Chapter 43: Two Kinds of Awe, Two Kinds of Love

Concerning this lower fear (yirah tataah), whose purpose is the keeping of His commandments in both their aspects, “shun evil and do good” (Tehillim 34:15), the Sages taught: “Without awe, there can be no wisdom” (Avos 3:17).

Within this fear there is a “small” level and a “great” level. It is “great” when it flows from reflecting on how great G‑d is: He fills every world; “the distance from the earth up to the sky is a five-hundred-year walk… and the same between each sky and the next… and the legs of the Chayos [angels] match all of these together…” (Chagigah 13a); and so too the whole descending chain of worlds, each higher than the last, to the loftiest heights. Still, this fear is termed “external” and “lower”, since it is drawn from the worlds. The worlds are the King’s clothing: in them the Holy One, blessed be He, conceals and veils and dresses Himself, in order to animate them and sustain them so that they may be a “something” out of nothing, etc. Its value is that it serves as the doorway and the way in to fulfilling the Torah and its mitzvos.

The higher fear (yirah ila’ah), however, is an awe born of shame, an inward awe drawn from the inner G‑dliness that lies within the worlds. Of this one the Sages said the reverse: “Without wisdom, there can be no awe” (Avos 3:17). For chochmah (wisdom) breaks into koach mah, “the power of ‘what’” (see chapter 19); “wisdom is found from ayin, from nothing” (a reading of Iyov 28:12); and “Who is the wise one? The one who sees what is being born” (Tamid 32a). That is, he perceives how every single thing is born and brought into being, out of nothing into something, by the word of G‑d and the spirit of His mouth, as the verse says, “with the spirit of His mouth, their entire host [was made]” (Tehillim 33:6).

It follows that heaven and earth, with everything that fills them, have no real existence of their own; they are wholly absorbed in the word of G‑d and the spirit of His mouth. They count as nothing whatsoever, an utter zero and void, as the light and radiance of the sun dissolve when they are inside the sun’s own body. No person should exclude himself from this. His own body and his nefesh, ruach and neshamah also have no existence apart from G‑d’s word. And His word, blessed be He, is one with His thought, etc., as was explained at length earlier (chapters 20 and 21) by comparison with a person’s soul, where a single word of its speech and thought is as nothing, etc. This is the meaning of the verse, “See, awe of G‑d, that is wisdom” (Iyov 28:28).

Yet one can attain this awe and wisdom only by fulfilling the Torah and its mitzvos, which is done through the lower, external fear. That is the sense of “Without awe, there can be no wisdom.”

Love, too, comes in two levels: ahavah rabbah, “great love”, and ahavas olam, “eternal love” (literally “love of the world”). Great love is a love of sheer delight, a flame that climbs upward of its own accord. It descends from above as a gift to one who has perfected his fear, as we learn from the Sages’ words, “A man’s way is to go in search of a woman” (Kiddushin 2b). Love is termed “man” and “male”, as in the verse, “He recalled (zachar) His kindness” (Tehillim 98:3), while “woman” stands for the fear of G‑d, a familiar idea (see Mishlei 31:30). One cannot arrive at this great love unless fear comes first, since it stems from the world of Atzilus, where nothing is cut off or separate, G‑d forbid.

Ahavas olam, by contrast, is the love that grows out of understanding and deep knowledge of how great G‑d is, the Ein Sof, blessed be He, Who fills every world and encircles every world, and before Whom all is reckoned as nothing at all, the way a single word counts for nothing in the thinking soul as long as it remains inside its thought or the heart’s longing, as described earlier. Such reflection causes the soul’s capacity for love to shed its garments on its own. It will no longer dress itself in any enjoyment or delight, whether bodily or spiritual, so as to love that, nor will it want anything at all that exists except G‑d alone, the living source of every delight. All delights are swallowed up and count as nothing before Him; there is no measure or resemblance at all between them and Him, G‑d forbid, just as nothingness itself bears no relation to life without end. So the verse says: “Who else is there for me in the heavens? And beside You there is nothing on earth I want. My body and my heart are spent with longing, the strength of my heart…” (Tehillim 73:25–26). This will be explained further on.

Even a person whose capacity for love has never been invested in any delight, bodily or spiritual, can kindle his soul into sparks of fire, a fierce flame, a blaze climbing toward heaven, by means of that same reflection, as will be explained further on.

At times this love comes ahead of fear, depending on the quality of the da’as from which it is born, as is known. [Da’as holds both chassadim and gevuros, love and fear respectively, and there are times when the chassadim are first to descend and be revealed.] This is how a wicked man, steeped in sin, can return in teshuvah from a love that arises in his heart as he calls to mind G‑d, his G‑d.

Nevertheless fear is automatically present within that love as well, but only in a small, concealed way: the fear of sinning, of defying Him, G‑d forbid. The love, meanwhile, shows itself openly in his heart and mind. But this is an exception, a one-time ruling issued through G‑d’s particular providence for what that moment requires, as in the story of Rabbi Elazar ben Durdaya (Avodah Zarah 17a).

The fixed order of service, however, the path that rests on a person’s own choosing, calls for him first to fulfil the Torah and its mitzvos by way of the lower fear, at the very least in its “small” form, shunning evil and doing good. Thus he illuminates his G‑dly soul with the light of Torah and mitzvos, and afterwards the light of love will shine upon it. [For the gematria of ve’ahavta, “and you shall love”, equals or, “light”, two times over, as those versed in the hidden wisdom know.]