May one just simply believe? Emunah Peshutah as a Commandment and as Idolatry.

Is there a place for Emunah Peshutah in Judaism? I know that it is a theology proposed by Rav Nachman of Breslov. I am not well versed in his writings but from the little I have read I suspect that it is much more complex than meets the eye. I also suspect that the Emunah Peshutah that is bandied around by his contemporary followers is not what he had in mind. Be it as it may, the popular understanding of this idea is that it is a goal to work on oneself not to ask questions, ignore reality and deny our rational capacity. Just accept that there is a God that may or may not be physical, that sometimes gets angry at other times not, He is one but we do not exactly know what that means (one God or unique?) and so on. This latter version of Emunah Peshutah is anathema to everything Judaism was meant to teach the world and us and according to Rambam contravenes the second commandment, Lo Y’heyeh Lecha elohim acherim.

The Ten Commandments start with two Mitzvot. The first is the positive command Anochi Hashem Elokecha which Rambam in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah defines as the obligation to “know” (not just believe) that God is 1) the First Cause, 2) if He did not exist nothing else would 3) if nothing else existed, He would, 4) He is the only ultimate truth, 5) He is the force that makes the universe move (in Aristotelian parlance moves the Spheres). These are quite complicated concepts and require a lot of study and contemplation to grasp them. This type of positive commandment means that one has to spend a lifetime, if necessary, until one arrives at the understanding of these concepts about God. In other words it is a constant obligation on us.

The second Mitzvah is Lo Y’heyeh Lecha elohim acherim Al Panay. Rambam defines this Mitzvah together with the first in Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah 1:6. After telling us that one has to “know” the concepts covered by the first mitzvah, one who thinks that there is a different God, (different than the concepts listed above) transgresses the negative commandment of Lo Y’heyeh and is “Kofer Be’ikar”, errs in the most fundamental dogma (literally “root”) because this is the great dogma (root) that everything depends upon.

[ו] וידיעת דבר זה מצות עשה, שנאמר "אנוכי ה' אלוהיך" (
וכל המעלה על דעתו שיש שם אלוה אחר, חוץ מזה--עובר בלא תעשה, שנאמר "לא יהיה לך אלוהים אחרים, על פניי"
וכפר בעיקר, שזה הוא העיקר הגדול שהכול תלוי בו.

Rambam holds that one who has a concept of God that does not agree with those listed above transgresses this Mitzvah and denies the most important and fundamental ideas of Judaism.

In MN 1:36 Rambam defines the words Kefirah as follows: “by "infidelity" (Kefirah) I mean the belief that a thing is different from what it really is”. He goes on to say: “How great, then, must be the offense of him who has a wrong opinion of God Himself, and believes Him to be different from what He truly is, i.e., assumes that He does not exist, that He consists of two elements, that He is corporeal, that He is subject to external influence, or ascribes to Him any defect whatever. Such a person is undoubtedly worse than he who worships idols in the belief that they, as agents, can do good or evil.”

On the one hand Rambam expects us to “know” all these difficult concepts and at the same time he warns us that if we have incorrect concepts of God we are transgressing a commandment. These ideas are very complex and take a lot of study and contemplation, sometimes years. What are we to do until we get there?

In MN 1:35 Rambam discusses what we should teach children and beginners in general about God and the educational impact of our teaching.

“That God is incorporeal, that He cannot be compared with His creatures, that He is not subject to external influence; these are things which must be explained to every one according to his capacity, and they must be taught by way of tradition to children and women, to the stupid and ignorant, as they are taught that God is One, that He is eternal, and that He alone is to be worshipped. Without incorporeality there is no unity, for a corporeal thing is in the first case not simple, but composed of matter and form which are two separate things by definition, and secondly, as it has extension it is also divisible. When persons have received this doctrine, and have been trained in this belief, and are in consequence at a loss to reconcile it with the writings of the Prophets, the meaning of the latter must be made clear and explained to them by pointing out the homonymity and the figurative application of certain terms discussed in this part of the work. Their belief in the unity of God and in the words of the Prophets will then be a true and perfect belief.”

We are supposed to teach children and beginners to accept that God exists, cannot be influenced, He is incorporeal and unique. We explain to them the last two as they are easier to grasp. As they grow in understanding and are confronted in their learning with texts that seem to contradict what they were taught, they are introduced to the philosophical discourse and the ways of interpretation. It is almost as if there is an intentional contradiction between what the Torah asks us to accept and believe and the different narratives within it. By confronting them a person develops to the point that he “knows” the first Mitzvah of Anochi and the five principles it incorporates. The negative commandment is thus the tool that helps us keep the positive commandment of knowing God. This is the Emunah Peshutah that we have as we start our quest, as opposed to the one touted by some segments of our community. This Emunah Peshutah is also not a goal but the first step in Avodat Hashem. It is also the belief of those who do not have the capacity to understand.

Those who are not sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the true interpretation of these passages in the Bible, or to understand that the same term admits of two different interpretations, may simply be told that the scriptural passage is clearly understood by the wise, but that they should content themselves with knowing that God is incorporeal, that He is never subject to external influence, as passivity implies a change, while God is entirely free from all change, that He cannot be compared to anything besides Himself, that no definition includes Him together with any other being, that the words of the Prophets are true, and that difficulties met with may be explained on this principle. This may suffice for that class of persons, and it is not proper to leave them in the belief that God is corporeal, or that He has any of the properties of material objects, just as there is no need to leave them in the belief that God does not exist, that there are more Gods than one, or that any other being may be worshipped.”

Not everyone has the capacity to “know”. Those who do not, we ask to believe and accept. Usually the people who do not have the intellectual capacity to learn the philosophical discourse are also not bothered by the questions. Emunah Peshutah, accepting things on belief, suffices for them.

This kind of Emunah Peshutah is not only acceptable, it is mandatory and fulfills the obligations imposed by the negative commandment of Lo Y’heyeh Lecha. The popular one contravenes it.