[Avodah] Yir'ass HaShem (Was Re: Yeshivishe Peyos)

[Micha Berger]

I wrote:
:> I am not sure I agree with this assumption that ahavah is
:> more associated with an assei, and yir'ah with a lav. For
:> example, I'm more cautious with my wife's feelings than
:> with someone I care less about. Is that ahavah or yir'ah?

On Wed, June 27, 2007 1:50 pm, RAM <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote:
: It seems generally accepted that to translate yir'ah as "fear" is
: simply wrong. Many prefer to translate it as "awe", but my feeling is
: that I don't use that word often enough to have a good handle on what
: it means. Some have suggested "respect", which I like.

To which, on Thu, June 28, 2007 8:12 pm, R' Zvi Lampel wrote:
: Rav Avigdor Miller Zt"l advocated that "yir'eh," from the same shoresh
: that denotes "seeing," means "awareness," so that "yir'ass HaShem" is
: the intense awareness of Hashem's presence....

In Be'iqvos haYir'ah, which I already pointed everyone to, RAEK also
links yir'ah to re'iyah. First on the semantics, but also based on
"vayar Yisrael es haYad haGedolah .. varyi'ru ha'am es Hashem ..."
Re'iyah leads to yir'ah.

Based on his words and the Ramchal's (referring to my aforementioned
blog entry), I defined yir'ah as "awareness of the importance and
magnitude". Which is something that leads to fear or awe. It also
leads to respect, particularly if you think of kavod as being a from
/kbd/ (weight or mass). But all three are consequences, not yir'ah
itself.

On Mon, July 2, 2007 4:08 pm, A & C Walters commented on my email:
: It is actually a mefureshe Ramba"n al haTorah (Shemos 20:8) Zochor es
: yom hashabos, that an assay is ahavah, and a lav is yirah (and since
: ahavah is bigger than yirah, we say asay doyche loy saseh"

This is a different plane of conversation. I am saying that misevara,
I can see how ahavah could motivate care in lavin. Furthermore, RAEK's
model of yir'ah would have ahavah motivate yir'ah! It is the love you
have for her daughter that makes you aware (and somewhat nervous) of
the gravitas of her wedding in a way that is not true for your
friend's daughter's wedding.

It also informs the joy. As RAEK continues, "vayir'u ha'am es
Hashem..." flows (via emunah) directly into "Az Yashir". You are more
happy at your own daughter's wedding because the greater loves
generates greater yir'ah -- in your own life, the event is "bigger".

On Wed, June 27, 2007 5:07 pm, R Daniel Israel wrote:
: But this, perhaps, still begs the question.  The way you are
: describing it, yiras HaShem still seems to be associated with a
: situation which may bring onesh.  If I step over the line, he may
: punish me.  With one's wife that shouldn't be the case.

MY distinguishes between yir'as ha'onesh and "yir'ah" when used as an
ideal without any modifier. RAEK calls it kefirah to confuse the
knock-kneed klapping of al cheit, hunched over and shaking, with true
yir'ah. That's just a preliminary state, avoiding sin due to fear of
onesh.

In MY the Ramchal says that true yir'ah comes in two parts: yir'as
haRomemus (awe of Hashem's greatness) and yir'as hacheit. Yir'as
hacheit, of the sin itself, of simply being so in love with His Will
that one is loathe to do otherwise, is far beyond worrying about
personal consequence and onesh.

That is like my wanting to avoid offending my wife -- ahavah causing
yir'ah, with no element (hopefully <g>) of yir'as ha'onesh.

I would say that yir'ah vs ahavah is push from status quo vs pull to
being ever closer. Thus it's sort of like "sur meira" vs. "asei tov"
-- which is close but not the same to lav vs asei.

However, (despite my "vs") RAEK writes that the two aren't in
opposition -- ahavah and yir'ah work together and build each other.
And so, I am left with one open question, fitting RAEK together with
the Ramban that RAW cites. If ahavah motivates yir'ah, then it's
really hard to say one motivates shemiras lav and the other motivates
qiyum asei.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter