Ki Tavo: types of fear

(3) A man should feel yirah towards his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths: I am the Ado-nai your God.

(17) If you should say in your heart: ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ (18) You should not feel yirah from them; you should well remember what Ado-nai your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt:

4) HEAR, O ISRAEL: AD-NAI IS OUR GOD, AD-NAI IS ONE. (5) Love Ad-nai your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (6) And these words, which I command you this day, should be on your heart; (7) Teach them diligently to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, and you walk on the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. (8) Bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they should be for frontlets between your eyes. (9) Write them upon the door-posts of your house, and on your gates. (10) When Ad-nai your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to you—great and goodly cities, which you did not build, (11) and houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, and cisterns hewn out, which you did not hew, vineyards and olive-trees, which you did not plant, and you eat and be satisfied— (12) then beware lest you forget Ad-nai who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (13) You should feel yirah towards Ad-nai your God; and serve Him, and by His name swear. (14) Do not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples that are round about you; (15) for a jealous God, Ad-nai your Gos, is in your midst; lest the anger of Ad-nai your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the earth.

(1) It is a mitzvah to love and feel yirah for this honored and norah God, as [Deuteronomy 6:5] states: "Love Ado-nai your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" and, as [Deuteronomy 6:13] states: " You should feel yirah towards Ado-nai your God; and serve Him, and by His name swear." What is the path [to attain] love and yirah of Him? When a person contemplates His wondrous and great deeds and creations and appreciates His infinite wisdom that surpasses all comparison, he will immediately love, praise, and glorify [Him], yearning with tremendous desire to know [God's] great name, as David stated: "My soul thirsts for the Lord, for the living God" [Psalms 42:3]. (2) When he [continues] to reflect on these same matters, he will immediately recoil in fear, appreciating how he is a tiny, lowly, and dark creature, standing with his flimsy, limited, wisdom before He who is of perfect knowledge, as David stated: "When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers... [I wonder] what is man that You should recall Him" [Psalms 8:4-5]...

(17) ...Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says: If there is no Torah, there is no common decency, if there is no common decency, there is no Torah. If there is no wisdom, there is no yirah; if there is no yirah, there is no wisdom. If there is no knowledge, there is no understanding; if there is no understanding, there is no knowledge. If there is no flour, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour.

(2) At the outset it should be stated that there are two types of fear, which resolve themselves into three types. The first type is very easy to attain; there is nothing easier. The second is the most difficult of attainment, and perfection in it is, accordingly, of a very high order. The first type is fear of punishment and the second, fear of Divine Majesty, of which fear of sin is a part. We shall now explain these types of fear and their differences.

(3) Fear of punishment, as the words imply, consists in a person's being afraid of violating God's commands, because of the punishment to body or soul which is meted out for transgressions. This type of fear is certainly easy to attain, for every man loves himself and fears for his soul; and there is nothing more effectual in withdrawing one from an action than the fear that it might harm him in some way. But this type of fear befits only the ignorant ... who lack sufficient strength of mind; it is not the fear of sages and of people of understanding.

(4) The second type of fear, fear of Divine Majesty, consists in one's withdrawing himself and abstaining from sin because of the great honor of the Blessed One. For how can a lowly, despicable heart of flesh and blood permit and abide the doing of what is opposed to the will of the Creator of blessed and exalted Name? This type of fear is not very easily attained, for it is born only of the knowledge and intelligence which go into reflection upon the majesty of the Blessed One and the lowliness of man. It is born only of the activities of the understanding, insightful mind. It is this type of fear which was classified as the second half of one of the divisions of Saintliness which we discussed earlier. One who experiences it will feel shame and will tremble in standing before his Master to pray or in performing an act of Divine service. This is the extremely worthy type of fear in which the great Saints distinguished themselves. As stated by Moses (Deuteronomy 28:58), "To fear this honored, Awesome Name, the Lord, your God."

It was taught: Rabi Yosi says - one day I was standing in front of Rabi Yehuda Saba, I asked him: 'why is it written (Gen. 28:17) "And he saw, and he said 'What a norah place!' What did he see that he said it was norah? He answered to me: he saw the wholeness of sacred faith, which was found in that place, and in every place where completeness is found - that place is called norah.