Belief in G-d - Part 2: Emunah as a Mitzvah - Rabbi Yaakov Lynn

[Music] [Applause] [Music] the first one is you see on your sheet it says approach number one on the bottom of page one right it says approach number one is that yes this is one of the 613 mitzvos i think you might have a very rapidly sidness in sephora mitzvos this is one of the 613 methods right the the sephora lists it as mitzvah number 25. is a great saver not that he needs my endorsement zebra nur was written by rishon he really wrote it for his son which is why i called it several the book of education right and what it is it goes by parsha by parsha goes through all the mitzvos that are in that week's marsha and he explains all about all the things that ghazal say everything we know about that mitzvah right it's really it's like a really nice way to learn all the mitzvos by week by week problem is that some weeks like for most of the book of braces there's nothing written right and then other weeks you have these partials where we have 70 mitzvahs and you can't possibly finish it all in one week right so you got to figure out how to do it but nevertheless it's a very good safer tab so say foreign 25 says somebody want to read [Music] is to believe in hashem right and that he's there's only one of him and that he is united he's unitary right and that he brought into being everything because he wanted to and because he can and that he's going to last forever right and then he took us out of between he gave us the torah that's all part of one mitzvot that we would call the mitzvah of ammuna okay so according to um where you can only you only have 612s to go after you've worked on a muno right okay now the rambam in sephora mitzvos also holds this right and not only does he holds this is one of the mitzvahs he holds his mitzvah numero uno right it's the first of the 613 mitzvos and the rambam's count of the 613 this is number one right and he says i'll read this because it's a little complicated it says the first commandment is the commandment in which we were commanded to believe in hashem that is we must believe there is an our originator and cause who is a catalyst for all existence as hashem said hashem your god right which is the first of the ten commandments okay so again the rambam very clearly says mitzvah to believe in hashem right now he's now going to quote from that same section of the gomer marcos that i just told you about an amazing thing right you guys like comatria yeah okay we're going to see a cool gamatry right here right he says at the end of track day makto makos it is written 613 mitzvos were said to moshe at sinai what is the verse the possum that hints to this it says torah siva lanu moshe that's a pasuk indivarian at the very end of the torah right turetse valanimosa anybody know what the significance of that line is aside from being a song this is supposed to be the first words that a parents teach parent teaches his child but the first sentence that a parent is supposed to teach the child to say right that hashem commanded us the torah an inheritance to [Music] the community of yaakov right so it says right now that says torah moshe commanded us right literally it's the words in order are torah commanded us commanded to us moshe right now the gemara says that is to say if you read it in hebrew clomar minyan torah tough hey anybody here go to gemara gematria you have the numbers on the board right what's tough 400 what's vav what's race good what's hay can we add those together quickly huh 611 good so the gemara says right the gemara asks the question wait a second how much is torah in gomatria the answer is 611. right now the gamaya is suggesting that what that passage means if you use the gematria torah siva lanu moshe means moshe taught us all the commandments how many commandments torah is the gematria of the number of commandments right but the kumar says wait a second no it isn't it's 611. there's 613 commandments right so why does it say torah 611 moshe commanded yes excellent very good right the government says right the jewish people in the ten commandments we heard the first one right we heard the second one and then what happened good we died we died after the first one we were revived after the second one we got back up and we said yeah enough of this right the cottage bark will give it to moshe right we don't want this experience anymore it's too intense for us of communicating directly with hashem hashem you gave us two commandments however many more you have please give them to moshe and he will command them to us right so 611 of the 613 were given by moshe to the jewish people 2 of the 613 were given directly from hashem to the jewish people right so the passage is very exact when it says toratzi of allah moshe 611 moshe commanded us right now the rambam's point in bringing this is what there's 613 commandments 611 of them taught by by moshe to the jewish people which ones were taught by hashem of the 613 the first two so the first two are clearly commandments part of the 613. right so the rama's bringing this a proof that emunah is one of the 613 commands it must be or else how could you count up to 613 you need to count the first two right i am the lord your god and you should not have other gods before me right that's all that's part of the 6 13. the problem is a very strong proof from here right says it finishes the rambam right thus it is made clear that i am hashem is part of the count of 613 mitzvos and this is the commandment to believe as i have explained okay so the rambam like holds that the myth that a moon is not just like a nice idea it's not just a mida although we will talk about it also omito right it is actually a mitzvah when thou shalt have a muna right what is commanded evamuna which means when it's commanded not to do this not to do pascal's wager right if i do that and i say look i'll keep all the mitzvos i don't know if there's a god i failed to keep one of the mitzvots which is believing god right okay any questions [Music] you can although you run the risk of turning people off because the last thing people want to do is live a life that they don't really believe in they're doing that already right you know what what's more likely to inspire them is to talk to them about developing a relationship with the creator of the universe right but if you're in a specific situation where you feel that yes somebody would you know also by the way this doesn't have any longevity this way of living if you don't really know if there's a god right and there's a really juicy cheeseburger in front of you right so to say but i i did it i drew a chart like it makes sense on the teeth of the cheeseburger that's all very nice but there's a juicy cheeseburger sitting in front of you it's not going to get you very far right i don't know how far got pascal but then again he didn't have to give up cheeseburgers right so you know this in the in when you're in the battleground where like your desire is really pulling you towards something and you don't want to do it right so saying like well i don't know if it matters or not if i do this but it's more logical to not eat the cheeseburger than that it's not going to stop right but you can use it as a it is it is true right that it's more like it is more logical to live your life that way right he's just missing the point though because you're not having a moon right okay [Music]