The story is told of a staunch maamin who faced an agonizing moment of challenge — perhaps before an auto-da-fé or inside the gas chamber. Confronting his destiny, he asserted, “I could not serve a G-d I understood — for then, He wouldn’t be G-d.”
The Thirteen Principles of Emunah define the crucial underpinnings of our life in This World, and they’re our entrance ticket to eternal life. At the same time, they are detailed, precise — and multifaceted. The first four principles, which deal with the existence of Hashem, are particularly abstract to us mortals.
Where do we start? Let us begin… at the very beginning. The Torah opens with “Bereishis.” And the beginning of “the beginning” is the beis, the very first letter of the Torah.
The Midrash Rabbah tells us the significance of the Torah’s initial letter: The beis is enclosed on three sides and open only on the left, indicating that there’s information that is blocked from us. We are not permitted to ask, “What’s under and above; what’s before and after?” The structure of the beis signifies that we cannot fathom worlds that lie beyond our own (“what exists under and above”), nor may we investigate what was before Creation and what will be at the End of Days. Just as the beis opens forward, so we can only examine our world from the moment of Creation until the conceivable future.
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