Faith and Idolatry

The trait of faith is the heritage of all human beings. As mentioned above (1:1), through faith a person relies on his senses and his intellect, on his family members and his friends. Through it he believes that his life has meaning, and he plans his future with hope and confidence that he will succeed in improving his life for the better. Through it he believes that there are values worth striving for, such as the values of truth and goodness. On a higher level, a person by his nature believes that there is a supreme and eternal power above all that is seen, by whose power all things exist, and by whose power all values possess a supreme and sacred worth. Even his personal life is bound up with eternity, and its value is greater than the aimless, fleeting routine of his life on earth. To give expression to this faith, all human societies created religions for themselves.

Let us explain further. Faith is the foundation of man’s existence in the world, for his cognition and consciousness rest upon it. Beyond that, man lives in an unstable world, with dangers lurking all around him. Nothing that sustains him is guaranteed: if he does not work diligently and store up food and property, he may die of hunger; if he does not take the trouble to store up water, he may die of thirst. He must build himself a house to protect himself from cold and heat and from beasts of prey. He also needs an organized society to protect himself from thieves and enemies who might plunder his property and enslave or exploit him. To secure himself against illness and old age, and to merit a continuity that has a kind of eternity in it, he establishes a family and has children. And still, after all the effort, nothing is guaranteed. Without faith that life has value and that the effort is worthwhile, he will despair, and his chances of survival will diminish. He also senses that this faith which drives him has its origin in the stable and eternal Source of life, which he defines as God. And he understands that the more he is filled with faith in God, the more he will merit confidence and stability, diligence and resourcefulness. Especially in times of distress, when a threat looms over his life – such as in times of illness, famine or war – he turns to God in prayer and asks for His help, and strengthens himself in faith to act to save himself, his family, his friends and his people.

However, it is not only the need to survive that compels man to connect to his God, but even more so – the desire to progress, to break through boundaries and to rise without end, and to give his life eternal meaning. This is what is stated (Bereishit 1:27): “And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him.” Since he was created in the “image of God,” his inner nature has no boundaries, and his aspirations are without limit. Therefore, even when a person attains stability he does not rest, for out of his natural faith he always strives for more: to understand more, to feel more, to enjoy more, to create and develop more. For there is no end to his aspiration to understand the world, to his yearning to experience all the beauty and sublimity in the world, to his desire to delight in all the pleasantness and goodness in the world, and to his wish to create and develop his world with the help of his talents. And when he delves into his soul, he understands that the more he is connected to God, the more he will realize his yearning and increase his blessing, and everything he attains and develops will be of greater value. That is to say, man, by the nature of his creation, yearns for closeness to God, the infinite source of all the aspirations for which he longs.