Description: Yiras Shamayim 02
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 103-105
Fear of Hashem is a concept demonstrated in the Torah many times over. The evil people get punished, time and time again. When people don’t live up to their potential, they are pushed in the right direction with a little dose of Yirah.
It’s not really possible to serve Hashem in a realistic way without having Yirah, literal fear. We are human beings and experience ‘yeridos and aliyos,’ meaning times that we are inspired and motivated to do the right thing, times that we are full of energy and excitement to do mitzvos, chesed, daven and other spiritual acts. But we have many times when we are at low-tide. We have no motivation, things are looking bleak, our energy and interest is on low-ebb. What can we fall back on to keep serving Hashem nonetheless? Only Yiras Shamayim. Fear of Hashem is the pillar that everything else is built upon, because it’s unshakeable. Avodas Hashem needs to be strong and rooted – and only Yiras Shamayim gives us that.
When we fear Hashem, the key is to never lose sight of what we are fearing. We are not fearing getting hurt, getting sick, losing money, embarrassment, or all the other forms of painful experiences. Those fears create anxiety, and tend to leave us cold and unmotivated. It’s hard to do anything when frozen with fear! It’s not Avodas Hashem.
What we do fear - is Hashem – we fear becoming distant from Him, we fear ending up in a place where it will be necessary to shlepp us back through difficult methods. When a person fears getting hurt – and that’s the whole nature of his fear, it doesn’t bring one closer to Hashem. When a person fears Hashem, and respects Hashem’s power and greatness, it inspires us to serve Him. If the fear is all directed at one’s self, then it has the opposite effect – it causes us to forget Hashem! We are concentrating on ourselves!
We have spent two weeks discussing the concept of Hashgachah Pratis. Hashem cares and looks out for everything we do. Hashem manipulates the world and makes whatever happens, happen. Why does He care? Because He loves us – and He wants us to be zocheh to the best possible good that there is. The best possible good is Kirvas Hashem, closeness with Hashem, having a relationship with Him. It’s self-understood, that if Hashem cares and watches and monitors what we are doing, then if we do the right thing – it will bring us closer, and if we do the wrong thing – He won’t just leave us to destroy ourselves! If we can achieve the recognition of Hashem’s presence – the fear of Hashem is a natural product of that clarity. If Hashem is watching, and He cares, there’s no monkeying around.
It’s important to understand as well, that it’s wrong to think, that serving Hashem out of fear is a low level of Judaism. Shouldn’t we want to serve Hashem out of love – for all that He does for us and continues to do for us? Don’t seforim say that serving out of simple fear is the very lowest level of service? This is true in a certain way. Yes, if we leave our service to Hashem at that level forever – we only serve out of fear – we have lost out on much greater levels of service and closeness to Hashem. But here’s the key – we can’t serve Hashem without that fear! Yes, we need to develop greater and higher levels of service. But the base-level that every single person needs to have, is that basic fear that Hashem is watching, Hashem knows, and Hashem remembers, and Hashem will deal with us according to our actions.
In short – Hashem wants us to serve Him with this fear, besides that He wants us to serve Him out of love. If we work on developing and clarifying this fear of Hashem – we are doing Ratzon Shamayim to the highest degree! Truthfully, the most coveted title a person could want to attain is that he or she is a ‘God fearing Jew!’ A Yarey Shamayim.
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 103-105
Fear of Hashem is a concept demonstrated in the Torah many times over. The evil people get punished, time and time again. When people don’t live up to their potential, they are pushed in the right direction with a little dose of Yirah.
It’s not really possible to serve Hashem in a realistic way without having Yirah, literal fear. We are human beings and experience ‘yeridos and aliyos,’ meaning times that we are inspired and motivated to do the right thing, times that we are full of energy and excitement to do mitzvos, chesed, daven and other spiritual acts. But we have many times when we are at low-tide. We have no motivation, things are looking bleak, our energy and interest is on low-ebb. What can we fall back on to keep serving Hashem nonetheless? Only Yiras Shamayim. Fear of Hashem is the pillar that everything else is built upon, because it’s unshakeable. Avodas Hashem needs to be strong and rooted – and only Yiras Shamayim gives us that.
When we fear Hashem, the key is to never lose sight of what we are fearing. We are not fearing getting hurt, getting sick, losing money, embarrassment, or all the other forms of painful experiences. Those fears create anxiety, and tend to leave us cold and unmotivated. It’s hard to do anything when frozen with fear! It’s not Avodas Hashem.
What we do fear - is Hashem – we fear becoming distant from Him, we fear ending up in a place where it will be necessary to shlepp us back through difficult methods. When a person fears getting hurt – and that’s the whole nature of his fear, it doesn’t bring one closer to Hashem. When a person fears Hashem, and respects Hashem’s power and greatness, it inspires us to serve Him. If the fear is all directed at one’s self, then it has the opposite effect – it causes us to forget Hashem! We are concentrating on ourselves!
We have spent two weeks discussing the concept of Hashgachah Pratis. Hashem cares and looks out for everything we do. Hashem manipulates the world and makes whatever happens, happen. Why does He care? Because He loves us – and He wants us to be zocheh to the best possible good that there is. The best possible good is Kirvas Hashem, closeness with Hashem, having a relationship with Him. It’s self-understood, that if Hashem cares and watches and monitors what we are doing, then if we do the right thing – it will bring us closer, and if we do the wrong thing – He won’t just leave us to destroy ourselves! If we can achieve the recognition of Hashem’s presence – the fear of Hashem is a natural product of that clarity. If Hashem is watching, and He cares, there’s no monkeying around.
It’s important to understand as well, that it’s wrong to think, that serving Hashem out of fear is a low level of Judaism. Shouldn’t we want to serve Hashem out of love – for all that He does for us and continues to do for us? Don’t seforim say that serving out of simple fear is the very lowest level of service? This is true in a certain way. Yes, if we leave our service to Hashem at that level forever – we only serve out of fear – we have lost out on much greater levels of service and closeness to Hashem. But here’s the key – we can’t serve Hashem without that fear! Yes, we need to develop greater and higher levels of service. But the base-level that every single person needs to have, is that basic fear that Hashem is watching, Hashem knows, and Hashem remembers, and Hashem will deal with us according to our actions.
In short – Hashem wants us to serve Him with this fear, besides that He wants us to serve Him out of love. If we work on developing and clarifying this fear of Hashem – we are doing Ratzon Shamayim to the highest degree! Truthfully, the most coveted title a person could want to attain is that he or she is a ‘God fearing Jew!’ A Yarey Shamayim.