Basics in Kabbalah: Emunah - GalEinai (original) (raw)

January 30, 2014April 13, 20140705

The Powers of the Soul to Experience God

Emunah "Faith"

Emunah is the spiritual state associated with the inner experience of the highest of the three "heads" of keter, the Reisha d'lo Ityada ("the unknowable head").

Emunah is the essential connection, or "covenant," between Israel and God. In Chassidut we find the saying that the "simple faith" (emunah peshutah) of the "simple Jew" (yehudi pashut) links him to the "simple (absolute) unity" (achdut peshutah) of God's_Atzmut_ (Essence, above the revelation of His infinite light, or en sof ). Every Jewish soul inherits its faith from the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people in general, and from Abraham, the "first believer," in particular. As an inherited trait, emunah is always present in every Jewish soul, though not necessarily conscious.

It is the function of the soul of Moses (present in every generation) to sustain and reinforce the consciousness of the faith of Israel, and hence Jewish identity, through the food of Torahwisdom. In the merit of Moses, manna was given to Israel. Its first appearance in Torahreads "man hu," which permutes into the word "emunah."

The Jew's innate readiness to fully devote his life to the service of God and sacrifice his life for the sake of God is the essential expression of his emunah in God.