Fear of Heaven
Does fear of Heaven mean that we have to be afraid of our Creator? If so, who can stand the discomfort of being constantly afraid?
Does fear of Heaven mean that we have to be afraid of our Creator? If so, who can stand the discomfort of constant fear?
The Torah instructs us (Devarim 10), “And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you? Only to fear Hashem, your G-d…”
In masechet Shabbat (31), the Sages write, Rabbi Yochanan said in the name of Rabbi Elazar, The only thing G-d has in His world is the fear of Heaven, as it says, ‘And now, Israel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you? Only to fear Hashem your G-d…’ Similarly, Rabbi Yehuda said, G-d created His world only so that the inhabitants would fear Him, as it says (Kohelet 3): ‘G-d made so that they would fear Him.’”
According to the above, we should make fear of Heaven our main goal in life, since that is the reason for creation.
What does fear of Heaven mean? Must we constantly be in fear of our Creator? That sounds pretty uncomfortable! How can we reconcile this with the teaching of the Zohar, that G-d created the world to reveal His love and mercy?
Additionally, we might think that fear of G-d would cause us to become distant from our Creator. After all, when a person realizes how far he is from fulfilling the mitzvot properly, he might deny G-d’s existence to remove himself from this discomfort.
Fear of G-d must be based on a strong belief – or, to put if more accurately, knowledge – that G-d loves us, has mercy on us and forgives us. Then, although we fear punishment and are in awe of G-d’s greatness (which are incentives to stop a person from doing wrong) we will be constantly joyful (even if we don’t succeed in fulfilling all the mitzvot properly) because we know that our Creator has mercy on us and loves us. Even if we don’t succeed in doing everything right, we can still ask G-d to forgive us, and help us to come closer to Him.
In Likutei Halachos (Hilchos Pesach, 9), Reb Nosson writes, “In the Selichot (which are recited before Rosh Hashanah and during the Ten Days of Repentance) we recite, ‘For with You is forgiveness, in order that You may be feared (Tehillim 130).’ We trust G-d that He will forgive us – and by doing so we come to a fear that enables us to return to G-d.
Only through strengthening ourselves in understanding G-d’s forgiveness will we come to a fear that is based on joy. Fear, without joy leads to sadness and causes us to distance ourselves from G-d. Only through understanding that “for with You is forgiveness,” and trusting that everything can be repaired and turned into merits, will we merit true fear, as the verse says, “in order that You may be feared.”
Sometimes we might witness terrible suffering and, since we know that everything is determined by G-d, we might become overwhelmed with fear of Divine judgment. When this happens, we must immediately remind ourselves that everything that happens is always for the best. It’s important to strengthen ourselves with emunah pshuta – simple faith that everything the Creator does really is for the ultimate good, even though our limited intellect doesn’t always understand how. Then we can remain strong and joyous in our Divine service.
We should try to have peace of mind and a positive attitude. What benefit do we have from being sad, or from despairing or from doubting G-d? The best thing we can do for ourselves is to strengthen our emunah – our faith in our Creator – no matter what happens. Then we’ll be rewarded in both worlds. In this world, we’ll be saved from bitterness and depression and live a life of hope and happiness. We’ll clearly see G-d’s goodness and how everything turns out for the best. In the World to Come, we’ll be rewarded for remaining steadfast in our emunah, our faith, for keeping Torah and Mitzvot, and for not wasting our time with useless questioning, bitterness and sadness.
Therefore, the main Divine service of our generation is to strengthen our belief in the greatness of G-d’s mercy, forgiveness, and unlimited love. Through accomplishing this, we also increase our fear of Heaven.
You might ask, “But how can I actually do this? How can I overcome my own nervousness and fear?”
First of all, pray! Everyday, ask G-d, to help you in His kindness and goodness, attain emunah. Ask for the gift of hope and joy, so that you can perceive the good that is an integral part of every moment and feel gratitude for all the gifts that the Creator showers on every single one of us! Ask G-d to help you stop focusing on what you’re lacking, since man’s nature is to take the good for granted, and be angry and upset when things go wrong.
Secondly, try to be joyous in every possible way. Make jokes! Listen to happy music! Dance!
Once this becomes an integral part of you, you will be able to overcome sadness, atheism and depression with emunah and simcha (joy).
The highest level of simcha, joy, actually transforms the sadness into simcha, as our Rebbe explains in Likutei Moharan (Chelek Beit, 33) on the verse: “He shall reach joy and rejoicing, and groaning and moaning shall flee” (Yeshayahu 35:10).
May Hashem help us to increase our emunah and fear of Heaven, and may the Messiah come speedily and in great mercy. Amen.
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