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| Psalm 92: Faith in the Nights |
What is the role of faith? What is the relationship between
faith and intellectual understanding?
On the Sabbath, the Levites sang in the Temple:
The verse contrasts two pairs of opposites. The first pair
is the morning and the night, while the second is our
recognition of God's kindness, and our faith in Him. The
daily prayers also reflect this dichotomy. In the morning we
recite the prayer, "Emet Veyatziv" ("True and Certain"),
while in the evening we say, "Emet VaEmunah" ("Truth and
Faith").
In what way does knowledge of God's nature correspond to the
morning, while faith belongs to the night? Also, why does
the verse mention morning first, when the (Jewish) day
starts in the evening?
Reserve of Light
Night is a time of preparation. We sleep at night to regain
strength for our daytime activities. The value of night is
in its preparatory nature; the actual goal is the activities
of the day.
Like the night, faith serves to prepare us. The final goal,
spiritual perfection, lies in clear awareness of the nature
of God. But without faith, one would not perform mitzvot nor
refine character traits, both of which ultimately lead to
true enlightenment. Faith serves as a necessary prerequisite
for intellectual insight.
In his introduction to the "Guide for the Perplexed,"
Maimonides used the metaphor of lightning to describe divine
enlightenment. It is not a constant phenomenon, but rather
it shines its brilliant truth in pulses. The frequency of
these lightning bolts of truth is a function of one's
spiritual level. For a great prophet like Moses, the
lightning flashes are so rapid that they appear to be a
single continuous light. For others, the light appears and
vanishes, like "the flame of the rotating sword" (Gen.
3:24).
Here lies the second role of faith. When the intellect is
well illuminated, we can recognize the truth of the Torah by
its light. But faith is needed for those times when the
light of the intellect does not shine, during the hours of
night when spiritual darkness reigns.
The verse mentions day before night to indicate this second
aspect of faith. After the light of day, which
intermittently enlightens the intellect, faith serves as a
reserve source of illumination during periods of darkness.
(adapted from Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 65, on Berachot 12)
Copyright © 2006 by Chanan Morrison
"To tell of Your kindness in the morning;
and in the nights — Your faith." (Ps. 92:3)