Daily Tanya Shabbos 28th Nissan Chapter 42 Part 5: Seeing G-d in the world around you instills fear

28th Nissan/(LY) 24th Nissan

10. Seeing G-d in the world around you instills fear:

• A person should contemplate the following additional message in order to help him arouse fear of G-d.
• Fear of a king is of his spiritual presence and not of his body: The main fear of a king is from his soul and spiritual presence and not from his physical body, as can be seen from the fact that if he were to be sleeping one would not have any fear of him at all. Now, the soul and spiritual presence of the individual cannot be seen with physical eyes and can only be recognized with the eyes of the intellect, through a person using his physical eyes to see the body and his garments and hence recognizing that the king’s soul is invested within them.
• Fearing G-d even though one cannot see Him: The same exactly applies regarding the fear of G-d. A person should bring himself to have fear of Hashem through using his physical eyes to see the heavens and the earth and all of their legions, in which the infinite light of G-d is invested within them in order to enliven them. [Thus, one should fear G-d due to the existence of Hashem’s spirit, which is found in all creations to enliven them, and the heavens and legions above, as can readily be seen.]
• The fear of a person is not affected by the amount of garments he wears: Although one can argue that Hashem is hiding within many garments of the physical creations, nonetheless, in truth there is no difference in the natural fear one has towards a king of flesh and blood, whether the king is without garments at all, or wearing a single garment, or wearing many garments, as the main factor which inspires the fear is the presence of the king.
• Customizing oneself to contemplating G-d’s presence to instill fear: The most important ingredient necessary in order to bring oneself to fear G-d through the above contemplation is for one to accustom his thought and intellect to constantly set upon his heart and mind that everything which he sees with his eyes in heaven and earth, and all that inhabit it, are all the external garments of Hashem, and through doing so one will remember always their inner vitality, which comes from G-d.
• The Mitzvah of Emuna: The above said exercise is included in the term [and Mitzvah] of Emuna, which also means to train oneself [in the above perception of creation] similar to a craftsman who trains his hands in handiwork.

11. Gloss-Seeing the heavenly legions bow to G-d instills fear in the heart:

• We readily witness that the sun travels and sets towards the west on a daily basis, hence signifying its bowing, and nullification, to the Shechinah which is in the west.
• Now, even one who has never seen a king and does not recognize him at all, nevertheless when he enters the courtyard of the king and sees many aristocrats and ministers bowing to this one person, he will naturally be overtaken by fear and trepidation. [Accordingly, the same applies regarding fear of G-d, that witnessing the sun go down towards the direction of G-d should instill fear in one’s heart just as one would naturally fear an individual whom everyone is bowing down to.]

(LY) 25th Nissan

12. Constant acceptance of the yoke of heaven:

• Placing a king upon yourself: In addition to the constant need to contemplate G-d’s presence in order to instill fear in one’s heart, one should also constantly remember the command of the sages for a person to accept the yoke of Heaven, which is similar in idea to accepting a king over oneself, as explained elsewhere [in chapter 41].
• G-d chose to become our king and requires our acceptance of Him: Hashem chose to forgo the higher and lower worlds and bestow His kingship specifically on our world, and we therefore in turn must accept the heavenly yoke.
• The acceptance of the yoke of heaven in prayer: It is due to the above reason that we verbally accept the yoke of Heaven in Shema, and then go ahead to accept the yoke of heaven in actual deed through bowing in the course of the prayer of the Amidah.