Yom Kippur

Written by Rabbi Dr Michael Shire Thursday, 20 September 2007

When Jonah heard that call from God, he must have been terrified: Not something you hear on a normal day – drop everything and go to Ninevah and tell them from me that they are going to be destroyed.

Like all fearful people, he ran away naturally. Wouldn’t you do the same? Totally disorientated, something telling you to do something different from what you have ever done before? To the sailors in the boat, he says ‘ ani Yareh’ I am afraid. This fear has a double edge to it.  Yirah is not just the fear we feel about the world around us but it is also fear of God – yirat adonai or yirat shamayim. Yirah is linked to moral action implicitly suggesting that reverence will lead to the ethical, to the right way to live.  The psalmist says  reshit hochma yirat adonai “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God” . How can fear lead to wisdom?

Yirat Shamayim describes a very intense relationship with God. The medieval rabbis distinguished between two levels of Yirat shamayim; the lower one yirat haonesh -  the fear of doing something wrong and being punished for it. The higher one yirat harommemut is the fear or awe of something that is more profound that us, more moral and truly something worth feeling responsible and responsive to. If we stop running way from our fears, is it possible for us to get beyond thinking about what we always do wrong and reach to a higher plane of  being responsive to the One who wants us to do right? Remember the exhortation from pirke avot, “Be not like servants that minister to the master for the sake of receiving a reward but the let the fear and awe of heaven be upon you”. This yirah we will want to contemplate as it leads us to a greater understanding of ourselves and the created world we occupy.

But it is impossible to turn around while running away. So how are we to approach Yom Kippur?. By running away from the calls to break old habits, examine ourselves, awaken to our better selves? We might even think we would like to do some of this but as soon as we start thinking about it, the fear will step right in. Edmund Burke, said: “Fear is the most effective emotion that robs us of acting and reasoning.” Such fear diminishes our freedom to act. But this season is all about action – acting upon ourselves to change and improve.