Tuesday, May 6, 2003

The opening text will come from a book by Abraham Joshua Heschel (God in Search of Man - A Philosophy of Judaism). As you are able to see by the title, the language may be a bit dated and therefore, I will, when able, make the language inclusive.



Awe precedes faith; it is at the root of faith. We must grow in awe in order to reach faith. WE must be guided by awe to be worthy of faith. Awe rather than faith is the cardinal attitude of the religious Jew. It is “the beginning and the gateway of faith, the first precept of all, and upon it the whole world is established,” In Judaism, yirat hashem, the awe of God, or yirat shamayim, the “awe of heaven,” is almost equivalent to the word “religion.” In Biblical language the religious (person) is not called “believer,” as s/he is for example in Islam (mu’min), but yare hashem.

There is thus only one way to wisdom: awe. Forfeit your sense of awe, let your conceit diminish your ability to revere, and the universe becomes a market place for you. The loss of awe is the great block to insight.



Awe lifts up our heads to see more than our own “stuff.” It is quite like being exposed to the love of God rather than just love as we know it. Though I may love intensely and devoutly, it is nothing as can be compared to the love of God. The love of God is beyond all that can be imagined. It takes our breath away and gives us breath for life. God’s love is unconditional and that may be what is so “awesome” about it. We cannot come close to extending that kind of love to others...to all others. Filled with such awe, we are drawn into faith….we begin to trust…we place our hope beyond the place in which we presently stand. Awe draws us and as we are moved, we find that God’s love is even more awe inspiring than what we had imagined.



Connection: In trusting in our God, why stop with that which is merely comfortable for us. There is so much more promise and life that God lays out before us…we may find that today is the beginning of something we never would have considered…go for it. Trust that God is truly worthy of our faith.



Keep our eyes open to the great works of your hands as you fashion our lives before us, O God. Stretch our imaginations and encourage us to trust in you alone. Amen.