Rabbi Zalman Melamed: 1. Belief in God: From Design
Foundations of Faith
The Shiur was given in Heshvan 5762
1. Belief in God: From Design
Rabbi Zalman Melamed
Written by the rabbi
Dedicated to the memory of
R. Meir b"r Yechezkel Shraga Brachfeld
There are two possible ways of arriving at faith in the existence of God. The first is a
rational intellectual approach, which calls for recognizing the Creator "through His
creation." It claims that the universe and all of its wonders serve as proof of the
existence of a Creator. This approach served as a starting point for our own great
ancestor, Abraham. The Sages teach that Abraham was three years old when he
came to recognize his Maker. He asked himself: "Who created the world?" and then
began to contemplate. "Perhaps," he reasoned, "the sun is the Creator." When night
fell, though, and the sun went down, he realized that he had been mistaken.
"Perhaps," the young Abraham continued to reason, "the moon is the true Creator."
Eventually he reached the conclusion that there is a Creator who formed the sun, the
moon, and the entire universe.
This rational approach of recognizing the Creator through his creation is the one
followed by Rabbi Bachya ibn Paquda in his classic work, "Duties of the Heart." He
asks, "Is it possible that ink spill out onto a piece of paper and coincidentally form
letters, words, sentences, and an entire composition? Is such a thing conceivable?
No. If we find a piece of paper on which contains a composition, we are certain that
somebody wrote it. Similarly, when we see a table, it is not reasonable to assume
that a few boards coincidentally fell onto one another, stuck together, and formed a
table. When one sees a table, it is clear and undeniable that somebody made it.
Furthermore, according to the quality of the table, one is able to determine the
proficiency of the carpenter.
If, then, simple works like these cannot be said to have coincidentally created
themselves, how much more inconceivable is it to imagine the entire world, with all of
its intricate design, coincidentally creating itself. Rather, the world itself serves as
evidence of a Creator: "The heavens declare the glory God, the skies proclaim His
handiwork" (Psalms 19:2). The skies, by their mere existence, evidence their
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Rabbi Zalman Melamed: 1. Belief in God: From Design
Foundations of Faith
Creator. And because our universe is the most incredible of all creations, we may
conclude that its architect is also the wisest of all Creators.
Yet, arriving at the Creator by way of His creation alone is not an ideal path. Though
the creation is very impressive and evidences the greatness of God, faith founded
upon intelligent design alone remains somewhat limited. God's eminence cannot be
measured merely according to that part of creation which man's senses reveal to
him. God's greatness stretches far beyond what we able to grasp.
The Sages teach that God created our present world with one letter of the alphabet the Hebrew letter "Heh;" the World to Come, with the letter "Yod." The intention of
this metaphor is to teach us with what extreme ease God created our world. With the
smallest amount effort one could imagine. The letter "Heh" is the easiest of all letters
to pronounce; it is, in fact, practically silent. This great and wondrous creation which
we are so impressed by, from the point of view of God and in light of His infinite
ability, amounts to very little. If a person bases his faith in God on the evidence of the
creation alone, his faith in God remains quite limited. Though one stands in awe of
God's extraordinary creation and looks upon the heavens, as if in keeping with the
verse: "Lift up your eyes to the stars, and see, Who has created these?" (Isaiah 40,
26), still, this ephemeral world of ours is nothing when viewed in light of the true
ability of God.
It is not enough, then, to be satisfied with recognizing the Creator through His
creation. Faith must be founded upon something even loftier that this. This, then, will
serve as the focus of our next discussion.
E-mail: beitel@yeshiva.org.il
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