Marc D. Stern Robert S. Hirt, Series Editor OF Awe of God 08 draft 07 balanced.indd iii 9/17/2008 8:52:54 AM THE ORTHODOX FORUM The Orthodox Forum, initially convened by Dr. Norman Lamm, Chancellor of Yeshiva University, meets each year to consider major issues of concern to the Jewish community. Forum participants from throughout the world, including academicians in both Jewish and secular fields, rabbis, rashei yeshivah, Jewish educators, and Jewish communal professionals, gather in conference as a think tank to discuss and critique each other’s original papers, examining different aspects of a central theme. The purpose of the Forum is to create and disseminate a new and vibrant Torah literature addressing the critical issues facing Jewry today. The Orthodox Forum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Joseph J. and Bertha K. Green Memorial Fund at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary established by Morris L. Green, of blessed memory. The Orthodox Forum Series is a project of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd iiii 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:538:52:53 AMAM In Memory of My Parents Herman and Marion Stern Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yirat shamayim : the awe, reverence, and fear of God / edited by Marc D. Stern. p. cm. ISBN 978-1-60280-037-3 1. Fear of God – Judaism. 2. Orthodox Judaism. I. Stern, Marc D. BM645.F4Y57 2008 296.3’11 – dc22 * * * Distributed by KTAV Publishing House, Inc. 930 Newark Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07306 Tel. (201) 963-9524 Fax. (201) 963-0102 www.ktav.com [email protected] Copyright © 2008 Yeshiva University Press This book was typeset by Koren Publishing Services OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd iviv 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:548:52:54 AMAM Contents Contributors ix Series Editor’s Preface Robert S. Hirt xiii Introduction: I Failed to Guard My Own Vineyard xv Marc D. Stern 1. Yirat Shamayim in Jewish Thought 1 Warren Zev Harvey 2. Nefesh ha-Hayyim and the Roots of the Musar Controversy 27 Elyakim Krumbein 3. Moving Beyond Lightness and Confronting Fears: Hasidic Thought on the Fear of Heaven 57 Alan Brill 4. Between Heaven and Earth: Curricula, Pedagogical Choices, Methodologies and Values in The Study and Teaching of Tanakh: Where They Can and Should Lead Us 81 Nathaniel Helfgot 5. Fear of God: The Beginning of Wisdom and the End of Tanakh Study 135 Mosheh Lichtenstein 6. What Are We Afraid of ? Fear and Its Role in Jewish Adult Education 163 Erica Brown v OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd v 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:548:52:54 AMAM 7. Fear of God and Prayer 185 Jack Bieler 8. Contemporary Impediments to Yirat Shamayim 231 Aharon Lichtenstein 9. “Yet My Soul Drew Back” Fear of God as Experience and Commandment in an Age Of Anxiety 265 Shalom Carmy 10. Lechu Banim Shim’u li Yirat Hashem Alamedchem: Come, Children, Listen to Me; I Will Teach You How to Revere the Lord: If Only It Were So Easy 301 Kenneth Auman 11. A Nation Under God: Jews, Christians, and the American Public Square 321 Meir Soloveichik 12. Civil Religion Is An Obstacle to Serious Yirat Shamayim 349 Marc D. Stern 13. “The Beginning of Wisdom:" Towards a Curriculum of Yirat Shamayim in Modern Orthodox High Schools 377 Mark E. Gottlieb Orthodox Forum Seventeenth Conference List of Participants 395 Index 399 OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd vivi 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:548:52:54 AMAM Other Volumes in the Orthodox Forum Series Rabbinic Authority and Personal Autonomy edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Tradition and the Non-Traditional Jew edited by Jacob J. Schacter Israel as a Religious Reality edited by Chaim I. Waxman Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah: Contributions and Limitations edited by Shalom Carmy Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought and Law edited by David Shatz, Chaim I. Waxman, and Nathan J. Diament Engaging Modernity: Rabbinic Leaders and the Challenge of the Twentieth Century edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Perspectives on the Experience of Suffering edited by Shalom Carmy Jewish Business Ethics: The Firm and Its Stakeholders edited by Aaron Levine and Moses Pava Tolerance, Dissent, and Democracy: Philosophical, Historical, and Halakhic Perspectives edited by Moshe Z. Sokol Jewish Spirituality and Divine Law edited by Adam Mintz and Lawrence Schiffman Formulating Responses in an Egalitarian Age edited by Marc D. Stern Judaism, Science, and Moral Responsibility edited by Yitzhak Berger and David Shatz The Conceptual Approach to Jewish Learning למדות edited by Yosef Blau Rabbinic and Lay Communal Authority edited by Suzanne Last Stone War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition edited by Lawrence Schiffman and Joel B. Wolowelsky OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd viivii 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:548:52:54 AMAM viii Gender Relationships In Marriage and Out edited by Rivkah Blau Religious Zionism Post Disengagement: Future Directions edited by Chaim I. Waxman OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd viiiviii 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:52:548:52:54 AMAM 7 Fear of God and Prayer Jack Bieler A Disturbing Description of the Services in Many Major Contemporary Orthodox Synagogues In his widely publicized article analyzing the possible causes for the massive amount of conversation taking place during formal com- munal prayer in Orthodox settings,1 clinical psychologist Dr. Irving Levitz2 offers the following characterization: In most Orthodox synagogues, when the cacophony of noise from adult socializing and the clamor of children playing, crying and scampering about has reached some unacceptable decibel level, rabbis and synagogue presi- dents will stop the service in order to scold, admonish, and even threaten the offending worshippers. Protests from the pulpit tend to affect no more than a temporary respite, however, and within moments, the congregation resumes its social agenda.3 185 OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd 185185 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:53:148:53:14 AMAM 186 Jack Bieler Sociological and psychological considerations aside, from a theologi- cal perspective, the lack of decorum during synagogue services can easily be attributed to shortcomings in the degree of Fear of God in the average synagogue worshipper. Yirat HaShem (Fear of God) and the Commandments Based upon the manner in which the term Yirat HaShem (the Fear of God) is used in biblical verses, it is evident that the need for a Jew to develop such a sensibility is both a Commandment in its own right,4 as well as a type of weltanschauung informing both the performance of all Commandments5 and behaviors defined as other than specifically religious observances and practices.6 Furthermore, according to at least one Aggadic passage in the Talmud, the sensi- bility of Yirat HaShem is both considered a prerequisite as well as an ultimate outcome for the overall Jewish religious experience.7 However, in order to fulfill certain individual Commandments, Yirat HaShem appears to not only add additional religious significance to a course of action that already contains intrinsic value,8 but sometimes constitutes the very essence of the particular Commandment.9 One such Commandment10 whose not only optimal, but even minimal level of fulfillment is defined by the codifiers11 as requiring a clear- cut sense of Yirat HaShem is Tefilla (prayer). Yirat HaShem by Virtue of Always Being in God’s Presence R. Moshe Isserles, in his gloss on Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 1:1, concerning what one is to do in the morning upon awakening, draws on RAMBAM’s Guide for the Perplexed iii: 52 to describe how the realization that one always finds himself standing before God, independent of particular acts of prayer or blessing, inevitably should result in ongoing emotions of fear and dread in everyone. RAMA, Orach Chayim 1:1 [Psalms 16:8] “I have placed the Lord before me al- ways…”12 This is a great principle of Torah and a quality of OOFF AAwewe ooff GGodod 0808 ddraftraft 0077 bbalanced.inddalanced.indd 186186 99/17/2008/17/2008 8:53:148:53:14 AMAM Fear of God and Prayer 187 the righteous that walk before God. Because the sitting of a person, his moving about, or his engagement in activi- ties when he is alone in his house is extremely different from his sitting, moving and activity when he is before a great king. And his manner of speech and his uninhibited opening of his mouth [i.e., he speaks whenever he wishes] when he is together with his household and relatives is nothing like his speech when in the presence of a king. All the more so when a person considers that the Great King, the Holy One, Blessed Be He, Whose Glory Fills the entire universe, is Standing over him and Sees his actions, as it is said, [Jeremiah 23:24] “Can anyone hide himself in secret places and I will not See him? says the Lord,” immediately an individual should sense fear and subservience and terror of the Lord, Blessed Be He, and he should be shamed before Him unceasingly. Consequently, it is possible for a sensitive, introspective individual, by means of reflection regarding one’s existential reality vis-à-vis the Divine,13 to achieve Yirat HaShem without ever engaging in formal prayer, or invoking blessings. The formal structure of prayer as well as the more informal occasions for individual blessings, in addition to providing an ongoing means by which