FB post 2025, edited lightly from 2024
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Love, Love, Love. or..... fear??!!
Love God, in awe of God, or fear God?
And re God's love of the Jewish People, and us loving the other as ourselves.
Overall I think love+awe wins out, but I will present here a context in which we should actually fear God., yes, to be afraid.
Be Afraid!!! In this week's portion there are 3 separate passages telling us we should FEAR God - and two more such passages in the portions we read recently. But the context is instructive - it is part of a warning not to take advantage of the helpless! Specifically mentioned are those who are non-hearing, or non-seeing, and re assisting the elderly, but also not to take advantage of or mistreat anyone.
{See the 5 passages Lev 19.14, 19.32, 25.17, 25.36, 25.43 "don't take advantage of .... and you should FEAR you God".}
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So I would vote that generally speaking God wants our love & awe, not fear, however when it comes to how we treat other human beings, God warns us that if we don't fear punishment by the law or society, and we take advantage of others, WE SHOULD FEAR God.
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[See also my related posts, separated from this one in order not to be so lengthy:
1. How are we meant to fulfil God's command to love the other as we love ourselves?
2. How our belief in Monotheism deepens our relationship with God, individually and as a People.]
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The notion of fear of God is mentioned elsewhere in the chumash (five books of Moses), but not as a command: Abraham is said by God to be 'God-fearing', and other such examples, and of course there is the pivotal passage in Deuteronomy "What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear him..."; however in that passage the beginning, the continuation and the end place the 'fear' in context:
1. it is phrased as a request not demand ('ask' vs 'demand');
2. the next words are "and to love him" and "cleave unto him" etc;
3. the ending is "(all this is) for YOUR good".
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So only in the passages here does God directly command us 'to fear God', and it is clear that this is meant where the context is violating laws of person-to-person behavior, not person-to-God relationship.
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Conclusion: May we be blessed to aspire to love God, and to love others by helping all those created in the divine image (ie eveyone) with their ordinary physical needs as Abraham did.
But if that is too difficult, then certainly to aspire to "not do to others what we wouldn't want done to us".
And when we feel ourselves tempted to take advantage, because we can get away with it, because the person is weak etc, to remember that there is a God who warned us to BE AFRAID....
And may we be blessed in that moment of weakness, when we are tempted to take advantage of a being created in the image of God, may it be that that remembered warning will fulfil its purpose - to strenghten our resolve to act as we deeply inside know we should, expressing our love of God via acting compassionately to those who are created in God's image.
BEHAR Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27 · 22 p’sukim https://www.sefaria.org.il/Jeremiah.32.31?ven=Tanakh:_The_Holy_Scriptures,_published_by_JPS&vhe=Miqra_according_to_the_Masorah&lang=bi
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The person-to-person aspect of divine commandment is of course also reflected elsewhere in these recent portions:
a. we are told to love the other as we love ourselves;
b. and then deserving its own mention, to love the convert(/or:'resident foreigner').
[So there are three commands to love in the Torah: love your fellow, love the stranger in your midst, and love God.]
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How we are meant to fulfil "love the other as you love yourself": According to the Traditional understanding we were given, God knows we are not all capable of all loving everyone in the deep way that God means 'love' - that would involve committed self-sacrifice to everyone, not just statements of emotions such as "I love you" or "I love all humanity" which can be shallow in some instances if not accompanied by actions.
Instead, the Jewish Traditional understanding of the meaning of "love your fellow" is that we are fobidden "to do to others what we would not want done to us" - this is the mandated (ie legally required) fulfilment of "loving others like yourself".
Those who are especially righteous (the 'chasid' in the language of Maimonides and of Ramchal[Luzatto]) will fulfil this command in its literal positive form, by in addition actively engaging in figuring out the basic physical needs of others in order to proactively take care of them (as Abraham taught us with the story of the guests).
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Helping humans is part of loving God!: Each human is created in the image of God, with their essence being the breath/spirit of God, and so when we help another, we are directly engaging with God's spirit. And so there is a deep connection between loving God and 'loving the other'. And when God sees us engaging in helping each other, he feels the love a parent feels when seeing their children taking care of each other.
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Our relationship with God: God most wants a close relationship with us, God loves us and deeply wants the connection which is formed when we love God as well. However we must also have awe of God.
Indeed, a healthy relationship between spouses for example might not last if it was only based on 'love' without any aspect of 'awe', and even fear - of consequences of our words and actions. And similarly, in the appropriate context we need to feel even the fear of God - when contemplating taking advantage of a being created in the image of God and having God's spirit as their essence, WE SHOULD BE AFRAID!
And we need to keep in mind that harming humans unjustly is a violation of our relationship with God.
Conclusion: May we be blessed to aspire to love God, and to help all those created in the divine image (ie eveyone), but even if that is too difficult then certainly to aspire to "not do to others what we wouldn't want done to us"; and when we feel ourselves tempted to take advantage, because we can get away with it, because the person is weak etc, to remember that there is a God who warned us to BE AFRAID.... and may we be blessed in that moment of weakness for that warning to fulfil its purpose - to strenghten our resolve to act as we deeply inside know we should.
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יָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ
ויקרא
[פרק יט' פסוק יד']
לֹא-תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ אֲנִי הֹ
[פרק יט' פסוק לב']
מִפְּנֵי שֵׂיבָה תָּקוּם וְהָדַרְתָּ פְּנֵי זָקֵן וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ אֲנִי הֹ
[פרק כה' פסוק יז']
וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת-עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
[פרק כה' פסוק לו']
אַל-תִּקַּח מֵאִתּוֹ נֶשֶׁךְ וְתַרְבִּית וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ וְחֵי אָחִיךָ עִמָּךְ
[פרק כה' פסוק מג']
לֹא-תִרְדֶּה בוֹ בְּפָרֶךְ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ
יָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ
ויקרא
[פרק יט' פסוק יד']
לֹא-תְקַלֵּל חֵרֵשׁ וְלִפְנֵי עִוֵּר לֹא תִתֵּן מִכְשֹׁל וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ אֲנִי הֹ
[פרק יט' פסוק לב']
מִפְּנֵי שֵׂיבָה תָּקוּם וְהָדַרְתָּ פְּנֵי זָקֵן וְיָרֵאתָ מֵּאֱלֹ-יךָ אֲנִי הֹ
[פרק כה' פסוק יז']
וְלֹא תוֹנוּ אִישׁ אֶת-עֲמִיתוֹ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ כִּי אֲנִי ה' אֱלֹהֵיכֶם
[פרק כה' פסוק לו']
אַל-תִּקַּח מֵאִתּוֹ נֶשֶׁךְ וְתַרְבִּית וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ וְחֵי אָחִיךָ עִמָּךְ
[פרק כה' פסוק מג']
לֹא-תִרְדֶּה בוֹ בְּפָרֶךְ וְיָרֵאתָ מֵאֱלֹ-יךָ
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Jewish Monotheism as part of the reason for God's love of the Jewish People: the Jewish People accepted that there is only God,"en od milvado", no other Power, and so all that seems evil in the world comes from God - God actually states in the Tanach "evil is my creation". However the Jewish People also believe that God is all-merciful.
This is of course paradoxical, if God is omniscient (knows all) and is all-powerful and yet does not stop bad things from happening how can God also be all-compassionate and all-loving and merciful? For this reason (most?) other peoples and religions do not have the same monothsitic concept and consider evil as an indeepnedent entity or think of there being more than one God etc.
However there is a special relationship of the Jewish People to God, based on this acceptance by the Jewish People that "en od milvado" - and acceptance that the God they worship is creator of all, all knowing and all powerful, and is also nevertheless all-good. Imagine what you would feel towards someone who accepts everything you do no matter how bad it seems, as actually good, ie who says "I'm certain you had a very good and justified reason for doing that, and that actually it was good"! So one can understand the power of God's love to the Jewish People. And God tells us in the Torah that God wants us to love God in return.
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END
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All of vayikra is about tahara etc, and this is the last parsha in vayikra;
The end of the haftoro mentions "mikveh" which means "hope" but also "a mikveh", ie H' is metaher Bnei Yisroel - given that sefer Vayikra is all about tahor/tame, a mention of Mikveh at the end of the last haftoroh (of Vayikro) is appropriate.
The topic is also appropriate for yom yerushalaylim which is close by: the navi mentions the upper throne etc, which is upper Ylm, and the 'even shsiya', waters of the deep, etc; these thematically connect to the tahara process, which starts with water and ends in purification rites in the bet hamikdash, ie Yerushalayim.
etc etc.
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People from all over the world, different cultures, now come to Ylm, and want to be pure, as the beis hamikdash enabled.
We should all merit the brocho that being in Ylm, and etc which is mikdash, we should be able to rescue the sparks of holiness of all the cultures etc.
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[For RH/YK: , have to liberate the real essence, the tune, from the inpure song, so too:inside ourselves not to throw out the bad only the bad part of it; and the matsav]