Commentary for Shabbat 62:1

יראת שמים דומה לגזבר שמסרו לו מפתחות הפנימיות ומפתחות החיצונות לא מסרו לו בהי עייל מכריז רבי ינאי חבל על דלית ליה דרתא ותרעא לדרתא עביד אמר רב יהודה לא ברא הקב"ה את עולמו אלא כדי שייראו מלפניו שנאמר (קהלת ג, יד) והאלהים עשה שייראו מלפניו

the fear of Heaven is like a treasurer who is entrusted with the inner keys but not with the outer: how is he to enter? R. Jannai proclaimed: Woe to him who has no courtyard yet makes a gate for same!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Learning is a gate whereby one enters the court of piety. Woe to him who prepares the entry without the court itself! ');">¹</span> Rab Judah said, The Holy One, blessed be He, created His world only that men should fear Him,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' By 'fear' not dread but awe and reverence is to be understood, proceeding out of man's realization of God's essential perfection. This reverence, and the attempt to attain something of that perfection which it inculcates, is man's highest aim in life, and that is probably the meaning of this dictum; cf. Maim. (Guide, III, 52. ');">²</span> for it is said, and God hath done it, that men should fear before Him.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Eccl. III, 14. ');">³</span>

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