355. Fear (2)

There is a type of fear which is good for a person as it says “Fortunate is a man who is always afraid!”, and Chazal say that this verse is referring to Torah that a person should always worry about the Torah and the commandments that maybe he did not fulfil them in the correct manner. He should be scared that maybe his actions are not acceptable before the Great King, according to the level of actions which he is obligated to do with his abilities and nature. By doing this he will slowly and surely advance spiritually-one level at a time. It is a terrible thing which is to be found amongst many people in the world that they are happy with their level in spirituality and give thanks for their portion and say that they deserve praise because they are Torah-true Jews and that they have not committed any cardinal sins. Because of this these people do not even try to advance in their spiritual levels and do not feel bad about the bad things that they have done for it appears to them that their actions are pure and correct.

In the time of the Rambam there was a story when a certain great man refused to say the Vidui (confession of sins) on Yom Kippur because he knew that he had not committed any sins and he argued that he should not speak falsely before Hashem whose signature is truth and the Rambam said to him “If you would only know how stringent the service of Hashem is, and how much we are obligated to serve Him, you would know with certainty that there is no day which passes when you do not commit all of the sins mentioned in the Vidui and many others! Every person is judged according to the level of his personal wisdom… and even for the argument that you made you will be punished!”.