There are many deep and esoteric levels of comprehension when it comes to the Mitzvos of Emunah – Faith, and the Mitzva of Yichud Hashem – the unification of Hashem. I would like to try and offer some original thoughts that can perhaps help bring these lofty concepts a little more down to earth, and explore how we can apply them in our struggles with the Yetzer Hara. Maybe if we have a better comprehension of these concepts, we can then work towards the right perspective to have when facing the battles of our Yetzer.
- There are two aspects of what the unification of Hashem should mean to US. One, for us to believe that Hashem only has one desire – to bestow good on His creations, and two, that we too should have only one desire - to do His will.
- All the Mitzvos of the Torah can be summed up with the Mitzva of Emunah. Why? Because the greater our Emunah is, the easier it becomes to nullify (and unify) our will to Hashem’s will, which is the entire purpose of the holy Torah.
- Emunah is mainly the belief and trust that Hashem is only טוב ומיטיב. Although Emunah also includes other aspects like the belief in Hashem’s absolute power and infinite greatness, the real work and main focus of Emunah is to believe and trust at all times that Hashem is טוב ומיטיב. And with this belief, we will find it much easier to nullify our own will to His.
- When we say Shema twice a day, we should have in mind the following sequence:
1. הבוחר בעמו ישראל באהבה - or (in Maariv) - אוהב עמו ישראל: “Hashem loves us immensely and unconditionally.”
2. שמע ישראל: Listen Yisrael – “Yisrael” in Hebrew can be broken down into the words “ישר-אל” – meaning “straight to G-d”. In other words, the real essence of Yisrael - of a Jew, is that all we do is for G-d).
3. ה' אלוקינו: Hashem is our G-d - our personal G-d. Not just a cold and uncaring force like the universe, but rather a personal G-d who cares only about our good.
4. ה' אחד: Hashem has only one desire, i.e. He ONLY wants our good and nothing else. Therefore, we too want to unify all our desires and will to doing ONLY His will.
5. ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו וכו': Hashem is awesomely great, and if this awesome King Who has only our good in mind wants us to serve Him, what a huge honor it is for us to do that!
6. ואהבת את ה' אלוקך בכל לבבך וכו': In light of all the above (He loves us like crazy, wants only our good, and is awesomely great), loving Hashem with all we’ve got is basically a GIVEN!