In light of my new association with the well known counter missionary organization Jews for Judaism, I have decided to veer away from the usual subject matter of these postings and, instead, spend some time dwelling on faith.
The English term “faith” isn’t one heard batted about much in traditional Jewish circles. You may think, “Of course it isn’t – we talk about emuna!” No. I’m not writing about emunah. I mean “faith,” - that English word laden as it may be with all its non-Judaic (X-tian) and often negative (e.g. blind faith) connotations.
What does it mean as a Jew to have “faith?” What is our “faith?” How is faith different than emunah? Are they actually different?
In the course of my life, I have always had “faith” and emunah presented to me as concepts associated with particular religious teams. For example, gentiles have “faith” while Jews have emunah. The goyim have “belief,” while the Yidden have “certainty.” To be frank, I have never fully understood the fine nuances between these terms or why one is necessarily “Jewish” while the other is not.
So here is my question for any who may be reading:
What is Jewish faith?
Let’s try to pin it down – please send your comments and suggestions. If anyone has a post they would like to offer, please e-mail it to Dovi (webmaster) at sfasblog@gmail.com. Please note that Dovi, as per my request, will not accept anonymous posts or posts written under pseudonyms. Likewise, I will not link to blogs which are owned by pseudonymic or anonymous bloggers. Everything here should be done face-to-face, so to speak.
Though pseudonymic, this site is linked to ASimpleJew.Blogspot.com because I have known this fellow personally for a few years now and understand something his hashkofa and what is trying to accomplish via his blog (which is one of my favorites… ooops… bias revealed!)
- Avraham Bloomenstiel
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