This essay was originally published in 5754 (1994). It discusses the basis of faith in the miracles of redemption from Egypt and the giving of the Torah at Sinai. At the time there was publicity about the writings based on communication with autistic children, and HaRav Karelitz discusses this and dismisses its value.
HaRav Nissim Karelitz
"A psalm, a song for the day of Shabbos: It is good to thank Hashem and to sing to Your exalted name, to tell in the morning of Your kindness and Your faithfulness in the nights" (Tehillim 91).
Shabbos is the quintessence of perfection and of Hashem's consummation of the world, and therefore in the psalm of Shabbos is mentioned, "telling in the morning of Your kindness and Your faithfulness in the nights." This refers to Hashem's ways of kindness, from the period of our exodus from Mitzrayim, which symbolizes our "morning," and extending through all the ceaseless miracles of every generation, until the future Redemption, when we will emerge from the darkness of the "night" to a great brilliance.
"Rabbah bar Chanina Saba in the name of Rav said: `One who does not say emes veyatziv in the morning and emes ve'emunah at night did not fulfill his obligation, as it is said, "To tell in the morning of Your kindness and Your faithfulness in the nights."'" (Brochos 12a) Rashi explains: "The brocho of emes veyatziv is entirely about the kindness that Hashem did with our fathers by taking them out of Mitzrayim, splitting Yam Suf for them, and bringing them through it. The brocho of emes ve'emunah is similarly about the future events that we are awaiting: a time when He will fulfill His promise and faithfulness and redeem us from being oppressed by kings and tyrants. He will then sustain us and lead us over the heights of our enemies. All these are miracles that constantly occur to us."
The exodus from Mitzrayim is compared to morning and the brocho emes veyatziv of the morning relates to it; the future redemption to which we wait is compared to night, and the brocho emes ve'emunah refers to it.
There is an apparent difficulty with Rashi's commentary, for he explains that the redemption from Mitzrayim is likened to day, but many Midroshim liken only the future, absolute redemption to "morning." The Beis HaLevi (II, Drush 4) writes at length about the Redemption being signified by morning and day. He explains (according to a parable of Chazal) that the redemption from Mitzrayim and other constantly-occurring miracles are like one who walks in darkness and lights a candle. When the candle ends, he needs an additional one, and so on the entire night. Only when the morning arrives does lasting light come that does not need more candles to light up the way.
Likewise, from the exodus from Mitzrayim until the future redemption, all the continual miracles done for us are kindnesses from Hashem, each time lighting the way for us; but the future redemption will be a lasting, eternal light.
If so, it remains to be reconciled how Rashi explains the above gemora in Brochos so that "morning" signifies the redemption from Mitzrayim, while the Midroshim signify "morning" as being the future redemption.
Since the exodus from Mitzrayim is mentioned in the parshas tzitzis, why do we mention it again in emes veyatziv?
The Kesef Mishnah (Hilchos Krias Shema 1:7) answers: "We say emes veyatziv in order to convey the message that just as HaKodosh Boruch Hu kept His promise in Mitzrayim, so will He keep His promise in the future. Emes veyatziv [denoting the exodus from Mitzrayim] is therefore connected with emes ve'emunah [denoting the future redemption]. Although emes ve'emunah was enacted as a prayer for the future redemption, still we mention in it the redemption from Pharaoh to couple our prayer for redemption to Shemoneh Esrei."
Now our previous difficulty is reconciled: The brocho of emes veyatziv refers to the kindness of Hashem when He took us out of Mitzrayim. It informs us that in the same way, HaKodosh Boruch Hu will later keep His promise in the future redemption, which is likened to "morning." The mitzvah of remembering the exodus from Mitzrayim refers also to faith in Moshiach's advent and the complete Redemption, may it come speedily in our days.
Another significant principle concerning our exodus from Mitzrayim should be pointed out. The Rambam (Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah 8:1-3) writes : "The Jews did not believe in Moshe Rabbenu because of the miracles that he performed, since a person only believes in miracles doubtfully. . . Rather, all the miracles that Moshe performed in the desert were done because of necessity, and not to validate his reception of a prophecy. There was a need to drown the Egyptians, and therefore he split the sea and drowned them in it. We needed food, so therefore he brought down the manna to us. . . What caused us to believe in him at Mount Sinai? It is because our own eyes saw it and our own ears heard it . . . Before this they did not firmly believe in him, but only with a faith that allows second thoughts . . . .
"In that same way all of Israel were witnesses for him [to testify to the validity of his prophecy] after the revelation at Mount Sinai, and no other miracle was needed ... And this is what HaKodosh Boruch Hu said ... they shall stand on this mountain . . . that they may know that from the start I truly sent you . . . Therefore, as for any prophet that appears after Moshe Rabbenu, we will not believe in him only because of the miracle he does. We will not say that if he makes a miracle we will listen to all that he says. Only because of the mitzvah that Moshe commanded us in the Torah, saying, `If he makes a miracle, you shall believe in him' will we believe in him . . . This is because the prophecy of Moshe [was not believed] because of miracles . . . but rather our eyes saw and our ears heard what he heard."
What the Rambam writes seems amazing! Are miracles not proof of Moshe's prophecy? The posuk says explicitly at the splitting of Yam Suf, "And they believed in Hashem, and Moshe His servant" (Shemos 14:31); and indeed the whole mitzvah of remembering the exodus from Mitzrayim is to strengthen our faith in Hashem and His Divine Providence.
This becomes even more enigmatic in light of our obligation to reflect about the creation, and to evoke from it proof of the Creator's wisdom. This obligation is explained in the Chovos Halevovos, Sha'ar HaBechinah and is inferred from the posuk "Raise your eyes to the heavens, and see who created these." (Yeshayohu 40:26) Here, however, the Rambam writes that our faith stems only from what we saw at the revelation on Mount Sinai.
Definitely, the foundation of our faith is only the revelation on Mount Sinai. We uphold the mitzvos of remembering the exodus from Mitzrayim and the obligation to ponder about the greatness of the creation only because they are mandated by the will of the Torah. We are not performing these obligations because of the great awe for Hashem that we perceive through them, but only because the Torah has commanded us to do so. Thus we do just as the Rambam wrote, that the only reason we believe a prophet after he performed miracles is because the Torah commanded us, and not because of the miracle itself.
Similarly the Rambam (Hilchos Melachim 8:11) writes: "Any [gentile] who accepts upon himself the seven [Noachide] mitzvos and is meticulous in observing them is a pious gentile and has a share in the World-to-Come. This is, however, only if he accepts them and does them because HaKodosh Boruch Hu commanded them to be done in His Torah and announced these mitzvos to us through Moshe Rabbenu... If, however, he does them because they are logical to him, he is not considered a ger toshav, nor is he a pious gentile nor among their wise people."
"Ever since the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed prophecy was given to the insane." (Bovo Basra 12b) Certainly this does not mean that we can rely upon the insane! This type of prophecy is no more significant than dreams, which sometimes tell a person true things. For example, the gemora (Nedarim 8a) rules that if a person dreamed of being excommunicated he needs to annul the excommunication.
Nevertheless, Chazal (Gittin 52a) declare that "dreams are not to be considered." The gemora (Sanhedrin 30a) writes (and so is the ruling in the Shulchan Oruch) that if one's father appears in a dream and tells him that he hid money in a certain place, and it belongs to someone, or that money is ma'aser sheini, and the son goes and finds it exactly as he was told, in a place where no one would think of it being, still he does not have to pay attention to the dreams. The money is not ma'aser sheini at all; it is undoubtedly chulin. It is just like any other money that he finds, and he does not have to fear that it is ma'aser sheini money. The same is with the prophecies of the insane—although sometimes they show us true matters, they cannot be relied upon.
Lately a pamphlet has been published aiming at strengthening our faith in the immortality of the soul and in Divine reward and punishment. The pamphlet cites the fact that autistic children sometimes tell stories about the gilgul of their souls. According to what I have explained above, this does not strengthen faith; it only weakens it. Through these means people seek to strengthen their faith—by means no better than dreams, which ought not be reckoned with. If someone were to tell us that his faith was strengthened through dreams, how would we relate to such a faith built upon dreams? It is impossible to strengthen faith by the prophecies of the insane and the like. Unquestionably we were not commanded about such `strengthening' in the Torah, since this is not strengthening but actually weakening.
If we see that faith has sometimes been fortified by a supernatural occurrence, like the stories about dybbuks, this is because those acts were done by tzadikim, whose opinion is a type of ruach hakodesh. Therefore such acts bring about a sanctification of His name, because we realize the greatness of the tzaddik, who knows concealed things and has a clear knowledge about the matters connected with them. But how can one relate to things when there is no one who can bear witness to what they actually are, and from where they come? This is a weakness in the attribute of truth.
My Hashem help us to reinforce our faith truly, that we may speedily merit the light of "morning," that is, the future redemption.
(We have cited above the gemora's statement (Nedarim 8a) that a person who dreams of being excommunicated needs to annul the excommunication, which is apparently a contradiction to the ruling [Gittin 52a, Sanhedrin 30a] that dreams are not to be considered. There are rishonim who explain that only an excommunication is to be accorded attention, since it is similar to pikuach nefesh. Even the Rashba, who rules that if one dreams he made a neder (vow) he must act as he had vowed, rules so because, in his opinion, one must take into consideration the chance that Heaven is showing him the proper way he should behave. However, this is only relevant to nedorim; in the case of ma'aser sheini, where a halocho must be determined about the status of the money, a dream cannot be relied upon).
(From the notes of one of the listeners.)
