Psalm 34 reads, “Taste and see that God is good.” We taste and see God through faith, or what in Hebrew we call emunah. Emunahis not blind faith, indeed it is just the opposite.
Most people consider faith a blind, irrational acceptance of unknowable, unprovable religious dogmas.
But included in the definition of emunah is the fact that just because you can‘t explain a particular spiritual concept, it doesn‘t automatically mean that it is not real or unknowable. Indeed, emunahis true knowing and seeing. Emunah is super-rational. Emunahis the level of knowing that transcends the intellectual, philosophical, rational faculty. That‘s why I cannot explain it in words; I just know.
Emunah is a faculty of consciousness, a way of seeing that does not operate through the intellect, (although it can be supported by the intellect.) Emunah is a direct kind of seeing through the eyes of soul. It‘s like knowing that red is red. I can‘t prove it, and I shouldn’t try, because it‘s so incredibly obvious.
I don‘t know how I‘m able to lift my hand. That doesn‘t mean I don‘t know how to lift my hand. I could never explain it to anyone, yet I know exactly how to do it. I know the difference between the Mona Lisa and a Peanuts cartoon. How do I know? I know. And I know the difference between vintage wine and cola. Even though they tell me it‘s the real thing, I know it‘s not. I know that the vintage wine is much better, much more valuable. I can‘t prove it, but I don‘t need to, because I know it.
That‘s why the Torah starts off with a self-evident story: God created heaven and earth. Torah doesn‘t start out telling you about God’s existence, and giving you proofs, and then tell you that God created the world. Torah starts out with the beginning of the world, without discussion, because God is self-evident.
Of course, everyone knows God. The problem is, people don‘t know that they know, and that they’re lives is transformed by this knowledge.