I was struck by the string of pasukim on this amud that made various rabbis cry. Actually, what made them cry is not the verse itself, but the sense of yirat hashem that the verse triggered in them. Especially powerful was the reaction of R' Ami and R' Assi to verses at the end of the amud that all ended with an idea that "maybe there is hope." The "maybe" causes the rabbis to cry out at only the possibility of hope that the verses suggest.
I guess what really got me here is the deep sense of yirat hashem that is expressed on this amud. To build on my previous post about divrey Torah as a goad, it seems that, at least in our community, the idea of yirat hashem doesn't resonate with people. Speaking about ahavat hashem is much more comfortable, both for the speaker and for the listener. However, I believe that we need a healthy dose of both to be able to live a life of mitzvot.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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It is intesting that you are focusing on the notion of yirah here, because while fear is certainly in play, what strikes me as the more palpable emotion is uncertainty. This notion that "after all this...maybe" is the best we can hope for seems to me a serious complaint against the way God runs the universe. After all this...and all we get is maybe?! Evil stalks the land, laying waste to us and our homes and families, and God gives us a shrug and a half-hearted "I'll-give-it-a-shot." We often read yirat ha-shem to be about fearing God's awesome might and power, but what if yirat ha-shem, in this context at least, is really about fearing that God doesn't really care all that much about us, fearing that, in the end, God's most clear statement of intentions boils down to "maybe"?
Now that is terrifying.
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