How Can Faith Be Explained?

Haggai asks: "Hello. How can I explain to a friend who hasn't yet returned to faith, what faith is, meaning the feeling of guidance that's always with us?"

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Hello and blessings, Haggai, and thank you for your interesting question.

If someone hasn't realized they have a Father, how can they seek to feel a Father's love? First, they need to acquire the knowledge of His reality, and then their eyes will be opened to notice His ever-present guidance. The Torah teaches: "Know this day and take it to your heart that Hashem is the true God". One must know the truth in order to feel this truth deeply in their heart. Therefore, your friend should first get to know the many proofs published on the Hidabroot website and in Rabbi Zamir Cohen's books, to attain straightforward faith.

The Rambam explained how love for Hashem is attained through understanding reality and our place within it:

"This glorious, revered God commands us to love and fear Him, as it says: 'And you shall love the Lord your God', and 'Fear the Lord your God'. How is the path to loving and fearing Him? When a person contemplates His wondrous and great works, and perceives the infinite wisdom they hold, they immediately love, praise, and extol, and have a great desire to know the great name, as David said: 'My soul thirsts for God, the living God'. And when pondering these matters, they become awe-struck, realizing they are a small creature, standing with a limited understanding before the Completer of all knowledge, as David said: 'When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, what is man that You are mindful of him'. According to these thoughts, I elucidate great principles from the acts of the Master of the Universe, as an entry point for those who understand, to love Hashem, as our Sages said regarding love: Through this, you will understand the one who spoke, and the world came to be" (Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah, Chapter 2, 1-2).

But you asked how to depict to your friend in words the feeling of faith that they have not yet sensed. And this really is a very difficult question, because how can one explain faith and trust to someone who hasn't known them? Millions of people sense Hashem in their lives, He blesses them, accompanies them, and listens to their prayers—but this is only after they attained faith in Him. They sense Hashem in every aspect of their lives because they possess a kind of 'sixth sense' that detects the constant guidance surrounding them—even in the smallest details that happen in their lives. The effects of faith are visible: thanks to faith, people can endure the greatest hardships, the toughest challenges, and the strongest trials, and trust in Hashem's goodness against nature and against the senses. With true faith, a person can even endure something like the Holocaust.

But how can it be described? Perhaps you can try to explain to him that it is the feeling of "there is none else besides Him", that the entire universe is full of Hashem's presence to the point where there is no space left. The problem is that even this description is inadequate, as it is truly a feeling far more powerful and greater than the universe, such that no material description can successfully depict it—not even a vast space with billions of stars. Can we explain to a blind person what colors look like, or to a deaf person what music sounds like? Indeed, the feeling of faith and trust is stronger than sight and sound; it is a sense of connection that transcends the physical dimension and aspires toward something beyond the world, to an infinite God who fills the entire universe from the tiniest atom to the largest galaxy, with no space empty of Him.

The author of the Tanya (in the Gate of Unity and Faith) explains that faith in the unity of Hashem does not only mean denying other gods, but this is the belief that the Holy One is the only true reality, and apart from Him, there is no tangible existence in the world at all, because Hashem sustains all creation with His constant command. Thus, everything derives and exists only from Him. This is the meaning of "there is none else besides Him", and as our sages explained: "Why do they refer to Hashem's name as 'Place'? Because He is the space of the world, and the world is not His space". That is, Hashem is not an entity wandering within the world; rather, He, blessed be He, is the space within which the entire world exists!

But faith is not just saying these words, but truly feeling the unity of Hashem with all your being. When a person achieves faith, their consciousness recognizes for the first time in their life a reality beyond nature and beyond the senses—a reality that is greater and more powerful than all matter, a consciousness of the existence of absolute unity, and with it, encompassing the entire world. How can this feeling be expressed in words? Still, we will try:

On one side, it is the feeling of being a small speck standing before an enormous and terrifying abyss, so vast you cannot see its end—it is the feeling of being an insignificant creature with no value or measure in the universe but at the same time, the feeling that this immense abyss is nothing before Hashem Whose immense light fills the whole space, seeing you perfectly well even in the darkest darkness of the deepest abyss. You are aware that this abyss cannot separate between you, for to Him, there is no great or small—the smallest speck or the largest abyss is entirely equal before Him. His power is infinite, so the entire universe is smaller than a grain of sand before Him. And since He, blessed be He, fills all and sustains all, His light reaches you—he sees you while you perceive Him. You feel Him sustaining every part of your tiny existence, being with you and outside of you—in every place and at all times, knowing all and feeling all, with nothing hidden from Him: "Can a man hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares Hashem. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?"

You experience His presence intensely, and your entire being is moved by the power of His existence and cries out without sound: how could such a small creature like me stand before the King of the world, and yet He looks at me—at me—the smallest speck on the edge of the greatest mouth? He watches me and speaks to me without words...but it does happen, I pray to Him, and He listens to my prayer. The greatest King relates to the smallest creature in utter grace, and it is impossible to describe the extent of His grace. Your whole being wants to thank, praise, glorify, and exalt the great and fearsome name with tears without tears and cries without voice—because no tears and no voice can express your feelings in the face of His grace—the grace of existence for sustaining you, the grace of prayer for allowing you to recognize Him and turn to Him in prayer, and the grace of listening for attending to your prayer. Despite being nothing before Him, He is with you.

Truly, I find no other way to describe such a warm and embracing feeling, this is the awareness of the soul that senses the consciousness of divine infinity. Millions of people testify to this spirituality, and it cannot be taken from a believer who has grasped it.

Those who have experienced faith see Hashem's private guidance and live with Hashem. They see the Holy One in every action that happens to them, every word spoken to them, every good or hard thing that befalls them, and even in the smallest and most inconsequential suffering, as the sages said in tractate Arachin (page 16b): "To what extent can suffering go? ...Even when they intended to pour a cup of wine with warm water and mistakenly poured with cold, or intended to pour with cold and poured with hot, this is called suffering...even if their clothing turned inside out when dressing, requiring to reverse it, this is suffering...to what extent can suffering go? Even if they reached into a pocket to take out three coins and two came to hand, this is suffering".

One who feels Hashem senses His oversight in every detail, in every particle of their life, accompanying them always. Faith is an amazing feeling, and there is no other feeling in the world comparable to it. It is the foundation of life and its essence, a feeling for which it is alone worth living, may we always feel this way: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God, my soul thirsts for Hashem, for the living God, when can I go and meet with God" (Psalms 42:2-3).