On Awe

Readers of this blog who find it obscure and difficult should turn to the Zohar, the Sefer ha-Zohar, to give it its full name, The Book of Radiance, one of the great books of the Kabbalah. Now there is something really difficult. Thanks to my wife’s thoughtful generosity, I have one volume of this work masterfully translated by Daniel C. Matt, himself a Master, indeed the foremost master in our language on these wonders. Here is a sampling—in which I omit at least as much text in annotations and commentaries as I produce for view—and in this strange world commentaries, and commentaries on commentaries, and so on, layered ad infinitum, are very much part of the tradition:

     Rabbi Shim’on opened with the commandments of Torah, saying, “The commandments of Torah given by the Blessed Holy One to Israel are all written in Torah in general terms.
     “In the beginning God created (Genesis 1:1). This is the first commandment of all, called awe of YHVH, which is called beginning, as is written: The beginning of wisdom is awe of YHVH (Psalms 111:10), Awe of YHVH is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). For this entity is named beginning; it is the gate through which one enters faith. The entire world is based upon this commandment.
     “Awe branches in three directions, two of which are not fittingly rooted, one of which is essence of awe. There is the person who fears the blessed Holy One so that his children may live and not die, or who fears physical or material punishment. Because of this he fears Him constantly, but his awe is not focused on the blessed Holy One.
     “Then there is the person who fears the blessed Holy One because he is afraid of punishment of the other world and the punishment of Hell. Neither of these is the essential root of awe.
     “The essence of awe is that a person be in awe of his Lord because He is immense and sovereign—essence and root of all worlds—before whom everything is considered as nothing, as is said: All the inhabitants of the earth are considered as nothing (Daniel 4:32). One should direct his desire to the site called Awe.”

The “site called Awe,” Daniel C. Matte’s footnote tells us, is Shekinah, the focus of genuine devotion, the tenth Sephirah or emanation of the Kabbalah, a feminine word meaning the Divine Presence, alternatively rendered as the masculine Malkut, The Kingdom.