Fear & Faith - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

if there's one thing that The Exodus and the Journey Into the Wilderness teaches us it's that Hashem loves us right more than we can imagine more than we can understand because our love in this world however unconditional we may think it is there's some conditions on it hashem's love for us us is beyond anything we can possibly fathom and he wants a relationship with us and what's his love language right belief and Faith right the internalization of that belief into our hearts that's hashem's love language at least one of them if not the primary one even if it doesn't make any sense in our heads right Martin Luther King Jr who was a he was a Bible man well he described Faith like this he said faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase right and so looking back at my question about whether it was a blemish on my faith to get the bars on my home and the plastic windows on my car I think I think you know in light of what we've been talking about that the answer is no for the bars on the home and yes for the plastic windows on the car what do I mean why do I say that well you know I remember when I got those bars I remember you know I wasn't all wound up about it I wasn't scared and I wasn't anxious it just seemed like the right thing to do to take the this worldly measure that I needed to take to protect my family so I did it it really wasn't from a place of of fear it was more just caution it was just trying to do what I felt was the right thing that Hashem wanted me to do it felt like a soldier going into battle and taking his sword and his shield right it was a shield from my home but uh but my heart didn't waver in my faith for Hashem that that Hashem is the ultimate protector King David took more than one stone to battle against Goliath was that a blemish in his faith no he was just doing what he felt like you needed to do and that I think was reflected in the serenity in my heart when I made that decision but I do think that the plastic windows were a blemish in my faith I'm not beating myself up I'm really not I'm a human being that's okay again you know I think it was a blemish not because of the action itself but because of the emotion of fear that I feel like has been driving that decision you know Asha wants this relationship to show with us he wants us to love him and to fear Him and when we allow fear of man to enter our hearts it comes at the expense of our fear of Hashem you know of our relationship with Hashem however you look at it right fear of man on some level is a form of of idolatry you know the Great Sage known as the Noam Eleazar he explains the verse The Midwives feared Hashem right what happened they were ordered to to execute the children and and they refused they had they feared Hashem they had only one Fear The Midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh knew that they could have one fear in their hearts at a time and hence they increased their fear of Hashem so they wouldn't have fear of of Taro you know we spoke about the Holiness and the faith of the women right as they danced with the timbrals that they had prepared ahead of time but the men well they didn't have those reserves of Faith right that just burst forth from their hearts like the women did because the men did sing the Shira they sang but they I think they couldn't quite let themselves dance perhaps they were afraid to let themselves actually believe it was true that they were really free they didn't have the courage or perhaps the faith to really let themselves go there right like the women did so they sang but they didn't dance and then we see only a few weeks down the road we see the Despicable episode of the golden calf it's such a so sad and it was so tragic when we see that it was the men who danced and the women who didn't right and the bells ready explains that the women didn't dance at the golden calf because they did dance at the sea and the men did dance at the golden calf because they didn't dance at the seat he explains this you know he explains us the case because if you were able to be truly happy let yourself really believe and love Hashem and be truly happy praising and serving Hashem then you won't have to seek happiness and joy in other places in Forbidden places you won't need to