Bilvavi Part 7 - 001 Intro to Emunah from a Deeper Perspective

בלבבי חלק ז'. הקדמה

Author’s Introduction to “Emunah from A Deeper Perspective”

This sefer is coming to explain how Emunah relates to all parts of our learning and Avodas Hashem. It should be clear that anyone who learns this sefer has to be very immersed in learning Torah; it should not be a study that involves any slackening off in one’s learning.

The matters in this sefer are very subtle and deep, and they cannot be expressed fully in the written word. If something here seems too vague, please let us know.

This sefer is not for everyone who comes across it. It is only meant for certain individuals who feel a need in their souls to learn about these matters. Even those individuals still have to know how to use it. If one’s understanding of subtle matters is poor, these matters are not meant for him. This is not being written for the public, but only for individuals.

Know that these words come from the heart, and not just from the intellect. May Hashem merit us that “words which come from the heart enter the heart”. These words here are not meant to be turned into intellectual discussions, but rather to purify one’s Avodas Hashem. That is the purpose of our job – to return to simple Emunah, as the Baal Shem Tov writes. The fact that we have to delve deeply into matters of Emunah is just a temporary path to take – the goal is to return to simplicity (temimus). The simple understanding of a matter is what enables us to arrive at the essence of a matter.

I am letting you know that I am only writing this for the purpose of arriving at the utter simplicity of these matters. That is the goal here.

The truth is that it is not possible on this physical world to arrive at totally perfect Emunah. On a deep note, it won’t even be possible until the end of 10,000 years! However, it is our job to perfect our Emunah as much as we can in our lifetime.

When one is faced with a scary situation in life, the outer part of his self is frightened, because it lacks Emunah. Since this is so, we need Tefillah.

Even when we daven that Hashem take away our suffering, we are always involved in some scary situation. The truth is that we have nothing other than the Torah; it is written, “If not for the Torah my delight, I would go lost in my suffering.” Whenever we find ourselves in a scary situation, our job is (besides for having Emunah, which is explain at length in this sefer) to immerse ourselves totally in Torah – with every part of our soul. Learning the Torah will calm us down and help us take our mind off our troubles.

Without immersion in learning Torah, life is bitter, worse than death. Chazal say that there is no day that isn’t worse than the day before it. Without learning Torah, life tastes more bitter than death, and if someone comes to you and tells you that learning Torah isn’t as important as other matters in Avodas Hashem, don’t listen to him, because he is trying to take you away from life itself.

Know that although this sefer addresses the lofty aspects of our soul, we do not mean to diminish the importance of the other points in our soul that are lower than our power of Emunah. Yiras Shomayim, Bechirah, and Tefillah are all truthful points, and although they are lower than the power of Emunah, we do not mean to negate them, chas v’shalom. They are all needed. We must stress this point because many are mistaken and think that when we speak about the loftiness of Emunah, it seems to negate everything else in Avodas Hashem; but this is not true.

Since this sefer is all about Emunah, one who wants to understand the crux of this sefer should learn the chapter entitled “Emunah – Ain Od Milvado”, and he will see the goal of this entire sefer.