I wrote that
> "Yir'as HaShem" is not fear of HaShem Himself, but that it
> refers to a fear of *hurting His feelings* (kavyachol). ...
> Yirah is my fear of stepping over the line and doing something
> that would offend Him.

R' Daniel Israel responded
> 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.

Yes, indeed, it can be seen both ways. The problem with this 
discussion is that I blundered into the imprecise term "yirah". I 
should have been more careful to distinguish "yiras ha-chet" (which I 
was focusing on) from "yiras ha-onesh" (which RDI focused on).

So perhaps the next question should be: Is "yiras HaShem" comparable 
to "yiras ha-chet", or is it comparable to "yiras ha-onesh", or 
perhaps it is something else entirely?

Akiva Miller