(ח) וַֽיִּשְׁמְע֞וּ אֶת־ק֨וֹל ה' אֱלֹקִ֛ים מִתְהַלֵּ֥ךְ בַּגָּ֖ן לְר֣וּחַ הַיּ֑וֹם וַיִּתְחַבֵּ֨א הָֽאָדָ֜ם וְאִשְׁתּ֗וֹ מִפְּנֵי֙ ה' אֱלֹקִ֔ים בְּת֖וֹךְ עֵ֥ץ הַגָּֽן׃ (ט) וַיִּקְרָ֛א ה' אֱלֹקִ֖ים אֶל־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיֹּ֥אמֶר ל֖וֹ אַיֶּֽכָּה׃ (י) וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אֶת־קֹלְךָ֥ שָׁמַ֖עְתִּי בַּגָּ֑ן וָאִירָ֛א כִּֽי־עֵירֹ֥ם אָנֹ֖כִי וָאֵחָבֵֽא׃
(8) They heard the sound of the Eternal God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of day; and the Human and his wife hid from the Eternal God among the trees of the garden. (9) The Eternal God called out to the Human and said to him, “Where are you?” (10) He replied, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
(י) וַיִּֽקַּֽח־ל֣וֹ אֶת־כׇּל־אֵ֗לֶּה וַיְבַתֵּ֤ר אֹתָם֙ בַּתָּ֔וֶךְ וַיִּתֵּ֥ן אִישׁ־בִּתְר֖וֹ לִקְרַ֣את רֵעֵ֑הוּ וְאֶת־הַצִּפֹּ֖ר לֹ֥א בָתָֽר׃ (יא) וַיֵּ֥רֶד הָעַ֖יִט עַל־הַפְּגָרִ֑ים וַיַּשֵּׁ֥ב אֹתָ֖ם אַבְרָֽם׃ (יב) וַיְהִ֤י הַשֶּׁ֙מֶשׁ֙ לָב֔וֹא וְתַרְדֵּמָ֖ה נָפְלָ֣ה עַל־אַבְרָ֑ם וְהִנֵּ֥ה אֵימָ֛ה חֲשֵׁכָ֥ה גְדֹלָ֖ה נֹפֶ֥לֶת עָלָֽיו׃ (יג) וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לְאַבְרָ֗ם יָדֹ֨עַ תֵּדַ֜ע כִּי־גֵ֣ר ׀ יִהְיֶ֣ה זַרְעֲךָ֗ בְּאֶ֙רֶץ֙ לֹ֣א לָהֶ֔ם וַעֲבָד֖וּם וְעִנּ֣וּ אֹתָ֑ם אַרְבַּ֥ע מֵא֖וֹת שָׁנָֽה׃ (יד) וְגַ֧ם אֶת־הַגּ֛וֹי אֲשֶׁ֥ר יַעֲבֹ֖דוּ דָּ֣ן אָנֹ֑כִי וְאַחֲרֵי־כֵ֥ן יֵצְא֖וּ בִּרְכֻ֥שׁ גָּדֽוֹל׃
(10) [Abram] brought all these and cut them in two, placing each half opposite the other; but he did not cut up the bird. (11) Birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. (12) As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a great dark dread descended upon him. (13) And [God] said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years; (14) but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.
(25) This day I begin to put the dread and fear of you upon the peoples everywhere under heaven, so that they shall tremble and quake because of you whenever they hear you mentioned.
(4) Though I walk through a valley of deepest darkness, I fear no harm, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.
(14) Happy is the person who is always afraid, But one who hardens their heart falls into misfortune.
This student was once walking after Rabbi Yishmael, son of Rabbi Yosei, in the marketplace of Zion. Rabbi Yishmael saw that the student was afraid. He said to him: You are a sinner, as it is written: “The transgressors in Zion are afraid, trembling has seized the ungodly” (Isaiah 33:14). The student replied: And is it not written: “Happy is the person that fears always” (Proverbs 28:14)? Rabbi Yishmael said to him: That verse is written with regard to matters of Torah.
Yehuda bar Natan was coming and going after Rav Hamnuna. Yehuda bar Natan sighed; Rav Hamnuna said to him: Do you wish to bring suffering upon yourself; as it is stated: “For that which I did fear is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of has overtaken me” (Job 3:25)? He responded: Is it not said: “Happy is the person who fears always”? Rav Hamnuna answered: That verse is written with regard to matters of Torah.
And turn it into joy with a good word.
“If there is a worry in the heart of a person, let them quash it [yashchena]” (Proverbs 12:25). Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi: One said: They should force it [yaschena] out of their mind. And one said: It means they should tell [yesichena] their troubles to others.
(42) Had not the God of my father’s [house]—the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac—been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But it was my plight and the toil of my hands that God took notice of—and gave judgment on last night.”
(א) ופחד יצחק היה לי ...וכן דעת אונקלוס (תרגום אונקלוס על בראשית ל״א:מ״ב) כי פחד יצחק אלקיו דדחיל ליה יצחק ורבי אברהם... עוד כתב (שם) ויש אומרים כי זה הפחד רמז ליום העקדה ואיננו רחוק ועל דרך האמת יבא הלשון כפשוטו ומשמעו והוא מדת הדין של מעלה...
(1) The Fear of Isaac was with me - ...It is also the opinion of Onkelos that pachad Yitzchak means “his God,” for he translated it as: “One whom Isaac fears.”...
Ibn Ezra further wrote, “And there are some who say that this ‘fear’ is an allusion to the day of Isaac’s Binding.” This is not far-fetched.
By way of the Truth the language fits its plain meaning and intent, that is, it refers to the attribute of Justice on high...
(3) You shall each fear / revere your mother and your father, and keep My sabbaths: I the Eternal am your God.
(ג) אֵי זֶהוּ מוֹרָא וְאֵי זֶהוּ כָּבוֹד. מוֹרָא לֹא עוֹמֵד בִּמְקוֹמוֹ. וְלֹא יוֹשֵׁב בִּמְקוֹמוֹ. וְלֹא סוֹתֵר אֶת דְּבָרָיו וְלֹא מַכְרִיעַ אֶת דְּבָרָיו. וְלֹא יִקְרָא לוֹ בִּשְׁמוֹ לֹא בְּחַיָּיו וְלֹא בְּמוֹתוֹ. אֶלָּא אוֹמֵר אַבָּא מָרִי...
אֵי זֶהוּ כָּבוֹד מַאֲכִיל וּמַשְׁקֵה מַלְבִּישׁ וּמְכַסֶּה מִשֶּׁל הָאָב. וְאִם אֵין מָמוֹן לָאָב וְיֵשׁ מָמוֹן לַבֵּן כּוֹפִין אוֹתוֹ וְזָן אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ כְּפִי מַה שֶּׁהוּא יָכוֹל. וּמוֹצִיא וּמַכְנִיס וּמְשַׁמְּשׁוֹ בִּשְׁאָר הַדְּבָרִים שֶׁהַשַּׁמָּשִׁים מְשַׁמְּשִׁים בָּהֶן אֶת הָרַב. וְעוֹמֵד מִפָּנָיו כְּדֶרֶךְ שֶׁהוּא עוֹמֵד מִפְּנֵי רַבּוֹ:
(3) What is meant by fear and what is meant by honor [for your parents]? Fear is expressed by not standing in their place, not sitting in their place, not contradicting their words, nor offering an opinion that outweighs theirs.
One should not call them by name, neither during their lifetime or after their death. Instead, he should say: "My father and my master."...
What is meant by honoring them? One should bring them food and drink, clothe them and cover them from their resources. If a parent does not have financial resources and a child does, the child is compelled to sustain their parents according to their own capacity. One should bring them out and bring them home and serve them in all the ways one serves a teacher. Similarly, one should stand before them as one stands before a teacher.
(13) Fear / revere only your Eternal God and worship [God] alone, and swear only by God’s name.
(10) The beginning of wisdom is fear of the Eternal, And knowledge of the Holy is understanding.
(12) And now, O Israel, what does your Eternal God demand of you? Only this: to revere your Eternal God , to walk only in divine paths, to love and to serve your Eternal God ' with all your heart and soul, (13) keeping the Eternal’s commandments and laws, which I enjoin upon you today, for your good.
And Rabbi Chanina said: Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except for fear of Heaven, as it is stated: “And now Israel, what does the Eternal your God ask of you other than to fear...” (Deuteronomy 10:12).
The Midwives Saw and Feared by Orna Pilz, from Dirshuni ed. Tamar Biala 2022
Between Fear and Awe: Forgetting the Self by Shai Held 2015
All of this raises a crucial question: If fear and awe are so different, why does the same Hebrew word (yir'ah) convey both? My teacher Bernard Steinberg once offered a powerful answer: "Awe is what happens to fear when it stops being about me." When I fear God, in other words, I think about God's might and the ways it could impact upon me, but when I hold God in awe, I think only of God's might; thoughts of how it could affect me simply fall away. Fear becomes awe, then, when I forget about myself and focus only on God.
We can discern something similar, I think, in the biblical Hebrew word todah. In contrast to modern Hebrew, where todah means thanks, in biblical Hebrew the primary meaning of todah is praise, though it can convey a sense of thanksgiving as well. Indeed, in some biblical texts it is difficult to know whether to translate todah as thanks or praise. Why does the same biblical Hebrew word convey both "thanks" and "praise"? When I am thankful to God, I acknowledge God's generosity and its impact on me. When I praise God, however, I acknowledge God's generosity in and of itself. Thanks becomes praise when I forget about myself and focus only on God. In other words, fear is to awe as thanks is to praise: The former give way to the latter when I transcend myself and think only of God.
Dr. Haym Soloveitchik, Rupture and Reconstruction 1994
The ten-day period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are now Holy Days, but they are not Yamim Noraim—Days of Awe or, more accurately Days of Dread –as they have been traditionally called.
I grew up in a Jewishly non-observant community, and prayed in a synagogue where most of the older congregants neither observed the Sabbath nor even ate kosher… Yet, at the closing service of Yom Kippur, the Ne'ilah, the synagogue filled and a hush set in upon the crowd. The tension was palpable and tears were shed.
What had been instilled in these people in their earliest childhood, and which they never quite shook off, was that every person was judged on Yom Kippur, and, as the sun was setting, the final decision was being rendered (in the words of the famous prayer) “who for life, who for death, / who for tranquility, who for unrest.” These people did not cry from religiosity but from self-interest, from an instinctive fear for their lives. Their tears were courtroom tears, with whatever degree of sincerity such tears have. What was absent among the thronged students in Bnei Brak and in their contemporary services and, lest I be thought to be exempting myself from this assessment, absent in my own religious life too - was that primal fear of Divine judgment, simple and direct
(ט) בְּיָדו אַפְקִיד רוּחִי. בְּעֵת אִישָׁן וְאָעִירָה:
(י) וְעִם רוּחִי גְּוִיָּתִי. ה' לִי וְלא אִירָא:
(9) In God's hand, I safeguard my spirit, at the time that I sleep and when I wake.
(10) And with my spirit is my body; God is for me, I will not fear.
וְדַע, שֶׁהָאָדָם צָרִיךְ לַעֲבֹר עַל גֶּשֶׁר צַר מְאֹד מְאֹד, וְהַכְּלָל וְהָעִקָּר – שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל:
Know, too! a person must cross a very, very narrow bridge. The main rule is: Do not frighten yourself (yitpached) at all!
הרב ברוך חייט (בשם רבי נחמן מברסלב)
כל העולם כלו גשר צר מאוד והעיקר לא לפחד כלל.
Rabbi Baruch Chait (based on the teaching of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav)
The whole world is a very narrow bridge and the main thing is not to fear (lefached) at all.
