Fear Hashem as you Fear Man

Posted on December 28, 2011 by Emuna Daily

The Talmud relates that on his death bed, R’ Yochanan ben Zakkai told his disciples: “May it be the will [of God] that the fear of Heaven be upon you like the fear of flesh and blood.” His students responded, “Thus far [and no more]?” It seemed incomprehensible to them that their fear of Hashem should not have to exceed their fear of mortal man. To this, R’ Yochanan replied, “If only [your fear of Heaven were this much]! Know that when a person commits a sin in private, he says [to himself], ‘O that a person not see me!’”  ~ Talmud – Berachos 28b
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1 Response to Fear Hashem as you Fear Man

  1. Suewho's avatar Suewho says:
    January 31, 2012 at 11:34 am

    Hello Jeremy,I love your idea of tainkg these emails to another level by having all who enjoy, share their personal expirences with concepts in Emuna.Many of us have moments of inspiration where we feel that anything is possible. We feel encouraged and connected and it seems that nothing can stop us. We develop gratitude and appreciate all the wonderful things we have in our lives. But then something happens that causes us to forget. We get distracted by “things in life” that cause us heartache and we lose our focus. From personal expirence i feel that these are the times where we should strengthen our emuna and turn to Hashem and say Thank you- Thank you for giving me this opprotunity to develop myself and connect with you and ask you for my needs.Many of us ask how can this happen to me. I do right., i take care of my family, i give charity, i am generally a good person, so why is this difficulty happening to me??The truth is that what one needs to come to terms with in life is that we are not here to live life on “easy lane” without apparent difficulties. The so called difficulties enable us all to grow and develop ourselves. These are situations where we feel up against the wall and Hashem seems to be the only option.We would not have even thought to turn to Hashem if not for this difficulty.We all need to utilize our minds to come to terms with that reality.We all have free choice on how to respond to everything in life- My blessing to us all is that we should respond in a way that gives us all strength and hope and a deeper and more meaningful realtionship with Hashem.Thank you!Avi Popack

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