When my daughter was twelve years old she was an avid Yankee fan. As the oldest child in the house, she set the tone, and it wasn’t long before all of the children were Yankee enthusiasts.

One day, as we were driving past Shea Stadium, my five-year-old daughter let out a loud “boooo!” Her ten-year-old sister, sitting next to her, asked, “Why did you say that?

“That’s the Mets. They stink!” Was her response.

Being a bit curious, one of the other children asked her, “Do you know what they do in that stadium?”

“No.”

Do you know how to play the game?”

“ No.”

“Do you even know what baseball is?”

“ No.”

“So, why do you booo the Mets?”

“Well…everyone knows that the Yankees are great, and the Mets stink”. Was her indignant response.

There is nothing wrong with a five year old having a simplistic understanding of things, and there is no harm in her being a baseball fan without knowing what that means. However, it sometimes seems that our Emunah has that level of sophistication, and our entire belief system is like a five year old’s allegiance to the Yankees.

Ask the average orthodox Jew, “Have you thought about what Emunah means? Have you studied Hashem in any significant way?

“Studied Hashem?”

“Thought about Emunah?”

“ No. Not really.”

It is rather ironic that we spend so much time in the practice of our religion, yet the basics behind it, our relationship to HASHEM, is something that seems to be overlooked.

Not to say that we aren’t frum, and not to say that we don’t believe. We do believe. We believe that Hashem is in charge. We believe that Hashem runs the world. The problem is that we don’t take the time to understand what that means. If Hashem controls every activity on the planet, how does man have free will? If Hashem determines how much money I am to make, why should I go to work?

And in a real sense we are like Yankee fans. Our Emunah remains this juvenile, undeveloped sense of “I know that I am supposed to believe—I’m just not sure what exactly it is that I am supposed to believe in.” Our beliefs are supposed to be much deeper, much more refined, much more sophisticated. But, for that to happen, we have to invest time and effort on understanding what we believe in. Otherwise we remain HASHEM fans.

Rabbi Shafier is the founder of the Shmuz.com – The Shmuz is an engaging, motivating shiur that deals with real life issues.

All of the Shmuzin are available free of charge at www.theShmuz.com or on the Shmuz App for iphone or Android.