[Avodah] Torah in Joy and Fear

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

AhS YD 246:27 cites Shabbos 30b that we does not sit to learn with a mindset
of depression, laziness, silliness, qalus rosh, chattiness, or
devarm betailim, rather from simchah shel mitzvah. And it asks from Rav, who
says one should sit with eimah and yir'ah. And it answers ha berav, ha betalmid.

So I guess that "llmd" is not "lilmod" but "lelameid" -- "ha berav".

However, what about gilu bir'ada (Tehillim 2:11)? Why the assumption
that simchah shel mitzvah contradicts be'eimah beyir'ah?

RAEKaplan makes a stong argument that the very definition of yir'ah is
that awareness of the magnitude of what your doing which makes something
capable of generting simchah. See <http://www.aishdas.org/raek/yirah.pdf>.
>From RAEK's article <http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/raek.htm>, a loose
translation (EMPHASIS added):

    Yir'ah is not anguish, not pain, not bitter anxiety. To what may
    yir'ah be likened? To the tremor of fear which a father feels when
    his beloved young son rides his shoulders as he dances with him and
    rejoices before him, taking care that he not fall off. Here there
    is joy that is incomparable, pleasure that is incomparable. And
    the fear tied up with them is pleasant too. It does not impede the
    freedom of dance... It passes through them like a spinal column
    that straightens and strengthens. And it envelops them like a
    modest frame that lends grace and pleasantness... It is clear
    to the father that his son is riding securely upon him and will
    not fall back, for he constantly remembers him, not for a moment
    does he forget him. His son's every movement, even the smallest,
    he feels, and he ensures that his son will not sway from his place,
    nor incline sideways - his heart is, therefore, sure, and he dances
    and rejoices. If a person is sure that the "bundle" of his life's
    meaning is safely held high by the shoulders of his awareness, he
    knows that this bundle will not fall backwards, he will not forget
    it for a moment, he will remember it constantly, with yir'ah he
    will safe keep it. If every moment he checks it - then his heart
    is confident, and he dances and rejoices...
    
    When THE TORAH WAS GIVEN TO ISRAEL SOLEMNITY AND JOY CAME DOWN BUNDLED
    TOGETHER. THEY ARE FUSED TOGETHER AND CANNOT BE SEPARATED. That
    is the secret of "gil be're'ada" (joy in trembling) mentioned in
    Tehillim. Dance and judgment, song and law became partners with
    each other... Indeed, this is the balance... A [beriach hatichon]
    of noble yir'ah passes through the rings of joy... [It is] the inner
    rod embedded deep in an individual's soul that connects end to end,
    it links complete joy in this world (eating, drinking and gift giving)
    to that which is beyond this world (remembering the [inevitable]
    day of death) to graft one upon the other so to produce eternal fruit.

What would RAEK do with the gemara, which appears to say the do indeed
conflict? And even without invoking RAEK, what does the gemara do with the
pasuq, which shows that the two can coexist?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The same boiling water
micha at aishdas.org        that softens the potato, hardens the egg.
http://www.aishdas.org   It's not about the circumstance,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but rather what you are made of.