What Is Faith in Kabbalah

Faith is an art form, not in the sense of a special talent or occupation, but as hard creative work: bringing into being something that was not there before, not merely a duplication. In Hebrew, faith is bound up with creation itself, and its work is to create a relationship between the human and the Creator. Through this art form a new reality of coexistence becomes possible rather than a reality of separation, and this is what the spiritual struggle is for: making a place where what is above and what is below can dwell together.

This work cannot be given as a gift, because if it were given in that way the whole basis of effort would be lost, together with the need to avoid bread of shame. We want to have our own part in what is formed. The higher does not do the work instead of us, but inspires us to create our own portion, the specific part that belongs to us. The reality that results can hold both the Creator and the human who creates, and one of its expressions is the Tabernacle. Those who built the Tabernacle were not only craftsmen or specialists, because everyone participated. It was the wisdom of the heart, where need gave birth to talent, and talent gave birth to the ability to weave things together and to make what was needed.

To be an artist is not an occupation but part of being human, because each person is meant to work with the materials of one’s own life. The one chosen to build is not chosen because of ordinary skill, since his true talent is the talent of Faith. He is in the shadow of God, and to be in the shadow means to know where the light is, and to know what to create according to the shadow within oneself. This is the kind of person who can build that coexistence, the very place that faith is always trying to bring into being.