It had been my intention to translate the term yir’at Hashem as "awe of God," a description that fits Rambam’s presentation in the Mishneh Torah. There, Rambam groups awe with love, seeing both as stemming from a proper examination of the created universe. One reaction such an examination produces is love or, more accurately, a deep desire to know the Creator of that universe. The joint, reaction is to recognize our lowliness as compared to Him, both in terms of our defects (which should make us ashamed in His presence), as well as our lack of any meaningful power as compared to real Power.

Following that view for just a moment more, we can note that Rambam spends three chapters of the Laws of the Foundations of the Torah giving a thumbnail sketch of the universe as he understood it. Chapter 2 describes the world of the angels which he pictures as real beings, although (like God) completely nonphysical; they differ only in their level of

knowledge of God.

Rambam views this subject-matter, the understanding of the world of the angels, as what the Rabbis meant when they spoke of ma`aseh merkavah, the Working o fthe Chariot. The term most simply comes from the first prophecy of Yehezkel, where the prophet has a vision of a chariot that supports God, with various figures and parts to that chariot. In the gemara’s view, that vision represents some kind of deeply esoteric knowledge about the structure of God’s relationship to the universe, including the ministering angels and their role. Rambam, although speaking in very different terminology, assumes that his brief investigation strikes to the same issue (see also the early chapters of the 3^rd part of the Moreh Nevukhim for an in-depth analysis of that prophecy in Yehezkel and what it means).

As he notes at the end of chapter 2, the gemara ruled that such matters should only be discussed on a one-on-one basis, and only with someone who has already proven himself capable of understanding these issues on his own, with a brief indication of a deeper truth sufficing to lead him to the next stage of comprehension. Since I don’t possess such knowledge, we are in no danger of violating the Rabbinic ordinance. What is important for us here is not to actually delve into the nature of God’s relationship to the world, but to remember that thinking about that subject, being alert to the possibility of developoing greater insightinto the relationship between God and this world— at the very least through the intermediacy of the angels— is an important element in fostering our yir’at shamayim.

Another fuel to ahahavah and yir’ah, which Rambam delves into in somewhat greater detail, is ma`aseh Bereshit, which the gemara refers to in the context o fma`aseh merkavah. Ma`aseh Bereshit would most literally refer to the sections of Genesis that describe the Creation of the World, and again the gemara does not want these subjects to be taught freely to the general public. Rambam, again adapting the Rabbinic notion, assumes that the study of the physical structure of the universe qualifies as ma`aseh Bereshit as well (for Rambam, that meant Aristotelian physics; fo r us, it might mean quantum physics, cosmology, astronomy, and so on). He devotes one chapter to the Heavenly spheres, which in Aristotelian physics were inherently different than the rest of the physical universe, and the other to the sublunar world, where ordinary physics applies.

All of this accurately, if briefly, represents the Mishneh Torah’s comments on yir’ah. In the Sefer haMitsvot, however, Rambam stresses yir’ah as fear. He says that the obligation is to believe in Him, and to fear Him, so that we not be like those heretics who do as they please be-keri. Be-Keri is an interesting choice of words, since Rambam, in the beginning of Hilkhot Ta`anit, sees those who witness tragedies befalling them and ascribe it to happenstance as walking with God be-keri (the notion that walking with God be-keri will bring punishment upon us comes from the tokhakha at the end of Vayikra). Using the word here would seem to indicate that an essential part of yir’ah for Rambam is the awareness that God punishes, and allowing that awareness to play a deep role in our observance o fthe commandments. In that view— and other commentators share it—yir’ah is fundamentally a protective religious stance, making sure that we obey the commandments and do not sin. It is ahavah, however, that leads us to scale greater religious heights in our continuing attempt to get to know God.

Yet Rambam has one more definition of worship mi-yir’ah, service out of fear, or awe. In the end of the Laws of Repentance, he says that someone who fulfills all the commandments in order to achieve some goal— whether that be a mundane goal, like the monetary wealth the Torah promises, or a sublime one, such as achieving a great share of the World to Come—is only serving mi-yir’ah. Ahavah in that presentation consists of those who fulfill God’s commands simply because they must reflect the truth of the universe, that this is in some sense the way the world is meant to run, as we can tell by God’s having instituted these commandments.

This version connects ahavah and yir’ah to the notion of lishmah (for its own sake) and she-lo lishmah (with some level of improper motivation). Rambam’s view of the sole proper motivation is certainly not the only one in Jewish literature— many sources, for example, are perfectly happy with people who serve God in order to get a good share of the World to Come— but it does round out our picture of the sense in which he views the notion and mitsvah, of yir’at Hsshem.