You say you don’t believe. But there is no such thing as a Jew who does not believe, just as there is no living person whose heart does not pump blood, no living thing that does not grow.
You can deny your faith, like one who is oblivious to the constant throb of his own heart.
You can bury your faith deep beneath the ground. No matter—it will sprout forth in some form or other—idealism, rebellion, aspirations, outrage …
But when the day comes for our people’s destiny to be fulfilled, that faith will stir from its hiding place. We, every one of us, will discover that we never really left our home.
Being told that there is no such thing as a Jew who does not believe makes me doubt whether I am a Jew. Because if I don't believe and there is no such thing as a Jew who does not believe, then I must not be one.
The very fact that it bothers you that perhaps you are not a Jew, that’s evidence enough that you really do believe. It’s just that you don’t recognize that feeling of belief for what it truly is.
It’s something like your heartbeat. Ask any person if he feels his heartbeat. Most likely he will say no. But that’s absurd. His entire body is pulsating with that heartbeat at every moment. It’s precisely because that pulse is so integral to our existence that we don’t notice it.
So why not see it the other way around: Since you are a Jew, it must be that in truth you really do believe. Perhaps you haven’t intellectually integrated many fundamental beliefs. But the notion of a single essence of all life that gives us purpose—or however else you want to put it—it’s there inside, inescapable.