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Rav P. S. Berg, in The Essential Zohar, reminds us this too is true:
Fear of losing the keys to heaven is no better than fear of losing the keys to the new Mercedes.
Berg observes the Jewish masterpiece, The Zohar, refers to authentic and inauthentic religious fear. There are, according to The Zohar, three ways to fear the Eternal One:
1) Fear due to the prospect of God causing us temporal loss.
2) Fear due to the possibility of God eternally punishing us.
3) Fear due to the greatness and governance of God.
According to Kabbalistic-Jewish teaching, receiving from the One and losing due to the One balance each other in our spiritual evolution. Love of the Spirit remains the same whether we see our present situation as a time of blessing or un-blessing. If we believe we are gaining something precious due to the Divine Will, we love God. If we think we are losing something precious due to the Divine Will, we love God.
The Zohar, then, like all monotheistic religion, links fear of God and love of God. This fear is the third of the three; we feel this as the awe of, reverence for God. The love is more beautiful for the fear; the fear is more beautiful for the love.
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This loving-fear, for fearful-love, expands over time. It grows with one becoming more intimate with the Holy.
The absolute Otherness of the Sacred can leave us speechless. We may feel we are at the precipice of something terrible, so contrasting with our general awareness; we turn back, anxious this would mean the loss of self in the Abyss of Immensity. So, a sudden retreat to safe ground occurs. This flight may appear so quickly that we do not make the decision; it is a reflex. The "i" returns to its safe harbor, anchoring to itself.
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This religious fear has diverse aspects. I use the word "awe" most frequently for this fear, yet it too has varied shades of meaning. Mirriam-Webster defines "awe" as "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime." I have sensed this on a mountain where I felt the attraction to approach the drop-off and the pull away. Like this, attraction and distraction can be at mutual-play in our relationship with the Holy, even as it can be when we feel much loved by someone.
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