As we have seen, we should use our belief in, relationship with, and feelings toward Hashem as cornerstones of our religious identity. Accomplishing this can be challenging because Hashem is not visible or truly knowable to us. How can we love, feel a relationship with, or even believe in what we cannot see?
There are two answers to this question. Though we cannot know Hashem Himself, we learn about Him (on some level) through His creation and teachings; in other words, by studying His word and His world. These are the two ways the Rambam (Aseh 3) and Chinuch (418) recommend developing love for Hashem. These are also the ways to strengthen fundamental belief in Hashem.
Let’s begin with the first method the Rambam mentions: studying Hashem’s word, the Torah. Unlike observing mitzvot, which reflects and reinforces our sense of commitment to Hashem, studying the mitzvot and the Torah as a whole can strengthen our belief in and foster our love of Hashem.
Belief – What No Human Could Have Written
The first way Torah study strengthens belief in Hashem is by revealing aspects that human beings could not have written.
Knowledge of the Present
Chazal make this point regarding assertions made by the Torah that no ancient human being knew enough to make. These assertions prove the Torah’s Divine authorship and, by association, the existence of its Divine author.
For example, when discussing the two signs that distinguish kosher animals (split hoofs and chewing cud), the Torah specifies all the animals that have only one of the signs (Vay. 11:1-8). As no human being (at least in antiquity) was familiar with all the world’s animals, a human author would not have risked including a potentially incomplete list. The Torah, on the other hand, incorporates the list to prove its Divine origin and author (Chul. 59a).
Chazal infer another amazing point from the pasukim in Parshat Bereishit (1:9-10) which describe the land as having been created in the form of one large mass. The medrash explains that Hashem created the land as one mass and only later divided it into seven distinct continents. Though contemporary science believes this to have occurred, an ancient human would have had no basis to believe that there had initially been one mass or that there were now seven continents. Man had not yet discovered all seven continents and definitely had no grounds to believe that they all had initially been part of one land mass.
The Torah’s claim about the revelation at Har Sinai also reinforces our belief in Hashem (in addition to our faith in the Torah’s Divine origin). The claim that an entire nation (as opposed to a limited group) consisting of millions of people (as opposed to a small group) is hard to fabricate, as people would wonder why they had not heard about it from their own ancestors.
Predictions
The fact that the Torah includes definitive predictions about the future also points to a Divine author. Two examples of such predictions are the promise that Hashem will award shemittah observers with three times the amount of wheat in the sixth year (Vay. 25:20-22) and the promise that no one will (even) covet the land of those who go on pilgrimage to Yerushalayim for the three chagim (Sh. 34:23-24).
In addition to these personal prophecies, Biblical predictions about the future of the Jewish people have also materialized over the past thousands of years. Examples include persistent, irrational antisemitism (Dev. 28:68) and the survival of the Jewish people notwithstanding (Ber. 17:20), our disproportionate influence (Yesh. 42:1; 49:6), our demoralizing exile (Vay. 26:30-38; Dev. 28:64-67) and the parallel desolation of the land (Vay. 26:32), and finally, our ingathering to Eretz Yisrael from the four corners of the world (Dev. 30:3-5) supported by the revival of the land (Yesh. 65:21-22).
Breadth and Depth
The Torah’s impressive assertions and predictions are not the only indications of its Divine authorship. Its unique breadth, depth, and complexity reinforce our faith. Though Torah ideas must obviously be understandable to human beings (and many of them have also been conceived by human beings without their exposure to the Torah), its comprehensive scope, the depth of its ideas and guidance, and its weaving together of different ideas and perspectives are unparalleled.
Hashem embedded many components and perspectives, indeed all those relevant, within the Torah’s approach to each issue. This is why Torah scholars continue discovering new ideas even after thousands of years and hundreds of generations of intense study. Man often approaches topics monochromatically, making use of one central principle. The Torah’s approach to every point is sophisticated. It integrates and balances all possible principles, even opposing ones (often on multiple levels). The mosaic of ideas that emerges from a (fully understood) sugya is unparalleled by any mortal creation.
Love – Appreciating the Author
Appreciating Torah’s depth also inspires love for its author. One who completes the proper learning of a sugya and, for sure, those who complement their first sugya with additional ones are naturally impressed by Hashem and His wisdom and appreciative of Him and His gifting this wisdom to us.
Torah study exposes us to Hashem through His thought process, making us meaningfully familiar with Him. When we study Torah on a truly deep level, we merit an especially meaningful perception of Hashem. This perception facilitates familiarity and inspires love.
We also appreciate how our learning enriches us as people. It broadens and deepens our life perspective and helps us see everything in our lives and our world in a more profound and meaningful way.
May our sincere goal of using the Torah to strengthen our belief in and relationship with Hashem merit His assistance in accomplishing this by His helping us achieve a deep and profound understanding and appreciation of both His Torah and how it impacts us.
