Q&A: Fear of Heaven — Definition
Fear of Heaven — Definition
Question
This week a conference on the service of God, “With All Your Heart,” was held in Jerusalem by Yeshivat Ramat Gan. Since I’m not fond of their religious preachiness, and also of Rabbi Shapira’s tendentious and mistaken investigation of formerly religious people among the knitted-kippah crowd and the Haredim (I assume you know it), I wanted to ask whether you’ve written about a definition of what is called fear of Heaven and what is not, how one tells the difference, and when fear of Heaven becomes harmful, and so on.
Answer
I haven’t written about that.
Discussion on Answer
You’re assuming that this has to do with emotion, but it doesn’t. By the way, I have no problem at all with emotions. We’re all human beings and nobody is perfect. I just don’t see any value in them.
Michi, what happened to you today?? People here are talking about the verse in the Torah, “with all your heart.”
According to Maimonides in the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah and the Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 231, this is an entirely intellectual matter. I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss and refine the issue. It can’t be that this is connected only to a bunch of yeshiva boys up to age 30 who get excited by melodies.
He served it up to you on a silver platter (though I’m doubtful whether you’d know how to define it, since you’ve more than hinted on various platforms and stages that anything connected to emotion is something you have a very complicated relationship with, and all the more so on a subject like this, which by its nature invites loads of jokes at the expense of the musar guy or the mashgiach).