First if our minds are disconnected from true emunah faith, this has and will always, lead us to apikorses (heresy). We have defective mochin (intellects). Yes, everyone, all of us, who have not yet come to the place of basic emunah (faith) can't even begin to understand what going on in his own personal life, yet alone what's happening in the world around him.
Basic level Emunah is this: EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN THE WORLD IS ALL FROM HASHEM. "From the multiplication of single celled amoeba to earth shaking events that effect universe. All ...All, every little bump, scrape, word through deed. All of them, up to the cosmic events of asteroids hitting planets. It's all from Hashem. We call that... Divine providence, Hashcachah. I'm speaking very general here as we could go much deeper.
In practice this means that when ever something/one comes to upset us we should let emunah proceed our intellect. The first thought has to be emunah before the brains can lie to us, "that such and such or so and so did this". Emunah says this is B"H just what Hashem wants and it is the best thing for my tikun (my soul needs).
Ahh, now we touch on the reality of situation. Answer this question: What is my mission, why was I sent here? Am I here just to live 70-80 years breathing, eating, doing, and wanting? NO!!! I have been sent here on a special mission from the throne room of Hashem. My neshoma, my essence, my soul is here in this body at this moment to make repairs, tikunim.
This is why I like The Matrix metaphor so much, as when we get to this place, we are just waking up to the desert of the real. I'm not here to just find pleasure and work like a dog, I'm here to fix what I can, the quicker the better. I'm going deeper into these issues on my new blog Project Emunah, and there is a great book by Rabbi Shalom Arush shlita, translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody shlita, The Garden of Emuna.Anyway, I said I wanted to blow your minds. Ok, I'm still looking for the source, but I heard a midash on parshas Noah that says like this. There was a maclohet in Shamayim, they couldn't decide what to name Moshiach, Menachem or Nachman? So they deceided that it would take both!
In these days just prior to the day of Moshiach our National Emunah is waning. This is why it is so so important to start to exercise it, and to build it in one another. That's why we need not only to get people to put on tefillin and shake a lulav (this is good and we should continue). Rather we need to reach out to one another and increase each other's emunah, and natural by product will be the mitzvot. When we speak out loud about emunah, 'The Yeitzer hates this' the whole world becomes clearer, cleaner and brighter. Emunah can be increased and given even to those who don't want it! YES.................. That's right, I just gave you a gift and you can't refuse it, you're stuck with it, B"H.
Shalom, Reb. Nati
