אשר קרך בדרך... ולא ירא אלקים
Once upon a time I was in Meah Shearim sitting in the waiting room of an askan from the Chareidi community. There so happened to be a young irreligious couple also sitting in the waiting room. The female of the species was wearing a short sleeve top and pants and her head wasn’t covered. Coincidentally, so was the male.
There was a little bit of small talk and the woman said to me (in Hebrew), “You probably think by the way we look that we are not maaminim (believers). This isn’t true. We are maaminim just like you.”
I responded to her as follows: “You seem to think that ‘belief’ is a monolithic phenomenon with a single definition where a person is either a ‘believer’ or not and all ‘believers’ can be put on one shelf. You are sorely mistaken. Our belief system is comprised of 13 articles of faith which are not all or nothing. There are several parts such as – there is a G-d, there is no other god, this G-d created the world, He dictated the Torah and gave it to us through His prophets, He knows all of what we do, He gave us laws to follow and He will reward those who follow His laws and punish those who violate them.
“It is possible for one to believe in some of them but not in others. I happen to believe in all of them. By virtue of your demeanor, it is hard for me to believe that you also believe in all of them. As long as this is the case, even though you may truly be a ‘believer’, I do not think you can claim to be a believer ‘just like me’.”
We have two primary terms to address G-d. One is the holy four-letter Name – YKVK or “Hashem”. The other would be Elokim or Elokeinu. We know that each of these terms has a distinct meaning and we consistently analyze when the Torah (or Tanach) chooses to use term A or chooses term B or both. Why this term and not the other? The basic distinction is that the four-letter Name indicates midas harachamim, mercy, our Father in Heaven, and the term Elokim (G-d or our G-d) indicates midas hadin, judgement, our King.
We have also heard terms like Yiras Hashem and Yarei Elokim but we don’t always scrutinize so much why one term is the appropriate one and not the other. So what do they each mean?
Let’s take another look at the 13 principles of faith and briefly review the entire list:
1. G-d created all
that exists
2. G-d is unique,
always existed and always will exist
3. G-d has no physical
appearance
4. G-d predates all
and outdates all
5. It is only
possible to pray to this G-d
6. All words of His
prophets are true
7. Moshe was the
father of all prophets and his prophesy is true
8. The Torah that we
have was given to us through Moshe
9. There is not and
will not be any other Torah
10.
G-d is aware of everything we do and think about
11.
G-d rewards those who follow his commandments and
punishes those who violate them
12.
The Moshiach will come
13.
The dead will be resurrected
We can divide these principles into two groups:
Category 1 – YKVK
Principles 1-4 define the essence of HKBH, primarily that He is unique and eternal. Haya, Hova, v’Yihiya – always was, is, and always will be. This is exactly what the term comprised of the four-letter Name – YKVK – means.
But this has nothing to do directly with us Jews.
Principles 5 and 6 are also attributes of G-d and are not necessarily specifically aimed at us Jews. They apply to any Human being. So, these two are somewhat in-between and I would put them in the first category.
Category 2 – Elokim
Principles 7-13 deal specifically with how G-d relates to us as His nation. That He speaks to us through His prophets and, in a much more limited way, through our sages. That he knows what we do and think. That he will reward and punish us and send us the Moshiach and revive our dead.
In short – He is our Lord and Master and King and Judge. He is Elokim.
To summarize: 1 through 6 – YKVK (Hashem). 7 through 13 – Elokim (or Elokeinu).
It is not too difficult for any Human being to believe in the YKVK category of principles 1-6. For one thing, I think it is easier to believe in a Creator than in evolution and that this world created itself. For another thing, principles 1-6 do not impose any obligations or restrictiona on anyone. There is no price to pay to believe in 1-6. As long as we stop here, anybody can believe that there is a disconnected G-d. You don’t have to be Jewish.
Even Amalek can believe that a G-d exists. This does not negate their belief in “keri” – happenstance. There are no rules. Even Amalek can have some Yiras Hashem – a fear of “Nature”, a fear of the forces of the world. This does not cost them anything.
Everything changes in the “Elokim” category. These principles tell us that G-d is not disconnected. He sees all and knows all and has rules and obligations for us to live by. This imposes upon our personal freedom.
And, of these 7 principles, the two primary ones are principles 10 and 11. Number 10 says that G-d knows all that we do and what we think about – i.e., why we do it. Number 11 says that G-d rewards those who follow his mitzvos and punishes those who violate them. In other words, there is Heavenly retribution!
Obviously, anyone who understands these two principles and truly believes in them takes them very seriously and will do his or her best to observe the mitzvos. They want to be rewarded. They don’t want to be punished. They greatly fear Heavenly retribution.
They are Yarei Elokim!
Conversely, one who does not observe mitzvos quite obviously does not really believe in Heavenly retribution. It doesn’t matter how Jewish he or she is. Certainly, they are good moral people and won’t kill, steal, or rape or even cheat on their spouses…if all this serves their interests. But their “goodness” is there because “society” imposes a penalty on criminal behavior. Or, their consciences will not give them peace. But it is not because they fear Heavenly retribution.
There is no Yiras Elokim.
No Yiras Elokim does not mean there are no rules. It means there are no rules attributable to G-d. The rules are my rules. I decide which rules to live by and I decide when the rules must be kept and when they can be broken. I have rules but I have no boundaries.
This is Amalek. ולא ירא אלוקיםThey have no fear of punishment. They don’t believe in it. And so, they have no boundaries.
When there is no Yiras Elokim, the rules can change at whim. There are no boundaries.
And so, Avraham Avinu explains to Avimelech: כי אמרתי רק אין יראת אלקים במקום הזה והרגוני על דבר אשתי.
“I told myself, for there is no fear of retribution in this place, and they will kill me for my wife…”
Avimelech’s kingdom certainly had laws and rules and punishments. But they were man-made laws. One could always make “exceptions”. Especially people in high places. In high places, the rules change. There may be plenty of contribution but not much retribution. And if there is no fear of retribution anything can happen.
There is no Yiras Elokim. There are no boundaries.
This is the essence of Amalek – ולא ירא אלקים. It is the essence of the Eirev Rav. And, sadly, it affects many Jews who are רפו ידיהם מן התורה. Rafu yedeihem min haTorah means that they stopped believing in principles 6-9. The prophets don’t “speak to me”. There is no “word of G-d”. The Torah doesn’t “speak to me”. I have no Torah to follow. And, if so, there is no reward for keeping it nor punishment for violating it.
There is no Heavenly retribution. And there are no boundaries.
When a Jewish person who was brought up Orthodox and educated Orthodox and was taught Torah and mitzvos stops observing Torah and mitzvos for whatever reason, he or she is saying that they don’t believe in principles 10 and 11. They won’t be rewarded and they certainly won’t be punished. Most likely, they do not believe in principles 6-9, either. They can claim that they believe in G-d and even in “justice”, but it is their definition of justice, not G-d’s. They may be “good” people with social morals, but they are not Yarei Elokim and they have no boundaries.
And there are even Jews who can be called “Orthodox”. They keep Shabbos because they believe in principles 1-4 that G-d created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. But they have no Ameilus b’Torah so they cannot hear the word of G-d (Vayikra 26:14). They may even believe in principles 5-8. But somehow things change in principle 9 – there will be no other Torah. Suddenly, the Torah becomes flexible.
When G-d says a man should not lie with another man, He doesn’t really mean it. When He says Jews should not be imprisoned, He doesn’t really mean it. When he says, Jews cannot be sent out of the Land of Israel, He doesn’t really mean it. When he says that Jews are not to be handed over to non-Jews for punishment, He doesn’t really mean it. When He says not to shame people in public for things they have done in the past but are no longer doing, He doesn’t really mean it. When He says to love Him and do His mitzvos even when He takes your life or your money or gives you a rough time in life, He doesn’t really mean it.
This is because we have to be “just” and “moral” people and, regardless of what G-d says, this isn’t my idea of justice and morality. So I can embrace homosexual behavior (not just tolerate it) and I can denounce Jews to non-Jewish police for past sins (not just for current ones) and I can see to it that they are extradited and imprisoned and shamed and destroy their families and prevent them from repairing their lives because this is “justice”.
There is another “Torah”. So we can no longer believe in principles 10 and 11. There will be no Heavenly retribution for this. There is no need to fear Elokim. There are no longer any boundaries.
Yiras Elokim is in short supply these days. Amalek is with us.
וקוץ ודרדר תצמיח לך... מלחמה לה' בעמלק מדר דר!
ליהודים היתה אורה ושמחה וששון ויקר
פורים שמח
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