If I said “not needed” I was a little too cheeky, however it is true that we ‘know’ our Torah and its observance to be true—we don’t rely on faith that it is true.
BUT, since one doesn’t hear G-d literally, like those at Sinai, or the prophets, or our sages (literally until the 18th century*) who had divine inspiration (a form of prophecy,) we do have a concept of faith in that which we can derive intellectually but not experience sensually. An analogy is having someone tell you all about what makes a 50,000 lb airplane fly, but not believing it until you see it with your own eyes.
So sorry to have let you ponder for a day or two a thought that Jews don’t have faith. It is an essential part of Judaism.
*The first rabbi of the Lubavitch chassidic dynasty (Rabbi Shneur Zalman ZT’L) said that our commentators up to the 18th century, had “ruach hakodesh” (heh, holy spirit...if you pardon the exact translation similarities to a non-Jewish concept) which they used to write their commentany on Torah and Jewish law.
Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it...Just to expand on what you said, which I am not sure, if I totally follow you but would you say that Judaism is first based on intellect knowing the truth of Torah first, being part of a cultural community as being born into *Judaism* and then experiencing GOD by doing good deeds which I believe you call a mitzvah?
Something we are seeing today, is so many of the seas fish dying, and birds dying in mid-air and the scripture of Hosea
4 comes to mind...
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing,[a] lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea are swept away.
My understanding of this scripture, is that it is the lack of *Faith* in GOD which causes this to happen and I am not sure if the lack of human intellect in GOD can cause this?