Halakhah su Ecclesiaste 12:13

The foundation of the fear of God is the trial. For the essence of fear becomes apparent in the time of trial. And as fear is apparent when involving passion for women, so is it recognizable in all sorts of passion. And the Holy One, blessed be He, does not put man to a trial except when He intends to do good to him; Satan, who embodies the attribute of strict justice, comes before God and says, “Lord of the Universe, it would not be proper to do good to him until he proves himself in trial.” Therefore the just are sworn to conquer their passion.¹Hagigah 10a. And thus when He brought good to Saul and his children He tried him, and so with Abraham and Job.²Aboth 5:3. Man should always be deliberate in the fear of the Lord,³Berakoth 17a. answering softly, turning back anger,⁴Ibid. speaking peacefully with his brothers and close ones, even with a gentile in the street, in order that he be beloved above and favored below and acceptable to human beings. They said concerning Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, a man never was first in saluting him not even a gentile.⁵Ibid. And let a man be deliberate in fear of the Lord and understanding to think subtle thoughts for the improvement of the world and the honor of heaven. In the end the words of every man who is God-fearing are heard. As it is stated, “The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God” (Eccl. 12:13).⁶Berakoth 6b. A man who possesses learning but is devoid of works is analogous to one to whom have been given the inner keys but not the outer ones by which he shall enter; and how shall he enter?⁷Shabbath 31b.

And the fourth is because the perfect table “which is before the Lord” is the upper level where the soul is nourished. There are four upper levels which, like the four animals of “the chariot” among the upper beings, correspond to the four winds of the world, and to the four elements in the beings below in the lower world. These levels are the intellectual banquet which is called “the life of the world to come.” And our rabbis before us called it “the table of three legs,” as it is said in the Talmud, Massekhet Ta’anit.⁴⁰B. Ta’anit 25a: “In the future the righteous will eat at a table of gold which has three legs.” And why didn’t they call it “the table of four legs”? It was their way of referring to the three patriarchs, and that’s why they said “of three legs;” and they were concealing the fourth. LikewiseEzekiel concealed the place of the eagle, as it is written, “Each of the four had the face of an eagle;” he did not specify what its position was.⁴¹Ez. 1:10. In his prophetic vision of the four heavenly creatures, the prophet specifies that each had four faces: a human face, a face of a lion on the right, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle. But unlike the other faces, Ezekiel does not state specifically where on the creatures’ bodies the eagle’s face was. And from his example our sages z”l learned to conceal an implied fourth when they just said, “The patriarchs are indeed the chariot”⁴²Ber. R. 47:8. and “one refers to the patriarchs only as three.”⁴³B. Berakhot 16b. But it is well known that no chariot has less than four wheels. For this reason one saint used to say while reciting the Amidah, “the God of David and Builder of Jerusalem,” to mention in his prayer the whole chariot in all its completeness.⁴⁴In other words, he added the Messiah, the descendent of King David and rebuilder of Jerusalem, who has yet to come and complete the four. And therefore I call this book “Table of Four” for that level where our souls are attached: where they are nourished and take pleasure to the degree appropriate to their level. This is the perfect table for the righteous one.Completing the chariot makes it a table of four, for there the souls of the patriarchs are hidden away. And accordingly, having achieved this status, the place where the vessels [of their souls, i.e., their bodies] are buried is called Kiryat Arba’ (“The City of Four”), that is, Hebron.⁴⁵R. Bahya is probably also suggesting that the name of the patriarchs’ burial place not only alludes to the number four as a symbol of perfection and completion, but also to the re-union of the soul with her source implied in the word “Hebron.” Hebron sounds like the root of the Hebrew word for “to unite” or “to attach” that R. Bahya just used to refer to the place “where the soul is attached,” “sham hithabrut ha-nefesh.” So when a person is eating and drinking at his table to sate his soul to sustain his body with its four elements, his mind should ramble about upward onto the pure “table which is before the Lord,” that is, the four levels which hover over the refined soul who merits each and every one according to her level. There is no doubt that by this, all of his bodily activities are accounted to a person as if they were intellectual ones, that he himself be counted among the elite, and his soul “be bound up in the bundle of life”⁴⁶I Sam 25:29: tzurah be-tzror ha-hayyim, an expression which has come to mean “eternal life” as in the prayer for the dead El Male Rahamim.even while he is still alive; fit for the whole world to be created for his sake. As our rabbis z”l taught in a midrash: “’For this applies to all mankind,’⁴⁷Eccl. 12:13. that is, all the world in its entirety was created only in conjunction with this man.”⁴⁸B. Shabbat 30b.

(Yod) “The fear of the Lord was its storage chest” (Isaiah 33:6). And [this] means like that which [Rabbi Bachya] said in the Duties of the Heart, “And be careful that that your enterprise in your acts for God not be like the enterprise of the bird about which the verse says that it lays its egg and warms it on top of the ground and so fails to safeguard it, to the point that other animals destroy it and it does not become a fledgling.” [This is] like the verse states (Job 39:13-14), “The wing of the ostrich spreads […]. She leaves her eggs on the ground, etc.” And even one who is occupied with Torah, the commandments and acts of lovingkindness require safeguarding. And that is fear [of God] – like the kav of ḥomton (a substance that keeps pests away from grain), as is elucidated in the Talmud (Shabbat 31a-31b).⁸⁷See the next paragraph. And it is written,⁸⁸The first and last part of the quote is from Exod. 20:16-17, but the middle is from Deut. 5:22. “You speak to us […] and we will hear, lest the great fire consume us. And [Moshe] said […], ‘Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may be upon your faces.’” And at first glance, this is not understood – first he says, “Be not afraid”; and at the end he says, “in order that the fear of Him may be upon your faces.” And it appears to me [that it can be explained] according to that which is said about one of those who had fear [of God]: That they found him sleeping in one of the wildernesses and said to him, “Are you not afraid of lions; that you are sleeping in this place?” He said [back] to them, “I am ashamed in front of God to have any fear besides my fear of Him.” [This is] brought in the Duties of the Heart (in the Section on Love, Chapter 6).⁸⁹10:6. See there. And this is the intention of the statement of [the Sages], may their memory be blessed, “‘That fear of Him may be upon your faces’ – this is [referring to] shame” (Nedarim 20a). The explanation is that they be embarrassed to fear anything else behind Him, may He be blessed. And this is what Moshe told them, “Be not afraid,” meaning that they not be afraid from the voices and the fire – like they said, “Lest it consume us.” But only “the fear of Him should be upon your faces” – and that is the shame. And anyone who is on this level will have all of his actions dedicated to His name, may He be blessed. And with this, there will be a safeguarding of his Torah and his good deeds. And so did Kohelet say (Ecclesiastes 12:13), “Fear God and guard His commandments” – and its explanation is that only through fear of Him will his commandments be guarded, just like the wheat with the kav of ḥomton. And without the safeguarding, the Torah [that one studies] and the commandments [he performs] are not lasting. And in the Zohar, fear [of God] is given the name daughter; and Torah, the name son. And it is possible that they were hinting to this in the Talmud (Bava Batra 141a), “A daughter first is a good sign for sons. […] because she raises [the sons].” [This is] according to that which is written in Avot 3:9, “Anyone whose fear of sin precedes his wisdom, etc. And anyone whose wisdom precedes his fear of sin, etc.” And this is [the meaning of “A daughter first,” meaning fear, “is a good sign for sons,” meaning Torah – “because she raises [the sons].” As through it, the Torah [study becomes] lasting. And through this, the explanation of the song of Haazinu becomes elucidated – “The Lord saw and was vexed, and spurned His sons and His daughters” (Deut. 32:19): [This] means that they had the son come before the daughter – the explanation of which is that Torah [preceded] fear. “And He said, ‘I will see how they fare in the end, for they are a generation of reverses’” (Deut. 32:20), as they reverse the order; and as a result of this, they are “children with no faith in them,” – the explanation of which is that also the Torah [study] that they have with them will not grow and be lasting with them.