What does Emunah mean to you?

mandksima

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 2:45 pm

I just listened to a short Rav Ofer Erez shiur where he talked about how our emunah should be in this generation with Moshiach arriving. We need to believe that Hashem controls everything and we honestly need Hashem for every aspect of our lives. When we realize that, we constantly are relying on Him for help and we involve Him in our daily activities and thoughts. Our whole purpose is to get closer to Hashem in this world and we have to let go of our egos and believing that we owe our successes to our own doing and ability and instead acknowledge it is 100% all from Hashem. We put forth all of our effort but still we wouldn't be anywhere without Hashem's constant help throughout EVERY step of the way. It brings humility and a desire to be as close as we can to Hashem in order to receive the needed assistance with heartfelt prayer and thanks.

Believing in Hashem and observing the mitzvot is just the beginning. Real emunah is putting 100% of your trust in His hands and admitting you are nothing on your own.

amother

Purple

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 2:58 pm

mandksima wrote:

What if someone is really good at believing and trusting, and putting themselves into hashems hands, (in their opinion), but has trouble remembering to keep the mitzvot (I.e. Remembers to make a bracha after the food is in their mouth)?

Does such a person have emuna?

InnerMe

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 3:03 pm

Emunah can be interpreted to mean so many things.

To me it means putting my trust in G-d. Practically it means releasing control and allowing Him to take over. Letting myself be calm and knowing that He's taking care.
It means breathing deeply and cutting the strings that strap me to the ground
It mean shoulders upright and facing the world content in the knowledge that He is in charge
It means allowing myself to let things happen without my interference. Letting things run their course. Not pushing the process.
It means taking time to enjoy the world's wonderful beauty. I don't need to constantly be busy with the world's problems. G-d's taking care of them too. I can enjoy life. I'm not running the show. He is. And holding that thought, and internalizing it makes me feel so free and light.

momnaturally

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 3:07 pm

amother wrote:

Is it logical and does it make sense, or is it illogical but we have to train ourselves to have emunah anyway?

Every mitzvah requires effort to be made to do it. The mitzvah of emuna is no different.
According the amount of effort we try to put in we can achieve the "logical mindset" of emuna well as the emotional feeling of bitachon.
We use logic as well as our belief in what we are taught by others wiser and/or older than us in order to achieve a basic acceptance of the reality of Hashem and that everything that happens is directly from him. This is the translation of the first Ani maamin.
Once we logically recognize this we can apply this in real life and constantly look and think about everything in that fashion even though it seems like the exact opposite in the world. That is the mitzva of emuna. We get that mitzva by constantly talking to ourselves and training ourselves to think this way in real life about literally everything. Each thought itself is a mitzva.
One example among millions. If we got helped by someone or harmed by someone it's not them that did it. It's hashem. They merely were the delivery person. The reason we thank people is not because without them it would not have happened, rather because our help from Hashem came through them and they cared enough to be that person.
By reminding ourselves each time to think this way we get a mitzva of emuna.

amother

Tangerine

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 3:09 pm

Since I posted upthread op I've been thinking about the subject line rather than the op itself and want to offer the following.

If you see a kid being given chocolate, there are lots of things you could think.

Lucky kid!
What wonderful parents!
Yum!
How lucky we are to live in a generation where chocolate has been invented!
What terrible parents for indulging him like that!
How unfair is it that I can't afford to feed my kids at all and he gets chocolate!
That is more money for my chocolate factory!
He is going to get fat and teased!
He will get diabetes!
Etc etc

Every single moment of every single day since Bereishit Bara all over the world there have been little incidents, big incidents, millions and trillions of them, with all of the people who have ever lived. Taken on their own, there are many many things that seem horrible in this world. But just like the chocolate incident, we a only seeing the tiniest snapshot of the whole picture.

To me, when I am in a good place emotionally, Emunah is the belief, the knowledge (both) that somehow, eventually, we will come to see that the sum total of all of these interactions and events is fair, just, Emet- in fact taken together they are the Unity of Hashem.

And on that day He will be One and His Name will be One.

Until then- if I see something that seems unfair in this world, that is simply my cue to act, guided by the Torah, to make it seem better in this world.

I do not always have clarity like this, but while I do, I'm writing it out, for my own benefit as much as yours.

And also Emunah changes over time. Hopefully it grows. Hopefully in a few weeks /months/years mine will be deeper, stronger etc than it is now.

Thank you for the opportunity, op, to write out my "today"version of what Emunah means to me.

mandksima

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 3:31 pm

amother wrote:

Well, that person has been able to do the hardest part!
Mitzvot are done partly out of love - like a child who adores his parents tries to do all that is asked of him, partly out of fear - like a child who is afraid to make the parent ashamed of him or afraid of punishment, and partly out of a sense of duty as a Jewish person who is responsible for the whole nation and together we fulfill all of the mitzvot as there is no singular person who is capable of doing all of the 613 mitzvot himself because some are just for women or men, kohanim, people in Israel, etc.

If one has trouble remembering to do positive mitzvot but is very careful about not doing forbidden things, that seems more easily fixable. Work on loving Hashem and wanting to make Him proud of your efforts and infusing each daily activity with as much kedusha as possible. For the example of forgetting to make the bracha before the food is eaten, it is hard for me too but I try to focus on the idea that each food receives a spiritual aliyah when a bracha is said over it. A kosher animal has a nefesh in it that gets raised in levels when used for a holy purpose of nourishing our bodies. A bracha allows that to happen. Some people's souls come back down to this world for a tikkun in a certain food and saying a bracha over it perfects their soul and releases them back to shamayim. Part of emunah is seeing connections to people and their Jewish souls around us and Hashem even in simple daily tasks like eating.

Emunah has a lot of facets to it and we all try to work on it throughout our lives.

momnaturally

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 5:18 pm

amother wrote:

There is a basic level of emuna but there is Many levels of emuna. Putting ourselves in Hashem's hands is one aspect means you have an awareness of Hashem. On the other hand if you were strongly aware of Hashem and how he wants his ruled followed and he sees everything then that is a lacking in awareness of Hashem. If your awareness was stronger then you would not forget things easily. So basically that is the level of emuna you are on.
The fact you have achieved some level of emuna can be used as a springboard to achieve more closeness and awareness of Hashem.
The thought process would be the following. Since you recognize how much hashem takes care of you and loves you then wouldn't you feel horrible at not doing the little bit he asks for ? Just like someone who did a huge favor for you you would feel terrible if you could not do for them when they needed something.
Hashem does not want you to be pressured. he wants you to care about him just like he cares about you. Love both ways. That is the relationship he wants to have.

amother

Purple

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 6:45 pm

I know that he sees everything. I just plain and simply mess up. Period.

Quote:

The thought process would be the following. Since you recognize how much hashem takes care of you and loves you then wouldn't you feel horrible at not doing the little bit he asks for?

No. I don't feel horrible. If I did believe that this would need to be this way, it would be that he is, in a way, giving to get back, and that is not true giving. I don't want a relationship with that kind of God and I'm happy to have learned that that's not the kind of God that Hashem is. Hashem is a melech. The concept of milucha is doing for the sake of the people only. Hashem is the ultimate melech. He does for our good, not to get anything back.

Also, you minimize what he asks of us when you say "the little bit he asks for". Last I heard there were 613 commandments. Some of them with death penalties, etc. That is not "the little but he asks for"

momnaturally

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 7:56 pm

amother wrote:

I know that he sees everything. I just plain and simply mess up. Period.

Quote:

The thought process would be the following. Since you recognize how much hashem takes care of you and loves you then wouldn't you feel horrible at not doing the little bit he asks for?

So how do you understand Judaism ?
Hashem only does for us and we don't need to do anything ?
But then you wrote Hashem expects a lot from us ?
So what's the 613 mitzvos for, if we are in the mood ?
Does what we do matter ?

amother

Purple

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 8:16 pm

momnaturally wrote:

I don't know how to understand judeasm. I joined this discussion to learn and understand.

Hashem does for us. We accept with love, and try to cleave to Him (ahava rabba "vyached livavenu") to the best of our ability through spirituality and doing the mitzvot (mesilas yesharim chapter 1). We are in this world for a purpose. It would be wasteful not to accomplish what we are in this world to accomplish.

I was questioning the concept of "this little thing" that Hashem asks of us.

Keeping the Torah is huge. It's a huge burden that we carry with joy. It's not little. Every mitzva accomplishes huge things (I don't know how to internalize this. Hence, forgetting brachos, etc).

613 mitzvot are for us to do, but again. It's not a "little thing". It's huge!

Everything we do matters way more than we can begin to fathom. That's at least part of my problem. Not fathoming what is going on in my own psyche, never mind my own world, or the world at large. So, a "little bracha, or little piece of lashon Horah, or little biting my lip on Shabbos, little undo anger" goes unnoticed.

I don't have any answers. I'm searching. I'm embarrassed to admit it. I don't know why I'm waking up so late in life, but I am, and I'm searching.

At least when I get upstairs, I want to have overcome my status of Rasha, and moved to what the ba'al hatanya describes as beinoni. Halevai!

momnaturally

Tue, Apr 10 2018, 11:24 pm

amother wrote:

OK let me explain what my point was.
Of course keeping 613 mitzvos is a huge responsibility and requires a lot of dedication.
It is also very normal for us to slip up and mess up we are only human.
The question is how do we improve and slip up less ?
There are a number of ways to improve.
Since you mentioned that you feel you have a strength in emuna and trust Hashem to take care of you I was suggesting an approach based on that which is an approach based on awareness of Hashem and love and appreciation to Hashem.
Let me use the following mashal.
Imagine if we had someone who throughout our lives looked out for us. They were always there to support us emotionally and physically.
They gave us money whenever we needed, cared for our health, protected us from harm always knew just the right thing to say to us. We knew we can always count on them since: 1.we knew they cared about us so much, 2.they only wanted what was best for us
3. they were very capable of doing things for us and did so constantly.
We would feel so appreciative to this person and wish there was something we could do to give back to them.
If we ever had such an opportunity we would grab it and feel like it was the least we could do in light of what they do for us.
We would realize that what we did is nothing compared to what they did for us but at least we did whatever we could do. The fact that we care so much to try to do something for them will mean so much to that person since it shows how much we love and appreciate them even if we are limited in what we can do for them.
This is really very much like our relationship with Hashem. Since you already appreciate Hashem and see how he takes care of you you are already on your way to come to this understanding. If you spend more time reflecting and noticing how we owe every aspect of our lives to Hashem then the opportunity he gave us to do something for him is priceless. The fact that Hashem gives us this opportunity is really a chessed.
So yes while there is so much to do it is quite little when put in perspective.
The reason why we may slip up is for a number of reasons. But how much we care not to slip up definitely is related to how much we love and appreciate Hashem and how much we really feel that he notices every thing we do.
So basically in summary the more time we spend noticing Hashem in our lives and appreciating him will gradually also help us improve our commitment and dedication to him. This will greatly motivate us to do the little that he asks for with great attention to detail. This way we can show him how much we love him.
So when we say a bracha or not say lashon hora we think of him and smile to ourselves and say "Hashem see I love you !"