Knowledge and Faith
Wonders | February 06, 2026
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Knowledge and Faith

Wonders | February 16, 2026

Parashat Beshalach, which we read last week, is all about faith. From the faith exhibited by the Israelites on the Red Sea as Pharaoh and his army were chasing them, to the faith required to eat the manna that fed them for 40 years in the wilderness, to the faith that supported them in the first war with Amalek. Parashat Yitro takes a sharp turn to knowledge: Knowledge of God through the Torah. The highlight of the parashah is the description of the preparations for the Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and then the revelation of the Ten Commandments.

This transition from faith to knowledge of God’s will through the Torah is the subject of the following class given by HaRav Ginsburgh on Friday evening, the 11th of Shevat 5785. A partial transcript of this class was first published in Nifla’ot for Yitro 5785 and here we bring the complete class.

Faith and Knowledge

The Ten Commandments begin with the words, “I am Havayah your God.” From these words, Maimonides derives the commandment to believe in God, the first commandment in his enumeration of the Torah’s 613 commandments as they appear in his “Book of Commandments” (Sefer HaMitzvot). This tome was written in Arabic and the common translation of his words on the first commandment are that we are commanded to believe in God who took us out of Egypt, etc. However, in his halachic work the Mishneh Torah, which was written originally in Hebrew, he writes that the commandment is to know the existence of God who took us out of Egypt, etc.

The explanation given for the discrepancy is that the commandment is to internalize faith and transform it into knowledge (da'at). Faith should not remain merely hovering above our mind, unintegrated into our consciousness. When something remains in this state relative to our consciousness, it is known as a makif, literally, “surrounding.” The sages provide us with an example that captures this state. Even when going out to steal, a thief will call out to God to help him succeed and not get caught. If faith in God and faith in the Torah and its commandments, which prohibit theft would have integrated into the thief’s consciousness, he would not steal in the first place, let alone call out to God for help in doing something that God Himself has forbidden. This dissonance between what the thief believes in (God) and what he knows (that he needs help stealing) demonstrates how faith can remain in a makif state.

Though normally faith is meant to be integrated and become part of our consciousness (da’at), there is also a reverse path detailed in Chasidut, where one proceeds from one’s conscious mind to develop faith. By deep contemplation of what one knows, one ascends to a state of faith that is completely beyond reason and consciousness. Regarding this, it is said that “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to not know,” or more precisely, “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to know that we do not know.” The first statement implies that even when we reach the limits of what can be known by the rational mind, it is still possible to make a leap that transcends the rational mind and arrives at that which cannot be known at all. The more precise version of this statement, that “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to know that we do not know” implies that even the realm of that which we do not know, is accessible by a certain type of knowledge. This knowledge is what Chasidut describes as an inner recognition or sense about that which we do not know.

All faith that is hovering above consciousness, which is beyond reason and knowledge, can also be described as offering inspiration. However, in the first mode (the leap beyond the rational mind), it is inspiration from without, hovering from above. In the second mode (knowing that we do not know), faith inspires from within.

Actually, with careful consideration, we can identify a process that guides faith until it can inspire us from within:

  • The first stage involves faith—which is natural to the Jewish soul—being drawn down into consciousness from Above. This happens because of an “arousal from Above” (אתערותא דלעילא), which is also affected by the power of the tzaddik, the faithful shepherd (Ra'aya Meheimna), who feeds and sustains the faith within the inner da'at of the souls of Israel—this precedes the “arousal from below” (אתערותא דלתתא).
  • In the second stage, the individual invests and contemplates the conscious aspects of faith, those that can be understood through the mind. This constitutes an arousal from below and is meant to deepen until one merits transcending the conscious mind (da’at) and reaches faith, which hovers above.
  • Finally, in the third stage, faith descends from its perch above reason and integrates into the conscious mind. This is known as the arousal from above that follows an effort from below; this arousal from above originates from a level of faith that the arousal from below cannot reach on its own.

The full process can be described as a descent that triggers an ascent that triggers a descent. This description can also be used to describe the ideal relationship between the masculine, which descends with the purpose of subsequently ascending, and the feminine, which ascends with the goal of subsequently descending.

Consummate Faith

An important principle for learning Torah is to search for the first appearance of a word or concept. The word “faith” (אמונה) first appears in the Torah at the end of parashat Beshalach, in context of the war with Amalek. The Torah describes Moses holding up his arms and states, “And his hands gave faith” (ויהי ידיו אמונה). One of the word analysis techniques is to write out a word by filling out each of its letters. The filling of “faith” is אלף מם וו נון הא, whose value is 315, which surprisingly is equivalent to the value of “heresy” (כפירה). How can this be? We call this a state in which two opposites that stand face to face, just as Mashiach and the primordial snake stand face to face, meaning that Mashiach is the antidote to the primordial snake (both words have the same value in Hebrew, משיח and נחש). Likewise, faith is the antidote to heresy. More specifically, the heresy caused by Amalek is “doubt” (ספק), whose value is the same as “Amalek” (עמלק), revealing it as their essence. By casting doubt on the Israelites’ faith that God is with them, Amalek weakened and cooled their trust that God was leading them to the Promised Land. Indeed, the Hebrew word for “heresy” (כפירה) is related to the word for “frost” (כפור).

But there is another way to see the relationship between faith and heresy in a more complementary way. Everything God created in the world has a time and a place, and even disbelief—i.e., the heresy that is the opposite of faith—has its place as is known from Chasidic sources. A specific example of heresy or disbelief serving the greater good is that when a poor man comes asking for charity of me. If I exercise my faith, I may conclude that it is better for me to not give him so much charity that he would no longer be poor. Faith would have me trust God that poverty befits this individual, and who am I to interfere with the Divine plan!? In such cases, one should heretically doubt the Divine plan and do all in their power to help the poor man change their situation and alter their destiny. Disbelief in this case supports faith. Incredibly, this entire situation and its analysis is alluded to in the verse, “He [Abraham] believed in God, and He [God] considered it a charity.”

More deeply, by suspending my faith in God [as I currently understand His conduct] and embracing disbelief, I can transcend my image of God as the possessor of a monolithic, one-dimensional plan and emerge into the realm of accepting that God not only sustains paradox—faith and disbelief can both be used to serve Him—He is also no less coherent for doing so. In fact, without the ability to serve God by transcending our limited beliefs (in the example, the belief that poverty is part of the Divine plan for the poor man is a limited belief), we lack the psychological fortitude to act with free will to become partners in redeeming reality; instead we continue to slumber with a false sense of security that we are people of faith. Another way to say this is that free will, which includes the freedom to embrace what seems to be antithetical to faith, is what purifies and evolves true faith; it is the process of taking faith and integrating it into our conscious mind.

The Masoretic sages used the phrase, “hand of faith” (יד אמונה) to indicate the number of verses in parashat Beshalach (116), suggesting that it captures the essence of the entire parashah. This phrase is also reminiscent of the words that appear in the parashah, “with an upraised hand” (ביד רמה), which Onkelos translates as “with a revealed head” (בריש גלי), a phrase that in Kabbalah alludes to the highest “head” (or part) of the sefirah of crown, known as Radla (the Unknowable Head), the mystery of faith in the soul. The Exodus from Egypt mentions three “hands”: the great hand (היד הגדולה), the strong hand (היד החזקה), and the raised hand (היד רמה). The last is like a middle hand protruding from between the right and left hands—the great hand and the strong hand, respectively—which rises above the body, through the mind, higher and higher until it reaches the crown, where faith resides. One might say that giving the “raised hand” the power to reach above the mind and access faith is the equivalent of filling the word “faith” so that it can serve as the antidote to “heresy.” Thus, Moses was lifting all three hands while the Israelites were battling the doubt injected by Amalek, giving them the power needed to manifest their faith in an active and practical way.

The Partzuf of Faith

In the Pentateuch, the word “faith” appears only once more in the Song of Ha’azinu, “A God of faith, there is no prejudice” (אל אמונה ואין עול). In the rest of the Tanach, the word appears in its basic form (without prefix letters, etc.) another 7 times in the phrases, “steadfast faith” (אמונה אמן), “seeks faith” (מבקש אמונה), “and shepherd faith” (ורעה אמונה), “way of faith” (דרך אמונה), “all your commandments are faith” (כל מצותיך אמונה), “speaks faith” (יפיח אמונה), “He wants those who act with faith” (ועשה אמונה ירצה).

Let us arrange all 9 instances of “faith” in the Tanach as they correspond to the sefirot in a partzuf (model), as follows:

  • The crown corresponds to the “steadfast faith,” which in the full verse is described as faith that comes from the most distant place, alluding to the crown, the most distant sefirah from our conscious mind, absolutely above the rational mind. This is where the steadfast aspect of faith lies.
  • In the phrase, “a God of faith,” the Name of God used is Kel (אל), which is associated at times with wisdom as in the Zohar’s statement, “Kel is the light of wisdom,” which appears as part of the Zohar’s analysis of the verse, “The Heavens tell of the honor of God [Kel],” alluding to the 32 (the value of “honor” כבוד) pathways of wisdom.
  • “Seeks faith” corresponds to understanding because the act of seeking God, “Those who seek God will understand all” is the act of contemplating, or meditating with the conscious mind upon the Divine, which cannot be comprehended at all, eventually leading to the revelation of the higher part of the crown, Atik, in the sefirah of understanding. Incidentally, the value of the complete phrase, “If there is anyone who acts justly, seeks faith, I would pardon her” (אם יש עושה משפט מבקש אמונה ואסלחה לה) is 1839, the value of “Open my eyes so that I may see the wonders of Your Torah” (גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך), which is also 3 times 613, as well as the value of “teshuvah, Torah, prayer” (תשובה תורה תפלה), etc.
  • Corresponding to the sefirah of knowledge (da’at) is “shepherd faith,” a connotation for Moses, God’s shepherd of faith. Moses is the knowledge or consciousness of the entire Jewish people who integrates faith into the conscious mind. Moses shepherds our faith until it is integrated into our conscious mind.
  • The phrase, “And his hands gave faith” corresponds in a very straightforward way to both loving-kindness and might, the two hands.
  • “All your commandments are faith” reflects the sefirah of beauty (tiferet), since all the commandments are likened to the body of the Torah and the body is the sefirah of beauty.
  • “He wants those who act with faith” corresponds to both victory and acknowledgment, the two faculties of action. The “wants” that is revealed through them refers to will, the lowest part of the crown, that is revealed through action. The Hebrew word for “will” (רצון) is also cognate with “running” (רץ), capturing the image of the two feet—victory and acknowledgment correspond to the feet in the human form—running to perform some action that the person deeply wants.
  • Foundation represents the procreative organs, and the marital union is known as “the way of a man with a maiden.” Thus “way of faith” corresponds to foundation. Foundation indicates a state of connection and embracing a way or path of faith means choosing to perform commandments that create a rectified way of life.
  • Finally, the phrase, “speaks faith,” corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom, which is the secret of the mouth, the secret of speech.

To summarize our partzuf:

  • crown-keter: steadfast faith (אמונה אמן)
  • wisdom-chochmah: God [Kel] of faith (אל אמונה)
  • understanding-binah: seeks faith (מבקש אמונה)
  • knowledge-da’at: shepherd faith (ורעה אמונה)
  • loving-kindness-chessed and might-gevurah: And his hands were faith (ויהי ידיו אמונה)
  • beauty-tiferet: all your commandments are faith (כל מצותיך אמונה)
  • victory-netzach and acknowledgment-hod: those who act with faith (ועשה אמונה ירצה)
  • foundation-yesod: the way of faith (דרך אמונה)
  • kingdom-malchut: speaks faith (יפיח אמונה)

Parashat Beshalach, which we read last week, is all about faith. From the faith exhibited by the Israelites on the Red Sea as Pharaoh and his army were chasing them, to the faith required to eat the manna that fed them for 40 years in the wilderness, to the faith that supported them in the first war with Amalek. Parashat Yitro takes a sharp turn to knowledge: Knowledge of God through the Torah. The highlight of the parashah is the description of the preparations for the Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai and then the revelation of the Ten Commandments.

This transition from faith to knowledge of God’s will through the Torah is the subject of the following class given by HaRav Ginsburgh on Friday evening, the 11th of Shevat 5785. A partial transcript of this class was first published in Nifla’ot for Yitro 5785 and here we bring the complete class.

Faith and Knowledge

The Ten Commandments begin with the words, “I am Havayah your God.” From these words, Maimonides derives the commandment to believe in God, the first commandment in his enumeration of the Torah’s 613 commandments as they appear in his “Book of Commandments” (Sefer HaMitzvot). This tome was written in Arabic and the common translation of his words on the first commandment are that we are commanded to believe in God who took us out of Egypt, etc. However, in his halachic work the Mishneh Torah, which was written originally in Hebrew, he writes that the commandment is to know the existence of God who took us out of Egypt, etc.

The explanation given for the discrepancy is that the commandment is to internalize faith and transform it into knowledge (da'at). Faith should not remain merely hovering above our mind, unintegrated into our consciousness. When something remains in this state relative to our consciousness, it is known as a makif, literally, “surrounding.” The sages provide us with an example that captures this state. Even when going out to steal, a thief will call out to God to help him succeed and not get caught. If faith in God and faith in the Torah and its commandments, which prohibit theft would have integrated into the thief’s consciousness, he would not steal in the first place, let alone call out to God for help in doing something that God Himself has forbidden. This dissonance between what the thief believes in (God) and what he knows (that he needs help stealing) demonstrates how faith can remain in a makif state.

Though normally faith is meant to be integrated and become part of our consciousness (da’at), there is also a reverse path detailed in Chasidut, where one proceeds from one’s conscious mind to develop faith. By deep contemplation of what one knows, one ascends to a state of faith that is completely beyond reason and consciousness. Regarding this, it is said that “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to not know,” or more precisely, “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to know that we do not know.” The first statement implies that even when we reach the limits of what can be known by the rational mind, it is still possible to make a leap that transcends the rational mind and arrives at that which cannot be known at all. The more precise version of this statement, that “the ultimate purpose of knowledge is to know that we do not know” implies that even the realm of that which we do not know, is accessible by a certain type of knowledge. This knowledge is what Chasidut describes as an inner recognition or sense about that which we do not know.

All faith that is hovering above consciousness, which is beyond reason and knowledge, can also be described as offering inspiration. However, in the first mode (the leap beyond the rational mind), it is inspiration from without, hovering from above. In the second mode (knowing that we do not know), faith inspires from within.

Actually, with careful consideration, we can identify a process that guides faith until it can inspire us from within:

  • The first stage involves faith—which is natural to the Jewish soul—being drawn down into consciousness from Above. This happens because of an “arousal from Above” (אתערותא דלעילא), which is also affected by the power of the tzaddik, the faithful shepherd (Ra'aya Meheimna), who feeds and sustains the faith within the inner da'at of the souls of Israel—this precedes the “arousal from below” (אתערותא דלתתא).
  • In the second stage, the individual invests and contemplates the conscious aspects of faith, those that can be understood through the mind. This constitutes an arousal from below and is meant to deepen until one merits transcending the conscious mind (da’at) and reaches faith, which hovers above.
  • Finally, in the third stage, faith descends from its perch above reason and integrates into the conscious mind. This is known as the arousal from above that follows an effort from below; this arousal from above originates from a level of faith that the arousal from below cannot reach on its own.

The full process can be described as a descent that triggers an ascent that triggers a descent. This description can also be used to describe the ideal relationship between the masculine, which descends with the purpose of subsequently ascending, and the feminine, which ascends with the goal of subsequently descending.

Consummate Faith

An important principle for learning Torah is to search for the first appearance of a word or concept. The word “faith” (אמונה) first appears in the Torah at the end of parashat Beshalach, in context of the war with Amalek. The Torah describes Moses holding up his arms and states, “And his hands gave faith” (ויהי ידיו אמונה). One of the word analysis techniques is to write out a word by filling out each of its letters. The filling of “faith” is אלף מם וו נון הא, whose value is 315, which surprisingly is equivalent to the value of “heresy” (כפירה). How can this be? We call this a state in which two opposites that stand face to face, just as Mashiach and the primordial snake stand face to face, meaning that Mashiach is the antidote to the primordial snake (both words have the same value in Hebrew, משיח and נחש). Likewise, faith is the antidote to heresy. More specifically, the heresy caused by Amalek is “doubt” (ספק), whose value is the same as “Amalek” (עמלק), revealing it as their essence. By casting doubt on the Israelites’ faith that God is with them, Amalek weakened and cooled their trust that God was leading them to the Promised Land. Indeed, the Hebrew word for “heresy” (כפירה) is related to the word for “frost” (כפור).

But there is another way to see the relationship between faith and heresy in a more complementary way. Everything God created in the world has a time and a place, and even disbelief—i.e., the heresy that is the opposite of faith—has its place as is known from Chasidic sources. A specific example of heresy or disbelief serving the greater good is that when a poor man comes asking for charity of me. If I exercise my faith, I may conclude that it is better for me to not give him so much charity that he would no longer be poor. Faith would have me trust God that poverty befits this individual, and who am I to interfere with the Divine plan!? In such cases, one should heretically doubt the Divine plan and do all in their power to help the poor man change their situation and alter their destiny. Disbelief in this case supports faith. Incredibly, this entire situation and its analysis is alluded to in the verse, “He [Abraham] believed in God, and He [God] considered it a charity.”

More deeply, by suspending my faith in God [as I currently understand His conduct] and embracing disbelief, I can transcend my image of God as the possessor of a monolithic, one-dimensional plan and emerge into the realm of accepting that God not only sustains paradox—faith and disbelief can both be used to serve Him—He is also no less coherent for doing so. In fact, without the ability to serve God by transcending our limited beliefs (in the example, the belief that poverty is part of the Divine plan for the poor man is a limited belief), we lack the psychological fortitude to act with free will to become partners in redeeming reality; instead we continue to slumber with a false sense of security that we are people of faith. Another way to say this is that free will, which includes the freedom to embrace what seems to be antithetical to faith, is what purifies and evolves true faith; it is the process of taking faith and integrating it into our conscious mind.

The Masoretic sages used the phrase, “hand of faith” (יד אמונה) to indicate the number of verses in parashat Beshalach (116), suggesting that it captures the essence of the entire parashah. This phrase is also reminiscent of the words that appear in the parashah, “with an upraised hand” (ביד רמה), which Onkelos translates as “with a revealed head” (בריש גלי), a phrase that in Kabbalah alludes to the highest “head” (or part) of the sefirah of crown, known as Radla (the Unknowable Head), the mystery of faith in the soul. The Exodus from Egypt mentions three “hands”: the great hand (היד הגדולה), the strong hand (היד החזקה), and the raised hand (היד רמה). The last is like a middle hand protruding from between the right and left hands—the great hand and the strong hand, respectively—which rises above the body, through the mind, higher and higher until it reaches the crown, where faith resides. One might say that giving the “raised hand” the power to reach above the mind and access faith is the equivalent of filling the word “faith” so that it can serve as the antidote to “heresy.” Thus, Moses was lifting all three hands while the Israelites were battling the doubt injected by Amalek, giving them the power needed to manifest their faith in an active and practical way.

The Partzuf of Faith

In the Pentateuch, the word “faith” appears only once more in the Song of Ha’azinu, “A God of faith, there is no prejudice” (אל אמונה ואין עול). In the rest of the Tanach, the word appears in its basic form (without prefix letters, etc.) another 7 times in the phrases, “steadfast faith” (אמונה אמן), “seeks faith” (מבקש אמונה), “and shepherd faith” (ורעה אמונה), “way of faith” (דרך אמונה), “all your commandments are faith” (כל מצותיך אמונה), “speaks faith” (יפיח אמונה), “He wants those who act with faith” (ועשה אמונה ירצה).

Let us arrange all 9 instances of “faith” in the Tanach as they correspond to the sefirot in a partzuf (model), as follows:

  • The crown corresponds to the “steadfast faith,” which in the full verse is described as faith that comes from the most distant place, alluding to the crown, the most distant sefirah from our conscious mind, absolutely above the rational mind. This is where the steadfast aspect of faith lies.
  • In the phrase, “a God of faith,” the Name of God used is Kel (אל), which is associated at times with wisdom as in the Zohar’s statement, “Kel is the light of wisdom,” which appears as part of the Zohar’s analysis of the verse, “The Heavens tell of the honor of God [Kel],” alluding to the 32 (the value of “honor” כבוד) pathways of wisdom.
  • “Seeks faith” corresponds to understanding because the act of seeking God, “Those who seek God will understand all” is the act of contemplating, or meditating with the conscious mind upon the Divine, which cannot be comprehended at all, eventually leading to the revelation of the higher part of the crown, Atik, in the sefirah of understanding. Incidentally, the value of the complete phrase, “If there is anyone who acts justly, seeks faith, I would pardon her” (אם יש עושה משפט מבקש אמונה ואסלחה לה) is 1839, the value of “Open my eyes so that I may see the wonders of Your Torah” (גל עיני ואביטה נפלאות מתורתך), which is also 3 times 613, as well as the value of “teshuvah, Torah, prayer” (תשובה תורה תפלה), etc.
  • Corresponding to the sefirah of knowledge (da’at) is “shepherd faith,” a connotation for Moses, God’s shepherd of faith. Moses is the knowledge or consciousness of the entire Jewish people who integrates faith into the conscious mind. Moses shepherds our faith until it is integrated into our conscious mind.
  • The phrase, “And his hands gave faith” corresponds in a very straightforward way to both loving-kindness and might, the two hands.
  • “All your commandments are faith” reflects the sefirah of beauty (tiferet), since all the commandments are likened to the body of the Torah and the body is the sefirah of beauty.
  • “He wants those who act with faith” corresponds to both victory and acknowledgment, the two faculties of action. The “wants” that is revealed through them refers to will, the lowest part of the crown, that is revealed through action. The Hebrew word for “will” (רצון) is also cognate with “running” (רץ), capturing the image of the two feet—victory and acknowledgment correspond to the feet in the human form—running to perform some action that the person deeply wants.
  • Foundation represents the procreative organs, and the marital union is known as “the way of a man with a maiden.” Thus “way of faith” corresponds to foundation. Foundation indicates a state of connection and embracing a way or path of faith means choosing to perform commandments that create a rectified way of life.
  • Finally, the phrase, “speaks faith,” corresponds to the sefirah of kingdom, which is the secret of the mouth, the secret of speech.

To summarize our partzuf:

  • crown-keter: steadfast faith (אמונה אמן)
  • wisdom-chochmah: God [Kel] of faith (אל אמונה)
  • understanding-binah: seeks faith (מבקש אמונה)
  • knowledge-da’at: shepherd faith (ורעה אמונה)
  • loving-kindness-chessed and might-gevurah: And his hands were faith (ויהי ידיו אמונה)
  • beauty-tiferet: all your commandments are faith (כל מצותיך אמונה)
  • victory-netzach and acknowledgment-hod: those who act with faith (ועשה אמונה ירצה)
  • foundation-yesod: the way of faith (דרך אמונה)
  • kingdom-malchut: speaks faith (יפיח אמונה)
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Wonders | February 06, 2026