On the first commandment, Anochi Hashem (I am Hashem), the Rambam (Maimonides) says that you have to have emunah in Hashem. Who are we talking about here? If you’re talking about a person who doesn’t have emunah, then he doesn’t believe. “Oh, I have emunah.” He doesn’t believe. So it must be that he’s talking about a person who has emunah. If he has emunah, why are you telling me, “Oh, by the way, the first commandment is that you have to have emunah”? So the answer is, there’s emunah and there’s emunah. There’s emunah of knowing. There’s a Kadosh Baruch Hu around. There’s emunah of feeling. That I can do is put holes around. Everybody, no matter what you say, everybody believes in Borei Olam.
In World War II, there was a Jewish guy. The maskil (Jewish Enlightenment adherent) got him, and he went off the derech (off the path) and married a non-Jew. After that, he was caught by the Nazis. They said, “Listen, you’re Jewish; we gotta kill you.” He said, “What are you taking me?” The Nazi guy who was there said, “You know, you’re right, but these are orders.” He went to his general, and the general said, “Okay, fine. We’ll test him out.” They took him to the shul (synagogue). They started a fire outside the shul. They brought out a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) and told the guy, “You’re claiming you’re not Jewish at all, that you have no Judaism in you. Take the Sefer Torah and throw it in the fire.” He said, “That I can’t do.” That means you still have Judaism in you. They took him and threw him in the fire, and he died.
What’s my point? I’m trying to say that deep down, everybody has emunah. Over here, the mitzvah (commandment), the Rambam is saying, is that you have to have emunah that you really feel it. Who’s around? “Oh my goodness, I can’t do this. He’s looking at me. I can’t do this. I can’t eat like this. He’s looking at me.” This is what we can explain to Rambam what he means when it speaks about the first commandment.