When Hashem revealed Himself to Moshe Rabbenu from the midst
of the burning bush, it is said: "And Moshe hid his face for
he was afraid to gaze upon Elokim." Say Chazal: As a reward
for his having hidden his face out of fear, Moshe was
granted the beams of splendor, of which it was stated, "And
Aharon and Bnei Yisroel saw that the skin of Moshe's face
glowed and they were afraid to approach him" (Shemos
34,30). Because of Moshe's awe and fear, which prevented him
from gazing upon the Shechina, he merited a special
aura which caused others to be afraid to gaze upon him.
The significance of this is that the reward went beyond the
usual measure-for-measure. When a mortal man is suddenly
confronted with something beyond human comprehension, he
feels total effacement and nonentity, which is expressed by
awe and fear, the awe in the presence of greatness. Moshe,
who was gripped by fear in seeing the revelation of the
Shechina, was rewarded in that he, himself, became a
subject of awe and reverence. His countenance glowed with
holiness to such a degree that all who beheld it were
assailed by shame, self-negation and a feeling of
nothingness to the point that they feared to approach him.
At the conclusion of Shemoneh Esrei, we ask: "May it
be Your will that the Beis Hamikdosh be rebuilt
speedily in our days, and there we will worship You in fear
as in the days of yore." There, in the Beis Hamikdosh,
the Shechina dwelled openly, and there was fear,
the awe of greatness which stemmed from the self-
nullification of man in his nothingness before this
concentration of holiness.
Similarly by the splitting of the sea, when the Jews saw and
declared, "This is my G-d and I will glorify Him"
(Shemos 15,2), the result was, "And the people feared
Hashem."
In this spirit, we are better equipped to understand the
comment of R' Akiva on the verse, "You shall fear Hashem
your G-d" -- to include Torah sages. In Pirkei Ovos,
the language is more explicit: " . . . the fear of your
master [should be] like the fear of Heaven." Is it possible
to compare any form of reverence and awe to the fear of
Hashem, and in such an absolute manner?
The answer is that the fear one has for one's teacher stems
from his fear of Hashem.
Whenever Jews came to the Beis Hamikdosh, they were
overcome with an overwhelming, inexplicable sensation of
fear which originated from their encounter with sublime
spirituality more potent than any human could imagine.
And so it is when standing in the presence of great men who
are exalted beyond others. Being in their proximity causes
one to feel puny and insignificant which is expressed
through deference and reverence.
We find this by the command of, "You shall fear My
sanctuary." The Rambam says, "It is not the Mikdosh
itself that you must fear but the One Who commanded
concerning it."
This is puzzling. Was it then necessary for the Torah to
merely hint at fearing Hashem by stating it in such a
roundabout way, that one must fear "the One who issued the
commandments concerning it?" Has the Torah not already
commanded us to fear Hashem separately and explicitly? What
has been added here through the indirect allusion to
fearing Hashem as an inference from the commandment to hold
the Mikdosh in awe?
The answer is that despite the outspoken commandment of
fearing Hashem, man tends to forget and does not always feel
that he is standing in the very presence of Hashem. This is
not so when he is actually standing in the sanctuary, the
Beis Hamikdosh, where the sense of awe is very real
and palpable.
Such was the feeling of Yaakov Ovinu when he awoke from his
prophetic vision at Beis El and he realized that he had
slept upon the holy site of the future Beis Hamikdosh.
"And he feared and he said: How awesome is this place!" A
location that has sanctity of the degree of the Mikdosh
is a place that evokes fear, the awe of greatness. It is
analogous to a person who stands before a skyscraper and
feels altogether puny and inconsequential physically. An
iota of non-essence.
Chazal quote the verse, "And now, Yisroel, what does Hashem
your G-d ask of you, only to fear," and they ask: Is then
fear such a simple thing to ask? "That's all -- only that?"
Why, that is plenty, indeed, and hardly easy to attain!
Chazal reply, "For Moshe Rabbenu, it is an elementary, easy
thing to expect." But another question immediately arises.
Moshe Rabbenu is not talking about himself! He is turning to
every Jew and charging him: What does Hashem expect of you?
`Only' to fear Him. Which brings us right back to our first
question. Why is this considered an elementary and simple
request?
There is a commentary that says that with regard to Moshe,
that is, in the proximity of Moshe Rabbenu, it is easy for a
person to achieve G-d-fear.
And so is it with all Torah sages -- in their presence, one
instinctively feels veneration and awe, for they are on a
high spiritual plane. Anyone approaching them necessarily
feels puny and worthless, full of shame at the mundane
things that concern and preoccupy him all the time. Feelings
of guilt mingled with deep shame combine to make a person
feel awe in the presence of someone exalted and preoccupied
with altogether lofty things.
Chazal also said: "If the teacher resembles an angel of
Hashem, let him [a person] seek Torah from his mouth, as it
is written, `For I gave them to him for the fear with which
he feared Me, and was afraid of My name' (Malachi
2:5). " The angels "answer with reverence and say with
fear." Their exalted grasp imposes upon them a constant
deference.
The wife of Monoach was visited by the angel who told her of
the future birth of Shimshon. She was not aware of his
identity, yet she reported to her husband, "A man of Hashem
appeared to me and his appearance was fearful, like that of
an angel of Hashem." One who is wholly suffused with fear
imposes fear upon others. Thus, the wife of Monoach was able
to identify the stranger as a "man of G-d similar to an
angel."
This, too, is the meaning of "a master resembling an angel."
This is a teacher whose fear of Hashem arouses in those in
his vicinity a sense of awe and reverence, similar to the
awe that gripped the Jews when they beheld the countenance
of Moshe Rabbenu. Their fear was a reflection of the fear
that he felt, himself, and that was expressed in his
covering his face in the presence of the Shechina.
(HaRav Eliyohu Fisher, rosh yeshivas Yagdil Torah,
USA)
