Are We Commanded to Believe in God?

Ex. 20:2 ‫ב‬:‫שמות כ‬

I am YHWH your God, (or "I am the Lord
your God.") ‫ מֵ אֶ ֶרץ‬,‫אתי‬ִ ֵ‫צ‬0‫ אֲשֶׁ ר ה‬,‫הֶ י‬4-ֱ‫הוָה א‬- ְ‫אָ נ ִֹכי י‬
who brought you out
from the land of Egypt, from a house of ‫ִמ ְצ ַריִ ם ִמבֵּ ית עֲבָ ִדים׃‬
slaves.
Ex. 20:3 ‫ג‬:‫כ‬
You are not to have any other gods before
my presence. ‫הים אֲחֵ ִרים עַ ל־פָּ נָי׃‬4ֱ
ִ ‫ א‬,‫ֶה־ל‬ ְ ‫ל ֹא יִ ְהי‬

Ex. 20:4 ‫ד‬:‫כ‬

You are not to make yourself a carved-
image ‫ל־תּמוּנָה אֲשֶׁ ר בַּ שָּׁ מַ יִ ם‬ ְ ָ‫ פֶ סֶ ל וְ כ‬,‫ה־ל‬
ְ ֶ‫ל ֹא תַ עֲשׂ‬
or any figure
that is in the heavens above, that is ‫ִממַּ עַ ל ַואֲשֶׁ ר בָּ אָ ֶרץ ִמתָּ ַחַ ת ַואֲשֶׁ ר בַּ מַּ יִ ם‬
on the earth beneath, that is in the waters ‫ִמתַּ חַ ת לָ אָ ֶרץ׃‬
beneath the earth;
‫‏‬

Hasdai Crescas [Spain, 1340-1310], Or ha-Shem (trans. Aryeh Newman in N. Lei-

bowitz, Studies)
He who includes among the list of positive precepts belief in the existence of God falls
into a common error. The very character of the term mitzvah indicates by definition, that
it can only apply to matters governed by free will and choice. But faith in the existence
of God is one of those things which are not governed by free will and choice. Conse-
quently the term mitzvah cannot apply to it.

Don Isaac Abravanel [Portugal/Spain, 1437-1508], Rosh Amanah

The phrase "I am the Lord your God..." constitutes no commandment, either dogmatic
or practical, but is merely a preface to the subsequent commandments and injunctions,
a declaration making known to the Children of Israel, Who is addressing them...

Maimonides, Sefer ha-Mitzvot, Mitzvah 1

The first mitzvah is that He commanded us to believe in the Diety, that is, that we be-
lieve that there is a cause and motive force behind all existing things. This idea is ex-
pressed in the statement, "I am the Lord your God."
Maimonides, Laws of Foundations of the Torah 1:6
The most fundamental of fundamentals and pillars of all sciences is to know that there is
a first cause bringing into existence all existing things, and that all that exists on heaven
and Earth and between them, exists only through the truth of His existence...The knowl-
edge of this concept constitutes a positive commandment, as it is said, "I am the Lord
your God," and whoever thinks that there is any other additional god, transgresses a
negative commandment, as it is said, "You are not to have any other gods before my
presence," and denies a fundamental principle, since this is the most important principle
on which everything depends.

Babylonian Talmud, Makkot 23b-24a

R. Simlai interpreted: Six hundred and thirteen commandments were transmitted to
Moses at Sinai, three hundred and sixty-five negative commandments, corresponding to
the number of solar days [in the year], and two hundred and forty-eight positive pre-
cepts, corresponding to the number of the limbs and bones of man's body. R. Hamnuna
said, "What is the textual support [for this number]? "Moses commanded us Torah"
(Deut. 33:4) TORaH adds up to 611 in gematria. ‫( אנוכי‬I am...) and ‫( לא יהיה‬You shall
have no other...) are not counted since they heard them directly from God and not from
Moses.

Rabbi Shalom Noah Barazofsky (Slonimer Rebbe), Sefer Netivot Shalom al ha-
Torah, 2:161
There is nothing that exists other than His reality; for He, may He be blessed, animates
and vitalizes them all. He is the reality of all the things that exist, and there is no reality
in the world other than His reality. This is the truth of faith (ve-zehu amitut ha-emunah).

Prof. Eitan Fishbane

Achieving emunah is a coming-to-awareness of deeper spiritual truths—a conscious-
ness in which the veils of illusion have been lifted, where the obstructions to a pure
mystical light have been removed. In this moment, the shells of our hearts break open,
and the warm glow of divine presence rushes in. We are absorbed into the complete
light and breath of Divinity. Recasting the framework of Maimonides, the Netivot Shalom
asserts that this state of perception, this emunah, is the root that nourishes and enables
the whole of the religious life; it is the necessary foundation for living a true life of
mitzvot.

Perhaps this is how we may read the powerful text of Exodus 19 and 20—the narrative
that structures Parashat Yitro. The statement "anokhi YHVH Elohekha" is a call to
awareness, the voice that seeks to awaken consciousness, to lift the religious person to
a new perspective on the practice of the mitzvot. It is for this reason that such a declara-
tion stands at the beginning of the list of commandments; all of the subsequent mitzvot,
the intricacies of ritual and halakhah—they must all be guided by a mindfulness of
anokhi, a consciousness of divine presence.