399. Recital of the Shema (2)

The law is fixed in the Shulchan Aruch that a person must recite the Shema with awe, fear, trembling and sweat. The only way to achieve this aim is by imagining to himself that he is standing before a lofty, uplifted, awesome and fearsome King, before the mighty King who is the Holy One (Blessed be He), and is saying to him “And you shall love Hashem etc.” until the end of the Shema and with this his heart will be filled with the love of Hashem when he thinks “What are we and what are our lives? Man is compared to nothing and our Creator chose us! Is there a greater and loftier kindness than this in the entire world?”.