IN HIS SPEECH TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL MOSES SAID:

And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul; (deut. 10; 12)

How can we love and be afraid? Why does G-d ask us and not command us?

On Shabbat, before every Rosh Chodesh, we add to the service a blessing for the new month.  In this prayer we ask G-d to grant us a life of peace, goodness, blessings and health. We continue in: a life marked by the fear of heaven… a life in which we have a love of Torah and reverence for heaven.

Why do we pray to have a fear of heaven?

Our Rabbis told us that everything in our life is dictated in the power of heaven with one exception: whether a person has a fear of heaven or not.  We believe that in this respect; we have the free choice to decide if we want to be G-d fearing people or not.   Only we can develop this spiritual quality in ourselves .and by learning the Torah, we help ourselves to achieve this level.

Fear, when approached from the right direction develops a perspective of awe, a feeling of wonderment and an appreciation for the majesty of that, of which you stand in awe.  It is therefore a blessing.

An analogy often sited in religious contexts is that a fear of Hashem should urge us to fear Hashem like a spouse who loves his/her partner and is beloved by them.  They are not terrorized by their spouses wrath, but rather are in fear of doing anything that might result in loosing even a shred of the love that they so treasure and share with each other

There are two levels of G-d fearing – the higher one is a sense of awe and reverence, because of love to HASEM which is difficult to achieve but the lower one (which many people have), is the fear of heaven because of the consequences and the punishment.

In the last American Jewish identification survey, it showed that the rate of religious observance had declined and one in every three Jews declared that he was a non-believer and had become secular.  This survey also showed that the number of Americans who identified themselves as Jewish regardless of their Jewish observance was reduced from 5.5 million in the 1990’s to 5.2 million today.  There is no doubt that the reduction in observance made people less aware of their beliefs and Jewish identity.

As we approach the High Holydays, days when we reflect on our deeds over the last year and make a resolution for the next year, we should bear this in mind.

We here in Wellington had a great year as a Community with many activities and everyone felt the difference between this and previous years.  We should go forward into the next year with a view to making it even better.

Tova and I want to wish all our readers
LESHANA TOVA TICATEVU VETICHATEMU AMEN.

All the best
RABBI CHAIM DOVRAT