May your will, Hashem, be that my words serve well and bind me to the souls of Your tzaddikim, especially to the Kotzker Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel ztz”l, whose yartzeit blesses this Shabbat.
The rabbi of Kotz, Rebbe Menachem Mendel, was asked: “When they stood at Mount Sinai, the people said to Moshe: ‘Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ And Moshe answered: ‘Fear not’ (Shemot/Exodus 20:17). He went on to say that God had come ‘that His fear may be before you, that you sin not’ (ibid). Isn’t that a contradiction?”
Rebbe Menachem Mendel said: “ ‘Fear not’ – that means: This fear of yours, the fear of death, is not the fear God wants of you. He wants you to fear Him, he wants you to fear his remoteness and fall not into sin which removes you from Him.” (based on the retelling by Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim, v.2, p.279)
A saying liked by Rebbe Nachman: “Kol ha-‘Olam kulo gesher tzar me’od, v'ha-’ikar lo lefached klal” – “All the World—all—is a very narrow bridge, and the primary thing is not to fear at all.”
In the first half, it says “a very narrow bridge” – what does the bridge connect? We may learn what from the second half. “[T]he primary thing” refers to the goal, the destination at the end of the bridge, and this is “not to fear at all.” This world is a bridge through which we depart from mundane fear (pachadah). But what is our aim? It is said: “All is in the hands of Heaven but the fear of Heaven (yirat Shamayim, ‘fear’ also translatable as ‘awe’)”, that is, all our motion in the world is either toward true fear of Heaven or away from it. So, the bridge is a bridge between mundane fear (pachadah) and fear of Heaven (yirat Shamayim).
At Sinai, the people feared death because they had not traversed the bridge; and today, we sing “Kol ha-‘Olam…” – “All the world” – for we are still crossing the bridge. Mundane fears tear us apart. We are driven by fear to work obsessively and hoard money, to seek relationships however shallow and satisfy ourselves with the pitiful fruits of those amalgamations, to indulge in comforts and ‘the finer things in life’ and cover over our dissatisfaction with sophisticated apathy, televisioned glaze, and lukewarm gratitude. All the world—all of it—is a narrow bridge. God above and death below, there is no action unseen and no living escape from the travail.
We are given to the same bridge Am Yisrael was given, and we walk within the same Eternity, and we receive the same Torah (teaching) from Moshe – Don’t fear the world, stand in fear-awe of Hashem. The Sfat Emet teaches: “Now Torah has already been given to Israel by ‘a great voice that did not cease’ (Devarim/ Deuteronomy 5:19). It has never stopped.” The terrifying thunder and lightening, fire and smoke, earth-quaking and mysterious shofar-blasting at Sinai, these were given to teach “fear not” the world and “fall not” into sin; and today our difficult circumstances are given to us to encourage us to cross the bridge, from fear of the world to Awe before Hashem – yirat Shamayim.
The English word ‘afraid’ comes (by way of French) from the late Latin word ‘exfridare’. This Latin word is composed of two smaller words; ‘ex-’ means ‘out of’ and ‘fridare’ means ‘peace’. To be afraid is to be ‘out of peace’. The word ‘fridare’ is also related to words meaning ‘precious’, ‘dear’, and ‘beloved’. So, the English word ‘afraid’ carries with it the connotation that the one who is afraid is not precious, not dear, not beloved.
That meaning is opposite from the meaning of the Hebrew word which is translated as “fear”. The Hebrew word for ‘fear’, as in fear of Heaven, is “Yir’ah”. This is similar to the word “Yir'eh” – “he will see”. Proper “YiRa’” allows us to see where we must go. Likewise, the word “YiRa’” is similar to the word “’oR” – “light”. Fear of Heaven, Yirat Shamayim, is a light to us on our ways. Fear, Yira’, is a way that our Creator cares for us and guides us, it is a sign that we are precious, dear, and beloved.
When Moshe says “that His fear may be before you, that you sin not”, he uses the word “Yir'ato” (Shemot/Exodus 20:17). This word contains two other words; “’oR” – “light”, and “Yitro” – one of the names of Moshe’s father-in-law. At the beginning of this week’s parashah, it is written: “And Moshe told his father-in-law all that Hashem had done to Par’oh and to the Egyptians for the sake of Yisrael, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way (the wars with the Egyptians and with the ‘Amaleqites, for example), and how Hashem had delivered them. And Yitro rejoiced for all the goodness which Hashem had done to Yisrael…” (Shemot/Exodus 18:8-9). Yitro does not rejoice after hearing only of the miracles performed in Egypt. He must hear also of the travail along the way. Then, and only then, he rejoices for “all the goodness” of Hashem to Yisrael. Yitro understands that the fear-inspiring travail is a light to Yisrael, and then reflecting this, praising and loving Hashem, he lights a fire and offers sacrifices to the Source of all light.
May Your will, Hashem, be that our travails become lights to us on our way crossing the bridge to true yirat Shamayim. And may Your will be that we quickly awaken into ahavat Hashem – love of Hashem through the realization that you give us our trials to bring us before You pure in Awe.
Shabbat Shalom!