Description: Yiras Shamayim 06
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 110-113
We have been discussing the methods of acquiring Yiras Shamayim. First, we clarified that fear of Hashem is the awareness of Hashem’s presence and interest in everything we do. As the first Remah in Orach Chayim writes, when we are in the presence of a king, and certainly the Melech Malchei Hamelachim, our actions and the way we speak are different. The next aspect of Yiras Shamayim is the clarity that Hashem doesn’t allow us to drift away from Him, and avairos create a barrier between us and Hashem. Hashem uses methods of punishment to bring us back and recover the closeness we have with Hashem.
We examined the Yirah of the different forms of suffering we see in the world and those we don’t see, and understand that this Yirah brings us to closeness with Hashem. It serves as a guardrail to prevent us from slipping, even when we are at a low point in our Avodas Hashem, not feeling so inspired and motivated.
The next level of Yirah, is the fear of losing our relationship with Hashem. This relationship is the purpose of our whole existence, the purpose of Torah and Mitzvos, to create a kesher with Hashem, so that we can achieve Kirvas Elokim, the greatest and most wonderful thing a person can have. At the times that we have an elevated measure of closeness to Hashem, like right after Yom Kippur, we do have a measure of fear not to sin, so that we don’t lose that special feeling and relationship that we enjoy at that point. This is the next level of Yirah.
Even if a person has truly acquired a feel for Kirvas Elokim, it’s something he really, really desires, and is the focus of his life, it won’t necessarily prevent him from doing an avairah. Why? Because this is another level of clarity that we have to work on: Doing avairos damages that relationship! It’s not something which is natural and clear, it’s not something that we intrinsically feel, that by doing any one of things the Torah commands us to avoid, will we be drifting further from Hashem. This is something we have to constantly clarify to ourselves as well, this extra step – that avairos create a barrier between us and Hashem, so that we can’t become close. Since becoming close to Hashem is what we want, and the only thing that’s truly important – we have to avoid those avairos at all cost! But this requires thought and constant reminders.
How do we approach this Avodah of acquiring Yirah? The key is for us to really want to acquire Yiras Shamayim, and Kirvas Elokim. If we have a real desire to acquire these levels – ‘ain davar omaid bifnei haratzon,’ nothing can stand in the way of what we really desire! But the problem is, we don’t truly desire it. Why don’t we truly desire Kirvas Elokim or Yiras Shamayim? Perhaps we understand logically the importance of these ideas – if we have given it proper thought. But as we just learned in last week’s parshah, Klal Yisrael didn’t listen to Moshe because of ‘kotzer ruach’, lack of desire or patience to listen, and meforshim explain that this was because of complacency and the fact that they were entrenched in the position they found themselves in. Growth requires ambition, the recognition that the place where we are is not sufficient – we need to continue to achieve! The desire to grow will only flourish if we are ready to leave the comfort of ‘staying the same,’ and risk becoming different, greater and more elevated.
The measure of achievement that any person has, is always according to the amount of ratzon he had. What can we do to grow our ratzon, our desire to become close to Hashem?
Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh
Volume I Pages 110-113
We have been discussing the methods of acquiring Yiras Shamayim. First, we clarified that fear of Hashem is the awareness of Hashem’s presence and interest in everything we do. As the first Remah in Orach Chayim writes, when we are in the presence of a king, and certainly the Melech Malchei Hamelachim, our actions and the way we speak are different. The next aspect of Yiras Shamayim is the clarity that Hashem doesn’t allow us to drift away from Him, and avairos create a barrier between us and Hashem. Hashem uses methods of punishment to bring us back and recover the closeness we have with Hashem.
We examined the Yirah of the different forms of suffering we see in the world and those we don’t see, and understand that this Yirah brings us to closeness with Hashem. It serves as a guardrail to prevent us from slipping, even when we are at a low point in our Avodas Hashem, not feeling so inspired and motivated.
The next level of Yirah, is the fear of losing our relationship with Hashem. This relationship is the purpose of our whole existence, the purpose of Torah and Mitzvos, to create a kesher with Hashem, so that we can achieve Kirvas Elokim, the greatest and most wonderful thing a person can have. At the times that we have an elevated measure of closeness to Hashem, like right after Yom Kippur, we do have a measure of fear not to sin, so that we don’t lose that special feeling and relationship that we enjoy at that point. This is the next level of Yirah.
Even if a person has truly acquired a feel for Kirvas Elokim, it’s something he really, really desires, and is the focus of his life, it won’t necessarily prevent him from doing an avairah. Why? Because this is another level of clarity that we have to work on: Doing avairos damages that relationship! It’s not something which is natural and clear, it’s not something that we intrinsically feel, that by doing any one of things the Torah commands us to avoid, will we be drifting further from Hashem. This is something we have to constantly clarify to ourselves as well, this extra step – that avairos create a barrier between us and Hashem, so that we can’t become close. Since becoming close to Hashem is what we want, and the only thing that’s truly important – we have to avoid those avairos at all cost! But this requires thought and constant reminders.
How do we approach this Avodah of acquiring Yirah? The key is for us to really want to acquire Yiras Shamayim, and Kirvas Elokim. If we have a real desire to acquire these levels – ‘ain davar omaid bifnei haratzon,’ nothing can stand in the way of what we really desire! But the problem is, we don’t truly desire it. Why don’t we truly desire Kirvas Elokim or Yiras Shamayim? Perhaps we understand logically the importance of these ideas – if we have given it proper thought. But as we just learned in last week’s parshah, Klal Yisrael didn’t listen to Moshe because of ‘kotzer ruach’, lack of desire or patience to listen, and meforshim explain that this was because of complacency and the fact that they were entrenched in the position they found themselves in. Growth requires ambition, the recognition that the place where we are is not sufficient – we need to continue to achieve! The desire to grow will only flourish if we are ready to leave the comfort of ‘staying the same,’ and risk becoming different, greater and more elevated.
The measure of achievement that any person has, is always according to the amount of ratzon he had. What can we do to grow our ratzon, our desire to become close to Hashem?