Yiras Shamayim (יראת שמים) — Fear of Heaven

Core definition

Yiras Shamayim — "fear of Heaven" — is the awe and dread of Heaven that the Sages make the precondition of all spiritual attainment: the gate through which one enters to every supernal revelation. Without it, even Torah learning remains locked outside; with it, all levels open. In the corpus it is developed as the outward keys complementing Torah's inward keys, and as the lower fear — the gate-level — inherited from the Patriarchs [19801/maamar_019 :: Summary].

How the Rebbeim develop it

The classic exposition is the Sages' parable (Shabbos 31a): "Every Torah scholar with Torah in him and no fear of Heaven in him is like a treasurer to whom the inward keys were handed but the outward keys were not handed — with what shall he enter?" The Torah is the inward keys' level — "the Torah from Chochmah goes out," the beginning of the inward vessels, in which the Ohr Ein Sof rests. Fear — the lower fear's level — is the outward keys' level [19801/maamar_019 :: Summary].

This is the meaning of the gate: "This is Elokim's gate" — "this is the gate to enter." A gate serves for entrance and exit; to come to all the supernal revelations is through fear specifically. "And now, Israel, what does Havayah your Elokim ask of you but to fear" — and afterward many things are counted, for when there is the gate of fear, one can come to all the levels; therefore it is called a gate, for through it they enter the house [19801/maamar_019 :: Summary].

The gate's very form carries the teaching: the lintel and the two doorposts are the three Patriarchs — Yackov, Yitzchak, Yackov — and in each and every Jew there is this gate in inheritance from the Avos, in the three lines of Torah, avodah, and acts of kindness. Upon this gate-level in every Jew is drawn the level of Chesed and mercies — "and Elokim leapt upon the gate" — a healing to Israel [19801/maamar_019 :: Summary].

The cosmic backdrop is the doctrine of Divine "sleep" and "waking." The Yalkut: when Israel sin, He makes Himself as asleep; when they do His will, "He neither slumbers nor sleeps." Awake above is the revelation of the essential light; asleep, only the externality of the light — expounded through the analogy of man: awake, every faculty acts in revelation each according to its matter; asleep, the faculties withdraw and act in weakness, all equal, opposites joining unordered, as in dreams. Above: sleep is the concealment of the light — not a total removal, for even in exile He renews creation daily — and when the light is concealed it does not shine in the supernal mochin, the souls of Israel; regarding the Ein Sof nothing changes, but below this makes exile [19800/maamar_015 :: Overview]. The revealed faculties root in the concealed faculties and the soul's essence — and fear, as the gate, is what opens the passage from concealment to revelation.

Key distinctions

Related concepts

Ahavas Hashem (love of Havayah), Kabbalas Ol (acceptance of the yoke), the Three Avos, Torah (the inward keys), Galus (exile as concealment).

Sources