(All text in block quotes is the actual words of the Kli Yakar.)
In this week's parsha:
- Hashem's Great Mercy for us (even when we've been just awful)
- Hashem's Great Love & Generosity toward simply for just FEELING that right feelings toward him
Hashem's Compassion within Anger
The Jordan River "The following shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you cross the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin" (27:12)
[This is in contrast to the following verse which says, “And these shall stand...for the curse.”]
[This is in contrast to the following verse which says, “And these shall stand...for the curse.”]
And regarding the curses, it doesn’t say “These shall stand to curse” because the good things come actively from Hashem, but the curses don’t come except from themselves via the hastarat Panim of Hashem because “ From the Mouth of the One on High will not come the bad things....” (Eichah 3:38).
….and even regarding those who are cursed, Hashem doesn’t send a flood of wrath immediately, but with mercy first, little by little – perhaps they’ll do teshuvah – in the way He did for the Generation of the Flood, intending that if they’d do teshuvah, there would be rains of blessing [as opposed to the worldwide deluge that ended up happening].
In this way, even the curses come from the side of mercy, little by little.
Therefore, they also came as the number 11, which signifies mercy. And for this reason, all the rebukes, whether those of Torat Hakohanim or those within this parsha, start with vav [6] and end with hei [5] to teach that even in anger, He’ll remember to be Merciful.
What is Healthy Fear?
"Hashem will order the blessing to be with you in your storage houses, and in every one of your endeavors, and He will bless you in the Land which Hashem, your God, is giving you" (28:8)
Yirat Shamayim is a fear that comes from love and appreciation.
When you love someone deeply, you don’t want to do anything to ever hurt that person or go against that person’s will.
Look at how mothers of infants sacrifice so much to make sure their babies are safe and cared for – all out of a healthy fear for their child’s well-being. Or how parents child-proof their homes for fear that otherwise, their beloved child will come to some kind of harm, chas v’shalom.
Or wives (especially in shana rishonah):
After candle-lighting one Lail Shabbat, I went to visit my friend when her newly married daughter was there. The kallah refused to take off her ankle-breakingly high heels the entire time for fear that her husband might come back from davening any minute and not find her perfectly dressed and ready to greet him in all her meticulously put-together glory.
She wasn’t afraid that her husband would be angry at her if she didn’t greet him as beautifully adorned as possible; in her deep love for him, she wanted to please him so much with her appearance that she was afraid to be anything less than perfectly ready the moment he walked through the door.
I recently came across a deeper understanding of yirah while reading a Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller's A Guide to Shalom Bayit: Respect in the Naaleh newsletter.
She writes:
Kavod [respect] says, "I need you. I respect who you are and what you can give me."
It's feeling connected to whatever virtue the person you're giving kavod to has.
She goes on to explain that a marriage made up of real love and kavod creates an unbreakable interdependency between the two partners.
She explains that in a healthy marriage:
You know you need the other person. The Rambam teaches that a woman should feel respect and awe for her husband even more than his actual status would warrant. It doesn't mean forceful domination, which is a very superficial picture of what marriage is. There is a difference between pachad (fear) and morah (awe).
Pachad is negative fear.
Morah [which shares the same root as "yirah"] means viewing someone as having superior aspects than you.
So ideally, yirah comes from a healthy place, a place of wanting to please Hashem and knowing He possess that which you don't, and that you are dependent on him in a good way for these qualities.
As the Kli Yakar writes:
Yirat Shamayim is a fear that comes from love and appreciation.
When you love someone deeply, you don’t want to do anything to ever hurt that person or go against that person’s will.
Look at how mothers of infants sacrifice so much to make sure their babies are safe and cared for – all out of a healthy fear for their child’s well-being. Or how parents child-proof their homes for fear that otherwise, their beloved child will come to some kind of harm, chas v’shalom.
Or wives (especially in shana rishonah):
After candle-lighting one Lail Shabbat, I went to visit my friend when her newly married daughter was there. The kallah refused to take off her ankle-breakingly high heels the entire time for fear that her husband might come back from davening any minute and not find her perfectly dressed and ready to greet him in all her meticulously put-together glory.
She wasn’t afraid that her husband would be angry at her if she didn’t greet him as beautifully adorned as possible; in her deep love for him, she wanted to please him so much with her appearance that she was afraid to be anything less than perfectly ready the moment he walked through the door.
I recently came across a deeper understanding of yirah while reading a Rebbetzin Tziporah Heller's A Guide to Shalom Bayit: Respect in the Naaleh newsletter.
She writes:
Kavod [respect] says, "I need you. I respect who you are and what you can give me."
It's feeling connected to whatever virtue the person you're giving kavod to has.
She goes on to explain that a marriage made up of real love and kavod creates an unbreakable interdependency between the two partners.
She explains that in a healthy marriage:
You know you need the other person. The Rambam teaches that a woman should feel respect and awe for her husband even more than his actual status would warrant. It doesn't mean forceful domination, which is a very superficial picture of what marriage is. There is a difference between pachad (fear) and morah (awe).
Pachad is negative fear.
Morah [which shares the same root as "yirah"] means viewing someone as having superior aspects than you.
So ideally, yirah comes from a healthy place, a place of wanting to please Hashem and knowing He possess that which you don't, and that you are dependent on him in a good way for these qualities.
As the Kli Yakar writes:
As Rabbeinu Bachaye explained (Shemot 19:5), every king makes a treasure house and segula from something that is not commonly found, like precious gems.
And thus, everything is in the Hands of Shamayim except for yirat Shamayim (Brachot 39).
Therefore, Hashem makes a treasure house from the yirat Hashem that is within you. And lest you err by saying that Hashem has some kind of need for this treasure, it says “Hashem will open for you his good treasure house" [28:12]; Hashem has no need at all for this treasure as He is saving it to give you all your needs and livelihood from there.
And Hashem doesn’t transfer the key of this treasure to any agent; only Hashem Himself holds it in His Hand because this treasure is very dear to Him.
So remember that.
All your yirah is so dear to Hashem that He stores it up in a special "treasure house" that only He can access. Then He transforms it into something you need and gives it back to you.
All your yirah is so dear to Hashem that He stores it up in a special "treasure house" that only He can access. Then He transforms it into something you need and gives it back to you.
Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of Luntschitz (1550-1619) lived in Bohemia (which is today Poland and Czechoslovakia). He served as rabbi and dayan and wrote several books, the most well-known being his commentary on the Chumash known as the Kli Yakar.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.
This is my own translation and any errors are also mine.
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