Q&A: The Commandment of Faith (the first utterance: “I am the Lord” )
The Commandment of Faith (the first utterance: “I am the Lord” )
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi,
regarding the commandment of faith, which according to most enumerators of the commandments is apparently counted as a positive commandment. The well-known difficulty with this is: how can the commandment itself command us to believe in it itself?
I’m looking for a solution to this. Intuitively, I think it is correct that this is a commandment, but the difficulty is a strong one.
I found something in the Maharal that may answer the question, but I’m still not sure, so I’m sharing it with you.
In Tiferet Yisrael (chapter 37) — the gist of his words is that he answers two difficulties against those who say this is not a commandment because the plain sense of the wording seems to state a fact rather than use language of command. To that he answers that God declares that He is God regardless of human opinions; it is an existing fact. Therefore it does not come in language that could be dependent on human will.
And regarding our issue, the logical difficulty, he says this: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; therefore you shall not deny Me by saying that I am not your God, Heaven forbid.” That is, there is a command here, seemingly by way of negation — “do not deny” — and not a command in the positive form, “believe that there is a God.”
Is there a solution in his words? That is, in your opinion, does this save us from the difficulty?
Thank you in advance!
Answer
I don’t see what is gained by that.
Some have explained that the commandment is to deepen one’s faith. I once thought that this is a declarative commandment, a heading for the Book of Commandments that places the basic norm (Kelsen’s term) at the head of the book. See commandments 95–96, which are declarative commandments that command nothing.
The problem is not only the circularity — that without faith there is no commandment — but also that faith is a matter of fact, and therefore it is not something that can be commanded.
Discussion on Answer
Rabbi Prof. Dror Fixler pointed out to me that this commandment appears among Maimonides’ constant commandments, which implies that it is indeed a commandment meant to be fulfilled and not merely a declaration.
With Heaven’s help, 4 Elul 5782
Maimonides formulates the commandment of faith as “to know that there is a First Being…” This implies that the commandment is to study and analyze until the matter is clear in a person’s consciousness, just as the commandment of Torah study is defined by “and you shall teach them diligently,” which the Sages expounded as “that they should be sharp in your mouth,” meaning that the matters should be clear to a person.
Best regards, Yaron Fisch"l Ordner
Since faith exists in a person’s natural awareness,
it is possible to command a person to connect to that natural awareness.
I seem to remember that the Rabbi rejected this suggestion of his. I don’t remember why. Could the Rabbi expand?