By Yehoshua Lhungdim
The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.(Tehillim 111:10)
Everyone of Us wants to know the Torah and be an expert in all areas of it And Our Sages lists many important things needed to do and needed to have to acquire the knowledge of Torah.But most important of all we must know that Torah without Having Fear of God is a Building without a strong foundation.And it will not last long.
And now,O Israel,what does the Lord,your God,ask of you?Only to fear the Lord,your God,to walk in all His ways and to love Him,and to worship the Lord,your God, with all your heart and with all your soul.(Devarim 10:12)Our Sages learnt from this verse that Everything is in the Hands of Heaven Except the Fear of Heaven.
I have placed the Lord before me constantly;Because He is at my right hand I will not falter.(Tehillim 16:8)
Sometimes A person might place God before himself but yet still sins.Why is that?Because There is still a Lack of Fear of God.Rashi in his commentary to this verse explains it in this way too.To Place God before ourselves means To Place The fear of God before ourselves.And It also means To keep a sefer Torah or a Holy books before us.Or It can also be taken as keeping a picture of a God fearing and Righteous Talmid Khakham before us always.Know that Every place where there is Sin,There is a Lack in the Fear of God.
What is Fear?
Fear is a form of showing how one is insecure and lacking.A form of Showing we are not omnipotent like God.
A question arises.Do we fear because we know.Or Do we know because we fear?In Bereshit we learn that Adam haRishon,After eating of the fruits from the tree of knowing Good and Evil begins to Fear God.A fear that is associated with Punishment and Sin.According to the Oral Torah,Adam Before eating from the fruits of the tree of knowing Good and Evil has Fear of God but not the type of fear that is associated with Punishment.It was a fear from recognizing the Greatness of God.
Shlomo Hamelekh,the wisest man was not given the secrets of Parah Adumah.We learnt that Only Moshe Rabbeinu was given the secrets of it.Why was Shlomo Hamelekh not given?Its because To attain wisdom One needs fear of God.And the more One has fear of God,One attains more and more wisdom.I did not mean to say that Shlomo Hamelekh does not have Fear of God.No,on the contrary Shlomo hamelekh has fear of God.But In comparison to Moshe Rabbeinu,Shlomo Hamelekh is still very lacking.Our sages of blessed memory quoting the above verse Devarim 10:12 taught us that Am Israel asks Moshe Rabbeinu,"Is it so easy in your eyes to attain the fear of God that you told us to fear Him?Is the fear of Heaven such a small matter?But surely Rabbi Chanina said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai:The Holy One,blessed be He,has nothing in His treasury except a store of the fear of Heaven.As the verse states:"The fear of the Lord is His treasure" (Yeshayahu 33:6)!
The Gemara answers:Yes,for Moshe Rabbeinu it was a small thing.As Rabbi Chanina said: To illustrate by a parable,If a man is asked for a big article and he has it,It seems like a small article to him;If he is asked for a small article and he does not possess it,It seems like a big article to him.[Masekhet Brakhot 33b]
The Gemara emphasizes that the fear of Heaven is no small matter;It requires considerable effort from almost everybody(with the exclusion of Moshe Rabbeinu).This is also what Rabbi Moshe Chayyim Luzzatto (Ramchal) writes in his introduction to "Mesilat Yesharim":
As Shlomo Hamekekh said:"If you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you shall understand the fear of the Lord" (Mishlei 2:4-5).He did not say: "Then you shall understand philosophy, then you shall understand astronomy,then you shall understand medicine,then you shall understand the laws,then you shall understand halakhot,"but rather "Then you shall understand the fear of the Lord."You see,then,that in order to understand the fear of God one must seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures.
Aryeh,the Lion is a symbol of Bravery.Fear in Hebrew Yirah(יראה) has the exact same letters as Lion in hebrew Aryeh(אריה).It taught us that One who has Fear of God will attain Bravery and be like a King like the Lion,who is the king of Animals.
Shabbat Shalom.
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