[Avodah] Knowledge

[Yitzchok Levine]

In RSRH's commentary on Shemos 25:39 there is a 
long explanation dealing with the significance of 
the Menorah.  Towards the end of this Rav Hirsch writes:

All knowledge of the world must lead to the perception of God’s
existence and work in the world, and to the perception of the world as
derived from God. All knowledge of the Torah must lead to the fear of
God, to man’s knowledge and awareness of his own personal relationship
with God, to the desire to be a servant of God in the world He
has created.

Otherwise, the germs of deeds that should build the world and
eternity — germs hidden in man’s capacity to make free decisions and
to act — will lie dormant. The seeds will degenerate, and the noblest
and godliest qualities in man will remain unborn, because all his wisdom
and understanding, counsel and strength, will lack the vivifying and
guiding spirit of God.

The spirit of God dwells only where all wisdom and understanding
culminate in knowledge of God, and all counsel and strength culminate
in the fear of God; where knowledge of God and the fear of God admit
the spirit of God to fructify human counsel and strength; where counsel
and strength are offered (by the knowledge and fear of God) to the
spirit of God, in order to attain life.

Daas HaShem v'Yiras HaShem are the “petals” which 
cause God’s fructifying and vivifying
spirit to rest on the seeds which produce the resolutions and powers
of human action. 
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