Yiras Hashem and Why Fear is Important - Rabbi Steven Burg

when cola turaculo asked me to speak about yours hashem to be honest i was actually concerned it's been something that i personally have struggled with my whole life i think a lot of people have for me hashem has always been a lot easier to think of hashem as my father someone i love so so much years hashem has always sounded a little scary and then many years ago someone told me that instead of defining year as fear we could define it as awe and i thought that that made so much sense to me to be in all of hashem to be awe inspired and i'll tell you there was a story i heard that really put in perspective and really really helped me on my journey to understand years hashem and that was many many years ago this is off in europe there was a shul and it was late it was after dobbing and someone came in and asked if they could borrow someone's tolerance villain and the person said yeah of course here it is see one you put the thousands filling on he went to the window and he started staring out the window the guy said i want my toss and fall into this guy so he could stare out and you know not darwin and he's just staring and staring and staring out the window and then finally after a very long time he died very quickly and then took the toss and filling off and uh the guy was so taken aback he's like are you like a space cadet you're staring out into the nothingness and now you diving really quickly and i gave my thousand feeling for that and this is my holy parents house and feeling and he couldn't help himself he had to ask the man he said you know what's going on and the man said i'll be honest with you it's not so simple for me to to get in the right frame of mind to dave and hashem so i went outside and i started thinking how could i connect to the almighty and i saw these soldiers that were marching they were marching back and forth they were doing all these preparations for their czar and i saw that and i just concentrate and i focus i said look for a mortal man look at the way they're marching up and down look how they're following his orders look how they're following him he said that's the way i need to approach the almighty i have to be in awe of the almighty i have to think of the almighty as my general as a person who is giving me these orders right they don't even know they're listening to a king a czar an emperor general right maybe the guy's right maybe the guy is not right he's flesh and blood he can make mistakes hashem doesn't make mistakes hashem gives us everything and he said as he picked up the talos he realized it was filled with tears and i find for myself talking about your sachem it's so much about understanding who hashem is and how much he cares about us and and how he created this world and this world is there for us and he gives us orders and the way that i always find your hashem is to think of it like a soldier i'm a soldier in hashem's army hashem i may not understand everything in fact i probably don't understand a whole lot but i do understand you're my father i understand you're the master of the world i understand you're my creator and therefore i want to fulfill your will and therefore i do it with love because i love you but also out of here out of all of you out of understanding that you know so much more that you care about me more than anyone could care about me in the world you love me more than anyone could love me in the world that is i believe the pathway to era the pathway of a soldier in hashem's army [Music]