[Avodah] fear of death

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 07:02:34PM +0000, Rich, Joel via Avodah wrote:
> Sheldon Solomon - "I feel like there's a real sense in which doing
> these studies and writing books and lecturing has been my way of avoiding
> directly confronting my anxieties by turning it (me - fear of death)
> into an intellectual exercise" [Me - sounds like it could've been said
> by R'Chaim]

> Is this a common approach in orthodox circles

I prefer the dialog version of the Mesilas Yesharim, even though the
chapter version that is more widely available was the Ramchal's final
choice.

In the dialog version, the ideas are framed as a discussion by two
friends who meet after a very long absence -- the Chakham and the
Chassid. The Chakham shares my habit of not dealing with the emotions
or applicability of ideas by analyzing them to depth in the abstact.
It's much easier to analyze what yir'ah means in relation to pachad
and eimah, or yir'as hacheit vs yir'as haromemus vs yir'as ha'onesh,
or whether there is a difference in connotation between yir'as Shamayim
and yir'as Hashem. Much easier than it is to spend time actually trying
to become more of a yarei Shamayim.

And I think I am far from alone in falling into that trap.

Is that related enough to what you're asking for our opinions about?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
Author: Widen Your Tent      beyond measure
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                      - Anonymous