Rosh HaShanah 5776
Uveken ten pahdekha al kol maasekha, v’amatekha al kol ma shebarata, veyerukha kol hamaasim . . .
At every Amidah, at every recitation of the statutory prayer on Rosh HaShanah and on Yom Kippur, we add a paragraph asking for all God’s creatures to experience “yirat haShem,” fear or awe of God.
This paragraph does not refer to only to Jews. We appear in the next paragraph. This refers to all God’s creatures, maybe even including non-humans.
What is yirat haShem? [We usually refer to this as Yirat Shamayim, to avoid unnecessary mention of God.] What would serve as the operative definition of fear of Heaven? How would fear of Heaven manifest itself in a person’s life?
I found four examples of this quality in Humash, three of which should help us in determining an operative definition of fear of Heaven.
Uveken ten pahdekha al kol maasekha, v’amatekha al kol ma shebarata, veyerukha kol hamaasim . . .
At every Amidah, at every recitation of the statutory prayer on Rosh HaShanah and on Yom Kippur, we add a paragraph asking for all God’s creatures to experience “yirat haShem,” fear or awe of God.
This paragraph does not refer to only to Jews. We appear in the next paragraph. This refers to all God’s creatures, maybe even including non-humans.
What is yirat haShem? [We usually refer to this as Yirat Shamayim, to avoid unnecessary mention of God.] What would serve as the operative definition of fear of Heaven? How would fear of Heaven manifest itself in a person’s life?
I found four examples of this quality in Humash, three of which should help us in determining an operative definition of fear of Heaven.