Fear Through Shabbos Joy

בפסוק למען תלמד ליראה את ה'

On the verse, "so that you will learn to fear Hashem" (Devarim 14:23).

The Sfas Emes opens with the pasuk in Re'eh stating that the purpose of the mitzvah of maaser is to learn to fear Hashem.

כבר כתבתי בשם <b>מו"ז ז"ל</b> כי כמו כן מסעודת שבת בא יראת ה' כו'

I have already written in the name of my grandfather, of blessed memory, that in the very same way, the fear of Hashem comes from the Shabbos meal, and so forth.

He cites a teaching of his grandfather that the very fear of Hashem can be drawn specifically from the Shabbos meal.

והענין הוא דפעם א' כתיב עבדו את ה' בשמחה ופ"א כתיב עבדו את ה' ביראה ובזוה"ק כאן כד ישראל שראן בארעא דישראל כו'

The matter is this: in one place it is written, "Serve Hashem with joy" (Tehillim 100:2), and in another place it is written, "Serve Hashem with fear" (Tehillim 2:11); and the Zohar HaKadosh comments here, "When Bnei Yisrael dwell in the Land of Israel," and so forth.

He raises a tension: one pasuk demands serving Hashem with joy and another demands serving with fear, and the Zohar ties this to whether Bnei Yisrael are dwelling in Eretz Yisrael.

דכתי' כמה פעמים ושמחתם לפני ה' אלקיכם דאיתא שמחתי מתוך יראתי ויראתי מתוך שמחתי

For it is written several times, "And you shall rejoice before Hashem your God" (e.g., Vayikra 23:40), regarding which it is taught: I rejoice out of my fear, and I fear out of my joy.

He brings the principle taught by Chazal that joy and fear feed one another — each one can be the gateway to the other.

ובחוץ לארץ העיקר היראה

Outside the Land of Israel, the essential avodah is fear.

Outside Eretz Yisrael, the primary mode of avodah is fear.

ומכח היראה זוכין לשמחה

And through the power of that fear one merits to come to joy.

From that starting point of fear, a person is then able to rise to joy.

ובא"י העיקר השמחה

But in the Land of Israel, the essential avodah is joy.

Inside Eretz Yisrael, by contrast, the primary mode is joy.

ומתוך השמחה זוכין ליראה

And out of that joy one merits to come to fear.

And from that starting point of joy, a person rises to fear.

וכן הוא בימי המעשה שמחתי מתוך יראתי ובש"ק שנק' יום שמחה כמ"ש ז"ל וביום שמחתכם אלו השבתות אז יראתי מתוך שמחתי

So too it is during the weekdays: I rejoice out of my fear; whereas on the holy Shabbos, which is called a day of joy, as Chazal expounded on "and on your days of rejoicing" (Bamidbar 10:10) that these are the Shabbosos, then I fear out of my joy.

The same pattern maps onto time: during the weekdays one reaches joy by way of fear, while Shabbos is itself a day of joy, so on Shabbos one reaches fear by way of joy.

ובאמת עיקר השמחה בהתגלות כח הנשמה

In truth, the essence of joy lies in the revelation of the power of the neshamah.

He explains that the true root of all joy is the shining forth of the neshamah.

ובש"ק דיש נשמה יתירה יומא דנשמתין הוא השמחה כמ"ש שמחתני כו' בפעלך במעשי ידיך ארנן זהו הנשמות מעשה ידיו של הקב"ה כמ"ש ונשמות אני עשיתי

And on the holy Shabbos, when there is an additional neshamah, it is the day of neshamos, and therein lies the joy, as it is written, "For You have gladdened me, Hashem, with Your work; at the deeds of Your hands I sing out" (Tehillim 92:5) — this refers to the neshamos, which are the handiwork of the Holy One, Blessed is He, as it is written, "and the neshamos which I have made" (Yeshayahu 57:16).

Since Shabbos brings the extra neshamah, it is a "day of neshamos," and that is why it is a day of joy, for the neshamah is itself Hashem's own handiwork.

וכמו כן בא"י ובמקדש זכו להארת הנשמה כמ"ש נותן נשמה לעם עלי'

And in the same way, in the Land of Israel and in the Beis HaMikdash, they merited the illumination of the neshamah, as it is written, "He gives a neshamah to the people upon it" (Yeshayahu 42:5).

Likewise Eretz Yisrael and the Beis HaMikdash are places where the light of the neshamah is revealed.

עבודת השמחה מצד הנשמה ומצד הגוף היראה

The avodah of joy comes from the side of the neshamah, and from the side of the body comes fear.

He draws the line clearly: joy is the avodah of the neshamah, while fear is the avodah belonging to the body.

וזה יגיעת בשר להכניע הגוף שלא לבא לידי חטא כמ"ש בשר שלא נתייגע ביראה כו'

And this is the meaning of "the wearying of the flesh" — to subdue the body so that it not come to sin, as it is written: flesh that has not wearied itself in fear, and so forth.

The "wearying of the flesh" means laboring to subdue the body through fear so it does not fall into sin.

ובהכנעת הגוף זוכין להארת הנשמה גם בימי המעשה

And through the subduing of the body one merits the illumination of the neshamah even during the weekdays.

Once the body is subdued through that labor of fear, the neshamah's light can shine even on ordinary weekdays.

ובשבת ומקדש שזוכין אל היראה מתוך השמחה הוא יראה גדולה מזו בחי' יראת הרוממות

But on Shabbos and in the Beis HaMikdash, where one merits the fear that comes out of the joy, it is a far greater fear than this — it is on the level of yiras haromemus, the fear born of Hashem's exaltedness.

But the fear reached on Shabbos and in the Mikdash, which flows out of joy, is a higher and loftier fear — yiras haromemus, awe at Hashem's grandeur.

וע"ז כת' למען תלמד ליראה כו':

And concerning this it is written, "so that you will learn to fear," and so forth.

This loftier fear is precisely what the pasuk points to when it says the purpose is "to learn to fear" Hashem.

Summary: The Sfas Emes resolves the tension between the pesukim that command serving Hashem with joy and serving Hashem with fear by showing that the two are intertwined, each leading to the other. Outside Eretz Yisrael and during the weekdays, the avodah begins with fear and rises to joy; within Eretz Yisrael, the Beis HaMikdash, and on Shabbos, it begins with joy and rises to fear. The deeper principle is that joy is the avodah of the neshamah, while fear belongs to the body — and the labor of subduing the body through fear allows the light of the neshamah to shine even on ordinary days. Because Shabbos, Eretz Yisrael, and the Mikdash are places and times where the neshamah is revealed, the fear attained there flows out of joy and is therefore a far loftier fear, namely yiras haromemus, awe at Hashem's exaltedness. This, says the Sfas Emes, is what the pasuk in Re'eh means when it teaches that the mitzvah comes "so that you will learn to fear Hashem."