"May it be [God's] will that the fear of heaven shall be upon you like the fear of flesh and blood."
On his deathbed, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai is visited by his students and begins to cry, explaining that if he were only going to see a human king then he would certainly cry - but he is in fact goign to stand before the King of Kings whose judgements last forever.
But when asked for a blessing, he offers the above blessing, that the fear of heaven should be to his students like the fear of human beings.
So which is primary? Fear of God or fear of mortals? In this story, Rabbi Yochanan seems to switch between the two.
It seems that perhaps we are seeing two perspectives, one when close to death, and one as a way to live one's life. Rabbi Yochanan is on his deathbed, and so from his perspective it's the intangible, wrath of the divine that he most fears.
But for his students, he offers them a more tangible basis for their faith and for their future good behaviour, to be at least as afraid of God as you are of human beings. For earthly life, earthly fear is the proper foundation on which to build ethical action.
I had to read this exchange a few times -- I expected the blessing of R' Yokhanan ben Zakkai to be the other way around. Shouldn't we be advised to fear people the way we fear God? After all, the fear of God, whose judgements are everlasting, motivates us to consider the power of our actions. I'd be interested to see if any manuscripts have it the other way around...
ReplyDeleteI think that this is exactly the point of the blessing, and why his students are so taken aback by it. Rabbi Yochanan knows that the majority of people are more tangibly afraid of people than God, which is why they check to make sure no one can see them before committing a sin (even though God can always see them).
DeleteIf it was the other way around, the story wouldn't make as much sense or be nearly as powerful as it is.