Living with Faith - Rabbi Akiva Fox

okay continuing with our journey in emunah and beliefs we spoke about previously that there are two important parts of emunah one of them is belief emunah one of them is gidea knowledge and we explained how we have shocked the great illustrious age that lived about 15 17 years ago he explained how both of these things work out together in this in essence what you know you don't have to believe in what you have to believe apparently you don't know and we said that a person in his knowledge is limited and therefore you are limited to a certain amount of intellectual capabilities and that's when belief comes in belief begins where knowledge ends but perhaps there's another explanation and with this I believe it will in a certain sense sum up this segment of emunah and what we were discussing and that is that there are certain things in life that we do know and yet we don't live with the knowledge what does that mean sometimes people smoke cigarettes or cigars or other things but let's not discuss them and if you've ever seen a pack of cigarettes no matter what company there's a new not so new anymore but a law that requires the cigarette companies to put on the cover the opening that smoking kills smoking can cause cancer smoking will cause emphysema or another many other you know dangerous lung infections and bring about death basically to sum it all up smoking is not the best idea we don't suggest it for the faint-hearted among us so smoking even though you know that it's not good you know that it's not healthy but sometimes for some people even with that knowledge they don't live with it they don't follow it they open up the pack and it says oh my gosh imagine the chain smoker is 90 years old his lungs are black as tar and all of a sudden he look I had no idea that smoking was dangerous I want my money back for all these years chances are it won't happen but imagine you open it up and it says it's not a good thing and most people put it in their mouth anyways why would that be are you gonna kill yourself are these cancer sticks and the answer is because no matter what you know you don't necessarily live with that knowledge you can know something clearly it says it on the package this little stick is going to kill you cancer is a definite but you don't internalize it in a way that it will it will cause you to change your life emunah and you dear knowing God exists we can know today that there is definitely a God we can see his great miracles we can see the wondrous ways that he has saved the Jewish people you can see the depth and the infinite wisdom that there isn't a Torah and yet with all that you know it may not change your life to live with that knowledge and Munna belief is to use that knowledge to make a permanent change in the way that you will live your life if you know that smoking is bad and you believe that smoking is bad then when you are craving that cigarette but you remember it's not a good idea for me if I believe that concept truly then I will stay away I will refrain from it obviously we mean to point fingers that nobody no one can understand the difficulties and the pressure and the addiction to smoking god forbid we would never put fingers at somebody but the point is that to live with the concept that you know to take it a step further that it's not just an abstract knowledge but it's something that you internalize in the way you live your life that is emunah that is belief the pot the Gamera tells us that habakkuk the navi the Prophet Habakkuk hameed on Allah has he basically summarized Judaism into one nutshell in in a certain sense and he said sadak bayamon aza yes yeah aight sadak a righteous person will live with his emunah what he meant to say was that a truly righteous person will live with the things he believes in he won't just believe it and go further but he will live with it it will turn into his life into the meat ality that he lives imagine if you have a professor who speaks in all the colleges about how bad overeating is and how bad cholesterol is and fat is etc and while he's giving his class he's eating a double chili burger with an order of fries and a coca-cola that's not diet chances are you're gonna look at this professor and say are you for real do you really listen to what you're saying that listen I teach it doesn't mean I have to live that way and mu now is not like that and Munna is what you teach and you preach you live you believe that's sadak by mu na say it sonic with his omona yet yet he's going to live with it it's going to be part of his life his new reality sometimes we can know something with absolute clarity today we can have an inspiration a lightning bolt lights up our world and today we see clearly the hand God and then tomorrow yeah we forget about it I'm out of here that's not a moon oh and Munna is to live today with what you knew before as the pus access' lahaa get by Baker hasta the a munus cabela's you will tell over a hard to tell over by biker in the morning ah stack of the hess of the kindness of a shame the MU NOS ha and his belief balelo sat night the depth of the pasuk is coming to tell us that sometimes in the morning when everything is clear when we have intense clarity when we are absolutely aware inspired and we see everything so clear we see hasta hwy see the great kindness of ash n we have no questions whatsoever and then comes Lila and then comes nighttime all of a sudden we have questions were not clear it's dark there there are there are fake us there are doubts that's when emunah and mu nu ska your belief that's when it comes in to believe at night with the truth you discover during the day Sade Kiba immunocellular means don't just know it don't just understand it but believe it and believe in it live with it take it the step further make it a reality make it part of your life there's a famous you know they were famous yeshiva ba home that used to travel around Europe going different places and they would stop in at lectures on different colleges and the famous the famous story was that they went into a lecture of a pair of a professor and this is talking about about a hundred years ago who was Mahad ish who was one of the first intellectuals who believed that smoking was dangerous now again we're talking about a hundred years ago and everyone did it they thought it was healthy so this lecturer is giving a discourse about his understanding that smoking is bad for you and as he's giving the course he's smoking so the boys the achieva boys went over to him afterwards and they said aren't you embarrassed you were smoking while you're teaching everybody that is bad for you he said if I he said if I teach astronomy do I have to be a star said if I teach you know about math do I have to be a hexagon that is not the Jewish belief the jewish belief is what you teach and what you preach you are what you know via dr. you believe in your you Clea you live with it it changes your life when I know God when I know there is a God that this the discovery that I have made in the clarity that I have in the kindness of ocean and Moon us cabal a lace even when it's hard even when it's difficult even when I'm challenged on what I believe I will be faithful to that which I believe in I will be faithful to the god I believe in and in truth I'll be faithful to myself this is sadak mamuno say yeah yeah it's adik lives a righteous person lives with his emunah he doesn't just know it he doesn't just believe in but he lives it it's his new reality it's his life you