Part III. Beyond Nature
A New Field
And now we come to another area of lifnim mishuras hadin, an entirely new field of going beyond the line of duty. Because there are two Torahs in the world. One of them, what we’ve been discussing till now, is the Torah we got at Har Sinai. And included in that Torah are all the dinim and also lifnim mishuras hadin – the obligation to forge ahead as much as possible beyond the line of duty, beyond the minimum, and use the Torah for its real purpose, for all the ideals that it teaches.
But there’s another Torah, a Torah that many are not aware of, and that’s the Torah of Creation. Because this world is a great academy, or better yet a great yeshivah of emunah and every one of us is obligated to study as much as possible in this yeshivah. We’re obligated to acquire more and more emunah by means of studying the world around us.
Now, I understand that most frum people today have the idea that it’s all superfluous. They believe as some tell them, “All you need is emunah peshutah,” which means just say “I believe” and it’s not necessary to be convinced any more than that.
More Emunah, Nor Emunah
But the truth is that even if it’s so; that you believe – I’m not convinced it’s so, but even if it is, that’s only the bare minimum. And what we’re learning now is that the Jew doesn’t live with the bare minimum. To be a believer, a non-atheist, that’s nothing yet. You’d have to be a lunatic to be an atheist. There’s nothing special about believing.
And therefore anyone who says “I have emunah peshutah and that’s enough,” what it means is that he is dodging his responsibility. He’s fulfilling the minimum – a beis din can’t require anymore than that – but absolutely he’s dodging the responsibility of lifnim mishuras hadin. Because emunah, a real sensory perception of Hashem, that’s something that is a never ending achievement. There’s always more and more, higher and higher.
Details of Emunah
And that’s the great importance of Creation. Because why did Hakadosh Baruch Hu make such a complicated world? ‡ּהו¿ךּרוָּב ֹׁ̆ו„ַָּ̃ה ‡ָרָּב∆ּׁ̆ הַמלָּכֹמוָלֹעו¿ּב – Every detail that He made, ‡ָּל∆‡ ֹו‡ָר¿ב ‡ֹלֹו„ֹבו¿כƒל – He made only for His honor (Avos 6:11). Honor means that we recognize Him; in one word ‘emunah’.
You’re hearing now a fundamental statement, an all-encompassing statement that is a key to the phenomena of the universe. Every object in the universe has one purpose – of course, they have various purposes, manifold purposes, but all of them together have one common purpose and that is to bring us to more emunah, more awareness of Hashem.
