(10) He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
(10) When the LORD your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to assign to you—great and flourishing cities that you did not build, (11) houses full of all good things that you did not fill, hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and you eat your fill, (12) take heed that you do not forget the LORD who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. (13) Revere [yirah] only the LORD your God and worship Him alone, and swear only by His name. (14) Do not follow other gods, any gods of the peoples about you— (15) for the LORD your God in your midst is an impassioned God—lest the anger of the LORD your God blaze forth against you and He wipe you off the face of the earth.
(יז) כִּ֤י תֹאמַר֙ בִּלְבָ֣בְךָ֔ רַבִּ֛ים הַגּוֹיִ֥ם הָאֵ֖לֶּה מִמֶּ֑נִּי אֵיכָ֥ה אוּכַ֖ל לְהוֹרִישָֽׁם׃ (יח) לֹ֥א תִירָ֖א מֵהֶ֑ם זָכֹ֣ר תִּזְכֹּ֗ר אֵ֤ת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה֙ ה' אֱלֹקֶ֔יךָ לְפַרְעֹ֖ה וּלְכָל־מִצְרָֽיִם׃
(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:
(יג) ס֥וֹף דָּבָ֖ר הַכֹּ֣ל נִשְׁמָ֑ע אֶת־הָאֱלֹקִ֤ים יְרָא֙ וְאֶת־מִצְוֺתָ֣יו שְׁמ֔וֹר כִּי־זֶ֖ה כָּל־הָאָדָֽם׃ (יד) כִּ֤י אֶת־כָּל־מַֽעֲשֶׂ֔ה הָאֱלֹקִ֛ים יָבִ֥א בְמִשְׁפָּ֖ט עַ֣ל כָּל־נֶעְלָ֑ם אִם־ט֖וֹב וְאִם־רָֽע׃
(13) The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man. (14) For God will bring every work into the judgment concerning every hidden thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His Commandments; for this is the whole man.
(יז) רבי אלעזר בן עזריה אומר, אם אין תורה, אין דרך ארץ.אם אין דרך ארץ, אין תורה.אם אין חכמה , אין יראה.אם אין יראה, אין חכמה.אם אין בינה, אין דעת.אם אין דעת, אין בינה.אם אין קמח , אין תורה.אם אין תורה, אין קמח
(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.
ר' חמא בי ר' חנינה ור' הושעיה חד אמר אי זו אומה כאומה הזאת בנוהג שבעולם אדם יודע שיש לו דין לובש שחורים ומתעטף שחורים ומגדל זקנו שאינו יודע היאך דינו יוצא אבל ישרראל אינן כן אלא לובשים לבנים ומתעטפן לבנים ומגלחין זקנם ואוכלין ושותין ושמחים יודעין שהקב"ה עושה להן ניסים.
Rabbi. Hama son of Rabbi Hanina, and Rabbi Hoshaya-- one said, "Is there a nation like this nation? Ordinarily someone who knows he is on trial wears black and wraps himself in black and lets his beard grow since he does not know how his trial will turn out. But that is not how it is with Israel. Rather, on the day of their trial they wear white and shave their beards and eat, drink, and rejoice, for they know that the Holy One blessed by He does miracles for them.
מדקאמר בשעת הלל מכלל דבראש השנה ליכא הלל מ"ט אמר רבי אבהו אמרו מלאכי השרת לפני הקב"ה רבש"ע מפני מה אין ישראל אומרים שירה לפניך בר"ה וביום הכפורים אמר להם אפשר מלך יושב על כסא דין וספרי חיים וספרי מתים פתוחין לפניו וישראל אומרים שירה:
From the fact that the Mishna states "when Hallel is recited..." one can infer that on Rosh Hashana, Hallel is not said. What is the reason that Hallel is omitted on Rosh Hashana? Rabbi Abahu said: The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, why don't the Jewish people recite songs of praise (ie. Hallel) before You on Rosh Hashana? God said to them: Is it possible that while the King is sitting on His throne of judgment, with the books life and death open before Him, Israel should sing praise?
(א) האל הנכבד והנורא הזה מצוה לאהבו וליראה אותו שנאמר ואהבת את ה' אלקיך ונאמר את ה' אלקיך תירא: (ב) ב. והיאך היא הדרך לאהבתו ויראתו בשעה שיתבונן האדם במעשיו וברואיו הנפלאים הגדולים ויראה מהן חכמתו שאין לה ערך ולא קץ מיד הוא אוהב ומשבח ומפאר ומתאוה תאוה גדולה לידע השם הגדול כמו שאמר דוד צמאה נפשי לאלקים לאל חי וכשמחשב בדברים האלו עצמן מיד הוא נרתע לאחוריו ויפחד ויודע שהוא בריה קטנה שפלה אפלה עומדת בדעת קלה מעוטה לפני תמים דעות כמו שאמר דוד כי אראה שמיך מעשה אצבעותיך מה אנוש כי תזכרנו...
(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]...
(ב) תַּנְיָא, רַבִּי יוֹסִי אוֹמֵר, יוֹמָא חַד הֲוָה קָאִימְנָא קָמֵיהּ דְּר' יְהוּדָה סָבָא, שָׁאִילְנָא לֵיהּ, מַאי דִּכְתִּיב, (בראשית כח) וַיִּירָא וַיֹּאמַר מַה נּוֹרָא וְגוֹ'. מַאי קָא חָמָא, דְּקָאָמַר דְּאִיהוּ נּוֹרָא. אָמַר לִי, חָמָא שְׁלִימוּ דִּמְהֵימָנוּתָא קַדִּישָׁא, דְּהֲוָה שְׁכִיחַ בְּהַהוּא אֲתָר, כְּגַוְונָא דִּלְעֵילָּא. וּבְכָל אֲתָר דְּהַוִי שְׁלֵימוּתָא שְׁכִיחַ, אִקְרֵי נוֹרָא.
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.
(א) אך דרך קניית היראה הזאת הוא ההתבונן על ב' ענינם אמתיים:
(ב) האחד הוא, היות שכינתו יתברך נמצאת בכל מקום שבעולם ושהוא יתברך משגיח על כל דבר קטן וגדול אין נסתר מנגד עיניו, לא מפני גודל הנושא, ולא מפני פחיתותו, אלא הדבר הגדול והדבר הקטן הנקלה והנכבד הוא רואה והוא מבין בלי הפרש.
(ג) הוא מה שאמר הכתוב (ישעיה ו:ג): מלא כל הארץ כבודו, ואומר (ירמיה כג:כד): הלא את השמים ואת הארץ אני מלא. ואומר (תהלים קיג:ו): מי כה' אלקינו המגביהי לשבת המשפילי לראות בשמים ובארץ. ואומר (תהילים קלח:ו): כי רם ה' ושפל יראה וגבוה ממרחק יידע.
(ד) וכיון שיתברר לו שבכל מקום שהוא, הוא עומד לפני שכינתו יתברך, אז מאליה תבוא בו היראה והפחד פן יכשל במעשיו, שלא יהיו כראוי לפי רוממות כבודו.
(1) The way to acquire this type of fear is through contemplation on two true matters:
(2) One, that the Divine presence (Shechina), blessed be He, is found in every place in the world and [two] that G-d watches over all things, small or great. Nothing is hidden from His sight, neither due to its greatness nor due to its smallness. Rather the great matter and the small matter, the lowly and the honorable, He sees and understands without any distinction.
(3) This is what scripture says: "the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3), and "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" (Yirmiyahu 23:24), and "Who is like the L-rd, our G-d, enthroned on high, who stoops to look down on the heavens and the earth?" (Tehilim 113:5-6), and "though the L-rd is high, yet He sees the lowly, and the proud He knows from afar" (Tehilim 138:6).
(4) Once it has become clear to a person that wherever he is, he is standing before the Divine Presence, blessed be He, then the fear will come of itself and the dread lest he stumble in his actions, such that they are not befitting of His exalted honor.
Rabbi Bahya Ibn Paquda
Awe inspired by God's magnitude, exaltedness, and awesome power never leaves a person or parts from them all the days of their life. It is the gateway to pure love and intense yearning.
Rabbi Arthur Green, These Are the Words, "Yir'ah"
Awe causes us to distance ourselves from God, not to become overly familiar, to take God's presence for granted. But this yir'ah also exists in balance with love. If the love of God brings me close to the One, what place is there for awe and distance? This paradox is answered by a well-known mystical reading of the Song of Songs: "His left hand is beneath my head, while His right hand embraces me" (2:6). The left hadn't of God, representing din [judgement], seems to insist on yir'ah, to demand a distance between God and the soul. But even as that left hand of God pushes me away, I know that God also embraces me to draw me near.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man, pages 76-77
According to the Bible the principal religious virtue is yirah. What is the nature of yirah? The word has two meanings: fear and awe. There is the man who fears the Lord lest he be punished in his body, family, or in his possessions. Another man fears the Lord because he is afraid of punishment in the life to come. Both types are considered inferior in Jewish tradition. Job, who said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," was not motivated in his piety by fear, but rather by awe, by the realization of the grandeur of His eternal love.
Fear is the anticipation and expectation of evil or pain, as contrasted with hope which is the anticipation of good. Awe, on the other hand, is the sense of wonder and humility inspired by the sublime or felt in the presence of mystery. Fear is "a surrender of the succors which reason offers," awe is the acquisition of insights which the world holds in store for us. Awe, unlike fear, does not make us shrink from the awe-inspiring object, but, on the contrary, draws us near to it. This is why awe is compatible with both love and joy.
In a sense, awe is the antithesis of fear. To feel "The Lord is my light and my salvation" is to feel "Whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1)...
Awe precedes faith; it is at the root of faith. We must grow in awe in order to reach faith. We must be guided by awe to be be worthy of faith. Awe, rather than faith is the cardinal attitude of the religious Jew. It is "the beginning and gateway of faith, the first precept of all, and upon it the whole world is established." In Judaism, yirat hashem, the awe of God, or yirat shamayim, the "awe of heaven", is almost equivalent to the word "religion". In Biblical language the religious man is not called "believer", as he is for example in Islam (mu'min), but yare hashem.
(א) וּנְתַנֶּה תֹּקֶף קְדֻשַּׁת הַיּוֹם כִּי הוּא נוֹרָא וְאָיֹם וּבוֹ תִּנָּשֵׂא מַלְכוּתֶךָ וְיִכּוֹן בְּחֶסֶד כִּסְאֶךָ וְתֵשֵׁב עָלָיו בְּאֱמֶת
(1) We lend power to the holiness of this day. For it is tremendous and awe filled, and on it your kingship will be exalted, your throne will be established in loving-kindness, and you will sit on that throne in truth.
רֵאשִׁית חָכְמָה יִרְאַת ה', שֵֽׂכֶל טוֹב לְכָל עֹשֵׂיהֶם, תְּהִלָּתוֹ עוֹמֶֽדֶת לָעַד: בָּרוּךְ שֵׁם כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד:
The beginning of wisdom is yirah of Adonai, good understanding to all who perform [His commandments], His praise endures forever. Blessed [is His] Name, Whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.
יהִי רָצון מִלְּפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלקֵינוּ וֵאלקֵי אֲבותֵינוּ. שֶׁתְּחַדֵּשׁ עָלֵינוּ אֶת הַחודֶשׁ הַזֶּה לְטובָה וְלִבְרָכָה. וְתִתֶּן לָנוּ חַיִּים אֲרוּכִים. חַיִּים שֶׁל שָׁלום. חַיִּים שֶׁל טובָה. חַיִּים שֶׁל בְּרָכָה. חַיִּים שֶׁל פַּרְנָסָה. חַיִּים שֶׁל חִלּוּץ עֲצָמות. חַיִּים שֶׁיֵשׁ בָּהֶם יִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם וְיִרְאַת חֵטְא. חַיִּים שֶׁאֵין בָּהֶם בּוּשָׁה וּכְלִמָּה. חַיִּים שֶׁל עשֶׁר וְכָבוד. חַיִּים שֶׁתְּהֵא בָנוּ אַהֲבַת תּורָה וְיִרְאַת שָׁמַיִם. חַיִּים שֶׁיְּמַּלֵא ה' מִשְׁאֲלות לִבֵּנוּ לְטובָה. אָמֵן סֶלָה:
Birkat HaChodesh (blessing of the new moon):
May it be pleasing before You, Ado-nai our God and God of our ancestors, to initiate this month for goodness and blessing. Give us long life, a life of peace, a life of goodness, a life of blessing, a life of material comfort, a life of strength, a life that has in it yirah of heaven and yirah of sin, a life without shame and humiliation, a life of wealth and honor, a life in which there is in us love for Torah and a yirah of heaven. A life in which our hearts requests for good will be fulfilled. Amen. Selah.
אַהֲבָה רַבָּה אֲהַבְתָּנוּ, ה' אֱלֹקֵינוּ, חֶמְלָה גְדוֹלָה וִיתֵרָה חָמַלְתָּ עָלֵינוּ. אָבִינוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ, בַּעֲבוּר אֲבוֹתֵינוּ שֶׁבָּטְחוּ בְךָ, וַתְּלַמְּדֵם חֻקֵּי חַיִּים, כֵּן תְּחָנֵּנוּ וּתְלַמְּדֵנוּ. אָבִינוּ, הָאָב הָרַחֲמָן, הַמְרַחֵם, רַחֵם עָלֵינוּ, וְתֵן בְּלִבֵּנוּ לְהָבִין וּלְהַשְׂכִּיל, לִשְׁמֹעַ, לִלְמֹד וּלְלַמֵּד, לִשְׁמֹר וְלַעֲשׂוֹת וּלְקַיֵּם אֶת כָּל דִּבְרֵי תַלְמוּד תּוֹרָתֶךָ בְּאַהֲבָה. וְהָאֵר עֵינֵינוּ בְּתוֹרָתֶךָ, וְדַבֵּק לִבֵּנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתֶיךָ, וְיַחֵד לְבָבֵנוּ לְאַהֲבָה וּלְיִרְאָה אֶת שְׁמֶךָ, וְלֹא נֵבוֹשׁ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד: כִּי בְשֵׁם קָדְשְׁךָ הַגָּדוֹל וְהַנּוֹרָא בָּטָחְנוּ, נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ. וַהֲבִיאֵנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ, וְתוֹלִכֵנוּ קוֹמְמִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵנוּ, כִּי אֵל פּוֹעֵל יְשׁוּעוֹת אָתָּה, וּבָנוּ בָחַרְתָּ מִכָּל עַם וְלָשׁוֹן. וְקֵרַבְתָּנוּ לְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל סֶֶלָה בֱּאֱמֶת לְהוֹדוֹת לְךָ וְּלְיַחֶדְךָ בְּאַהֲבָה. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', הַבּוֹחֵר בְּעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּאַהֲבָה.
From the morning prayer service.
You have loved us with a great love, Ad-nai our God. You have felt a great compassion for us. Our father and king, for the sake of our ancestors who trusted in you, so that you taught them rules for life- so be gracious to us and teach us. Our father- the father of mercy- the merciful one, have mercy on us, and place in our hearts the ability to understand and comprehend, to hear, to learn and to teach, to keep, to do and to uphold all the words of your Torah with ahavah. Enlighten our eyes with your Torah, and adhere our hearts to your mitzvot, and unify our hearts to feel ahavah and yirah of your name, and we will never be shamed. For we have trusted in your holy, great, revered name, and we celebrate and rejoice in your deliverance. Bring us in peace from the four corners of the earth, walk us upright to our land, for you are a God who works deliverances, and you chose us from all peoples and tongues. Your brought us close to your great name with truth, to thank you and to make you one, with ahavah. Bless you, Ad-nai, who chooses his people Israel with ahavah.