The Fear We Need Not Fear – Shavuot 5786

וכל העם רואים את הקולות… וינועו ויעמדו מרחוק 

And all the people saw the thunder… and they trembled and stood from afar. 

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”, President Roosevelt famously said.

That resonates when I read these passages recounting the giving of Torah.

But how we interpret fear, and in particular, fear of Gd needs to be reexamined.

We’re not “scared” of this perilous moment in time. We are not intimidated by our unknown fate nor our creator who determines it.

But we do live in awe of our Jewish reality everyday.

Chazal teaches that every neshama, past, present, and future, stood at Sinai, and as such, that fear and awe for which our nation trembled is innately present within us.

But additionally, we fear Gd, as we’ve defined it, the most in the moments that emulate Sinai personally; being called to read from the Torah, hearing the shofar’s wail, and living piously and enduring through the tragedies and triumphs of war.

In these moments, we too are called upon to take ownership of something infinitely larger than ourselves, and in each generation, we’ve done so vigorously and with absolute faith.

Sinai was a marriage and we are in the golden years of this union, despite our fear.

But yiras (fear of) Hashem is only one of the human emotions that defines our relationship with Gd.

The other is, ahava. Love of Gd.

At Sinai and on each Shavuot since, both yiras Hashem and ahava Hashem come together in harmony.

We receive Torah with both in mind, trembling before its greatness, yet embracing it with full loving hearts.

The fear we need not fear.

Chag Shavuot Sameach and Shabbat Shalom