(By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times)

There is just something about Talmidim of Rav Pam zatzal, who in so many areas, provide very much needed resources for Klal Yisroel in so many areas.

Just in time for Elul, Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer’s “Strengthen Your Emunah” (134 pages) published by Feldheim provides penetrating insights and wisdom not only in regard to strengthening Emunah – but also in regard to other crucial aspects of life.

The entire work is filled with remarkable nuggets of Torah that bring home his central motif – we need to do a better job inspiring the krovim as well – not just doing kiruv rechokim.

How come it was only the men who sinned with the Golden Calf and not the women? The Tur explains that they were so enamored by the fact that HaKadosh Boruch Hu addressed them first at Har Sinai before the men that they simply could not reduce themselves to sin. Rabbi Fingerer brings out the idea that we need to inspire our children and show them that they are special. This is part of our job as parents and as custodians of our beautiful Torah heritage.

In Rabbi Fingerer’s discussion about the critical role of parents in developing psychologically healthy children (they need to provide love, stability, structure) he cites (p. 130) a beautiful drasha from the Yalkut Shimoni (Tehillim 121) – esa ainay el heharim m’ayin yavo ezri – I lift my eyes toward my parents hahorim – wherein my help come from..”

How do you deal with someone who complains that everything has to be kosher, and that Judaism is so restrictive? Can’t have this. Can’t have that. Rabbi Fingerer explains that Kosher has the same letters as K’SaR – like a prince. His ennobled status has a special diet, a special dress code. It is a great honor and a privilege.

The Sefer has six chapters. The first deals with and is titled, “Getting to Know Hashem.” The thesis of this first chapter is that one cannot love Hashem without knowing Him. It describes and defines Hashem and explains that the remarkable gift that Hashem has given to humanity is bechira- free will. This gift necessitated the invisible nature of Hashem.

The second chapter defines Emunah, but also discusses the sin of not serving Hashem with joy. Emunah means being sustained and that, therefore, it is a sin to look pained. When we recognize Hashem’s role in our lives we banish da’aga worry. He cites a saying of Rav Moshe of Kobrin that there are two things in which we are forbidden to worry about: something that is fixable is the first. Instead of worrying about it – take the steps to fix it. The second thing is something that is not fixable. Why worry about something that cannot be fixed.

The third chapter discusses whether and how science can lead to faith. This is, of course, the true purpose of science and is what the Chovos Hal’vavos’ shaar habechina wanted us all to do. The chapter tells us about a world famous atheist, Anthony Flew who later came to belief in Hashem based on the work of Gerald Schroeder – a frum MIT graduate. The essential them of this chapter is that random spontaneous generation of things is a veritable impossibility and that
the only alternative is a Bore Olam. This chapter is a more digestible form of much of the material in Lawrence Kemelman’s book “Permission to Believe” which was written for the university trained baal teshuvah. It also includes delightful interpretations from the meforshim backing up all of this.

The fourth chapter (mistakenly labelled chapter three as well) deals with other evidence for Hashem having created the world. It deals with the unbroken chain of transmission from Sinai and other tidbits. This too is a much more palatable form of the material found in “Permission to Receive” – written for the university-trained baal teshuvah.

The fifth chapter discusses the historical evidence of Jewish history that can strengthen our Emunah. Indeed, this is the purpose of looking at history. The final chapter deals with bringing Mashiach.

The bulk of the sefer was formed out of lectures that the author has given about these topics and the style is more conversational in tone, and therefore, more palatable to the average reader.. The downside of the sefer in its current form is that there is no Psukim index which would have been very useful for those teaching Parsha and that there is no topic index for those who may look for how best to address a specific issue.

Rabbi Fingerer is the Mora d’asra of the Brooklyn Jewish Xperience and deals with kiruv on a daily basis. It is this author’s belief that all teachers in Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs should read this work and mine it for its remarkably inspiring content. It is an essential work for both kiruv rechokim and kiruv krovim.

The reviewer can be reached at [email protected]