Emunah

The Hebrew noun אֱמוּנָה (emunah) is commonly rendered in English as "faith" or "belief," but its semantic range is considerably broader.[2] Kaufmann Kohler derives emunah from the root aman, "to be firm," and describes it as denoting both firm reliance upon God and firm adherence to God—thus encompassing faith as well as faithfulness.[1] M. Friedländer similarly says that the word signifies "firmness," "perseverance," or "permanence," and can refer both to consistency in faith and to conscientious observance of divine ordinances.[2] Friedländer notes that post-biblical writers frequently used emunah for religious belief, while biblical examples discussed by other sources emphasize trust, reliability, and fidelity.[4][2]

The related Hebrew forms emet (truth or reliability) and emunah share the same root.[7] Norman Lamm reads Jeremiah's pairing of emunah with shekker (falsehood) as associating the concept with truth, and links the word etymologically with emet.[8] Rabbi Art Green characterizes biblical emunah as "affirmation and trust, a commitment of the entire self" rather than simply assent to propositions.[7] The SAPIR Journal argues that emunah's practical sense is reliability—being dependable and able to be counted on—and connects the word to the same root as amen.[9] Under that interpretation, when God is described in the daily Amidah as ne'eman (faithful), the force of the word is not that God is merely believable, but that God is utterly reliable.[9]

In everyday usage, emunah can express a thought or idea, support for a person, or commitment to a cause, view, or religious principle.[10] A separate discussion of Jewish business ethics links aminut (reliability or trustworthiness) and emunah through the root aman.[11]

The word emunah and its related verbal forms appear at pivotal moments in the Hebrew Bible, often in contexts of trust, reliance, and covenant loyalty rather than abstract doctrinal affirmation.[4]

Genesis 15:6 is a foundational example. Abraham trusts God's promise of descendants while he remains childless, and this trust is reckoned to him as righteousness.[3][2] My Jewish Learning interprets this emunah as reliance upon God expressed through conduct, and reads Israel's failure at Kadesh-Barnea in Deuteronomy 9:23 as a failure to trust God's promise that is linked directly to disobedience.[3]

After the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, Israel believed in God and in Moses (Exodus 14:31), a usage that the Man and God text reads in relational and ethical terms—reliability, loyalty, and faithfulness.[12] Exodus 17:12, describing Moses's hands as emunah during the battle against Amalek, illustrates the word's association with steadiness and firmness: Lamm interprets the phrase to mean that Moses's hands were firm and trustworthy and did not fail the Israelites' trust.[8] Numbers 20:12 applies a related verb when God rebukes Moses and Aaron for not trusting Him, and Deuteronomy 32:20 describes children "in whom there is no faith."[2]

Deuteronomy 32:4 applies emunah directly to God, associating it with divine faithfulness, integrity, and reliability.[5] The Man and God text interprets this epithet in terms of God's absolute dependability and reads biblical passages pairing emunah with hesed (lovingkindness) as describing enduring, reliable love.[12] The same text also treats emunah as a basis for trust in social relationships, citing officials entrusted with Temple funds and judges instructed to act "in emunah."[12]

Habakkuk 2:4—וְצַדִּיק בֶּאֱמוּנָתוֹ יִחְיֶה—is among the most debated uses of the term. The Revised JPS translation (2023) renders the ending in terms of the righteous receiving life for their fidelity, while cautioning that the Hebrew meaning is uncertain and recording an emendation that would yield a different reading.[13] Friedländer gives the older rendering "the righteous shall live by his faith" and reads the verse in the context of the prophet's question about the prosperity of the wicked: the righteous live by emunah, while the wicked will ultimately face judgment.[2] Hosea 2:22 adds an intimate covenantal register, promising that God will betroth Israel "in faithfulness."[4][2]

The biblical conception of emunah as trust and covenant faithfulness carried forward into rabbinic literature, but encounters with other religious and philosophical traditions prompted Jewish thinkers to articulate more explicit formulations of belief.[6]

Kohler describes the Shema as the earliest and most enduring expression of Jewish faith, and identifies the liturgical passages Emeth we-Yatzib and Alenu as early settings in which more formulated belief appeared in prayer.[1] Judaism did not develop one universally binding creed sanctioned by a central authority; belief was expressed chiefly in prayer, including the twice-daily recitation of the Shema.[6] Nevertheless, Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1 excludes from a share in the world to come those who deny resurrection of the dead or the divine origin of the Torah. Kohler interprets the passage as identifying revelation, retribution, and the hereafter as three fundamentals of rabbinic Judaism.[1] This approaches dogma without constituting a comprehensive creed.[6]

The impulse toward systematic formulation intensified during the medieval period, shaped partly by theological discussions in Muslim kalām that spread into Jewish philosophical circles.[6] The terminology reflects this context: ikkarim, the common Hebrew word for principles of faith, literally means "roots" and translates the Arabic uṣūl.[6] Rabbi Hananel identified four fundamentals—God, the prophets, future reward and punishment, and the Messiah—while Abraham ibn Daud listed six essentials covering God's existence, unity, incorporeality and omnipotence, revelation and the immutability of the Law, and divine providence.[1]

The most influential formulation was that of Maimonides (Rambam), who presented thirteen roots or fundamental principles of Jewish law.[6] They address God's existence, unity, incorporeality, and eternity; the obligation to worship God exclusively; prophecy and Moses's preeminence among prophets; the divine origin and enduring validity of the Torah; God's knowledge of human actions; reward and punishment; the coming of the Messiah; and resurrection of the dead.[6] Maimonides made the principles criteria of orthodoxy and membership in the community, sharply condemning denial of a root principle.[6] The Jewish Agency for Israel characterizes the principles as partly polemical: they articulated Jewish positions on questions for which neighboring religious traditions offered competing answers.[14]

Saadiah Gaon offered a distinct epistemological approach. He distinguished four types of people in their relation to truth and held that beliefs could be assessed through sensory experience, innate ideas, logical reasoning, and—for believers—the trustworthy communication of Scripture and tradition.[2] Judah Halevi held that religious belief rests primarily on divine revelation and authority, while Maimonides maintained that genuine belief requires understanding and rational affirmation; verbal assent without comprehension is insufficient.[5] These medieval philosophers extended the use of emunah toward propositions to be understood and affirmed without eliminating the earlier emphasis on trust and practice.

Maimonides' thirteen principles became the best-known attempt to define a Jewish creed, yet their reception illustrates the enduring resistance within Jewish tradition to fixing belief in a single authoritative formula.[15][6]

A manuscript of Maimonides' commentary on Mishnah tractate Avot, held at the Library of Congress and dated to 1300–1400, includes the thirteen principles and is cataloged as a 63-page Hebrew parchment manuscript.[15] Their best-known poetic expression is the piyut Yigdal, composed by R. Daniel ben Yehudah, a thirteenth-century poet known as the Judge of Rome, who rendered the principles in verse.[16] Yigdal became popular, was adapted to many tunes, and entered most Jewish liturgical traditions.[16][6] The prose form, Ani Maamin ("I believe"), also entered the prayer book, giving Maimonides' creed a lasting place in synagogue worship.[6][1]

The formulation was never universally accepted. Joseph Albo reduced the fundamentals to three: belief in God, revelation, and retribution, distinguishing these indispensable principles from secondary beliefs.[1] Isaac Abravanel and David ben Zimra objected to the enterprise of defining articles of faith at all.[1] Hasdai Crescas criticized systems grounding faith chiefly in speculative knowledge rather than love, arguing that piety and goodness—not philosophical demonstration—should stand at the center of religious life.[1] Samuel David Luzzatto similarly rejected the treatment of religion as a purely intellectual system, presenting Judaism as a moral life force expressed through righteousness and love of others.[1]

R. Yitzchak Luria (the Ari) opposed Yigdal because he objected to declaring defined articles of faith, and communities following his rulings omit the piyut from their prayer books.[16] In the modern period, Moses Mendelssohn defended Judaism's non-dogmatic character, while other writers argued that Jewish practice necessarily presupposes fundamental religious principles.[6]

The Jewish Agency's educational lesson also comments on the translation of Maimonides' formula. Because Maimonides wrote his Mishnah commentary in Arabic, the lesson argues that the verb behind the Hebrew rendering "I believe fully" is better translated as "to know." It therefore presents the principles as requiring thought and reflection rather than acceptance on someone else's authority alone.[14] The lesson uses this reading to emphasize that professing correct principles does not by itself make someone a good Jew: right belief cannot substitute for worthy conduct and good deeds.[14]

Running through many Jewish sources on emunah is a conception that goes beyond belief in the sense of holding opinions. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes faith in biblical and rabbinic literature as faithfulness, confidence, or trust in God, God's word, or God's messenger, and reports that rabbinic sources praise such trust as meritorious while criticizing those who lack it.[4]

Norman Lamm distinguishes three related manifestations of faith. Cognitive faith, or "belief-that," is intellectual assent to claims about God. Affective faith, or "belief-in," is trust and relationship. Functional faith is trust enacted through behavior, including life according to God's commandments and halakhah.[8] Lamm stresses that these are analytical distinctions rather than separate compartments: faith engages the whole person. He describes emunah and action (maaseh) as "indissolubly intertwined"—observance expresses faith, and practice can strengthen the trust that informs it.[8] Lamm also distinguishes safek (doubt) from kefirah (denial), arguing that honest questioning can prompt renewed examination and deepen cognitive faith without ending commitment to halakhic practice.[8]

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks emphasizes the relational dimension, characterizing emunah as faithfulness and loyalty in the covenant between God and the Jewish people. He compares it to marriage: a mutual commitment marked by fidelity and trust, even when the relationship is troubled.[17] Sacks presents faith not as certainty or possession of all the answers, but as the courage to live with uncertainty and questions. He also connects Jewish emunah with the endurance of generations and with hope of return to Israel, Jerusalem, and freedom.[17]

The Man and God text applies this relational reading to both sides of the covenant. When God is described as "a God of emunah" in Deuteronomy 32:4, the text understands the description in terms of divine faithfulness. Passages pairing emunah with hesed describe dependable and enduring love rather than a momentary feeling.[12] The text also extends emunah into civic and social life: officials trusted with Temple funds and judges instructed to act "in emunah" illustrate the concept as a human virtue as well as a theological orientation.[12]

Because emunah is tied to reliability and faithful conduct as well as theological conviction, it shapes Jewish practice across multiple domains—from communal prayer to business ethics and the relationship between belief and commandment.

In liturgy, the twice-daily recitation of the Shema stands as an early and fundamental expression of Jewish emunah and of God's unity.[6][1] The daily Amidah's description of God as ne'eman (faithful or reliable) draws on the same root as emunah, characterizing God not merely as the object of belief but as a dependable covenantal partner.[9] Maimonides' principles entered this liturgical world through the prose Ani Maamin and the poetic Yigdal, which became established in synagogue prayer.[6][1]

The phrase "carrying on business faithfully" (lisa ve-latet be-emunah) expresses an ethical obligation extending beyond merchants to ordinary conduct. It encompasses truthfulness, keeping promises, avoiding deception and exaggeration, doing one's work faithfully, and treating others fairly.[11] The obligation is not enumerated among the 613 commandments, yet commentators cited in the source regard it as exceptionally weighty.[11]

A teaching attributed to Nahmanides states that one who conducts business faithfully and is well regarded by others is credited as if that person had fulfilled the whole Torah.[11] A story attributed to the Chafetz Chaim illustrates the connection between ethics and trust in God: a fish seller who presented yesterday's fish as fresh and charged full price was not only deceiving customers; his fear that honesty would cost him his livelihood also reflected a lack of trust in divine provision.[11]

Many major Jewish authorities, including Maimonides, Nahmanides, and Sefer HaChinuch, treat belief in God as a fundamental commandment associated with the first of the Ten Commandments, "I am the Lord your God."[18] A competing view holds that belief in God is not a separate commandment but the foundation from which all commandments flow.[18] The same discussion distinguishes Jewish status—which does not depend on an individual's beliefs—from the religious obligation to strive toward genuine emunah.[18]

A Ynet essay reads the first commandment's full formulation—"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage"—as linking genuine faith with liberation. On that interpretation, emunah entails responsibility toward oneself and others, moral action, and engagement with the world rather than withdrawal from it. The essay invokes the traditional Passover instruction that every person should regard themselves as having left Egypt, connecting the experience of liberation with the capacity for faith.[19]

Emunah occupies a distinctive position in Jewish religious thought because Jewish sources repeatedly connect faith with practice, trust with conduct, and theological conviction with the obligations of religious life.[8][2] It is not exhausted by doctrinal affirmation or reducible to practice alone, but can describe the orientation of the whole person and community toward God.

The tension between emunah as trust-and-faithfulness and emunah as assent to propositions has generated recurring discussion in Jewish intellectual history. Friedländer describes Judaism as adherence to the truths of the Holy Law together with faithful obedience to its precepts. He also gives reason and scientific investigation a proper role, while holding that revelation and tradition convey knowledge of matters beyond the reach of the senses and reason.[2] Kohler emphasizes the ethical dimension through Luzzatto's presentation of Judaism as a moral life force expressed in righteousness and love of others, and through Crescas's criticism of grounding religion chiefly in speculative knowledge rather than love.[1]

The Jewish Virtual Library's account of belief explains that Maimonides defined belief as a cognitive state in which a proposition is understood and affirmed as corresponding to reality. This was one influential philosophical position within a tradition that did not impose a single account universally.[5] The diversity of medieval approaches—from Saadiah Gaon's combination of rational demonstration and reliable tradition, through Judah Halevi's emphasis on revealed authority, to Maimonides' rationalism—shows how varied Jewish accounts of belief became.[5]

For Lamm, these dimensions are united because faith in its fullest Jewish sense is inseparable from maaseh, deed and conduct.[8] Emunah is not a detached intellectual posture but a lived commitment in which trust in God finds expression in commandments, ethical dealings, and covenantal fidelity. The Jewish Agency's educational lesson similarly stresses that, in its presentation of Maimonides, professing correct principles alone cannot substitute for worthy conduct and good deeds.[14]

Several enduring debates surround emunah. The most substantial concerns whether Judaism possesses—or should possess—binding articles of faith. Sources describe Judaism as lacking a universally binding creed sanctioned by a central religious authority, while also documenting rabbinic exclusions, liturgical affirmations, and medieval lists of principles.[6][1] Kohler stresses that emunah in its scriptural and rabbinic core is not the acceptance of a prescribed creed and that explicit formulations developed historically through encounters with other traditions.[1]

Friedländer gives greater weight to the creedal dimension and reports Maimonides' view that rejection of any of his thirteen principles placed a person outside the Jewish community, while also acknowledging that the Torah does not command a formal recital of a creed.[2] Maimonides' formulation drew objections both to particular principles and to the enterprise itself. Abravanel and David ben Zimra resisted attempts to define articles of faith, while Isaac Luria objected to the declaration of defined principles in Yigdal.[16][1]

A second debate concerns the translation and interpretation of biblical verses. Habakkuk 2:4 has been rendered in terms of both "faith" and "fidelity," with the Revised JPS translation noting that the Hebrew is uncertain.[2][13] The argument in Man and God that biblical emunah primarily denotes trust and faithfulness rather than propositional belief is a particular interpretation, not the only way Jewish sources use the term.[12] Lamm's etymological connection between emunah and emet, and his interpretation of Moses's hands in Exodus 17:12, are likewise attributed readings rather than uncontested lexical conclusions.[8]

Authorities also disagree about whether belief in God is a commandment in its own right or the foundation of all commandments.[18] Modern thinkers have likewise divided over whether Judaism's non-dogmatic character should be emphasized, as Mendelssohn argued, or whether Jewish practice necessarily presupposes fundamental religious principles.[6] Together, these disagreements show that Jewish accounts of emunah have continued to vary across periods and thinkers.