So far in chapter 41 we have learned how central yiras Shamayim is to avodas Hashem: it is «the beginning of the service, its essence and its root.» And we have learned the way to arrive at it: contemplating the things that bring a person to the conclusion that there is a King watching over him, who searches the heart and the mind and sees everything he does. We dwelt in particular on the point that before performing a mitzvah a person should reflect that the mitzvah is an expression of the Divine light, and that this reflection awakens his yiras Shamayim even further.
We also spoke about the person who, even after all this contemplation, feels no awe and no fear stirring in him. There we distinguished several stages:
If at least in his thought and in the will of his mind he wants to be aroused, then he is thinking about it and desiring it, and that itself is already a dimension of yirah. His service is called a complete service, since he has both avodah and yirah, at least in thought and will.
And if even the will does not arise in him at all, and nothing whatsoever stirs in him, here the Alter Rebbe explains in two stages:
His service is not complete, since yirah is missing, but at least it is a finished service, since two mitzvos are present here: the mitzvah of yirah and the mitzvah of avodah.
And in fact even his yirah is more or less in order, as the Alter Rebbe proves from the words of the Gemara in the name of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: a person who refrains from a sin simply because of the thought that he is being watched and he would be ashamed, even though this is not an abstention that comes from his own will (for had he known that nobody could see him he would have wanted to transgress, and only because he is being watched does he hold back) - even such a restraint from failure counts as yiras Shamayim. And therefore even this Jew possesses some measure of yiras Shamayim.
The words of the text (page 57, third line from the bottom): now the Alter Rebbe sums up the matter: «רק שיראה זו נקראת יראה תתאה ויראת חטא שקודמת לחכמתו» - «except that this yirah is called the lower fear, the fear of sin, which precedes one's wisdom.» The yirah that has been discussed from the beginning of the chapter until here is yirah tata'ah, fear on a lower level. «ויראה עילאה הוא ירא בושת כו'» - «and the higher fear is the awe of shame, etc.» There is a loftier level, called the awe of shame, «דאית יראה ואית יראה כו'» - «for there is fear and there is fear.» He does not elaborate here on the higher level of yirah; he only notes that what has been explained is yirah tata'ah, and that there is a yirah higher than it.
«אבל בלי יראה כלל לא פרחא לעילא באהבה לבדה» - «but with no fear at all, it does not soar upward with love alone.» If a person keeps Torah and mitzvos with no yiras Shamayim whatsoever, even if he has love, and he awakens no dimension of fear in his heart, then the Torah and mitzvos he performs do not rise upward. To rise, both love and fear must be there.
The analogy for this is «כמו שהעוף אינו יכול לפרוח בכנף אחד, דדחילו ורחימו הן תרין גדפין כמ״ש בתיקונים» - «just as a bird cannot fly with one wing, for fear and love are the two wings, as is written in the Tikkunim.» Love and fear are called gadfin, wings: love is one wing and fear is the second. Just as a bird cannot fly upward with only one wing, so too in avodas Hashem: if a person has only one wing, love alone without fear, the thing does not rise upward.
The Rebbe cites an expression found in the Midrash, which Tosafos quotes in one place, that sometimes a bird does fly with one wing: «it flies with one and rests with one» - one wing is laid down, and with the other alone it hovers. On the face of it this contradicts the Alter Rebbe's statement that «a bird cannot fly with one wing,» for there it is explained that it can.
The Rebbe resolves it: this bird has two wings. The very wording «flies with one and rests with one» proves that it has two; it is simply that the second wing is at rest for the moment, but it exists. A state in which it would have no wing at all is impossible. And so too in avodas Hashem: a state in which a person would have love alone with no fear at all is impossible.
And why, indeed, are both specifically needed? Love and fear are two entirely different lines, and their existence below in a person's soul stems from the fact that these levels exist in Elokus. When a person has both love and fear, he rises to what is above them both, to a level in Elokus that is higher than love and higher than fear. As long as he is confined to only one of them, he is confined to a single line; but one who is able to walk in both lines, which are not alike, rises above limitation. That is why both wings are required precisely with regard to the particular matter of soaring upward.
The other extreme: fear without love.
From here to the end of the chapter the Alter Rebbe turns to the other extreme: just as it cannot be done without fear, so it cannot be done without love. There is, however, one difference between them. When there is no fear and there is love alone, the person is not called an «oved Hashem» at all, for «oved» comes from the word eved, a servant, and a servant means yirah. But when there is fear without love, there is avodah here; it is only that a very important component is missing, and it too is not «porcha le'eila,» it does not soar upward, and yet he is an oved Hashem.
It emerges that of the two, yirah is the more dominant and decisive component in the very definition of avodas Hashem, because avodah means kabbolas ol, accepting the yoke. As we discussed in one of the earlier lessons: love is an expression of the «I,» while fear is an expression of bittul, self-nullification, and that is why yirah is so essential to the matter of being nullified. Nevertheless the second point is also required, and from here on the Alter Rebbe will speak of the need for love and of the levels within it, and along the way several fascinating matters connected to davening will be explained.
In the words of the text: «וכן היראה לבדה היא כנף אחד ולא פרחא בה לעילא» - «and likewise fear alone is one wing, and one does not soar upward with it.» If a person has fear alone without love, that too is only one wing, and his Torah and mitzvos cannot rise. But the Alter Rebbe immediately adds «אף שנקרא עבודת עבד» - «even though it is called the service of a servant.» He did not say this about one who has love alone, which he did not call avodah at all; whereas about one who has fear alone he says at once that it is called the service of a servant. There is certainly a very great quality in this, and nevertheless «וצריך להיות גם כן בחינת בן» - «there must also be the dimension of a son.»
A Jew must also awaken the dimension of «son» within himself, as in the words «whether as children, whether as servants.» What is a son? A son's bond with his father is a bond of love, and therefore «לעורר האהבה הטבעית עכ״פ המסותרת בלבו» - «to arouse at least the natural love that is hidden in his heart.» In the heart of every Jew there is a hidden love for the Creator, an unlimited love, only that it is concealed, and every Jew is asked to awaken it «שתהא בהתגלות מוחו על כל פנים» - «that it be revealed at least in his mind.» If it will not be revealed in his heart and in his feeling, let it at least be revealed in his mind: that he think about it, understand it and contemplate it, «לזכור אהבתו להשם אחד במחשבתו וברצונו דווקא בו יתברך» - «to remember his love for the One G-d, in his thought and in his will, directed to Him alone.»
Let us introduce a point that will be very important for understanding what follows as well. The Alter Rebbe calls this love the love of a son, and within a son's love for his father, too, there are levels. In this chapter he will mention a lower level and a higher one:
The ordinary level: the son loves his father, he wants to be connected to him, attached to him, close to him and under his care. Although this is an excellent and good state, something is lacking in it: he is thinking about himself. He knows that near his father things will be good for him, and therefore he very much wants to be close to him and will do anything to achieve it, since he has a personal need for this attachment.
The higher level: the son seeks to please his father and to give him nachas. He is thinking about his father and not about himself: not what he will enjoy from closeness to his father, but what will give his father nachas. This is a far loftier level, and the practical difference between the two, especially in avodas Hashem, is the difference between heaven and earth.
To explain a further point: we already learned in chapter 18 that the hidden love comes to us as an inheritance from the Avos. On this there is a note of the Tzemach Tzedek in the short work «Kitzurim VeHe'aros LeTanya»: the hidden love exists in every single person naturally, so what does it add that it comes from the Avos? The Tzemach Tzedek writes that the very fact that it comes as an inheritance from the Avos upgrades the love; were it not so, it would be nothing more than what each person has from his own soul, which he receives directly from the Creator. He does not, however, explain there what the difference between the two actually is.
In summary: in this section we learned that the yirah explained until now in the chapter is yirah tata'ah, and that there is a yirah ila'ah, the awe of shame. We saw that with no fear at all the Torah and mitzvos do not rise upward with love alone, as in the analogy of the bird that cannot fly with one wing; and we saw the Rebbe's resolution from the expression «it flies with one and rests with one,» that the two wings always exist. We dwelt on the point that with both lines together a person rises to what is above them both, and then on the other extreme: fear alone is called the service of a servant, but it too is one wing, and the dimension of a son is also needed, the arousal of the hidden natural love, at the very least as revealed in the mind. We also introduced the two levels in a son's love for his father, and brought the note of the Tzemach Tzedek on the special quality of a love that comes as an inheritance from the Avos.
In the next section we will go deeper into the difference between the two levels of love and into the explanation of the Tzemach Tzedek's note, and we will take up the levels within love and the matters connected to davening.