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Naso 5752Volume 15 · Issue 32
Transience to Permanence
heavens, You sounded judgment, the world was fearful and it became tranquil?” If it had reason to be fearful, why did it become tranquil, and if it had reason to become tranquil, why was it fearful?” How can both fear and tranquility integrate?
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Vayeira 5752Volume 15 · Issue 8
Prayer of Royalty
The characteristic of kingship exists in the very essence of man. Its concept is honor, as we find by the blessing recited upon seeing a king, “Blessed are You, God…, Who apportioned of His honor to those who fear him,” or, “Who gave of His honor to flesh and blood” (Berachos 58a). And man identifies himself—his soul, his essence of being—in terms of honor. The earlier commentators note this from many verses (Baal HaMaor, introduction). “Awake
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Emor 5754Volume 16 · Issue 26
Reality of Separation
…am a Father, where is My honor, and if I am a Master, where is My fear? says God Master of Hosts” (Malachi 1:6). In an ideal situation (cf. Sotah 49b), when a child is growing up and he begins to…
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Bamidbar 5754Volume 16 · Issue 28
Planted Firm
Thursday of Behab, s.v. Yisrael Nosha), “Obliterate Seir and his father-in-law,” meaning Esav and Yishmael (cf. Bereshis 28:9), “and let liberators ascend to Zion.” The reason Yishmael is not mentioned by name is not out of fear. He is referred to as the father-in-law of Esav to accentuate their integration. Their joint force is what must be obliterated for liberators to ascend to Zion for the Ultimate Redemption.
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Ki Savo 5753Volume 16 · Issue 3
Implosion of Evil
transgression, we would not be ashamed and humiliated because man cannot beg mercy for sin when he has not sinned, and Your intense mercy cannot be known except when You remove the sin of those who fear You.” The intent is to hint that particularly the worst and shallowest state of sin where we find ourselves is what makes His intense mercy known—and His intense mercy refers to the great mercy of the Thirteen Attributes.
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Mattos-Masei 5754Volume 16 · Issue 35
A Mother’s Comfort
Who are these rebellious men? One need not run far to find them. The Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 17a) identifies them as those who cast too much fear on the people not for the sake of Heaven, and the like, or in essence, those who are haughty and coarse of spirit.
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Vayeitzei 5756Volume 17 · Issue 11
Duty Bound
This is where the fear of government comes in. Government organizes the affairs of the people to some extent so that all their grievances are manageable. Otherwise, each would truly consume his fellow. But inherent obligation was eliminated by those who shed the yoke. They uprooted
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Vayeishev 5756Volume 17 · Issue 12
Illuminated Worlds
those areas. But we can relocate to the other areas where Esav has no power over us at all. There, he has nothing to do with us and we have nothing to do with him. We have nothing to fear from him.
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Miketz Chanukah 5756Volume 17 · Issue 13
Understanding of the Soul
serve their master on condition of receiving reward—be like servants who serve their master not on condition of receiving reward—or in another version of the earlier commentators, on condition of not receiving reward. And let the fear of Heaven be upon you.””
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Vayechi 5756Volume 17 · Issue 15
Reality Interpreted
“He answered, “I derive it from the interpretation of a verse, for it says (Yirmiyahu 30:10), ““But as for you, fear not, My servant Yaakov,” says God, “and worry not, Israel, because I am indeed delivering you from afar and your offspring from the land of their captivity.”” It compares him to his offspring—just as his offspring is alive, so also
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Korach 5756Volume 17 · Issue 30
Miracle of Necessity
forbid, when masses activate it wrongly…. It is best not to open our mouths—the earth already did so once. Even by Korach, the sin as well as the punishment involved him—and his entire congregation. This should strike fear—and the greater the community, the greater the danger.
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Chukas 5756Volume 17 · Issue 31
Reason of Reasons
The purification must be the grandsire of purification because purity is one of the titles of the entire Torah, “The fear of God is pure, it stands forever” (Tehillim 19:10). The sages tell us in their commentary to this portion that the Creator taught Moshe Rabbeinu with forty-nine facets of defilement and forty-nine facets of purity” (Sofrim 16:6; Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin
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Mishpatim 5757Volume 18 · Issue 20
Mysteries of the Universe
Rashi explains that his fear could be understood in the plain sense. But the sages interpret it as his concern at seeing wicked informants among Israel—those who reveal secrets, those who bring to the outside what should remain internal. He said, “Now, perhaps they
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Behaaloscha 5757Volume 18 · Issue 33
Hewed Pillars
people were seeing the sounds and the flames and the sound of the shofar and the mountain smoking, and the people saw and quaked and they stood from afar” (Shemos 20:15). Seeing the sounds strikes fear, “And all the people that were in the encampment trembled” (ibid. 19:16).
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Lech Lecha 5757Volume 18 · Issue 7
Integrated Words
The source is explicit in a verse as interpreted by the Talmud (Zevachim 116a). When the Torah was being given to Israel at Sinai, all the idolatrous kings of the world were gripped with fear in their palaces. They sensed that the world was on the brink of collapse. Indeed, Mount Sinai is called Mount Horeb—related to churban, destruction—because it brought destruction to the nations of the world. The Giving of the Torah removes
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Chayei Sarah 5757Volume 18 · Issue 9
Owner of All
…ar from heaven, and said to her, “What is troubling you, Hagar? Fear not, for the Lord has heard the lad’s voice in the place where he is….” The Lord opened her eyes and she saw a wellspring…
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Vaeira 5758Volume 19 · Issue 16
All That Glitters
furnace, when all the insolent and all the evildoers shall be chaff, and the coming day shall burn them up,” says God, Master of Hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear My Name, the sun of righteousness shall shine with healing in its wings and you shall go out and leap like calves from the stall” (Malachi 3:19-20).
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Ki Savo 5757Volume 19 · Issue 3
Covenantal Eternality
“The verses afterward discuss their punishment in exile, “Your life shall hang in doubt before you” (v.66) due to our fear in exile in the hand of the nations who issue decrees against us always.
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Nitzavim-Vayelech 5757Volume 19 · Issue 4
His Children His Servants
…rld. “As a father has mercy on his children, God has mercy on those who fear Him” (Tehillim 103:13). Throughout our Pleas of Pardon, we reiterate this endlessly. In the Ashkenazic version, it is repeated after…
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Shemos 5765Volume 1 · Issue 1
World of Desolation
were corners of the world where it was possible to relax with some degree of tranquility. Today, there is no such thing. Every place has the potential of sudden disaster and the entire area can be obliterated instantly. I fear that most yet expect those days of tranquility to return, but we must know unequivocally that it will not happen—until the time of true tranquility.
