T44 (Tinyana) PNC - Emunah Depends on the Mouth — Reject Chakirah, Serve in Temimus

Emunah depends on the mouth: 'I will make Your faithfulness known with my mouth' (Psalms 89:2). Speaking words of faith is itself faith and brings one to deeper faith. So one must guard against repeating words of heresy — even mockingly, in another's name — because the very utterance damages emunah and is also forbidden as mocking the Creator. Books of philosophical investigation, even those by great Jews, must be avoided: our faith from our holy ancestors is sufficient. The greatest service is to be tam ve-yashar, simple and upright, with no clever wisdoms at all. Even the 'cleverness' people apply within avodas Hashem itself — over-meticulous self-examination of whether each mitzvah was performed perfectly — is mostly delusion. Flesh-and-blood cannot fulfill its duty perfectly; the Holy One does not come with complaints; the Torah was not given to ministering angels. The over-stringent live in melancholy and have no chiyus from any mitzvah; 'and you shall live by them' — not die by them.

Even one who genuinely knows true wisdoms must, after all his learning, throw all the wisdoms aside and serve Hashem with complete simplicity. This is the greatest wisdom of all: to not be wise at all. There truly is no wise person before Him; 'no wisdom and no understanding stand before Hashem' (Proverbs 21:30; Sanhedrin 106; Zohar Tetzaveh 281). The essence: rachmana liba ba'ei — the Merciful One desires the heart.