Musar para sa Deuteronomio 11:13

We find that his service was out of love and not out of fear and this is the highest service. The Creator, blessed be He, did not praise him for fearing Him, nor did he say, “The seed of Abraham who fears me or is terrified,” but he said (Isaiah 41:8), “The seed of Abraham, My friend.” We have already said that fear is contained in love. Know that the service of the Creator, blessed be He, out of fear is not the service of the truly pious, but it is the service of the wicked or the nations of the world, as He has said to the wicked (Jeremiah 5:22), “Fear ye not Me?”, and He says concerning the Egyptians (Exodus 9:20), “He that feared the word of the Lord,” for they were not doing His command out of love, but out of fear. But to the pious he says (Deuteronomy 6:5), “And thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,” and (ibid., 11:13), “To love the Lord your God.” But he says in Job (Job 1:8), “A wholehearted and an upright man, one that feareth God, and shunneth evil,” and He did not say concerning him, “a lover of God.” And similarly it is said (Psalms 34:10), “O fear the Lord, by His holy ones,” and this is said of the wicked. For when the wicked cleave to the service of God and sanctify and cleanse themselves from their uncleanliness, they are called “holy ones” as it is said (Numbers 11:18), “Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow.” Whereas of the pious ones, whose heart is pure from the first day of their existence, it is said (Psalms 31:24), “O love the Lord all ye His godly ones; the Lord preserveth the faithful.” And of Enoch, it is said (Genesis 5:22), “And Enoch walked with God,” and it is not said, “And Enoch feared God.” And concerning Noah it is said (Genesis 6:9), “Noah was in his generations a man righteous and whole-hearted.”¹⁷Job was regarded by Jewish tradition as a gentile, as were Enoch and Noah. The latter two lived prior to the time of Abraham, the founder of Judaism. Thus the service of God through fear is not like the service of God through love.

And I have hereby explained what we say each day in the second section of the Shema (Devarim 11:13): "And it shall be if you hearken… to love… (Ibid. 16): Pay heed unto yourselves… and you shall serve other gods, etc." For is it not the way that when a man exhorts his son to follow the right path, he does so in accordance with his [the son's nature]? If he [already] walks on that path, he exhorts him to summon up more strength and not depart from it; and if he walks waywardly according to the whims of his heart and desires to leave him, he commands him at the least not to depart from the way of the L-rd altogether, G-d forbid. And if he would do the reverse, and command his son who walks in the right path not to depart from the way of the L-rd and change his faith, G-d forbid, this would be neither to his honor nor to his son's. And here does the beginning of the section "And it shall be, etc." not speak of men who fear the L-rd and love His name with their whole heart and soul, as it is written "to love, etc."? How, then, can we understand "lest your heart be enticed, etc." And, furthermore, the phrase "and you turn astray" (vesartem) would seem to be superfluous.

And behold we have found that our Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said (Taanit 2a), "'And to serve Him with all your heart' (Deuteronomy 11:13) - which is the service that is in the heart? I would say that is prayer." Also in the words of sages (see Abarbanel on Avot 3:10), "Prayer without intention is like a body without a soul." And these two things are different matters. The first - that which they called prayer, 'service in the heart' - that is the matter of thought that I mentioned: That a person must do great service in the heart and be as strong as a lion, to be aroused such that no foreign thought come to his mind. And if he is unable to turn his mind from [foreign] thoughts during the time of prayer, he should seek out machinations and strategies. For example, he should think that the Creator, may He be blessed, is standing in front of me and is looking down at what comes out of my mouth and examining the thoughts of my heart; so he will tremble and be filled with shivering and perspiration. And anything he can come up with to remove foreign thoughts, he should do. Then afterwards, he should be strong as a lion to the opposite; to think of thoughts that clarify the words [of the prayer], and pour out his speech and his spirit before the King, the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, who hears prayers and is able to do anything.