesn't mean anything. For instance, there is a concept of electricity. We can't see electricity, we can't feel it, if you touch, you're going to get a shock, but you can't feel it. How do we know that electricity is on? Because we see the fan working, we see the lights on, and we see the fridge working. We see a result, and that proves that there is a current of electricity coming there. And that to us is a hundred percent logical proof that that exists. No one's going to say that I see the fan working, and I'm still not sure if there is any electricity going through. And that to us, to me that is a hundred percent, even though that I can't see it, but since logically it makes me understand that it's there, so a hundred percent sure it's there. There is nobody that doubts the fact that there is what we call in Hebrew the כוח המושך or in English, gravity. Everyone knows there is gravity. What does gravity look like? How can you describe gravity? Anyone ever see gravity? But since we see that when you put something in the air it'll fall, you see everything is pulled to the ground, is a proof that there is a כוח המושך, there is there is a כוח that pulls it. So that itself is enough proof, and no one is going to say, \"Well, that's not logic, that's faith.\" That's not faith, that's logic! The fact that you see a result proves that there is something that's pulling it. So everyone knows the fact that to see the result of something falling, not something, everything that you put in the air falls, is enough proof to every scientist, to every human being that there is a כוח המושך. When we come into a factory, and we see machines working, and we look around and we see all kinds of different things happening, and you don't see a person moving the machines, logically, there is no person that's going to have a doubt that there is somebody that is running this machine. There is no question in anyone's mind, and that's enough proof to every single human being that there is a person someplace that is doing it. Or a person that put it into motion, for sure, it can't be that it didn't, no one put it into motion, it had to be somebody that put it into motion. They say this joke, that when the first trains came out, and people heard about it, a train, they only knew wagons with horses, a train, something traveling without horses, who could believe it? So the train had to pass through a certain little town. A little town had this elder, the great, big חכם, the big sage of the town, and they said, \"Let's go outside, wait, they have a schedule when the train is going to pass, the first train, and let's watch it, let's see if there is such a thing.\" So they all went out, and the sage is standing there, and he's looking, and he sees the train slowly passing by, and there is no horse there, there is no, nothing pulling it. And after the train passed by, they turned around to him and they say, \"נו, what do you say?\" He says, \"I'm telling you, there must be a little horse hidden someplace inside. It's impossible. There has to be a little horse. How could it go without a horse? How could it go by itself?\" No one, the answer is, there is a human being that put something into motion that makes it go, but there has to be something that makes it happen. No one is going to think that nothing didn't, it happened by itself, it's impossible. So when we see a factory, and how big is a factory, just one room with three machines, we are guaranteed that no fool is going to say, \"Ah, this is all by itself.\" When we see a world with everything that's in it, and we see everything that's happening happening, and we see the solar system, and as the Rambam says, you have the גלגלים that are moving and they're moving in different directions, I'm not going into all the details, there is no other way but to say that there is somebody, something, that is controlling all this. Otherwise it can't be. There must be somebody that made this happen, and somebody that's making it, created it, made it come to be, and something that is making it happen the whole time. It's impossible it happened by itself. Things just and we all know that's the way we live our life. We don't accept that things happened by itself, which is a like a famous this is a famous story that everyone knows with Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshitz. Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshitz once asked him how the king, who was friendly with Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshitz, once asked him, \"How do you know that there is a God who created the world?\" So, he said, \"Well, that's such a profound question, I can't answer you on the spot. I have to think about it, give me time.\" And they continue talking, and it was friendly enough, and the business that the king would get up in the middle and walk out. So, he had to go out for a few moments, so the king walks out and Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshitz remained sitting in his room, waiting for the king, and the king left for a while. Rabbi Yehonatan Eibeshitz was a great צדיק and a great scholar, everything. He was also a great artist. He was sitting in the king's chamber and there was a big window that overlooked a great garden with trees and mountains, it was beautiful. So, while the king was out, he took a piece of paper, and took the ink and took a pen, and started he he made a picture of that, copied the view that he saw in the window. And again, he was a good artist, so in a few minutes, it was all finished. He comes and puts it on the table. The king walks in and sits down. Says, \"Hey, where did this come from? Who made this?\" He said, \"Who made this? Nobody.\" Says, \"What do you mean nobody?\" Says, \"Well, you see the inkwell right here? I, by mistake, gave it a push and it fell over, and this is the picture that came out.\" \"Are you crazy? How can this, this doesn't happen by itself.\" Says, \"No, sure it happened by itself.\" And the king is arguing with him, and he's trying to tell him it happened by itself, and the king is trying to says, \"It's impossible! Impossible!\" And finally, he says to him, \"I don't understand you. This little picture is impossible to happen by itself. Those mountains, not a picture of the mountain, the mountains themselves, and the trees themselves, and this whole thing that we see outside there, that did happen by itself? That you're trying to tell me happened by itself? If you're so sure this didn't happen by itself, then for sure that didn't happen by itself.\" So, it is only logical to say that there is somebody who made all this happen. It just doesn't happen by itself, and that's not called faith. This is not called blind faith, \"Well, you accept it happened by itself. You you think that, I mean, that God created it.\" This is what we, as human beings, accept as 100% proof. Just like this king was 100% sure, wasn't 99% sure that it didn't happen by itself, the picture, he was 100% sure. And he didn't say, \"Well, I believe, I have faith, full, complete faith that the picture was drawn by somebody.\" Wasn't faith, he says, \"I know for sure. There's no question about it.\" So, how if this is called 100% proof, then for sure this is 100% proof considering the world, the universe and that so that it came from a Creator. The fact that we don't see Him, and we can't pinpoint, and we can't touch Him, is not because He's not there, because we know for sure He's there. The reason we can't see Him because He is a being that is not limited to any of the limitations that we, with our senses and with our traits and with our attributes, can grasp Him. Just like a blind person can't grasp colors, we can't grasp Him. That's why we can't describe Him. That's why we can't see Him, because He's not seeable with our physical eyes. He is a being that is beyond the limitations of the creation that He created. And that's an obvious thing. If He created the world, He made these limitations, so He's certainly not limited to these limitations. And we have a logical understanding, we have a logical proof that He is not limited, that there must be a being that is not limited to these limitations.

And now go on to a second step. We know one thing for sure. There is a logical rule, that's not a rule taken from Kabbalah, that's not a rule taken from any other ספרים. It is written in ספרים and written in Kabbalah in Chassidus, but that's not where where its only source is. And the rule is, אין דבר עושה את עצמו. There is nothing that makes itself. There is nothing that we're able to say, כאן נמצא כאן היה. When we look at this, everyone understands that this didn't just start here from just out of thin air. It had to come from something. Everything has a source. There is nothing that came by itself. We know that. The table is a piece of wood, the wood came from a tree, a tree came from a seed, a seed came from a Everything had to have someplace. It had to come from something. Now, when we think about that, that's an obvious thing, and we know that rule, and we know that's a fact. The question is, where did the first thing come from? This came from that, that came from this, and this came from that. Where did the first thing come from? And that's a question that obviously has no answer. There's only one answer. The answer is that we are forced, logically, to say—and this, like I say, I can say logically to say—that there is that the first being is a being that doesn't have a source. That means that's a being that is essentially there that doesn't come from anything. And we are forced to say that, because whatever other answer we're going to give, it came, well, this came from there, this Where did that first being come from? You'll always have to find a source, because we understand logically that everything has a source. But since we have to come to a point that there has to be a first being, that that first being has no source, that means that first being is a being that essentially is there. Which things need a source? Things which are within creation or even beyond what we call creation, but that first being must be, and this is a logical thing, I can't see any other way logically to answer this question where the first thing came from. And this is the difference between what they call evolution and the theory of evolution and the truth of creation. Evolution tries to explain where things came from: this was evolved and that evolved, evolved from this. Then finally you ask a person who believes in evolution, \"So this came from this, this came from the gas, and this is the bang, and this is this, this are all all kinds of things. Vayter and vayter, let's go, let's go vayter. Where did that first thing come from?\" To that, they have no answer. \"We have no answer.\" We have an answer! The answer is that we are forced logically to say that there must be a first being, that that first being is not limited to the limitations of nature and therefore is not limited to this nature that it has to have a source. This fact that everything has to have a source is nature. There must be a being that is not limited to that nature. Now, we can't understand it, because we are within the framework of nature, so we can't understand anything that is beyond that framework. We can't understand what it means forever. It will always be forever, forever, and what's after that? We can't imagine what's called a קדמון, something forever in the beginning, and what was before? We can't imagine, because we are in this framework of creation where everything has an end, everything has a beginning. But in truth, we come with a logical conclusion, and that's a rational conclusion, that there must be a first being, a being that is not someone something that started at one point. Because if it started at one point, you have a question, \"So, well, what was before? Where did it come?\" So it's not a first being. And when you ask a person who believes in evolution, \"What's the answer to this question?\", they say, \"We don't know.\" They might even say, \"We don't know yet. Eventually, we might find out.\" It makes no sense. They'll never find out. I'll tell you why, not not because I'm a navi, it's impossible. What they want to come to a conclusion is, since they say everything Why do they don't believe in creation? Because they say everything has to follow nature, and you can't make say there is something as beyond nature. Everything has to fit to a natural, you know, de- de- evolvement, everything has to make sense. And therefore, sensibly everything has a source, naturally everything has a source. What they're going to say is, what we're looking for is, that there should be a first being. And a first being obviously has no source, but everything has to have a source. What can What they have to prove is a contradiction: that there is a first being that has a source and doesn't have a source at the same time. That's an impossibility. There is no such thing. Science never came up with an impossibility. What science came up, things that didn't make sense years before, later they found out, like things that couldn't happen, but it happened. You'd say 200 years ago that you'll be able to fly a plane, it's impossible. But now they've showed it's possible. Two opposites at the same time, that they can't make. They can't make two opposites. It should be a beginning and not a beginning at the same time. It should be the beginning, and this beginning has to have a source, so it's not a beginning. It's an impossibility, it can't be. It's something that they'll never come to. So therefore, what comes out is that if you accept evolution, you're ended with you finish with a question. The question is: where did the first thing come from? If you believe in the truth, in creation, and the Aibershter, that there is a being, that Hashem created, we have an answer. Not that we say we understand what He is, but the answer is very simple: that we logically are forced to say that there is a being that is beyond logic, a being beyond our limitations and beyond the nature as we know it, and that being doesn't have a beginning, because it's always there. We can't understand what it is, because we are within the framework of creation, but logically we come to an understanding that that has to be. So now Now it comes out like this: if you're going to compare their understanding to our understanding, and what they say is we who believe in creation have blind faith. They are the seichel'dike people. They're talking logic. It's just the opposite. When you believe in evolution, it's not seichel, it makes no sense, because the bottom line is after all the explanations, you're left with something that makes no sense. And that is where did that first being come from? And you're left with that. And then nevertheless they accept it. And that's called seichel. To me that's called not seichel, that makes no sense. We who are called accepting blind faith, we have an explanation, not an understanding, but we have an explanation, meaning we have a logic, we come to a logical conclusion that and logically you must say that there must be something that's beyond our understanding. And that is the first being, which that first being has no beginning. Why does it have no beginning? Because it's essentially there, so it's always there. And when I use the word always, it's wrong, because always already means time, but we just have no other words, because we are part of the world, part of time and space, so we can't use any other word but always. But when I say always, I don't mean always. I mean it is. It is the being. It has to be there has to be a being, a מציאות, which is the essence of being. And that is the beginning of what came after that. But that being is always there. It has to be that way, otherwise it will never end and we'll never come to an understanding. לידע, actually, which means to know, because it's something that we can know. We come to an understand understanding that there is a מציאות ראשונה, a first being. The fact that we know there is a mitzvah of emunah, that's higher, that after we know that there definitely this first being, it has to be, this first being told us to believe that he is much greater than being the source of creation. And it's I don't want to get into the details here because it's going to get, you know, maybe we should have a separate class on this, what the real emunah is, to believe that the fact that he is the source of all creations is really not what he is. That is a descent on his part to lower himself to do that. Because so far what I've been saying is that our understanding of the truth of Hashem is a result of creation. Since we see a world, we see there are things and everything has a source, as a result of all this, we must say there is a first being. So so far, the existence of that first being is a result of creation. So his whole being, as far as we're concerned, is the source of creation. But that's not it. It says in the זוהר, לאו אורחא דמלכא לאשתעיא במילי דהדיוטא, it's not proper for a king to get involved in simple ordinary matters. A king would not go down from his throne and sweep the floor. For Hashem to create the world and become the source of creation, the source of what we see, that's a descent in his level. He is really beyond that. But for that, we have no logical proof. As our logical proof is only that since there are things, there is a creation, there are things, there must, and this is from, there must be a first being. That's that's logic. But that that he is beyond that, that's already something that we believe. And the way Chassidus says and using the terms of Chassidus is that we have two levels in the way we understand Hashem, which we call ממלא כל עלמין and סובב כל עלמין. Not to explain it at this point, in ממלא כל עלמין there is no emunah. ממלא כל עלמין is ידיעה, it's something that we know, we understand. But we say we have to have emunah, that's already סובב כל עלמין and higher madregot. That's where we have to have the emunah. But in ממלא כל עלמין, that's something that we understand logically. It can't be any other way. It is so simple and I don't know if I'm getting across or not, but in my mind, it is so simple and so clear that it's impossible to be different logically other than saying that there must be a first being that is the source of everything.

But then we come to the second point. We say that we have an emunah that there is Hashem, but we say also that Hashem commanded us to do the Torah, commanded us to learn Torah, to do mitzvot. Who says? Maybe true there is a first being who created the world and maybe he left it that way. He created the world, but who says that the Torah is true, that the Torah is מן השמים, that the Torah was given by Hashem? How do we know that? Well first of all, just to go a little bit, not to prove, but just logically saying assumptions. If Hashem, we came to a conclusion that there is a creator and he made this world, it's from him. Now the question if it's from him, he obviously made it for a reason. He wouldn't just make it for no reason. If he made the world and put human beings into it, he probably has a reason for it. Again, this is not a proof, I'm saying, well, for sure. If you want someone wants to, how you say in Yiddish, שפּאַרן זיך and wants to argue, say, well, maybe he didn't, maybe he didn't. But I'm just saying normally, the way we normally look at things, He probably made it for a reason. A normal human being, you don't have to be a god, a normal human being only does things for a reason. You don't do things for no reason. A meshugener does things for no reason, a normal person does things for a reason. Now, it doesn't always mean a good reason. You have good people do for good reasons, bad people do things for bad reasons. But there has to come for a reason. So if He created the world, I would assume He did it for a reason. And when He put us here, there is something He wants of us. Now, if He wants something of us, He probably told us what He wants. He can't put us here and not tell us what He wants and put us here for a reason that He wants us to do something. Doesn't make any sense, like you can't even, I'm not trying to tell jokes today, but there's one guy, he says, \"My own business, I'm not going to tell anybody my business, I mind my business, but it's no one's business what I do.\" So he came over, he wanted to go to a certain city, Chicago, he came over to the teller to buy a ticket. And he said, \"I would like to buy a ticket on this train.\" So the teller asks him, \"To which city do you want to go?\" \"Any of your business? It's my business, I'm not telling you my business.\" Not normal. Same thing here, Hashem made a world, put us here, there is some business He wants of us, not tell us? Not going to tell us what He wants? Does that make any sense? Well, obviously, He told us. Now, when and what point, time of history do we find that Hashem told humanity what He wants of them? Now, we know it's Matan Torah. At the time of Matan Torah, Hashem came down. We don't know what He looked like. The Yidden saw, whatever they saw, they couldn't relate because something that you can't describe, and He commanded us, gave us the Torah. Now again, one might say, \"Well, who says it's true? That's what you say, so you believe it, you have faith.\" Again, we're trying to speak now not, we're trying to understand faith, we're trying to go now more with a logical understanding rather than just blind faith. So here one might ask, \"Well, who says there was Matan Torah?\" Well, we'll answer, what do you mean, open the Chumash, you see Parshat Yitro, it says clearly. Well, it says in your in your Torah it says that there was Matan Torah, so that's again you believe your Torah, so Matan Torah is, fine. Who says it was true? Try to prove it to me logically. People say try to prove it to me that I should accept it without just faith. So I have to give an introduction: What is, what kind of proof would we normally accept as proof? Let's first analyze that: What do we consider proof? Now everyone knows proof means that you prove something 100%, it can't be otherwise. That's proof. So you would expect me to say to prove in such a way that there is no other possibility, nothing else to say, but that there was Matan Torah. But I must tell you, we live our lives in a different way, we meaning human beings. We don't live our lives that we only accept something that is a billion percent, that there's not even a chance one of 10 million, 10 billion that it can't, that it's not true, we don't live that way. When we go to a doctor, and we give over our life basically in the hands of this doctor, on what basis? Because I heard from 20 people that this is a good doctor. Now, these 20 people might be liars! I heard from 50 people that he's a good doctor. So 50 people! You could tell me I heard from a million people they might be liars and maybe this guy is a bad doctor, maybe he's going to kill me! We don't live that way. We hear from so many people, we accept it as fact that this doctor is a good doctor. Not only that, when we go to the store, we go to a bakery, and we want to buy a loaf of bread, how do you know the loaf of bread is not poisoned? Well, I know so many people bought there. Ha, they're all liars! Well, the guy the storekeeper told you the ingredients is so and so, he's a liar! We don't live that way. Whatever when we know that people said certain things, and they're, what do you call אנשים נאמנים, trustworthy people, we live our lives that way. We do business that way. Why do we invest in a company? Because so many people invest. Why do we do business this way? Because people said, we accept testimony of human beings as fact, and that's how we live. And no one is going to say, \"Well, I can't accept it unless I'll be a million percent, not a million percent, true in such a way that there's not even one to a billion that it's not true.\" Don't live that way. You accept if 20 people said, 20 people went to this doctor and said, you accept it. That's how we live our our life. History is based on that. How do we know Columbus discovered America? And I don't know if anybody doubts the fact that Columbus discovered America. Who said so? It says in the history. But a ligener, he's a liar, who knows what he says? I could swear on it, I'm sure 100% that there is no other possibility, but definitely Columbus discovered America? Five people wrote down in a history book that Columbus discovered America, and that became fact! Yes, that's how people live. This is normal life, this is the way we live our lives, that we accept it that way. Now, if we accept the testimony of 50 people, 20 people as truth, and we give our lives, base our lives on that testimony, we have testimony of close to three million people that were there by Matan Torah. I'm not Not speaking from the Torah, not speaking from the Chumash. Our parents told us, and that's a fact. Our parents told us that they heard from their parents, who heard from their parents, who heard from their parents, and there were three million people who stood by Har Sinai and heard Hashem say the עשרת הדברות. There was never a time in history that someone, a million people woke up and said, \"Yeah, from now on started this whole idea of Matan Torah.\" It all came from that time when Matan Torah was, besides other ideas that we know the nature is a person does not lie to a child something that he will continue for all generations later on. People don't do that, but besides that, we know that we heard it from our parents, our parents from their parents. We have testimony of not six people, not like the history book of Columbus discovering America which was by 20 people, 50 people, I don't know how many wrote it. Whatever truth is in the fact that Columbus discovered America, there is close to three million times more proof that Hashem gave us the Torah. When we go to a doctor and we give over our lives to this doctor because we heard from 20 people he's a good doctor, well, if 20 people make me believe it that I should give my life over in his hands, when we have three million people, then for sure we should accept it as truth. Now the truth, like I said, someone may come and say, \"Well, three million people, maybe they're all lying.\" It's a possibility. One chance out of three million, but it's a possibility, so prove to me that it's not. My question to you would be, why don't you say the same thing when it comes to eat a piece of bread? How do you know it's not poison? There you do accept it. And this is the difference between Matan Torah and lehavdil lehavdil elef alfei alafim havdalot with other religions. There is no religion that claims even that there was a revelation to so many people. It was five people who said Now when you have five people saying, all you need is these five people to be liars, or five people being a little meshuga, or five people having illusions, or five people who are evil people who are trying to do something, and that's all. I mean, if you base it on them, you're left with nothing. You're left with testimony of five people who are, who don't know. While in the Muslim religion is based on 10,000 people. 10,000 people saw Mohammed a minute after his revelation. He came in front of 10,000 and said, \"I just had a revelation.\" So it's all based on this one meshuga. He claimed he had a revelation to 1,000 to 10,000. He could have told it to five billion, it makes no difference, it's one person who said. And he, by the way, happened to be a meshuga. The Rambam refers to him, the Rambam refers to יושקע, the Rambam doesn't refer The Rambam calls him ישו הנוצרי, and Mohammed, the Rambam calls hameshuga hazeh. It's a meshuga. He was known to be a meshuga. He had epilepsy and he had his, you know, that's where his visions came from, that the seizures, but at the end that's not our point, we're not interested in that. But everything came from a few people. Here we have three million people, because we know 600,000 men, just men between the ages of 20 and 60 came out of Mitzrayim. Then you had all the men under 20, all the men over 60, and the same amount of women. It comes out to an average about between two and a half and three million people, and they testified, and they said They couldn't say what they saw because it's something that you can't give over in words. They saw that Hashem gave us the Torah, and that was the time Hashem revealed to humanity, to the to the creation what He wants of the creation. And it wasn't only the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments, that Hashem said. And it wasn't only תורה שבכתב, the written Torah, the oral Torah also. First of all, the Ten Commandments is very not much there, but because it's said. When Hashem gave us the Ten Commandments by Matan Torah, He said out loud that all three million heard million people heard that the rest of the Torah I will be telling Moshe Rabbeinu. So Moshe Rabbeinu went up to Har Sinai and came back with the whole Torah. Now there, people might ask, \"Well, we're back to one person.\" We don't accept the Torah because Moshe Rabbeinu said so, and we trust Moshe Rabbeinu. Not true. We accept the Torah because we heard Hashem say that the rest of the Torah will come through Moshe. So when Moshe came and said it is because we heard Hashem say, \"Whatever Moshe will tell you, accept.\" So not because we trust Moshe, because we trust We heard Hashem Himself say it. And Hashem later on gave Moshe the תורה שבכתב, the whole of Chumash, the written Torah. He gave him the oral Torah, and that's what Moshe said. And it only makes sense. Some people say, \"Well, maybe the written Torah, the Bible, that is true, but the oral Torah is not true.\" It makes no sense. And this again is not a proving it 100% that you can't say otherwise. I'm just saying logically, it makes no sense that Hashem gave us the Chumash and that's it. In the Chumash He told us many things that we have to do. If He really wants us to do the things that He gave us in Chumash, He would have told us how to do it. There is nothing in Chumash that we know what to do. There is nothing, almost nothing in Chumash that when we read it, we'll know what to do. It says in Chumash, keep Shabbos and don't work on Shabbos. Who in the world knows what it means not to work on Shabbos? Obviously, Hashem explained what He means. It says in Chumash, you shall tie it for a sign on your hands and for frontlets between your eyes. What should we do? Should we take a potato and put it right here? I mean, what should we do? We don't know what to do. So obviously, this is only logical that Hashem explained it. But besides that, because Moshe Rabbeinu came down and he said, this is what Hashem told me, and we heard Hashem before saying, whatever Moshe will tell you accept if he says it in my name, then we know from Hashem that this is true. And this is logic, this is something that we could accept even without blind faith as we call it. And this goes a step further. Not only our mitzvot, even for the goyim, we know the goyim have שבע מצות בני נח, seven mitzvot that the goyim have to keep. Why do they have to keep the seven mitzvot? Because by Matan Torah Hashem said to the Jews that the goyim have to keep the seven mitzvot. Matan Torah was the only time in history where there was a revelation of the purpose of creation. And anybody who has a purpose, who is a purpose in his creation, has to find his purpose in Matan Torah. So the goyim also have a purpose in creation. They're created here for a reason. So their reason is not someplace else. The Rambam says they're חסידי אומות העולם, who are called the righteous goyim, those that keep the seven mitzvot. And the Rambam says, when is a goy called a חסיד? If he keeps the seven mitzvot because Hashem said so by Matan Torah. If a goy comes and says, I'll keep the seven mitzvot because I think they're very important, I think they're very smart, they make a lot of sense, the Rambam says this guy is not called a חסיד from the אומות העולם and called a righteous goy, he's not a righteous goy. There are even two versions in the Rambam, one version is that he might be a smart goy, a חכם, but he's not a חסיד. There is even a version that he's not even called a חכם. Why? Because if we're talking about the purpose of creation, it has to come from a time when Hashem Himself revealed. Because if you don't accept, well, if you want to make it up on your own, as much as it makes sense without accepting from Hashem, you'll never know that you will reach that purpose. And I don't want to elaborate or take too long, but it's obvious, just for one moment, that the purpose of creation is something that's beyond creation. Since this was the reason why He created it, so you can't say it's a reason from something that's within creation. The reason came before creation. That was the reason why He should create. So obviously, the reason for creation is something that's not within creation. If it's not within creation, how can anybody or anything within creation reach to understand that reason? It's impossible. So how do we know that reason? Only if He tells it to us, that's all. And whether it makes sense or not, makes no difference, because since it's beyond creation, why should it make sense? As a matter of fact, I don't even know how possible for anything Hashem said to make sense to us, if that is the reason, the things He told us is the reason for creation. It can't make sense. The fact that we do understand the mitzvot is a big chidush, it's something special, Hashem did us a favor. But if we don't, if we don't do it of what He said, but we do of what we decide, then we'll never reach Him, who is the creator. And I'll use the same mashal I use many times: this person who once visited his friend, and after he left, his friend said, please stay in touch, and he gave him his telephone number. And the guy came home, and after a while, he wanted to call his friend. He looks at the number, he says, I don't like that number, I think another number would be better, and he starts dialing the other number. He'll never get to him, because that's not his number. Here too, the number that Hashem gave us is the way to get to Him. We can't make up our own number and get to Him, because we have to get to Him. When did Hashem give us that number? By Matan Torah. And that's logical. We have the proof from the witnesses, from the testimony of these three million people, that Matan Torah is a true fact. Based on all that, if we think about it, I don't know what I said came across, I hope it did, and I don't know if it already is enough for people to say, \"Oh, it's obvious,\" you have to think about it and think again and again. Chassidus, especially, we know that you have to meditate and contemplate and think about it and think. But then what happens, the bottom line, the end is, that we come to understand the truth of the existence of Hashem and understand the truth of the existence of the Torah. And then we have the next step to work on: the real emunah. That all this is not emunah, and the real emunah is something deeper. And when we work hard, we'll get to that deeper level, and when we get to that deeper level, we're going to realize that there is more than that. And then we'll go on, and it's ever, never-ending. It's forever and forever because from the lowest level and from there we go on and on, and if we do our best, it says Hashem helps us that we do reach and do understand as much as we're supposed to. Yes?

Assuming the what do they call it? The devil's advocate, what's wrong with believing that there is a first being, okay there is a first being because there's got to be a creator for everything, but who says that that first being has to have either intellect or intention? Why can't we go with the possibility that if you've got you know enough monkeys and they're hitting a typewriter, they're eventually going to produce all the great works in the world? And therefore? So the the first being is not someone that we have to pay any attention to. It just happened to be there before there was anything else, and that's where everything came from. Okay. If in the creation, let's call it, we have no other words for it, we have all these attributes, and He is the source of all, then it has to be in Him, too. Saying, how do you know He has intention, how do you know He has intellect, how do you know It has to be. Because if He is the source of all that, and we know you can't have an effect without having a source, this itself has to have a source, and He is the first being, so He contains not as a separate entity because otherwise it would be פירוד, ריבוי, not אחדות, but He contains it all, so He has it all. And if He has it all, there is a concept of intention, and if there is a creation further on, then there is an intention there. The next step is the struggle of emunah, and it's always been you know you described a grand scale of somebody who knows that there's hashgacha pratis in the intellectual הבנה, the Well, we once had a class on hashgacha pratis, so I'm not going to repeat it. I'll just say one part of what I said in that class. a shaychus to what you were saying. Yeah. And a shaychus to what I'm saying. There was once a friend of mine who went to yechidus. A bochur, that's a bochur in yeshiva, he went to yechidus to the Rebbe. And bochurim used to go to yechidus if they had any like spiritual problems, they would write it to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would you know asking for a bracha or asking for advice in their ruchniyusdike, spiritual avodah, service of Hashem. This bochur, the concept of hashgacha pratis bothered him. In other words, he didn't understand it. So he wrote to the Rebbe, when you go to yechidus you would give the Rebbe a note and the Rebbe would read it and answer. So in that note, he wrote to the Rebbe that he doesn't understand hashgacha pratis. Why is there hashgacha pratis? How could it be or why is, I don't remember exactly what he wrote. Remember, I was there when he walked into the Rebbe. When he comes out of the Rebbe, I say, \"nu?\" So he says to me like this, \"The Rebbe read the note, and this is what the Rebbe said.\" And this is all I'm going to add, because otherwise it will get we'll get carried away. The Rebbe looks at the note and says, in Yiddish, \"דו פרעגסט אז דו שרייבסט אז דו פארשטייסט נישט השגחה פרטית, ווי קען זיין השגחה פרטית? איך פארשטיי נישט ווי אזוי ס'קען זיין נישט השגחה פרטית.\" Says, \"You don't understand how there's hashgacha pratis? I can't understand how there's a possibility of not being hashgacha pratis.\" And this is all he said to him, \"If Hashem, if it was important for Hashem to create all these different things, why is it not important for Him later to care about it? What's These people who don't believe or don't want to accept hashgacha pratis are not people who don't believe in creation. They believe that everything came from Hashem. So he said, \"If Hashem, but then what they do say is, but Hashem doesn't care about every every little detail. Who says He has divine providence in every particular thing, in every detail?\" He says, \"If Hashem cared enough to create this, then why all of a sudden would He care enough what happens to this? So certainly if He cares enough, He's taking care of it.\" This is what he answered him, and this is the foundation of everything. Yes? You you mentioned earlier a while back that the king doesn't go off the throne to swipe to to sweep the floor. And understanding that Hashem created everything, He also created the gravity, He also created the you know, Whatever, yeah. Yeah, everything works there is a system that He created, He put into place. Does does Hashem go off the throne and sweep the floor? Yes! That's what we're saying, the fact that He created the world is going off the throne and sleeping sweeping the floor. The fact that He cares takes care of every little ant that crawls on the floor here, every leaf that falls off the tree, is Hashem going off the throne and sweeping the floor. Why wouldn't you just accept the fact that that a tree has a certain life cycle that Hashem created, and at a certain point it's going to die, the leaves are going to wither and fall, and I mean why wouldn't that be enough? So you're asking question. Maybe Hashem put something into motion and then it goes by itself. That's a different That's Who says that He keeps on recreating the world every second? Okay, that's that's a separate that's, I don't think it's for now, but that's one of the very major subjects of chasidus, to explain that לעולם השם דברך נצב בשמים, השם keeps on recreating and it can't be that He doesn't, because I don't that'll take too long, but just for a second, anything that is beyond even in our natural limitations, there anything that is happening against its nature, you have to constantly keep holding it up. Even a cup of water, nature of water is to fall. In order for the water to stand, you have to have a wall keeping it up. You have to have constantly keeping it up. The nature of the creation, if we call it nature, is not to be. Essentially, it's not there. Essentially, there's only Hashem. So, the fact that it's there is against the nature of true existence and it has to constantly be held up. Well, this needs a explanation. Yes? I understand correctly that Hashem exists on a certain level of existence and created us to perform our mission to somehow enhance that degree of existence. If I have that part right so far, that we have some role that somehow has an overall effect on existence, so it's different with us than it would have been without us. But in doing so, the universe is a very big place. Does that leave open possibilities that elsewhere in this very big place there are other somethings or someones who somehow also have their own specific mission that would cause their own enhancement of existence? First of all, the saying this enhancement is a can't use I know, I know it's true, but how can we say that? Hashem is the essence of existence, He has everything, so how could He be enhanced by somebody else? Someone that He created or something He created? That's impossible to say. And that is why we use the term, when we say Hashem had a desire to have a dwelling place in this world, that's why He created us and gave us a mission of Torah u'mitzvot, we use the term a תאוה, He had a desire. And they once asked the Alter Rebbe, \"Why did He do it?\" And the Alter Rebbe said, \"אויף a תאוה פרעגט מען נישט קיין קשיא.\" On a תאוה, desire a person has, you cannot you can't ask questions. What it means is, this is something that's not that we can't understand, it's completely beyond the realm of our understanding because this is a contradiction in itself. The fact that we say that He wants us to do something, that means there is some need He has for us, so to speak, kaviyachol. And at the same time, we know that He doesn't need anything, He is the true essence of everything, it's a contradiction, so how does it work? And we can't explain it. Cuz that's that's because we in our mind can't explain a contradiction and therefore we just this is one of those things that we accept, and it's something that we can't explain. You were going to ask? Well, isn't it like actualities exists because because we the created were created? At a certain level. You what you're saying actually the Zohar, you know what you're saying the Zohar says. The Zohar says the Zohar says, why did Hashem create the world? This is a famous question, right? Everyone Why did Hashem create the world? $64,000 question, everyone was bothered, why did He create the world? So the Zohar says, the reason is, בגין דישתמודעון ליה, so there should be somebody who knows Him. These words, like you said, there should be somebody who knows Him. But then the sefarim continue and say that is not the ultimate answer. Because why does He need someone to know Him? Why is His existence important to have somebody know? In our level, if no one knows you, then there is a lack, there's something missing in your existence, but not in the true, essential existence. He needs some creatures that He created to know Him and otherwise He's missing something? There is not much more that we could say. We know that that's not it. We know concerning Hashem a lot of things ידיעת השלילה, meaning we know what it's not. We know that this is not the real answer. There has to be more. What it really is, it's impossible for us to know. Listen, what's your question? Um, wait, I must say, those that did don't have emunah because of the Holocaust, in truth, I would say 95% of those were weak in their emunah before. Those that had a strong emunah before were not weakened. Many of them, their emunah was strengthened. Those that came out of the Holocaust and they stopped believing, they really didn't believe before. And this is a fact. Because if you start thinking again, I don't want to get into the subject because we once had a class on on the Holocaust, if you start thinking about it, that the Holocaust should bring a person to to weaken his emunah, is in truth, again, a contradiction in itself. If you believe that Hashem who is is Hashem, ...who He is, then obviously, if I don't understand what He did is not a reason not to believe in Him. Unless I don't believe in the true Hashem to begin with. If I say that because of my question that proves that He doesn't exist, obviously what I had, the belief I had before was in a being that is similar to me. That just like I wouldn't do this, He probably wouldn't do it either. But if I believe that He is a being that is completely beyond my understanding, then how can I even think that because I don't understand that shows that He's not doesn't exist? It's like a child would say that he doesn't understand what a parent did, so because of that, the parent is not a parent. I mean, if if it it's it's a circle. If you believe in God, meaning believe in a God that is completely beyond the limitations of creation, beyond my comprehension, so how could it be that because I don't understand that that's the proof that He's not there? It's a contradiction in itself. Those people who were weakened in their emunah before, they they have to learn. Yes. Everything came as an evolvement. We do believe, lehavdil, in evolution, but in a different way, in a סדר השתלשלות. There is a סדר השתלשלות. There is Hashem, and then there is His light, and His light, He sent forth His light, and His light should continue and get less spiritual and less and less, till finally that turned into a yesh of a physical world. So the way He created the world was in the form of השתלשלות. Evolution of His, yeah, of השתלשלות of the רוחניותדיק worlds. Forever is everything for Him. There's a pasuk that says כי ממך הכל, everything's from you. Yes. There is. If we can't understand the source, then obviously it's very understandable that we might not understand the source of the source. Yeah, and that source must be a first source. Exactly. Yeah, that must be the first thing. Yes, what were you going to say? Well, just the the idea that there's a creator that nobody created, that he was always there, and then all of a sudden he decided to create a being that would have free choice. See, the word all of a sudden is very hard to say because there it's beyond time. It's a very hard concept, because there it's beyond time, so you can't say at one point he decided. It was a decision also. Yeah, but we use those terms, but that's not really what it is. It's hard to imagine. Yeah.