בס''ד
Parshat VaYera
17 Heshvan,
5772
November 2nd,
2012
People who live
in safety enjoy putting themselves in danger.
Well, maybe not
in danger – more like next to danger. You know what I’m describing: boxing,
surfing, skydiving, rock climbing, backpacking, scuba-diving, skiing; what
links them all is exhilaration and the possibility of getting messed up in the
process.
I won’t
criticize too much – I’m one of these types, suburban born, seeking
opportunities to leave safety behind.
There is a
method behind this modern madness; sitting next to danger is a way of choosing
healthy fear. While we’re alive, fear cannot
be banished. Instead what one can do is respond well in its face. And one can
choose which kinds of fear dominate one’s life.
Fear is all
around us. Unfortunately, most of it is stupid: the fear of parents who worry
that their child may not be eternally exceptional (and blackmail teachers to
make it so); the fear of young professionals who fret whether we’ll leave the right
kind of mark; the fear that those from different social and national strata
will somehow invade our lives for the worse. We are gripped by useless fear.
And what I can
tell you is that, when in the clutch of dumb fear, getting hit in the face is a
wonderfully clarifying experience; being tossed off a wave
prioritizes life beautifully.
Within Torah
communities, people talk about yirah – fear – quite positively. To have yirat
shamyim (fear of heaven) is a virtue. Most moderns view the idea with
distaste: what kind of God would want to be feared?
But I think we
miss the point. To say someone has yirah means that she has chosen what
to fear: not the boss, nor the opinion of neighbors, nor the kids’ academic
future. Yirah is fear of two things: what account she will give to the
Creator, and whether the Master of the World will bring life-threatening danger
in her lifetime.
No one asks for
a hurricane, but there is something set free in the soul when communities make
sure that people have food, clothing, power, safety, and medical care: real
things. God bless those who are afraid for their neighbors’ in Sandy’s
aftermath.
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