Fear (Yirah)

Fear of Heaven is not weakness or feebleness; it does not come from fear of punishment but from a recognition of greatness. When a person encounters the Divine loftiness he does not shrink, but rather straightens up. He understands that there is a truth greater than himself, and he grows toward it. Here a deep distinction is formed. There is a religious figure that was built over the years of exile, a figure of an ascetic person, contracted, who measures himself through fears and torments, and at times even sees them as an ideal. And in contrast to this, another figure is called to be built here, of a person connected to the Holy One, blessed be He, out of life, out of might, out of responsibility. Such a person is no less God-fearing, but the opposite. His fear is deeper, because it does not paralyze him but obligates him. It does not diminish him but demands of him to appear in the world with all the powers he received.