Nefesh HaChayim, Gate IV

However, it’s certain that it’s impossible to say that the matter of involvement with Torah does not require any purity of thought and fear/awe of God (heaven forbid), for after all, we learned an entire mishna: “If there’s no fear/awe, there’s no wisdom”. And they stated (Yoma 72b): “Why is it written (Mishlei 17:16): ‘Why is there money in the hands of a fool to purchase wisdom, though he lacks a heart’? Woe to them, Torah scholars977Heb.: tal-mee-dei cha-kha-meem, lit.: “students of the wise” (students of the sages), who involve themselves with Torah but don’t have within them fear/awe of heaven.” And in Sh’mote Rabba (chapter 40): “Anyone who knows but hasn’t achieved fear of sin hasn’t achieved anything, for the integration of Torah occurs by way of fear of sin.”

And in the introduction to the Zohar (11b), Rabbee Shim’on bar Yo-khai stated that fear/awe is the gateway to enter faith, and the entire world is preserved by this commandment…, and this is the essence of and the foundation for all the rest of the commandments in the Torah: one who keeps fear/awe is as if he keeps everything, and if he does not keep fear/awe, he doesn’t keep the Torah’s commandments…”— refer there [for more details].

And in parshat B’har (108a): “What is the ‘yoke of heaven’ other than being like the ox… . So too must a person first accept upon himself a yoke and afterwards employ it as much as he needs. And if he doesn’t first accept the yoke upon him, he can’t work. And this is what they stated: ‘Serve God in fear/awe.’ What is ‘in fear/awe’? It’s as is written: ‘The beginning of wisdom is fear/awe of God…’, and for that reason it is the beginning of everything…, because with this he can enter into the rest of holiness, and if this is not present with him, the supernal holiness does not settle within him… .”

And furthermore they stated (Avot 3:11): “Anyone whose fear/awe precedes his wisdom, his wisdom is preserved”, for fear/awe of God comes first; it is the essence of the preservation of the wisdom of Torah. And as our rabbis (OBM) stated (Shabbat 31a): “Reish La-keesh stated: Why is it written (Yeshayahu 33:6): ‘faithfulness to your charge…’? ‘Faithfulness’—this is Seder Z’ra-im…978This verse ends “fear/awe of God is her storehouse”. This verse is read as referring to the six s’darim of the Mishna..” In this verse is the entire Sha”s, and even so it concludes “fear/ awe is his storehouse.” The text likened the Torah to a vast amount of grain, and fear/awe to the storehouse that holds within it a massive amount of grain that are guarded within it. For fear/awe of God is the storehouse for the wisdom of the holy Torah, that by its agency it is preserved in that person’s domain. And if he didn’t first prepare for himself a storehouse of fear/awe, then the vast amounts of the grain of Torah are as if left in the field to be trampled by the legs of the ox and the donkey (heaven forefend), so that is not preserved in his domain at all.

And in the same vein they stated about this text (in Sh’mote Rabba 30): “You find a person learning midrash ha-la-khote and ah-ga-dote, and if he doesn’t have within him fear/awe of sin, he has achieved nothing. This is likened to a person…, ‘I have a thousand measures of grain’. Someone said to him: ‘Do you have secure places to store them in?’, as is stated: ‘faithfulness to your charge…’.” Refer there [for more details].