Emunah is a Hebrew word that essentially means faith. We use it here as a way to express the basic creeds of Netzarim Judaism. In essence, this is a basic expression of our Jewish faith.
The Positive Expressions of our Faith
- We have faith that there is only one God, that He is the Creator of all things, that He is unique, a perfect unity, that there is no other like Him, and that He is without form and incarnation.
- We have faith that God is eternal, unchanging, uncreated, without beginning or end; that he is omniscient, omnipresent, perfect in His justice, and the ultimate arbiter of reward and punishment.
- We have faith that it is to God alone that we offer our worship and to whom we pray; to worship or pray to any other person, being, or false god is an abomination.
- We have faith that from the beginning of His creation God chose Israel to be His eternal witness to the people of the world, that Israel is forever called to be a light unto the nations; and that the covenant between God and His chosen people can never be broken.
- We have faith in the divine inspiration of Torah, in its essential message, and its centrality to Judaism; while Torah is a gift to Israel, its message in universal.
- We have faith that Torah, as revealed in it’s original autographs and form, was a divine message to the Jewish people; but to understand it we must consider it in light of the authors, the audience, the time and place, and that no document survives across millennia untouched.
- We have faith that Torah (the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible) is our only written source of Divine authority; the oral traditions, as gathered into the Talmud, are not a binding or authoritative source; however we are free to find inspiration in any of the Jewish historical writings and take from them that which helps us, provided it is consistent with Torah.
- We have faith that God has chosen to speak through His gift of prophecy, that He has chosen certain people throughout history to carry His message and to speak His words; the greatest of these prophets was Moses.
- We have faith in God’s plan for the future and in eternal life.
The Negative Expressions of our Faith
- We deny that the God of Israel is one among many, we further deny that He is only the God of Israel, or that there are any other gods.
- We deny that God is a trinity, has partners, or has any form other than perfect unity.
- We deny that God changes, that His plan for Israel, or for the world, would change.
Our Guiding Principles
- The Primacy of Conscience, driven by faith in, and knowledge of, Torah, is the final decisor in Jewish life. As freedom of will is a gift of God, we believe that ultimately each Jew, is responsible for themselves and their own halachic decisions in daily life.