Fear of God
Hello Rabbi,
In Shabbat 31 and 32, several sayings are cited regarding the importance of fearing God:
- Reish Lakish said: What does it mean when it is written, “And there shall be faith in your time, good health, salvation, wisdom, and knowledge, etc.” Faith is the order of seeds, your time is the order of the feast, good health is the order of women, salvation is the order of sins, wisdom is the order of holy things, and knowledge is the order of purity. And even more so, the fear of God is His treasure.
- Rava said: When a person is brought to trial, they say to him: Did you marry and give in faith, set times for the Torah, deal with fertility and multiplication, look forward to salvation, ponder wisdom, understand a thing from a thing? And even the most: Is the fear of God his treasure? No, or no, no. A parable is told to a man who said to his servant: Bring me a quart of flour for an offering. He went and brought it to him. He said to him: Did you mix a keg of flour for me with it? He said to him: No. He said to him: It would be better if you had not brought it.
- Rabba bar Rav Huna said: Every person who has Torah in him but does not have the fear of God is like a treasurer who was given the keys to the inner world but was not given the keys to the outer world. Is he a thief?
- Rav Yehuda said: The Holy One, blessed be He, did not create His world except so that they might fear before Him, as it is said, “And God made them to fear before Him.”
- Rabbi Yochanan said on behalf of Rabbi Elazar: The Holy One, blessed be He, has nothing in his world but the fear of God alone, as it is said, “And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but fear, etc.”
My questions:
- Maimonides’ words about working with fear and love are well-known. But here it seems that fear is an integral part of working with God and perhaps even its purpose. How do you think these things fit together?
- What kind of awe do you think we are talking about here (punishment/ exaltation/ other)?
- Do you think that serving God without fear lacks something essential, as is evident from the above statements?
The work of God, which is “to do the truth because it is the truth,” seems to lack the dimension that is expressed here. - If necessary, then how can proper awe be strengthened?
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- They are unknown to me. What is meant and what is the question?
- I guess you two.
- Absolutely. I don’t think there is such a thing as serving God without the fear of God. Doing the truth because it is truth is a love that includes awe (exaltation).
- Maimonides speaks of strengthening the love of God (which is also the fear of the sublime), contemplating His creations, His deeds, and His greatness.
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1. Maimonides in the Laws of Answer 10 that you like to quote. There he describes work out of fear as inferior, and work out of love as ideal. Which contradicts this. You did answer that in Answer 4, but where did you see Maimonides saying that love of God is also fear of the sublime (I didn't see him referring to fear of the sublime there at all)?
2. If both - is there something worthy in fear of punishment, worthy to a level that I should cultivate?
4. Do you have any practical advice? What does it mean to observe his actions? Watch National Geographic?
1. What he calls love there is no different from the fear of the sublime. I didn't get into it and I don't know if Maimonides himself got into it. But conceptually it must be there too.
2. I don't know. I'm not even sure there's anything to fear.
4. Each to his own. I have no advice, and certainly not universal ones. It doesn't have to be observation of the natural world. Philosophy can do the job too.
Last question on the subject:
Can you explain how the love of God includes the fear of the sublime?
Love is a constant attachment and connection with God (“one's soul is bound by the love of God and is always found to be mistaken in it” as the Maimonides says) while the fear of the sublime is a deep admiration and submission to the greatness, the infinity, the wisdom, etc.
Even if I was not precise in describing love and the fear of the sublime, I tried to show that they are not exactly the same, or that one includes the other
Arriving at the love of God through the knowledge of His greatness and leadership in the world and the wisdom that exists in the world, includes within it the fear of the sublime. What is there to explain here? It comes from the same root, but these are two slightly different (not very) implications of it.
Fear is the fear of harm and is related to the fear of incoherence, stupidity, lying (the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord).
Related to fear is knowledge, a person needs to know what is harmful/incoherent in an action.
To strengthen fear, one must strengthen the mind. Understand what is wrong there.
The other side of fear is love. That a person is attracted to the beautiful, coherent devotees. That a person is happy and loves to do the right thing.
But this is not awe.
What is called the fear of the sublime can perhaps be interpreted as the opposite of pride that occurs in a person or modesty.
But this is also a result of the fear of God, for this a person needs to know more about his smallness.
The fear of God is what is required so that the mind can act and the person can understand.
There is a chicken and an egg here, and therefore it is said: If there is no wisdom, there is no fear. If there is no fear, there is no wisdom.
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