Faith: The inner song of reality

Source: The song of existence: Faith as the art of living

"In general, faith is the song of life, the song of reality, the song of existence. And song is the most penetrating, most inward comprehension into the depths of a concept's essence... Woe to the one who wishes to strip life of the splendor of its song. He loses the entire core of life and all the truth within it."

(Rabbi Kook, Orot HaEmunah, Mahut HaEmunah)

Explanation: The believer as artist: From raw material to sublime form

Rabbi Kook takes faith into the realm of the aesthetic. Faith is not just truth; it is song. It is the ability to see the world not as a collection of dry facts (prose or empiricism), but as a harmonious, meaningful work of art. The Hebrew root of faith (emunah) is tied to omanut, art. The believer is an artist of reality—taking the raw materials of life, discovering and shaping form and meaning out of them. Faith is the knack for discerning the inner melody of being, and recognizing within it the signature of God.

Perspective: Music or noise: The sixth sense of reality

The world is divided into people who see "noise" and people who hear "music." Faith is a musical sense.

The certainty of materialists—even those who believe in God—who think that "everything is matter" is ultimately an aesthetic blindness. Anyone who gazes at the night sky or witnesses childbirth and sees only physics has lost the capacity for wonder. Faith is not submission to ancient texts; it is the ability to open your eyes and see that we are living inside a masterpiece. The believer is no gullible fool; they are the only person in the room who catches the deeper layers of the text called "the universe."

Going Deeper: The perspective of eternity: Taking a step back

In pointillism (such as the technique used by Georges Seurat), a painting is composed of thousands of separate dots of color. If you stand too close to the canvas, all you see is a meaningless chaos of spots ("the tears"). To see the picture, you have to take a step back.

This is precisely Rabbi Kook's model: reality is a collection of particulars that can often seem contradictory or ugly, a musical cacophony. Faith is not the invention of an alternate reality, but the art of perspective. The believer is the person who knows how to take that "step back" (the comprehensive, eternal contemplation) that allows the dots to come together into a harmonious picture—the God who fills all worlds. The realist, even one who believes in a God encompassing the world, sees the dots; the believer sees the painting.

Culture: When God is put on trial: Faith put to the legal test

The Man Who Sued God is a 2001 Australian comedy film starring Billy Connolly and Judy Davis, based on the story of a lawyer turned fisherman who sues God (via the church and insurers) after his fishing boat is struck by lightning and the insurers claim it was an "Act of God." In two other (real) lawsuits filed against God, one in Nebraska was dismissed because the defendant's address was unreachable (assuming it to be heaven), and one in Romania was dismissed because God is not a Romanian citizen. In the film, religious institutions—God's representatives—are forced to choose between admitting God does not exist in order to avoid paying, or paying damages for every harm caused by an act of God, a choice that would bankrupt every religious institution in the world.