What is faith? This was the essential issue that was the center of discussion between the leader of Shuva Israel, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, and his students at the yeshiva in New York.
“There are people who say, ‘I will go pray, and that way, I’ll strengthen my internal faith.’ That’s good, but not enough. This is not a strong faith. To be a firm believer is to live with faith. Faith needs to sink and settle in our hearts. This is not a social activity but a profound change of outlook and feeling.
Every day in the Aliynu Lishabeach prayer, we say: ‘And you knew today, and you returned to your hearts since the L-rd is G-d.’ We know a lot. We all learn the Torah. Today knowledge is easy to obtain. But the real work is to return to the heart. Getting used to living together with faith.”
Rabbi Pinto underlined in his speech: “King David says in Pslams: ‘All my bones say G-d, who is like you’. Faith needs to run through every part of our body. Not because ‘everyone else believes, so I also believe,’ but to turn your very existence into an existence that believes, an existence that G-d directs. Love G-d with all your heart. If we succeed in living this way, we reach the highest level of faith.
This article was written in cooperation with Shuva Israel