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18 Teves 5762 - January 2, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
Around Those Who Fear Him

by L. Jungerman

When Hashem revealed Himself to Moshe Rabbenu from the midst of the burning bush, it is said: "And Moshe hid his face for he was afraid to gaze upon Elokim." Say Chazal: As a reward for his having hidden his face out of fear, Moshe was granted the beams of splendor, of which it was stated, "And Aharon and Bnei Yisroel saw that the skin of Moshe's face glowed and they were afraid to approach him" (Shemos 34,30). Because of Moshe's awe and fear, which prevented him from gazing upon the Shechina, he merited a special aura which caused others to be afraid to gaze upon him.

The significance of this is that the reward went beyond the usual measure-for-measure. When a mortal man is suddenly confronted with something beyond human comprehension, he feels total effacement and nonentity, which is expressed by awe and fear, the awe in the presence of greatness. Moshe, who was gripped by fear in seeing the revelation of the Shechina, was rewarded in that he, himself, became a subject of awe and reverence. His countenance glowed with holiness to such a degree that all who beheld it were assailed by shame, self-negation and a feeling of nothingness to the point that they feared to approach him.

At the conclusion of Shemoneh Esrei, we ask: "May it be Your will that the Beis Hamikdosh be rebuilt speedily in our days, and there we will worship You in fear as in the days of yore." There, in the Beis Hamikdosh, the Shechina dwelled openly, and there was fear, the awe of greatness which stemmed from the self- nullification of man in his nothingness before this concentration of holiness.

Similarly by the splitting of the sea, when the Jews saw and declared, "This is my G-d and I will glorify Him" (Shemos 15,2), the result was, "And the people feared Hashem."

In this spirit, we are better equipped to understand the comment of R' Akiva on the verse, "You shall fear Hashem your G-d" -- to include Torah sages. In Pirkei Ovos, the language is more explicit: " . . . the fear of your master [should be] like the fear of Heaven." Is it possible to compare any form of reverence and awe to the fear of Hashem, and in such an absolute manner?

The answer is that the fear one has for one's teacher stems from his fear of Hashem.

Whenever Jews came to the Beis Hamikdosh, they were overcome with an overwhelming, inexplicable sensation of fear which originated from their encounter with sublime spirituality more potent than any human could imagine.

And so it is when standing in the presence of great men who are exalted beyond others. Being in their proximity causes one to feel puny and insignificant which is expressed through deference and reverence.

We find this by the command of, "You shall fear My sanctuary." The Rambam says, "It is not the Mikdosh itself that you must fear but the One Who commanded concerning it."

This is puzzling. Was it then necessary for the Torah to merely hint at fearing Hashem by stating it in such a roundabout way, that one must fear "the One who issued the commandments concerning it?" Has the Torah not already commanded us to fear Hashem separately and explicitly? What has been added here through the indirect allusion to fearing Hashem as an inference from the commandment to hold the Mikdosh in awe?

The answer is that despite the outspoken commandment of fearing Hashem, man tends to forget and does not always feel that he is standing in the very presence of Hashem. This is not so when he is actually standing in the sanctuary, the Beis Hamikdosh, where the sense of awe is very real and palpable.

Such was the feeling of Yaakov Ovinu when he awoke from his prophetic vision at Beis El and he realized that he had slept upon the holy site of the future Beis Hamikdosh. "And he feared and he said: How awesome is this place!" A location that has sanctity of the degree of the Mikdosh is a place that evokes fear, the awe of greatness. It is analogous to a person who stands before a skyscraper and feels altogether puny and inconsequential physically. An iota of non-essence.

Chazal quote the verse, "And now, Yisroel, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you, only to fear," and they ask: Is then fear such a simple thing to ask? "That's all -- only that?" Why, that is plenty, indeed, and hardly easy to attain!

Chazal reply, "For Moshe Rabbenu, it is an elementary, easy thing to expect." But another question immediately arises. Moshe Rabbenu is not talking about himself! He is turning to every Jew and charging him: What does Hashem expect of you? `Only' to fear Him. Which brings us right back to our first question. Why is this considered an elementary and simple request?

There is a commentary that says that with regard to Moshe, that is, in the proximity of Moshe Rabbenu, it is easy for a person to achieve G-d-fear.

And so is it with all Torah sages -- in their presence, one instinctively feels veneration and awe, for they are on a high spiritual plane. Anyone approaching them necessarily feels puny and worthless, full of shame at the mundane things that concern and preoccupy him all the time. Feelings of guilt mingled with deep shame combine to make a person feel awe in the presence of someone exalted and preoccupied with altogether lofty things.

Chazal also said: "If the teacher resembles an angel of Hashem, let him [a person] seek Torah from his mouth, as it is written, `For I gave them to him for the fear with which he feared Me, and was afraid of My name' (Malachi 2:5). " The angels "answer with reverence and say with fear." Their exalted grasp imposes upon them a constant deference.

The wife of Monoach was visited by the angel who told her of the future birth of Shimshon. She was not aware of his identity, yet she reported to her husband, "A man of Hashem appeared to me and his appearance was fearful, like that of an angel of Hashem." One who is wholly suffused with fear imposes fear upon others. Thus, the wife of Monoach was able to identify the stranger as a "man of G-d similar to an angel."

This, too, is the meaning of "a master resembling an angel." This is a teacher whose fear of Hashem arouses in those in his vicinity a sense of awe and reverence, similar to the awe that gripped the Jews when they beheld the countenance of Moshe Rabbenu. Their fear was a reflection of the fear that he felt, himself, and that was expressed in his covering his face in the presence of the Shechina.

(HaRav Eliyohu Fisher, rosh yeshivas Yagdil Torah, USA)


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