Bitachon and Fear

(31) And when Israel saw the wondrous power which יהוה had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared יהוה; they had faith in יהוה and in God’s servant Moses.

וייראו העם את ה׳… ואת משה עבדו The people feared the Lord …and they believed in His servant Moses. This was not fear of punishment but awe of the Majesty of G'd. The fear of punishment they had possessed already prior to the Exodus. According to what we explained on 12,43 that the Israelites did not accept the commandment of the King (G'd), they did not even fear to be punished by G'd otherwise they would not have remained uncircumcised until that time. At any rate the fear described in this verse is that they stood in awe at G'd's Majesty. When the Torah describes the Israelites as "believing," this was the reward for their fear of G'd's Majesty.

ויאמינו ביהוה ובמשה עבדו. Belief consists of 4 different parts.
There is belief in the Lord, as we know from Chronicles II 20,20 האמינו ביהוה אלוהיכם ותאמנו, “believe absolutely in the Lord your G’d and you will be able to stand firm!” This is the kind of belief that our verse speaks of when it reports the Israelites as ויאמינו ביהוה ובמשה עבדו, they believed in the Lord and in Moses His servant.”
The second type of belief is the belief in the authenticity of His prophets which implies the duty to accept the prophet’s instructions. We find a direct reference to this in Isaiah 53,1 מי האמין לשמועתנו? “Who does believe in our assurances?”
The prophet speaks about the promise of there being an hereafter, demanding that we must believe in this as well as the fact that the reward for performing good deeds in this life will be forthcoming in this afterlife. This is also what David spoke of when he said in Psalms 27,13: לולא האמנתי לראות בטוב יהוה בארץ חיים, “Had I not the assurance that I would enjoy the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, etc.”
There is the obligation to believe in the eventual arrival of a redeemer. This is a cornerstone of Judaism. This is also what is meant by Isaiah 28,16 הנני יסד בציון אבן, אבן בוחן פנת יקרת מוסד מוסד המאמין לא יחיש, “Behold I will found in Zion, stone by stone, a tower of precious cornerstones, exceedingly firm; he who believes need not fear.” All those who believe in this assurance will acquire numerous merits.
We know that G’d Himself cited Avraham’s belief in the promises He made to him for the far distant future as an act of righteousness as documented in Genesis 15,6והאמין ביהוה ויחשביה לו צדקה, “He believed G’d’s promise, and He accounted it for him as an act of righteousness.”
People believing in this promise of a rosy future will also wind up in Gan Eden as we know from Isaiah 26,2 פתחו שערים ויבא גוי צדיק שומר אמונים. “Open the gates, and let a righteous nation enter, a nation that keeps faith.” Such a person will experience the life in the world to come as we know from Chabakuk 2,4 וצדיק באמונתו יחיה, “and the Just will live (eternally) due to his faith.”
Anyone who does not believe in these precepts of Judaism falls into the category of people of whom we read in Job 15,22: לא יאמין שוב מני חושך וצפוי הוא אלי חרב, “he is never sure he will come back from the dark; a sword stares him in the face.” He will not participate in the redemption when it comes. We know this from the prophet Ezekiel 20,38אברותי מכם המורדים והפושעים בי, “I will remove from you those who rebel and transgress against Me.“ It is also written in Psalms 31,24: אמונים נוצר יהוה ומשלם על יתר עושה גאוה, “the Lord guards and requites the loyal, and more than requites him who acts arrogantly.” The meaning of the verse is clear: G’d rewards the ones who have displayed faith in Him, whereas the ones who have failed to believe in Him He will punish for having acted so arrogantly. They will not be granted life in the future. This is implied by the first part of the verse from Chabakuk 2,4 we quoted already in which the prophet states הנה עופלה לא ישרה נפשו בו,; “Lo his spirit is puffed up within him not upright; but the righteous man is rewarded with life for his fidelity.”

וייראו העם ויאמינו, “The people were afraid and they believed.” Fear and Faith are the cornerstones of the entire Torah. Rabbeinu Chananel writes in this connection that faith may be divided into four parts. 1) Faith in the Lord; this is meant when we read in Chronicles II 20,20 (King Yehoshaphat speaking) “Trust firmly in the Lord your G’d and you will stand firm.” 2) Faith in the prophets. This is what is meant when the Torah wrote here “they believed in G’d and in His servant Moses.” In order to demonstrate this faith in G’d’s prophets we are obligated to obey the prophets’ instructions. 3) one must have faith in the existence of life after death on earth. This is part of the belief in reward and punishment for performance of the commandments of the Torah. David referred to this when he said (Psalms 27,13) “Had I not had the assurance that I would enjoy the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, etc.” 4) The belief in the coming of the Messiah. This too is an important cornerstone of Torah philosophy. This is confirmed in Isaiah 28,16: “Assuredly, thus said the Lord G’d; ‘Behold I will found in Zion, stone by stone, a tower of precious cornerstones exceedingly firm; he who trusts need not fear.” Everybody who has faith will will be credited with many merits. We know this already from Avraham who was the source of all the faithful. G’d credited him for his trust when the Torah wrote (Genesis 15,6) “he had faith in G’d and He (G’d) considered this as an act of righteousness on his part.” Amongst other advantages accruing to the faithful is the promise that they will experience a return to Gan Eden as we have been told by Isaiah 26,2: “open the gates, and let a righteous nation enter; a nation that keps faith.” This is a reference to life in the hereafter. We have a further verse in Chabakuk 2,4: “the just will live by his faith.”
Anyone who does not have faith in these cornerstones of Judaism belongs to the group of people of whom Eliphaz said in Job 15,22: “he is never sure he will come back from the dark; a sword stares him in the face.” Such people will not share in the life in the hereafter nor will they take part in the redemption. We base this on Ezekiel 20,38: “I will remove from you those that rebel and transgress against Me.” It is also written in Psalms 31,24: “the Lord guards the faithful but more than requites him who acts arrogantly.” The meaning is that whereas G’d protects those that have faith, He will punish the faithless because the root of their lack of faith is their arrogance. They will not participate in the life of the future as it is written (Chabakuk 2,4) “the haughtiness is blown up, not upright; but the righteous will live by his faith.” Thus far Rabbeinu Chananel Seeing that faith is the foundation of the whole Torah, our sages have decreed the response אמן on numerous occasions within the prayer service in order for the participants to express their faith in what the reader proclaims. The word אמן is rooted in the expression אמונה, “faith, loyalty.” The word also means that he who says it acknowledges and agrees with the statements concerning which he says אמן. Our sages laid so much stress on this verbal response that we find a statement in Nazir 15 that “he who answers with the word אמן is greater than he who uttered the words to which אמן is the response.” In order to explain this apparently baffling statement, we must remember that he who answers אמן when he heard the benediction read by the Chazzan in fact acknowledges that the real source of the blessing is G’d, not the Chazzan or priest, and that by saying אמן he validates the Chazzan’z statement. It is similar to sealing a document with a signature. Until it was sealed it lacked legal status. Even if we grant that the Chazzan was the first witness to this document, until it had been countersigned by a second witness it was not valid
Our sages have written at length about the manner in which the word אמן is to be enunciated. They said that it must not be spoken in clipped tones, not in a hurry, it must not be spoken so that the last letter is not clearly audible but one must take his time over saying that word. They were so concerned with ensuring that we take these rules seriously that they threatened that if someone said the word before having heard the whole benediction (an “orphaned אמן”), that such a person or his children might themselves become orphans. They have similarly threatened heavenly retaliation for other infractions of the rules about the proper enunciation and timing of saying the word אמן. Ben Azzai promised long life to those who make a point of saying the word אמן by taking their time over it (compare Berachot 16 on all this). [The author proceeds to explain some of the defective ways of pronouncing אמן. I decided to omit this. Ed.] I have so far explained the word אמן in terms of it being rooted in the word אמונה. Apart from the fact that the word symbolises תפארת and כבוד, there is an additional mystical dimension to this word. It contains within itself a “panorama” of the ten emanations including both the tetragrammaton and its substitute (א-ד-נ-י) seeing it commences with the letter א, which symbolizes the highest of these emanations, i.e. כתר. This emanation is the source of all the blessings up until the letter מ which symbolises תשובה, repentance, as well as the fact that G’d is מלך העולם the King of the universe. [A king, by definition is masculine. Ed.]
The letter ן which adjoins the letter מ alludes to the fact that G’d combines within Himself both the masculine and feminine attributes. The allusion is found in the fact that the letter נ appears sometimes as כפופה, “bent over”, suggesting something feminine, and sometimes upright, at the end of a word, suggesting something masculine. As soon as the path of the blessings (which emanated at the top of the emanations כתר), had reached the level of the letter ן and what it represents, it expands to the world of disembodied spirits, after which it descends to our terrestrial universe. Seeing the blessing had commenced its descent from the region represented by the letter א and had continued from there much as the waters from a natural spring continue to flow downwards, irrigating all the areas which are in need of irrigation on their way, so the person responding with the word אמן has the gates of Gan Eden opened for him. This is the meaning of Isaiah 26,2: “open the gates and let a righteous nation enter, a nation that keeps faith.” The word is spelled אמונים, and the sages suggest that it be read אמנים instead, without the letter ו, i.e. suggesting that those who respond with the word אמן have demonstrated their faith, אמונה. In other words the reward for faith follows in its footsteps (Isaiah 40,10). The word אמן is an acrostic consisting of the respective first letters of the words אל מלך נאמן, “G’d is a faithful and dependable G’d.” It is noteworthy that the word נאמן contains both types of the letter נ which we mentioned before, i.e. the “bent” one and the “straight” one (in the words of Rashi on Genesis 21,34 “that the verse did not intend to put the lid on information (conceal it), but on the contrary to reveal information).” The “straight” ן in the word אמן embodies both the masculine and the feminine element seeing that the bent נ represents the feminine element and the upright ן the masculine element, there was room for only one such letter in the acrostic. You should also remember that the letter א is called אמן (compare Zohar) as the emanation חכמה is also known as אמון. This is the mystical dimension of Proverbs 8,30 ואהיה אצלו אמון, “I was with him keeping faith.” [The reference is to Torah whose wisdom has been used by G’d in creating the universe. Ed.] חכמה and כתר are in fact inseparable, seeing that this is the domain where blessing originates, based on Psalms 134,2 שאו ידיכם קודש וברכו את יהוה, “lift your hands towards the sanctuary and bless the Lord.” The psalmist addresses the חכמה, as קדש. As a result the statement that he who responds with the word אמן is greater even than the one inviting such a response makes perfect sense.
All this is applicable outside the confines of the Holy Temple. In the Temple itself the formula אמן was not used (Berachot 63). The reason was that within the precincts of the Temple the priests would pronounce the tetragrammaton in accordance with its spelling, not as a כנוי, i.e. as א-ד-נ-י, as was the case outside the holy precincts. Seeing that the first two letters of the tetragrammaton, i.e. the letters י-ה symbolized the source from which the blessing emanates there was no point in adding the word אמן which does so only indirectly, i.e. by means of the letter א which symbolized the כנוי.
When someone consciously repeats the word אמן he will acquire two worlds as indicated by David at the end of Psalm 72 וברוך שם כבודו לעולם וימלא כבודו את כל הארץ אמן ואמן, “Blessed is His glorious name forever; His glory fills the universe, Amen, Amen.” We find the same theme repeated at the end of Psalm 89 ברוך יהוה לעולם אמן ואמן, “Blessed be the Lord forever, Amen and Amen.” Anyone saying אמן in this fashion has truly honoured the Lord. Concerning such people we are told in Samuel I 2,30 (in the name of G’d) “for I honor those who honor Me.”
People who are negligent in saying the word אמן properly and with the proper thoughts are guilty of blaspheming the name of the Lord. Concerning such people G’d said: ובוזי יקלו, (end of the verse quoted from Samuel). According to our tradition such people are consigned to the lowest of the seven sections of gehinom, a section from which there is no escape. That part of gehinom is known as ארץ עיפתה in Job 10,22. [We know of seven different names for gehinom; each one describes a different layer. compare Eruvin 19 and Sotah 10. Ed.]. The author identifies ארץ עיפתה with שאול תחתית (Deut. 32,22), i.e. “the lowest depths” from which there is no return. Apparently, the word שאול is one compartment and תחתית is the name of another such compartment. This must be the meaning of Proverbs 15,11: 'שאול ואבדון נגד יהוה, “hell and destruction are in front of G’d.” Anyone descending to that level will not ascend again. Concerning people who make light of the saying of אמן, Jeremiah 2,13 said: “they have abandoned Me, the source of living waters.” In other words, by failing to say Amen, or worse, they have deprived themselves of the source of life. Wherein consists their penalty? The prophet continues: “they dig for themselves broken cisterns, cisterns which are unable to hold water.” The repetition by the prophet of the word בארות, cisterns, is an allusion to the twofold penalty these people are going to experience. Whatever G’d does is based on the principle of “measure for measure,” whether it pertains to the handing out of reward or to the decreeing of punishment.