The Essence of a Jew: Living With Unshakable Faith in God

The Torah tells us that God said to Abraham: “No longer will your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham” (Genesis 17:5). Why the change? The sages explain: Abram is an acronym for “Rabot Machshavot b’Lev Ish” — “Many thoughts are in the heart of man.” When a person thinks he alone plans, directs, and controls his life, he is not yet living as a Jew. To become Abraham, the father of the nation, an additional letter was added — “ה” (hei). This represents “ve’Aztat Hashem Hi Takum” — “the counsel of God, it is what will stand.” Faith is knowing that God is the One leading, and even if we make plans, it is ultimately His will that determines the outcome. That is why he became Abraham, with the hei of God’s guidance.

A Jew has the power to believe in every situation. God told Abraham to lift his eyes and look: “Lift up your eyes and see — from northward and southward, eastward and westward — for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:14–15).

The Or HaChaim explains that God performed a miracle for Abraham that from one spot he was able to see in all four directions without turning his head. Abraham was worthy of this miracle because he made four doorways in his tent so that guests would never need to walk around searching for an entrance. Since he made things easy for others, God made it easy for him. Because Abraham always accepted God’s word with simplicity and without questions, as if he already saw the whole picture, he merited to actually see everything at once.

Sarah too endured trials. She was barren for many years, while her maidservant Hagar gave birth immediately. And yet, she believed it was all for the good. The Torah tells us she lived 127 years, and Rashi comments: “All of them equally good.” The righteous explain that whatever happened to her, she accepted as good. She lived with absolute faith.

This power of unwavering faith — that everything is from God and always for the good, was passed down to us, her children. Every Jew has this power within, though often it requires effort to bring it out. Indeed, throughout history we have seen breathtaking expressions of faith in the most painful circumstances.

Faith in Times of Suffering

After the tragic fire in Rehovot that killed six members of the Shaar family, Eva Sandler — whose husband and two children were murdered in a terror attack in Toulouse, came to comfort the bereaved mother, Aviv Shaar. Aviv said: “It is clear to me that this was a kind of atonement for the Jewish people. We are like in a movie. One day we all must leave this world, but I don’t know if we could reach their level. I have no doubt they are in the best place. The ones truly suffering are us. For them, it is the best.”

She added: “I tell everyone the same thing: we are not more merciful than God. God truly loves us. Everything He does is for the good. We cannot understand it, because our knowledge is limited. But I truly believe that just as He gave, He took. May His Name be blessed.”

Rabbi David Tzvi Gotstein, who lost his wife, son, and his wife’s family in a train disaster, said: “I have no world left. Only God is with me, 24 hours a day. I feel Him every moment.” About the driver who caused the accident, he said: “I have no anger. None. He was only a messenger. I believe this was decreed from Heaven. A believing Jew sees everything differently — he sees how God turns every detail. If God didn’t want it, it would not have happened.”

Similarly moving were the words of Yonatan Saada, who lost his father in the Hyper Cacher terror attack in Paris: “Our father didn’t leave us. His body may not be here, but my father is not his body — he is his soul. And that soul is still with us.” He told his mother immediately after hearing the news: “Don’t worry. Father is in an excellent state now. He always was a soul, and now he remains with us, even stronger.”

Rabbi Uriya Stein, who died young after years of painful illness would say: “For God, is there any difference between a mosquito bite and a tumor? Of course not. So why should I panic?” When his wife cried, he reassured her: “I am in our Father’s hands — there’s nothing to fear.” At one point he said: “Our little daughter is never anxious — why should we be?” Even as his eyesight failed, he declared: “I still see — I see the kindness of God!” His final words were: “With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.”

At his shiva, his father said: “We must give thanks for the extra six years and two more children he was blessed with, even though the doctors said he would not live even one month.”

Rabbi Ezriel Tauber relates in his Pirkei Machshava, the story he heard often from his teacher, Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl, about the Holocaust years. In Nitra, Czechoslovakia, Jews were rounded up and crammed into cattle cars. Among them was a simple Jewish poultry farmer. Amid the suffocating thirst and cries of children, he looked out the tiny window and saw another Jew walking free. He cried out: “Moshe! Please go to my house and feed the chickens! Causing animals to suffer is forbidden by the Torah!”

Even in that nightmare, his devotion to God’s mitzvot burned bright. Like the Chovot HaLevavot tells of a pious man who prayed: “My God, You left me hungry and naked, yet You revealed Your greatness to me. Even if You burn me in fire, I will only love and rejoice in You.” Of course we pray not to be tested, but when trials present, we must know that we do have the strength.

Unlike at Sinai, where there were levels of faith — Moses above Aaron, Aaron above the elders, and the elders above the people, at the Splitting of the Sea, all people saw the same miracles and everyone believed equally. Even the simplest maidservant saw greater visions than the prophet Ezekiel. The same is true today: any Jew, no matter how simple, who believes with all his heart, stands with the greatest. Faith is not reserved for the few, but is the inheritance of us all.