This means that when a Yid is going to perform a mitzvah, even if he doesn’t know the reason for this mitzvah—just as he doesn’t know why we’re not allowed to don shaatnez—he does know one thing: The Ramban has revealed to us that the entire purpose of Creation is that we believe in our G-d, and we give thanks to Him for having created us. This is the tachlis that Hashem wants from me!
And the Ribbono shel Olam has said that if we perform mitzvos with this belief in mind, we will merit to internalize this belief.
Even if we don’t know how the mitzvah will bring this about...this we know for certain: The mitzvah will bring emunah, and we perform the mitzvah with this in mind.
“I Know That This Will Accomplish the Goal”
This can be likened to a person who has been working for his boss for thirty years. By now, he knows everything that his boss likes, his goals and aspirations for the business, and so forth... he knows everything from inside out.
One day, his boss asks him to take care of a certain thing. Now, even if he doesn’t understand the exact cheshbon for this, he knows where he wants to arrive, and where he wants to bring his business through this step. Even if he doesn’t know precisely how this step will accomplish that goal—he does know his boss for long enough to know the ultimate tachlis that he is trying to accomplish.
The same things transpires when a Yid performs a mitzvah. He knows that he has a tachlis to bring emunah into his heart. And although he doesn’t know exactly how this will accomplish the goal, he relies on the “Boss,” the Ribbono shel Olam, who knows he will arrive at this goal through this mitzvah.
Through Bittul and Through the Power of the Mitzvah
There’s actually a very simple understanding of how a mitzvah instills emunah into a person. For when a Yid fulfills the desires of the One Who sent him, he essentially proclaims that he believes and trusts in the Sender, and he listens to Him. And if the person doesn’t understand why the Sender has sent him to do this, it is an even greater form of fulfillment—for he is carrying out the command with bittul and hachna’ah, submission and humility, and he becomes even more submitted to Hashem through this! Thus, his emunah is strengthened even more through his fulfillment of the mitzvah.
But in addition to this, there’s a hidden segulah, a power of kedushah that lies hidden inside each mitzvah—which implants and infuses more emunah and more emunah into the heart of a Yid. As the pasuk (Tehillim 119:86) says: kol mitzvosecha emunah, all Your mitzvos are emunah. And this is what a Yid should have in mind every time he performs a mitzvah: “Through this mitzvah, my emunah in Hashem will be strengthened. I am performing this mitzvah so that I will remember the knowledge of Hashem’s control of the world!”
We Can’t Separate Torah and Emunah
Parenthetically, this Ramban holds the answer to those who are, R”l, distant from Torah and mitzvos, but they say that “the heart is the ikkar...” they believe in their hearts that there is a Ribbono shel Olam. The Ramban is teaching us that the fulfillment of mitzvos and emunah are one. They cannot be separated. The emunah in the heart of a Yid can come only through his fulfillment of Hashem’s commands as they’re written in the Torah. Every detail of the mitzvos brings about a strengthening in his emunah—it cannot be any other way. Torah and mitzvos, and emunah in Hashem, are interdependent. As the Ramban writes (above) ‘Be vigilant regarding a light mitzvah just as you would be regarding a severe mitzvah’—for all mitzvos are deeply cherished and beloved, because, at every moment, one praises his G-d by performing these mitzvos.
