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Yirat Hashem otherwise known as “Yirat Elohim” or “Fear of God” is a concept in Judaism relating to the level of understanding and the way to worship God. In the Talmud, this concept is often referred to as “Yirat Shamayim”, meaning “Fear of Heaven.” The opposite of Yirat Hashem is Ahavat Hashem, or “Love of God.”
The concept of Yirat Hashem can be found throughout the Bible, such as in the following sources: "And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God [is] not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake." (Genesis 20:11) "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me." (Genesis 22:12) "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." (Deuteronomy 10:12) "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumblingblock before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I [am] the LORD." (Leviticus 19:14)
The Jewish Oral Tradition expounds on these verses. Maimonides specifically took the concept of Yirat Hashem and developed it as a positive commandment. In his Book of the Commandments, Maimonides characterizes Yirat Hashem as "the fear of punishment," whereas in his Code he characterized it as the feeling of mortal humility deriving from contemplation of God's "great and wonderful actions and creations" (Foundations of the Torah 2:1). Also in his Code Maimonides connects Yirat Hashem with "service based on fear" as a religiously inferior type of behavior of "the ignorant (ʿamei ha-arez), women and children," deriving from their hope for reward and fear of punishment (Laws of Repentance 10:1). At the end of his Guide of the Perplexed (3:52), the entire system of commandments is defined as Yirat Hashem, where human beings express a sense of shame in the presence of God.
In the Kabbalistic tradition, Yirat Hashem is expressed in the book Reishit Chochmah. The book was composed in Safed during the sixteenth century by Elijah ben Moses de Vidas, student of Moses Cordovero. The title "Reishit Chochmah" is taken from the verse in Psalms (111:10): “The beginning of wisdom [Reishit Chochmah] is the fear of the Lord.” The work analyzes the five most important character traits for man to adopt, including the fear of God.
References
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