Quotation к Авот 4:24

It is well known that the meaning of the word yir-ah, is twofold. One meaning is the instinctive unreasoning fear of a physically stronger phenomenon, a fear common to both man and beast. Jacob, fearing defeat at the hands of Esau, prays to G'd for help, lest Esau smite both him an his family. (Genesis 32,10-13) Isaac, who is afraid to be murdered on account of his wife, indulges in a white lie. (Genesis 26,7) Another kind of fear is that which recognises superior moral or intellectual qualities in someone whom one confronts. In effect, this fear is reverence. When Miriam and Aaron discussed Moses' marital relationship, (Numbers 12,2) G'd takes them to task for having failed to display that degree of reverence that is due a prophet of Moses' calibre. The Mishnah in Avot 4,15, urges that reverence for one's teacher should be on a level similar to that accorded the Almighty Himself. Whereas the former kind of fear is common both to the sinner and the devout person, the latter, i.e. reverence is a form of fear that sinners do not know. Proverbs 10,24, states: "the fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted." The thing that the wicked is afraid of will happen to him, the pious however, will not be denied, since his adversary can sense his moral superiority. G'd promises that the Canaanites will be awed by the Jewish people in this fashion when the latter are about to invade their land. "The fear of you and the reverence for you, the Lord will implant on all the face of the earth." (Deut 11,25) The most interesting example we find of this phenomenon is the account of Saul, who tries to kill David. (Samuel I chapter 18) He tried to make David's death (intended) appear like an accident, and that is why David did not run for his life at once. Twice, during the playing of the harp, David had turned his head at the precise moment Saul had thrown his spear at him. Saul, who realised that David's escape was not accidental, had previously only feared David as a formidable warrior. Now, however, he also developed reverence for him, seeing G'd had so obviously protected him. (verses 12-15) Verse thirteen refers to the reverence, verse sixteen to the fear of an adversary of known superiority. Saul had experienced similar feelings when his efforts to trick David into being killed by the Philistines had failed. At that time he had let it be known that he would give David his daughter in marriage in return for a dowry of one hundred Philistine foreskins, (ibid, especially verse nine) Other examples of fear and terror are found in Psalms 33,8 and 9. Psalms 68,4, and Jeremiah 5,22. On the other hand, the reverence of the righteous is not based on terror. Compare Psalms 34,10 as well as Psalms 145 and 147. The yereyim are not full of terror, but await G'ds kindness with confidence. We must now examine what kind of fear is referred to in our Parshah in chapter 10,22. It is unlikely that Moses would refer to the fear common to man and beast, since one would then have to assume that G'ds main purpose is for man to relive experiences that would remind him of moments of fear and terror. His service of the Lord then would be based only on man's terrifying awareness of G'ds superior power, His ability to punish man. When under the influence of such terror, truthfulness can easily be turned into falsehoods told because one hopes to escape detection of one's sins. Such untruths would then not even be sinful. We find Abraham calling his wife his sister. Isaac does so likewise, each one having feared for his life at the time. (Genesis 12,10 and 20,6) Joseph's brothers told him of a supposed statement by their father Jacob. They too had been motivated by fear that Joseph would revenge himself now that their father had died. Aaron had agreed to make the golden calf after having seen Chur killed. (Sanhedrin 7) It is therefore quite unthinkable that this is the kind of "fear" that G'd asks of the Jewish people. In fact the whole concept of free will would be demolished if that were to be the basis of our relationship with G'd. The statement of Rabbi Abdima ben Chana (Shabbat 88) that G'd had threatened the Jewish people with annihilation should they fail to accept the Torah at Mount Sinai, is used as evidence that contracts entered into under duress are not binding. Also, it would not make sense if the Talmud in Berachot 33, had described the attainment of fear as a minor accomplishment for the likes of Moses. Surely, any person could possess that kind of fear without even half trying. One certainly would not have to be a Moses to live in terror of G'ds power. On the other hand, if what is meant in our Parshah is reverence inspired by awareness of G'ds many attributes, then such a demand would seem to be the ultimate demand that can be made of any human being. Certainly such a demand ought not to be described as a very modest request. Intellectual awareness of the need for such reverence vis a vis G'd and all He stands for, may indeed be relatively easy to attain, but a lifetime filled with constant awareness of this reverence seems more than can be reasonably expected from any individual. Even of Moses himself it is said: "He turned his face away since he was afraid to look upon G'd." The Torah compliments Moses on this yir-ah, reverence. If a Moses deserves special mention for displaying such reverence, it cannot be come by easily by lesser mortals. (Exodus 2,6)

Similarly, our sages taught "judge every man favorably" (Avos 1:6), "receive every person with a cheerful countenance" (Avos 1:15), and "Be very, very lowly of spirit" (Avos 4:4), and "One should always be flexible as a reed and not unyielding as a cedar. This is why the reed has merited to have made from it a quill to write a Sefer Torah, Tefilin and Mezuzot" (Taanis 20b).