Yiras Shomayim is created with contemplation and understanding

Yiras Shomayim is created with contemplation and understanding

I always feared to start working on Yiras Shomayim. It is a tricky thing and I never wanted to go into it. But you know, the years are passing by and you can’t always just skip the most basic point in your Avodas Hashem. To not have any shaychus to anything in avodeh, that begins to be a little bit scary, you know.

The first reason I was afraid is what The Mesilas Yeshorim brings. He learns from a posuk in Misheli that in order to acquire Yiras shomayim, you need to put everything you have into understanding what it really means. “ אִם תְּבַקְשֶׁנָּה כַכָּסֶף וְכַמַּטְמוֹנִים תַּחְפְּשֶׂנָּה”, If you will really search for yiras shomayim, “אָז תָּבִין יִרְאַת ה” ,Only then you will understand what Yireh means, because the understanding itself takes a tremendous effort.

If even שלמה המלך ברוב חכמתו says it’s such a difficult thing to understand, what can I do?

The second reason is that in today’s society, the basis of Yiras shomayim is very weak. 

Yiras shomayim at the end is opposed to approaching the world with your tayves. Not just your bad inclinations, but anything that is impulsive, i.e a reaction to something which comes by itself. When you see a Gishmakke state, that’s a tayve. 

The slogan of the world, how everyone today approaches the world, is just do whatever you want. Whenever you have an idea or a certain geshmak to do something and you have the possibility to do it, then you must do it. 

Why not, you ask? No, you are a ירא שמים, you don’t do it. So Yiras Shomayim is something which opposes this ruach which goes on in the entire world. And we have to understand that we breathe exactly the same air as everyone, so we can’t say we are not affected. 

To illustrate how far we are from that, you see that we don’t know the way to educate our children for Yiras Shomayim. We don’t know because the whole ruach of chinuch today is only encouragement again and again. But if we want the basis of Yiras Shomayim, we must teach that things are not so simple, and there are things you can’t do. Even this basic chinuch ingredient is very far from us. 

For those reasons I felt I would be nichshal for sure, and I would not be able to do anything productive.

The Mashgiach once tried to work with us on Yiras Shomayim. We were already older yungeleit with families and there were only three of us. He began to speak about Yiras Shomayim in a very demanding way.

That lasted for only four weeks. 

After four weeks he gave up on us. His method was very harsh. He spoke about very scary things, which were really not manageable for us. I’m sure that in the olden times this hisbonenus on harshness and Midas HaDin was a very common area of avodeh. But the Mashigiach gave up. It just wasn’t working, and didn’t do anything other than scaring us.

This is exactly the point – productive Yiras Shomayim, taking it as a source of productivity – is very alien and strange to us.

So that is our challenge. I wanted to open the sugya with a hisbonenus on a posuk. I saw that it made me very interested to think about this topic, because now I see that it’s a whole sugya. What it means and how do you acquire this thing which is called Yiras Shomayim. 

The posuk in Devorim says:

“וְעַתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל מָה ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ כִּי אִם לְיִרְאָה אֶת ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל דְּרָכָיו וּלְאַהֲבָה אֹתוֹ וְלַעֲבֹד אֶת ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכָל לְבָבְךָ וּבְכָל נַפְשֶׁךָ: לִשְׁמֹר אֶת מִצְו‍ֹת ה’ וְאֶת חֻקֹּתָיו אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם לְטוֹב לָךְ:”

Yirah, that’s the first thing. And then הליכה בדרכיו which means Middos Tovos, Ahavas Hashem, Avodeh, You have to be shomer all the mitzvos. The Mesilas Yeshorim points out that that these are the מדריגות in our Avodeh: Yireh, Ahave, הליכה בדרכיו, mitzvos, everything that is mentioned over here. 

Chazal say: “מָה ה’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ שֹׁאֵל מֵעִמָּךְ כִּי אִם לְיִרְאָה“

Rashi brings: “רבותינו דרשו מכאן: הכל בידי שמים, חוץ מיראת שמים” 

Everything is from shomayim, besides יראה. What does everything but yiras shomayim mean? Your parnossah, your intelligence, your social status, all these things. 

Or it could also mean something else. We’ll see. But the question that jumps out is why Chazal didn’t say הכל בידי שמים חוץ מבחירה? That is more basic. B’chireh or free choice is the most basic thing we have. Chazal should have mentioned free choice which is more basic and is the background of Yireh.

The Rambam (הלכות תשובה), when speaking about ידיעה ובחירה says: 

אֲבָל נֵדַע בְּלֹא סָפֵק שֶׁמַּעֲשֵׂה הָאָדָם בְּיַד הָאָדָם וְאֵין הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מוֹשְׁכוֹ וְלֹא גּוֹזֵר עָלָיו לַעֲשׂוֹת כָּךְ.

That means the bechira is definitely in the hands of the person. And then he says: 

וְלֹא מִפְּנֵי קַבָּלַת הַדָּת בִּלְבַד נוֹדַע דָּבָר זֶה אֶלָּא בִּרְאָיוֹת בְּרוּרוֹת מִדִּבְרֵי הַחָכְמָה.

That means we know we have b’chireh not only because it says in the Torah or out of the demand of the religion. We know because the sechel tells us. So the Rambam is paskening in halocho that the fact of b’chireh is based on sechel. Chazal don’t have to say הכל בידי שמים חוץ מבחירה, because the most basic thing, for sure, is that you – as a human being – have b’chireh. 

Yirah on the other hand is a feeling that happens within you, so we might have thought that it is bi’dei shomayim. For that reason, the Torah says it is in your hands. That’s the simple p’shat in Rashi. 

Now, there is a difficulty here. The posuk says:

” לְיִרְאָה, לָלֶכֶת בְּכָל דְּרָכָיו וּלְאַהֲבָה אֹתוֹ וְלַעֲבֹד וְלִשְׁמֹר אֶת מִצְו‍ֹת ה'”

So it should say הכל בידי שמים, חוץ מיראת שמים, הליכה בדרכיו,  אהבה, עבודה ומצוות.  

Why do Chazal say only Yireh, you have to say everything that’s written in the posuk?

So the Beis Halevi asks this question, and to answer he gives a moshol:
Imagine someone who has a tremendous tayveh for something. He will go a great distance for it. But on the way he reaches a slippery place, loses his balance and nearly falls down. At the moment where he loses his balance, all of his tayve is gone. Even though he invested days and walked many miles, the moment that something is disturbing his mahalach – the tayve is gone. 

The same thing is with Yiras Shomayim, you experience that things are not as simple and mundane as you thought, and at that moment the tayve is gone. 

The Beis Halevi asks another question by לא תחמוד. How can you be mekayem this mitzvah? It is a very natural thing that when you see something nice by your neighbour that you will have a desire for it. How can you tell me not to desire it? It’s a question of my middos, of my own emotions. How can I work with that? 

He says the problem is that you don’t hear Loi Sachmoid in the right way. If you would hear it with a loud scary voice i.e with Yiras Shomayim – the chemda would go away. 

So that is the Beis Halevi. That is why the Avodeh is on Yiras Shomayim –  because when you have יראת שמים, the other things will follow it.

But there is a problem with that. When the posuk would only say that you have to keep the mitzvos that would be a good answer, because keeping mitzvos is disturbed by your tayvus, and when you have Yiras Shomayim the tayvus won’t disturb your keeping the mitzvos. 

But the posuk says you have to love Hashem. What does that mean? Do you think that when you have Yiras Shomayim – the tayve goes away and Ahave will show up?

I don’t believe that is true. Not only me, I think the Rambam doesn’t believe it either. Because the Rambam says: וְהֵיאַךְ הִיא הַדֶּרֶךְ לְאַהֲבָתוֹ וְיִרְאָתוֹ? בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁיִּתְבּוֹנֵן הָאָדָם בְּמַעֲשָׂיו וּבְרוּאָיו הַנִּפְלָאִים

That means you have to do something. Ahave doesn’t show up by itself. Now according to the Beis Halevi “הכל בידי שמים, חוץ מיראת שמים”  doesn’t go on your parnossah, it goes on the hemshech of the posuk. That means Ahaves Hashem is bi’dei shomayim. How in the world is that possible? The Rambam says it’s not like this. Ahaves Hashem is bi’dei odom. You have to be misbonen מעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים, and without doing that you won’t get it.

The bi’dei shomayim of Ahave means you can’t create Ahava directly. You do actions and naturally Ahavas Hashem will come up. It’s like when you want to create Ahave to your friend for example. You have to care for him. You have to listen to him. You have to be interested in him. You have to give him something. You also need to receive something from him. There has to be a positive interaction למעשה with your chaver. Then as time goes by and you do these maisim, naturally you will love your chaver. So that means that Ahavas Chaverim is bi’dei shomayim. Because it’s a natural outcome of some actions you take. 

By the Ahavas Hashem it’s the same thing. When you want to create Ahavas Hashem in your heart, you have to do actions. That means thinking about his great deeds and creations. Those are the actions you have to take, and naturally Ahavas Hashem will follow. That’s what it means, bi’dei shomayim. 

The Ba’al Hatanya asks, how can you be commanded on Ahavas Hashem? How are you able to have a commandment that you have to be ohev? He brings the Rambam we mentioned that you have to be misbonen in the world around us, so that means the commandment is not the hargosho of Ahave, that comes in from shomayim. The mitzvah is to do these actions which naturally will cause Ahave to show up. 

It has to be like this. When you want something that from our side is called bi’dei shomayim, you can’t lay in your bed waiting for the Ahavas Hashem to just fall upon you one morning, and you’ll wake up with your heart filled from Ahavas Hashem. Because then you’ll be like a cow. That is the way it works with animals.

You know, the cat has tznius. But the cat has that out of nature, because the Borei Olam just instilled that in the cat. So when you wait for something to happen to you without your b’chira, without taking an action, you wait to be a cow or something like this. But not a human being, because being human means that you are deciding and doing an action. That’s what we spoke in the beginning. 

B’chira is a very simple and basic thing, which the sechel is mechayev. Because that is what you are human about. You are human, and that means taking actions out of your decision. Even when something is min ha’shomayim within our avodeh, it has to depend on b’chira – for sure. 

So Ahave, הליכה בדרכיו, mitzvos and middos. Everything is a question of bi’dei shomayim, for example when you want to create rachmones within your heart, you have to give tzedokoh the way the Rambam says, it’s better to give a small amount many times, one here and one there, and these actions will create a hargosho in your heart. 

But the posuk tells you that yiras shomayim is not like this. That means Yiras Shomayim is not built in the way that you can take some actions, and out of a natural outlet of these actions, you’ll have yiras shomayim. It is a hargosho which you have to create. Yiras shomayim is built that you have to be koneh the thing itself. That’s a weird thing. This is the awkward thing we are dealing with, which is called Yiras Shomayim. 

Of course, I also read the Rambam which mentions both Aheve and Yireh. But the Rambam is hard to understand, because he puts the Yireh after Aheve. First you have Aheve, and when you are misbonen on these things, you’ll have Yireh. 

But according to the posuk, this Yirah is before everything else, like the Beis Halevi. So the Rambam speaks about something else. And from the way it sounds, the Rambam is talking about Yireh from a very grandiose picture. You must be misbonen on the gadlus of the boireh, on the romemus. So it sounds like, even though I don’t know what that means exactly, but it sounds like what people call Yiras Ha’Romemus.

The posuk speaks about the most basic thing which is called Yireh. And this Yireh has to be before Ahave. According to what we say, or what the Beis Halevi says, the point is that this process or nature of Ahave won’t work when you don’t have Yireh first. There is a nature of Ahave. It’s a natural thing. When you are misbonen in the creation but don’t have Yireh beforehand, it won’t do anything to you. 

If you want to see this, come with me to Hadassah Ein Kerem and we’ll visit the doctors there. They see Nifleos Haborei day by day, hour by hour. The doctors themselves don’t really know why this and not the other, why now and not before. They don’t really know. And when doctors don’t know, they begin to speak in these old Greek terms. They speak about homeostasis. And suddenly Hippocrates becomes relevant and actual again, you know? What they actually mean to tell you is: we do not know how it happened – somehow it just fixed itself. 

So even though they see מעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים day by day, still no Ahavas Hashem – none whatsoever. Why? Because it was lacking the Yireh beforehand. You can do the Rambam from today till tomorrow. But if there isn’t a preparation of Yireh beforehand, the hisbonenus in the Nifleos Haborei won’t do anything. You won’t see Ahavas Hashem emerging from that. Yireh is the key for everything.

Now I want to show you this in the hakdomo of the Mesilas Yeshorim. 

When speaking about Yireh and Ahave, the Mesilas Yeshorim says: 

 אִם לֹא נִסְתַּכַּלְנוּ וְלֹא עִיַּנּוּ מַה הִיא הַיִּרְאָה הָאֲמִתִּית, וּמָה עֲנָפֶיהָ

When you don’t look and think, what is yirah? You have to think and to look at it.

 אֵיךְ נִקְנֶה אוֹתָהּ, וְאֵיךְ נִמָּלֵט מִן הַהֶבֶל הָעוֹלָמִי הַמְשַׁכֵּחַ אוֹתָהּ מִלִּבֵּנוּ?

How do we distance ourselves from the worldly nothingness which will distance us from yiras shomayim? 

Yireh and empty involvement in the world are two opposing forces. Yireh is challenging this emptiness of the world, these tayves which make the world so empty. And if we will not be misbonen what Yirah means, we will not acquire it.

 הָאַהֲבָה גַם כֵּן, אִם לֹא נִשְׁתַּדֵּל לִקְבֹּעַ אוֹתָהּ בִּלְבָבֵנוּ בְכֹחַ כָּל הָאֶמְצָעִים הַמַּגִּיעִים אוֹתָנוּ לָזֶה – אֵיךְ תִּמָּצֵא בָנוּ?

You see? By the ahave, he says there are means in order to get it. By Yireh, he doesn’t say there are means. By Yireh the point where you are able to get Yiras Hashem, is when you understand what it means. The prerequisite in Yiras Shomayim is understanding the topic. But the prerequisite in Ahaves Hashem is not understanding the topic, rather the means that bring us to that. They are means to an end. That’s the Rambam. 

You see, there’s a difference between Yireh and Ahave. So that is the sugya and the challenge we are facing. We have to go and try in an exact way to understand this feeling which is called Yireh. You have to understand what it means, where does it stem from, and what is the definition of that.

So of course, a person could have a fear that something might happen, or there is a king there who will punish you, that could help. But we don’t have it, so we really have to think thoroughly about what Yiras Shomayim means.

Without that, we will not be able to move. That’s the Mesilas Yeshorim. And that’s what the posuk says. Because with Yireh, you have to create that feeling. Unlike the others where you can do maisim, with Yireh – you can’t do any maisim. 

So that’s the sugya, a very broad one, but it’s the most basic sugya. Without that, nothing begins. And we never thought about that. In a certain way, we are now less clever than beforehand. It seems like an anti-productive thing, but now at least we know that we don’t really know what Yiras Shomayim means.