Do we believe in G-d because it works?

Standing at Mount Sinai, overwhelmed by the sounds and sights just experienced, awed by the voice of G-d; we have just been freed from Egypt, carried on the wings of miracles. But now Moshe ascends the mountain, and the days stretch on. He’s not back yet … The Erev Rav begins to foment anxiety – and from that anxiety emerges the Golden Calf. 

When G-d spoke the Ten Commandments, He said, “I am the One who took you out of Egypt.” 

When the Erev Rav – the mixed multitude – proclaim their idol, they say, “This is your g-d, Israel, who brought you up from Egypt.” 

For G-d, the exodus was not an end in itself; it was a beginning, a prelude to the giving (and accepting) of the Torah. For the Erev Rav, freedom in and of itself was the goal. But when Torah imposed responsibility, they recoiled. Their faith was functional, not covenantal. 

Do we believe in G-d because prayers are answered, promises fulfilled, miracles delivered? Or do we believe even when nothing seems to work at all? 

Rabbi Kenneth Brander asks why is the order of the Torah in parshiyot Terumah through Pekudei structured as Mishkan, Shabbat, Golden Calf, Shabbat, Mishkan? He suggests that without the integrity of sacred “relationship” moments with G-d, there is no difference between the golden structure of the Mishkan and the golden structure of the calf. 

Shabbat, a sacred moment to rendezvous with G-d, serves as the buffer to separate the Mishkan from the Egel. 

Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach sharpened the point. “Whoever says their religion works is simply involved in pagan worship.” Paganism is about utility, using the divine to achieve results. Judaism, by contrast, is about relationship. Faith is not transactional. 

Moshe prayed 515 times with all his soul to enter the Land, and G-d said no. Yet Moshe kept praying. He taught us that prayer is not about results; it is about standing before G-d, even when the answer is silence. The test of faith is not when prayers are answered, but when they are not. 

One of the last things the Rizhiner said before he passed away was that everyone will have to go through three hours when even G-d doesn’t work and everything is falling apart, and that during those three hours it will be so hard to believe in G-d, it will literally be like walking up a wall. 

How can you walk up a wall? There is nothing to hold on to. In that moment, he urged, we must hold onto each other. Alone, the wall is impossible. Together, supporting and uplifting each other, we can ascend. 

The Golden Calf is not just a story of ancient failure. It is a mirror held up to each of us in every generation. Do we seek a G-d who “works”, or do we seek the One who simply is – whose presence sanctifies even silence? 

To believe means to stand with nothing in hand, yet everything in heart; and to climb the wall – together.