Im-possible

The Rambam writes that the source for the mitzvah of emunah comes from Parshas Devorim (4:39) 

וידעת היום והשבת אל־לבבך כי ד’ הוא האלקים בשמים ממעל ועל־הארץ מתחת אין עוד

Know today and lay it upon your heart, that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none else.

Rav Shach asks: Why does emunah require a passuk? Just open your eyes! You look at an orange—its color, its scent, the way each segment fits perfectly. You look at your own body—how the heart beats, how the lungs breathe without your asking. You look at the sky at dawn, at the sea’s tides, at the veins of a leaf. How could you not see the Borei Olam? Emunah is screaming from every atom! From every blade of grass, from every corner of existence.

So why do we need the Torah to give us a command, a source? Isn’t it obvious? Rav Shach asked this question to the Brisker Rav, who said he had the same question on the Rambam, and he asked this question to his father, Rav Chaim Brisker.

And Rav Chaim said a revolutionary and deep truth: Wherever our human emunah ends—wherever our limited seichel (human intellect) can no longer stretch, that exact place is where the Torah’s mitzvah of emunah begins. That’s the difference. There is a certain amount of “emunah” that our seichal has. We believe in Hashem, we know He runs the world, we know He can do anything, and we have emunah that He can take care of us. 

But, by definition, our seichal is limited to what we can intellectually grasp. Seichel-emunah means we can envision the happy ending, and we can imagine the ways Hashem might be there for us. For some people, seichel-emunah means they know that Hashem can send their business more sales and higher revenue, or Hashem can heal their sickness, or send them a shidduch. 

But what happens when we are faced with the “impossible”? When, chalila, the business faces a giant, existential crisis, or the doctors give up on healing or someone has spent years in shidduchim and has given up hope? What happens when, by any stretch of our seichel we simply cannot imagine how Hashem will get us out of this crisis, and it seems that any salvation will require a split-the-sea miracle? 

Says Rav Chaim: The place where our seichel-emunah ends is precisely where the Torah’s emunah begins. That place, where our belief ends, is where Hashem wants us to start. Because Ein Od Milvado. Because “In the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none else.” Because there’s no such thing as impossible, or too far, or too late. It’s all Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He’s not bound by time. He’s not limited by nature. He’s not held back by stats, odds, or logic. And when we reach that point—when we say, “I don’t know how this will ever change, I don’t see a way”—that’s when the Ribbono Shel Olam says: “You’ve reached the end of yourself. Now you’re in My territory.” Let Hashem in. Make space. Cast your burden and worries only onto him. Even in the darkness and pain, fear and discomfort, we are consoled that Hashem is carrying us. He’s as real as ever. He cares, he loves us, and he has a million ways he can turn the impossible into “I’m possible.”

Take It to Go

Even though we know and believe that Hashem can do anything, it can be hard to place ourselves into Hashem’s trusted hands in a scenario where we can’t possibly imagine how the situation can be resolved. When it seems like the only resolution is an open miracle, our seichel-emunah starts to tap out, it is unable to stretch further. Rav Chaim encourages us to view precisely such a scenario as the starting point for our emunah. That’s when Hashem asks us to draw our emunah from this passuk in the Torah, to remind ourselves that no matter how unlikely it seems for our situation to improve, “Know today and lay it upon your heart, that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none else.”