Emes is the root, the starting point and anchor of everything, but our connection and relationship with it is often fleeting. Emes is like a flash of lightning, a spark of inspiration. A powerful speech, an inspiring moment, or a profound idea can change our whole perspective on life. Suddenly, we see everything so clearly, we realign our goals, and everything falls into place. However, the very next day, we often find ourselves right back where we were before, as if nothing ever happened. What happened to the clarity of that emes, the power of that vision?
This is the challenge of emes. It is powerful, but it is fleeting. It fades almost as quickly as it appears. The moment you stop thinking about the emes, that truth disappears from your consciousness. As we have explained before, the spark of inspiration is there to help you experience the goal, the destination. It’s a taste of what you can, and hopefully will, ultimately accomplish. But it’s not real; it’s given as a gift and is therefore an illusion. It serves only as a guiding force, but it cannot compare to the genuine accomplishment of building something yourself. It is therefore taken away to allow for the second and most important stage, the stage of emunah: this is the phase of building, of undergoing the work required to attain this growth in actuality, to work for the perfection that you were shown. A gift is not real; something chosen and earned is. We are in this world to choose, to assert our free will, and to create ourselves. Now that we have tasted the first stage, the emes, we know what we’re meant to choose – what we can build. The third stage, achieved through the hard work of the second stage, is the completed rebuilding of the original perfection. While this stage may appear the same as the first, it is fundamentally different. It’s real, it’s earned, it’s yours. The first stage was a gift, a spark of emes, but an illusion. The third is the product of the effort and time you invested through the stage of emunah.
Two Stages of History: Emes and Emunah
The process of emes and emunah plays out through the progression of history as well. During the first stage of history, Hashem revealed Himself openly, and the world was replete with miracles, prophecy, and clarity. Little effort was required to find Hashem or to connect to that which is higher. This was the time of emes. We then lost that ideal, as n’vuah and avodah zarah were excised from the world, the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, and a cloak of darkness fell over existence. We are now in the second stage, the stage of emunah, attempting to rebuild toward the original goal, the transcendent ideal. There is no longer open revelation with its accompanying prophecy and clarity. However, it is precisely for this reason that we can choose to witness the truth and depth of the world, to see Hashem in everything, and to connect to the Divine in all that we do. In a darkened world, we are uniquely able to cast our own light, living faithfully according to the ideals of emes until we eventually reach our ultimate destination.
The Transition of Moshe’s Death
While the entirety of Jewish history is split between the two stages of emes and emunah, with the first phase reflecting emes and the second emunah, there are microcosms of this idea throughout history, as well. Moshe Rabbeinu’s death and the last eight p’sukim in the Torah represent a smaller scale transition from emes to emunah, from Moshe to Yehoshua. In the unique relationship between Moshe and Yehoshua, Moshe represents emes, and Yehoshua embodies emunah. Moshe was the greatest prophet to ever live, as Hashem Himself attested to it (BaMidbar 12:6-8). Moshe reached the absolute highest level of spiritual greatness, meriting to receive the Torah from Hashem and to teach it to the Jewish People. While Yehoshua was an extraordinary Jewish leader, as well, he was on a lower spiritual level than Moshe. Moshe led the Jewish People through the miracles of Y’tzias Mitzrayim and K’rias Yam Suf, and then carried them through the midbar where they subsisted on mann and witnessed constant miracles. Yehoshua led the nation into Eretz Yisrael, where the Jewish People transitioned to a life of hishtadlus, having to find the miraculous within the natural. (See the Netziv, Haameik Davar 20:8, where he discusses how the transition into Eretz Yisrael was the transition from the miraculous to the natural.)
While Moshe is compared to the sun, Yehoshua is compared to the moon (Bava Basra 75a; BaMidbar 27:20). Just as the moon receives its light from the sun, a true talmid receives wisdom from his rebbi and loyally reflects that light outwards. When the light of the sun fades and darkness creeps in, it is the light of the moon that must shine. Though not as bright as the sun, the moon’s light radiates with something equally powerful: hope and loyalty, reminding us to create light within the darkness (As David HaMelech wrote in T’hilim 92:3, “Ve’emunascha ba’leilos”).
The Transitions of Torah
This theme of transitioning from emes to emunah, from first stage to second, and from sun to moon underlies not only Sefer D’varim but the entire Torah.
The Beis HaLevi (D’rush 18) explains that the original Luchos were a transcendent, other-worldly form of Torah. The entirety of Torah – both Torah SheBichsav and Torah SheB’al Peh – were contained within these tablets, and all of Torah was clear and accessible. (According to several opinions, this was the level of Torah that Rabbi Akiva, Acheir, Ben Azzai, and Ben Zoma experienced when they entered the Pardes [Chagigah 14b].) After the Cheit HaEigel, klal Yisrael lost access to this transcendent level of Torah, and the second set of Luchos contained a relatively limited form of Torah. This set of Luchos, carved by Moshe Rabbeinu instead of Hashem, inspires us to loyally work our way back to the original perfection of the first Luchos. The first Luchos were emes; the second were emunah.
This pattern of emes and emunah continues throughout the progression of the Torah. The Maharal and the Vilna Gaon explain that Sefer D’varim is fundamentally different from the first four s’farim of the Torah. The first four s’farim were written by Hashem, the giver, while Moshe served purely as a channel of transmission. As Chazal put it, “Sh’chinah m’daberes mi’toch grono shel Moshe – [Hashem] spoke through the throat of Moshe,” placing the words in his mouth (Ramban, D’varim 5:12). Moshe became a pure vessel for Torah, a perfect receptacle. D’varim, however, was different; it was Moshe’s creation. He took everything that came before and expressed it through his unique lens. The Maharal and the Ohr HaChayim describe this process as Moshe’s transformation into a normal navi, one who expresses Hashem’s n’vuah through his own unique, personal lens. Instead of Hashem speaking through Moshe’s throat, Hashem spoke to Moshe and then, at a later point, Moshe expressed this to klal Yisrael in his own words. As a result, Sefer D’varim possesses the “style” of Moshe.
The Malbim elaborates on this point, explaining that once Moshe uttered his own words, Hashem then ratified them as part of Torah. In other words, Hashem commanded Moshe to write Sefer D’varim as a documentation of what Moshe himself had already said of his own accord. Furthermore, the very content of Sefer D’varim is not new but a repetition of everything that occurred in the first four s’farim of Chumash expressed through Moshe’s lens (Tosafos, Gittin 2a). Thus, the first four books of the Torah are a stage of relative emes, as they were spoken by Hashem and given straight to Moshe, while Sefer D’varim is a sefer of emunah, representing the transition to the human mission of faithfully expressing and embodying emes.
In addition to the transition from the first four s’farim of Torah to Sefer D’varim – a transition of emes to emunah – Sefer D’varim itself contains a similar transition as well. While Moshe wrote Sefer D’varim, the last eight p’sukim in the Torah are a transition from Moshe to Yehoshua, written b’dim’ah, through a combination of Moshe and Yehoshua. This represents the transition, the “passing of the torch” from Moshe, the rebbi and receiver of Hashem’s original light, to Yehoshua, the loyal talmid, the moon. This transition continues with the shift from Torah to N’viim and K’suvim, the prophetic works included within the canon of Tanach. While the Chumash was written on a fundamentally higher level of prophecy from the rest of Tanach, the works of N’viim and K’suvim were written during the times of the Beis HaMikdash when prophecy still existed. Within that time period, it was a stage of emunah relative to the first stage of Torah, but relative to the world we live in today, one void of prophecy and transcendent clarity; Nach is the light of emes as well. (This is the key to understand: Every stage of emunah becomes the stage of emes relative to the next stage down. Thus, relative to Torah, Nach is emunah, but relative to nowadays, both Nach and Torah represent the stage of emes, albeit different levels.)
Our Struggle
This is our struggle: We live within the stage of emunah, of being faithful to the first stage of clarity and light. Before entering the stage of darkness, we are equipped with the tools and perception necessary to be successful in our journey as we rebuild the original spark of inspiration. When it feels dark and all inspiration seems lost, remember the first stage, remember that spark. If you can’t find the light in the darkness, create it.
Rabbi Shmuel Reichman is the author of the bestselling book, The Journey to Your Ultimate Self, which serves as an inspiring gateway into deeper Jewish thought. He is an international speaker, educator, and the CEO of Self-Mastery Academy. After obtaining his BA from Yeshiva University, he received s’micha from RIETS, a master’s degree in education, a master’s degree in Jewish Thought, and then spent a year studying at Harvard. He is currently pursuing a PhD at UChicago. To invite Rabbi Reichman to speak in your community or to enjoy more of his deep and inspiring content, visit his website: ShmuelReichman.com.
